Chapter 25 Chapter Twenty-Five

I have only heard the fables of the north wind and the sun, but not the story of the north wind and the sun and Billu. In the back seat of the bus, a teenager who seemed to be named Biru was spouting the story. "Beifeng and Sun made a bet with Billu." Before the bus departed, the boy sitting on the bench at the end of the bus said.He is about five years old. "Keep your voice down, don't disturb other people." Said the woman next to Billu, who seemed to be his mother.The so-called other people, except the driver, is only me.I had the illusion of being stared at and scolded secretly by a young man, "I would be fine without you", and I felt like I was sitting on pins and needles.

The Shinkansen arrived in Morioka after twelve o'clock, and the bus boarding place was not difficult to find. As soon as you exit the ticket gate, the front is the bus terminal.It was raining lightly outside, and I was regretting not bringing an umbrella, when I saw a bus with a sign saying "Iwate Highland Ranch, Hachimantai direction" parked beside the stop sign.I secretly thanked myself and hopped on the bus. "Twenty minutes before the drive," said the driver in the cap to me as soon as I stepped up the steps.The raindrops dripped on the wide windshield, turning into viscous ripples.

But I didn't want to be out in the rain for twenty minutes, so I got in and took the middle seat.At this time, the three people sitting in the back of the car were Hiro's younger brother and his parents. I took out the half-read manuscript from my briefcase and spread it out, and the private investigation of Strawberry continued. A certain twentieth-century writer may have seen through the essence of private detective novels, and once said such a handsome sentence: "My next novel can be called a wandering and visiting novel." The original manuscript in front of me , is a typical "wandering and visiting novel".

The private detective Strawberry in the story goes to a certain villa area in Shinshu, which is a settlement composed of people who admire Junya Ando.There, Strawberry begged the beautiful administrator Aiyuan Luoli to lead him the way, but hit a soft wall and the investigation was interrupted.I thought to myself, this paragraph should be written by Isaka Yoshitaro based on his personal experience. "On the way here by train, I suddenly thought that the reason why I failed to step into the Ando Chamber of Commerce last time and was driven away by the administrator may be because I failed the test." A few hours ago, I came to Tokyo Station to help me Said Kotaro Isaka, who saw me off and handed over the manuscript to me.

"Failed the test?" "I don't know what kind of business the Ando Chamber of Commerce established by Ando Junya is doing." "Didn't you say it before? That man made his fortune betting on horses and bicycle races." "That's just a rumor. Think about it, is it possible to make so much money by betting on horses and bicycle races?" said Isaka Kotaro. Indeed, such a thing sounds unreal. "You also said that he used money to resolve the confrontation between the United States and China in the East China Sea. That is also a fantasy."

"That's a rumor too." I was also thinking when I heard those anecdotes last time, I always felt that Junya Ando was covered in layers of rumors, like an onion, no matter how I peeled it off, I couldn’t see the core.I can't help but suspect that the remaining skins, that is, these rumors, are actually the essence of this character. "I doubt that kind of thing can be solved with money? Isn't so-called politics based on ideas, persistence, or religion?" "To put it bluntly, it is nothing more than interests. Everything is for the interests of the country. And the so-called national interests, to put it more clearly, are the interests of high-level people in the country, right? To make others submit, money is the simplest and most effective weapon. Did you know that there was a Knights Templar in ancient times? That Knights claimed to uphold love and justice, and was established to protect pilgrims, but even they often relied on money to solve things in the later period. So, money is power. "

"Time is money," I said, pointing to the clock next to the ticket gate.The Shinkansen is almost leaving, and I'm not interested in listening to Kotaro Isaka's nagging, and I'm not a long-distance love couple who are about to separate. "You just talked about the Ando Chamber of Commerce, where did you talk?" I asked. "I said that although I couldn't find out the business content of the Ando Chamber of Commerce, I found out that their company is located on the Iwate Plateau." "Plateau? It's not a vacation cabin." "That's right." Kotaro Isaka said: "That community was originally a gathering place of vacation cabins, and one of them was Junya Ando's home, which is where the Ando Chamber of Commerce is located. I heard that all the residents in that community belonged to Junya Ando. admirer."

"It's almost like a religious group." "Yeah, it's weird, isn't it? Their relationship is like the patriarch and believers who are far away from the crowd and live in the embrace of nature. If this kind of plot is written in a novel, it must be an old-fashioned setting that makes people want to cry Sure; but in real life, it is so weird that it makes the scalp numb. But on the other hand, those believers can see Ando Junya, so they live there, right? But I was rejected, No matter how much I ask, the answer I get is 'please go back'." "Shouldn't you have to fill out an application form to meet someone?"

"So it just occurred to me that maybe they secretly tested me. I thought about it later, since I arrived in Morioka. I have always had a feeling of being watched. They must have secretly observed my appearance and actions, and judged accordingly Am I qualified to meet Junya Ando?" "What kind of test is it?" "Maybe I was wrong to go into that cold noodle shop in Morioka. There was a black-haired saleswoman there, and I touched her ass. Maybe that was the biggest mistake." "Oh, I see." I responded immediately: "I wonder how they could let a guy who sneaked a girl's butt meet the venerable godfather? That's the way it is."

Kotaro Isaka stroked his head for a while, then suddenly shouted: "Okay!" Then he advised me seriously: "In order to meet Junya Ando, ​​you must be patient, and you must never touch the buttocks of the shop assistants in cold noodle shops. ,do you know?" "I don't need you to remind me, I won't touch it." "You don't have to be brave in front of me, I know it's hard to bear." "The point is that you also said last time that I may be a distant relative of Ando Junya, and maybe I can meet him with this relationship." "Even if you touch someone's butt, can you see him?"

"I won't touch it." The music announcing the imminent departure of the Shinkansen sounded in the station. I walked into the ticket gate, and Isaka Kotaro's voice came from behind: "God bless you." I look around the inside of the bus.Has the test started yet?I suddenly felt very uneasy, and couldn't help but pay attention to the troubles around me.If it is true what Isaka Kotaro said, my every move is being monitored, maybe there is also the other party's eyeliner in this bus.But besides me, the only other passengers are Hiru and his family. Biru cheerfully recounted his own fabricated "confrontation between the north wind and the sun and Biru". The original version of the story is of course the well-known fable.The north wind and the sun made a bet to see who could take off the coat on the traveler.The north wind tried to blow off the coat with a strong wind, but failed; the sun shone with warmth, and finally made the traveler take off the coat.After Bilu's adaptation, he also became one of the duels, and not only the north wind failed, but the sun also failed. "Next, it's Billy's turn to appear." The gist of Biru's version of the story is that after the failure of the north wind and the sun, Biru succeeded in making the traveler take off his coat and won the victory.But the technique he used was so naive that I almost laughed out loud while eavesdropping. "Look, Billy, we're going to this place next," I heard Billy's father say.I thought to myself, his father probably opened a travel brochure and showed him pictures of ranches or Hachimantai. "Wow, that's great!" Billy cheered innocently.You don't have to turn your head to know that his mother must be smiling at this moment because she has a cute son worth boasting about. What a peaceful conversation. What a happy family. I am deeply moved. Ever since my wife Kayoko hired Okamoto to investigate my stealing behavior by brutal means, there have been too many inexplicable and strange things happening around my life these days, and even a little bit of happiness and peace has disappeared.The seniors of the company disappeared, colleagues were arrested for innocent injustice, the boss committed suicide, the object of stealing fish disappeared, Okamoto's house caught fire, and misfortunes continued one after another. In comparison, the family in the back seat is so peaceful. Peace, Peace.I recalled the scene of House of Representatives Takeshi Nagashima uttering these words in the previous documentary.Yes, Peace is such a good word.Hiru's family is bathed in the spring breeze of peace. Two men got into the car through the front door. They seemed to be the relationship between the company's executives and their subordinates. They were in their forties and their twenties. Both of them were in suits. They walked past me to the rear seat.The young man wears the recently popular haircut, while the older man wears Yamamoto's hair. Both are tall, with tanned faces, and seem to have a strong physique. Why do commuters take this bus?Even if you are a salesperson, you shouldn't go to the ranch or Hachimantai to attract customers, right?Or that the two are a couple of office worker lovers and comrades, pretending to be on business trips together?I find the latter to be more convincing. "Ah, I'm sorry!" "What are you doing!" The screams and roars sounded at the same time. I turned my head and saw that Billu's parents got up and bowed to the two office workers just now to apologize; beside him, Billu shrunk his shoulders, holding a can of juice tightly, with a face full of weeping.It seemed that Hiro was playing with the canned juice and accidentally spilled the juice, which wet the suit of the office worker in the front seat, but it was unknown which suit was splashed, or maybe both of them suffered. Although the two office workers were dressed in suits, they looked fierce when they lost their temper. The parents kept apologizing and panicked. Since the two men turned their backs to me, I couldn't see their expressions, nor did I know how they reacted to Bilu's parents' apology.Just when I thought to myself, if I quickly pay some money for compensation, the problem should be solved.Sure enough, I heard Billu's mother say tremblingly, "I'm sorry. This is the cleaning fee for the suit..." "What is this?" said the young man. "Aren't you looking down on Superman?" the middle-aged man said. "Enough, enough is enough." Someone clapped his hands and said. who is it? it's me. I don't know when I stood up and walked towards them, said this sentence calmly, and clapped my hands a few times, like a teacher who is reminding students to pay attention. The two men turned to look at me. "It's just a splash of juice." I said to the middle-aged man.On closer inspection, the wrinkles between his brows and eyes are showing courage, and quarrels seem to be a common occurrence for him. "Can you figure it out? You can tell whether a child is well-bred or not from small things." The young man was eloquent and eloquent. "This is a brand-name suit, and it's very expensive to have it laundered." The middle-aged man continued. "You guys shouldn't be wearing such expensive suits to go out, who knows when juice will be sprayed over?" I said to them, my heart filled with inexplicable emotion at the same time.If this kind of thing happened to me normally, I would have been so nervous that my head would go blank and my legs would tremble.But for some reason, I am not afraid at all now, and I even feel leisurely that I am not afraid at all. "Everything is the same, you get used to it the second time." I remembered this sentence by Isaka Yoshitaro.According to his argument, human beings are creatures of habit, is that what I am today?Because of too many strange things happening around me, I've become paralyzed?And what I did was more than that. Without even thinking about it, I grabbed the left hand of the young man beside me, held his index finger tightly and said, "I will break it. But don't worry, the broken bone will still recover. That's pretty humane." I myself was horrified by what I said.The young man hurriedly wanted to withdraw his hand, I added three points of strength, and the man immediately wrinkled his face. "What are you doing!" The middle-aged man said in a low voice, pushing towards my shoulder.At this moment, the most familiar "cowardice" in my life appeared on my face again. "I'm sorry" almost blurted out. But what is interesting is that it was not me who said "I'm sorry" first, but the young man in front of me.He seemed to be possessed by the thoughts in my head. "Why are you apologizing?" The middle-aged man gave the young man a light nod.The young man quickly bowed his head and said again: "I'm sorry." His appearance was a bit funny, so I regained my confidence and said: "Please don't destroy the peace of this family. I will let me live when there is no peace... No, let us live." I stared at the middle-aged man without any fear at all.Not at all, really, I'm even a little scared of my own lack of fear. "You'd better get out of the car early while your fingers are intact." Then I said such words on my own, without even discussing with myself first, and now I'm riding a tiger. "Or do you have the courage to stay in the car? Do you have the courage to test your mettle?" I threatened in a menacing tone. If these two people join hands to violently confront me at this time, I have no chance of winning at all, but things didn't develop that way. They got off the bus. I immediately breathed a sigh of relief.How lucky. "I'm really sorry to trouble you," Bilu's father thanked me.Billu's mother also murmured, "I'm saved." "Yeah, I'm really saved." After I said this, I suddenly felt scared.I just made those actions.As long as there is a slight mistake, there will be big troubles, and I can't imagine what will happen. There was still fear in Billu's eyes, but his expression was much more relaxed. He looked at me blankly, so I stretched out two fingers towards him and said, "Peace." Billu's father said with a smile: " Peace gesture, I haven't seen it for a long time." But Billu didn't seem to have seen the gesture, he just raised his hand to imitate my movement, and replied: "Peace." The bus departs and I return to my seat.The bus swayed slightly, driving west on the spacious and empty garden road, turned into an oblique fork on the way, and began to head towards Mt. Iwate.There are forests on both sides of the road, and endless mountains can be seen in the distance. The air outside seemed rather icy cold.The khaki-yellow Mt. Iwate and the forest with fallen leaves are like a quiet ink painting.Perhaps because of the rain, the scene seemed low-key and unpretentious. The engine of the bus hummed and started to speed up. After going on the winding uphill road for a while, it unknowingly entered the mountain. The elongated branches of the trees on both sides seemed to extend their hands to help the bus cover the sun. The inside of the bus was always dark and gloomy. .There was no traffic in the opposite lane, and water splashed from the water in the bus passageway. Following the instructions of Kotaro Isaka, I planned to get off at the bus stop called "Kokiya Village".As soon as we got up together, Bilu's little brother in the back seat said loudly: "Thank you!" I felt a burst of warmth, and when I looked back, Bilu's parents were bowing to me and thanking me. When I got off the bus, I couldn't find the ticket for a while, and I couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed.I frantically took out my pocket and muttered: "Strange? Why did you disappear? Could it be lost?" Although the driver kindly told me to look for it slowly, when I thought of the Hiru family watching, He panicked even more. I seem to hear my wife Kayoko laughing and saying: "You are always forgetting things." "If I knew it earlier, I would give it to my wife for safekeeping, lest I lose it again." I couldn't help muttering to myself. "Your Madam? Where is it?" the driver asked.I finally found my ticket and breathed a sigh of relief. The drizzle has stopped.According to Kotaro Isaka, this holiday wooden house village has long been known in name only, and now none of the wooden house residents in it operate a homestay.I walked down the ramp next to the bus stop, and there were beautiful wooden buildings scattered not far ahead. When we came to a fork in the road, there was a sign on the right side that said "Administrator". Right behind it was an exquisite wooden hut. Next to the house was a small parking lot that could accommodate three cars. A heavy locomotive, the body of which is covered with a rainproof plastic sheet. At this time, by chance, a middle-aged woman came out of the hut, with brown hair reaching to the shoulders, a round face, slightly shorter than me, bloated, with a bucket waist, wearing a black shirt and black narrow long You can see the heavy fat under her tight clothes, but her steps are quite brisk. As soon as she entered the parking lot, she reached out to tear off the plastic sheeting on the motorcycle.I walked towards her quickly and said, "Excuse me, is the Ando Chamber of Commerce near here?" "Huh? What's the matter?" Her tone sounded like a familiar neighbor's aunt. "I want to visit Ando's house, is it convenient?" "Of course it's convenient, it's next door." "Huh?" I was taken aback by this unexpected answer. "Why don't I take you there?" "Are you the manager?" "Yeah, I used to be a star, but now I'm the administrator of this community." She stroked her hair and said. When I heard the words "used to be a star", I was stunned for a moment. I didn't know whether to listen carefully or take it as a joke, "Really?" I asked with a polite smile. "You don't believe it? I'm over fifty now, and my looks may be a little bit worse. Thinking back twenty years ago..." "That's not what I meant. I want to know, is it really that easy to visit the Ando Chamber of Commerce?" "Of course you can. Do you think it's the palace or the prime minister's residence, or is it the base of some secret group?" I remembered the story of "the north wind and the sun and Billu" that I had just heard on the bus. Neither the strong wind from the north wind nor the warmth of the sun could make the traveler take off his coat, so how did Hiro manage to do it in the end? "Biru doesn't have to do anything! Because the traveler will go home or return to the hotel sooner or later, and he will take off his coat when he wants to take a shower. So Billu doesn't have to do anything." That's what Billu said just now . Without doing anything, the traveler will take off his coat. You can visit the Ando Chamber of Commerce without doing anything.