CHAPTER 769: CHAPTER 628: ANOTHER GUEST AT THE UNDERSEA VIP BOOTH, THE CURTAIN FALLS

Miyazaki Junichi tossed and turned restlessly tonight.

Despite being very tired, he couldn’t fall asleep at all.

A mix of regret, anxiety, anticipation, excitement, and other emotions surged through him, making it hard to calm down.

Oda Hidehiko was indeed his benefactor.

But it’s not like he can do anything for someone who’s already dead.

The dead are gone, and the living must continue on; he needs to think about his future.

So, he can only wrong Oda Hidehiko. After all, Oda Hidehiko had mentioned helping him achieve his dreams; isn’t this also a way of helping him?

"Bang!"

Suddenly, a loud noise startled him.

Miyazaki Junichi quickly rushed to the balcony and looked down, finding that a car had crashed into his garden gate.

He lived in a place with a yard—a detached house with a low fence that he could easily see from upstairs.

"Baka yaroo! What kind of idiot drives like this?"

Seeing his garden gate being hit, Miyazaki Junichi, still in his pajamas, was furious and swore as he went downstairs.

As soon as he reached the gate, he saw four burly men with covered faces getting out of the car that crashed into his home.

Miyazaki Junichi froze momentarily, his pupils quaked, and after a brief stupor, he tried to run.

But it was too late; as soon as he turned around, one of the men leaped forward and pinned him to the ground.

"Help..."

While falling, he disregarded the pain and tried to call for help, but after shouting just one word, his voice cut off abruptly because a cold gun barrel was pressed to the back of his head.

"Don’t! Don’t shoot! Don’t kill me! Please!"

Sweat poured down Miyazaki Junichi’s face as he pleaded desperately.

"Bang!"

The burly man hit him on the head with the gun.

"Ah!" Miyazaki Junichi screamed miserably, begging humbly, "Don’t hit me, please, don’t hit me anymore."

"Bang!" Once more, the man hit him, cursing, "Damn it, why won’t he faint?"

Isn’t this how it’s usually portrayed in TV dramas?

Miyazaki Junichi cursed, his head throbbing with pain, scared of more blows; he quickly closed his eyes and pretended to be unconscious, letting them bind his hands and feet and drag him into the car.

As the vehicle traveled, Miyazaki Junichi cautiously opened his eyes; the fear of the unknown made him intensely uneasy, "Who are you people? Where are you taking me? Does someone want to see me?"

But no one in the car answered his questions.

"Who sent you? I’ll pay you double whatever they’re offering!" Miyazaki Junichi said again.

"This little brat talks too damn much." The man who caught Miyazaki Junichi hit him on the head again.

Feeling blood trickle down, Miyazaki Junichi sucked in cold air from the pain but sensibly went back to pretending to be unconscious.

The burly man chuckled, "See, it works just like in those TV shows; one hit and he’s out."

The vehicle shook and swayed; Miyazaki Junichi’s heart followed suit. After what felt like ages, the car finally stopped. When they took him out of the car, he sneakily opened his eyes to peek; it was a dock, and they were carrying him onto a ship.

Realizing it was urgent, Miyazaki Junichi could no longer keep up the charade; he struggled wildly, shouting at the top of his lungs, "Let me go! Somebody help! Save..."

"Damn!" The burly man who had hit him before delivered two more blows to his head, and once again, his voice stopped abruptly; this time, he wasn’t pretending—he genuinely fainted.

Having suffered so many hits and lost so much blood during the journey, it wouldn’t be scientific if he didn’t faint.

When Miyazaki Junichi awoke, shivering from a bucket of cold water poured from head to toe, his eyes initially looked vacant. But as he glanced around and realized he was on a ship drifting at sea, surrounded by burly men, he immediately remembered what had happened and, trembling with fear, cried out, "What exactly do you want from me?"

"Minister Aoyama asked me to tell you that greed comes with a price." Facing the sea with his back to him, Zhao Qinghong turned around and spoke in Japanese.

"Ao... Aoyama Xiu Xin?" Miyazaki Junichi was momentarily struck, remembering his secret meeting with Miyagi Youcai, his face turning pale as a sheet, "Minister Aoyama misunderstood me! Misunderstood me! I was planning to report to him first thing in the morning! I didn’t listen to Miyagi Youcai’s nonsense, I’m innocent! Please, help me call Minister Aoyama, I beg of you, please!"

"Look at you, daring enough to even call the Minister by his name. It shows you have no respect for him deep down; truly despicable." Zhao Qinghong shook his head with a frown, gestured with his hand, and said, "Send him off."

Two henchmen immediately stepped forward, lifted Miyazaki Junichi up, and began stuffing him into a blue iron barrel.

"Let me go! Let me go! I want to see Minister Aoyama! Spare me, Minister Aoyama! Spare me! I know I was wrong; I’ll never dare again, I was wrong!"

Miyazaki Junichi cried heart-wrenchingly, but in this vast ocean, no one could hear him.

After he was stuffed into the barrel, someone started pouring pre-mixed cement into it, bucket by bucket.

"Don’t! Don’t! Spare me! I beg you, spare me! I’m willing to give you all my money!"

Watching as the cement rose slowly from his feet to his thighs, waist, and neck, Miyazaki Junichi felt as if he was seeing his own life force ebb away, his face full of despair, begging desperately.

Until the cement reached his mouth; after a series of choking sounds, it swallowed his head, he struggled to stand on tiptoe, his head covered in the sludge, gasping for air, "Spare me, spare me..."

Zhao Qinghong handed his cigarette to one of the henchmen, took a shovel, and fiercely struck Miyazaki Junichi on the head.

"Bang!"

A muffled sound.

Miyazaki Junichi sank back into the mud.

This time, he never resurfaced again.

Two underlings immediately sealed the lid, welded it shut, and then with a chant of "one, two, three," they pushed the metal barrel into the sea.

With a splash, a wave over a meter high rose.

Then the sea surface returned to its calm.

"Job done, let’s head home,"

Zhao Qinghong casually tossed aside the shovel and said loudly.

Japan started land reclamation projects in the 1970s, and Aoyama Xiu Xin was well aware of this.

Since he arrived, one by one, the Japanese became the cornerstones of these land reclamation projects, using their flesh and blood to forge a foothold for future generations.

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

"Ring! Ring!"

The next day, Hatanaka Zizi was awakened by the phone.

"Moshi moshi?" he answered casually.

"Hatanaka-kun, something’s happened to Miyazaki Junichi. Check the newspaper first," Ozawa Ichiro said solemnly.

The drowsiness disappeared instantly for Hatanaka Zizi, and he immediately sat up from bed, rushing to the living room to pick up the newspaper that was, as usual, placed on the coffee table.

[Important witness in the Tengji Yu case missing, neighbors confirm he was kidnapped by unidentified individuals last night.]

Just seeing the headline made Hatanaka Zizi’s heart sink; reading further, his heart finally sank completely.

The journalist, both overtly and covertly, set the tone, implying that the disappearance of Miyazaki Junichi was retaliation by the Newborn Party for his testimony against Tengji Yu, which imprisoned Oda Hidehiko.

With a gloomy face, he looked through several newspapers.

Some papers didn’t report this news.

But for those that did, the content was almost identical, all tarnishing the name of their Newborn Party.

"Baka yarou! Yanchuan Shilang!"

Hatanaka Zizi gritted his teeth; this organized and premeditated smear could only be the work of Yanchuan Shilang!

Clearly, the fact that Miyazaki Junichi wanted to change his testimony was exposed, so Yanchuan Shilang killed him and pinned the blame on the Newborn Party.

He barely thought there’d be a chance to turn things around, to regain the upper hand, but after just one night’s sleep, that hope was shattered, leaving Hatanaka Zizi deeply distressed and nearly collapsing.

"Mr. Ozawa, seems even fate is not on our side," he said somewhat desperately.

Ozawa Ichiro sighed, "Yanchuan Shilang must have had someone watching Miyazaki Junichi."

He didn’t expect Aoyama Xiu Xin to be even more ruthless, not only watching but also bugging his house extensively.

Otherwise, how could they have gotten the news so quickly?

"There’s one more thing, Yamahana Shigeru visited Yanchuan Shilang’s home," Ozawa Ichiro said.

This time, Hatanaka Zizi was completely disheartened, smiling bitterly as he said, "Mr. Ozawa, any more bad news, just tell me now, I can still take it."

"The party believes you should take full responsibility for this series of events and resign in disgrace," Ozawa Ichiro sighed, speaking gently with some reluctance.

Despite being prepared, Hatanaka Zizi still felt a moment of darkness before his eyes, "Indeed, I can’t be excused."

"Sigh," Ozawa Ichiro sighed helplessly, continuing, "Things have reached this point; there’s no need to struggle in vain anymore. You should abandon that undercover."

Hatanaka Zizi exhaled, his eyes flashing coldly as he said, "No, since failure is inevitable, I have nothing left to worry about. I must vent this anger. I can let Yanchuan Shilang win, but he can’t win too easily."

"You..." Ozawa Ichiro had nothing to say, knowing that the other party was purely venting, he paused in silence before saying, "I will take over as party leader."

Hatanaka Zizi also paused for a moment, then smiled and said, "That’s good; I wouldn’t trust anyone else, but if you’re taking over, I’ll resign unconditionally."

On the other side, Yamahana Shigeru and Yanchuan Shilang had a pleasant breakfast together. After a series of benefit exchanges, both sides reached a cooperation agreement, with the Socialist Party abandoning its campaign to fully support Yanchuan Shilang’s rise to power.

Yamahana Shigeru’s allegiance to Yanchuan Shilang was not just a simple act of seeking revenge against the Hatanaka family, but more so out of interest.

After all, he represented more than just himself.

He represented the entire Socialist Party.

Since uniting with the Newborn Party was impossible, neither the Socialist Party nor the Newborn Party could stand against the Liberal Democratic Party; the LDP returning to power was already an unstoppable trend, no one could block it.

Now conceding gives them half the loss, allowing the Socialist Party to gain some positions in the new cabinet, which aligns with the interests of all Socialist Party members except for the idealists.

Though this prime ministerial struggle had yet to reach the stage of parliamentary voting, it already had concluded, with a result. That’s often how things are; the winner is decided offstage, and onstage voting is just a formality to tell the citizens that this was a fair, just, and open election.

And the simple citizens always tend to believe it.