Chapter 174: Akiwara's

"Regarding the reader feedback for the fourth issue, it currently seems somewhat unsatisfactory. Although the estimated sales for this week are still around 140, 00 copies, quite a few readers have indicated that they might not purchase the next issue."

Chiyoda Ward, headquarters of the Jiaojiao Publishing House, editorial department of *April Youth*.

Hideki Awazu held a document and gave a report to everyone in the conference room.

"... nd according to our survey, the reason for the decline in the repeat purchase rate is that readers have expressed that they are gradually losing patience with Akiwara-sensei's work. If this continues, the repeat purchase rate may decline further..."

Hearing this, the crowd below became restless, and many people whispered to each other.

After a while, a middle-aged man wearing glasses raised his hand and continued to ask: "Editor Awazu, since the number of repeat purchasers is falling, are there any remedial measures in place?"

Hideki Awazu nodded.

"Deputy Editor-in-Chief Kawamoto, regarding distribution channels, we are still strengthening our cooperation with bookstores around schools and have seized a portion of the market from *Spring of Literature*. Additionally, I have already communicated with Akiwara-sensei, and he believes that as the plot gradually unfolds, the readers' interest will gradually increase."

Hearing this, the middle-aged man laughed, and his laughter made everyone present somewhat surprised for a moment.

After a while, the middle-aged man stopped laughing and continued.

"Don't joke around. Just because the author's own work is interesting, does that mean it will be interesting? Perhaps Akiwara Yuto doesn't even know how to write it anymore and is just being stubborn. Besides, even if the final result is very interesting, so what? The readers might have already run off in the early stages!"

He patted the table and raised his voice.

"I believe that since we have already used Akiwara Yuto's fame to attract a batch of readers, the focus of future promotion should no longer be on him! Including the covers and book reviews, we should focus more on our own originally signed authors!"

"And when this serialization ends, we will terminate our cooperation with Akiwara Yuto and scout for truly talented authors!"

The crowd below became restless again. Terminate the agreement with Akiwara Yuto? And then scout for new authors?

If that happens, will it cause a mess like it did with the Manga Club, and possibly even trigger public opinion issues?

The middle-aged man seemed to have heard the comments from the crowd and waved his hand.

"Akiwara Yuto only signed a normal serialization agreement with us; it didn't stipulate anything about publishing collected volumes, so it's just a normal commercial contract. Even if there is outside questioning at that time, we only need to produce the reader feedback statistics from these few issues to prove that his work is unpopular."

He turned around and set his gaze on Rika Oshiro, who was sitting in the main seat: "Editor-in-Chief Oshiro, what is your opinion on my suggestion?"

Rika Oshiro looked around at the crowd below, hesitated for a few seconds, and then said to the middle-aged man.

"Deputy Editor-in-Chief Kawamoto, have you read the overall outline of *The Invisible Guest*?"

The middle-aged man thought for a moment and then replied: "I haven't read it, but I think it's enough to just look at the finished product and the data from these few issues. As for the outline, it's not something that must be read, right?"

Rika Oshiro shook her head. "In that case, I think you should take a look at the outline before making a corresponding decision. That way, you won't be questioning anything."

She raised her voice.

"I know that everyone may still have doubts, but I insist that the current focus of promotion must remain on Akiwara-sensei. Before this, I have already understood the full context of this story."

"I believe what Akiwara-sensei said: as the story unfolds, the readers will become more and more interested!"

After she finished speaking, the whispering below subsided quite a bit. In the eyes of the editorial department, since the editor-in-chief had already said so, it meant this decision was set in stone.

Even if others had opinions, they could only wait until the sales results of the next few weeks came out.

The middle-aged man frowned and clenched his fists tightly.

He felt that Rika Oshiro was truly crazy to make such an irrational decision!

He thought about it and decided that after the meeting ended, he would go and take a good look at Akiwara Yuto's outline to understand what exactly was being written!

On the other side, Akiwara Yuto headed to the Mystery Writers Association.

This morning, President Kawai called him to inform him that the association had finished the corresponding follow-up procedures and asked him to come over to collect the corresponding membership credentials.

After receiving the call, Akiwara Yuto changed into the expensive suit he had bought earlier and then hailed a taxi directly.

After a car ride of about 30 minutes, he arrived at his destination.

Because of the continuous stream of royalty income, he was no longer the unemployed youth who worried about not being able to pay his rent.

So even though the taxi fare was expensive, he didn't take it to heart.

"President Kawai, sorry to keep you waiting."

After Akiwara Yuto got out of the car, he followed the words of the "balding" uncle at the front desk and found President Kawai's office.

When entering the door, he took the opportunity to present a box of souvenirs, "This is the egg mochi I bought at the Tsuboyama shopping street."

"Akiwara-sensei, there's no need to be so polite." Shinta Kawai smiled as he accepted the gift and placed it to the side.

Then he opened a drawer, took out a piece of brown paper that looked like a certificate, and handed it to Akiwara Yuto.

"This is the membership credential for the Mystery Writers Association. Please keep it safe."

"Yes, thank you very much." Akiwara Yuto smiled as he took it, while carefully examining the certificate.

On this brown paper, there were some very simple patterns, similar to cherry blossoms, and surrounded by these cherry blossoms were two lines of vertically written Japanese—"Mystery Writers Association Member Akiwara Yuto."

Akiwara Yuto nodded with satisfaction.

With this certificate, he saved himself a lot of effort compared to other writers who debuted at the same time.

Moreover, with the help of the Mystery Writers Association's platform, he could also get to know many people.

In the future, these connections would be his leverage for climbing further up the path of the literary world.

"Then, I'll be going."

Akiwara Yuto bowed again and intended to take his leave, as his goal for the day had already been achieved.

But to his surprise, Shinta Kawai waved his hand, "Akiwara-sensei, if you don't have urgent business, why don't we chat for a bit?"

"Chat?" Akiwara Yuto was a bit puzzled, but he agreed and sat on the sofa used for guests in the office.

Shinta Kawai took the initiative to pour him a cup of tea.

"Regarding your latest work, I have received some opinions from members here."

He paused, then asked: "Akiwara-sensei, are you doing some kind of new experiment?"

Because of some news that had been passed around, he had specifically gone to look for Akiwara Yuto's *The Invisible Guest*, but to his surprise, the logic and structure of this work were very different.

Or rather, it didn't even look like a work that a Japanese person could write.

That was why he specifically kept Akiwara Yuto behind, trying to ask about this matter clearly.

Akiwara Yuto took the tea, politely expressed his thanks, and then replied: "Yes, this work is just an experiment of mine."

"An experiment?" Shinta Kawai was somewhat puzzled.

Akiwara Yuto nodded.

"Currently, whether it is orthodox or social school works, the main writing method is to provide clues and then let the reader follow the detective to solve the case. So I want to write something different, which is to restore the true and false events through constant dialogue, and finally let the reader discover the real truth from it."

He decided to do this because it was his own plan.

After all, he already had several successful works, and supported by royalties, failing once or twice wouldn't have any particularly large impact.

Besides that, if this adaptation was successful again, it would prove that he could continue to follow the path of work adaptations.

Shinta Kawai didn't expect to hear this, but he immediately felt a sense of respect.

Generally speaking, after an author becomes famous, they often have a fixed writing pattern. And they will rely on this pattern to constantly replicate their own success.

But to his surprise, Akiwara Yuto, a writer who had only debuted for half a year, actually had this idea of wanting to break through himself.

No wonder his previous series of works had such vastly different styles; it was as if they weren't written by the same person.

"Akiwara-sensei, I understand. Stick to your own ideas!"

Shinta Kawai smiled and nodded with satisfaction.

He prepared to have his assistant subscribe to the *April Youth* journal after getting off work today, so he could see the content Akiwara Yuto serialized later in a timely manner.

He wanted to see what kind of work this Akiwara-sensei could actually write!