Sinmonger Chapter 3: After the incident

Around 1:00 in the morning, Ikeda, soaked in cold sweat, ran back home. He was restless all the way, and did not calm down a little until he saw the familiar door.

There are lights in the room, and it seems that my father has returned drunk.

He crept into the house and tentatively said, "I'm back."

No one responded, only the sound of his own heavy breathing.

Ikeda came to the brightly lit room and opened the door halfway. He was relieved to see the sight. His father fell asleep in the kotatsu, drunk, with several empty wine bottles scattered around him.

"When I got home in the middle of the night, I found my son was not there, and he fell asleep carelessly." Ikeda helped his father turn off the light, closed the door, and muttered in a low voice.

He went to take a shower and returned to his room. Although he was lying on the bed, he didn't feel sleepy at all. As soon as he closed his eyes, the corpse hanging from the rope and Matsuo's miserable face would appear again and again.

Until it was getting bright outside, Ikeda was still staring at the ceiling with bloodshot eyes open.

He thought about it all night, but he couldn't understand anything, only the confusion in his mind, and the bad feeling of a splitting headache and apathy.

Why did Matsuo commit suicide? And what's the point of getting hanged in the faculty's office? What the **** is going on with that quirky bookstore? Who is the owner of the bookstore? Why was I assigned to steal from Matsuo's office at midnight? Could Matsuo's death have anything to do with him?

After tossing and turning for a while, Ikeda looked at the clock. It was almost time to prepare for school. Although he was very tired, he didn't dare to ask for leave. Maybe it was because of his guilty conscience. Very suspicious.

Today, he caught the bus, so he didn't pass Tianyi's bookstore. In fact, even if he chooses to walk to school, Ikeda knows that the bookstore owner will not open the door so early. Judging by his virtue, he is the kind of person who will never climb out of bed before ten in the morning, so even passing by the bookstore is useless.

The situation at the school was similar to what Ikeda imagined. The man on the night shift found the body around 4:00. He didn't call an ambulance, but called the police. It is estimated that Matsuo's shape has clearly shown The fact that "I'm not saved".

At dawn, the police had sealed off the entire third floor of the teaching building. The investigation and evidence collection was proceeding slowly, and many teachers and even students were questioned. Ikeda was not asked, perhaps because his appearance was too inconspicuous, or he gave the impression of being introverted and difficult to talk to.

Students were whispering all morning, discussing Matsuo's death, of course; the teachers seemed to be absent-minded in their lectures, so they were left to their own devices.

"Ah... Matsuo, that's the worst person ever! A mean and wretched middle-aged uncle, he's in his 40s but he's still unmarried. He usually slaps some female teachers, and I heard that there are also female students. I've been harassed by him before. But this guy doesn't leave any evidence for doing bad things, and he has a good relationship with the school board. Dezhi's face swayed unsightly when he came to school.

It's great that this kind of person can commit suicide, and finally did a good thing for the world. Hey, police officer, don't look at me like that. I'm just so straight when I talk. The facts are said. "

It was Kurosawa-sensei who said this to the police. Menopause has passed, a Chinese teacher who is close to retirement age, and a warm-blooded aunt who is open-mouthed. It's hard to rise to the leadership with such a personality, but this type of person will never be hated by colleagues or students, except Matsuo...

If Matsuo is like slippery dirty water, Kurosawa is boiling hot oil. The snobbish Matsuo will skillfully use both bowing and arrogance in front of different people, but when he encounters Aunt Kurosawa, he can only hide away. The reason is very simple: put a villain and ordinary people together, he is just a nasty guy; and compare a villain with a very upright person, he is nothing but scum.

The testimony collected by the police will naturally be screened and analyzed, but everyone seems to have recognized Matsuo's character.

But because of this, the problem becomes more complicated.

A person like this would commit suicide? And he obviously lived alone, why did he sneak into the school in the middle of the night to commit suicide? Can't hang yourself at home?

At noon, the school finally announced that classes would be suspended for half a day, and the students could go back after lunch.

This is undoubtedly good news for Ikeda, who can't wait to get to the bookstore and has so many questions to answer. But he still finished his lunch peacefully in the cafeteria and left with most of the people.

Ikeda told himself that he had to be very cautious, not to do anything unusual, even if no one would pay attention to him, he had to be as careful as possible.

He walked for an hour to get home, and he seemed very calm along the way, and he didn't even glance inside when he passed Tianyi's bookstore.

"I'm back." After Ikeda said this, he closed the door and sat on the porch to change his shoes.

He walked into the living room, where his father was sitting in the kotatsu watching TV with a cigarette, when he heard Ikeda opening the door, he didn't look back and said, "Did you skip class by coming back so early?"

Ikeda also sat beside the kotatsu and took homework from her schoolbag. "Matsuo-sensei committed suicide at school last night, so classes are suspended in the afternoon."

Dad frowned slightly after hearing this: "Ah...that guy, he is your head teacher, I still remember him. He visited my house once last year, he walked in with that disgusting look, and when he spoke to me, He also put on an arrogant expression, what, that guy." He took a deep breath: "How did he die? Jumped off the roof of the school? Or hanged or something?"

Ikeda looked numb and pushed his thick glasses: "I was hanged. I heard that he sneaked into the school at night and did it in his office. I don't know the details."

"Oh, that's right." Dad Ikeda reached for the remote control on the table. He burped as soon as he moved, and the smell of alcohol rushed out of his mouth, but Ikeda didn't pay much attention to it, he was used to it anyway. .

"Maybe this thing will be on the news." Dad cut a few channels, found a channel that was broadcasting news and stopped.

"The New Year is approaching, and the public security situation in Hokkaido this year is still on a downward trend at the end of the year. Compared with other districts in the prefecture, it is again the last one. In addition to frequent burglaries, violent crimes have also increased. The police spokesman refused. In response to this data, the reporter of this station and several experts invited by us will come together today..."

The news is as usual, with some depressing news, and then a few so-called experts are called in to give some afterthought that doesn't help.

"If there is news about your school, maybe you will also appear on TV." Dad turned up the volume of the TV as he spoke.

Ikeda just replied nonchalantly; "I don't remember any reporters or the like coming in the morning."

Time flies, Ikeda sat there doing his homework for two hours, his dad drank a few cups, stared at the boring news and fell asleep.

After packing up and turning off the TV, Ikeda went back to his room and took out a pen from under the pillow. It was an ordinary pen from Matsuo's desk last night.

This pen reminds Ikeda that what happened last night was not a dream, not a hallucination, or even an imagination, but a fact that really happened.

December 11, 4 p.m.

Ikeda came to Tianyi's bookstore again, and the scene he saw after pushing the door into the house was almost the same as yesterday~IndoMTL.com~ But today, Tianyi didn't ignore Ikeda, he put down the book and coffee in his hand, The first to speak: "Come here, just sit down."

Ikeda walked to Tianyi's desk, and found that there was no such thing as a chair at all. The only sofa chair in the room was occupied by the owner of the bookstore, so he could only respond: "I still Stand."

Tianyi opened the drawer at hand, took out a black-covered book and put it on the table: "Miura Kazuya's secrets are all in it." He put his hand on the book, without any intention of taking it away: " What did you bring?"

Ikeda asked back: "Since you also have my book in your hand, you must already know that I have done what you explained, so why bother asking." He put Matsuo's pen on Tianyi as he spoke. on the table.

Tian Yi yawned with a look of disdain: "It's because I know far more than you think, so I can't show you Miura's book for the time being."

"Are you going to go back?!" Ikeda raised his voice, shock and anger on the verge of breaking out.

However, Tianyi quickly extinguished his emotions: "The reason why you want to read this book is to get revenge on Miura, to vent the grievances accumulated by him for being bullied in the past two years, um... also It may be that he is going to put all the grievances in his short life on Miura. It doesn't matter, I support you very much, but I think you may have more urgent things to do at this stage." He changed his words: "This morning , in your school, there is a policeman, he is very good, even very shrewd. He was the first policeman to arrive at the scene of Matsuo's 'suicide' at 5:00 in the morning, and immediately found the doubt and did the right thing Judgment - Matsuo was murdered."

Ikeda's face was ashen, and he involuntarily took a step back: "What did you say..."