Chapter 38 Chapter Thirteen

Next, the two sides argued endlessly about "it's blood" and "it's not blood". The boss was worried about affecting the business and tried his best to avoid publicizing the matter, but Kono refused to back down, and finally turned into an inexplicable dispute. "You are really strange. I don't know what kind of liquid accidentally spilled this stain on the ground. Why do you insist on saying it is a trace of blood? Are you deliberately embarrassing us?" The boss was a little annoyed, and when things had come to this point, I was uneasy, and I couldn't help worrying whether Kono would talk about the peeping mirror all at once.Because even this timid boss would be convinced as long as he heard eyewitness testimony.

I don't know whether to call it luck or misfortune, but at this moment, a maid ran in in a panic.All the maids had heard about the blood stains on the floor of the dressing room, so their expressions and behaviors were trembling. "My lord, the Nakamura family has called." She said out of breath, "They said Changji hasn't returned yet." The information brought by the maid was really sudden, and the whole situation changed instantly.Even the boss can no longer keep calm.Changji is a geisha from a nearby town at the foot of a mountain. Last night, she was called temporarily by the Lakeside Pavilion. She did indeed come, but her whereabouts are unknown now.The Nakamura family thought she was staying at the lakeside pavilion last night (this is the countryside, such situations are not uncommon), and they were not particularly worried, so they called to inquire at this time.

"Yes, when we sent off the large group of guests, Changji also boarded the car with other geisha." Faced with the boss's questioning, the shopkeeper stammered and replied, but unfortunately he also seemed not very sure about his own memory. At this time, the proprietress who heard the news also rushed over, and the maids gradually gathered around, and everyone chatted about whether they had seen Changji.As they talked, they finally became ambiguous about whether this geisha named Changji had really appeared at the lakeside pavilion last night. "No, she did come." Then, a maid said while thinking, "It was half past ten, I passed the corridor on the second floor with a flagon, and the paper door of Room 11 swung open. Ji ran out. Wasn’t it the guest of the banquet hall who ordered Changji to come out? I was very puzzled, looking at her back, I didn’t expect Changji to run desperately in another direction as if being chased by something.”

"That's right, that's right, I remembered it too." Another maid continued, "At that time, I happened to be passing the bathroom downstairs and ran into Mr. Beard in Room 11. As soon as the guest saw me, he rushed away. He came over, with a very stern and fierce tone, and asked me if Changji had passed by here. I replied that I didn’t see it, and he went into the bathroom and opened the door to check, because something was really wrong, and I was very impressed.” Hearing this passage, two figures suddenly appeared in my mind, and I couldn't restrain myself from speaking:

"Did the guests in Room 11 you mentioned wear suits and carry big suitcases? They left in a hurry last night..." "Well, yes, they each carry a huge suitcase." For a long time after that, everyone discussed the guests in Room 11.The shopkeeper said that they did not notify in advance at all, and suddenly said that they would check out. After paying the accommodation fee at the counter, they left in a hurry without calling a car.However, there is a bus terminal in the village by the lake, and as long as you pay extra, you can also drive people outside the timetable. Maybe they went there to take the bus, but even so, the panic when they set off was really unusual .Whether it's the strange behavior I witnessed, the shopkeeper's description, Changji's disappearance, and the blood in the bath, more importantly, the murder image in the mirror is very short time away from their hasty departure, which is too suspicious. It is natural to guess in the direction that there must be some connection.