Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes.

Chapter 67, Section 65: Less than a week later

"Cough cough!"

"The person you found is unreliable. You actually asked someone as high-ranking as the head of the First Investigation Division to go through these old files."

"The preservation environment is so poor and messy, and the Mainichi Shimbun is supposed to be the oldest newspaper in Japan!"

In the cramped archive room, two figures rummaged through mountains of files, the dust from the papers spreading under the light, making one cough.

Ping Shenglong pulled himself out of the pile of documents, leaned against the doorway, enjoying the cool breeze blowing in from the corridor, unbuttoned his collar, let out a long breath, and offered a few words of explanation.

"Because the newspaper has a lot of information, it has classified the information according to its importance, including permanent preservation, long-term preservation and temporary storage."

"As for the fire at Komagome Academy, since there is no evidence to prove that it is related to the disappearance of teachers and students, it is most likely that it was placed in long-term preservation."

"The long-term preservation period generally does not exceed seventy years."

"After they expire, they will be piled up in these sealed rooms and destroyed in a concentrated manner after they have been stored for more than a hundred years or have reached a certain quantity."

"We're lucky; the documents in this sealed room will be prepared to be burned soon."

Kurosaki chuckled twice: "Thank you very much."

There wasn't a trace of gratitude in his tone.

“I’ve assigned a different direction for the investigation in the First Investigation Division, and everyone has a mission.” Heisei Ryu was telling the truth.

Kurosaki, however, saw through Heisei Ryu's true intentions: "You don't want your subordinates to know the direction of your investigation, do you? Oh, don't worry, I certainly won't say a word."

Ping Shenglong silently continued searching.

Kurosaki is right. Even if Taira no Ryu is certain that the culprit is a real ghost story, he cannot show it.

That would only make subordinates and superiors think he is incompetent and use excuses to avoid responsibility.

Unless he can find some conclusive evidence, the kind of irrefutable proof that leaves the other party with no choice but to believe him.

Next, it is necessary to collect an extremely complete chain of evidence to persuade Minister Iwaki.

In that case, someone would naturally step in to shield him from the storms of the outside world, and he might even gain access to some of the country's core secrets.

He, Pyeong Seong-ryong, also wanted to take it a step further.

Only that way
But if he really can't find a complete chain of clues, he wouldn't mind betting the rest of his life on the gambling table.

Ping Shenglong continued to rummage through the files, ignoring the strange smell of the papers that had aged over the years and the stale smell of expired insect repellent packets.

"Wait... S30! That's the kind of serial number the minister was talking about, right? Showa 30!"

Kurosaki excitedly rummaged through a large stack of documents and then dug out a pile of old files.

"At least we've found the corresponding year! Quick, let's check if it's in this pile first. If not, we'll keep looking!"

Kurosaki placed the items on the ground separately, then sat down cross-legged and eagerly began to browse and search.

Ping Shenglong sat down and opened one of the documents, which contained some blurry writing.

It's so old that all you can tell is that it's a copy made from blue-purple carbon paper, and the writing has become extremely blurry over time.

Given his age, if it weren't for his work and frequent contact with old files, he probably wouldn't even know about carbon paper, a thing that has long been obsolete.

But it's okay.

Ping Shenglong took out a portable ultraviolet lamp, turned it on, and shone it on the key areas to aid his reading.

For a moment, the archives room fell silent, with only the sound of the two people flipping through the pages.

[Regarding the disappearances following the June 11 Komagome Academy fire]

found it.

Ping Shenglong narrowed his eyes and read it word by word, line by line.

[On June 14th, visited the Nobi family. The missing student, Nobi Tomoaki, had not returned. The school still denied any connection to his disappearance. His younger brother, Nobi Tomoshin, was temporarily suspended from school and was greatly affected.] [Visited the Muto family's neighbor, Okubo Kanade, and confirmed that Muto Tetsuro's adopted son is named Ueda Yoshi, from a small village in Mie Prefecture. There are adoption records, and a request was made to conduct further investigations in Mie Prefecture.]

[Approval denied, this is the end of the process]

There's a lot of information inside, but Ping Shenglong only needs a few words.

【Yoshi Ueda】

Is this the name of Tetsuro Muto's adopted son?

I already knew he came from Mie Prefecture, and now I know even more that it's a small village under its jurisdiction.

"You mean, this reporter really didn't continue the investigation?"

Kurosaki suddenly spoke up.

Ping Shenglong turned his head; he had already squatted down beside him and read the report together.

Do you think he continued his investigation privately and kept records of it?

"That's possible," Kurosaki said, though he wasn't entirely confident.

“Your supernatural reasoning might not work this time.” Ping Shenglong shook his head. “I asked this reporter about his information before. He died of illness not long after this incident, and he had no children and left no belongings.”

Kurosaki shrugged: "Having this record is good. At least we know the location and name, which will make it much easier to search in Mie Prefecture."

That's what they say, but Ping Shenglong knows very well that it would be difficult to find a little boy from nearly a hundred years ago from the local authorities based on this information alone.

Even though Muto seemed to have gone through all the adoption procedures at the time.

"Start with the adoption records to narrow down the scope as much as possible. They will definitely show which village the people came from."

"I think so too."

Without delay, Taira no Ryu told Yoshino, the department head, and left the newspaper office with the original document, heading to Mie Prefecture.

Just as I set off, the phone rang.

"Minister, yes, I understand, I'll be there."

After hanging up the phone, Ping Shenglong silently parked his car on the side of the road.

"The situation is escalating very quickly. I need to attend a press conference and a question-and-answer session with the Education Committee this afternoon, so I can't go to Mie Prefecture for the time being."

"Tsk, don't they know this is a waste of time?" Kurosaki said with disgust, as he hated this kind of formality that delayed important matters.

Ping Shenglong showed no sign of frustration or anger at the interruption of his investigation, remaining remarkably calm, perhaps because he was already accustomed to such rules of the game.

"I'll take you to the station."

"Huh? I'm going to investigate by myself?"

“I will stay in Tokyo to help you find the village where Ueda Yoshi is located, while you can go to Mie Prefecture first and use your ‘ghost story thinking’ to take a look.”

"Okay, anyway, I was planning to do it alone, but you're the one who's going to interfere."

Kurosaki waved his hand, accepting the outcome.

Ping Shenglong glanced at the date.

Saturday, April 4.

There will be a foreign visit from America on April 18.

He gave a military order to resolve the issue by April 15th.

There is less than a week left.

(End of this chapter)