Chapter 144: The War of Public Opinion

By the next morning, the remarks Akiwara Yuto made at the press conference were quickly displayed before the public through newspapers across the country.

Except for some media, because they were concerned about the business impact of Mantanshe, they only chose to report by avoiding the important. But this part of the media only accounted for a part of the total number of media.

After all, for the vast majority of media, Mantanshe is just one of many clients, but the public's attention is the real interest!

And the law does not punish the masses. Since peers have reported it, you Mantanshe cannot just blame my family alone!

Out of such plans, a large number of news headlines containing gimmicks appeared in the newspapers of these media, and the content of the headlines was even more varied.

Some were "Talented Writer Nearly Commits Suicide Due to Mantanshe Persecution," some were "Talented Writer Speaks Publicly, Criticizing Mantanshe Award Black Box," and some were "Mystery Writers Association Publicly Criticizes Mantanshe?".

But no matter which report it was, the content inside was surprisingly similar. In addition to expounding on Akiwara Yuto's remarks, they also interviewed some insiders in the publishing industry to introduce the cause and effect of the incident.

This made many people know the name Akiwara Yuto all of a sudden, and even couldn't help but sympathize in their hearts.

After all, from these reports, Akiwara Yuto has been built into the image of a perfect victim.

The so-called perfect victim is basically someone who has no points to criticize or attack, and has no unreasonable behavior that violates social norms.

And Akiwara Yuto himself is an orphan from an orphanage in Hokkaido, and through his own talent and hard work, he became a debut writer.

It can be said that he is a successful case of class counterattack in Japanese society.

Besides that, there is evidence that Akiwara Yuto has been busy with work.

After all, he debuted for less than half a year, and he has successively created four works: *Zoo*, *Suspect X*, *Negligent Homicide*, and *Death of a Mystery Writer*.

Such speed can already be considered a very prolific writer.

A talented writer from a poor background who changed his destiny through struggle and had few moral flaws, actually ended up being blacklisted because of Mantanshe's selfishness.

It proves the vulnerability of individuals in front of capital and consortia!

And this made many people feel a sense of sympathy for the rabbit's death! It made them even more gnashing their teeth at Mantanshe!

Many people wrote complaint letters one after another, sent them to Mantanshe headquarters, and demanded that relevant personnel publicly apologize. One noon, Mantanshe's complaint hotline couldn't even get through, and it was blown up by dissatisfied people.

Regarding the public opinion attack from the outside, Mantanshe did not sit idly by.

After Vice President Higa Ken and the other two returned to headquarters by taxi overnight, the public relations bureau quickly carried out relevant actions and carried out a series of response measures in the next few days.

As a large publisher, if they immediately admit their mistakes and hold a press conference to apologize, it is tantamount to publicly admitting to the outside world that they did indeed do these things and faked the Mantanshe Literature Award.

But in that case, the image public relations that Mantanshe has spent a lot of money on in recent years will undoubtedly be declared a failure. And it will also cause Mantanshe's business in literature to suffer a major setback.

Once the name of persecuting debut writers is confirmed, besides other writers not choosing Mantanshe for submission in the future, it will also make current cooperative writers choose to jump ship.

Under multiple considerations, Mantanshe's public relations bureau contacted some media with deep cooperation upstream and downstream, trying to start "fishing in troubled waters."

First, they let Kikuchi Tai, who was in the Shikoku region, return to Tokyo, quickly arranged interviews with some media, and deliberately emphasized Akiwara Yuto's arrogance and various "big shot" phenomena during the cooperation process.

After these reports were released, they did have some effect, making a small number of people start to be "half-believing."

But overall, due to the late release time and the small number of reports, most people were not very convinced.

After all, no matter from which angle you look at it, Akiwara Yuto, as a newly debuted writer, has no reason or motive to actively provoke a behemoth like Mantanshe.

After finding that the effect was limited, Mantanshe's public relations bureau found Asano Aiko again, trying to get her to come forward and accept an interview with a Tokyo TV program together with Kikuchi Tai, and prove Akiwara Yuto's "character problems" during the interview.

Asano Aiko "hesitated" for a day, and on the condition of accepting the TV interview, she then put forward the request for salary increase and job transfer.

After the public relations bureau communicated with the top management, they immediately agreed.

Although Takei Kohei opposed this plan, under the requirements of the public relations bureau, this plan proceeded as usual.

……

Time quickly reached the day of the TV interview. Asano Aiko followed Kikuchi Tai and was sent to Tokyo TV by a car, taking the elevator to the interview scene.

This live interview was arranged at 9:30 in the evening, and the time slot was only slightly worse than the prime time, so from the perspective of the viewing audience, the data was extremely impressive.

In the plan of the public relations bureau, if the editor who had previously expressed "gratitude" to Akiwara Yuto could prove his arrogance, it would surely be able to reverse the unfavorable situation for Mantanshe in public opinion to a considerable extent.

Tokyo TV, interview scene.

The good-looking female host held the microphone, faced Kikuchi Tai and Asano Aiko sitting on the other side, and asked gently: "Editor-in-Chief Kikuchi, can you briefly describe what kind of opinion you have of Akiwara Yuto-sensei?"

Kikuchi Tai sat on the sofa on the other side, nodded, and then replied: "For Akiwara-sensei's talent, I personally admire it very much, especially in terms of commerciality, which can attract readers very much. However..."

"However?" The female host nodded in confusion.

Kikuchi Tai continued: "But I personally think that Akiwara Yuto's works overemphasize commerciality, thereby ignoring the literariness of creation. Therefore, Mantanshe decided to award the silver prize of the Literature Award to the other party, and hope to use this to hone him to continue to explore and move forward on the literary path."

These remarks of his came from the manuscript that the public relations bureau had already written and handed to him, and the purpose was still to save Mantanshe's public image.

Among the series of reports unfavorable to Mantanshe now, a very important point is the unfair treatment of Akiwara Yuto in the Mantanshe Literature Award.

So now it is necessary to avoid the real and take the easy way, and use a reason in other aspects to divert the public's attention.

What he is saying now is to tell the public a fact.

We are definitely not because of unfair reasons that we did not award the gold prize to Akiwara Yuto, but that the literariness of his works is indeed not enough!

Besides that, we also want to hone the other party!

But for Kikuchi Tai himself, the series of events that happened this time was really a bit unexpected.

In his view, he was originally destined to be sent to that broken place in Shikoku, and there was no chance to rise one step further.

But unexpectedly, because of Akiwara Yuto's remarks at the Mystery Writers Association, Mantanshe suffered a not-so-small public relations crisis, which gave him a chance to turn over.

What he needs to do now is to firmly grasp this opportunity.

As for some lies, or being sorry to Akiwara Yuto, he can no longer care about it.

However, what surprised him a bit was that he originally thought Asano Aiko would never accept this interview, but she actually accepted the public relations bureau's request.

He felt a little uneasy in his heart, but he thought about it, Asano Aiko even "opened her mouth like a lion" and asked for the position of deputy editor-in-chief, so she shouldn't be faking it in this regard.

The female host nodded and continued to ask: "Then, in the process of Akiwara Yuto-sensei's cooperation with *New*, what was his attitude?"

Kikuchi Tai coughed, and then according to the manuscript provided by the public relations bureau, began to "recite" a series of Akiwara Yuto's shortcomings, including arrogance, greed for money, contradictions in gender issues, and even bullying other writers.

Although Japanese people have always been tolerant of writers, if a person's moral and character problems are too prominent, it will also cause many people's disgust.

After talking for a full 20 minutes, Kikuchi Tai finished his words.

The good-looking female host nodded and turned to Asano Aiko on the other side, "Editor Asano, as the editor responsible for discovering Akiwara-sensei, do you agree with Editor-in-Chief Kikuchi's remarks?"

Asano Aiko took the microphone and was silent for a while.

In the puzzled eyes of the other two, she stood up, bowed to the camera, and then her eyes turned red, and she said in a choked voice.

"Dear audience, everything that was just said is a lie!" ===== CHAPTER 145 =====