Chapter 9 second quarter

Thursday, April 14. Sohiko's funeral was held in the auditorium of Takemiya Enterprise's parent company.Naturally, Mizuho was also present.Funerals were more physical work than she had imagined.She just stood there motionless as the participants took their turns in the endless queue to offer incense.Responding to the condolences of strangers also made her very tired. But even so, Mizuho's job might be considered easy.Shizuka, Kaori and the others didn't even have time to take a breather.Kondo and Matsuzaki are responsible for dealing with people related to the company. When Mizuho was resting in the lounge, Kotoe came.She was dressed in mourning clothes, and her normally elegantly drooping long hair was standing tall now.

"People who have just joined the company for two or three years will definitely feel that this company has frequent funerals." "You're late!" Mizuho glared at Kotoe, "I told you, I have to come early in the morning." "I went to a beauty parlor." Kotoe stroked her hair and sat beside Mizuho.She took out a bag of candy from her bosom and handed it to Rice Spike, "Do you want to eat it?" Water Spike took the candy. "It's ironic." Kotoe also threw a candy ball into her mouth and said. "Such a poor man can have such a grand funeral just because of his status as Lai Zijie's husband."

"Be careful with your words." "Did I say something wrong? It's all the truth." Kotoe's tone of hatred for Zongyan was revealed, Mizuho didn't comment on it, and changed the subject, "Have you greeted grandma?" Mizuho asked.Qin Hui replied that he had already said hello. "Are you talking about the incident?" "Talk a little." "How do you feel?" "How can I feel... It's really scary. A murderer suddenly broke in from outside in the middle of the night." "From the outside...? However, the police haven't fully concluded that the crime was committed by outsiders."

Mizuho said in a low voice.Kotoe looked away from her face. "The police love to play tricks. We can't be fooled by what they say." "I know this too..." "Compared to this, Mizuho, ​​when do you plan to go home?" Qin Hui asked Shui Sui that she didn't seem to take this incident seriously at all. "Didn't I say it yesterday? Let's wait for the incident to come to an end." "But it's useless for you to stay here, right? Come back with me today, okay?" she said decisively. "This is not acceptable. I also have an appointment with Kaori, and I will stay for a while."

"Kaori is fine. That child is stronger than expected." "Mother!" Mizuho stared straight at Kotoe, "Will something bad happen to me staying here!?" Qin Hui looked troubled, and then smiled wryly. "What nonsense, that's not what I meant." "Then what's wrong with letting me stay for a while?" Facing Mizuho's rebuttal, Kotoe sighed helplessly. "I really can't do anything about you. But you have to make an agreement with me not to go too deep into this incident." "Why do you say that? Do you know something, mother?"

"Nonsense! What can I know?" After finishing speaking, Kotoe stood up and left the lounge without looking back. (clown perspective) The fat policeman pushed the door roughly and entered: "Now the funeral is still in progress." "The number of worshipers is very large, and it seems that it will take a lot of time." The tall policeman followed into the room. "And it cost a lot of money, but the memorial money received is not a small amount. Counting income and expenses, it shouldn't be much loss." The fat policeman walked around the sofa while talking, "Huh? So it fell here." He picked up a ballpoint pen from the ground.

"I was wondering where it went. As expected, it fell here." "It looks like an import." "Someone gave it to me." The fat policeman put the ballpoint pen into his coat pocket, "Let's go to the funeral and have a look." The two were about to leave the room, but just as the door was about to be closed, the tall policeman stopped holding the door handle suddenly. "what?" "What's wrong?" The tall policeman came back into the room again, came to me, and pointed to the box next to me. "There's something wrong with this box," he said.

"What's wrong?" "Look at the edge of the cover, it's a little damaged. I remember it was still intact when I came here." The fat policeman was relieved, and immediately took out his gloves and put them on.The tall policeman followed suit. "Take this box down, lightly." Under the order of the fat policeman, the tall policeman carefully moved the box to the ground, and then gently opened the lid. "There seems to be nothing unusual." Looking down at the puzzle pieces stuffed into the box, the tall policeman said. "Don't jump to conclusions. If someone touches this box, there must be some changes."

"For example, there are pieces of the puzzle that have been stolen." "possible." The fat policeman nodded and grabbed a handful of shards. "Okay, let's count how many fragments there are." The two policemen sat on the ground and began to count the number of debris in the box.They take out ten pieces from the box at a time, and make up a hundred pieces and divide them into piles.After getting familiar with the assignment at hand, their calculation speed is getting faster and faster.Stacks of hundreds of groups appeared one after another. After completion——

"I said, Nogami..." The fat cop called the tall cop by name, "It looks like this jigsaw puzzle is made up of two thousand pieces." "Indeed." "But what's the situation!? It's understandable if one fragment is missing, but how can there be one more fragment!" The fat policeman stared at the last fragment in his hand and said. "In other words, someone put the extra fragment into the box?" "Yes, but what is the purpose of this?" "who knows……" "Nogami, contact the headquarters quickly. Ask them to send some spare men over."

"and then?" "Do you still need to ask? Of course, this puzzle is completed. In this way, we can know which piece is extra." "I see." The tall policeman immediately stood up and walked towards the phone placed in the corner of the room.As soon as he picked up the receiver, the fat policeman said again: "Let them send forensics over again, it's extremely urgent."