Chapter 5

"Have I ever told you that I don't like being followed?" Rina stood behind Hoshino, her face extremely cold.

Hoshino's throat bobbed, and she lowered her eyes with a smile, as if she didn't know what it was. "I just saw my sister come in alone, and I was a little worried."

"Is that so?" Rina curled the corners of her lips into a cold smile, raised her hand and touched the boy's shoulder, answering him directly with her actions.

From top to bottom, shoulders, arms, chest, abdomen, and waist—besides the hard, solid muscles, Rina hadn't expected to find an unexpected bonus: "...seven military knives were hidden on his body."

Would a normal person carry so many dangerous items on them?

Hoshino followed her movements, watching as the hidden weapons on his body were taken out one by one and tossed into a corner. He couldn't help but chuckle softly, "Sister, I'm really ticklish..."

Her touch was very light, and her movements were extremely slow; these two aspects were truly torturous.

Rina withdrew her hand and glanced at his lower body. "You came to kill me?"

Hoshino asked, puzzled, "Why would I kill my sister?"

Judging from his expression, you could tell that the pistol posed no threat to him.

"Why aren't you calling me Madam anymore?" Rina put away her pistol and bent down to pick up the military knife from the ground.

“Madam would be frightened by a corpse, and she certainly wouldn’t walk alone at night, let alone come to a place like this.” Hoshino breathed a sigh of relief, then paused, “Who is my sister?”

Rina observed quietly for an unknown amount of time before throwing the razor blade onto the plate.

Hoshino looked somewhat regretful and continued, "Is the lady safe now?"

“She’s passed away.” Rina sighed, turned around, and looked at the withered flower arrangement on the alcove.

Hoshino stared at her, startled. "Did something happen?"

"Suicide," Rina asked, "Did you notice anything unusual?"

Hoshino calmly thought for a moment, "I've been here for less than a year, but I've heard from the old people in the manor that after Kawashima got married, the couple treated each other with respect and never even quarreled. It's just that the old chairman and his two daughters were very dissatisfied with Natsume Kanon."

“Makoto Kawashima and Ryosuke Kawashima.” Rina took a few steps forward, drawn to the dusty paintings on the wall.

"May I ask about your identity, sister?" Hoshino followed behind her naturally.

"Don't ask if you don't know." Rina took out a handkerchief from her pocket, covered her mouth and nose, and patted the picture frame with her hand.

As dust settled, the portrait gradually revealed a scene of two people embracing on the beach.

Hoshino noticed the small words carved on the frame: "To atone for my sins, I am willing to give my life to the devil." The words were carved in a mess.

"The drawing isn't very good either." Rina moved away and went to the dressing table.

“Sister, I know too much about these things,” Hoshino was still staring at the painting, clearly puzzled, and looked thoughtful. “Did the owner of this room paint this?”

Rina: "What's wrong?"

Hoshino: "The scene depicted here is beautiful and romantic, so why inscribe words like 'atonement for sins' on it? The two seem to have no necessary connection."

"The protagonist of that painting is Leon, who, according to legend, swam across the Hellespont Strait to meet his lover Hero, but tragically drowned in the end." Lina glanced at the painting, her attitude very perfunctory, "A shallow story of deep affection."

Hoshino grunted in response, and seeing her walk out, he immediately followed. "Are we going to the third floor?"

"It shouldn't be necessary." Rina silently counted her steps as she walked from the far left end of the corridor to the far right end. "There's still a secret room downstairs that hasn't been discovered yet."

"A locked room?" Hoshino narrowed her eyes expressionlessly, but her tone carried a hint of playfulness and cuteness. "Sister, what did you do for a living before?"

He came so many times before and didn't notice, is it a problem with his intelligence?

"Are you curious?" Rina asked casually as she descended the stairs.

Hoshino nodded like a puppy. "Big sister is amazing. Are you a police officer?"

A hint of impatience flashed across Rina's face. She lifted her eyelids to glance at him, and the next moment, the old wooden planks cracked.

She lost her balance and fell towards the floor.

Fortunately, Hoshino reacted quickly, grabbing the stair railing with one hand and wrapping his arm around Rina's waist with the other.

However, the stair railing couldn't support the weight of the two people at all. Before they could even stand up, the railing creaked and broke.

Both of them fell heavily to the bottom of the stairs, sending dust flying everywhere.

Rina felt no pain. She suddenly stood up, coughed a few times, and it took her a while to realize that Hoshino was pinned down.

"Sister, are you alright?" Hoshino let go of her hand, struggled internally for a moment, but in the end did not move, just looked at her pitifully.

Rina was pressed against him, and felt something digging into her thigh, causing her to freeze for a moment.

Hoshino took a deep breath, trying to maintain a calm expression, but still managed an embarrassed smile.

Rina frowned slightly, showing him no mercy, and sat up abruptly, pulling out a fruit knife hidden in his pants pocket.

Hoshino glanced at the scrapes on her arm, but stood up unconcerned and continued to whine to her, "Sister, this place is a bit scary, I'm so afraid..."

"How old are you?" Rina looked down at the fruit knife in her hand and suddenly remembered the moment she fell down the stairs and saw Hoshino's eyes.

His almost translucent ice-blue pupils revealed a hint of indifference, his gaze clear and calm, like the shimmering scales of deep-sea fish swimming past coral, capable of stirring a different kind of emotion in anyone who saw them.

“I was an abandoned orphan, and I don’t know the exact date,” Hoshino leaned closer to her. “However, when the director picked me up, I had a necklace on me. I calculated that I should be eighteen this year.”

A man who shows vulnerability in front of a woman is usually either playing the victim or trying to gain sympathy. Rina smiled at him, an indescribable, hazy distance emanating from her. "Never been to school?"

Hoshino shook her head. "Sister, will you dislike me?"

He kept calling her "sister," but Rina ignored him. After thinking for a moment, she walked to the end of the corridor on the right and tapped the wall with her finger.

Just as she had anticipated, there was a secret room behind the wall.

As the two were exploring the mechanisms of the secret room, Hoshino suddenly grabbed her hand, signaling her to stop, and whispered, "Sister, there's movement behind this wall. It sounds like someone is crying."

Rina: "......"

She pulled her hand away, frowning and looking at him impatiently: "Don't you think the atmosphere is scary enough?"

Despite wearing gloves, she still disliked being touched.

Especially this seemingly harmless boy, whose presence and aggression are extremely strong.

"Is your older sister scared too?" Hoshino's throat bobbed, a hint of a smile playing on his lips.

"Am I some kind of strange human? In the dead of night, a person crying out in a dilapidated warehouse deep in the mountains, anyone would be terrified." Rina didn't even bother to roll her eyes at him.

Hoshino's smile was flawless, as if she wouldn't get angry no matter what she said. "No, my sister is very interesting."

No sooner had he finished speaking than a "click" sound came from the doorway of the warehouse.

Takase walked over there, holding a flashlight and carrying a food box.

Rina and Hoshino were forced to squeeze into a garbage corner at the bottom of the stairs. The two were so close that she could smell Hoshino's scent.

This is a distance she cannot accept.

As the footsteps drew closer, Rina's chest heaved. She could only try to distract herself, picking up the broken mirror from the ground to check the situation in the hallway.

Takase opened the window and carefully moved the flowerpot away. As for what she did next, Rina couldn't see clearly.

But she heard Takase move the bricks.

The person had already entered the secret room. Rina glanced back at Hoshino, signaling him to stay where he was.

But when I turned around and saw the bangs covering half of my face, my vision went black instantly.

"Don't worry, I won't hold my sister back." Hoshino nodded firmly.

Rina lingered on his bangs for a moment, unsure of what to say, so she remained silent and quietly approached the door of the secret room.

Just as Hoshino said, once the door to the secret room opened, the woman's crying became clearer and clearer.

Moreover, the sound seemed to be very close, proving that the secret room was not large, and she would probably be discovered as soon as she entered.

Lina thought about how useful someone's ears were, so she beckoned to the large dog on the stairs.

Hoshino understood what she meant and immediately went to her side.

The two stood furtively at the door of the secret room, hesitating whether to go in because the room was soundproofed.

Then Takase came out from inside.

Rina's eyes held a complex mix of emotions. She looked away and went back down the stairs to continue hiding.

After a while, the person left completely, and the warehouse returned to deathly silence.

Rina stood by the window and smelled a strange fragrance emanating from the secret room. "What did you hear people saying in there just now?"

“There’s a woman locked up in here,” Hoshino thought for a moment. “Takase seems to call her Kazuha and asked her if she had left this secret room. Aren’t you going in, sister?”

Lina seemed to realize something and absentmindedly replied, "Since we already know who's inside, there's no point in going in."

Hoshino hummed in response and asked softly, "So, did you come here to investigate Miss Myoko's case, sister?"

"I've found the person who killed Aoki Myoko." Rina could no longer stand the musty smell in the storage room and strode outside.

"Sister already knows?!" Hoshino glanced back at the secret room, quickly catching up with Rina, her expression full of curiosity. "How did you know, sister?"

"Close the door." Rina breathed a slight sigh of relief, took off her gloves, took out her phone with one hand, scrolled through her contacts for a while, found Sato's name, and started sending a message.

Hoshino obediently closed the door and took the dirty gloves from her hand. "I'll keep them. If you throw them in the trash, the housekeeper might notice."

Rina looked up at him, her expression becoming somewhat dazed.

However, she was soon awakened by a cool breeze. She coughed a few times with her fist pressed to her lips and continued typing.

Hoshino subconsciously looked away.

He could read that look in her eyes; it must have been someone who had silently taken the white gloves from her hands earlier.

Neither of them spoke for a while. After a while, Rina finished what she was doing, put her phone back in her pocket, and said, "Come back to the room with me."

“Sister.......” Hoshino stood there helplessly, her hand hovering in mid-air, but her back was straight.

"I know you like Kanon, and I'm her sister, so you don't need to worry. I won't be interested in you at all." After saying that, Rina turned around and answered a phone call, giving Hoshino no chance to explain.

Hoshino felt as if she had been struck by lightning, and a strange emotion rose within her.

While making the call, Rina glanced back at him, signaling him to hurry up and follow.

Hoshino felt a little helpless. After catching up, he heard her say the name "Kurosawa Shiranui," and a very subtle smile appeared on her lips.

Will it be discovered so quickly?