This Japanese Monogatari Isn't Lame
Chapter 188 - 170. "The Lost Imperial River"_2

Chapter 188: Chapter 170. "The Lost Imperial River"_2

"But I knew then that there existed things in the world that humans couldn’t understand, so I didn’t join the game..." Shen Gu Mirai continued with a reflective tone,

"But nothing really happened at the time, everyone thought the ghost story was fake and went home together."

The ghost story was fake?

There was no reason for Shen Gu Mirai to lie.

It was just when she had entered her first year of high school, which adds up to exactly one year from now, so the timeline is very recent.

Beichuan Si couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows, and he couldn’t help asking, "Shen Gu, can you still contact any of those people who played the game before?"

"Um... I’m not sure about that. There were a lot of people there to watch the excitement, and most of them were from other schools."

"Most were from other schools? Does that mean there were students from our own school who participated in the game?" Beichuan Si asked, turning his head.

However, for some reason, when the topic of ’our own students’ came up, Shen Gu Mirai’s expression stiffened, and she started to stammer, unable to speak.

"What exactly happened?"

Beichuan Si furrowed his brow.

"The student from our school who participated in the game... Mr. Temple, you might actually know her... her name is Hoshino Nana."

Hoshino Nana? It was her?

Hoshino Nana, the delinquent girl who was falsely accused of stealing her underwear, died when Ishikawa Kaoru hit her on the head with a baseball bat at the lakeside park.

Beichuan Si’s bookshelf still houses the diary of Ishikawa Kaoru left behind after he conducted a spirit-passing ceremony for her.

But the deceased is gone, and Beichuan Si had no intention of passing judgment on the actions of the deceased.

"Yes, Hoshino also participated in the game, but nothing happened during the game."

"However, I do remember one of the game participant’s contact information, but it has been a year since then, and I don’t know if they have changed their email."

Many say that exchanging email addresses in Japan is a sign of closeness, but that’s not really the case.

In Japan, cell phone numbers are personal privacy, and the Japanese take personal privacy very seriously. Unless they are very close friends, exchanging cell phone numbers is unlikely, only email addresses are exchanged. Moreover, Japanese email addresses are linked to text messaging, which doesn’t hinder communication and keeps their phone numbers hidden from telemarketing calls.

Exchanging email addresses is actually a way for them to protect their privacy, unlike what many people now say, ’Email addresses are more important than phone numbers’ is actually incorrect.

"Let me check... I remember his name was Kobayashi Seijiro..." Shen Gu Mirai muttered as she took out her smartphone.

Her white smartphone had no decorations, only a simple charm hanging from the plain body, looking extremely modest.

Beichuan Si just glanced at it.

But he hadn’t expected to see his own face on the background of Shen Gu Mirai’s phone.

When had Shen Gu Mirai used his photo as her phone background?

Beichuan Si’s face froze, just as he was about to inquire, "Found it. The email address hasn’t been deactivated."

Shen Gu Mirai’s fingers danced nimbly over the phone screen, fully displaying the hand speed of a student living in the smart era of the 21st century.

In no time, she had edited a simple message.

"How about this, Mr. Temple?"

Shen Gu Mirai moved closer to Beichuan Si, her eyes clear.

Honestly, she wasn’t intentionally doing this, but because the phone screen was indeed small, she was worried Beichuan Si might not be able to see it.

The clean screen displayed messages of long-overdue greetings, asking if they were free and if they could reply to an email.

The key was that Shen Gu Mirai was very skillful with words, apologizing for the long gap in communication while warmly inquiring about their health.

This young girl truly took the term ’social pleasantries’ to an extreme.

Seeing this, Shen Gu Mirai indeed had a talent for being a good housewife.

"Send it like that," Beichuan Si nodded.

Hearing Beichuan Si say this, Shen Gu Mirai then extended her fair index finger to hit the send confirmation.

After finishing all this, Shen Gu Mirai stretched as if she had fought a big battle.

Her well-developed figure became apparent.

"Now we just wait. I haven’t chatted with this guy since we exchanged addresses, not sure if he even remembers me—by the way, Mr. Temple, would you like some tea?"

"Sure," Beichuan Si briefly consented, his eyes fixed on Shen Gu Mirai’s cell phone as he asked,

"Shen Gu, your cell phone wallpaper."

"Cell phone wallpaper? Are you talking about this?" Shen Gu Mirai brought over the hot tea and set it down, then sat next to Beichuan Si and unlocked her phone, generously showing the screen to Beichuan Si.

Beichuan Si wasn’t mistaken, it was indeed his photo.

At that time, Beichuan Si was wearing the winter uniform of Kyubei High School, his neck wrapped in a scarf, half of his face hidden under the scarf.

In the bottom right corner of the phone wallpaper, Shen Gu Mirai also made a peace sign, seemingly catching the other side of Beichuan Si in the frame.

"Are you using my photo as your phone wallpaper?" Beichuan Si reconfirmed, then turned back to look at Shen Gu Mirai.

But Shen Gu Mirai showed no panic at being caught; instead, a blissful smile hung on her face as she gently clutched her phone.

"This photo is my favorite, so I made it my phone wallpaper."

"Even if Mr. Temple asked me to change it, I wouldn’t."

Beichuan Si felt the weight of her resolve from her tone and turned away, saying indifferently, "It’s just a photo, do whatever you want with it."

"Thank you, Mr. Temple!"

Shen Gu Mirai smiled even more brightly.

The sunlight fell halfway across the floor, casting a gleaming sheen on the tea.

Unnoticed, the tea stems had stood up.

...

While waiting for the email response, Beichuan Si didn’t stop collecting information about the game of ’hide and seek with four people.’

This urban legend was a hot topic on SNS and LINE groups; many people wanted to try it in groups, and some even posted videos about the game online.

But those videos were not very informative; they were basically just young people shouting and clowning around.

And the curses related to the game of hide and seek with four people circulating online were also bizarre.

Some curses were taken directly from dark nursery rhymes, while others were composed of strange syllables in Romanized spelling...

In any case, the creative abilities of these silly netizens had opened Beichuan Si’s eyes once again.

But upon reflection, these antics were not without reason.

After all, everyone needs to make a living; these adaptations were merely playing the game of traffic monetization.

Amidst these bizarre and counterintuitive schemes, Beichuan Si actually stumbled upon some useful information.

’Terror and mystery hit "The Lost Mikawa" wins the Honbu Grand Prize!’

’Did "The Lost Mikawa" draw some inspiration from the game of hide and seek with four people?’

’Hot topic! The urban legend reheated by "The Lost Mikawa"?’

’"The Lost Mikawa" author interview! What experiences led him to write such a mysterious and frightening novel?’

"The Lost Mikawa...? The Honbu Grand Prize?" Beichuan Si frowned.

He seemed to have vaguely heard about ’The Honbu Grand Prize’ from Tsukishima Risa.

Beichuan Si opened the WAP version intro of "The Lost Mikawa" on his phone.

The introduction read:

’Now... they are still playing hide and seek... an endless game of hide and seek... that will go on forever. Hatred will transform into a dark purple curse, luring people into that cursed school—’

The intro cut off abruptly, leaving one feeling irritated and curious at how it had ended right there.

Just as Beichuan Si was about to go online and pay for the first volume of the WAP version, Shen Gu Mirai suddenly exclaimed excitedly from the other side.

"Mr. Temple! The email has finally arrived."

Oh?

Hearing this, Beichuan Si paused with his fingers, looked up, and said,

"I’ll be right there."

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