Nanahara Takeshi stood with his hands in his pockets, looking around the first floor of the Matsuchi house. Kiyomi Ruri couldn't sit still either. She glanced at Nakano Eri, who was sitting still, and carefully followed behind Nanahara Takeshi, looking around with the skill she had acquired - clairvoyance - trying to analyze something from the living environment.

Of course, after going through the first floor, she didn't analyze anything. She just felt that the Matsuchi house was better decorated than her own home. Matsuchi Yuki, being from a prestigious family, had better taste than her wild mother who came from the mountains.

She followed Nanahara Takeshi upstairs and found that there were two beds in the Matsuchi couple's bedroom, just like her own home. Her parents also slept in separate beds, but this was not evidence of a troubled marriage. This situation was common in Japan and was said to be beneficial for getting enough rest.

Of course, this required a large enough room. Poor couples could just squeeze together and not separate the beds.

Nanahara Takeshi circled around the bed and then opened the door to the changing room with interest. He took off a men's suit and compared it to himself before putting it aside. Then he reached out and touched the fabric of a women's nightgown, looking left and right. He then turned to the dressing table to examine it closely and picked up a bottle of perfume, spraying it into the air and sniffing the scent.

"Be a little more honest. Look all you want, but don't make a mess. You have no manners at all," Kiyomi Ruri muttered, following behind him and tidying up after him. She reached out to grab the perfume bottle, forgetting about the "surface assistant plan" for a moment. She was not happy - his behavior was completely different from the education she had received since childhood, and she couldn't stand it.

Nanahara Takeshi shrugged and walked away, stroking his chin. She quickly caught up after tidying up.

Search "pawread dot com" for the original.

Next to the bedroom was the study. The windows were large, allowing ample light to come in. The wooden floor was shiny, and there was a large mahogany desk and a bookshelf filled with books.

Nanahara Takeshi's eyes lit up as soon as he entered. He walked quickly to the bookshelf and browsed the spines of the books. He reached out and pulled out one, standing there and flipping through it. Kiyomi Ruri's heart tightened, and she immediately went over and tiptoed to look with him. But as soon as she read a line, he turned the page. She couldn't understand anything, so she bent down to look at the title of the book and found that it was called "Miscellaneous Goods of the Mountains."

What on earth were "goods of the mountains"?

She tiptoed again to look at the content, murmuring and repeating half a sentence she had glimpsed, "In the wilds of Aomori, there are mountains and gray dances, clusters of chestnuts, grayish-yellow in color, edible and delicious, for the common people..."

She didn't understand and couldn't help but ask, "What does this mean?"

"It's talking about a kind of mushroom called the gray dance. It should be the same species as the modern dance mushroom and the gray tree flower. It is produced in the mountains near the border of Aomori and Akita prefectures, probably referring to the Shirakami Mountains. If you find a chestnut tree on Shirakami Mountain, you can find it. It looks delicious, but I haven't tasted it yet." Nanahara Takeshi was completely absorbed in reading and even smacked his lips as he spoke.

Kiyomi Ruri became even more puzzled and asked, "What does this have to do with the case? Aren't we investigating the case? Why do you care about mushrooms?"

Nanahara Takeshi ignored her and continued flipping through the book quickly. He casually said, "You don't understand."

Kiyomi Ruri held back her frustration. After all, she needed to be obedient for the "surface assistant plan." But she couldn't help it and said unhappily, "Where don't I understand? It's clearly you who's strange."

Nanahara Takeshi continued flipping through the book quickly and said lightly, "Then what do you think people live for?"

Kiyomi Ruri was stunned. She had never thought about this question before and was silent for a moment before hesitantly saying, "To become someone who can help others?"

"Wrong. People live to not miss out, to constantly experience and explore," Nanahara Takeshi rambled on. "For example, the moon is beautiful, but we have never really looked at it carefully and appreciated it. Life will have some regrets. And for example, there is delicious food, but we don't taste it. If we remember it on our deathbed, life will be incomplete."

"Our lives are short, so we should cherish them and try not to have any regrets. Don't miss any wonderful moments and learn to enjoy life. Just like this gray dance mushroom, if I hadn't been reading this book, how would I have known that such a wonderful thing exists in the world? I wouldn't have been able to taste it. Life would have regrets..."

Kiyomi Ruri was confused and didn't know where she was anymore. She felt that Nanahara Takeshi's words made some sense, but also didn't make sense. It was right to cherish life, but was the purpose of living just to eat mushrooms and look at the moon?

She hesitated and asked, "What about the case? And why are we discussing the philosophy of life?"

"The case?" Nanahara Takeshi's expression became serious. "By understanding Matsuchi Yūto from the side, we can get a better idea of his interests. It seems that he enjoys reading, and the books he reads are diverse, ranging from anecdotes of famous people in the Momoyama period to the biography of the astronomer Kepler, from travel journals to second-hand banned prints, from oil painting albums from the Renaissance to illustrations by island natives. There are all kinds of books. So I want to see the books I haven't read to get a more detailed understanding of him. Maybe we can find some relevant clues."

"You don't need to make excuses. You just want to mooch off other people's books!"

Nanahara Takeshi said a lot, and his tone was very sincere. It would be enough to work as a male host at a host club. But Kiyomi Ruri now knew him well and couldn't trust him even with a punctuation mark. However, she didn't want to argue with him loudly, especially since they were in someone else's house. It wouldn't be appropriate.

She hesitated for a moment, made a compromise, and thought that if he could find the killer of Matsuchi Yūto, Matsuchi Yūto wouldn't mind lending him the books to read for a few days. She said with frustration, "You can take a look, but you can't keep the books. You have to return them after you finish reading."

"When did I say I wouldn't return them? I'm not a thief. Why would I take someone else's things for free? Besides, what use do I have for the books after I finish reading them? Just remember to return them to Mrs. Matsuchi when they're finished." Nanahara Takeshi took out the books again and stuffed them into her arms, smiling. "Remember, if you forget, it's your responsibility. Consider it stolen!"

Kiyomi Ruri was annoyed. She wanted to throw the books at his head, but she didn't dare. After all, she was still the "surface assistant," and she had to consider the bigger picture. She could only sulk with a dark face and let him stuff the books into her arms. In the end, she held more than ten books and followed him to the desk.

Nanahara Takeshi sat behind the desk and first fiddled with a copper globe decoration, then began to examine the desk and read Matsuchi Yūto's manuscripts. However, Matsuchi Yūto mainly wrote articles for magazines, so there weren't many manuscripts left at home.

Nanahara Takeshi quickly read through them and sat in front of the desk, lost in thought, tapping the table rhythmically with his fingers. Kiyomi Ruri waited for a while with the books in her arms, her anger subsiding, and curiously asked, "Did you find anything?"

Nanahara Takeshi snapped out of his thoughts and shook his head. "Unfortunately, Matsuchi Yuki didn't kill him."

Kiyomi Ruri was shocked. "Are you sure?"

Nanahara Takeshi glanced at her and said directly, "With someone of my level as a medium freely walking around the house, I can tell how the couple's relationship is. So I can confirm that Matsuchi Yuki didn't intentionally kill him. Although there were some minor problems in their relationship, it is possible that they would have divorced in the future. But until the incident, Matsuchi Yuki still had feelings for her husband and wouldn't have intentionally killed him."

Kiyomi Ruri was stunned for a moment. She now believed in Nanahara Takeshi's judgment, even though his character had many flaws. She didn't question anything and just murmured, "Then who could be the culprit? The police have already ruled out all the other suspects..."

"Keep looking. The police must have overlooked something. Even if they ruled them out, it doesn't mean they're not involved." Nanahara Takeshi was also a bit disappointed. If Matsuchi Yuki had been the killer, they would have made easy money. But since she wasn't, there was nothing they could do. They just had to continue spending time on it. But it was fine. At least they didn't come here for nothing and got some good books.

He stood up and shook his head. "Let's go. Let's go downstairs and talk to Mrs. Matsuchi."

...

Nanahara Takeshi led Kiyomi Ruri downstairs. Matsuchi Yuki and Nakano Eri were quietly drinking tea. When they finally came down, they immediately looked at them with a puzzled expression, noticing that Kiyomi Ruri was holding a stack of books.

Nanahara Takeshi smiled at Matsuchi Yuki and said, "I'm sorry, I want to thoroughly examine these books. Please don't mind."

Kiyomi Ruri didn't have as thick skin as him and blushed when she was looked at. She whispered, "Don't worry, I'll return them as soon as he finishes examining them. It won't take long. He reads books quickly."

"It's okay. If it's too much trouble, you can leave them here," Matsuchi Yuki didn't care about a dozen old books. If they could find the killer of her husband, she wouldn't mind burning the entire bookshelf.

She looked at Nanahara Takeshi politely and asked, "Nanahara-san, what did you come to talk about? The police have already questioned me many times, and I've told them everything I know."

Nanahara Takeshi sat down on the sofa opposite her and poured himself a cup of tea. He looked at the delicate Satsuma ware Kutani tea cup with Tang grass pattern and lightly sniffed the tea's fragrance before taking a sip. He praised, "The taste of tea lies in the tea soup, and the soul of tea lies in the flowers. Your taste is very good, Mrs. Matsuchi."

Matsuchi Yuki glanced at the teapot and hesitated, "You flatter me. This... this is just ordinary flower tea bought from the supermarket."

"But the quality is still very good. You have a good eye for tea," Nanahara Takeshi smiled and put down the teacup, getting to the point. He said seriously, "Recently, you and Matsuchi-san have been arguing a lot, right? You had a fight right before Matsuchi-san was killed?"

As soon as he said this, Kiyomi Ruri was immediately shocked, and Nakano Eri adjusted her glasses, a flash of light reflecting off the lenses, her gaze sharp as she stared at Matsuchi Yuki - Matsuchi Yuki hadn't mentioned to the police that they had just had a fight.

Matsuchi Yuki's face turned slightly paler, and she opened her mouth to speak but didn't know what to say.

She hadn't told the police about the argument with her husband before because it was completely unnecessary and had nothing to do with her husband's murder. But now, for some reason, it was known, and her suspicion probably increased...

She took a deep breath and said earnestly, "In the past year, there have indeed been some problems between me and Matsuchi-san, but please believe me, I would never harm him."

Nanahara Takeshi nodded gently. "I believe you. I just wanted to confirm that you wouldn't harm him. Now I can be completely sure."

Matsuchi Yuki was about to explain why she hadn't mentioned the argument with her husband before. It was purely a private matter between husband and wife, and no one else knew about it. But now, inexplicably, someone knew about it, and her suspicion probably increased. But she couldn't figure out why Nanahara Takeshi knew everything about their private matters just by walking around their house. There shouldn't be a third person in the world who knew all this.

"For professional reasons. I work as a medium part-time. If you need me in the future, feel free to contact me," Nanahara Takeshi smiled and didn't explain further. It wasn't the right time. He changed the subject and said, "Mrs. Matsuchi, your suspicion has been ruled out. The police won't bother you anymore. Please rest assured and get a good night's sleep. Otherwise, your health will suffer. But for now, please bear with it a little longer and reenact the scene of the incident."

"Reenact?"

"Yes, what did you do at that time? Do it again now."

Matsuchi Yuki now had some confidence in Nanahara Takeshi, this high school student, for some unknown reason. She hesitated and changed her position, saying, "At that time, I was sitting here watching TV and waiting for Matsuchi-san to come home from work. He had a layout meeting that night, and he usually came back around ten o'clock..."

"Wait a moment! Layout meeting..." Kiyomi Ruri quickly flipped through her notebook. She remembered seeing this term in the case briefing, but she couldn't remember what it referred to.

Matsuchi Yuki glanced at her and explained softly, "It's a meeting to determine the layout of the magazine before it is published. Although Matsuchi-san is a journalist, he is solely responsible for the art column and needs to work with the editors to determine the content of each issue."

"Ah, right, please continue," Kiyomi Ruri found her notes and realized that the layout meeting was held regularly every month. The police suspected that the killer already knew this and had investigated the editors, journalists, and employees of the magazine, but unfortunately, they found no motive.

"At that time, the evening drama had just started, and I heard some noise in the yard," Matsuchi Yuki stood up and walked to the entranceway to open the door. It was very close, just a few steps away. She continued, "But the TV was a bit loud, and it sounded like Matsuchi-san's voice, but I wasn't sure. So I went to the door to take a look."

As she said this, her face lost all color. It was probably a very shocking scene, and she had a psychological trauma. "As a result, as soon as I opened the door, I saw Matsuchi-san lying not far from the door, covered in blood."

"And then?" Nanahara Takeshi asked.

"At that time... at that time, I was terrified and panicked. I didn't know what to do. I called for help and then came here, knelt down, and tried to stop Matsuchi-san's bleeding. But he had too many wounds, and blood was flowing from all over his body and neck. I didn't know where to press, so I ended up covering the wound on his neck." Matsuchi Yuki tried to remain calm as she slowly recounted the scene of that night, which was consistent with the testimony she had previously given, with only slight differences in wording.

Finally, she sat on the floor, pointing diagonally to the space above the basin river, and said blankly, "Matsuchi-san... was already unable to speak at that time. He looked at me and tried to raise his hand, pointing in that direction, but there was nothing there. It was pitch black, and I didn't see anything. I couldn't figure out what he wanted to say. Later, Officer Tani kindly told me that Matsuchi-san's meaning might have been pointing to the direction where the killer jumped into the river, telling me not to think too much. The police have already given up on this lead, but I feel... I don't know, I feel like it shouldn't be the case, but it's just a feeling. I don't know if it's right or not."

Nanahara Takeshi followed her gaze to the direction she pointed, only to see a clear blue sky and fluffy clouds floating leisurely. It was peaceful and serene.

Apart from that, there was nothing.