"Huh? Ah, they're gone. ”

After everyone left, on the top floor of the clock tower, Shuichi Akai leaned his back against the wall, wiping his gun while talking to the voice in the headphones.

"Don't worry, the organizers have put that screen in front of the stairs on the first floor, and no one will be able to come up."

With that, he raised his sniper rifle and aimed it at the crowd below.

"What? Haven't the people of the organization shown up yet? ”

"Ah, Bourbon and Kiel, it seems like they've been seeing them in action a lot lately, and it looks like they've regained the trust of the Order.

Of course, that's a good thing for us......"

As he spoke, Shuichi Akai adjusted his scope slightly, and a figure on the street below appeared more and more clearly in his field of vision.

It was the gray plain mourning who followed Maori and his party towards the Glasses Bridge.

"I don't have to worry here, you should pay more attention to the actions of the organization than me, I think the members of the organization hiding in this Edo street are definitely not only Bourbon and the two of them......"

“……”

"Everyone! The Monster Thief should have left one last hint in this place, so let's find it out together! ”

On the other side, after everyone left the clock tower and came to the glasses bridge with a playful mentality, the host of the event, Xue Ding, took out her loudspeaker again.

"You have to work hard~ After finding out the hint, please use your own wisdom to solve the mystery!"

The process of finding the hint is not difficult, after all, the hint is written on a wooden sign hanging on the stone bridge, and you can see it if you look closely.

"Found it! Xiaolan! Come on, come on! You see! There are some strange Chinese characters and numbers on this sign! ”

The sharp-eyed first found the wooden card, and Suzuki Sonoko hurriedly beckoned everyone to come over and answer it.

"Huh? Let me see ......"

It was also with her shout that the navigation software on everyone's mobile phones rang again, issuing the same prompt as on the wooden sign.

"Turning over the ashes and pouring annoyance, sing ...... first"

After finishing this awkward Chinese character with great difficulty, Mao Lilan felt that his head was too big.

"Well, I don't understand it at all, I remember that the Chinese characters taught by the teacher in the classroom have never been combined like this before...... If we don't understand their meanings at all, do we want to rearrange and combine these Chinese characters? ”

Not only her, but the rest of the guests present also had bitter expressions, not knowing how to start, as the strange thief said, the difficulty of cracking this last code is indeed much higher than the previous one.

"Four-two-two-four-one-four-four-three...... And what does this string of unexplained numbers mean? Suzuki Sonoko's whole person collapsed directly.

After staring at these Chinese characters and numbers carefully for a while, a flash of inspiration flashed in her mind, and she suddenly clicked out the translation software on her mobile phone, and after a pause, the corners of her mouth rose slightly.

[I see, is it cracked like this?] 】

She already had the answer in her heart, and looking at the people who were still meditating, she just wanted to open her mouth to say some hints, but suddenly realized Shizu Shizu, who was standing next to Ayako Suzuki.

From the time she came out of the lobby of the State Guest House, Qing Shui Jing didn't know why, she seemed to have been a little absent-minded, she kept looking down at her phone, and from time to time she would type some words on it, as if she was in contact with someone.

It wasn't until this moment that he finally put his phone back in his pocket and turned his head to look at the puzzle displayed on Ayako Suzuki's phone beside him.

Retracting his gaze, Gray Yuan Ai finally chose to remain silent.

She didn't want to be too conspicuous in front of Shimizu Jing's eyes.

"Brother-in-law~"

Scratching her head vigorously, Suzuki Sonoko, who was puzzled, finally gave up thinking and turned her head to look at Shizune Shimizu.

"I can't think of it~Hurry up and help me~"

"Garden, why do you always give up so quickly......"

Looking helpless and spoiled, Shimizu sighed, glanced at the puzzle from Suzuki Ayako's phone, and replied directly:

"Let's go to the State Guest House, the thief should have gone back there."

Qing Shui Jing didn't deliberately suppress his voice, and when he heard his answer, all the guests around him looked up and looked at him curiously.

Some of them tried to deduce the puzzle from his answers, but still found nothing.

"Huh? Why? Sonoko Suzuki asked curiously.

She held the wooden sign and looked horizontally and vertically, but she couldn't tell what those Chinese characters had to do with the State Guest House.

"Quite simply, the solution to this puzzle is actually similar to the first one."

Taking the phone from Ayako Suzuki's hand, Shimizu Shizune explained with a smile:

"The string of Chinese characters 'turning the ashes and singing first' has no meaning in itself, the point is to look at their Chinese pronunciation.

The string of numbers 'four-two-two-four-one-four-four-three' represents the four tones of the Chinese language: one ping, two rising, three songs, and four descending.

Replacing the original tones of the Chinese characters with the tones represented by these numbers from left to right and then reading them out is the final mystery. ”

"Prisoner...... Back to ...... Crime scene? ”

A voice suddenly sounded in the crowd, and everyone looked back, Yoko Okino, who had pronounced this sentence, just raised her head to look at Shimizu Jing, and asked with a smile:

"The prisoner returned to the scene of the crime, which is the lobby of the State Guest House where the belt was stolen in the first place...... Mr. Shimizu, is that what you mean? ”

"That's right." Smiling the same way, Qing Shui nodded quietly.

"It's amazing......"

Although she still couldn't understand the kanji, Suzuki Sonoko nodded her head to indicate that she understood.

"No wonder my brother-in-law said that the puzzle was similar to the previous one, the previous puzzle was solved in English, and this time it was solved in Chinese...... Damn it! Isn't this bullying us people who are not good at foreign languages?! ”

"Little brother, you're so good, you can see through the puzzle at a glance twice, and you seem to have a pretty solid knowledge of foreign languages......"

In the crowd, some guests couldn't help but exclaim.

"You won the award, but when I was a child, I met an aunt who liked archaeology and knew a lot of regional languages, so I learned a little from her." Qing Shui Jing replied with a smile.

"Mr. Shimizu really deserves to be the son-in-law of the Suzuki Foundation."

And Yoko Okino, who interpreted the mystery according to Shimizu Jing's prompts, also clapped her hands and said with a smile:

"It's like me, although I studied hard, but in the end it was only half a bucket of water, and I didn't even see such a simple puzzle."

"Miss Yoko is polite......"

Listening to the compliments and praises of the people around her, the corners of Suzuki Ayako's mouth, who was standing next to Shimizu Jing, subconsciously raised a trace of arc, and there was a happy smile on her face.

It can be seen that she is happy now.

"Ahem!"

At this moment, the host Xue Ding took out her loudspeaker again, coughed dryly, and shouted loudly:

"Now that we've all solved the final mystery, let's set off towards the State Guest House and catch the thief who keeps teasing us!"

∠(」∠)＿

(End of chapter)