I am a literary giant in Japan

"In 1979, when the East and the West were still in the Cold War, the Russians invaded Afghanistan. The United States was the first to declare that it would launch a boycott, express its protest position, and call on Western countries to respond.

Japan argued until the very last minute, but finally decided to follow the United States and take boycott action.

Therefore, Japan did not participate in the 1980 Moscow Olympics."

Looking at the "Literature" in her hand, Kaoru patiently explained this historical event to Meggie and Yumiko.

The August issue of "Wenyi" was first published a few days ago, and she immediately asked the other two to buy a copy together, and then the three of them had an in-depth discussion about Mr. Keigo Higashino's new book.

Meggie and Yumiko didn't understand why they had to follow Kaoru's editor to read and review books.

But they knew that after signing the contract, editor Kaoru, who was not even older than them, would be able to decide their life or death, and that she had a very close relationship with Mr. Kitagawa.

It’s always right to listen to her!
Xunzi's idea is actually very simple.

After finishing high school and during college, she will formally intern in the editorial department of Beichuan.

The experiences of Reina and her colleagues told her that women are always at a disadvantage in the Japanese workplace and must put in more effort and hard work.

Therefore, if she wants to gain a foothold in the editorial department, she must slowly build up her own team from now on.

Meggie and Yumiko, who were specifically requested by Teacher Kitagawa, were naturally her first choices for talent training.

Meggie and Yumiko are also very interested in writing. The former has already left the biker gang and now spends every day in the library reading a lot of novels to improve her cognitive level.
The latter was even more resolute. It was said that in order to get rid of the bad social circle, Yumiko resolutely moved out of the Asakusa community and completely cut off contact with Ashin and others.

We were just talking about the narrative tricks and reasoning elements in "The Convenience Store of Sorrow". Meggie and Yumiko didn't quite understand, so Kaoruko briefly explained the historical event of Japan's refusal to participate in the Moscow Olympics in 1980.

Being able to skillfully combine historical events and reasoning elements in pure literary novels, Mr. Higashino Keigo is worthy of being Mr. Kitagawa's second disciple!

"Um, Teacher Kaoru, what is 'boycott'?" Meggie scratched her head.

He is not like those pretentious literary authors. He admits his shortcomings and lack of knowledge. Therefore, when he encounters something he does not understand, he will ask directly without any sense of shame.

Kaoru also liked Meggie's character, so she smiled and explained, "This is a foreign word. Simply put, it is a synonym for 'resistance' and 'isolation'. It is generally considered a moral tactic."

"So that's how it is." Meggie suddenly realized, and looked at Kaoru with eyes full of admiration.

In the story of "The Convenience Store of Sorrow".

Knowing this, the three thieves would naturally choose to persuade Miss Moon Rabbit to give up the competition and spend her final time with her boyfriend.

However, they couldn't tell Miss Moon Rabbit about the future, and she wouldn't believe it.

So they chose a statement that was both euphemistic and straight to the point.

【Since you love him, you should stay by his side until the last moment. 】

Originally, they thought that the first short story would come to an end after this reply, but the subsequent reversal surprised Xunzi and others.

Miss Moon Rabbit did not immediately adopt Mr. Nagiya's suggestion.

She was hesitant and really didn't know how to make a decision.

The three thieves, whose training was not yet sufficient, also became angry during the repeated tugs of war, and finally ended the consultation by saying, "You woman are just an idiot who cannot understand the situation."

They wanted Miss Moon Rabbit to give up the competition and focus on her boyfriend, but they couldn't do it, and finally they were so angry that they broke down.

Miss Moon Rabbit did not reply.

Then, more than ten minutes later, when they thought the matter was over, they received another reply letter.

The reply letter stated that the consultation took place at the end of last year.

Miss Moon Rabbit now knows about the Olympic boycott, and her boyfriend died at the end of February this year.

Before he left, she arrived in time and accompanied him for the last time.

In the process, she suddenly realized.

When she first wrote the letter, she was actually looking for an excuse to escape the painful training, but her boyfriend happened to fall ill, and she had the best excuse.

But she needed someone to help her make up her mind, so she wrote a consultation letter.

However, during the constant communication, "Mr. Nagiya" kept persuading her to give up, but she was hesitant. Finally, she realized that she didn't want to give up her dream because of this.

The boyfriend refused to give in because he saw this and didn't want her to regret it.

Although the final result was not very good, her heart knot was untied.

The three thieves didn't expect that by some strange coincidence, they were able to help her complete the consultation, and they felt very sad.

After this short story was officially finished, Xunzi was shocked and quickly pulled the two of them together to discuss it.

Last night, she also talked about "The Convenience Store of Sorrow" with Kyoko, Chihaya Ruri and others in a private online chat room.

However, their reactions were the same as Yumiko and Meggie's before.

"The title of this book doesn't sound very interesting. I read the first few chapters and it was pretty bland."

"If it weren't for Mr. Beichuan's new book, I wouldn't have bought Literature and Art."

"I feel like I might get ripped off if a mystery novelist writes a pure literary novel, so I decided to wait and see."

The general reaction was cold, and the enthusiasm for "The Convenience Store of Sorrow" was very low.

This is also consistent with the market feedback in the past few days.

The first-day data of the August issue of "Wenyi" was less than a quarter of that of the July issue, and it suddenly fell to the same level as "Xinwenxiang".

And in the following days, the overall sales of "Wenyi" were very sluggish, and it seemed that this book was really a flop.

It can be seen that people are not very willing to buy into Keigo Higashino's purely literary novels.

But after reading the entire novel word by word, Kaoru was completely impressed by Keigo Higashino's writing style and story!

In the postscript of the novel, Keigo Higashino mentioned that the creativity and many details of the book came from Hide Kitagawa, and sincerely expressed his gratitude and respect for his teacher.

However, this postscript is generally considered by readers to be an attempt to take advantage of Mr. Kitagawa's popularity.

Some people also think that Mr. Kitagawa deliberately used his name to help Keigo Higashino's books sell better, and that the two are birds of a feather.

Kaoru was angry for Mr. Kitagawa, and felt even more sorry for Mr. Keigo Higashino.

These readers are so difficult to please!

In the following stories, Kuro Matsuoka left home to pursue his musical dream, but he could not make any progress in reality.
The young boy Kosuke faces a huge change in his family and struggles with the confusion between family affection and the future.
All of them are good stories that are deeply immersive and touching.

Moreover, from the very beginning, Mr. Keigo Higashino has been hinting to readers that it is not important whether the consultation can be answered perfectly or not.

Many things in a person's life are futile and meaningless.

What’s important is that some people chose to believe unconditionally and wrote to “Mr. Namiya” when they were in trouble, and “Mr. Namiya” also chose to trust unconditionally and wrote back to them.

This is how trust between people is built.

No one took this as a joke.

This is the most important thing.

Kaoru shared these feelings with two new authors under her.

Yumiko and Meggie seemed to understand it, but after reading "The Convenience Store of Sorrow" repeatedly and carefully and observing Kaoru's editing, they gradually gained a new understanding of writing.

Especially Yumiko. After Shin said those words to her when she got home that day, she resolutely decided to move away and leave the messy Asakusa community forever.

Ashin hoped that he would pass by her house every day and knock on the door, but no one would respond.

She also hopes that one day in the future, her name and works will appear where she can see them.

This proves that everything Ashin did was not in vain.

"Ah, this is the first day's result. I think I screwed over Mr. Saito again."

Keigo Higashino, who was anxiously waiting for the results, collapsed on the sofa after seeing the report sent by the statistics department of Kawaide Shobo.

He really tried hard to write pure literary novels with his own characteristics.

I also worked very hard to follow Mr. Beichuan's guidance and wrote this book "The Convenience Store of Sorrow".

Not only himself, but also teachers Kitagawa and Saito thought that this book was very good and had the potential to become a big hit.

But the data from the first day of release of "Wenyi" gave him a hard slap in the face, and the sluggish sales in the following days dealt him another blow, leaving him completely desperate.

Sitting in front of the computer, browsing the forum and perfecting "Asakusa Red Group" and "The Villain", Kitagawa Hide's mood was not very up and down.

It’s not because the book that flopped was Keigo Higashino’s, it has nothing to do with him.

It's that he simply doesn't believe in the early market feedback.

When "No Longer Human" first began to be serialized, it also encountered a terrible phenomenon of slow sales.

In today's Japanese literary world, apart from Kitagawa Hide who still has the market appeal to attract hundreds of readers, it is difficult for any other author to get money out of readers' pockets as long as they step out of their comfort zone.

As the economy is in a downturn, people are eager to split a yen into two and use it. Who would dare to take the risk of paying for a product with extremely high uncertainty?

However, as long as the quality is up to standard and we can get through the initial wait-and-see period, sales will surely slowly increase.

In this world, no one understands the best-selling power of "The Convenience Store of Sorrow" better than Hide Kitagawa.

He was as still as a mountain, but Keigo Higashino was on the verge of collapse.

Seeing his apprentice so depressed, Kitagawa Hidemasa was thinking about what words to use to comfort him, when the cell phone beside him suddenly vibrated.

He picked up the phone and found that it was Shizuko Kawaide calling from the office landline.

That should be business.

"Moshimoshi, this is Kitagawa Xiu, what can I do for you?"

"Beichuan, it's me."

At this time, Shizuko Kawaide was in the office, holding her cell phone between her shoulder and cheek while reviewing the film and television copyright purchasing plan submitted by Ryuichi Hiroki.

The August issue of "Wenyi" failed before it even started. Keigo Higashino's "The Convenience Store of Sorrow" did not bring the expected good sales, which made Shizuko Kawaide increasingly worried.

"Wenyi" cannot survive forever on the traffic of Hide Kitagawa. It needs other mainstays to support the magazine.

If Keigo Higashino's transformation had been successful, the burden on her shoulders would have been much lighter.

But look now
And there was another very embarrassing thing.

In order to show its stance and support, Kawaide Shobo bought out the entire copy of "The Convenience Store of Sorrow" for 5000 million yen.

Judging from the first day of publication and readers’ feedback, people are generally not optimistic about the transformation of mystery novelists, and they don’t even want to go to the bookstore to buy a copy of "Wenyi" to read.

This is also the first time since Kawade Shobo defeated Shinchosha that the film and television rights of a newly serialized novel were not sold immediately.

In the past, whether it was a new book by Hide Kitagawa or other authors, as long as it was serialized in "Wenyi", there would be an endless stream of companies coming to inquire about the copyright fees, and basically they could be sold at a high price.

Copyright fees have also been a major source of income for Kawaide Shobo since 1997.

However, no one was interested in the main movie "The Convenience Store of Sorrow" that was promoted this time. The copyright department even took the initiative to call several film and television companies, but they all declined.

No one is willing to pay for something that has no market feedback.

Even if the author is Keigo Higashino and the publisher is Kawaide Shobo, it won’t work.

Just then, Hiroki Ryuichi's plan was submitted from the Copyright Department.

This is also the only proposal in the past few days that is willing to purchase the film and television rights of "The Convenience Store of Sorrow".

"The good news is that someone is finally willing to buy the copyright of 'The Convenience Store of Sorrow', so that we don't lose all our money.

The bad news is that I checked and found that this so-called Guangmu Film and Television Company is a shell company that was recently registered.

Hiroki Ryuichi is also an old director who has done nothing in the film and television industry.”

Kawaide Shizuko was concise and to the point, and directly threw the core conflict to Kitagawa Hide.

"I even doubt whether he has 1000 million yen in his pocket to buy the copyright."

1000 million yen is an astronomical figure for ordinary people in this era.

"Hiroki Ryuichi."

Kitagawa Hide recalled carefully in his mind.

If I remember correctly, this guy was the director who later made a movie of "The Convenience Store of Sorrow".

But in the original history, that happened 10 years later.

It seems that the flapping of the butterfly's wings caused many things to happen ahead of time.

Kitagawa Hideya was not clear about Hiroki Ryuichi's current situation, but he knew that it would be right to give the copyright to this guy.

"Sell it to him. Judging from the current situation, I don't think there will be another buyer."

Beichuan Xiu paused and added,
"By the way, if he wants to make a TV series, he should add a clause that he can use Beichuan Entertainment's resources, but he has to give us a share of the box office profits."

"Sell it to him?"

Shizuko Kawaide's own idea was to wait a little longer, and then use a wave of marketing promotion by her own public relations department to raise the copyright fee of "The Convenience Store of Sorrow" before selling it.

Anyway, the company doesn't really need the 1000 million yen, and minimizing losses is what a boss should do.

But Kitagawa Hide said so
"Is this your manly sixth sense again?"

Shizuko Kawaide thought about the benefits of going all in with Keisuke Obuchi and couldn't help but chuckle and asked.

Kitagawa Hide didn't use this excuse to perfunctorily answer, "I think Higashino is capable enough, and this is indeed a good book.

And I was involved in the conception.”

"I understand." Shizuko Kawaide was directly moved by the last sentence.

When it comes to literary creation, she has never doubted Kitagawa Hide's ability.

From the moment she recruited him to Kawaide Shobo and signed him to a high-priced contract for "No Longer Human", Kawaide Shizuko never thought that Kitagawa Hide would fail in the field of literature!
After hanging up the phone, Kitagawa Hide turned around and glanced at Keigo Higashino who stood up from the sofa, looking a little expectant and a little scared.

Sometimes this guy really doesn't look like a novelist worth over 100 million.

"Mr. Kitagawa?"

"Good news. A film and television company is willing to buy the copyright of "The Convenience Store of Sorrow"." (End of this chapter)