The Daily Life of a Salted Fish Assassin in Various Anime Chapter 13

"Yes, I wouldn't do that either, and he already knew what kind of end awaited him," Jiang Hang nodded. "What I want to ask about is the art museum."

He paused, his expression turning serious before he continued: "Though it's a bit disrespectful to say this about the victim, I wanted to ask Queen of Lawyers if there's any way to preserve that art museum."

"Oh, so that's the kind of commission?" Eri Kisaki didn't seem particularly surprised, pressing further. "Most detectives wouldn't have such thoughts. Can you tell me why?"

"No particular reason, maybe just for my own self-satisfaction," Jiang Hang honestly stated his thoughts. "To be frank, I don't have any artistic sense. I walked through that museum, and at most I thought some of the models looked nice. If the museum really gets demolished and turned into a hotel, and the artworks are sold off, I might even buy a few pieces I like to decorate my office..."

"But that museum, and all the art inside it, were the most precious things in that old man's life. For those things, he committed the gravest mistake with no chance of turning back."

"I won't sympathize with him, but I felt the obsession in his heart. If I hadn't known, I could have kept pretending I didn't. But I saw everything at the scene. I feel like I can do something, or else I think I'll have a knot in my heart for a long time."

"But if I take action for this, even if the outcome doesn't change, then at most I'll just have some regret. It's embarrassing to say, but this is just my own self-satisfaction and self-comfort."

"I understand. 'Seeing it live, one cannot bear to see it die; hearing its cries, one cannot bear to eat its flesh.' You witnessed that scene yourself, so having such thoughts is only human," Eri Kisaki nodded lightly.

"I have one more question," Eri Kisaki raised a finger.

"If the museum is preserved, it still faces the problem of insufficient visitors leading to operating losses. It might hold out for a short time, but over the long term, this situation will inevitably recur. Have you considered that?"

"That's actually easier to solve. If it's just a lack of funds, I plan to donate a sum to the museum for daily maintenance. Beika Art Museum isn't a large museum. Under normal expenses, a few tens of millions of yen a year should be enough to keep it running and maintained."

"Donate? How much are you planning to donate?" Eri Kisaki's brow furrowed slightly. From Jiang Hang's words, his family background didn't seem ordinary.

"Fifty million yen for starters. I don't know if that's enough. If it's not, a hundred million yen isn't a problem either. Of course, I'll need a lawyer to ensure the money isn't used elsewhere. I wouldn't dare trouble Queen of Lawyers with that, but if she could recommend a suitable lawyer, I'd be very grateful."

Fifty million yen—the monetary reward Jiang Hang got from the art museum murder case. It sounded like a lot, but converted to US dollars, it was less than five hundred thousand. A hundred million yen was barely over nine hundred thousand.

Such a small amount to get Eri Kisaki involved—Jiang Hang felt it would lower her prestige, so he straightforwardly asked her to recommend a suitable lawyer.

Jiang Hang couldn't help sighing that he hadn't spread enough positive energy. After a week of taking commissions on the bulletin board and relying on three cases, he'd barely scraped together a hundred and fifty million yen. Thinking of Boss Wang's small goal of a hundred million, he'd only barely reach that in yen.

The system compensation was better—it could satisfy that small goal in one go. He wondered when the system would pull another stunt and send him compensation.

Hearing Jiang Hang casually throw out fifty million and a hundred million, Eri Kisaki was still a bit surprised.

Of course, a hundred million yen was nothing to a conglomerate. She'd handled cases for such groups, which started at tens or hundreds of billions.

But Jiang Hang was just a young man in his early twenties, clearly unconnected to any big conglomerates. Being able to pull out a hundred million yen without batting an eye was already astonishing.

But now wasn't the time to probe his identity. Eri Kisaki noted this mentally, then nodded.

"The annual operating and maintenance costs for such a museum are about twenty to thirty million yen, and the museum has other income sources. With some investment, a hundred million yen plus other revenue should keep it going for ten years without major issues. It seems you've thought this through."

Ten years was a long time. Jiang Hang had originally thought it would only last two or three years.

"In that case, I'll consider your commission. But as a lawyer, I can't and won't make any guarantees before giving you a confirmed answer. I hope you understand. If you have any issues, I can also recommend a junior of mine—she's an excellent lawyer too."

Though Eri Kisaki had maintained an undefeated record so far, it was precisely this caution that had brought her this far.

"I should be the one apologizing, troubling Queen of Lawyers for my own self-satisfaction." Jiang Hang shook his head, indicating he wasn't in a hurry and could wait until Eri Kisaki made her decision.

Chapter 31: Don't Set Me Up with That "Partner of Justice" Flag

After Jiang Hang left, Eri Kisaki called Inspector Megure.

"Inspector Megure, this is Eri Kisaki. Regarding the murderer from yesterday's art museum case, could I meet with him?" She got straight to the point.

On the other end, Inspector Megure's voice sounded flustered, as if he hadn't expected Eri Kisaki to be involved with him.

Even if the suspect was caught red-handed, he was still just a suspect. With Eri Kisaki's methods, even if the police had ironclad evidence, what would happen in court was still uncertain.

That was the pressure Eri Kisaki, the undefeated queen with a perfect win rate, could bring.

Eri Kisaki naturally understood why Inspector Megure was nervous. She explained casually.

After learning she only wanted to ask about the museum's situation, not to defend him, Inspector Megure sighed in relief and agreed to arrange a time for her visit.

After noting the meeting in her memo, Eri Kisaki picked up the business card on her desk.

"Nothing is true, everything is permitted..." That was the line of Italian text on Jiang Hang's card.

In simpler terms, all things are false, and all things are allowed.

A rather philosophical phrase, with a hint of Nietzsche's flavor.

Was this his life motto? No... his style was completely different. Was it a family precept or some other admonition... And it was in Italian. He was clearly of Chinese descent—wouldn't Chinese be more normal?

Was there some reason she didn't know about?

After looking up the Italian to understand the phrase, Eri Kisaki thought to herself.

For someone like her, she always tried to fathom others' minds, and Jiang Hang was no exception.

She had already sent people to gather information on Jiang Hang. Regardless, he was definitely no ordinary detective.

Eri Kisaki couldn't help thinking of her "third-rate detective" husband who only made her angry. She sighed, then returned to her normal work state.

Of course, she wouldn't know that Jiang Hang just thought it was fun and deliberately put it there. He chose Italian because making it incomprehensible seemed impressive. Chinese and English were too common, while few people knew Italian, so he settled on it.

After all, he was originally supposed to be transported to Italy to hang out with Uncle Ezio. Since he ended up here, writing the Creed in Italian as a memento was perfectly normal.

So don't try to guess what's in a shut-in's head, especially when a social elite who loves analyzing people faces a shut-in who's good at hiding his true self.

What she wanted to dig into was just a whim of Jiang Hang's interest.

As for Jiang Hang, after leaving Eri Kisaki's office, he had Shizuka Sakaki drive herself back.

"Jiang Hang-kun, is there something else you need to do?"

"No, just wandering around here to see if there's anything I can help with." Jiang Hang waved his hand. His daily check-in task hadn't been done yet, and he still had positive energy to spread. Plus, in a little while, he'd have to take a major financial hit and donate a hundred million yen.

A single daily commission was only one million yen. If he didn't work hard now, by the end of the month he wouldn't even be able to scrape together three hundred million yen to buy his own agency outright.

Thinking about it, Jiang Hang felt the pressure. Young as he was, he had to run around for money. Life really was too harsh.

Shizuka Sakaki's lips twitched slightly. After spending a few days with Jiang Hang, she'd started to get a rough idea of his personality.

In terms of temperament, he was a complete shut-in. On rainy days or when there was nothing to do outside, he'd hole up in the agency and binge-watch the latest anime.

That day, Shizuka Sakaki had sneaked a peek. Jiang Hang was watching a newly released yuri loli anime. When certain scenes came up, a weird grin would creep onto his face—if you saw that smile at night, it might even give you the creeps.

But when it came to his actions, Jiang Hang was nothing like a shut-in.

No matter the weather, he kept a fixed exercise routine every day. At the same time, he was unusually warm-hearted. Whether someone's things had fallen, or some trouble had cropped up somewhere, or even if the auntie upstairs had run out of soy sauce while cooking—if Jiang Hang noticed it, he'd rush over without hesitation to help. It left people completely unable to figure out what kind of person he really was.

Thinking about the hundred million yen Jiang Hang was preparing to donate to that art museum from Eri Kisaki's office—it brought him no benefit at all. He'd even directly stated he had zero interest in those artworks, that he was only doing it to satisfy his own conscience.

But as for that sense of self-satisfaction... well, Shizuka Sakaki hadn't seen any sign of it from Jiang Hang. She didn't know much about these things, but after learning about Director Ochiai's situation, she now felt that Jiang Hang was a genuinely good person.

Working in an agency like this, for a boss like this—maybe she was pretty lucky too.

Thinking this, Shizuka Sakaki couldn't help saying to Jiang Hang, "Jiang Hang-kun, I suddenly feel like you're like one of those righteous partners from TV dramas."

She thought this was a compliment, a way to express her admiration for him.

Who knew that upon hearing this, Jiang Hang's expression would shift dramatically.

Seeing him like this, Shizuka Sakaki thought helplessly that her boss's quirks were about to show themselves again.

For some reason, he was always overly sensitive about the strangest things. For example, he didn't let anyone call him "Boss"—they had to use his name directly. Or like the day before yesterday, when she'd imitated an anime character's voice and said to him, "Do your best today too, Detective-san," he'd immediately told her never to talk like that in front of him again.

"You can't just throw around the phrase 'righteous partner'—it'll cause big trouble," Jiang Hang said to Shizuka Sakaki with extreme caution.

"I know one righteous partner. He killed his dad as a kid, killed his teacher when he grew up, his wife died after marriage, and he died in the end too. Before he died, he couldn't even see his daughter one last time. Tell me how miserable that is. He also had an adopted son who inherited that ideal, and his death was even worse—there were forty or fifty different ways he died. Tell me how miserable it is to be a righteous partner."

In all kinds of anime, "righteous partner" was practically synonymous with "tragedy."

Shizuka Sakaki's lips twitched again. At first, she thought Jiang Hang was seriously talking about someone he knew, but when he got to the forty or fifty death methods, she realized something was off. How could anyone have that many ways to die?

"Jiang Hang-kun, you're talking about some anime or game plot again, aren't you? That kind of thing doesn't happen in real life... Besides, isn't being a righteous partner a good thing?"

That 'isn't it a good thing' of yours is a textbook loser line. No wonder you couldn't debut for so long in that anime. If you hadn't met me, you'd really have been stuck suffering until then.

Jiang Hang silently grumbled this to himself.

"Anyway, don't ever set up that 'righteous partner' flag for me again. Just think of me as an ordinary positive-energy detective," Jiang Hang said seriously to Shizuka Sakaki.

"Yes, yes, I get it, Boss—ah, no, Jiang Hang-kun." Shizuka Sakaki smiled at him.

She suddenly found this deliberately "flustered and annoyed" act of Jiang Hang's kind of amusing.

Chapter 32: Jiang Hang's Ambition

Over the course of a day, Jiang Hang managed to earn twenty million yen from the system through various trivial commissions and completing his daily check-in reward.

After the check-in task exceeded ten days, the base reward had increased from one million yen to two million yen. He wondered how many more days it would take for the next increase.

Then, at night, after staying up until two in the morning before returning to the agency, Jiang Hang earned another ten million yen from exploration tasks. But lately, he'd already explored most of the area within a ten-kilometer radius of the agency. The golden feather collection tasks had hit a bottleneck, and just going out at night for exploration wasn't cutting it anymore.

So now, while doing exploration tasks, Jiang Hang would also help a few girls being harassed by drunks on the street, and stop a couple of mugging attempts by punks in dark alleys.

Tokyo's public security in this world wasn't bad, but considering it was a world full of famous detectives, it wasn't surprising for Jiang Hang, with his Eagle Eye, to spot three or four such incidents in a single night.

Of course, to avoid trouble, Jiang Hang always put on some simple disguise when acting as a good Samaritan. Plus, with his Eagle Eye keeping watch for anyone noticing him, no one could identify him.

If it weren't for the fact that Jiang Hang currently only had the Advanced Hidden Blade skill and a single Basic Combat skill, he'd have wanted to go after the more covert illegal deals directly.

But in Japan, the yakuza were a massive force. Even if the lower ranks were declining, the big shots at the top had long since spread across every aspect of Japan, with annual revenues in the hundreds of billions of dollars.

One move could affect the whole body. Jiang Hang didn't want to provoke such a behemoth right now.

Even when he'd set up the agency, he'd followed the intermediary's advice and paid a so-called "tribute" to a certain group in the Beika City area.

This was, of course, illegal. But even if the yakuza were legal in Japan, could a truly legal yakuza still be called a "violent group"? The basics like protection money—the big shots at the top might ignore it, but the smaller organizations below, whose fortunes had been dwindling in recent years, were eyeing it greedily and wouldn't give it up.

He could choose not to pay this so-called tribute, but if they found out he had no backing, they'd probably send members to cause trouble regularly.

The detective industry was a mixed bag. If you didn't have the skills, you needed connections and relationships. A detective agency that constantly had people causing trouble wouldn't attract clients unless the detective's abilities were unquestionable.

Of course, if you were that kind of famous detective, those people wouldn't dare cause trouble. After all, a detective even the police had to curry favor with could easily arrange for them to be dealt with.

But Jiang Hang was still far from becoming that kind of famous detective. So for now, he'd play the part of an honest little detective on the surface. As for these yakuza gang matters, the best he could do was report them anonymously by phone. Let the Japanese police deal with the headache.

Two more days passed. After Eri Kisaki met with Director Ochiai, Jiang Hang didn't know what they talked about, but she formally accepted the commission and said over the phone that things would likely be resolved soon.

Jiang Hang kept following the matter.

Sure enough, after Eri Kisaki stepped in, the discussion about the art museum quietly began to rise without anyone noticing.

Over the past few days, online public opinion—and even the housewives on the shopping street—had started paying attention to the art museum's impending demolition and conversion into a hotel. Some TV stations even interviewed passersby who had visited the Beika Art Museum, asking for their opinions.

The answers from these interviews were predictable—just expressions of regret and memories of good times spent at the museum at certain points.

Later, the TV station also interviewed the former owner of the Beika Art Museum. He said he hadn't expected this to happen, expressed regret over selling the museum, and then firmly stated he would discuss with the victim Boss Manaka's company about whether there was a way to preserve the museum.

Gradually, online opinions began to unify.

Director Ochiai, having committed murder, had broken the law and needed to be punished. But the Beika Art Museum also held fifty years of fond memories spanning two or three generations—it shouldn't simply be demolished and turned into a hotel.

Under this kind of public pressure, it probably wouldn't be long before some politicians, eager to show their relevance, took notice. In the end, the government would step in and announce that the museum would be preserved.

Jiang Hang speculated on how things might develop from here. Of course, Eri Kisaki would likely go straight to negotiate with the other party directly.

As for what the final outcome would be, and what other plans Eri Kisaki had prepared, Jiang Hang patiently waited for the results.

The matter at the art museum finally came to a close. In the past few days, thanks to the museum incident making the papers, this "famous detective" had gained a bit of renown. Even the number of requests suddenly shot up.

The once-quiet office was suddenly flooded with all kinds of commissions, becoming unusually lively. And as the buzz continued to spread, this kind of busy spell would probably last for a while longer.

Koharu Yoshino and Shizuka Sakaki were kept busy, while Jiang Hang spent his days darting all over Tokyo, handling one commission after another.

In the end, Jiang Hang stopped accepting one-star requests altogether. He only considered taking on cases rated two stars or higher.

Watching his reputation and money climb rapidly, Jiang Hang felt both the pain and the pleasure.

But even a salted fish, forced to be diligent, would still seize any chance to slack off whenever possible.

After maintaining full-throttle mode for two days, Jiang Hang cut back on the number of commissions a little and adjusted his work schedule. After wrapping up three two-star item-finding requests in a single morning, he decisively closed up shop early, planning to spend half a day being a proper salted fish in his own office.

Sitting comfortably in his boss chair, sipping ice-cold Sprite and happily finishing an episode of a new anime, Jiang Hang glanced over at the two girls.

Koharu Yoshino was sprawled half-lying on the sofa with zero ladylike grace, reading a collection of Agatha Christie mystery novels, looking like she might doze off at any moment.

For some reason, that girl always got sleepy the moment she picked up a mystery novel. No matter how twisted the plot or gripping the theme, it was useless. But when it came to staying up late reading pure romance novels, she was full of energy. Ahem... Jiang Hang noted that this was Koharu Yoshino's own admission—nothing to do with him.

As for Shizuka Sakaki, she had failed another audition yesterday and was now in a low mood, not wanting to talk.

Jiang Hang didn't bother trying to comfort her much. At times like this, any words of consolation were hollow. What he could do was take them out for a big dinner tonight and let appetite drown out the sorrow.

But looking at her pitiful expression—like she was saying "I'm so wronged, but I can't say it"—Jiang Hang almost felt like buying an animation studio just to let Shizuka Sakaki fulfill her dream of landing a lead role.

Though, a regular animation studio probably wasn't cheap. With the money he had on hand, buying a small adult animation production company might be possible... and then letting Shizuka Sakaki voice the lead... that actually sounded pretty great.