Chapter 1 Jerry, Bob, and Sanmaizu (2)

  Shueisha's editor-in-chief, Nishino Shinji, had just walked into the office when his daughter, editorial department's Nishino Mariko, grasping a stack of manuscripts, her eyes red from crying, excitedly pushed open the door to the office.

  "Mariko-chan, mind your manners! How can you barge into the Editor-in-Chief's office without permission?!"

  "Ah, I'm sorry, really sorry, Shinji-kun!" Nishino Mariko was startled by Nishino Shinji and hastily grabbed the manuscript, bowing at a 90-degree angle before retreating from the room. Then, knocking sounds came from the door...

  "Please come in!"

  As soon as she entered, Nishino Mariko rushed forward, "Shinji-kun, I found a very promising one!"

  Nishino Mariko handed over the stack of manuscripts with great respect!

  Nishino Shinji took the manuscript handed over by Mariko, then stared at her for a while. "Mariko, where did you go last night? Why didn't you come home to sleep?! Do you know how worried your mother is about you?! Look at your disheveled hair and red eyes, what happened to being a lady?! If your mom finds out, she'll be furious! Now, pack up your things immediately and go home to apologize to her! Got it?!"

  Nishino Mariko had never seen her father get so angry before, and she was taken aback!

  "Hurry back home, don't you want to worry your mother to death?" Nishino Shinji slammed the manuscript in his hand onto the desk!

  Nishino Mariko was startled for a moment, "Alright! Shinji-kun, so this one is troubling you!"

  After finishing speaking, Mariko bowed and left the office!

  Osamu Nishimura never thought that his daughter would stay out all night, could it be because of this manga? Nowadays in Japan, besides manga, what else is exciting? The future world is a world of manga! Osamu Nishimura has always believed so! Shogakukan was originally established with manga as its main purpose, and the ultimate goal of this million-dollar prize is also to serve manga!

  With a hint of doubt, Nishio Shinji looked at the stack of manuscripts in his hand!

  Midnight Murder Bell!

  Is this still a writer? The words written are all crooked and twisted like a dog's crawl.

  Nishio Ishin's mind was like that, but when he turned to the first page, the oppressive and tense plot immediately caught his attention.

  “

  ……

  Oishi Tomoko is a third-year student at a private girls' high school, sitting in front of her desk on the second floor, wearing a white T-shirt and shorts, with both feet placed in front of a standing electric fan, slightly tilting her body to look at the pre-exam practice questions.

  The electric fan blew directly on her skin, but she still muttered: "So hot, so hot..." The hem of her T-shirt kept fluttering in the wind.

  Because of playing too much during the summer vacation, the homework that should be done is still piled up like a mountain, but Akira Takaishi attributed the reason for her bad mood to the weather being too hot.

  This summer wasn't very hot, there were few sunny days and fewer tourists at the beach.

  Unexpectedly, as soon as summer vacation ended, high temperatures appeared for 5 consecutive days.

  This sweltering weather made Zhi's mood become irritable and restless, unable to help but curse the heavens in her heart.

  It's so hot outside, how can anyone concentrate on reading a book?!

  She lifted her hair with one hand and turned up the volume of the radio a bit.

  At this time, Tomoko stared at the small moth on the screen window. The small moth was no match for the electric fan's wind and suddenly disappeared into the darkness. After the small moth disappeared in the dark, the screen window actually trembled slightly.

  From just now to now, Tomoko's homework has made no progress at all.

  The exam is tomorrow and even if I pull an all-nighter tonight, there's no way I can finish reviewing the entire scope of the exam...

  Tomoko gazed anxiously at the clock.

  It's almost 5 o'clock.

  She wanted to turn on the TV to watch professional baseball news, maybe she could see her parents on TV, but she couldn't shake off tomorrow's exam.

  Going to college is Chiko's greatest wish. As long as she can be called a "college student", it doesn't matter which school she attends.

  But the sticky dampness in the house made her feel extremely irritable and she couldn't muster up the energy to study.

  Alas! This is the last summer vacation of high school, it should be spent more relaxed.

  After this summer vacation, I will have to bid farewell to being a 'high school girl'...

  Because of her emotional turmoil, Chiko suddenly vented her anger on her parents.

  Honestly! They didn't even think about their own daughter sweating and studying hard, yet the couple still had the leisure to go watch a night game... Can't they consider my feelings as a daughter?!

  Due to work-related reasons, Chiko's parents received an invitation ticket for the Giants game, so the two of them went to Tokyo Dome to watch the baseball game together.

  If they didn't go anywhere else after the game ended, they should have arrived home a long time ago.

  But now, in this brand new 4-bedroom house (1 living room, 1 dining room, 1 kitchen, and 4 bedrooms), there is only Tomoko.

  These days, although it hasn't rained clearly, Chiko felt a thick and heavy moisture in the air, apart from the sweat that seeped out of her own body, she was convinced that there were some invisible tiny water droplets in this room.

  Tomoko unconsciously slapped her thigh, vaguely feeling an itch on her knee, but when she opened her hand, there was no mosquito in sight.

  Am I being too sensitive?

  Then she heard a loud flapping sound and immediately raised her hands high above her head and waved them several times.

  Flies!

  The fly dodged the electric fan's blow and flew low over the door, temporarily disappearing from Tomoko's line of sight.

  Tomiko checked the gap between the screen and the wall but couldn't find any gaps large enough for a fly to enter.

  The door was clearly closed... Where on earth did this fly come from?

  Suddenly, she felt a wave of urination and thirst, and a strange pressure surged up in her heart.

  That pressure didn't make her feel like she was having trouble breathing, but it relentlessly pressed against her chest...

  Tomoko used to complain all the time, but now she's become strangely quiet.

  As she walked down the stairs, she suddenly felt her heart pounding.

  A car drove past the house on the road, its headlights quickly sweeping across the wall under the stairs before disappearing. The engine sound gradually faded away, and the surroundings seemed even darker than before.

  Tomoko deliberately made heavy footsteps going down the stairs and turned on the lights in the corridor.

  She first relieved herself of that urge, then sat on the toilet and stared blankly for a while, but the turmoil in her heart still did not subside.

  Before today, Chiko had never had such a strange feeling.

  What's going on here?

  Tomoko took a few deep breaths and then stood up, pulling her underwear and shorts back up together.

  "Dad, Mom, just be good and come back quickly!"

  She said with a trembling voice.

  Tomoko washed her hands at the marble sink in the kitchen, then opened the refrigerator with her wet hands and threw ice cubes from the freezer into a glass, pouring cola.

  She downed the whole cup of Coke in one gulp, then set the glass on the bar, the ice cubes clinking for a moment before falling silent.

  Tomoko suddenly felt a chill run down her spine and shivered involuntarily.

  She then took out a 1.5-liter bottle of Coke from the refrigerator and poured it into the cup with trembling hands.

  Suddenly, she felt a strange and eerie aura emanating from behind her, an aura that was definitely not human. It was as if the stench of rotting flesh had seeped into the air, enveloping her in its putrid grasp.

  "Please... don't..."

  Tomoko weakly begged.

  At this time, the 15-watt fluorescent lamp above the marble counter suddenly flickered non-stop.

  This lamp was just installed recently and it's already broken.

  Tomoko deeply regretted not turning on all the lights in the house earlier. Now she didn't even have the energy to get up and turn them on, nor could she muster the strength to turn her head around to look at the "thing" behind her.

  Behind her was a 16-square-meter Japanese-style room, with grandfather's altar on the wall niche. The curtains in the house were not pulled up, so you could see the grassy ground outside the glass window, as well as the grid lights of the apartment building.

  By the time she had drunk half of her second glass of cola, Tomiko was completely paralyzed.

  If the eerie atmosphere surrounding Chiko was due to her psychological turmoil, it was a bit too thick. Gradually, it seemed as if something was touching her neck...

  What if it's "that one"?

  Tomoko didn't dare think about it anymore, she was deeply afraid that she couldn't bear the gradually swelling fear, so she tried to throw away what happened a week ago.

  Xiu Yi said... Since "that" is what's being said on top, everyone has no way to retreat...

  Who is playing the prank?

  Tomoko tried to think of something more pleasant.

  But if it's really "that" that's going on... If that's true... Ah, wasn't someone making a phone call at that time?

  What are Mom and Dad doing...

  "Hurry back!"

  Tomiko couldn't help but cry out.

  However, the eerie aura surrounding her still lurked closely behind her, waiting for an opportunity to arise.

  At 17 years old, Chiko was still unclear what "fear" was, but at this time she deeply felt the fear that was gradually expanding in her chest.

  If I turn back, I definitely won't see anything, there definitely won't be anything...

  At that moment, she felt an overwhelming urge to turn around and take a look, just to make sure there was nothing behind her, so she could escape this state of being on the verge of collapse.

  Tomoko felt a chill run down her back, goosebumps all over her body, and a cold sweat broke out from her shoulders, running down her spine, soaking her entire T-shirt.

  Just then, a sound came from behind her.

  There shouldn't be anything behind!

  If I don't quickly finish drinking this Coke and go back to my room to study, tomorrow's exam will be totally ruined...

  In an instant, the ice cubes in the glass clinked and shattered into pieces. At this moment, Tomoko also turned her head back in response...

  Until Nishio Ishin translated the whole book, he found that his back was already wet!

  What made him nervous was not just the text, but also the paintings that were inserted in this book, which employed super-realistic techniques. Almost every painting appeared after a crucial scene, and those eerie paintings made Shinji Nishino's scalp tingle again and again.

  "Bang~ Bang~ Bang~"

  The knock at the door was sudden and loud, causing Nishino Shinji to jump up from his chair in extreme tension. "P-please... come in!"

  Nishio Ishin, who had become the editor-in-chief of Shueisha, had never felt so nervous. The door slowly opened, and fortunately, it wasn't that woman in white clothes, with long straight hair covering her face, rolling her terrifying eyeballs, having lost all ten fingernails, crawling towards him - Sadako Yamamura!

  "Mr. Xin, this is the TV you ordered yesterday, where would you like to put it?"

  "What? The TV set, no, no, return it immediately!"

  Nishino Shinji felt a chill run down his spine as he occasionally glanced at the TV that had been turned on, wondering if it would suddenly display a snowy screen and then, that woman would crawl out of it with a creepy "hee-hee" sound!

  Just then, the phone suddenly rang.

  "Ah~"

  Nishino Shinji let out a loud shriek and curled up in the corner of the wall, his whole body trembling uncontrollably!

  This is the first time Shinji Higuchi has lost his composure since joining Shueisha!

  Katō Toshihiko was startled by Nishino Shinji's actions and quickly ran out of the room, hugging his TV and thinking to himself that he was definitely in for a disaster this time!

  It took a long time for Nishi Shinji to stop trembling! He broke out in cold sweat, and now his entire body was exuding a sense of relief! Masterpiece, it's truly a rare masterpiece! He finally understood why Nishi Mariko didn't come home that night! She really did find an extremely promising work! What's even more remarkable is the author's painting technique - perhaps all of Shueisha's manga works can't compare to his! But, why are his characters so ugly?

  Nishino Shinji couldn't help but burst out laughing!

  "Hello, is this Toshihiko? Please come to the editor's office right away. Yes, now!"

  Kazuki Junichi made a bitter face and knocked on the editor-in-chief's office door with an air of trepidation, as if he was rushing to his own execution.

  "Xin Si Jun, is there anything I can help you with?"

  Higashino Araki handed over the manuscript, "Re-correct the grammar in this manuscript and hand it back to me by this time tomorrow!"

  "Huh?"

  "Didn't you bring your brain to work today, Toshihiko? What are you spacing out for? And write a reading report, huh? Remember to carry the TV up here for me!"

  Kazuto Katsuragi took over the manuscript with a dazed expression.

  "So, I'm counting on you!"

  Kazuki Junpei felt that the editor-in-chief was somewhat unusual, and he timidly walked to the front of the door.

  "By the way, Toshihiko-kun, if possible, please don't check the manuscript with the TV on! Hmm, this is just a piece of advice from me to you!"