Disqualification

When Xiaozhi was five years old, she saw a traveling girl giving birth.

The place of birth is in a dirty alley with syphilis and green moss. In Yoshiwara, a pregnant woman is worthless. Even if the abortion takes a short time, the woman's energy cannot be restored, and some people even die because of it.

It is a tacit rule of every family to drive out the tea house when they find out that the girl is pregnant.

Many of the women who were kicked out hated the children in their womb from the bottom of their hearts, seeing them as burdens and maggots that sucked life force, but the wandering girl Xiaozhi met was different. In Ishijiro's words, she was a fool.

"What's my name?" She was kicked out in spring. Compared with the wandering girls who live on the streets in the cold winter months, she is very lucky. As long as she doesn't get sick, she can at least live until autumn.

"What?" Twig dragged her nose, looking at her high belly.

"Name." You Nu gently stroked her stomach, "I am a mother for the first time, so I have to give him a loud and pleasant name. A customer once told me that the baby's name embodies the expectations of the parents." " She smiled helplessly, "Although I don't know who the father of the child is, he probably doesn't love him, but at least I have to feel the love of my mother." As she spoke, she stroked her belly and sang The Song of the Civet Cat.

The cherry blossoms in Yoshiwara were in full bloom. They sat against the corner of the wall and enjoyed the flowers from the darkest angle. The wind brought the tender pink petals to the girl's hair and to the palm of the twig.

You Nu said: "If she is a girl, I hope she can be as cute as Xiao Zhi." She said softly, "In that case, even if she is born here, she can avoid detours."

……

"Huh? Name?" Ishijiro sneered, "I told you not to get in touch with idiots, you are already stupid enough, if you want to become even more stupid, I can't help you."

"Oh." Xiaozhi rested her chin on her hands, "but my name should be chosen by my mother, right?" She sniffled, "Even if my brother gave you my name, then 'Ishijiro' is still chosen by my mother Bar?"

She had never seen her mother, and not long after she was born, the two of them, Miss You, passed away.

"Kang——" the dagger hit the chopping board heavily, and the white radish was cut in two. Ishijiro was enraged, and he said, "Okay, let me tell you, don't you want to know the meaning?" He pointed to the messy branches outside the window, and he The one I pointed to was particularly thin, which affected the beauty of the cherry tree. I am afraid that within two days, Jianshifan would cut it down and burn it for firewood.

"See, twigs refer to branches that are useless and should be pruned."

"As for the stones, they are small stones on the side of the street that anyone can step on and spit on." Ishijiro sneered, "She doesn't want to give birth to us at all, except for those with bad brains, who would want to live in Huajie? Want a child?" His words became more and more serious, no matter the tone or the weight of the words, "You lived, she died, and you took her life."

"Who would like someone who took his own life?"

"Oh." Xiaozhi was a little sad, but only a little bit, and she would not be sad when she drank the radish soup. Xiaozhi had no idea, and she had never met her mother, so naturally Ishijiro said what he said.

[I thought, before I was born, my mother would pat her belly and sing. ]

……

A few years later, for some reason, Xiaozhi recalled this incident. She happened to be working at Kyogokuya, and asked the wandering female reserve soldiers around them, where did their names come from.

"I am the first child, called Yizi."

"The proprietress picked it up for me. It's called Agong."

"I don't know, there are four love children in the village."

"What a fool's question." Fern Ji's voice was too recognizable, and her cold snort seemed to indicate suppressed anger, "Why are you being lazy? Ah!"

Yizi, Ah Gong, Xiaozhi...all the people present knelt down on the ground, and some girls looked at Xiaozhi complainingly, thinking that she made Fern Ji angry.

What no one expected was that Fern Ji didn't hit anyone. Her wooden clogs were high-heeled, and she stepped on the ground with a clear voice: "What are you talking about, ugly monster?" The name Fern Ji is too much. At that time, Xiaozhi was still a good-looking girl. She had a different style from Fern Ji. If Fern Ji is the sun disk in the sky, she is just a new bud. She has no offensive power from a distance, but it provokes people love.

It was a very different kind of beauty.

"Fern Ji Oiran must be jealous of Twig, that's why she called her ugly." There were even faint rumors like this circulating in the Jinggoku House.

To be honest, everyone thinks that Fern Ji is abusing Xiaozhi, but Xiaozhi herself doesn't think so, she even thinks that Fern Ji Oiran treats her very well.

The snow-white feet stayed in front of his eyes, and each piece of nail was carefully dyed red, and the dye of impatiens juice was prepared by Xiaozhi himself.

"Name." Xiaozhi summoned up her courage and said, "I'm talking about the name."

"what?"

"I've heard a saying that everyone's name is carefully given by their parents..."

"Pa——" Xiaozhi's scalp hurt, and then she was slapped firmly on the face. The sound made others dare not look up, and red marks appeared on her face soon.

[Fern Ji Oiran, is she angry? ]

Xiaozhi's face was burning hot, she might be as stupid as what her brother Ishijiro said, and at this moment, she still had time to observe the expression of Fern Jiro carefully.

Her beautiful face showed a ferocious expression, she gritted her teeth, different from the usual anger that was thunderous and rainy, but this time it seemed that she had touched a sore spot, and her face became unbeautiful.

[Xiaomei's plum is the plum of syphilis. ]

"Are you kidding me, you dead girl." She tore at Xiaozhi's hair, "You were born in this kind of place, and you still expect your shitty parents to name you? I'm really going to laugh my ass off."

"Listen to me, damn girl, do you know why you are called Xiaozhi? Because you are just a miscellaneous branch on the top of a tree, and you are only worthy of breaking firewood."

[Although I don't know the reason, Fern Princess Oiran got angry. ]

After that, Twig never mentioned his name again.

……

"Bastard, bastard, bastard!" Luo Ji tugged at the simple wooden hairpin in a broken state, "What are you taking me out for, you bastard!"

It takes a long time for oirans to dress up, especially their buns, which are very difficult to comb.

Ordinary oirans comb their hair in a bun for five to six days. When sleeping, they can only support their necks with raised wooden sticks and keep their heads suspended in the air, so as not to damage the beauty of their hair.Fallen Princess is different, she has to comb her hair loosely every day, if the comber's hair does not meet the requirements, she will be beaten lightly, and will be expelled from the Kyogoku House if it is serious. A good combing skill.

In addition to the bun, the oiran's makeup and dress are also different from other wandering girls. Not every oiran likes to dress up. Lixia oiran wears ordinary clothes unless they are in the Tao or meeting guests.

Fallen princess is different, she is always well-dressed, always beautiful, even when she walks in the Kyogoku house, she is the same as when she was in the oiran path, except that she does not wear clogs a few feet high.

[She is showing off her oiran posture. ] Dazai understands the reason why Luo Ji is like this better than anyone else, [To put it bluntly, it is an obsession. He only wanted to be an oiran during his lifetime, but he never did. ]

[After becoming a ghost, I don't want to let go. ]

He sometimes feels that ghosts are very sad. They are all creatures tightly held by obsessions. From the moment they transform into ghosts, people's memories will only fade with time, but human nature and visions before life hover in the soul. Deep, eternally affects the ghost's body.

There is a vague idea in Dazai's mind: [It is sad to be driven by obsession. ]

He even felt a spring of sadness, but he didn't know where it came from.

For a moment, he thought there was a hole in his body, and the inner emotions leaked out of the hole like quicksand.

"Aren't you cute, Xiaomei?" He looked at the oiran who was simply combed and dressed, and said, "No one will recognize who you are when you go out like this."

"It's not good at all!" Luo Ji shouted in a broken voice, "It's not good at all! What do you want to do?"

"I'm going to do an investigation to find out who killed Tokugawa." Dazai said, "The two little guys went out in the morning, so they can't find out anything, not to mention that this matter is very interesting and worth investigating. kill time."

Luo Ji thought about what the prostitute Taro said yesterday, she thought that Dazai had a good brain, maybe he could really see something, anyway, by herself, she really couldn't find the ghost with special blood ghost skills for a while.

"Okay." She wrote her emotions on her face, and she didn't collapse after hearing Dazai's explanation, but urged him, "Hurry up, if I can't analyze anything, I will get angry."

"It's really a powerful threat." Dazai teased, "Then in order to appease your possible anger, I have to figure out how to make amends."

"Apologize..." Luo Ji had an idea, "You can draw me another picture."

He was stunned.

Luo Ji was dissatisfied with his reaction: "What are you doing, don't you all know how to draw?" She was aggressive, "What kind of Ukiyo-e meticulous painting, you draw me a picture to make me look good, do you hear me? .”

Dazai didn't say anything.

/Give me a sub-paint, Dazai, and celebrate my 14th birthday. /

/I'm sure the best looking person you've ever drawn! /

Xiaomei also told him this sentence.

But when he really finished the painting, the person in the painting had been burned alive into a ball of coke.

……

Butterfly Shinobu and Tomioka Yoshiyuki's actions go nowhere.

According to the idea of ​​the advance members, the two of them should have fought together. Butterfly Ninja pretended to be bald or the Yume reserve sneaked in. Tomioka Yoshiyuki was in charge of responding. Dazai stepped in and let both of them enter Yoshiwara as guests, breaking the Hidden people's plans.

Not to mention new customers, even the regular customers of Yoshiwara would find it difficult to get anything out of the mouth of the girls. What they said was always true and false, and they could only be believed. During the shogunate era, there were ninjas among the girls. Ministers inquired about news, and even completed assassination missions. Now in the new era, assassinations may be less, but women's defensiveness has been inherited.

"That won't work." Butterfly Shinobu knew for a long time that Tomioka Yoshiyuki would not be of much use in inquiring about information. As for herself, except for the people in the Kyogoku House who were willing to say a few words because of her status, the wandering girls in other houses were no more than Make fun of her, just treat her as the young master who came to see the world.

Tomioka Yoshiyuki stood blankly, like a wooden stake.

"Stop doing useless work." Tomioka Yoshiyuki said, "No one cares about you."

"..."

Butterfly Shinobu made a cross on his forehead.

Her current personality is far worse than later. After Butterfly Kanae died, Butterfly Shinobi became more gentle, much like her older sister. Now, her personality is closer to that of a teenager than a girl.

"I said you." Butterfly endured, "It's easy to be misunderstood when you talk like this."

Yoshiyuki Tomioka: "?"

"No." Butterfly Ren said, "It's really annoying."

"!" Tomioka Yoshiyuki's sensitive nerves were touched, he was silent for a long time and said indifferently, "Come with me." He said without beginning or end, but he kept walking in another direction.

Butterfly followed him forward, and they left the main road as they walked. Even the popularity became less, and the surroundings were deserted, and the surrounding buildings exuded a decaying air.

Butterfly knows that Tomioka Yoshiyuki will not say that he will take himself somewhere to beat him up, just to pay back the previous "hate talk", but he leads people to remote places without explaining a word, which is also confusing .

"There are still people here." Tomioka Yoshiyuki stopped at the entrance of the alley, Hu Die slowed him down a step, and after seeing the scenery inside, he didn't know what to say.

"Ask them." Tomioka Yoshiyuki said.

[Maybe they know something. ]

The five or six-year-old looked warily at the two uninvited guests.

……

[What the hell am I doing! ] Luo Ji thinks, [I wear disgusting hair, wear ugly clothes, and hang out with him in other teahouses. I don’t go out to eat people, I don’t go out for the oiran, and I don’t kill members of the ghost killing team. Am I crazy? . ]

She couldn't even remember how she agreed to Dazai Osamu's instigation, and she was already fooling around with him when she came to her senses.

It only takes three steps to solve the troublesome ghost: go out, find him, eat him, but the three simple steps are helpless.

The prostitute Taro searched around again and told her, "I didn't find it."

After he finished speaking, he simply found a place to sit cross-legged, looked at Osamu Dazai with hidden eyes, and Luo Ji looked at his weird brother, but couldn't figure out what he was thinking.

[who cares. ] It is Luo Ji's life philosophy to ignore things that she can't figure out.

"Let's go." Dazai took her hand, "The night in Yoshiwara is beautiful, right?"

She was obviously being pulled by a man, but Luo Ji didn't feel anything. She hated humans touching her without consent, and sometimes even felt disgusted when being touched by lowly people.

Dazai is different.

She used to wonder if she liked Dazai, but the tightly clenched hands didn't disturb her heartstrings, let alone throbbing, she just felt the temperature, which was lower than that of the ghost's hands.

[Familiar coolness. ]

She always felt that she had led Dazai away like this, countless times.

/Hey, Dazai, you trash, run faster, if you don't run, you will be overtaken!

Dazai told Xiaomei that a tea house was looking for an artist to paint portraits for Younv. He had learned meticulous painting a long time ago, and if he picked it up, he would be able to earn more money for his family.

Xiaomei said, "That's good, you just need to practice."

"No paper, no pen."

His innocent gesture made Xie Huamei annoyed for a while: "We can't afford it, so tell me this."

The prostitute Taro is not there, and there are only two of them in the empty house.

"Tsk." Xiaomei said, "You trash, come with me."

She led Dazai through the criss-crossed alleys, and approached the biggest tea house on Hualiu Street on tiptoe.

"I heard that the oiran here can write poems and draw pictures. She must have banknotes there." She ordered to herself, "Listen, I will climb in through the window to steal, and you will let me out below."

A few minutes later, Xiaomei dexterously jumped from the second floor to the first floor, but unfortunately brought a whole bunch of pursuers. The two of them ran wildly in Yoshiwara. Xiaomei was not as skilled in stealing as the prostitute Taro, but he was much better than Dazai. While running away, she despises this man as useless, running slowly.

"Give me your hand."

She grabbed her cold hand, and the two ran forward with each other.

In the distance are trees, the sunset, and home. /

……

"The first thing to find out is whether it is only Tokugawa who died, or someone else."

"what?"

[What is there to figure out. ] Luo Ji thinks that Dazai's thesis is very boring. Is it possible that ghosts cannibalize people and choose according to social relations?Of course, you can eat whichever is delicious.

[Speaking of which, Tokugawa doesn't look very tasty, too much fat, he's too old, he probably has alcohol and sex problems, I feel like throwing up just smelling it, and there are ghosts who eat him specially, what a cheap taste . ]

"The first step in the investigation is to start with the social network." Dazai said, "When did he start going in and out of Yoshiwara, when did he come, which ones did he like to go to, which girls he summoned, and he came with his friends Still come with my colleagues, who else is related to him is missing."

"When these problems are clarified, we can start screening and deduce the reason for his death."

"What nonsense." Luo Ji said, "If he was eaten by a legendary ghost, no matter how much you investigate."

"Really?" Dazai turned his head and smiled, "But I don't think he was killed by a ghost."

"?"

He said lovingly, "Xiaomei, just follow me."

"Anyway, with Xiaomei's IQ, you can't figure out anything."

[Dazai, you trash, you just need to hide behind my brother and me. ]

[Anyway, you can't do anything well by yourself. ]

[On this street, we will protect you. ]