chapter24

Fanchuan Ze/Text

This is not the first time Imaizumi has attended a funeral.

In my impression, the first time I participated, I seemed to be only as tall as Shiraishi Masakihito's waist.

At that time, he was standing next to Shiraishi Masakihito in a delicate little suit, looking around blankly. There were many people who came to express condolences, most of whom were students of his parents.

Imaizumi's parents are a pair of painters.

As long as he can remember, his parents seem to have been traveling around the world to hold art exhibitions, which shows that their influence in the art world is extraordinary.

However, when Imaizumi and his wife went to London one day to attend a well-known art exhibition - they never came back.

News reports mentioned some reasons: the couple forgot to turn off the gas stove in the hotel room, but neither of them seemed to notice this. Maybe Mr. Imaizumi wanted to smoke later and turned on the lighter...

In short, the house exploded, and the fire quickly devoured everything. In addition to their bodies, several paintings that they had planned to exhibit at the art exhibition were burned in the fire.

Masakihito Shiraishi is the only relative close to Noboru Imazumi in terms of blood. After his parents passed away, he took over his custody.

But Shiraishi Masakihito was extremely busy and exhausted from work every day.

Imaizumi Noboru was raised by a nanny hired by Masaichi Shiraishi for a long time. What Masaichi Shiraishi did the most was to send him a stack of thick envelopes every month, filled with a lot of Ten thousand yen banknotes.

Before he came of age, he could count the number of times he saw Shiraishi Masakihito on one hand.

After working, Noboru Imaizumi has participated in many funerals of his colleagues. But this time, the one he wanted to attend was not that of his colleagues, but that of another person.

"I went back and thought about it for a long time -" Hoshino Tsuruko, the manager of the tennis club at Imaizumi High School, was holding a wine glass in his hand, his face was red and he let out a wine burp.

"I don't think something is right." She looked at Noboru Imaizumi with eyes red from crying, "Imaizumi-kun, do you believe in a woman's intuition?"

"Bang!" She put down the wine glass in her hand heavily.

The guests who came to pay their respects turned around and looked at the table frequently, and she was completely unaware of it. Her eyes narrowed to a slit, and she continued incoherently: "Let me tell you, I actually suspect that Kengo was murdered. .”

"He used to be very good in college. After graduation, he went to a well-known pharmaceutical company as an intern. After working for a few years, he directly became the department head. As a result, the company suddenly went bankrupt... I asked him why the company went bankrupt, and he He just joked with me that it was because he was 'too good'——"

As he spoke, Hoshino Tsuruko grinned and half-lyed on his arm, laughing foolishly.

"After that, he stopped going to work and kept doing some research in the basement of his home. He didn't let me in, but it didn't matter. We were all adults and we didn't have any secrets."

"I know he has no bad intentions and is so timid. He will definitely not do any bad research that will destroy the world. Since he won't tell me, then I won't ask him..."

She tilted her head drunkenly, her breath smelling of alcohol.

"I like him so much. He can study whatever he likes - I can make money to support him and provide him with research for the rest of his life! I am so good, I can support him to be my sweetheart for the rest of his life!"

Imaizumi sat across from her quietly, without saying a word.

"But you said, Imaizumi-kun—" the woman protracted her voice, and her words gradually became filled with tears, and her shoulders shook at the end.

"I am so powerful, I have made a lot of money, and I can support him for the rest of his life - why did he die? Why didn't he want me anymore...?"

Today is the funeral of Hoshino Tsuruko’s boyfriend Sakurai Kengo.

Kengo Sakurai was a man who suffered from ventricular fibrillation on the day of the sorority party and was unable to be rescued in the hospital. He was also the elder brother of Yota Sakurai, the first victim in the KTV poisoning case.

Nowadays, it is an all-night ceremony to entertain the relatives, friends, colleagues and classmates of the deceased, usually starting at seven o'clock in the evening. During the ceremony, some food and drinks are prepared for the guests who come to mourn the deceased.

Sakurai's parents were sitting not far away crying, and a large group of people gathered around to comfort them.

In less than half a month, they lost two sons in succession and held two funerals in succession - no one could accept such a cruel fact immediately.

Especially the mother of the Sakurai brothers. The elderly woman seemed to be holding a small wooden box in her hand, and she didn't know what it contained. She was sitting on her seat crying and panting heavily, and her body seemed to be crying along with it. twitch.

It looks really worrying.

Imaizumi shifted his gaze further away, and suddenly noticed that a guest sitting alone in the corner seemed to be looking at him.

The man wore a pair of thick glasses on his face. From his back, you could see that he had a very tall figure, and his chin had a particularly recognizable beauty groove.

After noticing Noboru Imaizumi looking over, he quickly looked away.

Imaizumi Noboru no longer paid attention to that man.

"Hoshino."

"Huh?" Hoshino Tsuruko fiddled with the wine glass with blurred eyes.

"Why do you think Kengo Sakurai was murdered?"

When talking about this, the woman opposite him immediately sat upright, and her eyes that were originally absent-minded became a little clearer and sharper.

"As I said before, Kengo has been focusing on a certain research. He said he wanted to win a prize for this research. But on the day of his death, I found that the door to the basement of my home was unlocked."

Hoshino Tsuruko recalled the scene at that time——

The stairs leading to the basement door were dark and dark.

Hoshino Tsuruko, who was packing Kengo's things at the time, suddenly stopped in front of the stairs. She stared at the metal door and suddenly felt an indescribable palpitation.

There is no reason, it is purely a woman's sixth sense.

But the sense of crisis was so inexplicable that it surged into my heart like a rising tide.

She felt that Kengo Sakurai should not die so unreasonably.

He had no heart disease, and even if he had been drinking for many days, his constitution would not allow him to die of cardiac arrest.

That's what she thought.

But when she really thought about it, she couldn't think of anything else that Kengo was hiding from her - except for the mysterious basement.

So with doubtful thoughts, she walked down the long staircase for the first time.

But when she held her hand on the basement door, she realized that the door was not locked at all——

"After I walked in, I realized that the interior of the studio was very clean," Hoshino Tsuruko said.

"There wasn't a book on the bookshelf, and there wasn't even a shadow of research materials or anything like that. It was as empty as a room that had never been touched. I saw there was a computer in the room, so I left. I turned on the computer in the past. But I found... that computer was like a new machine that I had just bought, there was nothing in it."

Hoshino Tsuruko showed a complicated and bitter smile.

"Then tell me, Imaizumi-kun..."

"You said what exactly was Kengo studying during these days?"

Noboru Imaizumi, who saw the "God's perspective" of that day through comics, obviously knew more than she did.

But even in the comics, it was only revealed that one member of the organization recorded something through a camera in that restaurant. It was not directional, and it could not definitely prove that it was related to Sakurai Kengo's death.

"...Have you done an autopsy on Sakurai Kengo's body?" Noboru Imaizumi asked softly.

Hoshino Tsuruko shook his head helplessly, "The older generation is particularly taboo on this matter, and Kengo died in the hospital after resuscitation failed...so his parents were even more reluctant to let the scalpel touch his body. Already."

Imaizumi frowned and immediately asked, "Did he say anything strange to you in the days after his brother passed away?"

"Strange words...?" Hoshino Tsuruko pondered for a moment, "Ah, I think there is, but I'm not sure whether it counts..."

"He said..."

The all-night ceremony ended quickly.

Imaizumi originally wanted to give Hoshino Tsuruko a ride in his car. She drank so much that it was difficult for her to stand up straight, and it was not safe to walk back alone at night.

But Hoshino Tsuruko shook his head and joked: "No, Imaizumi-kun. Although I used to think you were very good-looking - but if Kengo finds out that he has just left, I will crawl into another man's carriage. You will definitely be super, super angry——"

She stood in the evening breeze and giggled at him for a while. Her long dark brown hair fluttered in the breeze, and the bangs on her forehead obscured her eyes. The laughter gradually disappeared with the sound of the wind in the distance, and soon it disappeared. Silence fell.

In the end, she just said in a hoarse voice: "...I can do it by myself. It's okay, Imaizumi-kun."

Imaizumi was silent for a moment, and finally nodded, but still said: "Then please pay attention to your safety."

Then he returned to the car, but he also drove the car and silently followed Hoshino Tsuruko in the distance for a while, and finally felt relieved when he saw her walking into the gate of the community.

But just when he restarted the car, his cell phone suddenly sent out a long-lost "ding".

——The comic has been updated.

Having learned the lesson of not reading the manga in time last time, Noboru Imaizumi quickly took out his phone and opened the app without hesitation.

This time it’s finally the turn of the main comic to be updated.

He clicked on the comic and found that the newly updated comic started yesterday when Jiang Guling performed a secret mission.

There is also a lot of personal psychological state attached to it, which shows that he himself has a lot of doubts about this mission. However, because the amount of information in his hands is not that much, he can only form a mental state in his mind. I had a few vague thoughts.

The subsequent events, including being invited to "drink tea" at the Metropolitan Police Department, were all done from Zero's perspective.

However, the plot of him personally taking notes for Zero was completely omitted, leaving only a scene in which after receiving the news that the Kanagawa Prefecture robber was arrested, the Metropolitan Police Department released a tired-looking Zero.

And then...

Imaizumi raised his head in shock.

On the screen of his mobile phone, it was clearly displayed that at night, Fangtani Rei followed a burly figure and quietly stepped into a community.

He raised his phone and looked at the street scene outside the car window.

Sure enough - Zero followed the figure and walked into the community where Hoshino Tsuruko lived!

He sped up and turned backwards, but all he saw was Zero approaching the figure with a cautious face.
To be continued...