Chapter 176: Suspension and Counterattack!

Time passed quickly, and half a week went by in the blink of an eye.

However, within the literary criticism circles, opinions regarding Akiwara Yuto's work, *The Invisible Guest*, had split into two distinct camps.

One camp, represented by Nishijima Tomoki, argued that the work was overly unconventional and pretentious, creating significant reading barriers for the audience and proving that Akiwara Yuto had exhausted his talent.

The other camp, represented by Toyama Shuichi, believed that this work adopted a different writing style and was an innovative attempt in Japanese mystery literature, and that Akiwara Yuto should be given more patience.

Under the clash between these two camps, the work *The Invisible Guest* caught the eyes of more critics, leading many who had originally intended to wait and see to jump into the fray and voice their opinions.

However, unlike Nishijima Tomoki and Toyama Shuichi, these new critics, considering that the serialization had not yet ended, did not know how the subsequent plot would develop.

Therefore, to avoid the possibility of "crashing," they only published some relatively "neutral and conservative" criticisms or praises.

But regardless, due to the extreme controversy surrounding *The Invisible Guest*, it managed to grab a spot on the extremely tight newspaper layouts in early December.

Many readers who had not yet read the work were also intrigued, curious about what kind of mystery Akiwara Yuto had written.

It must be known that before this, evaluations of a mystery work were often one-sided criticism or one-sided praise.

Few works could, like *The Invisible Guest*, cause the circle of critics to engage in a war of words over it.

Driven by this curiosity, many members of the public headed to nearby bookstores and purchased a copy of *April Youth*.

This caused the sales of the fourth issue of *April Youth* to exceed the editorial department's estimate of 140, 00 copies, reaching 170, 00. Not only that, it also boosted the sales of the previous three issues.

When they first learned of the sales growth, Dacheng Lixiang and the others thought it was due to the market share captured through channels in schools.

But when the statistics department informed them of the specific reason, everyone was very surprised, and some were even left between laughter and tears.

However, although sales had increased, it was not without negative effects.

Before reading the book, many readers had already learned of the negative reviews from critics, forming a preconceived notion.

As a result, after seeing that the work was indeed complex enough to be "brain-burning," many of these readers also expressed their dissatisfaction online, supporting the claim that Akiwara Yuto had exhausted his talent.

This caused the opinions of critics who believed "this work is a failure" to occupy the upper hand in public opinion for a time.

……

Chiyoda Ward, Saturday morning, Akiwara Yuto's home.

Akiwara Yuto was wearing pajamas, sitting cross-legged on the tatami in the living room. He looked at the reviews in the newspaper and fell into deep thought.

The newspaper in his hand was called *Opinion Review*, a medium-sized paper with a circulation of about 200, 00 copies.

On the cultural page of this paper, a critic named Yamashita had published an article titled "Readers Are Losing Patience with Akiwara Yuto," which was about half a page long.

"……Mystery Literature Newcomer Award winner Akiwara Yuto's new work, *The Invisible Guest*, has recently caused great controversy among readers. Many readers, after finishing it, believe that the narrative of this work is overly complex……"

"……The story, from beginning to end, is unfolded only in the form of constant flashbacks and memories, making it very difficult for readers to immerse themselves in it……"

"But I personally believe that Akiwara-sensei is, after all, just a newcomer, so he should be given more understanding. After all, he has already published several good works before this; compared to them, this work……"

Seeing this part, Akiwara Yuto put down the newspaper and sighed.

Although this critic claimed in the article that he wanted to give him understanding, he actually revealed a viewpoint: he was not optimistic about this work.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have mentioned "newcomer" at the end, nor would he have brought up his previous works.

After all, the subtext of this sentence was that compared to his previously released works, this *The Invisible Guest* was much worse.

Akiwara Yuto stood up, paced back and forth in the room, and looked at the pedestrians on the street outside the window, feeling dazed for a moment.

Had he really failed?

The work *The Invisible Guest* was adapted from the Spanish suspense mystery film *The Invisible Guest*.

And this film had consistently ranked in the top three of global suspense mystery works on some domestic and international lists, and was sometimes even rated as number one.

He remembered that in his past life, when he saw this work, he was shocked by the series of twists and the truth versus falsehood within it!

That was why he wanted to bring this work out and publish it in *April Youth* after adaptation.

But he didn't expect it to cause so much dissatisfaction now.

Akiwara Yuto stopped, walked to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, took out a bottle of water, and began to drink.

The moment his lips touched the cold water, he immediately calmed down and realized a key point.

When he watched the movie, he watched it in one go from beginning to end without any pauses, so he could quickly understand the brilliance of the story.

But when adapted into a novel, he had to split it into several issues, which greatly tested the readers!

In other words, he might have overestimated the readers' patience……

Since that was the case, how should he remedy it now?

Just then, the doorbell rang.

Following the sound of a key in the lock, footsteps approached from the direction of the stairs.

Akiwara Yuto looked up and found that the person arriving was Asano Aiko.

"Akiwara, these are the reader letters that *April Youth* entrusted me to bring to you." Asano Aiko walked into the living room and handed over a thick package.

Akiwara Yuto took the package but did not open it.

In fact, even without looking, he already knew the general content from the public opinion online.

"Akiwara, aren't you going to look?" Asano Aiko asked, somewhat puzzled. "Editor Awazu and I know these are all letters from readers who support you."

"All letters from readers who support me?"

Akiwara Yuto glanced at the package in his hand, feeling a bit confused for a moment.

But upon second thought, he quickly understood the editorial department's intentions: they were afraid he would lose confidence in continuing the serialization, so they wanted to give him some encouragement.

Thinking of this, Akiwara Yuto laughed dumbly. Was he the type of person to lack confidence?

To tell the truth, his confidence in this work was greater than anyone else's.

He pondered for a moment and then made a decision.

He walked to the Xuanguan and made a phone call to Dacheng Lixiang.

"Editor-in-chief Dacheng, this is Akiwara Yuto. Regarding the next issue of the magazine, I would like to temporarily suspend serialization for one issue."

On the other end, Dacheng Lixiang, holding the receiver, was completely stunned.

"Akiwara-sensei, has something happened?!"

For their magazine, the suspension of a work was a very serious event. Besides making some readers dissatisfied, it would also attract criticism from the outside.

Furthermore, many writers often did not continue serializing after a suspension.

This also meant that the work had died prematurely.

The current *April Youth* had placed a heavy bet on Akiwara Yuto's work. If Akiwara Yuto suspended it, it would undoubtedly have a severely serious impact on sales!

Akiwara Yuto heard her concerns and explained: "Editor-in-chief Dacheng, I don't intend to stop the serialization. I just need some time. Let me explain my plan……"

After about 15 minutes on the phone, he finished explaining his plan, and Dacheng Lixiang let out a sigh of relief after hearing it.

She hadn't expected Akiwara Yuto to have such a plan.

After briefly weighing the pros and cons, Dacheng Lixiang responded.

"Akiwara-sensei, since you have this plan, the editorial department will fully cooperate with your decision to suspend. As for the rest, you don't need to worry too much."

"Editor-in-chief Dacheng, thank you very much. Sorry for the trouble," Akiwara Yuto said.

He hadn't expected his plan to be passed so easily.

If it were at *New*, this decision of his would probably have taken more than half a month to haggle over.

"Akiwara-sensei, in any case, please focus on your creation. As for the rest, don't worry too much," Dacheng Lixiang said in a sincere tone.

Akiwara Yuto nodded subconsciously, then thanked her and hung up the phone.

He clenched his fists, and the expression on his face became firm.

Next, he was going back to "stifle" a big move.

He would let those critics who thought he had failed see clearly what a classic work really was!