Tokyo Mystery Writers

Chapter 64: I hope everyone can forget.

"Don't rob! Don't rob! As long as there's money, everyone gets a share! Everyone gets a share!"

A young man wearing a cotton-padded coat, with his hair dyed a strange color and missing two front teeth, stood in the alley next to the bookstore, shouting loudly.

Logically speaking, given his delinquent-looking appearance, anyone who saw him on the street would avoid him and look at him with disdain.

But today is different from usual.

He was surrounded by all sorts of people, all of whom wanted to pay a high price for the books that he and his brothers had snatched together in the bookstore!

Seeing that there were about forty or fifty people crowded around him, the young man with the missing tooth cleared his throat and said to the crowd:

"Kyosuke Maijo's debut novel, *The Tokyo Zodiac Murders*! Only 50,000 copies were ever printed in the first edition!"

"The 50,000 copies currently on the market are all sold out and out of print!"

"I happen to have thirty left. The highest bidder wins! Bidding starts at five thousand yen, with each bid increasing by at least five hundred yen!"

After finishing his sentence, the young man with the missing tooth took out a book with a plastic seal and a cover featuring the twelve houses of astrology from his backpack and waved it around in front of everyone as if to show off.

It was as if he was holding not an ordinary book, but a "book of blessings" radiating multicolored light!

"Five thousand five hundred yen!"

A middle-aged man gritted his teeth, raised his hand, and added 500 yen to the price.

Although he vehemently hated the buying and selling behavior of these delinquent youths, for someone who loved mystery novels like himself, not being able to see the books he had been eagerly anticipating as soon as possible was an indescribable torment!

Although he himself knew in his heart that with the current popularity of Maijo Kyosuke, it would only take Kodansha a day or two to reprint "The Tokyo Zodiac Murders".

You won't die even if you don't watch it today.

But what if you overhear others discussing the plot of a novel, or if someone inadvertently leaks the plot information!

For a mystery novel fan, that's worse than being killed!

"I'll offer six thousand yen!"

"I'll offer seven thousand yen!"

In the freezing cold outdoors, every extra second spent is a form of physical torture!

So very quickly, "The Tokyo Zodiac Murders" was auctioned off for 20,000 yen per copy!

The young man with missing teeth laughed so hard his face almost squeezed together when he saw the price of books continuing to rise!

Because he never expected that a book originally priced at two thousand yen would be so sought after, and could be sold for more than ten times that price!

Unfortunately, after the price reached 20,000 yen, many of the 40 or 50 people who were surrounding the area left, leaving less than 30 people still waiting there.

But no one was willing to bid any further, since the same 20,000 yen could buy a complete set of Yokomizo Seishi's works or the complete works of Queen in the bookstore next door.

"Is there anyone willing to offer a higher price?"

"If not, this book will be sold to the lady who just made the offer for 20,000 yen."

"But next time, the starting price will be 20,000 yen!"

Upon hearing the young man with the missing tooth's words, the crowd erupted in uproar!

Because we should follow the existing rules for young people with missing teeth.

The first book costs 20,000 yen, the second book costs 20,500 yen, and the third book costs 21,000 yen!

Even if no one scrambles for the books and everyone buys them one at a time, each time the price increases by 500 yen, the final buyer will still need to spend 34,500 yen to get their hands on them!

Thinking about this, everyone's faces showed disgust; all they wanted was to read.

Why put up with this humiliation in this freezing weather!

Just as everyone was enraged, a loud voice came from afar.

"I want all of your books!"

Hearing the sound coming from afar, everyone turned their heads to look at the source of the sound.

A tall, slender girl with a wheatish complexion, dressed in sportswear, and a curvy girl in a black jacket and glasses, slowly walked into the alley!

The girl with tanned skin was none other than Mikoshiba Kyoko, the daughter of Mikoshiba Yasunori, the head of the sales department at Kodansha.

The voluptuous, bespectacled girl is none other than Kenzaki Mitsuki, the heiress of the Kenzaki Group.

The voice we just heard came from Kenzaki Mitsuki's mouth!

A delinquent youth with missing teeth is, after all, a delinquent youth.

Upon suddenly seeing these two beautiful girls with such different styles, I was so excited that I could hardly speak:

"Um... um... you want them all?"

"The books I have here... are out of print."

"The price is definitely much higher than the original price..."

Kenzaki Mitsuki looked at the other person's lecherous expression and showed a look of disgust:

How many copies do you have left, and how much are you planning to pay?

The young man with the missing tooth patted his shoulder bag containing books, held up three fingers, and grinned smugly:

"Thirty books. Considering how beautiful you are, I'll take a loss and charge you 700,000 yen."

Upon hearing the other person's words, Kenzaki Mitsuki's expression grew even more disgusted, and she pulled out eighty 10,000 yen bills from her bag.

He waved the bag in front of him, pointed at the bag on the young man with the missing tooth, and said:

"There's a total of 800,000 here. The extra money can be used to buy the bag you're wearing."

"Now, put your bag on the ground."

The young man with the missing tooth smiled strangely when he heard that someone was willing to spend 100,000 yen to buy the bag he was carrying, which was worth only a few hundred yen. However, he couldn't understand Kenzaki Mitsuki's odd behavior.

Why did you put your bag on the ground?

Kenzaki Mitsuki clearly didn't want to interact much with the toothless youth, and frowned:

"Stop talking nonsense. Do what I tell you to do. If you want to make money, you have to listen to me."

The young man with the missing tooth dared not offend this "foolish and rich" big customer, so he muttered something as he bent down and put the bag on the ground.

"What a strange person..."

The young man with the missing tooth had just put his bag on the ground and before he could even look up, he felt a cold wind blowing in his face!

Before he could even think, a tremendous impact was transmitted to his head!

"Bang!"

With a muffled thud, the young man with the missing tooth felt a sudden darkness before his eyes. When he regained consciousness, he found himself lying on his side on the ground!

The beautiful girl with wheat-colored skin just now used her long, slender legs, as if she were wearing ice skates, to kick herself hard in the stomach!

The voluptuous, bespectacled girl also used her voluptuous legs to kick herself hard in the back!

Each time the two men kicked him, the young man with the missing tooth felt his stomach acid reflux, as if his internal organs were being shattered!

All the smugness they had just felt turned into fear.

Seeing the tanned, voluptuous beauty looking at him with eyes that seemed to regard him as trash, the toothless youth couldn't even utter a sound of begging for mercy.

Because as soon as he opens his mouth, not only will he eat a mouthful of snow, but the force of the two beautiful girls' kicks will also increase several times!

The people around had previously heard that Kenzaki Mitsuki wanted to buy all the books, and they had wanted to argue with her about it.

Now, seeing the two men acting so violently, kicking the toothless youth until his mouth bled.

Terrified, I didn't know whether to leave or stay, so I could only stand there, not daring to even breathe.

Seeing that the toothless youth had fallen silent after being kicked, Kenzaki Mitsuki stopped kicking him, stretched out her foot and stepped on his face, saying viciously:

"You bastard, detective novels are for everyone to enjoy, not for you to use as a tool to make money!"

"Don't let us see you reselling mystery novels again, or we'll beat you up every time we see you!"

Kenzaki Mitsuki threw the 800,000 yen note on the ground and said with disgust:

"We're not unreasonable people, consider this 800,000 as your medical expenses."

After speaking, Kenzaki Mitsuki clapped her hands and turned to look at the people standing to the side, trembling. Her gaze swept across each person's face, and the lack of smiles on their faces made them all somewhat worried about their safety.

But what happened next was somewhat unexpected.

After confirming the number of people present, Kenzaki Mitsuki took four copies of "The Tokyo Zodiac Murder Mystery" from the bag that the toothless youth had placed on the ground, and then smiled at the crowd who had just snapped up the books, saying:

"Thank you for your love for Teacher Wucheng. There are now twenty-six of you left."

"One copy for each person, no more than one."

"This is my contribution to mystery novels and Ms. Maishiro."

"As for everything that just happened, I hope everyone can forget about it."

After speaking, Kenzaki Mitsuki wore an innocent, sweet smile, as if she wasn't the one who had just beaten up the toothless youth...