Chapter 122: Can It Be Published?

Kawada Keiji was about to open the "The Devotion of Suspect X" on the table when he suddenly saw a name under the title: "Akiwara Yuto."

Eh, this name seems a bit familiar?

He thought for a while, stood up, walked to the bookshelf, opened the drawer below, took out a large stack of newspapers from the past few months, and started reading.

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

Kawada Keiji glanced at them roughly and found that Akiwara Yuto was mentioned many times, and some even called him a "thriller genius."

There was even a well-known book reviewer named Gongchuan Yangjie who gave him high praise, believing that he would have a place in the Japanese literary world in the future.

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

Such an author, why not continue to cooperate with Mantanshe, but instead publish works at President Anjiu Bookstore? It's a bit confusing.

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

Kawada Keiji thought for a long time but couldn't figure it out, so he gave up on investigating further.

Forget it, it seems that the book entrusted to write a book review this time might not be what I imagined.

So, I'd better read it carefully.

After making this decision, Kawada Keiji went to the bathroom, washed his hands carefully, then brewed a cup of new tea and put it on the desk.

After finishing all the preparations, he sat down, opened the book, and started reading carefully.

As time passed, the expression on his face became more and more surprised……

……

The day after tomorrow, 10:00 AM, Chiba City, "Chiba Daily News" Editorial Department.

"Editor-in-chief, I hope to publish a book review for this book." Kawada Keiji walked to the editor-in-chief's office and put a manuscript in front of a man in a suit, who was the editor-in-chief of the editorial department.

After confirming Akiwara Yuto's identity the day before yesterday, he spent about a day and a half reading this book carefully, and then spent half a day writing a book review article of about 4,000 words.

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

He looked up and found it was Kawada Keiji, so he complained, "Kawada, don't be startled every time. Let's do this, you leave the manuscript first, and I'll see when it's appropriate to publish."

Kawada Keiji responded and turned to leave.

Although the move just now was a bit rude, he knew his editor-in-chief wouldn't care.

After he left, the man in the suit picked up the manuscript on the table, read the title on the manuscript "The Perfect Deception," and then moved his eyes down to read it carefully.

The beginning of this manuscript first expounded on the dispute between the Honkaku school and the Social school in recent years, and expounded on the complexity of the Honkaku trick design technique, and then the sentence turned, questioning whether such a complex technique is really needed.

After whetting the reader's appetite, the article began to explore human nature and talked about the bond between people. It expounded on whether anyone would give up their life for others?

At the end of the article, it recommended a book "The Devotion of Suspect X."

After reading, the man in the suit put the manuscript on the table and read the book title twice.

Then, he stood up and walked to the workstation of Kawada Keiji.

His subordinate was reading the newspaper with relish, not having any intention of working.

The man in the suit sighed and asked, "Kawada, which publishing house published this 'Suspect X'?"

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

"President Anjiu Bookstore," the man in the suit read twice and asked, "Then is the author of this book Akiwara Yuto?"

"Eh, Editor-in-chief, you actually know." Kawada Keiji was a bit surprised. After all, even he only knew this writer after reading the previous newspapers.

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

"Why?!" Kawada Keiji didn't expect to hear this answer. He stood up all of a sudden, "Is there any problem with my article?"

He didn't understand. Logically speaking, he had worked in the newspaper office for so many years, and he knew what should be written and what should not be written.

And this book review, he also analyzed it from an objective angle and didn't exaggerate much.

But such an article actually couldn't be published, he was really a bit confused.

"You don't be excited. Listen to my explanation." The man in the suit explained.

He waved his hand around, letting some colleagues in the nearby workstations who were surprised by the sound go back to work.

"Your article has no problem, but the problem lies with Akiwara Yuto and President Anjiu Bookstore."

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

Kawada Keiji found that the problem was not with him, and only then did he calm down a little, "Editor-in-chief, please explain."

The man in the suit coughed and started to speak, "You should know the background of this Mr. Akiwara, right?"

Kawada Keiji nodded, "The other party is a writer who debuted in 'New Novel' and has published a series of serialized works."

"The problem lies here." The man in the suit tapped the table with his finger, "The other party debuted in 'New Novel', but didn't publish stand-alone books through Mantanshe behind 'New Novel', but instead found a small publishing house. Don't you think it's strange?"

Kawada Keiji also frowned, "Is it factional struggle?"

This is not strange. Japanese companies are particularly good at infighting, especially the larger the company, the more serious the infighting. From this point of view, Akiwara Yuto didn't choose to publish in Mantanshe, which is normal.

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

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

The man in the suit replied, "Mantanshe's Public Relations Bureau has contacted large and small media around Tokyo before, hoping that these media will not publicly comment on Akiwara Yuto's works. Actually, as far as I know, there were newspapers that wanted to publish book reviews before, but they were suppressed."

Hearing this, Kawada Keiji understood immediately.

As one of the four giants in the publishing industry, Mantanshe has considerable influence on the cultural circle and has a lot of business cooperation with newspapers in Tokyo and surrounding areas.

Therefore, many newspapers, for the sake of their own business, often avoid offending the other party.

Kawada Keiji thought for a while and raised another doubt: "Would this be a bit too much?"

No matter how you look at it, Akiwara Yuto has already left Mantanshe and has no business dealings with Mantanshe. As a result, Mantanshe ignores this point and still blocks this writer who has already left.

Isn't it afraid of making other writers feel cold?

"I think it might be that he offended some powerful person," the man in the suit sighed, "In short, our 'Chiba Daily News' is not large, so let's not get involved."

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

Kawada Keiji looked at the manuscript taken back on the table, but the more he thought about it, the angrier he became.

As a literary critic, the thing he hates most is the interference of the outside world with the purity of literature.

So when President Anjiu Jin Gangyi entrusted someone to find him for help, he said that if he didn't like it, he would write a bad review.

And now it is the same. The manuscript he worked hard for 2 days actually couldn't be published because of Mantanshe's unreasonable request.

He couldn't accept this!

He frowned and dialed a phone, "Hello, Mr. Takamura, ask a question, is your 'Mystery Literature' not accepting business?"

"Oh oh, is it funded by government and private funds? Not accepting advertising? Okay, okay."

"I want to publish a manuscript, please help me."

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

Putting down the receiver, Kawada Keiji spat "spit" fiercely.

Stupid Mantanshe, the more you don't let me publish, the more I want to publish! ===== CHAPTER 123 =====