I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 155 It’s hard for such a person not to succeed!
As usual, the two of them stripped naked and went to the bathroom.

Yumeko had tied her long hair up high with a towel. She had gone shopping with Jabami Rei before, and the two talked about the heroine of the manga "Saint Girl", Megumi Kyohae, and naturally talked about her historical prototype, the girl idol Megumi Asao who was popular throughout the 70s.

The biggest influence of Megumi Asao on the Japanese entertainment industry was the introduction of the princess cut hairstyle.

The so-called princess cut, which Japanese women often call the "hime hairstyle", originated from a hairstyle popular among aristocratic women in the Heian period. It involves leaving short hair neatly cut on both sides of the cheeks, and the rest of the straight long hair is draped behind the back.

After talking about this, Mengzi began to secretly grow her hair long, and now has to tie it up high when taking a shower, otherwise it would be in the way.

With a princess cut hairstyle, Yumeko looks more gentle and well-behaved, which always makes Kitagawa Hide unable to hold back his appetite.

After they rubbed each other's skin, washed their heads and bodies, and got clean, they soaked in the big bathtub together.

Kitagawa Hideo stood with his legs apart, his head tilted high, and his forehead was covered with a square towel.

"Ah, I feel like the fatigue of the day has finally dissipated. It turns out that the book signing event is so tiring!" Kitagawa Hide was soaking in the bathtub with the soft Yumeko sitting in his arms, and he felt suddenly relaxed.

"Well, Xiujun, you've worked hard today~" Mengzi's small body could lean well in his arms, like a cute little kitten.

She rested her head on Beichuan Xiu's chest, and raised her head like him, and suddenly asked, "Xiujun, are you serious about what you said to the reporter today?"

"What?" Beichuan Xiu's head was dizzy now.

"It's about preparing to submit the novel for an overseas award," Mengzi asked in a low voice. Kitagawa Hide had not discussed this with her before, which made her a little worried.

Japanese pure literature is very unpopular overseas, and she was not sure that "Paradise Lost" would cause a huge response abroad.

If the novel performs mediocrely after being published overseas, many people will definitely make a big fuss about it.

Kitagawa Hide said "Oh" and then remembered that he had never mentioned this to Mengzi.

According to the original history, "Paradise Lost" caused a sensation throughout Japan shortly after it was serialized. It not only shocked the literary world, but also triggered the so-called "Paradise Lost Phenomenon."

At the time, "Paradise Lost", which directly hit the topic of extramarital affairs and social conditions among middle-aged people, was at its peak and its popularity was comparable to Japan's most phenomenal literary work "Norwegian Wood".

But many people don’t know that Paradise Lost is also a best-seller overseas, especially its French translation, which was successfully shortlisted for the prestigious Prix Goncourt.

This is also the only work in the history of Japanese literature to be shortlisted for the Prix Goncourt.

When he was a graduate student, Kitagawa Hide spent a lot of time studying this question: Why does the French Literature Award, which is very unfriendly to Japanese literature, value this novel so much?
After repeated verification and examination of various documentary materials, he finally concluded that the forbidden love between the hero and heroine in Paradise Lost is very consistent with what the French call "romantic aestheticism."

As we all know, the French are romantic and pursue love in their bones, which coincides with the story of "Paradise Lost".

He never told Mengzi about this, and the reason was very simple.

You can't tell my wife that I think the book I wrote will be shortlisted for the Prix Goncourt, right?
Even if it was Yumeko Agatsuma, who always thought "Hide-kun is the god", after hearing this, she would probably think that Kitagawa Hide had a fever and his head was a little confused.

In order not to make his young wife too worried, Kitagawa Hide simply expressed his confidence and the fact that the Goncourt Prize might rely more on romantic love elements.

Mengzi kept nodding her head as she listened. Since Xiujun said it was possible, she believed it would work!

three days later.

Kitagawa Hide drove alone to the COKC Café in Minato Ward to meet with the editor-in-chief of the Nikkan Sports News.

The editor-in-chief's name is Yamazaki No, and his son is Yamazaki Yosuke, a college classmate of Daiichi Kitagawa Fukimori Tetsutaro. Of course, they were sitting in the cafe at this time and had no idea that the people related to them had such a deep friendship.

Yamazaki was able to be promoted to editor-in-chief because he has been a staunch supporter of Ken Matsuyama since he joined the Nikkan Sports News. Even though Ken Matsuyama had no chance of becoming the president at that time, he still followed him closely.

And when Ken Matsuyama defeated one tough opponent after another as if with divine help and finally ascended to the top to become the president, he, the loyal minister, naturally also rose with the tide and became the head of the editorial department.

Kitagawa Hide, who had already learned about this from Matsuyama Ken, smiled and took out the manuscripts of the first three chapters of "Paradise Lost" and handed them to Yamazaki No.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Kitagawa, the president is busy attending a meeting at the Ministry of Education, so I have to receive you. Please don't mind."

Yamazaki, who was at least twenty years older than Kitagawa Hide, stood up and took the manuscript with both hands. He first apologized for being the only one who came here. After getting Kitagawa Hide's understanding, he sat down again, then immediately opened the manuscript and couldn't wait to read "Paradise Lost".

He has learned some information about Kitagawa Hide's new novel from various channels, and he has no doubt about Kitagawa Hide's writing ability, but the recently published "Border" is an "extramarital affair theme". Even if Kitagawa Hide claims that "Paradise Lost" and "Border" are completely different, will readers really not get tired of it?

It is hard for Yamazaki to imagine how to further explore the connotation of the theme of extramarital affair in such a perfect novel as "Border". If he is not careful, he may provoke backlash from readers.

The readership is such a magical group of people.

When you write a good article, they love you, respect you, and praise you.

But when your level drops or fails to meet their expectations of you, they will hate you, scold you, and criticize you.

In his opinion, Kitagawa Hide could have written about a completely new subject and there was no need to focus on extramarital affairs.

However, when he opened "Paradise Lost" and finished reading the first chapter under the gaze of Kitagawa Hide, all the doubts in Yamazaki's mind were immediately resolved.

"This kind of text and language style." Yamazaki didn't rush to read the second chapter, but went back to read the first chapter "Sunset".

This time he was finally convinced that this was a new style of writing, one that was particularly beautiful. If he had to say, it was somewhat close to the "mono no aware literature" first proposed by Mutsuro Takahashi.

No, isn’t Mr. Kitagawa the founder of mono no aware literature?

It's just that he wrote haiku before, and the beautiful visuals and words are still talked about by the public. However, haiku in the style of mono no aware is too difficult to write, and apart from Kitagawa Hide, no other haiku poet has ever written in that style.

Instead, his new style of haiku, which was written for fun, became very popular, and such new style of haiku slogans can be seen everywhere in the streets today.

So this time, he is going to write the true pioneering work of mono no aware literature?
After Yamazaki realized this, he sat up straight involuntarily and immersed himself in the novel.

The first chapter describes the male protagonist Tomomi Muramatsu and the female protagonist Rinko Matsubara's affair journey, abandoning their families. The two also boldly discussed the "sexless marriage" common among middle-aged people, and the sexual pleasure that can only be felt from each other.

Among them, Tomomi Muramatsu and Rinko Matsubara both longed for the passionate love they had never experienced before, but also felt that they were going to hell because of their huge sense of guilt, and they accurately conveyed their feelings to Yamazaki.

He is also a middle-aged man, and like Muramatsu Tomomi, the former deputy editor-in-chief in the story, he has a seemingly happy family, but in fact he is extremely eager for true love.

However, Yamazaki's career was still on the rise, and his status and position did not allow him to have anything to do with any woman other than his wife at this time.

Just because you haven’t done it doesn’t mean you haven’t thought about it.

Kitagawa Hide accurately captured the throbbing and emotions in the hearts of middle-aged people, which shocked Yamazaki No.

He went on to the second chapter.

In the autumn, the two went to Kamakura Daitogu Palace to watch Noh plays, and then learned to play romantic games based on Noh plays in the evening.

In this chapter, the inner desire and anxiety of the male and female protagonists are further magnified.

Kitagawa Hide guides the readers in the simplest and most straightforward way, letting them watch the two people walk towards their destruction, feeling curious and expectant.

Based on just these two chapters, Yamazaki was certain that once Paradise Lost was serialized, it would cause another sensation in the literary world.

It is a completely different story from "Border", not the story of "Hatsu" and Shimamoto's other ending as everyone imagines.

If "Border" is a beautiful fairy tale woven for adults, then "Paradise Lost" is a bloody documentary literature that hits the heart directly.

But this documentary literature is so terribly unreal, like dust floating in the air. You can only see it through the scorching sunlight. If you look carefully, once the light is lost, it disappears into the smoke and dust and is difficult to see.

The unique beauty of mono no aware literature can be seen in every line of words, which is also one of the motivations that attract Yamazaki to keep reading.

Chapter 3 "Good Night", Chapter 4 "Short Day", just like that, a manuscript of a total of 100,000 words, Yamazaki sat in the coffee shop as if he was alone. When he freed himself from the words, he found that the sky outside had dimmed.

Oops, I was too engrossed in watching this!
Yamazaki quickly looked up at Kitagawa Hide and found that he was sitting opposite him, scribbling on the convenience paper in the cafe, and seemed to be completely unaware of his gaze.

This made him feel a little embarrassed to disturb the other party.

A few minutes later, the thirsty Kitagawa Hide picked up the coffee cup and found that Yamazaki had finished reading.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting, Editor-in-Chief Yamazaki." Kitagawa Hide immediately crumpled up the sticky notes and threw them into the trash can.

Yamazaki was stunned for a moment, then quickly shook his head and said, "No, no, no, it's me who kept you waiting."

"So how was the novel? Did it meet your expectations?"

"I don't know how to describe this novel. I have never seen its writing style before. Anyway, this is definitely a novel that will go down in history!"

Yamazaki couldn't help but boast,
"No need to make any changes, you can publish it directly in the newspaper. We will free up an entire literature section for you!"

"Really? That's good."

This answer was within Kitagawa Hide's expectations.

Even though the content has been changed, it is still based on "Paradise Lost" after all. In addition, his literary knowledge and literary literacy far exceed that of this era, so it is still easy for him to conquer the other party.

The two hit it off immediately and began discussing signing the contract and the subsequent serialization issues.

Kitagawa Hide lied that he had no manuscripts on hand, thus taking complete control of the serialization frequency and date. In fact, he still had two chapters of about 5 words on hand in case of emergency.

As for the Nikkan Sports News, since the president Ken Matsuyama personally endorsed it, all conditions were negotiable, based mainly on Kitagawa Hide's personal wishes.

After discussing these things, Kitagawa Hide asked Yamazaki to bring the manuscript back to the publishing house, and then officially start serializing it in the daily magazine on April 4th.

As for publicity and promotion, which was the newspaper company's strong point, he did not interfere much. He only reminded Yamazaki to explicitly hint to the readers that the text of this novel would be a little larger than usual because it would be submitted for overseas awards.

If you don't use overseas as a shield, there will definitely be literary critics who will harp on the fact that Kitagawa Hide wrote borderline articles. But now that you have this legitimate reason, not only can people not criticize you, they will have to give you a thumbs up and praise you.

Yamazaki nodded repeatedly, and then personally sent Kitagawa Hide back to the car.

After seeing him leave, Yamazaki ran back to the cafe and couldn't help picking up the crumpled manuscript paper in the trash can and opening it to take a look.

It actually contains a lot of settings and plot summaries about "Paradise Lost", but if you haven't read the previous text, you will basically just think it's a messy setting text written by someone.

Yamazaki, who had read the previous article, was impressed again.

It turns out that while I was busy reading the manuscript, Mr. Beichuan was also not idle and had been making settings!
It’s hard for such a person not to succeed!

(End of this chapter)