I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 258: Teacher Beichuan's Teachings and Practices: "White River Night Boat" and "White Night Walk"

After a whole year of practice and polishing last year, the writing skills of Mayumi Aso, Keigo Higashino and Shiro Dango have improved greatly.

Especially Keigo Higashino, after writing the two hit books "Secret" and "Wandering Blade" under the guidance of Kitagawa Hide, has been hailed as the "King of Detective Novels of the New Century" by readers of detective literature, and was successfully selected into the Japan Mystery Literature Association, completely establishing a firm foothold in the circle of "middle-stream writers".

In the second half of last year, he also published a series of humorous short stories, "The Detective's Rules", which spoofed traditional detective stories, "Who Killed Her", which had a bold open ending, and "Poisonous Laughter Novel", which made crazy comments on the publishing and author circles and incorporated his many years of personal experience into it, through Kawaide Shobo.

The sales of these three books were not high, but the productivity and satirical ability demonstrated by Keigo Higashino through them are exactly the same as his teacher Hide Kitagawa, and people often talk about him as "He is worthy of being the second disciple of Teacher Kitagawa, they are simply printed from the same mold"!
Mayumi Aso and Danki Shirou are no less impressive. The eldest disciple is very famous on the Internet. As soon as the sign of "healing queen" in the pure literature world is hung up, many readers come to buy her books.

"Everything About Lily Chou-Chou" written by the third disciple exploded in both box office and sales. Iwai Shunji's film shooting team won many awards last year for it, which made them very proud. The original physical book was also sold out in major bookstores, with total sales exceeding 50 copies, and is very popular among young people.

When talking about the new book, the three disciples couldn't help but share their New Year's wishes with Kitagawa Hide.

Now that they no longer have to worry too much about their livelihood and money, they hope to go further on the path of literature.

They do not expect to sweep the many awards and fame in the Japanese literary world like Mr. Kitagawa in the future, or even become famous overseas, but they still want to dream of winning a first or second place literary award.

After the Tanizaki Prize and the Akutagawa Prize have successively lost their credibility, the most attractive prize in the Japanese literary world today is the Naoki Prize. It just so happens that the novels written by the three disciples are more inclined towards popular literature. They were very sad for a while when they failed to win the award last year.

After regrouping this time, they are no longer hesitant and have openly stated that they want to try to win the Naoki Prize or other first- and second-tier literary awards.

Feeling the determination of his disciples, and feeling guilty for not being able to take care of them in the second half of the year because he was too busy, Kitagawa Hide immediately perked up and began to guide them on their new novels one by one.

Among the three, Mayumi Aso and Keigo Higashino have already established their writing styles. The former is very suitable for the style of Yoshimoto Banana, and the book "First Love" she wrote later was also more popular than her first book "Childhood Friends" which imitated Higuchi Ichiyo.

Therefore, Kitagawa Hide decisively chose Yoshimoto Banana's representative work "White River Night Boat" for her this time.

"'Shirakawa Night Boat'? Master, did you come up with this book title derived from the idiom しらかわよふね?" Mayumi Aso looked at Kitagawa Hide and thought the new book title was beautiful, but she had no idea what the content of the novel should be.

"Yes, it is the modern translation of the widely circulated idiom '白川夜舟'."

Kitagawa Hide nodded, and seeing that his disciples and Mengzi were curiously gathering around him, he simply recounted the idiom and the main content of the novel.

Shirakawa Night Boat is an idiom story that has been passed down from ancient times in Kyoto.

According to legend, there was a liar in the Heian period who liked to brag to others that he had been to the then capital, Heian-kyo. He also seriously described to others how prosperous the emperor's residence was.

As it turned out, there was someone in the audience who had actually been to Heian-kyo and deliberately asked him what Shirakawa in Kyoto was like.

The liar had never been to Kyoto, so he naturally had no idea what Shirakawa was like. So he quickly said, "When I took a boat across Shirakawa, it was night, it was pitch black outside, and I slept very soundly, so I didn't see anything."

However, Shirakawa is actually a place name in Kyoto. It is located in the Okazaki area of ​​Sakyo Ward. It has been the cultural center of Kyoto since ancient times. It now has many popular tourist attractions such as Heian Shrine and art museums.

Although there is now the Biwako Canal in Shirakawa connecting Kamogawa and Lake Biwa, in ancient times it had nothing to do with the river and was not a literal name of a river. So this man's lie was exposed on the spot, and the scene was very embarrassing for a while.

Since then, Baihe Night Boat has become a synonym for pretending to know something and trying to get away with it.

Now it is often used to refer to the state of being completely unaware of what is happening around you while sleeping.

The book "White River Night Boat" is not a novel, but a collection of short stories including three first-person love short stories: "White River Night Boat", "Night and the Night Traveler", and "An Experience".

All three stories are related to sleeping and love, so they are called the "Sleeping Love Trilogy" by readers. After publication, it was once as famous as Haruki Murakami's "Youth Love Trilogy" and set off a "Yoshimoto Banana" trend in Japan.

"White River Night Boat" mainly tells the troubles of the protagonist Terako, that is, the first-person "I" -

"I" am dating a man who has a wife, but that man's wife is a vegetable.

Morality and public order tell me that even if the other person’s wife is in a vegetative state and may never wake up, as long as they have not divorced, I should not interfere in their marriage.

But the inner impulse and desire told me that he lacked love and companionship, and he only persevered because his wife was a vegetable and he couldn't bear to abandon her.

The inner torment turned the sweet love into bitter coffee, making it difficult for Terako to sleep day and night.

The other protagonist of the novel, Shiori, is an ordinary girl, but she has an extraordinary job: sleeping with others.

This kind of sleeping companion is not that kind of sleeping companion.

Her job is to accompany others to sleep at night as needed, but without physical contact.

With Shiori's company, "I" can finally fall asleep at night.

But just like a psychologist who listens to too many complaints from patients, he will eventually be doomed.

Shiori, who had been curing insomnia patients, eventually chose to commit suicide.

And "I" was always shrouded in the shadow of Shiori's death until I saw the beautiful fireworks, and then I was "joyfully" relieved.

In "Night and Night Traveler", the story revolves around "my" brother and his two girlfriends.

The novel does not rely on a melodramatic love triangle or the troubles caused by a love triangle to attract readers, but instead uses a completely new writing technique.

At the beginning of the story, the brother who had two girlfriends died in a car accident, and "I" accidentally met one of his girlfriends and their newborn child in the United States.

In the girlfriend's memories, the story of love, hatred and vengeance between her brother and the three of them slowly unfolded.

Kitagawa Hide emphasized this point and hoped that when Mayumi Aso wrote this story, all the timelines would start with the death of her brother and the entire story would be narrated around her brother's life.

This narrative technique is similar to the animation "The Burial of Frillian" which later became very popular in the animation industry.

"An Experience" is the shortest of the three novels.

The protagonist of the novel is a woman named Achun. The narrator "I" and Achun fell in love with the same man, and the three of them lived together.

After Ah Chun's death, I suddenly realized that Ah Chun, whom I once resented, meant much more to me in my life than the man I loved.

Later, under the arrangement of my current boyfriend Shuinan, I got the help of the dwarf wizard Tanaka and met Achun again in another dimension, finally putting my mind at ease.

After listening to the synopsis of the three stories, Mayumi Aso and the other three couldn't help but exclaim in amazement.

As expected, it’s Teacher Kitagawa!

His sensitivity to the market and ability to write novel plots are truly unique in the Japanese literary world!
And leaving aside the plot, each of these three stories has added some innovative elements, just like when Mr. Beichuan wrote his own books, striving to bring a brand new reading experience to readers with each book!
The first-person narrative style, the interpersonal relationships between characters that violate public order and morality similar to "Border" and "Paradise Lost", and the three novels have three completely different reading experiences
Mayumi Aso liked the three short stories told by Hide Kitagawa very much, but she had no confidence that she could write them well.

Mengzi saw her hesitation and lack of confidence, reached out and gently patted the back of her hand, smiled sweetly and said: "Come on, Mayumi-chan! These stories are really suitable for you to write. Believe me, you can definitely write the feeling that Xiujun said!"

"Well! Thank you, Master Meng." Mayumi Aso nodded. She looked at Kitagawa Hide, and there was gratitude and a bit more confidence in her eyes.

Since my master has given me the idea, I should think about how to present it perfectly to the readers instead of worrying about ruining my master's reputation before I even start writing.

After teaching Mayumi Aso, Kitagawa Hide called Keigo Higashino, who was always introverted and shy, to his side.

Keigo Higashino is very grateful to his teacher for pulling him out of the abyss of darkness. He feels that everything he has today is largely due to the teachings of Mr. Kitagawa. Therefore, after "The Wandering Blade", he was determined to write another shocking work to repay his teacher's teachings.

However, since Kitagawa Hide began to let him go, he has not been able to write a high-quality best-selling book again.

"Master, I am sorry to trouble you! This time I will definitely write a masterpiece and will never tarnish your reputation!"

When Keigo Higashino came to Kitagawa Hide, he first stood at attention and bowed respectfully 90 degrees to express his gratitude and determination, and then sat down upright with determination in his eyes.

"Well, I understand your determination, but don't be so nervous. It's okay even if you fail. You still have a long literary career ahead of you. Don't worry about one or two failures."

Kitagawa Hide waved his hand gently. Among the three disciples, Keigo Higashino was actually the one that gave him the least worry and trouble.

There is no other reason, his name alone is enough to prove everything!

In the original world, Keigo Higashino is the most prolific, richest and most controversial mystery novelist in the history of Japanese mystery literature.

You might say that the quality of his works varies greatly, and that he publishes bad books frequently to make money, but you would never say that he is a bad person.

But precisely because of this "dual nature of god and ghost" in him, Kitagawa Shucai always pays special attention to him, to prevent him from doing the stupid thing of publishing a bad book during his peak period!

In this respect, Keigo Higashino is very much like a certain director named Wang next door. His good works make people applaud, while his bad works make people roll their eyes.

"Yes! I will follow your instructions!" Keigo Higashino nodded heavily.

Kitagawa Hide said "hmm", and then briefly told him the concept of "White Night Walk".

"White Night Walk" may not be the most recognized novel of all Keigo Higashino's novels, but it is definitely the most profitable and famous one.

The story of the novel mainly tells the story of the young girl Yukiho and the young boy Kirihara Ryoji, whose people around them died mysteriously one after another. After arduous investigation, the police finally unraveled the truth of all the cases from a murder case 19 years ago.

The story outline sounded ordinary, but as soon as Yumeko and the others heard the plot structure, they guessed at the speed of light that the murderers of all the cases must be Yukiho and Kirihara Ryoji.

Judging from the content of the story, Keigo Higashino does not think that "White Night Walk" will be a big hit. He feels that the mystery is not as interesting and its practical significance to society as "Secret" and "The Wandering Blade".

Kitagawa Hide had already guessed that they would have this reaction. Indeed, the story of "White Night Walk" is quite ordinary and boring. At first glance, it does not have any of the essential elements of a hit bestseller.

But what really makes readers excited and the society amazed is not the story blueprint, but the cruel ending that is so meaningful that it is enough to be recorded in the history of social detective novels!

He waved to Keigo Higashino, motioning him to listen carefully.

When Keigo Higashino heard Kitagawa Hide's general writing ideas and the ending that he had never expected, his face suddenly changed, and his previous confusion immediately turned into shock and admiration!

“Can I really write the feeling that the teacher said?”

Keigo Higashino, who was originally full of confidence and momentum, also began to doubt his life.

After listening to the two creative ideas proposed by the teacher, the three apprentices all felt a little withdrawn.

I thought that after a year of precipitation, my level should be closer to the teacher's. Until today, after listening to the teacher's creative ideas and comparing them with what I wrote, I now have only one feeling in my heart.

That's what the heck is going on!

Incredible!

Really bad!

"Go ahead, and try to write a beginning tonight." Kitagawa Hide patted Keigo Higashino's shoulder and said nothing more.

This was originally his own work. If Kitagawa Hide interfered too much, it might have a counterproductive effect. It was enough for him to just give a story outline and a core writing method. He believed that Keigo Higashino would not let him down.

Keigo Higashino said "yes" and moved a small stool to sit next to his senior sister.

Shirou, the last demon in the group, was very nervous. When he saw his teacher waving at him, he felt both excited and scared.

He, who originally had an extrovert personality, now acted like a shy high school student, completely losing the high-spirited look he had in front of his readers. He brought a small stool and obediently came to Kitagawa Hide, respectfully waiting for Kitagawa Hide's guidance.

(End of this chapter)