Chapter 176

Time passed quickly, and another half a week went by.

But within the literary criticism circle, opinions regarding Akiwara Yuto's "The Invisible Guest" had formed two distinct schools.

One school, represented by Xidao Youhui, believed that this work was too unorthodox and pretentious, adding many reading obstacles for readers, proving that Akiwara Yuto's talent had dried up.

The other school, represented by Yuanshan Xiu, believed that this work adopted different writing techniques and was an innovative attempt in Nihon detective literature, and Akiwara Yuto should be given more patience.

Under the clash of these two schools, the work "The Invisible Guest" entered the eyes of more book reviewers, and also made many book reviewers who originally wanted to wait and see come down to express their opinions.

However, unlike Xidao Youhui and Yuanshan Xiu, these newly involved book reviewers considered that the serialization had not ended, and they did not know how the subsequent plot would develop.

So in order to avoid the possibility of "flipping the car," they only published some relatively "neutral and conservative" criticisms or praises.

But no matter what, due to the extreme controversy of the work "The Invisible Guest," it occupied a place on the extremely tight newspaper layout in early December.

Many readers who had not read this work were also aroused with interest, curious about what kind of detective story Akiwara Yuto had written.

You must know that before this, the evaluation of a detective story was often one-sided criticism or one-sided praise.

Few works could be like "The Invisible Guest," which could make the book reviewer circle have a war of words over it.

Driven by this curiosity, many people went to nearby bookstores and purchased a copy of "April Youth."

This also made the sales of the fourth issue of "April Youth" exceed the 140,000 copies estimated by the editorial department, reaching 170,000 copies. Not only that, it also drove the sales of the previous three issues of the journal.

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

But when the statistics force informed them of the specific reason, everyone felt very surprised, and some even expressed that they didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

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

Before reading the book, many readers had already learned of the bad reviews from the mouths of book reviewers, because they had formed preconceived notions.

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

This also made the opinions of book reviewers who believed "this work is a failure" 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 "Viewpoint Review," a medium-sized newspaper with a circulation of about 200,000 copies.

On the cultural page of this newspaper, a book reviewer named Shanxia published an article titled "Regarding Akiwara Yuto, Readers Are Losing Patience," which was about half a page long.

"... Akiwara Yuto's new work 'The Invisible Guest,' the winner of the Newcomer Award for Detective Fiction, has recently caused great controversy among readers. Many readers, after finishing it, believe that the narrative of this work is too complex..."

"... The story from beginning to end is only unfolded in the form of continuous dialogue plus memories, so it is difficult for readers to immerse themselves in it..."

"... But I personally believe that Mr. Akiwara is, after all, just a newcomer, so he should be given more understanding. After all, before this, he had already published several good works. Compared with them, this work..."

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

Although this book reviewer said in the article that he should give himself understanding, he actually expressed a viewpoint, which was that he was not optimistic about this work.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have said "newcomer" at the end, and he wouldn't have brought up the previous works.

After all, the subtext of this sentence was that compared with the works he had published before, this "The Invisible Guest" was much worse.

Akiwara Yuto stood up, walked back and forth in the room, looking at the pedestrians on the street outside the window, and was a bit dazed for a moment.

Had he really failed?

This work "The Invisible Guest" was adapted from the Spanish suspense detective film "The Invisible Guest."

And this film had always been in the top three of the global suspense detective works ranking on some lists at home and abroad, and was sometimes even evaluated as the first.

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

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

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

Akiwara Yuto stopped his steps, walked to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, took out a bottle of water, and drank it.

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

When he watched the movie at that time, he watched it in one breath from beginning to end, without any pause in the middle, so he could quickly understand the excitement of the story.

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

In other words, he might have overestimated the readers' patience too much...

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

Just at this moment, the doorbell rang.

With the sound of the key opening the door, a sound of footsteps came from the direction of the stairs, from far to near.

Akiwara Yuto looked up and found that the person coming was none other than Asano Aiko.

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

Akiwara Yuto took the package but didn't open it.

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

"Akiwara, aren't you going to take a look?" Asano Aiko was a bit puzzled, "Editor Sujin and I, they are all reader letters supporting you inside."

"Are they all reader letters supporting me?"

Akiwara Yuto glanced at the package in his hand and was a bit puzzled for a moment.

But when he thought about it, he quickly understood the editorial department's intention, which was that they were afraid he would lose the confidence to continue serializing, so they wanted to give him a little confidence.

Thinking of this, Akiwara Yuto laughed dumbly; was he the kind of person who lacked confidence?

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

He pondered for a moment, then made a decision.

He walked to the entrance and made a phone call to Chief Dacheng.

"Chief Dacheng, I am Akiwara Yuto. Regarding the next issue of the journal, I hope to temporarily suspend publication for one issue."

On the other side, Chief Dacheng, holding the receiver, was completely surprised.

"Mr. Akiwara, has something happened?!"

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

Besides that, many writers often do not continue to serialize after suspending publication.

This also means that this work has died directly.

The current "April Youth" has placed a heavy bet on this work by Akiwara Yuto. If Akiwara Yuto suspends publication, it will undoubtedly cause an extremely serious impact on sales!

Akiwara Yuto heard her concerns and explained: "Chief Dacheng, I don't intend to stop the serialization. I just need a period of time. Let's do this, I will tell you my plan..."

After about 15 minutes of phone call, he finished telling his plan one after another, and Chief Dacheng, after hearing this plan, breathed a sigh of relief.

She didn't expect that Akiwara Yuto was planning like this.

After weighing it simply, Chief Dacheng responded.

"Mr. Akiwara, since you have this plan, then regarding your decision to suspend publication, the editorial department here will fully cooperate. As for other things, you don't need to worry too much."

"Chief Dacheng, thank you very much, sorry for causing you trouble," Akiwara Yuto said.

He didn't expect that his plan would be passed so easily.

If it were at "New," regarding this decision of his, it would probably take more than half a day to pull.

"Mr. Akiwara, in short, please create with peace of mind. As for other things, don't worry too much," Chief Dacheng 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 "hold back" a big move.

He wanted to let those book reviewers who thought he had failed take a good look at what is called a classic work!