[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-literary-master-of-tokyo":3,"chapter-literary-master-of-tokyo-literary-master-of-tokyo-chapter-10":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Literary Master of Tokyo",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2354859,4607,"Chapter 10: A Dilemma of Stance","literary-master-of-tokyo-chapter-10",10,"\u003Cp>After walking out of the main gate, Akiwara Yuto quickened his pace.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The reason he quickened his pace was not because he wanted to rush home to write, but simply because he felt too \"embarrassed.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just now, along the way, he had kept his words of gratitude bottled up inside, wanting to say them to Asano Aiko but unable to get them out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing her attitude become distant, he had subconsciously blurted out his heartfelt thoughts right at the publishing house entrance in full view of everyone, and his voice had been a little too \"loud.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thinking about it now, it was a blunder; after all, there would be plenty of chances to interact in the future—wouldn't it have been better to find a cafe or an izakaya?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although he felt awkward, Akiwara Yuto still straightened his back; anyway, most people didn't know him, and as long as he wasn't embarrassed, it was others who would be.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lost in thought, he walked toward the train station, planning to first find a large chain supermarket to purchase daily necessities and spare paper and pens.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He intended to \"go into seclusion\" for a while to master Japanese writing habits as soon as possible and finish writing the remaining articles.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was deep in thought when his gaze unconsciously drifted to his surroundings, and he saw a standing billboard on the ground covered in dense real estate agency advertisements.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Behind this billboard was a shop with a sign that read \"Fujihashi Real Estate.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thinking of the room where he was currently forced to \"live-stream for love,\" he couldn't help but seriously consider it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His manuscript fee would arrive soon; why not just move? After all, one can only write better when the environment is comfortable, right?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>……\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>While Akiwara Yuto was thinking about moving, Asano Aiko was busy participating in an internal editorial department meeting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The meeting location was the same office where she had brought Akiwara Yuto to sign his contract last time—because there weren't enough tables and chairs, every editor had brought over a folding chair.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Editor-in-chief Kikuchi Futoshi sat at the innermost position facing everyone, while the others sat around according to their seniority; Asano Aiko, having the least experience, sat closest to the door.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The editorial department meeting was held on time, basically once a week, and the content covered every aspect, including the serialized content for the next issue, magazine sales statistics, reader feedback, and so on.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although the content was rather miscellaneous, this was the daily routine of editorial work.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing that everyone had arrived and was seated, Kikuchi Futoshi began to officially preside over the meeting; he first mentioned that last week's journal sales were still unsatisfactory, hoping everyone would work harder, spur on their contracted authors, and scout for new talent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing everyone nod, he then announced that the next issue of \"New Fiction\" would open a new column specifically to serialize Akiwara Yuto's short stories.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A slight commotion broke out in the meeting room, and a man in his thirties wearing glasses suddenly raised his hand and suggested: \"Editor-in-chief, could we take a look at Akiwara-sensei's work?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing this, Kikuchi Futoshi nodded in Asano Aiko's direction, and she immediately stood up, brought over a stack of bound texts, and began distributing them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Everyone received the materials and flipped through them quickly; for a time, only the \"swish\" of pages turning remained.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The man with glasses was naturally no exception; he sat up straight, looked at the line of text on the document that read \"Kozue and Yoko,\" and subconsciously adjusted his glasses with his right hand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His name was Matsushima Kazuhiro, the deputy editor-in-chief of \"New Fiction,\" who had been grinding away in this industry for over a decade.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before this meeting, he had already heard rumors that Kikuchi Futoshi was going to let Asano Aiko open a special column to be responsible for the serialization of a newcomer's work.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Upon hearing this news, he had thought the editor-in-chief was crazy at the time; a rookie editor plus a newcomer author—no matter how you looked at it, it was the type destined to be axed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>You have to know that under normal circumstances, newcomer authors have limited writing skills and cannot make many places perfect.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Therefore, there must be a sufficiently senior editor nearby to guide them and lead this author onto the path of success in the literary world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But he knew Asano Aiko's situation: she had been on the job for three years, and her daily work was helping with miscellaneous tasks; the thing she was most proficient at was probably pouring coffee, right?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One might ask, what kind of advice could such an editor provide to a newcomer?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although \"New Fiction\" had low circulation, it wasn't just any stray dog or cat that could be published and serialized!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What's more, a new serialization column might take up his promotional resources!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Holding these thoughts, Matsushima Kazuhiro began to read carefully, earnestly starting to pick out flaws.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The writing style was mediocre, and some paragraphs even looked a bit awkward; was he truly worthy of being called a newcomer?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>You have to know that for a truly good article, writing style, plot, and substance are all indispensable; this point alone could be judged as unqualified, right?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After thinking about it, he took out a black fountain pen and circled the places he felt were problematic, writing directly: \"Writing style needs improvement.\" He paused, then added a big exclamation mark!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Subsequently, he pondered the opening plot—a plot where a woman jumps to her death right at the beginning; why did it look so inexplicable...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No, the jumping woman's monologue appeared below; perhaps this was the protagonist's self-imagined suicide. Could it be that he used the magical realism writing technique from Latin America?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He felt a bit curious and couldn't help but continue reading; as he read, he completely forgot his intention to criticize and became immersed in this story told from Yoko's first-person perspective.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why, despite being identical twins, did Yoko suffer abuse from her mother? It seemed that many Japanese families also had the problem of favoring one child over another; there seemed to be news reports about it before...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the younger sister, Kozue actually made her older sister eat her vomit? Granny Mitsuko, who brought hope, actually passed away just like that? Is this author sick in the head? Does he want to take revenge on society?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And is this mother a devil? Just because of a small matter, she pushed her daughter down the stairs!? Did she ever know in the end that she killed the wrong person? Just thinking about it is chilling.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>While flipping through the pages, time passed in a flash; before Matsushima Kazuhiro could snap out of it, he had reached the last page.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He suddenly discovered that, except for his first comment, he hadn't written a single stroke afterward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After thinking about it, he crossed out his previous comment; forget it, this was the proofreading department's job, he shouldn't worry about it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How should he put it? Although the writing style was average, the design of the plot behind it was clever enough to cover up this small flaw.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Especially the mother's inexplicable expression at the end—it was simply a stroke of genius.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He put down his pen and began to think further, unconsciously flipping back to the front, pondering the exploration of human nature behind the words: why did the mother not like Yoko and favor Kozue, even though they were twins?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Was it because Yoko was too much like herself, like that poor woman who was abandoned by her husband and had to raise twins alone?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So every time the mother saw Yoko, it was as painful as seeing her own unbearable past, prompting her to beat and kick Yoko.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If that were really the case, this Akiwara-sensei's insight into human nature was quite impressive!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He no longer dared to treat the other party as a newcomer and began to accept the title of \"Sensei.\" However, he immediately frowned and began to think about another problem.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although the other party wrote very well, was it really a good thing for him?\u003C\u002Fp>",1368,"2026-06-21T03:58:01.347Z",1,"Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite","b4aae883d4f80f7a7abd2233fbee8424d5cc1e37bde1a941108362be3a062ddc","literary-master-of-tokyo-chapter-11","literary-master-of-tokyo-chapter-9",334,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fliterary-master-of-tokyo-cover.jpg"]