I am a literary giant in Japan

With his biggest worry resolved, Shigeo Nishiguchi felt much better.

Half an hour later, he successfully escorted Kitagawa Hide and the other person to the villa entrance. After watching them enter the house, he quietly left the community and then took out his phone to frantically call several trusted underlings.

"I hope that after Qing goes to Teacher Kitagawa's place, she can learn a little bit of survival and social skills!" Nishiguchi Shigeo looked back at the gate of the Kitagawa Hide family one last time, touched his increasingly thinning head, chuckled, and walked alone towards the bustling main road.

Kitagawa Hideya's living room.

The familiar melody of "Norwegian Wood" flowed gently from the gramophone, as if providing background music for the two returning home at night.

“Archer and Midori, those two little ones, apparently can’t fall asleep without listening to this song every night.”

Rei Jabami spoke first to break the awkward silence, and then briefly mentioned the situation of the two children to Hide Kitagawa.
"You shouldn't have been so lazy as to use character names from novels as the children's names. Look, you've suffered a strange backlash!"

"Really? I think Archer and Midori complement each other perfectly, which fits their personalities and also reflects what I didn't fully express in 'Norwegian Wood'."

Kitagawa Hide even wanted to create another "Naoko" with Yumeko later!

Unfortunately, he has been extremely busy in recent years, and Mengzi is also worried that another pregnancy will delay the education of the two children, so the matter has been put on hold.

Rei Jabami rolled her eyes at him, then looked at the slightly ajar guest room door, knowing that Yumeko must have fallen asleep inside while waiting for her.

After a busy day and a lot of drinking, waves of drowsiness washed over her. She yawned, too lazy to go to the bathroom to wash up and remove her makeup, and simply walked straight to the guest room.

"If there's nothing else, I'll go and rest now! Remember to go to bed early too, and don't stay up all night writing."

Jabami Rei yawned as she approached the guest room door. Just as she had slightly pushed the door open with her right hand, she suddenly stopped.
"Hey!"

Kitagawa Hide, who was also very sleepy, was startled awake by the sudden shout and looked at her with confusion.

Kitagawa Hide stood at the top of the stairs, looking down at Jabami Rei. In the soft light, she looked like a beautiful snake that had shed its hard outer skin, revealing a rare tenderness and feminine beauty.

Rei Jabami, who usually prefers a neutral style and has to adopt a more mature and sophisticated look due to her height and long legs, rarely shows this kind of expression, which instantly surprised Hide Kitagawa.

Has this sharp-tongued woman changed her personality due to alcohol poisoning?

“I’m saying this,” Jabami Rei looked up at him, her pretty face and drunken smile momentarily resembling Nakamori Akina’s pitiful appearance when she first debuted.

"Huh?" Kitagawa Hide looked down.

"Thank you for setting up that UFO club," she said, her voice suddenly dropping to a whisper.

She had rarely expressed her sincere gratitude in her life, and the few times she did so were all to this guy, making it impossible for her not to feel shy.

"Ah," Kitagawa Hide really wanted to tell her that Ufotable was truly amazing, and that he really didn't have the ability to cross over into another industry and create a top-tier animation production company.

But at that moment, a thousand words were stuck in his throat. He paused for a moment, then said nothing and simply accepted her thanks.

"Get some rest, Li-chan."

"You too, Kitagawa."

That night, Kitagawa Hide, unusually, suffered from insomnia.

However, the reason for his insomnia was not some messy emotions, but the songs "Lolita" and "July 22nd" that kept playing in his mind like a slideshow.

Both of these films are adaptations, visually stunning, and are impactful tragedies that easily draw viewers in and make them immersive.

After Kitagawa Hide decided to copy them, he often recalled the details of the movies and novels in his mind, trying to retain the flavor of the original works as much as possible without making a one-to-one replica.

This also led to his brain operating in a way that resembled a split personality—

On the one hand, he had to finish the last two parts of Alyosha's autobiographical trilogy as soon as possible, which was a huge and mind-consuming project.
On the one hand, he also had to finish writing "Ring 2: Spiral," which was about to be serialized and published. Once the popularity of this kind of science fiction novel with a horror theme faded, the effect would be much less than before.

On the other hand, the two newly conceived books, like a relentless barrage of calls, constantly remind him that he should write about us.

The simultaneous creation of four works on three distinct novel themes caused even the seemingly invincible Kitagawa Hide to feel uncomfortable for the first time.

Fortunately, his efforts and dedication paid off. From Kazan to Stockholm and then to Tokyo, the writing of "My Apprenticeship" continued without interruption. Finally, on May 5th, he completed the first draft, which he then sent directly by email to Alexei, the editor-in-chief of "Novy Mir" in Tsarist Russia, and his personal translator, Igor.

After sending out the second volume of this masterpiece series, Kitagawa Hide rushed to the newsstand near his home and quickly bought a copy of the newly released "Taipei" magazine.

Since Kitagawa Shu stopped serializing any works in Taisuke, and Ishida Taijun, who once dominated the editorial department, went to Yamanashi Prefecture, Taisuke gradually slipped from a top-tier popular literature magazine to a super-first-class one, on par with several other competing publications, no longer standing out on its own.

A few months ago, Yumeko, under the pseudonym Kitagawa Naoko, submitted her novel "One Missed Call". With the recommendation of Ishida Taijun and the strong support of Ochiai Misa, the novel defied public opinion and became a new book highly recommended by "Taipei".

"One Missed Call" lived up to expectations, directly bringing the sales of "Popular" magazine back to the top of the industry and also starting a wave of horror literature.

After One Missed Call ended, Ju-on and The Ring took over the horror trend, pushing this literary wave to its peak.

After Kitagawa Hide left Tokyo, he stopped paying attention to the matter.

The May issue of "Taichi" magazine serializes Yumeko's new book, "One Missed Call 2." Kitagawa Hide only gave Yumeko a simple idea for the book and had almost no interference in her writing process, making it a relatively pure "Yumeko production."

Therefore, Kitagawa Hide was also very curious whether Yumeko's independently completed work would bring him a surprise or a shock.

However, since Misa Ochiai reviewed the manuscript and was willing to publish it, the quality is probably still acceptable and not unbearable.

Thinking this, Kitagawa Hide walked in the breeze, and the "Taipei" magazine in his hand made him even more curious.

"Eh?! Are you Kitagawa-sensei?"

A woman's charming voice suddenly rang out from behind.

After being transported to another world, Kitagawa Hide possessed an amazing memory; he could recognize the person behind him as Ochiai Misa simply by hearing their voice.

He turned his head and saw that it was indeed "Ochiai-sensei" whom Yumeko had been longing for.

“It’s me. You must be Mr. Ochiai?” Kitagawa Hide nodded.

He remembered that Misa Ochiai joined Taishin through a regular recruitment process. Because of her dark history of helping Shinichiro Higashi publish "Zetsuka," and Shinichiro Higashi was a well-known Kitagawa hater and Kitagawa's enemy, the personnel department had already decided to refuse to hire her.

In the end, the person who saved Misa Ochiai's career was actually Yumeko.

At that time, Kitagawa Hide was very busy writing books and had no time to manage Kitagawa Entertainment and its literary brands. Almost all matters were decided by Yumeko alone after consultation with the board of directors.

This appointment, which was confirmed to be rejected, was cancelled by Yumeko.

Her reasoning was that Misa Ochiai's year-long experience in Izu could be verified, and that it was Ota Publishing in Japan that spearheaded the incident; she was not the primary offender. Furthermore, in terms of professional competence and industry experience, Misa Ochiai was on par with any editor in the *Taipei* magazine editorial department, making her a trustworthy authority in the field.

As for the criticism she received most for using her looks and body to get promoted, that was a helpless move in the early stages of her employment. This is a common phenomenon in the Japanese workplace, and most female employees have such unpleasant past experiences.

Since Mengzi had stepped in, the board's senior management naturally wouldn't be ungrateful and object, so they unanimously approved her proposal.

Later, by a twist of fate, Yumeko almost forgot about Ochiai Misa, but unexpectedly, her new book became one of Misa's works.

Meanwhile, Misa Ochiai was speaking up for Yumeko, a newcomer, in the editorial department. Even before the novel was published, she encouraged the editorial and copyright departments to carry out various adaptations and developments. Whether this was a gamble, a keen eye for talent, or some kind of divine intervention, Hideki Kitagawa didn't know.

After observing the situation, he concluded that Misa Ochiai was a good fit to be Yumeko's editor.

"Huh? Kitagawa-sensei, you still remember me?!" Ochiai Misa was initially delighted, but then her expression froze instantly, and she took a few steps back, somewhat at a loss.

To be remembered by this current leading figure in Japanese literature is a great honor and a stroke of luck.

But she didn't need to guess to know that Kitagawa Hide remembered her not because of her looks, figure, or industry fame, but because of the dark history she most wanted to erase.

Shinichiro Higashi caused her to be abandoned by everyone, forced to take the blame and leave, and became Kitagawa-sensei's recognized enemy in the industry, which made her so disheartened that she didn't want to try returning to the Japanese publishing industry.

Having finally gained entry into a publishing house under Kitagawa Entertainment, she sincerely hoped to avoid encountering the actual president of the company.

The two had been enemies, after all, and she didn't think the other party would forgive the enemy who almost ruined her.

"Of course. Back then, I was furious when I heard that someone was willing to publish Shinichiro Higashi's 'Zeka' and work for that kind of underage scum. I even sent someone to investigate."

Kitagawa Hide grinned, watching Ochiai Misa's reaction.

really!

Misa Ochiai's smile froze instantly.

She instinctively wanted to explain a lot, but in the end, she swallowed it all back down. She simply stood in the sun and gave Kitagawa Hide a standard 90-degree bow.

"I am so sorry! I have caused you, Kitagawa Entertainment, Kawade Shobo, and the families of those poor children so much trouble!"

I'm so sorry!

She has lost count of how many times she has apologized for this matter.

In many people's eyes, she is guilty beyond redemption and cannot be forgiven with a few apologies.

Although she was not the first offender in this case, nor was she an accomplice, she admitted her mistake and was willing to apologize and atone for it.

Kitagawa Hide looked at her, neither stopping her nor scolding her harshly.

He did not lie to Misa Ochiai.

After Ota committed such an outrageous act, he immediately ordered Shigeo Nishiguchi's Sumiyoshi-kai to conduct a secret investigation.

If Misa Ochiai wasn't one of their puppets, and if she truly was aiding and abetting evil in her interactions with Shinichiro Higashi, she definitely wouldn't be able to stand here so calmly and speak like this.

The investigation concluded that she still had a conscience.

So Kitagawa Hide gave her a chance to change.

"Yes. I hope you cherish this opportunity and don't make the same mistake again." Kitagawa Hide nodded.

"Sea Wing! I'll be watching closely!" Misa Ochiai didn't dare to lift her head.

"By the way, what are you doing here? I remember you don't live in Chiyoda Ward, right?" Kitagawa Hide knew that Ochiai Misa had once considered investigating Yumeko's true identity, but after learning about the special nature of this villa area, she immediately abandoned such a foolish idea.

Just in case, he still had someone send her a threatening letter, telling her not to do anything foolish.

Given Misa Ochiai's intelligence, she shouldn't make any more foolish mistakes.

But the fact that he was suddenly appearing near his home at this time still made Kitagawa Hide a little suspicious.

Anything involving Yumeko's privacy is Kitagawa Hide's Achilles' heel; whoever touches it will die.

Misa Ochiai noticed the displeasure in his tone and thought he was worried that she was invading his privacy, so she quickly waved her hand and explained, "I came here because I made an appointment with someone, and she happens to live nearby."

"Oh?" Kitagawa Hide continued to stare intently at her.

110-0001 Kikugaki, Chiyoda-ku, is Japan's most upscale villa district, inhabited by the most powerful and wealthy people in the country. Given Misa Ochiai's social circle, it's highly unlikely she would know anyone who lives here.

If someone were a maid or servant, they would never be so foolish as to arrange to meet their friend near the master's house.

Seeing that Kitagawa Hide was still very suspicious, Ochiai Misa had no choice but to confess: "It was that Kitagawa Naoko. It seems that because the movie 'One Missed Call' is about to be released, she was a little anxious, so she took the initiative to meet with me and discuss the publication of the second part."

This was a private invitation, very confidential, but due to the pressure from Kitagawa Hide, Ochiai Misa had no choice but to confess.

After explaining her reasons, she hung her head in dejection.

Regardless, she did something an editor shouldn't do, which violated professional ethics.

Kitagawa Hideya realized that his "aggressiveness" had made her do something wrong, and gave an awkward smile.

It was Yumeko who initiated the contact?

Yumeko never told me about it!

But this is even better!

In the past, Yumeko was very worried that she would become an appendage or burden to Kitagawa Hide, and even dared not get married because of this.

Hideya Kitagawa had been troubled by this matter many times.

Now it seems that Yumeko has successfully become an independent novelist, which is truly commendable!
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked." Kitagawa Hide bowed slightly in apology, then stepped aside to let her leave.

Having successfully passed the test, Misa Ochiai quickly bowed and said goodbye, then jogged towards the nearby coffee shop.

"I really look forward to seeing what kind of works Yumeko will write after she grows up."

Kitagawa Hide looked at the magazine "Taipei" in his hand and muttered to himself. (End of Chapter)