Chapter 87

"Dad, my pocket money for this month should be increased." Anjiu Haruna wore a school uniform, sat on the tatami with her legs crossed, and complained: "You know, this business of Akiwara-san was pulled by me."

If Akiwara Yuto were here, he would recognize that this woman is the female clerk he met on the first floor of Anjiu Bookstore.

On the other side, Anjiu Jin Gangyi sat at another table, with a stack of manuscripts in front of him. He looked at them carefully, while dealing with his daughter's complaints: "That Akiwara-san came to the door himself."

"Yes, but he must have entrusted the business because this publisher has beautiful female employees." Anjiu Haruna pouted unconvinced and complained: "In short, give me a little more pocket money, just 3000 yen is enough."

Anjiu Jin Gangyi pretended not to hear. It was not that he was stingy, mainly because he was worried that his daughter would learn badly—if he gave her more 3000 yen, who knows if she would take it to dye her hair or do other things.

According to his discovery, Haruna has become more and more fond of reading some magazines about Shibuya gyaru recently.

He stood up, waved his hand, ignored his daughter's complaints, left the living room, returned to the study, made a cup of tea, sat in front of the desk, and put the manuscript on the desktop.

According to the contract agreement between him and Akiwara Yuto, this batch of manuscripts must be proofread as soon as possible, and a sample book must be given within 2 and a half weeks.

To be honest, although Anjiu Jin Gangyi's attitude is very good, he actually looks down on people who publish books at their own expense like Akiwara Yuto from the bottom of his heart.

As a publisher president, although the whole company has only 5 employees, he has always firmly believed that he can publish works that are truly big sellers and sell well throughout Nihon.

Therefore, he once had very high requirements for the quality of published books: works that are too vulgar, not published; works that are too difficult to understand, not published; works with poor writing, not published!

Under such a business philosophy, the Anjiu Bookstore Co., Ltd. he operated has indeed published 2 books with sales of over 100,000 copies, gaining a certain reputation in the industry.

But good times didn't last long. With the arrival of the economic crisis, the wallets of Nihon families tightened. In this situation, many people began to lean toward TV programs instead of buying books in bookstores.

After all, one is free, and the other has to pay.

Only when the tide recedes can you know who is swimming naked.

With the increasingly obvious economic recession, the sales of books in the Nihon publishing industry began to slide straight down, giving a head-on blow to all small and medium-sized publishers. The publisher he is in is naturally no exception—the two bestsellers that once broke 100,000 sales have recently seen their monthly sales fall to a pitiful level, not to mention other published books.

Helplessly, Anjiu Jin Gangyi had to implement a half-salary work system, that is, working half the time a week and getting half the salary. After all, only in this way can he barely maintain revenue and expenditure and achieve no layoffs.

Apart from this, he also started the self-publishing business he looked down on before, and began to grab business with his peers. Relying on his rigorous work attitude, he also received praise from many people and was introduced to many new customers.

Everything seems to be developing in a good direction, but deep in his heart, there is still a thick unwillingness. Is it possible that he can only publish these rotten books in his next life?

In his eyes, most of these self-published books are rotten books he wouldn't even look at before. And those customers who publish books at their own expense are either university teachers who are seeking fame, financial scammers who lack titles, or presidents who are attached to elegance.

These people publish books just to achieve the title of author of the book.

Anjiu Jin Gangyi recalled Akiwara Yuto who came to entrust the business this time, and had a different feeling. Although he felt that the other party's temperament didn't look like someone who needed that kind of title, the other party was also seeking a self-publishing channel, so maybe it was his wishful thinking.

He sighed, then lowered his head, preparing to look at the manuscript in front of the table seriously—he didn't believe from the bottom of his heart that someone who needed to publish a book at his own expense could write any excellent manuscript.

If it was really well written, it would have been signed by a big publisher and offered very high conditions, right?

But as he looked, he was surprised by the content in the book.

(Those who have read the original work can skip the following)

The story happened to a math teacher named Ishigami Tetsuya. Because his math research encountered a bottleneck, he felt very painful and decided to leave this world. But just as he was hanging himself, the doorbell rang.

He opened the door and found that the person outside the door was a neighbor who had just moved in—a mother and daughter named Hanaoka Yasuko and Hanaoka Misato.

The mother and daughter introduced themselves enthusiastically and handed over a small gift. At that moment, Ishigami felt that a ray of sunshine had shot into his dim life, and he had the strength to live again.

After that, Ishigami often went to the breakfast shop where Hanaoka Yasuko was, to buy a breakfast, just to see the other party.

This day, Hanaoka Yasuko was cooking at home, and suddenly the doorbell rang. She thought it was her daughter who came back, so she opened the door directly. But after opening the door, she realized that the person who rang the doorbell was her ex-husband Togashi.

Togashi is an idle person who not only does not do his job properly but also often domestic violence against the mother and daughter. For the sake of her daughter Misato, Hanaoka Yasuko resolutely chose to divorce. But what she didn't expect was that even after the divorce, Togashi was still entangled.

Togashi walked into the door carelessly and stated directly that he came to ask for money. Because he was worried about affecting his daughter, Yasuko helplessly gave the other party a sum of money and asked him to leave as soon as possible.

Togashi got the money, smiled slyly, and teased Misato who came home behind him, saying he wanted to sell her to a nightclub to work. Then he said to Yasuko: "You mother and daughter don't want to leave my control for the rest of your lives."

Just as Togashi turned around and was about to go out, Misato, who could no longer bear it, took a crystal ball and smashed it on him. After encountering the attack, Togashi fell to the ground, but stood up again. He was furious and began to kick Misato.

Yasuko saw her daughter being beaten and immediately stepped forward to dissuade her, but was knocked to the ground by Togashi. Seeing that Togashi had no intention of stopping, Yasuko grabbed an electric wire in a hurry and strangled Togashi's neck. And her daughter Misato also seized the opportunity to grab the other party together.

With the joint efforts of the two, Togashi was strangled to death.

Because the sound insulation effect of the wall was poor, all this was heard clearly by Ishigami who lived next door.

Ishigami, who was very smart, immediately understood the cause and effect. He stood up and walked to the door of the mother and daughter's room, rang the doorbell, and said outside the door: "Need help?"

Hearing the doorbell, Hanaoka Yasuko was panicked for a while. After she ordered her daughter to drag the corpse into the house, she walked to the door, opened a slit, and said to Ishigami: "Just killed a cockroach."

Ishigami looked at her and replied: "I can help you get rid of the crime."

After realizing that the matter was exposed, Hanaoka Yasuko could only let Ishigami walk into the house.

The next day, a naked male corpse was found on the beach, his face was destroyed, his hands and feet were scorched, and his teeth were also processed, completely unable to identify his true identity. However, there were fingerprints that could be extracted on the bicycle next to the corpse.

On the other side, the police received a report the day before that a tenant in a nearby hotel had been missing for a day. The missing tenant was Togashi. Through DNA comparison of the residual hair in the hotel room, the police could confirm that the nameless male corpse on the beach was Togashi himself, and the time of death was on December 2nd.

After confirming the identity of the deceased, Hanaoka Yasuko, as the ex-wife of the deceased, undoubtedly became the suspect. The police came to Yasuko's house for the first time to ask about the situation.

But to the police's surprise, Hanaoka Yasuko claimed that she and her daughter went to watch a movie on the night of December 2nd. In addition to her daughter's classmates who could prove it, they also kept the ticket stub of the cinema.

This means the clue is broken. The police were helpless and could only seek help from the genius physicist Yukawa Manabu. In addition to being a physicist, Yukawa Manabu often helps the police solve some very challenging cases.

Hearing the content described by the police, Yukawa Manabu decided to accept this case, one because this case is very challenging, and two because the suspect's neighbor Ishigami is his university friend.

In the evening, Yukawa Manabu came to find Ishigami to reminisce about the past. The two hadn't seen each other for decades, and they had a "happy conversation" for a while.

Yukawa Manabu reminisced about the past while tapping from the side. During the conversation, Yukawa Manabu fell asleep at the wine table. After he fell asleep, Ishigami on the other side also found something wrong. There was a murderous aura in his eyes looking at Yukawa Manabu.

It seems that his plan needs to be adjusted.

After the gathering ended, Yukawa Manabu told his police contact that he believed the murderer was Hanaoka Yasuko, and Ishigami helped her cover up the truth, but this was just reasoning, and evidence was currently lacking.

But this reasoning of his made the police contact on the side dumbfounded, and he didn't accept it for a while.

On the other side, Hanaoka Yasuko was eating with a middle-aged man. This middle-aged man is called Kudo Kunimaki, a regular customer of the hotel "Marian" where Yasuko worked before. After learning that she was divorced, he wanted to pursue the other party.

Ishigami was very unhappy after discovering all this. He secretly took photos when the two were dating, and even warned Kudo Kunimaki to stay away from Yasuko.

This made Hanaoka Yasuko feel extremely uneasy and began to doubt Ishigami's purpose. Did Ishigami help her cover up the crime of murder just to control everything about her? Isn't that the same nature as her ex-husband?

The next day, Hanaoka Yasuko received a call from Ishigami. Ishigami told himself that he had left her two letters and said this was their last call.

Hearing this, Hanaoka Yasuko fell into confusion.

Early the next morning, the police station received a report. Ishigami took the initiative to admit that he killed the ex-husband Togashi of the mirror. After killing him that night, Ishigami dragged him to the river, then destroyed his face and removed his fingerprints, with the purpose of hiding the victim's identity.

Ishigami is not good at socializing and has always been alone. He also had no alibi that day, and the murder weapon wire was found at home, as well as the installed wiretap.

Through these evidences, the police can clearly confirm that he is a madman who is fanatically in love with Hanaoka Yasuko, so the murder is also reasonable. Apart from this, Hanaoka Yasuko has Ishigami's threatening letter in her hand, which completely confirms the murder motive of the hour.

But there is another letter, which Ishigami asked Yasuko to destroy immediately after reading. The letter said, let Yasuko live well with Kudo Kunimaki in the future, and thanked Yasuko for the warmth she brought him.

The content of this letter made Yasuko puzzled.

On the other side, Yukawa Manabu already knew the whole answer: everything Hanaoka Yasuko said to the police was the truth, and there had never been a lie.

And Ishigami's layout was to cover up the truth of another timeline with the truth of one timeline: the corpse on the beach was not Togashi at all, but someone else.

On December 1st, after Ishigami discovered that the Hanaoka mother and daughter had killed Togashi, he decided to help the mother and daughter cover up the truth, and the way he covered up the truth was to find a homeless man whose body shape was very similar to Togashi.

On December 2nd, Ishigami paid to hire this homeless man, let the homeless man wear Togashi's clothes to check into the hotel, and leave evidence such as hair and fingerprints.

In the evening, Ishigami let the homeless man ride the stolen bicycle and brought him to the beach, then strangled the homeless man with his own hands, then smashed his face, burned his fingers and toes, and deliberately left fingerprints on the bicycle and clothes that were not burned.

These clues can allow the police to quickly confirm that the deceased is Togashi, and let the police struggle with whether Yasuko's alibi is established. As for Togashi's real corpse, Ishigami handled it afterwards.

Ishigami's purpose is to protect this mother and daughter at all costs. For him, their happy life is his salvation.

Originally everything was under his control, but the appearance of Yukawa Manabu made him realize that this design would inevitably be seen through, so he decided to sacrifice himself and protect the mother and daughter by becoming enemies with Hanaoka Yasuko and leaving a threatening letter.

This layout was originally seamless, but Ishigami ignored one point: no one can live happily while carrying the sacrifice of another person.

Just when Ishigami was about to be taken away by the police, Hanaoka Yasuko rushed out. Yukawa Manabu had already told her everything, letting her know that this ordinary man who was just a neighbor had made such a great sacrifice for her and her daughter.

Hanaoka Yasuko knelt in front of Ishigami in pain, and at the same time told the police "I am also guilty."

In an instant, Ishigami was stunned, which meant that everything he did was in vain, and the light he protected at all costs was extinguished.

He knelt on the ground, roaring and crying hard, as if he wanted to vomit his soul out.

Seeing the end, Anjiu Jin Gangyi fell into silence.

He looked at the manuscript paper in his hand, speechless for a long time—such a work, even selling hundreds of thousands of copies is possible.

If he were operating a publisher before, he would probably kneel in front of the author and beg him to publish it, right?

He was stunned for a while, only to realize that he was completely addicted to the plot, and even forgot to proofread the typos in the manuscript.

But at the same time, he also fell into confusion. Why did this Akiwara-san, no, Master Akiwara, want to self-publish?