Chapter 5 Chapter 3 Going Back in Time

On that day, Ji Jianzi was staying at a hotel in Otaru City.The hotel is located on a high ground, and when you open the windows, you can see the dazzling street lights and the vast ocean. After dinner, Ji Jianzi wanted to know the general situation of the incident, so he watched the TV news at seven o'clock. These two lines of subtitles appeared on the TV screen. Grandma's headshot also appeared on the screen, looking very young, perhaps taken ten years ago or earlier. The announcer explained the general situation of the incident. Shibata Taki, a businessman, was asked by the tourist Sasaki Kitiko (25 years old) to take her to visit his companion Ito Tadako. When they came to her house, they found her hanged on the door frame and immediately reported to the police. .

Sasaki Jijianzi wanted to know the details of Otaru's merchants, also known as the Bear Army, and Shibata Taki helped her introduce Ito Tadako, who is familiar with this industry. According to the results of the investigation by the Otaru Police Station, the body did not have any injuries. Most likely he hanged himself because of loneliness. However, the possibility of homicide is not ruled out, and the investigation is currently underway. In its heyday, the Bear Army had nearly 200 people, but now only one-third remained.Stadako Ito has been in business for more than 30 years, and he can be called an old-timer in the business world.

This news is roughly the same, and there is nothing special about it. When his name was reported, Ji Jianzi felt a little troubled, wondering what to do next. She thought that if she could meet Ito Dadako, she might be able to know something about her father. Unfortunately, Ito Dadako died, and this clue was cut off. "Did she really hang herself?" Ji Jianzi couldn't help wondering, "Isn't it because someone didn't want her to meet Ji Jianzi, so they killed her?" According to the nine o'clock TV news report, the Otaru Police Department concluded that Ito Tadako committed suicide.The police cited two reasons:

One is that the gout has worsened recently, and the pain in the feet makes it difficult to walk, and it is difficult to do business again. The second is that she has a bad relationship with her daughter-in-law. When her husband died eight years ago, she also wanted to die with him. Since she is separated from her daughter-in-law, it is an indisputable fact that she lives alone. It is probably true that she committed suicide, right? The next day, Ji Jianzi was eating breakfast on the first floor while reading the newspaper. News reports also said that she had committed suicide. To be honest, for Ji Jianzi, whether Ito Dadako's death was suicide or homicide has nothing to do with her, but Dingzi's death cut off her clues to find her father, which is a troublesome thing.

At nearly noon, Ji Jianzi left the hotel and went to the cafe from yesterday. There is a "Morning Service" sign on the door, and the store is empty, with no customers. "Thank you very much yesterday." While thanking the boss and his wife, Ji Jianzi sat down in front of the counter and ordered milk and toast. "Yesterday was really miserable." The boss said to Ji Jianzi. "You must have been taken aback, right?" the proprietress also said. "It really surprised me yesterday. Boss, do you know the dead grandma very well?" "No, not familiar, we only know Shibata Taki very well."

"Is it the grandma who took me there yesterday?" "Yes. Those two grandmas seem to be very close," said the boss. Ji Jianzi wanted to visit Mrs. Shibata Taki, so she asked the boss for the address of Mrs. Shibata Taki's home.The boss said she lived with her daughter-in-law. After Ji Jianzi found out that Mrs. Shibata Taki liked to eat watermelon, she went to a nearby fruit shop to buy a watermelon, and then went to Shibata Taki's house to visit the old lady. Mrs. Shibata Taki was playing in the courtyard with her two grandchildren. When she saw Ji Jianzi, the expression on her face immediately dimmed, and she said, "Yesterday was really miserable."

"Grandma, you and Grandma Dingzi are very close, right?" "Yes. Among the fellow merchants, Sting Zi and I are old partners, and we usually do business together." "Is it true that Grandma Dingzi has gout?" Ji Jianzi asked. Mrs. Shibata Taki drove her two grandchildren into the back of the house, shook her head and said, "Even if her feet hurt like hell, she wouldn't snort. How could such a brave person commit suicide?" "So, grandma, don't you think she committed suicide?" Ji Jianzi asked. "However, the police said she committed suicide, which confused me." Mrs. Shibata Taki said.

"What did my father talk about with Grandma Dingzi? Did they talk harmoniously?" "I was just leading the way, and I wasn't there, because that person had an expression that didn't want me to be there." said Mrs. Shibata Taki. "Really?—" Ji Jianzi felt a little disappointed. Mrs. Shibata Taki may feel sorry for her, so she said to her: "Tonight, I will find a few people to go to the place where Stator lives, and have a drink and talk in front of Stator's coffin. You come too, okay?" "Can I go? Isn't it just gathering her relatives and friends?"

"Yes. But we don't intend to inform Stator's daughter-in-law, and you are different, because you want to ask Stator about your father." Mrs. Shibata Taki said. The words of the old lady Shibata Taki made Ji Jianzi feel warm in his heart and returned to the hotel.After the sun went down, she went to a tavern to buy two two-liter bottles of sake and headed to where Sadako lived. A coffin was placed in a room with a size of six pings, and in front of the coffin were gathered twelve or three grandmas who were merchants. These grandmothers are all in their sixties or seventies, with dark skin and hale and hearty spirits.Someone is already drunk.

Under the introduction of Mrs. Shibata Taki, Ji Jianzi took out the two bottles of wine. "You can drink together too!" One of them said to Ji Jianzi in an orderly tone. Although Ji Jianzi is not good at drinking, she still drank the glass of wine given to her by the other party. "This man's father came to meet with Ting Zi not long ago. Has any of you heard Ting Zi mention this matter?" Mrs. Shibata Taki looked around at everyone's faces. "Was that person's father a criminal policeman?" Someone asked. "Twenty years ago." Ji Jianzi replied to the grandma who asked the question.

"If that's the case, I've heard Stator talk about it." "What is it?" "That person came to Sting Zi to inquire about what happened twenty years ago." Twenty years ago, this number had more special meaning to Ji Jianzi than the disappearance of his father. My father quit his job as a police officer abruptly twenty years ago.Regarding this matter, Ji Jianzi never asked his father, nor did his father talk about it. In the past, Ji Jianzi thought that his father probably didn't want people to know that he had worked as a policeman, so he never mentioned it.Now I feel that maybe that topic is a big taboo between parents. Ji Jianzi felt that twenty years later, his father was suddenly involved in the work of the police again. That's why the Totsugawa Police Department of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's First Investigation Division called, the young detectives circled around her, and her father came to Otaru to inquire about what happened twenty years ago. "My father asked Dingzi what happened twenty years ago?" Ji Jianzi asked the grandmother. "Well—it seems to be asking about various things. However, Sting Zi didn't say anything very specific. I didn't ask because I didn't have much interest." "Twenty years ago, Grandma Dingzi started trading?" "Yes, I have been in this business for twenty-five years." "What happened in Otaru twenty years ago?" Ji Jianzi asked. The grandmas of the merchants chattered, and the old lady Shibata Taki said: "It's been so long, even if something happened, I can't remember it." It may be true, for things that have nothing to do with me, even after only a month, I will forget them completely. However, judging from the fact that my father came to inquire about the events of twenty years ago from Grandma Dingzi, those things must have something to do with Grandma Dingzi. "Twenty years ago, was Grandma Dingzi involved in any major incident?" Ji Jianzi asked. "No." "Stator is a man who follows the rules." "She didn't bother the police once." The grandmothers said so. It seems that Ji Jianzi's question has greatly hurt their self-esteem, but they misunderstood what she meant. Although Ji Jianzi still had some questions to ask, but because the atmosphere was not right, she had no choice but to bury those questions in her heart and leave. If Ito Tachiko did not commit suicide but was killed, her murder may have something to do with her father asking her for questioning.Ji Jianzi thinks so. After Ji Jianzi returned to the hotel, he thought to himself what should he do next? Just to be on the safe side, she called home, because maybe her father was home. But the phone kept ringing, and no one answered it. It seemed that my father hadn't returned yet. "What exactly did father ask Ito Tadako?" Ji Jianzi thought to himself, "If he can know, maybe he can understand a little bit about the reason for his father's disappearance." The next day, Ji Jianzi went to the city library after having breakfast at the hotel. She wants to borrow newspapers from twenty years ago.Since there is no bound volume, I have to read old newspapers. She flipped through the local newspaper, Otaru Daily. Even though I know it was twenty years ago, I don't know what year and month it was, so I had to start looking for it from the year my father quit his job as a police officer, that is, January of Showa 42. It's still far away from the exam season, and the school hasn't had summer vacation yet, so the library is empty and there aren't many readers. Ji Jianzi flipped through the yellowed old newspapers one by one, and felt very tired after a while.Because she didn't know what to look for. The newspapers published major incidents such as serial murders, bank robbery and hundreds of millions of dollars, and small incidents such as traffic accidents, but she didn't know which incident she was looking for. Because she was tired, she went to the lounge on the same floor, and when she sat down on the sofa, she found a man wearing sunglasses looking at her. As soon as their eyes met, the man quickly looked away. Wearing sunglasses in the library is a bit strange.The man was about thirty-five or six years old, and he was a stranger Ji Jianzi didn't know. "He's spying on me?" Although Ji Jianzi thought so, he didn't want to ask that person, even if he did, that person wouldn't admit it. While paying attention to that person, Ji Jianzi began to read old newspapers again. Otaru doesn't have a lot of violent incidents like Tokyo, but the social page still publishes various incidents. (Which event is I looking for?) Father used to be a criminal police officer.This seems to be a big key.If it is an ordinary person, it is natural to care about major events. Compared with small injuries, people are more concerned about killing five or six people in a row. This is probably the case for most people, right? "But the criminal police are different," Ji Jianzi thought, "Because of any major incident, as long as the criminal is arrested, the incident will be closed, and there is no need to pay more attention." The criminal police should be concerned about those unresolved incidents, right? Twenty years ago, 50 million yen was robbed by robbers at Otaru Station.The two gangsters disguised themselves as station staff and stole about 50 million yuan in cash transported by the train in broad daylight. This incident was listed as a major incident, but a month later, it became an "unsolved case". It has been twenty years since this incident, and if the criminal is not arrested, the statute of limitations will expire. (Will it be this event?) But my father is a criminal police officer of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, so he should not be involved in the incident in Otaru, Hokkaido, unless the prisoner is from Tokyo, but the newspaper did not mention who the prisoner was?Where are you from? There is also news that a tourist who came to Otaru for sightseeing from Tokyo was killed in the hotel. The victim, a single office worker woman, was stabbed in the chest, bled profusely and died.Due to the mess in the room, the police analyzed that the thief was found by the deceased when he came in to steal things, so they killed her to silence her. Two days later, although the police arrested a thief who specialized in burglary in hotels, he had to be acquitted due to insufficient evidence. In the end, this incident also became an "unsolved case". It seems that it has been twenty years since today, and it is about to lose its statute of limitations. However, this incident is also investigated by the local police and has nothing to do with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. There was also an incident where an unidentified man died in the canal. The deceased was about forty-two or three years old, and his body lay naked in the canal.Due to the wounds on the back of the head, the police investigated it as a homicide, but it turned out to be an "unsolved case". "Could it be this event?" However, this incident is also being investigated by the local police and has nothing to do with the police in Tokyo. "I really don't understand." Ji Jianzi closed his eyes and pondered wearily. Ji Jianzi wrote down several incidents in a notepad and returned to the hotel.The most difficult thing at present is the verification method. If he could contact his father, or know what his father asked the businessman Dingzi about, then he would know what she was looking for, but these two clues are currently disconnected. Because the whereabouts of the father is still unknown, the grandma who is a businessman also died. Ji Jianzi was eating dinner in the hotel room while reading the events transcribed in the notepad. The head of the municipal office committed suicide by jumping from the roof of the department store. The cause of the suicide is unknown. Unidentified man dies of drowning in canal. A young couple from Tokyo is missing in Otaru. The fishing boat in Otaru sank for unknown reasons. Among these incidents, is there any incident that the father pursued? Ji Jianzi traced the incidents that happened twenty years ago in the newspaper, but maybe those incidents have been resolved in the future. "Go to the library to check tomorrow." Ji Jianzi thought so.Also, she worried that bigger news might have been overlooked. She went to bed after ten o'clock, but couldn't fall asleep.Just when she was about to get up and watch TV, the phone rang suddenly. "Miss Sasaki, your phone number." The operator said.Since it was late, men acted as operators. "Who is calling?" "The other party said that his surname is also Sasaki, he is a man, do you want to come in?" "Come in." Ji Jianzi said quickly, she thought it might be from her father. "Is it Ji Jianzi?" It was a man's voice, and it sounded like it was calling from far away. "Dad?" "Yes. Please return to Tokyo immediately." "Back to Tokyo?" "Yes, don't ask too much, go back to Tokyo right away, as soon as possible." "Where are you?" "I'm fine no matter what, I'm worried about you, please go back to Tokyo as soon as possible." "Father, I want to see you—" Before Ji Jianzi finished speaking, the other party had already cut off the phone. Ji Jianzi's face was ashen, and he was stunned for a while.It was an unexpected phone call. After Ji Jianzi calmed down, he called the operator. "I'm Sasaki, do you know where the phone call just now came from?" "Probably from the territory of Hokkaido, but I don't know the exact location, what's the matter?" "No, no, thank you." Ji Jianzi said. When she received the call, because of her preconceived notions, she believed that the call was from her father, but now that she thought about it calmly, she was not sure if it was from her father. The voice is very father like. However, if it was the father, why didn't he just come to this hotel to find her? Could it be because he was far away and couldn't come over immediately?If that was the case, my father would have asked her when she would come to Otaru, and told her to wait for him at the hotel! But my father didn't say that, he just told her to go back to Tokyo as soon as possible. What's going on? Could the father be imprisoned somewhere?Threatened to call his daughter to return to Tokyo as soon as possible? Only in that way can she explain why her father cut off the phone without waiting for her to finish speaking, because he couldn't answer her question, which made her worry about her father's safety even more. If Ji Jianzi does not return to Tokyo and stays in Otaru, her father's life may be in danger. Ji Jianzi thought back to the phone call just now.If only I could answer the phone calmly like now, but it was impossible at that time. "It's really nerve-wracking." Ji Jianzi thought so. If the person who called was not her father, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, she would stay in Otaru to track down her father's whereabouts; if it was her father, if she didn't return to Tokyo, her father might be in danger. Ji Jianzi raised his eyes and stared out of the window.The street lights of Otaru flickered under her eyes, and she could see the dark sea on the opposite side. "Where is father?" Ji Jianzi asked himself facing the dark sea. Is father still somewhere in Otaru?If yes, why not call and contact? At this time, the young detective Kusaka of the Metropolitan Police Department's first search section called back to Tokyo. He was calling his boss, the Totsugawa Police Department. "Today, Kitiko Sasaki went to the city library and stayed in the library for nearly four hours." "What is she doing in the library?" "I heard from the librarian that she was flipping through newspapers from 20 years ago and taking notes." "Twenty years ago?" "While I was waiting for her outside, I saw a young man wearing sunglasses also enter the library, as if he was following her." "That person is probably the same as us, watching what she is doing?" "A grandma who was a peddler died at home. The police in Hokkaido seemed to treat this incident as suicide." "yes?" "Can I ask you a question?" "What do you want to ask?" "Why do we monitor Sasaki Jijianzi? Is this necessary? I don't think she will be in danger." "It's because she will be in danger that I told you to rush to Hokkaido to protect her!" "What danger is she in?" "I'm just worried about her safety. If something like Tokyo happens, it will be miserable." "But in the incident in Tokyo, we didn't track down the prisoner. Why?" "You are not allowed to mention that incident in the future, because I can't answer your question right now." Totsukawa said with reservation. "Can I ask you another question?" Kusaka Detective asked. "I wish I could answer." "What happened 20 years ago? Sasaki Kikiko's father came to Otaru to find out what happened 20 years ago, and his daughter Kikiko was also reading old newspapers from 20 years ago in the library. Is it two What major event happened ten years ago?" "How old are you?" Totsukawa asked suddenly. The undercover criminal policeman replied in a panic, "Twenty-seven years old." "Twenty years ago you were seven years old?" "yes." "Even if something happened twenty years ago, it has nothing to do with you. Even if it is a murder incident, it has lost the time limit for retrospective analysis." "That's a good word, but—" "Don't worry about this matter for now, do you know how long Sasaki Jijian will stay in Otaru?" "I heard from the operator that someone called her from outside. It was a man. That person claimed to be Sasaki. Could it be her missing father?" "What's Ji Jianzi's reaction? Are you rushing back to Tokyo?" Totsukawa asked. "I don't know. I think she will stay in the hotel in Otaru today. I don't know what she will do tomorrow." Kusaka detective said. "Then, continue to protect her secretly!" "Should we arrest the man who watched her in the library today and ask him why he watched her?" asked the criminal policeman under the sun. "no." "why not?" "Because not only can't we ask anything from that person's mouth, but we will be punched back by that person, asking us what's wrong with going to the library?" "Police, do you know who that person is?" "I don't know, if I know, I will tell you." Ten Tsukawa said. However, Detective Kusaka always felt that Totsukawa seemed to know something.Regarding this incident, Totsukawa's attitude was a little different from usual.Undercover detective thinks so. Because Totsukawa was vague and completely different from his usual style; for example, he was ordered to protect Ji Jianzi, but the reason was very ambiguous. In addition, things about Sasaki Kitiko's father are also ambiguous. The incident kicked off with the disappearance of Ji Jianzi's father, and then Ji Jianzi was attacked. Totsukawa must have expected that someone would attack Ji Jianzi, so he asked the Japanese criminal police to rush to her house, just in case? "What's going on here?" the criminal police officer thought. The Japanese criminal police not only respect, but also trust his superior, the Totsugawa Police Department. However, regarding this incident, he did not fully understand Totsukawa's instructions.Although Totsukawa ordered him to follow Sasaki Kitako to Hokkaido, he only asked him to secretly protect her and report her every move, and did not tell him why he did this; even if he asked him, he would not answer. Kusaka Detective is still young, so he feels a little anxious. Kusaka Detective and Ji Jianzi stay in the same hotel. His room is on the same floor as Ji Jianzi. The undercover detective opened the curtains and looked out the window. From the window you can see the distant dark sea.When he turned his gaze back to the road in front of the hotel, he saw a man standing next to the telephone pole. It was the young man wearing sunglasses I saw in the library today.