Chapter 224: Death Threat Letter

For Japanese society, April is a special month with two significant events.

The first event is "cherry blossom viewing," because starting from April, cherry blossoms bloom one after another from south to north in the Japanese archipelago.

Another event is the Japanese "entrance ceremony." From kindergarten to graduate school, all new students welcome a new stage in their lives in this season.

10:30 AM, University of Tokyo Hongo Campus, school gate.

Akiwara Yuto sat in a special car driven by a driver and came here to pick up his disciple, Akiwara Yuto. The latter had just finished the entrance ceremony and was preparing to leave the campus.

"Yuto, congratulations on officially becoming a university student today."

Akiwara Yuto sat in the back seat of the car and handed a gift to Akiwara Yuto. This gift was actually just a fountain pen, worth no more than 10,000 yen.

It wasn't that Akiwara Yuto was stingy, but as a gift for the entrance ceremony, the price shouldn't be too high.

"Master, thank you."

Akiwara Yuto said with a smile and took it. She was wearing a black t-shirt and jeans today, which was very different from the big sister style in Kyoto.

Akiwara Yuto waved his hand, signaled the driver to drive, and then asked, "Have you found a place to stay?"

"Still scouting, currently staying at Senior Asano's house."

"Are you two that close now?"

Akiwara Yuto was a bit surprised; he really didn't know there was such a relationship between the two.

"Yuto, anyway, if you need help, just tell me directly, no need to be afraid of causing me trouble."

Akiwara Yuto gave a warning; the other party was his disciple after all, so he should help if he could.

"Master, I understand," Akiwara Yuto said, "My father gave me 3 months of living expenses. I plan to submit some manuscripts during this time to see if I can earn some living expenses."

"What type of manuscript? Is it a short story?"

"Hmm, short story. I don't have the ability to write long works well yet," Akiwara Yuto said embarrassedly.

Akiwara Yuto nodded, feeling quite satisfied in his heart.

Compared to long works, short stories seem to have lower difficulty, but they are more friendly for the practice of writing style.

Not only that, because the difficulty of reviewing manuscripts is low, some magazines are also willing to accept submissions of short stories from newcomer writers.

"But if you only rely on short story submissions, your rent and living expenses might not be enough, right?" Akiwara Yuto thought for a while and pursued.

"If that doesn't work, I plan to find a part-time job, working and creating at the same time."

"I see, then good luck."

Akiwara Yuto considered whether to take the initiative to provide food and lodging for her to create; after all, this little money didn't count as anything. Instead, Akiwara Yuto being able to debut early had benefits for him.

But after considering it, Akiwara Yuto gave up this idea.

Akiwara Yuto's father didn't do this, so he shouldn't overstep his authority.

Those who don't work shouldn't eat; let Akiwara Yuto experience social life well.

An author lacking social experience probably couldn't write any good articles with depth of content.

"By the way, Master, there is news in the newspaper that your work is expected to be shortlisted for this year's Uemura Award, right?" Akiwara Yuto looked up and asked excitedly.

She was indeed very excited; after all, as the highest award in the Japanese literary world, the Uemura Award is only awarded to 2 people each year.

Winning this award is the lifelong wish of many writers in Japan!

"Who knows, no one can be sure about this kind of thing," Akiwara Yuto waved his hand, actually having 70-80% certainty in his heart.

Some time ago, Kawai Shinta specifically called him, telling him to look forward to the Uemura Award.

After that, a judge of the Uemura Award praised *The Devotion of Suspect X* many times in public.

This also made some media wanting to attract attention directly publish the "fake" news that this work would win the Uemura Award nomination in the newspaper.

Akiwara Yuto didn't believe it; in her view, this master of hers was sometimes too humble.

She had read *Suspect X* several times and thought it was very excellent, having a great possibility of winning the Uemura Award.

While the two were talking, the car drove to Asano Aiko's house.

Akiwara Yuto said "Goodbye" and got off the car, while Akiwara Yuto let the driver turn the direction and drove toward the Keijokan headquarters in Chiyoda Ward.

30 minutes later, he arrived at the *April Youth* editorial department.

After seeing Dacheng Lixiang, Akiwara Yuto changed his face instantly, and his expression became serious.

"Editor-in-Chief Dacheng, what is your urgent matter?"

This morning, Dacheng Lixiang called, saying there was a very urgent matter, and asked him to come to the editorial department.

"Teacher Akiwara, let's talk in detail in the conference room."

Dacheng Lixiang didn't answer immediately but brought Akiwara Yuto to a conference room.

After Akiwara Yuto sat down, Dacheng Lixiang took out a file bag, opened it, took out the envelope inside, and handed it to Akiwara Yuto.

Akiwara Yuto took the envelope and saw that the envelope only filled in the recipient address as "*April Youth* Editorial Department" and the recipient as "Akiwara Yuto."

But the sender information column was basically blank.

Akiwara Yuto asked suspiciously, "Editor-in-Chief Dacheng, this is?"

"Please open it and take a look," Dacheng Lixiang also said seriously.

Akiwara Yuto followed suit, opened the envelope, and took out the things inside—a letter paper and a utility knife blade.

He frowned and unfolded the letter paper, discovering that this letter was printed, written in red printed font from right to left, full of dense "die" (death).

After finishing reading these, Akiwara Yuto immediately understood that this was a death threat letter!

He put down the envelope, looked up, and asked, "When did the editorial department receive this letter?"

"It was received around 9 AM this morning, mixed in a pile of envelopes," Dacheng Lixiang recalled and then said, "At first, it was thought to be a reader's letter, and then the staff opened it directly and checked it."

Because the writer himself is busy with work, reader letters are generally handled by the editorial department, and they will pick out a portion of valuable letters for the writer himself.

If the writer himself doesn't handle it, he can also entrust the editorial department to reply.

"Did you call the police?" Akiwara Yuto asked.

Dacheng Lixiang nodded but added, "Around 10 AM just now, two police officers had already come to see it. But they indicated that the possibility of finding the sender is not great."

Hearing this explanation, Akiwara Yuto's brows frowned.

He remembered a news story he saw in his previous life. At that time, the voice actor of Azusa Nakano in *K-On! *, Taketatsu Ayana, had been receiving more than 7,000 death threat letters from a fanatical fan one after another since 2014.

But the police spent about 4 years to find and arrest that fanatical fan.

Looking at it this way, the effect of calling the police might not be very great.

"Teacher Akiwara, the police asked me to ask you if you have any enemies? Could it be sent by them?" Dacheng Lixiang asked again.

Akiwara Yuto closed his eyes and started to recall.

Since his debut, he had offended quite a few people—Takei Kohei, Kihara Daigo, Kadowaki Yuzhen from Mantan Society, and besides that, there were Wada Shin and Oonuki Masakazu recently.

However, most of the people inside shouldn't have this kind of motive, right?

After all, there is no need to send a death threat letter unless you are prepared to die together.

"Sorry, I don't quite know who would do this..." Akiwara Yuto shook his head, but just then, he suddenly thought of someone, a writer who wanted to kill his parents and agent in his work.

From the stance, the other party indeed had a significant possibility; after all, the other party could be said to have lost everything now.

Although he guessed this possibility, Akiwara Yuto didn't intend to tell Dacheng Lixiang.

He prepared to go and find a few private detectives to entrust these detectives to investigate Oonuki Masakazu.

However, besides Oonuki Masakazu, the biggest possibility of writing this kind of letter was readers and fans who were dissatisfied with his work plots.

Like the author of *Haganai*, Yomi Hirasaka, who received a large number of blades because the ending was terrible, and someone left a message on the internet saying they would stab him to death.

"Teacher Akiwara, anyway, pay attention to safety recently," Dacheng Lixiang showed a worried expression.

Although *April Youth* wanted to get rid of the unequal status with Akiwara Yuto, it currently relied on him very much.

If something happened to Akiwara Yuto, it would have a very serious impact on the magazine sales.

And the two had known each other for half a year; although they couldn't count as friends, they also had quite a bit of private friendship.

"Understood," Akiwara Yuto replied in a serious tone.

Although the other party sent a threat letter, the possibility of truly implementing this behavior was not great.

But this kind of thing is not afraid of ten thousand, just afraid of the unexpected.

In the previous life, there was an author named Murasaki Hyakuro who was killed in his apartment in Tokyo. And the murderer reported to the police and surrendered immediately after killing, and didn't receive a heavy sentence because of mental illness problems.

He didn't want to follow this path.

Akiwara Yuto put down the envelope, forced a few smiles, and comforted Dacheng Lixiang.

And Dacheng Lixiang couldn't say anything, could only say "pay more attention to safety," "try to avoid acting alone," and turned to leave, leaving time for Akiwara Yuto to think about it properly.

Akiwara Yuto clenched his fists, and there was an indescribable fire in his heart!

Who exactly sent this letter! ===== CHAPTER 225 =====