Chapter 18: Hurry While There's Time

Yashiro Toshihiro made his choice and immediately took out paper and pen to write.

He first sorted out the pros and cons of "The Footsteps of Searching," and then modified it using the Chunqiu style.

He changed the large sections of landscape description to "the author depicts the scenery vividly," changed the boring scene descriptions to "the author's writing style is very prominent," and avoided the heavy and focused on the light in other aspects to express it euphemistically...

In less than an hour and a half, he integrated half a page, about 4,000 words.

He proofread it simply and threw it aside. He opened a new page of manuscript paper again, preparing to write a book review for "Little Ornament and Yoko."

This time, he didn't intend to do a sloppy job.

He gripped his pen and began to ponder carefully; it was only after a while that he started to write, and while writing, he kept stopping to delete and modify the previous content.

It took a full two hours for him to write this piece that he truly wanted to write. It could be said that this article of less than 500 words poured out quite a bit of his heart's blood.

But he did not regret it; he was unwilling to be just a puppet manipulated by performance burdens; he wanted to convey the works he truly wanted to recommend to readers through the newspaper.

The next day, the new issue of "Tokyo Daily News" began to be distributed.

In Japan, an important channel for newspaper distribution is the delivery person.

Every day at 3 or 4 AM, many young guys riding bicycles would shuttle through the streets and alleys of Tokyo, delivering the newspapers in their hands to every household in the streets and alleys, ensuring that the male masters of these families could read them as early as possible.

Shimamoto Masanori, who lived in Setagaya Ward, was one of these male masters.

He sat at the dining table, finished the breakfast prepared by his wife, and picked up the "Tokyo Daily News" to read.

He first looked at the social and economic sections in the front, then flipped to the literature section in the back, and saw a small headline—"A Story from Pain to Rebirth."

He was a bit curious, couldn't help but read on, and was a bit surprised by the content inside. After finishing, he found that it was a bit late, so he stood up and headed to the company.

But for some reason, the content of the book review always made him feel a bit distracted, so much so that he was a bit listless at work today and was almost scolded by his leader.

When he finally endured until 9 PM to get off work, he immediately went to a nearby bookstore and bought that copy of "New Novel."

Borrowing the light from the roadside, he flipped to the page of "Little Ornament and Yoko" and started reading.

Once he started, it was a full half-hour.

He didn't even realize that during the process of reading the book, his whole person was basically motionless; except for the almost instinctive turning of the pages, his feet basically didn't move half a step.

When he flipped to the last page, he woke up as if from a dream, realizing that his legs were numb from standing.

But his mood had a different feeling, and his whole person was trembling slightly.

He had never thought that he, as a pure honkaku detective reader, would be shocked by such a shocking honkaku-style article.

Whether it was the depiction of the difference between mother and daughter, or the reversal at the end of the story, it gave him an inexplicable feeling, giving him, a reader who prided himself on being an orthodox detective fan, a great shock.

He couldn't help but develop great curiosity about the Mr. Akiwara who wrote this work.

What kind of writer could write such a thrilling and deeply moving article!?

Akiwara Yuto was completely unaware of the fact that he had gained a fan; he was sitting in a cubicle in the writers' office on the 14th floor of Mantanshe, staring at the ceiling and daydreaming.

Yesterday, the first issue of "New Novel" in July went on sale, and he was very worried about how many copies would be sold in the first week.

In fact, he also understood that it was useless for him to know the numbers; after all, the sales volume was decided by the readers, and he couldn't hold a gun and force everyone in Tokyo who read books to buy them.

He lowered his head again to look at the manuscript paper on the table in front of him, unable to help feeling a headache.

What he was doing now was turning foreign detective movies from his past life into local Japanese detective novels.

Doing this seemed laborious and thankless, but it was very valuable to him; after all, the Japanese works he knew were limited, and if he used them all up, he would be dumbfounded.

Moreover, the localization of foreign works was not a new thing in Japan in his past life.

For example, the American "12 Angry Men" was adapted into "12 Gentle Japanese," the Colombian "One Hundred Years of Solitude" was adapted into "Goodbye, Ark," and the Korean "Confession of Murder" was adapted into "Confession After 22 Years."

Most of these works also achieved success in reputation and box office in Japan.

After all, works that could be adapted had their own reasons for success; localization was just making them more in line with their own national conditions, making them easier for their own citizens to accept.

Although this was said, localization adaptation was not a simple matter.

Japan is a society that highly emphasizes collectivism and discipline; the kind of personality of Western protagonists is hard to thrive here, not to mention the conflicts in many aspects such as character dialogue and environmental design.

He concentrated and thought for another 20 minutes, but didn't write a single word; he stood up, looked at the alarm clock on the wall, and found it was already 12 o'clock.

He thought about it and decided to go to Asano Aiko upstairs to mooch a meal—the other party said her mother made too much bento every day.

Just as he was about to leave, a voice came from the next cubicle, "Yo, Akiwara-san, going to find your female editor to eat again?"

Akiwara Yuto turned his head to look and found it was a regular friend he had just met recently; the other party's name was Imamura Yuto, a signed author of "Tokyo Literature."

This person's personality was different from the average Japanese person and was relatively easygoing.

Looking at the way the other party was squeezing his eyebrows, he knew the other party was teasing him; he rolled his eyes and said unceremoniously.

"Imamura-san, you can also go find your editor to eat; there's nothing wrong with that, right?"

"No, no, no, Akiwara-san, the problem is huge."

Imamura Yuto waved his hand, then stood up and gestured in front of his chest with exaggerated movements.

"Your editor is a beauty who can make you eat three bowls of rice with one look, while my editor is a middle-aged man with developed chest sweat glands; the distance between the two is worlds apart."

Akiwara Yuto's eyelids twitched, and he felt sympathy for his editor in his heart; encountering such an author, whipping him with a leather whip would be considered light.

But how did the other party know that his editor had a lot of chest hair? It made people think deeply and fear.

Imamura Yuto finished this sentence and said in the manner of a senior: "Akiwara-san, as a married person who has been through it, I advise you to take action as soon as possible."

"What action?"

"Don't pretend you don't understand; Ms. Asano is beautiful and has a good temper; there must be people inside the publishing house eyeing her. If you are late to take action, it will definitely be too late; hurry while there's time; if it were me..."

Hearing this, Akiwara Yuto turned and left directly; if this continued, it would simply be endless.

He was now single-mindedly wanting to achieve a career, so how could he have the heart to talk about love? Besides, he only had gratitude toward Asano Aiko.

He was too lazy to talk nonsense with the other party, waved his hand directly as a goodbye, and walked out toward the door.

"Akiwara, what are you busy with recently? Why do you look so haggard every day?"

Asano Aiko looked at Akiwara Yuto with suspicion; they were sitting in a small conference room of the editorial department on the 16th floor.

After experiencing the bar incident, the relationship between the two became familiar; although it hadn't reached the point of calling each other by name directly, the address had also become much more casual.

Akiwara Yuto glanced at her, not knowing how to respond for a moment, but his eyes glanced at the bento.

This bento was made by Mrs. Asano herself, and it contained a wide variety of dishes, each looking very exquisite.

Hamburger meat fried until crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, four pieces stacked together; thick egg rolls grilled with eggs and milk, emitting an egg fragrance after being heated in the microwave; in addition, there were bright red octopus sausages and Japanese-style stewed vegetables that looked very appetizing, ensuring the intake of vitamins while ensuring the deliciousness of the food...

Seeing Akiwara Yuto not speaking, the suspicion in Asano Aiko's eyes deepened.

But after all, she was not Akiwara Yuto's girlfriend, let alone his mother, so she could only advise in a probing tone.

"Akiwara, I know you have manuscript fee income every issue, but it's better to go to places like Kabukicho less; this is also for your own good."

Now that the two people's joint career had just gotten on the right track, she was worried that Akiwara Yuto would go to do something like a bubble bath; if a scandal broke out, he would probably be directly canceled from cooperation by the publishing house, and even kneeling down wouldn't be useful then.

Although Japanese society is indeed tolerant of writers, even a disabled writer having more than 50 extramarital affairs didn't cause much controversy, but that was aimed at famous writers; Akiwara Yuto was still just a newcomer...

Akiwara Yuto heard her pull the matter far away and felt that if he didn't explain, his image would be ruined; he sighed and said in a distressed tone: "It's like this; recently my writing has fallen into a slump, and I feel I need help to break through."

He thought about it and decided not to tell the other party about his participation in the Detective Literature Newcomer Award; after all, for one thing, he hadn't thought about which work to submit specifically, and for another, he didn't have much confidence.

When he really won the award, he would give Asano Aiko a surprise; anyway, it had to be published in Mantanshe.

The suspicion in Asano Aiko's eyes gradually disappeared, but she thought of another thing and gradually became nervous.

A writer's writing falling into a slump is not a new thing; some writers run out of inspiration as they write, and some people can't write a single word even after holding it in for half a month.

But the current "New Novel" is in the form of weekly serialization; if he really couldn't hand in the manuscript by then, it would simply be the death of her.

She put down the chopsticks in her hand and advised solemnly: "Akiwara, the manuscript you handed in now is enough for 3 weeks of serialization, so why don't I help you ask for leave first, and you go find a place to rest."

After a pause, she poured a cup of oolong tea from the thermos cup on the side and handed it to Akiwara Yuto.

"Of course, if there is anything you need my help with, just let me know, and I will try my best to help you solve it."

As a responsible editor, wiping the writer's butt is a matter of course; as long as the other party can write a manuscript, everything is easy to talk about.

Even if Akiwara Yuto needed some material about love, she could help him get a rental girlfriend.

Akiwara Yuto took the oolong tea and looked at the pitch-black tea water, wondering in his heart if this tea was lit with a lighter.

He quickly threw away this unrealistic thought and began to seriously analyze what Asano Aiko said—whether he should take a leave to recharge himself.

Seeing Akiwara Yuto silent, Asano Aiko decided to cheer him up, so she walked to the office outside, took a stack of newspapers, and spread them on the table in the small conference room.

"Akiwara, your work has been praised, so it can be considered as having done publicity."

Akiwara Yuto was a bit surprised, took the newspaper and looked at it, but for a moment he was a bit speechless... ===== CHAPTER 19 =====