·49｜Exclusive to Jinjiang·49 (Bonus Chapter)
Evil in the darkness.
Matsuda Jinpei lay lifeless on the hospital bed, his face pale, a thermometer tucked under his arm. The IV drip, continuously flowing into his veins, had reached its last bottle. This experience was the closest he had ever come to an out-of-body experience.
His consciousness seemed to have blacked out; Matsuda Jinpei only remembered being personally fed Yomi Yomi's Yomi Bento by her last night. The scene before his eyes gradually blurred over time, and finally, he even saw double images.
He couldn't remember anything after that, only vaguely recalling that his childhood friend and that loud, infatuated young lady kept calling his name in frightened voices, chattering incessantly in his ear, making a lot of noise.
When he opened his eyes again, Matsuda Jinpei had already had his stomach pumped by the doctor and was lying weakly in the ward wearing an oxygen machine and receiving intravenous fluids.
It's no exaggeration to say that this was the first time Matsuda Jinpei had ever fallen into a coma. Whether it was fighting in high school or brawling with Furuya Rei at the police academy, he had only suffered minor injuries. Even the blow to the neck with a rifle butt the night before only made him go limp for a moment, not completely lose consciousness.
In a sense, Yomi Yomi was indeed the first person to completely defeat Matsuda Jinpei, something she could probably brag about for the rest of her life.
Although this avoidable disaster did occur, Matsuda Jinpei's tacit approval also bears some responsibility.
“Mr. Matsuda,” the attending physician knocked three times politely at the door and came in, “is there anything else that's bothering you?”
Matsuda Jinpei swallowed hard, his throat tightening and drying. He said in a hoarse voice, "No."
"Let me see... Your temperature is normal, and the IV drip is almost finished. Mr. Matsuda, you should get some rest today. I'll have the nurse come and remove the needle in a bit."
"Um."
As for the culprit who took down the ace dog of the mobile unit, Yomi Laichuan had already stepped into the villa that Morofushi Kagemitsu had mentioned, walking along the swaying shadows of the trees under the moonlight and holding Kenji Hagiwara's arm.
Morofushi Kagemitsu, or rather Midorikawa Hikaru, had already entered the villa area. Furuya Rei, posing as an auction staff member, had also been exploring the villa district early on.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan covered the lower half of her face with a white medical mask, her long, loose hair slightly curled—in order not to attract attention, she deliberately erased her distinctive croissant-shaped bun.
The winter dress she wore was simple yet elegant in design, but exquisitely crafted, with the logo of a major international fashion brand printed on the neckline, subtly conveying that she possessed considerable wealth. The high heels she wore made running inconvenient, but also somewhat reduced the suspicion surrounding her.
Just like the American undercover agent who was labeled as "not very bright" because of his excessive obesity, Lai Chuan Huang Quan's attire makes him look just like an arrogant and domineering second-generation rich kid.
Kenji Hagiwara, who was being linked arms with her, was dressed in a black suit, with sunglasses he had borrowed from Jinpei Matsuda perched on his high-bridged nose. With his left side of his bangs swept behind his ear, his cold and stern face gave him a truly intimidating aura, like that of a minor gang leader.
The hall, filled with soft sofas, was already crowded with people. The indoor lights were dimmed, and the distance between people was deliberately blurred.
With some time still before the auction began, Kenji Hagiwara and Yomi Rikawa leaned against the wall, whispering to each other in the darkness.
Moreover, Yomi Yorikawa and his group's mission was not to conduct the auction, but to disguise themselves as participants and wait for a signal from Morofushi Kagemitsu and his group who were operating in secret.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan was embraced by Hagiwara Kenji, leaning against him intimately. Even in slender high heels, Hagiwara Kenji was still considerably taller than her.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan grabbed Hagiwara Kenji's tie with one hand, forcing him to bend down and get close to her.
Kenji Hagiwara raised an eyebrow and whispered with a smile in Yomi Laichuan's ear, "If it weren't for the inappropriate occasion, I would have almost thought that the soft bread was going to kiss me."
Lai Chuan Huang Quan glared at Hagiwara Kenji: "Stop talking nonsense, I have a question to ask you."
"What?"
Lai Chuan Huang Quan pulled her mask down halfway behind the crowd, stood on tiptoe and whispered in Hagiwara Kenji's ear: "Why is no one wearing a mask, like one of those half-masks that look like a rabbit or a fox? That's how it's portrayed on TV."
"You mean this? Masks don't really cover up facial features very well, but my sunglasses aren't very good either."
Lai Chuan Huang Quan continued to press: "But in dim lighting conditions, masks and sunglasses are enough to completely obscure facial features, aren't they?"
“Indeed,” Kenji Hagiwara chuckled, “but the mask actually has another drawback. Want to guess what the soft bread is?”
Lai Chuan Huang Quan lowered his head and thought for a moment before quickly giving his answer: "Because it's troublesome."
“If the masks are purchased by the participants themselves, there may be all sorts of masks on site. If they cannot be standardized, the masks on their faces may become a breakthrough in tracking their identities.”
“You got it right,” Kenji Hagiwara smiled. “But if the masks are provided by the organizers, there will be cases where they don’t fit properly, since everyone’s face shape and eye spacing are different. Doing so is time-consuming and laborious, and the wearer’s experience is not good enough.”
"Furthermore, if the organizers distribute the masks, what will the participants use to cover their faces before receiving them? Therefore, for purely transactional venues like this, face masks are more suitable than full-face masks. Generally, only venues involving social interaction or sexuality would choose half-face masks."
Lai Chuan Huang Quan couldn't help but exclaim in a low voice. She pulled her mask back and asked curiously, "Your school actually teaches these things? That sounds amazing. I'd love to visit sometime if I ever had the chance."
"Laikawa Yomi" refers to the police academy that Kenji Hagiwara attended after graduating from university.
Kenji Hagiwara smiled and said, "It's a pity. Unless you can become invisible, you probably won't be able to get in. But these aren't things anyone taught me; they're just some small analyses I made based on what I've learned."
"despair--"
The sound of the switch being pressed when the power is turned on.
Kenji Hagiwara turned his head and glanced at the lights that suddenly lit up in the distance. Several beams of light were tilted and focused on the auction stage, spreading out faint halos on the dark brown carpet.
"The auction looks like it's about to start. Let's go."
The buyer's area was furnished with twenty or thirty seats, with single-seat sofas spaced a meter apart, and the lighting was deliberately dimmed. This consideration for buyer privacy allowed them to bid and participate in the auction without any worries.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan originally thought she would see something even more extreme, such as stolen national treasures, lethal weapons, or even beautiful but suffering women—she had actually seen villains openly auctioning off women during the apocalypse.
Although the items auctioned weren't exactly legal, they were at most things that could satisfy vanity and curiosity, far more harmless than what Lai Chuan Huang Quan had imagined.
But it's not entirely incomprehensible.
The owner of this land used this gray-area auction as a cover to conceal his more dangerous and darker transactions. The nobles and dignitaries participating in the auction may not know what kind of darkness they were stepping on, but the moment they set foot on this land and participated, they became grasshoppers in the same boat.
Once this land is investigated and its owner gets into trouble, they will all be dragged out like pulling up radishes. Even if it doesn't become the focus of the case, it will still become a scandal and trigger a series of chain reactions in society.
Moreover, using a shady transaction as a cover can temporarily evade the police department's attention. After all, a transaction solely to satisfy the greed and vanity of the wealthy will not currently pose any threat to social stability.
Instead of risking offending powerful figures to investigate such a low-threat illegal auction, it would be better to focus more on combating crime.
Just as Lai Chuan Huang Quan was resting his chin on his hands, contemplating whether to raise his hand to participate in the auction to make himself seem more in line with his character, the administrator suddenly spoke up:
—"1107, Gin has appeared."
Lai Chuan Huang Quan first glanced subconsciously at Hagiwara Kenji beside him, then turned his eyes to secretly survey his surroundings. In the far corner of the hall, a silver-haired man dressed in all black followed Amuro Tooru, who led him into a dark corridor.
This morning, during their phone call, Furuya Rei mentioned to Yomi Raikawa that he planned to use this opportunity to make contact with the organization and infiltrate it. Yomi Raikawa didn't know what Furuya Rei was planning to do, but when Kenji Hagiwara found out, he just smiled and reassured her not to worry.
“That guy, Furuya, was always number one in our year. We can’t underestimate him just because he’s the smallest among us.”
This is how Kenji Hagiwara explained it to Yomi Raikawa, who was holding the phone, and then Rei Furuya, who overheard his words, read his name aloud over the phone, word by word.
"Kenji Hagihara!"
If murderous intent could travel through the internet, then Kenji Hagiwara might have already been killed by Rei Furuya when he said those words that morning.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan sat there for a while, resting his chin on his hand, before finally raising his hand to participate in the auction.
Being too high-profile would attract attention, while not participating in the bidding at all might arouse suspicion. Lai Chuan Huang Quan held up a sign and bid twice for a pebble-sized gem that was supposedly stolen from a European royal crown, then lay down completely, quietly diminishing his presence.
She wasn't worried about the other party not raising the price; even if she was forced to buy that pebble-sized gem, she could get reimbursed by the management bureau.
Lai Chuan Huang Quan and Hagiwara Kenji waited for another twenty minutes or so before Midorikawa Hikaru finally appeared. He pulled his top hat up over his head, and a black medical mask covered the lower half of his face.
As he passed behind Kenji Hagiwara and the others, Hiromitsu Morofushi casually touched the back of the sofa, taking the opportunity to tap the surface of the sofa a few times with his index finger, two long and one short.
The back of the sofa and Kenji Hagiwara's body obscured the sound of Hikaru Midorikawa tapping his fingers. Hikaru Midorikawa made almost no sound—at least, under the cover of the auctioneer's explanation, no one noticed Hikaru Midorikawa's little movements except for Kenji Hagiwara, whose body was pressed against the back of the chair.
Two minutes later, Kenji Hagiwara got up and walked out of the lobby, leaning against the wall in the aisle covered with exquisite wallpaper, and started making a phone call. He held a lit expensive cigarette in one hand and the already connected phone in the other, rambling on and on.
"I don't think there's anything I want this time... I don't know, but I'll know if I'll want to buy it once I see it. If it still doesn't work out, I'll come straight to you. Remember to give me the Ace of Spades."
Kenji Hagiwara chuckled occasionally into the phone, exhaling puffs of white smoke. His back was slightly hunched, and he chatted and laughed in the clear moonlight, seemingly genuinely unaware of the auction items. He even planned to leave early at any moment to find his drinking buddies at a bar and open a bottle of expensive liquor.
A waiter wearing a bow tie initially peeked out to glance at him every now and then, but eventually stopped paying attention. Everyone at the auction was wealthy, and he didn't want to offend any of the buyers. Besides, Hagiwara Kenji really did give the impression of being just a rich young man who hadn't taken a liking to the items being auctioned.
No one noticed that after finishing his cigarette, Kenji Hagiwara did not return to the auction venue. Instead, he climbed out of the window, went around to the south side of the villa, cleanly climbed onto the second-floor balcony, and then climbed inside.
Action begins.
[Author's Note]
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