Tokyo Mystery Writers

Although Uyama Hideomi felt somewhat at a loss with Maijo Kyosuke's obscure and difficult-to-understand preaching.

But after all, Kyosuke Maijo is a genius writer who can write "The Tokyo Zodiac Murders" and "A Bellflower," and given the sheer length of the story, I'm sure there will be some interesting developments later on!

With these thoughts in mind, Hideomi Uyama continued flipping through the manuscript, entering the world of "The Summer of the Ubume"...

Kyogoku-do didn't care whether I understood him or not, and proceeded to spout a long string of obscure and difficult-to-understand words. But I'm not clever, and I'm even a bit slow-witted, so I only managed to understand a small part of it:

"Only things that should exist exist in this world, and only things that should happen happen. People mistakenly believe that they can understand everything in the universe with just a little bit of common sense and experience. That's why when they encounter something that is slightly beyond common sense and experience, they all shout in unison that it is incredible and bizarre, and they get agitated."

I didn't want to listen to Kyogoku-do's rambling, so I went straight to the point and asked about Kuonji Keiko's twenty-month pregnancy and the disappearance of her husband, Makirou, in the secret room.

Coincidentally, Kyogoku-do's younger sister, Atsuko Chuzenji, a journalist, also came to the used bookstore.

Atsuko's reason for coming here coincided with mine; she also wanted to know what had happened to the Kuonji family.

Therefore, we exchanged and analyzed the information we each had.

Ultimately, a series of clues were uncovered.

The Kuonji family has been imperial physicians since the Edo period, and the current head of the Kuonji Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital is Kuonji Kikuno from the Kuonji family, and her husband, Director Kuonji Yoshichika, who married into the family.

The woman who was twenty months pregnant was the second daughter of Kuonji Kikuno, named Kuonji Keiko. Her husband, Fujino Makirou, was my (Sekiguchi Tatsumi) senior when we were students.

Mu Lang fell in love with Geng Zi when he was in school. In order to be with Geng Zi, Mu Lang went abroad to study. After returning to China, he entered medical school and the smart Mu Lang quickly obtained his medical license.

In the end, Makirou and Genko got married and Makirou moved into the Kuonji family.

Eighteen months ago, Makirou mysteriously disappeared from his room at Kuonji Hospital, and Kyouko was unable to give birth after being pregnant for twenty months.

Hearing such a bizarre story from Atsuko Chuzenji, a journalist, gave me a serious distorted view of the world.

Because I know that Atsuko wouldn't lie to me; this unbelievable thing really did happen!

I had an inspiration to write a story with the background of the Kuonji family, and Atsuko needed this news to complete her work.

We immediately agreed to go to Kuonji Hospital to investigate the truth behind this incident!

Kyogoku-do had absolutely no interest in the truth; he just told Atsuko and me that if we wanted to solve the mystery...

You can go find our mutual friend, the detective Enokizu Reijiro.

The core reason is that Enokizu Reijiro suffered an accident that caused him to lose almost his left eye, but he unexpectedly gained the ability to see the memories in other people's minds!

I am a non-believer and do not believe that Enokizu can see the memories in other people's minds.

I just think this guy is trying to embellish his detective image.

Enokizu's ancestors were once members of the nobility, which, simply put, meant people from the upper class.

A person like him could live comfortably even if he did nothing, but for some reason, he insisted on becoming a detective and even started a detective agency called Rose Cross.

Although I've always thought that no one would hire a strange detective like Enokizu.

But as soon as I stepped into the Rose Cross Detective Agency, I encountered a female customer.

She was a slender, beautiful woman wearing a black and purple patterned kimono. Her pale face made her look like a black and white beauty from a photograph.

Aside from my friends and wife, I am not good at communicating with people, but Enokizu insisted that I greet the woman, claiming that she needed to change her clothes.

This made me feel very embarrassed, and I started to stammer when I spoke.

However, what happened next was somewhat unexpected!

The woman who came to entrust Enokizu was none other than Ryoko Kuonji, the eldest daughter of the Kuonji family.

She is the older sister of Kuonji Keiko, a woman who is twenty months pregnant.

The reason why Ryoko Kuonji came to see Enokizu is self-evident.

Because of the fact that Kuonji Keiko was pregnant for twenty months without giving birth, many newspapers and magazines reported the story in a distorted way, which caused the Kuonji family to suffer a bad reputation.

Ryoko Kuonji then asked the detective Enokizu to help her find Makirou, who had disappeared in the locked room.

I was curious about this matter, so I asked a series of questions.

For example, what is the relationship between Kyouko Kuonji and Makirou Fujino?

Is there a possibility that Kyouko Kuonji is having an affair?

Since Ryoko Kuonji had come to the detective for help, there was nothing to hide.

He frankly stated that there were indeed rumors circulating that Geko had an affair, because there was an intern named Naito in Kuonji's household.

Naito was an adopted son, and he had been taken care of by the Kuonji family since he was young.

Because of her poor health, Ryoko Kuonji was unable to have children.

Kikuno Kuonji planned to groom Naito and Kyoko to get married and take over Kuonji Hospital.

Unfortunately, this guy was too stupid to pass the exam and get a medical license.

He was eventually replaced by the excellent Makirou Fujino.

However, these are all rumors.

Because Ryoko had asked her younger sister, Kyoko, about her relationship with Naito, Kyoko stated that she and Naito had not crossed any lines.

Just eighteen months ago, Gengzi and Mulang had a fight at night. In a fit of anger, Mulang locked himself in his room. When Gengzi entered the room the next day, he found the door locked from the inside and Mulang had disappeared!

I was very confused by what Ryoko said.

Because Ryoko told me that the room where Makirou disappeared was originally an operating room, which was later destroyed by air raids during the war and was then converted into a study.

Inside the room, there were no windows or secret passages. There was only a small room that hadn't been locked for many years. There were two entrances and exits, both of which could only be locked from the inside. It was an absolutely sealed room, so sealed that even a fly couldn't get out!

Fearing that Makirou might be angry and hang himself in the house, Kyoko asked the maid and Naito to break down the door, only to find that Makirou had disappeared from the room!

Hearing these clues, I was a little confused, but also quite curious.

Is it permissible for a person to leave a room without opening the door?

Just as I was getting confused, Enokizu came to Ryoko and me.

When he saw Ryoko, he had a strange look on his face and asked her several times if she recognized me.

I have no idea what's wrong with Enokizu.

Since it was the first time I had met Ryoko, there was no way I could recognize her.

Enokizu ignored what I said, just stared at me, and gave a strange answer:

"Xiao Guan, you're very forgetful and never trustworthy."

I didn't understand what Enokizu meant; I just sat there watching Ryoko and Enokizu communicate.

After a series of inquiries and discussions.

Enokizu, Atsuko, and I decided to visit the Kuonji family the next day.

After seeing Ryoko Kuonji off, as I was about to leave, Enokizu told me with absolute certainty.

"That guy, Mu Lang, must be dead!"

"That woman, Ryoko, is definitely lying!"

"Xiao Guan, this is definitely not the first time you and Ryoko have met, because I saw the scene of your meeting in your memories."

I scoffed at Enokizu's words because I didn't believe he could see the memories in other people's minds.

But Enokizu's serious demeanor made me a little suspicious.

So, with many questions in my mind, I returned to the used bookstore, hoping that Kyogoku-do could answer them for me...