Chapter 192

After delivering the manuscript, Yuto Akiwara followed Hideki Sudo to a nearby Western restaurant to solve lunch.

He didn't dare to eat too full, so as not to get sleepy during the signing event—Japan doesn't have the habit of taking a nap, so he couldn't ask others to accommodate him; after all, the time had already been arranged.

At 1 o'clock in the afternoon, he took the black sedan arranged by Hideki Sudo and returned to the large bookstore, which was the signing event venue.

Unlike the situation in the morning, the street at the entrance of this bookstore had already formed a long "L"-shaped line.

Yuto Akiwara roughly estimated and found that the number of people present exceeded 600, and it was still increasing.

Not only that, on the road next to the crowd, there were even two police cars parked, and three patrol officers wearing police uniforms were waving the command sticks in their hands, shouting "Pay attention to order."

Yuto Akiwara was very puzzled to see this scene; after all, there were not a few people at the Tokyo signing event last time, but the police were not dispatched, right?

But Hideki Sudo immediately explained that the Metropolitan Police Department had issued an order requiring police stations in various places to do a good job in social prevention to avoid stampede accidents like the one in Akashi City, Hyogo Prefecture.

Stampede accident?

Yuto Akiwara recalled the recent news and remembered the report of this event—because the order of the fireworks festival was chaotic, the two streams of people at the venue intersected and trampled, eventually causing 9 children and 2 elderly people to die...

This was indeed a bit unfortunate...

Yuto Akiwara understood the situation, sighed in his heart, nodded, followed Hideki Sudo into the bookstore from the back door, and sat at the signing table of the signing event.

Immediately after, Hideki Sudo informed the bookstore staff and announced that this signing event had begun.

This signing event started at 1:30 and lasted until 10:00 in the evening, with people coming in continuously in the middle.

Besides *April Youth*, which was the main body of the signing, there were also fans who brought the single volumes previously released by Yuto Akiwara and hoped to get them signed. For the fans' requests, Yuto Akiwara naturally agreed to all of them.

In order to speed up the progress of the signing event, Hideki Sudo shortened the individual conversation time for each fan and avoided the other party's dissatisfaction by giving gifts.

Even for fans waiting in the cold wind, they were given hot tea drinks.

But even if the speed was accelerated, there were still quite a few fans who didn't get signatures by the end of the signing event.

In order to appease these fans, the editorial department, as the organizer, sold a batch of pre-prepared signed books to the other party at a 30% discount. Employees wearing work uniforms kept bowing and apologizing to the other party.

When they left at 10:20, whether it was Yuto Akiwara or Sudo, Asano, as well as the bookstore employees and temporary recruits responsible for the order at the scene, no one was not tired.

To reward everyone at the scene, Yuto Akiwara skipped the editorial department and took the initiative to pay for everyone to have a meal of *teppanyaki* nearby, and then they dispersed.

After saying goodbye to everyone, Yuto Akiwara and Asano Aiko returned to the hotel booked for them by the *April Youth* editorial department.

Both of their rooms were on the 18th floor, 1801 and 1802 respectively, right next to each other.

Yuto Akiwara took the suitcase from Asano, said goodbye simply, and returned to his room. He threw his luggage on the ground and lay directly on the big bed in the room.

Looking at the ceiling of the room, he sighed.

Today's signing event was really too tiring!

If it was just a simple handshake, it would be fine, but the fans in Osaka were "enthusiastic" to an unimaginable degree.

The fans encountered at several signing events in Tokyo were just politely smiling and shaking hands simply, at most saying a few words of encouragement, with few other unnecessary processes.

But the fans here in Osaka, besides the above steps, often grabbed hands and wouldn't let go during the handshake process, and even asked for group photos or even hugs...

If it was a young female reader, it would be fine, but the ones who made this request were often middle-aged women.

Yuto Akiwara closed his eyes, recalled "their" enthusiasm, and couldn't help but think of a post in his past life about Osaka people in the eyes of Tokyo citizens.

According to the description of this Tokyo citizen, Osaka citizens generally love to run red lights, love to quarrel in the street in "Kansai dialect," speak loudly in public, have bad service attitudes, and are particularly impolite—as a representative, "Osaka middle-aged women" love to wear leopard prints, are all fierce, and love to take advantage of small gains.

Although there were quite a few "regional blacks" in this post, some were true, such as the enthusiastic Osaka middle-aged women, of whom he saw quite a few today.

Headache, it seems there is another signing event near Osaka University the day after tomorrow... I hope the ones who come are students.

Yuto Akiwara sighed again.

Forget it, wash up and sleep early, you can have a good rest tomorrow.

Just when he intended to bathe, the door of the room was knocked, and Asano Aiko's voice came from outside, "Akiwara, is it convenient now?"

Yuto Akiwara was a bit puzzled; was there something else?

He hesitated for a moment but still got out of bed and opened the door.

Under the dim corridor light, Asano Aiko stood at the door, holding a bottle of red wine in her hand. She looked like she had just taken a bath, changed into a set of clothes, and her hair was draped directly over her shoulders.

Asano Aiko gritted her teeth and said in a vague tone, "You said last time when you sent me home... you can find you to drink, so can you now? This bottle of wine was given to me by someone..."

Yuto Akiwara hesitated for a moment but still agreed, "No problem, come in."

The two walked into the room one after the other and closed the door, sitting at the table by the window. On this table, a corkscrew and wine glasses were all available.

Yuto Akiwara used a corkscrew to open the oak stopper on the red wine bottle, waited for the red wine to "wake up" in the bottle for a while, and then poured a glass for both of them.

After clinking glasses and taking a sip, Yuto Akiwara glanced at Asano Aiko and asked the doubt in his heart, "Asano, is there any problem with work?"

Just after asking, he found that Asano Aiko was a bit absent-minded and even more strange, "Is it President Anjiu Bookstore? Or *April Youth*?"

It was hard for him not to think so, because the last time Asano Aiko wanted to drink was when a problem occurred at work at Mantanshe.

Asano Aiko shook her head, "President Anjiu Bookstore is fine; I only need to coordinate with Miss Satake now, and there is no trouble. *April Youth* is the same; Editor-in-Chief Dacheng has basically arranged everything."

She paused and sighed, "I'm just a bit emotional."

"Emotional about what?" Yuto Akiwara was a bit puzzled and took another shallow sip of red wine, subconsciously smacking his lips.

In fact, he couldn't appreciate red wine; he just drank it as water. Even in his past life, he often just liked to add Sprite to red wine before drinking it.

Asano Aiko glanced at him, "Akiwara, how long have we been working together?"

"Half a year," Yuto Akiwara frowned. To be honest, he didn't think Asano Aiko would not remember how long they had been working together.

"Half a year, huh," Asano Aiko sighed and fell into memories, "At that time, you were just a writer who hadn't debuted, and I was also a marginal person at *New*. But I didn't expect that now you have reached this step and can be considered successful."

Yuto Akiwara thought she was just emotional about the past, so he mocked himself, "Success is still far away; I haven't won the Uemura Prize yet, and I haven't had a work that has sold over a million copies."

Asano Aiko nodded silently, then finished the red wine in her glass. She looked at Yuto Akiwara's confident face, which was faintly visible under the room light, and suddenly felt a strange sense of distance in her heart.

From the time she met Akiwara until now, the gap between the two had become larger and larger, and she had watched the other party go from obscurity to today.

Especially the bustling situation of today's signing event made her witness how hot he was now.

And she herself, however...

To be honest, as the work burden became heavier and heavier, she felt more and more that the high-paying job she had now was like charity given to her by Yuto Akiwara...

When she was feeling down, Yuto Akiwara smiled and spoke again, "Asano, do you still remember the poem I wrote for you at that time?"

"Of course," Asano Aiko hesitated for a moment, then slowly recited it, "Faint thunder, cloudy sky, but hope for wind and rain, to keep you here. Faint thunder, cloudy sky, even if there is no rain, I will stay here..."

When reciting the poem, a different feeling surged in her heart.

Yuto Akiwara held the wine glass, took a sip, leaned on the back of the chair, and said with a smile, "Asano, although I don't know why you are a bit down, this poem represents my thoughts and also represents my original intention. If possible, I hope to solve the problem with you."

He put down the wine glass, looked at Asano Aiko, and said softly, "Tell me the thoughts in your heart; have you really encountered any problems?"

From the time Asano brought red wine to find him, he felt something was wrong. So he had been beating around the bush, trying to get the other party to speak up.

After all, although the relationship between the two had changed from partners to superiors and subordinates, he had never forgotten the other party's help at the beginning.

But what surprised him was that Asano Aiko shook her head and then showed a bright smile, "You think too much, there is no problem, I just came to find you to drink."

After listening to Yuto Akiwara's words, her knot in her heart had been let go by more than half.

She felt that she was really thinking too much; after all, wasn't her original idea to make a bestseller with Yuto Akiwara? As for the rest, why consider so much?!

As an editor, what she could do was just this; why consider or even be jealous of the other party?!

She drank the red wine in her glass in one gulp, then stood up and stretched.

She looked at Yuto Akiwara, who was a bit confused, and couldn't help but pat his shoulder with her hand, wanting to say "You are really too good," but felt embarrassed and didn't say it.

So she directly picked up the red wine bottle in front of her and poured two-thirds into Yuto Akiwara's empty glass.

Whatever, anyway, there is no work arrangement tomorrow, let's get this culprit who makes her worry drunk today!