I am a literary giant in Japan

“.The narrative technique of transcending time and space, the classic work of which is "Into the Summer's Gate" by Robert Anson Heinlein, the father of modern American science fiction, and the film "Back to the Future" by Steven Spielberg.

This type of novel, which changes the concept of time and space and allows the protagonist to travel back and forth between different eras, is still very rare in today's Japanese literary world.

You want to use the characters' travel through time and space as an anchor for your writing, which is understandable and a very good idea.

But I think it would be more interesting if the concept was changed to 'It's not people who travel through time and space, but letters'."

Kitagawa Hide took the manuscript and explained it word by word to Higashino Keigo.

This kind of time-travel story would have become a commonplace 10 years later, but now is 1998, and even in Europe and the United States, where the entertainment industry is relatively developed, few creators have touched upon this concept.

Not to mention Japan.

This is also one of the reasons why Kitagawa Hide chose "The Convenience Store of Sorrow".

However, when Keigo Higashino first heard this idea, he wanted the protagonists to travel through time and space, similar to the template of "Charlotte's Troubles".

But Kitagawa Hide, who is familiar with this subject, prefers to use the model in the Korean movie "Unreachable Lovers" -

The protagonists communicate with the past and the future through letters rather than traveling back and forth in person.

Because the story of "The Convenience Store of Sorrow" is presented to readers in the form of unit dramas, with many characters and complex story lines, if they are allowed to travel through time and space, the overall writing difficulty will increase greatly, and the plot of the novel will look very messy.

"Use letters to replace character travel?"

Keigo Higashino thought about it carefully and found that the method suggested by Mr. Kitagawa seemed more applicable. He then quickly went over the plot of the novel in his mind and was surprised to find that the story flowed much more smoothly and many difficult details were solved!
"Yes."

Kitagawa Hide nodded, very satisfied with his insight and understanding.

Keigo Higashino is a very talented novelist himself, so with just a little guidance, he can show his teachable qualities.

“This book, The Convenience Store of Sorrow, is different from the mystery novels you wrote before.

There is neither crime nor detective in it, but the theme is the bond between people.

It has warm tones, optimistic themes, and is centered around love and family.

Therefore, the core of its story is completely sufficient, and overall it will be more like a pure literary novel, which will be a huge challenge for you.

The subject matter of the novel is already challenging, so don’t add to the difficulty artificially in the writing method.”

Hide Kitagawa has read "The Convenience Store of Sorrow" many times. Basically, all the pure literature readers of his age cannot avoid this healing pure literature novel that has been selling like crazy on Amazon China.

Therefore, he knew better than anyone how to better reproduce this book.

Moreover, Keigo Higashino is the original author of the work, so he must have a strong affinity with it.

"I understand, Mr. Kitagawa! So this is why you asked me to write in flashback format."

Keigo Higashino suddenly realized.

Kitagawa Hide smiled even more brightly: "Yes. Flashbacks can not only reduce the difficulty of writing this book, but also show the climax to readers in advance. Why not do it if you can kill two birds with one stone?"

"You're right! I'll revise it right away according to your request!"

Keigo Higashino only felt that Kitagawa Hide who was sitting in front of him was like a mountain that he could not see the end of, constantly illuminating the way forward for him and inspiring him to keep moving forward.

The frustration and discouragement he felt after his previous failed attempts at writing pure literary novels suddenly disappeared, and he felt that he could do it again!

"Wait, Higashino-san. You need to combine work with rest. Let's finish reading today's hot news first.

It is also helpful to update our information base frequently. ”

Hidetsu Kitagawa opened the Yahoo Japan Forum, ready to use it to learn about the latest current affairs.

At present, most Japanese still learn about national affairs and current hot topics through traditional media such as television news and newspapers. However, the news dissemination speed of these media has a certain delay. By the time you see it, it is likely that the event has happened for more than a week.

Thanks to the development of newly emerging Internet companies such as Kitagawa Network, the Internet in Japan is now developing slightly faster than in the past, and many things have appeared earlier.

For example, the hot search rankings on the homepages of portal websites and Yahoo Japan are very popular among netizens, just like the hot searches on Weibo in later generations.

However, there is no large-scale buying of rankings and volume in the current hot search rankings. The news popularity is relatively real and highly referenceable.

"Yes!"

Keigo Higashino moved a small stool and sat obediently next to Kitagawa Hide, looking at today's Yahoo Japan hot search rankings with him.

The news that tops the list is naturally the completion of the first part of "Hanzawa Naoki".

This popular literature novel, based on the story of the banking and financial industry and set in Japan after the millennium, is now the well-deserved "No. 1 in the novel world."

Especially after the novel's predictions about changes in the banking industry, the future development of Japan, and various social conditions after the millennium were confirmed step by step, the popularity of the novel became higher and higher, and the sales of "Mass" almost skyrocketed.

The second piece of news was a series of practical policies implemented by the new Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi after he took office.

This is different from Ryutaro Hashimoto's policy of trying his best to protect the interests of the conglomerates and even plundering national assets by increasing consumption taxes in order to save the national economy.

Obuchi Keizo adopted a bright approach to dealing with the country's economic problems.

He won congressional approval this month to bail out banks that were sitting on piles of bad debt, slash their income taxes and increase spending.

This "Uncle Heisei" has told everyone through his actions that he does not stand on the side of the consortium or the upper class. He only cares about the country's economic situation and the living conditions of the people.

He only does practical things and doesn't play tricks.

On August 8, when answering questions from members of the House of Representatives on the issue of "historical understanding", Keizo Obuchi stated that Japan will develop relations with relevant countries on the basis of the spirit of Prime Minister Fuji Murayama's speech in 11.

It goes without saying who this relevant country is and what the issue of "historical understanding" is.

Precisely because successive prime ministers attached great importance to that "historical issue", Japan and its neighbor gradually entered a diplomatic honeymoon period in the 90s.

It was at this point that a large number of Japanese literary works, anime and games began to enter the neighboring market. These works gradually became the childhood memories of the 8090s and s after the millennium. In addition, when talking about the new guidelines for Japan-US defense cooperation, Keizo Obuchi also made it clear that "the government's position on the security treaty has not changed, and the surrounding situation is not a geographical concept. The issue of a certain island is the neighbor's own problem. We strongly hope that the parties involved can resolve it peacefully through negotiations, and we will not interfere in the neighbor's own affairs."

All these measures have earned Keizo Obuchi a very good reputation among the people.

With these boosts, the new round of economic policies he implemented was successfully implemented and began to take effect gradually in August 1998.

Kitagawa Hide knew that from this point on, Japan's economy would slowly recover. Although the lost thirty years would never come back, at least he didn't have to worry about his wealth shrinking by more than half.

In addition, after the relationship with the neighboring country is eased, the neighboring entertainment market will gradually open up.

Even after traveling through time and becoming Beichuan Xiu, he still remembered that he had another name - Xu Xiu.

If possible, he hopes to do his best to promote the literary market next door as much as possible.

After thinking about this, Kitagawa Hide decisively opened the notebook where he recorded his inspirations and wrote down these things one by one.

Keigo Higashino was shocked to see Mr. Kitagawa recording his inspirations. He didn't expect that even when watching the news, the teacher would always think about things related to literature!

The news ranked third and fourth on the hot search list are not interesting, they are all gossip news related to the entertainment industry.

The two shifted their attention to the fifth-ranked news, and the bright red news headline immediately stimulated Keigo Higashino.

"Bei, Teacher Beichuan! Please read this news!" He widened his eyes, pointed at the computer screen, and began to speak incoherently.

"Shocking! The real culprit of the Wakayama poisonous curry incident has been arrested - the murderer claims to be a loyal fan of Mr. Kitagawa Hide's books!"

Kitagawa Hide was not in a hurry. He searched for relevant information in his mind while clicking on the news page.

When the uncensored photo of the murderer came into view, Kitagawa Hide finally remembered the multiple death incident that shocked Japan in 1998.

This is the most horrific poisonous curry case in Japan's history: more than 70 people were poisoned, suffering varying degrees of physical injuries, and 4 people died.

"On July 1998, 7, at a community party in Wakayama Prefecture, the suspect Hayashi Masumi put at least one kilogram of arsenic (arsenic trioxide) into a pot of curry rice, a poisonous amount that was enough to kill more than 25 people.

According to police officers from the Wakayama Prefectural Police Headquarters, all community residents who participated in the party were poisoned, two children and two adults died after eating too much curry and rice, and more than 70 people showed symptoms of acute arsenic poisoning, including nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, weakness and headache.

The four victims were the chairman of the Wakayama Prefecture Council, Masakazu Tanaka, 64, the vice chairman, Taro Tanaka, 53, as well as Kazuo Kubota, 10, and Miyuki Suzuki, 16.

“.The police investigated the residents who were at the party and finally identified the chef, Hayashi Masumi, as the suspect.

Her estranged ex-husband was a professional exterminator, so she was able to obtain arsenic through legal channels.

The police quickly arrested the two men, and then discovered that they were not only suspected of poisoning and murder, but also of insurance fraud and defrauding middle-aged and elderly single men.

According to police investigation, Hayashi Masumi and her ex-husband used the online name "Hayashi Masukushi" to advertise for marriage on various websites and forums.

The two tried their best to package Hayashi Masumi as a gentle and graceful lady, in order to lure some older single men and otakus who were eager to find a spouse and had a certain economic foundation into being deceived.

Before being arrested, Hayashi Masumi had had relationships with five older unmarried men, borrowed large sums of money from them, and lived an extremely luxurious life.

But then these five men all committed suicide under mysterious circumstances, and all died of carbon monoxide poisoning after burning charcoal.

What's even more bizarre is that these five men all bought life insurance and voluntarily gave all their inheritance to Hayashi Masumi in their suicide notes.
Because of these notarized suicide notes, Hayashi Masumi successfully escaped police questioning and successfully obtained a large amount of inheritance from them.

On August 1998, 8, the Wakayama Prefecture District Court announced that Hayashi Masumi and her ex-husband Kojima Ko were guilty of murder, and both were sentenced to death at the first instance.

However, both of them have indicated that they will appeal again, and the second trial will be held in the Tokyo District Court in September. "

After reading the long news, Keigo Higashino breathed a sigh of relief, glad that this "devil on earth" finally received the judgment he deserved.

If such people can escape legal punishment, he will be completely disappointed with this country.

The reason why Keigo Higashino's sense of substitution is so strong is that he just happened to meet the hunting requirements of Hayashi Masumi and the others before -

Older single, introverted homebody, financially independent.

People always have a high level of empathy for people who are similar to themselves.

"Hey, wait."

Realizing something, Keigo Higashino glanced at the news report again, then searched up and down repeatedly, and finally saw the information he wanted in the gap.

". During the interrogation, Hayashi Masumi admitted that she was a loyal fan of Kitagawa Hide's books, and she especially loved his book Paradise Lost. She thought that the suicides of Tomomi Muramatsu and Rinko Matsubara by taking arsenic in the book were very romantic.

She initially chose to kill the men by disguising them as charcoal-burning suicide, and later prepared to poison them with arsenic, suspected to be influenced by Paradise Lost.

As for why she poisoned the curry and rice, it is said that she believed that her neighbors in the community isolated her under the instructions of the family of the chairman of the Wakayama Prefecture Council.

She was dissatisfied, so she took advantage of a party to poison the curry and rice to express her anger.

The author believes that Hayashi Masumi was already in a mentally ill state when she poisoned the curry rice.

The reason for her mental disorder was probably "Paradise Lost" written by Kitagawa Hide.
This woman is too crazy.

And this journalist! How could he put all the blame on you, Mr. Beichuan?
And the use of words like 'suspected', 'possibly', 'perhaps' and 'the author believes' clearly means it."

Keigo Higashino was very angry.

The first time he watched it, he didn't notice any of these things.

When he remembered that the title was related to Teacher Kitagawa, he turned back and saw these things.

It is obvious that this journalist deliberately used such vague words to take advantage of Mr. Beichuan's popularity!
Disgusting!

While Keigo Higashino was sulking and feeling indignant for Kitagawa Hide, Kitagawa Hide was watching the news and fell into deep thought.

He seems to have some ideas about the new book that will be serialized in "Wenyi" later. (End of this chapter)