"Is everyone coming?"

When all the children had gathered, Miss Rabbit casually let go of her arms clenched around her chest and asked Umino for a question. Seeing him nod, he began to introduce himself: "I'm Hiromi Tokai, and I have been a teacher in the ethics education course for the whole person class for five years, and now I am a member of the Board of Education. Now, I will interrogate you about what has just happened, and I ask you to answer my question truthfully, which is that the townspeople are obliged to cooperate with the Board of Education in their ethics and not to conceal or deceive them. ”

Her voice is small and soft-sounding, but her business-like tough tone is hard to like.

"So...... Masato Umino, you come first. ”

After introducing herself, she picked the nearest Umino and began to ask: "You don't need to ask for a name." Umino, why are you here today? ”

"I was invited by the same group of Koi brothers because they said they had something to say to me, so I came to the river with them."

"What?"

"It was some time ago."

Haiye's mouth trembled, and he looked embarrassed, but he still replied "honestly": "Some time ago, Koi's grandfather just passed away, and I said something inappropriate to make Koi and them angry, so they quarreled. They came to me today and said they wanted to reconcile with me. ”

As Miss Tokai interrogated Umino, the expressions of the two Koi brothers stiffened, and the eyes that looked at Umino looked nervous and scared. As Umino answered the question, his eyes unnaturally rolled to the side, not looking directly at Miss Tokai, and the thumbs of his hands rubbed against the middle fingers of his index finger inadvertently, revealing his nervous heart - although his expression was well disguised, it still betrayed him in detail.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught the changes in the expressions of Umino and the group, and became more and more sure that there must be some ulterior secret between these five people, and that this secret might even be a forbidden matter that would be severely punished by the Board of Education.

"Then you came together to the river, and Mr. Kawakami ...... Is the one who fell overboard? ”

"He was already there when we came."

"Do you know him, then?"

"Met once or twice, but didn't speak."

"What's going on?"

"I met him at school and when I visited Myorfa Farm."

"You wish the Spirit to come to your house without him?"

"No, it's Ms. Komatsuzaki and Granny Tohara."

……

After asking and answering, Miss Tokai asked a dozen questions, nodded expressionlessly, asked Umino to stand aside, and picked Koi Ya to answer the question. Her calm expression masked her excess emotions, so I couldn't tell for a moment if she didn't notice that Umino was lying. But if you think about it carefully, the people in Haiye are just children after all, and it is impossible to cooperate without gaps, even if they don't notice it now, there will always be a time when they will be exposed - if they are interrogated one by one, I am afraid that they will be exposed all of a sudden.

The questioning of Umino and his party did not last too long, and although there were no major flaws in the answers of the other four during this period, whenever the question turned to the "contradictions" between them, there would be subtle flaws in their expressions, eyes, and actions. Once it was fine, but after many times, even the yarn beside me noticed that there was something hidden between them, quietly pulled my sleeve, shook his head slightly, and then stopped looking at them, as if he couldn't bear to look directly at their clumsy behavior.

After asking Umino and the others, Miss Tokai still didn't show any extra performance, as if she didn't notice the abnormality of a few people, but just asked a few of them to stand on the side first, and then walked towards us.

I don't know whether it was intentional or unintentional, Miss Tokai walked around us, and finally stood in front of me, bent down slightly to look at me: "Your name?" ”

"White Stone Fold."

I don't deliberately try to disguise it, and I put my posture in a natural way.

"Did you know Mr. Kawakami beforehand?"

"Acquaintance."

I nodded, and without waiting for her to continue asking, I told me how I knew Kawakami: "When my sister woke up some time ago, he and another mother-in-law visited my house, and I met him at that time. ”

"What about other than then? Have you met him anywhere else? ”

"Nope."

"Then do you think the accident that happened to him has anything to do with you?"

Her tone is serious, and her words are cold to a child. I suppressed my frowning instinct and pretended to be a little angry: "I don't think it should matter at all." ”

"But I've heard reports that Mr. Kawakami must have looked at you at the end of his life before he fell into the water. And it was only after you rowed to the river that he had that accident. Do you have anything to argue for this? ”

"I don't know, but even then, it's not certain that it has anything to do with us."

What she said may be interrogation techniques, or it may be the truth. But even if it's true, it would be far-fetched to say that it must have something to do with us - is it true that if someone has been in a car accident, are the pedestrians walking by him responsible?

"yes, we haven't met that person again, so why should it have anything to do with us."

Zaoji couldn't help but mumble, but she also knew that this was not a joke, and her voice was very low. However, he was still reprimanded by Miss Tokai in a calm tone: "Watanabe early season, please don't make disturbing noises while I interrogate others. ”

"I got it......"

Flattened his mouth and closed his mouth in the early season.

"So to put that another way, what is your purpose here?"

"Watching the ice flowers and writing a message."

"What was written?"

Her gaze wandered over the envelope in my hand, and I had been prepared, but still pretending to be dissatisfied, and handed it to her. She opened it and looked at the letter, but she didn't see anything unusual, then put it back and returned it to me, and continued to ask, "Why today?" ”

"Because of the ice sculpture competition we participated in, we were preparing for the competition in the past few days."

"What do you think of Mr. Kawakami as to why the accident happened at that time?"

"When I saw him, he just fell and I didn't think anything about it at the time."

"Didn't think about anything? He only had an accident after hearing your shouts, didn't he think it had anything to do with him? ”

"I was surprised, I didn't think that much."

……

After a series of sharp questions, I also realized that Miss Tokai in front of me was only afraid that she was targeting me, and the questions were much more tricky than asking Umino and the others. However, I was mentally prepared, and the answers I gave were all well-thought-out answers, and I guess she couldn't catch any flaws, and finally ended hastily.

Then she questioned the others one by one, and it took almost an hour for her to finish the interrogation. After that, she stood there in a daze, and after a long while, she spoke again: "What happened today is a serious accident, and this matter will not be announced to the town, so you are not allowed to tell anyone else, including your parents, about this incident." Got it? ”

After she finished speaking, she glanced at everyone, including me, and nodded: "I have memorized your names, and if there is any follow-up, my parents will be notified." ”

"Now you can leave."

With such a sentence, she left on her own. By this time noon had passed, Mr. Kawakami's body had been removed not long ago, the Board of Education and the rest of the people who had come to enjoy the flowers were gone, and only our group and a few other scattered adults were left on the vast riverside. We looked at each other, and when Miss Tokai was far away, the elder brother of the Koi brothers was the first to propose, "Let's go too, I'm a little hungry." ”

As he spoke, he glanced at Haiye again, and the two of them squeezed their eyebrows for a while, and Haiye stood up: "That...... Xiaojing, I have something to tell you, can I go to another place to talk? ”

"Okay."

Xiao Jing nodded, and the other few of them didn't have an opinion. So Umino smiled apologetically at us, "I'm sorry, we have something to say, so let's go first." ”

After saying goodbye, the group was about to leave, Xiaojing Mi seemed to remember something, turned his head and waved his hand towards Mamura: "Brother Mamura, if you have time in the future, we will go back to play with you." Your opinion is really ......."

His words came to an abrupt end here, as if he understood what he shouldn't have said, smiled awkwardly, waved his hand, and followed his companion who had walked some distance.

……