Chapter 10 Section 10

After noon, the rain started to increase and it was a bit chilly.Heisuke put on a rain poncho over his jacket and went out.There were many puddles of water on the road I walked with Naoko this morning.So he began to imagine Naoko annoyed at not wearing boots, and he couldn't help laughing as he thought about it. Heisuke came out of the west exit of Shinjuku Station and walked for about 10 minutes to a hotel.The meeting room of the victims' families was set up in the conference room of this hotel.There is a small table at the entrance of the meeting room, and a young woman is sitting in front of the table.After signing in at the table, Hirasuke walked into the venue.

There are several rows of tables and chairs in the venue, and there are almost 100 people sitting on the seats, almost filling half of the venue.A total of 29 people were killed in this traffic accident, and more than 10 people were lying in the hospital with serious injuries.Therefore, it is only natural to prepare a venue of this size.This meeting will never have a low attendance rate due to rain or a weekday like other meetings. Because the car involved in the accident was a ski tour bus, most of the dead were young people, and more than half were students.Judging from the faces present at the rally, most of them should belong to the age group of the deceased's parents.In comparison, Hirasuke is quite young in it.He originally thought that there might be more women, but the actual situation is that men accounted for more than half.Presumably, many people who had hardly attended the town meeting before had come today.

Diagonally in front of Heisuke sat two people who looked like a couple.The man is about 50 years old, and the woman is slightly younger than the man.The man's hair was neatly cut, but most of it was gray.The man was whispering something to the woman, and the woman nodded her head gently as if responding to him, holding a white handkerchief in her hand, which she used to wipe the corners of her eyes from time to time. I don't know whether they lost a son or a daughter.But whether it is a son or a daughter, they must be in the most beautiful adolescence in their lives, and they must have placed a lot of hope on them.Heisuke tried to associate the couple's grief with his own grief of losing Sami Nami, but still had no idea.So he thought that everyone must have sorrows that others cannot understand.

"Are you Mr. Sugita?" A voice next to him asked.Heisuke turned his head and saw a man in his 50s with an unnatural smile on his face. "Ah, I am." Heisuke replied. The man breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this: "I really didn't recognize the wrong person. I saw you on TV." "That's right." Hiroki nodded.He is used to people mentioning his appearance on TV, "Those people on the TV station broadcast everything outside." "Yes. Is your daughter better now?" "Well, thanks to you, it's much better." "That's right, that's really great. Although only my daughter was rescued, it's a blessing." The man nodded several times after finishing speaking.

"Excuse me, what's your name?" "Ah," the man took out a business card from the inside pocket of his suit, "This is my business card." The man owned a printing company with the words "Limited Company" written on it.His name is Kazuro Fujisaki, and his company is located in Koto-ku. Out of politeness, Hirasuke also handed over his business card to the other party. "Mr. Sugita lost his wife in this accident, right?" the man asked while putting away his business card. "Yes." Hiroshi replied. The man listened and nodded: "Oh! My wife died of illness three years ago, and this accident made me lose my daughter. Now I'm the only one left, and I can't keep my head up when I do anything."

Heisuke thought, "That's natural," and nodded, "So, before the accident, you were in the same situation as I am now, and there are only father and daughter at home..." Unexpectedly, Fujisaki smiled wryly after hearing this, and shook his head: "No, it's the father and daughter." "Ah, but..." "I have two daughters," Fujisaki pointed out two fingers: "They are twins. They both died together wearing the same ski suit, and they even died the same way." When it comes to "even death looks the same", Fujisaki's voice choked up.After hearing this, Hirasuke felt a heavy and cold substance like a lead block formed in his chest, which deposited at the bottom of his stomach pouch.

"Even if one of them survives, I still feel that the other one is there. But there are two of them together, God is so cruel!" Fujisaki's face was terribly distorted. Ping Jie also thought in his heart: what he said is not wrong at all.If what happened to Naoko and Sami Nami also happened to the twin sisters, everyone, including herself, would not find out, and thought that only one person was rescued. When he came back to his senses, Hirasuke found that many people in the conference room were sobbing.It appears that the impact of the accident is far from over. The Federation of Families of the Victims has four officers, all of whom were elected at the first meeting.One looks like an elite minister of a first-class company, one looks like a store owner, one looks retired, and the other is a housewife.Although the appearance is uneven, the expressions of the four people all reveal a common threat.It should be trustworthy to entrust the burden of negotiation to these four people.That's what Hirasuke thought when he first saw the arrival of four people.

First of all, the elite minister—of course, I don’t know whether he is the minister Heisuke—a male officer named Lin Tian gave a detailed report on the current situation: On the one hand, the bus company has admitted the driver’s fault, saying that I am willing to show the greatest sincerity in compensation and other matters; on the other hand, due to the suspicion of fatigue driving, it is necessary to investigate the company's social responsibility in this regard.In this regard, Heisuke also learned in the news that the police in Nagano Prefecture have begun to intervene in the company to conduct investigations because they suspect that Dahei Traffic has violated the Road Traffic Law.

Next, a lawyer named Mukai came to the stage.He was well built, with a crew cut that gave him the look of a judo fighter.He spoke in a loud voice, roughly meaning: the amount of compensation will basically be the same regardless of age or difference between men and women. Continue to negotiate with the bus company. Someone below asked about the specific amount of compensation from the bus company. Attorney Mukai replied without hesitation: "The bottom limit is 80 million yen." The upper limit is 80 million yuan. So explain. Whether the 80 million yen is more or less, Hirasuke does not know.He only knows that no amount of money will dilute the sadness in his heart.

But among the survivors, there are people who think more realistically than Heisuke.Someone asked if they could claim 100 million yen.Fujisaki next to him also nodded when he heard the question.It seems that there may be far more people who have considered the amount of compensation according to their own standards than he originally expected. "Of course, we will try our best to get a larger amount. But anyway, because this is a matter of negotiation between the two parties, it is necessary to make some compromises with each other. I believe everyone does not want the negotiation to drag on for too long."

After listening to the lawyer's words, many people nodded in agreement, and Hirasuke was among them. "I don't want the negotiations to drag on for too long", this is absolutely true.Everyone hopes that this kind of thing can end as soon as possible. But—heisuke explained in his heart—this matter cannot be forgotten, and he also does not want to be forgotten by the world.Such painful lessons should not be forgotten. Director Lin Tian came to the stage again and talked about the future policy and so on.In addition, he also reminded everyone present not to leak what he said today, especially to maintain a high degree of vigilance against the media. "Because when it comes to issues such as the amount of compensation, those in the media like to add fuel to the story." Lin Tian said with a frown.Ping Jie speculates that he may have been hurt by the media's in-depth reports before. "In addition, there is one more thing I want to discuss with you." Lin Tian's tone suddenly changed slightly, and his facial expression became a little stiff. "It's like this. Today, there is a person who wants to meet with you no matter what." Next, as if determined to finish the difficult words in one breath, he continued, "She is Ms. Kajikawa." There was a moment of silence in the venue, and then the air exploded. "Excuse me, who is Ms. Kajikawa you're talking about..." A voice in front asked, it was the voice of a middle-aged woman. "Ah," Hayashi Tian nodded, "it's the wife of driver Kajikawa. She's in the hotel right now, waiting outside the venue for our meeting to end. She said she wanted to express her apology to everyone no matter what." The air that was disturbed just now froze this time, and it is estimated that the blood in everyone's body began to flow backwards rapidly, because Hirasuke felt this way.He could feel his face getting hotter and hotter, but his hands and feet were as cold as numbness in comparison. Suddenly there was a "bang", and the man sitting in front of Pingjie stood up to pick.It was the husband that Heisuke regarded as the husband of the couple before.He said to his wife in a low voice: "Let's go back!" There was an indescribable indifference in that short sentence. His wife seemed to agree with her husband, nodded and stood up.Under everyone's gaze, Er Ba walked slowly towards the back door.Lin Tian didn't say anything.No one stepped forward to stop them. Then many people chose to exit in the same way.Everyone walking outside was expressionless as if wearing a Noh mask. Lin Tian looked around at the people left behind, and asked, "Then, can Ms. Kajikawa come in?" No one answered.Lin Tian had a somewhat bewildered expression on his face.Ping Jie felt very sympathetic to him in his heart.Presumably Lintian himself did not welcome the wife of the driver who was involved in the accident. "Then, Ms. Yamamoto." Hayashida softly called Yuko Yamamoto, the only female officer among the four.She nodded and walked out the front door. After two minutes of suffocating silence, the door opened again, and Yuko Yamamoto poked her face in. "I brought her here." "Then let her in," Lin Tian said. Following behind Yamamoto, a thin woman walked in.She was so tanned that it would have been pathetic to bring her under fluorescent lights.She looked very pale, and the shoulders of her cardigan were soaked.It must have been walking in the rain for a long time without an umbrella. "I am Kajikawa's wife." She lowered her head and said, her voice was as thin as her body. "Because of my husband's fault this time, everyone lost their important family members. For this, I sincerely apologize to everyone." After she finished speaking, she bowed her head deeply.From Heisuke's position, she could also see that her thin shoulders were trembling. Heisuke felt that the air in the room became heavy all of a sudden, and all of it was pressing towards her thin body, as if it was about to crush her.But then she slowly raised her head.Since my husband is dead, I would like to make the greatest possible compensation for him in the future.I'm here today because I want to make a point anyway. "As she spoke, her voice began to tremble, and she covered her eyes with a handkerchief. "Mr. Lintian," at this moment, a man stood up, the man was wearing a suit, "Why did you call her here?" "This is because..." Lin Tian was about to explain, when Kajikawa's wife said: "I asked to come, I forced the request..." "Shut up!" The man in the suit interrupted her, "I'm asking Mr. Lin Tian now!" His tone was so cold that it could make people shudder.Kajikawa's wife was silent. "There are two main reasons for this matter," Lintian said, "One is because of Ms. Kajikawa's strong desire to apologize, and the other, as I mentioned just now, is to find out the problem of fatigue driving. Ms. Kajikawa His testimony is also very important, so I want to let everyone meet as soon as possible.” Lin Tian's explanation is very reasonable, and the man in the suit seems to understand.However, when he sat down, he muttered to himself, "Is it necessary for us to see her too?" "We don't need you to apologize!" A voice came from somewhere, it was a female voice.Heisuke stretched his neck, and found that a half-aged woman sitting in the front row was looking at Kajikawa's wife, "You are not the one driving the car. Don't you think so yourself? You are just under the pressure of public opinion. I'm afraid If you don’t do anything, people will criticize you, so you come here to apologize. This kind of formal apology is useless. I think you should forget it!" "No, I didn't think so..." Kajikawa's wife wanted to refute. "Enough, enough, please don't say anything more! You stand there, it feels like we are bullying you." After saying this, the half-old woman sighed with a "cough" tone.Because of the silence, her sighs could be heard clearly throughout the venue. Perhaps her words also represent the voice of everyone, Heisuke heard someone whispering around, probably saying "that's it".In fact, Hirasuke is one of them.Although he thought that Kajikawa's wife must be very sad about losing her husband, he still couldn't stand by her side. "Then, Ms. Kajikawa, let's come here today." Hayashida said to Mrs. Kajikawa who lowered her head.His relaxed tone was extremely incongruous with the scene. Kajikawa's wife nodded slightly, Hayashida winked at Yuko Yamamoto when seeing this.Yuko Yamamoto hurriedly led her to the front door. The moment the door was opened, Fujisaki who was sitting next to Heisuke stood up suddenly. "Your husband's behavior is murder!" His voice echoed in the venue. The whole room becomes a momentary still shot.Then the faces continued to turn, and Yuko Yamamoto hugged Kajigawa's wife who was about to cry, and took her out the door.Some of the survivors present looked up at Fujisaki, while others deliberately did not look at him. Hirasuke didn't know what everyone was thinking.But what is clear is that Fujisaki's words will not bring relief to anyone.He said things that should have been avoided.A slight chill like a wind blowing engulfed the air in the venue.The half-aged woman who had just spoken in the front row had obvious displeasure written all over her face. But of course, no one can blame Fujisaki for anything.All one can do is pretend not to hear him. "So," Lin Tian said, looking around the venue, "do you have any questions?"