Chapter 8 Futaba Chapter 4

On Friday afternoon, I received a courier letter from Fujimura, which contained a round-trip air ticket from Tokyo to Sapporo, a shuttle bus ticket from Sapporo to Asahikawa, and two pieces of letter paper.In the letter, Fujimura first apologized to me. He said that because there are very few direct flights from Tokyo to Asahikawa, he only booked a flight ticket from Tokyo to Sapporo. In addition, he also explained the actions I should take after arriving in Asahikawa.In fact, what I need to do is not complicated at all. I just go to the hotel where Fujimura has booked a room to check in and wait in the room. Fujimura said that he will call me that night.

According to this itinerary, I will arrive at Asahikawa Station at one o'clock in the afternoon the day after tomorrow. At this time, I realized that I always thought that I was going to a far away place this time, but it was actually just a small domestic trip. After roughly packing some luggage, I went out to Ikebukuro to get enough travel supplies. The department store was full of young people. I eavesdropped on the conversation and found that most of them were traveling overseas. This reminded me of my friend Chestnut who also said excitedly Going to play in California. After I bought a pocket timetable, a Hokkaido tourist brochure and a few sundries, I made a public phone call to Afeng's house. Fortunately, he was at home.I asked him if he was free to meet up now, and he said he would be there right away, so I made an appointment with him at the coffee shop in front of the department store.

I went to the store first, and while eating coffee jelly, I opened the travel brochure and started to arrange the itinerary.This is my first time to Hokkaido, and I feel inexplicably excited. Thirty minutes later, Ah Feng arrived panting. "Sorry, there are only slow trains that stop at every station at this time." He sat down panting, and asked me as soon as he saw the timetable and travel brochure on the table: "Are you going to Hokkaido?" "Well, but not for sightseeing." I briefly explained the reason, and he listened to me with a grim face while ordering an iced coffee from the waitress. After I finished speaking, he still looked the same.

"Futaba, I didn't expect your mother to be so mysterious." He stirred the iced coffee with a straw, and murmured, "I always thought your father passed away because of an accident or illness when you were young, so I've always thought about it." Avoid the subject as much as possible.” "Well, I know, my friends are like that." "But having said that, I'm really worried. Since the hit-and-run driver may have deliberately murdered your mother, are you sure that the professor at Beidou Medical University is really okay?" "I'll be careful," I said.Ah Feng's expression was still the same after hearing that, he stared at the iced coffee, it seemed that he was really worried about me.

"I have something to ask you." I took out a key from my backpack, which is the spare key of my house. "While I'm not at home, can you please visit my house from time to time? Of course, this matter is also possible." Please ask the neighbor aunt, but the current situation is not very clear, and I am not sure what will happen next, so I think it is more reassuring to entrust it to someone who knows the inside story." "Of course it's okay to look after the house, but..." A Feng looked at me cautiously, "Can you trust me with your house?"

I smiled wryly and said, "If I hand it over to Kanta or Tomohiro, my house might become a garbage dump." If it's chestnut, my house will be treated as a free hotel. "OK, received!" A Feng held the key tightly, "I will stay at your house as much as possible." "That's troublesome." "I want to see you off tomorrow, okay?" "Of course." I replied. After saying goodbye to Afon, I went back downstairs to the apartment and found a man sitting on the stairs reading a book. He was wearing jeans and a dirty T-shirt. His arms were so muscular that he looked like a small Arnold. Schwarzenegger, the facial features are also a bit foreign.He carried a large shoulder bag on his shoulders, and a yellow windbreaker was draped over it.

I really wanted to walk around him and walk up the stairs as if I didn't see him, but his body completely blocked me, so I stood in front of him and said, "There are many benches in Shakujii Park to sit on." "Ah, I'm sorry." The little Arnold tried to stand up quickly, but his butt had just left the stairs, and when he saw me, he froze, and his mouth was motionless in the shape of "ah". "Why are you looking at me like that?" I glared at him. "You are...Miss Kobayashi Futaba?" I took a step back, "Yeah." The man was still looking at me intently, but his expression gradually softened. I was planning to yell at him as long as he continued this rude behavior for another three seconds, but he suddenly said:

"Great, I've been waiting for you for an hour." I thought to myself, it's none of my business how long you wait. "Who are you?" I asked. "This is my business card." He handed out a sweat-soaked business card, and I took a look at it. It said "The Day After Editorial Department Wakisaka Kosuke". I remember that "The Day After" was produced by A monthly business magazine published by a publishing house called Wisdom Society. "Magazine reporter? What do you want from me?" "I'm not a reporter, I'm an editor, but it doesn't matter. Actually, I want to ask you something about your mother, mainly about that car accident." There was a confidence in his eyes that "you can't refuse if I just say that" ,"Are you free right now?"

"I'm busy and don't want to be interviewed." "This is not an interview." The man said with a serious face: "I came to you for personal reasons. Your mother was kind to me during her lifetime." "Oh?" I've never heard my mother mention the name Wakisaka Kosuke, "Well, there's a coffee shop called 'Annie' over there, you go and wait there first, I'll come when I get home and put my things away." "Okay, 'Annie', right?" Kosuke Wakisaka was about to go down the stairs, when he suddenly turned around and asked, "By the way, are you going on a trip?"

"Huh?" I was taken aback and almost fell down the stairs, "Why do you ask?" "Because there is a ready-to-shoot in there." He pointed to the paper bag in my hand, and the green box of the ready-to-shoot was exposed, and I quickly stuffed the ready-to-shoot back into the paper bag. "Then I'll wait for you at the coffee shop." Wakisaka raised his thick arms and waved lightly before turning his head and leaving.I looked at his back and thought, this guy is not a fuel-efficient lamp, so be careful. Sitting face to face with him in a coffee shop, I realized that he was actually only twenty-five or six years old. No wonder he spoke to me in a rude way, probably because he was about the same age as me, but he didn’t use honorifics for me. It's also easy, usually as long as the other party doesn't use honorifics, I definitely don't need them.

"You must be wary when you read my business card. I can understand that, but I didn't come to you today because of work." He took away the straw, grabbed the iced coffee cup and took a big gulp. After dropping more than half a cup of coffee, Afonsimilianly drinking coffee through a straw appeared in my mind. "You said my mother was kind to you in the past?" "Yeah, about a year ago I was injured in an interview and was admitted to Guyuan Hospital. At that time, Miss Xiaolin was in charge of taking care of me. I stayed in the hospital for ten days that time. Miss Xiaolin really cared about me like her. Gentle, kind and reliable nurses are quite rare, and I have often been admitted to the hospital for fractures since I was a student, so I feel very deeply." "Oh?" Apart from being reliable, other compliments surprised me, "Where did you get hurt that time?" "Here." He pointed to his forehead, where there was a faint scar of about three centimeters, "I was out for an interview during a typhoon, and suddenly a tile flew over and hit me on the top of my head, and I passed out on the spot. I bleed so much that I thought I was dead." He drank the rest of his coffee in one gulp. "Fortunately nothing serious." "Yeah." He nodded, "It's not worth dying like that. Anyway, what I'm most grateful to Miss Xiao Lin is that after I was discharged from the hospital, she still often called me to care about me, asking if I would have a headache or feel sick. Uncomfortable, worrying about whether I have sequelae. In the past, no nurse put herself in my shoes so well. I asked her why she was so kind to me, and she said she didn’t know, but sometimes she encountered patients who were particularly worried. .By the way, did she mention me to you at home? Said there was a boy with a forehead injury?" I shook my head, "Not at all." "Oh..." Kosuke Wakisaka lowered his head in disappointment. "What do you want to ask about my mother?" I urged him to get to the point quickly. After Wakisaka looked around to make sure there were no other guests around, he lowered his voice slightly and said, "Miss Kobayashi has been kind to me, so I was really shocked when I read the news of her death in the newspaper, and I couldn't believe it at all." Anyone who knows my mother should feel this way, I nodded. "I originally wanted to attend the funeral, and I asked the hospital about the time and place, but that day I had a sudden emergency, and by the time I finished my work and rushed to the mourning hall, the funeral was already over." "It ended at five o'clock that day. There are many people queuing up for mourning halls like that." "Just like a wedding ceremony venue." "yes." "So I plan to visit your house directly, but I thought about it, why don't I investigate some information about the hit-and-run before coming to you. It would be great if I could find out the suspect." "Oh, that's how it is." I knew that the way I looked at him changed, "Then you came to me today, which means you have found something?" Hearing what I said, his expression became a little dignified, "Well, it's barely a gain." "How?" I asked. Wakisaka Kosuke looked around again and then moved his upper body closer, "Before I explain, I want to ask you something first. How did the police explain the case to you?" "It's very perfunctory." I shook my head and gestured to raise my hand in surrender, "They only said that the car involved in the accident was a stolen car, and the original owner doesn't seem to be lying, that's all." "Well, sure enough." He folded his arms in front of his thick chest muscles. "What's the meaning?" "Actually, I asked a very well-off person in the Metropolitan Police Department to help me inquire about the news, but I heard a strange piece of information. He said that the investigation of this case seems to be coming to an end." "Because there are no clues?" "No, it shouldn't be. The police in charge of the investigation didn't think it was a simple hit-and-run. They were planning to investigate in the direction of murder, but they suddenly stopped the investigation at this time. It was not at the stage of giving up due to lack of clues." "What's the reason for that?" "There is only one possible reason for a situation like this, and that is pressure from the top." "what the hell!" "I don't know either. Anyway, there are powerful forces behind the pressure." "The person who died in this case was my mother. Although such an ordinary and low-key commoner is very important to me, she should have nothing to do with powerful forces." "Maybe you're the only one who thinks so." "I don't believe it." I shook my head vigorously, and the depression in my chest became heavier and heavier. My mother's death seemed to be crushed like clay by a group of people I didn't know in a place I didn't know. "This is just my imagination. Believe it or not is up to you." Kosuke Wakisaka took a sip of the water in the glass, and by the way took an ice cube and threw it into his mouth and chewed it loudly, "But I am quite convinced of this inference. Self-confidence, that's why I want to ask you, did you think of any clues after listening to my explanation? There should be clues left by that powerful force around your mother's life." "No." I said firmly. "Really not? If you think about it carefully, do you have any impression of any organization or government figure that has haunted your life?" "No, you're annoying." I scolded unceremoniously, but then something came to my mind—that scrapbook.Junsaku Ihara is indeed a "powerful force". I hesitated whether I should tell Kosuke Wakisaka about this, but in the end I remained silent. After all, it was only the first time we met, so there was no reason to trust him completely. He sighed, "That can't be helped, but if you think of anything later, I hope you can contact me, just call the number on the business card just now." "After finding out that powerful force, what are you going to do?" "Well, I don't know yet, but some action should be taken." "Oh." I said, "Have you finished talking?" "It's almost there, thank you for your cooperation, and I will notify you if I find anything." The waitress came over to help us refill water, but Wakisaka Kosuke declined. "By the way, where are you traveling?" he asked as he stood up and picked up the bill. "Hokkaido." He suddenly looked down at me, "Where in Hokkaido?" "Asahikawa." "Asahikawa... what are you doing there?" he continued to ask. I stared at him with my hips on my hips, "Why should I tell you?" "It's okay... I'm just curious." He carried his shoulder bag and went to the counter to check out. I heard him ask the store for a receipt.I had no obligation to wait for him, so I walked towards the store door, when his voice came from behind: "When are you leaving?" I turned around with an impatient expression on my face and said, "The day after tomorrow." "The day after tomorrow?" He widened his eyes. He seemed to want to ask something more, I walked out of the store quickly without turning my head, and soon there was the sound of the store door being opened forcefully, I was worried that if he caught up again, I might be annoyed to death by him, but unexpectedly there was no movement behind, I looked back curiously, and found that he looked at his watch and ran away in the opposite direction.