I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 498 What on earth are you going to do, Teacher Beichuan!

"ah!"

Chihaya Ruri threw the vibrating phone away as if it were a hot potato.

"Miss? Ouch!"

Uncle Kagawa in the front row heard her scream and turned around suddenly, and his wrinkled cheek was instantly hit by the phone.

Oops!

When Chihaya Ruri saw two lines of blood flowing out of Uncle Kagawa's nose, she immediately woke up from her fear.

She quickly took out a few tissues from the tissue box on the back seat and hurriedly helped Uncle Kagawa wipe the blood from his nose.

After temporarily stopping the nosebleed with a tissue, Uncle Kagawa did not forget to ask about Chihaya Ruri's condition.

"Miss, what happened just now? Are you okay?"

"I, I'm fine, I was just scared by the novel." Chihaya Ruri looked at him apologetically. Seeing that he was not seriously injured, she felt relieved and told Uncle Kagawa everything about how she was scared by "The Call 1".

Upon hearing that Chihaya Ruri lost her composure because she was frightened by the novel and not because of any sudden situation, Uncle Kagawa, who was covering his nose, felt a lot more relieved.

"It's good that you're okay, it's good that you're okay." Uncle Kagawa is now covering for her. If anything happens in the process, he will be held responsible.

"Oh, by the way, let me see which annoying guy suddenly calls me at a time like this!" Chihaya Ruri pouted. She was scared half to death. Uncle Kagawa was accidentally injured, and this inexplicable phone call was half responsible.

As for the other half of the responsibility, it must go to Teacher Naoko Kitagawa's "The Untold Story 1"!
She took the phone from Uncle Kagawa and found that the Nokia's sturdy screen displayed "Missed call: The cutest Kaoru-chan in the world."

It turns out the annoying guy is Kaoru-chan!

Then it’s not annoying.

Chihaya Ruri quickly called Kaoru back, and the call was quickly connected. Before she could speak, Kaoru on the other end asked excitedly, "Ruri-chan, have you watched the latest issue of "Mass"?"

"." Chihaya Ruri held the phone with a resentful look on her face, unable to speak.

"Moshi Moshi? Ruri-chan?" Kaoru, who was sitting opposite, was flipping through the March issue of "Mass" in the student dormitory.

She had just finished reading the final chapter of "The Crucible" and the serialized chapters of "The Call 1", and like Chihaya Ruri, she was frightened by the last chapter.

She had gotten the tip-off very early on and knew that this issue would feature a unique horror novel written by an unknown writer.

Driven by curiosity, she read "A Ghost Call 1" in one breath and was immediately impressed by the writing style and ideas of teacher Naoko Kitagawa.

In order to share the plot and opinions with her friends as quickly as possible, she called Chihaya Ruri without delay.

When Chihaya Ruri heard that the first person Kaoru thought of was herself, her resentful mood suddenly improved a lot, and she silently forgave her "ghost call" in her heart.

The two simply talked about the novel on the phone, as well as the teacher named Naoko Kitagawa, whose identity no one knew.

"So even you, Kaoru-chan, don't know the true identity of Teacher Kitagawa Naoko?" Chihaya Ruri was quite surprised.

She thought that Kaoru, who was familiar with Kitagawa Bunyu, should have found out Kitagawa Naoko's true identity long ago.

However, Kaoru told her that even though Kaoru asked repeatedly, Sister Jabami Rei, who gave her the gossip, remained silent, which was unusual, and refused to reveal any information about Kitagawa Naoko.

This made the two more curious.

Sister Jabami Rei is a well-known "big mouth" in and outside the industry. Any secret that comes out of her mouth will soon be known to everyone, without exception.

To be able to keep Sister Jabami Rei’s mouth shut, maybe this Naoko Kitagawa really has some powerful connections!
The two speculated for a while, and Chihaya Ruri asked in a low voice: "Could it be Mr. Kitagawa's?"

"Impossible!" Kaoru shook her head and rejected her idea. "Although Kitagawa Naoko's writing style is very good, it is still far from Kitagawa's. This is definitely not a novel written anonymously by the teacher.

and"

"and?"

"And I secretly asked my teacher a few days ago, and he said his new book will be published in a brand new magazine this month, and it will definitely not be this "Ghost Call 1"."

After hesitating for a moment, Kaoru told her best friend about Kitagawa Entertainment's not-so-secret project.

It is no big secret in the industry that Beichuan Entertainment is going to establish a new literary magazine brand in the near future, and those who are interested have already learned about it through various gossip channels.

But it is not clear what this new magazine is called, what market it targets, and whether it is a temporary whim of Beichuan Entertainment or a long-planned strategic development.

"I see." Chihaya Ruri nodded. It seemed that Teacher Kitagawa Naoko was really a person with super connections.

However, even though she is a person with connections, her writing and creative abilities are still very strong. At least in Chihaya Ruri's eyes, she deserves the recommendation and traffic this time.

"Okay, I have to prepare a representative speech for the freshmen after they enter the school, so I won't chat with you anymore.

When we have time, let’s continue to communicate in the chat room!”

Xunzi glanced at the empty dormitory and felt a little eerie, so she hung up the phone early, picked up her notebook and materials, and prepared to go to the library to study.

Shortly after she was admitted to the Faculty of Literature of Kyoto University with excellent grades, the fact that she had performed herself in "The Dancing Girl of Izu" was dug up.

Her past experience in Izu and her relationship with Mr. Kitagawa's family were also uncovered.

There is no way, who made Mr. Kitagawa always the top star in Japan?

In order to increase traffic for their own media, even people like her who have some connection with Mr. Kitagawa would be thoroughly dug up by gossip magazines.

Fortunately, Beichuan Entertainment now has a strong influence. After Mr. Beichuan became a member of Congress, his prestige in all walks of life is enough to prevent those scoundrels from doing anything too excessive.

Therefore, after the experience was exposed, it did not really affect Kaoru's daily life.

When the fact that she was the little dancer Kaoru was revealed, Kaoru had to accept the school's appointment of her as the representative of this freshman class.

As a result, she had to go on stage and give a speech as a representative at the opening ceremony in April.

"I really want to get out of this mess as soon as possible."

Xunzi has lofty ideals and wants to make full use of her limited time. She doesn't like to be dragged down by such meaningless chores.

Recently, the authors Yumiko and Mekichi, who she has promoted, have been writing to her, hoping that editor Kaoru can give them new writing topics and suggestions. Yumiko and Mekichi are the foundation of Kaoru's career in "Beichuan". She doesn't want to find out that her foundation has been destroyed after graduating from four years of college!

In addition, "The Call 1" written by a blank slate writer also aroused her desire to create.

No matter what kind of connections the other party has, at least his writing ability is there, beyond doubt.

Since other blank paper writers can do it, then she, the last disciple of Mr. Beichuan, can certainly do it too!
Xunzi clenched her fists and encouraged herself quietly. She must not embarrass Teacher Kitagawa!
1999 3 Month 6 Day.

The day after the March issue of "Mass" was released, a horror craze caused by "Call Me If You Can 3" flooded the Internet and offline simultaneously, bringing a glimmer of life to the niche literature market that had been silent for a long time!
Oricon continues to update data and rankings of various industries on its homepage. Compared with film, television, music, games, and animation, the relatively niche literature section has been lukewarm, and it is all thanks to Mr. Kitagawa's books that support traffic.

After the completion of "The Crucible", the only part left in the "Disabled but Determined Us" trilogy is "A Wonderful Journey".

Although this relatively healing pure literary novel is very popular, it is still slightly inferior to the extremely popular "The Crucible" and "Children in the Dark".

This is also consistent with Kitagawa Hide's original expectation.

"The Crucible" and "Children of the Dark" both have novel prototypes and movie prototypes. The subject matter and content can easily arouse people's emotions and will definitely cause a wave of popularity.

However, these two works are not literary enough. Kitagawa Hide has no confidence that he can win if they are compared with the novel of a Nobel Prize winner in Literature.

So he added a novel by Yasunari Kawabata after the two to complete the series and silence those nitpicking literary critics.

The truth was as he expected.

The Crucible became the best-selling novel in early 1999, bar none.

The movie version of "Children of the Dark" was released in countries around the world, and this movie made Kitagawa Entertainment become one of the top film and television circles in the Japanese entertainment industry.

"A Wonderful Journey" has been highly praised by many literary celebrities, and many scholars believe that it is the culmination of Kitagawa Hide's literary talent.

Before the novel was finished being serialized, new and old first- and second-tier literary awards such as the Kitagawa Prize, Tanizaki Prize, Akutagawa Prize, and Naoki Prize came one after another, making Kitagawa Hide so busy winning awards that his hands were cramped.

It is worth mentioning that on the literary bestseller list released by Oricon, "Mass" was far ahead, not only leading by a wide margin, but also breaking many records of popular literature magazines that the company held last year, becoming the undisputed number one popular literature magazine in the Japanese publishing industry.

The "Ghost Call 1" published in this issue of "Dazhong" became a big hit.

What will happen to Yumi Nakamura after she receives a “ghost call”?

Is this novel really written by a newcomer?

It turns out that horror novels can be so good and interesting?

Countless readers had various doubts in their minds, and they flooded the editorial and customer service departments of Dazhong with calls, letters, and messages, allowing them to experience the treatment that Kawaide Shobo employees received when Kitagawa Hide first exploded the literary world.

The new concept of "spreading fear through telephone calls" used in this horror novel was imitated by many grassroots writers, and similar novels sprang up like mushrooms after a rain.

Even on the evening of March 3, Nokia's general distribution agent in Japan made a special call to the Kitagawa Entertainment headquarters, hoping to reach in-depth cooperation with future film and television adaptations of "The Call."

If Kitagawa Naoko is willing to advertise Nokia in the subsequent novel plot, they are even willing to pay 3000 million yen in advertising fees in advance!

In 1999, out of 3000 million yen, Yumeko got 1500 million yen before tax.

Although this amount of money was nothing to Mengzi, who already had an eleven-digit savings, it was a recognition of her literary career, which made her very happy.

That night, Yumeko signed a contract with Nokia headquarters in the name of Kitagawa Naoko, agreeing that in future works of the Ghost Call series, the protagonists would always use Nokia phones, unless Nokia went bankrupt one day.
The latter part was added by Kitagawa Hide at her request. Mengzi didn't understand it, but she still did as she was told.

Nokia agreed very readily.

Nokia goes bankrupt?

They felt that even if Beichuan Entertainment went bankrupt, or even if the Japanese literary world declined, Nokia would continue to remain strong in the industry.

After earning royalties and copyright fees for the first time with her own hands, Mengzi happily took out a large sum of money. She first bought various items for her family, and then distributed gifts to her best friends one by one to share the joy with them.

Seeing that Yumeko succeeded, Saito Rena and Jabami Rei, who were secretly writing, also put in their best efforts, preparing to make a big splash like her!
Just as "Call Me If You Can 1" set off a craze for horror novels, Beichuan Entertainment, which had been silent for a long time, released a bombshell news.

Beichuan Entertainment had previously mentioned explicitly and implicitly that it would launch a new literary magazine brand, but after the news was released, there has been no new progress.

In the early morning of March 3, the public relations department of Beichuan Entertainment announced that the new literary brand "Beichuan Library" independently developed and produced by Beichuan Entertainment will be released soon!
Unlike previous literary magazines, Beichuan Library not only has offline physical books and magazines, but also an online version with the same length and content.

The online version is also called the web version. Readers will be able to browse the "Beichuan Library" directly on the web page, and the content will be exactly the same as the physical book!
In fact, some publishing houses had already done this kind of operation of making an offline magazine into an online version last year.

But soon they had to face two serious problems:

1. The existence of the online version will seriously squeeze out the offline physical version.

Who would buy offline physical books when there is a free online version?
But if the online version doesn’t display the full content, then what’s the point of having the online version?

2. If the online version is made into a paid model, members will have to recharge and pay online, which requires the publisher to have online payment channels and security guarantees.

Currently, only Kawade Shobo and Kitagawa Entertainment have the corresponding technology, which comes from Kitagawa Technology, in which Kitagawa Hide previously invested heavily.

And now, Beichuan Technology has not yet made this system and source code public.

In addition, Kawade Shobo and Kitagawa Entertainment, which own this technology, also encountered many problems in online sales.

If it weren't for Mr. Beichuan's strong personal reputation and the government's support, this online sales channel would have been paralyzed long ago.

This is also one of the reasons why the online e-reading advocated by Hide Kitagawa has never become popular.

Japan's development in this regard is far less rapid than that of its neighbor.

The newly released "Beichuan Library" is obviously aimed at this area, which instantly aroused the curiosity of colleagues in the industry and made them want to see what new tricks Beichuan Entertainment has come up with.

Along with the launch of the Beichuan Library, Mr. Beichuan’s new book was also announced.

His own company is going to launch a new literary magazine, and as the boss and promoter behind the scenes, Kitagawa Hide will of course give its full support.

This was also expected by everyone.

But later, when the title and subject matter of the new book were announced, countless people were shocked. They didn't expect that Mr. Beichuan would do something incredible again!

"Book title: "Ring World", genre: horror science fiction." Reading the huge headline in the newspaper, Takeuchi Osamu almost fainted while lying on the hospital bed!

(End of this chapter)