I am a literary giant in Japan

After watching the wonderful "Oedipus Rex", George Ceferis warmly invited Hide Kitagawa and his family to the top luxury house he bought in the main city of Athens.

George Severus was different from the pedantic and old-fashioned intellectuals of his time.

He advocated that life attitudes should continue to improve with the development of science and technology, including people's views and demands on literature.

Therefore, in his top-notch mansion, you can see many luxury cars and technological products that only appeared in 1998. He even set aside an entire floor to display concept cars that have just been produced by well-known car companies such as General Motors.

"I read in a science fiction novel that in the future, humans will no longer use fuel vehicles, but will use new energy sources such as solar energy, wind energy, and electricity to power vehicles. Some cars can even fly into the sky, like small aircraft."

George Seferis opened a bottle of his treasured red wine and chatted with the young man Hide Kitagawa about the changes of the times and things that interested him, such as cars, literature, and music.

Kitagawa Hide sipped red wine and chatted with him casually, feeling somewhat impressed by George Seferis's foresight.

"I dare not say anything about things I am not familiar with. But the future of cars and literature will definitely be as you said, with new energy cars rampant and physical books transitioning to e-books."

Kitagawa Hidekazu clinked glasses with him and told him truthfully about the future development of science and technology.

Of course, these words sound like fantasy now, and George Sefilis only felt that he had met a bosom friend and a close friend regardless of age difference, and he did not really think that the future would change so much.

In this way, the old and the young wandered around Athens, talking about technology, politics, and literature. They also participated in several art exchange festivals and became close friends regardless of age.

By the end of November, Kitagawa Hide originally planned to take his family to visit other cities in Greece, but several urgent calls from Tokyo called him back from his wonderful vacation.

On the morning of September 1998, 11.

Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport, Athens, Greece.

When Kitagawa Hide and his family of four boarded the plane, George Seflis came to see them off.

Seeing that the old man in his eighties was so righteous, Kitagawa Hide said that if he had the chance in the future, he would definitely write a few more literary works on overseas themes to satisfy the old man's curiosity.

After arriving at the first-class cabin of the plane and entering the private space, Kitagawa Hide restrained his smile and chatted with Yumeko, who had just coaxed the two little ones to sleep, about the contents of several urgent calls.

"I didn't expect that something like this would happen to Dr. Tang Ze's family just after he became a full professor. This is really..."

Mengzi, who was always smiling, couldn't help but feel sad when she recalled Tang Ze Toshiyuki's impatience and anxiety during the international long-distance call.

Previously, Toshiyuki Karasawa urgently called Kitagawa Hide because shortly after he became a full professor, he was involved in a medical dispute due to an accidental surgery.

The incident started with a patient in the middle to late stage of esophageal cancer. In fact, the cancer cells had quietly spread to the pancreas and there was no hope of recovery.

According to the humanitarian spirit, such patients would be admitted to the top floor of the intensive care unit and die peacefully under the caring care of nurses and their families.

However, Toshiyuki Karasawa did not notice that the patient's cancer cells had spread and still performed surgery on him.

The operation was very successful. It was his first operation after being promoted to full professor, and it made him even more famous in the Japanese medical community.

But the good times did not last long. The patient's condition quickly worsened, and he died in great pain due to postoperative weakness and severe infection.

The patient's family took Toshiyuki Tang Ze and the Tokyo University Hospital to court. Toshiyuki Tang Ze, who had just been crowned with countless halos, instantly became the eternal sinner of the Tokyo University Hospital.

After this happened, a group of professors who had originally supported him immediately changed their minds and asked him to resign and let Professor Dong, who had just retired, take over the position of full professor of the First Department of Surgery.

The hospital's top management was unwilling to help him and get involved.

With no other options left, Toshiyuki Karasawa had to find Kitagawa Hide's father-in-law, Agatsuma Eikichi, through the Osaka Medical Association, hoping that Mr. Kitagawa could find someone to help him get through this difficult time.

I didn't expect that the matter was not over yet.

While Tang Zemin was running around investigating the case, his wife also received bad news.

It turns out that the woman who had been working diligently as a housewife for him, but who is no longer treated well by him, is also in the advanced stage of cancer!

Tang Ze's wife's condition deteriorated rapidly and she died in the ambulance on the way to the emergency room.

This bolt from the blue caused the iron-man Tang Ze Minyuki to collapse instantly and he was hospitalized due to illness.

The urgent telegram Kitagawa Hide received was informing him to attend the memorial service for Karasawa's wife.

During this period, Professor Ukai and his brothers called him specifically to remind him to stay away from Toshiyuki Karasawa as much as possible.

Because Toshiyuki Karasawa caused the patient's tragic death due to negligence, this is an unforgivable sin in Japan, which attaches great importance to medical quality and attitude.

Once you are involved in this kind of medical lawsuit, even if you can still practice medicine in the future, there is a high probability that you can only work as a practicing physician in a remote place.

Moreover, the death of this patient caused a great deal of public outcry, and it coincided with the last spring struggle, when doctors resisted the expansion of the Ministry of Labor.

As a result, Toshiyuki Karasawa became a complete sinner in the Japanese medical community. Who would dare to approach him?

After meeting this top surgeon, Kitagawa Hide felt that he was very similar to Goro Zaizen in "White Tower".

During their last meeting, he specifically reminded Tang Ze Minxing, hoping that he would not follow the path of Zaizen.

Now, he couldn't help but sigh at the horror of fate.

This also deepened his understanding of Oedipus Rex.

Mengzi felt so deeply about this because she could empathize with Professor Tang Ze's wife.

They have been childhood sweethearts and have been with each other all the way, even working part-time to support her boyfriend's studies.

Although the long-term love affair was full of ups and downs, it finally came to fruition.

However, time is a ruthless butcher's knife.

As Tang Ze Minyuki's career became more and more prosperous and his status became higher and higher, there were more and more beautiful women around him, and what his wife could provide him became minimal.

According to information published in media newspapers, the Tangze couple have been sleeping in separate rooms for more than three years.

During this period, Mrs. Tang Ze had been trying to please Tang Ze Toshiyuki with the most humble attitude of a housewife.

In order to completely discredit Toshiyuki Karasawa, some gossip tabloids also dug up his mistresses in various places and the fact that he often went to Shinjuku's "Yokai-dori".

Just like that, the staff of the Japan Women's Federation also spoke out to criticize the young full professor of the Tokyo University Hospital, and once again brought the issue of the "status of housewives" to the forefront.

As this series of events fermented, it even affected the prime minister's cabinet, which was already in a state of panic.

After Obuchi Keizo took office, he carried out drastic economic reforms. He had just cleaned up the mess left by Hashimoto Ryutaro, but so many new problems emerged.

This made him more in need of Hide Kitagawa's "1Q84" to attract public attention, so the pressure came to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Nobutaka Machimura.

Originally, Machimura Nobutaka gave Kitagawa Hidenari the deadline of the end of March next year.

As long as he can finish the book before the public memorial day for the victims of the 1999 Tokyo Subway Sarin Gas Attack.

Now we have to speed up the release of "1Q84" by the end of this year.

"Yeah. In this case, I guess I'll be busy until the end of the year after I go back."

Kitagawa Hide followed with a sigh and hugged Yumeko into his arms.
"I'm sorry, I originally planned to take you guys overseas for New Year's Eve."

"It's okay." Mengzi shook her head and leaned on his arms obediently and said, "I know it's not nice to say this. But compared to Mrs. Tang Ze, I feel that I am already very, very, very happy. I will be satisfied as long as I can be with my dear.

It doesn’t matter where you are or what you do.”

"Yeah!" Kitagawa Hide kissed Yumeko's forehead, very grateful for his wife's understanding.

In this environment of "feminist revival", it is rare for Mengzi to maintain such rationality and thoughts.

"I'll have to trouble you to take care of the memorial service from now on."

Kitagawa Hide knew nothing about this kind of thing, so he asked Yumeko to handle it.

Mengzi patted her towering chest and said, "Don't worry. Leave it to me!"

The last thing in the urgent news was that "The Convenience Store of Sorrow", which was made at great expense to Kitagawa Entertainment and director Hiroki Ryuichi's entire fortune, was jointly boycotted by a large number of Japanese theaters.

After the filming of the movie version of "Jie Li" was completed, it was not released in formal theaters due to the subject matter and size issues, and was only shown in small single-theater theaters.

I thought that Beichuan Entertainment, now rich and powerful, would no longer have to suffer the kind of bullying it suffered in the past.

Unexpectedly, the two major conglomerates that had been supporting Nagai Kazufu so much that they simply lost all their face and frantically used their resources in the entertainment industry to block the opportunity for "The Convenience Store of Sorrow" to be released in normal theaters on the grounds of Jabami Rei's previous black history.

Jabami Rei's negative news is nothing more than being frequently late and leaving early, lacking discipline, being too lazy compared to those actresses who work like oxen and horses, and more fatally, she beat up a bunch of bad boys in order to stand up for Kaoruko.

Compared with most female stars who have a long history of bad deeds and whose negative information can be found out with just a search, she is already very innocent.

But what the two major conglomerates are best at is discrediting their competitors.

They have countless entertainment companies under their umbrella, as well as numerous media companies that specialize in collecting negative information and attacking opponents.

After using this combination of punches, Jabami Rei's image in the public's mind collapsed instantly.

The public relations department of Beichuan Entertainment tried its best but was unable to withstand this wave of attacks and could only ask Beichuan Xiu and others for help.

noon the next day.

As soon as the plane landed at the New Tokyo International Airport, Kitagawa Hide's family of four came out and saw Saito Rena and others who came to pick them up.

In early December, the temperature in Tokyo officially turned cooler. Walking on the long corridor, a cold and solemn atmosphere hit me in the face.

"Are those theaters really willing to not show movies that are sure to make money, but have to hold us back?" asked Kitagawa Hide.

“It’s similar to the previous lockdown of bookstores, but this time it’s a little different.”

The heroic Shizuko Kawaide combed her hair into a handsome single ponytail and walked in front with a breeze.

"The two major conglomerates are the main controllers of the Japanese entertainment industry. For them, blocking us in this regard is the lowest cost and most efficient method.

And there’s something really bad going on.”

As she said this, she looked at Jabami Rei who was laughing and joking with Yumeko.

Although she was at the center of the vortex, this woman didn't seem to be in a hurry at all.

Kitagawa Hide looked at Kawaide Shizuko in confusion.

"Li-chan was officially fired by Toho a few days ago."

There were no smartphones at the time, otherwise Shizuko Kawaide would have taken them out and shown Kitagawa Hide one big news after another related to Jabami Rei.

".This guy. I can't tell at all." Kitagawa Hide frowned.

"She probably doesn't want us to worry about her own affairs." Kawade Shizuko lowered her voice and said, "Anyway, if you have a chance, Kitagawa, go and comfort her.

In recent years, Lijiang chose to give up literature and focus on performing arts.

Regardless of the future of "Sorrowful Grocery Store", this incident must have been a huge blow to her."

"I understand." Kitagawa Hide nodded slightly.

After this little episode, the two started talking about the release of "The Convenience Store of Sorrow".

Since none of the big cinema chains are willing to accept it, we can only contact the single-cinema chains first, as before.

Kitagawa Hide is confident in the quality of this film and believes that even if the number of screenings decreases, the overall popularity will not change much.

Just like the "Shaolin Temple" that was a national hit at the time, there were not many cinemas showing it in the beginning, and it relied on the penny ticket price to support its reputation and box office.

As for Tang Zeminxing's matter, Kitagawa Hide still planned to give him a hand.

In the novel, Goro Zaizen lost both his wealth and his life in the end, but this did not prevent him from being considered a great surgeon.

There are countless patients who have benefited from his kindness, and he should not be killed with just one blow.

At the very least, letting Toshiyuki Karasawa go to a remote area to practice medicine would definitely be a huge loss to the Japanese medical community.

This matter is not difficult to solve. With Kitagawa Hide and Kawaide Shizuko's current network of contacts, from the Prime Minister's cabinet to members of parliament, as long as they make a request, there are many people willing to meet their needs.

Finally, there are "1Q84" and "Kafka on the Shore".

Kawaide Shizuko knew that he was going to write about the former, so she was not surprised, but it was the first time she heard about the latter, and her originally calm face suddenly became a little unpredictable.

"Reference to the plot of Oedipus Rex where he killed his father and married his mother? Isn't this a bit too risky?"

In the eyes of foreigners, the Japanese are considered to be extremely open-minded because of their famous pornographic culture.

In fact, most native Japanese are very conservative.

The plot of killing one's father and marrying one's mother was still a bit too exciting for the Japanese in 1998.

The element of extramarital affair in "Paradise Lost" is still being criticized. Many people in the industry think that Kitagawa Hide was a bit too much and boycotted any film or television works based on "Paradise Lost".

This is also one of the reasons why "Paradise Lost", a major IP that won the French Goncourt Prize and became extremely popular overseas, has yet to be developed.

Of course, it was just like how the two major conglomerates tried their best to kill him and his novel but failed.

Excellent and high-quality works, like gold, will always shine one day and cannot be stopped.

"No problem. And this book is not just for domestic readers."

Kitagawa Hide didn't say it directly, but Kawaide Shizuko quickly understood the implication of his words.

It turns out that Beichuan was also holding a grudge in his heart. He was not a robot who didn't care about anything.

After Shizuko Kawaide understood what he was thinking, she became excited and stopped trying to stop him from writing "Kafka on the Shore".

She is looking forward to the waves this new book will create overseas, and how those ugly Nobel Prize manipulators will be shocked this December! (End of this chapter)