Chapter 188

Unlike Uesugi Sonoko's uncomfortable mood, everyone in the *April Youth* editorial department was in a very happy mood.

According to yesterday's sales statistics, the first-day sales of the new issue of *April Youth* had been released: 24,000 copies in Tokyo, 11,000 copies in other regions, for a total of 35,000 copies.

Unsurprisingly, the final sales for this week would probably be around 180,000.

Compared to the 210,000 copies of the first issue, this sales figure could only be considered ordinary, but none of the people attending the sales analysis meeting, such as Rika Dacheng and Hideki Sudo, showed a dejected expression.

Because the sales of *Literary Spring* were even lower than theirs, only 33,000 copies...

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

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

But she didn't expect that the previous public opinion had caused a "long-tail effect," which even boosted the sales of this issue.

This was why *Furuhata Ninzaburo* attracted a lot of attention and purchases from readers as soon as it started serialization.

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

Besides this, there was still a long way to go before the two magazines *Tokyo Literature* and *Tokyo Youth*.

The road ahead was long and difficult; they couldn't let everyone slack off!

She coughed dryly and then said to everyone at the meeting, "Everyone has worked hard during this recent period!"

She paused, glanced at everyone again, and changed the subject, "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.

Rika Dacheng put down the table in her hand and said in a calm tone, "The current performance of *April Youth* is indeed higher than *Literary Spring*. But don't forget, two months ago, our sales were only 70,000 copies! Even the upper management was planning to change us to a semi-monthly magazine!"

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

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

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

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

1993 was about to pass, but the current economic situation was still half-dead, which directly led to the bankruptcy of many medium-sized publishing houses.

Even some large publishing houses were optimizing their personnel structure; Mantanshe had even issued an order to *New* magazine, either to go to an affiliated company or to receive a layoff payment.

Rika Dacheng continued, "Therefore, we cannot be satisfied with a little achievement, but must continue to do a good job with the work at hand. Fortunately, we have a trump card in our hands now!"

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

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

Her voice remained unchanged, but her tone became even firmer.

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

"No one has any questions, right?"

Everyone in the audience thought for a while and then shook their heads one after another. According to the editor-in-chief's way of saying it, if it could be successful, then first place was not really impossible to think about.

Rika Dacheng smiled and clapped her hands, "Okay, then everyone, let's work together to successfully operate the *Furuhata Ninzaburo* series! We have to do things step by step; let's completely defeat *Literary Spring* first!"

Rika Dacheng, as the editor-in-chief, was the backbone of everyone. After her confident speech, everyone in the editorial department was also encouraged, and there was even an idea of doing a big job—if they could really operate this series of works well, then the throne of first place might not be impossible to sit on!

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

Immediately after, everyone got busy with their own work—the editor responsible for coordinating with the art editor made a contact call to discuss the follow-up cover design; the editor coordinating with bookstores sorted out 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 if every detail could be done well could the magazine's sales grow steadily!

Rika Dacheng nodded with satisfaction and then looked at Hideki Sudo, "How is the situation with Mr. Akiwara?"

Hideki Sudo responded immediately, "His assistant, Editor Asano, said that Mr. Akiwara has something to do in Kyoto, but it will not delay our signing event in Osaka."

"That's good, but the follow-up manuscripts must also be coordinated with the other party to avoid the situation where manuscripts cannot be delivered in time." Rika Dacheng said, and then pondered.

The follow-up operation focus of *April Youth* was now on Yuto Akiwara's serialization, so they must pay more attention to him!

If Yuto Akiwara didn't already have an assistant, she would have wanted to arrange for Hideki Sudo 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 *Furuhata Ninzaburo* was the "ammunition" they used to fight!

As long as the ammunition was sufficient, other problems would naturally not be a problem!

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

"Master, is your body okay?" Miho Toyama asked with concern.

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

Looking at this thing with a strong sense of "era" in front of him, Yuto Akiwara was stunned subconsciously.

Nowadays, heaters are popular everywhere; he didn't expect the Toyama family to still use such old things...

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

"Sorry to trouble you," Yuto Akiwara said with a smile. Then he continued to hold his pen and continued to correct the "homework" of his student.

After agreeing to take her as a disciple the day before, he stayed at a nearby hotel and would regularly go to her home to give her some explanations.

Besides this, he would also assign some tasks.

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

Yuto Akiwara couldn't help but admire while correcting the "homework."

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

Generally speaking, new writers who haven't debuted often have a very limited vocabulary, not to mention that she hadn't entered university to study yet, so many words should logically be unknown to her.

But Miho Toyama was worthy of having a good upbringing; many key words could be understood at a single point. She could even use several different words to construct a "picture" when describing a thing.

To be honest, this put a bit of pressure on Yuto Akiwara; after all, his accumulation of Japanese vocabulary was obtained by cramming in the library, and if he looked 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 while, coughed, and said, "Let's play a detective game."

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

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

"A middle-aged man wearing a cheap suit and a famous watch, wearing a wedding ring, 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 takes out the only 10,000-yen banknote from the wallet that makes a clinking sound of coins and donates it."

"Then, even though it's not mealtime, he goes to a nearby convenience store to buy a rice ball. He gets on a bus whose terminal is an amusement park, sits in the front row, and keeps taking out his phone to check and putting it back."

"The question is, what is the reason for this person's abnormal behavior?"