"Old man, I'm back," Mizuno Sōichiro shouted as soon as he entered the room. It was already past midnight.
My Sun Tzu asked with concern, "Is it okay?
It's one in the morning. "
"It's okay. No matter how deep the old man sleeps, he'll wake up when he hears my voice … Hey!
Old man!
Old man! "
Mizuno Sōichiro shouted a few times but still didn't get a response. He got annoyed and patted my Sun Tzu's shoulder, smiling apologetically. "Sorry for making you laugh, Brother Inuyang. I'll ask the old man to wake up and make us some hangover soup."
He looked at my Sun Tzu with disdain. How did such a guy give birth to such an excellent son like Mizuno?
Either it was a genetic mutation, or Mizuno's soul was swapped.
But what did other people's business have to do with me? I, Sun Tzu, am not a righteous person. If it doesn't concern me, I won't worry about it.
My grandson, Ryo, leaned against the wall as he watched Mizuno Sōichirō enter the small room. But a few minutes later, a piercing scream almost pierced my eardrums, but it stopped midway. It was very abrupt.
It seemed like Mizuno Sōichiro had strangled his neck and covered his mouth to stop him from making a sound.
"What's wrong?
Brother Mizuno. "
My Sun Tzu slowly walked toward the small room. His footsteps were light, which was very inconsistent with his weight of more than 100 kilograms.
"He, he, he, he!!"
Sōichiro crawled on the ground like a drowning dog. He flipped all the way to the door of the small room and hugged my Sun Tzu's leg. "Dead, dead, he's dead?!"
"Dead?" My Sun Tzu walked a few steps, and his fat and gentle face instantly turned serious.
He saw an old man lying on the tatami, covered with a thin quilt. His face was frighteningly pale and full of age spots. My Sun Tzu had the technology to identify corpses. He could roughly determine that the old man had died at least 24 hours ago. If a real person were to use science and technology to check, the time of death might be extended.
In other words, Mizuno Sōichiro hadn't cared about his father's life for a long time …
What a bastard!
"What should we do? He's dead. What should we do?" Mizuno finally sobered up and shook off the smell of alcohol.
"Don't panic."
I, Sun Sunliang, was as calm as a funeral director who had dealt with such situations many times. "Contact the hospital and the funeral director first, then report it to the community …"
Hearing Sun Ziliang's suggestion, Mizuno Sōichiro shook his head frantically. "No, no, I absolutely can't say it. I absolutely can't report it."
"Why …"
"Don't you understand?"
Mizuno Sōichiro turned around and knelt in front of his father like a filial son. "If I had reported it, he would have died!"
"Dead?
But he's dead now. "
"It's the kind of death that will be written off. If I die, I won't be able to get my pension anymore. How am I supposed to live without my pension?
Did you sell the house? "
Mizuno Sōichiro snorted coldly. He didn't expect his new brother to be so insensitive. "I won't sell the house until the last step, unless the other party gives me a lot of money."
"Successful people like you don't understand. Without a pension, social parasites like us can't survive in this cruel world."
Sun Ziliang froze for a moment. The back of my head felt slightly cold.
I understood. As a person from a special organization, the dark side of society that I, Sun Ziliang, had come into contact with was not something that Mizuno Sōichiro could imagine. And I, Sun Ziliang, knew exactly what Mizuno Sōichiro wanted to do.
I, Sun Ziliang, looked at Mizuno Sōichiro in surprise. "Then, are you going to …?"
"Yes!
He's not dead yet. He's alive and well! "
Mizuno Sōichiro covered the old man with the quilt. "The pension still needs to be paid on time. It needs to be paid until he really dies."
"Tomorrow is the time for the return visit. It's very easy to deal with them. Anyway, they never check seriously. It's just a formality."
Mizuno Sōichiro looked a little nervous. "I just need to say that the old man went out to find a friend, and I can fool them. Anyway, the capitalists and the country have so much money. It doesn't matter if they give me a little more."
As he spoke, Mizuno Sōichiro fumbled around the room. He found a secret compartment under the tatami and pulled it open.
"Click."
It was a storage space that was neither too big nor too small.
This was a measure that many old houses had, but it was usually used to store banknotes or precious gold and silver jewelry.
Now, it was empty. The money had probably been used up long ago.
"Brother Quinyang, come and help me. Let's put this old man in … Anyway, it's not a big problem to cheat the pension. I didn't kill the old man, so it doesn't matter if it's found out."
No, he will be sentenced this way.
I, Sun Ziliang, said silently in his heart. But he still helped Mizuno Sōichiro.
Breaking the law and being sentenced was very far away from him. He was just performing his official duties, and it was inevitable that he would make some small mistakes for the sake of official duties.
Seeing that his newly recognized brother was so reasonable, Mizuno Sōichiro was moved to tears.
In the cramped room, the shadows of the three people stretched infinitely, and the rustling sound of friction kept on. As the secret compartment was closed, a crime seemed to have been covered on the surface.
After doing all this, Mizuno Sōichiro let out a long sigh and slumped to the ground. All his strength had been drained.
I, Sun Ziliang, had been guarding against Mizuno Sōichiro's attack. After doing evil together, it was not uncommon for people around him to suddenly kill him. However, I don't know if Sōichiro was simply pitiful or really timid, but he did not show the slightest impulse to attack.
Perhaps in his mind, this was just a trivial matter. He would not go so far as to kill the people around him over a trivial matter.
"Thank you, thank you."
If the two were still brothers on the surface when they were drinking, now that they had done something wrong, it felt like they were developing into kindred spirits.
"You're welcome … These are all trivial matters …"
"But … this is really …"
I, Sun Ziliang, smiled and pretended to deliberately change the topic. "You're the only one living in such a big house. Brother Mizuno, are you really living separately from your son?"
When people were extremely nervous, they would constantly release as long as they could find a place to vent. Mizuno Sōichiro, who was very resistant to talking about his wife and son when they were drinking, finally let go and chattered about everything about Mizuno.
He also had the intention to change the topic. Although his conscience was gone, his brain still knew what should be done and what shouldn't be done.
Brother Quan Yang was a good person who could rest assured. He had also done a 'good deed' with him. Now, the two of them were already grasshoppers on the same rope.
"Is that so? Your son is a doormat at school, and he doesn't know how to talk …"
"Has he never learned kendo?"
"Ah ah, I just suddenly thought of it … So he has this habit?"
"His character is very cowardly. He doesn't look like you at all."
Mizuno Sōichiro sat cross-legged in the secret compartment. A middle-aged man was talking about the story of his young son on the corpse of an old father.
I, Sun Ziliang, listened and nodded. Intelligence work had its limits. Sure enough, some secret matters were only known by the person involved.
Interesting!
I, Sun Ziliang, raised the corner of his mouth and pinched his thigh with his right hand.
Seimei Shuromai's intuition was right. There was something wrong with this Mizuno.
Or, was he still Mizuno?
Sōichiro even warmly invited me, Sun Ziliang, to stay the night. However, I, Sun Ziliang, was not generous enough to live with a dead man.
I summarized the information I got from Sōichiro and connected it with the previous doubts.
I, Sun Ziliang, felt like a traveler walking in a dark and deep tunnel. He fumbled in the dark and moved forward in the dark. After many twists and turns, he finally saw … No, he smelled the sunlight. After the sunlight suddenly brightened up, there must be a brand new world.
After a night in the magical reality, he once again became a small character lurking in the city.
There was a slight breeze in Tokyo last night. It was especially cool in the morning. Office workers and students ran on the slope. There were also old people who came out to exercise. I, Sun Ziliang, was no different from millions of people.
"The master is coming out soon. It's time."
"It's the master!"
However, just as I, Sun Ziliang, was walking slowly, he suddenly stopped and turned to look at the other side. What was going on? Although this was not within the scope of my, Sun Ziliang's, mission, he still paid attention and observed a few more times.
The place where the crowd gathered was a detention center in the North District. The detention center held suspects who had not yet been charged. The management was lax, and it was probably comparable to the detention centers in China.
Within 48 hours, the suspect would be transferred to the detention center by the police. After 48 hours, if the suspect was not cleared of suspicion, an additional 10 days of investigation would be added. If the truth was not revealed within 10 days, the prosecutor would continue to decide whether to add an additional 10 days.
So many people gathered in front of the detention center. Could it be that the one being detained was the big brother Kyodo?
The big brother was going to be released from the detention center, so the underlings came to welcome him?
However, I, Sun Ziliang, looked left and right. The people gathered were all old people in their seventies and eighties. There were no ruthless characters with broken limbs. They didn't look like retired cadres.
However, my doubts didn't last long. Ten minutes later, the detention center's door opened. Under the gaze of the police, a monk walked out with a smile.
"This monk …" I, Sun Ziliang, looked away after a few glances. "He's the leader of the attack on the palace."
Attacking the palace sounded like a story before the war. Of course, there were also attacks after the war, but it was more subtle. The closest to the attack on the palace was the May Day rally in the 40s and 50s.
In order to oppose the emperor's politics and express their dissatisfaction, there would be tens of thousands of people on the first of May. At the peak, more than 200,000 people would gather in the outer courtyard of the Kokyo to demonstrate. The square in front of the Kokyo was also jokingly called the 'People's Square' at that time.
Every year, there would be violent clashes during the demonstrations. I, Sun Ziliang, still remembered that there was a guy named Matsushima Matsutaro who raised a sign to ridicule the emperor and was punished for the crime of disrespect. However, he was acquitted under Angelica's manipulation. What a joke. He had already fallen from the pedestal, so how could he still be disrespectful?
If the emperor was disrespectful, what would happen to our Emperor MacArthur?
The hungry people even broke into the Kokyo's dining area under the lead of the red and ate the emperor's family's food. The extravagant ingredients continued to ignite the people's anger.
"What a good era." I, Sun Ziliang, shook his head. After learning what was going on, he quickly left.
A hundred years ago, none of the people who attacked the Kokyo would have a good ending. It was a different story if they succeeded in eliminating the emperor's corrupt officials. They would be given the position of a high official, and their descendants would enjoy the protection of the emperor forever.
Seeing the monk walk out of the detention center, the crowd gathered in front of the door became excited.
The elderly people in the front row immediately went forward to support the monk, as if he had suffered a great injustice in the detention center.
In fact, if someone really committed a crime and was arrested and sent to the detention center, the treatment was actually quite good. The police guards in the detention center also had the attitude that it was better to avoid trouble. They didn't even have the interest to talk to the prisoner.
"You really suffered in there, those barbaric lackeys."
"I rushed here last night when I heard that you were coming out."
"Rest for a while first."
The monk didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He seemed to have transformed into a star among the middle-aged and elderly people.
These people were all from the island's left-wing group. Nowadays, the young people of the Island nation weren't interested in politics. Only the elderly were actively involved in the transformation of the country, but their influence was minimal.
"Thank you, everyone … for your kindness."
Using the word "benefactor" didn't seem right, but the monk was sincerely grateful. If it wasn't for the group of elderly people organizing protests every day, he wouldn't have been released from the detention center so quickly. The guard had vaguely mentioned that he was bringing a lot of pressure to the detention center.
Although he wasn't guilty of disrespect, it was easy for the police to lock him up for a few more days and make him suffer.
"Don't mention it. You're our leader now. It's been a long time since I've seen someone as organized as you."
"Leader?" The monk paused. He didn't know what happened when he went to eat with the government.
"Yes, this country is now in a foul atmosphere. Look at what happened after the transcendents came out.
The police randomly arrested people and opened fire. Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto suffered one after another! "
The transcendents were described as great victories by the government, but the dead couldn't be resurrected. The pain of losing a loved one wasn't something that could be alleviated by televised mourning or insurance compensation. Not to mention, some insurance companies refused to cover for the transcendents.
This was an undercurrent that was buried under the surface of the country. The death of a person was a tragedy for a family, and a family represented the several generations behind it.
The number of victims affected by the transcendents was more than two hundred and fifty thousand. Politics, which was originally only concerned about the elderly, suddenly gained a lot of new forces, including the poor and the middle class. The Tokyo protest was the eruption of this force. After the storm, the dark clouds that accumulated above their heads still hadn't dissipated.
The scene of the monk holding hands and rushing to the Kokyo left a deep impression on many of the people present. The monk himself didn't know that he had become a well-known figure in the small circle.
"Master, master!
There's a problem. "
A tramp in ragged clothes finally made his way to the front of the crowd and grabbed the monk's hand the moment he came up.