I Can Help You

In other words, is this current 130-year-old Miyo-sama fake?

Thinking about this, Heiji Hattori felt that some of his doubts had been answered, but at the same time, more new doubts arose.

If this Miyo-sama is fake, then when did the real Miyo-sama die?

Who is impersonating her now?

Why did she do that?

And what is the connection between the fire three years ago and the present?

The clues he currently possesses are insufficient to deduce the true truth, and there is not enough time left for him to explore further.

At least for now, he will never see that Shimadai Kimie or that Miyo-sama.

They're currently busy with the evening's lottery ceremony and don't have time to meet with other outsiders. Otherwise, if everyone could see them whenever they wanted, the tourists would probably block them from leaving the house.

The only thing that could put Heiji Hattori's mind at ease was that Jiang Hang should already know about these things, and with him there, there shouldn't be any more accidents at this festival.

However, even when he had such thoughts, he still felt somewhat unwilling.

Night fell quickly.

The lottery ceremony began at 6 p. m.

However, the lottery ceremony for the Mermaid Festival is not public at all. It is simply a matter of the Miyo-sama holding a torch and burning words into a paper door prepared in advance by the shrine.

While it seemed quite ceremonial, there was absolutely no explanation as to how these numbers were drawn.

However, neither the tourists nor the residents present felt there was anything wrong with it, since the lottery system at the Mermaid Festival has been decided by the people themselves for decades.

After all, the registration fee for the lottery is only 5 yen, which is a small amount of money and depends entirely on luck. Not many tourists would take it too seriously.

Then, as expected, Jiang Hang heard his lottery number from Shimadai Kimie and became one of the lucky participants in this Mermaid Festival along with two other island residents.

It was after that Miyo-sama finished writing those three numbers with flames that Jiang Hang made another eye contact with him from a distance.

He seemed to see the helplessness and determination in the other person's eyes.

"Looks like they're finally going to make a move," Jiang Hang muttered to himself.

About a minute or two after the Miyo-sama left, Shimadai Kimie, having changed her clothes again, appeared before everyone and announced the winning number.

"In one hour, the Dugong Arrow will be awarded to the winners of this lottery at Mermaid Falls. At that time, the final ceremony of this Mermaid Festival will take place. Please proceed to Mermaid Falls in turn to wait."

After saying this, Shimadai Kimie hurriedly left the scene.

Shizuka Sakaki and Koharu Yoshino, were somewhat envious of Jiang Hang's good luck.

"We all went to register, but you were the one who got selected in the end."

Because this was the first time the system was being reformed, the number of tourists participating in the lottery was not large. Including the dozens of island residents, there were only about one or two hundred people participating in the lottery.

However, the probability of getting 3 out of 200 is already quite lucky.

Faced with the congratulations from the two girls and even tourists from all over the world, Jiang Hang just smiled slightly and didn't mention that he already knew he would be selected when he talked to Shimadai Kimie's family last night.

"You have one hour left. Are you planning to go earlier or later?"

Jiang Hang asked the two girls this question, and the answer was naturally that they planned to go there early to find a better spot to watch the final ceremony.

"Then I'll have to ask you guys to help me get a good spot too," Jiang Hang said, waving to the two girls as he noticed that there seemed to be a few other people around who wanted to buy his number plate. He indicated that he would go over later.

It has to be said that the name of the Dugong Arrow has indeed been established.

While most tourists come to enjoy the festival, there is indeed a small minority who genuinely want to receive the mermaid's blessing from the Dugong Arrow.

According to some of the people who wanted to buy the license plate, they wanted to use the Dugong Arrow to pray for their seriously ill family members.

The acquisition price ranges from 100,000 to around 200,000 to 300,000.

Tens or hundreds of thousands may not seem like much, because they had already learned that the original, more ancient Dugong Arrow had been lost.

This year's three Dugong Arrow were all newly made by Miyo-sama. Although they should also have magical power, people are still more willing to believe that items with a longer history can have a better effect on blessing.

Even so, these newly created Dugong Arrow still have the potential to increase in price. If the price continues to rise, it's estimated that they could easily sell for 500,000 in the end.

Just like the Dugong Arrow that Muzo Kadowaki secretly sold, it easily fetched a high price of one million.

Jiang Hang discovered all of this while casually investigating the other party's bank accounts. Through this, he also learned who had the more ancient Dugong Arrow in their hands.

However, he had no intention of retrieving the Dugong Arrow now; he would deal with that after the case was completely resolved.

After bypassing the crowd, Jiang Hang nimbly activated his Presence Concealment mode and quickly walked upstream towards Mermaid Falls without anyone noticing.

Chapter 516: Chapter 512: I Can Help You

Mermaid Island isn't particularly large, but it's definitely not a small island either.

On the north side of the island is a small waterfall, and the hills and forests above the waterfall are also quite large.

Because the hills and forests have not been developed much, there are not many tourist attractions.

The waterfall is named Mermaid Falls because legend has it that mermaids used to bathe there, and it's considered a major attraction on Mermaid Island.

Jiang Hang had already been to that place before.

To be honest, it's just a very ordinary waterfall, nothing special.

However, when combined with the tour guide's thrilling and tragic stories of mermaids, it had a poignant and beautiful feel to it.

It has to be said that most tourist attractions around the world still need a guide to explain things to you, and you can only feel the unique features of those attractions through the stories they tell you, which you don't even know where they came from.

However, Jiang Hang's purpose in this trip was not the waterfall, but the river above it.

Through Altair's surveillance, he had already seen that Shimadai Kimie had invited Sumi Ebihara to meet him upstream of the waterfall.

Although it is still unknown how Shimadai Kimie managed to lure the other party out, it is clear that this Sumi Ebihara was also one of the perpetrators of that fire years ago, and was Shimadai Kimie's first target to kill.

Thinking back to Sumi Ebihara's fiancé, Rokuro Fukuyama, he remembered that when he saw her at the shrine yesterday afternoon, her attitude towards Shimadai Kimie was somewhat subtle, but she wasn't as enthusiastic when facing her own fiancée.

At the time, Jiang Hang wondered if there was some melodramatic love triangle involved.

However, Rokuro Fukuyama is likely to be disappointed. Judging from his conversation with Shimadai Kimie last night, she seems to have no intention of seeking a relationship as a source of emotional support.

If Toru Amuro considered Japan as his lover, then Shimadai Kimie considers Mermaid Island as her only lover, or rather, it is an obsession that the Shimashiro family has inherited for decades.

With this obsession, it's clear that Shimadai Kimie has no intention of being in a relationship.

Perhaps in her mind, she felt that she should be the last of the generation of Miyo-sama. After she had completed her duties, Miyo-sama, who would be nearly 200 years old at that time, should also come to an end.

"Obsession..." Jiang Hang muttered softly, then silently appeared behind Shimadai Kimie.

At this moment, the opponent is in the river above the waterfall, preparing the rope and tools to kill Sumi Ebihara.

As a detective proficient in various assassination techniques, Jiang Hang could basically tell what methods the other party planned to use to kill them just by glancing at the surrounding environment.

First, strangle the victim on the bank with a rope when they are not paying attention, then tie the other end of the rope to the wooden stakes on the riverbank that serve as warnings.

Place the opponent's corpse in the river using a lifebuoy, and then, if you time it right, you can make the opponent's corpse appear in Mermaid Falls by hanging during the issuance of the Dugong Arrow.

Although this method wasn't particularly sophisticated, the island's residents and tourists would probably think that the deceased had been cursed by a mermaid.

Even if a regular police officer came here to investigate, they would probably be more likely to assume that the deceased accidentally fell into the water.

"But there is a difference between being strangled and drowning or hanging. If a professional forensic doctor comes over, he can probably tell at a glance that the deceased was strangled."

Seeing that Shimadai Kimie was still checking her props, Jiang Hang suddenly gave a reminder, which startled the previously cautious Shimadai Kimie.

This was the second time he had startled the other person.

It's clear that Shimadai Kimie was much more frightened this time than she was last night.

After all, although she had some guilty conscience last night, she hadn't actually taken any action yet, and Jiang Hang hadn't said anything that sounded frightening.

Seeing that the other person was so frightened by his sudden words that she almost fell into the river, Jiang Hang had to reach out and pull her back to prevent her from falling in.

Seeing that the other person could barely stand, Jiang Hang pulled her to a safe place and gestured for her not to be nervous.

"The Dugong Arrow awarding ceremony is about half an hour away. It's dangerous for you, Miss Shimadai Kimie, to be out in the forest alone instead of preparing for the festival. You need to be careful."

Jiang Hang smiled as he looked at the rope in her hand and gave her this prompt.

Looking at her with that gaze, Shimadai Kimie felt a chill run through her entire body.

So, it seems the other party has indeed figured out his intention to kill.

When exactly did the other party realize it?

Did the other party already discover yesterday that Saori Kadowaki was being controlled by her, which is why they suddenly came over late at night to remind her?

After a long while, a bleak smile finally appeared on Shimadai Kimie's face.

"As expected of Eagle-Eyed Detective, so you saw right through everything I did?"

Jiang Hang then gave the other person a smile.

"So, you already know everything that happened back then, and you've also investigated Saori's situation, right?"

She lowered the rope and then reached out her hand to Jiang Hang.

Are you here to arrest me?

Jiang Hang shook his head.

"If I wanted to arrest you, I wouldn't have chosen to show up at this time."

"If you really wanted to catch the thief red-handed, why didn't I show up when you attacked your friend?"

Jiang Hang's actions, however, puzzled Shimadai Kimie.

Is this detective really not planning to arrest her, but instead trying to persuade her to give up her revenge plans?

"Although you have indeed had the idea of revenge and have already begun to take action, you have not yet taken that final step."

"Actually, I think I made myself pretty clear last night, but considering that you exposed the shady dealings in the lottery for me, I feel it's still necessary to talk to you again and figure out what you're really thinking."

As Jiang Hang said this, he found a place to sit down and said, "Tell me briefly about what happened on your end. Although I can make judgments and inferences based on the clues I see, I still can't see things as clearly as you, the person involved."

"Don't worry, my eyes are watching over me from the sky. Your friend will probably be here in about 10 minutes, so we have plenty of time."

Shimadai Kimie raised her head, seemingly wanting to know where Jiang Hang's eyes in the sky were.

But when she looked up at the sky for a while, she only saw the eagles that had been hovering nearby.

As a girl who grew up by the sea, she can still distinguish the species of birds in the sky.

Although eagles are not uncommon on Mermaid Island, she has seen many birds that are even more precious than eagles.

But it was already December, and in this kind of weather, most eagles wouldn't waste their energy in the air like that.

So, could these be the other person's eyes?

At that moment, Shimadai Kimie understood why Jiang Hang was known as the Eagle-Eyed Detective.

It turns out that besides the other party's keen eyesight that could see through his disguise, the other party really did have an eagle acting as his eyes.

It seems that none of my actions over the past two days have escaped the other party's notice.

With a sigh in her heart, Shimadai Kimie, who had given up resisting, began to tell Jiang Hang about her background.

Because she only had ten minutes, she explained things quite quickly.

The focus is on the inheritance of the Miyo-sama and the fire three years ago.

Hearing the other party's mother's last words before her death, Jiang Hang's expression couldn't help but be moved.

But after being moved, Jiang Hang could also feel that oppressive feeling that was almost suffocating.

Before being burned to death, a living person was not thinking about how to save himself, nor about telling his daughter who had killed him.

Instead, he hopes his daughter can inherit his identity, so that the island can continue to hold its annual festival and everyone on the island can continue to smile happily.

Jiang Hang scratched his head, wondering if the other person's mother had been brainwashed by the old people on Mermaid Island, or if the other person was genuinely that kind.

But so much time has passed that unless we find Chihiro Ayasato and ask her to perform a mediumship, no one can know what she was thinking back then.

Even with mediumship, it would probably be very difficult to find someone who has been dead for so many years.

"To be honest, I'm quite confident in my disguise. After all these years, even the island's residents haven't been able to see through it."

She sighed softly, "Only you could see through my disguise at a glance."

Jiang Hang shook his head at this.

"Why do you think I told you yesterday to go and talk to the older people on the island about your thoughts?"