Chapter 121 Planets around the Sun

Chapter 121 Planets around the Sun

Chapter 121 Planets around the Sun
No one expected that the Naoki Prize jury would be so "tough" and, despite the pressure from a group of literary giants, awarded the award to "The Akurei Literary Award Serial Murder Case."

Likewise, no one expected that near the end of 1995, Kawade Shobo would have such a big piece of news:

President Akira Kawaide died suddenly in his hometown in Osaka. The only direct heir of the Kawaide family, Shizuko Kawaide, had no choice but to take up the task during the mourning period. She put on her armor and went into battle. Under endless pressure, she removed the word "agent" from her head and faced the storm from other publishing houses alone!

And amidst all this explosive news, 1995 arrived at its last day.

As we all know, at the end of the year, a company settles its full-year profits and the degree of completion of performance indicators, and holds an annual meeting to motivate all employees and look forward to the future.

However, due to the impact of the bursting of the bubble economy, like companies around the world that were swept by the epidemic more than 20 years later, at the end of this year, most companies canceled annual meetings and salary increases, and some even did not pay year-end bonuses, under the euphemism of "reducing costs and increasing efficiency."

Instead, there are heavy year-end sprint tasks and next year’s performance targets that are difficult to achieve at first glance!
Therefore, in the last month of 95, all walks of life showed an unusual level of "prosperity" and "busyness".

The December 1995 issue was the last issue of magazines published by major publishing houses that year, and these final works turned the literary magazine market into a horrific meat-mincing battlefield.

This issue of "Wenyi" did not serialize Kitagawa Hide's new novel, but only published a New Year's haiku "New Year" in the haiku column in which he wished all readers a happy new year.

This has made countless book fans in Japan very anxious!
Since April, starting with "Hear the Wind Sing", they have basically read novels written by Kitagawa Hide every month and have developed a habit of reading.

I can say that if I don’t read his novels for a day, I feel itchy inside.

Readers all over Japan, including those in two categories, pure literature and the general public, have all had their tastes spoiled by Kitagawa Hide.

Before Kitagawa Hide appeared, there was no such ruthless typing machine in the Japanese literary world.

Known for his productive output, Hikaru Oshima has written two novels, five novellas, and seven short stories in the seven years since his debut in 1989, totaling 220 million words, an average of 31.4 words per year.

He is far ahead in terms of the number of words in his novels, and even writers of popular literature cannot match him.

But compared with Hideichi Kitagawa, he was instantly reduced to ashes.

From April to December, Hideichi Kitagawa wrote a total of six novels, totaling 4 words, and all of them are top-quality works!

After "Akadashi" and "I Am a Cat", everyone was looking forward to Mr. Kitagawa's latest masterpiece, and then suddenly, nothing happened!

[I am dying without Kitagawa-sensei’s new novel to read~]

[Please, please, please, I urgently need the inside information of Kawade Shobo. Please, someone with inside information can share the planning of Mr. Kitagawa's new book! ]

[Don't worry, I'm the editor of Kawade Shobo. Mr. Kitagawa's new book has been completed and is scheduled to be serialized in the next issue of "Literature and Art".]

[The above person is talking nonsense! I heard that Gunzo and Wenxuejie are planning to jointly sanction Wenyi, and will jointly organize a joint social fiction essay contest next year with a prize of 1000 million yen. It is obvious that Mr. Kitagawa is going to change jobs and go back to participate in the essay contest! ]

[Is it true? The five major publishing houses haven't held a public writing competition for nearly 50 years, right? Is the above person mistaken for a private literature competition? ]

pat-

A cat's paw suddenly appeared and pressed on the mouse, just in time to close the forum post.

There was no one in front of the computer desk except for the "Male Cat Girl" Pete, who was yawning and staring at the screen alone.

"Peter Cat" is closed today, but the lobby is packed with friends who came to congratulate Kitagawa Hide on winning the Naoki Prize.

This year, whether it is Kitagawa Hide, Kawaide Shobo, Kitagawa Entertainment Co., Ltd., or those who came to congratulate them, they all reaped a lot of achievements and joy.

And the only shortcoming disappeared after the Naoki Prize was awarded to Kitagawa Hide!
Reina Saito changed into a beige sweater, black tights and a short skirt, and for the first time ever, she tied her hair into a long ponytail. At this time, she was holding a glass of the most delicious "Free Cuba" this year, leaning against the bar, smiling as she watched her two younger sisters, Ningning and Lily, playing in the corner.

Playing with them were Mayumi Aso's daughter Aiko Aso and Chizuru Hui's sister Sadako Chizuru. The four little girls imitated the heroines in the animation "Sailor Moon" and had a lot of fun.

Because there is "one missing" among the five, the stupid and foolish Chizuru Hui also gets involved and plays the role of Usagi Tsukino.

After looking for a while, she shifted her attention back to the several documents hidden in the handbag on the table.

This year has been like a dream.

In March, she was still worried about why she was not optimized by Kodansha. While she was busy dealing with Yasuhara Akira, who "asked women to lick him whenever he saw them", she was also searching for new people to cultivate among the sea of ​​authors.

How helpless and hopeless I once felt.

In the blink of an eye, it was the end of the year. Not only did he leave the shabby apartment in the village in the city with his sisters thanks to the high bonus and salary, and move into the high-end residential area of ​​Kokubunji City, but he also received a promotion letter personally handed to him by Kawaide Shizuko today.

Just four months after changing jobs, she was successfully promoted from deputy editor-in-chief to editor-in-chief of "Wenyi", with an annual salary adjusted to 800 million yen, plus a little bit of company stock dividends.

The extra economic income brought by the shares was actually not much, only about 100 million yen per year, but it represented that she had truly established a foothold in Kawaide Shobo and became a direct member of the president's faction.

She is only 25 years old this year, and her future career is limitless!

She once thought that as a woman, being able to achieve a position like editor-in-chief was the end of her life, but now, Saito Rena secretly set her goal a little further away.

Deputy editor-in-chief, editor-in-chief or even head of the editorial department is not impossible!
She tried her best to maintain her usual capable style and tried hard to restrain the joy in her heart.

Keep calm, Reina.

The days ahead are still long, and we must not let our guard down at this time!
Unlike Saito Rena who tried her best to control her emotions, the drinking and bragging trio completely let go today. Danki Shirou, the "new movie star", was drunk. While bragging to others about the erotic novels he had written, he wanted to kneel down and kowtow to Kitagawa Hide to express his gratitude.

He owed a lot of money before and lived in poverty, but now a movie has helped him turn his life around and he has the possibility to continue pursuing his dream of pure literature.

Keigo Higashino was still sober. His wife, who divorced him a few months ago, came back to ask for a reconciliation. He finally got tough and directly refused, then went to share a house with Shirou Dango.

In "Agaragi", he played a timid little writer who had few scenes and was not outstanding. He did not win any awards. However, during the nearly two months of filming, he slowly walked out of his depressed life and, with the help of the considerable film pay and the red envelopes given by Kitagawa Hide, he was able to free himself from the economic crisis.

More importantly, under the guidance of Mr. Kitagawa, Keigo Higashino finally wrote a decent mystery novel after nearly a year. This novel, entitled "Secret", has not been officially published yet, but after receiving affirmation from Mr. Kitagawa, he was full of confidence and felt that it would definitely be a success!
Masato Senhara also got a promotion.

Mr. Kitagawa, a high-quality client, the cooperation project of "No Longer Human", the guest appearance as a bank clerk in "Akadashi", and the joint sales project with Kawaide Shobo's peripheral products... These new achievements are enough to promote him from a small department head to the section chief he has always dreamed of.

He felt that his ambitions could be bigger. Since his friends were so outstanding, he should at least become a deputy minister!

The driver bodyguard team led by Driver Kinoshita has now become the most envied work group by the security department staff of Kawaide Shobo. In an era of economic downturn, these low-level, non-staff employees can actually get a salary increase, which stunned everyone.

These changes also originated from Teacher Beichuan, so after get off work they occasionally work part-time as drivers and nannies for the four little girls, working hard and without complaint!

Due to schedule issues, only three people from the filming crew led by Shunji Iwai came to congratulate Kitagawa Hide. The champagne and cigars in the cafe were provided by them. They were worried that Kitagawa Hide would be angry, so they specially recorded a short video of their blessings with everyone present.

In the video, everyone gave a blessing phrase to Kitagawa Hide in turn, and their faces were all filled with happy smiles. It was obvious that this was not filmed just for the sake of being perfunctory.

How could Kitagawa Hide be angry? This is a good thing.

These crew members, like the book fans gathered around General Yamada, were once oppressed and suffocated by this terrible era.

Now, thanks to the popularity of "芥廾", these people have found good places to go. Isn't it worth him to be happy?

Looking at these friends who he got to know after traveling through time getting better one by one and their lives getting better, Beichuan Xiu felt that he was the happiest one.

He took a sip of coffee, wondering if he should give everyone red envelopes on this auspicious day, when suddenly a plump figure wrapped in a purple jumpsuit came over.

Mayumi Aso, who had a dangerous wife hairstyle, blushed slightly, held a bowl of hot tea in both hands, and whispered: "Kitagawa teacher"

"Ms. Aso?" Kitagawa Hide looked at her in confusion.

"I...I..." Mayumi Aso really didn't know how to express her gratitude and joy to him.

Life at Kodansha was very hard in the past.

After being broken down by that bastard An Yuanxian, she was almost about to commit suicide by taking sleeping pills in the rental house with her daughter and son in her arms.

Thanks to Mr. Kitagawa's "No Longer Human", she was given hope to live.

The book tells her not to become Ōba Yozo and to try to survive.

Because as long as you are alive, everything will be fine.

She firmly believed this, gave up suicide, and took up her life again.

Then things really got better little by little.

She won an award for her new style haiku, and also starred in Kitagawa Sensei's "Akira", and even won the Best Supporting Actress Award, which she never dared to dream of!
Film pay, dividends, bonuses, and royalties. In just two months, Mayumi Aso went from being a single mother who could only sell her body to being known as "Teacher Aso" by the public.

From then on, she and her beloved son no longer had to huddle in the cold and damp old house and endure inexplicable looks and contempt.

She has someone she admires, friends who care about her, and kind colleagues.

With the help of President Kawaide, Aiko was admitted to the best kindergarten in Kokubunji City and became classmates with Mr. Saito's sisters.

All of this was given to her by Teacher Beichuan.

Mayumi Aso knew that she should not be so greedy, as what she had now was enough and good enough.

But when he saw that Mr. Kitagawa gave guidance to Keigo Higashino, which helped him regain his confidence in writing books, and when he saw that Dango Shiro also picked up a pen, he pursued his literary dream under the guidance of Mr. Kitagawa.

She really couldn't turn a blind eye!

"Please let me stay here and become your disciple! Please, Mr. Kitagawa! Please teach me how to write novels!"

Mayumi Aso, who is 30 years old this year, wanted to bury her head in her chest. She felt that she was too shameless to say such embarrassing words to a man who was seven years younger than her.

Japan attaches great importance to seniority, seniority and age. These traditional rules cannot even be broken by personal excellence, just like the officialdom next door.

It is very rare in any industry to become a disciple of someone who is so much younger than you.

The traditional master-disciple relationship in Japan is similar to that of a father and son. If Kitagawa Hide agrees, she will then be known as the other party's eldest disciple.

The apprentice is seven years older than her master. She will probably be criticized for the rest of her life in the literary world.

But after much consideration, Mayumi Aso still made this "excessive" request.

She wanted to study under Kitagawa Hide, she wanted to write pure literary novels, and she wanted to continue pursuing her literary dream like Keigo Higashino and others.

For this, she is willing to pay any price!

It doesn't matter even if everyone looks down on me!
Seeing the burning light in Mayumi Aso's eyes, Kitagawa Hide felt her determination.

Kitagawa Hide had heard a lot about this single mother's deeds from Saito Rena, and he admired those who persevered in pursuing their dreams from the bottom of his heart.

There are a lot of vulgar writers in the "low class society", and there may be as many as one million of them in Japan.

Perhaps only one in ten thousand people can finally rush out of that quagmire.

But they are like moths to a flame, one after another, striving to pursue their literary dreams, and they will not regret it even if they get hurt.

Kitagawa Hide suddenly remembered a line of lyrics.

"Who said that only those who stand in the light are heroes?"

The other people also glanced over, no one was mocking, no one found it funny, and no one thought that Mayumi Aso was overestimating her abilities. Instead, they were all full of anticipation.

Kitagawa Hide, who has become an "upper-class" writer, is like the scorching sun that can only be looked up to but not touched.

All of them, like Mayumi Aso, who is like a blade of grass, longs for Kitagawa Hide's sunshine, but is also worried that the other party is unwilling to waste his warmth on weeds that are destined not to grow.

Kitagawa Hide's mind flashed back to what Saito Rena said not long ago.

This time, he would not let his friends circle around him like sunflowers, wanting and worrying, longing and afraid.

He is willing to be the blazing sun.

We also hope that they will become planets orbiting the sun under the care of the sun.

Rather than the poor weeds on the ground.

"I agreed."

Kitagawa Hide smiled and replied,
"But Ms. Aso, you won't get any salary if you become my disciple. And you might be very busy and tired, and you might get nothing in the end. Even so, do you still want to become my disciple?"

"Yes! Even so, I still want to be your disciple!"

Mayumi Aso raised her head, her blushing cheeks becoming more charming due to excessive excitement. She pushed the tea bowl in her hand forward.
"Master, please drink tea!"

(End of this chapter)