In Tokyo, a criminal

Chapter 376: Money is the key to success, the first major case of the year
At ten o'clock in the evening, in a street-side restaurant.

Dongye Jiecheng wolfed down his food while talking about his recent experience. He couldn't help crying when he was moved. "Kitano-kun, if it weren't for you, I wouldn't even know where to eat this meal."

"I didn't expect that such a great man like my uncle would also encounter misfortune. It's really sad. Please accept my condolences, Higashino-kun." Kitano Keiji sighed sympathetically, handed him a glass of water, and said with a serious expression: "But Higashino-kun, you'd better quit gambling and do something serious, otherwise I can't help you much. Gambling is a bottomless pit!"

"I know, I know. I have really come to my senses this time. I will never gamble again." Dongye Jiecheng took the water cup and drank it all in one gulp. He wiped his mouth and said seriously, "I am going to do some business."

"Doing business?" Kitano Keiji's eyes lit up and he agreed repeatedly, "This is a good thing. As long as you have something to do, your energy will come back soon. But, Higashino-kun, do you still have the capital to do business?"

Dongye Jiecheng pursed his lips and said, "I still have a few pieces of jewelry left by my mother. If I sell them, I should be able to get hundreds of thousands of dollars. I'm sorry for her. If she knew about this, she would definitely be very sad to see an unfilial son like me doing this."

As he spoke, tears began to flow again. Ever since his family fell into poverty, he had become more and more fond of crying.

"You are wrong to think so, Higashino-kun." Kitano Keiji handed over a few tissues and encouraged him, "As long as you can sincerely repent and do something serious with the things your aunt left behind and help your children, your aunt's spirit in heaven will definitely be very happy and relieved."

"Thank you Kitano-kun for your comfort. I feel much better now." Higashino Yusei said, wiping away his tears.

"I'm not very good at comforting people, but I'm just telling the truth." Kitano Keiji scratched his head with a silly smile, then asked with a spirited look: "By the way, Higashino-kun, what kind of business are you planning to start? How about I help you? I'm about to graduate anyway, and I'm having a headache finding a job."

"That's great! I was just worried that I couldn't do it alone!" Dongye Jiecheng was immediately delighted and began to look forward to the future. "When my father started his business, he didn't have as much capital as I do, and he also relied on a few friends to start the business. As long as Kitano-kun and I work together, we will definitely succeed!"

"Hi! Mr. Dongye, please take care of me in the future!" Kitano Keiji bowed with a smile.

"What boss? We are brothers!" Dongye Jiecheng shook his head and seriously corrected him: "You are not my employee, but my collaborator!"

"Ah! Higashino-kun, but...but I can't come up with the funds." Kitano Keiji felt a little embarrassed.

Dongye Jiecheng pointed at the food on the table and said firmly: "This is your investment!"

A meal of kindness must be repaid.

"Higashino-kun..." Kitano Keiji was so moved that he moved his lips as if he wanted to say something but in the end he didn't say it. He bowed deeply and said, "Hi!"

Then he asked casually, "By the way, Dongye-kun, didn't you lose your house? Can you get back the jewelry that your aunt left behind?"

Dongye Jiecheng, who was eating rice with his head down, paused for a moment, his expression slightly changed, but soon returned to normal, raised his head and said, "I secretly brought my things out when I packed up and left. I hid them near my house. We'll get them after we finish eating."

"Hi!" Kitano Keiji nodded in response.

After the meal, Kitano Keiji paid the bill and Higashino Yusei took him to his home and took out a heavy small bag from the flower bed at the side door. When he opened it, he found it was filled with all kinds of precious gold and silver jewelry.

Kitano Keiji swallowed with saliva in his throat.

"It's still there." Higashino Yusei smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. He quickly tied the bag, turned his head and looked at Kitano Keiji and asked, "Where are we going now?"

"The dormitory is closed at this time, and you probably don't want to go back to live there. I still have some money on me, so let's find a hotel to stay in." Kitano Keiji was stunned for a moment before he came to his senses and answered softly.

Dong Ye Jiecheng nodded, "Okay!"

The two found a cheap hotel, asked for a twin room, and after a quick wash, they rested.

At night, the room was pitch dark. Kitano Keiji, who was lying on the bed on the right, quietly got up, walked gently to Higashino Yusei, and reaching out to take the bag of jewelry in his arms, suppressing his excitement.

As a follower of Dongye, he always regarded it as his meal ticket. When the meal ticket did not come to school for a long time, he had already asked Dongye's friends about what happened and his recent status.

The reason why he came to meet Dongye Jiecheng after receiving the call for help was because he felt that a skinny camel was bigger than a horse. With Dongye Jiecheng's rich family background, even if he really became addicted to gambling and lost everything, he would be able to scrape out some money from other places in the short term.

Keiji Kitano came here just for this little bit of money.

It turned out to be true.

The Higashino family has gone bankrupt, so even if he runs away with the jewellery, he is not afraid of retaliation from the other party.

The jewelry is worth hundreds of thousands of US dollars!

Enough for me to go back to my hometown, renovate the house and get married.

Damn, these damn rich people can still come up with so much money even if they are bankrupt, how hateful!
"Snapped!"

Just then, his wrist was grabbed.

"Kitano-kun, what do you want to do?" Higashino Jiecheng grabbed his wrist with one hand, sat up from the bed and turned on the light in the room with the other hand.

The room suddenly became as bright as day.

Higashino Yusei looked at Kitano Keiji with pain and disappointment in his eyes. The great change he had experienced had taught him that one should always be on guard against others. When Kitano Keiji showed concern for these jewellery, he had already become suspicious, but he always held on to a glimmer of hope.

After all, the moment Kitano Keiji came to see him on a motorcycle, he truly believed that the other party would be his lifelong best friend who would share weal and woe with him.

But never expected.

This fantasy was now easily shattered by the other party.

"Hitsuno-kun, you... you didn't sleep." Kitano Keiji, who was caught stealing, panicked and stumbled. Hitsuno Jiecheng sneered, "If I had slept, I would have been a pauper again when I woke up. Kitano Keiji, I trusted you so much and treated you as a brother, but I was too naive. In fact, you had bad intentions from the beginning! You bastard!"

"Baka! Shut up!" Kitano Keiji's face turned pale and blue, and he retorted in anger, "You treat me as a brother? You treat me as a dog, right? You relied on your family's few stinky money to order me around and humiliate me at every turn. Now that no one cares about you, you treat me as a brother. Do you think I care?"

Dongye Jiecheng knew that what he had done in the past was indeed a bit excessive, and his face turned red as he said, "But didn't I pay for your tuition and living expenses? You ungrateful bastard! Get out! Get out of my sight right now! I don't want to see you again in the future!"

"Fuck you!" Kitano Keiji suddenly kicked Higashino Yusei to the ground, then grabbed the jewelry bag that fell on the bed and ran away without looking back.

"Ah! Stop!" Higashino Yusei climbed up from the bed, picked up the ashtray on the bedside table and smashed it out. It landed on the back of Kitano Keiji's head with a bang, causing his body to stagger and fall on the spot.

Kitano Keiji endured the pain in the back of his head and tried to get up and escape, so he reached out for the door handle.

In desperation, Dongye Jiecheng rushed over and pushed him to the ground, then picked up an ashtray beside him and hit him on the head repeatedly with red eyes.

"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"

One, two, three...

Dongye Jiecheng stopped only when he was exhausted, panting. The negative emotions that had been suppressed in his heart for a long time were also released. Looking at the bloody corpse in front of him with horror, he subconsciously stepped back and sat down on the ground, his face pale and trembling.

"Ah! Kitano-kun! Kitano-kun! Kitano Keiji, wake up!" Higashino Yusei pounced on him again and shook Kitano Keiji continuously, but there was no response. He then cautiously reached out his hand to test the other's breath.

After confirming that the person was really dead, he fell to the ground again, feeling as if the sky had fallen down. He sat there with a dull look in his eyes, not coming to his senses for a long time.

He really didn't intend to kill the other person!

Higashino Yusei knew that he was finished. There were surveillance cameras inside and outside the hotel, and he had no way to move the body. If someone found Kitano Keiji dead tomorrow, they would naturally identify him as the murderer.

"Why is this happening? Why? How could it turn out like this! How could it be... wuwuwu!"

Dongye Jiecheng hugged his head and cried somewhat devastatingly. After more than ten minutes, the crying gradually stopped, and the panic and confusion on his face were replaced by ferocity and violence.

"If you don't give me a way to live, then no one will live."

In his opinion, the culprit who caused him to end up in this situation was the casino that had set up a honey trap for him from the beginning.

Now when the day breaks, he will inevitably become a fugitive hiding from place to place, with no future or tomorrow to speak of, so he wants revenge and to vent!
Even if I die, I cannot die with regrets.

....................................

At four o'clock in the morning, bustling Tokyo had fallen into silence. Except for a few drunkards and delinquents, there was basically no one on the streets.

With messy hair, unshaven beard and unkempt appearance, Higashino Yui rode an old motorcycle to the door of the casino where he and Suzuki Yuki first entered. The sign outside said it was a private club.

Although the door was closed at this time and there was a sign saying that the club would be closed for three days for the New Year, and it looked empty, but as a former regular customer here, Dongye Yusei knew very well that this was just an appearance, and the secret casino in the club must be bustling with activity at this moment.

He got out of the car with a cigarette in his mouth, locked the front and back doors from the outside with two big locks to prevent anyone from opening the doors from the outside, then took two plastic barrels full of gasoline from the motorcycle and poured them at the front and back doors, then threw the cigarette butt in his mouth over.

Boom! A flame jumped up, and then the fire quickly expanded and turned into a raging fire. The alcohol stored in the clubhouse became a fuel for combustion.

"Gamblers must not die well." Dongye Jiecheng slowly lit a cigarette and muttered to himself.

Seeing that the fire was getting more and more intense, Dongye Jiecheng got on his motorcycle and drove away without looking back.

"Ah! Help! Help!"

"Someone come quickly! Come and save us!"

Screams soon came from the club behind them.

But as the fire grew more and more intense, the screams became fainter and fainter until they disappeared completely, leaving only a ball of fire that dyed half of the Tokyo night sky red.

In the early morning, the fire that had been burning all night had been put out by the fire brigade. The police set up a cordon outside the scene. Inside the cordon were charred bodies. After counting, a total of 54 people died.

A large number of reporters and onlookers gathered outside the cordon and were shocked by the large number of corpses.

"Mr. Policeman! Have you found out the cause of the fire? Is there a possibility of arson?"

"I saw a lot of burnt chips on some of the bodies. Is this a secret casino? Was the fire caused by a gang fight?"

Nakamura Shinichi, who arrived at the scene, had a gloomy face and turned a deaf ear to the reporters' questions. After checking the surveillance footage at the door of the store opposite last night, he was able to confirm that this was a tragedy caused by arson.

54 people, this is a horrific number of casualties.

This is truly the biggest case of the year.

More importantly, he knew the arsonist in the surveillance video. He was the unlucky guy, Yusuke Higashino, whose family was destroyed and whose life was ruined by the beauty trap and the casino that he had planned under the orders of Aoyama Hidenobu.

(End of this chapter)