Chapter 24 23. The note handed over

"Brother, hurry up!" "Understood—Mr. S, are you okay? There's no water in the bottle, right?" "Nearly. But you better not take your hands off the lid." Leaving Prospect Plaza and walking out the gate of JR Park, it started to rain, and it started to rain as we ran downhill.We didn't bring an umbrella, so we had to run back to the station as quickly as possible. "Okay, Mr. Dao, I can see the station now." Flying into the station, I finally breathed a sigh of relief. "Ah, it's all right now." Shaking his head, the rain splashed from his hair.Then I heard someone calling my name in the distance.look back. "Ah, grandpa!"

It was the old man I saw in front of Mr. S's house this morning. "Oh, great, you remember me." I briefly explained the situation to Meixiang. The old man came here with the transparent plastic umbrella. The shoulders of the gray overalls he was wearing were wet, and there were two black spots of water. "Thank you very much for this morning. It was a great help.—You are so brave." "I've known Daji since I was in the first grade. Daji wasn't like that before..." "It's probably because Dae-gil feels lonely because his favorite Mr. S is gone. I heard from Mr. S's mother that Mr. S and Dae-gil are the best friends."

That being said, the grandfather did go to his house this morning because he had something to say to Mr. S's mother.So, I decided to ask my grandfather. "Ah, no, no, nothing important." I always feel that the old man's words seem to be covering up something inside and outside. "Is it something related to Mr. S?" "Well, yes, almost." "Did it happen the morning of the accident?" When I asked this question, the old man's eyes seemed to enlarge several times in an instant. "Why do you think so?" The old man's voice suddenly became low.

"Why—because I told you about the morning of the accident?" not good!This is equivalent to telling him that I suspect Mr. S did not commit suicide.So I kept organizing the language in my mind. "I've heard Mr. S talk about you before. It seems that because of some work, I have to pass in front of Mr. S's courtyard at eight o'clock every morning. That's why I said morning." The messy explanation barely made the old man listen.I also temporarily let go of my heart.Next, I would like to take this opportunity to confirm whether my grandfather saw Iwamura-sensei that morning.I adjusted my voice, trying to ask in a relaxed tone.

"Grandpa—did you see anyone in the oak forest that morning?" My grandfather's reaction at that time was absolutely unexpected.The wrinkled face became tense in an instant, and the pair of eyes that were looking at me widened in an instant.The quivering of dry lips grew stronger.At that moment, I even wondered if this old man would pounce on me.However, it doesn't.After a long time, the old man looked away from me and stared at his hands holding the umbrella handle.After staying like this for a while, the old man's Adam's apple moved, and he turned to me again. "You—do you already know something?"

The hoarse voice could be heard trying to calm himself down.At this time, I was convinced that my grandfather must have seen Mr. Iwamura that morning.However, due to some reasons, the facts were not disclosed to the police. "No, I don't know anything." Grandpa took a step closer to me. "Do you really know nothing?" The old man had no expression on his face, but it was terrifying.I involuntarily took a step back. "I really don't know anything. It's just..." "Just what?" Mr. S said briefly in the bottle, "Say it."I followed Mr. S's advice.

"I can't believe that Mr. S committed suicide anyway. Of course, it's not that I was wrong about the way Mr. S hung up. But, how should I put it—I always feel that Mr. S was involved in something Inside the bad things." The old man's expression changed slightly. "It is said that a student in the same class has seen Mr. S's body, and that is you." I thought the old man had already heard about it from Mr. S's mother, so I was surprised by what the old man said. "That's it. That, that's really bad." The old man lowered his eyebrows, looked at me intently, and then moved closer to my face as if remembering something.

"You said that you don't believe that Mr. S committed suicide. You think Mr. S was involved in something bad. What does this mean?" "I just think so." "Is this what you want to say——Mr. S didn't commit suicide but was killed by someone?" What I wanted to say myself came out of my grandfather's mouth, which shocked me very much.But then I thought again, is it possible that the old man will tell me the facts he witnessed? "Is that what you want to say?" Grandpa asked again.I finally nodded. I waited extremely nervously for when I could hear the name of Mr. Iwamura from the mouth of my grandfather.No, maybe the old man doesn't know the name of Mr. Iwamura.Chances are that Grandpa would have used the term "big man".

""Judgment of Sex"..." In the end, the grandfather said such a sentence. "what……" "It's the title of a book. You know that?" I shake my head.The old man touched his trouser pocket, took out a notepad, took out a pencil, and wrote quickly on the wet corner of the page.Then he tore it off with a snap and handed me the note. "Judgment of Sex, Kaoru Mumura" The old man wrote down the above words squarely. "I don't know if it has something to do with what you think. But I think this is very important." "Is this the book you mean?"

The old man nodded, but didn't look me in the face.That looks like guilt. "The front is the title of the book, and the back is the author's name—that is, the name of the person who wrote the book. Of course, this is a pseudonym. This is not the real name." I still can't understand what the old man wants to say to me. "The content of this novel is quite disgusting. The main character is a man who kills teenagers and then destroys the corpse." "Kill, and then spoil the corpse?" The surrounding sounds seemed to disappear at that moment.Only the voice of my grandfather remained in my ears.My field of vision also narrowed, and only the old man's faded lips were squirming in the middle.

"I really don't understand what the person who wrote this novel was thinking. They actually wrote about killing children. And, they did those—those bad things to the corpses. I regretted it so much when I read this novel before Yes. But now that I know about Mr. S, I feel that there seems to be some connection. So I remembered this novel for some reason. After that, I can’t forget it.” "Is there any connection between this novel and Mr. S's death?" "Well, I can't say it. It's just that I always feel this way. It's fine if I misunderstand..." The old man pursed his lips and swallowed. "Anyway, you take this note first. If you suspect that Mr. S did not commit suicide, this may bring some enlightenment." "Well. But—" The old man still faced me and took a step back. "You'll catch a cold, go home quickly! The rain seems to have stopped." At this moment, I realized that my side face had been bathed in bright sunlight.When I looked up, the gray clouds covering half of the sky had turned white, and wisps of sunlight shone through the gaps in the clouds. The old man nodded slightly to me, and then walked into the crowd.However, he seemed to hesitate a bit, stopped and turned to me again. "Mr. Daofu, how old are you?" "Oh, I'm nine. I'm going to be ten in the middle of next month." "Really……" The old man's face suddenly became very sad.Or maybe I'm wrong. I stared blankly at the back of the old man.Soon, the back of the old man disappeared into the crowd, and then I shifted my sight to the note that the old man handed over in my hand. "This person is a bit strange." Mr. S said puzzledly. "It seems to be very tricky. —By the way, how did the old man know Dao Husband's name?" "Maybe your mother called me by my name this morning. Or maybe she saw my badge. Today I'm wearing a badge properly—" As I spoke, I looked down The front of my shirt, I was so frightened that my face turned pale...