He became a god in Japan starting with the bear disaster.

Chapter 45 Divine Punishment

The villa where Yokota Daichi originally lived has been seized and impounded by the court, and will be forcibly auctioned off in a while.

Although this person escaped criminal punishment, he could not escape the civil and economic liabilities brought about by embezzlement, and all his assets on the surface were wiped out.

After being acquitted in the criminal trial, Yokota Daichi, no longer bound by civil charges, was completely free and immediately prepared to flee the country.

Although some things went wrong along the way, this was his planned escape route. He had long anticipated this day would come, so he had transferred a considerable amount of the assets he had embezzled over the years abroad well in advance—this was his truly foolproof insurance.

Escaping punishment excited him, but it also accelerated his escape. He left the police station this morning and was preparing to fly to Amsterdam tonight, then take a detour to Switzerland.

Even if it takes time for the court to inventory his domestic assets against his strange and deliberately flawed ledger, he must be quick. If they find discrepancies, the police might not be able to do much against a scoundrel like him, but the school board has many capable people.

Yokota, who had close ties with the underworld, understood that if he left too late, he might end up being sunk in Tokyo Bay.

His departure was originally going smoothly, but now a major problem is standing in his way.

"Masako, please, come with me!"

Yokota Daichi knelt on the floor of the Maeda family's living room, pleading once again with Maeda Masako, who was sitting on the sofa.

He gently lifted Masako's shoes and socks with his hands, then kissed them repeatedly. This trick had always worked in the past, but now it wouldn't even get her to glance at him.

Masako was always like this, neither explicitly refusing nor actively trying to please. She was truly a remarkable woman who remained untainted by the mud, with a posture of wanting to welcome but refusing, like the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, firmly grasping the heart of a wicked person like him.

"Oh, Masako! Please love me one more time!"

Yokota Daiji knelt down, hugged Maeda Masako's legs, and wept bitterly.

But the woman remained unmoved, showing no reaction to the man's actions, her entire body, not even her eyelids, remained still.

It's as if the woman named Masako Maeda is just an empty shell existing in the world.

Yokota Daichi suddenly turned vicious, threatening, "If you don't come with me, I'll just kill myself. Do you want to see another man you love commit suicide in front of you?!"

Masako Maeda's eyelids finally twitched, and she snapped out of her daze, saying expressionlessly, "I'm going to sleep."

She lifted her legs, freeing herself from the grip of the short, stout man who was stunned by her words, and walked on the sofa, then onto the floor, going straight from the living room to the bedroom via the stairs.

Still kneeling on the spot, Yokota Daichi roared, "You'll regret this! You'll absolutely regret this!"

He kicked the sofa in front of him, but lost his balance and fell to the ground. He struggled to get up, grabbed his briefcase, and headed out.

He continued to curse as he walked, claiming that Masako Maeda had betrayed their relationship.

He walked out the door, completely unaware of the short, hunched figure that had been squatting beside it.

"Yokata Daichi—the villain who murdered my son, go to hell!"

The figure roared hoarsely as it rose from the shadows. When Yokota looked over at the sound, he saw only the gleaming muzzle of a gun pointed at him.

Then came a burst of fire.

However, due to excitement and poor physical condition, Maeda Keizaburo's hand was shaking so badly that the gun barrel was unsteady, and the bullet that was supposed to hit Yokota's forehead missed its mark.

He fired again, emptying the magazine of all eight bullets until the slide clicked shut, the muzzle pointing skyward. Yokota Daichi hadn't shed a single drop of blood. This trump card, bought from the underworld with all his remaining funds, ultimately failed to fulfill its mission.

Yokota lowered his hand that was blocking him and found that he was unharmed. He stared at Keizaburo, whose gun was now empty, for two seconds before suddenly lunging forward.

"Are you going to kill me, you murderer!"

The short, stout man used all his strength to knock the hunched old man to the ground, then punched him repeatedly in the face, hands, chest, and stomach, until he coughed up blood and stopped moving, before finally getting up in a sorry state.

Looking at the dying old man, Yokota Daichi suddenly felt a chill of fear.

—He really killed someone!

He glanced anxiously at the street outside the Maeda family's detached house. There was no sound of pedestrians yet, but the incessant barking of dogs was already deafening. The gunshots would surely attract people and the police, and no matter what, he would be detained, unable to escape, and burdened with the real charge of murder.

In an instant, he understood all of this and began to run. He ran all the way, panting heavily, not daring to look back.

The summer night wind made him sweat profusely.

Oh no, he still had to go to the airport. He quickly took out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat that wouldn't stop from dripping from his face and neck.

Wiping away sweat, barely able to walk properly, she bumped into a boy walking alone on the street as night fell.

Unlike him, the other person walked steadily, revealing a handsome yet aloof face under the streetlights.

"Principal Yokota, what a coincidence."

Lin Xiuyi watched as Yokota Daichi repeatedly wiped the blood from his face and neck with a blood-stained handkerchief, and coldly questioned, "Did you just kill someone again?"

By the light, Yokota Daichi realized that what he was wiping away was not sweat, but Keizaburo's blood, and he was so frightened that he threw the handkerchief on the ground.

"It's a misunderstanding, it's a misunderstanding!"

Lin Xiuyi remained unmoved, her expression still cold, and approached him step by step.

Yokota was nearly scared out of his wits by all this. Pointing at Lin Xiuyi, he said, "You too, right? You must have come to kill me too!"

He dared not turn back, so he looked around and fled into an alley next to the street.

The alley wasn't deep; it ended after just one turn. Yokota Daichi rushed in in a panic, having reached a dead end with nowhere to go. In despair, he could only turn back and watch as Hayashi Xiuichi followed him in.

"Hey, Lin Xiuyi, I must have made a mistake, right? How could a student like you possibly kill someone? Hahaha, I'm sorry, I was really confused..."

Lin Xiuyi didn't answer him and continued walking.

"Please don't scare me, Lin Xiuyi! I beg you!"

Yokota Daichi was so frightened that he cried and knelt on the ground.

"Don't come any closer! Stop!"

He shielded himself with his hand, fearing that the boy in front of him might also pull out a pistol and shoot him dead.

As if heeding his plea, Lin Xiuyi stopped. The two maintained a distance of about five meters.

"What are you afraid of?" the boy asked.

"Nonsense!" Yokota replied, his mouth trembling. "Of course it's a handgun! I just got shot, you know!"

Upon hearing this, Lin Xiuyi raised one of his clenched fists, spread his thumb and forefinger to form a gun shape, and pointed it at Yokota's forehead, causing a warm, yellowish liquid to seep out from Yokota's groin.

"Unfortunately, I don't have a handgun."

Yokota realized he didn't have a gun, immediately clutched his crotch, and cried out in fury and indignation, "You bastard, you bastard! You scared the crap out of me! How dare you scare me like that—"

As Yokota Daichi was speaking, he suddenly felt a lightness in his head, and then his mouth became crooked and he could no longer speak.

A hole suddenly appeared on his forehead, from which blood began to gush out.

"But I do have a 'finger gun'."

Lin Xiuyi added.

Aside from meaningless "woo-woo" sounds, Yokota Daiji was unable to respond to any other words.

His short, stout body convulsed and fell to the ground, his life force rapidly draining away with the blood from the hole in his head.

Then, he put on a glove and used the blood from the corpse to write two large Chinese characters on the wall next to him.

Once this step is completed, the divine punishment is halfway done.

Just as he was about to leave, a series of disordered footsteps slowly entered from the alleyway.

Lin Xiuyi recognized him as Maeda Keizaburo, who was leaning against the wall and walking unsteadily.

The old man was not dead yet, but black blood from ruptured organs was flowing from the corner of his mouth, which undoubtedly meant he had reached the end of his life.

With only one eye open, he saw the dead Yokota Daichi and let out a sinister grin.

Then, as if his knees had suddenly broken, he knelt on the ground and spoke in words tinged with blood:

"Thank you... Shuichi."

The old man bent down and, with his last breath, kowtowed to Lin Xiuyi.