Chapter 9 Juzi Chapter Five

I arrived at Haneda Airport on Saturday afternoon, took my luggage and walked out of the airport lobby, and saw Miss Shimojo.Two days ago I told her on the phone that I would go to Tokyo, and she said she would come to pick me up. Shimojo-san smiled and waved as soon as she saw me, but her expression was mixed. "Good afternoon. Are you tired? I'll help you carry your luggage." Miss Xiajo stretched out her right hand as she spoke. "It's okay, I can take it myself, thank you for coming to pick me up." I nodded slightly in thanks. "Okay, then..." Miss Shimojo put her hands on her hips, "Do you want to come to my house first? Let's have a good chat."

"Will it really bother you?" Ms. Shimojo said on the phone that she can stay at her house when she comes to Tokyo this time. "You're welcome, but my family is small." She smiled and winked at me. We caught the monorail at Haneda.When I got on the monorail two weeks ago, I had no idea that I would come to Tokyo again in such a short period of time. My aunt also seemed very surprised and asked me, "Is there anything good in Tokyo?" "It's nothing." I said, "It's just that the trip was too hasty last time. This time I want to spend more time shopping around."

This excuse didn't seem very convincing, and my aunt still looked suspicious.No way, and I don't want to. On the monorail, Ms. Shimojo didn't speak for a while, but when I looked out the window, I felt her sneaking glances at me frequently. People's eyes just met. "Is it really that similar?" I asked. Miss Shimojo nodded solemnly, "No matter how you look at it, they are the same person." "But that person is not me." "I know." "Do you have a picture of that man?" "Yes, I took a copy of the university news with photos on it, but I didn't bring it out, I forgot it at home."

"That's it." I said with my head down. I can vaguely understand why Ms. Shimojo didn't bring out the photo. She was afraid that I would lose control of my emotions in a public place after seeing the photo. In other words, that photo has such a big impact. In the past, I have heard some people say that I look a lot like someone, but most people have a subjective consciousness when they say that two people "look alike", so if it is a normal day, I heard Ms. Shimojo say excitedly "That person looks exactly like you", I should just be dubious in my heart.

But when I learned that this person was a second-year student of the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Towa University, I couldn't keep calm anymore, not to mention that this person is called Kobayashi Futaba. When I eavesdropped on my father's phone call last time, the surname Kobayashi appeared in the conversation . My father's visit to Tokyo a while ago must have something to do with this girl named Kobayashi Futaba, there is no doubt about it, and my father's insistence on persuading me to study abroad must have something to do with it. What is the relationship between this girl and her father?No, I want to know more about the relationship between her and me.

So I couldn't hold back any longer, and immediately decided to come to Tokyo again. Miss Shimojo's apartment is located one stop before Teito University Station, only a few minutes away from the station. It is a relatively new five-story milky-white building.I suddenly had an idea that if I had the opportunity to study at a university in Tokyo, I would also like to live in such an apartment. Ms. Shimojo lives on the fourth floor. The room is divided into a living room with a small kitchen and a Japanese room. The Japanese room seems to be used as a study by her. There are tables and bookshelves inside, and the bookshelves are full of books.

Ms. Shimojo sat me down on the small and cute low sofa, took out oolong tea from the refrigerator and poured it into two cups, then put the cups on the tray and brought them over, I thanked them and took a sip. "Tokyo is hot, right?" Miss Shimojo sat down beside me. "Yeah, I was taken aback when I got off the plane. It wasn't this hot last time." "It was still the rainy season at that time, so it was cooler." Ms. Shimojo reached out to the audio cabinet at the back and took a folded newspaper, then handed it to me with a complicated expression. "This is it."

"Okay." I swallowed and took it, suppressing my excitement and slowly opening the newspaper. It said Donghe University News, and the headline of the report read "Amateur Orchestra Appears on TV Stage". There were three photos next to it. One was a group photo of all the members of the band, the other two were of the female lead singer, and one was a close-up of her face. . I was immediately speechless. The person in the photo is me at all, and this can no longer be described as "looks like", no matter the face or body shape, it is exactly the same as me. "Am I right?" Ms. Shimojo said: "It is generally believed that two people look alike mostly because of the same hairstyle, as long as the hairstyle is the same, the impression is very similar; conversely, as long as the hairstyle is different It's completely different."

"But this person's hairstyle is different from mine..." "Yes, but you are still very similar. No..." Miss Shimojo shook her head, "Even though the hairstyle is different, no matter how you look at it, I think this person is you." "She's not me!" I threw away the newspaper and covered my face with my hands, my head began to ache and my mind was confused.Who is this woman? "I want to ask you something." Miss Shimojo said softly, "Why do you want to investigate Donghe University? You probably don't know this character at all, right?"

"I don't know at all." I raised my head, "I just found some clues related to Donghe University during the investigation." "What are you investigating?" "About my mother, I want to know the real cause of my mother's death." I told the whole story in detail, including when I was a child, I felt that my mother hated me, my mother's strange death, and some clues I found recently, including that my mother had been to Tokyo before her death, and the woman in the picture Photos with faces painted over and more. After Miss Xiajo finished listening, she didn't speak for a long time, only to see that she folded her arms and bit her lip, lost in thought.

"So that's how it is." She finally spoke after two or three minutes, "No wonder you want to investigate your father's past... I understand." "But I didn't expect to find out about something like this..." I clenched my hands on my knees. Miss Shimojo put her arm around my shoulder and said: "About this female lead singer, I have a speculation." She looked into my eyes, "I think she and you should be twins." Miss Shimojo nodded, "This is the most reasonable answer, isn't it? You are twins who grew up in different environments for some reason." "But..." I said, "I applied for a household registration transcript when I was a child, and it didn't mention that I had a twin sister at all." "It's not difficult to do something about the household registration, as long as there are doctors willing to help." "But... but... I heard that my relatives were all in the hospital when my mother gave birth. How can this be explained? Could it be that they conspired to hide the truth?" "I'm not sure about that." Miss Shimojo didn't seem to have much confidence in her deduction. I looked at the university news again, looking at the article introducing female lead singer Kobayashi Futaba. "This person is a sophomore in the Chinese Department, one year older than me." "If the production process and household registration are fabricated, it is not surprising that there is a one-year difference between the two." Ms. Shimojo answered me immediately, and sure enough she had also considered the issue of the age gap between the two. I looked at the photo again, looking at the girl who was exactly the same as me but not me. Is this person my twin sister?The father went to Donghwa University just to meet another daughter? "I want to meet her." I said, "maybe meeting her will solve all mysteries." "I knew you would say that, so I'm investigating the address and phone number of Kobayashi Futaba." Ms. Shimojo said, "It's a pity that Donghe University is also on summer vacation, and I can't contact my friend for a while. I think there should be news tomorrow." "Thank you." "If you do see her, what are you going to do?" "I haven't thought about it that much yet. Anyway, I should ask her about her background first." "That's right, maybe she is also doubting her own origin." Miss Shimojo put her elbows on the table and asked me: "What about now? Stay at my house until I find out Kobayashi Futaba's contact information?" "No, I want to investigate another matter, so I want to go to Patriarch Valley 1-chome tomorrow." "Patriarch Valley? Ah, that's right, the place name your mother circled on the map?" "Well, I think my mother came to Tokyo to meet this person." I took out the mountain walking club roster that Miss Shimojo had faxed to me two days ago, and pointed to the name "Shimizu Hirohisa" on it. "It seems that the investigation in the direction of the hiking club is not in vain." Ms. Shimojo seemed very satisfied, "So you will go to see Hirohisa Shimizu tomorrow?" "If it goes well," I said. "Have you made an appointment with him yet?" "No……" "I knew it." Miss Shimojo picked up the wireless phone next to the stereo and dialed the directory information desk of NTT Telecom. Fortunately, the phone number of Shimizu Hirohisa's home was found in the phone book. Pen, and wrote the number on the note paper beside it. "Come on, dial this number." Miss Shimojo put the note paper and wireless phone in front of me, "As for why you want to see him, just use the reason you told me at the beginning. In order to write about my father's half life, I want to see him Let's talk about it." "Ah... good." Ms. Shimojo's swiftness made me speechless, but it would be difficult to find out the truth if she was not so active. Frustrated, I dialed the number on the note, and it rang a third time before someone answered. "Hello, this is Shimizu's house." It sounded like a steady middle-aged woman. "Ah... hello? My surname, is Mr. Shimizu there?" Because I was too nervous, my voice was extremely sharp. "Are you looking for a husband?" This should be Shimizu Hirohisa's wife. She paused in astonishment and said, "He passed away three years ago. May I ask who you are?" The next day, I left Miss Xiajo's house before noon. It seemed to be raining outside, and the weather was very stuffy. Staying in this kind of place in summer must make me lose a lot of weight. I imagined that Setagaya is a very high-end residential area, but the houses around Shimizu's house look very ordinary. Although it is impolite to say so, Shimizu's house is not a luxury house, but a simple two-story wooden building. The news of Shimizu Hirohisa's death shocked me. The silk thread connecting the past and the present is like an old violin string breaking one after another. I should have started investigating earlier, and now it is too late to regret. I rang the doorbell on the doorpost, and the door opened. The person who answered the door was a thin woman who didn't look fifty years old. She should be Hirohisa Shimizu's wife. "I'm the Shi family who called yesterday." I said. "Oh." Mrs. Shimizu nodded with a smile, "Please come in." "Excuse me." Walking through the door, I bowed and said, "I'm very sorry for the sudden visit. This is a small gesture." I handed her a package of pastries, which I bought near Miss Shimojo's house. Mrs. Shimizu seemed a little overwhelmed, "Don't be so polite, I'm not busy at all anyway." Mrs. Shimizu asked me to enter the room first, so I took off my shoes and entered the room. She took me to the reception room next to the courtyard. There was a glass table and a few wicker chairs inside. The floor was wooden instead of tatami. The door of the room is a traditional paper sliding door, and there are pure Japanese cabinets on the wall. The whole space is full of old-age style.There is no air conditioner in the room, and the door to the courtyard is open. Perhaps because of the good ventilation, it feels very cool, and a faint sandalwood fragrance comes from nowhere. I sat on the rattan chair and waited for a while, and Mrs. Shimizu brought iced barley tea. "Do you live alone?" I asked. The lady smiled slightly, "I live with my son, and he went to play golf with his friends." In this way, the family should be maintained by the son's income, and the wife does not seem to have a job. "Is your father all right?" asked Madame. "Well, he's fine." I replied, "Excuse me...have you met my father?" "My father attended my husband's funeral. Before that, my father and I hadn't seen each other for more than 20 years, and we couldn't say a few words on the day of the funeral." "Mr. Shimizu passed away three years ago?" "Yes, rectal cancer." Madam said frankly: "my husband used to work in machinery manufacturing, maybe it was an indirect cause because he worked too hard. This is what the doctor told me later." A nostalgic event, she must have been able to be so calm because it must have taken a long time to heal the pain. "How did my father know the news of Mr. Shimizu's death?" "Back then, the students of Teito University took my husband's address book and contacted all the related friends of Teito University, so Mr. Shijia came here from Hokkaido to attend the funeral." "I see." I picked up the barley tea.My father had attended the funeral of an old friend three years ago, and I was completely unaware of that. "Yesterday you said on the phone that you wanted to write about your father's half life, so you want to ask me about your father's school days?" Madam asked. "Yes." I said. "It's remarkable, but I don't know what to tell you," said the lady anxiously. I straightened my upper body and looked at Madam and said: "Mr. Shimizu, have you ever mentioned the hiking club 'Mountain Walk Club' to you? I heard that my father and Mr. Shimizu are both members of that club." Mrs. Shimizu immediately said cheerfully when she heard this: "Of course. For my husband, that period seemed to be the happiest time for him, and he often mentioned it to me." "Then do you know if there are any female members in their club?" "Female?" Mrs. Shimizu looked at me in astonishment.I obviously came to ask about my father's past, but I suddenly asked this question. It's no wonder she was different. I hurriedly tried to find an excuse to prevaricate, but my wife nodded vigorously and said, "Ah, I understand, what you want to ask Is that the thing? That’s right, since you want to write a half-life diary, of course you have to include that kind of thing.” Madam seems to have suddenly realized, but I am at a loss. "Uh... May I ask what you're talking about...?" "The person Mr. Shijia likes also participated in the activities of the mountain walk meeting. This is what you want to ask, right? My husband did mention it to me." It was as if something small had exploded in my ear. "May I ask if Mr. Shimizu mentioned what kind of woman the other party is?" "I don't know the details, but she must be a wonderful woman." Madam narrowed her eyes, "My husband told me that Mr. Shijia has always loved that woman, and even planned to propose to her as soon as he graduated from university. " "Love is so deep..." I was surprised that my father had such a love experience, "Then how does that woman feel about my father?" "I'm not sure about this. My husband probably doesn't know much about these details, but I do know that Mr. Shijia seems to have an opponent in the mountain walk." "adversary?" "It's the so-called rival in love." Mrs. Qingshui seemed enthusiastic about these gossip topics, "In other words, there is another person who also loves that woman, but I don't know who it is." "And that woman chose to be with that person in the end?" "My husband didn't tell me clearly, but it should be so from his tone." "That's it..." What was originally a mess gradually emerged in my mind. The woman whose face was painted out must be the object of my father's unrequited love, but why was her face painted out?Also, why did that photo fall into the hands of the mother? "By the way, I'll show you that one, please wait for me a moment." Mrs. Shimizu seemed to remember something, and walked into the inner room.I drank dry barley tea in one gulp, and evened out my slightly disordered breathing. Two or three minutes later, Mrs. Shimizu came back, holding a brown book like a scrapbook in her hand. The brown color seemed to be the traces of time rather than the original color of the cover. "I almost forgot that I still have this thing." Madam carefully placed the old scrapbook on the table as if holding a precious treasure. On the cover of the scrapbook were some blurred words that were almost unreadable: "Mountain walk meeting Record". "This was at that time..." "Yes." Madam nodded, "This is the photo album from that time, and my husband often took it out to look at it when he was alive." "Can I take a look?" "Of course, I just took it out for you to see." My hand was on the cover of the album, but before I opened it, I turned to the lady and said: "The photos in here, have you seen them?" The lady put her hands on her knees and shook her head, "To be honest, I didn't look at it seriously, because I hardly know the people inside." "Then the appearance of the woman my father had an unrequited love for..." "Well, I don't know who it is, I'm really sorry." The lady said with a smile: "But since there are not many women, maybe you can tell the clues from the photos. As for whether I can find the names, I'm not sure. .” "That's it..." There are three black-and-white photos on the first page. If you look carefully, there are three fathers in their youth, the father carrying a hiking backpack on the mountain road, or the father hanging shoulders with his friends. Below the photos is written One line: "Mount Fuji mountainside, Shimizu, Ujiya, Hata Village, Takajo group photo." "This is my husband, and so is this. Wow, I was so young at the time." Mrs. Shimizu pointed to a young man who was much shorter than her father and had a childish face. The fur hat worn by the young man was very suitable for him. I felt my heart beating faster and faster, and I flipped through the pages, but there were only young men in all the photos. Just when I started to feel a little anxious, a strange page suddenly appeared. "Huh?" said the lady, "what's the matter? Where's the picture on this page?" There is no photo on that page, but the stickers on the four corners of the fixed photo are still there. It can be seen that there was a photo at first, but there is a line of words written at the bottom of the page: "Student Akiko Abe of Teito Women's University and classmate Hiroe Tamura participated in the interaction and talked very well. joyous." So this page originally posted a photo of two women, Abe Akiko and Tamura Hiroe.Who is the woman whose face is painted over? As I continued to read, there were more and more pages lacking photos. I carefully read the text at the bottom of these pages and found one thing in common, that is, the name Abe Akiko appeared between the lines. I rummaged through the entire photo album to make sure there were no photos of Akiko Abe in it, and any photos of her were taken away. As for the photos of Tamura Hiroe, there are several photos. For example, there is a photo of four boys surrounding a woman, and the text below reads: "Four knights surrounding classmate Hiroe." There is no father among the four , but there is Mr. Shimizu with a stiff expression. Hiroe Tamura in the center of the photo has a round face and doll-like watery eyes. He is thin and thin, and his body shape is obviously different from that of the woman whose face was painted out. Then I found decisive evidence.A page of photos was also removed, but the following text was written below: "Oku Chichibu, Akiko Abe and the Uji family. The long-standing dream has finally come true?" long dream... I looked up and said: "It seems that my father likes Miss Abe Akiko." "It seems to be." The lady who sat across from me and looked at the photo album agreed, "But it's strange, why are there so many photos missing? Could it be that my husband gave the photos away?" "Has anyone else seen this photo album?" "I don't know about it either, but among the group of friends in the Mountain Walk Club, the only one who has been in touch with my husband is Mr. Shijia." "Has my father seen this album?" "Maybe I've seen it, but I just said that before my husband passed away, we hadn't seen Mr. Shijia for more than 20 years... It was because there was a girl that Mr. Shijia liked in the photo, so my husband was very early. Did you send those photos to Mr. Shijia?" Madam said while holding her chin, and suddenly she tapped on the table and said, "Ah, I remembered." "What's wrong?" I asked. "One time my husband went out with this photo album. I remember it was a few years ago." "Why did Mr. Shimizu take the photo album out?" "At that time my husband said that a rare visitor came to Tokyo and wanted to ask him about the mountain walk, so he wanted to bring a photo album to the appointment." A rare visitor came to Tokyo... I couldn't help but feel a surge of heat in my chest. "Did Mr. Shimizu tell you who that rare guest is?" "No. Later I asked my husband, and he only said that he was a certain friend. I still remember that my husband looked very happy when he went out, but he had a bitter face when he came back. I think since that rare visitor wanted to ask my husband Regarding the matter of the Mountain Walk Club, you should not be a member of the Mountain Walk Club." "May I ask when did that happen?" "I think, it was not long before my husband passed away..." Madam put her finger on her lips and thought for a moment, then nodded, "It should be six years ago, to be more precise, five and a half years ago winter." "Winter...is it around December?" "Well, yes, it seems to be, I remember being very busy at that time." That rare guest must be the mother, and the mother really came to see Shimizu Hongjiu. In this way, the reason why all the photos of Abe Akiko disappeared has also been solved. It must be that the mother took all the photos after getting Shimizu Hirohisa's consent.If his mother told Shimizu Hirohisa that he wanted to borrow these photos, he certainly had no reason to refuse. The question is why did the mother suddenly start investigating the woman the father loved before?Also, why did you paint out the face in the photo? As long as you see this woman, you should be able to learn something. "Do you know the contact information of any member of the Mountain Walk Club?" Mrs. Shimizu thought for a while and said: "As I said just now, Mr. Shijia was the only one who kept in touch afterwards. As for the others, I seldom interacted with them after my husband graduated. Besides, most of the non-local students went back to their hometown after graduation. At my husband's funeral, I met with them on the mountain walk. Only Mr. Shijia attended the relevant people." "Then, did Mr. Shimizu leave something like a membership list?" "I'm not sure about this either. I'll look for it." Madam said and stood up. "Sorry to trouble you." I looked through the photo album on the table again, and the father in each photo was full of vitality, completely different from the present, as if all the youth of my father had been left in that period of time. dad…… What the hell are you hiding?Why is mom looking into your past? Mrs. Shimizu came back soon. "I just found this." Mrs. Shimizu put a thin booklet on the table. The cover of the booklet said "Mountain walk meeting". , it only records the contact information of the president and vice president, that is, Hirohisa Shimizu and his father.I told Madam about this, and Madam lowered her eyebrows in frustration. "It looks like this..., except for this, only this notebook has the contact information of my husband and friends." She said as she took out a palm-sized dark brown notebook, opened the address book at the back and laid it flat on the table. "The book is too old, and the handwriting is a little blurry, but it should be barely legible." Really a very old notebook, the pencil writing is almost completely invisible, and the pen writing is smudged and discolored. Carefully flipping through the fragile inner pages, I saw a name before long. Gao Chengkangzhi.I compared this name with the text in the photo album. There is a line in the photo album that reads "Mount Fuji Mountainside, Shimizu, Ujiya, Hata Village, and Takajo". The forehead is deeply contoured, a bit like a Westerner. "This 'Gaocheng' should be pronounced as TAKASHIRO, right? Has Mr. Shimizu ever mentioned this name?" I asked pointing to the address book. "Mr. Gao Cheng..., I should have heard of it." Madam frowned, tilted her head slightly and pressed her temples lightly, then suddenly raised her eyebrows, "I remember, it's that person." "Excuse me, is he...?" "How should I put it, he is just like my husband." "Same as Mr. Shimizu...?" I had a bad feeling. "Passed away, about ten years ago." "Is that so..." I felt like a deflated ball, "Is it because of illness?" "Well, if I remember correctly, it seems that he passed away due to illness." I didn't know what to say for a moment. "By the way, my husband said something strange when he heard the news of Mr. Gao Cheng's death." "Strange words?" "I remember him saying... 'Sure enough, he's dead'." "'Sure enough'? So Mr. Gaocheng has been ill for a long time?" "Well, it doesn't seem to mean that." Mrs. Qing Shui tilted her head and said, "My husband seems to mean that doom is inevitable." "Doom? Do you mean death?" "Maybe, my husband didn't say much." "That's it..." I have no way of knowing what kind of doom Mr. Takashiro has endured. All I know is that another string of the violin was broken.