A Scientific Urban Detective.

Chapter 97 The Unfortunate Person
"Student Hufeng is a good boy." Seeing Hufeng Toumi voluntarily hand over the money he found, Tiezhuang Zhuili was very pleased and quickly praised him with a smile.

After entering the supermarket, the three of them split into two groups. Tie Zhuangzhuili went to find the person in charge of the supermarket and asked him to help broadcast a message to find the owner of the lost money; Lin Wuming and Hufeng Toumi purchased food according to the original plan.

"As for the hospital, I'll ask Mr. Yomikawa to put 1,000 yen at the lost and found." Tetsujo Zuiri thought as he walked.

Looking at the three coins in his hand, Tiezhuang Zhuili couldn't help but laugh helplessly. "It's true that I'm making a big deal out of nothing. But I'm also trying to set a good example for the students—don't let small kindnesses go unrewarded."

“…How unfortunate!!!”

A sudden cry of grief was heard near the cash register not far away, which immediately attracted the attention of Tiezhuang Zhuili, a security guard.

But when I looked closely, I found that nothing special had happened. There was just a boy with short hair holding his head and shouting.

There were customers gathered in groups of three or four watching. The boy knelt on the ground in an exaggerated manner, grabbing his hair with both hands and looking grieving. Next to him, the waiter at the supermarket checkout counter looked at him with a troubled look, looking at a loss.

Although no one knew what was going on, the commotion over there was starting to attract more and more attention. Unplanned crowds in public places like supermarkets were never a good thing.

Thinking of this, out of professional habit, Tiezhuang Zhuili walked over.

"What a misfortune, what a misfortune..." As I got closer, I could still hear the boy's resentful muttering.

The boy with short spiky hair seemed completely immersed in his own grief and didn't notice the security teacher walking over.

"What happened?" Tiezhuang Zhuili asked.

The cashier explained, "Teacher Security! I don't know either. Just now, when we were checking out, this student suddenly..."

If the boy's grief-stricken expression didn't seem fake, the waiter might have thought he was deliberately looking for trouble.

"Is it because he has no money?" Another customer next to him suddenly said, "I noticed that he fumbled in his pocket for a long time but couldn't take out any money."

Hearing the conversation next to him, the short-haired hedgehog-haired boy responded subconsciously: "I should have money in my pocket, but when I tried to use it, I only found a big hole!"

— Lost money? What a coincidence!

Hearing the key words, Tiezhuang Zhuili immediately perked up: "Classmate, do you remember where you lost the money?"

"Security teacher!" The spiky-haired boy finally noticed the person in front of him and jumped up quickly, scratching his head in distress. "How could I remember? By the time I noticed, there was only a hole left..."

"Have you ever looked back? Following the route you took..." Tiezhuang Zhuili asked again.

The boy, however, had a look of despair on his face: "It must have been picked up by someone else? Or maybe it fell into the sewer or somewhere else where it can't be found... There's no point in going back to look for it, it's just a waste of time..."

After shouting and venting his frustration, the hedgehog-haired boy seemed to calm down on his own and accepted the reality as if he had resigned himself to his fate.

"Hey, can we just continue to eat the stored food today..."

Since he had no money to pay, he couldn't take the food he'd left on the counter. The spiky-haired boy patted his cheeks and cheered himself up: "Okay, let's go home..." "Wait!" Before he could accept reality so quickly and leave empty-handed, Tetsujo Zhuili hurriedly called out to him, "Student, aren't you going to get your lost money back?"

"Thank you for your concern, teacher, but it doesn't matter anymore." Although he was only thirteen or fourteen years old, his face showed a sense of vicissitudes. "It can't be found. There's no need to waste time."

"Giving up so easily!" Tiezhuang Zhuili exclaimed.

"Because I'm used to this kind of thing." The hedgehog-haired boy said with a look of indifference on his face. "Things like this always happen every once in a while, but no matter how hard I try, the number of times I've successfully found something I lost is zero! Not even once!"

——Unlike Tiger Bee, this boy’s fortune seems to be very bad.

Tiezhuang Zhuili asked again, "How much money did you lose, classmate?"

"Two thousand yen." The spiky-haired boy, who must have tried calling the police before, was very familiar with the process. "One thousand yen note, and the rest are coins."

"Hmm?" The familiarity of the quota made Tetsujo Zuiri even more concerned. She couldn't help but ask, "Did you go to the hospital today?"

"Oh, yeah! I still had the money when I went to the hospital. I bought a band-aid there..." The boy raised his arm, revealing a scrape on his elbow. "The band-aid was also lost in my pocket..."

“How much did the Band-Aid cost?”

"Three hundred yen..." The boy thought of something, "Oh, so the money I lost is only one thousand seven hundred yen."

"The numbers match...but that's just too much of a coincidence, isn't it?" Tetsujo Zuiri muttered. "Luckily, while I didn't see your lost Band-Aid, someone kindly found the 1,700 yen."

"Huh?" The hedgehog-haired boy's eyes lit up.

"Although we can't be sure that it is what you lost." Tiezhuang Zhuili said again.

Logically, when a hole in a pocket causes the items inside to be lost, shouldn't coins of a certain weight fall out first, followed by banknotes? But for some reason, this boy had the order reversed.

However, based on the questioning, this boy fits the description of the owner. Furthermore, Tesso Juuri didn't think anyone would lie to the security guard for a mere 1,700 yen.

"Anyway, I'm going to return the money I found to you first," Tiezhuang Zhuili pulled his wallet from his pocket. "Student, please show me your student ID. I need to register it. In case someone else reports the lost money to the police, we can investigate."

"Oh, okay, okay." The hedgehog-haired boy nodded hurriedly. As long as he could get his money back, he didn't care about registration or anything - he didn't believe that there were other people as unlucky as him!

Then he felt his pocket and said, "Teacher, my student ID card is also lost..."

He dug out an inner pocket with a big hole in it from the pocket of his uniform pants.

“…” Tiezhuang Zhuili was speechless. It was just a routine glance, but did it have to be so troublesome?
While complaining in her mind, she took out her notebook and said, "There's no other way. Tell me your name and school, and I'll verify it later."

“Oh.” The spiky-haired boy nodded in agreement. “My name is Kamijou Touma, and I’m…”

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(End of this chapter)