Chapter 70 Twenty-one Shotas

"You really won't go down with me?" Bourbon turned around and asked again worriedly.

"It's okay, just fall asleep." Beside him, the black-haired child shook his head firmly, "I can stay here by myself."

"Since you said so... rest here for a while. I'll go bring Scotland's luggage up." Bourbon said to the child while putting his hand on the door handle. He added with concern, "I'll be back soon."

Under Bourbon's gaze, Chijiang Nayue showed a sleepy expression and yawned quietly. He stretched out his hand to pull the backpack strap on his shoulder and responded in a brisk tone: "Okay."

"Mr. Lei's bag is under the back seat." After thinking for a moment, Chi Jiang Na Yue added tactfully, "Mr. Lei and the master are in the same room."

Bourbon understood what he meant immediately, and was gloomy for a second, then immediately switched back to sunny youth mode, smiling brightly: "Oh, so that's how it is, I almost forgot about it."

You clearly didn't mention helping Lei with his luggage!

The corner of Chijiang Nayue's mouth twitched, and he once again felt sympathy for a certain FBI agent who was not present at the moment.

Among the three people in the same group, the other two are from the same organization except himself. Lei Yi has worked really hard.

Perhaps having learned from the lesson in Niigata last night, Bourbon took the initiative to take over the task of arranging the rooms this time, and assigned him and Akae Nazuki to the same room, successfully avoiding the fate of being assigned to the same room with Lei again.

Chi Jiang Na Yue said that it didn't matter. Anyway, according to the plan, these three people would definitely not have the peace of mind to pay attention to who their roommates were during the next period of time.

He put his hands behind his back and stood there obediently, watching Bourbon close the door. He even heard the sound of it being locked.

"It seems Bourbon also feels that this place is not safe." At this moment, Chijiang Nayue was the only one left in the room. He took off his disguise in a second and spoke directly to [Shu], "... He still remembered what I said at the beginning, 'I don't like staying alone in the room.'"

It was because he was worried about A that Bourbon took the initiative to suggest that they go down together. It was a pity that neither A nor Chijiang Nayue would really follow.

[I can find a way to hold Bourbon back for an hour, leave it to me.] In his mind, [Book] said to him confidently.

"Well, I have to make some preparations too." Chijiang Nayue stroked his chin and thought for a moment, smiling innocently, "Make sure A stays in the room and sleeps." Although he said so, he didn't need to do anything extra. Chijiang Nayue just walked to the bed and took off his backpack. He then took out a cup full of warm water from the bag and stuffed the cup and the pillow under the neatly laid quilt on the bed in the hotel room.

Afterwards, he stood on tiptoe and quickly took off the hooded sweatshirt he bought in Scotland and folded it on the bedside, leaving himself in only a set of black short-sleeved shirt and shorts that did not reveal any features, and his small leather shoes were neatly placed on the carpet beside the bed.

"Okay, let's go." Chijiang Nayue adjusted her face to make a 'paralyzed face' that was more lively than A's, and said calmly, "Don't keep the master waiting for too long."

As soon as he finished speaking, his figure disappeared from the spot.

—

Scotland was walking on a street that was both familiar and unfamiliar to him, his eyes hidden by the brim of his baseball cap filled with complex emotions.

They were supposed to set out this morning, but in order to wait for investigation information, it was already afternoon when they drove to Nagano.

The good news is that Bourbon found out that the last place the mission target appeared in Nagano was the small town where they are currently staying. The bad news...

Click.

Scotland stopped at the wall of a house that looked like a haunted house. He stood there quietly, looking up at the three-story red roof. He was surprised to find that the color seemed to have faded a lot due to wind and rain.

The bad news is that when Scotland was still living as Morobushi Kagemitsu, his home was in the small town of Morobushi, which is the abandoned house in front of him.

He stayed there for seven years until his parents were murdered in their home, and he and his brother left the house because they were adopted by different relatives.

Over the years, Scotland didn't know if his brother had come back secretly. He hadn't. In the past, he had escaped in pain because he was the only witness to his parents' death. Later, he was busy with undercover work... As a result, by some strange coincidence, he finally came back here after 20 years.

Scotland reached out his hand and touched the marks on the wall with nostalgia, his lips curled up.

In fact, he did not come here to reminisce about the past, and what he really wanted to investigate was not the mission target, but A's affairs.

The abandoned number dialed by A came from the landline that used to be in the house in front of him.

A's remarks last night revealed a very important period of time - twenty years.

What a coincidence, isn't it? A was captured and taken to the research base, the clones of Granty were born, and Scotland left Nagano due to the death of his parents. All three of these events happened 20 years ago.

Perhaps at first glance the last thing has nothing to do with the first two, but A just happened to dial the number that had been cancelled twenty years ago.

These coincidences forced Scotland to face the problems he had previously ignored: Did A really only discover him because Granty saved Hagiwara? Was A's special attitude towards him really just because he was an undercover agent?

Many possibilities came to his mind, and he finally settled on the most absurd but most likely one.

A or Granty, they might have come to Nagano Prefecture twenty years ago and knew of his existence.

Scotland pulled himself out of his memories and headed towards the grocery store opposite with a clear goal in mind.

The death of his parents once affected Scotland's memory. He could not remember anything about that period of time. However, the sight of this grocery store brought back his memories from earlier times.

After separating from Ley and the others, Scotland dressed up and looked like a young and energetic college student. He knocked on the glass counter and said to the sleepy old lady behind the counter with a shy smile, "Grandma, I want to ask you a favor, is that ok?"

Scotland remembered that when he was a child, his parents often asked him to go to this nearby grocery store to buy things. The old lady who owned the grocery store had watched him grow up until he was about seven years old.

There were some things that Scotland himself did not remember, but the information he found helped him remember, for example, the old lady who ran the grocery store was actually a kind-hearted person who loved to gossip with her neighbors.

"Hmm?" The old lady squinted her eyes and looked over, her tone gentle, "What's the matter?"

Scotland pursed his face, took out a questionnaire from his backpack, handed it over, and said shyly: "I am doing an extracurricular survey and would like to trouble you to fill out this questionnaire for me."

The old lady took what he had prepared in advance and agreed readily.

The questionnaire was full of multiple-choice questions, but there were quite a lot of them. The old lady, wearing reading glasses, slowly ticked the options. Scotland also pretended to be unhurried and leaned against the counter, chatting with the old lady who was lowering her head.

"By the way, mother-in-law, do you know what happened to the house across the street?" Scotland asked casually, "I see no one around here, and the house looks abandoned. What happened?"

The old lady didn't even raise her head, and replied casually: "That's a haunted house. The neighbors who were afraid of it have moved away long ago. The only ones left are old men and women like us who are reluctant to leave."

"Haunted house?"

"It's been twenty years now..." The old lady paused writing, looking thoughtful and reminiscing. She said with regret, "Twenty years ago, the family across the street was a family of four, and their youngest son often came to buy things from me. But later, the couple was murdered, and the two children moved away. Over the years, only the older child would come back to visit."

Scotland's heart tightened, and he inexplicably felt a sour emotion. His face also showed a regretful expression, and he lowered his voice: "Is that so... It's really a pity. But in all these years, besides that child, is there anyone else who often goes there?"

The old lady looked at him in surprise: "How could that be? That's a haunted house!"

Scotland frowned slightly. "I see... Grandma, do you remember anything else special that happened 20 years ago?"

"I am quite interested in these events." He smiled shyly.

The old lady had a strange look in her eyes, but she didn't refuse to continue talking. She took out a small yellowed notebook from the drawer.

Scotland was amazed: from his perspective, he could barely see some words on the notebook, and after a quick look, he found that the notebook was full of... all kinds of gossip and hearsay.

He had great respect for the old lady.

"Oh, I got it." The old lady closed the notebook and suddenly realized, "I remember now, it's right."

She looked at the Zhufu residence across the street and said slowly, "A few days before the murder of the couple in that family, another murder occurred nearby. However, since the murderer was never found, this case happened later, and as a result, the other case was not even reported in the newspapers."

really!

According to Scotland's guess and A's description, A has no memory of before he joined the organization, so the number could only have been obtained by A from Granti's memory.

The Granty who saved Kenji Hagiwara four years ago has been numbered the terrifying 7130, which means that in the past decade or so, more than 7,000 Grantys were born. And since A is talking about a group of Grantys each with their own duties, it means that the Grantys will also appear in batches.

In this way, in order to avoid the news that all the Granti on the mission look the same, the Granti must be disguised, so it is not enough to just check the official data and information. Instead, these native residents will know more details.

At the same time, Granty would not appear in irrelevant places. Since he came to Nagano, he must have been doing things for the organization.

Whatever it was, it would most likely leave traces, and Scotland was gambling that the first few batches of Granty that were just put into production at the time would not be able to perform delicate work and could only carry out murderous tasks.

"…The only witness in that case, Teacher Zhu Fu, was the male owner of the house opposite who was murdered. Since he has also passed away, the case is even more impossible to solve. It remains an unsolved case until now." The old lady said dejectedly.

Scotland was stunned.

His father was a witness to the crime that was most likely committed by Granty?