Chapter 216: *The Duet of Death*

Time quickly reached mid-March. After the Modern Detective Literature Newcomer Award Committee conducted the initial screening of the submitted manuscripts, they called again, inviting Akiwara Yuto to head to the relevant work site.

After receiving the invitation, Akiwara Yuto took the initiative to turn down other work and then took a special car to the location designated by the other party—this special car belonged to the foundation, worth 8 million yen, and even hired a special driver for the sake of reasonable tax avoidance.

Upon reaching the destination, the coordinating staff member said proactively, "Teacher Akiwara, thank you for your hard work."

Then they welcomed him into a conference room.

In the conference room, he saw the other four judges: Wada Shin, Morioka Yuho, Takada Tomohisa, and Seto Tamae.

After another while, a white-haired man who was said to be the "Editor-in-Chief" walked into the conference room and presided over this review meeting.

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, these manuscripts did not contain the authors' names.

"Teachers, these two manuscripts are the final two works we 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 that, he lowered his head to look at the names of the two manuscripts.

Just as he expected, Akiwara Yuto's piece, *The Deceased Mother*, was successfully shortlisted. Besides that, the other shortlisted work was called *The Duet of Death*.

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

Instead, regarding *The Duet of Death*, Akiwara Yuto decided to look it over carefully.

After all, he had already promised Chairman Kawai that he would cast his vote from a fair standpoint. If this work was more brilliant, he would still cast his vote for the other party.

Although he thought so, he felt that it was unlikely for such an award to have many brilliant works.

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

The protagonist of *The Duet of Death* was named Yamawaki Junpei, a famous painter who had quite a reputation in the industry.

One of his paintings could often sell for millions of yen, equal to the annual salary of an ordinary white-collar worker.

But few people knew that because of his mechanical creation day after day, he had lost interest in painting and instead fell in love with the violin.

After a painful choice, 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 income obtained from selling paintings and become a laughingstock in the mouths of relatives and friends.

In order to make Yamawaki Junpei change his mind, his mother broke the violin in front of him and burned it with a fire.

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

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

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

He first purchased many seemingly unrelated items through his agent, and then used them to assemble an ignition device that could be activated by sound.

Late one night, when his parents were fast asleep, this ignition device was activated according to the "violin sound" that had been recorded in advance.

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

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

After the fire, the police intervened quickly, but after the investigation, they believed that this incident was caused by improper use of fire in this mansion, and it was unlikely to be homicide, let alone having anything to do with Yamawaki Junpei.

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

Upon learning that the police had closed the case as an accidental incident, Yamawaki Junpei breathed a sigh of relief and planned to withdraw from the art world under 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 killing your parents!"

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

He had to give up his plan and then started investigating in private.

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

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

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

Because when he was in his most difficult time, it was this agent who helped him, and the two still had a relationship of both master and friend.

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

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

After spending a lot of money, he finally discovered a clue, which was that his agent was collecting some evidence related to him, and his handwriting was vaguely 60% similar to the one on the envelope.

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

He asked his agent to help him prepare for an art exhibition and arranged many works inlaid with huge frames.

Just as the agent was setting up the venue, a heavy oil painting hanging on the high wall fell down 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 the doctor after being sent to the hospital.

And Yamawaki Junpei publicly announced his withdrawal from the art world on the grounds of grief and inability to continue creating.

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

Akiwara Yuto finished reading the whole story and felt surprised by the talent of this author.

In terms of tricks, he successively adopted two means: sound murder and heavy object murder. Although not particularly stunning, it was undoubtedly quite consistent with the theme of the story.

Because his parents burned the violin, the protagonist also 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 portraying that kind of egoist who could kill continuously for his own selfish interests!

The brilliance of this work was not inferior to Akiwara Yuto's *The Deceased Mother* at all, and it was even a step better in the portrayal of tricks!

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 lunch first before reviewing the manuscripts."

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

Wada Shin and Morioka Yuho seemed not to have heard and were still looking down at the manuscripts; Takada Tomohisa stood up and walked downstairs with the staff; Seto Tamae stood up, walked to Akiwara Yuto's side, and coughed lightly.

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

The two walked one after another toward the elevator.

Halfway there, Seto Tamae asked proactively, "Teacher Akiwara, who do you plan to cast your vote for?"

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

Now both of them were still at the scene of the review committee, and saying this had the suspicion of manipulating the award.

Seto Tamae chuckled, "Inappropriate? I was actually planning 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 revealed his situation; otherwise, how could Seto Tamae know that his disciple's work had also entered the selection?

Speaking of which, 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, this kind of thing is no big deal. When I was a judge, I also often reviewed the works of some friends or juniors."

She added, "The writing style of this work is somewhat similar to yours in many places, so I recognized it at once."

Akiwara Yuto thought for a while and stopped.

He said in a polite tone, "Teacher Seto, if possible, I hope you still won't consider me and will vote based on your own point of view."

What he didn't know was that after he said this, the look in Seto Tamae's eyes toward him added a trace of faint respect.

Seto Tamae looked at him twice and then shook her head, "Teacher Akiwara, I'm not deciding to cast my vote for *The Deceased Mother* because of our personal friendship."

"Can you briefly talk about your point of view?" Akiwara Yuto still didn't quite believe it.

Seto Tamae started to explain.

"*The Deceased Mother* involves very realistic social problems under the current situation and contains a lot of satire. I think this work is very excellent in the portrayal of human nature."

Akiwara Yuto thought for a while and accepted this reason.

After all, this work did indeed talk about many social problems, including the family relationship between mother and daughter, elderly people living alone, 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, it was a step better.

Akiwara Yuto asked his question suspiciously, asking Seto Tamae why she didn't consider this work.

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

Akiwara Yuto nodded.

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

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

Akiwara Yuto's expression became serious, and he considered 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 musical career through a series of ruthless means.

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

Seto Tamae observed Akiwara Yuto's expression and continued, "Teacher 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, "Excellent literary works, while having a brilliant story, should also have guidance and educational significance for people. This is the reason why I plan to vote for *The Deceased Mother*."

Hearing this, Akiwara Yuto finally reacted.

He discovered that he had just fallen into a logical trap, only caring about whether the story was brilliant, but 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.

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 up my confusion."

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

After the two finished talking about this topic, they took the elevator to the buffet restaurant arranged by the review committee. But perhaps because they talked for too long, the other three judges had already eaten seven or eight-tenths of their meal.

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

Just as he had selected his food and sat in a window seat, a voice sounded beside him. "Akiwara-san, I want 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 Wada Shin, whom Chairman Kawai had reminded him to pay attention to.

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

Akiwara Yuto was just about to speak, but he didn't expect this Teacher Wada Shin to sit directly opposite him.

This action caused a trace of disgust in Akiwara Yuto's heart.

In Japanese society, except for superiors or relatives and friends, it is a very rude action for others to sit directly opposite without the other party's invitation or acceptance.

He didn't think this Teacher Wada Shin wouldn't know the meaning of this action.

He could only guess that this Teacher Wada Shin might think his status was higher, which was why he did this.

Although he felt disgusted in his heart, Akiwara Yuto didn't show it on his face but said politely, "Teacher Wada Shin, what is the matter?"

Wada Shin leaned his body against the back of the chair, raised his chin, and in an old-fashioned tone, put forward a request that Akiwara Yuto thought was very rude.

"Akiwara-san, when voting this afternoon, just cast your vote for *The Duet of Death*."

Hearing this request, Akiwara Yuto frowned... ===== CHAPTER 217 =====