I am a literary giant in Russia

Chapter 268 The Royal Society Club and London First
With the release and dissemination of the latest Sherlock Holmes stories, discussions about them are undoubtedly taking place throughout London, with the reaction being particularly intense among London's literary circles.

When Brooke finished reading "The Dancing Little Men" and then wandered into his familiar circle in a daze, he glanced around and saw several writers, critics, and publishers in his circle seemingly discussing the same topic intensely:
"Gentlemen, I have completely lost track of what this author is writing. If 'A Study in Scarlet' could at least be considered a crime story, albeit with some elements of what he calls deduction, what on earth is this latest story all about?"

"Is writing things that people can't understand what a detective novel is? Readers will definitely abandon his novel!"

"Come on! This issue already teased that the mystery will be revealed in the next issue, saying that those who want to solve the case only have fifteen days left! I bet that in these fifteen days, the sales of 'Fiction Weekly' will reach an unprecedented number! Not to mention the next issue! With his writing style and promotional methods, no matter who writes detective novels next, they will not be able to surpass him!"

"I'm already looking forward to the next episode. How did he come up with this writing style?"

Some were envious, some complained, while others marveled at this almost unheard-of creation.
The group discussed this for a long time, and in the end, it was the publishers, who were always the most pragmatic, who took the lead in advocating:

"Gentlemen! Our magazines and newspapers need detective novels like this! If you can write such a novel, come to us, and we will definitely offer you an exceptionally generous price! Our advice is to ignore other people's detective novels and just follow Mr. Mikhail's style!"
It doesn't matter if the writing is somewhat similar, but it must follow his style.

When these publishers made such an announcement, people like Brooke, who were recently writing detective novels, felt a sense of shame, but for the new novelists present who were eager to gain a foothold in the literary world, their eyes lit up immediately.

Isn't this a great opportunity to become famous and make a living through writing?
It would be even better if I could directly follow Mr. Mikhail and learn something from him.
If they previously felt it was undignified to gather around a Russian writer, now it seems like a very good way out. Learning a few tricks from that writer would be enough, right?
Just as they were getting excited, one of the critics sitting together sighed, "Why is he writing novels like this again? With his command of language, he's just wasting his talent writing this."

"Yes, I still remember the beauty and purity of 'The Happy Prince'. He should have worked towards a more suitable direction."

“Ed, don’t you know Mr. Sanders? Did you ask him to convey your opinion to you?”

"I've already asked him for help and received a reply."

Upon hearing this, the commentators present immediately turned to the person sitting in the middle, and then they heard him say:

"Sanders told me that Mr. Mikhail could write whatever he wanted, the only difference being what his interests and schedule were at that time."

The commentators present: "."

They looked at each other for a long time, and although the critics present wanted to say something arrogant and presumptuous, they eventually just silently drank their wine.
While this matter was being discussed in London's literary circles, research and discussions about "The Dancing Little Men" were also particularly heated in clubs large and small throughout London.

Some gentlemen examined the little figures in the magazine with magnifying glasses, trying to find clues like Sherlock Holmes. Others shook their heads, feeling it was all just a charade, like the thousand pounds—a complete gimmick.

However, in the well-known Royal Society Club in London, a group of scientists who don't usually discuss academic issues in the club gathered together and listened with great interest to a mathematician expressing his views.

The Royal Society Club in 1846 housed many figures who are now household names.

Among them were Charles Babbage, a pioneer of computers who designed the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine (the prototype of mechanical computers), and Adam Sedgwick, one of the founders of geology. In 1832, Sedgwick guided Darwin in mastering the technique of identifying rock strata and in 1835, he first introduced the term "Cambrian" into geological literature to name the geological period from 5.7 million to 5.0 million years ago.

He later collaborated with another collaborator to complete a geological survey of Scotland, and together they proposed the name "Devonian".

There's also William Buckland, known as the "first fossil hunter of dung," who named the world's first officially recognized dinosaur, Megaloceros, in 1824, marking the beginning of dinosaur research.

It's worth mentioning that this guy was a true gourmet. According to guests who had visited his home, Buckland had eaten "most of the world's animals." He even served guests leopard, crocodile, and rat meat. Buckland once commented on the animals he had eaten, "The taste of a mole was the most repulsive thing I know, until I ate a green bottle fly."

The most absurd thing is that, according to French court regulations, when a king died, his heart was to be removed and placed in a silver box for safekeeping. However, after the French Revolution broke out, the heart of Louis XIV, who had been dead for more than half a century, was stolen from his tomb and eventually ended up in England, where it ended up in the hands of the Buckland family.

Then, Buckland grabbed Louis XIV's heart and swallowed it in an instant.
It's a pity that Mikhail doesn't have time to meet this guy right now, otherwise he really wanted to ask him what Louis XIV's heart tasted like.
At this very moment, within the Royal Society Club, quite a few people mentioned Mikhail's name:
"Is the author of this novel the young man that Mr. Faraday brought with him before? Mikhail?"

"Yes, that's him. He's simply the most curious young person I've ever met. If he weren't so old, he might actually be able to enter the field of science. He asked me a lot of questions last time he came, and he also raised some very interesting ones."

“My youngest daughter wants to meet him through me! But I can’t do that; it wouldn’t be a good thing for her.”

"I heard he's written something really interesting in another novel? 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea' is quite good; I'm sometimes amazed by some of the bold fantasies in it."

After the discussion subsided, the mathematician who had been the focus of attention said with great interest:

"If I'm not mistaken, these patterns should be a kind of code. I wonder if any of you gentlemen have heard of the Caesar cipher? It's a substitution cipher where all the letters in the plaintext are shifted backward (or forward) by a fixed number of letters in the alphabet and then replaced with ciphertext. Caesar used this method to communicate with his generals."

Ciphers are most common in the military and intelligence agencies, but it seems that very few writers use them in their novels. So, in this Sherlock Holmes story, it should be an old friend of the woman with the mysterious background trying to contact and threaten her using this cipher. But how exactly did Holmes decipher it? Most private ciphers require both parties to understand the key points, so perhaps these little figures follow some kind of objective pattern?

It seems that Mr. Mikhail also has some knowledge of cryptography; his erudition, as demonstrated in the novel, is truly astonishing.

Therefore, I believe that for this case to be logically sound, these patterns must exhibit some kind of regularity. Interested gentlemen can study them carefully; a thousand pounds is not a small sum. However, it cannot be ruled out that a cunning author might deliberately provide false information, in which case the pattern would be impossible to decipher.

These words stirred the interest of many, even in a place like the Royal Society Club. Just as some began to take action, the mathematician, who came from a prestigious family and was not short of money, finished enthusiastically explaining his discovery and turned to write an article to explain it.

He didn't care much about the money, but he was quite interested in winning public praise and admiration.

When he quickly finished writing this poorly written article and sent it to London newspapers, it was almost instantly accepted by various London newspapers and published on prominent pages.

This is one of the hottest news stories in London recently!

After reading this article, many readers who were initially confused suddenly felt enlightened:
"The Caesar cipher? Can novels actually use this kind of knowledge?"

"So, the author really didn't write randomly, but actually based his work on real-world examples?"

"I knew it! Why would Mr. Mikhail write something so nonsensical just to grab attention? This is clearly a genius idea! So that's how it is!"

"My God, this is the first time I've ever felt this way while reading a novel! I just don't know what these codes mean, and is it really possible for anyone to crack them?"

"I'm going to give it a try, it's a thousand pounds!"

As time went on, in addition to readers who were already following Sherlock Holmes, many readers who had not been paying attention before joined in, starting to compare and contrast the pictures in the magazine, after all, it was a thousand pounds!
If "A Study in Scarlet" had gradually gained fame through serialization, then "The Dancing Little Man" achieved an almost sensational effect.

With this performance as a foundation, even if Mikhail is not in the UK and cannot promote the novels through other means, the popularity of the Sherlock Holmes series will certainly not be low.

In this way, Mikhail could leave his manuscript behind and depart in peace.
Therefore, although the thousand pounds was a considerable sum, Mikhail was not actually concerned about whether anyone could solve the mystery within fifteen days. As long as the desired effect was achieved, he would recoup the cost sooner or later.

Before we knew it, almost a week had passed since the latest issue of Fiction Weekly was published. For publisher Sanders, this week felt both exceptionally long and exceptionally short.

On the afternoon that Sanders went to find Mikhail with some things, bathed in the still-warm sunlight, Sanders suddenly thought of his younger self.

His background wasn't particularly privileged, so he was never in the running for the big business. But with a bit of insight and interest in literature, the young Sanders eventually decided to dive headfirst into the literary market.

After more than a decade of hard work, Sanders finally had his own magazine. Ambitious, he often asked himself a question when he first launched his magazine: when will it become the best-selling magazine in London?

Sanders thought this day would come very slowly, or even never.

But now, although his magazine's sales are likely to plummet in the next issue and never reach its current level again, and although he may face considerable trouble ahead, and his magazine will find it difficult to function without a writer, ultimately...
Today alone! London number one!

Thanks to his previous efforts and the high reward, Sanders was practically urging the printing press to print new issues of the latest issue of "Fiction Weekly" almost every day after its release, and even had to contact two more printing presses at the last minute.

Based on Sanders' calculations and information gathered from various sources, his literary magazine has undoubtedly reached the pinnacle of the London literary market recently.
With immense excitement, Sanders finally arrived at Mikhail's home.

He had been so busy these past few days that he hadn't had a chance to visit the young writer who didn't like going out and socializing. On this ordinary afternoon, when Sanders walked into Mikhail's house, the young man was sitting by the window, seemingly basking in the rare London sun.

As Sanders watched the sunlight stream down his face, he shared news of the sales figures in a slightly trembling voice, emphasizing the author's immense contribution to the process.

To this, the person basking in the sunlight simply said:

"Without your tireless efforts, this would not have been possible. This is a success that belongs to us all."

(End of this chapter)