Chapter 170: The Polarization of Reader Opinions

Time passed quickly. After Akiwara Yuto submitted the manuscripts for the next two installments, the second and third issues of *Youth of April* were released over the following two weeks.

In the second week, the sales of *Youth of April* grew from 100, 00 copies to 120, 00. By the third week, they grew again from 120, 00 to 130, 00 copies.

Although the overall trend was still upward, according to the data, the growth margin for each week was shrinking...

Tuesday morning, Chiyoda Ward, Kejiaokan Headquarters, *Youth of April* Editorial Department.

Akiwara Yuto sat in Da Cheng Lixiang's office, discussing issues regarding sales.

Da Cheng Lixiang brought over a statistical table and placed it in front of Akiwara Yuto.

"Akiwara-sensei, this is the daily sales chart for last week sent over by the statistics department."

Akiwara Yuto took the statistical table and began to look it over.

But as he looked, he couldn't help but feel a bit puzzled.

Judging from last week's data, the first-day sales were around 30, 00 copies, then decreased by a certain margin each day, and by Sunday, sales were only around 6, 00 copies.

Why didn't this data match the daily sales curve of *New* from before? The decline was a bit too fast, right?

Could it be a problem with the book reviews?

He thought for a moment, then asked: "Editor-in-Chief Da Cheng, are there any recent reports or book reviews related to *Youth of April*?"

Da Cheng Lixiang nodded, then made an internal call, instructing Sujin Xiushu to bring over a stack of newspapers.

Akiwara Yuto took the newspapers and began to read them carefully.

He was surprised to find that the book reviews on these newspaper pages were basically promotional content that Kejiaokan had paid to place themselves, and the placement time was mostly on Monday.

Book reviews spontaneously promoting the work *The Invisible Guest* were not only few in number, but the writing style was also somewhat restrained.

For example, in the newspaper *Osaka News*, the title of the book review was "Akiwara Yuto's New Work: What is the Truth?".

Although the title was a bit gimmicky, the content of the review inside only briefly described the background of the work and did not delve into it much. Moreover, from beginning to end, the article never once used the word "recommend."

After finishing the entire book review, Akiwara Yuto was even more confused.

Back when he published the *Zoo* series in *New*, every single installment had many book reviewers spontaneously recommending it. It made no sense that now that his fame was much greater, there would be so many fewer reviews.

If it weren't for Kejiaokan spending a lot of money on promotion, there would likely be even fewer reviews promoting his work.

Could it be that this adapted work, *The Invisible Guest*, was truly failing to resonate with the local audience?

He thought for a moment, then posed his doubts to the Editor-in-Chief sitting across from him.

"Akiwara-sensei, you are actually mistaken about this point."

Upon hearing Akiwara Yuto's doubts, Da Cheng Lixiang laughed instead.

In her view, the steady growth in sales of *Youth of April* now meant that as long as it could eventually stabilize at around 150, 00 copies, it would be enough to maintain its status as one of the four major literary journals.

Therefore, she believed this result was not bad at all and had completely met her expectations.

She took out several other newspapers, spread them on the coffee table between them, and said: "Akiwara-sensei, take a look at these and see if you have any different findings."

Akiwara Yuto was a bit puzzled, but he looked at them anyway. After finishing all the newspapers, he answered uncertainly: "It seems the culture-related sections have increased quite a bit?"

Da Cheng Lixiang replied: "You are correct. Now, because of the competition between the four major literary journals, all the major publishing houses have increased their investment in book reviews. Therefore, page space is limited. If you put it that way, you should understand now, right?"

Akiwara Yuto thought for a while and quickly understood what she meant.

When he published the *Zoo* series, the competition among literary journals was not as intense as it was now.

So at that time, there was still plenty of empty space in various newspapers, allowing his work to be effectively promoted.

But now, because major publishing houses were all running advertisements, there was much less space in the newspapers. Therefore, even if book reviewers wanted to recommend his work, they would be restricted by the page space.

Akiwara Yuto subconsciously frowned.

If that was the case, it would likely be much harder for *The Invisible Guest* to replicate the sales turnaround of the *Zoo* series.

Seeing the expression on Akiwara Yuto's face, Da Cheng Lixiang added.

"Akiwara-sensei, regarding the promotion of *The Invisible Guest*, Kejiaokan will continue to invest resources. Additionally, the corresponding book signing event will be arranged for next Thursday; please be prepared by then."

Akiwara Yuto nodded to show he understood, but his mind kept thinking about another question.

Besides the intense competition for book reviews, did the fact that *The Invisible Guest* couldn't get promotion also have to do with the content of the work itself?

Bidding farewell to Da Cheng Lixiang, Akiwara Yuto left Kejiaokan.

He prepared to search online to see what everyone's opinions were on this work.

After a car ride of over 20 minutes, he arrived at an internet cafe he frequented, paid at the front desk, walked into a cubicle, and turned on the computer.

Akiwara Yuto thought for a moment, registered an account named "Yuki Rito," logged into a mystery-related online forum, and entered the keyword "The Invisible Guest."

After waiting for more than 10 seconds, the search results appeared, with about forty or fifty entries from top to bottom.

Akiwara Yuto clicked the mouse and began to browse. After filtering through them, he opened the post with the highest popularity.

The title of this post was "My Personal Opinion on Akiwara-sensei's New Work," and the content was very long, about 3, 00 words.

At the beginning, the original poster stated their identity, saying they started following Akiwara Yuto because of the work *Suspect X*, and had read all of Akiwara Yuto's previously released works, so they could be considered a loyal reader.

But regarding this *The Invisible Guest*, the poster expressed some dissatisfaction.

Seeing this, Akiwara Yuto became puzzled. Dissatisfaction? Why?

He thought for a moment and continued reading.

In the latter half of the post, the poster gave specific reasons, arguing that this mystery work had a style too different from Akiwara Yuto's previous works and used a pretentious technique.

It wasn't quite orthodox mystery, nor was it social mystery; all the clues were hidden so tightly that one had to keep following the client's words to discover them.

But even those clues were not necessarily true.

Below this post, there were many agreeing replies, and some even suggested that Akiwara-sensei might have fallen into a creative slump, which was why he wrote such a work.

This view was agreed with by many; after all, few writers could consistently publish excellent works.

Akiwara Yuto frowned as he looked around and found that the replies below this post were all expounding on this one viewpoint; even if someone expressed support, they were immediately "refuted" by another group.

Could it really be a failure to resonate? After reading all the replies, Akiwara Yuto couldn't help but start thinking.

He closed this post and opened another popular one, but he was surprised to find that the author of this post actually expressed great appreciation for *The Invisible Guest*.

"I am a long-time reader of *Youth of April* and have not read Akiwara-sensei's works before this. But I believe *The Invisible Guest* is a unique work and should not be criticized too harshly."

"For a long time, Japanese orthodox mystery works have mostly used the narrative technique of a detective discovering a crime scene and then starting to solve it. Looking at *The Invisible Guest*, it actually uses a narrative and Q&A technique to reveal the case."

"I think this breakthrough in traditional techniques is what is truly worthy of admiration! And for me, being able to follow the dialogue between the two people to constantly explore the true and false clues between their words is a very fun thing!"

Unlike the previous post, most people below this post expressed support, and some even said they were curious and would specifically go buy a copy.

Akiwara Yuto nodded with satisfaction, but then he thought of another question.

Why were the opinions among readers so polarized regarding this work?

He put down the mouse, closed his eyes to think, and finally reached two conclusions.

The first conclusion was that because the narrative technique of this work was indeed different from the current mainstream narrative techniques, it caused some reading barriers for some readers.

The second conclusion was that this work had only been serialized for 3 issues so far. But what was truly shocking about it was the story reversal brought about in the final few issues!

When the truth was truly revealed, the content of this story would truly shock all readers.

Therefore, it was far from time to admit defeat! He still needed a little more patience.

Having reached this conclusion, Akiwara Yuto turned off the computer and prepared to leave.

Rather than worrying, it was better to write the manuscripts for the next few issues early.

While Akiwara Yuto was writing furiously at home, the sales statistics for *Youth of April* also appeared almost simultaneously before the editors-in-chief of the other three major literary journals.

And regarding this change in sales for *Youth of April*, each editorial department had different views.

For example, the *Literature Spring* editorial department of Jingfan Publishing specifically held a regular meeting to analyze Akiwara Yuto's *The Invisible Guest*...