Chapter 581: Chapter 398: Get Me a Gun
"Yes." Minamoto Tamako told a small lie.
"Then why didn’t you call the police?" Mr. Cao’s intelligence was intact.
Minamoto Tamako thought to herself, there aren’t so many whys, people who like to ask why are really annoying! No wonder Fushimi Roku always had a long face, teasing her every day.
"Calling the police won’t help," she deliberately changed the subject, fabricating real-time events to instill fear in the other person: "Lawyer Zhou is already onto you, that’s why I’m telling you so much... Believe it or not, I’ve said all I can, you take care of yourself!"
After speaking, Minamoto Tamako hung up the phone with a snap.
Yes, this is the art of negotiation, making the other party feel they have nothing to fear.
She sat by a small stool, waiting for Mr. Cao to call her back. Unexpectedly, she waited the entire day, even the shop’s owner was getting impatient, wondering why this girl neither ate nor drank but lodged herself at the shop entrance, snatched the phone whenever it rang, seemingly waiting for someone’s call.
By evening, the sun was setting, vendors pushed carts to set up night stalls. Students were out of school, office workers were off to dinner, and the street was getting lively.
Minamoto Tamako sat for a long time alone when the landline rang again. She hurried to answer, finally getting a reply from Mr. Cao.
Unfortunately, it was a death notice.
After hanging up, Mr. Cao couldn’t shake his unease, so he sent his underlings to inquire about Lawyer Zhou’s former employers.
Unexpectedly, just as his underlings left, Lawyer Zhou came knocking, accusing him of forced prostitution, trafficking women, and illegal imprisonment, saying that killing him was the only way to vent fury.
Upon hearing this, Mr. Cao realized it was his end. With his left hand secretly dialing his underlings, his right hand clenched the ashtray ready to fight... Hence, his underlings listened to the death of their boss throughout, including remarks like ’You don’t know how tough I was back then,’ ’Spare my life like a big hero, I truly know I was wrong,’ ’Brothers, you must avenge me,’ and ’Dial this number, ask her for help.’
That’s right, the call Minamoto Tamako received was from Mr. Cao’s underlings.
She briefly explained the situation, again adopting a ’mysterious mastermind’ tone, expressing regret that Mr. Cao didn’t heed her warnings, thus ending up tragically.
Next, to recruit these underlings under her banner, Minamoto Tamako threatened: "After killing the boss, you’ll be next! Lawyer Zhou will hunt you down one by one, there’s no escaping!"
Among the three underlings, one was bold, suggesting they could first gang up on Lawyer Zhou; another was timid, proposing to call the police to arrest Lawyer Zhou; the last was more sensible, asking Minamoto Tamako what she had planned.
Minamoto Tamako answered each:
"The three of you combined aren’t enough to fill his teeth gaps, he’s incredibly tough to fight; if you go to him, it’s asking for death!"
"Calling the police is useless; they won’t care, and aren’t you gangsters? How could gangsters rely on police for arrests?"
"I do have a plan but lack manpower; otherwise, I wouldn’t have called Mr. Cao... It’s very unfortunate he ignored my advice."
The brainy underling signaled the other two to relax; he planned to arrange a meeting with Minamoto Tamako to discuss how to resolve this.
Minamoto Tamako gave the time and place but didn’t plan to attend the meeting, what if the three strong men caught her? Better to wait for Fujimura-kun to kill one or two more and scare them senseless.
After dealing with this matter, Minamoto Tamako finally felt relieved.
She strolled home leisurely, her stingy mother had already prepared the meal, questioning why she returned so late.
Minamoto Tamako had grown adept at handling such queries, claiming she was doing homework at school, so she returned late. Her mom didn’t fuss over it—this excuse couldn’t be repeated, in her past experience, the school would call the next day, and then her mom would know she skipped class.
She hastily ate some tasteless food, washed up in her room, pretending to sleep on the bed when, in reality, she closed her eyes and the night passed by in a blink.
In the dream, there was no sleep.
Minamoto Tamako routinely went out, with twenty-five bucks her stingy mom gave, eagerly ran to the convenience store.
The shop owner recognized her, impatiently said: "Don’t let your friends call here again, they called four or five times at night, asking but not explaining, only asking for a callback number, sounded shady... Aren’t you doing something you shouldn’t? Why aren’t you at school on Wednesday?"
"Uh, that, that was my cousin... I, I was asking him for tuition..."
Minamoto Tamako made up a lie, her face a bit flushed, the shop owner misinterpreted it as embarrassment due to financial difficulties, revealing her scars hence the embarrassed appearance.
"Ah, alright then." The shop owner handed a note to Minamoto Tamako with a phone number on it: "There, it’s your cousin’s number."
Minamoto Tamako dutifully thanked her; recalling yesterday’s bargaining, she took out ten bucks from her pocket, intending to make up for the difference.
The shop owner considered her to be unfortunate and didn’t want to accept the money, telling her to keep it for some food to replenish her energy.
Ah, the neighbors at East University are all such kind people!
Minamoto Tamako felt grateful, thanked a few more times, and used the landline to call back the underling. They answered instantly, sounding rushed, questioning why Minamoto Tamako ignored them yesterday.
Minamoto Tamako glanced at the shop owner, turned away, lowered her voice, and said: "I’m testing you, not everyone is qualified to work with me."
"Test? Test what?" The other party clearly didn’t understand.
"Of course, testing your abilities," Minamoto Tamako didn’t know what the test was, but she had thought out a response beforehand, lying seamlessly over the phone: "I gave you a whole night, what did you do with it?"
The other side went silent for a moment, ultimately it was the smart underling who replied: "You’re right, calling the police didn’t help, and that guy is really tough..."
As he spoke, he fell silent again.
Minamoto Tamako sensed something was amiss, and tentatively asked: "Who died?"
"We spent some money and sent a few greenhorns to deal with Zhou Hao, they all died, the police don’t care... Sis, big sis, can you tell us what we should do now?"
Just as he finished speaking, someone chimed in next to him: "We might not be able to fight this, but we can run away right? Let’s take the high-speed train back!"
The smart underling scolded: "Shut up, is this a situation to run from? You might not want to sleep well, but I do!"
It seemed they finally realized the severity of the situation and showed signs of internal discord, potentially disbanding at any moment.
Minamoto Tamako thought it was time to take action, the moment had come for the protagonist to appear, Detective Tamako to save the day and stop Fushimi Roku’s atrocities!
She lowered her voice, deliberately hoarse, asked: "Can you get guns?"
The receiver went silent again, evidently taken aback by Minamoto Tamako’s boldness. She anticipated their reservations and proactively took responsibility: "You don’t have to act, just provide me with a gun, I’ll resolve this trouble for you."
Muffled argument ensued in the background:
"Bro, this isn’t about pimping..."
"I know, I have my limits..."
"At this point...self-preservation is critical..."
"..."
After some dispute, they finally made up their minds, united again in opposition to their common enemy, replying: "We can, but they’re all makeshift guns."
"Any handguns?"
"Those are hard to get..."
"Do you want to survive or not?" Minamoto Tamako paused, reassuringly, "Even if I’m caught afterwards, I won’t betray you... If you’re really worried, we can conduct the transaction without meeting."
The other party hesitated for a long time, eventually agreeing: "Alright! I’ll try my best!"
Minamoto Tamako was eager, finally getting a gun, with a gun in hand, she had nothing to fear from Fujimura-kun!