Chapters 3625 and 3637 [The Ending of the Picture Book] Requesting monthly votes (`)
Officer Takagi hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped himself. If Jiang Xia had asked him this question, he would have answered immediately. But Boss Amuro… he just didn’t seem like a detective at all, despite being the owner of the detective agency.
Should I tell him about this?
While he was still struggling with this, Amuro Tooru had already noticed his unusual behavior and swept his sharp gaze over: "Someone came by, and you saw it."
Officer Takagi: "!"
He was startled by the all-knowing gaze and blurted out, "Just now, right there, where you jumped down, I... I think I saw Attorney Shirai."
“Attorney Shirai?” Amuro Tooru searched his mind for the name, quickly thinking of someone, and frowned. “Where did she run off to?”
Officer Takagi originally wanted to ask him why he was chasing Attorney Shirai, but when he met Amuro Tooru's gaze, he felt a sudden tightness in his chest. When he came to his senses, he had already subconsciously raised his hand and pointed in the direction where "Attorney Shirai" had just left.
Amuro Tooru nodded, then looked at the open manhole cover not far away, thought for a moment, and turned to run in one direction.
"Wait..." Inspector Megure called out but couldn't stop them. He sighed wearily, "Why did they leave again?"
Despite his eccentric temperament, he was still a detective. He had just wanted to ask Amuro Tooru what he thought of the series of bombings, or when his friend Jiang Xia would be arriving...
Just then, a few unique ringtones suddenly sounded from Officer Takagi next to me.
Inspector Megure was taken aback: "That bomber has sent another letter? Let's take a look!"
Officer Takagi responded and quickly pulled his phone out of his pocket—not his own, but the anonymous phone that had been sent along with the picture book.
Upon opening it, several familiar-looking text messages popped up:
[Tick-tock, boom—!!]
Congratulations on reaching the finish line of the tortoise and the hare race!
[But this game]
[It's not over yet!]
Inspector Megure's head started to throb: "What do you mean it's not over yet? There's more to come?!"
Miwako Sato was also a little tired, but she knew what she should do now. She put a thick stack of picture book samples on the ground, flipped through them with one hand, and picked up her phone with the other:
"The locations of the first three bombs are the answers to the riddles in this picture book—let's look at the next riddle first, maybe we can get some clues."
As she spoke, she turned to the next page of the tortoise and the hare race, snapped a picture and sent it to Jiang Xia, and then joined the other heads that had crowded around to read it carefully.
Similar to the previous pages, this page of the picture book features brightly colored and whimsical illustrations.
But there are also special features—unlike the clearly themed images such as "clay pot," "bus stop," and "the tortoise and the hare race," this page features "7"s of various sizes and shapes.
In the middle was a bunch of fancy numbers 7, in the upper left corner were many cards related to the number seven, and on the right was a clock at 7 o'clock and the Roman numeral 7. At first glance, Inspector Megure's head spun twice.
Fortunately, like the previous picture book illustrations, this one also has a few text boxes, at least providing some space for reading:
[Tick-tock, tick-tock, the last clock, time to send it to the very center of seven]
This kind of puzzle is perfect for detectives.
However, now that the two detectives, one big and one small, have run away, Sato Miwako has suddenly become the brains of this group of police officers.
The pressure on her increased dramatically. While secretly glancing at her phone and praying that Jiang Xia would reply to her message soon, she could only try to think hard: "The location of the next bomb should be in the very center of the seven. As long as we can figure out what the seven refers to, we can find the bomb."
Inspector Megure felt like he hadn't heard anything at all, and scratched his hat blankly: "So what is 7?"
"..." Sato Miwako looked at the mess of various 7s on the page and said uncertainly, "There are so many different kinds of '7' on the screen. It's probably meant to let our imaginations run wild and find something related to the number seven. The bomb is right in the middle of it."
Officer Takagi seemed to understand, but tried to follow Officer Sato's train of thought: "Something related to the number seven, and it has to have the concept of 'the very center'... The very center of the number 7 is 3.5, and the very center of the English number 7 is v. Could there be a park nearby called 3.5v?"
Inspector Megure wasn't good at solving puzzles, but he tried his best. Remembering something, he walked to the police car beside him and asked the editor, Asanaga, who was sitting inside:
“Brother Asanaga, although a while has passed, you were the editor of this picture book, so you must have read it at least a little bit. Once you’ve read it, it’s likely left an impression on your subconscious. Based on your intuition, what does the number '7' refer to?”
Editor Asanaga touched the bandage on his forehead from the bomb-wielding criminal, and said with a troubled expression, "This sample was just submitted to me, and a whole bunch of problems have already arisen. I'm so preoccupied with those things that I really can't remember the answer to this riddle. But..."
Inspector Megure sensed a glimmer of hope and quickly pressed, "But what?"
Editor Asahide hesitated, then said, "However, I vaguely remember its ending—because the ending doesn't seem to be a happy ending. In addition, the author's brother is a wanted criminal. This picture book is for children, and the company discussed for a long time whether to change the ending before publishing it."
Inspector Megure's heart skipped a beat as he suddenly realized something.
If each riddle in a picture book represents a puzzle, and the answer represents the location of the bomb... then conversely, could the answer to the last puzzle be the location of the bomber?
If they could get the ending from Editor Tomonaga, wouldn't they be able to skip the process and directly catch the bomber hiding behind the scenes?!
This guess made Inspector Megure's eyes light up: "So, what exactly is the ending of this story?"
Editor Asahide: "The illustrations in this book are very cute, but starting from the second half, the story slowly reveals a heavy background - the protagonist of the picture book, 'Grandpa Tick-Tock' who gives everyone riddles, is actually seriously ill."
"At the end of the story, Grandpa Didi Didi left behind one last riddle before passing away from a serious illness."
"Ten years later, his grandson inherited the family business and became an excellent watchmaker just like his grandfather."
At this point, editor Asahide sighed: "If the grandson were the protagonist, the story would be barely acceptable. But anyone who has read the picture book knows that, from any perspective, the protagonist is actually Grandpa Didi Dada."
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