Tokyo Mystery Writers

Chapter 195 Cruel Pleasure

Chapter 195 Cruel Pleasure

Thank goodness! Thank goodness!

Kenzaki Mitsuki patted her heaving chest, secretly worried for Natsumi.

Because Liu Jianyi in the story of "Never Sleeps" seemed quite normal at first.

But as the story of "Never Sleeps" progresses, it becomes more and more monstrous!

He always says he was betrayed and that others hold grudges, but now it seems the most terrifying person is actually Liu Jianyi himself.

Although Kenzaki Mitsuki could understand that in the world depicted by Maijo Kyosuke, Shinjuku Kabukicho was a hellish place that devoured people without spitting out their bones, Liu Jianyi did this simply to save his own life.

But Kenzaki Mitsuki still couldn't accept his cold-blooded, ruthless, and cruel style.

Such dark and twisted thinking was simply unbearable for a pampered young lady like her.

Fortunately, Liu Jianyi lost control, or rather, fell in love?

He deviated from his original plan and did not betray Fuchun and Xiamei to Yuan Chenggui.

Although he still framed Wu Fuchun, who trusted him very much, he ultimately chose to join hands with Xia Mei to overcome the difficulties.

While this outcome isn't the best, it's not terrible either. Overall, it's reasonable and within expectations.

After all, Kabukicho in Shinjuku is so dark, there always needs to be a ray of light, like love, to shine through the darkness, penetrate the skin, and illuminate people's hearts.

Kenzaki Mitsuki took a deep breath, and with anticipation, opened the manuscript of "Nightless City" again.

I called Tianwen, and he sounded rather unhappy: "What's this time? Have you forgotten I told you I didn't want to see you?"

"Xiaowen, I've met with Fuchun."

"What did you say?"

"The situation has changed, and I need you to stop pressuring Yuan Chenggui."

"What do you want me to do?"

"I plan to have Fuchun kill Yuan Chenggui tomorrow!"

I could hear Tianwen gasp: "Big brother, what are you planning to do? How can I help?"

I smiled slightly, wanting to hear those words: "Do you still call me 'Big Brother'?"

"Okay, Xiaowen, could you do me a favor and arrange for Yang Weimin to meet with me?"

"I need his help; this can only succeed with his help."

Tianwen seemed troubled: "Big brother, Grandpa Weimin won't agree to your killing of Yuan Chenggui, will he?"

"

I sighed. "That's why I need your help!"

"Otherwise, why would I need to talk to you? Besides, Yang Weimin owes me a favor this time, so he shouldn't refuse."

Tianwen hung up the phone and called back five minutes later: "Grandpa Weimin wants you to meet at my shop in an hour."

"Okay, Xiaowen, I'll thank you."

"Brother, this is the last time I'll help you. From now on, you're just an ordinary thug to me, and we'll have nothing to do with each other anymore."

I brought Xia Mei to Zhou Tianwen's "Taoyuan Restaurant" to wait for Zhou Tianwen and Yang Weimin to arrive.

Xia Mei was very curious about the relationship between me, Zhou Tianwen, and Yang Weimin.

All I could tell her was that Yang Weimin was a cunning old fox who had connections in both the legitimate and criminal worlds, and that I didn't like Yang Weimin, and Yang Weimin didn't like me either.

But Tianwen is different. Yang Weimin likes Tianwen very much, almost like he is his own grandson, but Tianwen does not like Yang Weimin's way of doing things.

Therefore, with Tianwen present, Yang Weimin should be more restrained.

I looked at Xia Mei with a helpless expression on my face: "When facing Yang Weimin, Tianwen and I are like students, always wanting to get a high score in this exam of life."

"So? Kenichi now rates his life on a scale of 1 to 10."

"I'd give it a 50. If I had seen through Yang Weimin's true colors earlier, I probably wouldn't be in this situation now."

"It's okay, Kenichi will definitely get a perfect score, he just hasn't had his luck yet!"

Xia Mei smiled, a darkness spreading in her eyes like a continuous tunnel. I looked at him, shook my head with a wry smile, and thought to myself that there is no such thing as a free lunch.

"I used to want to get a perfect score, and I worked really hard at it."

"But I have to admit that no matter how hard I try, I can't become someone like Yang Weimin or Yuan Chenggui."

"Some people are qualified to get a perfect score, but some people are not. Trying your hardest might backfire."

"Although my life is not very long, there are no great things or great things in my life. I have two kinds of blood in my body, so I am a bastard by birth. Bastards should have a bastard's life."

"I can't pour out the other half of my blood, so my life goal is to get 50 points."

From the time I started working for Chen Jin, a hitman from Taiwan, until he was shot and killed.

I transformed myself from an unknown hoodlum into a black market dealer with some reputation in Kabukicho.

During this time, Zhou Tianwen still liked to pester me. I didn't know why he liked me, but I wanted to make good use of his affection for me.

Because as long as Tianwen is on my side, Yang Weimin won't target me too much.

In fact, because of Astronomy's existence, Yang Weimin promised me that as long as I treated Astronomy well, he would turn a blind eye and make it easier for me to get by in Kabukicho.

In short, that's the gist of it. Yang Weimin has become completely senile. Whenever something related to astronomy comes up, he nods in agreement.

Although I told Xia Mei that I would sell out astronomy, it was a last resort. To me, astronomy is more valuable than gold.

I have been utilizing this relationship for over a decade since I first became acquainted with astronomy, and during that time...

I, Tianwen, and Yang Weimin have never sat at the same table or met.

If the three of us were to actually meet, it would be when I use astronomy to blackmail Yang Weimin.

Yang Weimin must have always worried that this day would come.

But that day finally came.

"Alright, Kenichi, tell me, what do you want from me?"

"By the way, what about that woman? Was there any need for her to be there?"

My plan to use astronomy to blackmail Yang Weimin worked; he was somewhat angry.

"She's essential here. She needs to remember all the details of today. If I'm framed, I'll need her to find the hitmen in Hong Kong so she can avenge me."

Yang Weimin heard what I said, looked at Xia Mei beside him, and then looked at me again: "Who wants to frame you?"

"Who else but you!"

When Tianwen heard what I said, he stared at me with wide eyes: "Big brother, don't say such things. Grandpa has been kind to us."

I looked at Tianwen and sneered, "Tianwen, didn't I tell you? This old man has already sold me to Yuan Chenggui once. Who can guarantee he won't sell me out again?"

Tianwen turned to Yang Weimin and asked, "Grandpa, why did you do this?"

"Big brother, isn't he one of our own?"

Yang Weimin snorted coldly, looking at me as if I were dog excrement: "You've made a mistake by associating with a bastard like Wu Fuchun, so you have to bear the consequences yourself."

"Besides, Kenichi isn't one of us anymore. Maybe he used to be, but he stopped when he made me lose face."

.

I didn't care what Yang Weimin thought of me. I just looked at Yang Weimin's face and said to Tianwen, "Tianwen, let's not talk about this anymore. My relationship with this old man ended a long time ago, but he has no intention of repaying my favor."

"Tianwen, you be the judge in this matter? Grandpa betrayed me once; doesn't that count as doing me a favor?"

Upon hearing my words, Yang Weimin's expression changed drastically: "Jianyi, you're evil to the core! You set a trap and killed your own man, Lü Fang, back then. Just for violating that one fundamental law, you have no right to ask me for any leniency!"

Upon hearing Yang Weimin's words, Tianwen's face showed surprise: "Wasn't that Lü Fang killed by someone else?"

I moistened my lips with my tongue: "Tianwen, I did indeed kill Lü Fang."

Zhou Tianwen stared at me in disbelief, then pointed at me and Yang Weimin and cursed, "You two are both scum! One betrayed his compatriots, and the other murdered them! Neither of you is any good!"

I had anticipated Astronomy's reaction: "Astronomy, you chose to stay in this pile of shit, but now is not the time to talk about this."

"Tianwen, all you need to do is tell Grandpa whether he owes me a favor or not."

Tianwen looked at me blankly and could only turn to Yang Weimin for help.

Yang Weimin's love for astronomy made me jealous, but with the help of astronomy, Yang Weimin finally agreed to listen to my plan.

"Grandpa, I plan to have Fuchun kill Yuan Chenggui tomorrow."

"I will call Yuan Chenggui tomorrow to tell him that I have captured Fuchun."

"But there is one condition: if Yuan Chenggui brings a large number of men, I can't handle it. He can only bring two or three people at most before I can be sure that Fuchun will kill him."

"Therefore, I've decided to have you, Grandpa, act as the notary. As long as you're here, and Tianwen is here too, Yuan Chenggui can't possibly bring a bunch of people here."

Yang Weimin frowned when he heard what I said. Although he seemed very reluctant, he still agreed to my request.

"And then? Tell me your entire plan."

I continued, "I will arrange for Fuchun to attack Yuan Chenggui on the road, and it will definitely not cause any trouble for Tianwen's shop."

"Kenichi, what if you fail?"

I shook my head: "I won't mess it up. If I fail, I'll be going to the Western Paradise too."

Yang Weimin chuckled dryly, clearly mocking me: "Sounds good, but once Yuan Chenggui is dead, do you think his men will let you go?"

A smile appeared on my face: "Just hand over Fuchun, of course, Fuchun can only be a corpse."

Yang Weimin nodded: "Kenichi, I'm helping you this time because of Astronomy. This is your only chance, so you absolutely can't mess it up."

"If you mess this up, I'll make you regret ever having anything to do with me for the rest of your life!"

I waved my hand dismissively, giving him a disgusted look: "I already regretted it!"

"Anyway, that's all I wanted to ask you. Could you please come here tomorrow evening at seven o'clock?"

After I finished speaking, I put my hand on Tianwen's shoulder: "Tianwen, I'm counting on you for tomorrow."

Tianwen seemed unable to accept that I had killed someone, screaming and yelling, "Don't touch me! Neither you nor Grandpa are allowed to touch me again!"

"For the sake of our past friendship, I'll help you one more time tomorrow, but that's it. After this is all over, I'll sever all ties with you! I mean what I say!"

I pulled Xia Mei up by the arm: "Do as you please, Xiao Wen. Anyway, we've never really been close."

"I've always hated you, and you know that, yet you keep bothering me because you want to make me hate you even more!"

"That's not true! I've always—I've always liked my older brother!"

I looked at the astronomy building with a sneer: "Oh, that was a few years ago, wasn't it? I saw you in 3-chome holding hands with someone who looked a lot like me, walking down the street."

With a flick of his wrist, Tianwen smashed a teacup over my head!

"What are you doing!"

Xia Mei screamed and lunged at Tianwen. I felt as if I were seeing a rabid tigress whose child had been killed!

Despite the excruciating pain, I reached out and pulled Xia Mei into my arms.

"That guy gave Kenichi—"

Xia Mei's face was full of heartache, and tears welled up in her eyes.

I wiped the blood off my face, looked at Tianwen, who was trembling with anger, and Yang Weimin, who was looking at me like I was trash, and smiled. A cruel pleasure welled up inside me.

Xia Mei and I walked out the door and into the elevator; no one called out to me.

Gonda Manji was extremely excited as he read the story of "The City That Never Sleeps"!

Because in Maijo Kyosuke's "Nightless City", Gonda Manji saw the flavor that was only found in Dashiel Hammett's "Bloody Harvest", the "father of hard-boiled mystery"!

Because in "Never Sleeps", Liu Jianyi relies on his intuition, wisdom, bluffing, and even cruel betrayal of his own people to fight against the enemy, it really has the momentum of returning to the original form of "hard-boiled mystery"!

Although the story framework of "Bloody Harvest" has been around for a full fifty-one years.

Over the past fifty-one years, it has been referenced and paid homage to by countless writers in Europe, America, and Japan, but none of these references and homages have been able to reach even half the level of "Bloody Harvest"!

But now, Kyosuke Maijo has done it!

Using this classic story framework, Kyosuke Maijo changed the setting to the borderless region of Shinjuku, Tokyo, and used the intertwined relationships and forces within it to perfectly localize the entire story!

With trembling hands, Gonda Manji grabbed the glass in front of him, filled it with the whiskey that Noma Genjiro had brought, and then drank it all in one gulp!

The spicy flavor slid down my throat, and the aroma of malty liquor filled my nasal cavity.

As Gonda Manji savored the aroma of the whisky, he felt proud of Maijo Kyosuke.

Even disregarding all of Kyosuke Maijo's previous works, just taking out three-quarters of "Nightless Town" alone is enough to completely outshine a large portion of Japanese "hard-boiled mystery" writers!

If Kyosuke Maijo had debuted a decade or two earlier, he might have directly replaced Haruhiko Oyabu and become the "founder of the white-book hard-boiled mystery genre"!

Although Gonda Manji was on Maijo Kyosuke's side, he also began to feel sorry for Nishimura Toshiyuki, the "King of Hard-Hard Mystery".

After all, the readership of "hard-boiled mystery" is quite large, and nearly 99% of them are fans of Dashiel Hammett!

Based on this, I don't expect Maijo Kyosuke to give any explosive ending. I just want to write the ending smoothly, following the structure of the first three-quarters of "Night City".

Even Nishimura Hisako might not be able to withstand it!

This time, Nishimura Hisayuki has really kicked a hornet's nest!

Manji Gonda sighed, took another sip of whiskey, and reopened "The City That Never Sleeps," immersing himself in the charm of Kyosuke Maijo's work.

Xia Mei and I embraced in the elevator, frantically taking from each other.

As soon as the elevator doors opened, Cui Hu's grinning face appeared outside: "Hey, you guys have been talking for a long time."

Xia Mei and I were "invited" into Cui Hu's Mercedes-Benz.

Cui Hu rubbed his hands against Xia Mei's legs: "Where did you get this girl?"

"She is Wu Fuchun's woman. I detained her in order to arrest Wu Fuchun."

Cui Hu looked at me with a wicked grin: "Fu Chun's woman? Then why do you have a lipstick mark on your face?"

"But since you didn't say she was yours, can't she be mine too? Kenichi, you won't refuse me, will you?"

I didn't waver. If I couldn't even handle Cui Hu's two sentences, I wouldn't be alive now. I was just curious why this guy was here: "If you like it, you can have it, but that will have to wait until tomorrow."

Cui Hu snorted coldly and slapped me across the face: "You were begging me to save your life yesterday, and now, just a few hours later, you've arranged for Yang Weimin and Zhou Tianwen to meet again. What kind of tricks are you playing, you bastard?"

"Don't try to fool me, tell me your whole plan!"

There are only three possibilities for Cui Hu to know my movements: either I am being monitored, or Tianwen or Yang Weimin are being monitored by him.

However, I can't tell Cui Hu about the plan. He's a madman, and if he knew about it, he might cause me a lot of trouble.

Seeing that I didn't speak, Cui Hu started to attack Xia Mei directly.

Xia Mei was so frightened by Cui Hu that she burst into tears, glaring at him with teary eyes: "No one in this world can compare to Kenichi, you stinking bastard, don't even think about touching me!"

Xia Mei's strong resistance caused Cui Hu to lose interest.

I also think that Xia Mei is a remarkable woman for being able to say such things under these circumstances.

In this situation, if I don't say something, I'm really not a man: "Cui Hu, I plan to have Fu Chun take care of Yuan Chenggui."

I briefly told Cui Hu that if Yuan Chenggui died, his Beijing faction would inevitably go to war with the leaderless Shanghai faction, and then no one would care about me anymore.

Cui Hu roughly understood my plan, but he was curious as to why that old man Yang Weimin would suddenly help me.

"That old man sold me to Yuan Chenggui before, and now he's repaying a favor to me."

Hearing my words, Cui Hu sneered: "Really, times keep changing, but the old folks are still the same old folks. One minute they're talking about face, the next about morality. Do they really think such things still exist in this world?"

"That kind of thing never really existed, did it?"

My words silenced Cui Hu. After a long while, once Xia Mei had fallen asleep beside me, Cui Hu smiled and said, "The plan to kill Yuan Chenggui is really good. I'm so excited I'm practically sweating. But, can Wu Fuchun really kill Yuan Chenggui?"

Honestly, I wasn't sure myself, so just to be on the safe side, I asked Cui Hu to get me a shotgun.

Cui Hu agreed to my request and had someone deliver a shortened shotgun and nine bullets.

Just as Cui Hu was about to leave, he suddenly pointed at Xia Mei and said to me, "Kenichi, she's a good woman."

"But she's just too good, too bold, too fierce. Sooner or later she'll hollow you out."

After speaking, Cui Hu left the Mercedes-Benz.

The next second, Xia Mei suddenly opened her eyes like a vampire, wrapped her arms around my neck, and whispered to me, "Kill that guy!"

I called Fuchun and lied to him that Huang Xiuhong had found Xiaolian and was willing to help us, as long as we killed Yuan Chenggui.

Fuchun was very happy to hear what I said.

I hung up the phone and immediately called Yuan Chenggui to tell him that I had found Fuchun's whereabouts.

He told Yuan Chenggui to make time to meet tomorrow night.

Yuan Chenggui was probably driven mad by anger and didn't expect me to set a trap for him, so he agreed to my conditions.

I gave the shotgun to a friend and asked him to pass it on to Fuchun.

And so, my entire plan was successfully implemented.

As long as Yuan Chenggui and Fu Chun die tomorrow, I will be able to completely resolve this matter!

I drove around with Xia Mei.

Xia Mei said she needed to go to the restroom, so I stopped the car at the department store.

As a result, she didn't come back for a long time. Just when I was wondering whether I should go to look for her, Xia Mei opened the car door and got in.

I started the car and said in a cold voice, "It's been quite a long time."

Xia Mei noticed the strange look I was giving her and explained, "I really did go to the restroom, but I just couldn't find a stall."

I didn't believe her. I rolled down the car window, and a gust of warm air blew into the car: "Xia Mei, are you a little scared because you saw me insulting astronomy like that? You feel you can't hold onto me with your feminine charm, so you want to buy insurance for your life?"

"For example, Cui Hu? He's more capable than me and has a lot of influence. Having him as a backer would be a good choice."

Hearing my words, Xia Mei shook her head vigorously: "Kenichi, what are you talking about? I don't know that person's phone number!"

"Besides, can't you see my feelings for Kenichi?"

I still looked at Xia Mei with distrust: "Xia Mei, words are meaningless."

Xia Mei looked at me with reddened eyes, then suddenly jumped out of the car window!

"Natsumi!"

In the rearview mirror, Xia Mei's body was rolling around on the asphalt road!

I quickly braked and opened the car door.

"You idiot!"

Xia Mei didn't die because I wasn't driving fast.

However, her temples and hands were already scratched.

Why did you do such a stupid thing?

As soon as I picked her up, Xia Mei smiled and said, "Kenichi, you said words are meaningless, so I want to prove to you with my body that I'm not lying to you, really."

I was terrified by Xia Mei. Although I knew she was a fraud, her willingness to risk her life to prove herself to me deeply moved me.

"Ouch—my face is all injured, you have to take responsibility for me from now on, Kenichi!"

Despite being covered in injuries, Xia Mei still smiled and spoke to me.

I could only shrug and brush it off.

How would I know what to do next?

Although I sometimes have dreams too.

But years of experience have taught me that dreams are meaningless.

I just don't have the energy to tell Xia Mei this right now.