I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 222: The Unique "World's Best"

With the help of a group of readers, Maruzen Marunouchi Bookstore successfully put the latest issue of "Wenyi" on the shelves half an hour earlier than other bookstores.

Soon after rows and rows of brand new "Literature and Art" were placed on the counters and bookshelves, readers flocked in and snapped them up!

Riko Kawata, who was squeezed in the crowd, tried her best and finally bought two copies of "Literature and Art".

Looking at the magazine she had been longing for in her arms, she let out a long sigh, immediately left the bookstore, hailed a taxi, and went straight to Ueno Toru's private villa.

The private villa is about 15 kilometers away from the bookstore. It is now the most crowded morning rush hour. Looking at the cars moving at a snail's pace, Kawata Riko decisively took out a copy of "Literature and Art", tore open the package, and started reading it directly.

What surprised her was that Hide Kitagawa's "The Strange Bird Chronicle" was not placed first in the serialized list. That position was occupied by a female writer named Mayumi Aso.

"What a familiar name." Kawata Riko doesn't pay much attention to the new generation of writers. She believes that the writing level of her peers is far from that of top writers such as Arima Yoshiyoshi, and is not of much reference value.

Out of curiosity, she glanced at the article briefly, and then was even more shocked.

It turns out that what was placed on the first page was not a novel, but a private interview with Mayumi Aso!

Hechu Shufang is so bold!

Not only was the most important position at the beginning not reserved for "The Best in the World", but it was also filled with an interview that readers don't like to read!

Should we say that they are rich and willful, or that the company culture is too open?

Riko Kawata sneered, but in her heart she felt inexplicably envious of this new generation female writer.

She devoted her best years to Arima Yoshiyoshi, but the latter was unwilling to recommend her to publish her novel in a well-known pure literature magazine.

And this Mayumi Aso was able to get the now popular "Wenyi" magazine to give the front page to her private interview!
"It's her!" After taking a few glances, Kawata Riko suddenly realized. No wonder the name sounded so familiar.

Mayumi Aso is now affectionately called the "Healing Queen" by readers in the pure literature world. She is famous for her delicate writing style and touching love stories.

Her debut work was a popular haiku.

Riko Kawata remembered that the haiku was posted all over the subway entrance, no wonder she had some impression of it.

The interview does not contain much content. It briefly introduces Mayumi Aso's experience and current situation, and then focuses on promoting her "First Love" which is about to be adapted into a movie.

Now Kawata Riko became even more jealous.

He has won the Group Portrait Newcomer Award, the Haiku Award First Prize, and has written several popular novels. His works are about to be adapted into films and TV series.
These are the things she has always dreamed of!

Upon further inspection, Mayumi Aso was actually the senior disciple acknowledged by Kitagawa Hide!

"A single mother who is older than him. Does Mr. Beichuan like older married women?"

Riko Kawata felt sad.

Comparing her with Mayumi Aso, it is obvious that she has better conditions, and to make them famous, it is also obvious that Kitagawa Hide will have to bear greater pressure from public opinion.

But the actual result is
She had the uncomfortable feeling that she was following the wrong person.

With mixed feelings and a change in her preconceived impression of Kitagawa Hide, she continued to flip through "Wenyi" and this time came directly to "The Strange Bird's Chronicle".

"Tuesday's Wind-up Bird, Six Fingers and Four Breasts. What strange chapter titles, just as confusing as the title of the book."

It was the first time that Riko Kawata read a book by Hide Kitagawa. After reading only a few lines, she was attracted by the unique "Hide Kitagawa style".

The pure literary novels she had read before were all serious and orthodox, the kind of hard-core style that was highly praised and affirmed by the Japanese literary world.

But Kitagawa Hide's books are humorous and concise, and there is no sense of difficulty in reading them. They are easy to understand and even the elderly and children can read them.

She didn't dare to say whether this kind of words and writing style were right or wrong. She only knew that if she wrote a book like this, she would most likely be criticized by Arima Yoshiyoshi. If a student who wrote novels like this in a university, he might not be able to graduate from the Faculty of Literature, right?

"But the more I read, the smoother it became, and the more I wanted to read." Riko Kawata finished the first chapter very quickly.

After reading this chapter, her doubts increased instead of diminishing, and she felt that her literary perspective had been challenged in an unprecedented way.

It’s not that there’s anything earth-shattering about the first chapter of Kitagawa Hide’s novel.

On the contrary, Riko Kawata felt that this chapter had a good sense of writing and solid content. It was an interesting novel, but it was by no means excellent pure literature in the traditional sense.

She felt that writing a book like this with such content would inevitably cause controversy among many people.

What really shocked her was Kitagawa Hide's narrative style.

She read Arima Yoshiyoshi's "The Burmese Harp" over and over again, and at one point she felt that anti-war novels should be written in that way.

Soldiers, battlefields, dilapidated houses, captured foreigners, dull-eyed Burmese, etc., these elements are the core of constructing a piece of war literature.

Who writes about war and never mentions it?

In contrast, in Hide Kitagawa's "The Strange Bird Chronicle", the images that appear in the first chapter are ordinary mornings, resigned office workers, lost cats, six-fingered smoking and drinking JKs, and call girls who make inexplicable harassing calls.

Although these things seem disorganized at first glance, they are actually elements that everyone can easily encounter in real life. They are filled in the details of readers' lives and are extremely real and trivial.

They seemed to have nothing to do with the war and were easy to read, until the part about his wife's brother "Noboru Wataya" came up, and then Kawata Riko keenly smelled something.

She couldn't wait to read on. The title of the second chapter was "Full Moon, Solar Eclipse, and Dead Horses in the Barn." It was again weird, but it had piqued her interest.

This chapter is extremely brief, and only describes a quarrel between the protagonist Nishioka and his wife Kumiko. After the quarrel, Nishioka began to think about "How much time does it take for a person to understand another person?" and "Is it really possible for a person to fully understand another person or thing?"

The trivial details of life make Riko Kawata feel very involved.

Although she had been following Arima Yoshiyoshi since graduation and had become his kept lover, Arima Yoshiyoshi did not object to her having a boyfriend and often encouraged her to date more.

So Kawata Riko has always had a real boyfriend.

This quarrel in Chapter 2, and Nishioka's subsequent reflections, is just like her love life.

She had thought about these things over and over again.

Even in this chapter, there is still no war element.

"If I had written this in junior high school, I would have been scolded by my teacher for writing off-topic essays." Kawada Riko chuckled and flipped through the magazine unconsciously. She didn't realize that she had been completely led into Kitagawa Hide's rhythm.

The magic of this novel seems to be slowly emerging.

There is not even a hint of war elements involved, but it still manages to keep people watching!

Chapter 3 is called "Ghana Malta Hats, Sherbet Hues and Allen Ginsberg and the Crusaders."

"coming!"

Riko Kawata felt that her emotions had been fully aroused by the novel. She sat up straight and was about to savor the following text when the car suddenly stopped and the voice of the driver in the front seat was heard.

"Miss, we have arrived at our destination. The total is 3833 yen."

Kawata Riko didn't even have the heart to complain about the expensive Tokyo taxis. She took out a few bills and handed them over, too lazy to collect the change. She got off the car quickly, ready to give the magazine to Arima Yoshiyoshi immediately, and then find a secluded place to appreciate it herself!
"The Strange Bird Chronicle" is serialized in six chapters at once this time, so that the readers who have been waiting for a long time can enjoy it all at once!
She finally enjoyed the pleasure of reading a book as a loyal reader!

"Good morning, Ms. Kawada."

As she entered the villa, the housekeeper and maids greeted her one after another.

Last night's private party was so extravagant that the villa was in a mess. Even sticky little balloons could be stepped on the ground, making Riko Kawata feel nauseous.

In fact, Arima Yoshiyoshi had already "died from recovery" a few years ago, but these powerful old men just like to play around and have many tricks up their sleeves.

She had heard some shocking anecdotes from a few young ladies. If she hadn't known these young ladies' backgrounds well, she would have thought they were rumors!

For example, there is a certain literary giant, who is over 70 years old, and he particularly likes to drink the "holy water" of young girls.

Every time he came to Toru Ueno's party, there would be a separate room, and then seven or eight girls would take turns to deliver the "holy water".

The little sister who told her this anecdote was one of them.

It is said that the boss got drunk that time, and he offered a reward of 20 yen to any girl who provided him with "holy water", and he would accept any offer, with no limit on the number of times!

The little sister went there once, and in order to go there the second time, she insisted on eating two big watermelons. After she was done, the guy praised her, saying "it tastes so sweet"!
In short, it's outrageous.

Kawata Riko delivered the magazine to Arima Yoshiyoshi's room. As expected, this "top-notch talent" who was over 60 years old was sleeping soundly in bed with several geishas, ​​and it seemed that he could not be woken up in a short time.

She tiptoed out of the room and sat down on the sofa, intending to watch The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle for a while.

The TV opposite was still playing the news at a very loud volume. I guess it was turned on last night to cover up some other noises and it was not turned off all night.

She was about to continue reading when she was suddenly attracted by the news broadcast on TV.

“Congratulations to the famous writer Kitagawa Hide for achieving a top 30 result in the Izu Marathon!

The person standing next to me now is Mr. Kitagawa.

Hello, Mr. Beichuan, please talk to the audience in front of the TV! "

"Hello, reporter. Good morning, friends watching TV. I am Kitagawa Hide."

A handsome face appeared in the camera.

So handsome!

Kawada Riko couldn't help but whispered.

I've heard before that Kitagawa Hideshuai is as handsome as a star, but now that I see him, seeing is believing!

"I'm very happy to have achieved such a good result. I'm very grateful to my girlfriend Yumeko Agatsuma for accompanying me along the way. Without her, I definitely wouldn't have been able to persevere to the end."

As Kitagawa Hide said this, the camera turned to Yumeko standing beside him.

Yumeko's sweetness and cuteness dealt another critical blow to Kawata Riko.

This is such a perfect match.

"Actually, there's nothing special I want to say, but I do get a lot of inspiration when I'm running. I might write a book called 'What I Talk About When I Talk About Running' in the future, haha!"

Kitagawa Hide's smile was beautiful and relaxed, and his tone was humorous and witty, not at all like a "top-notch person in the world".

The reporter was also amused by him and said with a smile that he hoped Mr. Kitagawa would include him in the new book so that he could be recorded in history together.

"Are you so casual and relaxed?" Kawata Riko has always felt that writers should be serious and reserved, and the bigwigs she knows are also like that.

But now look at Kitagawa Hide.

The youthful, vigorous and straightforward tone made her feel more comfortable.

The maids and housekeepers also stopped their work and stared at the TV, as if they were impressed by Kitagawa Hide's personal charm.

Is this the innate temperament?
Riko Kawata once again changed her opinion of this peer.

During the conversation, Kitagawa Hide cleverly brought the topic back to the newly serialized "The Strange Bird Chronicle". He did not hide anything, but smiled directly at the camera and said: "I wrote this novel to correct some bad practices and historical views.

In order to write its historical content well, I consulted a lot of information.

It may not be my best-selling or best-received book, but it is definitely the book I have written most attentively so far. I hope everyone can support it!

Thank you very much! "

"He doesn't have the airs of a great writer at all." Riko Kawata couldn't help laughing as she held the book "Literature" in her hand.

As the "best brand in the world", is it really possible for a company like this to advertise itself in front of the camera?

Although his behavior is eccentric, he is surprisingly down-to-earth.

Looking around, the maids and housekeepers were obviously also attracted. It seemed that everyone could not escape having a copy of "Literature"!

Thinking back to Arima Yoshiyoshi who was still a puddle of mud in the room, Kawata Riko suddenly had a thought that she had never had before.

Arima Yoshiyoshi, I don't think I'll really lose to him.
(End of this chapter)