Chapter 1 Can security guards write novels?

Chapter 1 Can security guards write novels?

Chapter 1 Can security guards write novels?

March 7, 1995.

At dusk, in front of the headquarters of Kodansha Co., Ltd., 2-12-2 Otowa, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo.

Yudai Hashimoto sat in the security room, paying close attention to every person entering and leaving the gate to make sure they were wearing the correct badges.

Originally, this security job did not require such caution.

But now it is 1995, just three years after the bursting of Japan's bubble economy, and society as a whole is still in an atmosphere of depression, despair and lifelessness.

Yudai Hashimoto didn't understand economics, but he learned from the newspaper that after the bubble burst, Japanese houses and stocks suddenly became worthless, and thousands of people went bankrupt as a result, and some even chose to jump off the road.

The park is filled with dazed homeless people and college students who can't find jobs can be seen everywhere.

In this kind of social environment, human nature will gradually become distorted and degenerate.

Last June, nine criminals used forged name badges to sneak into a company in Matsumoto City, Nagano Prefecture.

These bastards then spread a large amount of foul-smelling gas of unknown origin throughout the company, resulting in 7 deaths and 660 injuries.

The vicious incident also led to the dismissal of the entire company's security team.

Yudai Hashimoto doesn't want to make the same mistake - after all, in this day and age, even if you have a diploma from the University of Tokyo, you may not be able to find such a good job!

And he's almost retiring!

After another wave of people in and out dissipated, he planned to go back to the house to get the thermos during this gap. When he turned around, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a man without a name badge walking towards the door out of the corner of his eye.

Hashimoto Yudai quickly turned his body around, put his left hand on the door handle of the security room, and instinctively pressed the telescopic stick at his waist with his right hand, but this alert was automatically cancelled after one second.

Instead, there was a warm smile.

"Mr. Kitagawa, are you off work so early today?" Hashimoto Yudai opened the door, smiled and ran to talk to the young man.

He had actually only known this 22-year-old young man named Kitagawa Hide for a short time.

The two met half a month ago.

That evening, Kitagawa Hide, who was also wearing a security uniform, staggered to the gate of Kodansha headquarters and said he wanted to go in for a look, but was sternly refused.

It was originally a rather awkward situation, but Kitagawa Hide was very mature beyond his age. Even though he was turned away, he did not get angry. Instead, he passed cigarettes and chatted with others, thus unravelling the deadlock.

In the following week, Kitagawa Hide came here every day to hang out and soon became friends with the Kodansha security guards.

During a casual chat, Hashimoto Yudai learned that this well-spoken and well-educated young man was actually the security guard of the record company on the next street.

The same job, working in the same first-class company, and having similar values ​​made him feel a sense of identification with this young man.

Over time, he and Kitagawa Hide became close friends regardless of their age difference.

After the two men greeted each other, they stood at the entrance of Kodansha headquarters and chatted - one hour before getting off work, the white-collar workers in the CBD would become extra hardworking, and there would basically be no employees coming in and out.

This hour is also a rare break in their security work for the day, as they will become extremely busy afterwards.

Every time he chatted with Kitagawa Hide, Hashimoto Yudai always felt that as a security guard for a well-known publishing house, he should show a literary aura similar to that of Kodansha employees in order to distinguish himself from security guards of other companies.

Therefore, he always liked to talk about topics related to Japanese literature, or shock Kitagawa Hide with gossip from the editorial department.

He felt satisfied every time he saw the handsome Kitagawa Hide showing a surprised expression because of his words.

".The editorial department of Gunzo has been very busy recently. I heard that they have already started planning this year's Gunzo Newcomer Award. You should know about this award, right, Kitagawa-san?"

Yudai Hashimoto glanced at the towering building behind him, and a hint of envy flashed in his eyes.

If there is anything that can be held firmly in people’s hearts in this rotten society, it is undoubtedly the most dazzling pearl in the palace of literature - pure literature!

The pure literature magazine "Gunzo" published by Kodansha is the most dazzling light on this pearl!
"Of course I know. It's one of the five major public literature awards for newcomers. Even though my grades were terrible when I was in school, I must have heard of something this famous."

Kitagawa Hide smiled. He looked a little childish, but his looks were comparable to those of a top star. His facial features were sharp and he looked very youthful and energetic.

With a height of 1.78 meters, he would be a total girl killer on campus.

This smile made Hashimoto Yudai feel that the other person was a popular young actor.

"Yeah, even though it's one of the five major newcomer awards on par with the New Trend Awards, let me tell you, this year we might even win the first place for 'Gun Xiang'!"

Hashimoto Yudai was in high spirits, gesticulating and dancing as he spoke.

Ichiban, Ichiban, means first, the very beginning, and the forefront in Japanese. That is to say, he believes that this year's Group Portrait Newcomer Award has the potential to break the situation where the five major awards have been equal over the years, and turn it into a situation where one wins and four wins!
If it was any other security guard, Kitagawa Hide would think he was probably bragging.

But Hashimoto is different.

There are a total of eight people in the Kodansha security team. Over the past half month, he has gotten to know all of them so that he can better understand the situation of the "Gunzo" editorial department through them.

Among the eight people, Yudai Hashimoto, who is about to retire, is the most honest. Apart from his love of using some literary topics to show off, he never exaggerates, and the gossip he tells is also very reliable.

Most of them were confirmed by Hideichi Kitagawa.

"Why do you say that? Haven't the five major awards been on par with each other for many years?" Kitagawa Hide put on an appearance of humbly seeking advice.

Seeing his expression, Hashimoto Yudai was very satisfied. He held the thermos cup in both hands and smiled and said, "Kitagawa-san, do you know how many submissions are received for the Group Portrait Newcomer Award every year?"

"500?" Kitagawa Hide made up a number at random, but he knew that the real number should be around 5000.

After all, before traveling through time, I was a graduate student in the Faculty of Literature at the University of Tokyo. The knowledge points related to Japanese pure literature were of great importance in the exam!
"Why not be bolder?" Hashimoto Yudai encouraged.

"Mr. Hashimoto, just tell me the answer. I'm not good at guessing riddles." Kitagawa Hide shrugged.

"In recent years, the number of valid manuscripts is around 5000. Hey, don't look so surprised, this is obvious. It's one of the top five newcomer awards after all, don't underestimate it!"

Hashimoto Yudai patted his shoulder and joked with a smile,
"It's hard to please women if you're not good at guessing riddles."

"No wonder I always get dumped." Kitagawa Hide followed up with a little joke.

"Hahaha, being handsome is not as good as being sweet-mouthed. Remember this, Kitagawa-san."

It turns out that the extremely handsome Kitagawa Hideya is always dumped, and Hashimoto Yudai feels inexplicably relieved.

The two smiled at each other and returned to the topic of the literary award.

"This year, the number may double, or even more." Hashimoto Yudai approached him mysteriously, and whispered, "Yesterday after get off work, Editor-in-Chief Muramatsu and Deputy Editor-in-Chief Yasuhara talked about this when they passed by. They said they were considering doubling the bonus to attract more outstanding new authors to submit their works!"

In Hashimoto's opinion, doubling the prize money means doubling the number of contributors, so naturally the chance of producing good works will also double.

In the past, the Group Portrait Newcomer Award was on par with the other four major awards. After doubling the number of good works, doesn’t it become the No. 1 award?

There is nothing wrong with this logic!
"Is the bonus a lot?" Kitagawa Hide asked with pretended curiosity.

In the original world, the prize money for the Group Portrait Newcomer Award was about 100 million yen (in Japanese yen), which was equivalent to about 95 RMB based on the exchange rate in 10.

At this time in Japan, after the bubble economy burst, prices and wage levels began to fall, and the monthly salary of an ordinary white-collar worker was about 25 yen.

Kitagawa Hide worked as a security guard at King Records under a labor dispatch contract, earning 6 yen a month. 6 yen converted into RMB is actually quite horrible, and that was in 95.

But in Japan, this amount of money is not enough to even survive.

100 million yen can solve his urgent needs after traveling through time.

"Of course it's not much for those great writers, but for new authors and ordinary people like us, it's an astronomical figure." Hashimoto Yudai stretched out two fingers and gestured, his eyes shining, "After adjustment, it's a full 200 ​​million yen!"

Kitagawa Hide could see that Hashimoto Yudai was very envious of writers who could win awards.

In Japan, there is a system called the seniority-based wage system. Simply put, your salary increases with your length of service and has nothing to do with the quality of your work.

Even for security guards who are dispatched like Hide Kitagawa and Yudai Hashimoto, their wages will follow this standard.

At Hashimoto's age, his estimated salary is about 10 yen. Taking into account benefits and bonuses, he earns about 125 million yen a year.

Just by winning the Newcomer Literature Award once, the prize money is equivalent to his salary for more than a year and a half without eating or drinking. How could he not be envious?
"A lot." Beichuan Xiu had an exaggerated expression on his face, but he felt much more at ease in his heart.

In the past half month after the time travel, he found that many things were different from the Tokyo, Japan in 95 in his memory, so he began to feel afraid of "what if the things in my mind don't work".

Fortunately, the doubling of the prize money for the 95 Group Portrait Newcomer Award has not changed.

This is one of the reasons why he chose this award to make his debut.

Judging from the situation he encountered after traveling through time, the more quick money the better.

In addition, over the past half month, I have been looking up information and chatting with this group of security guards.

Kitagawa Hideya confirmed a fact——

This Japan seemed to have a certain deviation in literature, and many of the famous works by famous authors that he was familiar with had never appeared.

In this society filled with despair and pessimism, he didn't know any of the people who occupied the Japanese literary hall.

Without Natsume Soseki, Kawabata Yasunari, and Murakami Haruki, Japanese literature of this era seems to have been cut off.

Ruled by a bunch of shitty writers he'd never heard of.

He also borrowed and read books by those authors.

To evaluate, just one word: relying on the defense.

What a joke!
How can an annual income of tens of millions, royalties of hundreds of millions, and the support of countless beautiful female readers be possessed by a group of worthless people?
Oh, no, it should be said that pure literature, which is like a shining pearl in the literary hall, how can it be tarnished by such inferior writers.

This Japan, this Tokyo, needs books that can truly comfort people's souls, and it needs a man who deserves the title of a great writer.

There is no doubt that this man should be
Kitagawa Hide's imagination stopped there.

All these are too far away for him now, and he is in urgent need of quick money to ease the pressure of bank loans.

After discovering the current state of the literary world, copying some books was obviously the best option.

"If I had the slightest ability to write a book, I would also try to submit it. That's a solid 200 million yen."

Yudai Hashimoto lit his last cigarette. He just looked at the clock in the security room and saw that there were only five minutes left until the end of get off work at five o'clock. After finishing this cigarette, he should come out of his illusory fantasy.

But at least during this cigarette's time, you can imagine the scene when you get the 200 million yen bonus!
"That's what I thought, so I couldn't help but write something."

Kitagawa Hide took out an envelope from his arms, which contained "Hear the Wind Sing" which he had written long ago, but due to some special reasons, he wanted to submit it at the right time.

Looks like today is a good day.

"Yeah, even a security guard would think so. Wait, Beichuan-san, what did you say just now?"

Hashimoto Yudai blew out a smoke ring and almost choked. He looked at him and the envelope in his hand in disbelief.

"I wrote a manuscript, but I was hesitant to submit it to the editorial department of Gunzo. But today, after listening to what you said, Hashimoto-san, I want to try submitting it to the Gunzo Newcomer Award."

Kitagawa Hide moved the envelope in his hand forward, revealing a serious expression that Hashimoto Yudai had never seen before.
"I'd like you to put my work in the email box for the Group Portrait Newcomer Award!"

"Wait. I'm a bit confused."

The colleague who had been chatting with me these days and smoking with me just now suddenly took out an envelope and said that it contained a manuscript he had written, and said that he was going to submit it to the group for the Newcomer Award.

This kind of thing, no matter how I look at it, seems like it only happens in novels.

It’s too magical.

The impact on him was too great.

Can security guards write novels?

Do you still want to submit for the Group Portrait Newcomer Award, which is said to be the most difficult to pass among the five major newcomer awards?

This is ridiculous.

It's as ridiculous as suddenly rushing into the building and telling the editors in the group portrait editorial department that I want to apply to the University of Tokyo.

No, it feels a bit more far-fetched than this.

But when you think about the light in the young man's eyes when he heard about the 200 million yen prize, it's understandable.

We are all security guards, earning an annual salary of around 100 million yen. How could we not be tempted by such a huge sum of money?

Holding the envelope handed to me by Kitagawa Hide, the joke that was about to come out of my mouth suddenly couldn't be said.

Looking at his serious expression, Hashimoto Yudai felt that as a senior, he should give this junior some more encouragement at this time——

Even though Kitagawa Hide had no chance of winning the award.

"I see. I'll put it in the submission mailbox in a bit! To be honest, I think you, Kitagawa-san, at least look more like a writer than most people. Maybe you'll win a prize!"

"Thank you for your good words." Beichuan Xiu smiled.

At this moment, the clock rang, which meant that their chat was over.

"Then I'll go back first. Thank you, Hashimoto-san."

"You're welcome. See you tomorrow."

Hashimoto Yudai put on his security hat again and watched this interesting young man leave. He couldn't help but sigh: It's good to be young~
Then he turned around and saw that many employees were walking towards this side.

There was no time to put away the envelope.

Thinking of this, he had no choice but to put Kitagawa Hide's envelope on the table by the window sill and put it together with the letters sent to the employees.

Then he turned around, stood at attention, put on his signature smile, and continued to examine the employees who came out one by one.

(End of this chapter)