Chapter 6 5. Little devil

Why did the art dealer Inagaki Heizo bring Yoshie into the bathroom that didn't even burn the bath water?From the suitcase on the bathroom rack filled with all sorts of weird weapons, he must have planned to kill the poor young girl in a brutal way.The scream that poured out of the glass bathroom door was probably her dying cry.And in the end, was she really killed for no reason by this strange gentleman who looked like a poisonous spider? That aside, on the third day after the bathroom incident, a three-line ad appeared again in the paper.As before, Inagaki is still the person who publishes the newspaper, and the content of the advertisement is still very weird. What kind of tricks will this weird gentleman play this time?

At first glance, it looks like an ordinary job advertisement, but if you look carefully, it seems something is wrong.Academic qualifications are passable, but it is too strange to hire salesmen without the two abilities of eloquence and means.An introverted and honest person cannot be qualified for the job of a salesman at all. This kind of recruitment condition is completely contrary to common sense.Moreover, "single youth" is also required, which is even more incomprehensible.Employers of all kinds want to hire trusted married people, but this job posting goes against the grain of even that.What's more, in addition to the monthly salary of 100 yen, there is also a subsidy for transportation expenses. For an inexperienced novice, the benefits are too good.

Eloquence, means and education are not required, so as long as they are young people with little money, they are all flocking to it.On the day the newspaper advertisement was published, hundreds of applicants flocked to the Kanto Building. Inagaki only went to work on the day he rented Room 13 (that is, the day he brought Satomi Yoshie into the empty house). After that, the shop was locked until the newspaper advertisement was published. Showed up.Today, in order to select applicants, he came to the store early in the morning and sat on the swivel chair behind the big table, as if he was a modern art store owner.

On the display cabinet next to him, in addition to the plaster statues he bought before, today he also used the car he was riding in to transport a few plaster statues of human body parts commonly used by painting students. (So, does Inagaki Art Store have a warehouse for plaster figures?) The oil paintings hanging on the walls, the picture frames piled high in the corners of the room, and the furnishings in the room are still the same as last time.The gold paint on the frame shone brightly, dazzling in the early summer sun. As for Inagaki, it was still the same, with a cheerful expression, calling groups of applicants in for interviews one after another.Looking at that calm appearance, one can't help but wonder if he is the same person as Inagaki who was as vicious as a poisonous spider that night.The heinous criminals are often the best actors.

After spending nearly half a day, six qualified candidates were finally selected.However, Inagaki's recruitment examination was extremely unusual. All young people who were energetic, optimistic and enterprising, full of businessman's temperament-that is, the outstanding young people that ordinary interviewers must admit, all failed.And those 20-year-old youths who are only submissive no matter what they ask, can't even answer, are ignorant of the world, shy and introverted, honest as an old cow, green and pale, passed smoothly. A total of six were admitted.That is to say, Inagaki selected the most useless and unpromising youth among a hundred applicants.

After the qualified ones were selected, the owner of the Inagaki shop ordered the six people to stand in front of the table and gave the following strange order: "As you all have seen, this is an art store that sells oil paintings, picture frames, and plaster statues. Among them, it is my shop that sells the plaster models of human bodies that must be used in painting textbooks to art schools, middle schools, and girls' schools. The main business idea of ​​the store is to look at the works displayed on this cabinet. Are you doing well? And your job is to take a plaster model sample and sell it to various middle schools and girls' schools in the city. Although it is sales, In fact, it is my business strategy to give the product to the other party as a sample, and make the other party feel good through the tentative pre-gift, and then slowly start the real sales. This is my business strategy. So it is not difficult at all at first Just let the other party accept the plaster statue happily. In the future, I will also invite you to sell it in other counties and cities, but for now, let’s start in the city.”

Inagaki also taught them the name of the school he was about to visit, the characteristics of the items to be promoted, and the rhetoric when giving samples.Then put the six plaster statues in a wooden box for packing, and hand them over to six salesmen together with the daily salary, tram fare, and food expenses. So six honest young people carefully carried heavy wooden boxes of different shapes and walked towards the direction designated by the boss.When you think about it, Inagaki Art Store's sales strategy is incredible.But they were all handpicked idiots, so they didn't doubt it at all. Instead, they were happy to find a good job for themselves and went out excitedly.

However, among these six people was a young man named Hirata Toichi, who was not as silly as he looked.He is a young man with no fixed place, no education and no skills. He has been seriously addicted to alcohol since he was only nineteen years old, and he is also a habitual thief.Because of this, he is actually a shrewd and quick-witted person, and after seeing the job advertisement in the newspaper, his intuition told him that this should be interesting.He saw through the employer's mind at a glance, and even deliberately cooperated with the employer's request, trying his best to pretend to be a fool, which shows how smart his head is.In addition, his dissolute and wandering life made his face pale, and his alcoholism made his eyes cloudy. Just looking at his appearance, even if he didn't pretend to be deliberately, he still met Inagaki's requirements.

He didn't follow the employer's instructions to go to school, but took the goods to the merchant town of Kanda, found a very decent framing shop, and walked into the shop. Not long after, Hirata walked out of the framing shop. In addition to the four yuan given by Inagaki, he also had two yuan more from the pocket of the owner of the framing shop when he sold the plaster statue just now. In total, he got six yuan extra money. .He also had a wishful thinking and decided to go to the Inagaki store to work tomorrow as usual. After receiving his salary, he sold the second plaster statue to other framing shops. People are really greedy!

The owner of the framing shop didn't seem to be a serious businessman. He knew the source of the item was unknown, but at the unprecedentedly cheap price of two yuan, he still bought the plaster statue and immediately put it on display at the entrance of the shop. In a small display window.This plaster work is a model of a whole arm cut from the shoulder, on a square base also made of plaster, with a round rod tightly held in the palm of the hand, life-size and lifelike.On the one hand, the shape is relatively rare, and on the other hand, the workmanship is also very exquisite. According to the judgment of the boss, no matter how cheap it is, it should be sold at three times the purchase price.

It is said that Hirata youth got drunk all night in a tavern that night.At about ten o'clock in the morning of the next day, he rubbed his sleepy eyes and looked forward to the income of Siyuan that day. He happily went to the Kanto Building. When he went there, he saw that the door of the Inagaki store in room 13 was locked tightly. ,How is this going?In the corridor in front of the door stood the five stupid salesmen from yesterday, and they stood together in a daze. "What's going on?" He tried to find out something. "I've been waiting here since eight o'clock, but the boss didn't show up. He told us to go to work at eight o'clock and he didn't come. It's too much." One of the young men replied with very light anger in his tone. Hirata asked the cleaning lady who cleaned the hallway. "Mr. Inagaki has only been here twice since he rented this room. The first time, many young ladies came to visit, as if they were recruiting female clerks, but neither the boss nor the female clerks showed up again. Yesterday, it was replaced by a large number of young ladies. The men came to the door. I also guessed that this time I would recruit male clerks. I didn’t expect that it was not open today. This store is really strange. I always feel that this room 13 is not suitable for people to live in. Every time I pass by, it is creepy of." This is the cleaning lady's answer. "Oh, looking at it like this, maybe the boss is a heinous villain." Hirata muttered in surprise.Thinking about it carefully, even he, who is ignorant and ignorant, feels that the recruitment notice is not quite right with yesterday's instructions.It's strange enough to deliberately hire a fool, and even though I don't know how much money they can make, it's also weird to hire six people to go to the school and give away free goods just to buy and sell plaster models. way of doing business. The so-called villains don't turn a blind eye to the bad things done by others.They'll immediately try to take advantage of the opportunity to get a piece of the action.Although Hirata, the little bastard, was not a great guy, he didn't have the brains to comprehend Inagaki's true intentions. (If he knew the truth, he would be terrified and run to the police with a livid face.) But he always felt that he could take the opportunity to get some pocket money, so after asking Inagaki's address in the office of the building, he rushed to another The five fools took one step and went to find that place alone.However, although the town name and house number were correct, there was no such family as Inagaki. He wandered around the neighborhood for a while, asking neighbors from house to house, but no one knew Inagaki. "It's getting weirder and weirder. Look at it, if I can stay longer in that room on the 13th, I can probably get a lot of extra money. Or, even if that man disappears, I'll still be a clerk in that store anyway. You can use his late salary as an excuse to sell the remaining goods and furniture. Now things are getting more and more interesting." With wishful thinking in mind, Hirata returned to the Kanto Building again.