Netherworld Investigator

The business of this bar is always like a pot of water that cannot be boiled. If you really want to advertise, you can probably use "no matter when you come in, there is a place" as a selling point.However, Zhao Ming never made any publicity, and he put on an attitude that he was not short of money. The neon sign at the door had been broken for several days, and he was never seen to fix it.

Tang Huanyan drank dark beer as usual, Wen Baifan held a glass of cocoa milk as usual, and the two occupied their usual positions.The difference is that today the store manager Sama fried the seasonally limited prawn tempura.

Tang Huanyan picked up a prawn with long chopsticks, and couldn't wait to eat it into her mouth, "Mmm - delicious!"

Wen Baifan slowly picked up the hot towel provided by the store manager to wipe his hands before the meal, and quickly threw it down, pinching the earlobe with his fingertips to cool down.After doing this for a while, he picked up a piece of prawn pickily with his chopsticks, brought it close to his eyes, and commented in a slightly disgusted tone: "The batter is too thick, the oil temperature is too high, and it's a bit burnt."

He blew it, took a small bite, closed his eyes and chewed, and continued to comment: "When marinating, put less dried fish juice, but you can add a few drops of soy sauce."

Zhao Ming squinted at him: "You can do it?"

Wen Baifan shook his index finger: "Come on, aggressive methods are useless to me."

Tang Huanyan had already eaten two shrimps while they were talking, and her speech was a bit vague, but her flattery was not vague at all: "That's, Luo Fei and I ate the chestnut chicken made by Brother Bai before, and it was delicious. That’s called being particular, to be honest, no matter if I eat chestnuts, chicken or chestnut chicken, I think I’ll just let it go.”

"I can't help it. I've been a trainer since I was a child." Wen Baifan chewed a cherry leaf stalk, squinting his eyes, "Let me guard everyone's taste buds."

After eating and drinking, Wen Baifan took a stack of photos from Tang Huanyan.

"These are all the sneak photos you asked me to get from Mr. Jin Ben. There are a total of twelve photos, and there is a watermark of the shooting time in the lower left corner of each photo." After following Wen Baifan in handling more cases, Tang Huanyan will subconsciously imitate him She analyzed her work and thinking mode, "From the point of view of location distribution, there are nine photos of Shizuko at home, and only three photos at school. From the point of view of time, these were taken in November last year, and these are It was filmed last week. In terms of content, the scenes of Shizuko being alone are basically selected. It can be said that the target of the prisoner is very clear, and the surveillance methods are very sophisticated, unlike ordinary stalkers. "

Wen Baifan glanced at a photo in his hand, on it was Shizuko Kanemoto sitting at a desk with her head down doing homework, with a light green scarf around her neck, behind her was a dark green built-in wall bookshelf, A wide variety of books are neatly arranged in a strange order.

Wen Baifan pointed to a certain row on the bookshelf, turned to Tang Huanyan and said, "Look at the books here, they seem to be exactly the same."

Tang Huanyan took a closer look: "These are not books, but handbooks. I have also bought this brand of notebooks, but I have never been able to write more than one book. She actually has a whole row!"

Tang Huanyan paused, and couldn't help asking the question that had been bothering her all this time: "Tell me, if that girl's sister really died of a sudden illness that year, why would Jin Ben be so panicked?"

"After you and Mr. Jinben left, I chatted with Shizuko alone, and I took the initiative to ask her sister. When talking about mirrors, Shizuko's topics revolved around some small details about life, such as lucky numbers, favorite color, etc."

Tang Huanyan tilted her head and thought for a while, "This shows that Jingzi cares and cares about the mirror? After all, they are sisters. Even though they have been separated for several years, their feelings are engraved in their bones. It is normal that they cannot forget each other's living habits. Right... By the way, Jingzi has always insisted that her sister is not dead, could it be that this girl has suffered from paranoia due to excessive longing?"

"This kind of understanding is not impossible." Wen Baifan also followed her example and tilted his head, "But I always feel that when Jingzi said these words, she was subconsciously emphasizing differences."

"difference?"

"Well, it's probably because they look exactly the same. In order to be distinguished by their family members, the two sisters will subconsciously develop different habit choices. For example, two people whose birthdays are both on January 1, the elder sister's lucky number is 29, and the younger sister 1; older sister likes red and younger sister likes green, etc."

Tang Huanyan nodded: "Indeed, among the twins who appeared on TV, including the twins I know, they all have the same preferences, and some people can still have a natural sympathy. Well, don't you often hear such gossip What about the plot, twins falling in love with the same person or something."

"Yeah, when we want to attract the attention of others, we often choose to emphasize our own uniqueness. This is the same reason that celebrities are afraid of bumping into their shirts when they appear on camera. If there is comparison, there will be opinions about pros and cons. People They will subconsciously pay attention to the better existence, and people with similar looks probably care more about this." Wen Baifan poked at the tempura crumbs on the plate with his chopsticks, and said casually: "Human nature In essence, they are all possessive. For the attention and information feedback from the outside world, the twins get [-]/[-] of all, not all of them as individuals. This is probably what caused the Jinben sisters to cultivate differences subconsciously since they were young. reason."

Tang Huanyan nodded repeatedly.

Wen Baifan put down his chopsticks and smiled slightly: "Now let's continue to analyze these photos."

He picked out a few photos, gestured at the angle, "Look, the camera here is looking from this direction, and the only window in Shizuko's room appeared in the picture." Wen Baifan took out a pen and paper, and drew a few strokes Schematic diagram, "It shows that the person holding the camera is standing at the door of the room. But next to that room is the bedroom of Shizuko's parents. Did the sneak photographer sneak into Shizuko's bedroom at the risk of being caught by the Kanemoto couple?"

Tang Huanyan suddenly realized, "Could it be that the sneak shot was done by an insider, someone who can freely enter and leave Jingzi's room took the photo while she was sleeping."

"And here, look." Wen Baifan picked out another photo, which was the photo that appeared with the bookshelf just now, "Jingzi is doing her homework, the bookshelf is behind her, the wall is on the left, and half of the door frame is exposed on the right, indicating that the camera is on the It appeared on the wall facing her. At this time, as long as she looks up, she will find the sneak photographer."

"It means that the sneak shot is someone familiar with Jingzi, who can appear around her all the time without attracting her attention." Tang Huanyan guessed, "Could it be a servant?"

Wen Baifan shook his head: "Servants can't follow me to school."

A thought suddenly hit her mind, and Tang Huanyan's eyes lit up, "The criminals in this kind of case are usually the least likely to commit crimes. Could it be Mr. Jinben? According to the household registration information, Mrs. Jinben remarried. Sister Jingzi It is her and her ex-husband's child, not Mr. Jin Ben's biological daughter."

"The plot of the ghost father? It's really exciting." Luo Fei suddenly appeared behind them like a ghost.

Tang Huanyan slapped him on the shoulder unceremoniously, "I'm tired of you, who are you going to scare by showing up like a ghost?"

"Snoring and snoring can't scare Maoer." While coaxing her, Luo Fei pulled out a telescopic pole like magic.

"What the hell?" Tang Huanyan was at a loss.

"Fairy stick, it can become bigger, smaller and more beautiful." Luo Fei talked nonsense, looked at her for a moment, and then exclaimed, "As a girl, you don't even know this, it's too cute!"

Wen Baifan blinked his eyes, and said in a cute tone: "As a boy, I don't know, Teacher Luo will explain it to me."

"The history of the popularity of selfie sticks can be traced back to 100 years ago. What's going on in your special investigation team? Do you have common sense?" Luo Fei sighed and fixed the front camera of the mobile phone on the end of the telescopic pole. .

"You can take multi-angle selfies with the remote control buttons, like this..." As he said, he put his arms around Wen Baifan and showed his big white teeth in the direction of the camera. The "click" shutter sounded, and the photo was taken. "Just control the angle and keep the selfie stick out of the shot."

Wen Baifan zoomed in on this kind of selfie with great interest, he let out a sigh, raised his hand and asked, "Mr. Luo, why did the letters become like this?"

This bar is a poker-themed bar, and the coasters, pillows, and lighting inside are all card patterns.Occasionally, when the store manager thinks about doing business seriously, he will also invite a few magicians to perform poker magic tricks for the guests.

Luo Fei took a look at the phone, and the "Joker" sign on the wall of the bar suddenly appeared in the background of the photo, but the order of the letters and the typeface were completely reversed from the normal ones.

"The effect of the front camera is like a mirror reflection. With a normal rear lens, the scene presented in the photo is the actual me you see standing in front of me, but with a front lens, what you see is Me in the mirror."

"So that's it." Wen Baifan lowered his head, and found all the photos in his hand where the words appeared. As Tang Huanyan said, the criminals in this kind of case are the least likely to commit crimes.

Luo Fei was like a kid who got a new toy, holding a selfie stick and forcing Tang Huanyan to compare her heart with him in front of the camera.The latter couldn't help but rolled his eyes heavily, and Luo Fei caught and took a picture of his expression for a moment.Tang Huanyan scrambled to delete it, but Luo Fei refused to let it go, and the two fought back and forth for a long time.

"Hahaha, Uncle Ming, the way you were photographed is so funny!" Luo Fei hid behind Wen Baifan, flipping through the trophies one by one, and suddenly found that Zhao Ming was photographed in one of them. "Brother Bai, let me show you, be careful not to be snatched by Yanyan."

The wall above the bar was divided into two connected halves, and the mosaic tiles collaged a huge black Joker representing the moon. In the accidentally captured photo, Zhao Ming’s head happened to appear between the two Joker scepters. The tip seemed to be pierced by two sharp black shadows.

Wen Baifan narrowed his eyes: "Well, it's really funny."

The zero o'clock bell rang faintly behind her. Standing in front of the mirror, Shizuko Kanemoto reached out and touched the cold face that appeared on the mirror, with a half-crying and half-smiling expression.

She bent down slightly and took down two books from the third shelf on the shelf.That height is exactly what my six-year-old self can achieve.Over the years, she has insisted on keeping her diary on this level.

Shizuko took down the first and only book with a red cover on the far left, and then took off the first book with a green cover on the far right.Except for the first book, the cover of the entire row of books is green, because she has always stubbornly chosen the same brand and the same cover.

This is the diary that she bought with her sister when she was six years old. Each of them chose a corner to place it, and they discussed how to allocate half of the space on the shelf.Later, Shizuko’s diaries grew more and more, almost covering the entire bookshelf, while the mirror only had a single one on the far left.

Shizuko turned on the button of the desk lamp, sat down on the desk, opened the green book, first wrote down today's date, then shook the pen tip, and slowly wrote: "Sister, today is our 13th birthday. They I am worshiping you secretly again, but I know that those confessions are useless."

After a while, she opened another red diary and continued writing from the half page on the right.On the left is the content that has already been written. From the gap between Shizuko's fingers pressing the paper, you can vaguely see "I am finally 12 years old", "The whole family is celebrating my birthday", "The gift I want but I can't say it ", "My sister has always known what I like" and other words.

But this time, she only wrote one line: "Never forgive."

There was the sound of pattering water outside the window, and a short but violent rain seemed to be coming.

It was after ten o'clock in the morning when Wen Baifan came to Jin Ben's house, and Jin Ben saw that there was no one behind him: "Where was that female police officer last time?"

"She has other things to do today." Wen Baifan smiled slightly.

A shower in the early hours of the morning made the air very refreshing this morning, and the wind blowing on the face was filled with the clear fragrance of grass and trees.

Wen Baifan was walking on the slightly wet stone road in the courtyard, he glanced at the messy footprints under the cherry tree, and his eyes fell on Mr. Jinben's mud-stained clogs.

When Wen Baifan asked about the Jinben mirror, Mr. Jinben showed a complex expression on his tired face: "The mirror did die because of an epidemic that year. An extremely sad past. It's just that the dead are gone, and we as family members have to continue to live, don't we?"

He eased his tone and tried to restrain his emotions, "Now I just hope that the police can understand our feelings as parents, and find out the prisoner who threatened and monitored Jingzi as soon as possible. Don't pursue irrelevant matters."

"The mirror incident has something to do with this intimidation case." Wen Baifan said slowly, watching Jin Ben's flickering gaze, with a smile on the corner of his mouth, "This is the message that the prisoner tried every means to convey to the police. It's just a cover, the other party's real purpose is to get the case of Jin Benjing to be retried."

Wen Baifan took out a photo and held it in front of Jin Ben, "When Jingzi took this photo of herself, she must not have thought of including you in the picture." He pointed to the reflection of the French window behind Jingzi, on which you could vaguely see I saw a man kneeling under a cherry tree.

"The shooting date was last year's winter solstice."

There used to be a saying that the winter solstice was considered the closest day to death a long time ago. Whenever the yin qi is the heaviest in this year, there will be undead appearing in the yang world.Therefore, some traditional people will choose this day for sacrifice.

"As far as I know, the day when Jin Ben mirror was declared dead, January 1th, which is six years ago today."

The rain in spring is as unpredictable as a child's emotions. Just now, the sky was still sunny, but just a few words later, the raindrops fell without warning.

"Didn't the mud spots on your clogs be accidentally stained last night when you were wandering under a tree after the heavy rain?"

Wen Baifan glanced out the window, "What is buried under that cherry tree?"

Excessive noise can often create another sense of quiet, such as now.

The earth is like a huge sound-absorbing blanket, which absorbs the sound of the rain smashing the earth, the sound of the wind hitting the glass windows, the sound of wild flowers decaying in the torrential rain, the frantic and continuous screams of the weeds growing, and the panic of insects on the windowsill. Swish everything clean.

Mr. Jin Ben, who sat motionless on the spot, was forced to feel his own vibration in the air.

"I don't know why, but things turned into this situation all of a sudden." Mr. Jin Ben spoke slowly after an unknown amount of time, with lingering pain in his hoarse voice.

"At that time, it was really, really just an accident. I never thought that the little girl would be such a fragile existence. When she fell, her forehead just hit the metal corner of the seesaw. When I realized that something was wrong, I went forward When I helped her, the mirror had stopped breathing."

"My sister was terrified on the spot. She was only a six-year-old child. After the accident, she kept crying and developed a high fever in the middle of the night. I invited the doctor to see her, and she received injections, ice, and food. The next day, my sister finally had a fever, and my wife and I thought of disposing of my sister's body."

"We were afraid that we would be held accountable for our faults as guardians, so we declared that the mirror died of a sudden illness. Anyway, the two children looked exactly the same, and it was obvious to all that they needed a doctor. No one doubted it. It's just that the scar on the head of the mirror was too obvious. It was not suitable for a funeral, so we cremated her and buried her under this cherry blossom tree."

"After Jingzi recovered from her illness, she developed a mental disorder due to over-stimulation, and all memories of her sister's accidental death disappeared, so she always believed that the mirror was still alive beside her, and sometimes she even had hallucinations." Mr. Jinben tightened his grip. Fist, pressed between the eyebrows in confusion, "It's just that I didn't expect that she would take such an extreme method. She would not hesitate to deceive her family and let the police intervene in this matter."

This is a story of a collective cover-up of death. As for whether the accident mentioned by Mr. Jinben is true, I am afraid it is already unknown.In six years, how much rain and sunshine have washed away all the evidence.

Six years ago, the mirror was dead.

In the past six years, except for Jingzi's obsession, no one has mentioned the life of Kanemoto mirror.

A tall shadow covered Jingzi from behind, and a stack of photos was thrown heavily on the table, scattered in all directions, "I never thought that the person who always wanted to get the police involved the most is yourself. What I said , you forgot, didn't you?"

Shizuko was overwhelmed by the man's sudden momentum, her shoulders shrank timidly, and her eyes, pretending to be calm, unconsciously moved to the lower right.

"Keeping resentment is not the only way to keep the mirror alive in your heart." Jin Ben slowly stroked the top of his daughter's head, with a deep tone, "When will you really grow up? We can't bear to lose another daughter anymore .”

In front of Shizuko, Mr. Kanemoto gently put down a dessert plate, on which were two identical chubby cherry leaf pancakes. "Eat it, along with the mirror. After eating, forgive yourself."

Jingzi's expression changed suddenly, she covered her ears tightly, and a sharp cry burst out of her throat.

This deja vu crash scene brought Jin Ben's memory back to six years ago.

That day, he was standing here, watching the two sisters playing and playing under the cherry tree with tenderness on his face.

Although not his own, Jin Ben has always loved the two children brought by his wife very much.

The two sisters also like Jin Ben very much, probably because he has a gentle temperament and makes good pastries.

Cherry leaf cake is a traditional sign in Jinben's shop, and it is also the favorite of the two sisters. Every afternoon tea time, they can happily receive two pieces of this pink dessert from Jinben.

This is the first quarrel between the two sisters, and the reason is that the mirror was praised by the teacher at school, but Jingzi was criticized indifferently.Since she was a child, the mirror has been quieter and more well-behaved than Shizuko, so teachers and family members always say, intentionally or not, "Hey, Shizuko, why can't you be like your sister?"

After the parent meeting came back, Jin Ben jokingly said that the future snacks should only be eaten by good children.

That's what he said, but he turned around and went to make snacks for the child for two.

Obviously today is a very happy birthday, but unexpectedly, she was reprimanded by the teacher at school and laughed at by her father when she got home. Thinking of all these grievances, Jingzi's eyes suddenly turned red, and she couldn't help but vent her anger on her sister.

"Jingzi, don't be angry, I'll give you some snacks, okay?"

"Not good! It's all you, you just have to be a good boy by yourself, why do you want to implicate me!"

The mirror chased after her and kept coaxing her, but Shizuko turned around and pushed her sister hard.

Just didn't expect...

Memories are unbearable to tell about, and those scenes in later life that are too tragic to be described may be just an insignificant move at that time.

Their childhoods all came to an abrupt end at the moment when blood spattered.

Outside the window, the sound of the rain was silenced, only the sound of rainwater dripping from the tips of the leaves into the soil.Tears fell on the table one by one, gradually converging into large water marks, reflecting Shizuko's hazy face.

"Jingzi, 13 years old, happy birthday."