I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 232 Let me see you off for the last time, Mr. Arima!

The next morning.

A private villa in Tokyo.

"Deng deng deng"

The sound of high heels stepping on tiles rang in the ears of a group of maids.

The butler who was directing the maids to clean the messy hall turned around quickly and saw Miss Kawata, who had an extremely beautiful figure but had a bad look on her face recently.

"Ms. Kawata, good morning." The butler led the maids to bow and greet her.

She is the personal assistant of Mr. Arima. Ever since Mr. Arima moved into the villa and started his decadent life, she has been fully responsible for the communication between here and the outside world.

In other words, Riko Kawata is the real housekeeper here, the immediate boss of these servants!

"Well. Teacher, haven't you gotten up yet?" Kawata Riko's face was livid. She was holding a book on Literature and Art in one hand and a pile of reports in the other. Her bad mood was evident on her face.

"Mr. Arima and the others stayed up all night last night and they probably won't be up until the afternoon." The old butler looked helplessly at the small balloons and tissues filling up the trash can and sighed.

Last night, Mr. Arima invited several old friends in the industry to come here and have fun. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he would have found it hard to imagine that group of people were actually the respected leaders of the Japanese literary world!

In the past, everyone said that the Japanese entertainment industry was corrupt to the core, and many unspoken rules were simply laid out in the open without any shame - such as the "two models and one companion" that most female artists have to go through.

The so-called "two models and one companion" means that if a female artist who has just debuted does not have strong connections, she must first work as a photo model for two years, and then spend the night with various bigwigs in the circle for one year.

During this three-year "novice period", they will gradually be promoted from extras to main actors, completing the first transformation of their acting career.

Now it seems that the literary world, which has a very good reputation abroad, is even more disgusting.

These big guys appear to be well-educated, elegant and easy-going, but in private they spend more money than anyone else!

Kawada Riko rolled her eyes speechlessly and threw the "Literature" in her hand onto the table: "When the teacher wakes up, please give him this magazine to read."

"Yes, we will tell Mr. Arima as soon as possible." The old butler was sharp-eyed and knew that the other pile of reports in her hand was what she wanted to report.

I don’t know what those reports contain, and I didn’t even mention them in front of them.

In short, since Kawata Riko didn't want to say anything, he just pretended to be deaf and dumb.

Anyway, just wait until Arima-sensei and the others wake up and hint him to call Miss Kawata!

After explaining everything, Kawata Riko picked up her bag and quickly left this smoky place.

She returned to the car, but did not leave in a hurry. Instead, she sat in the passenger seat, put the pile of reports on the table, rubbed her temples helplessly with both hands, and began to think about something she had been thinking about for a long time.

As soon as the September issue of "Wenyi" was released yesterday, bookstores across the country went into "sold out" status at the speed of light, which was almost like a deliberate hunger marketing.

She used a lot of connections and finally got a copy of the September issue of "Literature and Art" from a classmate from the same university as her. In the morning, she got a sneak peek at two new novels by Mr. Beichuan.

"The Strange Bird Chronicle" really continues the writing style of the first half, ending the story of the thief magpie bird in a way that everyone expected but was completely unexpected.

When she saw Lieutenant Mamiya chattering on and on about the details of the Battle of Nomonhan to the protagonist at the end, Kawata Riko felt her scalp tingling and an inexplicable sense of horror rushing straight to her head.

The real war is so cruel!
It is not at all as beautiful as described in "The Harp of Burma".

After experiencing such a brutal and bloody battle, how could the people in the war zone still smile at the invaders?

In comparison with this, Mr. Arima's crazy exaggeration of "the military and the people are one family" in the novel does make people feel uncomfortable.

There’s actually nothing wrong with writing pseudo anti-war literature.

After all, in Japan, when your level reaches a certain level, you are bound to come into contact with the conglomerates and the politics they control.

Your political stance determines what you write.

But they clearly keep mixing their own agenda in it, yet they remain hypocritical to the public. Even after their faces have been exposed, they continue to do it shamelessly.

This kind of behavior made Riko Kawata feel sick.

Mr. Kitagawa is the one who writes books from the perspective of ordinary citizens.

After watching the first part of "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle", the seed planted in Riko Kawata's heart has taken root and is about to grow.

The second chapter, "Assassination of the Grand Master of the Knights Templar", is a masterpiece!
It turns out that Western fantasy and supernatural styles can also be combined with Japanese pure literature!
After reading it, Riko Kawata really wanted to pry open Mr. Kitagawa's brain to see how it was and why there were so many wonderful ideas in it!
Since you have horses, why was you born in Beichuan?
If there were no comparison between these two novels by Mr. Beichuan, "The Burmese Harp" would have swept the pure literature world this year. Unfortunately.
She rubbed her temple again and focused her eyes back on the pile of data reports on the stage.

This is top-secret data obtained from Bungeishunju headquarters.

Since the latest issue was released on September 9, the daily sales of "Literary World" have been declining day by day, dropping sharply from 16 copies on the first day of printing to 11.7 copies yesterday.

This is despite the fact that Bungeishunju is losing money to gain publicity - in order to make the IP value of "The Burmese Harp" greater, Bungeishunju invests a lot of money in publicity and promotion every day, striving to let every Japanese see it!
Although the data is declining, it is also within expectations. Bungeishunju is still very optimistic about "The Burmese Harp" and believes that it will usher in a new era of war literature.

Until yesterday, when the first-day data of Wen Yi was released, the headquarters of Bungeishunju suddenly became a stagnant pool. No one dared to talk about opening a new era anymore.

After the September issue of "Wenyi" was unexpectedly sold out, Kawaide Shobo immediately printed another 9 copies. These new books were the result of the printing factory working overtime in the past few days, with the assistance of other printing factories.

It was not until after 5 p.m. that major bookstores began to stock this batch of new books.

Unexpectedly, before 11 o'clock in the evening, the 10 extra copies were sold out!

Fortunately, Kawaide Shobo learned from its mistakes, and while the book was selling well, the printing factory continued to work hard, and managed to squeeze out another 11 copies by 2.5 o'clock, and had them shipped urgently to major bookstores in the Tokyo area.

Bookstores in other cities are not so lucky and can only wait for the delayed release.

Then these 2.5 copies were sold out around 12 o'clock.

Oricon announced a new set of data at 1 a.m., stating that the 1996 copies sold on the first day of the September 9 issue of "Wenyi" were not its limit. Its actual sales time was less than 22.5 hours. If it had sold normally, it should have been able to break the 20-copy mark!
This shocked the entire publishing industry.

Everyone knows that Hide Kitagawa is very popular, but how popular he is is still unclear.

The only thing that is certain is that since he entered the literary world, pure literature has been transformed from niche literature into popular literature in terms of sales, and it was even able to compete with comics, which are suitable for all ages.

Now everyone finally understands.

Kitagawa Hide, the newly crowned "best in the world", is likely to create a historical achievement that is "unprecedented"!
"If I had said a year ago that a certain pure literature magazine could have such sales, people in the industry would probably think I was crazy."

Kawata Riko's heart was trembling slightly.

If the actual first-day sales can reach 25 copies as Oricon estimates, wouldn't it almost catch up with the monthly sales of "Gunzo" in one day?

Nowadays, people in the industry occasionally mention that Kitagawa Hide was "kicked out" by Kodansha and then was "picked up" by Kawaide Shizuko.

This is an anecdote that both those in the know and those who don't always mention after a good meal.

Riko Kawata had only heard of this matter and now she is full of doubts.

How stupid must the former boss of Kodansha be to let go of such a big cash cow!

She flipped through the pile of reports unconsciously.

11.7 copies and 22.5 copies, a gap of almost double.

Now Bungeishunju can’t explain it any way it can.

Evenly matched?

It was clearly a disastrous defeat!
And judging from the quality of the novels, the gap between the two will only widen with the number of updates.

If Mr. Arima fails to make a comeback in the next few episodes, he might just become a stepping stone for the popularity of "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" and "Killing Commendatore".

There is no first in literature and no second in martial arts. Having said that, once a comparison is made, readers will have sharp eyes.

"It's time for me to make a decision." Riko Kawata took a deep breath, put the pile of reports aside, and opened the small compartment in front of the passenger seat.

Inside lay a number of explicit photos sealed in clear plastic packages.

These are the "black materials" that she asked a maid to take in the past few days.

In the industry, her name, Kawata Riko, is basically tied to Arima Yoshiyoshi.

However, since graduation, Arima Yoshiyoshi has only used her as a tool and has never given her any help in her literary creation.

Compared to Kitagawa Hide's constant promotion of Aso Mayumi, Arima Yoshiyoshi is simply too stingy!

Of course, that was all, she would never think of betraying her teacher.

The problem is that this silent contest initiated by the teacher was destined to end in his miserable defeat.

Mr. Kitagawa once again accused Mr. Arima of writing pseudo-anti-war literature to whitewash right-wing elements.

If I don't get away from this now, can I still expect Arima Laiyi to help me after the truth comes out?
It’s good enough if you don’t kick yourself in the ass and take the blame!
If you want to leave and surrender to the enemy, a letter of surrender is indispensable.

She searched inside for a while and finally found a crumpled business card -

Contact information for Shizuko Kawaide, the boss of Kawaide Shobo!
Riko Kawata is not a fool and she will definitely not contact Kitagawa Hide.

What she did was not a good thing, so she must not let Teacher Beichuan really get involved. Otherwise, even if she really helped him, she would definitely be liquidated in the end.

So she had to find someone who could protect her and who needed these things!
Let me see you off for the last time, Mr. Arima!

(End of this chapter)