Chapter 256: Before and After

Akiwara Yuto was unaware of Dongying Film's opinion that he was a "sucker."

In fact, regardless of how *Memories of Murder* performed at the box office, he had no intention of handing over the rights to Dongying Film again.

Because he genuinely detested some of their "big company diseases."

Moreover, even if he didn't go to them, he could cooperate with other major film companies; it wouldn't matter even if the terms were slightly worse.

After all, if there were no box office profit-sharing, the difference in the signing fee was practically negligible.

June 30, the luxury apartment where Akiwara Yuto lived.

Akiwara Yuto sat in his study, looking through a stack of traditional literature journals that Satake Maki had bought, and asked, "Satake, tell me the results of your investigation."

Satake Maki nodded and then reported the results of her investigation into publications in the field of traditional literature.

"Currently, the publishers still operating traditional literature journals, excluding some minor journals and school publications with sales of only a thousand copies, are only the three major publishers: Dongying Press, Jingfan Press, and Kejiaoguan. As for Mantan Press, they discontinued their relevant journals two years ago."

"Dongying Press's traditional literature journal is called *Jewel*, with sales of about 20, 00 copies; Jingfan Press's traditional literature journal is called *Promise*, with sales of about 30, 00 copies; and Kejiaoguan's literary journal is called *Literary Travel*, with sales of around 10, 00."

After hearing this set of data, Akiwara Yuto's expression turned strange.

He knew that traditional literature was not favored by the public, but he hadn't expected the sales to be this low.

Combined, these magazines had less than one-fifth of the current sales of *April Youth*!

It was no wonder Mantan Press had abandoned this field so early; after all, they didn't even care for journals like *New* that had sales of less than 30, 00 copies.

After Satake Maki finished her report, she asked curiously, "Akiwara, are you planning to write a traditional literature work?"

Akiwara Yuto did not deny it; instead, he opened a drawer, took out a stack of manuscripts, and handed them over.

Satake Maki was used to his style and said nothing more, taking the manuscript to read.

And as she read, she became immersed in the story.

"The story is set in a time of war, where a servant who has been kicked out by his master is struggling in his mind between becoming a bandit and starving to death.

Just then, he happens to walk to a place piled high with corpses, a place called Rashomon. He gathers his courage and wants to go in to find some valuables, but he discovers an old woman in rags pulling hair from the head of a young woman's corpse.

He rushes up and says, 'You heartless person, how can you not even spare a corpse?'

The old woman explains that she just wants to use the hair to make a wig to make a living.

She says, 'Once, this woman sold dried snake meat as dried fish, and the people who ate it thought it was delicious, so she was able to make a living. I don't think this woman did anything wrong; like me, she was just trying to survive!'

Thereupon, the servant has an epiphany: since it is for survival, what is there that cannot be done?

So he robs the old woman of her clothes and runs away, and from then on, no one ever sees him again."

This story is very short, less than 3, 00 words in total, and it took Satake Maki only about 10 minutes to finish reading it.

Seeing that she had finished, Akiwara Yuto asked, "Satake, what do you think of the writing?"

Satake Maki felt that the story was very thought-provoking, but she couldn't figure out the underlying meaning.

After hesitating for a while, she decided to tell the truth: "Sorry, I'm not very familiar with pure literature works, so I can't evaluate it."

Akiwara Yuto hadn't expected even an industry insider like Satake Maki, who had an editorial background, to say this.

He thought for a while and realized it wasn't actually strange.

Compared to the intuitiveness of mystery, traditional literature or pure literature is more difficult to analyze.

Many core ideas and connotations often require interpretation by others to be recognized by the public and judged as good or bad.

Like this famous *Rashomon*, it was actually a work from Ryunosuke Akutagawa's university days, and it sank quickly after being published.

What truly allowed him to make a mark in the literary world was another work he published a few years later, *The Nose*.

After Soseki Natsume saw this work, he thought he was very talented and took him under his wing.

But after Ryunosuke Akutagawa passed away, the status of the two works was diametrically opposed.

*Rashomon* is known to almost everyone in Japan, while *The Nose* has been heard of by very few.

In short, the fame of traditional literature or pure literature works often requires a great deal of luck.

Thinking of this, Akiwara Yuto's confidence in this work also dropped quite a bit.

However, since it didn't take much effort, he wasn't too disappointed.

After handing the work to Satake Maki, he said, "Please help me submit this manuscript to the *Promise* journal of Jingfan Press."

According to relationships, he should have actually given this work to Kejiaoguan, but the sales of that journal from Kejiaoguan were really too low.

So after considering it, he decided to give it to Jingfan Press and let their journal publish this work.

Satake Maki took the manuscript and indicated that she understood.

And after she left, Akiwara Yuto received a call from Takuto Utsumi: "Akiwara-sensei, is it convenient for you to come and attend the auditions?"

Upon hearing this request, Akiwara Yuto was a little surprised.

In his expectations, after Takuto Utsumi signed the contract with him, he would still need to handle a pile of corresponding preparatory work before he could start selecting roles.

But he didn't know if it was because his efficiency was too high or if he had misunderstood the film production process, but it had actually reached this step so quickly.

To be honest, he was actually quite interested.

After all, he had voluntarily declined the casting auditions for *Furuhata Ninzaburo* previously due to the need to avoid suspicion.

But now for this *Memories of Murder*, as the story creator and main investor, he naturally couldn't let it go.

July 2, which was the day of the auditions, Akiwara Yuto arrived at the place Takuto Utsumi had rented by private car.

After getting out of the car, he began to size up the office space Takuto Utsumi had temporarily rented—a dilapidated logistics warehouse in Akiba Prefecture.

Although it was dilapidated, the equipment inside was already fully stocked, and it looked quite professional.

And upon discovering that Akiwara Yuto had arrived, a staff member wearing a blue uniform quickly called for Takuto Utsumi.

Upon seeing Akiwara Yuto, Takuto Utsumi immediately said with a beaming smile, "Please come with me."

Akiwara Yuto nodded and followed him into a room on the upper right of the warehouse, discovering that it was already filled with a crowd of people.

They were all male actors, ranging in age from 20 to over 40, with different builds—tall, short, fat, and thin, all were present.

These prospective actors were all sitting quietly on plastic chairs, reading the audition scripts that had been distributed in advance, and when they saw Takuto Utsumi bringing Akiwara Yuto in, many of them noticed.

Some actors who had seen Akiwara Yuto's photo in the newspaper immediately stood up, bowed, and said sincerely, "Akiwara-sensei, hello!"

After these people called out, the others also realized the situation was unusual and also stood up in unison to bow and greet him.

Akiwara Yuto turned to look and discovered that everyone was maintaining a bowing posture, and his footsteps faltered for a moment.

He thought for a moment, said "Thank you for your hard work," and then left.

These prospective actors didn't speak but continued to keep their heads down in a respectful posture, and Akiwara Yuto just walked past them like that.

In terms of status, he was a famous writer, and most of them were just third or fourth-tier ordinary actors; they were not people of the same class.

Besides this point, he was also someone who could decide whether to hire the other party with a single word.

So their bowing performance also included the intention of leaving a good impression on him in advance.

Akiwara Yuto walked to the front row of seats and sat in the position between Takuto Utsumi and Yoshito Nagayama, while two middle-aged men were also sitting to his left and right.

Through introductions, Akiwara Yuto learned that these two were the executive director and the producer, respectively, whom Takuto Utsumi had invited from two different film companies.

Upon seeing Akiwara Yuto, the big investor, these two also acted very "enthusiastically" and handed over their business cards.

After some pleasantries, Takuto Utsumi asked with a smile, "Akiwara-sensei, shall we begin?"

"Alright," Akiwara Yuto said.

Then Takuto Utsumi had an assistant standing to the side call people one by one according to the actor list.

Akiwara Yuto settled his mind, preparing to properly fulfill his role as a judge.

After all, whether a film can succeed or not, the actor factor accounts for a very large proportion.

What he needed to do here was to find the actor candidates who best matched the original work!