Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 178 Plagiarism incident
The lecture hall suddenly fell into chaos, and even the teachers sitting in the front row couldn't help but turn around to look at the girl.

At this time, Kong Qingdong walked up to Zhang Chao and quietly introduced him: "This is Mayumi Yamamoto who is here to study. She was a student at Ochanomizu University on the island country, majoring in 'Chinese Language and Culture'... She is very good at Chinese."

Zhang Chao nodded to show that he understood, and then asked: "My dear Mayumi from the island country, plagiarism is a very serious accusation for a writer. I would like you to explain it more clearly."

Since Zhang Chao was reborn in 2004, which is 2024 years away from 20, there is very little room for "reference" works. Zhang Chao pays more attention to this aspect. Before he starts writing, he usually checks whether the "original work" has been published.

So now he is a little confused about the accusations against Mayumi Yamamoto.

Mayumi Yamamoto continued in her rather stiff but fluent Mandarin: "Your first work, "You Are a Young Man," plagiarized the famous works "White Night Walk" and "The Devotion of Suspect X" by our Japanese mystery novelist Keigo Higashino."

The students in the classroom were as confused as Zhang Chao, as most of them had never read these two books.

Zhang Chao frowned and began to wonder what went wrong - the name Keigo Higashino was naturally well-known, but Zhang Chao himself was not a fan of mystery novels, so he had not read many works. He had only read representative works in "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" and "The Works of Agatha Christie", as well as the comic "The Case Files of Young Kindaichi".

The two works that Mayumi Yamamoto mentioned just now became very famous in China, so he also had a general idea of ​​them. He knew the plot outline of "White Night Walk" and had seen the movie "The Devotion of Suspect X". Based on what Zhang Chao knew, apart from the plot of "taking the blame", the similarities were not high.

When I was writing, I didn't even think about these two works.

He had not paid much attention to this work in his previous life, so naturally he didn't know how big a stir the original work had caused in a small circle, and it even affected the adapted movie. Even the comment section of the actor's Weibo was bombarded by Keigo Higashino's fans.

Mayumi Yamamoto began by briefly introducing the basic contents of Keigo Higashino's two novels:

"The story of "White Night Walk" takes place in the 70s. A male corpse is found in an abandoned building in Osaka. The deceased is Kirihara Yosuke, Kirihara Ryoji's father. Subsequently, Ryoji and Yukiho's lives have changed dramatically... The relationship between the two is complicated, involving both deep feelings and a series of criminal acts. In order to cover up the truth of the murder, they do not hesitate to kill innocent people, even those they love..."

"Ishigami Tetsuya, a mathematical genius who lives a monotonous and lonely life, meets his neighbor Hanaoka Seiko and her daughter Misato. One day, Seiko's ex-husband suddenly appears, demands money and threatens to take their daughter away. In a fierce quarrel, Seiko and Misato accidentally kill the ex-husband. After Ishigami learned about this, he decided to help the mother and daughter cover up the crime..."

Both of these are long mystery novels. Not only are the plots and character relationships very complicated, they also involve a lot of tricks and reasoning. Although Mayumi Yamamoto's Chinese is good, she has not yet reached the level of being able to express herself fluently. And she had to introduce both works in one breath, so her speech was disjointed and confusing, making everyone present feel dizzy.

Soon a student interrupted her speech and asked, "What is all this nonsense you are talking about? You said it was plagiarism?"

"Yeah, you said it was plagiarism?"

"Who is Higashino Keigo? I've never heard of him."

"You guys are good at plagiarism, right?"

"Your last name is Yamamoto? You're also good at sneak attacks, right?"

It was mainly the freshmen and sophomores who were causing the commotion, while the juniors, seniors and graduate students were relatively calm.

Kong Qingdong had to stand up to maintain order: "Everyone, please control your emotions, stick to the facts, don't make personal attacks, and don't lose the demeanor of a Yan University student! Let's listen to what Mr. Yamamoto has to say!"

Mayumi Yamamoto looked at Kong Qingdong gratefully, but did not "let go" of Zhang Chao. Instead, she continued to question him aggressively: "In terms of character relationships, "Better Days" clearly imitated "Days of the Night", with the heroine and the hero, one bright and one dark; the plot of taking the blame has the shadow of "The Devotion of Suspect X". How do you explain it?"

Zhang Chao quickly re-examined the plot of "Better Days" in his mind. This novel itself was derived from a movie he had seen in his previous life, and a lot of adaptations have been made to the "original" novel. During the writing process, he took the initiative to downplay the crime and detection content that he was not familiar with at the time, and instead gave Wei Lai a lot of roles.

Therefore, the entire work is almost unrecognizable compared to the "original", and the resulting movie is more of an art film than a "crime film".

Then he answered: "Mayumi, first of all, I want to confirm one thing. The two works you mentioned, "White Night Walk" and "The Devotion of Suspect X", are both mystery novels, right?"

Mayumi Yamamoto nodded heavily and said, "Yes, it is the best mystery novel in our island country!"

Zhang Chao rolled his eyes inwardly. Fans really don’t know right from wrong… But he still patiently continued to ask, “What do you think is the core of mystery novels?” Yamamoto Mayumi hesitated for a moment and replied, “Are you asking about the orthodox school or the social school?”

Zhang Chao said: "I don't know much about detective novels, but I think that no matter whether it is a classical or social detective novel, the core of a detective novel is only one - trickery. Do you agree?"

Mayumi Yamamoto thought for a moment and agreed: "Mystery novels are indeed the product of tricks. No matter what the outer packaging or the inner theme is, what people care about most is the tricks designed by the author."

Zhang Chao then asked: "Then does my "Youth Like You" have any plot traps that can be called 'tricks'?"

Mayumi Yamamoto was speechless for a moment. "Young Like You" really did not design any tricks. The focus of the whole novel was on the psychological description of the characters and the ups and downs of their fate. The subject matter was also highly Chinese.

Zhang Chao said: "Then it seems that you also agree that "Youth Like You", "White Night Walk" and "The Devotion of Suspect X" are completely different types of novels."

Yamamoto Mayumi was not convinced and insisted, "Then how do you explain the similarities between the character relationships and the plot of taking the blame?"

Zhang Chao said helplessly: "First of all, the relationship between the protagonists, one bright and one dark, and the plot of taking the blame do not have the design difficulty and uniqueness of a 'trick'. They can be the product of the natural development of the plot, and there are precedents in other novels. Not to mention the distant past, the protagonists of "The Twins" by martial arts novelist Gu Long, Hua Wu Que and Jiang Xiao Yu, are typical 'one bright and one dark' - of course, who is bright and who is dark is another matter.

Secondly, the conditions for plagiarism are very strict. According to your description, why do I feel that "The Devotion of Suspect X" is very similar to Agatha Christie's "The Corpse in the Library"? "

This sentence made Mayumi Yamamoto blush.

Zhang Chao continued: "I believe that if we use this standard to examine the works of most mystery novelists, they are all 'plagiarists' of Conan Doyle, Agatha or other mystery novel pioneers. After all, mystery novels are a highly specialized genre of novels."

At this time, Zhang Chao's cell phone vibrated. He took it out and took a look, then said, "Mayumi, while you were talking just now, I sent a text message to a friend in the publishing industry to ask for help, asking him to check the domestic publishing status of this writer named 'Keigo Higashino'..."

Mayumi Yamamoto asked nervously, "What do you mean?"

Zhang Chao said: "According to my friend's search of the internal network and inquiries from other publishers, no works by Keigo Higashino have been translated and published in China, let alone the two works you mentioned. I hope you will do a good job of verification when you express your opinions in the future." (The earliest work of Keigo Higashino that can be found to be sold in China was translated and published by Nanhai Publishing House in 07)

The classroom was in uproar again. Why did Zhang Chao copy the Chinese version when there was no Chinese version? No wonder so many Chinese students were unfamiliar with this name.

Mayumi Yamamoto had an expression of disbelief on her face and was muttering something in Japanese.

Zhang Chao continued, "Although I have been to the island country, I only know a few Japanese words, which I learned from watching Ozawa's... "Little Soldier Zhang Ga", so I have indeed not seen these two works. You misunderstood me."

Mayumi Yamamoto finally couldn't help herself, and with tears in her eyes, she bowed and apologized: "Shin-shin Arima-sen! I'm sorry!"

Kong Qingdong took the opportunity to stand up and said, "Okay, the misunderstanding has been resolved. This is just a 'good coincidence'. Everyone, hurry to the cafeteria. It's too late to get food..."

The students in the classroom gradually dispersed. Mayumi Yamamoto did not leave the classroom, but went to the stage to find Zhang Chao and bowed again to apologize.

Zhang Chao asked, "It seems that you like the writer Keigo Higashino very much?"

Mayumi Yamamoto blushed and said, "He is my idol..."

Zhang Chao said: "According to your description, he is indeed very outstanding...but it's a pity..."

Mayumi Yamamoto stared at Zhang Chao with wide eyes, not knowing what he meant.

Zhang Chao smiled evilly and said, "You don't want Dong Ye-san to be buried, do you?"

(End of this chapter)