Why are there only loser heroines around me?

"Xiaoju." Ukyo finally spoke. It was too difficult to ignore a familiar friend.

"...Wha, what is that? It turns out to be Ukyo." Xiaoju raised her red and swollen eyes.

She reached out and handed Ukyo a small bag.

"This is what's left of everyone... the fountain fireworks..." Xiaoju turned her face away, not facing him, so her voice became a little low -

"No, no other places are allowed. If I don't finish it tonight... what I bought will be wasted."

Oh, Ukyo suddenly remembered that Tsukinoki had initiated a crowdfunding vote for fireworks in the group a day ago, but he did not participate. It seemed that the fireworks used for camping were crowdfunded by everyone, and Tsukinoki bought them and then distributed them to everyone. Tsukinoki's fireworks were used up together with Tamaki's, and Yanami's fireworks were also burned out together with Lemon.

Only Xiaoju was there. She also bought fireworks, but it seemed like no one could set them off with her.

"Didn't Yanami come here just now? Why didn't you ask him to come with you?"

Ukyo took one out of the bag. The sound of the Zippo lighter, "Ding~", was very different from the cheap 100 yen lighters bought from small shops. It was crisp and pleasant.

When was the last time you set off fireworks like the ones elementary school kids love to play with?

He had set off fireworks with that man several times during the Chinese New Year before. Later, when his stepfather came, the arrangements for the festivals were more elaborate, and the fireworks were bigger, louder and more beautiful, but the happy feeling he had as a child was gone.

As I get older, I feel less and less enthusiastic and happy...

Unlike the grand fireworks display he remembered, the orange light from the cheap fireworks in his hand flickered quietly. Ukyo stared blankly at the flames, and then... the flames lasted only a brief moment before the familiar branches of light began to emanate from the tip of the wooden pole, swaying and spreading, releasing tiny sparks of light...

The purpose of setting off fireworks is for fun, and this is the first time that Youjing has set off fireworks with the intention of "setting off all the fireworks".

I don’t know how many sticks were burned when Ukyo glanced sideways at Komari, who had never spoken. Maybe it was a coincidence, but their eyes met at this moment... but only one eye.

"Why do you keep your hair so long? It always covers half of your eye. I remember telling you that your facial features are actually quite delicate."

"...How, how, what?" Xiaoju was obviously a little flustered. She was really not used to being praised by others.

"You, you said that to comfort me...right?"

"The first time I complimented you on your delicate features was on a rainy day. We weren't familiar with each other at that time. Why would I compliment a stranger?" Youjing's tone sounded a little angry. Xiaoju thought it might be her stereotype of Youjing. She always felt that Youjing spoke fiercely, even though his tone didn't have so many ups and downs.

"No, thank you anyway, President."

"Can I ask, if the person I confessed to today was the president, what would the president say?"

When Ukyo heard this question, the first thing he thought about was not how to answer, but why Komari asked this.

Yumu said that he never had any luck with women when he was a child, so Xiaoju's luck with men must be even worse than Yumu's. The problem she faced when she was a child was not that she had no friends of the opposite sex, but that she had no friends at all. So the essence of her question was the same as Yumu's, she just wanted to get the evaluation from him that "she is not that bad" -

"I would say no."

“Eh, eh?”

"Is there anything surprising?"

"I thought, to comfort me, you might say, 'Agree.'"

Youjing said that he had rejected confessions that were more affectionate than this one, and he had used the standard answer of "I'll think about it" before, because he actually had a bit of Oriental subtlety in his bones. In the place where he had lived before, the answer of "I'll think about it" often meant that the other party had no chance.

But when it comes to language, it is best to use it with clear meaning, otherwise it can easily lead to misunderstandings.

Ukyo had been troubled by this. People who couldn't understand subtle expressions always caused him all kinds of trouble. So he later omitted all subtle expressions when speaking.

Language must be precise and efficient.

"As expected of Ukyo." Komari forced a smile with a tearful face.

"Yamu said, he wanted to think about it."

"Hey....Hey~....At least for that brief moment, I defeated Tsuki no Ki, right?"

Her petite figure trembled as the last firework fountain cartridge in her hand, the last one everyone had crowdfunded, fell into disarray. The girl's last dream on that summer night was shattered at that moment.

Xiaoju's eyes were fixed on the direction where the flames fell to the ground. She said in a weak voice:

"I'm going to cry... Y-you go away."

Her voice was so thin and soft, so soft that Youjing could hardly hear it.

"My work has been published." Youjing said suddenly.

"What?" Xiaoju, who was about to cry, was suddenly startled, and then heard Youjing say -

"Yamu came to me today to apologize because he mocked me yesterday morning when we were discussing the novel and said that the way I chose the title didn't get enough views and clicks. When he apologized, I told him that I didn't care about such meaningless trivial matters. But in fact, that's not the case. I am actually a petty person.

He said I couldn't do it, because I would hold my breath when I was careful, so even though I had just done something very physically demanding, I still managed to finish writing the prologue of more than 1 words, using the notation method (2) (). A few minutes ago, I just sent the link of the work on the Wenhao Station to the group chat of the training camp.

"Yamagi is busy with Tsukinoki, so he won't be reading it right now. But when he wakes up tomorrow morning, I'll leave a comment in the club chat, saying, 'Only people with poor writing skills and no ability to create a story would use a toilet paper title like 'The Slave Girl I Picked Up Was an S-Rank Adventurer, So I Decided to Live Off Her' to attract attention."

"Shintaro Tamaki's goal is to have his work published as a physical book. To achieve this goal, he wrote over a million words in three years. His works have a high traffic, but they are still not good enough to be published. However, there is another way to be published, and that is to attract the attention of website editors after the book is published. To do this, you must have a level that surpasses that of your peers in the early stages of publishing!"

As he spoke, Ukyo showed Komari the private message from the backstage of his Bungo Station.

The IDs of the editors of various libraries are widely known in the circle. As long as they are authors, they are more or less aware of them. Moreover, those who have the identity of "Editor" have a special font ID in the background of the literary giant website.

"Hello, Mr. Ukyo, you haven't signed a contract with Bungo Station yet, right? Would you be willing to transfer your work to Dengeki Bunko? Given the quality of your work, you only need to write another 70,000 words to publish the first volume. At that time, I hope you can publish it in Dengeki Bunko..." (followed by a contract form sent by the Dengeki editor). He was clearly eager to secure this valuable author immediately."

Besides that, there was also the editor from Shogakukan, whose opening remarks were not so straightforward—

"Hello, teacher. I saw in the backstage that you only have this one book under your name. If you are a new author, would you like to sign a contract with Shogakukan?"

There is also Fujimi Bunko, which throws out illustrators right away.

"Teacher Ukyo, have you ever heard of 'Teacher Xiaoyuan'? Her light novel illustrations sold a total of 3000 million copies last year, making her the most popular illustrator in the industry. If Teacher Ukyo can sign a contract with Fujimi, Teacher Xiaoyuan will be responsible for the illustrations of your works."

Xiaoju was shocked. She had just entered the industry and didn't know that "publishing a book as soon as it is published" was an exclusive treatment enjoyed by many old masters in the library. Yumu dreamed of becoming such an author.

Xiaoju couldn't help but say, "You're not going to send this to Tamaki tomorrow, are you?"

"Hey....hey, so Ukyo, you have this kind of personality."

But Ukyo would only send screenshots and would not type out taunts, because there was no hatred between them, and Ukyo was not so fond of killing people, so he would let Tamaki go.

But the protagonist tonight is not Tamaki, and he is not saying this to Xiaoju to tell her how great he is at writing books.

What he wanted to say was, "If someone makes you unhappy, then hit them back hard. Now doesn't represent the future, Yumu, you've already missed it. If you meet someone you like in the future and you're still as timid as you are today, you'll still be unable to catch anything!"

Ukyo placed his hand on his shoulder, and unlike Tamaki's light touch, Ukyo's palm was very strong, and it already made Komari's shoulder a little painful.

"Everyone can hold their destiny in their own hands, as long as you believe in yourself! Xiaoju Zhihua, change may happen tonight."

Xiaoju stared at him blankly, and sparks danced in Ukyo's pupils like iron hammering.

"I....."

"you...."

Xiaoju felt that Youjing was so inspiring. Listening to his words was more effective than watching any amount of chicken soup for the soul in TV dramas, but she was too emotional, so she was speechless. Moreover, Youjing pinched her shoulder too hard. She wanted to cry out in pain, but looking at his expression, it seemed that he didn't use any strength at all, and she was just too weak.

After a long while, Xiaoju remained silent. Ukyo didn't know if she had heard what he said, so he had to let go of her hand and said again: "I hope you understand what I mean. I don't care whether you can get over the matter with Tamaki. I just hope that when you encounter similar things in the future, you won't show such a helpless expression."

"I really don't like it and I'm disgusted by it. Sometimes I get really angry and want to beat up anyone who makes that kind of expression."

Xiaoju rubbed her arms in fear.

"Don't, don't hit me..."

“…”

After today, Xiaoju went to the barber shop to get her hair cut.

Like Ukyo, the hairdresser also praised her delicate facial features and urged her to get her hair permed and then dyed white. White-haired lolita girls are very popular among high school students nowadays.

Xiaoju said no, she would die in school if too many people noticed her, so she just cut her hair a little shorter so that it no longer covered her eyes.

On Monday morning, she pretended to pass by Ukyo's classroom, wanting to let him know that she had decided to make changes from today as he said. She also sent a private message to Ukyo, telling her that her goal was to break into the top ten of the Bungo Station and win the next "This Light Novel is Amazing" award.

Although everyone forgot about this goal after the training, she was serious about it.

But she repeated this, pretending to pass by Ukyo's classroom several times, standing on tiptoe and looking inside the classroom from time to time, but she couldn't find Ukyo. After asking Lemon, she found out that he and Yanami had taken leave together.

Two people together?

This is indeed suspicious.

Xiaoju thought that her guess on the beach was right, but Ukyo said that he didn't like Yanami, and he was definitely not the kind of person who would lie. However, relationships always have complicated accidents from time to time, making the originally simple interpersonal relationships complicated.

Xiaoju and Yana were not familiar with each other in real life, but they were already "super friends" in the chat box. She took out her phone and considered her words for a long time.

"You guys went to have sex? (Entire paragraph deleted)"

"You went out with Ukyo? (Send)"

Yanaijian replied quickly, "Yes, we are out."

Xiaoju, who is not good at talking and likes to read GL literature, is very imaginative. Lemon doesn't know what she is thinking. Anyway, she came in the morning to ask where Ukyo and Yanami were, and then left with a red face.

Lemon suddenly realized something and she suddenly leaned out of the window.

"Xiaoju! Your new hairstyle looks so fresh~!"

"Uh..." She still felt uncomfortable being praised suddenly, as if there was something stuck in her throat. She couldn't help but quicken her pace as she fled the corridor.

...

at the same time.

Fengqiao City, Kawasaki Apartment.

Ukyo was a little surprised that the place where Mori visited the old case today was actually in the same location as his "memorial apartment", just on a different floor.

Maori lit a cigarette downstairs, put it in his mouth, and glanced at Yanami who was standing beside him.

He didn't think a high school girl could play any role in the old case, not to mention that she was dressed a little too youthfully. The halter-neck, knee-length dress, tight on top and loose on the bottom, was this year's popular A-line style. Paired with the white Cartier on her left wrist, she had a very natural and fashionable look.

A pair of white sandals treaded on her smooth calves. Although her clothes were well-made, they didn't match the atmosphere of the investigation. Fortunately, they were unlikely to encounter any emergencies that would require them to "run" today, otherwise the sandals would definitely become a burden.

Ukyo had already noticed Yanami's shoes and criticized her before coming here.

Yanami grinned and said she'd wear sneakers next time. Ukyo thought she was being playful and gave her a bunch of deduction questions from the detective textbook to challenge her. Yanami actually got them all right. She seemed to be really studying hard these days. At this rate, she might actually pass the detective exam during the summer vacation.

Image: "Image", Location: "Images/1728007904-100416414-112195535.jpg"

Maori noticed the watch on Yanami's wrist.

He put his arm around Youjing's shoulders and pulled him aside, whispering, "What's so special about this guy? Brother Youjing, are you being threatened by the daughter of some consortium? I see her watch is a high-end product!"

Ukyo used immense strength to move his arm away, expressing his disdain for his observation skills.

"Yanami is the detective I'm training. She'll be one of the saviors of the Japanese police in the future. You might need her help in the future, so let's talk about the case first..."

Volume 54: Chapter Can You See Me?

"Cough." Maori cleared his throat and crushed the cigarette butt.

When talking about the case, the young detective became much more serious.

He returned to the police car and took out a medical record.

Ukyo took the cardboard from him. It was a photocopy after repeated printing, not the original. Yanami poked his head out from beside Ukyo's arm and read the case with him.

The girl in the medical record looks tough, not because she looks fierce, but because the photo looks a lot like the little girl in the movie The Shining, which subconsciously makes people think of bad plots.

Ukyo read the column about family relationships... This case was obviously supplemented by the police. Ordinary cases would not be so detailed. This girl named Hiraga Masae was a pure-blooded Japanese, but her three-dimensional facial features made her look very much like someone from Europe and America.

The case report stated that the child had killed her aunt at the age of four by throwing a hair dryer into the bathtub. The police took the child for a mental evaluation, and the results were normal, but Hiraga Masae suffered from severe depression. With little evidence in the case, the police were unable to determine the motive for the four-year-old girl's murder, and ultimately classified it as manslaughter.

Mao Li explained that this was normal. When he was in school, his teacher told him many cases of children killing people, but they were all determined to be "accidental" due to insufficient evidence.

After the incident, his family sent him to a depression treatment center. A month later, the teacher in the treatment center died. Hiraga Masae was holding the nail clippers from the treatment center in her hand. The fatal wound of the deceased teacher was in her throat. After an injury assessment, it was found that her throat was cut by the nail clippers.

But there is no direct case to determine that Masae Hiraga killed the teacher. Even if a four-year-old child jumped up, he could not use a knife to cut the neck of an adult teacher. This is too unreasonable.

After this incident, no medical center was willing to accept the child, so his parents had to leave him at home. However, his parents were also afraid of this "little devil", so they bought a single apartment to accommodate her, and sent her a fixed amount of money every month, and she was responsible for all the chores such as washing and cooking.

After reviewing the case, Yana couldn't help but feel a little scared. She tugged at Ukyo's sleeve and said, "Could it be that... the place we're going to visit later is this child's home?"

"Yes."

Ukyo occasionally missed his fellow Lionhearts. They didn't use timid phrases like "Could it be..." Noble dragon slayers weren't afraid of ethereal, supernatural creatures. The most useful thing Ukyo had learned in the everyday world was to relax his expectations. By ordinary standards, Yanami was already quite capable, not to mention she'd saved his life. So Ukyo didn't blame Yanami for her cowardice; it was a sentiment shared by all ordinary people.

Besides.....in fact, there are people whose conditions are even more serious than Yanami's.

I discovered it as early as when I arrived downstairs of this apartment building.

"Maori, aren't we going up yet?"

"Go up, of course." Mori walked ahead, his hands in his pockets. Ukyo had never seen anyone walk with their hands in their pockets, except for the high school students who loved to fight. When people are scared, they unconsciously change some of their usual habits. Mori never walked up the stairs with his hands in his pockets, so he was afraid, but as an "old detective" he couldn't bear to be looked down upon by two high school students, so he held on.

Maori had never been afraid of such things before. He had always scoffed at things like ghosts and was a staunch atheist.