I am a literary giant in Japan

1999 1 Month 15 Day.

"Shinbunxiang" and "Kitagawa", which were released at the same time, became the most talked-about literary magazines among all people in Japan, without a doubt.

Through the large-scale preheating by Shinbunxiang Publishing House and Kitagawa Bunyu Co., Ltd., even many people who had no interest in pure literary magazines went to bookstores and paid for a copy of "Kitagawa" and a copy of "Shinbunxiang" in order to witness the literary battle between the Western Nobel Prize winner in Literature and the "world's number one" in Japanese literary circles.

In addition, people from all walks of life have shown their support for these two literary magazines. Some have posted on social media to express their support, while others have simply expressed their inclinations and positions when attending events.

Even those celebrities who have nothing to do with literature have come out to take advantage of this wave of popularity to increase their presence.

For a moment, Japan seemed to be caught in a frenzy of "the whole nation is obsessed with literature."

In just one afternoon, Oricon, for the first time, released the real-time sales data of two major literary magazines both online and offline.

《新文象》首发于1月15日上午8点30分，到下午2点30分第一次公布统计数据时，全国总销量已逾89.4万册！

Just six hours after its first release, the magazine’s sales have already nearly exceeded 90 copies!
This is not only a historical record since the founding of New Wenxiang, but also a historical record for the total sales of magazine products in six hours in the Japanese publishing industry!

Everyone is following and witnessing history!

The Xinwenxiang Publishing House, which had been suppressed by the Beichuan magazines, finally got its revenge.

Before that, it was even ridiculed because its sales were not as good as Dengeki Bunko.

Of course, apart from "Wenyi", whose sales have been very stable, even "Dazhong" and "Beichuan" have been destroyed by Dengeki Bunko.

However, the Beichuan series of magazines are regarded as integrated products by the industry, and few people would pick out one of them to read individually.

After all, Dazhong claims to be a supplement to Beichuan, and Beichuan is a reorganization of the remaining rotten fish and stinky shrimps of Qunxiang.

You can't even compare with the supplements and reorganized magazines, what else can you talk about?

This is how the industry views these two literary magazines.

Soon after the data came out, the headquarters building of Xinwenxiang Publishing House was decorated with lights and everyone was cheering, thinking that they had definitely won this round.

Less than five minutes later, Oricon announced the total sales of "Kitagawa" during the same period.

于1月15日9点整正式上线的1月号《北川》，因分级制度所限，截止至下午2点30分，全国各地区总销量约78.7万册。

At first glance, this data is more than 100,000 copies less than that of "Xin Wen Xiang", which seems to be a real loss.

But if you think about it carefully, this issue of "Beichuan" is rated R20.

Also, because this was the first time that a literary magazine rating system was implemented, the Cultural Affairs Agency of the Ministry of Education and Culture and publishing units at all levels exercised very strict control over its sales and were determined not to allow it to appear in the hands of young people under the age of 20.

For this purpose, major bookstores have introduced a strategy of limiting the purchase of one copy per person with a "transport exemption permit" (i.e. driver's license).

Therefore, these 78.7 copies are unprecedented, real sales data, and the water content in them is almost negligible!

This is very scary.

In less than six hours, even though they knew there was a grading system and were strictly required not to buy or take more than they wanted, a large number of readers still rushed to the bookstore to buy books.

The Japanese literature market in the past had a population of only tens of millions, which was a small market compared to the rest of the world.

Even though the literature market has expanded to about 3000 million people in the past four years thanks to the promotion of people like Kitagawa Hide, it is still not that large.

Among these 3000 million people, at least 30%, or about 900 million, are under the age of 20. Excluding them, the number will be only around 2000 million.

In the first six hours of the first day, nearly 2000 out of 80 million were willing to pay to support something brand new.

4% total market share!

And it was achieved in such a short time.

Simply unbelievable.

After seeing this data, people who are knowledgeable about the matter will first use various connections to confirm the authenticity of the data with insiders at Oricon or Kitagawa Entertainment.

They were feeling uneasy, hoping that the data was fake so that they could feel better and not have to admit that their peers had grown to this point.

At the same time, I hope that this data is true, proving that Mr. Kitagawa's market appeal in the local market is far greater than that of Nobel Prize winners in literature, making everyone in the industry proud.

After learning of this data, everyone at the Xinwenxiang Publishing House, who had been opening champagne at halftime, was stunned and started to use their connections to confirm the authenticity of the data.

Calls came in one after another to Seiji Maehara's home from all directions.

As the second-in-command of the New Democratic Party and the most powerful young politician at the moment, Seiji Maehara has overtly and covertly supported Shinbun-sang and the Charity Group, thus firmly tying himself to this small boat.

Countless people confirmed the authenticity of the data with him, which made Seiji Maehara, who didn't know much about literature and market data, very confused.

Although he didn't understand these things, he could see the loss and frustration of Saburo Shiroyama and Evind Johnson, who were sitting on the sofa with livid faces.

Evint Johnson, who was chatting and laughing with him a few days ago, was now a little restless, supporting his chin with both hands, and his eyes were dull when he faced the book "Beichuan" on the table.

Saburo Shiroyama is even more outrageous.

Wearing an old-fashioned bathrobe, he seemed to have aged twenty years in an instant, and he could hardly even lift his eyelids.

Kitagawa Hideichi vigorously promoted the so-called grading system, which people like Shiroyama Saburo were not optimistic about at first.

After all, everyone understands that this is something that benefits others but not oneself, and it will obviously take a long time to see the benefits.

The problem is that in this world, it has always been the case that "peace is determined by generals, and generals are not allowed to see peace."

If you are eliminated by the times and the market, who will remember you as the first person to try something new?
Even the battle-hardened Evint Johnson couldn't help but say "crazy" several times after learning about this, and said that Kitagawa Hide's craziness was the craziest he had ever seen in his life.

No wonder the Arnault Club tried to befriend Kitagawa Hide many times and even extended an olive branch at the beginning, but was resolutely rejected by the guy.

This person cannot be measured or viewed using common sense!

How much confidence does one have to dare to compete with the famous Nobel Prize winner in Literature while limping?
But the fact is, it was the three of them who got slapped in the face.

"Mr. Maehara, what's the situation overseas?" Evind Johnson suddenly asked.

It is already 15 o'clock in the evening on the 9th.

The three of them tacitly agreed not to look at the latest data.

Because you don't need to look to know that at this point, "Beichuan" has most likely surpassed "Xinwenxiang" in the first-day data.

No one can deny the persuasiveness of defeating a flawless opponent with an imperfect body restricted by the rating system.

It cannot be said that "City in Darkness" is not a good book.

Even the picky Japanese netizens and literary critics agree with this. Some people in the literary world who are relatively close to the West even say that any other Japanese pure literary novel (not produced by Kitagawa Shu) can hardly compare with "City in Darkness".

Neither is Ichiro Tanizaki's final work, "The Idiot's Desire."

But the problem is that its opponent is "Children of the Dark", the first pure literature novel in Japanese literary history to adopt a rating system!
"I'm not going anywhere, because Japan is also hell, the same hell as here."

This sentence said by Hiroyuki Nanbu at the end of the novel has become a psychological portrayal of Evind Johnson and others.

To them, everywhere is a horrible hell now!

"I'll send someone to inquire about it right now." Seiji Maehara didn't want to stay in this depressing living room any longer.

He stood up, only to feel his body heavier than ever before, and his steps no longer as light as before.

He tried his best to protect the Ci Ai Group, sternly denied the Ci Ai School for the Deaf and the original Ci Ai Emergency Hospital, and went to Stockholm for help, even at the cost of establishing a relationship with Arnault, who was abandoned by everyone.

Step by step, all the actions that Seiji Maehara took to prove that he could stand on his own have now become boomerangs that have come back to him.

Shiroyama Saburo was speechless.

All his life's work in cultivating three generations of the Maehara family will most likely turn to ashes today.

After walking out of the living room, Seiji Maehara first lit a cigarette with trembling hands.

He remembered that the main markets for "New Literature" this time were Thailand and South Korea in Southeast Asia, the United States, Britain, France, Germany in Europe and the United States, as well as Russia, where writers were once prominent, and Sweden, the birthplace of the Nobel Prize.

Because Kitagawa Hide had previously killed many people in the Six Civet Cat Countries and other places, they deliberately avoided those countries, hoping to take advantage of the situation.

"Beichuan" also went overseas to these countries. Compared with the huge size and funds of "Xinwenxiang", it did not have good resources and publicity channels. It all relied on Beichuan Xiu's overseas connections and the temporary rescue of "Wenyi".

Under such visible unequal conditions, and with Evander Johnson being more famous overseas, there is nothing to be proud of even if he wins.

This is just part of the victory.

But now, even the cigarette was beginning to burn Maehara Seiji's fingers, and he was still unwilling to take a step to confirm the new data with the secretary.

He is afraid.

He was afraid that he would lose the competition in overseas markets.

He was afraid that this time he would lose completely, a loss that he would never be able to recover from, a loss that he could not afford!
After a few more minutes, the cigarette butt that was about to burn out was about to burn his fingers. Maehara Seiji finally gritted his teeth, put out the cigarette butt, and walked towards the hall outside.

The secretary, who had been waiting for a long time, was holding a thick stack of documents and looked dazed. When he saw him coming, he even forgot the standard etiquette of bowing at a 90-degree angle.

Seeing his expression, Maehara Seiji's heart skipped a beat. He pretended to be calm, walked over step by step, and asked indifferently, "How is the overseas sales going?"

"Overseas sales?" Saito Rena was tying her hair in front of the glass at the bathroom door.

At this time, she had just finished a hot bath and was wrapped in only a pure white bath towel. Because of her great mind and achievements, she had to put a hairpin under her armpit to prevent the bath towel from falling off inexplicably.

Her black hair cascaded down like a waterfall. Because she had been too busy recently and hadn't taken good care of it, it had grown a little too long.

While tying her hair, she turned on the speaker of her cell phone and chatted with Kitagawa Hide.

This is the first time in all these years that Kitagawa Hide has taken the initiative to express his curiosity about the overseas sales of his novels.

In the past, he never cared about how his novels sold.

Anyway, I have never failed.

"Yes. I want to see the accurate data of all countries.

It would be even better if we could use the data from the New Literature as a reference." Kitagawa Hideru said.

"Yes. After you sent me the message, I called the people in the marketing department and the data department and asked them to fax the information to you.

I think it will be here soon, right?"

Saito Reina is in a very good mood now.

Just before taking a shower, she logged onto the website of Oricon and checked the sales of "New Wenxiang" and "Beichuan".

Sure enough, Beichuan has already led Xinwenxiang with sales of 167.5 million copies to 131.2 million copies, and the gap is still widening.

What about the winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature?

In this land, Teacher Beichuan is invincible!
The first time I went to the Stockholm Concert Hall with Kitagawa Hide, Saito Rena was like a kid who didn't know what to do, just like the lyrics of Eason Chan: "When I was eighteen, I stood like a minion at my alma mater's dance."
The second time the two came to the Nobel Prize ceremony again, Saito Rena had gotten rid of her childishness and was also somewhat disenchanted by the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Although she didn't want to admit that she felt a little uncomfortable being targeted, at least she accepted it calmly and was no longer humble.

And now, having witnessed with her own eyes that Hide Kitagawa was about to step over the body of a Nobel Prize winner in Literature to climb a higher mountain, she was completely relieved.

Yes.

What does it matter whether you win the award or not?

To put it bluntly, the Nobel Prize in Literature is just a limitation and shackles imposed by the outside world on the literary world.

If you pay too much attention to this, you will subconsciously ignore the many contributions and achievements of non-winners.

When they left "Gun Portrait" hand in hand, she watched Kitagawa Hide write "The Best in the World" with his own hands and post it on the honor cabinet in order to witness his glory again and again.

Today, the wall of honor in the jazz bar named "Peter Cat" has long been filled with various medals and trophies.

Kitagawa Hide, who has won so many honors, doesn't need to prove anything.

As his editor, his comrade-in-arms, his reader, and his admirer, it was enough for her to just enjoy the joy of the moment together.

"I hope the result will be what I want." Kitagawa Hide said to the phone.

The reaction in Japan was in line with his expectations.

But he is not sure whether "Children in the Dark" will be a hit overseas.

After all, the original novel and the movie were banned early on due to their excessive content, and their overseas popularity is almost zero.

Especially in Thailand, the novel exposes a dark interest chain there. Who knows if those Thai guys will get angry and launch a ban or something.

Just when Kitagawa Hide was feeling anxious, the fax machine next to him suddenly started buzzing.

Data reports after data reports appeared before his eyes along with the sound! (End of this chapter)