The Tokyo Police Journey Begins with the Ability to See Evil Thoughts

About ten minutes later, Muheyou had moved all her remaining belongings into the bedroom and put them away.

Seeing that Kamiya Gen was still cooking, she thought for a moment and then pushed his luggage into his bedroom.

Then I realized that this guy's bedroom was already filled with so many things.

The old bed has been replaced with a brand new oak bed. The plain cotton and linen bedding is laid out neatly, and even the edges of the sheets are carefully tucked under the mattress without a single wrinkle.

The wardrobe door on the left was half-open, and you could see that the clothes inside had been neatly arranged.

Police uniforms were ironed crisply and hung on hangers one by one. Casual clothes were folded neatly according to the season and placed in different compartments. Ties and belts were rolled into neat rolls and placed in special storage compartments.

He installed a solid wood desk by the window himself, and there was not a single trinket on the desk.

Besides desk lamps, fountain pens, and ink, there were notebooks categorized by type. A schedule was posted in the corner of the desk, showing the repayment progress of the student loan, the monthly income and expenditure plan, and even the budget for grocery shopping was clearly marked.

In the corner stood a three-tiered shelf. The middle tier held a toolbox, with screwdrivers, wrenches, and measuring tapes neatly arranged by size. Next to it was a first-aid kit. The bottom tier held his running shoes and hiking backpack. The shoes were spotless, with the toes pointing in the same direction and placed straight.

What surprised Muheyou the most was a small pot of mint on the windowsill, which was separated from the clump that Grandma Sato had planted on the balcony.

A detailed map of the surrounding area was posted on the wall, with the location of the police station marked in red, as well as nearby supermarkets, farmers' markets, 24-hour convenience stores, and even several routes suitable for morning runs, all circled in blue.

Muheyou stared for a long time before sheepishly backing away.

In comparison, my own room... has practically nothing at all!

They only had a pitifully few sets of clothes.

Muhe Yu turned to look at Kamiya Gen, who was wearing an apron and cooking, and felt that, just as her mother had said, he was an extremely serious person when it came to life.

"Come over and try it, see how the saltiness is."

Kamiya Gen's voice pulled her back to reality. Kiha Yu said "Oh" and then walked towards the kitchen.

Kamiya Gen handed her a soup spoon and then said, "Be careful, it's hot. I don't want to have to find medicine for you later. But I have a first-aid kit in my room. You can ask if you need anything. I always keep painkillers on hand."

"I'm not that stupid..." Muheyou muttered, scooping up a spoonful of soup and putting it in her mouth.

The delicious aroma of miso melts on the tongue, enveloping the smooth texture of tender tofu. The base flavor of kelp is fresh but not cloying, perfectly complementing the sweetness of the radish.

Muheyou's eyes brightened slightly, but she still pursed her lips, handed the soup spoon back to him, and said stubbornly, "It's alright, a little better than the soup in the police station canteen."

"Just a little stronger?"

Kamiya Gen smiled and took the ladle, casually turning off the low heat of the casserole. With a gentle flip of the spatula, the aroma of oil instantly filled the entire kitchen. "You're just being stubborn."

Muheyou disagreed with him and instead said, "Speaking of which, when did you tidy up the bedroom like that? I thought you just brought a suitcase."

"It was all set up within the first three days before we moved in."

Kamiya Gen flipped the spatula with practiced ease. "We can't just move in like this, like we're living in a police station dormitory, just making do day by day, right?"

"That's true... What did you make?"

With a flick of his wrist, Kamiya Gen flipped the spatula along the side of the pan, scooping the shredded pork tenderloin, which was about 80% cooked, into a slotted spoon to drain the oil. "Authentic Chinese dish, Yu Xiang Rou Si (Fish-flavored Shredded Pork), you probably haven't had it before."

Muheyou leaned closer to the pot and looked at it. The shredded meat in the strainer was coated with a thin layer of starch and was pale white in color. It was completely different from the Japanese cooking method she was familiar with, and her eyes were full of doubt.

"Fish-fragrant? I don't see any fish. Is the broth made with fish?"

"No fish needed."

Kamiya Gen turned the stove to medium heat, poured some more rapeseed oil into the pot, and when the oil was about 60% hot, he threw in the chopped pickled peppers, minced ginger, and minced garlic, and quickly stir-fried them until fragrant. "Fish-fragrant is a seasoning style that is balanced with salt, sweet, sour, and spicy flavors, with the fresh aroma of pickled peppers. It has nothing to do with fish. Could you hand me that white porcelain bowl on the table?"

Muheyou quickly picked up the white bowl that had been prepared beforehand on the table and handed it over. The bowl contained a sauce that had been mixed according to a specific ratio. She had just watched Kamiya Gen prepare it, but she couldn't understand the logic behind the ratio at all: "What's in this?"

"Combin light soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, cornstarch, and water, and stir well."

Kamiya Gen took the bowl, poured the sauce into the pot, and stirred it constantly over medium heat until the sauce became clear and bubbly. "Prepare the sauce in advance for Chinese stir-fries to avoid being flustered while cooking and overcooking the vegetables. Bring me the shredded wood ear mushrooms, carrots, and bamboo shoots that I've already arranged."

Muheyou immediately handed over the bowl of side dishes next to her, watching as Kamiya Gen poured the side dishes into the pot. This was completely different from the fresh and light flavor of Japanese cuisine that she was familiar with. The fresh spiciness of the pickled peppers mixed with the sweet and sour aroma exploded instantly, going straight into her nose.

She subconsciously swallowed: "It smells alright, but with so much chili, it's bound to be very spicy."

"Pickled peppers only enhance the aroma; they are very mildly spicy."

Kamiya Gen turned off the heat, put the stir-fried shredded pork with garlic sauce into a plate, and casually placed the pot on the cooling rack next to the stove.

"What else do you need to make? I see there are so many side dishes here; you were just preparing these, weren't you?"

"It's not just about doing these things. Didn't you also make that pot of miso soup at the same time? And, I feel like I'm fast enough to finish all these side dishes in just over ten minutes."

Kamiya Gen's words are absolutely objective. In his previous life, he worked part-time in a restaurant during college. Back then, there were two assistants in the restaurant, and even when they worked together, they could only manage to keep up with his current pace. The main difference is that working for the restaurant and working on your own are completely different experiences.

"What dish should we make next?" Muheyou asked again.

"Hot and sour shredded potatoes, then Mapo tofu, stir-fried eggplant, twice-cooked pork, and finally a cold dish."

Some of the vegetables were pomelo, which she had only heard of but never tried, but her focus was elsewhere: "Isn't this a bit too much? Can we really finish it all?"

Upon hearing this, Kamiya Gen paused for a moment, then said, "I believe in your strength."

It turns out they never intended to finish it!

Mu Heyou was stunned, then, remembering what he had said about her strength, she immediately retorted, "I don't eat that much! You're slandering me..."

"Wait, move aside, we're about to add the shredded potatoes," Kamiya Gen reminded, picking up a plate of drained side dishes.

Accompanied by a loud, sharp, and intense "sizzle," Muheyou instinctively shrank her neck in fright.

Kamiya Gen, however, didn't care at all. He held the pot handle firmly with his left hand, gripped the spatula with his right hand, and quickly stirred the food with force.

The shredded potatoes were tossed about in the wok, flying up and then falling back down. Each turn was accompanied by a whooshing sound. The distinct strands of potato, coated in hot oil, contracted rapidly under the high temperature, and their originally white color gradually turned into a translucent sheen of oil.

"Please pass me the vinegar!"

Without even looking up, he continued stir-frying at an undiminished speed. The spatula clanged against the bottom of the pan, creating a crisp "clang, clang" sound that blended with the sizzling of the oil, adding to the lively atmosphere of the cooking.

Muheyou quickly grabbed the vinegar bottle next to him and handed it over. Kamiya Gen took the vinegar bottle, poured it onto a spoon, and tilted and rotated his wrist, pouring the vinegar into the pot in an arc.

With a sizzling sound, the sour smell was instantly aroused by the high temperature, spreading out with the aroma of potatoes, making Muheyou blink involuntarily.

"Salt!"

"Dried chili pepper pieces!"

Muheyu is like a robot; when Kamiya Gen calls out a name, she picks up the corresponding item and hands it over.

"Done."

Finally, Kamiya Gen put the pot down by the stove, raised his hand to wipe the thin layer of sweat from his forehead, and said, "Hot and sour shredded potatoes need to be stir-fried over high heat to be crispy; if the heat is too low, they will become soft and tasteless."

"I just realized... how did the fire get so big?" Muheyou asked as she helped move the dish to the side.

Kamiya Gen's lips curled up slightly, quite pleased with his kitchen renovation: "This was a must. The previous stove flame was too small, which completely affected my performance. How could it not be done like this?"

"That's true..." Muheyou whispered, completely conceding to Kamiya Gen's cooking skills.

Anyway, she had no idea that the other party was so strong before. It seems that... even if he were to open a restaurant, he would be more than qualified, right?

……

Kamiya Gen was very quick; in just a short while, he had prepared the remaining dishes and served them on the table. He then served rice to both of them and brought out two bottles of beer.

"To prevent any of us from getting drunk, I only bought these two bottles, and... I definitely can't let you go down and buy any more alcohol."

"You make it sound like I'm some kind of drunkard," Muheyou said.

Kamiya Gen sat opposite her, not noticing anything unusual on her face. He wondered if she had really been so drunk that night that she didn't remember anything.

But now is not the time to think about these things; he was starving.

"Do you want to do that... standard pre-meal ritual?" Kamiya Gen suddenly asked.

Sure enough, Mu Heyou immediately clasped her hands together, her fingertips neatly joined, and earnestly recited the pre-dinner greeting etched into her very being:

"I'm starting to eat."

As soon as she finished speaking, she picked up her chopsticks, her gaze sweeping over the dishes glistening with red oil on the table, before finally settling on the first dish to be served: shredded pork with garlic sauce.

She carefully picked up a piece of shredded meat coated in a glistening sauce with her chopsticks, paired it with two crisp bamboo shoots, blew on it before putting it in her mouth.

The moment you bite down, the tender pork tenderloin shreds, so tender they almost melt in your mouth, bounce on your tongue, and the freshness of pickled peppers, the sourness of rice vinegar, the sweetness of sugar, and the saltiness of soy sauce explode in your mouth.

"How is it?" Kamiya Gen asked deliberately, drawing out his words. As a chef, what he wanted to hear most was praise from diners.

However, Muheyou was clearly not a qualified diner: "It's just... a little better than I expected."

Despite saying that, she didn't stop using her chopsticks and picked up another piece of hot and sour shredded potatoes.

"How did you manage to stir-fry these shredded potatoes so crispy?"

She couldn't help but ask, her eyes full of curiosity, "When I boil potatoes before, they get soft if I cook them for a little longer, but you flipped them in the oil for so long and they weren't soft at all."

"Soak the shredded potatoes in water to remove the starch, stir-fry them over the highest heat the whole time, and they must be taken out of the pan in one and a half minutes. If the heat is too low, they won't work."

Kamiya Gen himself took a bite and felt it was even better than what he had eaten in restaurants in his previous life. He figured it must be because of the system's help with his cooking skills.

"Hmm...that's amazing. I'll try the others."

Muheyou finally couldn't hold back anymore and couldn't be stubborn anymore.

Having grown up eating the delicate and elegant flavors of Japanese cuisine, she had never tasted anything so intense and straightforward—it didn't care about the presentation or the ultimate flavor of the ingredients; it was simply fragrant, spicy, and fresh. One bite and it felt like every pore on her body opened up, and her whole body warmed up.

She quickly finished her first bowl of rice, then served herself a second bowl before looking up at Kamiya Gen, who was shoveling rice into his mouth across from her. Her tone was serious and earnest.

"To be honest, with your skills, you could open a Chinese restaurant in Ginza and it would definitely be a hit. I've eaten at the most expensive Chinese restaurant in Ginza before, and it couldn't taste like this."

Kamiya Gen raised an eyebrow and said, "Of course... Wait, how much did a meal at that Chinese-style restaurant cost?"

Mu Heyou paused, her hand holding the chopsticks, taken aback by his sudden question. She hesitated for a moment before realizing what he meant, then tilted her head and thought for a moment:

"I went with my university classmates and ordered the restaurant's top-tier kaiseki set meal, which was about 50,000 yen per person. We also opened a bottle of sake, so it came to about 70,000 yen per person when split between us. What's wrong?"

"Is this meal worth 100,000 yen?"

"That feels perfectly adequate..."

Hearing this, Kamiya Gen suddenly felt more confident and joked, "Then it's 100,000 yen. I only owe you 320,000 yen."

"How can you calculate it like that?! You're taking advantage of our misfortune, and you'll end up losing money yourself... At most, at most, it'll be 50,000 yen."

"Just kidding."

Kamiya Gen hadn't expected her to be so serious, and changed his tune, saying, "Who charged you? Besides, I'll be cooking and eating every day from now on. Do you expect me to earn a million dollars a month from you?"

"I thought you were serious..." Muheyou picked up some stir-fried eggplant and put it into her bowl.

"Why would you think that about me? Do you really think I'm such a shameless person?"

Muheyou did not answer.

What she really wanted to say was that the other person was a very serious person.

That's why she believed that every word spoken by Kamiya Gen was the result of careful consideration.

……

The peace lasted only a short time. After they finished eating and washed the dishes together, they started arguing about taking a bath.

"I can't possibly wait for you to finish showering before I take a bath; it just feels weird," Muheyou said earnestly, holding her bath supplies.

Kamiya Gen was somewhat speechless: "Then you go soak first, I'll wash later..."

"That won't work either, I feel it's strange too."

Kamiya Gen was really annoyed. The water heater in this house couldn't possibly hold two buckets of water. This guy was completely out of his mind. If he had explained this earlier, he would have just replaced the water heater.

Muheyou knew her words were unreasonable; she couldn't very well refuse to let the other person wash, so after considering it, she lowered her demands and whispered:

"Well, how about this, I'll go wash first, but when you go in later, you can't think about anything strange or do anything strange."

"You can rest assured, I have no intention of doing those things, and as for wanting to... I don't think I would."

Kamiya Gen deliberately looked at her barren chest and said.

After some arguing, Muheyou went into the bathroom first.

With a "click," the bathroom door closed, shutting out the lights and sounds from the living room.

The bathtub was already filled with water. Muheyou took off her clothes and slowly sat in the warm water, the hot water instantly enveloping her whole body.

She leaned against the edge of the bathtub, letting the massage water gently rub against her back and waist. She closed her eyes, but her mind was uncontrollably filled with images of Kamiya Gen from today.

In the misty air, those fragmented thoughts that she usually suppressed finally surfaced one by one, like bubbles in water.

In many ways, she disliked Kamiya Gen's style of doing things. He lacked the discipline and routine expected of a police officer, always took unconventional approaches to solving cases, spoke carelessly and irresponsibly, and always liked to go against her.

He adheres to the rules and regulations in handling cases, while he insists on crossing the line and finding shortcuts. The two have only known each other for a few months, but they have already argued countless times about interrogation methods and case-handling procedures, and cold wars are a common occurrence.

In real life, he is completely different from the person she remembers.

His dedication was never overt; it was shown in how he gradually transformed a rented apartment into a home.

The heat of the hot water seeped into her bones through her skin, and Muheyou's cheeks felt slightly hot, whether from the heat or from the jumbled thoughts in her mind, she didn't know.

Why did I even ask him to come and share the apartment?

Of course, Yuzuki hadn't forgotten the night she kissed Genji Kamiya.

However, upon reflection, she realized that she had drunk too much and acted impulsively due to a momentary emotional outburst.

It couldn't be that he likes me... Besides, he never said he liked me. As for the little box in his pocket, that's too common. Aren't all men like that?

He also brought other women back to the hotel...

Muheyou relaxed a bit, half of her face submerged in the water, with only her nose and above remaining above the surface.

"Gurgle gurgle~"

Bubbles kept rising from the water's surface. Muheyou inhaled through her nose and exhaled through her mouth.

She figured it out.

I invited Kamiya-kun to share the apartment mainly because I wanted to keep him from taking people to hotels; it still made me uncomfortable.

But it's not that I like it... although the idea of ​​"living life seriously" is quite admirable.

Forty minutes later, the bathroom door was finally opened.

Muheyou walked out wearing a beige cotton pajama set, her shoulder-length short hair wrapped in a matching towel, the ends of which were still damp.

Only a small nightlight was on in the entryway of the living room, its warm yellow light barely enough to illuminate a small area near the door. The dining table was spotless, and all the pots and pans had been put back in the kitchen cabinets.

She glanced around the living room but didn't see Kamiya Gen, and her heart skipped a beat.

She could hear him packing his things in the living room when she was taking a shower, so why is he silent now?

Could it be that he went back to his bedroom? But the door to his bedroom was still ajar, and the light was off.

Muheyou tiptoed and walked from the living room toward the balcony. As soon as she reached the sliding door, she could see what was inside.

The glass door to the balcony wasn't closed tightly, leaving a crack through which the evening breeze blew in.

On the wicker recliner, Kamiya Gen was asleep, his thin jacket from the daytime haphazardly draped over his body. One hand hung by his side, a half-empty bottle of beer still dangling from his fingertips, while the other hand was behind his head. His breathing was steady and long, clearly indicating that he was asleep.

This guy... why does he always like to sleep here...?

Mu Heyou couldn't help but smile slightly, but quickly pursed her lips, afraid that making a noise would wake him.

She gently pushed open the glass door, walked step by step to the recliner, slowly squatted down, and stopped beside him.

Only when she was close enough could she clearly observe the sleeping Kamiya Gen.

He always had a carefree attitude, with a smile always on his lips and a calculating glint in his eyes. He seemed to care about nothing, yet everything was under his control.

But now that he's asleep, the casual smile on his face has completely disappeared. His eyebrows and eyes are relaxed, and he no longer has the sharpness and liveliness he usually does, but instead shows a clean and youthful air.

The stray hairs on his forehead fell down, partially obscuring his brow bone, and she noticed a very shallow scar on his left brow bone, almost invisible unless you looked closely. It must have been left from when he was investigating a case and chasing a criminal.

His eyelashes weren't long, but they were thick, and when he slept, they drooped gently, casting a small, light shadow under his eyes.

A light stubble had appeared on his chin, indicating that he had been quite tired from moving these past few days.

Muheyou squatted quietly by the recliner, watching him with barely a whisper.

Finally, she took out her phone, thinking of taking a photo of the two of them together—it was the first day of sharing an apartment, after all, and it was time to commemorate it.

She turned slightly, raised her phone, and opened the camera.

But they were startled by the sudden ringing of the bell.

At the same time, Kamiya Gen opened his eyes, looked at the "Mother" call notification on Kiha Yu's phone, and asked in confusion:

Are you bragging to me about having a mother?

Muheyou: "..."

……

After Kamiya Gen came out of the shower, he saw her sitting on the sofa watching TV, so he found a place to sit down, took out two bags of potato chips from the coffee table drawer, and tossed one to her:

"So, what did your aunt say? Do you want you to move out immediately?"

"How could that be... I already told her about sharing an apartment with you before," Muheyou muttered, unpacking the bag while her gaze remained fixed on the television.

Kamiya Gen was somewhat surprised and asked, "She actually agreed? I thought she would definitely give you a good beating."

"Your thinking is too old-fashioned. It's just a shared apartment, we don't do anything. She called just to ask how it's going since she moved in."

"How are you feeling?" Kamiya Gen asked.

Actually, he had never lived with a woman before, so he felt quite uncomfortable with it.

It's worth mentioning, however, that the water temperature seemed to be set quite high when Muheyu took a bath. Although Kamiya Gen soaked in it later, he didn't feel any discomfort at all; on the contrary, the temperature was just right.

"It's just so-so, but your cooking is pretty good."

"Will there be bodyguards monitoring us from a distance at any time?" Kamiya Gen suddenly asked, looking towards the window.

Mu Heyou was slightly taken aback, and it took her a while to realize what he meant. She said speechlessly, "How could that be? Do you think they don't rest? Besides, after that incident last time, I explicitly forbade anyone from monitoring me anymore. Speaking of which, my mother is too exaggerated. She's had a bunch of people guarding me all the time since I was little. I'm already so grown up, why do I need protection..."

As Kamiya Gen listened, he suddenly realized the key point.

She seems to... remember what happened that night?

Kamiya Gen paused in his eating of potato chips, unsure whether he should bring it up again.

Since she remembers but hasn't said anything, it seems... she really wants to pretend nothing happened?

Kamiya Gen couldn't figure out how to view this matter, and suddenly lost the mood to watch TV. He got up and said, "I'm going to rest now."

"So early...?"

Before Muheyou could finish speaking, he put down the potato chips, turned around, and went to the bedroom.

"Is there anything we need to talk about? Let's not talk about the case. It's already past working hours, and I'm off tomorrow, so I definitely won't be working on any cases with you."

Kamiya Gen turned to look at her, thought for a moment, and then changed his mind, saying, "Unless it's a particularly serious case, the kind where you're sure you don't have the ability to solve it."

"No, no, but why don't you come and watch this TV series? It's really good."

Kamiya Gen glanced at the TV screen, which was showing a rainy night scene in the streets of Tokyo. The female lead, dressed in a business suit, was standing in front of an office building with an umbrella, arguing with the male lead opposite her with red eyes. The familiar theme song was playing from the TV speakers.

He casually remarked, "What's so great about this TV series? In the end, Lingzi quit the bank job her family had arranged for her and went back to the male lead's hometown. The two of them opened a small photo studio by the sea, and the wedding was held there. Lingzi's parents eventually relented and attended their wedding. To be honest, it was a very ordinary ending."

Muhe You was slightly taken aback: "What are you talking about? This drama only just started airing this month, and tonight it's only the sixth episode. They haven't even finished showing whether Reiko and the male lead will break up. Fuji TV hasn't aired any more episodes, so how could there be an ending? All of Tokyo is guessing whether they'll end up together. How would you know the ending?"

Kamiya Gen was caught off guard. He had been so caught up in his rapid-fire speech that he had completely forgotten the crucial point that this world was different from the one he had transmigrated to.

In his original world, "Dear Days" premiered on Fuji TV in January 1981 and aired all 12 episodes by March. The finale had long been a well-known storyline throughout Japan.

In this world, even though a year has passed, the show is only halfway through.

Let alone the finale, even the most crucial plot twist involving the male and female leads hasn't been revealed yet. Apart from the production team and screenwriter, no one in Japan knows how the story will ultimately unfold.

His words almost exposed his true colors.

Kamiya Gen quickly sorted out the mess in his mind, shrugged casually, and adopted a nonchalant attitude, as if to say, "What's so hard to guess?"

"What's so surprising about that? Aren't all these urban romance dramas based on the same formula?"

He raised his chin, pointed to the female lead on TV who was crying and breaking up with the male lead, and continued to smooth things over:

"The female lead looks pampered, but she is passionate and dares to love and hate. The male lead looks ordinary, but he is down-to-earth and reliable. Even if they break up because of family opposition and class difference, they still have each other in their hearts."

After all that buildup about the female lead's weariness of the life arranged by her family and her yearning for freedom, the ending is inevitably the same: she abandons her comfortable life in Tokyo to follow the male lead to the life she desires, and her parents ultimately have no choice but to compromise. This kind of clichéd plot is everywhere; you can guess it with a grain of salt.

Mu Heyou still frowned, looking at him with a mixture of belief and doubt. She then turned to look at the screen on the television and muttered under her breath:

"It's not that easy to guess... I was talking on the phone with my college classmates, and everyone guessed that Reiko would eventually marry the bank executive introduced by her family and stay in Tokyo to live the life of a rich lady. Some people even said that the male protagonist would give up on Reiko and go back to his hometown alone. But you guessed that they would get married in the end, and you were so specific."

"Keep watching, it'll definitely be just as I guessed..."

Kamiya Gen stopped arguing with her; continuing the conversation would only reveal more, so he turned and went into his room.

Meanwhile, Muheyou stared at the closed door and began to ponder.

After much thought, she finally came to a conclusion...

Is Kamiya trying to use his speculation about the future plot of the TV series to express his views on the development of his relationship with the other person?

It's very possible. He's clearly the kind of person who keeps things to himself. Otherwise, why would he tell me about the ending of a TV drama?

Thinking about all this, she suddenly felt a little nervous, picked up a potato chip, put it in her mouth, and looked at the TV.

Is the female protagonist tired of the life arranged by her family and following the male protagonist to pursue the life she wants?

It's such a cliché plot.