I am a literary giant in Japan

1998:8, evening of April 1, 10.

The article "My Little Prince", which was first published on the Yahoo Japan Literature Forum, was liked and forwarded by many netizens on the Internet, and quickly fermented in major literary communities, once topping the popularity list and accumulating over 1 million hits!

[My little prince, he just wants me to understand that the fact that roses have thorns is everything in my world.]

This sentence written by the unknown author at the end of the article is like a heavy hammer, hitting the hearts of all young parents who are not getting along with their children.

They used to be like the author of this post, not knowing why it was so difficult to communicate with their own children.

They are obviously blood relatives, but they seem to be from two different worlds and no one can understand each other.

This is how generational rifts within a family arise.

This is the case next door and also in Japan.

It was not until after reading this post and carefully reading Mr. Kitagawa's new serial "The Little Prince" that a group of parents finally began to face up to the differences in thinking between themselves and their children.

The world of children is much cleaner and purer than that of adults. Because it is not complicated at all, you can quickly integrate into it as long as you want.

However, the fast pace of modern society and the anxiety brought about by life have made it impossible for most adults to spare the time to deeply understand the inner world of children.

Because of lack of understanding and clarity, there is a gap.

But once a gap is created, they are too lazy to break it down and don't want to spend time and effort to consider their children's inner feelings.

Therefore, the friction between the two generations increased, until it could no longer be reconciled and they became the most familiar strangers.

This is also one of the reasons why Japan later became a country with extremely serious problems such as declining birthrate and aging population.

This generation of people born in the 8090s and s had an unhappy relationship with their parents since childhood. When they grew up, they were faced with various pressures. In addition, they had no feelings for children, lacked the self-confidence to raise good children, and suffered various psychological traumas in their childhood. Ultimately, they chose not to marry or have children and ended up living alone.

This group of people were later collectively referred to as "Heisei otaku" by the world.

And now, the answer to the parent-child education problem lies in "The Little Prince".

Young parents don’t want themselves and their children to end up like the author of “My Little Prince” and his child, who had lifelong regrets in the future. Therefore, they bought “MOE” in large quantities through word of mouth and started studying “The Little Prince” as soon as they got off work.

The parent-child education trend brought about by "The Little Prince" has even come back to Kitagawa Hide himself!

The total number of registered members of Kitagawa Hide's personal website "Kitagawa's Little Bookstore" successfully exceeded 1000 million with the help of this wave.

The message board, which had previously begun to stabilize in number, was suddenly flooded with messages, forcing Kyohei Murabayashi and others in charge of the Kitakawa network to work overtime to maintain the normal operation of the website.

And those messages that appeared in large numbers were basically left by young parents.

Many of them usually do not have the habit of reading novels, but this time they really got to know Mr. Kitagawa through "The Little Prince", and then they brought their babies into Kitagawa Hide's trap.

When these new readers discovered that there were many friends like themselves, they left messages on the message board and began to form offline parent-child gathering groups.

In this way, the message board of "Kitagawa's Little Bookstore" was completely occupied by this group of new readers, and it has become a large parent-child communication community!

Some people share their experience in raising children on the message board, some kindly teach newcomers how to raise children, and some take advantage of this opportunity to defraud young parents of their money.

Kitagawa Hide, who was more familiar with Internet fraud than anyone else, immediately called Kyohei Murabayashi and asked him and his team to keep an eye on accounts with abnormal IP addresses and speech content, and to be careful of these people using the traffic of "The Little Prince" to do bad things.

No one understands the phrase "the Internet is a double-edged sword" better than Hide Kitagawa.

Japan's Internet system did not officially stabilize until after the millennium. During this period, all kinds of scams emerged one after another. In addition, the development of electronic products such as mobile phones and computers in Japan did not keep up with the times. Indeed, many people have been defrauded of their fortunes in recent years.

Because of this, Kitagawa Hide also asked Murabayashi Kyohei and others to study anti-virus software in their spare time, so as to get the first wave of benefits of anti-virus software before the tide of the times.

Mr. Lei next door made his fortune doing similar work in Kingsoft Company in his early years. Before the Internet companies exploded, he accumulated several million yuan of original capital, which led to the establishment of "Xiaomi" which later surpassed countless companies.

The explosive popularity of "The Little Prince" brought "MOE" to a height that was completely beyond its reach, just like the "Nikkan Sports News" which had serialized "Paradise Lost".

On the night of August 8, Iwaya Koha, the editor-in-chief of "MOE" who had a bet agreement with the board of directors of Hakusensha, did not sleep all night.

No matter how much his wife urged him, he couldn't convince himself to leave the computer.

His eyes were fixed on the computer screen, constantly refreshing the Japanese literary magazine sales chart updated in real time on Oricon's official website.

Oricon's business acumen is indeed far superior to all other companies in the same industry.

When the Internet economy was just beginning to emerge, it followed Beichuan Network and opened a computer homepage. At first, this small website required a lot of investment, but had very few visitors.

But as time went by, and Oricon promoted the official website crazily in its own newspapers and magazines, the website's popularity gradually increased.

Today, by revealing data information earlier than magazines and newspapers, Oricon's official website has become the most well-known website outside of several major forums and portals.

"21.3 books, 21.6 books, 22.9 books"

Every time Iwaya Xiaobo refreshed the data, the first-day sales data of "MOE" would jump once. The bright red number kept getting bigger, making his heart pound as if it was about to jump out of his chest!
之前互联网上还预售了10万册，现在是晚上10点35分，距离12点整还有1小时零25分钟，看样子百分百能突破首刷日销量40万册的大关了！

Before this, the monthly sales of "MOE" were less than 40 copies!

"23.5 to 24.8 copies. What a fast pace. I don't know how Oricon calculated such accurate sales data."

Iwaya Xiaobo sighed as he refreshed his screen.

At this moment, both the office building where "MOE" is located and the headquarters building of Hakusensha should still be brightly lit!

However, he, the editor-in-chief of MOE, who has the most vested interests in the newspaper, is staying at home looking at the data, which seems a bit out of place.

Iwaya Xiaobo actually wanted to go to the company to take a look, but he was afraid that the data would be too shocking and he would lose his composure in front of his subordinates, which would be bad.

Just like that, time passed by minute by minute, until the clock struck midnight twelve times, and Oricon's official website finally stopped refreshing, and the data was frozen at the number displayed in the last second.

37.4 copies!

加上网络预售的10万册，1998年8月号《MOE》在8月的首刷日，累积售出了47.4万册的惊人销量！
For a children's picture book that is so niche that it cannot be more niche, this first-day sales performance can be said to be a new historical record!
Iwaya Koba estimates that the only one who can break this historical record in the future is MOE itself, which continues to serialize "The Little Prince".

"Honey, how are the magazine sales?" His wife poked her head out of the room and looked at him worriedly.

Iwaya Koba has been working hard in the publishing industry over the years and has given almost everything he has so that his family can live a happy and fulfilling life in downtown Tokyo.

His wife was his college classmate. Soon after they got married, she gave birth to a son and a daughter and resigned from the company to become a housewife.

Mortgage, car loan, household daily expenses, child-rearing expenses, and support for the elderly
Even though he was the editor-in-chief of a magazine with an annual salary of over 500 million yen, Iwaya Koba still felt that life was extremely difficult. In order to give it one last try at his last age, he boldly signed a bet agreement with the board of directors.

That was a bet that put everything on the line for him!
"successful"

"Eh?"

"Dear, we succeeded! I estimate that it will only take two or three months for me to complete the bet agreement with the board of directors!

I can finally become one of the executive directors of Hakusen Society!"

Iwaya Xiaobo stood up, picked up his still somewhat dazed wife, and used all his strength to carry her around in a circle.

He cried with joy, and at that moment it was difficult to describe the joy in his heart with words.

He had been worried for too long.

Fortunately, all the efforts along the way were not in vain, and the bright flowers finally produced the most delicious fruits at the last moment!
Thinking back to that afternoon.

I suddenly received a call from Mr. Kitagawa and was suddenly signed to write "The Little Prince", a novel that will be recorded in the history of Japanese children's literature. It felt like a dream.

He has been working diligently throughout his thirty-year career, and has been repeatedly criticized by his peers and colleagues for being too "serious" and "safe."

To put it nicely, it’s called “steady”; to put it bluntly, it’s called “lack of courage”.

He was once the editor-in-chief of a secondary publication that was considered the least likely to succeed by the Hakusen Society's board of directors.

And now, the cell phone that keeps ringing is the best proof of his turnaround!
The next morning.

Kitagawa Hide was awakened by a loud ringing of his cell phone.

Early this morning, Mengzi and Jabami Rei, who came over, pushed the two little ones to the park for a walk.

Jabami Rei's schedule is relatively empty recently, because Kitagawa Hide has finished adapting several works that can be adapted recently, and she has played all the roles she can participate in -

As one of the new ace actresses of Toho Co., Ltd., Jabami Rei's "Kitagawa Girl" brand has become unbreakable. As long as there is a film or television adaptation of Kitagawa Hide's work, she will definitely be asked to participate.

After "Paradise Lost", "The Strange Bird Chronicle" and "Killing Commendatore" will not be adapted into film and television dramas for the time being due to the subject matter. "The World's End and Hard-Boiled Wonderland" were bought to be adapted into animation, which has little to do with her.

Those novels with overseas backgrounds will naturally be adapted by overseas film and television companies. A typical oriental-looking beauty like her is not suitable for those works.

Jabami Rei counted on her fingers and it seemed that the only ones left were the most anticipated by readers, "Norwegian Wood" and "Snow Country".

Unfortunately, the film and television rights of these two masterpieces were only sold not long ago. It is said that Hide Kitagawa will be invited to be the screenwriter himself, and there are no plans for filming in the near future.

The only drama she has now is the Taiga drama that Japanese TV stars use to raise their own value and status——

In the Japanese TV drama circle, when a star becomes popular to a certain extent, he or she will be invited to star in Japanese orthodox historical costume dramas, commonly known as Taiga dramas.

Participating in the Taiga drama is similar to the stars next door participating in the official red movie next door.

These are high-end movies and TV series that celebrities are willing to star in even for no pay.

After filming that Taiga drama, Jabami Rei's career as a TV star will reach a new level.

Of course, she herself doesn't care about these things at all.

Now, whenever she has time, she goes to Kitagawa Hide's house. She is considered the most responsible godmother and godfather of the two little ones.

“The Little Prince has become so popular.”

Pushing the stroller with Yumeko, Jabami Rei's tall figure attracted the attention of many men. Fortunately, she had big sunglasses and various props to cover her face, otherwise some crazy fans might rush over to ask for her autograph and photo.

She was pushing the cart with one hand and holding a copy of "MOE" in the other, reading "The Little Prince" with great interest.

Yesterday, Oricon announced the first day sales data of "MOE" at lightning speed. Jabami Rei was shocked when she saw it. She didn't expect that this guy Kitagawa Hide actually created a popular children's literature work!

Mengzi was no longer surprised by this. In the past three years, hadn't Kitagawa Hide given her enough surprises?

However, she still feels a little proud and proud that her husband wrote a best-selling book specifically for their children.

Which woman doesn’t want her husband to be a hero unparalleled in the world?

“But to be honest, these little stories he wrote were really funny.

Mengzi, guess what the little prince thought when he learned that the king of the planet had absolute power and could rule everything? "

Jabami Rei pushed the stroller under the shade of a tree. Tokyo was already starting to get hot in August, and the strong sun could easily burn a child's delicate skin. The shade of the tree was also convenient for her to read.

"What do you think?" Mengzi asked curiously.

This time she plans to wait until the entire book of "The Little Prince" is finished before reading it. Before that, she was the first reader of Kitagawa Hide's novels, helping to find errors and make revisions.

Although the first one satisfied her curiosity, it also made her lose a lot of interest in reading.

"The Little Prince" is a "love letter" that Hide Kitagawa wrote to his two babies. It does not have any utilitarian commercial purpose, so Mengzi did not read it in advance this time.

But the people around her talked about it in more and more weird ways, and more and more people were discussing it, which made her curious.

Jabami Rei's words instantly piqued her interest.

She tilted her head and thought, if I just listen to a little, it shouldn't be a spoiler. (End of this chapter)