Not too many out of four

The rain that started last night didn’t stop until midnight. The sky was gray and cloudy with a flash of light and thunder from time to time. There was a gust of wind blowing outside the hotel. Li Jia probably couldn’t see the sunrise on the coastline that Li Jia originally planned to see.

As soon as the window of the hotel room was opened, a howling gust of wind rushed in and blew Lijia's hair, and her nightgown flew back. She hurriedly closed the window and the cold wind mixed with damp moisture blew over, causing her to wear only a thin nightgown The girl shivered.

"Okay, it's so cold..." Li Jia felt cold when she put her hands on the window frame, Li Jia folded her arms and rubbed her body, and murmured in a low voice, "Why is it so cold all of a sudden?"

The weather in Okinawa is so changeable. It was sunny the day before, and the temperature dropped sharply the next day, accompanied by strong winds and heavy dark clouds that could rain at any time.

Li Jia looked at the suitcase in distress: "Too bad, I didn't bring thick clothes."

She only remembered to bring cat food, cat canned food and cat bowls, and she simply packed some thin long-sleeved clothes in line with the season and temperature. She never thought that Okinawa would suddenly get cold.

Yesterday's mild and calm sea was dyed with deep and rich tones against the gloomy sky. The sea was rolled up and overturned by the wind and waves, and bursts of big waves continued to submerge the white sand by the sea. It felt that the high tide would completely cover the beach in a short time.

"Not to mention the sunrise, today's weather is not convenient for going out." She sighed secretly, shrank back to the bed and wrapped herself tightly with the quilt, curled up into a ball of quilt spring rolls.

"Mi?" The orange cat cub arched her worriedly, curling up his body to help Li Jia hold down a corner of the quilt.

Seeing that she was cold, the group of orange plush cats approached one after another. Li Jia simply opened the quilt and wrapped all the Zhongya cats in, not only to keep herself warm but also to shield the cats from the cold in the room.

The hotel rooms should have adjusted the most comfortable room temperature for guests to rest, but judging from Lijia’s current feelings, the heating in the room seems to be broken, and the room is chilly, with only a trace of warmth left in the quilt.

The little orange cat hid in her bed and licked Li Jia's cold knees, and leaned against her body to try to warm her cold and frozen knees. Li Jia shrank her legs carefully and lay down.

"It's only five o'clock..." The alarm clock she adjusted last night woke her up on time, but it's a pity that Okinawa is going to rain heavily today, and the wind and waves outside are really not suitable for going out.

The four warm kittens cuddled close to her, and the quilt was airtight to block the cold air outside. Her body temperature gradually rose and her sleepiness also increased. She yawned a little: "We can't see the sunrise, we Just sleep again."

She had already sent a text message to Kudo Shinichi just now, and the current weather could not see a sunrise, so she could only stay in the guest room and wait for the breakfast prepared by the hotel at dawn before getting up for activities.

Fortunately, there are many entertainment facilities in the resort hotel, so you don't have to worry about being bored for the next two days and one night.

The cold joints were warmed by the cat's body temperature. Li Jia exhaled and felt that the temperature in the room was so low that her head was cold when exposed outside. She even retracted her head under the quilt to face the four pairs of cat's eyes shining brightly in the bed.

Li Jia couldn't help laughing, and scratched the cat's chin: "Are you a luminous watch in the bed?"

On weekdays, the cobalt blue cat's eyes shrunk in the dark bed and exuded a faint light, which proves that the cat's food is excellent and the nutrients that need to be supplemented are in place, and there is no need to worry about seeing things at night.

"...Meow." The orange cat dumpling looked at her helplessly, and called out in a low voice.

The fluffy cat's paws pressed her hand down, and when they touched the cold fingers, they lowered their heads and licked them. The orange cat dumpling simply lay down and warmed Li Jia's hands with the warmest abdomen.

Lijia's physique is relatively weak. Whenever the weather turns cold, her body temperature will lose quickly, and her hands, feet and joints will become cold. The cats at home are very used to transferring their own temperature to her at this time.

It's a pity that she couldn't keep her hot body, and as soon as the cats and cats walked away, they finally warmed up a little, and their hands and feet would cool down again.

Huddled body and four Zhongye cats hid in the bed, only their bright eyes brought a glimmer of light to the dark and closed space, the drowsiness that had arisen faded a little, Li Jia tilted her head to look at them: "Yuanzi I didn't go to the test of courage that Miss invited me to the hotel yesterday, I feel a little embarrassed when I think about it."

It was rare that Suzuki Sonoko entertained their family on a trip to Okinawa, but she rejected the other party's invitation. Although she explained the reason well, the girls also expressed that they didn't care and even asked her to go back to the room to feed the cat quickly, but she was always a little embarrassed.

She can't always refuse people well.

"Meow? Meow! " The little orange cat hung on Li Jia's knees, with the cat's head resting on the girl's leg, turned around, and patted her with the cat's paws.

"Miss Yuanzi and Miss Lan didn't blame me..." Li Jia's voice paused, it might be better to say that Mao Lilan really wanted not to go to the test of courage, but she was dragged along by her good friends.

She pursed her lips and smiled, and changed the subject lightly: "Yesterday's test of courage was about the legend of the coast of Okinawa. It is said that there are male mermaid ghosts left a hundred years ago. Every time the tide is high, they will climb ashore to find the one they like. Women take the sea for company."

"Going ashore quietly when there are lightning, thunder, and turbulent waves, dragging a huge fish tail across the beach, leaving a wet and sticky water mark, knocking on the door, pretending to be a familiar person and asking the woman to open the door..."

Li Jia's slow and low narration sounded a little scary accompanied by the dark atmosphere in the bed. The little orange cat turned its head left and right, and saw three pairs of faint and bright eyes stiffly hugging Li Jia's knees.

The little kitten moved to Li Jia's feet one by one, gathered its body and tail and boldly said: "Meow!"

Suddenly there was a regular knock on the door, three long and two short.

The cats suddenly became agitated. Their ears pricked up and their hairs froze slightly, listening vigilantly to the sounds outside.

Li Jia quickly comforted: "It should be just a wake-up call in the morning, I'll just go out and say something."

Last night, she was worried that the morning alarm clock would not wake her up, so she deliberately made an appointment for the hotel's wake-up service. Li Jia crawled out of the bed lightly, wondering to herself: "But I seem to have canceled it in the morning, right?"

Seeing that the weather conditions were really bad, they canceled the hotel's wake-up call together with the text message notifying Kudo Shinichi.

The knock on the door continued, and Kudo Shinichi's urgent voice came through the door: "Lijia, have you woken up yet?"

A bang of thunder struck down and illuminated the whole room, and Li Jia suddenly remembered the mermaid legend just mentioned, his hands and feet were stiff and kept getting out of bed, and he didn't dare to move for a while.

There were constant knocks on the door, but Kudo Shinichi was still shouting outside: "Li Jia, are you in the room?"

"Meow." The orange cat dumpling got out of the bed first, rubbed Li Jia's hand, and jumped out of bed lightly and silently to open the door.

The light from outside the corridor penetrated into the dim room, elongating the shadow of "Mr. Nakaya". It raised its head to look at Kudo Shinichi who was stunned for a while, and urged, "Meow?"

"Uh, it's Mr. Chuya?" Kudo Shinichi came back to his senses and squatted down: "Is Li Jia still in the room? Did Lan and Sonoko come to see you?"

"...Is that brother?" Li Jia secretly heaved a sigh of relief, she was almost scared by the story she told.

"Miss Lan and Miss Yuanzi haven't come to see us." Li Jia put on a sun protection coat over her nightgown and went out in slippers: "They should still be sleeping at this time."

If it wasn't for watching the sunrise, probably no one would get up at this time, let alone they went to the test of courage last night.

The orange cat dumpling squatted obediently at the door, looked back at her, and said in a low voice, "Meow ow."

Kudo Shinichi frowned, and muttered to himself: "Could it be to go to the beach to watch the sunrise?"

Li Jia bent down to pick up the orange cat dumpling, and couldn't help but said: "But Ms. Lan has replied to my text message saying that she knows and won't go."

She took the initiative to propose the plan to get up early to watch the sunrise, and Mao Lilan and the others happily agreed last night.

When I got up this morning and saw the weather was bad, I sent a text message to inform them that I would not go. I just received a reply from them.

With the weather outside the hotel, guests who want to go out should also be discouraged from going out. If something goes wrong, they will be swept away by the wind and waves...

Li Jia couldn't help frowning worriedly: "...Did brother call them?"

Kudo Shinichi said in a low voice: "I called, both the mobile phone and the landline in the guest room." But no one answered.

He just went to check the door of their room, and the status of the door is that no one can enter to clean it, which means that the door card in their room is not plugged in and powered on.

"Did brother go with Ms. Lan and the others to the test of courage last night?" Li Jia suddenly thought of asking, she vaguely remembered that Miss Yuanzi was excited and said that she would play until the end of the test of courage.

Kudo Shinichi was stunned for a moment, frowned and shook his head: "...No, I was in the room last night to crack the code, and I didn't go to the test of courage with them."

He was recognized as a high school detective in the cafeteria. He was entrusted to help decipher a code left by a missing family member. He stayed in the room and concentrated on thinking until this morning. He hurriedly told the content of the code to wait all night. the client.

He also walked back to the room to catch up on sleep and found that Lan and the others were not in his room, thinking that they might have gone out with Li Jia to watch the sunrise, so he came to ask in a hurry, but they never came to Li Jia at all.

Why didn't anyone answer his phone call, but Li Jia sent a text message and Lan replied instead.

"Li Jia, can I have a look at Lan's text message?" He suddenly thought of something and asked urgently.

Li Jia stepped aside: "The corridor is windy, brother, come in first."

She just stood at the door for a while, and her calf was cold, and her body couldn't help shivering from the cold. The nightdress and sun protection jacket couldn't protect much warmth at all. The only thing that made Li Jia feel warm was the cat in her arms. .

Kudo Shinichi was taken aback for a moment, and then he noticed the thin clothes on his sister's body that were not warm enough: "...Okay."

……

The companion who came to Okinawa together was missing, and Li Jia was not in the mood to continue to catch up on sleep. Taking advantage of the time when Kudo Shinkan replied to the text message, she went to the bathroom and changed into a suit of clothes suitable for going out.

She put on all the warm clothes that could be piled up in the suitcase, and it was just a thin long-sleeved and suspender skirt. She never thought that it would be rainy here in Okinawa, and she didn't bring any thick clothes to go out.

Sighing secretly, and about to close the suitcase, Tangerine Cat Tuanzi pulled out two heat stickers from the storage bag on the edge, raised her paw and patted her: "Meow ow ow."

Li Jia was stunned for a moment, and said in surprise: "When is this..."

Ah, she remembered.

This was something she put in the suitcase when she moved to Tokyo from Aichi Prefecture. It happened to be winter at that time and she put some in the suitcase and didn't use it up, and she completely forgot to take it out afterwards.

She checked the expiration date and breathed a sigh of relief: "It should still be usable."

Li Jia picked up the orange cat dumpling and put it on her shoulder, carefully put the heating patch into her pocket, and happily rubbed her head against it: "Thank you, Mr. Chuya, for finding something that even my sister couldn't find."

"Meow?" The tail behind him swung slightly and hooked over, and the orange cat dumpling looked at her in confusion.

"Fever stickers may be used later..." She didn't finish her explanation, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kudo Shinichi hang up the guest room landline with a serious expression: "Brother, what happened?"

The elder brother's complexion suddenly became very bad.

"...The hotel has never held a test of courage at all," Kudo Shinichi gritted his teeth and said in a deep voice: "The text message that Lan replied is also very wrong."

Li Jia and Lan didn't have much contact, and they didn't send text messages often, so they didn't see anything wrong.

"Isn't the test of courage organized by the hotel?" Li Jia opened her eyes slightly, and couldn't help but nervously asked: "Where did Miss Nalan and Miss Yuanzi go last night...?"

"I remember they said that the test of courage will end at one o'clock in the morning, and Ms. Yuanzi also said that she would stay until the end before going back." She pressed her lips together tightly, and unconsciously clasped her hands together.

The test of courage held under the guise of the name of the hotel, no matter where you look at it, it is very wrong.

Think about it carefully... What else did Ms. Sonoko tell her...

My brother was all focused on cracking the code yesterday, and went back to his room early. He didn't pay much attention to the test of courage that Ms. Lan and the others were going to, but she stayed in the cafeteria and listened to them all the time.

Li Jia frowned, trying to recall what Sonoko Suzuki said last night: "...Legend of the Mermaid!"

"What?" Kudo Shinichi was startled, not understanding what she meant.

She swallowed hard, and straightened her words: "Miss Yuanzi told me that the place where the test of courage will be held is the legendary cave where traces of mermaids were found!"

There is a voucher left by the organizer in one of the caves near the coast of Okinawa. Only when you go through the caves to find the correct mermaid cave and bring back the voucher can you complete the test of courage.

Suzuki Sonoko was still waving a card excitedly during dinner, saying that she had deciphered the original code and knew the location of the Mermaid Cave and would go there to retrieve the voucher when the test of courage began.

"Mermaid Cave..."

Kudo Shinichi turned his gaze out of the window, and the moment the lightning struck, there was a dazzling white light outside, and the sound of crackling raindrops hit the window, his face was terribly ugly: "Li Jia, call the police and the Maritime Search and Rescue Department."

A bad premonition rose from his heart, and with the words of Kudo Shinichi, he received a heavy blow: "Lan and the others may have been trapped in the mermaid cave by the high tide."

It started to rain heavily last night and didn't stop until midnight.

The sea level kept rising with the heavy rain. If the mermaid cave that Suzuki Sonoko and the others went to happened to be in a low-lying place, the interior of the cave might have been submerged by the soaring sea water.

But thinking that the text message Li Jia sent in the morning could still receive a reply, Lan and Yuanzi should still be alive, but they encountered something and the sea level suddenly rose and were blocked in a certain cave and could not leave.

Kudo Shinichi took a few deep breaths, calmed down and worked his mind: "I'll make a call here, Li Jia, do you still remember Sonoko's code card from yesterday? Please draw it exactly, without missing any details."

He has long discovered that Li Jia has a unique talent in memory images and paintings. He can accurately draw people he has never seen with only a brief description of his appearance, and he can also reproduce paintings and letters that he has only seen once. .

He needed the code card that Yuanzi got yesterday to decipher the location of the Mermaid Cave, and at the same time contacted the sea search and rescue team to help find the location of the Mermaid Cave.

"I understand." Li Jia nodded solemnly, and took out the pen and paper in her pocket.

The fingers holding the pen tightened, she took a deep breath and let it out slowly, her eyes calmed down——

Recreate the code card that Suzuki Sonoko waved in front of his eyes in memory.