I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 132: A novel makes a record popular. Is this the first time in history? (Two in one)

As a loyal fan of Kitagawa Hide and the third-ranked figure in the Tokyo University Kitagawa fan club, the strong-willed Chizuru Hui has high expectations for her idol's new work!
She swung her bare buttocks, arched her body and raised her hand towards Jaburi Rei, and without thinking, she took out four thousand yen bills: "Okay! One hand for the goods, the other for the money!"

"Is Hui-chan really not the reincarnation of a monkey? Are you willing to buy this? A copy of "Literature" seems to only sell for 400 yen in the bookstore?" The other people were shocked. They didn't expect that they would really be profited by the "swindler" Jabami Rei.

"Oh, it doesn't matter. I'm willing to pay for Kitagawa-sensei. Just think of it as supporting Kitagawa-sensei's future donation to Yumeko-chan~"

Chizuru Hui took a copy of "Literature" from Jabami Rei with satisfaction, then reached into the snack bag and took out a bag of potato chips, eating happily while reading.

Of course, Jabami Rei didn't really ask her for 4000 yen. She wasn't a money-grubber who would even cheat her friends out of their money.

As they chatted and laughed, each of them had a copy of "Literature and Art". When my wife Yumeko heard about the payment of bribe, she was so embarrassed that she immediately crawled into the bed and did not dare to look at them.

After the last Kyoto University literary exchange meeting, the fact that Agatsuma Yumeko was Kitagawa Hide’s girlfriend was completely exposed.

The group of girls were stunned and felt that the impact of this incident was greater than the bursting of the bubble economy.

Because before this, after many popular science explanations by Jabami Rei, they all knew that Agatsuma Yumeko, the good girl and top student, had a live-in boyfriend who was a complete parasite and had no good qualities except for his good looks.

Everybody was complaining for the idiot Yumeko Agatsuma, but in the end, no one expected that the parasite turned out to be Mr. Kitagawa!

Jabami Rei shot herself in the foot and died several times in the company. After several explanations, everyone finally understood.

After this incident was exposed, it actually brought a lot of trouble to Mengzi's college life. More people in school looked at her, and there were also extreme book fans who secretly stuffed threatening letters in her shoe cabinet, thinking that she was not worthy of Teacher Kitagawa.

Fortunately, she has a group of friends like Lijiang around her. These friends gave her the greatest support and encouragement when she was in the most difficult times.

Then, with the completion of the filming of "Akudani", and as she gradually became involved in Kitagawa Hide's career, Agatsuma Yumeko's mentality gradually stabilized.

She knew that Xiujun needed her and that she could be useful, so she no longer worried about not being able to keep up or being unworthy.

She participated a lot in the creation of this book "South of the Border, West of the Sun" and gave Xiujun a lot of great suggestions.

My wife Yumeko now just wants to study hard, complete her studies in the best condition, and then become a true good wife to Hidejun after graduation.

While she was lost in thought over a sentence about bribery, others were already impatiently flipping through the pages of Literature and Art.

Without exception, the girls skipped the other novels and went straight to "South of the Border, West of the Sun".

"What? It's a novel about extramarital affairs?" Qian Hehui widened her eyes and couldn't help but turn back to the cover of "Wenyi" to carefully see if the author's name was written wrong.

Several others also exclaimed in disbelief that this was the theme of Kitagawa Hide's new book.

They have all been preparing for their junior year final exams at school recently. They have not left their houses and have been in a state of isolation. They have not received any advertising for South of the Border, West of the Sun.

Agatsuma Yumeko and Jabami Rei didn't act as spoilers, they were just waiting to see their friends' reactions now.

Although they were surprised, after confirming that the author of the novel was correct, they began to read it quickly.

The preface written by Kitagawa Hide aroused their strong desire to read. The extramarital affair story from a different perspective and the "only child" issue that was very immersive all touched their hearts.

Lying on the bed with her two fleshy legs slapping on her buttocks, Qian Hehui was immediately attracted by the story content of the first chapter.

Her friends were whispering about the "only child" issue, but she didn't feel anything about it because she had a younger sister who was in kindergarten.

She preferred the vague feelings between "Chu" and Shimamoto, as well as the first physical contact that "Chu" would never forget.

"I just listened carefully and quietly described what should be there. Of course, it is an incomplete scenery.

Everything there was as hazy as if shrouded in mist, and the outlines were vaguely discernible. But I could sense that there was something of vital importance hidden in that landscape, and I knew that Shimamoto was also looking at the same landscape.

I guess we both feel that we are both incomplete, and that something new will soon come to us to make up for this incompleteness.

We were standing in front of the new door, holding hands tightly in the dim light, for ten seconds, just ten seconds.

This passage evoked countless memories for Qian Hehui. It was just a small hand-holding plot, but it clearly conveyed the subtle emotional throbbing between childhood sweethearts.

Only those who have experienced it can deeply appreciate the mystery.

Just this paragraph of text made Qian He Hui feel that the money she spent was worth it!

She flipped back and found that the plot of the second chapter jumped directly to the junior high school period.

She sighed and stopped reading for the time being.

I was recalling in my mind the little story about the protagonist when he was twelve years old.

The two were in the same room for the first time, holding hands and listening to records. Later, when they went to higher school, "Hatsu" often went to Shimamoto's house to play, but finally chose to escape because of the strange "gaze" from the other's mother.

They never saw each other again, and they were separated by thousands of miles, as if they had forgotten each other.

Qian Hehui once had such a childhood sweetheart, but in the end they had to forget each other in the crowd.

But she would never tell this experience to her bad friends!

Everyone thinks that they are a big fool, and if they say it out loud, they will definitely be laughed at!
But as she thought about it, she felt more and more the urge to get it all out.

Why not write an anonymous letter to Mr. Beichuan? He will definitely understand how I feel!
Not only Chizuru Hui, everyone else was also silently immersed in the story. Some of them could find resonance in "Hatsu" and Izumi's high school love story, while others blushed and their hearts beat fast, secretly putting themselves into the illicit love affair between "Hatsu" and Izumi's cousin.

Just like that, a rare study session suddenly became silent, with only the rustling sound of flipping through magazines.

Seeing that everyone was immersed in Hideki's new novel, Agatsuma Yumeko smiled sweetly.

The next morning, 7:.

Outside the entrance of King Records.

The old security guard looked at the drizzle falling from the sky and suddenly felt a little sad.

Who would have thought that four years have passed and the impact of the bubble burst has not yet been eliminated.

The economy did not recover, but the prime ministers kept changing.

From Kiichi Miyazawa who took office in 1991 to Ryutaro Hashimoto who just took office with the slogan of "reviving the Japanese economy".

This is the fifth prime minister, and the economy hasn't seen any improvement!
As society deteriorates, big companies are also becoming increasingly depressed.

The old security guard heard from people that his company's business had plummeted and that the company's new pillar, Ms. Houko Kuwashima, who was packaged as both a singer and a voice actor this year, seemed to have seen a sharp drop in sales of her new album.

Come to think of it, the prosperous era of the record market has long passed.

During the bubble period of decadence and extravagance, people liked the kind of decadent music. Dance halls and karaoke bars were everywhere, and the market for record players and records also soared.

These are the tears of the times.

The company's performance was not good, and even their security team had its staff reduced.

The old security guard suddenly missed the young man who had a nice smile.

When he was here before, the two of them could still chat and spend time together.

Now he is the only old man guarding the security booth alone, feeling increasingly lonely.

The old security guard glanced again at the lifeless company building and the bunch of record stores next to it that were relying on the company's fame to make a living.

I guess these stores will close down in large numbers in a while.

Who would spend money to buy records these days?
The old security guard's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the crowd rushing over from the other side of the road.

What's going on? It seems like it's coming towards me?

His first reaction was to call the police.

Those guys in suits looked aggressive and had strange expressions on their faces.

It is 7:30 in the morning, and there is still an hour and a half before work starts. These people are definitely not employees of the nearby office building.

Could it be some member of a yakuza organization or a cultist who came here to cause trouble?
The old security guard wiped his sweat. The crowd was getting closer and closer. He was sure that they were rushing towards this side.

What should I do?
If I die at work, will it be considered an occupational injury?
The company won’t refuse to compensate my family, right?

His cloudy head was in a mess. He reached for the telescopic stick behind him, but couldn't reach it.

Just as he closed his eyes to think of a countermeasure and even began to wait for death, the whistling crowd passed through him directly without stopping for a moment and went directly to the record stores that had not yet opened!
These people were originally there to buy records?
The old security guard felt that his three views were shattered.

Squeezed in the crowd, Tetsutarou Mori regretted not taking the first subway.

As the recognized No. 1 Kitagawa Fuki in the literary criticism circle, after the Naoki Prize was awarded to Kitagawa Hide, he happily benefited from the popularity of Mr. Kitagawa.

Following the previous review, Mori Tetsutarou wrote an article titled "Why was the Naoki Prize awarded to Kitagawa Hide?" and quickly sent it to several major newspapers.

As expected, the manuscript was quickly bought at a high price and caused a huge response in the literary criticism circle.

But after that, Mr. Kitagawa suddenly became silent.

He used to be a ruthless typing machine, but he hasn’t written a book for more than a month!

Without Kitagawa's new works, Mori Tetsutaro, a critic who lives by following the trend, is in trouble. He racked his brains to catch the attention of others, and repeatedly wrote literary reviews of "I Am a Cat" and "Akadashi" to keep himself familiar with readers so that they would not forget him.

But this is not the solution after all.

Just when I was about to collapse, news finally came from Kawade Shobo - Mr. Kitagawa has published a new book!

Tetsutaro Mori bought 100 copies of "Wenyi" in one go yesterday, giving some to his colleagues and some to his relatives and friends, just as a small support for Mr. Kitagawa and Kawaide Shobo.

However, although Mr. Beichuan has published a book, he is not very optimistic about Mr. Beichuan's new novel.

Like most critics, Tetsutarou Mori believes that the rise and fall of literature is a normal phenomenon.

After being promoted to an "upper-class writer", the next step is to become a top "upper-class writer".

This is no longer a barrier that can be broken through by works alone.

Qualifications, connections, and works are all indispensable.

What kind of masterpieces must Mr. Kitagawa write to continue his glory?
To be honest, he couldn't imagine it.

Even Tetsutaro Mori, a Kitagawa fan, is somewhat pessimistic, so it is no wonder that the commentary community is so pessimistic.

However, after reading the serialized content of the new novel, Tetsutarou Mori felt like he was back to normal!

What about the exhaustion of talent, the inevitable decline of extremes, and the inability to make further progress? It's all bullshit!

His most familiar "Hidefu Kitagawa" is back, and the literary depth of "South of the Border, West of the Sun" is even higher than that of "Youth Trilogy".

As expected of Mr. Kitagawa, he can always carve out a path out of desperate situations and surprise everyone.

Last night, Tetsutaro Mori was thinking hard and felt that this time he should praise Mr. Kitagawa's new work from a different angle. He thought that readers were probably tired of his monotonous writing style.

But after thinking about it all night, he still couldn't think of a good entry point.

I woke up this morning in a daze and my girlfriend called me and asked, "What song is "South of the Border"?"

This immediately opened up his mind.

Tetsutarou Mori got up in the morning and contacted several familiar record stores, but was told that this old record was not for sale.

As a last resort, he took the subway for an hour to get here. King Records is the largest record company in Tokyo, and its stores must have it.

Then, he was shocked to find that there were many people who had the same idea!
A large group of office workers rushed here to buy records before the company opened. Their purpose was self-evident: the song "South of the Border" mentioned by Kitagawa Hide in the book.

Everyone wants to hear what is the charm of the jazz songs that have haunted "Hatsu" and Shimamoto.

Tetsutarou Mori had a deeper thought. He felt that Mr. Kitagawa must have written this novel because he listened to this song.

Otherwise, the song title would not be specifically included in the title.

Perhaps if you understand "South of the Border", you will know what is "West of the Sun".

So he felt that he could write a review based on the songs, and that would definitely work.

However, after seeing so many people buying records because of the novel, Tetsutaro Mori had a bolder idea.

It is not enough to write a review based solely on the record; you have to add something else.

In just a few seconds, he came up with an even more shocking title for the article: "A novel makes a record popular. Is this probably the first time in history?"

This is a huge gimmick and will surely make major newspapers spend a lot of money to buy it.

Thinking of this, Tetsutarou Mori slowly followed the crowd into the already crowded record store.

Then a melodious American folk song floated into my ears.

The crowd that was chattering just now, after entering the record store, held their breath and concentrated. The noise stopped and they all quietly enjoyed the songs.

The voices of traditional American singers actually don’t quite match Kitagawa Hide’s novels.

But the longer they listened, the more they could feel a different mood in the song.

It seems that if I close my eyes, I can see the twelve-year-old "Hatsu" and Shimamoto sitting on the sofa.

"Hatsu" looked at Shimamoto, looked at her lame leg, and then the two of them just held hands quietly and looked at each other as the tune came from the record player.

The novel says that every time "Chu" listens to this song, he always feels that the phrase "south of the border" has some kind of magical charm, and he would wonder what is south of the border.

When the song ended and he opened his eyes, he felt the warmth of Shimamoto's palm and watched her fingers move on her skirt.

This made "Chu" feel a sweet slight pain passing through deep within his body.

"So this is the sweet pain."

Tetsutarou Mori was addicted to it and couldn't extricate himself.

Then on January 1th.

All the record stores in Tokyo were frantically buying records of "South of the Border".

Many record store owners simply couldn’t understand why this song suddenly became popular, so they just stocked it without worrying about not being able to sell out.

Many shops that had been silent for a long time regained business. In just one day, record sales exceeded the total of the previous week!

Then comes even more frantic purchasing, promotion, and sales.

Later, with the crazy hot sales of "Wenyi" and the explosive popularity of "South of the Border, West of the Sun", the sales of the record began to continue to rise. This old song even slowly climbed to the top 20 of the Oricon Foreign Music Chart!

What kind of concept is this?

The foreign songs that can be included in this list are basically masterpieces by top overseas singers.

For example, the original 20th place was "The Show Must Go On" by Queen, which was a song written by Brian May for Freddie Mercury and was also Freddie Mercury's last song.

Queen is a legendary British rock band that will go down in history.

Before that, South of the Border was completely unknown.

The novel made the record popular, which was strange enough in itself, but I didn't expect the record to be so popular that it was sold out, causing the record companies, which already had little stock, to become anxious and have to call America to order more stock.

At the same time, Texas, USA.

Gene Autry, the original singer of "South of the Border" who is known as the "Singing Cowboy", is 89 years old this year.

After entering the 50s, he found that young people's taste in music was gradually shifting towards blues, rock and other styles, and the country music he was good at began to be neglected.

After the 60s, he began to gradually fade out of the music industry and turned to business. Although he gave up his music career, deep down in his heart he still hoped that country jazz could regain its glory.

To this end, Gene also invested in a large number of country music production companies that were on the verge of bankruptcy, hoping that they would not be lost in the long river of time.

Unfortunately, all this is in vain.

Just when he thought that country jazz was really going to disappear from the historical stage, the youngest son in the family who was in charge of the record business suddenly knocked on the door in a hurry to find him.

The first thing he said was to ask him if he could help re-record the song "South of the Border".

"Isn't that the song I wrote more than 60 years ago?" Gene looked confused.

"Yes, Dad, it's that song. It's sold out in Japan, and the record company over there needs us to ship a large quantity of it, but we don't have any stock on hand." The younger son nodded excitedly.

The overseas record business is one of his company's core industries, and he has recently been racking his brains over how to expand into new markets.

It is obviously unrealistic to ask my father to re-record, but with his assistance, a technical reproduction is still possible.

Anyway, let’s prepare a batch of new records and send them to Japan first!

"Sold out?" Gene was even more confused.

Do Japanese people like to listen to American country jazz?

It is 1996 now. If time went back thirty or forty years, he would believe this kind of thing.

But it was 1996.

The domestic record market in Japan should be very prosperous.

Gene's doubts were answered by a book of literature and art handed to him by his youngest son.

The cover is written with the title of a novel "South of the Border, West of the Sun".

Author's name: Kitagawa Hide.

(End of this chapter)