Chapter 46 and Chapter 45: Great Fortune and Great Misfortune
I want to call you.
I'm telling you the weather is sunny.
—Camus
Zhuge Tongzhi had no idea what fate awaited her door-to-door souvenirs, nor did she care. She was currently chatting happily with Matsuda Jinpei.
When he realized who had picked him up, Zhuge Tongzhi immediately let go and sat up straight, racking his brains for a suitable topic to start the conversation.
But the girl, who usually chatted enthusiastically with the Junior Detective Club and had a few words with the police officers who came to investigate the case, was now somewhat mute, opening and closing her mouth several times but unable to utter a single word.
After confirming that his language system had completely crashed, Zhuge Tongzhi simply pretended that he was cosplaying a quiet parrot and obediently let himself be carried around.
However, the expected awkwardness along the way did not actually occur. After walking for a while, Matsuda Jinpei naturally started talking and mentioned to Zhuge Tongzhi a bombing case he had handled before, and the person who reported the case was the Junior Detective League.
Zhuge Tongzhi had a strong impression of that case because although she called the police immediately after discovering the bomb at the scene, the bomb was already too late to be defused by professionals due to the perpetrator's amateurish installation error.
So when Matsuda Jinpei arrived at the scene in full bomb suit, he was greeted by two elementary school students, each handing him a detonator. His job was simply to store the dangerous items and retrieve the bomb wreckage.
Of course, after returning to his office, he studied the bomb wreckage again and discovered quite a few interesting things while working backwards from the bomb disposal strategies for both bombs.
"...After thinking about it, I realized that this step was actually quite risky." Matsuda Jinpei, a mechanical enthusiast, spoke with great enthusiasm about his favorite field, turning to look at the short-haired girl scratching her cheek. "How did you come up with the idea of cutting that wire first?"
"This..." Zhuge Tongzhi scratched his face, frantically searching his memory of that day, and his back was slightly sweaty.
Is she supposed to explain the principles of bomb disposal? But how is she supposed to explain that? Is she supposed to say that because O gave the bomb's perspective diagram, I followed the navigation?
Fortunately, O, who had always led her into perilous situations, suddenly took pity on her. The usual path in front of her was shrunk and put into the side menu bar, and a new blue and white navigation box appeared in front of her, along with a mechanical diagram of varying shades.
It was a diagram of the bomb's interior from that day, with each step of the bomb disposal process meticulously marked on it.
"Your historical travel history has been retrieved."
The blue and white notification box hung at the top of the drawing, gleaming in the sunlight like a lifeline.
Zhuge Tongzhi breathed a sigh of relief and gestured to show the circuit he had seen at the time. His language, which was not formally taught, was full of colloquialisms. If someone did not have a direct understanding of the bomb's structure, they would probably be completely confused.
Matsuda Jinpei, who enjoys giving nicknames to various structures, listened attentively to the girl's line of thought, occasionally offering his own opinions and questions.
While glancing at the 3D diagram in front of her, Zhuge Tongzhi tried her best to add some explanations to each step of her copying. Although she felt empty inside, judging from Matsuda Jinpei's reaction, the effect seemed to be... not bad?
Perhaps the bomb disposal textbooks she read to cover up her lie worked?
Having received confirmation from Matsuda Jinpei, Zhuge Tongzhi guessed uncertainly, a big smile involuntarily spreading across his face. Then he heard two deliberate coughs beside him.
She and Matsuda Jinpei turned their heads at the same time and saw that Hagiwara Kenji, who had been chatting enthusiastically with the three girls, had somehow come over.
A middle-aged man with medium-length hair, dressed casually in a pink shirt, walked beside his friend. He had obviously been listening to their conversation, which was full of professional knowledge, and now looked at Matsuda Jinpei with a somewhat speechless expression.
"Jinpei, when you're out having fun, don't think about work anymore!" Kenji Hagiwara said, brushing his bangs aside and leaning closer to his childhood friend. "Doesn't nature deserve to take the place of bombs in your heart?"
"What place could a bomb hold in my heart?" Matsuda Jinpei looked at the other person speechlessly. His charming childhood friend was smiling and nodding to a blushing little girl passing by, her pink outfit making her the third most beautiful sight amidst the scenery and spring colors.
He moved to the side with a hint of disgust, and naturally tightened his arms around the child. Zhuge Tongzhi, who was sitting on the balance beam, suddenly tilted to one side, and his hand awkwardly rested on Matsuda Jinpei's shoulder.
"It's all because you keep talking about this, Kiri-chan. Do you want me to hold you for a while?" Hagiwara Kenji reached out to Zhuge Tongzhi and suggested in a light tone, "Jinpei obviously doesn't know how to hold a child."
To maintain her balance, Zhuge Tongzhi, whose core was sore from tightening, was tempted, but as she was being carried around by others, she wished she could get down and walk.
Judging from the road signs, the destination was only a few hundred meters away; she could definitely manage it. The black-haired girl cleared her throat twice and prepared to request permission to land the flight.
However, the person holding her was the first to express dissatisfaction with Kenji Hagiwara's words.
"What are you talking about, hagi?" Matsuda Jinpei, whose skills had been questioned, glanced sideways at his childhood friend who was a head taller than him, and pulled Zhuge Tongzhi's arm away from Hagiwara Kenji, saying, "What's so difficult about this?"
Saying he wants to get down now is practically a direct indication that his baby-holding technique is really bad. Zhuge Tongzhi closed his open mouth again and silently continued to tighten his waist and abdomen to maintain his balance.
“That’s completely wrong.” When Hagiwara Kenji fell behind the two earlier, he noticed the girl’s overly straight back and her hands that weren’t seeking any support. He said helplessly, “You’re carrying a box like that.”
Huh? Matsuda Jinpei's bewildered expression revealed that he had no idea what the difference was between the two ways of 'hugging'.
Kenji Hagiwara gave up on approaching his friend and instead took Zhuge Tongzhi's hand, which was neatly placed on his lap, and put it around Matsuda Jinpei's neck, placing it on his shoulder.
"Kiri-chan, you should put your hands like this." He gently guided the somewhat clumsy girl, jokingly teasing his friend, "Jinpei has never even held my dog, please forgive him."
"Ah, it's alright." Zhuge Tongzhi found a new foothold. Having never been lifted up like this before, she was also getting used to the novel position. She smiled at the seemingly experienced Hagiwara Kenji and asked, "Does Officer Hagiwara have a dog at home?"
“Yes, but later, because it didn’t meet the city’s pet regulations, it was sent to a relative’s house in the countryside.” Kenji Hagiwara walked beside Jinpei Matsuda, a look of reminiscence on his face: “Pochi was a very cute dog.”
"Can't you keep a puppy in the city..." Zhuge Tongzhi was a little confused, then she heard Matsuda Jinpei say above her head, "What puppy? Boqi was as tall as me when I was eight years old."
“If I could lift it when I was eight years old, I should be competing in weightlifting.” Matsuda Jinpei pointed out Hagiwara Kenji’s baseless argument. “It weighed 60 pounds back then, and it must be even heavier now.”
“Ah, maybe. Pochi is a golden retriever mix,” Kenji Hagiwara recalled uncertainly. “I remember it could easily pounce on me back then, but I don’t know much about it after I was sent to a relative’s house.”
Was that a dog? Listening to their conversation, Zhuge Tongzhi conjured up a magnificent picture in his mind and thought: That must be a dog.
With such a large size, it's most likely classified as a dangerous breed, which explains why it can't be kept in the city.
After the two adults chatted about dogs for a while, Kenji Hagiwara thoughtfully steered the conversation to a topic that girls could participate in, asking rather cheerfully, "Does Kiri-chan know what kind of fortune slips you get when you draw lots?"
"Hmm, is it auspicious or inauspicious?" Zhuge Tongzhi asked uncertainly. In Chinese temples, the divination slips are mostly classified as superior, medium, and inferior, with the best being the most auspicious and the worst being the most inauspicious. Each slip also has its own unique interpretation.
“That’s right. But if we’re going to break it down, it can be roughly divided into very auspicious, moderately auspicious, slightly auspicious, auspicious, slightly auspicious, inauspicious, and very inauspicious.” Kenji Hagiwara explained, “Each fortune slip has its own interpretation. If you draw an inauspicious one, just tie the slip to the railing and leave it there.”
"Oh, I see." Zhuge Tongzhi asked curiously, "Do you two officers usually draw lots?"
“I’ll go with my sister to draw lots, but Jinpei isn’t interested in that,” Kenji Hagiwara said shrug and teased. “He’s more interested in the new motorcycle shop that opened nearby.”
"It's all up to human effort." Matsuda Jinpei did not deny his childhood friend's teasing, but he had never really taken these cryptic 'prophecies' seriously.
Rather than getting bogged down in figuring out which part of life a particular fortune slip corresponds to, he prefers to immerse himself in the repair shop and chat with the owner.
"Well, let's draw a fortune together today, Kenji-chan!" Hagiwara Kenji clasped his hands together in a gesture of request, his words full of respect and sincerity, but it sounded quite funny when he said it to a close friend.
Zhuge Tongzhi couldn't help but smile. The shady trees overhead gradually thinned out and disappeared completely with a few steps from Matsuda Jinpei. Bright sunlight illuminated the uniquely styled wooden building complex in front of him.
A wooden sign with a few words carved on it, hanging on the door frame at the entrance, reads simply: "Fortune Telling Area".
"We're here." Matsuda Jinpei put the girl on his arm down, stretched his arm a little, and then gently nudged Zhuge Tongzhi, who was looking up at him, and said, "Go draw lots."
"Let's go, Kiri-chan!" Kenji Hagiwara led the girl into the wooden house, with Jinpei Matsuda following behind him. A few steps away, the high school students also came in one after another.
It wasn't a holiday, so there weren't many people at the fortune-telling area on the mountaintop. The group queued for a short while and quickly arrived at the coin-operated fortune-telling area.
Zhuge Tongzhi took out the corresponding amount of Japanese yen and put it into the collection box. He stood on tiptoe and took a divination tube filled with many small wooden sticks from the staff. He turned his head to look at the actions of the people around him, and shook it randomly like them. A small wooden stick with a number printed on it fell onto the table.
She returned the divination stick container to the counter and then, along with the other people who had also drawn their own number slips, went to the place to collect their divination slips—a large wooden shelf with a great many small drawers.
"Next, just find the corresponding drawer according to your number and take out a fortune slip from it."
Kenji Hagiwara bent down and gave a hint to the bewildered girl, then looked at Conan, who was also an elementary school student next to her. Considering their height difference, the man, who was much taller than average, suggested, "What are your numbers? I'll help you get them."
"Yes, thank you, Officer Hagiwara." Zhuge Tongzhi announced the number he had drawn.
"Thank you, Officer Hagiwara." Conan had just given out his number when Hattori Heiji, who had walked a step behind, squatted down beside him and asked, "Do you need me to help you with that? Work..."
"Idiot!" Conan, already on guard, immediately and nimbly raised his foot and stomped hard on Hattori Heiji's foot, then smiled sweetly at the high school boy who had stopped speaking, "No need, Officer Hagiwara already got it for me."
"Hiss, haha, that's good." Heiji Hattori's face twisted slightly. Under Conan's death stare and Zhuge Tongzhi's meaningful gaze, he stood up, scratched the back of his head, and twitched the corner of his mouth.
"Here you go, these are your fortune slips." Kenji Hagiwara quickly returned, folded the two fortune slips in half with a sense of ceremony, and handed them to the two children face down. "I didn't peek."
"Hmm!" Zhuge Tongzhi took a deep breath, accepted the light but weighty fortune slip with both hands, and after mentally preparing herself, she unfolded the delicate paper.
Great luck!
Two large characters, identical to the Chinese characters, were written in black and white at the top of the fortune slip. The short-haired girl's originally solemn expression brightened instantly, and she excitedly showed her fortune slip to Kenji Hagiwara and Conan beside her.
"Look, it's a lucky number!"
"Wow! Kiri-chan, you're so lucky! Quick, take a look at the interpretation of the fortune slip on the back!" Kenji Hagiwara clapped enthusiastically, indicating that there was another text interpretation on the back of the paper.
"Oh, oh." Zhuge Tongzhi glanced at the four short poems on the front of the fortune slip, then turned to the back to read the translation. "Hmm, they're all pretty good."
'Your actions, which are in accordance with the right path, can be recognized and encouraged by many people, and you can gain the trust of those around you.' Her gaze lingered briefly on this line of interpretation before continuing to read below.
"If you act with caution in everything you do, you might encounter unexpected disasters." Zhuge Tongzhi looked on with a helpless smile, thinking, "That's so true."
The final interpretation of the text is a prediction of trends in daily life, such as wishes, illnesses, and building new houses; all of these are auspicious omens.
"It said that my illness would soon be cured, the person I was looking forward to would appear, and my wishes would be fulfilled." Zhuge Tongzhi summarized by picking out the two simplest and most beautiful sentences from it: "Lost items will be found slowly, but they will eventually be found!"
“You can take this lucky fortune home; it’s said to bring good luck,” Kenji Hagiwara said with a smile, watching the girl in front of him nod and solemnly fold the fortune slip and put it in her pocket.
"Conan, what did you draw?" Zhuge Tongzhi looked at the boy next to him speechlessly, then leaned over to take a look. The title of the fortune slip clearly read two big characters: "Great Misfortune".
Well, how should I put it? It seems... just as expected.
As Zhuge Tongzhi watched Conan skillfully fold the fortune slip into a strip that could be easily tied to the railing, he sensed a faint pang of sadness in the other's habitual actions.
"No wonder he's called the Grim Reaper Elementary School Student; he has such a clear self-awareness." She sincerely remarked, offering no further words of comfort.
Since Conan's daily life is filled with murders, eight eggs, various poisons, and all sorts of bizarre murder methods, if he, who often escapes death, can't draw a particularly bad one, then there must be something wrong with that fortune-telling box.
“Ah, in a sense, the probability of drawing a very bad fortune slip is even smaller than that of a very good fortune slip.” Kenji Hagiwara watched the elementary school student calmly fold the very bad fortune slip in front of him, and smiled with his eyes crinkling: “That’s why many people say that a very bad fortune slip is actually a very good fortune slip.”
In a sense, Conan's ability to escape death every time is indeed a vivid illustration of "great misfortune is great fortune".
Zhuge Tongzhi had a thousand thoughts racing through his mind, but his expression remained unchanged as he looked at Hagiwara Kenji, who also held a fortune slip, and asked, "Officer Hagiwara, what did you draw?"
"Ta-da! It's auspicious!" Kenji Hagiwara showed the fortune slip, and Tongzhi Zhuge leaned over and whispered, "High dangers are safe to cross, flat terrain brings longevity..."
"It's reminding me that my family might encounter some trouble, and that I should pay more attention to the people around me." Kenji Hagiwara showed the girl the interpretation of the fortune slip on his back. Seeing that she frowned, he reassured her, "It's a lucky fortune slip, and it's just a lottery..."
As soon as he finished speaking, Matsuda Jinpei walked over from behind with a fortune slip in his hand. He glanced at the slip of paper in Conan's hand, which was folded up to just the title, and casually said, "Oh, you also drew a very bad fortune slip."
Kenji Hagiwara and Kirito, who were squatting on the ground, suddenly turned their heads and saw that Jinpei Matsuda was holding a fortune slip with the word 'extreme misfortune' written on it. The slip was casually held in the man's hand.
"Hagi, do you have any more water? Mine's finished." Matsuda Jinpei patted his childhood friend's frozen head, then peered over and saw the auspicious fortune slip in Zhuge Tongzhi's hand. "Great fortune, not bad."
A bottle of water was shoved into his arms, and then Kenji Hagiwara took the fortune slip from his hand. Matsuda Jinpei looked at the two people, one big and one small, solemnly reading and interpreting the fortune slip on the ground, and after a moment of silence, he let them go.
“The year is unlucky and lonely, hiss! The dragon lies in hiding and loses its bright pearl, hiss!” Zhuge Tongzhi stopped reading these hot words after reading two sentences. He watched as Hagiwara Kenji turned the fortune slip over to the back and read the interpretation. He grabbed his arm and leaned over to look at the fine and dense words on it.
'Friends dwindle year by year, leaving me all alone... just as a dragon loses its precious pearl, so too does a person lose hope.'
Lost item: Probably unlikely to be recovered.
The person I'm hoping for: It seems unlikely they'll appear.
Hmm... Take a closer look at that bunch of negative warnings, and you'll even see warnings about potential fire-related disasters, combined with Matsuda Jinpei's work as a bomb disposal police officer.
"Hiss!" Two rattlesnake-like sounds came from the two heads huddled together. Matsuda Jinpei finished the remaining half bottle of water, leaned down and snatched the paper from Hagiwara Ken's hands.
"It's just a lottery, you guys don't need to react so much," the curly-haired man muttered, puzzled. His friend then grabbed his wrist with a serious expression and pulled him towards the lottery area. "Hagi!"
Kenji Hagiwara, who had just said that there was no need to care about the lottery results, has now put in his money again and turned to his friend, saying, "Let's draw again, Jinpei."
“Try one more time, Officer Matsuda,” Zhuge Tongzhi said solemnly, raising his head.
Please, let me draw it again. Putting aside Conan's eventful daily life, this is a fortune slip from the world of Conan!
I don't expect to draw the best luck, but I hope I can at least draw the worst luck!
"Hey you two, isn't this a bit unnecessary?" Matsuda Jinpei looked at the fortune-telling container that Hagiwara Kenji had handed over to him, and could only helplessly take it and shake it a couple of times, before a wooden stick was thrown out.
Matsuda Jinpei opened the drawer according to the number, took out a fortune slip, and handed it to the two little tails behind him without even looking at it.
The black and white characters leap off the page, each stroke a line and a cross.
It turned out to be another terrible omen.
Hagihara Kenji:…
Zhuge Tongzhi: ...
Didn't we agree that the probability of a major disaster was very low?
Answer me,
Look into my eyes!
Tell me, why, why can someone draw two very unlucky cards in a row?
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Author's Note: One more chapter to go!
Hopefully I can post this before the power completely runs out (praying).
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