I am a literary giant in Japan

"Average subscriptions exceeding 200 million? What does that mean?"

Yevgeny, who had traveled a long way to visit Kitagawa Hide at the icon workshop, asked curiously.

He had just finished the first volume of his new book, "Expulsion," and considering that the novel was greatly influenced by Kitagawa Hide, he took the opportunity of a visit to show Kitagawa Hide a pile of manuscripts, hoping to get some advice from him.

The two were chatting about topics related to "Expulsion" when Saito Rena sent a multimedia message. After seeing the data with Kitagawa Hide, Yevgeny, who knew nothing about e-reading, asked about it.

Having traveled and worked in various parts of Tsarist Russia these days, Kitagawa Hide has learned that this once powerful military hegemon is now technologically backward and is still a long way from the era of universal internet access.

Japan's emerging e-reading and light novel markets have taken off thanks to the rapid development of the internet. It took Kitagawa a long time to explain this to Yevgeny, who didn't know much about the internet.

Half an hour later, Yevgeny, who had suddenly realized what was happening, looked at Kitagawa Hide with a completely different expression.

"With an average of 200 million subscribers and a total of 20 paid chapters, the average price per chapter is 25 yen. This means that the total sales of the book you are currently writing, 'Ring 1: Bell,' have reached 10 billion yen!"
The equivalent in rubles is…

Yevgeny felt a little dizzy.

"About 2.5 million rubles," Kitagawa Hide nodded calmly.

The latest chapter of "Ring 1: Bell" has reached the classic scene where Sadako Yamamura crawls out of the television set, and the novel is nearing its final conclusion.

The novel currently has a total word count of about 23, which is equivalent to a physical book of about 400 pages, similar to the long physical literary novels written by Hideki Kitagawa in the past.

From this perspective, relying on the trend of e-reading and light novels, and taking advantage of the online paid model, "Ring 1: Bell" only sold 10 billion yen, which did not meet Kitagawa Hide's expectations.

Of course, if placed in the context of later generations, even a web novel with 200 million average daily subscriptions would be hard for "Battle Through the Heavens," a landmark work in online literature, to match.

The sales of "Ring 1: Bell" were not as good as those popular online novels, which was due to its short word count.

But Kitagawa Hide wrote this for two reasons: first, to expand the literary market for light novels and e-reading; and second, to create a new genre of horror science fiction.

Comparing sales figures is meaningless to him.

The reputation of the Rim series gradually improved after the release of the third and fourth installments, so this result is not entirely unacceptable to him.

Seeing Kitagawa Hide frowning in deep thought, Yevgeny couldn't help but exclaim, "Kitagawa! That's 2.5 million rubles! And the novel is published on your own website, so all the income is yours!"

"The New World bought out your 'Childhood' for only 10 billion rubles! But the difficulty of creating 'Childhood' and its future value certainly far exceed that of this horror novel!"

“Yes, of course.” Kitagawa Hide nodded again.

The Rim series is indeed a rare masterpiece of horror science fiction, and the movie adapted from it, The Ring, is known worldwide, making it a top-tier crossover work.

But no matter how much it's touted, it's certainly not four times worse than the world-renowned classic "Childhood".

Yevgeny found it hard to understand why Kitagawa Hide could remain so calm.

2.5 million rubles—that's more than 99% of Tsarist Russian writers could earn in their entire lives.

Even for a rising star like him, including his salary and bonuses at the "Pushkin House," his total royalties haven't yet exceeded 1 million rubles!

This is the reward he earned by diligently writing high-quality literary novels!

Yevgeny could easily tell that Kitagawa Hideo didn't expend much energy writing that horror novel, at least not compared to his tireless work on Alyosha's autobiographical trilogy.

They're so lucky, yet they don't know how lucky they are!

"You bastard, you're so infuriating!" Yevgeny felt that since meeting Kitagawa Hide, his worldview was being refreshed every day. His original set of beliefs had been completely shattered and could not be picked up again!

"Forget about that, let's not talk about that. Let's talk about your trilogy instead!"

Seeing that Kitagawa Hide remained unmoved, Yevgeny felt a surge of anger and decisively changed the subject, no longer willing to be provoked by him.

"You've been living in Kazan for several days now, how are you feeling? Was this field trip effective?"

"Have!"

When the new book and field trips were mentioned, Kitagawa Hide's eyes lit up instantly, and he became much more talkative.
“When I went to Nizhny Novgorod before, I experienced a lot of different local customs and culture from Moscow with the cartographer. If I didn’t know that this was all within the territory of Tsarist Russia, it would feel like two completely different worlds.”

Kazan gave me a sense of history and a strong cultural atmosphere.

When I first came to the icon workshop, I thought Kazan was more like a religious holy site like Jerusalem, where you could see religious things anytime, anywhere.

Unexpectedly, the real Kazan is more like the birthplace of Tsarist Russian folk culture, a melting pot of diverse elements, and filled with all sorts of humanities and technology-related businesses.

As Kitagawa Hide described his experiences in Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan over the past few days, Yevgeny, a native of Tsarist Russia, was captivated.

He knew that Kazan was home to many universities and had a relatively developed science and humanities sector.

Yevgeny used to frequently visit Kazan with a group of literary friends.

But they had never understood the city so clearly before, nor had they analyzed its customs, traditions, and history as deeply as Hideaki Kitagawa had.

As Kitagawa Hide recounts his experiences, a completely new Kazan unfolds before Yevgeny's eyes.

"Unfortunately, Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod in the 1870s and 1880s were very different from what they are today. To describe them more accurately, one must engage in extensive reading and study at the local libraries."

"Yes, that's something that highly overlaps with Alyosha's experience."

As Kitagawa Hide spoke, he blinked thoughtfully.

"You're so meticulous!" Yevgeny exclaimed in awe of his behavior, unsure how to react.

If those old fogies of the Tsarist Russian literary world had witnessed Kitagawa Hide's extreme focus and seriousness, perhaps their literary worldview would have collapsed immediately!

“That’s far from enough.” Kitagawa Hide shook his head. Only by truly experiencing it and then copying it stroke by stroke can one truly appreciate the uniqueness of top-tier world classics.

Prior to this, the most famous work that Kitagawa Hidefumi had copied was "One Hundred Years of Solitude".

However, the length of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" is far less than that of Gorky's trilogy, and it did not bring Kitagawa Hide such a strong feeling.

He tried to emulate Gorky, following Alyosha's journey through life in his novels, and truly understood why Gorky's autobiographical trilogy was ranked third among his works. His comment to Yevgeny, "far from enough," referred not only to his own insufficient attitude and focus while copying texts, but also to the fact that his own literary abilities were "far from enough" compared to those of top masters like Gorky.

Fortunately, he is only 27 years old, and will only be 28 years old in the new millennium. He has at least 30 years of life ahead of him to hone his literary creation skills!

I wouldn't say I can surpass these top literary figures.

Kitagawa Hide believes that if he continues to strive forward and relies on his own strength to enter the world's literary hall of fame, he still has a good chance!
"Isn't that enough? You're a madman, Kitagawa Hide."

Yevgeny's gaze changed completely.

It contains awe, incomprehension, admiration, and most of all, jealousy.

At that moment, he suddenly realized that his previous life of being drunk and partying every day was no longer appealing.

After watching Kitagawa Shu, Yevgeny suddenly felt that only someone who perseveres in striving for the highest throne in the literary hall deserves the title of "literary figure"!
“What? This is nothing.” Kitagawa Hide glanced at Yevgeny speechlessly.

To be honest, he was quite envious of this exceptionally talented Russian.

Even if you spend your days drinking, smoking, partying with beautiful women, and occasionally taking time for literary research and creation, you can still easily achieve financial freedom.

This is a life that so many people can only dream of!
Anyway, Kitagawa Hide in his previous life was very envious.

"Oh, by the way, this is a small saint statue that I made myself. Here, have one."

Kitagawa Hide took out a plaster crucifix from his pocket and handed it to Yevgeny.

Although Yevgeny drank alcohol, smoked, permed his hair, and had tattoos, he believed in Jesus and considered himself a relatively devout Christian.

Kitagawa Hide doesn't understand religion or their thought process, but since he happened to have learned this craft, he decided to make one and give it to him as a thank-you gift.

Looking at the exquisite Jesus icon in his hand, Yevgeny's eyes widened. He never expected that Kitagawa Hide, who was only there to gather inspiration for his book, would actually learn a craft!
He was completely convinced.

"Now I'm suddenly a little glad you chose 'The New World.' If you had insisted on coming to 'Modern Man,' I really don't know how I would have competed with a madman like you."

Yevgeny now recalls the scene when the two first met, and he wishes he could dig a hole and disappear into it!
“My name is Yevgeny Vodolazkin, and I am the Russian writer who will soon defeat you in literary creation.”

Where did I get the confidence to think I could defeat such a madman and monster in literary creation?

Yevgeny found it increasingly unbearable to look at, and silently rubbed his forehead.

"Haha, that's an exaggeration. Yevgeny, I've learned a lot from you too."

Kitagawa Hide knew that his actions had most likely dealt a heavy blow to Yevgeny.

Unlike his past enmity with Tanizaki Ichiro and others, he didn't want to destroy a writer's confidence, so he said a few words of encouragement and praise to prevent Yevgeny from falling into complete despair.

Although he knew Kitagawa was trying to comfort him, Yevgeny did feel a little better after hearing him speak so sincerely.

The two then discussed Yevgeny's new book. Halfway through their conversation, the white owner of the icon workshop came and interrupted them, urging Kitagawa Hide, the talented apprentice, to hurry back to his work.

Kitagawa Hide happily changed back into his work clothes, put on his gloves, and became the young apprentice who had come all the way from Moscow to make a living once again.

Watching his departing figure, Yevgeny seemed to see a literary giant as majestic as a mountain.

He stood there, watching Kitagawa Hide disappear, unable to let go of the feeling for a long time.

1999 4 Month 15 Day.

The April issue of "Kitagawa" and the physical edition of "Kitagawa Bunko" were released simultaneously and placed on the front shelves of bookstores across Japan.

After the completion of "Children in the Dark", readers of "Beichuan" were plunged into a long reading drought.

Beichuan has always been positioned as a pure literary fiction magazine, so most of its long-term subscribers are die-hard fans of pure literary fiction.

They don't like reading the light novels that are currently popular on the market, and they are completely uninterested in Kitagawa-sensei's current work, "Ring 1: Bell".

They only want to read very Japanese-style pure literature novels like "Snow Country" and "The Dancing Girl of Izu".

Unfortunately, after 1Q84, Kitagawa never touched a similar subject again.

This made their eager readers incredibly envious.

Kaoru, who is currently studying at the Faculty of Letters at Kyoto University, has also received several internal letters from the editorial department of Kitagawa.

After the incident with Director Kazama, Kaoru gradually withdrew from the editorial department of "Kitagawa".

It wasn't that she didn't want to continue working as an editor, but that incident made her realize that her experience and abilities were not yet sufficient to survive in such a large company.

She needs to continue learning and improving so that she can return to work at the Beichuan editorial department after graduation.

However, the senior editors of "Beichuan" did not think so.

Kazama's greatest contribution was revealing the sibling and mentor-student relationship between Kaoru and Kitagawa Hide.

Once they realized that Kitagawa-sensei intended to groom Kaoru, the attitudes of these high-ranking officials towards her immediately underwent a complete 180-degree change!
Even though Kaoru no longer contacts the Kitagawa editorial department much, and several of her authors (including Yumiko and Megi) have been temporarily handed over to other editors, the editorial department's senior management still sends internal text messages to Kaoru through the personnel department every time.

She even receives benefits during holidays and festivals, just like regular employees.

This internal letter mainly expressed their hope, in a roundabout way, that Kaoru would "urge" Kitagawa-sensei to see if they could produce a Japanese-style pure literature novel.

Kaoru herself actually really wanted to see Kitagawa-sensei write another "Snow Country" book, but she didn't want it to be written in this way or for this reason.

So she gave a simple, platitude response to the editorial department of "Beichuan," and then turned her attention back to the thick stack of manuscripts that Teacher Beichuan had sent her.

"A pure literary novel set in Tsarist Russia in the 1870s and 1880s? The first book in the autobiographical trilogy of the Russian boy Alyosha is titled 'Childhood.' This is Kitagawa-sensei's upcoming new book!"

Kaoru had previously seen an introduction to Kitagawa-sensei's new book in the March issue of "Literature" magazine, but that only revealed the novel's world-building and background; she knew nothing else.

Holding the manuscript, she realized this was Kitagawa-sensei's upcoming new book, and her heart pounded wildly! (End of Chapter)