Stills of the sleeping forest
I don't read much of Keigo Higashino's books, The Dedication of Suspect X, the Masquerade Night series, and this Slumbering Forest. I remember watching "The Devotion of Suspect X" a few years ago, I admired the author's suspenseful idea, so I would pay attention to Keigo Higashino's book from time to time.
"Sleeping Forest" begins with a case of an ordinary burglar who was mistakenly killed, and the deceased entered the Takayanagi Ballet at night to steal, and was discovered by ye Liuzi, a dancer who returned early. During the fight, the two were killed by Ye Liuzi by mistake, and Ye Liuzi was arrested as the main suspect. Everyone believed that Ye Liuzi was legitimate defense and should be released soon. During the course of their investigation, police found that the deceased's name was Kazema Toshi, a painter who, according to his girlfriend, had recently prepared to study in the United States and had no financial pressure. The police became suspicious of Kazema's motives for sneaking into Takayanagi Ballet and began investigating Kazema's relationship with Takayanagi Ballet, but found nothing but a ticket to Takayanagi Ballet's performance two years earlier. The police investigate Kazema's study abroad experience two years ago, hoping to find a connection between the two, and find out that Kazema Toshi had a good friend during his study abroad, but through the investigation, the members of the Takayanagi Ballet were excluded. The investigation has reached an impasse.
Just then, Takayanagi Ballet had another accident, and Kajita, the company's artistic director, was killed in a dance rehearsal. The killer injected nicotine into Kajita's body through a homemade device, resulting in Kajita's death. However, the investigation work still has not progressed, and it can only be affirmed that the murderer is a person inside the ballet, and the actors of the Takayanagi Ballet are all at their own risk. Ye Liuzi's boyfriend Yanagi, in order to clear Ye Liuzi's suspicions, began to investigate Kajita's experience of studying in New York two years ago, but he was poisoned the next day and almost lost his life. Three days later, Yasuko Morii, an actress in the dance troupe, committed suicide in her apartment, and found the nicotine and killing device that killed Kajita in her apartment. A succession of deaths cast a shadow over the Takayanagi Ballet.
Kaga is a police officer investigating this series of cases, and in the process of investigation, he met his idol Weixu, whose dedication and dedication to ballet made Kaga admire and gradually fall in love. In the process of getting along, Kaga learns about The Past of Unso and Ye Ryuko, and worries about the physical discomfort that Unsoe appears from time to time.
Yasuko's death leads to the key figure in the case, Kazuhiro Aoki, who committed suicide in the United States a few days earlier. Combined with the previous investigation, the process of the case gradually became clear in Kaga's head, and through the investigation of the personnel involved in the case, the case was solved before the performance of "Sleeping Beauty".
During his studies in New York, Kazuhiro Aoki met Kazuhiro Aoki, who was also a painter, and admired his paintings. Recently, Kazuhiro Aoki has been depressed and has revealed that he wants to commit suicide. In order to keep Aoki Ichihiro alive, Kazama plans to find his girlfriend from four years ago to meet him and make him give up his suicidal thoughts. Kazema finds Yasuko Morii, but Yasuko is surprised because Aoki's girlfriend is not her, but Yashiko, who went to study with her. After the two communicate, Yasuko realizes that all this is a ghost made by her teacher Kajita, whom she respects so much. Aoki was stabbed by Yashiko, and during the police investigation, kajita made her a scapegoat in order to protect Yashiko's reputation.
Kazema sneaks into Takayanagi Ballet to find Yashiko, but her request is rejected by Yashiko, and an argument ensues. During the dispute, Kazema Riki was killed by Wei Xu's misstep. Ye Liuzi, who came back later, learned about the whole process. Ye Liuzi knew that the car accident caused by her own negligence had brought serious sequelae to Wei Xu - deafness, and perhaps this "Sleeping Beauty" performance was the last performance of Wei Xu's acting career, which was too important for her, and she could not lose her freedom because of this matter to delay the performance, out of guilt she decided to turn herself in in place of Wei Xu.
Kajita's status in Yasuko's mind has always been an idol-like existence, and in order to meet Kajita's requirements, Yasuko frantically loses weight, demanding herself to meet the standards of the teacher. At the moment when he learns that he has been betrayed by his teacher, both respect and admiration turn to resentment, and finally lays out to kill Kajita and poison Yanagi to divert the direction of the police investigation. Through Kaga, Uno discovers that the tool that killed Kajita came from soft baseball, and learns that Kajita's killer was Yasuko. So she found Yasuko to persuade her to turn herself in, and in order to complete her last performance, she asked Yasuko to wait for the performance of "Sleeping Beauty" to turn herself in, but she did not expect Yasuko to commit suicide in despair.
Finally, the performance of "Sleeping Beauty" began, and Wei Xu ended her acting career with a beautiful dance posture. The prince saves the sleeping princess in the sleeping forest. Kaga clings to the collapse of the unfinished, he will guard his "princess" in his own way.