Chapter 68

Chapter 68: Even Bullying Kids Requires Proper Tactics!

Seeing that the boys had already admitted their mistakes and no longer looked like troublesome brats, Nagayama Naoki stopped keeping a stern expression and asked calmly:

“Do you understand what you did wrong? Where exactly was the mistake? You’re the leader, right? You answer.”

He directly called on Akita Shi.

“Uh… we shouldn’t play pranks… and we shouldn’t peek at other people’s houses.”

It was obvious he still didn’t grasp the real issue.

Nagayama Naoki then pointed at the boy who looked the easiest to intimidate, Haragami Eda, the kid with glasses.

“What do you think? Where was the mistake?”

“Um… we shouldn’t use water balloons… they would make the doorway wet…”

Seeing their confused expressions, Nagayama Naoki shook his head.

“You guys… the elderly person living here looks to be eighty or ninety years old. People at that age can’t handle accidents. If your prank scared him, or if he slipped and fell because of it, the consequences could be very serious. The worst case… he could die.”

“Die?”

The three elementary school students showed little reaction. For them, the word felt distant and unreal.

Nagayama Naoki did not continue explaining. They would understand eventually.

But looking at the boys reminded him of the novel “The Summer Garden” he had thought about yesterday. Wasn’t this almost like fate arranging things?

He decided to try handling it the way the novel did. Nothing serious would happen anyway.

“You don’t want me to go tell your parents, right?”

“Really?”

“You’re not lying?”

“That’s great!”

“But you must sincerely apologize and obtain the old man’s forgiveness. Otherwise, I will still inform your parents.”

“Eh…”

“What are you waiting for? Go ring the doorbell and apologize!”

Watching the boys hesitantly press the doorbell, Nagayama Naoki stood at a distance, his thoughts wandering. Was this him tugging at the threads of fate?

The door opened. The old man clearly had a fiery temper.

“You brats again! Back to disturb my nap?! Want me to teach you a lesson?”

He grabbed a broom as he spoke.

“We came to apologize!”

“Hm? Apologize?”

The three boys began chattering all at once, explaining what had happened. It took the old man a while to understand.

“You were planning to hang water balloons over my door?”

“Sumimasen! It was our fault! Please forgive us!” x3

Unexpectedly, these little troublemakers already knew the traditional art of bowing to apologize.

The old man, however, was unmoved.

“You think saying sorry is enough after planning a prank? Impossible!”

The boys had clearly never encountered this situation and froze, unsure what to do.

Akita Shi spoke first.

“We’ll do anything. Please forgive us!”

The old man thought for a moment, looked around his yard, and said:

“In that case, pull out all the weeds in my yard.”

“Eh… okay…”

As the three children began pulling weeds, the old man glanced toward Nagayama Naoki in the distance and muttered:

“Meddlesome fellow.”

After throwing away his trash, Nagayama Naoki did not return home immediately. Seeing the children already working, he walked to a nearby convenience shop to restock his refrigerator.

He shopped there often, so the shop owner was already familiar with him.

While paying, he asked:

“Boss, do you know the elderly man living in that old house over there?”

“Nagai Tadahiro? He comes here often to buy alcohol. Why?”

Small neighborhood shops always knew their regular customers well.

“The yard looks messy, and the house is quite old. Doesn’t he have children who help take care of it?”

“I heard he has a daughter who married far away. The old man has a bad temper too, so he lives alone.”

“At that age, living alone must be dangerous.”

“What can you do? He lives day by day. If he can’t take care of himself anymore, he’ll probably have to move into a nursing home.”

After chatting for a while, Nagayama Naoki returned home.

From his balcony, he could see the three boys diligently pulling weeds while the old man watched nearby, occasionally giving instructions.

The yard was small. The three children finished the work in less than an hour.

Nagayama Naoki ended up sitting on the balcony watching them for the entire hour.

He really was bored.

Seeing that they were about to leave after finishing, he thought for a moment. There was no need to be too harsh on children.

He took three bottles of cola from the refrigerator, placed them in a bag, and went downstairs.

After the boys came out of the gate, he waved them over.

“Did the old man forgive you?”

“Yes! He forgave us!”

Seeing their sunburned faces and sweat-soaked clothes, Nagayama Naoki felt the lesson had been sufficient.

“Good. Remember this lesson. I won’t contact your parents. Don’t pull this kind of prank again.”

He handed them the bag.

“Pulling weeds was the condition for forgiveness. This is your reward for all that sweating.”

When they saw the ice-cold cola inside, their eyes lit up instantly.

“Arigato!” x3

Nagayama Naoki returned upstairs and watched from the balcony as they walked away happily, drinking cola.

Children truly had no resistance to cola, especially in the 1980s.

Ever since recalling “The Summer Garden” yesterday, Nagayama Naoki had felt an inexplicable sense of destiny, which pushed him to bring those three children and the old man together.

Whether things would develop like in the novel, he did not know. He would leave it to fate.

At least after doing this, even the guilt of being a literary copyist felt lighter.

His mind suddenly relaxed.

Next, perhaps it was time to look for a publisher.

Shueisha? Kodansha? Shinchosha? Or ask an acquaintance?

Time for the useful helper Yoshimura Daitomo to appear again.

Nagayama Naoki directly called the studio.

“Hello, this is Tree Friends Film.”

Because “Yonimo Kimyo na Monogatari” had become popular, Ito Shuichi frequently received calls from production teams and inquiries, so he had simply turned the studio phone into the official contact number for Tree Friends Film.

Recently, Yoshimura Daitomo was almost always at the studio unless he was visiting a television station.

“Shuichi-san, it’s Nagayama Naoki. Is Daitomo-san there?”

“Oh, Naoki-san. Daitomo-san, Naoki-san is looking for you!” Ito Shuichi called out, then added, “Naoki-san, how long are you planning to slack off? Have you completely abandoned the editing work?”

“Haha, with Shuichi-san supervising, I have absolute confidence in you.”

Nagayama Naoki had avoided calling Ito Shuichi lately precisely because he feared being urged back to work.

“Naoki-san, I’m here,” Yoshimura Daitomo said as he picked up the phone. “What do you need?”

“Daitomo-san used to work in magazines, right? I wanted to ask if you have connections with publishing houses.”

“Publishers? Of course I know some people. Are you planning to make a magazine?” Yoshimura Daitomo assumed Nagayama Naoki had come up with another promotional idea.

“No. Actually, I wrote a novel recently and want to try publishing it, so I thought I’d ask first.”

Nagayama Naoki said it directly. There was no reason to hide it.

“You wrote a novel? And want to publish it?”

Once again, Yoshimura Daitomo was shocked by Nagayama Naoki.