Today's dinner at the Nanahara household was relatively simple. Nanahara Takeshi made a dish called "Mixed Color Sliding Meatballs" using the meatballs he made last night when he had nothing else to do. There were shrimp meatballs, fish meatballs, pork meatballs, beef meatballs, lamb meatballs, and chicken meatballs, each with a different flavor but all combined together in a rich broth. The dish was soft, smooth, tender, and absolutely delicious.

Nanahara Takeshi, a medium and chef with a refined palate, a keen sense of smell, and hyperthymesia, was willing to start from the preparation stage, carefully selecting ingredients and personally handling every step of the process. Even for dishes that were not particularly complex, the taste was still amazing. He could probably compete in the Chef King competition.

However, Kiyomi Ruri was not in the mood for these delicious meatballs. She let Nanahara Takeshi pick out the ones he liked to eat and asked in surprise, "Did Kameda-san commit suicide for insurance fraud? What's going on?"

Nanahara Takeshi stuffed a large beef meatball into his mouth, savoring its elastic texture and the rich meat juice that burst out with each bite. He mumbled, "Kameda Atsushi was a poor soul who was crushed by the tide of the times. He had actually been unemployed for a while, but he kept it a secret from his family. The salary he brought home every month was earned through his hard work as a day laborer. I noticed something strange about his bank account before. In the past year, his income has been continuously decreasing, with only occasional fluctuations. His wife has been forced to use their meager savings to support their livelihood. It seems that he has been finding it increasingly difficult to earn money through day labor, so he decided to commit suicide for insurance fraud."

Kiyomi Ruri recalled the work clothes and protective gloves in Kameda Atsushi's worn-out cardboard boxes, and she seemed to understand something, but not completely. She felt very frustrated and said unhappily, "Who can understand what you're saying..."

"Let's talk about it chronologically, but I can only speculate and can't guarantee complete accuracy. I can only say it's about eighty to ninety percent certain." Nanahara Takeshi was in a talkative mood now, as he often liked to chat while eating. He continued, "The incident probably started about a year ago. You should know about the collapse of the bubble economy, right? It caused a wave of bankruptcies, even several major banks went bankrupt, not to mention ordinary companies.

I guess the company where Kameda Atsushi was working was also struggling a bit and wanted to lay off employees. However, Japan's employment system is based on 'lifetime employment and seniority-based promotion.' It's not easy to lay off employees without damaging the company's reputation or facing lawsuits for 'improper dismissal,' which could result in significant compensation. So, Japanese companies usually don't directly say they want to lay off employees. It's troublesome and costly to provide severance pay. Instead, they usually conduct 'internal recruitment for voluntary retirement,' hoping that employees will prioritize the survival of the company and voluntarily leave to work for other companies.

Kameda Atsushi was probably on the list. He was in his forties and had already been drained of energy by work. His skills were also falling behind the times, and he had little value left. However, his 'seniority-based promotion' was high, and if a fresh university graduate were to do the same work as him, his salary could be more than double that of the newcomer. Naturally, they wanted to streamline his position.

He definitely wouldn't be willing to leave. He had been working at the company for twenty years, almost his entire life. He wanted to wait for retirement at the company or maybe there were other reasons, such as not being satisfied with the new job offer provided through the voluntary retirement program, which had a lower salary. He might not have wanted to go."

Nanahara Takeshi paused after saying this and ate another meatball, taking a small sip of soup. Kiyomi Ruri listened in astonishment. For a first-year high school student, concepts like 'lifetime employment' and 'voluntary retirement' were far removed. However, she could somewhat understand. She hesitated and asked, "What happened next?"

"Next, Aiomari Harumitsu comes into play." Nanahara Takeshi mentioned this person and raised an eyebrow. He said casually, "Kameda Atsushi didn't want to sacrifice himself to reduce the burden on the company. He was truly despicable and committed a heinous crime. He might have even caused some trouble. He was a troublemaker. The company's HR department definitely wouldn't let him off easily. They probably secretly found Aiomari, who was connected to another company, and asked him to privately seduce Kameda Atsushi. They made Kameda Atsushi suddenly realize that he was an extremely rare talent and that his work abilities were off the charts. They offered him a very generous job contract.

On one side, there was the old company where he had worked for twenty years, which wanted to reduce its burden. The HR department tried to reason with him and appeal to his emotions. On the other side, there was a seemingly good opportunity at a new company. Perhaps he could turn misfortune into fortune and have some career development. As a result, he... was really stupid and honest. He probably had a sense of gratitude towards his old company and voluntarily resigned to join Aiomari Harumitsu's small company."

Kiyomi Ruri couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Is this... is this possible? Are there really people in this world... who are so... so despicable?"

Taking advantage of Kiyomi Ruri's distracted state, Nanahara Takeshi finished eating the best part of the dish. He planned to let her mix the remaining soup with rice later. He said with his mouth full, "Yes, it's true. There are people who are even worse than me... um, blacker than coal. In order to benefit themselves or meet performance requirements and protect themselves, countless disgusting things happen in the workplace."But this has nothing to do with us. Speaking of which, Kameda Atsushi was naturally deceived. The new contract probably has a lot of traps in the wording. He encountered work goals that were difficult to achieve or suddenly faced strict performance requirements. In addition, the new contract was specifically prepared to eliminate him as a troublemaker. As a subsidiary of a large company, Aikawa is not afraid of a bad reputation and is not afraid of contract disputes. It is likely that they will turn their backs on him soon, forcibly dismiss him by holding onto the terms, or prohibit him from going to work and withhold his salary, dragging him until he surrenders and leaves with a small compensation.

As a result, Kameda Atsushi inexplicably lost his job. Twenty years of hard work was destroyed in an instant, and the main source of income for his family was also lost."

This was similar to what Kiyomi Ruri had guessed before, but she was still stunned for a while and murmured, "They are really malicious. They are really bad. But why didn't Kameda-san tell his wife and insist on secretly doing odd jobs?"

Nanahara Takeshi mumbled while eating a meatball, "Maybe he feels guilty because his family income was destroyed by being deceived, and it's difficult for him to say it out loud. Maybe it's because his wife has been in poor health, suffering from a chronic illness and taking medication for a long time. He's afraid that if he tells her, she will worry and stop taking the medicine, or even be forced to go out to work. So he pretends that nothing happened, dresses up in a suit and goes to work every day, and then changes his clothes to do manual labor and odd jobs. He barely manages to cover various expenses at home and pay the mortgage."

Kiyomi Ruri suddenly realized, "So that's why he rented a house in such a remote and cheap place."

"Renting a house is not the reason." Nanahara Takeshi shook his head. "Didn't you notice? Only his own door in Baijia Yuan has a nameplate with his surname on it."

Kiyomi Ruri tried to recall, but she couldn't remember clearly and hesitated to ask, "What's the matter with that?"

Nanahara Takeshi looked at her in silence for a moment, suddenly feeling that she was quite good like this, and smiled, "This kind of nameplate or signboard that is posted on the door or side of the door became popular in Japan more than sixty years ago. At that time, there was a major postal reform in Japan, which began to spread among the people. They posted their surnames on the door just to facilitate a certain group of people, the mailmen.

Kameda Atsushi posted the nameplate to prevent the mailman from not being able to find him, delivering mail to the wrong room, or losing important letters. The reason why he was worried about this was because he had been looking for a job all the time. Finding a job requires a fixed address. No company would dare to hire someone without a fixed address, and they wouldn't be able to send interview notices or other letters. But he didn't dare to let these letters be sent to his home, so he had to squeeze out money to rent a cheap apartment to receive the mail. At that time, he hadn't given up hope for his life. He hoped that he could get through this difficult time."

Kiyomi Ruri suddenly understood. Nanahara Takeshi's explanation made sense. If it was just about changing clothes, there was no need to rent a house specifically. He could have just rented a temporary storage locker at a train station and changed in the restroom.

As she listened to Kameda's tragic story, she couldn't help but empathize. She had always had a strong sense of empathy. She hesitated for a moment and asked softly, "Did he succeed?"

She knew that a 99% chance was not a good answer, but she still held onto a glimmer of hope, hoping for a happy ending. However, when Nanahara Takeshi took out the "Kameda's Secret Notebook" photocopy and opened it, looking at the crossed-out items one by one, he sighed, "This time, I won't blame you for saying something stupid. Of course, Kameda didn't succeed. He spent nearly a year looking for a job, but it's not easy to find a decent job after the bubble burst. He's also in his forties, and no company would be crazy enough to hire him as a regular employee. The crossed-out items are the rejection letters he received directly, and the small part that is not crossed out is the ones he didn't even receive a rejection letter for. He still hopes for a good result one day."

Kiyomi Ruri also stared blankly at the "Secret Notebook". The puzzle seemed to have been solved, but it wasn't an answer that could make her happy. After feeling uncomfortable for a while, she whispered, "No wonder we couldn't understand it all along. It turns out that it's his long-term job search record. He's afraid of missing something and afraid that his wife will accidentally see it, so he wrote it in secret code..."

Nanahara Takeshi nodded, "It's the same with long-term free food tasting. Maybe the company he used to work for was relatively large and had a cafeteria. He couldn't find a reason to bring his own lunchbox frequently, and it would be too strange to go home directly after work every afternoon. Plus, he didn't want to spend money on food, so he could only wander around the commercial street when he was hungry, trying to get some free food."

As Nanahara Takeshi spoke, Kiyomi Ruri suddenly seemed to see Kameda Atsushi wandering aimlessly on the commercial street, blending in with the crowd, quickly grabbing a sample and stuffing it into his mouth, then leaving with a embarrassed expression. This scene made her feel a bit sour in her nose, just thinking about it.She never expected that by casually accepting a "demon exorcism" commission, she would be able to uncover a tragic incident that happened to an ordinary person. Even though she finally unraveled many mysteries, she couldn't accept it for a while and became completely bewildered. She murmured, "So, he was harmed, lost his job, couldn't find another one, became more and more desperate, earned less and less money from odd jobs, and finally couldn't hold on anymore. He felt like his family was going to fall apart, which is why he couldn't control himself and cried a few times, which the neighbor next door heard. So, he thought of faking his suicide to deceive the insurance company, making one last effort to leave behind an insurance payout for his wife and child."

Nanahara Takeshi picked up a meatball with his chopsticks and put it in his own plate. But as he spoke of this tragic incident, it seemed like he suddenly realized the gravity of it and hesitated for a moment before giving it to Kiyomi Ruri. He sighed, "I think so, and there's also an important reason. It's been almost a year, and his personal accident insurance from when he was still working at the big company is about to expire. Shibaura won't renew it for him, and he doesn't have the means to renew it himself. But if he wants to leave more money for his wife and children, to ensure that they can pay off the mortgage and live a stable life, he must take action this month. He can't wait for things to turn around."

After listening, Kiyomi Ruri remained silent for a long time, playing with the delicious meatballs with her chopsticks, completely losing her appetite. Nanahara Takeshi also wore a helpless expression.

This whole situation is really unfortunate. He thought he was just accepting a simple exorcism commission to earn some hard-earned money, but he never expected to uncover this kind of "tragic incident exclusive to ordinary people." However, it's precisely because of this "tragic incident of an insignificant person" that someone who was crushed by the waves of the times would feel extremely unhappy. He had so much pent-up anger that he beat up that thug. Originally, taking away his wallet would have been enough to make up for the mistakes that guy made, without having to throw it into the trash can.

It's really speechless. Japanese society is too strange. Otherwise, why does he always encounter bizarre incidents? Maybe he shouldn't have stayed in Japan to prevent himself from going to extremes one day. It would be better to move away.

We are "pawread.co𝑚", find us on google.

(End of this chapter)