I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 319: Best sellers never win awards, but admirers will never change until death (7 missing)

Wu Junlin was born in Xindian District, New Taipei City, Taiwan. Contrary to his rough and bold appearance, he is actually an artist with excellent character and academic performance.

Because he had excellent grades since he was a child, and once scored 100 points in all five subjects in a major exam, he has always been affectionately called "Wu Bai" by his classmates.

Ten years later, musician Ni Chonghua was moved by the vitality he embodied and finally decided to sign a contract with him. Wu Junlin thus officially began his acting career under the stage name "Wu Bai".

Unfortunately, Wu Bai's acting career has not been smooth over the years, and has been tepid all the way. Others, at the age of 29, already have luxury cars, beautiful women, and a villa by the sea, but he is still staying in the attic of his friend's house, working hard to write songs.

His appearance is rather abstract, so he is destined not to be able to make a living by relying on his looks.

Now, he has been staying in the attic for almost three months, worrying about the title song of his new album "The End of Love".

The company promised that as long as he could release a new album this month, they would spend more resources to help promote it.

This might be the closest chance to success Wu Bai would ever have in his life. He was unwilling to give up, so he worked like crazy to write songs.

But I still couldn't write a title song that satisfied me.

"Ah! Am I destined to be inferior to others?"

Wu Bai was scratching his head with both hands. When he was feeling depressed, he suddenly saw a Japanese magazine given by a friend and couldn't help but start flipping through it.

Taiwanese people can speak some Japanese to some extent, and Wu Bai, who has been an excellent student since childhood, is no exception.

The fact that Taiwanese people can speak Japanese can be traced back to a certain special period, and it is also a major folk characteristic of the province.

This is often reflected in movies produced in Taiwan.

For example, "The Bold, the Corrupt, and the Beautiful" which later became popular in both sides of the Taiwan Strait and Hong Kong and Macau.

Mariko Okubo, who plays the wife of Councillor Lin, used Japanese when she was asking questions to Tang Zhen, played by Wen Qi, and Tang Zhen also answered in Japanese very skillfully.

By the way, for many actors who are not doing well in Japan, Taiwan Province is their first choice for new development.

Mariko Okubo, who is exactly 13 years old this year, is still in elementary school, but she has actually been discovered by a scout.

The reason why she was discovered was also bizarre - she possessed a pair of super-large weapons that an elementary school student should never have.

The peak of Okubo Mariko's career after her debut is also related to this——

In 2006, she was voted as the winner of the "8000 Most Favorite Big Breast Award" by readers of a fashion magazine called "FLASH" with over 06 votes!
Unfortunately, this pair of weapons did not bring about a qualitative change in her acting career.

Closer to home.

Wu Bai kept flipping through "Wenyi". He was not very interested in this kind of pure literary novel magazine. Those flowery novels made his scalp tingle, so he quickly skipped them all.

Until the page came to the article "Norwegian Wood", the author's name was Hide Kitagawa.

He knew this Japanese writer, or rather, very few people in Asian countries at that time did not know the name of Kitagawa Hidedaimyo.

What attracted him even more was the title of the book.

Wu Bai scratched his head. If he remembered correctly, the Beatles also had a classic rock song with this name.

When it comes to novels, he doesn't understand anything, but when it comes to music, he knows a lot.

He read on curiously.

Ten minutes later, Wu Bai was completely immersed in the story.

After reading the second chapter, "The Death of a Friend", he felt very depressed, but he still unconsciously started reading the third chapter, "Naked in the Dark".

After college, Toru Watanabe and Naoko met unexpectedly in Tokyo.

Whether intentionally or unintentionally, the two met almost every week and always had a variety of things to talk about.

Watanabe Toru's affection for Naoko grew deeper and deeper, and Naoko became more and more dependent on him.

But as in the past, the two never mentioned their high school days. "Mu Yue" was even a taboo word. Whenever it was mentioned, they would stop immediately and not go into details.

When the weather got cold, Naoko would occasionally snuggle up to Watanabe Toru, sometimes hooking her arms around him, sometimes simply putting her hands in his coat pockets, and once even hugging him tightly.

But Toru Watanabe knew that what she wanted was not his shoulder, but someone else's.

What she wanted was not his body temperature, but someone else's.

The two maintained an ambiguous relationship until Naoko's birthday, when the last layer of barrier was broken.

Then Naoko disappeared like the wind.

It was a long time before Toru Watanabe received a short letter from Naoko.

Naoko said she was having mental problems and decided to take a leave of absence from college and go to a sanatorium in Kyoto to recuperate.

“I’m not ready to see you yet.

It's not that I don't want to see you, it's just that I'm not ready yet.

I will write to you as soon as I am ready.

By then, we can get to know each other better.

As you said, we should get to know each other better.

Goodbye." Wu Bai read the last letter that Naoko wrote to Watanabe, but his thoughts drifted to a rainy night.

What women say is the least trustworthy. If she really missed Watanabe, she would not leave easily.

He sighed and looked at the last sentence of the chapter, deeply touched.

“In the darkness, I reached out several times.

But I couldn't touch anything.

That little ray of light was just about to touch my fingertips."

The story of Toru Watanabe and Naoko ends here.

Wu Bai couldn't continue reading, not because the novel was not interesting.

On the contrary, the novel was so good that he was worried that if he kept reading it, the whole day would be wasted.

He doesn't have much time.

The mood at this moment was very calm, yet very strange.

There are countless thoughts lingering in my mind.

Strange emotions hit his body one after another.

"For the title song, let's write about my understanding of love!"

Wu Bai suddenly felt motivated. He put down the magazine in his hand, picked up the guitar beside him, and began to sing and play in ecstasy.

I don’t know why, but this time the creation went so smoothly. I didn’t have to think too much about the lyrics, each one just came out naturally along with the notes.

"Let me take your heart off, try to melt it slowly, and see if I am still perfect in your heart."

[Damn it! Why is Norwegian Wood only serialized for five chapters!
And my favorite female character, Midori, just appeared in the fourth chapter. I really like girls like Midori who are lively, cute and warm!

Damn Mr. Kitagawa, there won’t be any stomach-breaking plot again! 】

[Please be careful with your words and actions above. Midori is indeed very cute, but compared to the quiet and charming Naoko, cuteness is nothing!
And judging by the content of this issue, the next chapter will be about Watanabe going to find Naoko. I look forward to their continued love! 】

[To the two people above, is it true that all you see are the love stories casually written by Mr. Kitagawa?

Shouldn't watching "Norwegian Wood" be like me, in the cold autumn wind, with a cup of warm black coffee by my side, and a record player playing the song of the same name behind me? When everything is just right, I slowly open the magazine in my hand and experience the loneliness and sense of death that Mr. Kitagawa talked about? 】

[Idiot above. If you say something like that in front of me, I'll smash your mouth before you can even finish your turn!]

Yumeko, holding Kitagawa Toru, looked at the netizens who were discussing the matter on the computer screen and smiled knowingly.

At first she was a little worried that Kitagawa Hide's new book would not receive a good response, but now it seems that those worries were completely unnecessary.

"Norwegian Wood" made the October issue of "Wenyi" once again top the sales list of the world's pure literature magazines.

On the first day of publication, "Wenyi" sold a total of 102.1 million copies in Japan, once again breaking the first day record for pure literature magazines!
Because only France currently has the overseas publishing rights for "Wenyi", many overseas readers who want to read "Norwegian Wood" as soon as possible can only go to France to buy it.

Online piracy is severely cracked down on, and anyone who dares to do it will die!

As Kitagawa Hide's wife, Mengzi suddenly felt so happy.

Even the new books that everyone is eagerly waiting for, she is the first to finish reading and give her opinions.

Kitagawa Hide attached great importance to Yumeko's suggestions. Because of Yumeko's words, he revised the dual-narrative "The End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland" eighteen times before he came up with the final ending.

Of course, the final market feedback was also very good.

Autumn is about to come. After Yumeko coaxed Kitagawa Toru to sleep, she picked up her daughter Midori, who was babbling and asking her father to hold her, so that she would not disturb Kitagawa Hide who was writing furiously in the study.

Ever since chatting with the old fisherman Santiago, Kitagawa Hide has locked himself in the room and entered a state of ecstasy in creation again.

Days like this will probably continue for a while. Mengzi looked at the sunset outside the window with a little regret.

The light poured into the windowsill, illuminating the entire room. The afterglow of the sunset was tranquil and moving, just like the "Norwegian Wood" that warmed everyone.

It’s a pity that the person who created all this was not able to feel it at the first time.

At the end of October 1997, the winners of the much-anticipated Nobel Prizes were announced one after another.

The most discussed and controversial literature award was given to Dario Fo, a playwright from Italy.

His winning work was "Death of an Anarchist".

The Nobel Prize jury gave him the following speech: "His achievements in lashing out at authority and praising the valuable personality qualities of the downtrodden are comparable to the medieval book The Fool!"

No one would dispute that Dario Fo is truly unique in his ability to satirize authority.

But the Nobel Prize in Literature, after all, is an award that uses the literary quality of a work as its primary consideration criterion.

Among the nominees this year, there is one named Hide Kitagawa who is far ahead in this regard.

Everyone is looking forward to the Swedish Academy awarding the Nobel Prize in Literature to Kitagawa Hide, allowing him to achieve the unprecedented feat of "winning the three major awards in the world's literary arena."

But when the results came out, countless people were extremely disappointed.

Japanese readers found this outcome the hardest to accept. Online doubts about the Swedish Academy were like a surging wave, almost crashing the servers of several well-known forums!
(End of this chapter)