Persona: Devil Summoner

This does make sense. From the general understanding, if you want to hit someone hard, there will naturally be a heavy "pa pa" sound. Conversely, if there is no sound, it can be considered that you did not use enough force.

Without waiting for the other party to react, Jiang Tianwei immediately continued: "What, you just stole the seat of this old lady, and now you want to blackmail me, a middle school student?! Oh, this is terrible! Is this blackmail? Are you the person who is blackmailing high school students in the recent rumors in Shibuya?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the tone of discussion among the people around them suddenly changed, and even in the small discussions, they were all condemning this office animal.

The office animal's face turned pale and he didn't know what to say for a moment. Just when he was about to get angry, he saw Jiang Tianwei sneering at him. He pointed to his chest. The office animal then noticed that he had a badge on his chest with his unit and name written on it.

Jiang Tianwei just smiled and said nothing, but based on his impression just now, he was afraid that if this brat really dared to get angry, he would shout out his unit and name loudly.

For an enterprise, image is of vital importance. If someone is really exposed and it appears in the newspaper tomorrow, I might get into trouble in the company... After weighing the pros and cons, this office animal could only glare at Jiang Tianwei fiercely and walked away in shame.

Jiang Tianwei gave him a fierce look at his back and personally helped the old lady sit on her seat. The old lady kept thanking the two students, and the people around her also gave her approving looks.

Don’t they know that it is wrong to maliciously grab seats? Don’t they know the virtue of respecting the elderly and loving the young? Don’t they want to stand up and condemn this bad guy?

They know and they want to, but in the end it just remains an idea. Most people don't want to do anything that will attract attention. They just want to guard their own piece of land and live their lives in peace. They are unwilling to take risks and are unwilling to be the first to stick out. When they see unhealthy trends, they will only despise them in their hearts but will not take any action.

This is human nature.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 55: A kiss (laugh)

"Thank you so much for saving me on the subway just now - you are worthy of being my senior, so handsome."

Fang Zexia witnessed the entire performance with her own eyes. She was radiant with excitement, and her eyes were sparkling with light.

She and Jiang Tianwei were classmates. Although they had never spoken to each other before, they still looked familiar. After all, from the perspective of these two people, they were transfer students to each other. Fang Zexia was a complete transfer student, and Jiang Tianwei had just returned from a leave of absence and started from the first grade again.

Facing the sparkling eyes of this junior girl of the same grade, Jiang Tianwei smiled and said, "Why, are you fascinated by me?"

"Ah, it's not to that extent."

In response to Jiang Tianwei's joke, Fang Zexia responded seriously.

This is the characteristic of the living Fang Zexia. During the few days he was in the same class with her, Jiang Tianwei has fully realized this: the living Fang Zexia and the ghost Fang Zexia have completely opposite attitudes towards jokes.

The classmate in front of me (but actually a junior) is the type who will respond seriously to any joke. And the one behind me who keeps muttering, "Quick, confess to her! Tell her you like her," Ling Fangze Xia, needless to say, is her personality? She is the type who particularly likes to tell jokes. She even joked about her own death before.

"Come to think of it, why do you call me senior?"

Jiang Tianwei suddenly thought of this problem.

After all, he and Fang Zexia are classmates.

"Yeah, after all, Senior is essentially one year older than me, so of course he's my Senior. Besides, I don't know his name, so I can't address him by name."

"My name is Jiang Tianwei."

"What a nice name! Although I've heard that the senior is Chinese, I didn't expect the name to have such a Chinese flavor."

"It's just like you're Japanese and your name has a Japanese flavor!"

"Senior, do you know me?"

"Of course, you are very famous, Yoshizawa-san."

"It's really an honor. Hello, senior. My name is Fang Ze Xia."

As she spoke, she stretched out her hand to him. Jiang Tianwei instinctively reached out to hold it, and at the same time was surprised: (What is this girl thinking? Why would she call herself Fang Zexia?).

Everyone knows that Fang Ze Xia is dead. This was even reported in the newspapers...

Even if you really possessed Fang Zexia, you should have changed your name! You look like a dead person, and your name is also the same as a dead person... Then, what would her parents think?

This, this, this, this is too weird, right?

Jiang Tianwei couldn't understand this logic. Although he wanted to be like those think tank characters in novels and comics and easily analyze a dozen or twenty clues, unfortunately, he didn't have the brains to do so and could only worry about nothing.

Amamiya Ren, who witnessed the whole incident silently on the side, didn't say anything, but he felt strange in his heart... He already knew that Yoshizawa Kasumi was a ghost, so why would this girl admit it so openly?

How strange.

Without any topic, the conversation naturally stopped. As the carriage swayed slightly, the few people headed for school. Along the way, only the ghost Fang Zexia took advantage of the fact that the other party could not see her at all, and stuck to Fang Zexia, looking her up and down, as if to confirm whether there were any changes in her body.

Soon, we arrived at school.

Because of Kamoshida's incident, the whole school is now in chaos. As you can imagine, this is a huge scandal, and it will naturally be targeted by the news department and newspapers. Even though it has been so long, Kamoshida's surrender is still a hot topic.

To be honest, although what he did was infuriating, it was not worth reporting for a week. What was really worth reporting was...

"Hey, hey, have you heard that? It is said that someone in Class 2A of Year is actually the Phantom Thief himself!"

"What Phantom Thief? I think Mr. Kamoshida was tortured into confessing. You see he was crying so miserably, he was actually crying because of the beating!"

"Tell me, how did you do this?"

"Hahaha, to be honest, I am the Phantom Thief!"

"A Phantom Thief, he must be dressed in black. Maybe his real name is Zero. He is a prince of some country..."

"Have you heard that there is a special channel for Phantom Thief fans!"

Students can be heard whispering about the school everywhere, and the focus is on the Phantom Thief...

Humans have always been hungry for stories in all times. The evil villain being defeated by a mysterious hero is a very standard story, which naturally adds a lot of color to the boring student life of these students.

Yes, whether it is the newspaper office or the students, everyone is keenly aware of the new type of entertainment called thieves.

"Hello, classmate, can you please excuse me for a few minutes?"

At the school gate, a man wearing a blue jacket and a blue beret was randomly asking questions to the students. He was not tall, with delicate female features and a cool male temperament, making it difficult to tell whether he was a heroic girl or a handsome boy.

At this time, he was walking towards Fang Zexia.

But before he could finish what he was going to ask, the janitor came running out from behind him: "Hey! I'm talking to you! Journalists are not allowed to interview us in this school! Get out of here!"

"No, I'm not a reporter, I'm a detective..."

As he spoke, the man turned around to face the janitor, with his back to Jiang Tianwei and Fang Zexia. He used one hand to block the janitor's hand that was reaching out to push him, while the other hand was behind his back, with a business card between his fingertips... Jiang Tianwei knew from this that he meant to contact us if he had any news...

(Detective... does that mean we can entrust him with the investigation?).

Thinking of this, Jiang Tianwei reached out and picked up the business card that the other party had secretly stuffed into his hand.

It was clearly written on it: Belonging to Baek Jong Detective Agency, Baek Jong Naoto, and below it was a phone number.

Noticing that his business card had been taken away, Detective Baek Jong Naoto didn't argue and just said, "I know, I know, I'll just leave..." and left the scene.

The school worker shouted angrily to the students who were watching: "What are you looking at! Go back to class! Don't say anything to this shabby guy!"

The students dispersed quickly. During the morning class, the head teachers of each class emphasized again that if there are any unidentified people at the school gate, whether they are reporters, detectives, TV interviews, or questionnaires, they should ignore them and run away!

It can be seen that the school is really in a state of panic now.

Regardless of which country it is, attending classes is a rather boring thing. Jiang Tianwei forced himself not to fall asleep and prepared to go back immediately after school to think about whether he should contact the other party or not. At least he should search on Baidu to find out what scale the Bai Zhong Detective Agency is.

But before that, the female students next to them had already started to get angry...

"Hey, did you know there's a super handsome detective at the school gate today?"

"Ah, I saw it! It's so handsome! Brother, kill me~".

"Hey, I had to do morning exercises today, so I came early. I'm at a disadvantage - how handsome is he?! Who is more handsome than Akechi-kun?"

"I think he's still the most handsome one. He's a true detective prince!"

Jiang Tianwei pricked up his ears to listen to the meaningless conversation of these people, sighed in his heart, and felt that his efforts were in vain. Just as he was about to come back to his senses, he heard one of them say: "That person seems to be Baek Jong Nak-doo, he has been on TV before! He seems to be a very famous detective! Oh, a famous detective and a phantom thief!!!".

"Girls over there! Be quiet! We're in class!"

With the teacher's words, the classroom became quiet and time passed little by little until the bell rang.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 56 True Detective

It is said that the profession of detective was originally a branch of the police. At the beginning, there was a department in the police force that was specifically responsible for investigation, which was the predecessor of the detective. However, it is not known whether it was because of less business and the need to make money to support the family? Or because of fierce internal competition? Or because of external demand? In short, detective was later divided into a special profession.

In fact, if you think about it carefully, the work of the police and the detective overlaps to a large extent. In fact, we can even roughly divide them into two categories: when facing a major case like a murder case, we go to the police, and when facing a private investigation like cheating, we go to the detective. Although it is not very precise, it is simple and easy to understand.

Just like ordinary people would still nickname them "white man" and "red man" even if they have only one word name like Long and Ken...

School was over now. Jiang Tianwei was lying lazily in his low-rent apartment, facing the window, turning the business card over and over again. Looking at the large gold-plated characters on the business card, which glowed differently as the light was deflected, his mind was filled with thoughts:

The first question is whether to hire a detective - after all, no detective is free. You don't know whether the other party will ask for a high price, and you don't know whether your income is enough to hire a private detective.

The second question is...assuming we look for him, what should we investigate?

To be honest, there are so many things I want him to help investigate. For example, what is the current Fangze Xia? For example, how did my father die? Who killed him? For example, what is this persona, why would someone suddenly awaken this thing? Are we the only ones in the world who have awakened? Or are there others? And why did Fangze Xia become a ghost? Why can't others? And why can I see ghosts? All kinds of questions came to my mind, and I really wanted to investigate them all.

Every time he encounters this situation, Jiang Tianwei has his own solution.

I saw him jump up from the bed, take out a few used papers from the drawer, write down everything he wanted to check on the back, and then analyze them one by one.

After all, things have their priorities. Sometimes, you can't figure it out in your mind alone. It will be much more intuitive if you write it down.

First of all, we have to rule out a series of questions related to persona. Asking such questions is useless.

If the other party does not have a persona, then he will only treat you as a fool. If the other party has a persona, then another question arises: is he your enemy? Blindly exposing yourself is not advisable. This is the first question he denied. There is only a one-fourth chance that Baek Jong Naoto will stand on his side. It is not worth it.

Secondly, what he denied were issues related to his father.

The question of your stepfather's family business is "useless even if you find out the details". It's like you are dying of thirst and someone tells you that the son of Aunt Wang next door is going to have a third child. Whether this news is accurate or not, it has nothing to do with your core goal and is a meaningless question.

My stepfather is a gangster, so what? How much wealth does he have? So what? Could it be that I would kneel down and lick his boots just because he is a super rich gangster boss?! That is definitely impossible!

As for the death of his biological father, it is impossible to find out. As mentioned before, there are many cases of sudden mental disorder in Japan, which is called "disabled people". Now think about it, his father also died of disabled people. So, if the detective can find out who killed his father, it is basically equivalent to catching the real culprit of disabled people.

Well, if the person can really be caught, the TV stations will not report about his becoming a useless person every day, but will directly announce the good news: the vicious mental criminal has been arrested, the people’s police have once again made a contribution, and so on.

The country has spent so much time trying to catch the real culprit, how can you expect a detective to catch him?

Moreover, Jiang Tianwei had already ruled out explaining persona and spiritual space when he was "first", so Bai Zhong didn't know that it was impossible to catch the murderer under this premise. So there was no need to ask.

Someone once said that after eliminating all possibilities, the remaining option, no matter how outrageous, must be the final truth.

It seems that the only thing that Jiang Tianwei could ask Bai Zhong to investigate was Fang Zexia's death.

This question that looks so funny and not serious at all, and has nothing to do with the goal, is actually the only one that can be asked... Jiang Tianwei smiled bitterly and could only sigh that he really had to write it down and analyze it.

He dialed the number on the business card and the call was connected soon.

"Hello, Baek Jong Naoto. Who are you?"

"Hello, you were handing out business cards at the entrance of Xiujin College this morning..."

"I see, you're the student from this morning. You actually chose to contact me, you seem to be quite courageous. What I want to ask is why the former Olympic champion suddenly changed his ways. I wonder if you can provide some information? Of course, I won't let you provide information for nothing."

"Well, then, let's meet and talk."

Although Jiang Tianwei wanted to call him over directly (after all, he could stay at home this way), he changed his mind and thought, he is a detective! If you call him to your house, what if he thinks something is wrong and starts investigating you? You should still maintain a mysterious image!

Therefore, he made an appointment with the other party at a store in Shibuya, mainly considering that after chatting with Bai Zhong, he could go directly to the gym to work. Anyway, he was going out, so of course he would choose a more valuable place!

The restaurant that Bai Zhongzhidou had arranged to meet at was of good taste and was a rather high-end restaurant. He found a private room inside. This was probably the habit of the detective. He didn't like to talk about things in the hall, fearing that the wall might have ears.

When Jiang Tianwei arrived, Bai Zhong had already arrived. He was sitting upright in the box, holding a menu and negotiating with the waiter. When he saw Jiang Tianwei coming, he handed over the menu: "I have already ordered my own portion. You are welcome to eat whatever you want. I will treat you."

It was the first time that Jiang Tianwei came to this kind of restaurant with such atmosphere and taste, which seemed to appear only in TV dramas. He couldn't help but feel a little nervous. He held the menu in both hands and flipped through it page by page.

(Just as I thought, students will be at a loss when they come to this kind of restaurant for the first time. Being in an unfamiliar place, they will naturally be attracted and distracted by all the new things around them. You can take this opportunity to ask him indirectly and find out the truth deep in his heart. But before that, let's do the work [transaction] first!).

"Hello, let me formally introduce myself. My name is Baek Jong Naoto, and I'm a detective. I'm investigating some cases right now, so I hope you can provide some help - in exchange, I won't let you do it for nothing. So, do you want monetary compensation? Or..."

Bai Zhongzhidou narrowed his eyes, with a strange temptation in his expression.

"...Or do you want me to help you investigate something?"

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 57 Professional Detective

Japanese people love to read Chinese classics, especially Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Bai Zhong Naoto is no exception.

It is said that the Qing government of China even regarded Romance of the Three Kingdoms as a book of military strategy, which shows that it contains quite a lot of brilliant tactical cases. By analyzing these masterpieces, we can often understand a lot of knowledge that is not taught in textbooks.

For example, in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao was the last person to unify northern China. However, he was not very powerful at the beginning. In terms of status, Yuan Shao, who was a third-generation official, was many times higher than him. In terms of bravery, Cao Cao could not compete with the unparalleled Lu Fengxian. In terms of popularity, he was even inferior to Liu Bei, the uncle of the Han Dynasty.

In the end, Cao Cao still managed to pacify northern China under such pressure. What a hero he was.

Bai Zhong Zhidou analyzed the reasons for this man's success. It's not only because of the excellence of Cao Cao that is so common, but there is also a hidden factor that is not easy to notice, that is, Cao Cao himself is not easy to be seen through.