Chapter 35: Who to Blame

At 9 o'clock in the evening, office worker Shimamoto Masaaki also tried to contribute his own strength to the sales of *New Novel*.

It was just very unfortunate that he ran to several bookstores in a row, only to be told by the clerk with an apologetic face: "I'm sorry, this book is already sold out, please come back tomorrow."

But he didn't have the patience to wait until tomorrow, or rather, he hated "tomorrow" very much.

His identity, to put it nicely, is an ordinary office worker, and to put it bluntly, he is a corporate slave. His job is sales—in his own words, he gets up earlier than a chicken every day, sleeps later than a dog, and does more work than an ox.

Working in this line of work undoubtedly faces huge work pressure.

When he arrives at the company in the morning, his superiors will ask him how his performance is this week and ask him to communicate further with customers. During the lunch break, colleagues will beat around the bush to inquire about his performance ranking. When visiting customers, customers will impatiently tell him to contact them "tomorrow" or next time.

Under such pressure, he wishes he could split one day into two. In fact, he has had less than 5 hours of sleep every day for a month.

Because of this, he tried to find a sustenance for himself.

After trying many things, he found a hobby that saved the most time and effort—mystery novels, and he became increasingly addicted to them.

While his mind was wandering, he went to the fourth bookstore. Seeing that others were about to close, he hurried forward and said politely to a female clerk who was organizing books: "Excuse me, do you have the latest issue of *New Novel* from Mantanshe?"

The female clerk he asked was Sugihara Aisa, who had been moved by the story *Little Ornament and Yoko* before. She subconsciously wanted to respond that it was already sold out, but she opened her mouth slightly and didn't say it.

She suddenly remembered that the last copy of this issue of *New Novel* had been bought by herself and she was preparing to take it home to read.

She intended to refuse the middle-aged man in front of her, but seeing his sweaty situation, her heart softened for a moment.

This guest must also be a loyal fan of Akiwara-sensei, right? He looks like he has already run to many stores, otherwise how could he be so tired.

She thought for a while, put down the work in her hand, bowed slightly, and said with a smile: "There is one more copy, please wait a moment, guest."

After saying this, she turned and walked toward the staff room.

Seeing Sugihara Aisa's actions, Shimamoto Masaaki felt spirited. He wiped his sweat and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. It seems he didn't have to run to the fifth bookstore.

After a while, he saw Sugihara Aisa bring back the magazine he had been thinking about, and immediately thanked her and paid.

Seeing that the bookstore was also about to close, he turned and walked out the door, walked to the street lamp, and started reading with the help of the light.

The light was a bit dim, shining on the paper, making the words on the paper look a bit blurry.

But he was completely unaware and completely immersed in the development of the story's plot.

In his mind, a lonely and dark room appeared out of thin air, and the two siblings were in this room, starting to survive in a panic.

In the constant flipping, he saw the scene of the murderer committing the crime through the brother's perspective and felt a kind of fear from the bottom of his heart:

"My head was exposed outside the tunnel.

I saw that the woman who was just chatting with me had now become a small mountain of flesh and blood...

A man. He stood in front of a pile of meat that could not be called a human body, with his back to my side. If he were facing my direction, I might be discovered by him immediately.

I couldn't see the man's face, but I could see that he was holding an electric saw in his hand, making a loud noise. I finally understood that sometimes I would hear the sound of a machine outside the door, which turned out to be the sound of this electric saw.

The man stood straight, showing no emotion at all, just stabbing the saw into the pile of meat several times to make the pieces of meat smaller. At this moment, red things splashed out all at once, falling all over the room.

The whole room turned blood red."

After reading this passage, Shimamoto Masaaki subconsciously took two deep breaths, but he wiped the cold sweat that came out and continued reading.

After a long time, he finished reading all the content.

In addition to the horror implied by the story, the human nature embodied in the story itself also made him feel shocked.

A woman saw the body fragments flowing in the water channel and knew that the murderer was killing and dismembering bodies every day, and she was so scared that she became mentally deranged and spoke nonsense.

Another woman knew that she was going to die, so she handed all her belongings to her brother who swam over from the water channel and told him that he must live. But when facing the murderer who was about to open the door, she subconsciously hugged her brother, almost causing him to fall into trouble together.

When the sister faced death, in order for her brother to live, she resolutely sacrificed herself, hugged the murderer, and let her brother lock her and the murderer behind the unlocked door.

These scenes appeared in his mind one after another, making him tremble all over.

At this moment, all the troubles accumulated in his workplace and family life were thrown behind his head.

There was an incredible tremor that spread from the depths of his soul to the surface of his body.

While Shimamoto Masaaki was immersed in the story, Takei Kohei and his female assistant were having a meeting in the conference room.

Takei Kohei sat on the office chair, carefully read *Seven Rooms* once, then raised his head and asked his assistant who was also reading next to him seriously: "Misaki, what do you think of this story?"

Misaki Sawako hadn't finished reading the full text yet, but she heard the sternness in Takei Kohei's mouth, subconsciously shrank her head, and said timidly: "I think it's written very well."

Takei Kohei stared at her and pondered for a while. Misaki Sawako felt her scalp tingle subconsciously and couldn't help but whisper: "Takei-sama, did I say something wrong?"

She was really a bit scared by the other party's eyes.

Takei Kohei raised his head slightly, a "politician-style" smile appeared on his face, and then he became fierce again.

He picked up the magazine on the table, threw it at his assistant, and said sternly: "Since you know others are good, why did you reject the manuscript in the first place!?"

Misaki Sawako let out a cry of pain, but didn't dare to cover the place where she was hit.

She was a bit panicked for a while.

At that time, Takei Kohei had something to do, so he arranged the manuscript for her and asked her to write a rejection letter directly. She thought the matter was already settled.

Later, she pushed this work to Asano Aiko. Although the other party told her that this article was written well, she didn't take it seriously and let her handle it herself.

Unexpectedly, the other party's article actually drove the reprint of *New Novel*.

She looked at Takei Kohei, whose face was gradually turning cold, and was stunned for a while, not knowing what to say.

Yes, besides me, who else can I push the responsibility to?

She subconsciously looked at the magazine thrown on the ground, which happened to be turned to the page of *Seven Rooms*, and there was an indescribable regret in her heart... ===== CHAPTER 36 =====