Bang bang bang!
Miyake Kouta smashed the door with his fist, and the solid security door made a dull sound.
"Qianzhang, are you in there?"
Bang bang bang!
Knock again.
"I'm really angry. You'd better tell me clearly what you've been doing these two days!"
Still no one responded.
Miyake Kouta approached the security door. He couldn't hear a sound from his brother's house, and the entire corridor was deathly silent.
Only a little bit of rain splashed along the brick fence in the corridor, making the air cold and damp, making people unhappy.
My brother seems really not at home.
"Where did that kid go?"
But Qianzhang just answered the phone and sounded normal.
In other words, nothing happened to him.
Maybe it's just that I don't want to see myself.
Miyake Yasutai realized this very early. As adults, the social status gap between the two brothers became wider and wider. Every time he saw his younger brother, he would feel great psychological pressure.
Also, for that kid Qianzhang, what good is there to see the eldest brother who has accomplished nothing?
He finally decided to leave.
When he reached the stairs, Miyake Kouta shook the umbrella in his hand and looked back again.
The door to my brother's apartment was still closed, standing quietly like a lifeless tombstone in the dark environment.
Naturally, the tombstone cannot be opened.
"Damn, it's cold in here."
Miyake pulled off his clothes that were wet and wrinkled by the rain, and walked downstairs.
…
About an hour after Miyake Kouta left.
The Kamiya family's modified ghost Mazda with a heavy industrial feel drove downstairs to the apartment where Chiaki Miyake lived.
Oishi Junma inserted the car into a nearby alley and stopped with the door facing the alley.
The ghost car has never been difficult to park. You can park it anywhere as long as you find a deserted corner.
Dashi in front got out of the cab, opened a black umbrella, and picked up his boss from the car.
"Dashi, I can hold an umbrella by myself."
Kamiya got off the car and stood under the umbrella.
Oishi Junma held the handle of the umbrella and seemed very excited: "Please let me do it, boss! I have wanted to do this a long time ago. Boss, don't you think it would be more handsome for me to hold the umbrella for you? I will Like your driver and bodyguard, when we go to see that person's home like this, you will be like a gangster, with your aura under control."
Kamiya silently glanced at the dazzling yellow hair on his little brother's head.
I don’t know if I have the temperament of a Yakuza, but when I stand with you, I always feel that I have a bit more of a street delinquent.
Those who are close to ink are black.
"Don't scare people with your head falling off."
"No problem, boss!"
Holding an umbrella from the big stone, Kamiya walked out of the alley.
Just after leaving Tsukada Satake's home, Kamiya called Mr. Kyoshiki according to the contact information.
But no one answered.
After Kamiya thought about it, he simply went to the house according to the address and came over to have a look. Although it is somewhat rude for a stranger to come to your door without saying hello, excellent scriptwriters are hard to come by, so it is better to meet them as much as possible.
Hua Hua——
The heavy rain has been falling for a long time this afternoon, and it shows no sign of stopping.
The moisture is mixed with the damp smell of earth.
The sky and the earth were turbid under the torrential rain, turning into a cup of turbid liquid. The dark buildings on the ground were like sediment at the bottom of the cup.
Kamiya walked downstairs to the apartment and suddenly stopped.
In front of him, only a few of the five-story apartment buildings had lights on, and the lights looked hazy in the mist.
"Abba whining!"
The little old man found himself at his feet, raised his hand and pointed to the fourth floor of the apartment, telling what he had discovered.
"Boss, there are also little old men and seniors? What's wrong?"
Oishi Junma's perception ability is not too strong. When he saw the boss stop, he also stopped and tilted the umbrella in his hand more towards the boss.
Kamiya didn't reply immediately, he just raised his head and his eyes shrank slightly, becoming deep and dark.
The rainwater flowed down the black umbrella surface, gathered into water lines, and slowly slid down from his eyes.
Snap.
The water line smashed into the standing water on the ground, swaying into turbid ripples and splashing small cold water droplets.
"Something is wrong here."
Kamiyagawa pulled out a word from the [Mirage Bag].
…
Miyake Kouta drove home from Roppongi in Minato City.
He rented a one-family building in Shinagawa District and lived with his girlfriend.
However, his girlfriend has been on a business trip these past two days, so he is the only one at home.
Miyake Kouta returned home carrying a bento he bought from a convenience store on the way.
He put the lunch on the table, took off half of his clothes, and was about to take a shower, but when he reached the bathroom door, he heard the doorbell ringing at the entrance.
Bell——Bell——
"who?"
"Brother, it's me, Qianzhang."
My brother's voice came from the door.
Chiaki?
I couldn't find anyone else just now, so why is this kid here on his own now?
"Wait a minute!"
Kouta put on shorts, wiped his hair with a dry towel, and walked towards the door.
The door opens.
The person standing outside was indeed his younger brother Chiaki Miyake.
The brother he disliked and was secretly jealous of.
Qianzhang doesn't look much like his tall and burly brother. He is a little skinny and a little short.
Qian Zhang was wearing a white shirt and jeans, most of which were wet. He was holding an umbrella in his hand, the glasses on his nose were covered with moisture, and he stood at the door with an apologetic look on his face.
I don't know if it was the cold or some other reason, but his thin lips were a little white.
"You...where have you been?"
Kangtai wanted to get angry again, but seeing his brother's embarrassment, he really didn't know what to say, and most of his anger had been reduced on the way home.
"Sorry, brother. I encountered something, something...that is difficult to explain."
Qianzhang said this, looking back slightly uneasily.
Behind him were only the dark streets, whose trees were swaying from the wind and rain.
"Come in first."
Kangtai turned aside to let his brother in, and went to the bathroom to get a dry towel and threw it to him.
The two brothers sat down on the tatami in the living room.
"What's going on? Do you want some water?" Miyake Kouta asked him.
"No, brother. What I'm going to tell you is very strange, but really, please believe me."
After Qianzhang sat down, he still looked a little uneasy and anxious, and frequently looked up at the clock on the wall.
"You tell me."
Kangtai was confused, his brother seemed to be a little abnormal, he had never been so talkative before.
"I seem... to be targeted by something, a... I can't tell what it is, something supernatural."
"Huh? Have you damaged your brain by writing it?"
"Really, brother! Brother, you...you just went to my house, right?"
"Yes, yes. But after knocking on the door for a while, no one responded, so I left."
"You shouldn't go. That thing is probably at my house, and it might be targeting you. Brother, why don't you go to a nearby shrine or temple now? I don't know if it will be useful, but it's better than staying here. ! Ah... No, I'm going with you, we have to go together, maybe it will appear halfway."
"What on earth are you talking about? What kind of shrine or temple? I think it's better to send you to the hospital first."
"Brother, really, you have to believe me, really believe me!"
Qianzhang's tone suddenly became almost pleading and incoherent, which caught Kouta off guard.
After being silent for about ten seconds, the Miyake family brother sighed: "If going to the shrine can help you calm down, it's not impossible. But at least you have to tell me what happened, right? Otherwise, it's raining so heavily. Why should I stupidly go out with you again?"
After hearing Kangtai's words, Qianzhang finally calmed down a little.
Kang Tai did not completely deny his illogical words, but just needed a reasonable explanation.
Just like...when I was a kid.
When he was a child, as long as Qianzhang could explain things and his inner thoughts clearly to his brother, his brother would stand by him unconditionally.
The same goes for writing light.
Qianzhang initially shared this idea with his brother and received support from him.
Thinking of this, Chiaki Miyake seemed to feel a little more at ease. He planned to use the shortest words and the shortest time to tell his brother about his experiences in the past few days.
"Brother, it's like this-"
…
Things started half a month ago.
Because Tokuma Studio was acquired and reorganized, and all the script work at hand had been completed, Chiaki Miyake got a week's vacation.
His two friends Guangzhao and Jieyou learned about the situation and invited him to Akita.
These two friends are both from Akita Prefecture. They are college classmates with Chiaki Miyake, and they usually have a good relationship.
The reason why I invited Chiaki to Akita was because it was summer and a summer festival was going to be held there.
Kanto Festival.
At that time, young people dressed in traditional festival costumes will perform parades at night. Using their hips, shoulders or forehead, they take turns lifting a twelve-meter-high bamboo pole decorated with 46 paper lanterns and pieces of paper and fixed with bamboo sticks.
The procession will pass through the streets of the town to the sound of flutes and drums, cheering enthusiastically while ensuring that the lanterns do not go out, and praying for good weather and a good harvest.
Generally speaking, the Kanto Festival in Akita City is held in August.
However, the timing of the event may be different in some rural areas. For example, in a rural town on the Yanmu Mountain side where Guangzhao lives, the event starts in July, and there are gatherings at night.
It's a good place for Chiaki Miyake to go and relax, and it's also a good place to collect ideas and materials as a writer.
Miyake naturally agreed to his friend's invitation.
When he arrived in Akita, he lived in Guangzhao's home.
On the night of the Iwakiyama Summer Lantern Festival, the three young people went to the town where the festival was held.
They went there by motorcycle, two local friends each drove one, and Chiaki Miyake sat in the back seat of Hiroshi.
The Lantern Festival is very lively. The lanterns that shine in the night and gather in the long river procession look like rice stalks. The lanterns emitting bright light symbolize the golden ears of rice.
The three young men had a great time.
By the time the celebrations and sacrifices were held and the gathering was finished, it was already half past eleven in the evening.
The three of them planned to stay at the nearby Guangzhao home tonight, so they drove back.
There were a lot of cars on the road at first, because there were many people returning home from the celebration. After driving for a while and passing some intersections, the number of vehicles on the road decreased until finally only their two motorcycles were left on the empty country road.
While driving like this, Miyake, who was sitting in the back seat of Guangzhao, suddenly noticed that Jieyou's car, which had been following him, was missing.
It seemed that he was a little slow after passing a traffic light intersection, and then he never caught up.
So the two stopped by the side of the road.
After waiting for about five minutes, Jieyou still didn't show up, and no one answered the phone.
There was no other way, Qianzhang and Guangzhao could only ride back the same way to find the person.
On the way back, they didn't worry too much about anything.
"Maybe Jieyou's car just has a malfunction and can't start."
After driving for about a kilometer, the two found Jieyou's car and parked it on the side of the road.
The key was not removed.
Guangzhao stepped forward and tried it, and sure enough, the car couldn't start.
But it's strange that only the motorcycles are left here, but the Jieyou people are not there.
So the two could only try to call each other's phone again, while shouting around to find him.
There are farmlands on both sides of that section of the road. There is no light, and you can hear the noisy chirping of frogs in the fields.
As soon as the call was made, I heard the ringing of my cell phone on the edge of a nearby field.
The two of them followed the sound and finally saw Jieyou.
He looked frightened, his eyes were wide open, his mouth was strained open, his face was tear-stained, and he was covered in mud. He just stood like that in the paddy field, maintaining a strange posture with his hands stretched forward, as motionless as a scarecrow. No matter how Qian Zhang and Guang Zhao called him, he didn't respond.
Jieyou's action was really weird.
It didn't feel like he was naturally straightening his arms, but rather like someone was pulling his hands hard in front.
Guangzhao and Qianzhang were both frightened by the scene before them, but in the end they had no choice but to go down and drag Jieyou up.
After pushing and carrying him onto Guangzhao's motorcycle, he finally returned to Guangzhao's home in an illegal manner, with Guangzhao sitting at the front, the distraught Jieyou in the middle, and Qianzhang sitting at the end.
As for Jieyou's motorcycle, he could only take out the key and park it where it was.
When I got home and tidied up for a while, it was already past one o'clock in the morning.
During this period, Jieyou, who was absent-minded, finally slowly regained some consciousness. Under Qianzhang's questioning, he talked about the previous encounter intermittently and with a trembling voice.
"My car broke down and couldn't start. So I had to push the car to the side of the road and thought about calling you to come back."
"Then on the opposite side of the road, under the streetlight, a woman suddenly appeared and waved to me. The woman... was very strange, and the clothes she wore were also strange. She stood under the somewhat dazzling streetlight, and looked at it with tingles in my heart."
"I shouted to her, but she didn't respond at all. She just stood and kept waving to me."
"I felt scared, but then... I don't remember what happened after that."
After listening to Jieyou's story, Qianzhang and Guangzhao both felt chills running down their spines.
Things were too weird tonight.
Because it was a house in the countryside, Guangzhao's family had several rooms. They had originally divided the rooms, but tonight they simply made beds and slept together.
I don't know what time of night it was, but Qian Zhang, who was half asleep, seemed to hear Jie You, who was lying not far away, muttered something vaguely and mechanically.
He barely pushed himself up and looked in the direction of Jieyou, and saw that his friend was still lying under the quilt, with no movement.
So the sleepy Qianzhang fell asleep again.
What he didn't know was that that night, his friend kept his eyes open the whole time and lay stiffly.
Jieyou was indeed whispering.
He said: "...I still have to go back."
When he woke up the next day, Jieyou was no longer in the room, and he was nowhere to be found in Guangzhao's home.
Afterwards, Qianzhang and Guangzhao received a call from Jieyou’s mother. The mother cried and told them an unacceptable news——
Jieyou is dead.
(End of chapter)
