Chapter 122: Can It Be Published?

Keiji Kawada was just about to open the copy of *The Devotion of Suspect X* on his desk when he suddenly noticed a name under the title: "Yuto Akiwara."

Huh, this name seems a bit familiar?

He thought for a moment, then stood up and walked over to the bookshelf, opened the bottom drawer, took out a large stack of newspapers from the last few months, and began to read.

After reading for a long time, he finally found a pile of related reports, including "A Writer's Redemption, A Little Boy from Iwate Prefecture," "A Story from Pain to Rebirth," "ZOO: Death and Truth," and so on.

Keiji Kawada glanced through them roughly and discovered that Yuto Akiwara was mentioned multiple times; some articles even referred to him as a "thriller genius."

There was even a well-known book critic named Yosuke Miyagawa who gave him high praise, believing he would have a place in the future of the Japanese literary scene.

After seeing all this, Keiji Kawada organized all the information he had just seen in his mind and couldn't help but feel surprised, but after the surprise, he fell into deep confusion.

Why would an author like this not continue to cooperate with Mantan Society, but instead publish his work at Anjiu Bookstore? It's quite puzzling.

And during the time the book was released, why didn't any other book critics report on it?

Keiji Kawada thought for a long time without finding an answer, so he gave up on digging deeper.

Forget it, it seems this book I was commissioned to review might not be what I imagined.

So, I had better read it carefully and thoroughly.

After making this decision, Keiji Kawada walked to the restroom, washed his hands carefully, then brewed a cup of fresh tea and placed it on his desk.

Only after finishing all the preparations did he sit down, open the book, and begin to read it carefully.

As time passed, the expression on his face became increasingly surprised...

The day after tomorrow at 10: 0 AM, Chiba City, *Chiba Daily News* editorial department.

"Editor-in-chief, I would like to publish a book review for this book." Keiji Kawada walked into the editor-in-chief's office and placed a manuscript in front of a man in a suit; the other party was the editor-in-chief of the editorial department.

After confirming the identity of the author of *Suspect X* the day before yesterday, he had spent about a day and a half reading the book carefully, and then spent another half day writing a book review of about 4, 00 characters.

The man in the suit was working with his head down and was startled when he saw the manuscript placed on the desk.

He looked up and, upon discovering it was Keiji Kawada, complained: "Kawada, don't be so jumpy every time. Just leave the manuscript here, and I'll see when it's appropriate to publish."

Keiji Kawada acknowledged this and turned to leave.

Although his previous actions were a bit impolite, he knew his editor-in-chief wouldn't mind.

After he left, the man in the suit picked up the manuscript on the desk, first reading the title on the manuscript, *The Perfect Deception*, then moved his gaze downward and read it through carefully.

The beginning of this manuscript first expounded on the dispute between the orthodox school and the social school in recent years, then explained the increasing complexity of orthodox trick design techniques, and then the tone shifted, questioning whether such complex techniques were really necessary.

After whetting the reader's appetite, the article began to explore human nature and talked about the bonds between people. It questioned whether anyone would give up their own life for someone else.

Only at the end of the article did it recommend a book, *The Devotion of Suspect X*.

After finishing it, the man in the suit placed the manuscript on the desk and then recited the book title twice.

Then, he stood up and walked to Keiji Kawada's workstation.

This subordinate of his was currently holding a newspaper, reading with great interest, with no intention of working at all.

The man in the suit sighed and asked: "Kawada, which publisher published this *Suspect X*?"

Keiji Kawada put down the newspaper, looked up, and replied: "It's a small publisher called Anjiu Bookstore."

"Anjiu Bookstore," the man in the suit muttered twice, then asked: "Then is the author of this book Yuto Akiwara?"

"Huh, Editor-in-chief, you actually know." Keiji Kawada was a bit surprised; after all, even he only knew about this writer after flipping through previous newspapers.

The man in the suit frowned, "Sorry, this book review cannot be published."

"Why?!" Keiji Kawada didn't expect to hear this answer; he stood up abruptly, "Is there something wrong with my article?"

He didn't understand; logically speaking, he had worked at the newspaper for so many years, and he knew what should and shouldn't be written.

And for this book review, he had analyzed it from an objective perspective and hadn't exaggerated much.

But he really couldn't understand why such an article couldn't be published.

"Don't get excited. Listen to my explanation." The man in the suit explained.

He waved his hand at the surroundings, letting the colleagues at nearby workstations who were startled by the noise go back to work.

"There is no problem with your article, but the problem lies with Yuto Akiwara and Anjiu Bookstore."

The man in the suit brought over a chair, sat down next to his subordinate, and explained patiently.

Keiji Kawada discovered the problem wasn't with him, so he calmed down a little, "Editor-in-chief, please explain."

The man in the suit coughed and began to speak, "You should know about this Mr. Akiwara's background."

Keiji Kawada nodded, "The other party was originally a writer who debuted at *New Novel* and published a series of serialized works."

"That's where the problem lies." The man in the suit tapped the desk with his finger, "The other party debuted at *New Novel*, but didn't publish the collected volume through Mantan Society, which is behind *New Novel*, but instead found a small publisher. Don't you think that's strange?"

Keiji Kawada also frowned, "Could it be factional strife?"

This wasn't strange; Japanese companies were particularly good at internal fighting, especially the larger the company, the more serious the internal fighting tended to be. From this point of view, it was normal for Yuto Akiwara not to choose Mantan Society to publish.

The man in the suit shook his head, "I don't know the specific situation. I only know that the former editor-in-chief of *New Novel* was transferred to Shikoku, and besides, this Mr. Akiwara originally had hope of winning the Gold Prize, but only got a consolation Silver Prize."

Keiji Kawada was still puzzled, "But what does this have to do with this book review not being publishable?"

The man in the suit replied: "Mantan Society's public relations bureau has previously contacted media large and small around Tokyo, hoping that we media outlets would not publicly comment on Yuto Akiwara's works. In fact, as far as I know, there were newspapers that originally wanted to publish book reviews, but they were suppressed."

Hearing this, Keiji Kawada suddenly understood.

As one of the four giants of the publishing industry, Mantan Society had considerable influence in the cultural world and had a great deal of business cooperation with newspapers in and around Tokyo.

Therefore, many newspapers, for the sake of their own business, often avoided offending them.

Keiji Kawada thought for a moment and raised another doubt: "Wouldn't this be going a bit too far?"

No matter how you look at it, Yuto Akiwara had after all left Mantan Society and had no business dealings with them. As a result, Mantan Society ignored this and still blocked this writer who had already left.

Aren't they afraid of disheartening other writers?

"I think it's possible he offended some powerful person," the man in the suit sighed, "In any case, our *Chiba Daily News* isn't large, so we'd better not get involved."

After saying this, he stood up, patted the shoulder of his subordinate who had always been a maverick, and pushed his chair away.

Keiji Kawada looked at the manuscript on the desk that had been taken back, but the more he thought about it, the angrier he became.

As a literary critic, the thing he hated most was external interference with the purity of literature.

That was why when Anjiu Jin'gang entrusted someone to ask him for help, he had said that if he didn't like it, he would write a bad review.

And now it was the same; the manuscript he had worked hard for two days to produce couldn't be published just because of Mantan Society's unreasonable demands.

This was unacceptable to him!

He frowned and made a phone call, "Hello, Mr. Takamura, let me ask you something. Your *Mystery Literature* doesn't accept commercial business, right?"

"Oh, oh, it relies on government and private funding, right? You don't accept advertising, right? Okay, okay."

"I want to publish a manuscript, I'm counting on you here."

"Don't refuse yet, I'll come over and tell you the specific situation."

Putting down the receiver, Keiji Kawada spat fiercely.

Damn Mantan Society, the more you don't let me publish, the more I'm going to publish!