Chapter 142

Thank Mantan Society?

Hearing these words, the many guests from the Mystery Writers Association in the audience showed confused expressions one after another.

According to routine acceptance speeches, writers generally speak mainly to thank the association and their families, or their editors; it is rare to specifically name and thank a company.

Because doing so often makes people feel that the writer is overly utilitarian, which will create a bad impression...

Besides, if one specifically thanks a certain publishing house, it is often seen by other publishing houses as a sycophant of that house, making it even harder to deal with other publishing houses.

And if there is a job change due to a lack of cooperation, one will also be seen by some as ungrateful because of the pretext.

This is not a wise decision, or rather, what did Mantan Society do that could make this award-winning Mr. Akiwara say this?

In an instant, many of the guests sitting near the partner's seats cast their gazes toward the three people from Mantan Society who had come to attend the awards ceremony.

However, in the eyes of some insiders, a hint of "watching a good show" emerged.

"Department Head Kihara, I remember you saying that this Mr. Akiwara had long since canceled his cooperation and even repeatedly used abusive language toward our editors?"

Vice President of Mantan Society, Higa Ken, turned his head and raised his doubts to Kihara Daigo beside him.

Although he is the Vice President of Mantan Society, because of the separation of management and operations, he is not very clear about the specific affairs and administrative situation.

At Mantan Society, there are four major departments: the Editorial Bureau, the Public Relations Bureau, the Printing Bureau, and the Distribution Bureau. And even within the Editorial Bureau, there are two types: books and magazines, and magazines are further divided into manga, fashion, and literature.

And Kihara Daigo only manages two literary journal editorial departments.

Because the volume is not large and this part of the business is not what Mantan Society cares about most, Higa Ken's understanding of literary journal affairs is generally reported by subordinates during regular meetings.

He is not very clear about the grievances between Akiwara Yuto and Mantan Society.

Hearing the Vice President's question, cold sweat broke out on Kihara Daigo's forehead.

At this moment, he also realized that Akiwara Yuto's intentions were not good, and regarding the matter of blocking the other party, he only said he had taken some "measures" when reporting to his superiors, without explaining in detail.

How should he answer the Vice President?

He hesitated for two seconds, saw Takei Kohei to the side, and immediately had an excuse.

"This matter was handled by Deputy Editor-in-Chief Takei and me; as for dealing with the other party, he was also solely responsible."

Higa Ken, as Vice President, is no fool, and immediately understood the loophole in his words.

As a member of "New," why would Akiwara Yuto be dealing with Takei Kohei, the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of "Tokyo Literature"?

However, now is not the time for questioning; he frowned and looked at Takei Kohei sitting on the other side, waiting for his answer.

Takei Kohei did not expect that he would be sold out by his superior immediately; he wanted to explain, but hesitated after seeing Kihara Daigo's gaze.

If he offends the Department Head, his fate probably won't be any better than Kikuchi, who was sent to Shikoku.

Takei Kohei hesitated for a moment, then faced Higa Ken's probing gaze, gritted his teeth and said, "Regarding the specific situation of Akiwara Yuto, I will report it clearly after the awards ceremony ends."

Now is not a good time to answer; wait until later to carefully come up with a reason to muddle through.

No matter what, he must push all the responsibility onto Akiwara Yuto...

Higa Ken's heart was full of doubts; although he wanted to ask clearly, he also knew that now was not the best time to ask, so he nodded and did not continue to ask.

Just as the three were talking, Akiwara Yuto had already been speaking for a while; after expressing his gratitude, he briefly described his writing insights.

He paused again, then cleared his throat, aimed his gaze at the partner's seats where the publishing houses were located, and continued to speak.

"Besides the Mystery Writers Association and my friends and family who supported me, the one I am most grateful to is Mantan Society. If Mantan Society hadn't accepted my submission at the time, I might have been homeless because I couldn't pay the rent. And after I debuted, the relevant resources have always been..."

Regarding Akiwara Yuto's words of gratitude, the people in the audience nodded one after another.

But just then, Akiwara Yuto suddenly changed his tone.

"However, a series of unexpected things happened."

Under the confused gazes of the crowd, he continued.

"When I was about to release my book, the editor-in-chief of 'New' was transferred to the Shikoku region. At the same time, my editor was also arranged to be moved to another department. And the relevant personnel at Mantan Society demanded with a tough attitude that I move from 'New' to 'Tokyo Literature,' and even gave a series of high-sounding reasons!"

Hearing these words, everyone in the audience was surprised; these words are no longer words of gratitude, right?!

How does it sound like an attack on Mantan Society?

The reporters crouching under the stage to take photos all became excited, starting to take photos one after another; for a time, flashes went off one after another.

Mystery Literature Newcomer Award winner receives unfair treatment from Mantan Society!

Big news, this is big news!

If it weren't for the fact that it was acceptance speech time, they would have swarmed up to interview him long ago.

The three people from Mantan Society sitting in the audience also had different reactions: Higa Ken's brow furrowed deeper and deeper, Kihara Daigo's cold sweat kept breaking out, and Takei Kohei was gritting his teeth even more.

Bastard, who demanded with a tough attitude that you go to "Tokyo Literature"!?

Akiwara Yuto, don't spread rumors!

After Akiwara Yuto finished this part, he was silent for a moment, making his expression look a bit "sad."

In this way, his expression could be captured more clearly by the newspapers, thereby further arousing the sympathy of the public!

By that time, not to mention whether Mantan Society's blockade of him is still useful, at least under the effect of the attention economy, the two books "Suspect X" and "Death of Mystery" can at least sell very well!

Seeing that the time was about right, Akiwara Yuto continued: "Faced with these unreasonable demands, I decided not to cooperate with Mantan Society for the time being and self-published two works, but to my surprise, Mantan Society actually threatened me again to continue publishing articles in Mantan Society's magazines."

"After I still refused, they even used business cooperation as a threat, demanding that relevant media and newspapers not report on my works at all, and implemented a blockade against me!"

Hearing these words, most of the people in the audience couldn't sit still.

A significant proportion of the guests who came to the awards ceremony today are members of the Mystery Writers Association.

And one of the standards for becoming a member of the association is being a mystery writer who has already debuted.

As writers themselves, they were undoubtedly angered by the series of "facts" described by Akiwara Yuto.

If one is to be suppressed just for changing to another publishing house, wouldn't the profession of writer become a slave to the publishing house?

And if other large publishing houses also learn to do this, the purity of literature will undoubtedly be tainted by commerce!

Damn Mantan Society, what exactly do you want to do?

Are you trying to unite with the other three to further squeeze the interests of writers!

While the writers were angry, the reporters in the audience also became more and more excited, and some even wanted to rush onto the stage to take photos and ask questions, but were stopped by the staff maintaining order.

Some peripheral reporters, seeing that they couldn't take any useful photos, rushed to the partner's seats and took photos of the three people from Mantan Society who were sitting there.

Never mind their status, big news is what matters!

After taking photos for a while, staff members ran over and chased the reporters back.

By this time, Higa Ken's face had turned livid, Kihara Daigo's face was pale, and as for Takei Kohei, he was so angry he wanted to tear Akiwara Yuto apart.

Using conspiracies and lies has always been his own method.

He didn't expect that he would be played by someone else with this trick today.

But he found that he was unable to refute that series of words from Akiwara Yuto; after all, although the other party lied, the personnel changes and the blockade were iron-clad facts.

As long as one has the intention, one can find out very quickly!

Bastard, things are not easy to handle now!

Just as there was a commotion, a reporter wearing a black shirt quietly walked to the side of the auditorium.

He took a black mobile phone that looked like a "brick" out of his bag, dialed a number, and said into the phone in a low voice: "Reporter Sakaguchi, that article of yours can be published!"