Chapter 120: You Misunderstood Me

Akiwara Yuto was not very surprised to hear Asano Aiko's "refusal."

In his view, although Asano Aiko had been transferred to the Editorial Review Department, she was still a part of the Manga Talk Society. And the Manga Talk Society remained one of the top four giants in the Neon publishing industry.

In this current era of economic downturn, having a job like this was already extremely rare.

Beyond that, because Neon society practiced a lifetime employment system, the vast majority of people would not jump ship or resign.

Just like in *Hanzawa Naoki*, which he had watched in his past life, many employees would not mention the word "resignation" even after being transferred to a much worse job, preferring to weep bitterly instead.

Because once one resigned, it meant all their previous efforts would be in vain, and other companies would very likely be unwilling to accept an employee who was not loyal, even if the other party's ability might be very strong.

Akiwara Yuto thought for a moment and decided to say a few more words.

"Asano, won't you consider it a bit more? Since we were able to work together to take *New Novel* from 30, 00 copies sold to 200, 00, I have confidence that even if we leave the Manga Talk Society, I can produce a few more bestsellers."

Hearing these words, Asano Aiko smiled and said, "Akiwara, you've misunderstood my meaning."

"Misunderstood?" Akiwara Yuto was somewhat puzzled.

"Akiwara, I am only refusing to leave right this second."

Asano Aiko paused, then said in a firm tone, "Although you don't place much importance on the rumors inside the Manga Talk Society, I believe I still need to further understand the situation and the inside story."

Akiwara Yuto understood what she meant: she would stay inside the Manga Talk Society to gather intelligence first, and then leave at the appropriate time.

He felt it was actually unnecessary; compared to intelligence, it would be better to just do one's own work well and make the existing books bestsellers.

But just as he was about to persuade her, he unexpectedly saw that Asano Aiko's gaze did not waver in the slightest.

Akiwara Yuto opened his mouth, but still said nothing, only sighing, "Asano, I understand. But you must promise me that when I need you, I hope you can come out to help me immediately."

Asano Aiko smiled, revealing shallow dimples; this time, she no longer had the inner conflict of the past.

Upon hearing Akiwara Yuto's request, she immediately replied with a smile, "I understand, Mr. Akiwara."

Akiwara Yuto noticed that Asano Aiko no longer had the unfamiliarity she had when she arrived, so he joked, "Aren't you worried that I'll only pay you a very low salary?"

Asano Aiko shook her head and replied, "My ideal is to be able to create bestsellers with you; as for the rest, I don't particularly care."

Looking at her earnest expression, Akiwara Yuto was speechless for a moment.

He smiled and nodded, while silently saying in his heart.

Don't worry, Asano, we will definitely be able to create bestsellers!

……

After finishing dinner, Akiwara Yuto offered to take Asano Aiko to the station, but was refused by Asano Aiko.

After watching her leave, Akiwara Yuto walked for a while longer, went to his internet cafe, and after paying, entered the designated cubicle and turned on the computer.

Soon, he used the account "Secretary Fujiwara" to log into the thread for *Death of a Mystery Novelist*.

As he expected, after finishing the fourth installment and leaving the cliffhanger "She is innocent," the number of replies to the post had suddenly increased by quite a bit; a rough count showed at least a thousand.

He clicked the mouse and began to browse from top to bottom, discovering that compared to the previous large volume of comments urging for updates, there were now many more professional viewpoints.

A netizen clearly named "Conan" had also followed up by posting a related thread titled *From the Distribution of the Inheritance, I See Human Nature*.

Akiwara Yuto clicked on this thread and began to read.

"In the previous installment, the author wrote that the mystery novelist left behind a massive inheritance before his death, but he chose not to leave a single cent to his family, instead choosing to hand it over to a female caregiver of Ainu descent from the Qiandaoqundao."

"Regarding the reason behind this, I believe it is because the mystery novelist felt his family was too ugly: the eldest son-in-law's infidelity, the daughter-in-law's failure to work properly, and various other reasons. In this situation, if he left the inheritance to them, it would only increase their laziness and cause them to continue moving forward on the wrong path."

"And the female caregiver, as an Ainu, although she has always been discriminated against by mainstream Neon society, has always strictly adhered to her duty of kindness, even to the point of vomiting whenever she tells a lie."

"However, in the final result, will the female caregiver really be able to receive this large sum of assets? I hope the author updates the next installment soon."

Akiwara Yuto rested his chin on his hand and pondered.

The work *Death of a Mystery Novelist* was adapted by him from *Knives Out*, and many parts of it adopted local Neon elements.

But in the areas of human nature and greed, no matter which society it was, it was exactly the same, so there was no situation of "incompatibility with the local environment."

He closed this thread and then briefly looked at other replies, finding that some replies said they had already purchased *The Devotion of Suspect X* and thought it was a good book.

Akiwara Yuto nodded with satisfaction; although the forum traffic in this era was not high, it had the advantage of persistence. As long as it was a steady stream, it could still help sell quite a few more books.

Alright, now let's start doing the real work.

He clicked the mouse, pressed the "Edit Post" button, and began to input the content for the fifth installment of *Death of a Mystery Novelist*.

……

Just when everyone thought the female caregiver had killed the mystery novelist and were accusing her, the detective suddenly said, "She is innocent."

Immediately following this, he took out the blood report that the female caregiver had handed to him and read the results aloud; it proved that the old man had not been injected with morphine at all.

The female caregiver looked stunned. In her memory, she had clearly injected the mystery novelist with the medicine bottle labeled "morphine." Could it be that she had remembered wrong?

On the other side, the face of the eldest grandson who had arrived at the scene turned uncertain.

On the day before the mystery novelist died, he had been informed that he would not receive inheritance rights, and that all the inheritance had been divided and given to the female caregiver. Thus, he made up his mind to kill his grandfather using the female caregiver's hand; that way, the female caregiver would lose her inheritance rights due to murder.

So, on the night of the party, he used the outdoor ladder to sneak up to the third floor, and through special means, swapped the labels, replaced the real medicine with morphine, and took away the morphine antidote.

But what was unexpected to him was that because the mystery novelist had played dirty and pushed over the shogi board, the two bottles of medicine had gotten mixed up.

And the female caregiver, relying on her excellent professional training as a nurse and her knowledge of medicine, had found the real bottle of medicine and injected it into the mystery novelist.

Therefore, the mystery novelist had simply died by suicide, and the female caregiver was innocent!

Just when everyone thought the dust had settled, a phone call from the hospital rang out...

……

After inputting this part of the content, Akiwara Yuto set it to be published at a scheduled time and left the internet cafe.

While walking home, Akiwara Yuto looked at the lights lit up in the city in the distance and couldn't help but think about the first phone call he had received this morning.

In that phone call, Akutsu Goichi indicated that he would be contacting book reviewers in the near future.

If he could publish book reviews, the remaining books should be sold out very soon, right?!