Chapter 22 Section 6

On the second day after returning from the "Strange" bar, Kusanagi visited the Tozai Electric Factory in Niiza City by himself, because he had already found out that it was the unit where she worked during the day. Kusanagi registered outsiders at the main entrance, and then borrowed the phone there to call the trial production section of the trial production department where Satomi was located.After explaining his identity, he said that he wanted to know about the situation of your unit and that he wanted to talk to someone from the unit.The section chief immediately became nervous when he heard this: "What happened in our unit?"

"No, I don't mean that your unit is involved in any case, but I just want to talk to you about something, maybe it's more appropriate to say that. Can anyone spare some time? Maybe everyone is busy right now?" "Ah, it turns out that's the case, who is suitable? Can male employees be okay?" "Of course." Kusanagi replied.Although he thought it would be better to find a female employee to find out what happened to Congmei, but it would be bad if it was Congmei himself. "Then I'll find someone." After speaking, the section chief hung up the phone.

After waiting in the guard room for about five minutes, a short man in his forties staggered over.He introduced himself as Onodera, the monitor of the workshop.As expected by Kusanagi, the monitor seems to be the one who finds the easiest time at the work site. "So, what should I say?" Onodera scratched his head through his work cap, perhaps because he was at a loss to meet the criminal police for no reason. "I want to talk about the situation in the workshop," Kusanagi said kindly, "for example, the content of your work, the workers here and so on." "Ah, that's it." Hearing this, the squad leader touched his neck with his hand, "Then you should come to our homework site first to have a look."

"Is this appropriate?" "Well, it's allowed, but first you have to arm these two things." Onodera took out a hat with the word "Visitor" printed on it and a pair of glasses without prescription. He said that the trial production department is in the factory.The so-called trial production department, just like its name, is the department that manufactures parts or prototypes of products.The Trial Production Section where Onodera works is mainly responsible for the production of prototypes of electrical components. "Ah, by the way, does this look familiar to you?"

On the way to the factory, Kusanagi took out a plastic bag from his jacket pocket, and inside it was the work glove that Takasaki Noriyuki picked up in the bathroom. "This work glove?" Onodera stared at it for a while, then turned his head and said in thought, "It looks the same as the ones used in our workshop, but there are many types of them." "That's right." The answer was as he expected, because when he asked this question at first, he didn't have much hope.He put the plastic bag back in his pocket. The prototype shop can easily accommodate two or three gymnasiums, and the spacious floor is lined with countless lathes, drill presses and other manufacturing machines.There are no screens between the various departments, but there are metal signs with the words "Trial Production One Section" hanging above their heads.Kusanagi felt that it was more like a huge street factory than an automated factory.

"Is there no production line here?" Kusanagi asked Onodera. "Yes, the production line must produce products that have been fully designed and can be mass-produced, while here, designers are mainly trying to make products that are not very sure, so the products here rely on hand-made." "It looks hard." "Yes, there will be many demanding requirements, so there are many state-of-the-art equipment here, such as invisible processing machines for iron plates. It is impossible for us to specially manufacture models for each product, so we use laser cutting machines." Onodera is very proud to introduce.He seemed very proud of his work.

Those who operate the machines are, without exception, men.But the small coils in the coiling department are all young women.Both men and women wear hats and Anson glasses on their heads.Kusanagi once again felt sincere admiration for the fact that Yukawa was able to see through Satomi's workplace during the day. "Is there a place like an office in the trial production department?" "All the offices of our trial production department are in the factory, and I will show you the way." "That's it," Kusanagi thought for a while, then nodded, "Well, I'm sorry to trouble you."

The reason why Kusanagi hesitated was because he thought about what he would do if he met Satomi.It seems that when the time comes, we can only make mistakes. When he arrived at the office, Onodera introduced Kusanagi to the section chief.Kusanagi quickly looked around the inside of the office, but luckily he didn't see Satomi. The section chief's name is Ise.He went to the bottom of what Kusanagi came to investigate, but he had no choice but to take out his work gloves and say that he fell at a certain crime scene. "Then why did you come to our unit based on this glove?" Ise asked naturally.

"Ah, this is the secret of our search. The units we are investigating are not limited to your factory, so you don't have to worry." Kusanagi quickly put away the plastic bag, "I want to ask, are there any female employees in your department?" "Do you mean female workers?" "No, it's not..." "Is it the clerk? There is one, her name is Naito." Ise looked around for a while, "It just happened that she was called to another place by her boss today." "What kind of person is she?" "What kind? Just an ordinary girl."

"Surrounded by men, she must be very popular, right?" "Well..." Ise showed a mouthful of yellow teeth. "In the unit, does she have a boyfriend?" "Oh, I haven't heard of it...then, is it Naito..." "No, I'm just asking out of curiosity." Kusanagi didn't feel that this middle-aged man knew about Satomi Naito, but he found that a female employee had been paying attention to their words and deeds from beginning to end.She was sitting not far from them, with short hair, writing. Kusanagi got up to leave at the right time, and Onodera wanted to take him to the door, but he politely declined.

When passing behind the short-haired strong woman, Kusanagi glanced at the telephone set in front of her.The four-digit number written on the phone seemed to be their internal extension number, and he memorized the number firmly. As soon as he left the office, he immediately picked up his mobile phone and dialed the extension number just now.Through the glass window, he saw the short-haired woman picked up the receiver. In order not to make her panic, he introduced himself very carefully, and said that he wanted to ask her about Ms. Satomi Naito without telling Section Chief Ise. His instinct was correct, and she readily agreed.Perhaps it was because she had been curious about him just now. She asked Kusanagi to wait for her at a leisure place outside the factory, Kusanagi went there, and was just about to buy coffee from the vending machine when she saw her trotting. Her name is Taeko Hashimoto, and she is in the second department of trial production.Kusanagi sat side by side with her on a bench in the leisure area. "A person died strangely. We are collecting information about people related to him. Ms. Naito is one of them." Kusanagi said this because he felt that sometimes he should tell a certain degree of truth to such a person . "Then, it must be a man." Taeko Hashimoto's thin eyes sparkled. "Why do you think so?" "Is not it?" "From my standpoint, I am determined not to leak information, but I do not deny your words." "I'll just say it!" Hashimoto licked his lips with his tongue and nodded. "From what you said, it seems that Ms. Naito is very good at dealing with relationships between men and women, right?" "It should be like this. She pretended to be honest in the unit, but many people said that she was seen with strange men in the red light district." From her tone, Kusanagi judged that she didn't know that Satomi was working part-time as a hostess. "Does she have a regular boyfriend?" "I don't know, at least not in the factory. She used to say that she was not interested in the people in the factory." "yes?" "I also said that if she gets married, she will definitely find a local talent in Tokyo. She herself has only graduated from high school, and she is from Niigata." Taeko Hashimoto twitched her lips. "Pretty proud." "That's not true." Taeko nodded vigorously, "The girl from the other department of the trial production department went to her room to play, and said that the famous brand clothes in her room were piled up like a mountain. But," she said in a low voice. . "Looks like her credit card is going bankrupt." "Really?" "Someone did talk to me about it." "Then what will she think of to solve it?" "It seems to be resolved. Everyone is talking about how she paid it back. It seems that her loan has reached several million." "too terrifying." "Who said it wasn't?" Taeko's eyes widened. If she was only working part-time at that bar, she would not be able to repay those loans at all.The scene of the "bizarre" bar appeared before Kusanagi's eyes. "Look, that man walking over there has always been infatuated with Satomi." Kusanagi looked in the direction of her finger and saw a young man in overalls pushing a cart forward. He is the man waiting for Satomi outside the "bizarre" door.