I am a literary giant in Japan

1997 12 Month 15 Day.

Kitagawa Hide and Saito Rena returned to Tokyo, Japan from Stockholm, Sweden.

After watching the Nobel Prize award ceremony this time, Saito Rena, who was originally a little tired of work, has a new goal -

She wants to become a woman as good and great as Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi;
She will come to Stockholm again next year with Hide Kitagawa.

But no longer as a spectator, but as a winner!
Kitagawa Hide was not affected too much.

The biggest gain from his trip was understanding the operating mechanism of the Nobel Prize and how a world literary award should be operated.

Secondly, I got to know countless former Nobel Prize winners, as well as elites from all walks of life from all over the world.

Today, Kitagawa Hide's sights are no longer limited to becoming a great writer. He wants to continue to be motivated by greater goals on his way to becoming a great writer.

There is a famous line from Yoshiki Tanaka's famous space opera "Legend of the Galactic Heroes": "Our goal is the sea of ​​stars."

The character who said this line, Reinhard von Lohengramm, later realized his vision and became the victor and sole emperor of the Galactic Empire.

Kitagawa Hide doesn't dare to say that his goal is to reach the stars and the sea, but he can still talk about becoming a world-class literary master, the first in Japanese literary history, and the creator of a world-class award.

On the day the two returned to Tokyo, Shincho and Kitagawa, two pure literature magazines second only to Weng Yi, were released as scheduled.

Ichiro Tanizaki applied for special custody in prison, and after being approved, he had three hours a day to continue writing "The Idiot's Desire".

There is no way around it. The film and television rights to this novel were previously bought by Toho Co., Ltd. for a high price of 10 billion yen.

Now that the economic winter is sweeping across Japan, film and television companies such as Toho and Toei have reduced the funding quotas of their production bureaus and demanded that all copyrights of the works in their hands be fully profitable.

"The Idiot's Desire" was a work that Toho used to compete with "The Dancing Girl of Izu". Their top management was determined to let Ichiro Tanizaki finish writing it even if it meant death.

The update of "A Fool's Love" soon caused a sensation in the literary market.

The former number one in the world, the only local writer who could compete with Mr. Kitagawa Hide, and the various grievances and hatreds between the two, these things alone are enough to attract a large number of readers to watch the subsequent plot of "Foolish Love".

Shinchosha also seized this opportunity to frantically promote Ichiro Tanizaki, who was still writing books in prison and had reformed himself.

Amid such a huge public outcry, the December 1997 issue of Xinchao finally reversed its downward trend, halting three consecutive months of declining magazine sales and successfully selling about 12 copies on the first day of printing.

"Beichuan", which was released at the same time, took advantage of the popularity of the first Beichuan Literature Award and the big news that "The Devotion of Suspect X" had been bought by Beichuan Entertainment itself, and sold about 15 copies on the first day of printing.

It was also on December 12 that Mayumi Aso and Danki Shiro officially terminated their contracts with Kawaide Shobo and joined Kitagawa Entertainment.

This matter was proposed by Shizuko Kawaide.

She really couldn't do the "shameless" thing of wanting to be both a master and an apprentice. In order to ensure the smooth implementation of Kawaide Shobo's overseas expansion plan, Kitagawa Hide helped again and again.

Moreover, Hide Kitagawa's "Norwegian Wood" and "The Old Man and the Sea" both clearly stated that they would be serialized in "Wenyi".

After getting so many benefits, let alone sending Mayumi Aso and Shiro Dango back to Kitagawa Hide.

Even if she was asked to take a shower and lie on Beichuan Xiu's bed, she would be happy!

The final chapter of "The Devotion of Suspect X" was published in this issue of "Beichuan".

Like "The Secret", the explosive ending, thought-provoking love, and unexpected narrative tricks, all these factors combined make this book Keigo Higashino's most popular masterpiece.

It was also this month that Keigo Higashino, who won the Kitagawa Literature Prize and had previously won the Naoki Prize, was hired as the new president of the Japan Mystery Novel Association. Finally, he has become the new president of the Japan Mystery Novel Association!

Two years ago, when he first met Kitagawa Hide, he was a down-and-out novelist who was abandoned by his wife and couldn't even see his daughter. He could only share a small house with Danki Shiro.

Two years later, Keigo Higashino has become a representative figure in the Japanese mystery literature world and a person who can never be avoided in the history of the development of mystery novels!

In addition, Shunji Iwai, who unexpectedly won this year's Naoki Prize, became the second readers' favorite after Keigo Higashino this month.

"Love Letter", which consists of only four chapters, was sold in bookstores in the form of a short story paperback edition, priced at only 390 yen. Soon after its release, the first print run of 15 copies was sold out by readers.

They bought Love Letter for no other reason than what Kitagawa Hide said during the Naoki Prize selection process: "This novel is no worse than Suspect. I think it has the potential to win this year's Naoki Prize."

The current economic situation is bad, and readers no longer trust marketing, bookstore recommendations, and magazine poster promotions.

But they still trust the vision of Mr. Hide Kitagawa.

Teacher Beichuan said it is a good book and it has the potential to win an award, so it is definitely a good book!

"Love Letter" lived up to expectations, and the poignant love story that unfolded due to the same name had a very mono no aware flavor.

This is another work that pays tribute to "Norwegian Wood" and soon became popular among a large number of fans of Hide Kitagawa's books.

Kitagawa Hideya, who returned from Stockholm, also reaped a lot of rewards at the end of the year.

A large number of Japanese local literary awards, led by the Bookstore Award, were spontaneously awarded to "Norwegian Wood" as if they had been agreed upon.

The physical book of this novel had not even started printing yet - both Kitagawa Hide and Kawaide Shizuko felt that it would be better to release it after the New Year, as it would be too rushed before the New Year. But it inexplicably won thirty-nine literary awards of all sizes.

The most outrageous thing is that South Korea, neighboring Taiwan Province, etc., all rated "Norwegian Wood" as the best novel of the year!
Wu Bai's song of the same name traveled across the ocean to Japan, but because of its different style, it didn't make much of a splash. However, thanks to the fact that it had the same name as Kitagawa Hide's novel, it did become a small hit on the Internet.

Wu Bai himself also won various music awards for his new album which included this song, achieving the successful turnaround he wished for!

The year 1997 was a perfect year for Kitagawa Hide, the people around him, and his fans.

The only drawback is that Kitagawa Hide officially announced that he will take a month off and not publish any books this December.

Of course, this did not affect Kawaide Shobo's promotion of "The Old Man and the Sea" after he returned from Stockholm.

Kitagawa Hide specially took a photo of Santiago, and then Kawaide Shobo found a well-known painter to imitate the photo and painted a picture of "Old Man Fishing in a Boat" for the poster cover.

After seeing the title of the book and the promotional poster, the readers were excited.

They really couldn't think of anything interesting about the fishing story of an old fisherman.

Compared to the sad and touching love story of the "Watanabe, Naoko, and Midori love triangle", "The Old Man and the Sea" is completely unattractive!
Even the editors of the "Literature and Art" editorial department thought that Mr. Kitagawa might start high and end low this time. However, Kitagawa Hide's influence in the Japanese literary world still exceeded everyone's expectations.

On the day the promotional poster was released, "The Old Man and the Sea" and the painting replaced "The Old Man and the Sea", "The Suspect" and "The Love Letter", the three most popular novels in December, and became the most talked-about novels on major online forums.

This is a novel that has not been published yet!

This is the market appeal of Kitagawa Hide!

Rena Saito and Shizuko Kawaide even suspected that if the company directly opened "pre-sale orders", "The Old Man and the Sea" would be able to sell hundreds of thousands of copies in a day!
For a commercial writer, at this point, it doesn’t really matter what you write.

It's just a big pile of shit, and countless people are rushing to eat it.

Regardless of whether "The Old Man and the Sea" is a piece of shit by Hura Kitagawa, 1997 is about to pass in alternating emotions of joy and sadness.

The New Year of 1998 was the third New Year that Hide Kitagawa celebrated after traveling to Japan.

My father-in-law and mother-in-law, who have always been reluctant to leave Osaka, called and said that they would come directly to Tokyo this year to celebrate the New Year with them and their two wives and the new members of their two families.

In addition, the fund application named after the two little ones, Toru Kitagawa and Midori Kitagawa, was also approved by the Ministry of Finance.

After leaving his job, Masato Senhara devoted himself to his work at Kitagawa Investment. During the year-end summary, he received a large year-end bonus and showed off in front of his former colleagues and branch president Masaru Asano.

Under his efficient operation, the total assets of the Kitagawa family have reached an astonishing 1900 billion yen, equivalent to 19 billion US dollars, successfully becoming one of the world's famous families.

According to Masato Senhara's estimation, Kitagawa Investment, which relies on the "national disaster wealth" of other countries, will still have great room for asset appreciation in the next three to five years. It will not be a problem for the Kitagawa family's total assets to exceed 3000 billion yen within three years.

The millennium will be three years later.

When Hide Kitagawa heard the news, his first reaction was the millennium doomsday prophecy that was sweeping the world. Everything else was too far away and he didn't consider it at all.

Anyway, just give all the money to Masato Senhara to manage.

Leave professional matters to professionals; this is Hideichi Kitagawa's usual style.

After everything was finalized, Kitagawa Hide began to prepare New Year's goods and cold dishes with his family.

Unfortunately, before he could do much, he was driven out of the kitchen by Mayumi Aso and Rei Jabami who came to help.

Most Japanese women of this era still think like housewives. In their eyes, a gentleman should stay away from the kitchen, while men should sit in the living room, watch TV and drink tea.

The task of taking care of the children is the responsibility of my mother-in-law, Agatsuma Gen and Yumeko.

Although my wife's father-in-law Rongji is a doctor, he has the heart of a chef. He couldn't go to help, so he simply stood outside with his hands behind his back and gave orders to a few people: the potatoes must be stewed until they are soft to be delicious, the meat must be marinated so that it won't be dry, the meat will not be fresh without MSG, etc.

In this way, every day there were several groups of different people helping out in the big room of Kitagawa Hide and Yumeko's new villa. They were so busy that it was December 12, the last day of 31.

This day was just like the New Year's Eve next door. Basically, the whole family sat together happily, eating buckwheat noodles, dumplings, hot pot, watching TV, chatting and so on.

After midnight, the family still has to go to the temple for the initial worship, and generally there are not many people visiting.

After the helpers left one after another, only Kitagawa Hide and his wife, my wife Rongji and his wife, and two little ones who were just over two months old were left at home.

Tonight's Red and White Songs Concert will feature performances by Izumi Sakai and Akina Nakamori, two of the most famous singers under Kitagawa Entertainment. Kitagawa Hidemasa picked up his son and said to him, "Listen carefully to the songs of your two beautiful aunts." Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

"Teacher Kitagawa! Excuse me for interrupting you!"

Iwai Shunji walked in with an embarrassed look on his face. He first put the paper bag in his hand at the entrance, then stood straight, like a child who had made a mistake.

"This is a gift I brought from overseas. Please accept it!"

My wife Eikichi and her husband, who were playing with their children near the kitchen, saw Iwai Shunji and started whispering about him out of curiosity.

They have seen "East Love" and "Long Vacation" and know the name of this young director.

It was indeed abrupt to visit on the last day before the New Year.

Beichuan Xiu smiled and called him in.

It turns out that after the success of "Love Letter", Shunji Iwai thought about it and decided to formally become Kitagawa Hide's apprentice. Like Mayumi Aso and others, he will "burn everything" for Mr. Kitagawa in the future!
He was actually very, very, very grateful to Hide Kitagawa.

Because it was Kitagawa Hide who brought him out of the big pit of Nikkatsu.

If it weren't for that discussion meeting on the copyright sale of "Youth Trilogy", he might have been tied to that crappy company Nikkatsu for the rest of his life.

Nikkatsu is now shooting romantic action movies all the time, which has no future at all. If he stays there, his career will be ruined.

After that, it was Kitagawa Hide who helped him become successful step by step.

Therefore, even if Kitagawa Hide didn't think so, and even if he had hardly ever written a novel, he still felt that it was time to "get on the bus first and buy the ticket later."

The formal master-disciple relationship in Japan is quite sacred and solemn. Once a teacher, always a father is not just a saying.

Iwai Shunji originally wanted to come back after the New Year, but after he went to the Asakusa Shrine and prayed sincerely, the Miyamizu Mitsuba shrine maiden told him that it would be disadvantageous for both parties after the New Year, so he made up his mind and came today to become their disciple, risking being disliked.

He looked at Teacher Kitagawa Hide and his family with great trepidation, not daring to raise his head, and drank pot after pot of water.

Just when he thought there was no hope, he suddenly heard Kitagawa Hide's laughter.

"Iwai-san, you've finished your tea. What are you going to offer me later?"

Iwai Shunji was stunned for a moment, then he became ecstatic and changed directly from his kneeling position to a crawling position. Then he thought something was wrong and stood up and picked up the tea bowl.

Mengzi had already refilled his tea with a smile.

Under the gaze of my wife and two little ones, he mustered up his courage and respectfully handed over the teacup with both hands.

"Teacher Beichuan, please have some tea!" (End of this chapter)