For students, rest days always pass quickly. A good weekend is like sand in your hand, you can't hold it and it disappears in the blink of an eye, making it hard to accept. "What bad luck, I have to go back to school for five and a half days!"

On Monday morning, Kiyomi Ruri got up groggily, dressed and washed up groggily, had breakfast groggily, and went out of the house groggily. It wasn't until the small cold wind of early April in Hokkaido blew that she finally woke up a bit.

If only life stages could jump directly to the "famous police officer" or "famous detective" stage, it would be much better. Going to school every day is too boring, and she doesn't even know what she's learning is useful. There must be something wrong with human society's development!

Lost in thought, she went to school and entered the classroom, ignoring the noisy classmates and placing her backpack on the side of the desk. She collapsed on the desk and instantly fell asleep again.

On the weekend, she went to work on a case on Saturday morning and got up too early. In the afternoon, she was too excited to write a novel, and as a result, she became too sleepy after dinner. She slept until ten o'clock on Sunday morning.

She slept well on Sunday, and her mind was clear and full of inspiration. She was writing a novel, but she got up too late on Sunday and couldn't sleep at night. She had to continue writing the novel until after two o'clock in the morning. She was really sleepy now.

She was still drowsy until the teacher entered the room and started class. She wanted to sleep again, but she didn't dare to. After all, it was just the beginning of the school year, and she didn't want to be caught sleeping.

However, she couldn't concentrate on the class, no matter how hard she tried. She quietly took out "The Case Files of Miss Ruri-mes, the World's Number One Beautiful Princess Detective" from her backpack and began to read.

There were already three cases: "The Flower Pot Hidden Corpse Case," "The Ten Yen Coin Case," and "The Town Public Decision Case." They were all well-organized, especially the "Town Public Decision Case," which had tens of thousands of words. She spent two days writing it, risking her life.

To be fair, she wrote it really well. The detective was smart, the assistant was stupid, and the culprit was cunning. It was very interesting.

The more she read, the more satisfied she felt, especially when she read about Miss Ruri-mes telling Nanahara Watson the story of "Pigs and Horses Racing" on the tram. She couldn't help but smile smugly.

Hmph, dare to say that I have a pig brain...

"Kiyomi... Kiyomi? Kiyomi Ruri!!!"

Kiyomi Ruri was enjoying herself when her neighbor suddenly pulled her sleeve. She came back to her senses and found that the teacher was looking at her with an unfriendly face. She quickly closed her notebook and stood up, only to hear the teacher ask, "What are you laughing at? Is my lecture funny?"

Kiyomi Ruri didn't expect to be caught, but she couldn't tell the truth. If her novel was confiscated, she would not only be devastated, but it would also be heartbreaking. She quickly lowered her head and whispered, "I'm sorry, teacher. Your lecture was so good that I couldn't help but laugh."

"What did I just say?" The teacher was also a woman, an obasan. She adjusted her glasses and looked at Kiyomi Ruri sharply, without any mercy.

Kiyomi Ruri blinked her eyes and couldn't answer.

The teacher gave her a stern look, but it wasn't a big deal to be distracted during class. She was about to let Kiyomi Ruri off the hook when she suddenly remembered something. She lowered her head and flipped through her lesson plan notes, frowning and asking, "Did you not turn in your homework?"

Homework...Kiyomi Ruri didn't do her homework. On weekends, she was either busy forcing Nanahara Takeshi to solve cases or manipulating "Ruri-mes" to curse Nanahara Watson for being lazy and stupid like a pig and a hopeless, greedy bastard who had no time for homework.

She wasn't good at lying and whispered, "Sorry, teacher, I'll do it next time."

"Next time? The water bucket is waiting for you. You know what to do." The teacher had no choice but to punish her and immediately handed down the sentence.

In the early 1990s in Japan, the public hadn't started to slack off yet, and lenient education wasn't popular. Moreover, Yukei was a private high school that pursued a high enrollment rate, and the academic atmosphere was strict. It was common to punish students physically, and Kiyomi Ruri didn't dare to resist or have the heart to resist. She pouted, picked up the two water buckets used for cleaning, and left the classroom.

She filled the buckets halfway in the restroom and carried them back to the classroom door, where she stood as punishment. After a while, even though she had good physical fitness, her arms began to ache. She listened to the sounds in the classroom and put the buckets down to rest.

But as soon as she put the buckets down, she heard a loud cough not far away. She was scared and quickly picked up the buckets, stood up straight, and didn't look around. After a moment, Nanahara Takeshi appeared in front of her, holding a large globe. It seemed that the teacher had sent him to get teaching aids.

He strolled past her and looked up and down at Kiyomi Ruri, who was standing at the door with the buckets. He smiled and asked, "Oh, what a coincidence, are you busy, Kiyomi?"

Kiyomi Ruri looked at the guy who had called her a pig brain yesterday, and her chest rose and fell rapidly. She couldn't control the hot air coming out of her nose, but she quickly forced herself to calm down, tightly pursed her lips, stared straight ahead, and obviously didn't want to talk to him. Was it interesting to see someone in trouble? Go away, you annoying ghost!

But Nanahara Takeshi wouldn't leave and acted like they were old acquaintances. He leaned over and whispered, "What did you do wrong? Did you offend a teacher? Do you want me to plead for you? I'm an honor student and have privileges. I can talk to the teacher."

"No, thank you." Kiyomi Ruri didn't want to see him now and squeezed out a few words from her teeth.

"Are you sure?" Nanahara Takeshi still looked kind, but his eyes were full of gloating.

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Kiyomi Ruri couldn't take it anymore and controlled herself not to hit him with the water buckets. She angrily whispered, "I said no, I don't need your help!"

She was angry, and Nanahara Takeshi became even happier. He smiled and said, "Okay, okay, I'll leave. You can continue to be busy!"

He turned and left. Kiyomi Ruri was still upset about the embarrassing scene being seen by that bastard, but she didn't expect Nanahara Takeshi to take two steps and turn back. He said with a smile, "Oh, by the way, I was going to look for you again, but since we met now...let's settle the account."

"What account?" Kiyomi Ruri was confused.

"The consultation fee and assistant fee you owe me." Nanahara Takeshi casually reported the number, "A total of 39,778 yen."Kiyomi Ruri was even more confused. Fourty thousand yen, converted into RMB at the exchange rate of the early 90s, was almost close to four thousand yuan. For a high school girl who had never worked and relied on pocket money to get by, it was definitely not a small amount. Even in 2022, this amount was not small, and many high school girls would find a "sugar daddy" and only do "daddy activities" for a monthly income of four to five thousand yen.

"I can't possibly owe you this much money," she said incredulously.

Nanahara Takeshi showed her his watch and said, "I allowed you to be my assistant and you promised to pay me 500 yen per hour. It has been 65 hours and 13 minutes, so you owe me 32,608 yen... well, now it's 32,616 yen, another minute has passed. During this time, you asked me 14 boring questions, each of which was worth 500 yen, and you agreed to keep track of them. That's a total of 7,000 yen. Finally, you owe me 170 yen from last Thursday. We're friends, so I won't charge you interest on this part, just the principal. So, you owe me a total of 39,786 yen."

Nanahara Takeshi finished calculating and politely said, "Thank you for your patronage, please pay up now!"

Kiyomi Ruri was scared and retreated against the wall, but quickly realized that the case had ended on Saturday noon and he couldn't charge her until now. She protested, "No, the case ended on Saturday. You can't charge me until now. I haven't been your assistant for that long, you shouldn't charge me so much!"

Nanahara Takeshi reminded her, "Think about what you said on Saturday morning..."

"On Saturday morning?"

Nanahara Takeshi slowly repeated her words, "You said, 'Yesterday you asked me to be your assistant, the agreement has not ended yet, and now I have to fulfill my supervisory duties as your assistant and make sure you do the right thing. I paid you, so you must fulfill the agreement. Today you must go, and as long as I'm here, you can't sleep in.' Right?"

Kiyomi Ruri hesitated and nodded. She did say that and forced Nanahara Takeshi to go to Odacho to investigate the case, but she didn't expect him to charge her for it!

"So, the meaning of those words is that the assistant contract is only considered over when both parties agree. So, of course, I have to keep charging you... Do you want to stop the timer now?" Nanahara Takeshi asked.

"Stop it, stop it now!" Kiyomi Ruri immediately whispered. She couldn't afford any more debt, and she couldn't pay this amount.

"Then pay up!" Nanahara Takeshi extended his hand again and said with a smile, "I'm still very kind. I didn't wait a week to find you, otherwise the amount would be different."

Kiyomi Ruri looked at his outstretched hand and felt that something was not quite right, but logically, she did owe him this much money. She hesitated for a moment and whispered, "40,000 yen is too much, I don't have that much money..." She meant to ask for a reduction, like inviting him to drink a bottle of hot oolong tea or red bean soup. Or, she could treat him to a bowl of ramen in the cafeteria, even adding two pieces of fried pork cutlet."Alright, we're friends, and I won't force you to pay." Nanahara Takeshi smiled, "You're young and naive, and you wanted me to go just because you were too curious. I can understand that, so I'll give you a break. After class, you just need to shout 'I am the troublemaker liar Ruri' three times in the hallway, and we'll call it even. Consider it a lesson I paid for you. Just remember not to disturb others' sleep, don't give others a headache, and don't force others to do things."

Kiyomi Ruri suddenly realized and finally understood that Nanahara Takeshi was taking revenge on her for disturbing his sleep last Saturday morning and forcing him to deal with the "Town Resolution Case." He might even still be holding a grudge against her for calling him a liar!

But I didn't ask you to go for my sake, I thought someone had been wronged and died!

It's not a trivial matter when someone dies. If it were a small issue, I would have gone myself, and I wouldn't have bothered you!

If you think I caused you trouble, just say it. Who doesn't make mistakes? I'm not unreasonable, I would apologize if I'm wrong. Even if you don't accept the apology, you can fight me. You don't need to saddle me with such a huge debt!

This is too despicable! I didn't even hold a grudge against you for calling me a pig-brain, and I didn't strangle you on the train, how could you do this?

Besides, you're obviously a liar, where did I say anything wrong?

She was both angry and wronged, her nostrils burning with heat, and she said angrily, "I won't shout, don't think you can insult me on purpose!"

Nanahara Takeshi was in a good mood at this moment, smiling and saying, "Alright, I'll take another step back. Just say 'I am the troublemaker annoying liar Ruri' three times to me now, and sincerely apologize for causing me trouble last Saturday morning. We'll call it even, and I can still let you off."

This is also unacceptable, it's too insulting!

Kiyomi Ruri glared at him angrily, "I won't!"

"Then pay the money!" Nanahara Takeshi stretched out his hand again, with a look of settling accounts with a close brother. It's only right to pay back what you owe.

"I will pay, I won't deny it!" Kiyomi Ruri refused to admit defeat, not losing her momentum. Paying back the money was still better than being insulted, "But I don't have that much on me right now, I'll give it to you later!"

She accepted this debt, as she did say those words, forced Nanahara Takeshi to go to Odachi Town, and kept so many accounts. She dared to do it and would not play dirty to deny it, but Nanahara Takeshi shouldn't think of using this matter to insult her.

"Then I'll be watching." Nanahara Takeshi left with a smile, not caring about how she would handle it.

This troublemaker dared to cause him trouble, disrupt his sleep, and almost ruined his rules. So, don't blame him for giving her some trouble, making her unable to take it and walk away. Even if he knew she was just too curious and not a bad person, offending him was still offending him, and there would still be no good fruit to eat.

Yes, at least she should compensate him, but not with that 40,000 yen. That small amount of money was not worth mentioning. He was currently struggling with his daily life and needed a coolie to run errands and do chores. Since she happened to bump into the muzzle, she could only consider herself unlucky and destined to face this calamity.