I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 206 Great Writer

Kitagawa Hide and Saito Rena could not refuse Olivia's invitation, so they had to stay in Paris for a few more days.

During this time, Olivia volunteered to serve as their travel guide, from the fascinating Seine River, the dignified Notre Dame de Paris, to the world-famous Eiffel Tower and the majestic Louvre.
Accompanied by two beautiful women, one big and one small, we saw the scenery, tasted delicious food, checked in at tourist attractions, and finally gathered under the Eiffel Tower to take a group photo.

Plus he successfully won the Goncourt Prize.

Kitagawa Hide's trip to Paris came to a perfect end.

During these days of sightseeing, he also visited major bookstores and libraries in Paris to check the sales of "Paradise Lost" after winning the award, and carefully checked how many literary masters had "disappeared" in France.

At that dance, Olivia told him that Remembrance of Things Past was gone. Kitagawa Hide began to suspect that not only was the Japanese literary world incomplete in this parallel universe, but the literary worlds of other countries might also have undergone unpredictable changes.

It’s not that he didn’t investigate the literary intelligence of other countries properly, but in the 90s, he was isolated in Japan and had no way of knowing all these things clearly without going abroad.

The Internet is still in its infancy, and you have no way to find out the real situation in other countries.

Even after 2020, more than half of the 100 netizens do not understand and will only watch the information conveyed to them by video platforms and news broadcasts.

Moreover, because Japanese literature had difficulty going overseas and the country implemented a high-intensity "closed-door" policy on cultural and entertainment products, new things from the world literary world could basically not be introduced.

As a result, except for those working in the Japanese literary world, the majority of the population does not even know what the Goncourt Prize is.
Of the three major literary awards in the world, except for the Nobel Prize, the other two are almost unknown in Japan.

In the original history before Kitagawa Hide traveled through time, there were even more outrageous things -

Haruki Murakami, the great writer who has become a complete outcast in the Japanese literary world, is best known for being a runner-up for the Nobel Prize in Literature for many years.

In fact, what is most impressive about him is that he won four major awards in the world literary world: the Franz Kafka Award, the World Fantasy Award, the Jerusalem Prize and the Hans Christian Andersen Award.

However, no matter which country the readers are from, they basically don’t know these things, nor do they know how awesome this is.
In short, with the Goncourt Prize coming to an end, Kitagawa Hide's trip to Paris also came to a perfect end.

Before leaving, Olivia gave him a bottle of Chanel's out-of-print No. 5 perfume with tears in her eyes. The little girl almost made up her mind and took a private plane to Tokyo, Japan with him.

After Kitagawa Hide won the award, thanks to the strong recommendation of the members of the Académie Goncourt, Paradise Lost, as a foreign translated book, was put on the top selling shelf in major bookstores for the first time.

This novel did not disappoint countless French readers, and through word of mouth, sales increased more than tenfold in just a few days, and an astonishing 20 copies have been sold in France!

On the return flight.

"Kitagawa, I feel like I'm dreaming right now." Saito Reina held a French translation of Paradise Lost in her hand and pressed it tightly against her chest, "You actually won the Goncourt Prize!"

"To be honest, I was quite surprised too." Kitagawa Hide smiled gently and turned to look at the blue sky and white clouds outside the plane cabin.

The Goncourt Prize is extremely important overseas. Regardless of whether the old Bidens in China admit it or not, the issue of whether he should be named the new "best in the world" will definitely be mentioned.

Becoming "the best in the world" is no longer his ultimate goal.

Having seen the more prosperous literary market abroad, and with countless trump cards hidden in his arsenal, he has a more ambitious goal:

In the Japanese literary world, and even in the world literary world, he has become a well-known and respected "great writer"!
Japan has seven "Tenka No. 1s", France, Britain, the United States, Russia and other countries have their own top literary giants, but there are not many writers in the world who can be called "literary masters".

In the history of Japanese literature, no one has ever achieved such an achievement!
Will I become the "first person" in the history of Japanese literature?

Will I become a "great writer" in the history of world literature?

Will the future literary life continue to be like this, overcoming all obstacles and looking down on everything, or will it be full of difficulties and twists and turns?
The future is unpredictable, life is unpredictable.
But it is precisely because life is full of unknowns that it is exciting and worth looking forward to!
Thinking so, Kitagawa Hide slowly put on his blindfold and tightly held the pure gold pen in his arms.

As soon as the plane from Paris to Tokyo landed, Kitagawa Hide received a series of life-threatening calls from his big boss Kawaide Shizuko!

He was pulling a suitcase in one hand and holding a flip phone in the other. Next to him was Saito Rena, who had changed back into her OL black stockings suit, and a bunch of loyal-looking bodyguards - it was like the scene in a cheesy Japanese drama where a yakuza boss returns from overseas.

"Teacher Kitagawa, please understand that I am not calling to disturb you because I am too concerned about the winners of the Goncourt Prize." Although the mobile phone speakers of this era are very bad and the voice on the other end has been distorted to a great extent after multiple analyses, Kitagawa Hide still felt from the receiver the "tsundere" side of the big boss that he had never revealed before!
It seems that the Goncourt Prize has a strong enough impact on these people in the industry.

It even caused the usually cold and aloof boss to develop a tsundere personality.

In the receiver, in order to cover up the truth, Kawaide Shizuko continued to talk about various important events in the near future that required Kitagawa Hide's presence.

The biggest event, which really surprised Kitagawa Hide, was that the Tokyo Intermediate Court announced that it would hold the final trial of the "Rose Saint War" case.

He keenly noticed that the trial was not by the Tokyo Family Court, but by the Tokyo Intermediate Court.

This shows that the new Juvenile Law has been passed by Congress and has been officially implemented.

Just as Machimura Nobutaka assured him, Shinichiro Azuma's case did not slip through the net, but instead became a test case for the new Juvenile Law.

As we all know, this newly enacted law enjoys the same "former official courtesy" as a senior official who has just retired from the public security, procuratorial and judicial organs and become a lawyer.

The so-called "courtesy for former officials" means that when retired bigwigs from the political and legal circles switch to being lawyers, they will be allowed to have a "good start" on the first case they take over.

So it is a foregone conclusion that Shinichiro Higashi will be sentenced.

As the main promoter of the new law, the main witness and supporter of the "Drunken Rose Saint War" case, Kitagawa Hide will definitely attend the trial.

While the big boss was still talking about this, Kitagawa Hide suddenly said, "President Kawade, I won the award."

"I know, congratulations, Kitagawa, etc." Shizuko Kawaide was still repeating and responding in a formulaic manner the previous second, and the next second her whole body started to smoke and blush like a steam teapot.

She pressed the phone hard, and because she was so excited, her arm knocked over the coffee on the table!

"Boss! What happened? Can I come in?"

The female secretary outside was so frightened when she heard the sound of the teacup breaking that she quickly held the door handle and asked loudly.

Shizuko Kawaide shuddered and decisively cut off the call with Kitagawa Hide, then tried her best to respond calmly: "No, no, it's okay! I'm fine! Don't worry about me!"

The secretary became even more suspicious.

In her memory, even when her father passed away and the company was facing bankruptcy, the president never made this kind of cute and panicked sound.

But since the president had said so, she had no choice but to respond and then stood silently at the door.

Shizuko Kawaide took several deep breaths before slowly recovering from her dizziness and surprise.

Won an award.
Did she hear it correctly?
Mr. Kitagawa just said that he won the Prix Goncourt, right?

That’s the Prix Goncourt!
France's No. 1 literary award!

The world's top three literary awards!
Winner, winner, winner!
The 24-year-old Japanese writer won the French Prix Goncourt.

The best in the world?
You want to be the best in the world, right?

Shizuko Kawaide's head was messed up again by Kitagawa Hide.

She was surprised and worried.

This is a great thing, but also a huge crisis!
"If I become the best in the world." Shizuko Kawaide took another deep breath, and the tight muscles in her black uniform rose and fell violently.

So what should we at Kawaide Shobo do to keep Mr. Kitagawa here?
What else could attract him?

(End of this chapter)