Zhou Tong Detective Series

Chapter 13 Zhou Tong Detective Series I: Death Tarot Cards (13)
There are as many as [-] cherry trees in Ueno Park. Where the wind blows, it is like raining pink cherry blossoms.Chidorigafuchi is a favorite place for Japanese people to watch cherry blossoms. The lake here is named after the shape of a thousand-feathered bird fluttering its wings. , like a faint ink painting.

The four of them were walking in the cherry garden, intoxicated by the beautiful scenery in front of them, lingering and forgetting that they were still in a dangerous situation.

A gust of wind blows, and the cherry blossoms all over the sky flutter like snowflakes, but the snowflakes are not white, but a touch of pink, and it is wonderful to be in it.However, in this piece of pink, three extremely incongruous black figures suddenly entered.

Three black figures flashed in the crowd, surrounding Zhou Tong, Yan Yongjie, Li Ying and Li Wanren in an instant.Before Li Ying had time to exclaim, the three men in black rushed forward with knives.Yan Yongjie immediately pushed Zhou Tong and Li Ying beside her to the ground, then raised her fists and kicked her legs four times, blocking the two men in black.But Li Wanren was not so lucky. He, who was farthest from Yan Yongjie, was stabbed in the chest by a man in black, bleeding profusely, and fell under the cherry blossom tree.The tourists around were stunned by this sudden scene. There was a commotion in the crowd, and some young girls let out piercing screams.The three men in black were not fond of fighting. After stabbing Li Wanren, they immediately released smoke bombs and disappeared into the chaotic crowd.

"Brother!" Li Wanren was injured in front of Li Ying's eyes, and ran over in panic to hug Li Wanren, who was already lying in a pool of blood.

Zhou Tong also stepped forward immediately, took off his shirt, pressed the wound on Li Wanren's chest, and said loudly, "Hurry up and call an ambulance!"

Li Ying and her only elder brother had always had a very good relationship. Seeing her elder brother become like this, she felt sad and anxious, but she was at a loss what to do. She could only stand outside the emergency room with tears in her eyes.Zhou Tong stood beside her, wanting to comfort her, but didn't know what to say.Although Yan Yongjie was also worried about Li Wanren's injury, she had to deal with the Japanese police who came after hearing the news.

After nearly an hour, the door of the emergency room finally opened, and a surgeon in a white coat came out.Li Ying stood there blankly, although she was eager to know the situation, she didn't dare to go forward to ask about the situation.

Zhou Tong saw her worry, so she walked up and asked, "Doctor, how is the patient's condition?"

"Fortunately, the knife did not stab the heart. The patient just lost too much blood. After rescue and blood transfusion, he is no longer seriously ill. He just needs to recuperate for a while. Now you can go in and see him alone. Be careful not to talk too much with him Let him rest more." After the doctor finished speaking, he bowed slightly to Zhou Tong, then turned and left.

Although Li Ying's Japanese wasn't very good, she understood what the doctor meant, and finally broke through her tears and smiled.And Yan Yongjie saw the expressions of the two of them, and knew that Li Wanren was fine, so she also breathed a sigh of relief.

"Li Ying, go and take care of your brother. I have informed the Japanese police. They will have special personnel to protect your safety." Yan Yongjie stepped forward and gently squeezed Li Ying's shoulder.

"What about you?" Li Ying said and looked at Zhou Tong.

"Don't worry, Zhou Tong and I will find out the murderer!" Yan Yongjie said confidently.

Zhou Tong smiled, looked at Li Ying and said, "Looks like my ears can finally be clean!"

Li Ying gave him a blank look when she heard the words, turned her head away, and ignored him.

"You have to be more careful!" Li Ying looked at Yan Yongjie and said with concern, but she deliberately only talked about you, not you, and wanted to annoy Zhou Tong.

Yan Yongjie smiled and nodded.

"You are really unfeeling to me!" Zhou Tong deliberately put on a disappointed and sad expression to tease Li Ying.

Li Ying really laughed, but didn't say anything more, and hurried into the emergency room.

It wasn't until Li Ying walked in that Zhou Tong asked Yan Yongjie again: "You said you wanted to find out the murderer, did you find any clues?"

"What do you think I do?" Yan Yongjie didn't answer him, but asked instead.

"Knowing that you are a capable person in the special criminal investigation team, don't let yourself be fooled!"

"Look what this is?" Yan Yongjie took out a torn black cloth strip from his pocket, and turned it over.

"Yiga!" Zhou Tong cried out when he saw the embroidered characters on the back of the black cloth, and then said in disbelief: "They are Yiga ninjas!"

"Yes, I tore it from one of the men in black during the fight." Yan Yongjie put the strip of cloth into his pocket, and then said with a bit of a sigh: "I didn't expect a man in black from the Phantom Sword to die just now. Three more Iga ninjas in black came out, as well as the puzzle left by An Miko, the whole case became more and more confusing!"

"I'm really curious why these three ninjas chose to attack us in Ueno Park, where there are so many tourists, and as professional killers, they would miss an ordinary person?" Zhou Tong finally expressed his confusion.

"Could it be that what Amiko left behind was in Ueno Park, maybe they didn't want to kill us, but just gave us a warning or a threat?" Yan Yongjie seemed to be talking to herself.

Zhou Tong shook his head and said, "It's unlikely that the thing is in Ueno Park, because I'm sure the other party doesn't know what An Miko left behind and where she left it, or they would have destroyed it long before we did." There is no need to take the risk of coming out to attack us, the puzzle left by An Meizi not only baffles us, but also baffles them. In addition, there may be other reasons why they didn't kill Li Wanren!"

"What do you think is the reason?" Yan Yongjie asked.

"I don't know now, but it must be related to their conspiracy!" Zhou Tong said with certainty.

"If you said that, you didn't say it. It's useless for us to guess now. Why don't we follow the clue of the ninja to check, maybe we can find something!" Yan Yongjie clenched her fist.

"Then what do you mean now?" Although Zhou Tong had guessed in his heart that Yiyan Yongjie's character would definitely do this, he still asked knowingly.

"Of course to Yihe!" Yan Yongjie replied without thinking.

"Just the two of us?" Zhou Tong felt a little cold in his heart.

"That's right, just the two of us!" Yan Yongjie spoke in a firm tone.

Zhou Tong and Yan Yongjie set off from Tokyo to Iga in Ueno City, Mie Prefecture, Japan, which is known as the "hometown of ninjas".

Mie County, which is long and narrow from north to south, belongs to the Kinki region of Japan. It occupies the eastern end of the Kii Peninsula, close to Ise Bay and the Pacific Ocean, and is located between Osaka and Nagoya.The climate here is mild, and more than one-third of the county is designated as a natural park area.It takes two trips by train from Tokyo to reach Iga, which is surrounded by mountains. Because the traffic is not as convenient as other cities in Japan, few foreign tourists come to visit here.

Zhou Tong and Yan Yongjie changed to a local train at a small station called "Guishan". This small station was far away from the hustle and bustle of the metropolis. When they were standing on the platform, it suddenly started to rain.And the train also entered the station at this time. What they didn't expect was that the train had only one short carriage.

The train was running in the sparsely populated mountains. The mountains on both sides of the railway track were densely covered with bamboos. The rain sometimes slowed down and sometimes rushed. After passing a mountain, the sun appeared again, and the rain was also splashing in the sun, which made people feel a little dazed.

Zhou Tong is not a timid person, but he has been influenced by the image of ninjas in Japanese cartoons since he was a child, and has always felt that ninjas are mysterious and possess unique skills.Although Yan Yongjie's martial arts are also good, it may not be a problem to deal with three or four ninjas, but if the opponent has ten or twenty ninjas, whether he can save his life is really a question mark.Thinking of this, Zhou Tong couldn't help but asked cautiously: "Dear sister Yong Jie, do you know anything about Japanese ninjas?"

"They're just pretending to be tricksters. It's unlucky for them to meet me!" Yan Yongjie looked at Zhou Tong's worried expression, and couldn't help laughing inwardly. In fact, she wouldn't be so reckless as to openly seek out those ninjas by herself. However, in order to scare Zhou Tong, she deliberately put on an appearance of causing trouble.

"Can I get out of the car early?" Zhou Tong wiped the sweat from his forehead.

Yan Yongjie knocked Zhou Tong's forehead hard, "Are you a man?"

"This has nothing to do with gender!" Zhou Tong said unconvinced, touching his hot forehead.

Although Yan Yongjie knew that the other party was not incompetent, she did not believe Zhou Tong's exaggeration, "You don't have to be so afraid. This time, we will be careful and keep a low profile. As long as we find the clues we need, we will leave immediately."

"I'm afraid it's up to us. If I'm not wrong, our every move is likely to be under their surveillance. As long as there is a chance, they will take our lives without hesitation! I even suspect that this matter itself is It was a trap they set up, and the other party deliberately wanted to lure us to Iga." Zhou Tong shrugged his shoulders as he said.

"I've also considered this point, but at present, I can't find any other way except to continue to pursue this clue, so I have to take a risk." Yan Yongjie did not refute what Zhou Tong said this time.

"Yeah, I didn't stop you because of the same considerations. I'll just play with them once and see who wins!" Zhou Tong finally had a confident and arrogant expression on his face.

In the war-torn Sengoku period, during the more than a century from the mid-to-late 15th century to the mid-to-late 16th century in Japanese history, the shogunate ruled as the central government existed in name only.Iga, surrounded by mountains, is very close to Kyoto. Although it is barren, it occupies a very important geographical location. Taking advantage of the weakening of the shogunate, various parts of the territory rebelled. For a while, there were dozens of independent separatist forces in the Iga area. .In this small land, fierce competition beyond the imagination of outsiders has been launched.Each faction has limited land and troops, so it is necessary to train ninjas to carry out activities such as reconnaissance, sneak attack, and assassination.As a result, the ninjas of the Iga style have been able to develop rapidly.Ninjutsu is almost cruel to the intensity of human physical training. Every training is a death knockout match. Those who cannot bear it are not allowed to survive.In addition to routine training, ninjutsu also includes a variety of "monster force training", through which ninjas can further hone their will, endurance, survivability and so on.This kind of strange strength training, such as not eating or moving for several days, killing one's own companions, and fighting wild beasts, is unimaginable for a group of people.Through this two-pronged practice of life and death, the ninja has achieved a superhuman leap from the spirit to the body.Gained dozens of times the perseverance, endurance, and combat power of ordinary people, and ninjas also have some incredible abilities, such as hiding in lanterns, in the soil, and behind a piece of thin paper, or extremely fierce, physically suffering The average person can still fight with a knife after being fatally wounded.The ninja is powerful and absolutely loyal. A ninja who is proficient in ninjutsu can be called an absolutely reliable full-power fighting machine.In ancient times, there were at least 30 schools of ninja scattered throughout Japan, and the most famous one was the Iga style.This is why Iga has gradually evolved into a ninjutsu base camp.

Zhou Tong and Yan Yongjie went very smoothly along the way without encountering any obstacles. After getting off the train, they quickly found the famous Iga-ryu Ninja Museum.Yan Yongjie obtained a press card from somewhere, and pretended to be a reporter from a well-known domestic newspaper, while Zhou Tong acted as her translator.

Qingzi Nakagawa, a female curator in her forties, also seemed very enthusiastic and happy when she heard that a Chinese reporter came to interview her. She even came out to receive Zhou Tong and Yan Yongjie in person.

"You are the first Chinese reporter to come here for an interview!" This was the first sentence that Qingzi Zhongchuan said when she met Yan Yongjie.

"Then I'm really honored!" Yan Yongjie said very naturally while holding her hand.

"Ninja, Japanese means a person who acts secretly, and accepts the training of Japanese ninjutsu. Ninjutsu, the technique of mastering stealth operations. In Japan, there are many myths and legends about ninjas. Ninjas flourished in Japan during the Sengoku period. They Carrying out secret missions for the feudal nobles." Kiyoko Nakagawa took Yan Yongjie and Zhou Tong for a walk in the Iga-ryu Ninja Museum, and kept introducing everything about the Iga-ryu ninjas to the two along the way.

Yan Yongjie and Zhou Tong patiently listened to the explanation and took notes, completely like a reporter.

It wasn't until the whole visit was over that Yan Yongjie asked Qingzi Nakagawa, "Can you introduce us to a real ninja?"

Zhou Tong quickly translated this sentence.

A complicated expression appeared on the face of Kiyoko Nakagawa, as if he could not make up his mind, and after a while, he said: "With all due respect, real ninjas probably won't see you, but if you need to watch a ninjutsu show, we will Here are actors who can perform for you."

"Director Nakagawa, we came here from far away China just to interview real Japanese ninjas, please help us no matter what!" Yan Yongjie begged.

"I'm sorry, but I can't do anything!" At this time, Qingzi Zhongchuan had already sent Yan Yongjie and Zhou Tong to the door. After saying this, she bowed politely, then turned and left.

Neither Yan Yongjie nor Zhou Tong thought that the curator would reject them so quickly and firmly, and they felt a little helpless for a while.

However, at this moment, a little Japanese boy who was also visiting the museum ran over.

"Do you want to see a real ninja?" The little boy looked at Yan Yongjie and Zhou Tong curiously with wide eyes.

"Yes, kid, have you ever seen a real ninja?" Zhou Tong bent down and hugged the cute little boy, teasing him.

"No, seeing a real ninja is very dangerous, my mother told me!" The little boy's eyes showed a look of expectation but fear.

"How does your mother know that meeting a real ninja is dangerous?" Zhou Tong asked curiously.

"Because they all live in Ghost Mountain, where evil spirits haunt." The little boy's eyes were full of fear at this moment.

"Ghost Mountain? Where is Ghost Mountain?" Zhou Tong wanted to continue asking, but at this moment the little boy's mother came over.

"Xiaowan! You can't say such impolite words to others!" The middle-aged woman picked up the child and said shyly to Zhou Tong: "I'm sorry, the child talks nonsense, please don't mind!"

"It's okay, but is there really a place called 'Ghost Mountain'? There are real ninjas living there?" Zhou Tong asked the child's mother with a smile.

"No, no, that's a terrible place!" The child's mother became a little flustered when she spoke, and even contradicted each other, but she didn't wait for Zhou Tong to ask her again, and hurriedly took the child away up.

"Zhou Tong, what did you say to them?" Yan Yongjie who was on the side asked Zhou Tong curiously when she saw the child's mother leaving in a panic.

"The mother and son are a bit strange. They said that the ninja lived in a place called 'ghost mountain'." Zhou Tong looked at Yan Yongjie and replied.

"'Ghost Mountain'? I checked a lot of information before I came here, and there is no place called 'Ghost Mountain'." Yan Yongjie tried hard to search for this place name in her mind, but found nothing.

"If what the mother and son said is not nonsense, then since they know it, there must be other people here who know it, so let's investigate."

Yan Yongjie and Zhou Tong left the museum, and now they first need to find a hotel in this mountain village far away from the city.

Iga is no bigger than a metropolis, and there are no big hotels or hotels, only two or three small hotels run by locals.It is said that it is a hotel, in fact, it provides three or four empty rooms for guests in one's own home, but fortunately, the rooms are relatively clean.Zhou Tong and Yan Yongjie found a hotel called "Ninja House". The owner of the hotel is a very hospitable mother Sang.

(End of this chapter)