Chapter 34: Too Rare

"Uesugi-san, this is the new issue of *New Novel*." A boy wearing a black uniform held the magazine and said to Uesugi Sonoko, who was chatting with friends.

Uesugi Sonoko turned her head to look at him, momentarily surprised. She was planning to find time tomorrow morning to go to the bookstore to buy it, and she didn't expect to be handed one by someone else in the club activity room.

After finishing *Mystery Taxi* last week, she admired Akiwara-sensei's talent so much that she wished she could run to the *New Novel* editorial department immediately to ask for an autograph.

However, after weighing it repeatedly, she decided to be a quiet fan first and wait until there was an autograph session for his new standalone book before asking for an autograph.

But because of her love for him, she had recommended this book to many classmates and friends around her and continued to post online, so many people knew that she was a loyal fan of Akiwara Yuto.

So she wasn't surprised how this Shimazu-kun knew she wanted to buy *New Novel*.

"Shimazu-kun, thank you." She smiled and took the book, nodding to express her gratitude.

The other party hurriedly waved his hand to say it was unnecessary, and then left a bit shyly, causing her friends around her to tease her.

"Sonoko-chan, what do you think of Shimazu Ryo-kun? His looks, his family background~", a girl with earrings next to her said to her with a smile.

Uesugi Sonoko put the book on the table, rolled her eyes at her, waved her hand, and said irritably: "I have no interest in falling in love. My goal is to make a career for myself in the literary world."

"Falling in love doesn't conflict with that." The earring girl continued to joke, then counted on her fingers: "Look, Shimazu-kun looks pretty good, I heard his family is also very rich, and he is the president of the Literature Club..."

"What do these have to do with me?" Uesugi Sonoko responded indifferently.

She really wasn't lying. All she was thinking about now was how to improve her writing ability and strive to win a newcomer award from a publishing house.

She wanted to become a debuted female writer!

The earring girl couldn't do anything about her friend who was single-mindedly wanting to engage in a literary career. She sighed, looked at Uesugi Sonoko, and found that the other party had already opened *New Novel* and started reading. Sunlight shone through the classroom glass, reflecting on her shoulders, giving her a layer of light, making her look particularly beautiful.

Uesugi Sonoko's figure belonged to the slightly thin type, her facial features were very beautiful, her eyes were as pure as a clear spring, and her skin was as white and tender as crystal, giving a feeling of Princess Kaguya descending to the world. It could simply be said that beauty and elegance coexisted, so it was no wonder Shimazu-kun would fall in love with her.

The earring girl sighed, thinking that just with her looks, she wouldn't have to worry about not finding a boyfriend, so she should take care of herself.

She thought for a while and found a book to read. Now it was club activity time, so she should follow the club rules.

The activity classroom became quiet for a while, with only the sound of turning pages coming constantly.

Uesugi Sonoko didn't know that her friend had thought so many messy things. She was carefully reading *New Novel* now. As soon as she opened it, she turned directly to the second column, which had the words *Seven Rooms* written on it.

She was a bit worried, afraid that this serialized short story series was just good before, and would become a forced display of weirdness and horror later.

This was not impossible. After all, although the previously serialized stories were written very brilliantly, they might have been written by this Akiwara-sensei racking his brains.

However, it was impossible for people to have inspiration burst out all the time, especially in the case of having to finish an article every week, good inspiration would eventually run out.

As a student of the Faculty of Letters at Yokohama National University, she had a deep understanding of this.

Many stories alone took a huge amount of energy to conceive.

Once you encounter a writer's block, it's often useless even if you smash your head.

She liked the previous short stories very much and didn't want the subsequent serialization to become boring. Her mood was a bit nervous for a while, but as she watched, she became immersed in it, and her heart couldn't help but follow the plot.

A pair of siblings kidnapped to a secret room? This theme is quite rare. Is the theme about finding clues in a secret room to escape?

Huh? There are no other passages in the room except for a water channel. How can I find clues?

My God, there are 3 women locked up on each side, what is the criminal's intention?

What, it's actually killing a woman every day, and the body fragments flow down the water channel, it's too terrible!

Time passed unconsciously as she read. As the paper turned to the scene where the sister hugged the murderer to let her brother escape, she finally finished the whole story.

She couldn't help but shudder, and her hair stood up.

Immediately after, she felt unusual surprise and excitement!

Akiwara-sensei is worthy of being the genius she recognizes, actually being able to write such a thrilling article.

She lowered her head and began to recall the content in the plot.

The plot is very compact, from the two siblings being kidnapped to the secret room, to the sister using wisdom to let her brother escape, all the plots are linked one after another, which can be said to be gripping.

Such a story, although the words are plain, is enough to see the darkness in Akiwara-sensei's heart, so Sensei, it's not unreasonable for you to be scolded as a pervert online.

Her face flushed involuntarily, and she felt a bit excited that she could see such an excellent article, and a thought of going directly to find Akiwara Yuto for a "pilgrimage" emerged in her heart.

The earring girl who was reading a book boredly next to her discovered Uesugi Sonoko's strange expression, with a look of surprise and uncertainty.

It's just reading a novel, is it necessary to have such an exaggerated expression?

While Uesugi Sonoko was excited because of the work, book reviewer Yashiro Toshihiro also closed the book with satisfaction—Akiwara Yuto is worthy of being Akiwara Yuto, actually being able to fully display the human side while maintaining the story.

He was very impressed with the plot design inside the article, designing a perfect perverted murderer's killing routine, giving people a feeling that death is a relief—a closed and dark environment, fear of the future, and loneliness that is difficult to distinguish between day and night.

These factors undoubtedly added a lot of color to the thriller degree of this short story.

But it was such horror that made the relationship between the siblings sublimated to another degree.

Before the siblings were kidnapped, they quarreled and even looked at each other unpleasantly. The sister even used both soft and hard tactics to make her brother swim back and forth in the smelly water channel, but when it came to life and death, the sister showed a firm belief in letting her brother live and gave everything to protect him.

How to say it, it's just like a touch of warmth in the extreme darkness.

He spread out the manuscript paper, preparing to pick up the pen again to praise this article and give it a big good review.

Although many book reviewers have paid attention to Akiwara Yuto now, he still feels that he should support him.

It is too rare for a newcomer to write such an article! ===== CHAPTER 35 =====