Chapter 188: The Reasoning Game of a Mystery Writer

Unlike the distressed mood of Uesugi Sonoko, the mood of everyone in the editorial department of *April Youth* was extremely pleasant.

After yesterday's sales statistics, the first-day sales for the new issue of *April Youth* were out: 24, 00 copies in Tokyo proper, 11, 00 copies in other regions, for a total of 35, 00 copies.

Without any surprises, the final sales for this week would likely be around 180, 00.

Compared to the 210, 00 copies of the previous issue, this sales figure could only be considered average, but none of the people attending the sales analysis meeting, including Ooshiro Rika and Awazu Hideki, showed a frustrated expression.

Because the sales of *Literature Spring* were even lower than theirs, at only 33, 00 copies...

If there were no major surprises, *April Youth* would still be able to maintain its third-place position this issue. So, the editorial department could be considered to have met their goal of reaching third place.

Ooshiro Rika sat in the main seat, looking at the report in her hand, feeling actually a bit surprised—she had originally thought that due to the conclusion of the previous serialization, the magazine sales of *April Youth* would plummet this issue.

But she hadn't expected that the previous public opinion would create a "long-tail effect," even boosting the sales of this issue.

This was what caused the work *Furuhata Ninzaburo* to attract quite a lot of reader attention and purchases right when it began serialization.

However, although the first-day sales of *April Youth* were higher than *Literature Spring*, the gap between the two was still very small, and there was still a possibility of being caught up by the other side.

Besides that, there was still a long distance to go before reaching the two magazines *Tokyo Literature* and *Tokyo Youth*.

The responsibility is heavy and the road is long; we cannot let everyone slack off!

She gave a dry cough, then said to everyone in the room: "Everyone has worked hard during this recent period!"

She paused, swept a glance over everyone, and changed her tone: "However, we are still far from the time to breathe a sigh of relief."

Hearing this, the atmosphere of the sales analysis meeting suddenly became much more serious, and everyone looked at her, waiting for her explanation.

Ooshiro Rika put down the table in her hand and said in a calm tone: "The current results of *April Youth* are indeed higher than *Literature Spring*. But don't forget, two months ago, our sales were only 70, 00 copies! Even the higher-ups were planning to change us into a semi-monthly magazine!"

"If we slack off now, what will we do if this situation happens again?"

Everyone nodded in unison; after all, the previous business situation had been dire, and even many freelance editors who were non-regular staff had been laid off. Even among regular employees, some were secretly applying to transfer departments.

Ooshiro Rika continued: "To avoid this situation from happening again, we must seriously do a good job with the magazine! After all, the publishing industry is in a slump now; no one wants to be laid off like the people at *New*?!"

Hearing the word "laid off," everyone looked at each other, and then their expressions became serious.

The year '93 was about to pass, but the current economic situation was still half-dead, which directly led to many medium-sized publishing houses going bankrupt and closing down.

Even some large publishing houses were optimizing their personnel structure, and Mankan-sha had even issued an order to *New*, telling them to either go to subordinate affiliated companies or take a severance package.

Ooshiro Rika continued: "Therefore, we cannot be satisfied with just a little success; instead, we must continue to do our work well. Fortunately, we have a trump card in our hands right now!"

"I have already communicated with Akiwara-sensei; he has currently designed the content for the next 11 issues of *Furuhata Ninzaburo*. But he also said that if needed, he can design another 30 issues of content."

"A series that can be serialized for 43 issues—is there any better trump card than this!"

Her voice did not change, but her tone became even firmer.

"As long as we can do a good job with this detective series that can be serialized for over 40 issues, then we can gain a very large reader base—by that time, it wouldn't be impossible for *April Youth* to not just be third, but first in the industry!"

"No one has any questions, right?"

The people in the audience thought for a while, then shook their heads one after another. According to the editor-in-chief's way of putting it, if they could succeed, then first place wasn't really impossible to think about.

Ooshiro Rika smiled and clapped her hands: "Alright, then everyone let's work hard together to successfully operate the *Furuhata Ninzaburo* series! We must do things one step at a time; let's thoroughly defeat *Literature Spring* first!"

As the editor-in-chief, Ooshiro Rika was the backbone of everyone. After her confident speech, the people in the editorial department were also invigorated, and some even had the idea of going all out—if they could really manage this series well, then the throne of first place might not be impossible to sit on!

By that time, wages and bonuses would definitely not be lacking!

Immediately after, everyone got busy with their own work—the editor responsible for coordinating with the art department made a contact call to discuss the subsequent cover design; the editor coordinating with bookstores sorted through the list to see which large and medium-sized bookstores they hadn't visited yet.

These tasks were just details of the magazine's distribution, but only by getting every detail right could the magazine's sales grow steadily!

Ooshiro Rika nodded with satisfaction, then looked toward Awazu Hideki: "How is the situation with Akiwara-sensei?"

Awazu Hideki responded immediately: "His assistant, Editor Asano, indicated that Akiwara-sensei has some business in Kyoto, but it won't delay our autograph session in Osaka."

"That's good, but you must also coordinate well with the other party regarding subsequent manuscripts to avoid situations where manuscripts cannot be delivered on time," Ooshiro Rika said, then fell into deep thought.

The subsequent operational focus of *April Youth* was now entirely on Akiwara Yuto's serialization, so they had to pay even more attention to him!

If it weren't for the fact that Akiwara Yuto already had an assistant, she would have loved to arrange for Awazu Hideki to be by his side, watching him 24 hours a day!

In short, the editorial department was now prepared to fight a long "war," and the work *Furuhata Ninzaburo* was the "ammunition" they were using to fight!

As long as the ammunition was sufficient, other problems would naturally be no issue at all!

On the other side, Akiwara Yuto, who was regarded as an "ammunition supplier" by Ooshiro Rika, couldn't help but sneeze.

"Master, is your health alright?" Toyama Miho asked with a look of concern.

Akiwara Yuto waved his hand, "It's nothing," but Toyama Miho still hurriedly opened the closet in the room and took out a kerosene heater.

Looking at this object with a rather "vintage" feel before him, Akiwara Yuto was subconsciously stunned.

Nowadays, heaters were popular everywhere; he hadn't expected the Toyama family to still be using such an old thing...

After some operation, Toyama Miho placed the kerosene heater in the middle of the room, and as the center "lit up," the temperature in the room also began to rise slowly.

"Sorry to trouble you," Akiwara Yuto said with a smile. Then he continued to hold his pen and resumed correcting his student's "homework."

After agreeing to take her as a student the day before, he had stayed at a nearby hotel and would come to her home at scheduled times to provide her with some explanations.

Besides that, he would also assign some tasks.

After all, after this, he would be returning to Tokyo and wouldn't see her for a long time.

While correcting the "homework," Akiwara Yuto couldn't help but praise her involuntarily.

This student's talent was even higher than he had imagined.

Generally speaking, new writers who hadn't debuted yet often had a very limited vocabulary, not to mention that she hadn't entered university to study yet, so she shouldn't have known many of the words by rights.

But Toyama Miho was worthy of having a good upbringing; she could understand many key terms at a single hint. She could even use several different words to construct a "visual scene" when describing a thing.

To tell the truth, this put a bit of pressure on Akiwara Yuto; after all, his own accumulation of Japanese vocabulary was obtained through cramming in the library, and if one were to look into it deeply, he might really not be as good as her...

But if he admitted this, where would his dignity as a master be?

He thought for a moment, coughed, and said: "Let's play a reasoning game."

Toyama Miho didn't think too much, thinking it was a test for her, so she nodded earnestly.

Akiwara Yuto thought for a while, then described the problem.

"A middle-aged man wearing a cheap suit and a luxury watch, wearing a wedding ring, his clothes full of wrinkles, looking haggard and empty-handed, gets off the train on a weekend morning."

"He sees someone fundraising at the train station, so he takes out his wallet and donates the only 10, 00-yen bill from the wallet, from which the sound of coins clinking can be heard."

"Then, even though it isn't mealtime, he goes to a nearby convenience store to buy a rice ball. He boards a bus whose final stop is an amusement park, sits in the first row, and keeps taking out his phone to check it and putting it back."

"Here is the question: what is the reason for this person's such abnormal behavior?"