Chapter 964

At the end of March, on the Hongo Campus of the University of Tokyo, the cherry blossoms had not yet fully opened, but the buds on the branches had swollen to a critical point, as if they would burst open at any moment in a gust of wind.

On the tree-lined path between the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Medicine, students in suits occasionally hurried past, clutching printed papers, while others sat in twos and threes on benches basking in the sun, gazing at the unopened flower buds, as if waiting for a node that was only a hair's breadth away from arriving. Uesugi Muneyuki had rarely appeared at the Metropolitan Police Department this entire month.

His doctoral graduation thesis had reached the final proofreading stage, with the topic "Quantitative Analysis of Fracture Morphology in Blunt Instrument Injuries and Its Association with the Injurious Object," and the data tables alone spanned nearly a hundred pages, all consisting of cases he had personally handled.

Meanwhile, Professor Renmi of the University of Tokyo's Forensic Medicine Department, his theoretical advisor, had stared at it for a long time and realized he had nothing to guide Uesugi Muneyuki on.

No, not even the University of Tokyo—even if it were the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Medical School in the United States, aside from Professor Tanaka, very few people could guide Uesugi Muneyuki.

In the end, Professor Renmi summarized, criticized Uesugi Muneyuki with "The individual word order could be smoothed out a bit," and then stamped it with an "Approved." There was nothing to be done; since Xiao Baofang Mirror, the Japanese academic world had dared not casually give a green light.

This graduation thesis hurdle was considered passed.

And due to Uesugi Muneyuki's stagnation, the Special Missions Division was also in a semi-stalled state in March, with the First Investigation Division taking over several ordinary criminal cases that did not require the Special Missions Division's intervention, nor did they reach a point requiring Uesugi Muneyuki to personally step in.

Shinzou Kamiya held an internal meeting in early March, emphasizing the principles of "case diversion" and "efficiency first," making it clear in his words that henceforth, not every case should be pushed to the Special Missions Division; the First and Second Investigation Divisions should handle them first.

Relying on the feat of lightning-fast capturing the "Dark Knight" in five days, Shinzou Kamiya's position as Superintendent General was temporarily secured; he received praise from within the industry and preliminary recognition from the Cabinet.

This is the police system—constantly under the pressure of KPIs, with a singular evaluation method: as long as cases are solved, everything is fine; many problems can be tolerated, but if cases cannot be solved, even minor issues will escalate into major offenses. Yet he clearly understood what the Special Missions Division was—it was not entirely under his control, its operation relied on Uesugi Muneyuki and Uesugi Minami, supported by Watanabe Eiji's backing and the division's own achievements, forming a self-contained operational logic within the Metropolitan Police Department.

After all matters were settled, Superintendent General Shinzou sat in that chair, gazing at the treetops of the Imperial Palace outside the window, thinking this department indeed needed to be reintegrated into the Metropolitan Police Department's unified command system.

However, since Onoeda's death, he estimated it would be difficult to achieve, and even if possible, it would likely not be his term's accomplishment, so Superintendent General Shinzou was a bachelor—he only wanted to finish his term as Superintendent General, gild himself with a shiny lacquer, and then retire to take up a position as Special Advisor and Non-regular Supervisory Officer at Japan General Security Guard Company, earning an annual salary of 50 million yen, with a driver and bodyguard, and incidentally obtain a gold membership card for a public golf course!

Naturally, one must first take the title of "Special Appointed Advisor" to hang an idle post at the "Police Mutual Aid Association" or the "National Public Servants Mutual Aid Association," wait about a year, then switch jobs, thus reasonably avoiding the restrictions of Japan's New Public Servants Law.

However, before that.

Shinzou Kamiya took out a classified document from the Public Security Police, furrowed his brow.

At least within his term, he wanted to resolve this matter!

This was also Onoeda's……final wish!

On the desk lay two documents: one was the current Chief of the First Investigation Division, Sugishita Ukyo; the other was a classified file, the undercover female officer Miyawaki Sakura from the Security Planning Division of the Security Bureau of the Police Department.

The relationship between Shinzou Kamiya and Sugishita Ukyo was far from as close as that between Onoeda and Sugishita Ukyo, and Sugishita Ukyo had consistently maintained that the Dark Knight might be someone else, at least the first few cases might not have been committed by Kanzuka Makoto, which truly made Superintendent General Shinzou feel weary—bureaucrats only care about whether problems can be solved.

He quickly devised a new posting for Sugishita Ukyo.

Councilor (Police Superintendent Rank) of the Criminal Investigation Bureau, Police Department.

Japanese police retire at 62, and Sugishita Ukyo is about that age.

Then came the next document……Shinzou Kamiya shifted his attention to Miyawaki Sakura's photograph.

This matter also needed to be resolved as soon as possible!

Meanwhile, at the Hongo Campus of the University of Tokyo, Uesugi Muneyuki was unaware of and uninterested in the internal power struggles of the Metropolitan Police Department. After some revisions, his graduation thesis had been submitted, with the defense scheduled for early April; he was preparing the final presentation materials, with several half-read academic journals spread across his desk, standing by the window, overlooking the campus scenery of the University of Tokyo.

Ah, I, a third-rate forensic medicine student from Tokyo Medical and Dental University, how did I become a forensic medicine doctor at the University of Tokyo? So people, you just don't know; fate, you cannot predict.

Speaking of which, it's laughable—Tokyo University's Medical Department admits only 100 medical students per year, although compared to Seoul National University's Medical Department admissions, where Korean parents start preparing from birth, Tokyo University's medical admissions are not that stringent, yet it remains an extraordinarily difficult trial, thousands of troops crossing a single-log bridge.

And then, after barely passing the Medical Department entrance exam, you let them become forensic medics?

Nearly enough!

Uesugi Muneyuki can estimate with the naked eye that although he single-handedly reforged the glory of the Japanese police, making it a top-three popular profession, his true profession—forensic medicine—still looks half-dead.

Mikoto-nee is already close to giving birth; Uesugi Muneyuki sits alone in the office, feeling very quiet, holding a cup of domestic Starbucks, a 9.9-yuan Luckin Coffee, reading the news.

NHK's historical drama *Sanada Maru* officially premiered, ratings not great but already above the passing line; Uesugi Muneyuki and Uesugi Sadanori, the two brothers, continued as Uesugi Kagekatsu and Uesugi Kagetora, the two brothers, and because they portrayed their younger selves, they only had a few shots in the early part of the drama (the later appearance of Uesugi Kagekatsu is already the middle-aged version, although he was only around thirty at the time), but even so, those few shots achieved a rating of 23%, also the highest rating since *Sanada Maru* began airing.

*Sanada Maru* has a series of old problems common to historical dramas—the lead actor is too old; Tetsuya Yasuda is in his forties yet has to play the 15-year-old Sanada Nobushige, and when he appears, his face full of wrinkles makes one think he's playing his father!

Then comes the forced insertion of the protagonist into all well-known Sengoku major events—historically, Sanada Nobushige did not appear until the Battle of Ueda Castle in 1590, and reliable historical records are truly scarce; his greatest glory was the Winter Siege of Osaka and the Summer Siege of Osaka, but in reality, aside from the final battle, most of his lifetime's military achievements are "fictional" content.

This is also one of the reasons Uesugi Muneyuki thinks historical dramas are not good—over-reliance on fiction makes it easy for audiences to confuse fact and fiction, easily producing nonsense like *The Starry Sky of the Three Kingdoms*.

Take Guan Yu, for example—although he was ennobled all the way from "Marquis of Hanshou Ting" to "Covering Heaven Ancient Buddha," people can generally distinguish which parts of Guan Yu's life are in the official history and which are fictional inventions, giving everyone a chance to fairly evaluate him. The counterexample is Yue Fei—although historically it cannot be said he had no resistance against the Jin, the fiction attributes many achievements and deeds of Han Clock, Wu Yu, etc., to him, and given the Jin dynasty's extreme chaos and vague records, the mindless belittling during the Wanyan Congshi period and the mindless exaltation during Emperor Xiaozong of Song's Zhao Zie period make it impossible for anyone to distinguish his historical image from his fictional one, and as soon as one opposes, they automatically become a dog that is rarely seen. Uesugi Muneyuki knows there is an author called Lychee Egg Afraid of Water who originally wrote with full passion, but after truly examining vast historical materials, the more he wrote, the more he felt jinxed, the more painful it became, writing fiction made his conscience uneasy, writing history got him scolded half to death, and in the end he could only bluntly prevent Yue Fei from appearing. Fortunately, Japan is an island nation, can close its doors and play by itself—after all, no matter what, everything eventually converges on the Tokugawa opening and the Black Ships opening the country; otherwise, the historical fanbase war would erupt, on one side the Ming Yingzong Emperor's Galaxy Battleship Expedition to Cologne Cathedral vs. Cave-dwelling Sheep People, on the other side the Five Continents Four Oceans World Liberation Alliance Yellow Dragon Holy Master Nurhaci gathering world allied forces to battle the Ming Civil Officials Group.

Even so, Uesugi Muneyuki's evaluation of *Sanada Maru* remains high.

Because this historical drama focuses on "story" and "character arc," although perhaps seventy percent of the content is fictional, it successfully shaped the complex image and growth arc of the Sanada father and son, from a wallflower in a chaotic age, finding back "loyalty, righteousness, benevolence, trust" amidst blood, fire, and complex political struggles, ultimately choosing to fight at the foot of Osaka Castle, knowing it cannot be done but doing it anyway—the image of the first soldier of the Warring States, truly the best historical drama in recent years. A moderate noise came from downstairs; from the direction of the sound, it seemed someone was walking from the main hall toward this building, footsteps dense but not chaotic, as if drawn by some force to gather at one point.

Uesugi Muneyuki faintly heard "Mai-sama," and a smile involuntarily appeared on his face.

As Mai Xuejie walked from the end of the hallway, sunlight slanted in from the side window, gilding her outline with a thin layer of gold.

Under the ultimate white and brilliant light, lay Mai Xuejie's perfect lovely face.

Whenever Mai Xuejie sees Uesugi Muneyuki, her face naturally glows with a dazzling halo—something other actresses simply cannot perform.

Today, Mai Xuejie wears a glazed blue enchantress reflective velvet pure-color dress—that fabric between blue and purple, changing hue slightly with the angle of light, presenting a deep luster under indoor warm-white lighting, as if covered by an extremely thin glaze. The dress's cut is not complex, but on her it seems to be the pattern finalized after many measurements.

On her beautiful legs beneath the skirt, she wears light gray pearlized stockings, the luster flowing along the leg's contours when walking, like a layer of finely ground metal powder adhering to the fabric's surface,

A pair of gray-stockinged feet wearing Valentino's pink open-toe strap high heels, the shoe surface bearing no extra decoration, only a glowing "y."

Behind her followed several crew members from *Hand of God*, someone holding a camera, someone holding a microphone, someone holding a reflector, but at the moment she entered the hallway, those devices seemed to retreat to the second layer, the gaze unconsciously converging. As Uesugi Muneyuki walked out of the office door, he happened to see her stopping in the middle of the hallway, her gaze falling on the ginkgo tree; she turned her head, looking at Uesugi Muneyuki approaching from several meters away.

Around them, many students had gathered, some holding phones, some whispering, but no one got too close, as if blocked by an invisible line at a safe distance.

"Xuejie, are you here to tour my office?"

Shirakawa Mai walked two steps forward, stopping before him, smiling radiantly: "I'm here to inspect whether my junior has studied well these years. My University of Tokyo Forensic Medicine Doctor, your graduation thesis has been submitted, defense in early April, right? Then shouldn't you thank me for my guidance and urging?"

"When did you ever urge me?"

"I've been urging you with my eyes."

"Alright." Uesugi Muneyuki shrugged in surrender, facing Mai Xuejie, he always surrenders: "Let's go, today the University of Tokyo cafeteria has new offerings, authentic Chinese cuisine, let's go try it together?"

"Oh, what Chinese food?" Mai Xuejie's eyes lit up.

"It's authentic Cantonese cuisine, white-cut chicken drizzled with dark chocolate strawberry sauce, plus jasmine milk tea smothered pearl-stuffed rice noodle rolls!" Uesugi Muneyuki said softly, "Great, let's try it, what does authentic Cantonese cuisine taste like?" Mai Xuejie naturally came to Uesugi Muneyuki's side, adjusted his collar, then quietly said without changing expression.

"Found it."

"What?" Uesugi Muneyuki raised his eyebrows.

"Regarding that Ahiru matter, I found a similar power channel source, located in the North Kyushu Women's Prison." "Women's Prison?" Uesugi Muneyuki pondered.

"Hmm……have you heard of……the Skin Bag Scripture?"