Chapter 216: The Duet of Death

Time quickly reached mid-March. After the Modern Mystery Literature Newcomer Award committee finished the initial screening of the submitted manuscripts, they called again to invite Akiwara Yuto to the relevant work venue.

Upon receiving the invitation, Akiwara Yuto proactively declined other work and then took a private car to the location designated by the other party—this car belonged to the foundation, was worth 8 million yen, and even had a dedicated driver hired for the sake of reasonable tax avoidance.

After arriving at the destination, the coordinating staff member proactively said, "Mr. Akiwara, thank you for your hard work."

Then, they ushered him into a conference room.

In this conference room, he met the other four judges: He Xin, Morioka Yuho, Gao Tian, and Seto Tamae.

After a while, a white-haired man who was said to be the "Editor-in-Chief" walked into the conference room and began to preside over this judging session.

After some official pleasantries and small talk, the white-haired man had the staff distribute the shortlisted manuscripts to the five people present—because of the blind review process, these manuscripts did not contain the authors' names.

"Teachers, these two manuscripts are the final two works we have selected. Please take a look."

Akiwara Yuto, who was sitting on the outermost edge of the conference table, said "Thank you" when he was the last to receive the manuscripts, after which he lowered his head to look at the titles of the two manuscripts.

Just as he expected, the piece by Toyama Miho, "The Deceased Mother," successfully made the shortlist. Besides that, the other shortlisted work was titled "The Duet of Death."

Regarding the former, Akiwara Yuto only flipped through it slightly; after all, he had already read it several times and there was no need to look at it in detail again.

Instead, Akiwara Yuto decided to carefully review "The Duet of Death."

After all, he had already promised Chairman Kawai that he would cast his vote from an impartial standpoint; if this work were more brilliant, he would still cast his vote for it.

Although he thought this way, he felt it was unlikely that such an award would have many brilliant works.

But as he read on, he discovered that he had guessed completely wrong.

……

The protagonist of "The Duet of Death" is named Yamawaki Junpei, a famous painter who has quite a reputation in the industry.

One of his paintings can often sell for several million yen, equivalent to the annual salary of an ordinary white-collar worker.

But few people know that because of his day-after-day mechanical creation, he has lost interest in painting and instead has grown fond of the violin.

After a painful decision, he confessed everything to his parents: he wanted to give up painting and go to Vienna to study the violin.

Unsurprisingly, this request was rejected by his parents. To his parents, this would cause the family to lose the huge wealth earned from selling paintings and become a joke among relatives and friends.

In order to make Yamawaki Junpei change his mind, his mother smashed the violin in front of him and burned it to ashes.

His father also did not stop it throughout the process, just coldly watching the violin burn to ashes.

Everything that happened made Yamawaki Junpei feel that he was just a puppet in his parents' hands, or a money-making machine. This also created great hatred in his heart.

In order to get rid of his parents and to be able to go to Vienna to study the violin, Yamawaki Junpei resolutely planned a crime.

He first used his agent to purchase many seemingly unrelated items, then used them to assemble an ignition device that could be triggered by sound.

Late one night, when his parents were fast asleep, this ignition device was activated according to a pre-recorded "violin sound."

In an instant, the whole house began to burn with a great fire!

And his parents lost their lives in the thick smoke and flames.

After the fire, the police intervened quickly, but after the investigation, they believed that the incident was caused by improper use of fire in the mansion; it was unlikely to be homicide, and even less related to Yamawaki Junpei.

Because on the day of the fire, Yamawaki Junpei was holding an art exhibition in another city and had a solid alibi.

Upon learning that the police had closed the case as an accidental fire, Yamawaki Junpei breathed a sigh of relief and intended to withdraw from the art world in the name of "excessive grief."

But just then, he received another letter, which read: "If you withdraw from the art world, I will tell everyone about your crime of murdering your parents!"

Seeing the threat, Yamawaki Junpei broke out in a cold sweat.

He had to abandon his plan and began to investigate privately.

In his view, since he could even kill his parents, he wouldn't mind killing someone who threatened him!

Through constant investigation, he discovered that the person most likely to have written this letter was his agent; after all, once he did that, the other party would lose a generous commission.

But Yamawaki Junpei was unwilling to kill him based solely on speculation.

Because when he was in his most difficult times, it was this agent who helped him, and the two had a relationship that was both mentor and friend.

Besides, if the agent really knew everything, why not use the evidence to threaten him directly?

After this, Yamawaki Junpei began a battle of wits with this insider: pretending to be focused on painting during the day, while secretly using various means to investigate.

After spending a considerable amount of money, he finally found a clue: his agent was collecting some evidence related to him, and his handwriting was vaguely 60% similar to that on the envelope.

Yamawaki Junpei weighed the pros and cons and then designed an ingenious murder trick.

He had his agent help him prepare for an art exhibition and arranged many works embedded with huge frames.

Just as the agent was setting up the venue, a heavy oil painting hanging on a high wall fell and hit him on the forehead.

Because of the height and the weight of the frame, the agent fell to the ground on the spot and was declared a vegetable by doctors after being sent to the hospital.

And Yamawaki Junpei, citing grief and the inability to continue creating, publicly announced his withdrawal from the art world.

At the end of the story, he boarded a plane to Vienna.

……

Akiwara Yuto finished reading the whole story and felt surprised by the author's talent.

In terms of tricks, the author successively used sound-based murder and heavy-object murder; although not particularly stunning, it was undoubtedly quite fitting with the story's theme.

Because the parents burned the violin, the protagonist used a "fire caused by violin sound" to retaliate against his parents. Because the agent demanded he continue painting, the protagonist used a "heavy painting" to kill him.

In terms of human nature, this author portrayed Yamawaki Junpei very thoroughly, completely depicting that kind of egoist who can constantly kill for his own selfish interests!

The brilliance of this work was not inferior at all to Toyama Miho's "The Deceased Mother," and it was even a step ahead in the portrayal of the trick!

However, what were its shortcomings?

Just as Akiwara Yuto was frowning and thinking, the white-haired man who was said to be the "Editor-in-Chief" walked to the front of the conference room and said politely, "Teachers, lunch has been prepared. Please enjoy your lunch before reviewing the manuscripts."

Hearing these words, the five people present had different reactions.

He Xin and Morioka Yuho seemed not to have heard and were still looking down at the manuscripts; Gao Tian stood up and walked downstairs with the staff; Seto Tamae stood up, walked to Akiwara Yuto's side, and gave a light cough.

Akiwara Yuto quickly realized that she had something to say to him, so he also stood up.

The two walked one after the other toward the elevator.

Halfway there, Seto Tamae asked proactively, "Mr. Akiwara, who do you intend to cast your vote for?"

Akiwara Yuto replied, "Ms. Seto, isn't it a bit inappropriate to ask this question?"

Now that both of them were still at the committee venue, saying this could be suspected of manipulating the award.

Seto Tamae chuckled, "Inappropriate? I actually intended to cast my vote for your disciple's piece, 'The Deceased Mother.' What do you think?"

Akiwara Yuto immediately realized that it was Chairman Kawai who had disclosed his situation; otherwise, how could Seto Tamae know that his disciple's work had also entered the competition.

Come to think of it, how did she know that piece was written by his disciple?

Seeing Akiwara Yuto's awkward expression, Seto Tamae continued to smile and said, "Akiwara, there's nothing big about this. When I am a judge, I also often review works by friends or juniors."

She added, "This work is similar in many places to the writing style of your works, so I saw it right away."

Akiwara Yuto thought for a moment and stopped walking.

He said in a polite tone, "Ms. Seto, if possible, I hope you will not consider me and will vote based on your own views."

What he didn't know was that after he said this, there was a hint of faint respect in Seto Tamae's eyes when she looked at him.

Seto Tamae looked at him for a moment, then shook her head, "Mr. Akiwara, it's not because of our personal friendship that I decided to cast my vote for 'The Deceased Mother'."

"Could you briefly explain your point of view?" Akiwara Yuto was still a bit skeptical.

Seto Tamae began to explain.

"'The Deceased Mother' involves very realistic social problems of the present day and contains a lot of satire. I think this work is very excellent in its portrayal of human nature."

Akiwara Yuto thought about it and accepted this reason.

After all, this work did indeed talk about many social problems, including the relationship between mother and daughter, lonely elderly people, the relationship between the government and the public, and so on.

However, "The Duet of Death" didn't seem bad either, especially in terms of trick design, which was a step ahead.

Akiwara Yuto raised his question in confusion, asking Seto Tamae why she didn't consider this work.

"Mr. Akiwara, do you remember that test when you joined the association?" Seto Tamae didn't answer immediately but asked back.

Akiwara Yuto nodded.

In order to pass that test, he had brought up the "Nine Rules for Detective Stories" by Raymond Chandler, who was known as the "Poet Laureate of Crime."

"Do you remember the eighth rule you proposed, that the murderer must have a reasonable outcome?" Seto Tamae continued, "But regarding the protagonist of 'The Duet of Death,' do you think his final outcome is reasonable?"

Akiwara Yuto's expression became serious, and he began to consider this question earnestly.

From the perspective of behavioral results, the protagonist of "The Duet of Death," Yamawaki Junpei, successfully removed the obstacles to his pursuit of a music career through a series of ruthless means.

But from a moral perspective, everything the other party did was very inconsistent with moral standards.

Seto Tamae observed Akiwara Yuto's expression and then said, "Mr. Akiwara, I admit that although the story of this work is very brilliant, the brilliance of the story does not mean it is an excellent literary work."

She paused and emphasized, "An excellent literary work, while having a brilliant story, should also have guidance and educational significance for people. This is the reason why I intend to vote for 'The Deceased Mother'."

Hearing this, Akiwara Yuto finally realized.

He discovered that he had just fallen into a logical trap, only caring about whether the story was brilliant while ignoring the impact this story would have on the public.

If such a work could win an award, it is estimated that more and more works with protagonists who stop at nothing would appear later.

And these would have a negative educational effect on teenagers whose values and worldviews are not yet mature.

Akiwara Yuto bowed slightly and said politely, "Thank you for clearing my doubts."

After hearing these words, he also knew who he should cast his vote for.

……

After the two finished discussing this topic, they took the elevator to the buffet restaurant arranged by the committee. But perhaps because they talked for too long, the other three judges had already finished most of their meals.

Akiwara Yuto and Seto Tamae nodded slightly and then separated to eat.

Just as he had chosen his food and was sitting by a window, a voice sounded beside him. "Mr. Akiwara, I would like to talk to you about something."

Akiwara Yuto put down the knife and fork in his hand, looked up, and discovered that this man was exactly He Xin, whom Kawai Shinta had warned him to be careful of.

Although the other party was quite old, he was still wearing an expensive custom-made suit and had an aggressive aura.

Akiwara Yuto was just about to speak, but he did not expect this Mr. Wada Shin to sit directly across from him.

This action made Akiwara Yuto feel a trace of resentment.

In Japanese society, except for superiors or close friends and family, it is a very rude gesture for others to sit directly across from someone without an invitation or acceptance.

He did not believe that this Mr. Wada Shin would be unaware of the implications of this action.

He could only guess that this Mr. Wada Shin might believe his own status was higher, which was why he did so.

Although he felt resentful, Akiwara Yuto did not show it on his face, but instead asked politely, "Mr. Wada Shin, may I ask what this is about?"

Wada Shin leaned back against the chair, lifted his chin, and in an old-fashioned, condescending tone, made a request that Akiwara Yuto found very rude.

"Akiwara-san, when the voting happens this afternoon, cast your vote for 'The Duet of Death'."

Hearing this request, Akiwara Yuto frowned...