I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 159 Who Killed Them?

The next day.

In the streets, alleys, subways and parks, you can see people everywhere holding a copy of the Daily Sports News and reading with great interest the first half of Paradise Lost, which had just been serialized.

The story has progressed to the point where the hero and heroine agree to go to Lake Chuzenji in Nikko to see the winter waterfall and snow scenery.

In this plot, the two not only started to rent a house and live like a real couple, but also experienced life-and-death moments of strangling each other many times.

In addition, the image of the "Abe Sada incident" that appears repeatedly in the novel is also madly hinting to readers that the protagonist couple is doomed.

Considering that the story is based on real life, readers seem to have the illusion of peeking into fate.

For a novel, it should be a fatal flaw if the ending of the story is known early on.

However, the predetermined ending of "Paradise Lost" has given readers more expectations.

They talked about this illicit love affair with great relish, mourned the inevitable tragic ending, and also marveled at the delicacy and softness of the "mono no aware literary style" created by Kitagawa Hide.

No one was upset about being spoiled.

Before the novel was serialized, many people in the newspaper editorial department were secretly worried that the story written by Kitagawa Hide was too shocking and immoral, and would be boycotted and criticized by the public.

But the fact is, there are indeed critical voices, but they are pitifully few and have long been drowned out by the wave of "demands for updates."

The sales of any issue of a newspaper that serializes Paradise Lost will be about twice as high as usual, and as the plot of the novel progresses, the sales will get better with each issue.

Nothing speaks louder than data.

Ken Matsuyama, the president of the Nikkan Sports News, waved his hand and ordered more printing every day. He even made an exception and reprinted the first few issues that had just been released. He was blatantly plundering the people's wealth in this way.

Naturally, the newspaper industry denounced him, and the insults were very harsh, but Matsuyama Ken was not moved at all. He squinted his eyes and kept making money, wishing he could reprint those newspapers, reprint, and reprint again.

The physical publication of "Paradise Lost" has been confirmed to be taken over by Kawaide Shobo, and he will not get a share of the profits, so he has to work hard to think of ideas for his own newspaper.

It's for making money, not shameful!
In this way, the morning edition of the "Nikkan Sports News", which serialized the third issue of "Paradise Lost", broke through the historical ceiling of 300 million daily circulation of sports newspapers with a domineering attitude, and also reached the tail end of the top of the total daily sales list of newspapers.

Everyone is eagerly waiting for the second half of "Paradise Lost" to begin serialization, but this wait will have to wait until next Monday.

What should we do to spend the wonderful time on weekends?

Just when readers were worried, a literary review entitled "Who Killed Them?" was published in the Saturday edition of the Nikkan Sports News.

In nearly 5000 words, Tetsutaro Mori explicitly and implicitly satirized Kodansha, the culprit that caused the deaths of Muramatsu Tomoji and the other man.

And directly pointed the finger at Sawako Noma!

Due to the serialization of Paradise Lost, the Nikkan Sports News gained nearly 50 quarterly subscribers. These people, with the mentality of buying the newspaper anyway, would also take time to read the issues where the novel was not serialized.

Then this literary review became completely popular.

This is the most popular article ever written by Tetsutaro Mori.

Its popularity even surpassed the article that exposed Yomiuri Okamoto's cheating!

In "Who Killed Them?" he detailed the causes of death of Tomomi Muramatsu and Rinko Matsubara.

The identities and backgrounds of the two persons, the final autopsy report and other information were also made public with the permission of the families of both parties of the deceased.

In particular, the fact that Muramatsu Tomomi had served as deputy editor-in-chief of the editorial department of "Gunzo" and was good friends with Kitagawa Hide suddenly caused widespread discussion from all walks of life.

It turned out that Muramatsu Tomoshi and the other were forced to death by the chaebol family headed by Noma Sawako.

Sensing an opportunity to make a fuss about the issue of class antagonism, the media immediately mobilized their connections and began to dig deep into the dark side of the incident.

Even though the Noma family is all-powerful, they cannot withstand the invisible hand that comes like a wave.

Moreover, over the years, the Noma family has had many enemies in the industry, and there are many people who want them to die suddenly - Shizuko Kawaide is one of them.

In this way, more and more things were revealed by unraveling two ordinary autopsy reports.

The media suddenly realized that Noma Sawako's previous claims that the company had no shady dealings were all lies.

The despicable means she used to bring down Muramatsu Tomosuke were despicable. Her behavior of jointly soliciting articles to gain traffic and then giving all the benefits to her own writers made the readers furious!
Seeing that Kodansha was really going to be in big trouble this time, more and more people started to take advantage of the situation and cut off ties with it at a rapid speed.

Even internal employees began to anonymously report Kodansha’s unreasonable “overtime culture” to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare!
Among these events, the most eye-catching and the most fatal is the feud between Kodansha, Kitagawa Hide, and Muramatsu Tomomi.

The first time, Kodansha inexplicably forced Kitagawa Hide to leave, and then was severely hit by his "No Longer Human".

The scapegoat for this incident was the bald senior manager.

Because Kitagawa Hide did not come out to say how he was treated unfairly, the public opinion storm quickly subsided.

The second time, Kodansha and the Akutagawa Prize publicly disgusted Hide Kitagawa, and then were ridiculed by his "Akutagawa" and "I Am a Cat".

The scapegoat for this incident is Airi Noma.

Moreover, the main target of satire in "Akutagawa" is the Akutagawa Prize, not Kodansha.

They even brought out the president's daughter to calm the public anger, so people couldn't blame them anymore.

The third time, Kodansha and Bungeishunju launched a joint essay contest against Kawaide Shobo, which had a family problem, and was then crushed by Border. The scapegoats for this incident were the former editorial department executives, led by Kashimura Takeshi and Muramatsu Tomoshige.

And there was also the smart man Okamoto Yomiuri who took the lead and allowed Noma Sawako to escape the disaster.

Now, everyone has started to bring up old issues, and this time they are causing serious problems.

Exploitation of employees, workplace bullying, shady dealings in essay solicitations, threats to writers, collusion between officials and businessmen. There is nothing disgusting that Kodansha cannot do, except what you can't imagine.

Sawako Noma experienced what it means to "when the wall falls, everyone pushes it down", and she also learned that one should never underestimate the ability of those who like to gossip.

But at this point, it's too late to do anything.

The initiator of this article, Tetsutaro Mori, was very satisfied with the power of this literary review. With the support of Ken Matsuyama and others, he did not have to fear the pressure from Kodansha.

Looking at the 1000 million yen check in front of him that was sent from somewhere, Tetsutaro Mori tore it into pieces without thinking and stuffed it into the trash can beside him.

That's right, it's that capricious!
The bond between me and Mr. Kitagawa is unbreakable even if you add a zero to the end of the check!

Tetsutarou Mori felt that there was probably no one in the world who understood and appreciated the power of Sensei Kitagawa better than he did.

This is a writer who will definitely enter the ranks of "the best in the world" and be recorded in the history of Japanese literature.

Maybe, Mr. Kitagawa will be able to touch the Nobel Prize in Literature trophy in the future like Mr. Ichiro Tanizaki.

Such historical figures are far beyond the reach of money.

And now he is recognized as the No. 1 Kitagawa Fuki in Japan!
Wherever Mr. Kitagawa appears, his figure will be there.

As long as Mr. Beichuan is mentioned by the literary criticism circle, there will definitely be readers who want to read his "evaluation" of Mr. Beichuan!
In other words, if nothing unexpected happens, his name, Tetsutaro Mori, will be remembered forever in the Japanese literary world along with the name Kitagawa Hide.

Is this something that money can buy?
Not only will Tetsutaro Mori not accept the olive branch thrown by Kodansha, he will also give the other party a hard shove on the butt, making it die faster!
Kitagawa Hide, who was hosting the opening ceremony of "No Longer Human" on the set at the time, had no idea that Kodansha was caught in a vast ocean of public opinion because of a literary review.

He was wearing a white T-shirt with the words "No Need to Apologize" printed on it, standing alone in front of the offering table dedicated to the Goddess Benzaiten, holding three incense sticks in his hands.

Behind them are the main creative staff of the crew lined up, and further behind them is the leading cast team headed by Kimura Takuya.

Everyone looked solemn as they watched Kitagawa Hide solemnly salute the Goddess Benzaiten.

After he placed the three incense sticks on the offering table and finished the worship, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and went over one by one to bow and pray for blessings.

"Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Kitagawa." The man who ran over and fanned Kitagawa Hide with a round fan was the general supervisor of this film, Yoshiaki Kobayashi of Toei Company.

This old man is 60 years old this year, but now he is trying to please Kitagawa Hide like a newcomer.

Kitagawa Hideya didn't dare to enjoy this kind of treatment, and quickly stepped aside and bowed to thank him: "You have worked hard, Mr. Kobayashi!"

Kobayashi Yoshiaki smiled and shook his head, then pulled him to sit next to the host seat.

Soon several beautiful actresses came over to act as maids, serving tea, pouring water, fanning and massaging backs - this scene is very common on the sets supervised and controlled by the older generation.

They believe in the traditional concept that "supervising the screenwriter is above all else, and the actors are your tools", and they especially look down on actresses.

Not to mention standing here as your maid, even calling me to sleep with you at night would be a trivial matter.

As long as you like, you can change one every day and play with it until you get kidney deficiency without repeating yourself.

Even so, there are still a steady stream of actresses willing to come forward for your enjoyment.

After knowing these unspoken rules, Kitagawa Hide could only sigh inwardly. It turned out that no matter which country the entertainment industry is from, it is a smelly public toilet.

Money kills people.

Of course, Yoshiaki Kobayashi does have the qualifications and experience to be a tyrant on the set.

The special effects drama "Kamen Rider Black" he produced in 1987 was extremely popular and can be regarded as the childhood memory of a generation. Although the works he directed later were not very good, having such a hit is enough for him to make a living in the industry for the rest of his life.

Kobayashi Yoshimi, who is nearly sixty years old, still shamelessly comes to please Kitagawa Hide because he realizes that "No Longer Human" may be the second spring of his career.

A masterpiece by a supernova in the world of pure literature!
To date, nearly 350 million physical copies have been sold, and by September, annual sales will easily exceed 9 million copies.

This is an adaptation of a top-notch hit, with Hide Kitagawa himself serving as the chief screenwriter.

Kobayashi Yoshiaki doesn't know how to lose!
The two chatted for a while, and the heroine, Kudo Norika, ran over with her phone in her hand, then bowed 90 degrees to Kitagawa Hide and said with a smile: "Teacher Kitagawa, there is an emergency call for you~"

"Thank you, Kudo-san." Kitagawa Hide took the phone and glanced at Kimura Takuya who was nervously peeking at him not far away.

I don't know whether Kimura Takuya and Kudo Shizuka started dating at this time, but it seems that at least Kimura Takuya has a good impression of her.

His future wife is particularly fond of another handsome guy, which will probably keep Takuya Kimura awake for several nights!

Kitagawa Hide smiled, apologized to Kobayashi Yoshiaki with his eyes, and then answered the phone.

"Moshimoshi, this is Kitagawa Hide, who are you?"

"Hello, Mr. Kitagawa. I am the prosecutor Miyamoto Juju from the Special Investigation Headquarters of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office. Are you free this afternoon to come to the Public Prosecutors Office to be investigated?"

(End of this chapter)