Shuichi's expression finally changed slightly.
Most of the specific arrangements for these jobs came from himself.
Sometimes, seeing that Kenjirō's body could not take it, he would move him to a lighter place.
Sometimes, hearing that he was doing well in the warehouse, he felt it was a waste to keep him purely moving cargo.
Later, he started actively reading books and taking notes.
The person in charge mentioned it a few times in the routine report, and Shuichi had someone give him some opportunities to get in touch with actual affairs.
Throughout the entire process, there was no such thing as a six-year schedule at all.
But right now, with Kenjirō putting it this way...
Shuichi suddenly felt that something was a bit off.
Because Satsuki truly knew all of this.
For six years, he had never truly hidden it from his daughter.
At first, he felt a bit guilty, worrying that Satsuki would think he was taking too much care of his younger brother.
But every time, Satsuki would just take a glance.
Later on, she rarely even asked.
At the time, Shuichi thought this meant his daughter did not care.
Thinking back now...
Could it be because things were already within her expectations?
"Wait."
Shuichi raised his hand.
"The Shinagawa warehouse was arranged by me."
"I know."
Kenjirō looked entirely matter-of-fact.
"You know?"
"Of course."
"Then why did you say Satsuki arranged it?"
Kenjirō looked at his older brother, suddenly revealing a somewhat subtle smile.
"Big brother."
"Have you ever thought that Satsuki does not need to personally tell you where to send me?"
Shuichi froze.
"What do you mean?"
"She knew you would soften your heart."
Kenjirō said with absolute certainty.
"..."
"She drove me out and left those boundaries. When you watched me moving cement outside, could you really do nothing for six years?"
For a moment, Shuichi could not find words to refute.
Because he truly could not.
When Kenjirō could not handle the physical toll, he would have people change his job.
When loan sharks blocked the door, he would handle it.
When his sister-in-law was having a really hard time, he also had someone find work for her.
These things did not even require much thought.
That was his own biological brother.
He could say he would not care with his mouth, but he could not really watch a family die in Minami-Senju.
"So you see."
Kenjirō spread his hands.
"You thought you made the decision yourself."
"But Satsuki only needed to know that you would definitely do it, and that was enough."
Shuichi leaned back in his seat, not speaking for a long time.
These words...
Why do they sound so familiar?
Over the past few years, Satsuki seemed to do this often.
Even if Shuichi did not want to admit it, his daughter was actually a mind-controlling "demon".
She rarely prescribed every single step completely.
Most of the time, she just placed a condition there, letting the people around her make choices based on their own interests and personalities, and in the end, things would naturally drift to the exact position she wanted.
Seibu was like this.
Sumitomo's side was like this.
Even those nine families recently...
Shuichi's brows slowly knitted together.
Kenjirō looked at his expression and could not help laughing.
"Big brother, surely you did not only think of this just now?"
"Do not be so smug."
Shuichi glared at him.
"These are just your guesses."
"Of course they are guesses."
Kenjirō did not mind at all.
"Satsuki would not give me an answer sheet anyway."
"But if it is just a coincidence, it is far too coincidental."
He leaned his body back.
"Before the bubble started, she made me lose the qualification to participate in the bubble."
"When the bubble was at its craziest, she kept me at the very bottom, watching how everyone went crazy over money."
"After the bubble burst, I started getting exposed to how warehouses are dispatched, how goods should move, how accounts should be looked at, and how to fix problems when they arise."
Kenjirō looked at Shuichi.
"And today, you came to find me in person."
Kenjirō looked at Shuichi.
"Big brother, tell me, where in the world is there such a complete coincidence?"
Shuichi opened his mouth.
He originally just wanted to make his younger brother have less resentment toward Satsuki.
How come as they talked, even he started to feel that something was wrong with this matter?
"However..."
Shuichi hesitated for a moment.
"At that time, Satsuki was only twelve years old."
The smile on Kenjirō's face became even more obvious.
"Big brother."
He looked at Shuichi with a hint of sympathy.
"You still do not understand your own daughter well enough."
Shuichi's face immediately darkened by a few shades.
This sentence could come out of anyone's mouth.
Coming out of Kenjirō's mouth in particular, it somehow felt extra punchable.
Saionji Kenjiro.
"What?"
"Have not seen each other for six years, and now you dare to teach me how to understand my daughter?"
"I am merely stating facts."
Kenjirō held back his laughter.
"When Satsuki was twelve, she was already deciding how the five billion for Saionji should be used."
"You should be clearer than me about how many things she has done since then."
"As long as you know she is behind Saionji, and then look at Saionji's development over the past few years, you can tell just how exaggerated she is, right?"
"And now you are telling me that because she was twelve, she could not think six years ahead?"
Shuichi fell silent.
This time, he really could not refute it.
Because the target was Satsuki.
When that girl was twelve, she had already pulled the entire Saionji from the brink of bankruptcy.
In the six years since then, among all the things she had done, how many seemed even more outrageous at the beginning than "cultivating an uncle in advance"?
Shuichi suddenly felt that in the past, he seemed to have truly missed something.
No wonder Satsuki had never stopped him from taking care of Kenjirō.
No wonder every time Kenjirō got a slightly better arrangement, she only confirmed that he had not paid off his debts for him.
Perhaps...
She really had been waiting from the very beginning?
After this thought popped up, the look in Shuichi's eyes toward his younger brother gradually changed.
Kenjirō of course saw it.
A long-lost sense of satisfaction instantly arose in his heart.
Six years ago, it was always Shuichi and Satsuki who saw things clearly in front, while he was spun around like a fool in the back.
Now it was finally his turn to see things clearly for once.
And even his big brother had not seen it yet.
Thinking of this, Kenjirō's back unconsciously straightened a bit.
Shuichi found it a bit grating to look at.
"Since you think you have learned so much, let me ask you a few things."
"Ask away."
Shuichi thought about it.
"A distribution center's transportation costs dropped by seven percent this month, but profits remained almost unchanged. The person in charge brings the report showing decreased transportation costs to claim credit, what do you think?"
The old Kenjirō would probably praise them for doing a good job first, and then demand that costs drop by a few more points next month.
Now he only thought for a few seconds.
"First look at how he lowered them."
"Continue."
"Running fewer trips can naturally lower costs, but if delivery is delayed because of that, customer complaints and store stockouts will both increase. You also have to look at the empty running rate, vehicle utilization, driver overtime, returns, and warehouse waiting time."
Kenjirō paused.
"If you just push goods that were supposed to be delivered today to the second day, the surface costs will indeed decrease."
"But the subsequent costs will pop up from elsewhere."
Shuichi did not say it was good, nor did he say it was bad.
He changed to another one.
"The central kitchen's loss rate has been very high recently, and the person in charge is preparing to reduce the daily meal preparation amount."
"Do not reduce it yet."
"Why?"
"See at what times the losses occur."
Kenjirō answered even faster this time.
"If they are made in the morning and cannot be sold, it means the prediction is problematic."
"If lunchtimes frequently run out of stock and afternoons leave a lot behind, then the production rhythm and delivery have problems."
"Reducing the total amount directly is the easiest, and the report will look good immediately, but when stores most need to sell and have no stock, the loss might be even greater."
Shuichi's eyebrows lifted gently.
Is this person really Kenjirō? It should be right, right?
He thought about it and threw out an even more direct question.
"There is a batch of materials worth 200 million piled up in the warehouse. The purchasing department says they will definitely be used three months later, and prices are still rising, so they should continue to be kept..."
"Sell a portion."
Kenjirō answered almost immediately.
"So sure?"
"If they will definitely be used three months later, first confirm which project it is, whether the start time has been set, and whether the contract has been signed."
"If the project has not landed yet, no matter how fast the materials rise, they still occupy cash."
Kenjirō smiled a little.
"I have seen too many things in the past few years that 'will definitely be useful in the future'."
"In the end, they were all dragged out of the warehouse at scrap prices."
Shuichi finally smiled.
"Starting to look like something."
"Only starting to?"
Kenjirō was clearly dissatisfied.
"Last one."
Shuichi looked at him.
"Now giving you another five billion."
The smile on Kenjirō's face stopped instantly.
"Still that factory in Osaka."
"The bank is willing to lend, and there are big orders from the American side."
"Will you sign or not?"
The car was quiet for a few seconds.
Kenjirō lowered his head, looking at his own rough hands.
Then he smiled.
"Give me the contract first."
"And then?"
"Within three days, whoever urges me, I will kick them out first."
Shuichi could not hold it back and laughed out loud directly.
The driver in the front row glanced through the rearview mirror and quickly shifted his gaze back to the road.
Kenjirō also started laughing.
"First look at what currency is used for settlement, and who bears the exchange rate risk. Then look at default clauses, customer concentration, and payment cycles."
"After expanding production, whether the new equipment can be transferred to make other products, and what to do with this five billion production capacity after the orders are gone must also be calculated clearly."
"And—"
He looked at Shuichi.
"I would first ask, why must we expand production?"
The smile on Shuichi's face slowly faded.
Kenjirō, however, remained very calm.
"Six years ago, I never considered this question."
"I only felt that when orders came, we should build a factory."
"If money could be borrowed, it should be borrowed."
"Others dared not do it, but I dared, so I was better than others."
Kenjirō lowered his head and patted the old book with its exposed binding.
"Later I discovered that running a company, the most important thing might be to ask a few more 'whys'."
Shuichi looked at him for a long time.
Finally reaching out, he patted his younger brother's shoulder.
The force was not heavy.
Kenjirō, however, was stunned.
"You really have changed quite a bit."
This time, he was not smug, nor was he joking.
"Six years."
Shuichi withdrew his hand.
"Six years..."
He repeated softly.
If Kenjirō's deduction just now was true, it meant that when Satsuki drove this person out of the house six years ago, she had already thought of today?
Make him go bankrupt.
Cut off credit.
Throw him to the bottom.
Relying on his own soft heart to maintain a minimum standard of living, and then letting him walk through various Saionji industries bit by bit.
During the period, he happened to avoid the most dangerous period of the entire bubble.
Finally, after he truly turned into a usable person, she welcomed him back.
The more Shuichi thought about it, the more he felt this logic was frighteningly smooth.
The most troublesome part is—
It really sounds like something Satsuki would do.
He fell silent for a moment, then suddenly turned his head.
"Kenjirō."
"Hmm?"
"What percentage of possibility do you think there is?"
Kenjirō knew what he was asking.
He thought for a moment.
"Eighty percent."
"So high?"
"Originally there was only fifty percent."
"Then where did the other thirty percent come from?"
Kenjirō looked at him with an expression of course.
"That expression of yours just now."
Shuichi froze.
Then he immediately reacted.
"You are using me as evidence?"
"The fact that even you did not see it shows just how deeply hidden it is."
"..."
Shuichi suddenly wanted to send this newly welcomed younger brother back to Minami-Senju.
Kenjirō could not help laughing already.
He laughed for a while, then slowly reined in his voice.
"Big brother."
"What is it again?"
"Thank you."
Shuichi turned his face aside.
Kenjirō looked outside the car window.
"Satsuki had her arrangements."
"But over the years, the person who truly found me a job and handled those troubles for me was definitely still you."
"I used to always feel that you chose your daughter and abandoned your brother."
Saying this, he smiled self-deprecatingly.
"Thinking about it now, I was indeed quite annoying back then."
"More than just annoying."
Shuichi finally found an opportunity.
"If you were not my brother, I would have had people throw you out of Tokyo long ago."
"Then in the end you still took care of it."
"I just—"
Shuichi stopped halfway through his sentence.
Kenjirō turned his head, waiting for him to continue.
Shuichi finally waved his hand.
"Forget it."
Some words no longer needed to be said too clearly.
Kenjirō did not press further either.
The two of them leaned back against their seats again.
The streetscape outside the car window began to become familiar.
Kenjirō had not been to this area for many years, but after the road turned a few intersections, his memories floated up on their own.
The road they walked from the main residence to school when they were young.
The wagashi shop their mother liked to visit.
And that courtyard wall that could be seen after turning ahead.
He originally thought he would be nervous.
Now he was surprisingly calm.
Perhaps because these six years had been long enough.
Perhaps because he finally felt that he had handed in a somewhat decent answer.
Shuichi was still thinking about that matter beside him.
After a while, he suddenly muttered in a low voice.
"Six years..."
Kenjirō heard it.
"What, still thinking about it?"
"I am just thinking."
Shuichi knitted his brows, looking at the approaching Saionji main residence.
"Could that girl really have thought of today six years ago?"
Kenjirō watched his older brother's baffled look, the corners of his lips slowly curving up.
"Big brother."
"Hmm?"
"Later when you see Satsuki, do not rush to ask."
Shuichi turned to look at him.
"Why?"
Kenjirō revealed a meaningful smile.
"If she were willing to tell us herself about this kind of thing, she would not have let us guess for six years."
"..."
Shuichi fell silent.
A few seconds later, he actually felt that this sentence made a lot of sense.
That girl had actually never been very straightforward.
The Toyota Century slowed down at this moment.
Ahead, the gates of the Saionji Family had appeared at the end of the road.
Shuichi looked at that gate, and then glanced at the younger brother beside him who wore an expression of "I have already figured everything out."
He suddenly began to feel that today he might also have understood something he had not discovered in the past.
His own daughter...
Seems even a bit more terrifying than he thought.