Tokyo Mystery Writers

Chapter 91 The King of Hard-Handed Mystery

Seeing that no one present dared to speak, Matsushima Shunma, the sales manager of Takarajima Co., Ltd., knew this was an opportunity to show himself, so he smiled and said to Hosho Shirakawa:

"President Hosho, since that fat bastard from Kodansha is using the power of 'Top Hat' magazine to try and wipe out our Treasure Island Publishing House, we can't just sit here and wait to be slaughtered!"

"They're lucky to have a genius mystery writer like Kyosuke Maijo, but we at Takarajimasha absolutely cannot give up in this duel so easily!"

"Therefore, we must give them a strong counterattack so that that fat bastard from Kodansha will know that we, the Treasure Island Society, are not so easy to bully!"

Hosho Shirakawa's face lit up with joy upon hearing Matsushima Shunma's words, but then a somewhat helpless expression appeared on his face:

"Minister Matsushima, I understand all the reasons you're giving, but what should we use to fight back now?"

"Although I hate Maijo Kyosuke to the core, I hate that guy who wrote 'The Tokyo Zodiac Murders' and 'A Bellflower'."

"But I can't deny his ability, because this guy is truly a rare genius!"

"The only true masters of classic mystery writing who can rival such geniuses are Seishi Yokomizo, Akimitsu Takagi, Tetsuya Namikawa, Takao Tsuchiya, and the recently emerging Tsumabuchi Awasaka."

"But Seishi Yokomizo belongs to Kadokawa Shoten, Akimitsu Takagi belongs to Bungei Shunju, Takao Tsuchiya and Tsumabuki Awasaka belong to Kodansha and Kobunsha respectively, and Tetsuya Namikawa is a guest writer of Sogensha."

"Besides these five masters, who else among contemporary classic mystery writers has the ability to rival Kyosuke Maijo?"

Upon hearing Hosho Shirakawa's words, Matsushima Shunma smiled faintly, then pointed to the poster hanging in the president's office and said:

"President, do you remember the movie adapted from the famous novel by Toshiyuki Nishimura? It's called 'Kimi, Cross the River of Wrath' (after it was introduced to China, it was better known as 'Manhunt'!)."

"Since we can't get a traditional mystery writer, let's just not hire one and find another way!"

"If our Takarajima Publishing House could invite Mr. Toshiyuki Nishimura, hailed as the 'King of Hard-Film Mystery,' to compete against Kyosuke Maishiro, perhaps we'd achieve some unexpected results!"

"After all, the huge popularity of the movie version of 'My Lord, Cross the River of Wrath' has already increased Mr. Nishimura's value significantly. If this 'King of Hard-Hard Mystery' comes to our aid, we, Takarajima Publishing, will surely be able to turn the tide!"

"As long as we extinguish the hype surrounding Kyosuke Maishiro and make everyone understand that he's not omnipotent, then our Takarajima-sha will have eliminated one of Kodansha's trump cards!"

Upon hearing Matsushima Shunma's words, Hosho Shirakawa's previously dejected face regained its vitality!

"Contact Mr. Nishimura Toshiyuki immediately!"

"The fate of our Takarazuka Publishing House this time rests in the hands of Mr. Nishimura Toshiyuki!"

-

After negotiating a contract with Genjiro Noma and becoming a guest writer for Kodansha, Kyosuke Maijo was forced to drink a lot of alcohol by Genjiro Noma and Yasunori Mikoshiba.

With his blood alcohol level off the charts, Maijo Kyosuke was naturally completely drunk and had to be driven back to "Longevity Soup" by Eri Miri.

Jiang Liu Meili originally planned to leave after putting Mai Shiro Kyosuke back in his room.

However, seeing Maijo Kyosuke lying drunk in the house, Jiang Liu Meili still felt uneasy.

The safe containing the manuscript of "Mr. Ultraman's Hands" was placed on Maijo Kyosuke's bookshelf.

Jiang Liu Meili ultimately decided to stay and look after the drunken Maishiro Jingjie.

To prevent this guy from causing any more accidents because he's drunk.

-

After a night, Jiang Liumei slowly opened her eyes.

The aroma of food wafted through the air, but Jiang Liumei had no interest in thinking about its origin.

Instead, he instinctively reached out and grabbed at himself.

Because I clearly fell asleep on the table next to me last night.

Why am I lying in bed the moment I open my eyes?

Fortunately, apart from her coat being missing, the rest of her clothes were exactly the same as the night before.

"Miss Jiang Liu, you're awake?"

Maishiro Kyosuke put down his pen, looked at the panicked Jiang Liu Meili, and smiled:

"Thank you, Miss Jiang Liu. I never expected you to stay here and take care of me."

"When I woke up this morning, I found you asleep on the table. I was worried you might be uncomfortable, so I carried you to the bed without permission. I hope you don't mind?"

Upon hearing Maishiro Kyosuke's words, Jiang Liu Meili realized that she had been overthinking things, so she got off the bed and sat down opposite Maishiro Kyosuke.

Looking at the prepared sandwiches and milk on the table, Jiang Liumei asked in confusion:

"Did Teacher Wu Cheng prepare this for me?"

Maijo Kyosuke didn't reply, but just smiled and nodded. He then picked up a pen and began writing rapidly on the manuscript paper.

Jiang Liumei took a bite of her sandwich and watched Maishiro Kyosuke writing furiously at the table. A hint of curiosity appeared on her face, so she slowly moved closer to Maishiro Kyosuke, wanting to see what he was writing.

But after just one glance, Jiang Liumei realized that she couldn't understand what Mai Cheng Jingjie had written at all.

Because Maijo Kyosuke wasn't writing a novel at all; instead, he was drawing strange patterns on the manuscript paper.

Eighteen small circles are linked together by a line to form a large circle, just like a terrible virus!

Jiang Liu Meili knew that she shouldn't have asked questions of Mai Shiro Kyosuke while he was writing, thus interfering with his creative process.

But faced with such a strange pattern, Jiang Liumei couldn't help but ask:

"Ms. Mai, does this drawing you made have any special meaning?"

"Is this a character relationship chart prepared for a new work?"

Maijo Kyosuke put down his pen, turned to look at Eri Mimi, who was chewing a sandwich beside him, smiled, and then pointed to the manuscript paper covered with circles and began to explain:

"Miss Jiang Liu, yesterday when I was at Tatara Used Bookstore in Jimbocho, I saw a lot of Ellery Queen's autographed copies, but I forgot about them later because I wanted to get the manuscript of 'Mr. Altmore's Hands'."

"However, those autographed copies by Ellery Queen inspired me to pay tribute to Mr. Ellery Queen, the 'King of Logic' among the three great masters of classic detective fiction."

"I plan to publish a purely logical short mystery story in the third issue of Top Hat magazine."

"Simply put, this short mystery story is another side of 'Convergence'."

"The Convergence uses a beautiful triple structure to arrive at three logical chains: the victim is X and the murderer is Y, but ultimately does not tell the reader who the murderer is."

"The short mystery I'm currently conceiving aims to use the most powerful logical process of elimination among eighteen suspects to accurately identify the sole culprit hidden in the crowd!"

I've titled this short logical reasoning passage, "The Mystery of the Death Row Inmate!"