Chapter 36 third quarter

The owner of Mamatei near Kita Senju Station seems to have forgotten Takezawa. "Where's the old poster?" The place where the posters used to be posted is no longer there.Wu Ze hurriedly asked the shopkeeper. "Poster...ah, from the troupe? Here it is." The lean shopkeeper, with a small beard, seemed startled, and pulled a black-and-white printed sheet of paper from next to the cash register.Wu Ze grabbed it and held it up to his eyes.Theater poster.It is said that the troupe has not been very popular and is about to be disbanded.The title of the play called "Con Game".Below the title are photos of troupe members.Seven men and one woman.The woman is very young, with regular features, and looks very good-looking.On the men's side, there are two men, one fat and one thin, a muscular man with a full face, a short man with big eyes, a man with a big face, a tall man, and a listless old man with a face like an ice cream scoop.

I've seen all of these people. The woman I met in the elevator of Shinjuku House.Two young men in the fire office.The gorilla-like man is Nogami.Those with big eyes are tidyers.The tall one is the mouth of the fire.The one with the big face is the "funny policeman".And the one with the face that looks like an ice cream scoop is that old broad bean. "Where are all these people?" The shopkeeper immediately replied with trepidation that the troupe members might be at the rehearsal location now.The rehearsal location seems to be the meeting room of a nearby public hall that I borrowed.

Wu Ze rushed out of Ma Ma Pavilion.While thinking about it, he ran to the place the shopkeeper told him.Countless chances.Many coincidences, many contradictions. ——Don’t use that phone anymore, it’s best to turn it off. It was Lao Tie who asked Wu Ze to change his phone.That was to prevent someone from calling Wu Ze and telling him that the fire in the apartment was actually caused by fireworks. ——Old Wu, how about going to Arakawa this time?A place near the river. It is Lao Tie who chooses where to move.The residence was also found by the old iron.It is precisely because of living here that it is so easy for Mahiro to move here.Because it is not far from the apartment where she lives.

——Hey...hey...Mr. Nakamura? A phone call from the landlord one morning. ——And I also received several strange calls at home.The man was speaking with a hissing voice, insisting that I tell him where you are. ——Yes, yes, it was a man named Huokou. It wasn't the landlord either, it was someone from the theater troupe hired by Lao Tie.As soon as he came up, he used the name "Nakamura" to call himself, and he believed that the other party was the landlord without any doubt.Because the only person who knows that he has rented an apartment under that name is the landlord.But there is actually one more person: the old iron also knows.

——Help me open this box.The key is lost. When Kantaro asked Lao Tie to help open the box of the air gun, Lao Tie refused.Kantaro pestered and begged for a long time, but Lao Tie finally had no choice but agreed to help him open the lock, but in the end he couldn't open it, why?Because the old iron can't pick the lock from the beginning.Because he is not a locksmith, there is no way to open the lock except for those who have been tampered with by people in the industry. When the backyard of his residence was set on fire, Lao Tie said that he saw the face of the tidier. —I will never forget that face.Never forget.I will never forget it until I die.

But when Lao Tie talked about his past experience in Dolphin Pavilion before, didn't he say that about the debt collector who deceived him? ——I can't remember the appearance... When taking a taxi to follow the white car of Nogami and Tangren, the driver missed the intersection and had to stop on the side of the road. Fortunately, the car quickly returned to the original road, so he was able to continue to follow.But that was not a coincidence, it was the old iron who secretly told the car driver where he was, so the car drove back.In order to allow myself to continue to follow. The call to the old man's cell phone, - and now the car... oops, lost it.Turned a corner suddenly, hmm.Now the taxi stops at the place where we continue to move forward.

At that time, it was not Kantaro who called, but a call from the lost car. When Takezawa and the others arrived at the business hotel, Kantaro seemed to have asked: ——Have you found their car? If Kantaro had really called Lao Tie, he probably wouldn't have asked that question.As for the reason, because the old iron said this on the phone: ——Good job, you'fat meat'!Thanks to your call, the enemy is back! Passed through the front entrance of the community building, ran up to the second floor, and was about to rush into the rented meeting room, when they opened it from the inside, and the man who came out saw Wu Ze, showing a surprised expression for a moment, and then immediately dropped his shoulders , sighed.

"...It's revealed." It was Lao Tie. "you--" Wu Ze waited for his breathing to calm down.Things to ask are piled up like a mountain, and things to say are overflowing.But where to start?How to start? "Old man, you—" Wu Ze finally said the first sentence. "Is it a crow?" The old iron nodded with a smile. "Yes, he is Lao Wu's colleague, but he has been working for more than 20 years." "Old man..." Although they are all crows - Lao Tie is an old crow.Wu Ze is dancing in the palm of his hand.So does Mahiro.Yahiro is also.So is Kantaro.

"You hired someone from the theater?" Wu Ze looked at the door behind Lao Tie.A voice like a line in a drama came faintly from inside. "Well, hired. I paid for it. Ask them for help. Once when I was eating noodles with you in Mamating, I saw the poster, and I wondered if I should ask them. When I went to an intermediary or went shopping , to discuss business with them.” "How much did you pay?" Wu Ze questioned, and Lao Tie told him the amount readily, which was a much larger number than Wu Ze expected.It is almost possible to buy a cheap house. "They dreamed of having a stage house of their own. I gave them the money to do so."

"Where...where did you get so much money?" "Old Wu, haven't you read the weekly magazine? Well, it's the news from half a year ago." The order fraud case.Defrauded a construction company of a big deal of 60 million yuan. ——We also have to do something big like this! --yes.However, a big business requires great experience! "That...you did it?" "This scam needs enough funds." Lao Tie lowered his tired eyes, and then urged Lao Wu to go out. "Let's go talk for a while." After leaving the front entrance of the public hall, Lao Tie walked leisurely.When I came to a big cherry tree, I stopped and turned around.The flowers on the cherry blossom trees have all fallen, and green leaves grow on the branches.

"You already know my true identity." "Ah... just came out not long ago." Being stared at by Lao Tie from the front, Wu Ze couldn't help lowering his eyes.Lao Tie is the ex-husband of the woman killed by Wu Ze seven years ago, and the father of two daughters who were driven into misfortune by Wu Ze. "I always thought their father was a big man." When Wu Ze said this, Lao Tie raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Hey, why?" "Yahiro told me so. My father is a big man." "what……" The old iron exhaled like a sigh. "For a seven-year-old, there is no small adult. Only she grows up. Same with takoyaki." As he spoke, the old iron looked up at the sky at the end of spring. "There's nothing really big in this world." From nowhere in the sky came the chirping of a bird. "Old iron... why did you do this?" "Are you asking about my purpose?" The old iron chuckled lightly in his nose.Open your arms. "The purpose is this." Wu Ze didn't understand what Lao Tie meant at first, but finally understood that "this" meant "now", Wu Ze's "now".The "now" of Shinhiro and Yahiro. "Did you do a good job? Let Shinhiro and Yahiro graduate from the self-degenerate lifestyle and start a new life. What about you, Lao Wu, the shadow that has been entrenched in your heart for a long time, and the relationship with the loan shark organization is also very important. It can be cut off. Whether it is Zhenxun or Baxun, they no longer hate the person who made their mother commit suicide. You, Wu, are no longer afraid of the shadow of the fire mouth." Indeed.Really well done. "It's really... You don't think it's troublesome to go around such a big circle." "That's all I can do." Empty, lonely look. Then, Lao Tie told Wu Ze everything. Nineteen years ago— After being found out by his wife that he made a living by cheating, Lao Tie left home.Then start a lonely life as a liar.After a long time.five years.ten years.fifteen years.Finally, about a year ago, Lao Tie made up his mind not to cheat anymore. "The body is dying. It is said to be liver cancer. There are not many days left. The doctor told me clearly." Lao Tie lightly pointed to the right side of the lower abdomen.It was the same disease that took Yukie's life. "Before I die, I want to see my wife again. Then, if I can, I want to see my two daughters." So Lao Tie investigates the whereabouts of his ex-wife Liuli Jiang.However, it was only then that he knew for the first time that she had died seven years ago.Suffering from usury, he took his own life. "I hired the detective I used to deal with in business to search for my daughter. I was worried. Although they have been ignored all the time." Lao Tie asked the detectives to search not only Zhenxun and Baxun.At the same time, he was asked to search for the person who forced his ex-wife to death.It didn't take long to find them all.The daughters live in an apartment in Adachi Ward.The man who killed his ex-wife rented a house under the name Nakamura at the apartment in Asasagaya. "The detective—a tall man?" Wu Ze asked tentatively.The old man nodded. "Although that guy is good at finding people, he really has no brains. He went straight to the owner of the Dolphin Pavilion to ask about Lao Wu's situation, and then went to stay near the daughters' apartment, and was seen by them several times." Those who asked the owner of the dolphin pavilion about Wu Ze's situation, and those who wandered around the apartments of Zhenxun and Baxun were all detectives hired by Lao Tie. "I originally planned to let that detective investigate the current situation of my daughter and the origin of the person who forced my wife to death, but that guy is too stupid, so I have to do it myself." Lao Tie began to investigate the lives of his daughters, as well as Wu Ze's past and present, thoroughly investigating. "I learned a lot." The lives of the two daughters cannot be called normal.The elder sister doesn't work, and only relies on the younger sister to steal money to survive. "Old Wu's past, before you confessed, I already knew all about it." The man who forced his wife to commit suicide is doing deceit—the reason why he used to do debt collection work in the usury organization was because he was also suffering from debts, and the reason why he fell into such a predicament was because Acted as a guarantor for a friend's loan.That person was not motivated by his own desires, but just wanted to return to a normal life and live a stable life with his only daughter, so he had to be driven by the organization.After the organization was disbanded, that person regretted what he had done in the past and kept sending money to his two daughters who depended on each other.But the daughters refused to use the money and still had a hard time. "When I learned of all this, I was so sad that I couldn't help myself. Because, Lao Wu, think about it, it's all my fault. My wife's suicide was not Lao Wu's fault, it was because I was committing fraud The thing—it’s because she couldn’t live with me that she had to raise two children by herself. That’s why life is so hard, that’s why she borrows usurious loans, and she suffers from repaying debts, so she has to commit suicide.” "Old man—" "Because of my fault, my daughters have to live such a ridiculous life. After a long time like that, they will eventually sink and never rise again. I have seen too many people like this. Flying and flying close to the ground, and then falling down after rubbing against some stones and branches. I thought, Lao Wu, why should the two daughters come up before dying. I I also want to help Lao Wu. If things go on like this, I won’t feel at ease even if I die.” Is that why the old iron took such pains to commit such a huge fraud? "Besides, Lao Wu, the business this time is also a deception to myself." "To yourself?" "Hey, Lao Wu has always said this: what makes a business successful is not acting, but being a character in it—because I really lived a wasteful life. I have no family, no friends, There is nothing. So, when I am dying, I also want some memories that can be taken to that world. Live with family and friends, and work together to do something. I also want a story like that." The breeze was blowing, and the light filtered between the cherry blossom leaves was rippling on the shoulders of the little man. "You named that battle the Albatross, right?" The old iron smiled a little embarrassedly. "The albatross is a bird called a goose in Japan, but it is a very popular bird abroad. Isn't it even borrowed its name from golf? Two shots are called eagle shots, and three shots less are called albatross shots. The fewer the number of shots, the better the score.) It’s also powerful. The wide wings ride the wind and can fly a thousand kilometers a day.” As if following a bird flying in the sky, Lao Tie's gaze was directed towards the blue sky. "To let the daughters finally forgive Lao Wu and start a new life separately in a real sense, it is necessary for the two of them to truly understand Lao Wu's character. So I learned from Cuckoo and let my daughters live with Lao Wu Without this period of cohabitation, the two of them will never forgive the person who forced their mother to commit suicide, nor can they accept the absurdity of this world, let alone grow up." That's exactly what happened.Perhaps it was that period of nonsense cohabitation life that changed the relationship between myself and the "mother-killing hatred" between the two. After that, everything unfolded according to Lao Tie's script.Attacks on loan sharks.Wu Ze and their revenge.Operation Albatross—Huokou and his office and the room 1002 next door were specially borrowed, and the furniture and the like were bought in advance. "That building was actually planned to be demolished. There were only two or three houses left, and the others moved out. That's what I was looking for. Because you see, halfway through the plan, if someone else was at the corridor door It will be more difficult to turn around in places like this." No wonder there were so few people in that building.Wu Ze finally understood.No wonder besides Huokou and the others, I only met the young woman who came out of the elevator, and never met anyone else.Wu Ze always thought it was a bit strange.As for the reason why there is almost no name written on the mailbox at the entrance, I also understand at this time. Then comes implementation.In the end, Lao Tie's plan succeeded. In the "now" situation, everything is complete. Lao Tie set up the last trick of his life. This is a great skill that Wu Ze's generation can't even compare to.The old iron told a huge lie.in every scene.in the moment of everything.However, the motive for lying is real.It doesn't get any more real than that. "Old Wu, do you still remember that I told you about the fingers once in the corridor?" "Papa means, mother means—is this it?" "Yes, that's it. At that time, I said I had a thumb, right?" The old man did say that. "I said that with two meanings. One is of course that I am the father. The other meaning, Lao Wu, do you know?" Wu Ze thought about it, but couldn't figure it out.Lao Tie spread out his palm and told him the answer while looking at it. "Only the thumb can see the other fingers from the front. Of all the fingers, only the thumb knows what the other fingers look like." Look - Lao Tie put the fingertips of five fingers together. "I see……" The old iron is indeed a thumb.Only the old iron knows the true face of everyone. A moment of silence enveloped the surroundings.Wu Ze took a deep breath. "Today, those three people sent postcards." It's been a while since I've seen it, but it always feels like it's been a long time ago. "Your business seems to be very successful. Whether it is Mahiro or Yahiro, they are all working hard. And so is Kantaro." Wu Ze told Lao Tie the content of the postcard.Lao Tie listened to Wu Ze's narration, and answered a sentence from time to time. "Can I ask you something?" Wu Ze asked.Old iron point map. "The postcard said about the reincarnation of the cockscomb. It said that the kitten was very similar to the cockscomb, but the hair on the head was black—is that actually the cockscomb?" It's a cockscomb, the old man replied. "Originally, the hair was sprayed white with dyed hairspray, but now it's just washed off the hairspray. I originally planned to wait for this business after last night before letting Shinhiro and Hachiro take care of it. A parting like that is too cruel gone." No wonder the hair on the cockscomb head is a little stiff.It turned out to be white with hairspray. It seems that Lao Tie has prepared a cockscomb from the beginning. "At the beginning, I rushed in when I opened the entrance door. In fact, it was your hands and feet, right?" It should have prepared a cage and put Cockscomb on standby outside the door in advance—no wonder Cockscomb and Lao Tie are so close.Because of all the people, only Old Iron was the one he had seen before. "On the day of the fire, the cockscomb disappeared, and you hid it?" "Well, I hid it - when the backyard caught fire, everyone was busy fighting the fire, right? I pretended to use buckets of water at that time, but I actually put the cockscombs at home into cardboard boxes and hid them next to the entrance It went to the grass on the slope, and then the troupe came and took it away." In this way, when the fire was put out at that time, when the old iron finally came to the backyard with the bucket, the bucket was empty.In retrospect, it was indeed strange.There's no point in carrying an empty bucket to put out a fire. "What the hell is that Cockscomb corpse? The one we buried under the tree?" Regarding this question, when Wu Ze heard the answer, he couldn't help opening his mouth. "The plush toys I got from the claw machine, I ate a few mouthfuls of Kantaro's special chicken instant noodles that were dumped in the sink, and there are big tomatoes." "What are these..." "It's easy to be deceived when you're nervous, and it's night, and the light is dark - the stuff in the plastic bag was made in the bathroom. I wanted to take it easy after everyone went to bed, but you see, that night Zhenxun has been sitting in the entrance, Lao Wu, you haven’t slept, right? So I had to pretend to drink tea and went to the kitchen, put the garbage from the sink and canned tomatoes into a plastic bag, and then hid it in the stomach of the pajamas, Into the bathroom. Then, cut open the belly of the plush toy that Lao Wu left in the bathroom, stuffed it into a plastic bag, then made it sticky, and finally put it into the cockscomb collar. Self-proclaimed, but that really looks like the real thing, right?" "It looks real." It really looked like the carcass of a cockscomb. "But old iron, the one you made in the bathroom, how did you put it outside the entrance?" At that time, the old iron should have gone to the living room to sleep immediately.When he came out of the bathroom, he said that there was something wrong with Kantaro's noodles, and he kept pressing his stomach. Maybe he hid the plastic bag with the fake corpse in it, Wu Ze thought. "It's nothing complicated. I just opened the window of the living room secretly and threw it to the entrance. It happened to be the time when the passing vehicles were coming." It is indeed a very simple method. Sit down, Lao Tie poked his chin towards the bench next to him.Wu Ze and Lao Tie sat side by side on the faded plastic bench. "Will you say it, to my daughter?" Lao Tie asked in a tired voice. "You do these things?" Well, the old iron nodded and asked again. "--can you speak?" "You don't want me to tell you?" The old iron nodded with a lonely expression. "In that case... I won't talk about it." Wu Ze replied, Lao Tie looked at Wu Ze gratefully. "Hello, old Wu." Lao Tie picked up a cherry blossom leaf that had fallen on the ground, and twirled the petiole between his fingers. "Old Wu...do you still intend to continue to cheat in the future?" This question left Wu Ze speechless. In the past seven years, Wu Ze has been living by constantly saying to himself "I am a rascal, I am a rascal".Otherwise, he feared that he would immediately fall back on the side of the deceived.But at the moment, the emotion to continue living that life is still thin.They've almost completely disappeared—Mahiro, Yahiro, and Kantaro are now starting to live in earnest.Just keep going like this, okay? "Old Wu, do you know why I named my daughter 'Zhen Xun'?" Wu Ze waited silently for Lao Tie to continue. "When she was born, at first I wanted to name her 'Zhenyun', which means 'pure white'. I hoped that she would not be like me, but a person with a heart as white as paper. But after thinking about it I feel bad again. This world is not a place where people with too pure a heart can live. Because there are countless people like me who are squirming like maggots. More or less, we need to be wary of people. So I I changed one word and named her 'Mahiro'. Rather than having a pure heart, it's better to have a broad heart. If you want to survive in this world." The old man pursed his lips.His eyes wandered over his knees for a while, as if he was thinking about something.He opened his mouth again and said, "Liars, they are actually trash." The quiet tone was as sharp as a needle.The needle point went straight to the center of Wu Ze's chest. "It's going to be a terrible death. In the end, it must be a lonely person with no one around, so he just died. A liar is a bastard's waste. Unfortunately, it was too late when I discovered this." Lao Tie seemed to spit out the sand in his mouth. "It's too late," he said again, and turned his drooping face to Wu Ze. "One cannot live without trusting others. One cannot live alone. I finally understood this when I was dying. One must trust others. And making money from this is the best way to not be saved." The behavior of a jerk. There is no difference between the gangsters and usurers. The crimes of others are easy to see, but your own crimes are hard to see because they are carried on your back. This kind of life lasts too long, like swallowing your own tail Like a snake that chases itself, sooner or later it will dry up and die alone.” In fact, this is also the idea that has always existed in the corner of Wu Ze's mind, and it is the fact that he has been trying his best not to think about it so far.So there is even more pain in my heart.I have to say something, Wu Ze thought.But nothing came out.Lao Tie also fell silent, put his hands on his knees, slowly spread them out, clenched them, and repeated them over and over again. What finally came out of Wu Ze's mouth were childlike words, as if looking for a way to escape.As he said that, he also felt his pity. "But you... have done so many things with me, haven't you? Bank prosecutor, pawn shop selling incense burners, etc..." The old iron shook his head lightly.Wu Ze was very surprised by his answer. "No." "No?" He didn't understand what Lao Tie meant. "But, didn't we get the money? Didn't we get the cash?" "That's my own money." In an instant, Wu Ze remembered.Ever since I partnered with Lao Tie and asked him to do the work of collecting money at the end, the business has been continuously successful.Wu Ze always thought that it was because of Lao Tie's character that he could make the other party feel at ease—— "You... took your own money?" Wu Ze stared blankly at the face of his former partner.Old Tie pursed his lips and nodded. "I've been smuggling money with me all the time. It's the money for you." No wonder such classic scams keep succeeding. Whether it was then or this time, it was Wu Ze who was deceived. "In this way, once you said you were going to pick the lock, and then you got a lot of money back—well, it was when the five of us lived together, and the living expenses were not enough. At that time, too—" "Just wandered outside for a while, then came back." The old iron answered bluntly.Wu Ze stared at him for a long while, and then he felt the corners of his mouth slowly rise, as if about to float.The figure of Lao Tie shrugging slowly merged with the surrounding scenery.