Tokyo Trickster

I heard that this painting is worth 48 million. However, Yaokeng Lalian doesn't think it is worth this price at all, as its artist is just a freshman in high school.

Even with extraordinary talent and sudden inspiration, this painting "Bloody Reeds" is only of upper-middle quality.

Many of the places that can be considered as cumbersome were not only not pointed out as wrong, but were even specifically circled out and written about in great detail, and were given a series of special terms.

Perhaps this is the so-called "celebrity effect".

Madarame Ikryusai is the person who stands at the pinnacle of the entire Japanese painting world.

No matter how despicable his methods are, no matter how many young people's dreams and future he has stolen...the person standing on the top of the mountain can overlook the poor people who are suffering on the long stairs, and can casually set his own price for their lives and ideals, label them with definite labels, and hang them in the market for everyone to look at.

Those who study art cannot go against the will of Madarame Ikryusai. Even if you try to find evidence to expose all his cover-ups and point out that "Madarame Ikryusai is just an old thief who steals other people's works", it will be of no use.

Behind one truth are countless interest groups.

The powerful who can earn fame and fortune through the name "Madamame Ikryusai" will try every means to hinder it. They buy off the authorities, distort the reality, and even threaten with violence... In the adult world, there are countless ways to silence those who try to speak.

Amamiya Ren did not ask Kitagawa Vsuke why he was willing to transfer his painstakingly created painting to Madarame Ikryusai.

Creators who truly love painting understand the value and cherishment of their works better than anyone else.

Since the work is signed "Madamame Ikryusai", this painting was indeed given by Kitagawa Vsuke himself.

Unlike most painters, the most striking thing about Madarame is that all of his works have a specific "price".

The old man’s spiritual palace is so magnificent, with gold decorations everywhere.

He sold his disciples' ideals and future in exchange for fame and money.

"Alice"'s information mentioned that although Madarame Ikryusai always lived in a shabby hut and used it as his studio, he kept several mistresses outside and even had luxurious villas registered in the names of his mistresses.

"Are you leaving?" After finishing his work, Kitagawa Vsuke looked at Amamiya Ren.

"I feel a little bored," the Phantom Thief pointed at Madarame Ikryusai, who was surrounded by reporters a little further away, "Art is something that is really hard to define."

"Madarame-sensei is a talented man."

"I think so too," Amamiya Ren yawned, "but there is a saying that he has been stealing students' works, so his style is always changing. The occasional immaturity is not due to trial and error in trying new techniques, but the uneven level of his students."

"Where did you hear this rumor?" Kitagawa Vsuke looked calm.

But it was this calmness that allowed Amamiya Ren to clearly feel his inner turmoil.

"It's just a rumor. Just listen to it and treat it as a joke. If you want to pursue legal responsibility, you will definitely not find the person responsible. Right?" Amamiya Ren said, "I think Mr. Madarame is indeed a very talented person."

He smiled, "A great painter who is proficient in performance art and installation art, he creates art in a unique way. It's a great talent, and it's enviable. Especially Mr. Madarame, he often practices hard and polishes himself repeatedly. In his early years, Mr. Madarame was a little-known figure, but with his carefully polished "Sayuri", he reached the highest position in the Japanese painting world. This is probably the "startling at one stroke" in Chinese historical allusions."

Kitagawa took a step back, as if he was trying to escape. He didn't talk to Amamiya Ren anymore and left in silence.

"Sure enough, this guy knows everything and is just pretending to be asleep."

Amamiya Ren stopped talking.

He looked coldly at Kitagawa Vsuke's back. This was a problem, because you couldn't wake someone up who was pretending to be asleep.

077. Adolescent Phantom Thief Meets Stalker Senior

Amamiya Ren left the Jewel House mall in Shibuya and walked to the Teikyu Building tram station. It was the last day of Madarame Ikryusai's exhibition, and the old man had made a lot of money.

Shibuya and Setagaya are not very far away.

He bought a can of iced coffee, adjusted his sunglasses, and walked along the alley with a strong artistic atmosphere. There were several middle schools connected here, and on weekends, you could see boys and girls with schoolbags on their backs rushing to cram schools.

Morgana, who had been following all the way, jumped down from the roof of the tea and snack shop and followed Amamiya Ren closely. "Joker, how is the intelligence gathering going?"

"Maybe we have to break into a private house." Amamiya Ren plans to use Kitagawa Vsuke as a springboard to enter Madarame's studio again to search for clues. The mind palace is derived from the holder's perception of reality. The place he attaches the most importance to and closely guards is likely to be closely related to the secret treasure in the palace.

The thief glanced at the big cat beside him and said, "You will have to take action when the time comes. I asked you to learn how to mount a camera to take pictures recently. Have you mastered it?"

"Oh, I'm already very skilled at this."

"That's good," Amamiya Ren took out her phone and looked at the electronic map, "Want to eat Sukiyaki? Let's order a pot and bring it back to the base."

A Line message popped up on the top of the phone screen. [//Blank//Challenging CSGO: Amemiya! Log in!]

[The Bug Stick is the perfect weapon: Our Black Dragon has been divided into three parts, I can’t move anymore! ]

[//Blank//Challenging CSGO: What era is it still playing "Monster Hunter: World"... Look at my ID. (Picture: Gilgamesh hanged on a street lamp.jpg)]

[The bug stick is the perfect weapon: ???]

[The Bug Stick is the Perfect Weapon: Why did you change the game again? Did you two secretly break the world record for the fastest way to kill a black dragon?! ]

[//Blank//Challenging CSGO: Oh my, I suddenly had an idea, so I stayed up all night with my sister to beat the Black Dragon. ]

[//Blank//Challenging CSGO: Hehehe, so come to CSGO quickly. ]

[The Bug Stick is the perfect weapon: Are you going to play professionally? ]

[//Blank//Challenging CSGO: Do you want to see me hugging my sister in the match booth and crying and yelling that I want to go home? When we think about the hundreds of thousands of people watching the live broadcast, we will die immediately :(]

[//Blank//Challenging CSGO: Success will be achieved if you reach the highest ranking in the FACEIT ladder competition.]

(Hot knowledge: FACEIT is the most popular competitive platform for CSGO internationally.)

[The bug stick is the perfect weapon: Isn't this game completely within your and Miss Bai's business comfort zone? ]

[//Blank//Challenging CSGO: Five people are needed to start the game. Passersby teammates will activate my social anxiety. ]

[The Bug Stick is the perfect weapon: Leave the task of gathering teammates to me. Don't worry, they are all good-natured people.]

[//Blank//Challenging CSGO: Ah, thank you very much. ]

Amamiya Ren turned on the camera function of her mobile phone and set it to selfie mode. She could see a slim girl following behind her in the distance.

Her name is Shin Niijima, the new student council president of Shujin High School.

She is a sophomore senior.

I have been following Amamiya Ren for nearly a week.

At first, Amamiya Ren thought this guy was a paparazzi reporter for gossip, but how could a reporter walk out of the teaching building in school uniform after school? And there were students around to greet him.

Senior, your tracking skills are really hard to watch.

Amamiya Ren didn't have the heart to expose her.

The student union president's tracking method... He would believe you if you said you were going out on a date. He wore jeans with a sweater and even carried an exquisite women's shoulder bag.

At this time, Shinjima Makoto was holding a magazine in his hand and seemed to be fascinated by it. He buried his face behind the magazine as he walked.

He was almost used to being followed.

After taking a few steps forward, Amamiya Ren felt more and more that something was wrong.

I have already discovered the tracker, so why is Orion still reminding me that someone is spying on me?

More than one person was following me.

That's really bad news. There are a lot of stalkers.

But the good news is, they seem to have hit it off.

Amamiya Ren was standing in front of the glass wall of the fast food restaurant, adjusting her collar. A gorgeous and elegant girl, like a young lady, was wearing the same big square sunglasses as him, sitting in a soft chair, playing with her cell phone.

According to his observation, this girl is also a sophomore at Shujin High School. After some inquiries, he found out that her name is Okumura Haru, the only daughter of the president of the large food company Okumura Group.

Miss Okumura often lingered at the school gate. I didn't know why, but Amamiya Ren would always see her when she went to and from school.

To be narcissistic, he always felt that the other party was deliberately letting him see it... Well, there was no need to doubt it.

Amamiya Ren could clearly feel the other person's gaze flowing out from his sunglasses, fixed tightly on his face.

Senior, there are already dozens of unread Line messages on your phone screen, why don’t you click on them and take a look!

So...then I leave?

He suddenly started running.

Okumura Haru, who was pretending to look at his phone in the fast food restaurant, became anxious and immediately stood up and left his seat.

Shinjima Shinya, who was a little further away, became anxious, rolled up the magazine into a tube, held it in his hand and started chasing.

The picture changed to "Makoto Niijima →←Haru Okumura――Ren Amemiya".

Something is wrong, someone is following us. Amamiya Ren was at a loss as to what was going on today.

How did he meet Kitagawa Vsuke? Since he left the exhibition, people have been spying on him everywhere.

Can you recognize me at a glance even when I'm wearing sunglasses?!

Amamiya Ren grabbed Morgana and rushed into the figure exhibition where a promotional event was being held.

The girl with long milky white hair and well-dressed reporter's work clothes put down the camera in frustration. It's so annoying, I lost it again.

She scratched her head, her lake blue eyes filled with regret for the loss of news material.

I should go home and listen to the new album of the band "ZHIEND", and then make up something with the theme of "New idol Kurusu Akatsuki visits Madarame Ikryusai Gallery" and submit it to the newspaper.

Hmm? The reporter noticed something was wrong ahead.

Two beautiful girls with completely different temperaments collided with each other.

They seemed to have had some dispute?

And it was because of Kurusu Akatsuki who just escaped?

Oh my, this is big news.

The reporter, who was actually just a part-time worker, quickly stepped forward to join in the fun.

In the bright autumn, three girls who are as good-looking as ordinary stage idols met. One would think they were a girl group filming a variety show.

In fact, Niijima just wanted to complete the principal's commission.

Okumura Haru simply enjoyed the process of tracking Amamiya Ren.

The reporter wanted to write some big news to earn money to buy the vinyl record of "ZHIEND"'s new album.

078. Stalker Meetup

My name is Nao Tomo, I'm 15 years old. I'm a student at a public school for the disabled and I don't have a boyfriend.

I'm already 15 years old this year, and although I'm still pathetically innocent, I've never even held a boy's hand... ah, I should say that almost no boys are willing to talk to me. But fortunately, not only do I not have a boyfriend, even my close friends have gradually cut off ties in junior high school.

Long live energy conservationism... No way. I'm not Oreki Houtarou in Ice.

Recently, I work part-time at an entertainment newspaper near the school after school. I work flexible hours every day and submit my manuscripts on time before the 11 o'clock deadline on weekends to ensure the editor-in-chief has a good sleep. Before going to bed, I must listen to the digital album of "Post-Rock Band: ZHIEND" for half an hour, then do 20 minutes of soothing exercises to warm up before going to bed. I can basically sleep soundly until dawn. Like a baby, I never leave fatigue and stress until the next day.

The few classmates who can be considered "friends" are all very unique... Of course, I'm no different.

For example, Togo Kazumi from the shogi club next door, and Yagi Yui from the mahjong club.

What about me? I'm from the Homecoming Department.

In short, the chances of meeting each other are few and far between. Maybe they become friends because of similar circumstances? No way! Togo is a model-level shogi genius, and Yagi is already a rising star in the mahjong world. They receive a lot of love letters from their own school or other schools every day.

After giving a super-modified version of the "Kira Yoshikage-style" monologue in her heart, Nao Tomori smiled politely at the two senior schoolmates sitting at the table.

This is a coffee shop located in a remote alley in Setagaya. The Catherine-style decoration is unique, the environment is quiet, and there are few pedestrians. After reaching a consensus for a short time, the girls decided to continue following Amamiya Ren from Shibuya to Setagaya, and then, as expected, they lost their target. They simply found a quiet little shop to sit down and prepare to talk things out.

As expected, no one paid any attention to her.

The fight between the two seniors is about to break out.

The girl with pigtails on her short hair showed Feng Xing Lei Li's neat personality. She lifted her bangs with her hands and stared at her peer opposite with her deep red eyes.

She did not rush to make trouble or argue about the "following" issue, but instead showed the excellent qualities that a new president of the Shujin High School Student Union should have, and smiled gently and kindly.

"Nice to meet you, Okumura-san."

"Nice to meet you as well, Niijima-san."

The two beautiful girls from the same school and grade greeted each other, and then didn't say anything else, but their smiles to each other became more kind.

The death match that was supposed to start seemed to have fallen into a brief stalemate. It was obvious that this was the calm before the storm.

Nao Tomori couldn't laugh anymore, she silently put away the notebook at hand.

It was my fault. I recklessly entered a battlefield that didn't belong to me.

Faintly she could hear the crackling sound of ice freezing. She stood up and tried to escape from the increasingly eerie and cold atmosphere of the coffee shop.