I am a literary giant in Japan

“.As I get older, I have clearly felt that my mental and physical strength are far inferior to when I was young.

Although I was very reluctant, I had to admit it.

Therefore, when I decided to write "Flowers of Hell", I had already confirmed that this would be the last pure literary novel I would write in my life.

In order to write this novel, I traveled alone throughout the 23 wards of Tokyo and interviewed nearly a hundred people face to face."

On TV, Nagai Kazufu, dressed in a suit and tie, talked to the camera.

While expressing his "helplessness" of old age and frailty, he indirectly told the audience that he had spent a lot of time and energy on "Flowers of Hell" and that this novel would definitely be better than any of his previous ones.

"This is too shameless! Nagai Kazufu is one of the top 'world-class' writers in our literary world. Now that he has discovered that Hideo Kitagawa's 'Kafka on the Shore' is gaining popularity, he is using this marketing method to grab traffic."

While cracking melon seeds and watching Jabami Rei swinging her long legs while sitting in Kitagawa Toru's arms, I couldn't help but complain loudly when I saw Nagai Kazufu on TV trying to morally blackmail the readers by saying, "This is my last swan song, please make sure to support me."

Yumeko, who was concentrating on braiding Kitagawa Midori's hair, smiled softly and said nonchalantly, "When Xinwenxiang Publishing House and the two major financial groups used despicable means to slander you, Li-chan, you should have known that these guys have no bottom line."

"I know, but I always feel that people shouldn't be so shameless. Okay, I overestimated their character!
I'll blast them to death online soon! Humph!"

Jabami Rei stretched Kitagawa Toru's little face like a pancake, rolled it into a round shape, and had a lot of fun playing with it. Kitagawa Toru, who always disliked others kneading him, enjoyed the "abuse" of this celebrity godmother and even laughed "Aba Aba".

"Then remember to change to a smaller account. Li-chan, you have become everyone's national goddess again. It would be better if you post less negative comments on that social media account with the '1.70 meter height, 1.2 meter long legs'."

Mengzi chuckled.

Jabari Rei's cheeks suddenly turned red and she was at a loss for words.

During her previous low period, she used that account to post a lot of complaints and self-doubt. Not only Kitagawa Hide, but Mengzi also noticed this and silently supported her.

However, after the matter was resolved satisfactorily, these dark histories became a weapon for her best friend to tease her, causing the usually venomous Jabami Rei to immediately lose the upper hand in the verbal confrontation.

While rubbing Kitagawa Toru, she was thinking about how to fight back, but unfortunately she couldn't think of anything that could make her best friend break down, so she had to divert the blame and shift the topic to Kitagawa Hide.

"By the way, Yumeko-chan. Where did that guy go? It seems like I haven't seen him since I came back from Stockholm."

In order to thank Kitagawa Hide, she specially bought some small gifts, thinking of finding an opportunity to express her gratitude.

Unexpectedly, after December 12, Kitagawa Hide seemed to have disappeared from the face of the earth, like a dragon that could not be found at all.

"He... He should be here now..." Mengzi glanced at the pile of setting drafts of "1Q84" scattered on the table, and raised her head slightly to look at the ceiling.

Kitagawa Hide is currently interviewing some remnants of the Aum Shinrikyo cult in the special custody room of Tokyo Prison.

Prior to this, he had interviewed 62 victims of the "Tokyo Subway Sarin Gas Incident" in one go through his relationship with the Governor of Tokyo.

This is different from Nagai Kazufu, who talks a lot on TV and says he interviews people non-stop for the sake of writing a book, but in fact most of the work is done by secretaries, assistants and foundation staff.

In order to write "1Q84" well, and to better understand the essence of the original novel and Haruki Murakami's feelings when writing this novel, Kitagawa Hideshige spent a lot of time and energy interviewing the victims.

During this process, Kitagawa Hide's mood changed from calm at the beginning to solemn and angry.

In his previous life, the "Sarin Gas Incident" only existed in history textbooks and newspapers. The shocking numbers could not give him much sense of reality.

Moreover, he is Chinese, and his attitude towards such events is the same as when he was a child watching Ultraman fighting monsters. He even thinks that the destruction caused by monsters is quite "just".

But in this life, he had personally experienced this historical event three years ago, and now he saw a large number of victims face to face.

Seeing people suffering from various sequelae of poison gas, leading to intellectual disabilities and physical disabilities, seeing them despairing because of the pain and death of their family members, and seeing them being forced to wait for death because they cannot afford the high medical expenses.
After seeing that three years later, most of them had become like zombies, with thoughts like "things have come to this", "it doesn't matter anymore", and "the government is just talking but won't really take any action", Kitagawa Hide was completely silent.

He felt that just interviewing the victims was not enough, so he approached Hikigaya Nako and Miyamoto Juju, hoping that they would mobilize their network of contacts to allow him to meet the remnants of the Aum Shinrikyo cult.

Because the incident was of great importance and the authorities have always been committed to forgetting or even covering up the "Sarin Gas Incident", Kitagawa Hide relied on his connections to find the Minister of Defense, which gave him the opportunity to interview the remaining remnants.

Unlike what Kitagawa Hide imagined, these people were like bodies without souls and had no remorse for the sins they had committed.

Their thinking is confused and different from that of ordinary people, and many of them are no different from mental patients.

The saddest thing is that not only can they not feel their own "evil", but even the definition of "good and evil" is vague.

"Wrong? How am I wrong? I just arranged their life schedules according to Nostradamus' great prophecy." - "Felon A" Hamura Akio

"For me, a teacher is someone who can answer my questions in the end. His guidance is everything." - Terahata Tamon, "Ferocious Criminal L"

"To be honest, I feel like I was a man in my previous life. Only by returning to heaven can I return to my true nature." - "Prisoner K" Kanda Miyuki
"It is the honor of my life to have been asked for sex by my teacher." - "Female Prisoner A" Iwakura Harumi

When facing Kitagawa Hide's recorder, these people had empty eyes and either talked about their daily lives in Aum Shinrikyo or recalled the past.

After more than ten hours of long interviews, Kitagawa Hide got the material he wanted and his mood became extremely solemn.

Before leaving the prison, the warden came up with some drinks and cigarettes and chatted with Kitagawa Hide for a while.

In the eyes of outsiders, the warden of Tokyo Prison is a very lucrative job, a position that many ordinary people can only dream of in their lifetime.

But in the eyes of this middle-aged man, this is a besieged city.

"As for me, I started working as a prison guard when I was in my twenties. My family was poor at the time, and I had six or seven younger brothers and sisters who needed to eat and study. I thought that such a job was both respectable and well-paid, so what else could I ask for?

But as time goes by, one year, two years, or ten years pass.

I found that the root of this work is anti-human and painful.

Every day, there is not a day that goes by without having to face bizarre criminals.

I’ve seen and heard so much, and I feel like I’m also twisting in that direction.”

The middle-aged man drank Coke and smoked cigarettes while complaining to Kitagawa Hide, complaining about this top job with an annual salary of 1000 million yen.

Kitagawa Hide sighed softly, knowing that what he called the siege was actually the end of the line for ordinary people once they entered the prison system.

There is no hope of going any higher.

There is also no way to leave this system and retire in another better department.

This is true for him, for the victims, and for the criminals in prison.
Everyone is trapped in his own siege.

"What will happen to these people in the end?" Kitagawa Hide took a sip of his drink.

The warden sneered and pointed his finger at the Capitol building that was vaguely visible in the distance: "Look, if the people sitting there need them to be alive, they have to be alive. If they need them to die, then they will all be 'missing' tonight.

Just like the "Sarin Gas Incident", the government will guide people to look at this issue in the way they want the public to understand it.

Obviously, bringing up the past at this point in time will only allow the Obuchi Cabinet, which is in the midst of an economic and political crisis, to blame the root cause of the incident on some vested interests.

The warden saw this matter very clearly, and he is indeed a wise man who could climb to such a position from a commoner.

The core reason why Keizo Obuchi begged Hide Kitagawa to write this novel was that he hoped to use the extremely influential Hide Kitagawa to eliminate the fear of terrorist attacks in the minds of the people, and then use the subway as a trusted means of transportation.

After all, the consortium's tram company took too much money from public transportation profits, which was totally unacceptable to the Obuchi cabinet.

The warden's words were full of ridicule and contempt.

He was right. It seemed that the Prime Minister’s cabinet was thinking about the people, even inviting the “best in the world” in the literary world to “cure” the people’s mental illness.

But in reality, they are fighting for a lot of money.

The truth of the matter is not important, the process is not important, only the result is important.

After hearing his answer, Kitagawa Hide fell silent again.

Like Haruki Murakami, he finds it difficult to accept that these people were not executed.

In this major incident, there is little difference between the accomplices and the main culprits.

Complete the task of eradicating evil!

Otherwise, the wildfire cannot be extinguished and will spring up again with the spring breeze.

"Teacher Beichuan, how would you write it?" asked the warden.

Kitagawa Hide finally looked back at the Tokyo Prison, and then said resolutely: "Seek truth from facts and never lie."

After saying that, he twisted the can in his hand and walked towards the parking lot step by step.

Looking at Kitagawa Hide's leaving back, the warden was truly moved for the first time.

"This is the true 'Number One' in Japanese literature."

"I cannot accept that the remnants of the Tokyo Subway Sarin Gas Attack are not being sentenced to death."

Three days later, a new manuscript was sent to the office of the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The first sentence on the header almost made the secretary drop his jaw.

If the envelope containing the manuscript had not clearly written the words "Sender: Kitagawa Hide" in large letters, he would have almost thought that this was a threatening letter sent by some radical citizen.

Three and a half years have passed since the Aum Shinrikyo and Sarin Gas Incident. For some of the new generation, it is about to become the tears of the times and will no longer be mentioned repeatedly.

For government workers, it is something that needs to be forgotten and covered up as soon as possible.

If the dispute between subways and trams had not reached a white-hot stage, no one would want to bring up the old issue again and bring it to the forefront again.

The Ministry of Education has held several meetings on this matter.

The book was written by Mr. Beichuan. The quality and speed are beyond doubt, but there are different opinions on the control of scale.

After all, the Ministry of Education is relatively weak among the several departments under the Prime Minister's cabinet. They just want to cultivate their own piece of land and don't want to go against those guys who have excessive desire for power.

No one wants to touch this hot potato, but they have to.

The final result of the discussion was to let Teacher Beichuan express himself freely first, and then revise and review the manuscript.

"This manuscript is too radical." The secretary was sweating profusely. After hesitating for a long time, he gave it to Machimura Nobutaka to read first.

There was no way. The other party was Mr. Hide Kitagawa, the "number one in the world" in the Japanese literary world. If it were someone else, the secretary would not dare to contact the creator on his own initiative.

But what Mr. Beichuan said
Why should others listen to a mere secretary like me?

Let the Minister of Town and Village worry about it!
At this time, Machimura Nobutaka was worried that it was almost the end of the year, and the tasks entrusted to him by Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi had not yet been completed.

The new cabinet is about to take office, and if all else fails, he will have to pay a personal visit to see the progress of Mr. Kitagawa's book writing.

Just as he was about to make a phone call, his secretary came running over with the manuscript, which made him feel relieved immediately. He thought to himself that Teacher Beichuan was still reliable!
"I knew that a man who dared to challenge the Nobel Prize for Literature would never break his promise."

Machimura Nobutaka happily took the manuscript and glanced at the title of the book "1Q84".

Hmm, I don’t know how impressive it is.

It should be the idea I mentioned before.

He hurried back to his desk and opened the manuscript impatiently.

Then the first sentence made him dumbfounded.

"I cannot accept that the remnants of the Tokyo Subway Sarin Gas Attack are not being sentenced to death."

Not
"That's right. After all, it's reasonable for a man who dares to challenge for the Nobel Prize in Literature to say such things."

Machimura Nobutaka wiped his sweat and continued reading.

"One afternoon, I happened to pick up the magazine on the dining table and started flipping through it.

I browsed through a few reports, and then scanned the letters from readers published in the submission column one by one.

As to why this happened, I can no longer remember the reason.

It may be a spur of the moment action, or maybe it's just a special time.

Because picking up a women's magazine or reading a contributed column is a rare thing for me.

The letter was written by a woman whose husband lost his job due to the subway sarin gas attack.

The cause was that her husband was unfortunately encountered a sarin gas incident on his way to work, and was sent to the hospital after fainting.

He was discharged from the hospital a few days later, but unfortunately he was left with sequelae and was unable to work normally.

It was fine in the initial stages, but after a while, my superiors and colleagues started to talk behind my back.

The husband couldn't stand that cold environment, so he resigned and went home - in fact, he was almost kicked out.

I don't have the magazine with me right now, so I can't remember the exact description, but the content is generally correct.

As I recall, it wasn't written with such 'pain', nor was it particularly angry.

Generally speaking, I am calm and composed, or perhaps it is better to say that I am almost complaining.

It's like, 'Why is it like this?'

The woman and her husband still seem unable to comprehend the sudden turn of events in their lives.

Their stories are very common among victims and nothing surprising.

At first I thought that the woman wrote the letter just to complain.

It was not until a few days ago when I had the opportunity to interview some of the victims of the 'Sarin Gas Incident' that I discovered that the incident was much more than that.

This couple was originally one of the first people I wanted to interview.

但I get rid of my money.

Because they have shrunk into a small black box and cannot respond to my interview at all." (End of this chapter)