"Hey, where are you?"

Kiyomi Ruri still had a tutor at home. After all, she had a wild mother who could rescue her father from a bear's mouth. She had been scolded countless times since she was a child, so she had manners and didn't run around in other people's houses like Nanahara Takeshi, who even took away the victim's books for free.

She shouted on the first floor for a while, then went to the second floor and shouted again. This time, she finally heard some movement. Following the sound, she climbed up to the attic and found Nanahara Takeshi on the roof.

Out of curiosity, she also climbed out of the attic and sat next to Nanahara Takeshi, asking with a puzzled look, "What are you doing?"

Nanahara Takeshi looked at the night sky and whispered, "Working."

Working? Kiyomi Ruri was stunned for a moment, and then she realized that he was looking in the direction of the Pot River, where Matsuchi Yūto was killed.

She immediately looked up at the sky. The air quality in Hirayano was very good. If it wasn't good, Nanahara Takeshi wouldn't have come here to live. The sky in her eyes now was like a roll of black velvet, mysteriously black with a hint of purple, with stars scattered in between, twinkling slightly, like scattered diamonds.

But after looking up for a while, she didn't find anything except that the starry sky was fascinating. She turned her head curiously and asked, "What are you looking at?"

Nanahara Takeshi pointed to the night sky and said, "That's the Big Dipper. If you connect the four stars on the handle with the Big Dipper and the star Alkaid, you can form an arc of high-brightness stars. This should be the most obvious celestial phenomenon that Matsuchi Yūto could see lying on the ground, except for the moon."

Kiyomi Ruri was puzzled and asked, "So what? What does this have to do with Matsuchi Yūto's murder?"

Nanahara Takeshi pondered and said, "There shouldn't be any connection. At least I can't think of any."

Kiyomi Ruri said helplessly, "If there's no connection, why did you say so much..."

Nanahara Takeshi glanced at her sideways and said impatiently, "You asked me what I was looking at!"

Kiyomi Ruri held her breath, and Nanahara Takeshi looked at the stars for a while without gaining anything. He took out a promotional flyer for "The Four Branches of Chong Island" and continued to examine it in the faint light coming through the attic.

Find the original at "pawread dot com".

Kiyomi Ruri's curiosity was aroused again, and she asked cautiously, "Are you still suspecting Uchii Tatsuo?"

"I'm not you. I've never ruled out his suspicion." Nanahara Takeshi said lightly, "He has a psychological advantage over Matsuchi Yūto. If killing is not illegal, I bet 500 yen that he would hang Matsuchi Yūto's head on the wall of his office."

"Just because he thinks Matsuchi Yūto looks like a wild boar?"

"Yes, and his tone and demeanor when speaking. I've seen someone say the exact same thing, with the same tone and demeanor. Even in terms of hunting, Uchii Tatsuo is not worthy to carry that person's shoes. But the nature is the same." Nanahara Takeshi whispered, "He defeated Matsuchi Yūto, not just by killing him. There must be something else between them that only they know."

Kiyomi Ruri hesitated and asked, "What about his alibi?"

"That's not important anymore. As long as someone cooperates, I can easily do the same. If it was really him, I could probably figure it out by going to his house tomorrow, and I could even design something more sophisticated. But it's not important anymore. It's been so long, it's very difficult for us to get any evidence." Nanahara Takeshi paused and further explained, "He chose such a simple and direct alibi because it was enough for him. He should be very confident that no one will figure out his motive for the crime. He just wants to avoid becoming the first suspect of the police. There's no need to make it more complicated, so I said there must be a reason that only he and Matsuchi Yūto know, which forced him to take the risk of killing."

After he finished speaking, he looked at the photo of "The Four Branches of Chong Island" and whispered, "Or, if someone can really figure out the motive for the crime, maybe being arrested doesn't matter to him anymore. He doesn't need a complicated alibi that serves no purpose."

Kiyomi Ruri was stunned for a moment. She felt that what he said made sense. She looked directly at the photo of "The Four Branches of Chong Island" and hesitated, "So, are you suspecting that these four paintings are fakes and related to the motive?"

Nanahara Takeshi nodded gently and said, "Hiradate Kazuo said that Uchii Tatsuo has bet everything on these four paintings. If the auction is a great success, he will not only make a lot of money, but also greatly enhance the reputation of the Matsuzaki Art Museum, making him one of the top art dealers. On the other hand, everything he has built from scratch will be destroyed. For someone like him, failing in hunting means facing death directly, and going to jail is not even worth mentioning."

Kiyomi Ruri also felt that what he said made sense. If Uchii Tatsuo insisted on killing a journalist who had little connection with him, the possibility of it being related to these four paintings was indeed high. But after hesitating for a while, she couldn't help but say, "But... but these four paintings have been appraised by experts. They were accidentally found by Uchii Tatsuo in a warehouse of a certain household, whose ancestors were from the Tokugawa family. You also said that it's possible for these four paintings to suddenly appear in Hirayano. The possibility of them being fakes... should be very small, right?"

"In Edo's 808 towns, the old turtle Tokugawa stuffed 80,000 hatamotos in there. I can go out and bring back a cart full of the junk that has been passed down through the generations of the Tokugawa hatamoto family. How could there be no capital to set a trap and deceive people? I'm not well-fed and well-clothed..."Nanahara Takeshi's brain was spinning rapidly at the moment. If it were a mechanical structure, it would probably be making a "cracking" sound. He almost slipped and revealed his thoughts, but quickly cleared his throat and changed his words. "Unless Uchii Tatsuo is extremely lucky, he must have been deceived. If he tries to buy the four paintings without raising suspicion, the seller will suddenly become alert and demand a high price, causing him to hesitate. If he can't make a decision, he will have them appraised. Every time he visits the seller, the price will increase. But the seller will still keep him hooked, and the final price he pays will definitely not be low, otherwise he wouldn't need a loan."

Kiyomi Ruri exclaimed, "He's an art dealer, he won't be easily fooled, right?"

"People who are deceived are often not stupid. Some even have high education. This kind of thing usually involves a momentary lapse of judgment. Uchii Tatsuo must have had doubts, otherwise he wouldn't have had the paintings appraised multiple times. But he also thought it was worth taking a gamble. After the economic bubble burst, his art gallery business wouldn't be doing well, so he wouldn't easily give up the opportunity to make a big profit. The scammer must have caught onto his psychology."

Nanahara Takeshi said with deep emotion, "And if these four paintings are really counterfeits, the forger is definitely not ordinary. They are a top expert in the field of 'freehand brushwork' and have immersed themselves in it for many years. The craftsmanship is flawless, even I can't find any flaws. There must be something more to it, it's definitely worth taking a gamble."

Kiyomi Ruri was convinced once again and asked hesitantly, "What about the appraiser?"

Nanahara Takeshi shook his head and said, "If you haven't been in this field, you wouldn't understand. If there is no room for doubt in a painting, then it is genuine. The appraiser must be able to point out one, two, three, four, five reasons to deny it, otherwise both the buyer and the seller won't spare him. There have been many similar cases in the history of auctions, where counterfeits were sold as genuine and fetched sky-high prices. Have you heard of Miloren?"

Of course, Kiyomi Ruri hadn't heard of it. As a first-year college student, her knowledge was not that extensive, and she hadn't experienced the explosion of internet knowledge. She didn't know much, unlike in the future where she could easily find someone from a Q group who could talk about fifteen key points and eight methods, from making atomic bombs to fixing toilets, from forging famous paintings to finding high-quality pictures. The next step would be ascension.

Nanahara Takeshi couldn't help it and briefly explained Miloren's life to her. This person forged the works of the Dutch painter Vermeer and sold them like hotcakes. Because the forgeries were too convincing and numerous, even Vermeer's genuine works were "overwhelmed". When it was finally discovered that he was a fraud, the British National Gallery gathered a large number of top appraisers and after several years of meetings and discussions, they determined that "Girl with a Pearl Earring" was actually a genuine work by Vermeer. It had previously been considered a forgery because it didn't quite match Vermeer's style of light and shadow. The result was that Miloren's counterfeits were too convincing and almost killed the genuine work.

Even Miloren dared to deceive the Great Demon King Xi. The Great Demon King Xi also had a liking for art and bought one of his fake paintings, becoming the most famous victim of counterfeit art.

Similar incidents were very common in the art market, with various methods and techniques. The top counterfeits used pigments and paper that matched the original artist's era, and the artistic style and personal techniques were imitated to the point of being indistinguishable. Even the artist's direct descendants would be confused unless a flaw was found. No appraiser dared to speak with certainty, otherwise the seller would slap him in the face, and the buyer would come back and slap him in the face for missing out on a chance to get rich.

Nanahara Takeshi listed seven or eight examples in one breath, ranging from forged oil paintings to forged porcelain. Kiyomi Ruri was convinced once again and hesitated, "So, these are counterfeits and not worth 400 million yen?"

Nanahara Takeshi was truly speechless. He stared at her for a while, and if he were a zombie, he would have already shaken his head and walked away in tears. He sighed helplessly, "I've said so much, why don't you understand? It doesn't matter who says it's a counterfeit, you, me, or the appraiser. Unless we find its flaw, even if it's a counterfeit, it can still be sold for 400 million yen!"

Why are you so fierce? Can't she ask if she doesn't know? Don't stop her from speaking...

Kiyomi Ruri pouted in grievance and made a mental note. When she eventually overthrows him, she will curse him in the same tone. Then she immediately cheered up and said seriously, "I'll help you!"

Nanahara Takeshi didn't object either. She did smell really good, and he didn't mind her being around. He just regretted that she wasn't mute.

Kiyomi Ruri began to carefully examine the photos of the four paintings for the first time. She couldn't appreciate them before, but now she realized that they were indeed very charming. They depicted the four seasons of Chong Island, with a large number of landscapes and figures, presenting the daily life and various scenes of Chong Island.

From a technical point of view, the lines were clear, the colors were bold and vibrant. Except for some issues with the proportions of the figures, everything else was realistic and impactful. Even the starry sky was depicted in great detail, with stars formed by intricate and twisted lines, somewhat resembling the stars in that painting with a little person holding their face and shouting in happiness... She forgot the name, but it was just like the stars in that oil painting, except much smaller.

She really wanted to provide some help to Nanahara Takeshi. After looking at them for a while, her eyes lit up and she excitedly pointed at the third painting, "Look, the presence of the starry sky indicates that it's night time. But there are also many people standing on the fishing boat as if they are about to set sail for fishing. Doesn't that seem unreasonable?"Nanahara Takeshi had just analyzed the summer scroll when he glanced at it and said indifferently, "This part talks about the islanders catching sakura shrimp at night. It should have been the traditional shrimp-catching season, which is now in November according to the Gregorian calendar. This is when sakura shrimp are the fattest and most valuable. After this, the shrimp will go deep into the sea to avoid the winter and find food. They won't re-enter the ancient fishing boats' range until after March of the following year, and the quality won't be as good. So, these ancient people had to intensify their fishing efforts during this period. The painting is accurate and realistic."

Oh, so that's how it was. Ancient shrimp fishing was different from modern times; it wasn't always possible.

Kiyomi Ruri felt her intelligence had once again increased, having learned another piece of knowledge. But her curiosity soon led her to point at a bent figure and ask, "What about him? His posture is strange, isn't it a bit suspicious?"

"He's digging for taro, not going to the toilet."

"What about this child riding a sheep... or is it a dog?"

Nanahara Takeshi turned to look at her and said directly, "You're off work."

Kiyomi Ruri asked in confusion, "Why should I be off work? It's okay, I told my mom I could go home later, it's fine to stay a little longer."

Nanahara Takeshi said irritably, "Because you're really too noisy, seriously affecting my thinking. Ichinose Hajime's painting is long and stinky, the photos are small, I need to look at them bit by bit, and compare them with the documents in my mind! I've only just got to the summer scroll, don't bother me with the autumn and winter scrolls. So now you're off work, go home immediately, don't make me angry, or be careful of the consequences."

Kiyomi Ruri was very unconvinced and said discontentedly, "But in detective novels, the heroine will awaken the hero with a single sentence, allowing him to have a flash of insight and find the truth. I'm just doing what I should be doing, why are you rejecting me?"

Nanahara Takeshi looked at her for a while, incredulously saying, "Where do you get the courage to think you're the heroine? If there's a pig-brained heroine like you in a detective novel, the book would have been used by readers to wipe their asses a long time ago!"

Kiyomi Ruri felt very insulted, her face darkened as she lowered her head and glared at him angrily for a while, then turned and left.

This bastard had just recovered for a while, and now he's back to his old ways. Fine, I'll leave. As if I really want to stay in your empty, broken house!

I hate you, I'll always hate you, don't beg me to come back!

She went straight back to the living room, took Matsuchi Yūto's collection from her backpack and put it aside, then took out Nanahara Takeshi's backpack and threw it on the tatami... without daring to slam it. She put on her little round-toed leather shoes, puffed up with anger, and went home. But just as she stepped out into the yard, Nanahara Takeshi appeared at the second-floor window, waving his hand as if nothing had happened, "Wait!"

Kiyomi Ruri snorted coldly, slowly turned around, and said indifferently, "What do you want? Weren't you the one who said I was in the way and told me to go home?"

Of course, while she said this, she felt a little relieved.

Alright, this guy knows to come and apologize. He's not completely hopeless. If he says a few soft words, I might give him another chance...

Just as she was maintaining her composure, Nanahara Takeshi threw down a human-head-sized reel of wire and a box from the second-floor window, saying, "Almost forgot, lead the wire to your room and set up the stuff."

Kiyomi Ruri looked at the reel of wire in confusion, then looked up at him and asked, "What is this?"

"It's nothing, just a simple communication device. In the future, when I ring the bell, you come over. It's inconvenient for me to call you." After Nanahara Takeshi finished speaking, he disappeared from the window, leaving half a sentence behind, "There are tools and detailed instructions in the box. Be careful with it, don't let my hard work last night go to waste."

Kiyomi Ruri wanted to throw her backpack through the window at him, but she knew it would be useless. She stared at the reel of wire for a while, then picked it up and went home, bearing the humiliation.

When I get home, I'll set it up and ring the bell to annoy him!