Ameko covered the unconscious Takeda Tetsuya with a tattered blanket from the back of the car, thanked him, and jumped out with Zhang Heng's help.
"Are you saying that he was lying earlier?"
"No, I just think there's something worth debating about his story." Zhang Heng locked the car door and took the elevator to the supermarket with Ameko.
"The main thing is that Oni Hitomi's attitude towards him is very strange. If it's really as he said, and Asano Naoto woke up in the hospital and told his uncle about his participation in the race, there's no reason that Oni Hitomi's people wouldn't go looking for him. You know, hatred is the strongest when a loved one has just died."
"Hmm, maybe Oni Hitomi's people couldn't find him. Didn't he choose to live incognito after that incident?"
"If that's the case, how do you explain what happened six years later, the stone and the newspaper?" Zhang Heng said. "Especially that sentence. Forgive me for being blunt, but that doesn't sound like the tone of a well-organized Kyokushin society."
Ameko thought for a moment. "That does seem to be the case, but the person who set the shop on fire and kidnapped me last night was indeed Oni Hitomi."
Zhang Heng shook his head. "Still, the timing of their appearance is too strange. It's been more than 20 years since that incident. Why would they suddenly choose this time to take revenge? Who was the mysterious person who called him in advance? Someone from Oni Hitomi? Why did they help? Your father is not an idiot. He should have noticed these problems, but his brain refuses to think. So, we have to investigate this matter. "
"But we have no contact with those people at all!" Ameko said worriedly.
"No, we have a breakthrough point right now. If Asano Naoto wakes up from his coma, it's impossible for the nurses and doctors around him to not know who he wants to see. As long as we can find the medical staff that rescued him, we can find out who he was in contact with during this period." Zhang Heng pushed a shopping cart to the shelf with tape. "But before that, we have to calm your father down."
…
After buying ten rolls of black tape and two bundles of climbing rope, they returned to the van and tied Takeda Tetsuya securely. Under Ameko's guidance, they drove the L300 to an apartment building.
"This is my cousin's residence. She's a flight attendant who flies international flights. She's not home most of the time. She left me her keys so that I can help her water the plants on the balcony when I'm free. No one should be able to find this place."
Ameko explained as she opened the door. Although the apartment was small, it had all the necessary furniture and appliances. It was clean and tidy.
Zhang Heng dragged Takeda Tetsuya, who was wrapped in the blanket, onto the bed. The soup bowl's stun buff had worn off, and Takeda Tetsuya had already woken up. He stared at Zhang Heng, trying to say something, but his mouth was taped shut. All he could do was make muffled sounds.
"Even if you really want to die, you have to give us some time. At the very least, don't die so inexplicably. Otherwise, wouldn't Xiao Lin have sacrificed himself for nothing?"
Zhang Heng did not care if the seafood shop owner would listen to him or not. After all, the man was tied up like a dumpling. Even if he disagreed, there was nothing he could do.
Ameko apologized and, together with a certain someone, used the remaining climbing rope to secure the seafood shop owner to the bed. He could not even roll away. After that, the two of them hailed a taxi to Tokyo's Central Library.
It was a public library located in Minami-Azabu, Tokyo. Built in 1973, it had a collection of about 1.8 million books and was open to the public for free. The two of them had come to the library to look up the reports of the incident. Speeding on the wrong side of the highway and causing the death of two people was considered a vicious social incident.
Almost all the newspapers at the time had written about it, so all they had to do was search for the date to find the relevant news. Ameko only had to flip through two copies to find the doctor responsible for Asano Naoto's rescue — Kurobe Saburo. The Asahi Shimbun had a brief interview with him.
Zhang Heng looked up the name online and found that Dr. Kurobe Saburo had left the public hospital where he worked at the time and was now the deputy director of a private hospital. This was a little troublesome. People of this rank were usually very busy and highly vigilant. It was not easy to approach them.
Ameko flipped through a dozen or so newspapers from the same period, including scanned copies she found in the library's system. In the end, she found something new in a local tabloid that had already ceased publication. "Zhang-san, do you think this is useful?"
The girl gave the screen to Zhang Heng. For the past nine months, Zhang Heng had not only been honing his driving skills, he had not neglected his language either. Other than school classes, he had also made use of every minute to strengthen his vocabulary. Now, he was finally reaping the rewards. He could communicate in Japanese now. As long as the content was not too technical, he could get the gist of it.
"Hayami Rinko? The nurse from back then?" Zhang Heng's attention was drawn to the stern-looking old nurse in the newspaper.
"Yes. She worked in that hospital for 32 years. The higher-ups said that when Asano Naoto first entered the hospital, his condition was very serious, so she, the most experienced nurse, was assigned to take care of him. She did not sleep for two days and two nights. Unfortunately, he could not be saved in the end. But at this age … she should have retired by now."
"Let's go ask Kurobe Saburo first. If that doesn't work, then we'll think of a way to contact Hayami Rinko," Zhang Heng finally said.
As expected, Kurobe Saburo was not easy to approach. He was considered a surgical expert in Tokyo, and his contact details were all publicly available on the internet. However, the one who answered the phone was one of his female assistants.
No matter how polite she sounded, she did not waver in her insistence on making an appointment. However, Director Kurobe Saburo's schedule was already scheduled for a month later. The two tried to stop him at the entrance of the hospital where he worked, and after waiting for two hours, they finally met the man in question.
But Kurobe Saburo could only say that he had no recollection of what happened back then. After a short conversation, he grew impatient and opened the door of his black Mercedes. "If you have anything, look for my assistant. I'm meeting a few friends from the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare for lunch."
Zhang Heng did not force him. Kurobe Saburo was not a small fry like Takeda Tetsuya. If he went missing or was forced to confess, he would quickly attract the public's attention. Besides, this guy might really not remember. A surgical expert like him would sometimes perform more than ten operations a day, and when he got off the operating table, he would often be so tired that he could not even remember his own name.
Ameko watched the Mercedes drive off, then turned to Zhang Heng. "What do we do now?"
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