Yunyang Novelist Luanbu

It was approaching dusk.

Under the red brick building.

Outside the Vortex Cafe.

Fukuzawa Yukichi saw the novelist Edogawa Ranpo for the first time.

The novelist is just over 1.6 meters tall, about the same size as [Ranpo] from the detective agency, but he is wearing scarlet haori and blue hakama, and a pair of clogs with his name engraved on them. The words are crooked, like In order not to take away their belongings, their names are engraved on the side of the clogs.It is conceivable that his name is also written somewhere on his clothes, and the clothes are also worn out, but he doesn't seem to want to change them. This is more or less a kind of persistence that he doesn't let go of what he grabs.

I heard about the existence of such a child from Mr. Natsume Soseki, and I found out later that [Edogawa Ranpo] knew that there was a boy in this world who looked like him when he met two students who came to find Natsume Soseki’s whereabouts one day. There are people who are exactly the same as him but have no blood relationship.

Out of curiosity, Fukuzawa Yukichi also bought Ranpo's collection of novels to read, and only felt that the novelist's writing style was very steady, not at all like the worldview that a 17-year-old would show.The fantasy color of the text breaks away from the inherent dreamy romantic color.The background tone is full of vertical entry prohibition and extremely high saturation red, but it is extremely bright and sharp like fire.

Only from this can I see the youthful color overflowing with words—the kind of youthful color that is as lonely as dusk and gently burning the red sky.

So when this text impression overlapped with Ranpo, Fukuzawa Yukichi felt strange to him.There was still a scarlet scarf wrapped around Luanbu's neck. Wearing a scarf before it entered late autumn would inevitably make people look a little stuffy, but the boy's face was full of indifference.

Because of Ranpo's personal affairs, Ranpo and [Edogawa Ranpo] briefly switched identities.[Edogawa Ranpo] of the Armed Detective Agency will be the leader of the port mafia, and the novelist Ranpo will replace Ranpo of the Armed Detective Agency.This is because Natsume Soseki lobbied, and Fukuzawa Yukichi never thought of refusing.It's just the first time I saw this strange yet familiar face, Fukuzawa Yukichi didn't know how to get in touch with it.

Before Fukuzawa Yukichi could speak, Ranpo, who kept a distance of two people from him, said, "You are off work."

It should be in the tone of an interrogative sentence, but it is in the tone of an affirmative sentence.

Although they exchanged identities, Ranpo didn't intend to do the work of the detective agency, and he didn't even want to wear the clothes of the detective agency [Ranpo], so after Ranpo finished speaking, he said, "Take me to buy clothes."

This bossy tone is exactly the same as the familiar [Ranbu].

"You don't have any clothes of your own?"

Seeing that he was empty-handed and didn't even bring a suitcase, Fukuzawa Yukichi wondered how improvised this action was, was it related to the news about the murder announcement?It is said that because the other party is the leader of the port mafia, the police dare not directly arrest him without clear evidence.

What Fukuzawa Yukichi thought was that the other party might change his identity because he wanted to use [Edogawa Ranpo]'s ability to help him solve the case.In addition, if this random step really ran into the police, I am afraid that the Armed Detective Agency would have to be dragged into the water.

The two look so much alike.

It's like it's carved out of a mould.

"The clothes I bring are all the same type, so it's easy to be seen as me."

When Ranpo was talking, he raised his arms to let Fukuzawa Yukichi see his outfit.

He and [Ranbu] have the same clothing style, so it is really easy to distinguish.

In the same way, Fukuzawa Yukichi also discovered that this Ranpo also has a lot of small movements when speaking and doing things. Ordinary people don’t add so many language movements when they speak, but when Ranpo speaks a sentence, he will have many movements of his own, but the range is not large. That's all.

Fukuzawa Yukichi had a lot of thoughts in his heart, but he didn't have much expression on his face, he just said simply: "Okay, come with me."

As soon as Fukuzawa Yukichi finished speaking, Ranpo stepped forward by himself, Fukuzawa Yukichi put his shoulders on his shoulders, made a new turn, and explained: "To the city should be this way."

Obviously it was Luanbu who made a mistake by himself, but he was still able to say without shame: "You should have told me about this kind of thing earlier."

Fortunately, there is already a precedent of [Ranpo], and Fukuzawa Yukichi is used to this thick-skinned, and said: "What should I call you?"

"Then what do you call him?"

He here is obviously 【Edogawa Ranpo】.

"Ranpo." Of course Fukuzawa Yukichi called him 【Ranpo】 directly.

Ranpo said: "Mr. Komatsu, or Mr. Ryunosuke." [Komatsu Ryunosuke] is Ranpo's pseudonym. "Have you read the book I wrote?"

"Seen."

After Fukuzawa Yukichi finished speaking, there was a brief silence between the two.According to common sense, it is probably the end of the topic.But Fukuzawa Yukichi found that Ranpo had been staring at him from one traffic light to another.Finally, Luanbu spoke: "Is there nothing else? Really gone?"

"What do you want me to say?" Fukuzawa Yukichi asked curiously.

Luanbu said confidently: "Of course I want to express my opinion."

"[Ranpo] I don't like your other novels except your first "Two Cents." Fukuzawa Yukichi read the collection of short stories by Ryunosuke Komatsu that [Ranpo] met in a bookstore. I sent it to Morishita Yusen. "I don't know why you don't continue to write the reasoning in this case."

"He likes basic reasoning."

For Anglo-American circles, orthodox reasoning would be more popular.But in Japan, weird stories and strange tales are more popular.It’s just that Japan doesn’t clearly distinguish the concept of mystery novels. Publishing houses generally directly classify works of mystery novelists that involve some reasoning elements into the category of mystery novels. Strictly speaking, the articles after the first step are not speculative novels.

Luanbu didn't care too much about [Ranbu]'s evaluation, and said: "However, I won't just write whatever he wants. If I know how to write it, I won't show it to him, and I will piss him off."

"You don't have a good relationship with him?" Fukuzawa Yukichi didn't know that the two Ranpo had been in contact so much, but in fact they hadn't spoken a word until now.

"No, I just like it. If he wants to read it, I won't write it. Don't you think it would be interesting to see him jumping around?" Luanbu laughed.

Seeing him laughing, Fukuzawa Yukichi always felt that he was unconsciously playing a game of finding fault. Looking at this Ranpo, he would think that there was something different between him and [Ranpo], but even the little expression when he laughed was the same, the voice It is exactly the same.

Fukuzawa Yukichi calmed down and concentrated on chatting: "This is called bad taste. Depending on the situation, it can also be called bullying."

Luanbu's articles often have a unique taste.

For example, "Two Cents" and "The Red Room" are quite prominent.

Luanbu put his hands into his sleeves and said, "I'm fair. I won't bully just one person. If I want to bully, I will bully everyone. I will bully him, and I will bully you too."

The expression on Fukuzawa Yukichi's face remained unchanged, and he said, "That's pretty good."

Seeing that he didn't respond at all, Ranpo felt that this person was really bored, and he didn't know why [Ranbu] would stay with this person, so he changed the words and said: "Natsume-sensei had a meeting with you before. Have you ever said that?"

"say what?"

"That's what you're going to write about."

Fukuzawa Yuji tilted his head back slightly: "Write a book? What kind of book? I haven't heard of it." He is usually too busy to take time off, why is he still writing a book?Could it be that I seem to be very leisurely recently?

"Then you already know about it now. I'll tell you by the way."

Don't rush around, Fukuzawa Yukichi is a trustworthy person. After pulling him into the pit, he will strictly abide by the agreement and start writing, so just let him believe in his own words.

Luanbu continued: "Uncle Meitou has already written more than a dozen chapters."

"Uncle little sister?"

Ranbu suddenly forgot the name of the little sister's uncle, and patted his forehead, "Hey hey!" After a long time, he only burst out: "Ms. Natsume is another student."

"Mori Ogai."

Fukuzawa Yukichi felt a little unbelievable. In his opinion, Mori Ogai should be the most refusal person, but he actually wrote more than ten chapters?

"It seems to be called this name." Because Ranpo didn't concentrate on remembering Mori Ogai's name, now he doesn't even remember his full name. "Of the two students of Mr. Natsume, he trusts you the most. If he asks you to write a book, you will write it. It won't be like that Mori...uncle with a little head."

Fukuzawa Yukichi didn't expect Natsume-sensei to trust him so much, and he was touched for a while, and even his refusal to write an article was shaken.

"Natsume-sensei really said that?"

"You can ask him if you don't believe me."

"But I have never written a book, how should I write it?" Fukuzawa Yukichi is a swordsman who can wield swords and swords, but writing and writing is beyond his ability.

"Then let's go to the bookstore and buy a book on writing skills. If you want to write, you must write well. Don't just deal with it just because you find it difficult."

In terms of Fukuzawa Yukichi's self-esteem as a swordsman, he will not be perfunctory because of difficulties.

"Of course not."

Ranpo waited for him to say this, and stretched out his little finger to make an agreement with Fukuzawa Yukichi to "write a good book".The next thing to do is to bring down the entire detective agency.Don't rush now, take your time later.

In the process of chatting, they have slowly approached the shopping mall.Fukuzawa Yukichi soon noticed that a child was crying, but before he could open his mouth, Ranbu next to him said, "There is a child crying." Specifically which layer.

Fukuzawa Yukichi said, "You ignored me?"

"What am I going to do?"

"Naturally take him to the lost children's center." Fukuzawa Yukichi said.

"His parents will be back soon." Luan Bu pointed to the place where the child was, "What is that place?"

"Toy store."

"Have you seen the back of the child's hand turn red?"

"Ah."

"do you understand?"

This is not difficult to understand.

Fukuzawa Yukichi quickly came to his senses and said, "You mean, because the child wanted to buy a toy but was rejected by his parents, he started crying on purpose, and the parents simply left him aside on purpose? So the child's parents are actually not far away."

"Yeah." Luanbu said, "If you are worried, you can go over now and say that you will take him to the Center for Lost Children. Their parents will come to deal with it soon, and they should not let their children chat with strange uncles. "

"Then I'll go."

Ranbu: "..."

This uncle is really a good old man with a solid heart.

After 3 minutes, Fukuzawa Yukichi came back again, and the child in front of the toy store was also picked up by his parents.Ranpo looked away, and when he was about to take the elevator upstairs, Fukuzawa Yukichi said, "Actually, you also want me to help that child, so you said "there is a child crying", right? "

Ranbu didn't expect him to think so, shook his hands and said: "I'm not that kind of boring person, don't think too much. Why should I do this kind of boring thing, it's not interesting?"

Ranpo's expression did not seem to be fake, so Fukuzawa Yukichi asked, "Then why did you specifically mention that child?"

"Because I was just thinking, 'How many slaps on the palms or the backs of the hands do I need to get that brat who's holding on to his favorite toy so hard to let him go?'"

"……What do you think?"

"He didn't think about letting go, so no matter how many hits he won't let go, it's just that he's no match for external force." Luanbu obviously came to a conclusion, "Do you know why he's crying?"

"…do not know."

"Because it was the person he loved the most who took away what he wanted the most. He cried loudly, not for the lost "toy", not for the suddenly hateful "parents", just for his poor self. "

Fukuzawa Yukichi didn't know that Ranpo would think so deeply, and just as he was feeling emotional, Ranbu suddenly smiled and said, "I just said it casually. Do you believe it?"

But I didn't see Fukuzawa Yukichi's helpless expression, only he looked at Ranpo unquestionably and said, "You are serious."

With such words, Luan Bu's eyes widened slightly, as if someone had pushed the window of his own room, so he was caught off guard and shocked him.

"That's the kind of kid you are. I can see it."

For those things that have been grasped, no matter how many times they are hit, they never think about letting go.

"..."