Chapter 24 Section VII
"——Really, are you asleep?" I asked in a low voice, and the quilt next to me started to rustle.
"What's the matter? Do you want to go to the toilet?" A nasal voice came from the darkness.
"If I want to go to the bathroom I'll go myself, no - I just can't sleep."
"I can't sleep either," said Rin, who was lying on the other side of Mabi, a little distance away from us. "The more I want to sleep, the more I think of Mr. Torii's timid voice and the words of the old house owner Matsutsuki..."
me too.Their words and deeds are so unbelievable that people can't figure it out. I have been lying there with my eyes closed since just now, but I haven't felt sleepy at all.
Mabe looked at the watch beside his pillow.
"At half past eleven--"
He sat up, scratched his neck hard, and sighed.
"It's really nerve-wracking, actually I can't sleep - let's go to the restaurant and have a cup of hot tea. Auntie Yi may have fallen asleep, but it should be fine for us to drink tea by ourselves."
"Then I'll go too."
"I also need to go."
The three of us walked out of the room quietly.When you step over the threshold and step on the corridor floor with your bare feet, the cold feeling is really overwhelming.
"what……"
Yellow light leaked from the dining room door.
"It's so late, who's still in there?"
I pulled the doorknob in confusion, and when I gently opened the door, all the people inside looked back.
"Wahhaha, are you here to smell the fragrance?"
Tang Jianmu, who was wearing a bathrobe and cotton robe, raised a cup filled with brown liquid.Matsutsuki, Torii, Weiser, and Maya all sat around the table drinking beer.
"You guys seem to be having a great time, can we join in?"
When Zhenbei asked, Songyue raised his eyebrows and motioned for us to sit down.
The three of us walked into the restaurant in our pajamas and joined them.
"Would you like to drink beer, too?"
Maya, in her tracksuit, stood up and looked at us.The beer after brushing my teeth was not good, but I couldn't help nodding when I saw Maya's happy expression.
"Mr. Mabi also drinks beer, right? Miss Kitami?"
"Xiao Lin, you also drink beer, right? Right?"
Father Tang Jianmu sat across from him, leaning over with a blushing face.Rin leaned back with a face of embarrassment, nodded and said, "Yes, good."
Maya walked into the curtain and immediately came out with a beer bottle and a glass.When she gave us the cups, she also handed each of us a toothpick, supposedly to let us eat the pickles in the small basin on the table.
"Mr. Michio, didn't you bring dried squid this time?"
Rin whispered to me.She may recall the scene of everyone eating the dried squid I brought together when staying at a homestay in Fukushima prefecture ten months ago.
"I won't carry it with me all the time."
Although I said so, I actually brought it this time.I secretly stuffed my luggage just in case, but it's not convenient to go back to the room to get it now.
Songyue poured wine for us.He hasn't said a word since just now, and his expression is also very melancholy, but it doesn't seem to be because of the relationship we joined.
In comparison, Torii and Wei Ze's expressions were more gloomy.Torii's skeletal face twitched incessantly, staring at the table since we entered the restaurant.Wei Ze raised his glass and drank from time to time, and his eyes behind the glasses kept looking around. Although he had drunk a lot of wine, his face, which looked like an inflated sunny baby, was paler than usual.
What were they discussing—?
I quietly observed the expressions of the owner, the three apprentices, and the gardener.
"Whether it's the subject matter of the novel or the study of Buddha statues, it's very hard. I'm here on a business trip from such a long distance. There shouldn't be a Buddha workshop in Tokyo, right?"
Father Tang Jianmu asked Zhenbei while tossing pickles.
"Yes, I haven't seen it."
"I knew it. Tokyo doesn't even have a big temple. Even if there are Buddha statues carved, there is no place to put them. There should be very few private customers ordering Buddha statues, right?"
Father Tang Jianmu gulped down the wine in his glass.
"Maya, can I have another drink?"
"well."
Maya turned to look at me when he was pouring wine for Papa Tang Jianmu and asked, "Do you want it, teacher?"
"No, I still—"
"You're welcome. Where are Mabi-san and Kitami-san?"
Mabi said "Then I'm sorry", and handed out the empty glass, and Rin put the glass next to Mabi's wine glass after taking the last sip.
"Miss Kitami, you seem to hold a lot of alcohol. Girls who hold a good amount of alcohol are more popular, right?"
"I don't drink well--Miss Nogata, how can you drink?"
Maya smiled and said, "Just call me Maya." Then he shook his head, "I can only drink a little, and I don't have much chance to drink."
"So you don't get together to drink like this very often, do you?"
"Ah? That's right, there's really very little to say..."
For some reason, Maya stuttered a bit when speaking.
The conversation was interrupted, and the atmosphere was a little awkward.
"Xiao Lin, where is your hometown?"
Father Tang Jianmu asked loudly as if afraid of the silence.
"I'm from Tokyo, and my ancestors have always lived in Tokyo."
"Sure enough, I think so. How about you two?"
"I was born in Machida—in the suburbs of Tokyo. There is a Kozo-ji Temple in Machida, which is closely related to Kitahara Hakushu. The Seven Lucky Gods there are very interesting. However, they are much inferior to Ms. Maya's Seven Lucky Gods.
Maya lowered her head, maybe she is not used to being praised in front of everyone.
"I'm a triple."
"Huh?" Hearing what I said, Tang Jianmu's father showed a curious expression, "Sanzhong? Isn't it near here? Next time you bring your parents to play, we sincerely welcome you."
After he finished speaking in a somewhat strange tone, he hiccupped with his nose.
This time it was Zhenbei's turn to ask Tang Jianmu's father's birthplace.
"Me? I was born in the north, a small town called Lishan in Yonezawa City. It is located deep in the mountains at the source of the Mogami River. It can only be found on a very detailed map. The only place to be proud of is the hot springs. I Growing up there as a kid. Come, come, have a drink."
Father Tang Jianmu added wine for me, Zhenbei and Rin, looked up at the ceiling, and stretched his neck.
"Ah, I miss it. There is a hot spring next to my house, so the house is very warm. The hot spring passes through the ground, so it is warm in winter. I often lie on the tatami—"
Father Tang Jianmu chatted endlessly about the hometown he was born in, and he seemed to be trying to maintain the lively scene.
"Maya, your hometown is Chazaki, right?"
"Yes, it's right on the shore of Lake Biwa, and our hot springs are also very famous there."
"I also hope that one day, I can enjoy the hot springs while enjoying Lake Biwa, but I have never had time. If the tunnel is completed, it will be much closer to Lake Biwa. But those useless officials often do things anticlimactic."
He was referring to the tunnel that ran through the mountain that started a few years ago, and it was said that the work was stopped halfway through the digging.But here is on the mountain, even if the tunnel is completed, it won't be of much use.
"Hot springs should be helpful for beauty, Maya, haven't your parents been here before? I remember very clearly that your mother is a beautiful woman. Maya, you are like your mother. Both mother and daughter are hot spring beauties."
"Mr. Tang Jianmu, thank you for your kind words—ah, by the way, the waste worker who came here the day before yesterday said that his hometown is also Lake Biwa."
The young man who "smells so I"?
"Oh? Have you talked so deeply with that handsome guy?"
"How can it be in-depth? It's just chatting. Besides, he's not very handsome at all."
When the two of them were arguing, Songyue, Torii, and Wei Ze never said a word, neither echoing Tang Jianmu's conversation with Maya, nor chatting on their own.
Then—when the conversation stopped, Satsuki finally spoke, and he seemed to have run out of patience.
"—Who gave the recorder to the criminal police?"
He looked at the torii, then turned to look at Wei Ze and asked, as if he was questioning the two of them.When Songyue asked this sentence, the expressions of Tang Jianmu's father and Maye suddenly became gloomy.The two apprentices who were asked looked nervous and looked at Songyue with timid eyes.
I guessed from the atmosphere of the scene - they were talking about it before we came in.Although the topic was interrupted for a while because the three of us walked into the restaurant, Songyue finally resumed the topic.Father Tang Jianmu and Maya were talking desperately just now, just to avoid talking about this topic.
What exactly is a logger?
"Master, now there are outsiders..."
Torii looked at us and muttered.Songyue resolutely said:
"Anyway, they already know about it, so there's nothing to hide. Although I hesitated—it should be fine to continue talking."
Songyue took a slow breath and asked the same question again.
"Who took out the recorder?"
After a pause, Torii replied timidly:
"It's me. The detective named Guwei insisted on watching."
"So, you gave it to him without discussing it with me?"
"Because the master objected to calling the police at the beginning - I think if I ask you, you will definitely refuse..."
"Uh, what kind of recorder is it...?"
I interrupted.Songyue turned around like a puppet: "It's the recorder of the surveillance camera. There are two surveillance cameras in the garden, and the images they take are stored in the hard disk of the digital recorder on the second floor."
"Surveillance camera? Is there a setup here? Where is it?"
I couldn't help leaning out.
"Oh, so it's that crow." Zhenbei called out, "it's the main entrance and the back door next to the hut—isn't there a crow on the black pine tree next to the fence? That's the surveillance camera, owner of Songyue , did I guess right?"
Song Yue nodded wordlessly.
"A crow is a camera?"
"Daowei, that should be a wood carving. When we came here, didn't there be a lot of crows gathered nearby? But the one at the door didn't move, I felt very strange."
"You mean, is there a camera hidden in the crow?"
As soon as I asked, Songyue explained to us.
According to him, a few years ago, several Buddha statues in the storage room were stolen in the middle of the night, and surveillance cameras were installed at the door after that.Since the garden is surrounded by a very high Kennin-ji fence, thieves can only enter and exit through the main entrance and the back entrance, so the surveillance cameras were set there.In fact, installing a door that can be locked is the fundamental solution, but the old homeowner of Songyue disagrees.
"My father hates others to change the things left by his ancestors, so the appearance of Ruixiang House has always remained the same as it was when it was opened..."
Is there anything wrong with installing a gate?I didn't expect the old homeowner to be so stubborn.
"Those two crows were also carved by my father. Although there was nothing he could do about installing surveillance cameras, he thought it was too vulgar to be exposed directly. Next time you look closely, you will find that the crows have cleverly installed surveillance cameras in their bellies .”
"If a surveillance camera doesn't look like a surveillance camera, wouldn't it be impossible to function as a surveillance camera?"
Rin asked in a breath, tilting her head in wonder.Usually everyone installs a surveillance camera in the hope that it can play a role in deterring crime.When a thief sees a surveillance camera, he will think "ah, you can't do it here." And change his mind, this is the greatest significance of the surveillance camera.If disguised as a crow, it will not work at all.
"No, in fact, it has played a substantial role."
Songyue turned her head to look at Rin, and Rin twitched her chin a little nervously.
"If the surveillance cameras are set outside, thieves will avoid this place and break into the fence before breaking in. The place is so big, it is impossible to install surveillance cameras outside the entire fence. Therefore, It’s also a good idea to hide the surveillance cameras so that thieves trying to break in have their faces captured as they pass through the entrance and exit.”
I see.In case of being stolen, the police can find out the thief.
"It's actually not that easy to catch the thief, even if you catch it, the stolen goods can't come back—in fact, I think locking the house is the fundamental solution. As long as the surveillance cameras can be used in post-processing Just fine."
I looked up and saw Mabe staring at the ceiling with a disapproving expression.
"Mr. Mabi—what's the problem?" Matsuzuki asked.
Mabe said, "No problem," and turned his gaze back to Satsuki, "So, have the police taken away the video recorder at the entrance and exit?"
"That's right. Although it's useless to look at that kind of thing now."
"It didn't work—why?"
"They—Torii and Wei Ze have seen those images last night."
Songyue turned to look at the two apprentices, motioning them to explain the situation.The two looked at each other uneasily, and Torii finally spoke.
"We checked all the images from the night of Okajima's disappearance to last night on the 22nd of last month, thinking that we might see the situation when Okajima left. But..."
The Adam's apple on Torii's neck twitched.
"I didn't see him, neither the cameras at the front door nor the back door caught him."
Does this mean that Okajima has not left Ruixiangfang?
"Did you see who wrote that in the parking lot?"
Mabi confirmed to him, Torii shook his head slightly.
"No outsiders were seen during the day or at night, only the van of the abandoned worker came once the day before yesterday."
From this point of view, did the people from Ruixiang House really do it?Who is it?
"You shouldn't watch the images from the surveillance cameras at all." Songyue sighed impatiently, "After watching them, you will inevitably believe those images and start to doubt yourself. So, I insisted not to watch—maybe the surveillance cameras are just There are no pictures of Okajima or suspicious people. You don’t have to pass the surveillance cameras to get in and out of here. The surrounding fences may have been damaged or someone has climbed over them, and as long as there is a long ladder, you can Over the fence."
"However, the fence of Jianren Temple is five meters high. Does Ruixiang House have such a tall ladder?" Zhenbei asked.
"No, then..." Songyue's eyes fell on the table.It seems that there is no such ladder here.
so--
How did Okajima leave Ruixiangfang?Assuming that, as the old homeowner of Songyue said, he died for some reason, where did his remains go?If the scarlet letter in the parking lot was done by an outsider, then how did the outsider enter Ruixiang's room and how did they leave?
"Maybe the master is right—are we really thinking too much?" Wei Ze pushed his glasses with his fingertips, then turned his head and said to Torii: "Forget about the parking lot for now, Okajima should not have happened Accident, we misunderstood, right?"
"But there is blood on the lotus seat of Avalokitesvara, and it is type B blood. Only Okajima here is type B?"
Torii confirms to Maya.Maya nodded hesitantly.
"That's right." Wei Ze nodded several times with his white and fat face, admonishing Torii, "But that blood stain may have been accidentally stained by Okajima, isn't he always very reckless?"
"Is that the blood on the ceiling too? Does blood accidentally get on that kind of place?"
"No—then I'd like to ask you, how do you think the blood on the ceiling came from?"
"How? Like—"
Songyue suddenly patted the table, and the glass of beer shook.
"This kind of argument is meaningless at all! Okajima is also my important apprentice just like you. I don't want any accidents to happen to him. Don't discuss such things in front of me."
Torii and Wei Ze immediately stopped talking and lowered their heads.
For the next few minutes, no one spoke at all.
"There are inexplicable words in the parking lot, and there are blood stains on the lotus seat and the ceiling-why do you always find some weird things?"
Father Tang Jianmu touched the fabric of the cotton robe and snorted.
"I think the blood on the ceiling is the most unbelievable. How did it get there? Mr. Daowei, you are a novelist, do you have any ideas?"
"Uh, what I write are all messy, illogical stories, which are of limited help to real problems..."
I am definitely not humble. Since I was in elementary school, I have never solved any problem that requires logical thinking alone, but seeing Tang Jianmu's expression of "I didn't ask you if I knew it earlier" made me feel that as a Writers can't seem to get along without saying something logical, so try to squeeze in a few words anyway.
"First of all, the blood on the ceiling and on the lotus seat should belong to Mr. Okajima, because no one else is Type B."
"Well, yes."
"So, the next question is when Mr. Okajima's blood was stained. This is the key point. If it was there before Mr. Okajima's disappearance, no matter how it was stained, it is not too serious. Great significance. But if these two bloodstains were left after Mr. Okajima disappeared, or on the night of his disappearance..."
At this time, I felt that the gods descended on me.
I'm sure no one thought of this before, and inspiration popped into my head.
"By the way...if Mr. Okajima disappeared...a long, long time ago, the blood had been there..."
"A long, long time ago, when?"
"Twenty years ago, say," I replied.
"Mr. Tang Jianmu, Mr. Niozawa Ryuzo's blood type should not be type B, right? Wasn't the Thousand-Handed Avalokitesvara carved by Mr. Yulong? If it was stained with the blood of the sculptor, it would be nothing strange, maybe While carving, I accidentally cut my hand..."
Father Tang Jianmu made no effort to conceal the disappointment on his face.
"Mr. Niozawa is type AB. I remember very clearly that we talked about him and the owner of Matsutsuki having the same blood type. Besides, it was a product that was delivered to customers. The blood will wipe away."
At this time, Tang Jianmu's father suddenly remembered something and looked at the ceiling.
"That's right, it's Type B..."
"What's wrong?"
I asked.Old man Tang Jianmu laughed and waved desperately in front of his face.
"No, I suddenly remembered something. Of course, it has nothing to do with this incident—I remember that Miss Jasmine is also type B."
This sentence sounds particularly empty in a restaurant late at night.
After drinking, Wei Ze staggered out of the entrance of the dormitory.He turned and closed the door gently with both hands so as not to wake up the other people who lived with him.
"but--"
Why did you call yourself out in the middle of the night when everyone else was already asleep?What's the matter?
"Where are you?"
Wei Ze asked in a low voice in the dark.However, all I heard was the cold, dark sound of the wind passing through the night.
"Uh, I'm Wei Ze—where are you?"
Wei Ze folded his hands, stared at the darkness, and walked a few steps on the grass wetted by the night dew.
At this time, a depressing low voice sounded beside him.
"Not coming."
"Uh……"
Wei Ze took a deep breath, bent his back, and quietly poked his neck in the direction of the voice.
"No one will come."
Wei Ze narrowed his eyes, trying to see the other party clearly.
"Who are you……?"
The other party did not answer Wei Ze's question.
The cold wind blew, and the surrounding trees trembled with a mournful sound.
Wei Ze found that his eyes gradually adapted to the darkness.He continued to stretch his neck, focusing his consciousness on the front of his line of sight, only to see a black figure appearing in front of him, the color seemed to be darker than the night.
"Hey, who are you...?"
He couldn't see the other person's face and clothes clearly.
The figure moved suddenly, moved its face next to Wei Ze's, and then whispered something in Wei Ze's ear.This sentence not only answered Wei Ze's question, but also surprised him.The moment he heard these words, Wei Ze opened his eyes wide and held his breath.
"how is this possible……"
The other party's snort rang in his ear.
"It's true..."
He was in a daze—
"Really alive...?"
While Wei Ze said these words in a low voice——
The black shadow quickly turned his upper body. At this moment, Wei Ze felt a strong impact on his left chest. At first, he thought that something hot and hard was pressing on his chest, but soon he found that the chisel was exposed on his chest. handle.The muscles in his upper body began to convulse, and something hot and iron-smelling came out of his mouth. The thing kept bubbling between his lips, and finally wet his chin and neck.The lungs cannot function, they must inhale and exhale.His knees gave way and his body fell forward.The opponent used his shoulders to support his body, and pushed the chisel handle in his hand even harder.Wei Ze made a sound like a frog being trampled to death.
Wei Ze's body was dragged several meters behind, and was thrown on the ground casually.What appears to be a rusted iron plate behind it.
The feeling all over the body gradually disappeared.
From just now, Wei Ze kept repeating the same name in his mouth.
"Jiu Ze...Jiu Ze..." He tried to say the words of atonement.However, he couldn't do it anymore.
Wei Ze's life disappeared in the darkness of winter night.
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