Chapter 725

He is merely my biological father.

This should have been an extremely insulting statement filled with some kind of extreme prejudice, but coming from Hayase Marie's mouth, it was so natural, so……understandable.

After Marie's words, soaked with thirty years of frost and hatred, Uesugi Muneyuki and Nango Yui fell into a brief silence, with only the leaping colors and terrified cries on the silver screen contrasting the gravity of this corner and the harshness of real life.

The alien on screen was eating people, and the alien off screen was also eating people.

Uesugi Muneyuki could understand, he could understand that this understanding was based on the cold words in the case files, based on his knowledge of that mad era's onlookers, and more based on the palpable pain and emptiness in this woman's eyes before him now—this was not maudlin, but a hatred forged hard as iron through years of growth, after being utterly betrayed and abandoned by blood relatives, tempered in the cold eyes of society and a mother's blood and tears.

The grit of the era falling on anyone's head is just a mountain.

Uesugi Muneyuki spoke first, his voice lower than before but still carrying a reassuring stability: "Miss Hayase, we found you not to have you seek out or 'persuade' Honda Atsuhito. On the contrary, it is because you yourself are now in an extremely dangerous situation."

Marie snapped her eyes up, wary yet with a hint of confusion: "I don't understand what you mean."

What does that mean?

"The information we have obtained indicates," Nango Yui took over, her tone professional and calm: "There is a group of people, perhaps your father's former followers, or perhaps some newly radical individuals with ulterior motives, who have already grasped your relationship with your father and are monitoring you, or are about to take action against you. Their purpose is to use you as a hostage or bargaining chip to coerce and force Honda Atsuhito into carrying out new, possibly large-scale terrorist activities for them."

???"

Marie's expression shifted from hatred to astonishment, then immediately darkened with deep fatigue and absurdity.

How is being blood-related like getting stained with Mitake Kō, impossible to shake off?

She raised her hand to rub her temples, as if unable to bear this relentless, crazy information that clashed with her peaceful life: "So……because of him, I was abandoned thirty years ago, and thirty years later, because of him again, I am to be dragged into……this……this kind of thing?"

"Sorry, but this is the fact." Uesugi Muneyuki watched the screen where aliens were slaughtering chaotically: "We came to find you primarily to protect your safety and stop those people from using you. We need your cooperation, to temporarily leave your current residence and life path for an absolutely secure place we can control."

"What does it have to do with me? What relation does he have with me? I have to cooperate with you, but who will consider my feelings? I……" Marie was clearly angry, suppressing her fury as she spoke low: "You lot, so-called social elite civil servants, are truly high and mighty, making it hard to……" As compensation for the inconvenience caused and assistance with official duties, we can provide a temporary subsidy, tentatively set at 100,000 yen. Meanwhile, all food and lodging expenses during your cooperation period will be covered by us. Furthermore, if you wish, after the matter is properly resolved, we can introduce you through some channels to a new job opportunity completely severed from the past, helping you avoid possible future troubles." Nango Yui continued. "……hard to refuse." Marie heard "100,000 yen" and "will help introduce work," and her attitude shifted abruptly. "I agree." She said bluntly: no beating around the bush, "What do you need me to do? Shall we go with you now?"

"Yes, now please leave the cinema like an ordinary audience member, go back and pack your things, and immediately follow us." Nango Yui whispered softly. "Okay." Hayase Marie nodded immediately.

100,000 yen is not a small sum, and dispatched employees live precariously, so she had no reason to refuse.

The action was swift and covert.

Marie went back and quickly packed some personal belongings, then, according to Uesugi Muneyuki and Nango Yui's arrangements, placed herself in a suite at the APA Hotel in Minato Ward, which has a long-term cooperation agreement with the Metropolitan Police Department and tight security measures.

"During this time, please temporarily reside here; all necessary items will be provided by the hotel, or you may also entrust us to handle them." In the hotel corridor, Uesugi Muneyuki and Nango Yui instructed.

"I understand." Hayase Marie nodded, she appeared to have accepted this plan, named protection but actually a highest-level soft confinement. And at the other end of the same-floor corridor, Uesugi Muneyuki and Nango Yui also opened a suite, serving as a temporary command and monitoring point.

After closing the door and shutting out external views, Nango Yui finally exhaled lightly, took off his suit jacket, loosened his tie, and revealed a look of leisure: "Like this, is it settled?"

"This is only a beginning." Uesugi Muneyuki sat on the suite's sofa and turned on the television.

Inside the television, a football match was playing, the uplifting music slightly relaxing the originally tense environment.

"Arsenal~vs Barcelona~vs Bayern Munich~"

"Our factory has collapsed~"

"It's the Champions League! Looks like we can watch football together tonight, eh? Uesugi-san!" Nango Yui glanced at the TV, somewhat excitedly saying: "Previously, when big events occurred, Uesugi-san you were always in another room with Ikeda and the management officers, but this time, it's just the two of us! This also counts as a business trip shared room, right?"

……" Uesugi Muneyuki suddenly lifted his head: "Mr. Nango, you just said something strange, I recall this place should be Tokyo, not Chéngdū?"

Friends who often watch movies know that the shared room theme in Japan is popular to a perverse degree, with many famous actresses having performed in no less than three rounds of shared room themes.

A typical example is Matsutaka and Kimura Takuya in《Hero》《Love Century》! (Those with dirty thoughts, go face the wall!)! Actually, the original meaning of shared room is very simple: it just means staff from different departments staying overnight together in a hotel.

However, Japanese people especially like the theme of business trip shared rooms, and there is a reason for this.

Among Japanese couples, the proportion of love marriages is not high, but marrying and having children is engraved in Japanese people's conservative genes, so over half of Japanese couples marry for marriage's sake, judge if conditions are suitable, then marry and live together as partners.

But this loveless marriage leads to a thin relationship between spouses; when newlywed, there is freshness and the husband at this time is young with sexual needs, which is okay to say, but after a period of marriage, the husband enters middle age, the old husband young wife has had children but lost freshness and life has almost no intersection, such couples often fall into complete coldness, reaching the point of almost no topics at all.

But in the workplace, it's different: in the workplace, men will have ample communication and shared topics with female employees of the same company, and even interaction time is much longer than between spouses, so whether it's for older female superiors, younger female subordinates, or peers of the same gender, sexual fantasies often exist, and the theme of business trip shared rooms firmly grasps Japanese men's "G-spot," causing such themes to endure, not only in certain fields, but also in large numbers of Japanese TV dramas, where there is always a plot of the hotel having only one room left, forcing two people to stay together.

Everyone knows this is impossible in reality, but everyone likes to watch it.

Especially likes it.

"Ah ah ah~misunderstanding misunderstanding, pure misunderstanding!"

Nango Yui walked to the mini-fridge, took out two bottles of mineral water, handed one to Uesugi Muneyuki, and himself unscrewed and took a sip: "My meaning is, we previously lacked an opportunity for communication, my meaning is that having this chance to privately interact is indeed rare, I feel we can communicate deeply, so I can understand Uesugi-san's thoughts, and you can also hear my opinion."

"Although I understand your meaning, I still feel weird……" Uesugi Muneyuki understood Nango Yui's meaning, but he still felt it a bit strange.

No way, Nantō memes played too much are like this, while the real Nantō actually doesn't play Nantō memes.

"Anyway, I have some ideas about this case." Nango Yui indeed cherished the opportunity to speak with Uesugi Muneyuki.

"Then you go ahead." Uesugi Muneyuki nodded.

"Honda Marie……should be said as Hayase Marie's mother, called Hayase Yuka, in the seventies and eighties, the Hayase family could be considered local nobility, Yuka Miss's appearance and talent were both very outstanding, it is said she almost entered the Takarazuka Music School."

Uesugi Muneyuki took the water, nodded, walked to the window, gazing at the Minato Ward skyline: "Takarazuka……the selection and internal rules back then were even stricter and even more 'perverted' than now. Senior-junior hierarchy was extremely strict, suppressing individuality."

How strict was the relationship before Takarazuka?

Strict to the point that juniors, upon seeing seniors boarding a train far away, must bow and salute!

Strict to the point that if seniors forgot their umbrellas and had to get rained on, juniors, even if they had umbrellas, must also accompany them in getting rained on!

Strict to the point that bathing order had rules, seniors bathe first, juniors only after.

Until these past few years, the senior-junior rules at Takarazuka have only slightly loosened.

"Correct." Nango Yui sat on the sofa, rubbed his temples: "Materials suggest Hayase Yuka precisely because she could not endure family expectations and that suffocating 'perfection' discipline, during her rebellious years resonated with certain radical currents in society at the time that championed 'defying authority' and 'breaking shackles,' while Honda Atsuhito, as a core figure in the extremist left-wing group 'Red Goldfinch' with considerable personal charm and theoretical level, happened to appear in her confused field of vision. It's hard to say how much was so-called 'revolutionary love' and how much was a girl's projection onto rebellious symbols." "The result is Marie." Uesugi Muneyuki interjected, his voice without ripple: "After Honda Atsuhito in the 'Heijo Bank Robbery' swiftly fled overseas with large funds, reportedly to Brazil, when he left, Marie was only one year old. No explanation, no arrangement, completely vanished. Leaving Hayase Yuka alone, facing family fury, social contempt, life's hardship, and having to raise a daughter destined to bear her father's original sin."

"This is truly biological……" Uesugi Muneyuki said up to here, twitching the corner of his mouth.

Nango Yui sighed: "Yeah, premarital pregnancy, still bearing responsibility for several or even over ten people as a terrorist, the Hayase family directly announced severing relations with her. Yuka Miss later had a very difficult life, did various odd jobs, her body also wore down. But she still raised Marie to adulthood, supported her studies……Marie Miss's feelings for her mother are very deep. So, her hatred toward Honda Atsuhito is not just abandonment, but also the pain and anger over her mother's ruined life. This hatred has already become part of her identity."

"But if that's the case, I feel this case is a bit strange, don't you think?" Uesugi Muneyuki suddenly felt a hint of strangeness: "According to what you said, there is almost no feeling between father and daughter, so why would Honda Atsuhito be threatened?"

Nango Yui suddenly lifted his eyes to look at Uesugi Muneyuki: "Uesugi-san, have you heard of the 'cup water theory'?"

"Uh-huh?"