Chapter 101: New Book on the Shelves

October 7th, Wednesday (Friday), Yamazaki Bookstore.

Sugihara Aisa arrived at her workplace as usual, preparing to begin her day's work.

As a bookstore employee, she was specifically responsible for the placement and adjustment of literary books, having to insert appropriate titles into the shelves or place them on display stands daily based on market trends.

Just then, the sound of footsteps approached; she looked up and discovered it was the bookstore manager, who was walking over while carrying a stack of books.

"Sugihara, this batch is the new arrival; I'll leave it to you." After saying this, the manager handed the books to Sugihara Aisa, and she quickly took them.

Sugihara Aisa took the books, placed them on the floor by the nearby shelf, and glanced at them. "Manager, there are over 30 books in this batch. Isn't that a bit much? Should we put out fewer for now?"

Generally speaking, only about 10 books are needed to be displayed to customers at once; 30-plus books would look a bit bloated and would also take up quite a bit of space.

Hearing her suggestion, the manager said, "There's no helping it. Because President Yamazaki attended the partner publisher's reading session, we brought in 500 copies of this book, so the quantity is a bit high."

Upon hearing this, Sugihara Aisa felt surprised; after all, generally speaking, aside from a small number of popular books and periodicals, bookstores rarely stock such a large quantity.

Although unsold items can be returned to the publisher, it still occupies capital and storage space regardless.

The manager shrugged and continued in a joking tone, "So I need to trouble you, Sugihara, to adjust the placement well and get customers to see and buy them as soon as possible."

Sugihara Aisa nodded and responded, "I understand."

As it stands, to digest this batch of books quickly, she could only clear 3 spots on the display stand to place 9 copies. As for the other 21, she would just stack them together on the shelf. Although the shelf isn't a great spot, as long as there is a sufficient quantity of the same book, it can still attract the readers' attention.

"Then I'll leave it to you; I'm going to attend to other matters." The manager waved his hand, gave the instruction, and turned to leave.

Sugihara Aisa replied with a "Got it" and lowered her head to start thinking. The space on the display stand wasn't enough; she had to carefully consider which book's spot to vacate.

Just then, the corner of her eye caught "New Novels" on the top right corner of the display stand.

Should she take away "New Novels"? Recently, because Akiwara Yuto hasn't been serializing, the sales of this periodical haven't been as good as before, and it feels like it's on a downward trend.

Speaking of which, when will Akiwara Yuto start a new serialization?

She sighed inwardly, then pulled one book from the stack the manager had entrusted to her and took a look. But it was this one look that left her deeply surprised.

On the black cover, a large title was written: "The Devotion of Suspect X," and below this title was a line of slightly smaller text: "By Akiwara Yuto."

She looked at it carefully several times and discovered she hadn't misread it, then turned the book to the back and found the publisher information, which read "Anjiu Bookstore."

Huh, how strange?!

Didn't the official news in the "New Novels" insert say that Akiwara Yuto would have follow-up serialized content published? Why would Akiwara Yuto skip the serialization and directly release a new standalone book?

And even if it were a standalone book, it should have been through Mankan Publishing; how did it become this "Anjiu Bookstore" that she had never heard of?

Although puzzled, she quickly made a decision and took action.

She moved "New Novels" off the display stand, replaced it with "The Devotion of Suspect X," and placed the remaining copies of "Suspect X" on the middle-upper layer of the shelf, arranged in a full row.

As for "New Novels," it was moved to the middle-lower part of the shelf.

That way, passing customers should be able to see it right away!

Sugihara Aisa looked at the result after arranging them and nodded with satisfaction; she picked up a book, preparing to "slack off" a little.

Let me, this literature section manager, see what exactly Akiwara Yuto has written in this new work!

……

While Sugihara Aisa was reading, Uesugi Sonoko from Yokohama National University, along with her good friend Asami Yuki, walked into a bookstore near the school that hung a sign reading "Fujitaka."

The two soon arrived at the bookstore's literature section, looking for any literary books suitable for reading recently.

After looking around, she found it was still the same old stuff, which made her feel a bit helpless, and she couldn't help but sigh.

"Sonoko, do you want to buy a copy of 'New Novels'?" Asami Yuki picked up a copy of "New Novels" and asked her good friend.

Uesugi Sonoko responded, "Is Akiwara Yuto serializing a new work?"

Hearing Uesugi's question, Asami Yuki flipped open the table of contents, scanned it, and replied, "It seems there still isn't..."

Hearing this answer, Uesugi Sonoko wasn't surprised, but the expression on her face became even more resentful.

Akiwara Yuto, if you don't publish a new work soon, believe it or not, I'll go to Tokyo to find you and have a good talk.

By the way, should we organize something online and have everyone write letters to the publisher together to urge him to write sooner?

But would anyone send razor blades?

Just as she was letting her imagination run wild, a clerk in a bookstore uniform walked to the side of the shelf, used glue to stick a poster on the wall, and then left.

After he left, Asami Yuki stepped two steps closer, looked carefully at the content on the poster, and read it out: "'The Devotion of Suspect X'? What a strange name?"

Hearing this name, Uesugi Sonoko was also a bit curious, so she stepped forward and looked at it carefully.

On the poster was a sketch of a man using his body to shield two women from the rain, but the man had shackles on his feet.

She glanced at it and then looked at the copy on the poster, seeing the large title "The Devotion of Suspect X" written there, and in the bottom right corner of this large title, a line of small text: "New work by Akiwara Yuto."

"Akiwara Yuto?!" Uesugi Sonoko couldn't help but say in a low voice, but she was still a bit doubtful—could it be someone with the same name?

But she thought about it again and felt it shouldn't be; after all, Akiwara isn't a common surname, and furthermore, there were the words "new work," which meant it was an author who already had works.

So no matter how she looked at it, it was that Akiwara Yuto she had been thinking about day and night.

Thinking of this, she suddenly became excited, immediately ran to the clerk who had just been there, and asked, "Excuse me, is the book on the poster on sale now? Where is it located?"

The clerk was a bit stunned; he didn't expect that someone would come to ask about this book right after he had just put up the poster.

According to the work schedule, this batch of books wouldn't be arranged for the shelves until the afternoon; they were still in the bookstore warehouse.

But looking at Uesugi Sonoko's earnest expression, the clerk thought for a moment and decided to satisfy the customer's request, saying "Wait a moment," and walked to the bookstore warehouse next to the staff room.

Ten minutes later, Uesugi Sonoko received the book she had been longing for, a brilliant smile appearing on her face, which left the clerk on the side stunned for a few seconds.

Uesugi Sonoko held the book in her arms and was happy for a while.

But soon, she had a new worry.

If she read it too quickly, wouldn't she be in a book drought again immediately?

Never mind, let's just go back today and have a good read!

I hope this book can bring me a new surprise!