Chapter 191

The next day, with the ringing of the alarm clock, Yuto Akiwara got up early, washed his face and brushed his teeth, then put on the expensive suit he used during the lecture, put on a thick cashmere coat outside, and walked out of the hotel room door in high spirits.

For today's signing event, he would probably meet at least a thousand fans and readers, so he had to be fully prepared.

He finished the check-out procedure at the hotel front desk and was about to leave, but just as he was about to walk out of the door, a familiar voice came from behind, "Master, good morning."

Hearing this address, Yuto Akiwara immediately realized that the person coming was Miho Toyama. He turned around and greeted her.

Today, Miho Toyama was wearing a dark blue sailor suit, a red bow tie, and a black skirt that went over her knees and leather shoes; it was clearly a school uniform.

Yuto Akiwara stopped, turned around, and asked in confusion, "Why are you here?"

Miho Toyama bowed slightly and then said, "You are about to leave Kyoto, so I came to see you off."

After saying this, she handed a souvenir she had on her hand to Yuto Akiwara, "This is *Yatsuhashi* I bought from the shopping street. I hope you have a pleasant journey, Teacher."

Yuto Akiwara took the souvenir and said, "Sorry to trouble you, go back early."

Miho Toyama nodded and then asked, "Master, can I continue to write letters to ask you for advice later?"

She had finally apprenticed and wanted to learn more things. But she also knew that Yuto Akiwara was a famous writer and couldn't stay in Kyoto all the time.

So she planned to imitate some other master-disciple relationships in the literary world and continue to ask for advice in the form of letters.

Yuto Akiwara naturally had no objection. He took her as a disciple and also had the idea of hoping that she could successfully debut and become famous, so naturally, he wouldn't refuse such a small request.

"Regarding my mailing address and email, you can just ask your father."

He looked up at the alarm clock in the hotel lobby, felt that the time was almost up, waved his hand, and walked out, "Let's do this for now, see you next time."

"Goodbye, Master," after getting a satisfactory reply, Miho Toyama bowed again to Yuto Akiwara's back and watched Yuto Akiwara's figure go away.

After saying goodbye to Miho Toyama, Yuto Akiwara, carrying his luggage, rushed to the nearest station and boarded the *Shinkansen* to Osaka.

Osaka is located in the Kansai region of Japan, right below Kyoto, so it only took less than 20 minutes to take the train.

But for such a short time of less than 20 minutes, the ticket fee was almost nearly 1,400 yen.

After getting off the train at the Osaka station, he called a taxi on the side of the road and headed to the location Asano Aiko directed, and arrived at the destination 30 minutes later, which was the entrance of a large bookstore.

He got out of the car, looked at the door of this large bookstore, and couldn't help but think of an article he had read in his past life—it talked about the history of the changes in Japanese bookstores.

With the gradual growth of economic income, more and more Japanese salarymen were not satisfied with buying books at small-scale and unimpressive shopping street bookstores, so large and super-large bookstores with a scale of over 1,000 *tsubo* and located in prosperous urban areas sprang up one after another.

Under the double background of the squeeze of large bookstores and the decline of shopping streets, small and medium-sized bookstores in Japan ushered in a "wave of closures" one after another. For example, bookstores like Anjiu Bookstore, if it weren't for the support of publishing business, wouldn't be able to sell a few books at all.

Although due to the subsequent economic crisis and the downturn in the publishing industry, many large bookstores closed down after a few years. But a considerable number of large bookstores still survived and became the mainstream for book-buying crowds in Japan.

The famous Tsutaya Bookstore in his past life was one of them.

However, after the 20th century, accompanied by the impact of the internet industry and the rise of the e-book market, these large bookstores also ushered in a wave of closures like those previous bookstores.

Replacing them were the more vibrant Amazon and second-hand bookstores on shopping streets.

In his past life, his home country seemed to be walking the same old path. Yuto Akiwara looked at the bookstore in front of him that was made like a shopping mall and couldn't help but lose his mind.

He was in a daze when his shoulder was suddenly patted. He turned around in confusion and saw Asano Aiko and Hideki Sudo wearing professional attire.

"Akiwara, the signing time is scheduled for 1:30 PM, and the venue has been set up." Asano Aiko walked up two steps, ready to take the luggage from Yuto Akiwara's hand, and then added, "The *April Youth* editorial department has also booked a hotel; why don't you go to the guest room to rest for a while and come over later."

Yuto Akiwara handed the luggage to her very smoothly; in fact, there wasn't much stuff, just souvenirs and a luggage bag, which also contained some manuscripts.

He waved his hand and said, "No, just keep my items safe. It's too much trouble to run back and forth from the hotel to here."

Asano Aiko nodded and didn't continue to persuade him; her current identity was Yuto Akiwara's assistant, and she only needed to do auxiliary work.

"By the way, where is Editor-in-Chief Dacheng?" Yuto Akiwara looked around and found no sign of her. According to the previous way of saying it, Rika Dacheng would also come over in person.

Hideki Sudo immediately followed up, "Mr. Akiwara, Editor-in-Chief Dacheng has something to delay her, but she will come over in the evening."

He paused and said politely, "Why don't you take a look at the venue? Or go to a nearby cafe to sit for a while?"

"Let's go to a cafe." Yuto Akiwara thought for a while; the signing venue and so on were all the same. Even if it was set up beautifully, it would be meaningless if no one came.

Compared to that, publicity was the top priority of the signing event.

Hideki Sudo nodded, took out his phone and made a call, and then a black business sedan drove over, picking up the three of them and taking them to a high-end cafe nearby.

It was a high-end cafe, but in fact, it was just better decorated, and the price was twice as expensive as an ordinary cafe.

Yuto Akiwara sat in his seat, signaled Asano Aiko to take out paper and pen from the luggage bag, and began to create the next manuscript of *Furuhata Ninzaburo*, *The Kabuki Actor Murder Case*.

*The Kabuki Actor Murder Case* is the second episode of the Furuhata series, called by some the most classic episode of the ordinary episodes.

The plot is roughly as follows: The famous Kabuki artist Nakamura Ukon had a dispute with a security guard who had taken his black money and helped him hide his car accident time before the performance. During the dispute, the security guard's head hit the corner of the table and died.

Nakamura Ukon hid the corpse in the dressing room, then continued to perform on stage as if nothing had happened, and moved the corpse to the basement after the performance. When there was no one around, he used the elevator to lift the corpse over the shed, pushed it down, and faked it as a scene of falling to death.

After receiving the report, Furuhata brought his assistant Imaizumi to the scene and met Nakamura Ukon who wanted to slip away. Furuhata pretended to be a fan of the other party, probed for information, and expressed confusion about why the security guard climbed to the shed.

Nakamura Ukon explained that many wild cats had settled in the theater recently, and it might be that he fell down while catching cats. But when explaining why the deceased didn't bring a flashlight to the shed, Nakamura Ukon's explanation made Furuhata even more suspicious...

Immediately after, the two, each with their own plans, began to fight wits and courage...

After about 3 hours, Yuto Akiwara wrote the whole plot from scratch, which was about 25 pages, or about 10,000 words.

At this stage, Asano Aiko and Hideki Sudo did not speak, but each lowered their heads to handle work or read books—not disturbing the writer when creating is a major rule for editors.

"It's written," Yuto Akiwara put down his pen, then handed the manuscript in his hand to Hideki Sudo, "Editor Sudo, this is the manuscript for the next issue."

Hideki Sudo, who was originally working, saw the thick stack of manuscripts Yuto Akiwara handed over and opened his eyes in surprise. Asano Aiko, who knew Yuto's writing speed, also showed a faint smile after seeing Hideki Sudo's expression.

Hideki Sudo still couldn't believe it; he thought Yuto Akiwara just wanted to write a draft first, but he didn't expect him to rush out an article for an issue directly; was this too scary?

Returning to the matter, is the quality of such a hurriedly rushed manuscript guaranteed?

He hesitated and took the manuscript, saying helplessly, "Mr. Akiwara, why don't you change it again and give it to me later."

He was still not at ease; after all, the follow-up serialization of *April Youth* still had to rely on this work of the other party. If Yuto Akiwara just provided a work for an issue perfunctorily, it was very likely to smash the reputation of the *Furuhata Ninzaburo* series!

By that time, let alone becoming the first in the industry, I guess it was possible to be hung up and scolded by readers and book critics!

"Editor Sudo, you take a look first; if you think there is a problem, I will modify it again," Yuto Akiwara was very confident; after all, things were all in his mind, and he only needed to copy and paste them manually.

His speed of writing Japanese now was much faster than when he first traveled over!

Hideki Sudo saw that the other party said so, so he could only nod and then look at the manuscript with concentration. He made up his mind that if Yuto Akiwara was really perfunctory, he would not accept this manuscript even if he let this serialization be suspended in the next issue!

Time passed bit by bit, and after about 20 minutes, Hideki Sudo finished reading the manuscript in his hand.

But after reading it, he couldn't help but be stunned. The story progressed very smoothly, the detective trick was also set very reasonably, and even the "psychological warfare" between Furuhata and Nakamura Ukon was portrayed vividly.

For such a work with excellent plot and writing, other writers might have to spend 1 week, but Mr. Akiwara only needed 3 hours?!

He lowered his head to look at the manuscript, then raised his head to look at Yuto Akiwara, who was drinking coffee indifferently, and a bigger doubt arose in his heart.

How exactly is this person's brain grown!