Chapter 380: Strange Ghost Fetus Increases (Combined Chapter)

The truck cab is too small, with only enough space for two people, besides the driver.

Jiang Xia gave his seat to Yuanshan Heye who was carrying a huge backpack, got out of the car and climbed into the back bed, where he sat with two other hitchhikers and a motorcycle in the area that was originally used to load goods.

The air is fresher than in the cab, but the metal base is a bit uncomfortable to sit on.

However, because there was a group of wild murderous aura next to him, Jiang Xia felt more comfortable with this position.

…

After adding three people and a motorcycle, the truck started again.

This time, considering that there were several people sitting in the back, Takeda Yuzo drove a little slower than before.

Hattori Heiji leaned against the waist-high railing, looked at Jiang Xia who was in a good mood for some reason, and then silently looked down at the dirt road outside that was constantly sweeping away.

I thought the car wasn't going very fast and I still had time to jump out.

...Wait, what are you thinking about?

Hattori Heiji raised his hand and tapped his forehead to stop his dangerous thoughts.

...In fact, now that he has met Jiang Xia more often, he is gradually not as repulsive as when he first met him.

Especially the last time on Furukawa Dai's ship, Jiang Xia saved him from a wanted criminal - if he was really attacked by the murderer and thrown into the sea, in the middle of the night, no one saw him, he might have become a floating corpse in the sea. From this perspective, Jiang Xia was his lifesaver.

Moreover, people will always gradually adapt to the environment.

When Hattori Heiji first saw Jiang Xia's speed of solving a case as if she were reading a script, he just found it unbelievable;

The second time, I felt less convinced;

The third time, I firmly believed that I could do it.

Then, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine times...

Gradually, you will develop antibodies.

However, the conditioned reflex of "not wanting to investigate the case with Jiang Xia" still remained and had not subsided for the time being.

——Hattori Heiji analyzed his mental process of wanting to jump out of the car just now and felt that it was inappropriate.

Escaping is an unhealthy mentality. Maybe my parents are right: people should learn to face challenges head-on. He is still young and has many opportunities to improve himself. Sooner or later, he will be able to catch up with Jiang Xia's speed.

And no one likes to be disliked by others.

Every time he saw Jiang Xia, he turned around and walked away. This behavior might cause some invisible harm to Jiang Xia's heart as what He Ye and the two people in Tokyo said... Although he couldn't see where the harm was, he just felt that Jiang Xia was happier than him most of the time... But in short, one should be conscientious.

Hattori Heiji took a deep breath and temporarily suppressed the instinctive thought of "jumping out of the car".

And to be friendly, he tried to take the initiative to talk to Jiang Xia: "Why are you here?"

Jiang Xia turned his head and looked at him. Because Hattori Heiji was busy with many cases, he always liked this Osaka black guy: "Like you, I received a letter of commission with 500,000 yen in cash, so I wanted to come and take a look."

As he said this, he took out the letter he had collected earlier and showed it to Hattori Heiji.

When Hattori Heiji heard this, his face darkened slightly.

He took Jiang Xia's letter and muttered to himself: Jiang Xia received 500,000? He only had 200,000... It's not that he was greedy for the commission, but as a high school detective, why was he so cheap?

Hattori Heiji felt a little bit of resentment in his heart.

However, after taking the letter of authorization handed over by Jiang Xia, this little emotion immediately dissipated.

——The letter that Jiang Xia received was handwritten in vertical lines, signed, and stamped, and the wording was very cautious and polite. It looked like a very formal letter of authorization.

This was completely different from the one he had received.

His letter was typed and anonymous, and the wording... there was no wording at all, just two mysterious sentences.

...If the same person hired a detective on the same day, there is no need for one to give his signature and the other to write in a mysterious style.

If this situation occurs, it means that the people who sent the letter of authorization to him and Jiang Xia are two different people.

And this means...

No need to investigate the case with Jiang Xia!

Hattori Heiji raised the corner of his mouth, but quickly suppressed it as if nothing had happened.

He took out the letter of commission he had received, waved it towards Jiang Xia, cleared his throat, and said as if with some regret:

"It seems there are two families with the surname 'Takeda' here. We have to investigate each of them separately."

Jiang Xia silently glanced at Hattori Heiji, whose whole body seemed to have "I'm happy!" written all over it, the only thing missing was small flowers coming out of his head. He felt that no matter whether in Kansai or Kanto, the acting skills of this batch of high school detectives were not up to standard.

However, he still looked at the paper that Hattori Heiji was waving out of respect.

Compared with the letter sent by Takeda Shinichi, the style of Hattori Heiji's letter is obviously different. It only has two sentences:

[Please arrive at Takeda's house at Kuei-rai Peak before dusk next Saturday.

Otherwise, the living puppets will become the spider's bait.]

Jiang Xia was silent for a moment.

In fact, compared to the letter sent by Takeda Shinichi, he prefers the style of the preview letter in Hattori Heiji's hand - it's deliberately mysterious, and it looks like a lot of ghosts will appear...

On the other side, Robert Taylor, who was also hitchhiking, saw the two letters and came over curiously.

While reading Hattori Heiji's letter of entrustment, he recited it fluently as if learning a foreign language: "Becoming the spider's bait... Why feed the spider with a living puppet?"

Takeda Yuzo, who was driving in front, had the windows open. The car was not going very fast, and the wind noise from both sides was not very loud.

Not only did he hear Robert's puzzled muttering, he also heard Hattori Heiji's regretful words, "Everyone should investigate their own affairs."

Feeling that the guest seemed to have misunderstood, Takeda Yuzo, who looked cold but was warm-hearted, interrupted:

"If the letter mentions 'Spider', then it should be referring to our family. Some bad things happened to my family before. People nearby said that we were cursed by the spider. They also said that if you don't want to be hung and killed for no reason, you must not go near the 'Spider Mansion'... Humph, what a boring rumor."

When Toyama Heye heard the word "curse", goose bumps appeared on her white arms.

She quickly stroked her skin, using friction to generate heat to fight the cold, and said half to comfort herself and half with certainty: "There are no monsters or curses in this world! Someone must be secretly doing this. This time they invited a detective to come, probably to investigate this matter - with Jiang Xia and Heiji here, they will definitely be able to reveal the truth about the 'curse' right away!"

Hattori Heiji: "..."

This "Takeda" is also that "Takeda"?

...I can’t investigate separately from Jiang Xia.

Also, why did He Ye put Jiang Xia's name before his? Wouldn't people who are more familiar be mentioned first?

Hattori Heiji sat in the convertible car, silently tightening his coat, feeling the mountain breeze was a bit chilly.

Rob didn't notice his companion's inexplicable depression. He touched his chin and asked in confusion: "Why haven't I heard of such rumors?"

"You came here three years ago, right? I remember that year when you were crushed by the collapsed rocks, it was Misa who took care of you." Takeda Yuzo recalled this and suddenly remembered something, his voice gradually lowered, "No wonder you haven't heard of this rumor..."

Rob didn't dwell on the rumors anymore.

He asked with a smile like a guest who came to visit his benefactor: "Speaking of Misa, how has she been these years?"

“…”

Takeda Yuzo held a cigarette in his mouth, was silent for a moment, then raised his hand and pointed out the window.

The four people in front and behind the car were startled and looked in the direction they were pointing at the same time.

According to normal development, they should have happened to encounter "Misa" on the roadside here, so Takeda Yuzo pointed it out to them.

However, when looking carefully, there was no one in that direction, not even a bird.

Just as I was wondering, I heard Takeda Yuzo say dryly:

"Look, does that mountain look like a sleeping puppet? In fact, this is one of the reasons why Puppet Peak got its name..."

Hattori Heiji: "..."

Yuanshan Heye: "..."

This topic change is too abrupt...

...Did something happen to that "Meisha"?

But Takeda Yuzo looked like he didn't want to say anything, so it was probably impossible to ask him for the time being.

Hattori Heiji didn't say anything else, but just took note of this point.

At present, he still didn't know what the client wanted him to investigate. The letter Jiang Xia received didn't mention the reason for the commission, so he could only write down all the suspicious points and wait for them to be used later.

Next to him, Jiang Xia also turned his head as if to hint when Takeda Yuzo pointed at the "sleeping puppet", but his attention was not at all on the mountain which actually had no shape.

He lowered his hand slightly and secretly touched the murderous aura that floated to his hand with the wind.

The murderous aura was emanating from Rob.

When he mentioned "Misa", the foreign friend's murderous aura was particularly inflated. In addition, a fresh shikigami was clinging to his calf at this time.

Although Rob was lost, had never heard of the legend, and looked like he hadn't been back for three years.

But in Jiang Xia's impression, this foreigner had actually been at Puppet Peak for several days.

Three years ago, when Rob left Puppet Peak after recovering from his injury, he had already fallen in love with Takeda Misa, who took good care of him. He planned to learn Japanese well, take care of his own affairs, and then come back to happily fall in love.

Three years later, when I came back, I found that Takeda Misa had died.

——I heard that not long after he left, she suddenly hanged herself.

Robert knew that Misa's father, Takeda Shinichi, treated her badly and thought that Misa must have been forced to death by her father. So after some investigation, he found out that Takeda Shinichi was a drug dealer and came up with a plan.

Robert first killed the partner who helped Takeda Shinichi sell drugs and hung him in the storage room. Then he stole a puppet filled with drugs and used it to threaten Takeda Shinichi, intending to trick him into the warehouse on the second floor and then kill him with a pre-arranged mechanism to avenge Misa.

The letter of commission that Hattori Heiji received was actually written by Robert.

The chance encounter of the "lost brothers" just now was an artificial encounter - Rob intended to use this method to create the illusion that he was "new here" and thus eliminate his own suspicion.

…

The truck bumped along the mountain road for more than an hour, and a large yard appeared in the distance.

The walls and houses here are made of fine materials, and the materials are solid, but they look a bit old after years of wind and sun. At dusk, the setting sun gradually sets, the light dims, and the whole house exudes a gloomy and strange atmosphere.

As the vehicle approached the Takeda family's residence, Jiang Xia's bored gaze slowly stopped at the courtyard.

He stared for a moment, then looked down at the ghost beside him as if to confirm.

The ghosts seemed to have sensed something and were clinging to the edge of the car, staring at the Takeda family's yard.

The mermaid stared for a while, and secretly hid the murderous ball in her arms. Her cautious demeanor reminded Jiang Xia of those happy otakus who hurriedly put away their precious figurines before the naughty kids came to visit.

...This kind of reaction seems like there really is something fishy going on.

...But now Hattori Heiji and Robert have just arrived, Takeda Shinichi should still be alive. Who dropped this ghost?

Jiang Xia was slightly confused for a moment, but quickly came to his senses.

No matter who dropped it, since he found it, it must be his ghost...

He used the movement of supporting the frame of the car to poke at a few ghosts who were still concentrating on sensing, signaling them to go and catch the strange new ghost fetus... Ahem, please come over and talk.

…

The truck quickly drove into the Takeda family's yard.

Along the way, although Hattori Heiji resisted the urge to ask Takeda Yuzo, he was very concerned about "Misa" who made Takeda Yuzo abruptly change the subject. He planned to wait until he arrived at Takeda's house and then find another person to ask about the situation.

After getting off the car and entering the "Spider Mansion", the group met a middle-aged woman with ordinary looks and gentle temperament at the door of the house.

This is Takeda Yoko.

The Takeda family has three brothers - the current head of the family, Takeda Shinichi, the cultural man Takeda Ryuji who lives in the city, and the honest man Takeda Yuzo who just went to pick up Jiang Xia and others.

Yoko Takeda is the wife of Ryuji Takeda and the only middle-aged woman in the family. The eldest son’s wife has passed away and the third son is still a bachelor.

When Heiji Hattori asked about Misa Takeda, Yoko looked around and whispered, "Three years ago, she hanged herself in the puppet warehouse."

Jiang Xia sensed his own ghost, which was running around chasing something about ten meters away, and the ghost fetus whose sense was vague, and asked thoughtfully: "Suicide?"

"Yeah." Takeda Yoko twisted her hands together nervously, thinking of the horrible corpse, and nodded in fear.

She looked at Jiang Xia, and obviously recognized that he was a famous detective. After calming down, she continued, "Not long after Misa died, my sister-in-law - Misa's mother - also hanged herself in the same place."

"The same place..."

Jiang Xia frowned and repeated her words, pretending to be thinking seriously, but his mind had already drifted elsewhere.

Next to him, Hattori Heiji, who was really thinking seriously, just felt confused at this moment.

Seeing that Takeda Yoko did not volunteer to elaborate, he asked, "Why did they commit suicide?"

"Not sure." Takeda Yoko looked even more confused than Hattori Heiji, with a hint of fear in her expression, "And it's not just that. A few days ago, Mr. Negishi - the assistant of Nobuichi - also passed away.

"He hanged himself in the storage room when we were not at home during the day..."

(End of this chapter)