I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 353: The bravery of Mr. Beichuan and the charm of double opening!
"Mom, give me money."

"Where are you going?"

"Watch Gorky's play 'The Lower Class'."

"Didn't you just watch it once?"

"Oh, even Mr. Yoshimiya said that watching this play once is not enough."

"Did Mr. Yoshimiya say that?"

"Of course! Anyway, the show starts at one o'clock, and it's almost too late."

"how much is it?"

"Can you give me 10,000 yen?"

"No, a play doesn't cost that much money. I can only give you half at most."

Keiko took out five 1000 yen bills from her handbag and handed them to her daughter Asako without saying a word.

Asako took the banknotes expressionlessly without even saying "thank you" and walked out the door, leaving behind only a trail of dissatisfied footsteps.

"This girl is becoming increasingly difficult to serve."

Keiko complained, then turned around and began to study the 250,000 yen Patek Philippe watch that Mr. Shimamura had just given her.

On the other side of the watch, there is a piece of jade worth 700,000 yen - this is a gift from Kitagawa's wife.

After the radio on the table finished playing the news, it started playing "Carmen" on the xylophone solo.

She was wearing a flannel nightgown, a silk cotton robe and a belt, and stood there in front of the bright new leaves in the yard, looking thoughtful.
Reina Saito read the beginning of the new book "Tokyo People" word by word.

When Kitagawa Hide submitted his first manuscript, he also attached a brief introduction to the novel:
A middle-aged woman's family, love and life;

There is love and joy, sorrow and loneliness, desire and regret;

However, no matter what they encounter, women always try to find ways to solve problems and survive.

This is how "Tokyo people" survive.

Because of this concise introduction, Rena Saito immediately understood that what Kitagawa Hide was writing this time was a pure literary novel that was more down-to-earth and documentary in nature.

But she never thought that this novel would be so "documentary"!
Not only Kitagawa Hide and Yumeko appear in the novel, but also a large number of their relatives and friends.

The heroine of the novel, Keiko Koyama, is obviously the domestic maid in Kitagawa Hide's house. Rena Saito has met her several times and she is indeed a capable and elegant middle-aged woman.

At the age of 43, she still has charm and can easily fascinate countless young men.

The Shimamura mentioned in the beginning, who gave Keiko a Patek Philippe watch, is probably the Shimamura who lives next door to Kitagawa Hideie and seems to be the male protagonist of "Snow Country"
Kitagawa Hide dared to write like this, so "documentary", obviously he had obtained authorization from these people.

In just a few lines at the beginning, a completely different person from Saito Rena's perception comes to life on the page.

She is a middle-aged woman who has been married for the third time and has a child. She used to be a middleman for jewelry and luxury goods, and later became a high-end housewife.

She gives the impression of being diligent, reliable, smart and virtuous, and a very reliable older woman.

However, at the beginning of the novel, both she and her daughter Asako's words and actions remind people of some "parasites" who live in Tokyo and enjoy imitating real Tokyo people.

"I yearn for the so-called upper-class life, imitate the life of the rich, tighten my belt and listen to symphonies.

At the same time, they are struggling to make ends meet in Tokyo's extremely high cost of living.

They want to stay in Tokyo and become real Tokyoites from generation to generation, but the country doesn’t allow it.”

Rena Saito can understand this kind of family and life very well because her family was like this before the bubble economy burst.

The parents successfully purchased various assets in Tokyo by relying on the stock market and the real estate market, and were about to pave the way for their three daughters. However, the bubble suddenly burst!

After her parents passed away, she was left with only her two younger sisters to depend on each other.

If she hadn't graduated from the University of Tokyo, if she hadn't joined Kodansha right after graduation, if she hadn't gritted her teeth, perhaps the three of them would have left this bustling metropolis and returned to their hometown in Aomori Prefecture long ago.

Isn't today's Keiko Oyama's family the Saito family of the past?

There are thousands of families like this in Tokyo, Japan.

"Kitagawa Hidejun, you really dare to write."

Saito Rena was filled with emotion and continued to read the manuscript.

In the novel "Tokyo People", one can vaguely see Kitagawa Hide's ultimate personal style.

It's just that the aesthetics of "Snow Country" has been transformed into the current sense of documentary literature.

If I had to describe it, it was as if the snowflakes that had once floated on the water had melted away and truly sunk into the water, merging into one with countless water droplets.

The introduction given by Kitagawa Hide was very short, only about a thousand words, which made Saito Rena itchy and she wanted to run to him immediately to ask for the follow-up.

From then on, it’s all about settings and character introductions.

Kitagawa Hide wrote hundreds of pages of manuscript for this part. Although they were all characters taken from real life, he still put a lot of thought into transforming them step by step into dramatic characters that were more suitable for novelization.

Just from this level of care, one can feel that "Tokyo People" is a work that Kitagawa Hide really wants to write well.

Kitagawa Hide has now thrown a really difficult problem at her.

No wonder they told her to have a good rest at home.

If she didn't help and give some advice on this book, it would definitely not be able to be published casually.

The fact that Kitagawa Hide dared to hand her such a draft also showed his trust in her.

"Then let's do something big together, Beichuan!"

Saito Rena felt like she was instantly liberated from the disgusting things.

At this moment, the only thing left in her eyes was the draft of "Tokyo People", and her enthusiasm for reading and revising texts, which had been extinguished for a long time, was revived again!
1998 4 Month 15 Day.

New issues of "Beichuan" and "Xinwenxiang" have been released one after another. The former is as stable as ever, and the latter has continued its momentum since its founding. As two new giants in the publishing industry, they have both firmly established their foothold.

However, people in the industry are well aware that the New Wenxiang Publishing House, formed by the merger of old publishing houses such as Shinchosha, has always been the mortal enemy of the Beichuan Publishing House Group.

Even if they have given up competing with the Beichuan Publishing House for the market, the latter will not let them off easily.

It can be predicted that there will be a battle between the two major publishing houses, the Kitagawa group and the non-Kitagawa group, in the future, and the winner will definitely completely monopolize the Japanese literary market and form Japan's first publishing trust group.

Of course, these are all things that happened later.

While industry insiders were watching the show, more attention was focused on the new literary magazine "Mass" that Hide Kitagawa spent a lot of money on and recently launched.

The first issue of "Mass" released on April 4 lived up to expectations. Thanks to the huge traffic from the opening ceremony and the assistance of advertisements from the Japanese royal family, it sold a good 2 copies on the first day of printing.

Compared with those publications under mature publishing houses, the sales of Dazhong are not worth mentioning. But as a "hybrid product" between popular literature and pure literature, it is very gratifying that Dazhong can achieve such results amid various doubts and expectations.

After all, the size of the Japanese literature market is there. Even if it is backed by Kitagawa Entertainment, if any book it publishes sells well, the publishing industry will not fall into an economic crisis.

Another major factor for the success of "Mass" is the strong support from Shunji Iwai, Keigo Higashino and others.

This group of emerging writers who influenced the contemporary popular literature market in Japan jumped from "Kitagawa" to "Dazhong", and with the assistance of the Japan Literary Society, the first issue of "Dazhong" was of such high quality.

Of course, what really attracts attention is the second issue, which will be released next month - Mr. Beichuan made it clear at the opening ceremony that he will write a new book to support "Mass".

And it is the most sensitive financial and banking topic.

The success of "Dazhong" also put a lot of new employees at ease.

Everyone likes this new magazine, and the editorial department is not like those old publishing houses, where there are a lot of old people suppressing newcomers, which is a disgusting phenomenon in the workplace.

The entire Dazhong editorial department is a smaller version of the Kitagawa editorial department and the Kawaide Shobo editorial department, making those new employees who originally hoped to join Kawaide Shobo feel that this is not a loss.

But if the founding of Dazhong fails, all the costs will be wasted, and no matter how good the working environment or how comfortable the job is, it will not last long.

To put it another way, the success of the first issue of Dazhong magazine is also inseparable from the unity of the employees.

Ishida Yasujun, who just joined the company, can especially feel the cohesive atmosphere in the company.

Now he has completely abandoned his initial prejudice against the Popular Editorial Department, and no longer has any thoughts of switching to the Beichuan Editorial Department or even Kawade Shobo in the future.

He likes it here very much and enjoys being a part of it. He is also very motivated and determined to become a pioneer of popular literature like Teacher Kitagawa and a great editor like Teacher Saito Rena.

"Ishida-kun, your letter."

The security guard Yudai Hashimoto, who was wearing a blue work suit, handed a thick submission letter to Ishida Yasujun who was in a daze.

"Ah, thank you, Uncle Hashimoto." Ishida Yasujun woke up from his wandering thoughts and took the submission letter. The heavy weight of the letter made him happy.

"Haha, you're welcome. You continue to work, I'll go deliver letters to other editors."

Yudai Hashimoto glanced at the Volkswagen Corporation employee badge on his chest and walked inside humming a tune with contentment.

Compared to Kodansha, which had strict rules and was very harsh on its staff, Dashu Corporation offers better benefits and a more comfortable working environment.

The most important thing is that the big boss behind Volkswagen is his old acquaintance Mr. Kitagawa!

I recall that three years ago, Kitagawa Hide was hanging around the door of Kodansha, and finally I entrusted the manuscript of "Hear the Wind Sing" to him, who then gave it to Saito Rena.

The gears of fate began to turn!

There is a full sense of ritual as if I am participating in history!

Now he not only likes working for Volkswagen, but also likes to hand over authors' submissions to editors one by one like this.

Who knows, one of the manuscripts in my hand may give rise to another Kitagawa Hide in the future!
Ishida Yasujun took a look at the anonymous envelope, opened it and saw that it was indeed a submission from Mr. Kitagawa!
"Teacher Kitagawa, this is too mysterious."

Ishida Taijun smiled helplessly and shook out all the draft papers inside.

The handwriting that looked like dog crawling has become much better looking now, but one can still see its former immaturity.

I heard that many great writers like to switch back to pens and draft paper after using typewriters and computers for a while, saying that this can help them adjust their mood and create better works.

In short, the authors have many quirks, and these ten days of work have opened up a lot of my eyes to Taijun Ishida.

"The title of "We Are the Bubble Entry Group/Hanzawa Naoki" has not been changed, and it seems that the content has not been overhauled either."

Ishida Taijun couldn't wait to turn to the first page. The prologue was titled "Employment Front".

"There is always a reason for the mysterious instructions, and most likely they violate recognized agreements.

The call from the Industrial Central Bank came at nine o'clock in the evening on August 20th.

The other party expressed their gratitude for sending them a postcard requesting information about job seekers and asked if they were still interested in the company.

Hanzawa Naoki of course answered "yes", and then the person on the other end of the phone said, "Tomorrow at 2 pm, please greet the person holding "Bungei" in front of the Ikebukuro branch. This matter must be kept confidential."

The other party left instructions that sounded like something out of a spy novel and hung up the phone.

"Literature," Hanzawa Naoki muttered to himself as he slowly put the receiver back in place, unable to suppress the excitement welling up in his heart.

During the bubble era not long ago, according to the 'Employment Agreement' concluded between companies and universities regarding students' job hunting activities, the ban on students visiting companies was lifted on September 1st.

Before this, no company was allowed to have job exchanges with college students, let alone contact outstanding students from various universities privately.

Now, the agreement that companies cannot contact college students before the ban is lifted has suddenly been broken.

The clause, known in the industry as the Gentlemen's Agreement, was broken, and the bank seemed to have proved itself to be no gentleman in the workplace.

Obviously, what banks really want to recruit are only some of the best talents.

If we follow the inauguration agreement, the competition will be fierce.

Breaking the employment agreement is the only way for banks to quickly attract the talent they want.

As Japan's largest bank, the Industrial Central Bank has the ability and confidence to do so.

But not every college student can enjoy such preferential treatment.

I was selected by the Industrial Central Bank.

This is the most worth celebrating thing this year.

We are one step closer to 'that goal'."

"This style of writing, with this kind of beginning, is really quite 'popular'."

Ishida Yasujun was amazed. It was hard to imagine that the author of this manuscript had written a beautiful and unapologetically beautiful work like "Snow Country" as his previous novel.

The neatness and eye-catchingness of "Hanzawa Naoki" made Ishida Yasujun unable to stop watching it.

He learned a lot about how the financial and banking industries violate various rules, as well as small details from recruitment to work.

The prologue goes all the way to the time when Hanzawa Naoki successfully got a job interview at the Industrial Central Bank. Faced with all kinds of tricky questions from the HR department of the bank, he answered them flawlessly and seemed to be very fond of this job.

1992 was the most difficult period after the bubble burst. The sense of financial collapse is very obvious in the novel. Compared with the ambitions of Hanzawa Naoki and others when they joined, it reads particularly epic.

“This novel will definitely be a hit!”

Ishida Yasujun said this while holding the manuscript paper.

It doesn’t matter whether the author is Kitagawa Hide.

Judging from the quality of the manuscript alone, it is enough to crush all popular literary works in recent decades!
The manuscript given by Mr. Kitagawa had a total of three chapters. As it was almost time to get off work, Taijun Ishida had no desire to leave work. He simply called Tomoyo Kobayashi and informed his girlfriend that the date tonight was temporarily cancelled.

He wants to finish watching "Hanzawa Naoki" in one go!
(End of this chapter)