☆☆☆

Half an hour ago. Pen Fun Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Mark and Eddie came to the "Fortune Martial Arts Gym" in Oakland's Chinatown, where Bruce Lee once opened a martial arts gym, so Mark never despised this land of hidden dragons and crouching tigers. The hall has a hardwood floor, mirrors, sandbags, wooden figures, and some scrolls of Chinese calligraphy and painting hanging in the room.

Several young disciples in their early 20s were practicing, but fortunately, they all spoke good English. After talking to a middle-aged man, he leads Mark and Eddie to the master who is in the office.

Master Chan is a thin old man, wearing a brown cotton silk practice uniform, like a master in a Hong Kong movie. Master Chen doesn't speak English, and the middle-aged man is his apprentice, and he is the translator. This is normal, many Chinese come to the United States and live in Chinatown and only speak Cantonese all their lives.

Mark bent down into a fist, his left palm up and down his right fist, his left thumb clasped together, and gently pushed below his chest, showing his knowledge of Chinese kung fu in a gesture.

Master Chen seemed pleased with his courtesy.

Mark claimed to be fetching something for his friend, and he took the key out.

The old man understood what they were coming from, waved his hand, and spoke "Cantonese" to the middle-aged disciple for a while, and then asked him to deal with the matter.

The middle-aged disciple led them to the dressing room at the back of the martial arts hall, where there were two rows of gray-white iron cabinets, which looked very old, and the patent leather had fallen off.

Mark's heart moved: sure enough, it was the key to the wardrobe.

The middle-aged disciple stopped in front of one of the doors and said, "Xiao Lin hasn't been to the martial arts hall for a long time!"

"Kobayashi?"

"Isn't your friend's name Lin Jinsheng?"

Eddie and Mark looked at each other: pseudonym?

Add hurriedly said, "We all call him Tom in English." ”

Mark also asked, "Does he speak Chinese?"

The middle-aged disciple scratched his head and said, "Of course he speaks Cantonese and is very fluent." It's not like those fake foreign devils who only speak English every day! ”

"Can you open it?"

The middle-aged disciple shrugged his shoulders and let him feel free.

When he opened the tin cabinet, Mark only saw a set of replacement practice clothes, shoes and bath towels hanging inside, and he searched inside, but there was no trace of the mysterious diary, which made him disappointed. There is a poster of Bruce Lee on the inside of the cabinet door, I thought that Yamamoto had come to the Chinese martial arts hall simply to seek "power", but why did he use a fake name and pretend to be Chinese?

Mark also liked Bruce Lee, he lightly touched the poster with his hand, it seemed that there was something inside, he lifted the corner of the poster, and found that there was a picture that had slipped from the inside to the ground.

He bent down and picked it up, and it was a photo of Yamamoto with a girl.

"Ahh

"You know?"

The other party nodded, pointed to the photo and said, "This is Master Chen's niece, and she occasionally comes to the martial arts hall to treat his disciple's injuries for free." ”

Eddie pointed to the photo and whispered to Mark, "This photo was taken on the Preb during Fleet Week." ”

Mark returned to the office with the photo, just wanting to ask Master Chen for some more information.

At this moment, the phone rang.

Master Chen picked up the phone and said, "Are you tied to the side?! Listen, no Ingley is! No Ingley is!"

Originally, according to the usual practice, Master Chen would tell the other party this every time he received an English phone call, and then hung up the phone, but this time there was a word in the other party's words that made him hesitate.

He raised his head and handed the phone to the middle-aged disciple, and said, "The ghost guy sent someone!"

The middle-aged disciple walked over quickly and took the microphone in his hand: "This is the Hongyun Martial Arts Hall, who are you looking for?"

During the communication, the middle-aged disciple's face changed, he looked at the master, and then stammered, "You said that Dr. Chen is missing?"

Because it was English, Mark and Eddie both understood, and only Master Chen was in a hurry.

Hanging up the phone, the middle-aged disciple explained the situation to Master Chen, Master Chen listened attentively, and now he knew that the police were going to come to the door, and his niece Chen Hua did not go to work today, and her whereabouts have been unknown since last weekend.

People say that worry and sadness can make people age, and there is some truth to it. Before Mark left the martial arts hall, he felt that the wrinkles on Master Chen's face had become deeper, and his face was as pale as paper.

Mark didn't want to make a fuss, so he quickly took his leave and left the martial arts hall.

After getting in the car, he first sent a photo of Yamamoto and the girl to Pierre, and within half a minute, the phone rang.

"Yamamoto Isoroku likes Chinese girls?"

Pierre opened his mouth and threw out his guess.

Eddie is conservative: "I can't say yet. ”

"No, no, no...... There's nothing to say for sure, you see it's the eyes in love, both of them. He listened for two seconds, then said, "Yamamoto dad definitely didn't approve of them being together, and then they decided to hide!"

Eddie said, "You mean it's possible that they're secretly dating, and now they're eloping?"

"I think they're Romeo and Juliet!"

Mark didn't care so much, he said, "You give me a good look at this Dr. Chen." ”

"Roger!" said Pierre proudly, "I've watched the surveillance video of the nightclub! I think it's weird, why didn't I get a picture of Yamamoto Isoroku leaving?!"

"I see, let's go to the scene now. ”

☆☆☆

The lawyer of the Yamamoto family was waiting at the back door of "RIN". The Japanese neighborhood is quiet, and the only sound is the faint rhythm of music coming out of the nightclub.

The store has not yet reached its opening hours, and preparations are underway.

Gold-rimmed glasses stepped forward to introduce themselves: "I'm Sasaki, please call me Eric!"

Eric Sasaki, young people in Japan who like to give themselves foreign names these days, but the accent is authentic Oxford, compared to Mark's London accent with a ruffian.

Mark greeted him: "I heard, you went to school in England?"

Eric nodded: "Oxford Law School." ”

The accent was audible. Mark smiled, "Didn't go to Brighton (10)?"

"Been there, the naturist baths were really impressive. ”

Mark looked up and down at the lawyer wrapped in a full suit: "Didn't go to the car?"

The slender eyes under the glasses flashed, and he also smiled: "It's good to see it!"

Despite their reputation for being conservative, the British have a rather debauched nightlife, and the Japanese have a sexuality that can stagger the world, but they don't dare to take off their clothes when they go to the naturist baths.

The conversation between the two made Eddie want to laugh a little, and there were only two words in his head: hypocrisy.

Eric held out his hand to lead the way: "Please go this way." ”

There is a passage outside the back door with two large dumpsters at the end where garbage trucks won't come in until the morning. Every time Kentaro Yamamoto likes to park his car in temporarily.

That night, the bodyguard was found in the car.

Eric said: "Everyone occasionally goes to the back to smoke a cigarette, so the body was quickly discovered, the first reaction was that he was afraid that someone would seek revenge, so he immediately looked for the young master, there was no one in the box, and the whole nightclub was searched and not found." ”

"You were there that night?"

"I got the call and was the first to arrive. He said, "I'll send someone to check on the other gangs first, especially those who have had a holiday with the Yamamoto group!"

Mark looked around, nothing special.

"I want to see Kentaro's box!"

"Please follow me. ”

They entered through the back door, where several of the cooks in the back kitchen were gathering to chat, and bowed when they saw the lawyer come in with someone. Then they quickly dispersed, each busy with their own preparations.

Mark calculated in his heart: This lawyer seems to be highly valued, and what he does is definitely not limited to legal affairs, but internal management matters, what is his identity in the Yamamoto Group?

Pushing open the door to the inside, a chill emanated from the inside.

Inside, there are many huge ice sculptures, and the spotlights transmit light from the pale blue, making these ice sculptures beautiful, like entering a fantasy world. The Chinese character for "RIN" is "Rin", and the decoration here is actually designed to make you experience the feeling of Cold.

The passage was also white, and an ice sculpture hand stretched out from the wall, holding a cylindrical ice lampshade in his hand, and the lamp inside emitted a faint white light, like a frost ball in the hand of a wizard.

Entering the lobby, there is a huge glass dome that makes you feel like you have entered a Norwegian igloo, and the dance floor is fronted by three huge high-definition screens, and even the bar is made of ice. Presumably the atmosphere must have been great when it was crowded with people, jumping and dancing to the hot music, but now Eddie felt a little uncomfortable with the cold.

There are also giant openwork icicles, and when the music starts, there is an elevator to bring up a few eeriely dressed and fluorescently painted enchanting dancers, who will perform to their heart's content.

Walking through the lobby, there is a separate box area.

The entrance door is the mouth of a huge pink octopus-clawed monster, and the sharp teeth are the threshold, and the special performance here, in the huge glass box, the octopus vs. the beauty, is really Japanese.

After listening to the lawyer's introduction, Eddie couldn't help but shudder when he remembered that the slimy mucus of the octopus wrapped the woman's jade body.

A few beautiful young Japanese girls came from the other side of the passage, dressed as geisha, wearing kimonos, but the skirts were long on one side and ultra-short on the other, and the short side almost showed half of their buttocks.

Eddie guesses: They are probably the dancing girls in the "Ice Box".

When we got to the box, Mark's phone rang again, and he smiled, "Don't you mind if we go in and have a look alone?"

"Of course, please! I'll wait here. ”

Mark nodded, and dragged Eddie into the box.

There was still a chill in the room, and he turned his head to look. The ice sculptures in the room are still like a magical story, one wall is decorated with a large sailing steering wheel, and the chandelier is a brazier made of skulls and pink fluorescent lamps inside. A pair of fire-burning wood are stacked next to the soft chairs, and the room is decorated with antlers and ropes, making you feel like you're in the world of Vikings.

The phone vibrated again, Mark turned on the phone, and the screen of the phone was himself, and of course Eddie, the angle was condescending.

"Pierre, is that you?"

There was no reply.

Mark followed the right angle, and he spotted the location of the surveillance camera set up high above.

Mark leaned closer. The picture of the mobile phone is also close, and the image is not very clear, of course, the image resolution obtained by this surveillance camera is limited.

Add didn't know what was going on now.

Silent. Pierre's awkward voice finally came out of the phone, and he said: "Of course it's me, I have already entered their surveillance system, I thought I could see some interesting little movies, but I saw you flirting with that Japanese devil!"

“......”

There was another burst of silence.

"What did you find?"

Pierre sighed and said, "I'll tell you, nothing special, that night "56" came in, the event was as usual, he went into the box and ordered something, chatted with the woman who delivered the food, and then drank alcohol, his bodyguard came in and went out again, he went to relieve his hands for a while, and then it was gone, and there was no trace of him in all the surveillance footage, like melted ice, gone. ”

Mark thought for a moment: this Gallic chicken just likes to talk and go around in circles, and if he doesn't find something, he won't play tricks with himself here.

So Mark gave a rare compliment: "The famous 'hermit' will not be without gain!"

"That's!" Listening to the proud voice, Mark imagined Pierre's big nose sticking out like Pinocchio's.

"Alright, let's talk!"

"......" knew that he could no match for Mark, Pierre said, "and although I didn't find much of the recent footage, I saw something interesting when I was looking through the footage of the past, and it was last year's Thanksgiving night." ”

"Didn't the people of the Yamamoto group say that the footage would be kept for a maximum of 3 months?"

"Oh, that's because they don't understand, in fact, the monitoring system has backups, stored in the cloud disk, not to mention 3 months, 3 years. ”

Mark said, "So, you've been browsing content for 3 years in just a few days?"

"I didn't tell you, my eyes are bleeding!"

Mark didn't expect Pierre to work so hard, and it was really hard, although he didn't say it, he had a little more affection for Pierre in his heart.

"I'll send the video clip to your phone, switch it, you can take a look first!"

"Okay. ”

Mark opens the video and presses play.

It was a different room, unlike this one, which was small and not luxurious, a typical Japanese-style room, covered with tatami mats and ukiyo-e tapestries on the walls. There is a row of jumping numbers in the bottom left corner that shows the time of the video. November 28, 2024, 11:40 p.m.

The room was originally empty, but after a while two people came in, a man and a woman, the woman was still dressed as a geisha, and her body was very thin, and the kimono on her body was long with one sleeve, and one sleeve reached the shoulder, revealing her entire white right arm.

The man was Kentaro Yamamoto, and he was holding something in his hand. The two sat on tatami mats on the ground, Kentaro put the things in his hands on the table, and the woman knelt in front of him. Kentaro leaned over to her. The woman untied the ties of her kimono and wrapped around his biceps, tying a knot. She patted her strong arm and pulled out a strange bottle from the box on the table, the glass glowing green.

Seeing this green thing, Mark and Eddie were shocked in their hearts.

Then, she pressed a switch, and a row of needles sticked out of one end of the bottle, and she expertly plunged the needles into Kentaro's arm, and after a while the green glow disappeared. She undid the straps that were wrapped around his arm.

Kentaro talked to the woman, who began to kiss him on the mouth, unbuttoned his shirt and kissed his chest, his abs, and then all the way down...... He fell down, lying flat on the tatami with his limbs outstretched, enjoying the woman's service.

After reading it, Mark was stunned and thought, and the screen in his hand went dark.

Pierre spoke: "Your group photo was taken in October last year, and it was a month later, which shows that little Japan is a split-legged man who is stealing fish behind his girlfriend's back! Mark, let me tell you, Japanese devils don't have a good thing!"

Mark came back to his senses and realized that Pierre had something to say, and he shook his head helplessly.

Add couldn't suppress the thoughts that kept popping up in his heart, he didn't care about Kentaro Yamamoto's private life, he cared about the green glowing bottle.

"Don't you think that's the end of it, how can that show my 'hermit' level?"

This time it was Add's turn to be anxious. "Don't sell it, say it quickly!"

"You see, I sent a screenshot of a video. You also know that the video is not very good, and it is a little blurry when zoomed in many times, but I have processed it with software......"

When Pierre was rambling, Mark quickly lit up his phone, and sure enough, a picture was transmitted, and he double-clicked to open it.

Here's a close-up, a zoomed-in screenshot of the inside of the geisha girl's right arm, with a tattoo on it that says "Stone of Darkness"!

Mark's glasses were wide open, a pattern he had drawn that was exactly the same as the tattoo on the arm of the Russian prostitute.

Mark pushed open the door and turned the phone to the previous size, and he asked Eric about the woman's identity.

Eric tapped his chin with his index finger as he recalled: "This girl's name is Mina Ito, and she's dead!"

"Dead?"

"Yes, drug overdose!" he said, "I was in charge of this case, so I have an impression." ”