Chapter 46 Where’s the Money?



Chapter 46 Where’s the Money?

I can't remember many things that happened afterwards.

My body's functions were on the verge of limits, and my consciousness was flying around in a dreamlike world. It felt like my incarnated soul was shattered by the wind in the empty sky, brushing against the surrounding mist, and capturing broken images in one colorful picture after another.

This memory has been clear and blurry to me from the very beginning. I can clearly see every expression of Lilith, but I vaguely don’t know where I am or what we are doing.

I remember Lilith smiled, a bright, happy, innocent smile like a normal girl's. She held my hand and walked forward, skipping and jumping, her hair swaying in the wind.

Her hands are so cold.

She held my hand, her fingertips digging into my flesh. Although I felt no pain, I could still feel a cold pull, as if my hand was being torn away from my wrist.

We walked forward and forward, and my consciousness became more and more fragmented. In the end, I only had the strength to follow her. I could not see her face or hear her voice.

Finally, finally, she stopped and looked at me.

"——" I didn't hear clearly what she said.

At that moment, I suddenly realized that we would probably never see each other again.

Then it was farewell forever.

For some reason, I suddenly stretched out my hand and tried to grab her shadow, but I caught nothing.

At the same moment, a huge force burst out from my chest. The force was so great that my body stiffened and suddenly fell backwards.

In an instant, the world spun.

In the darkness, I saw the shadows of countless people, swaying, of unknown height, like ghosts.

There were noisy but indistinguishable shouts in my ears, my mind was blank, and my eyes fell on the brilliant galaxy in the sky. The stars relied on each other, flickering in light and dark under the control of wind and clouds. A beautiful ribbon of color spread from one side of the sky, dominating the entire sky. In a dark world, it is the only bright and beautiful color.

In a state of inexplicable melancholy, I slowly lost consciousness.

After being lost in the polar night snowfield for eleven days, I was found by a rescue team on the edge of the aid station.

The army brought me back urgently and arranged the best first aid for me.

When I woke up, it was already the fifth day.

The eleventh day, a big dream.

After leaving the army, I became an adventurer and a mail carrier.

Two months ago, I decided to go deep into the polar night area to collect materials at a coordinate location to complete the postal work that I took over in my spare time because of interest.

I was well prepared, with food, water, medicine, and warm clothes. I had intended to complete the work within two weeks, as the destination was not far away. If I’m lucky, I might even be able to see the Northern Lights. I’m very confident about this trip.

Until I encountered that sudden snowstorm and got lost.

There was not enough food and water, nor enough warm facilities. In order to maintain body temperature, you have to stay awake and refuse to sleep. So I didn't sleep for several days and nights, relying solely on willpower to move forward.

Can't fall down, can't pass out, can't sleep.

Keep moving forward until you get out of this polar night.

When people are in extreme environments, it is inevitable that they will have mental problems. Create an illusion of warmth, an illusion of safety, and even an illusion of brightness.

Amid the chaos, I vaguely saw the sun rising from the east, so bright and so warm, that its light illuminated the entire snowfield, and the snow reflected a dazzling white light. I knew this was a sign of snow blindness, and in my excitement I wanted to close my eyes to avoid more serious damage.

But the next moment, the stiff body shuddered, as if opening its eyes through thick fog, and was shocked by what it saw in fear and shivered all over.

——I fell asleep while walking.

The so-called sun is just a dream, and the so-called closing of eyes is the shaking of the body before fainting.

I almost died in this hell.

I've experienced countless near misses.

The hallucinations of the environment interfered with my cognition, and the auditory and visual hallucinations made me wander between life and death. I couldn't control my body and could only play different roles in one dream after another. Memories gradually fade away, thoughts gradually wither away, and finally only instincts remain in the body.

All I knew was that I had to get out alive, and all I knew was that it was so cold.

I no longer remembered where I was or where I was going, so I walked into a black town and met the girl in the town.

She said her name was Lilith.

At this moment, I have forgotten everything and my mind is as blank as a piece of white paper.

She chuckled and held my hand, whispering intimate words of love, wanting to hear me say that I loved her.

I still can't tell whether it was an illusion.

Or was this a huge dream that lasted silently for several days in order to save oneself?

My teacher advised me to return to the army, saying it was safer there anyway.

She had tears in her eyes, and for some reason, at first glance she looked much older than she had many years ago.

I stared at her blankly and asked her:

"Do you regret saving me?"

She bit her lips, combed her white hair behind her ears, and a sad and forbearing look appeared on her face:

"How can a child like you survive?"

I hate her, but I don't blame her.

I know it since she rescued me many years ago, since she performed a successful operation on me many years ago, and since she brought me into the army many years ago. I owe her a lot.

I am disgusted with her and hate her. I hate her self-assertion and her forcing. But wanting to kill her was just talk.

Just stay away from her, further away. As long as they are far enough apart, the blades of each other will not stab each other. As long as it is far enough, the kindness and goodwill of the past will not be eroded by endless monotony and conflict.

I said, "Wouldn't it be better if we didn't get hurt?"

She was stunned, and in a trance, she saw her despair in silence, tears streaming down her face, sobbing uncontrollably.

In the dream, there are stars in the sky, in the dream, there are loving whispers, in the dream, there are bloody paradise in the world of bliss, in the dream, there are corpses in the dissection room of the military area.

I woke up with a start and saw the pale blue light reflected from the snow in the polar night. In the plain white porcelain vase on the window, the pale pink flowers were covered with a thin purple shell.

He remained silent and stared at the shadow in a daze for a long time. After a while, he stood up and opened the bathroom door.

I saw my face.

The face is indistinguishable from that of an androgynous person. An operation during adolescence stripped her of her female organs, resulting in a hormone imbalance that has given her many masculine features.

I said, “I will protect myself.”

The person in the mirror smiled, his eyes filled with overflowing love.

I said, "I don't need love. I am no longer a monster that feeds on love and pain."

The person in the mirror had tears in his eyes, and his red eyes were flashing with a light pink fluorescence.

I said, "I am..."

I...I am...

I moved my lips, and for some reason, I choked up for a moment.

——"I am...I am Lilith."

I am Lilith.

He suffered from love and pain as a teenager, and went to his end in confusion when he became crazy. His nerves were damaged by large amounts of drugs, and he was eventually forced to undergo surgery to lose his gender.

Lilith has seen the deepest hell, and Lilith has enjoyed the supreme love.

Lilith is fearless and Lilith is omnipotent.

"Lilith has given up herself. Lilith is no longer in pain. Lilith will protect herself."

An inexplicable joy overflows from the bottom of my heart.

The cycle of love and pain cannot be ended, only protecting yourself is so pure and so warm.

If you are hurt by love, then reject love.

If you are hurt by pain, then let go of the pain.

If you feel danger, eliminate it.

Life is an endless tragedy and the world is a boring paradise.

Mother said:

"If you want to survive, you have to adapt to this world."

I gave you up and adapted to this world.

Lilith, who is loveless and painless, has found the direction that suits her best.

Lilith finally found redemption.

You said you loved me.

You think this is appropriate, right?

Love and Pain Epilogue - Excerpt

**

Towards the end of "Love and Pain", before the last chapter was published, Edogawa Ranpo asked for leave from the president, moved to the shrine overnight, and followed the Sengenbaku closely.

Nakai also wanted to ask for leave, but Nakai had a lot of work to do in the detective agency. Unlike Ranpo who spent most of his time leisurely, he was responsible for 50% of the work with people with special abilities and really had no way to make time.

In the end, Nakai could only reluctantly prepare plenty of ice and cold water for the house, and also prepared a kitchen thermometer as a backup, in case the Chimamu caught fire and there was no water to put out the fire.

Chijianmu: It shouldn’t happen this time…right? (hesitate)

The high fever of 65 degrees that day was so shocking that it still makes people feel unbelievable like a dream. If Qian Jianmu was left alone at home, perhaps nothing would have happened to him in the end, but wouldn't they have missed the chance for this miracle to happen again, which would have been a huge loss.

Dazai Osamu, as he had already moved into the Port Mafia building, could not come back and could only make loud phone calls.

Mori Ogai doesn't care much about Dazai Osamu, as long as he can work. Even if Dazai Osamu rushes out to commit suicide, Mori Ogai will just smile indifferently, as calm as an old monk. But does Mori Ogai really not care about Dazai Osamu?

No matter if it means you can do whatever you want within a certain range, the regulation of this range means long-term, vague surveillance.

They never trusted each other, and they were always wary of each other.

If Dazai Osamu did not return home all night, there would inevitably be some testing. Although Sengenmaku was not afraid of being exposed to Mori Ogai, Dazai Osamu felt that many things would become troublesome. Moreover, there was a thrill in having an affair under the teacher's nose without telling Mori Ogai, which made him feel secretly happy every time he saw Mori Ogai.

...You're amazing, Dazai Osamu, you're really starting to become a little perverted.

So, no matter how much Dazai Osamu wanted to fly over, he could only scream on the phone. Somehow he suddenly talked about pain and love, and then he gave a long speech, criticizing the hypocrisy, emptiness and inexplicability of love, and believed that loving himself was also a fantasy, hateful, shameful and extremely annoying!

So Qian Jianmu asked him: "Is it so annoying?"

Dazai Osamu suddenly fell silent. After a long while, he said:

"boring."

The boy, who has grown up a lot, is still searching for his life. He walks along the long river, alone, neither sad nor happy.

But Qian Jianmu suddenly laughed:

"I always feel like Dazai will become a very weird person."

Dazai Osamu was silent for a long time, then hung up the phone angrily.

When he hung up the phone, Edogawa Ranpo was stroking the cat and eating snacks. He used the snacks to tease the cat but did not give them to the cat. When the cat looked at it eagerly, he ate it in one bite. The angry cat opened its eyes wide in disbelief, meowed angrily, and swept its tail back and forth like a broom spirit.

Chigenmaku felt vaguely that this scene looked familiar, and suddenly remembered that on a certain day in a certain year, Dazai Osamu teased the neighbor's dog. After returning to the shrine, he had not eaten for a day and was said to be full. Nakai went out to look around and came back trying not to laugh. Qian Jianmu was confused and went out to take a look. He found the neighbor's dog was crying angrily in front of an empty bowl. It was hard to believe that a dog could have such a sad and heartbroken expression on its face. Its crying made anyone who heard it cry.

He didn't realize what was happening at the time, but now, he suddenly had an outrageous idea.

No way…

Seeing that Chigenmaku's expression was blank, Ranpo glanced at him and asked:

"What's wrong?"

"Dazai Osamu, he's so strong." Chijianmaku murmured.

"Why does it feel like this is not a positive comment..." Edogawa Ranpo muttered.

Ayatsuji Yukito was making coffee. Not long after the reliable worker Nakai Hideo received his salary from the Armed Detective Agency, he bought gifts for everyone in the family. Ayatsuji Yukito also got one, which was a high-end coffee machine. He was very satisfied with it. Although he didn't show any expression, the cat was very happy during those days.

The relationship between Ayatsuji Yukito and Edogawa Ranpo is very subtle. If you say their relationship is bad, in fact, the two of them communicate through text messages. But if you say that the relationship is very good, but when the two people meet they are not warm to each other and don’t talk much, there is a strong sense of distance. The two people's most common communications were about puzzles and cases, and they were often over in just a few words before the other person even knew what had happened. After the communication, everyone went about their business and nothing happened.

This may be the combined effect of the detectives' mutual admiration and repulsion towards each other.

Although he didn't know why Edogawa Ranpo suddenly landed at the shrine, he didn't ask and was determined to find the answer himself. When he started to feel challenged, he would drink a lot of coffee. This pattern was figured out by Qian Jianmu himself. So whenever Edogawa arrived, the shrine was filled with the faint aroma of coffee.

The black cat sniffed the scent and ignored the bad guy Edogawa Ranpo, rubbing against Chigenmaku's legs and getting a perfunctory pat in return. Then, he raised his tail high and went to look for Ayatsuji Yukito with a adjusted mood.

"Are you worried about something recently?" Although he had noticed it a long time ago, the reserved detective finally brought up the matter slowly and casually.

"Well, there are indeed some problems. I just found some clues."

"You big idiot, I told you to find a detective if there is a problem. So what is it?" Edogawa Ranpo's eyes lit up.

There are few questions that can stump Chijianmu, even though he is not good at deciphering puzzles and does not want to be a detective. But his intuition and logical ability are very strong, and most of Yokohama's intelligence network was built based on his inferences.

His skills lie in intelligence gathering and integration as well as interpersonal communication.

Something that made Sengenmaku feel suspicious and made him investigate it for a long time, even Edogawa Ranpo had to admit that it should be an interesting mystery.

"Have you ever heard of the Dragon Head Family?"

"...the mafia family that is almost extinct?"

The development of the Yokohama Mafia has actually undergone a long evolution. At the beginning, the Yokohama Mafia was influenced by the Italian Mafia and was a family-based group, more like a family business.

The advantage of a mafia family is that it is very stable during its development process. Important figures are all family members. The only slight fluctuation is during the transition period between the old and the new, when there will be a reshuffle of power due to changes in ownership. But once it stabilizes, the stability of a family mafia is far superior to the current mafia structure.

But this was the Yokohama Mafia before the emergence of people with special abilities.

Before the superpower war, or before superpowers suddenly emerged like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, Yokohama was a relatively busy port city, and the mafia family named "Dragon Head" was the only force here. They occupied the entire port, and many of the ports in Yokohama were originally decided and established by them. They monopolized the city's foreign trade and boldly shared a 70:30 ratio with the Yokohama government, and for a time they were the most powerful people.

All I can say is that the Yokohama government has always been a bunch of idiots.

But the appearance of people with special abilities broke the situation.

Blood ties are the indestructible chain that maintains relationships and can give a person rights. The speculation and fear between people comes from the examination of each other's abilities. But something as nonsensical as blood relationship can often defeat elements such as talent and wisdom and directly become the entire ability.

That's why there is a change of imperial power. Even though the successor has no talent, everyone will just accept this fact. This is the constraint from bloodline that cannot be broken through by any ability. No matter how capable you are, no matter how sharp the knife is, it is just a weapon and it can never become the master. The delicate DNA distinguishes species, kinship divides levels, and the relationships between superiors and inferiors can be as deep as years of hard study and accumulation of talent, or as shallow as whether one has chosen the right family for reincarnation.

Ironic, but impossible to change.

Until someone with special abilities appeared.

Human talents can wield power and earn money, but humans cannot create fire out of thin air, cannot create objects out of thin air, and cannot directly control the mind. When a person with special abilities that cannot be inherited by blood or cultivated and is randomly born appears, this abnormal ability directly penetrates the thick barrier of blood and points directly to the most basic thing of each person, which is talent.

Fighting ability, intelligence, and connections. The three most important things for a person begin to be redistributed in weight under the influence of supernatural powers. The randomness of the supernatural power crushed the bloodline theory, threw it into the garbage dump, and trampled it hard until there was no residue left.

The Longtou family began to decline.

How many people with special abilities can be born in one family? How many writers in the world have the same last name? The major problem that family businesses have to face is that they have to start hiring people with special abilities, but they are not special abilities, and their power is threatened and impacted by people with special abilities. If you want to keep power, you have to face weakening; if you don’t want to weaken, you have to give up power.

Either transform into a non-mafia family, or die guarding this last high-rise building.

How difficult it is to let a family that has been the masters for a hundred years, that has been spoiled and whose heads are filled with the idea that they are superior to others, to stand on an equal footing with others and compete with ordinary people whom they may look down upon. And the ultimate point of this question is, can the leader of the Mafia really always be a member of the family?

Therefore, the Longtou family held on to their last dignity and racked their brains to find a solution.

In the past that has almost been washed away by time, the Longtou family did many shocking things. Including but not limited to imprisoning people with special abilities, forcing people with special abilities and family members to have children and reproduce, or using people with special abilities for experiments, hunting people with special abilities, searching for people with special abilities and brainwashing them from a young age, drug manipulation, and mental manipulation. But they soon discovered that human power could not defeat supernatural forces.

The random birth of people with special abilities is too sinister and too special.

The randomness of people with special abilities is the crucial fundamental rule chosen by this world.

The Longtou family's vigorous hunting operation for people with special abilities only lasted for a few years before it disappeared amid the crazy revenge and resistance of people with special abilities. Although there would occasionally be people with special abilities pledged their loyalty to the family, it was just a drop in the bucket. In just a few years, the Dragon Head Family's control over Yokohama declined significantly, and non-family bloodline mafia organizations sprang up everywhere. The Dragon Head Family gradually consolidated its power and became the dominant force in its own little world.

But soon, perhaps as a result of karma, the bloodline of the Dragon Head Family gradually withered, and the family that once dominated Yokohama became weaker and weaker, until finally only one main vein and several side branches were left. The family realized that danger was coming, so they tried their best to hide, and from then on there was no trace of them in Yokohama.

More than ten years ago, a piece of news caused quite a stir in Yokohama. Rumor has it that the Longtou family has a child who possesses an extraordinary supernatural power, which seems to be very powerful. But the news soon dissipated, and when many people were wondering who the Longtou family was, it disappeared without a trace. A few years later, the supernatural war broke out and Yokohama became a battlefield. A large number of internal population left and a large number of foreign population invaded. Information was cleansed again and again. The stories of the past were like yellowed and damaged newspapers, which were pressed under layer by layer of tragedy and bad news, corrupted and eroded by time, and broken into dregs.

The story of the Longtou family has become an old and smelly gossip, which has only turned into a sigh among the old people and is no longer worth mentioning.

But stories will pass, power will disappear, tall buildings will collapse, but money will not evaporate into thin air.

In other words, the accounts don't add up.

If there was an accountant in Yokohama, that accountant would have been screaming for decades at this moment, and he might even have been prepared to go to jail, but no one noticed and no one arrested him.

Once again, the Japanese government is a big glutton.

As the saying goes, when a whale dies, all things come to life. In the history of the rise and fall of the Longtou family, if you have a slightly keen sense, you will find one thing.

The Longtou family is gone, where is the money?

During the entire process of the Longtou Family's decline, the Mafia had not yet formed a system, which means that it had no qualifications to fight against the Longtou Family. The enemies of the Longtou family are people with special abilities, not a group, but individuals. The Longtou family's retreat was an embarrassing but still decent abdication.

During his abdication, no mafia organization gained any benefits, and no psychic gained victory by attacking and seizing assets. Apart from fixed assets such as land and reclaimed ports, the government did not receive any cash income.

So, where is the money?

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