He Ma looked at the girl in front of him carefully, she had a pretty face and a normal figure - this is usually a conclusion drawn by comparing his own girls who are always at the level of a flat model.
"What you said is a bit interesting," Kazuma said, "Don't you always think that your friend Watanabe-kun was murdered?"
The girl hesitated for a moment, then nodded with a look of great determination: "Yes. It's not convenient to talk here, can we talk in another place?"
As she spoke, the girl glanced at the white water stains on Baifeng Qingliu's clothes, and said, "Ah, I'll wait in the room, you two can deal with your own affairs first."
After she finished speaking, she started to back away.
"Then I'll go first. I live in Room 217."
Before Hema and Qingliu could say a word, the girl ran away.
Qingliu looked puzzled: "Why did she run so fast? This shouldn't be the reaction of ordinary people when they encounter a 'detective' who they can ask for help, right?"
Hema glanced at Qingliu and understood: "Qingliu, wipe your place with a piece of paper, yes, it is here."
As he spoke, he gestured for positions on himself with his hands.
Qingliu looked down suspiciously.
"Damn it, it's from drinking milk just now!"
"Yes, but obviously Miss Akanishi didn't see the scene where you spilled milk. She must have thought..." Kazuma closed his mouth, smiled at Qingliu without saying a word.
"It's fine for others to misunderstand, what do you mean? Bastard! Pervert!" Qing Liu took out a tissue to wipe the stains on the bathrobe while uttering curses that would excite tsundere lovers.
He Ma: "Want to help?"
"Damn it, stay away from me, pervert!" Qingliu raised her foot to kick the horse's calf, but was quickly dodged.
Kazuma: "Okay, I'll stay away, just as Ms. Akanishi invited me to her room, I'm leaving!"
"Wait a minute, I'll go too!" Qingliu threw the tissue into the trash can and ran to catch up with Kazuma.
**
When Chi Xifeng opened the door, he looked at Qingliu who was following Hema in surprise.
"This is my apprentice, who is now playing as a guest assistant." He Ma explained, "And the white marks you saw just now are actually when drinking milk..."
"Isn't it more suspicious that you explain it so deliberately?" Qingliu interrupted Kazuma, and it seemed that if Akanishi was not in front of her, she would have kicked Kazuma directly.
"Anyway, Qingliu and I don't have that kind of relationship."
Chi Xifeng glanced at Qingliu, said "Oh", and took a step back: "Please come in."
Entering the room with Ma, he looked around: "Miss Akanishi lives in such a big house by herself?"
"This is already the smallest room in the hotel." Miss Akanishi smiled, "We don't have any other girls in the Fantasy Biology Research Club. The boys share a room, and I sleep in a room by myself. I also want to sleep with other girls. One room, so we can chat or something."
He was shocked by the horse, and this woman naturally used the technique of "Versailles literature"!
Miss Akanishi pointed to the small tea table by the window: "Sit over there, I just boiled the water, and when the water boils, I'll make tea and bring it over."
He Ma nodded, came to the coffee table, and sat cross-legged on the cushion.
According to etiquette, women who just met in the room should sit upright, but Kazuma particularly hates Japanese-style upright sitting, thinking it is a kind of torture, as long as he is not forced to sit upright, he must sit cross-legged.
Qingliu was going to sit upright, but when she saw the cross-legged horse, she thought about it and sat down cross-legged on the left hand side of the horse. As a result, as soon as her butt touched the cushion, she felt that something was wrong, so she changed to sitting on a duck.
He Ma: "Aren't you a rock girl? It's okay to sit cross-legged like a man."
"That was me before." Qingliu replied.
Hema glanced at Miss Akanishi who was still guarding the kettle and preparing to make tea, and felt that it would take some time to get down to business, so he continued to chat with Qingliu: "Then what are you now?"
"An ordinary adolescent girl." Qingliu replied.
"Really? It doesn't look like it."
"Even if you shift your eyes to my chest in a blatant manner, I won't be angry because of this kind of thing."
You're lying, you're obviously angry, even a fool can see that you're angry!
At this time, Miss Akanishi came over with a tray: "I simply made some tea, I hope Teacher Kiryu doesn't mind."
"Thank you." He Ma took the tea, took a sip politely, and put down the cup.
Qingliu didn't even take a sip and put down the teacup. Judging by her appearance, the teacup was too hot to touch.
Miss Akanishi sat across from Kazuma: "Although Mr. Kiryu already knows my name, let me formally introduce myself. My name is Kaede Akanishi, a sophomore at Meiji University, and a member of the Fantasy Creature Research Association."
"Kiryu Kazuma." Kazuma's self-introduction was simple and clear, and it was just a formality anyway.
Qingliu: "I am Kiryu's apprentice, Baifeng Qingliu."
"I know, Miss Baifeng, newspapers and magazines have published a lot of stories about you and Teacher Kiryu."
Qingliu: "Then you should also know that most of the news is fake, right?"
He Ma: "Don't kill all the news with one stick, there are still reporters who insist on reporting the truth."
"Have it?"
"Yes." Kazuma was also not sure, "It's digressing. Our affairs are not important, what is important is your affairs, Miss Akanishi. You always think that Watanabe-kun committed suicide? What's the reason?"
Akanishi-san lowered her eyes, her hands on the tea table tightly covered the teacup filled with hot tea.
That teacup must be very hot, and he knew that after holding the teacup himself just now.
But Akanishi-san seemed completely unaware that the teacup was hot.
She stared at the tea stems floating in her teacup, as if looking for the upright stems that signify good luck—in Japan, tea stems that stand up in tea mean good things will happen.
Kazuma: "Miss Akanishi?"
"It was the shrine master who killed Watanabe-kun." Akanishi whispered suddenly.
"Oh?" He Ma used a long ninety-degree turn to express his feelings at the moment, "Why do you think so? Don't talk about a woman's intuition, we have to talk about evidence."
"Because Watanabe-kun found out that the divine master is abnormal." Miss Akanishi continued.
"What's abnormal?" Hema leaned forward, pressing his elbows on the coffee table.
Miss Akanishi thought for a while and said, "Let me start from the beginning.
"We are the Institute of Fantasy Creatures. Outsiders think we are a group of idiots who focus on finding mallet snakes, but in fact we mainly study the realistic origin and evolution of various fantasy creatures. For example, we studied the formation and evolution of the legend of Yuzao before. .”
When He Ma heard this, he suddenly wanted to tell the girl: "Your work is in vain because Yuzao is not a legend, she really exists..."
But he didn't speak. After all, it's not good to interrupt someone's talk.
Miss Akanishi continued: "Last year, Watanabe-kun and Oda-kun and I were new members of the research association. We are from the same high school..."
"Three Meiji University high schools came out in the same year?" Qingliu interrupted Miss Akanishi.
It stands to reason that at this time, as the female family member of Hema, she can't intervene, but rock girls don't follow the rules of Japan.
Miss Akanishi tilted her head: "Yes, what's the problem?"
"Isn't that a very difficult university?"
"It's really difficult to take the exam, but I went to a private prestigious school with a very high enrollment rate. Our school has people who go to the top six schools in Tokyo every year."
Kazuma: "This is the case with private prestigious schools. The North High School I attended in high school is an ordinary public high school. In the same class, there are two Toho University, one Keio University and one Shangzhi. That is a miracle. Miss Akanishi, you continue."
Akanishi Feng nodded: "Okay. We entered Meiji University from the same private high school. In high school, we were members of the Department of Mysteries, keen to discover the causes of urban legends..."
Um? Why do you feel a little familiar with the content of the activities of the Spirit Department
"... So after arriving at Meiji University, we were very interested when we saw the recruitment of the Fantasy Creature Research Association.
"Of course, we went to the Department of Ghosts at Meiji University first, and found that there are some real ghost enthusiasts, the kind who are keen to share various urban legends and information.
"After we felt that Meiji University's Department of Psychics was not suitable for us, we went to the Institute of Fantasy Creatures and stayed there until now."
He Ma: "It's you who stayed until now."
"No, Minister Takei said that Watanabe-kun and Oda-kun will never be removed from the member roster. It doesn't matter. Last summer, we saw a report of a mallet snake found in a tabloid near here. .
"Minister Takei immediately went to book a hotel room, but unexpectedly, all the hotels in the 'discovery place' were booked for mallet snake lovers.
"At this time, the minister saw the advertisement leaflet of this hot spring street, and thought that the geographical difference is only a dozen kilometers away. If there is a mallet snake, its habitat must also include this hot spring street.
"If there is no mallet snake, maybe we can investigate the folklore related to it here."
He Ma: "Only when you came here did you realize that there are only demon foxes who like to eat children's hearts."
Miss Akanishi smiled: "That's right, and it's a common legend in rural areas to scare children to go home early. On the first day we came here, we knew that this time we must be in vain.
"But Minister Zhujing said that the funds were all spent, and we had to do something, otherwise we would be like bastards who swindled the funds to come out to eat, drink and have fun. So we started going up the mountain every day to find Hammer Snake, and it was right to exercise."
Qingliu: "Your synopsis is long enough."
"Uh, this..."
He Ma: "It's okay, this kind of detail is a very important part of understanding the truth."
In fact, he really wanted to know about the discovery of the mallet snake last year, but there was no Internet in 1981, and he couldn't easily find a lot of information by typing a few keywords in the search engine.
He could only ask Ms. Akanishi: "Did you keep the report about the mallet snake that led you to start this hot spring trip last year?"
"Yes, I have been collecting relevant evidence since I suspected Watanabe-kun was murdered. I cut out this report and pasted it in my newspaper clippings."
Miss Akanishi stood up, rummaged in her luggage by the door, came over with a newspaper clipping wrapped in a plain book cover, opened one of the pages and put it in front of Kazuma.
"That's the report."
Kazuma glanced at it and nodded: "Okay, I don't know what it's useful for, but Miss Akanishi, please keep this newspaper clipping. Let's go back to the topic just now, how did Watanabe-kun find out that the god master is abnormal, and what aspect is abnormal?" ?”
Miss Akanishi nodded: "The three of us were keen to investigate the causes of various legends when we were in high school. The story of the demon fox told by the old women in the hot spring town seems ordinary, but we still conducted investigations. Then we found An interesting thing."
"What's interesting?" He asked in this place in cooperation with the horse.
"The legend of the demon fox on the hot spring street seems to have been formed after the Great Kanto Earthquake during the Taisho period."
Kazuma: "We heard that there was a tradition of sending children who could not afford it to the mountains and forests in the past, but it basically disappeared after the Meiji Restoration, and it did not recur until the Kanto Earthquake entered a difficult period again. gone."
"The person who said it warned you not to sing "Travel Song" in the mountains, right?" Miss Akanishi interjected.
"Hey, yes. Are you a detective too?" Hema joked.
But Chi Xifeng was very serious and didn't mean to be joking at all: "We also inquired about this statement last year. But we heard more.
"We have visited Granny Noda in the hot spring street many times to help her clean the house, cook and so on. In the past, when we went to ask the old people about those ancient legends, we would use this method to win them over.
"This time it worked. When we asked Granny Noda where she heard the legend of the demon fox, she told us that it was not a legend. She saw it with her own eyes when she was a child. She woke up one night and heard the neighbor There was a noise in my house, so I got up and lay down on the window to look out.
"As a result, she saw the white-haired demon fox coming out of the neighbor's house, holding the sleepy neighbor's child in her arms.
"The demon fox also saw her, and grinned and showed its fangs. She screamed in fright, and crawled away from the window.
"Then the demon fox started knocking on the window, and at the same time, the shadows of everything in the room seemed to come to life at the same time..."
Miss Akanishi stopped and panted heavily, as if the scene just described made her a little out of breath.
After a while, she said: "Grandma Noda's description of this scene is really scary. I can't even reproduce a tenth of her."
He Ma: "I think it's okay."
Chi Xifeng shook his head again and again, then took a few deep breaths, and then continued: "Grandma Noda's words made us very excited, because we felt that we discovered something 'different' this time, when we investigated supernatural legends before, we never Encountering this kind of 'witness' telling us directly."
He Ma thought to himself, I will introduce you to the real Yuzao later, she can tell you many stories of her own experience.
"Watanabe-kun went to the shrine to inquire about the situation in accordance with our previous practice of engaging in club activities. Because shrines often record local legends and so on, this is originally one of the responsibilities of the priests, and the local chronicles of some places are also written by the shrine."
This situation seems to be quite common outside of China.
The scripts in most regions are basically in the hands of nobles and priests. It is rare in the world that poor families like this in China can also read and read, and even pass the exams to become officials and prime ministers.
Japan has learned from China for hundreds of years, and many powerful things have not been learned at all. In rural areas like this in Japan, before the Meiji Restoration, perhaps only the priests could read and write, and naturally the priests wrote everything in the local chronicles.
Kazuma: "So Watanabe-kun saw something at the shrine, right?"
"Yes. He came back from the shrine that day with an ugly expression on his face. I asked him what happened and he didn't say anything. He just said that he was tired and wanted to take a bath and go to sleep, so he entered the men's soup.
"I was very worried about him, so I asked Xiaotian to take the opportunity to take a bath and ask him what's wrong. Xiaotian agreed, took a change of clothes and went into the men's soup, and I went to the women's soup, listening to him while taking a bath. There was no movement on their side. In the end, there was no movement at all.
"When I came out, they had already washed up. They were sitting on the bench at the entrance of the bathhouse, each holding a can of milk that was more than half drunk, with serious expressions on their faces."
Hema and Qingliu looked at each other, and then said speculatively, "Then, I guess something happened to them the next day."
Miss Akanishi nodded solemnly: "Yes. Before entering the mountain that day, Watanabe and Oda were talking seriously, and they were avoiding me. As soon as I passed by, they started chatting dirty jokes, which is definitely not the case in normal times.
"Then I made up my mind and yelled at them: 'Don't keep me out!'
"Watanabe-kun came over and patted me on the shoulder and said, 'Don't worry, it's nothing serious.'
"And then they..."
Miss Akanishi lay down on the table and started to cry.
He Ma suddenly asked: "I heard that when you came down from the mountain that day, when you were waiting for news from the search and rescue team, you vomited it out. Are you nervous?"
Miss Akanishi cried and said: "Of course it is! I had a very bad premonition at the time, and my stomach seemed to be cramping. And I was very thirsty at that time, and I drank water constantly, and I vomited as a result."
"Is the weather very hot last year too?" He Ma asked.
"Should...it's not as hot as this year. Why do you ask this?" Miss Akanishi raised her head and looked at Kazuma suspiciously.
"You said you were thirsty, maybe hot?"
Miss Akanishi shook her head: "I don't know. It may be that they are so nervous that they want to drink water. Many people eat when they are nervous. It may be that kind of reaction."
Kazuma nodded: "I understand. So you have been suspecting that Mr. Watanabe saw something in the shrine, and then he was silenced by the shrine."
"That's it."
He Ma thought, this is interesting, and the divine master also suspects that Mr. Watanabe committed suicide, and judging from the words of the divine master, it seems that he and Mr. Watanabe have a good relationship.
Hmm... Hema stroked his chin and fell into deep thought.