I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 284: Teacher Beichuan actually lost?

After a busy day, Kaoru and Chihaya Ruri dragged their tired bodies out of Maruzen Marunouchi Bookstore.

To express gratitude for their help, the store manager gave each of them a copy of the March issue of "Literature and Art" before they left.

As night fell, two JKs got into a Mercedes-Benz luxury car hand in hand.

As soon as she sat down, Chihaya Ruri couldn't wait to open the transparent cover and read the long-awaited "The End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland".

Kaoru took out the notebook and pen from her bag thoughtfully and began to record what she saw and heard today.

After being busy in the bookstore all day today, she secretly observed and found that the number of readers who came to buy "New Trend" and "Wenyi" was about 3:7.

I’ve heard from Sister Mengzi and others before that a magazine’s sales will be particularly high on the first day of publication.

Over time, sales will slowly decline and will also be affected by the sales of other magazines.

According to the data she heard, "Shincho" performed very well after its first printing. It seems that Ichiro Tanizaki's new book is indeed very worth reading.

This made Kaoru worry about Mr. Kitagawa's situation.

The Nobel Prize scandal seems to have caused an irreconcilable conflict between Mr. Kitagawa and the conservatives in the Japanese literary world.

Ichiro Tanizaki is the leader of the conservative faction, and he most likely came out to curb the growth of Mr. Kitagawa.

If this issue of "New Trend" surpasses "Wenyi", will Mr. Beichuan be in a bad situation?

Is there anything I can do to help him?

Xunzi bit the pen and fell into deep thought.

On the other side, Chihaya Ruri, who was reading with great interest, noticed her friend's expression and couldn't help but whispered, "Kaoru-chan, what are you doing? Why aren't you reading?"

"Data statistics and analysis~" Xunzi spread out the notebook in her hand and showed it to her. It was filled with densely written data related to the publishing industry.

"Hiss——" Chihaya Ruri was immediately impressed, "Are you really going to apply to the Faculty of Literature at the University of Tokyo?"

"Yeah!" Xunzi nodded.

Not only does she want to go to the Faculty of Literature at the University of Tokyo, she also wants to work at Kawaide Shobo after graduation!

It would be even better if I could replace Sister Saito and become Mr. Kitagawa’s new editor in the future!
After all, Sister Saito is already a deputy minister~
"Okay! I also plan to apply to the University of Tokyo! My family has invited a professor from the University of Tokyo to tutor me. Come to my house on weekends to study together~"

A blush appeared on Chihaya Ruri's rosy face, and she didn't act like a young lady at all when facing Kaoru.

"Sorry to bother you~" Kaoru was worried about the lack of research resources at the University of Tokyo.

Japan’s “college entrance examination” is different from that next door.

In addition to unified examinations similar to the college entrance examination, many prestigious schools set their own questions and recruit students independently.

Even though they are both top universities, the test questions of the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University are completely different. Due to differences in majors, the test focuses are even completely opposite.

Therefore, if you want to be admitted to such top universities in Japan, you must find a suitable cram school and specialize in the test questions of that school.

It is obvious that only children from wealthy families can enjoy such educational resources.

This is also one of the reasons why the number of "children from poor families becoming successful" in Japan has become less and less common in recent years.

The driver glanced in the rearview mirror, wondering when his family had hired a professor from the University of Tokyo.

After chatting, Xunzi also turned her attention to the novel.

Half an hour later.

Luxury cars are finally freed from the traffic jams in the city.

The two also finished watching "The End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland" one after another.

But at this moment their expressions were completely opposite.

Chihaya Ruri was excited: "As expected of Mr. Kitagawa! It's so well written! I really want to read the sequel! Is the life of a programmer so boring?"

"Yeah," Xunzi nodded slightly.

Seeing her friend's slightly serious expression, Chihaya Ruri asked, "Kaoru-chan, don't you like Mr. Kitagawa's new book?"

"No, I like it very much. But..." Xunzi shook her head and nodded.

"The End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland" is undoubtedly a pure literary novel that meets the expectations of "Kitagawa Hidefu".

Especially the chapter "Cold Wonderland" about the calculator, which had such a fascinating future science fiction style that she had never seen in other pure literary novels.

But as good as Hard-Boiled Wonderland is, At World's End is just as confusing.

This made Kaoru even more worried about Mr. Kitagawa's situation.
Even with the leading discussion thread by No. 3 Kitagawa Fukimori Tetsutaro and the mindless praise of a large number of Kitagawa Hide's fans, "The End of the World and Hard-boiled Wonderland" still faced the embarrassing situation of being well-received but not popular after the first print run. In the early morning of March 19th.

Oricon announced the latest Oricon chart data.

The March issue of "Wenyi" sold 3 copies on the first day of printing. In terms of data, it is still extremely explosive, comparable to "Xinchao" and far exceeding other pure literature magazines.

But this data was like a bolt from the blue, severely hitting the previously invincible Kawaide Shobo.

In the past, whenever Mr. Beichuan published a book, the sales of "Wenyi" would soar, and other magazines would not be able to catch up with them no matter how hard they tried.

No matter who the opponent is, even Momota Naoki and Arima Yoshiyoshi, who are both "the best in the world", eventually became stepping stones for Kitagawa Sensei.

But this time.

It seems that Mr. Kitagawa suffered a small defeat.

Saito Reina and Kawaide Shizuko were not discouraged.

They have all seen worse times - when "No Longer Human" had a poor sales performance after its first print run.

It's just a little bit worse than Shinchosha, which promoted itself heavily and invested a lot of money in Ichiro Tanizaki. It doesn't matter at all.

Judging from the data feedback, Kitagawa Hide's market appeal remains strong and has clearly surpassed the former "number one in the world" Tanizaki Ichiro.

What is most worrying is actually the reaction of the literary critics and readers.

Since his debut, Kitagawa Hide's books have always had good sales and reputation, but they are not well received by the industry and the literary world.

But this time, "The End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland" received polarized reviews.

A group of die-hard fans like Chihaya Ruri still firmly believe that it is a peerless masterpiece. Mr. Kitagawa is creating a new literary genre that is worth reading and should be regarded as a classic.

Another group of people who have some reading experience, such as Kaoru, Tetsutarou Mori, and a large number of casual fans like Ikezawa, generally do not approve of the "At the End of the World" chapter, thinking it is very abrupt and completely incomparable with "Cool Wonderland".

Smelled a strange reaction in the market.

Shinchosha immediately took decisive action and began spending a large amount of money to buy traffic, seeking cooperation with newspapers, magazines and TV stations, and letting them frantically attack Kitagawa Hide's new book.

These media outlets have been making a big fuss, saying that after being shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Kitagawa Hide has not made any progress and has not thought about continuing to improve his literary creation ability. Instead, he has cooperated with businessmen to engage in "online pre-sales" and make huge profits from readers' pockets.

On the other hand, Ichiro Tanizaki saw an opportunity and immediately mobilized his connections in the Japanese literary world. Within two days, many old guys who had not been seen for a long time suddenly appeared and accused Kitagawa Hide in tears.

For a time, Kitagawa Hide became a rat crossing the street that everyone wanted to beat. Except for the unexpectedly strong sales of "Wenyi", his reputation was getting worse day by day, as if he had really fallen from the altar.

"Ichiro" Takeda Tsuneyasu, who had been silent for a long time, finally found an opportunity for revenge and immediately took up writing again and became a pioneer.

He wrote a review of "The End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland" with 10,000 words, analyzing from various angles that "The End of the World" and "Hard-Boiled Wonderland" have nothing to do with each other, and the former is just something Kitagawa Hide used to fill up the word count!

As for the sentence at the end of the article, it was clearly written by Kitagawa Hide in order to exploit the deceased and increase his own exposure!
Faced with such a large situation, Shizuko Kawaide and others had to let the public relations department do crisis public relations - deleting posts and comments was impossible, and Kitagawa Hide also disagreed with doing so, but attackers with clear purposes like Tsuneyasu Takeda still had to be controlled.

Saito Rena really wanted to go directly to Kitagawa Hide to ask about the situation, but he took Yumeko back to his hometown in Osaka these days, apparently to worship their ancestors or something, so she had to give up.

On the other hand, the most loyal Dongda Beichuan fan group has made an effort.

Jabami Rei, who is "1.7 meters tall and has 1.2 meters long legs", simply postponed all her recent announcements and sat in front of her computer, becoming the ultimate troll, trolling every post that slandered Kitagawa Hide, to let them see how powerful Kitagawa teacher's fan club is!

The staff of Beichuan Network were all filled with indignation. Everyone saw how hard and serious Mr. Beichuan was during the field trip.

How could a book like this not be well written?

After finishing their work during the day, a large group of programmers spontaneously worked overtime and began to act as "hackers" to invade the computers of those who deliberately attacked Teacher Kitagawa.

There is smoke of gunpowder everywhere online and offline.

Instead, Kitagawa Hide, who should have been at the center of the vortex, became idle and leisurely.

Yumeko is almost three months pregnant. Japan has many customs related to maternity, such as the "Obizukai" ceremony.

The ritual involves pregnant women tying a belt to celebrate a smooth birth.

Generally, pregnant women wear a belt to protect the fetus in the third month of pregnancy to pray for a smooth delivery, and cook red bean rice to celebrate.

In addition, in Japan, dogs are also a symbol of smooth childbirth, so as to auspiciously signs smooth childbirth, the ceremony is held on the day of the dog.

Therefore, after the release of "Wenyi", Kitagawa Hide, whose work suddenly declined, took Yumeko back to his hometown in Osaka, and accompanied her and his parents-in-law to the local Uzudo Shrine to pray for a safe delivery and congratulations on the pregnancy.

At this time, Kitagawa Hide and his group had returned to Agatsuma Eikichi's clinic. His parents-in-law were cooking in the kitchen, while Kitagawa Hide was writing the sequel to "The End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland" on a typewriter.

Yumeko is biting on a red and white mochi (a mooncake-shaped dessert with a dough crust and red bean paste inside). Red and white mochi is called "帯祝い餅" in Japanese, and is an auspicious dessert specially made for pregnant women with belts.

Looking at Kitagawa Hide concentrating on typing on the keyboard, Mengzi smiled sweetly with happiness, and her worries about "The End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland" were reduced a little.

Even if the whole world slanders him, in her heart, Xiujun is still the "number one in the world" in Japanese literary world!
(End of this chapter)