Chapter 157

Regarding the creation of detective fiction, both Europe/America and Japan have relevant rule regulations.

But the content of these regulations, many of them, as time changed, were refuted one by one by detective writers of the same era or even later.

For example, the most widely circulated Knox's Ten Commandments proposed that "there must not be more than one secret room or secret passage in the story."

But in a series of Honkaku and Shin-Honkaku works that appeared in Japan, there were many works that did not conform to its principles.

Another very famous detective rule—Van Dine's Twenty Rules—made all kinds of extremely rigid frameworks, even stipulating that love plots could not appear in the work.

If judged according to his framework, works like "The Devotion of Suspect X" and "Journey Under the Midnight Sun" would not count as detective fiction at all.

So in Akiwara Yuto's view, the rule framework for detective fiction should not be fixed, but should be based on the premise of pursuing the rationality of the story.

Then, under the principle of rationality, go and design tricks and human nature.

Akiwara Yuto thought for two seconds and continued: "I have designed the following rules, there are 9 in total."

At the same time, he took the paper and pen on the table, and while speaking, he wrote down nine lines of text:

"Nine Rules for Detective Works"

One, the situation at the beginning of the story and the ending must both have reasons that people can accept.

Two, technical errors in murder and execution methods are not allowed.

Three, characters, work structure, and atmosphere should all conform to reality.

Four, the logic of the work should be meticulous, and the story must have interest.

Five, the structure of the work must be simple.

Six, the solution method must absolutely be achievable.

Seven, one can only choose between a puzzle-solving or an action-adventure story.

Eight, the murderer must have a reasonable outcome.

Nine, it must be fair to the reader.

After writing everything, Akiwara Yuto looked at it carefully for a few times, then tore off this piece of paper and placed it in front of the three people sitting on the other side.

These nine propositions came from Lei Mengde Qian Delei, who was called the "Poet Laureate of Crime" by the Western literary world.

This writer was called the greatest writer in American history, and even the only detective master in the world who entered the hall of classic literature with detective fiction and was written into the history of classic literature.

And his writing style and viewpoints were incompatible with traditional British detective fiction, without too much rigidity and stereotype.

In other words, due to the breadth of the theory, his set of theories, even after a few decades, still has considerable feasibility.

After all, what he depicted was the rationality of story design, not those messy framework standards.

However, the nine rules written by Akiwara Yuto were not exactly the same as the original text; in the eighth rule, Lei Mengde Qian Delei originally advocated that the murderer must be sanctioned.

But if he wrote it like that, "Manslaughter," which he adapted based on "Drishyam," would undoubtedly not conform.

In this work, the murderer completely escaped legal sanction.

So he made slight modifications, changing it to the ambiguous statement of "the murderer must have a reasonable outcome."

Seeing the other three start to look at it, Akiwara Yuto said in a polite tone: "These are just some thoughts during my creation process, please take a simple look, teachers."

But what he didn't know was that the other three had no time to pay attention to his words and instead began to ponder seriously.

After seeing the specific content, Seto Tamae's face showed a solemn expression, and the smile on Miyagawa Yosuke's face faded.

As for Kawai Shinta, although a smile still hung on his face, there was not a hint of laughter in his eyes.

Teacher Akiwara, you really know how to surprise people!

In his original plan, Akiwara Yuto only needed to talk about some things casually, be slightly reasonable, and he would count it as passing the test.

But to his surprise, besides the "nine kinds of tricks," Akiwara Yuto actually proposed these "nine rules," making regulations on some aspects of detective fiction.

For example, the second point, "technical errors in murder and execution methods are not allowed."

According to this point, the murder methods in detective fiction should be completely feasible in reality.

But the Shin-Honkaku works that have been emerging in recent years have designed a large number of extremely complex tricks and routines, and many ideas are completely whimsical.

But because the number of Honkaku readers is huge, these completely unfeasible trick methods are still praised by many people.

Besides this, the last point, "must be fair to the reader," requires placing the reader in the same position as the detective, allowing the reader to enjoy the fun of solving the mystery together with the detective during the reading process.

This point alone is something many detective works cannot do.

Some detective works, in order to surprise readers, often design the detective to suddenly discover some evidence that did not exist in the text due to an accident, as a method to crack the murderer.

But this, undoubtedly, will make many readers feel that they have been fooled.

Kawai Shinta looked at it several times before raising his head and sighing silently in his heart.

This Akiwara-san can no longer be simply described with the word "talent," or perhaps he should be called a monster!

Akiwara Yuto did not know the thoughts of this Chairman Kawai; he picked up the teacup and took a sip, then calculated in his heart.

According to the lecture at "Seto Tamae's" home, these three old seniors would probably ask him questions later.

But he still had some goods in his brain after all, so he wasn't too worried even if he was asked questions.

Time passed bit by bit, and soon more than 10 minutes had passed, but to Akiwara Yuto's surprise, the other three had clearly finished reading all the content, yet they had no intention of asking questions, instead showing a solemn expression.

Seeing this scene, Akiwara Yuto felt a bit uneasy in his heart.

Is there something wrong with what he wrote?

It shouldn't be, right? After all, they are just very broad rules?

Akiwara Yuto was a bit puzzled, but he still took the initiative to ask: "Teachers, may I ask if there are any problems with the nine rules I wrote?"

After hearing Akiwara Yuto's question, Kawai Shinta raised his head and exchanged glances with Seto Tamae and Miyagawa Yosuke respectively.

Seeing the solemn eyes of these two old friends, he knew that they, like him, were also surprised, or "scared," by Akiwara Yuto's talent.

Kawai Shinta thought for a moment, then took the initiative to cough and started the conversation first.

"Teacher Akiwara, I think your nine rules are not bad. So today's test is considered passed."

His speech had his own intentions.

In his view, Akiwara Yuto was still too young, and his creation time was also too short.

If he praised him rashly, it might make him arrogant.

And he had seen too many talents who died halfway because of arrogance over the past few decades.

He didn't want Akiwara Yuto to be the next one.

That was why he took the initiative to take over the conversation and said something like "not bad."

Seto Tamae and Miyagawa Yosuke were surprised in their hearts when they heard this, but they quickly understood Kawai Shinta's intention, so they just nodded in cooperation.

Akiwara Yuto did not know the thoughts of the three old foxes opposite him, but he breathed a sigh of relief after hearing that he had passed the test.

Lei Mengde Qian Delei's nine rules, after all, came from a different time in another world; who knew if they would work?

In any case, this hurdle today was finally passed!

In that case, he should talk about the cause and effect of this test.

After all, until now, he was still confused.

On the other side, Miyagawa Yosuke also took a sip of tea, and then he took over the conversation.

"Teacher Akiwara, since you passed the test, then we can talk about our intention in inviting you. That is, we hope you will join the Mystery Writers Association and become one of the association's members."

Hearing this proposal, Akiwara Yuto was surprised.

As far as he knew, aren't association members all required to be writers who have debuted for more than 3 years? But he has only debuted for half a year?

In that case, even if he joined the association, it should be as a candidate member of the association.

But he was surprised for a moment, then quickly reacted; it seems this is the reward for this "test"—letting him skip the three-year waiting time and join the association directly.

He thought for less than two seconds and intended to agree directly; after all, for a writer, connections are indispensable.

And the Mystery Writers Association just happened to be able to provide him with this platform to gain connections.

But just as Akiwara Yuto was about to speak, Miyagawa Yosuke continued.

"Teacher Akiwara, I must state first that regarding joining the association, it is not necessarily entirely beneficial to you..."