I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 299 has become popular in various countries before it was officially released!
Rena Saito stated categorically that "One Hundred Years of Solitude" will definitely surpass "No Longer Human" and become Kitagawa Hide's new representative work.

Her certainty and definite attitude made Shizuko Kawaide curious about this seemingly long and complicated foreign literary novel.

Shizuko Kawaide walked into the office, sat down, and began to read the opening chapter of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" carefully.

“Many years later, facing the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía.”

The opening sentence gave her the same huge impact.

Once you see this, you can’t stop watching.

It was not until the female secretary outside the door could no longer wait and knocked on the door to remind Shizuko Kawaide that she had several important meetings to attend that she reluctantly got up.

"It is indeed 'God'!" With a limited vocabulary, Shizuko Kawaide could not think of any good words to praise "One Hundred Years of Solitude". In the end, she could only give a thumbs up to agree with Rena Saito's evaluation.

The two smiled at each other and felt confident.

He is indeed the most reassuring partner along the way!
It seemed that as long as Kitagawa Hide was there, they would never have to worry about things going in a bad direction.

"I will arrange a press conference in early July. Reina, you will attend and promote One Hundred Years of Solitude to readers across the country. And the town of Macondo in the story, isn't it said that the prototype is Aracataca in Colombia?
I will ask the people at Mitsui Travel to see if we can organize a joint event with them, or a lucky draw where readers can win travel tickets by buying magazines.”

If you ask Shizuko Kawaide, this cold and beautiful boss, to review literary works, what she says is likely to be irrelevant, but if you ask her to organize some commercial activities and small ideas, she will be good at it.

The "No Need to Apologies" oolong tea that she came up with on the spur of the moment is now one of the best-selling drinks in Japan!
"Yes! I'll send an email to Kitagawa later, and take the opportunity to tell him about writing another novel about 'Kitagawa Hidefu'." Saito Rena nodded.

Half of Shizuko Kawaide's body was already sticking out of the door, but when she heard this, she turned back abruptly.

"Well! Then I'll leave it to you, Reina-chan! Please try to convince Kitagawa. If he's willing, just say that I owe him a big favor - you can pay him back with anything!"

Recently, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Machimura Nobutaka, has been calling repeatedly to urge the matter. It seems that he is really worried that Tanizaki Ichiro's incident will affect his own career.

Now Machimura Nobutaka's faction is also Kawaide Shobo's most solid support in the Ministry of Education.

The subsequent reorganization of the Japan Literary Society and the redistribution of the domestic pure literature market, including the reintegration of major awards such as the Tanizaki Prize, the Akutagawa Prize, and the Naoki Prize, all required the power of the Ministry of Education.

Including the further development of the Kawaide family, the interest ties of the Mitsui Group are closely linked to political parties and the Ministry of Education.

Kitagawa Hide, who doesn't engage in such things, naturally doesn't need to worry about these things - he is now recognized as the "number one in the world" in the Japanese literary world, and these politicians and chaebols will not be so blind as to provoke him, a literary giant who is at the peak of his career.

But this is not the case for Shizuko Kawaide, who is completely immersed in the business world and her family.

She had to think about this.

Therefore, if she could help Nobutaka Uemachimura, the hidden benefits she would get would be very substantial.

However, Shizuko Kawaide did not want these mundane matters to affect her original friendship with Hideya Kitagawa, so she never gave in to Nobutaka Machimura.

I hope Reina-chan's plea can get a response from that guy Kitagawa!

It was already a hot July when Kitagawa Hide, who was far away in Aracataca, received the email from Saito Rena.

When summer comes to cities with tropical climates, people become like dogs in heat 24 hours a day. They stick out their tongues wherever they go and are soaked all over. It's really unbearable.

After writing the first five chapters of One Hundred Years of Solitude, Kitagawa Hidekazu Yumeko also stayed in Aracataca and Colombia for almost half a month.

Although the two spent most of their time writing books in the large villa specially provided by Ochrón Buendía, after much publicity and the enthusiastic pursuit of the Buendía family, many Colombians now know Kitagawa Hide.

Especially in the hospitable town of Aracataca, Kitagawa Hide felt that if he stayed any longer, he would soon become a native here.

On July 7, Hide Kitagawa went alone in a luxury car to the National University of Colombia in Bogota.

The purpose of this trip was to watch the promotional conference of Rena Saito and others through satellite TV, and to discuss the sale of the Latin American translation of "One Hundred Years of Solitude".

The Latin American translation of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" was done by Hernando Telles, a university professor specially hired by Ochreón Buendía.

Hernando currently works at the School of Arts of the National University of Colombia and is also the most well-known literary and art critic in the Colombian literary world.

The National University of Colombia has a status in Colombia equivalent to that of Peking University next door, and it ranks 285th in the QS World University Rankings this year. Its neighboring university of similar level is Xi'an Jiaotong University, which is also a world-renowned university.

Hernando, who recently translated the first five chapters of "One Hundred Years of Solitude", is currently busy preparing a new magazine called "A Century of Appreciation of Latin American Literature".

Twenty years later, this magazine became famous in Latin American countries and was hailed as the origin magazine of Latin American literary school research. It even changed the thinking of literary creators in Latin America and made outstanding contributions to the development of modern Latin American literature and Colombian literature.

However, "A Century of Appreciation of Latin American Literature" is still in its trial stage, with only a few university professors such as Hernando working on it with great enthusiasm. Commercial publishers and the literary community are not optimistic about this magazine.

"What a great book! This time I must convince Mr. Kitagawa to serialize One Hundred Years of Solitude in the Latin American Literature Centennial Appreciation."

Another gray-haired professor held the translation manuscript in his hands and admired it as he paced back and forth. "Simultaneous serialization? Arturo, do you know how much the Buendía family paid for the ten-year copyright?" Hernando also hoped that One Hundred Years of Solitude could be the flagship of his magazine, but the commercial value was simply not something their small magazine could afford.

"How much? Can the copyright fee for a novel that hasn't been released or serialized exceed one million?" The old man named Arturo Echeverri Mejia came from a wealthy family. If it was in the million-level, his family could afford it.

"Okeron, not the Buendía family, spent 1 million to buy it." When Hernando said this number, the air in the office suddenly stagnated.

Then he added another sentence as a finishing touch.

“The unit is US dollars.”

hiss--

A rare gasp of shock was heard.

The satellite TV nearby had been tuned to the Tokyo Broadcasting System's TBS channel, and a few people were talking in Japanese that they couldn't understand, which sounded like wonderful background music.

This silence and shock lasted for several minutes, until Kitagawa Hide knocked on the door and came in, and the group of old men came to their senses.

Kitagawa Hide, who walked in, was shocked by the scene in front of him.

Why do these old men look at me so strangely?
Is it possible that I still have that kind of habit when I’m old?

How terrible!
"Hello, teachers. I am Beichuan."

"Teacher Beichuan, please take a seat!"

"Teacher Beichuan, do you want coffee or drinks? Or maybe some Oriental tea? We have that here too!"

"Teacher Kitagawa is really young and promising! He looks about the same age as our university students. I didn't expect that the author of One Hundred Years of Solitude is so young."

A lot of flattery came up.

Kitagawa Hide discovered that the professors at the National University of Columbia did not seem to be as reserved as the old scholars in Japan. They were all enthusiastic and easy to talk to.

This also made him relax a little.

If he were in China, with his current fame and status, he would ignore those pretentious old scholars and they wouldn't be able to do anything to him.

But if you are in a foreign country and they put a sack on you, you really have nowhere to complain!
Kitagawa Hide sat down respectfully, drinking coffee and chatting with them. His polite attitude did not seem like a "loser" who became a security guard right after graduating from high school.

Several professors lamented his experience while watching TV - now with Kitagawa Hide as the translator, they could barely understand the news over there.

On TV, the heroic Rena Saito acted like a strong woman. She first talked about the brilliant achievements of "Wenyi" in the past two years, and then congratulated Kitagawa Hide on being shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature. After these words came out, several professors were stunned again.

The Colombian literary world is also the youngest among the younger ones in the Latin American literary world, with two big brothers, Brazil and Argentina, standing above it. The former has top writers like Machado de Assis and rising stars like Adriana Lisbon, while the latter has literary giants like Ernesto Sabato who wrote "Heroes and Graves".

Only the Colombian literary world is nothing, with nothing at all. There have been no Colombians shortlisted for the three major awards in world literature for many years.

Kitagawa Hide, who is only 25 years old, has been shortlisted for the Nobel Prize!

This is more than just young and promising!

Several old professors looked at each other, feeling that they were useless except for being a little older than the others!

After boasting about her achievements, Rena Saito finally turned the topic back to "One Hundred Years of Solitude".

This work, which takes place in a small border town in Colombia, is highly anticipated by Kawade Shobo and is claimed to be a masterpiece comparable to "No Longer Human".

Anyway, the more confusing and mysterious the propaganda is, the better the effect will be.

The reporters below were all agents, creating all kinds of atmosphere and heating up the atmosphere, making this promotional meeting an exclusive show for "One Hundred Years of Solitude".

As the half-hour promotional event drew to a close, Saito Rena smiled and gave a spoiler: "For Mr. Kitagawa's new work, our Kawaide Shobo has already spent 50 billion yen to buy all domestic copyrights except for overseas copyrights. Film and television works, audio works, etc. will also be released simultaneously!"

50 billion yen is no small amount.

After all, they bought the copyright for a ten-year period, and after ten years, the copyright will return to Kitagawa Hide!

5 million yen a year is probably a new record for copyright fees for literary works in the Japanese literary world!
The purpose of Hechu Shobo doing this is to reassure readers. You see, we are willing to spend so much money to buy the copyright in advance, so the quality is definitely beyond doubt!
The old professors were once again deeply shocked by the Japanese's wealth and power.

The value of Hidekazu Kitagawa's "One Hundred Years of Solitude" is far beyond their imagination.

Finally, Rena Saito did not forget to add a sentence and tell everyone that she has confirmed with Mr. Kitagawa who lives abroad that his next work will be the most familiar and anticipated "Kitagawa Hidekaze". The specific situation is unclear, but Mr. Kitagawa said that the title of the book is the title of a song.

(End of this chapter)