Chapter 305: The Three Giants of the Social School

Social school detective fiction?

Akiwara Yuto looked up in surprise, turning his gaze toward Hehe Xintai, who was wearing a smile.

The latter waved his hand and began to explain.

"Although there are no Honkaku writers among the judges this time, there are quite a few writers from other schools. In addition to three Honkaku writers, there are two social school writers, one Biange Sect writer, and one court school writer.

So, Akiwara, if you can write a suitable social school work, being shortlisted will still not be a problem."

Akiwara Yuto listened, thought for a moment, and then asked in a solemn voice, "What about the possibility of winning?"

If the New Honkaku school was excluded, his chances of winning would undoubtedly be much lower.

But he had no intention of just being shortlisted and making a cameo appearance like last time.

If that was all he could do, he might as well wait until next year to participate.

Hehe Xintai laughed, "Who among the current detective fiction writers do you think is more suitable to win than you?"

He paused, then said in a peculiar tone.

"Akiwara, even if that group of traditional Honkaku writers dislikes you, they have to acknowledge your contribution to the development of detective fiction. If you continue to just run alongside the winner this time, public opinion will likely question the judging committee."

Like the Jingfan Publisher, Hehe Xintai, as the vice president of the Detective Writers Association, was very well-informed about the situation in the detective fiction publishing market.

Looking at the market in the first half of this year, for every two detective novels sold, one was a work by Akiwara Yuto.

Therefore, if the Uemura Prize judging committee awarded the prize to someone else again, it would undoubtedly offend the massive reader base in the market and might even affect the credibility of the Uemura Prize.

In his view, even if that group of traditional Honkaku writers were stubborn, they wouldn't be stubborn to the point of losing their minds.

Upon hearing this, Akiwara Yuto fell into deep thought.

He found that what Hehe Xintai said made sense; the greatest purpose of the Uemura Prize was undoubtedly to help the development of detective fiction, so it was essential to value the readers.

However, the sales of his current works had already reached the achievements of Seicho Matsumoto or Seishi Yokomizo from his past life.

If he were shortlisted but unable to win, wouldn't that be unjustifiable no matter how one looked at it?

It seemed that this time, he only needed to produce a decent work and then go with the flow to accept the award.

Having clarified the cause and effect, he smiled and then bid farewell to Hehe Xintai.

"Chairman Hehe, I shall take my leave now."

Hehe Xintai made no move to see him off, merely nodding, "I look forward to your new work."

He had no worries at all about whether Akiwara Yuto could write a work before the selection process.

He believed from the bottom of his heart that Akiwara Yuto's talent was like water in a sponge; if you squeezed it, there would always be some.

Leaving Hehe Xintai's home, Akiwara Yuto took a private car back to his residence.

Along the way, he watched the scenery receding outside the window, pondering a question.

For a social school work, whose should he write? At the very least, it couldn't be worse than *The Devotion of Suspect X* that he had written before.

Keigo Higashino?

He had many works, but apart from *The Devotion of Suspect X*, his most widely recognized works were *Journey Under the Midnight Sun*, *The Miracles of the Namiya General Store*, and *Malice*.

Other works were more or less slightly inferior in terms of recognition.

But these three works didn't seem to have won any detective fiction awards.

*The Miracles of the Namiya General Store*, because it described the laws of space-time, was more sci-fi than detective fiction.

Although *Journey Under the Midnight Sun* and *Malice* were very famous, they highlighted the complexity of human nature, and in terms of trick design, they were significantly inferior to *The Devotion of Suspect X*.

Such works might sell better, but they were not necessarily superior in literary quality.

Seicho Matsumoto?

Akiwara Yuto thought about it and shook his head again.

Although Seicho Matsumoto was ranked alongside Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle as one of the three great masters of detective fiction.

His works were more about the groundbreaking nature of the content and his contribution to the social dissemination of detective fiction.

For example, his detective work *Points and Lines*, although it established a form of social school detective fiction, had a certain gap compared to some later works in terms of trick and logic design.

If he wrote his work again, he might end up like when he adapted the works of Edogawa Ranpo, relegated to being appreciated by only a portion of readers.

After all, it was no longer the era when detective fiction was just germinating.

If none of them were suitable, what about Miyuki Miyabe?

Akiwara Yuto weighed it and found it to be a very good choice.

First of all, Miyuki Miyabe debuted in 1987 and had been active at the forefront of the detective fiction literary circle; her works were undoubtedly very "grounded," and there was no need to consider the issue of era-appropriateness.

Moreover, in the Japanese literary scene, she was also a rare female writer who could rival Keigo Higashino in both sales and reputation, and had won the Detective Writers Association Award and the Naoki Prize.

After careful consideration, he finally established his goal, and the car happened to drop him off at his apartment building.

He pressed the elevator button to return home, brewed a cup of coffee, sat at the desk in his study, and began to write Miyuki Miyabe's masterpiece, *All She Was Worth*.

This work, which the *Yomiuri Shimbun* called "the most amazing detective suspense in Japan in 20 years," was indeed very excellent in plot, even if the words were a bit exaggerated.

It told the story of a policeman, Honma, who was on suspension and was entrusted by his nephew Kazuya to help find his fiancée, Shoko, who had suddenly disappeared without a trace.

Shoko did not have a high level of education and was looked down upon by Kazuya's family, but the two were very much in love and had secretly pledged their lives to each other.

The cause of the matter was that Kazuya wanted to help Shoko apply for a credit card, but unexpectedly discovered that Shoko had previously applied for personal bankruptcy.

Then he went to ask Shoko, and the two had some unpleasantness, resulting in Shoko disappearing the next day.

Honma, as a policeman, began to investigate, and the first step was to go to the place where Shoko worked.

It was a company with only three people in total, the boss Imai and a girl named Mitsu. Honma learned the general situation of Shoko from them: Sekine Shoko had a good figure and appearance, and her personality was relatively kind, but she hadn't gone to work since she quarreled with Kazuya.

Honma got the resume she submitted when she joined the company and intended to find more information, but after telephone consultation, he found that the companies filled in on the resume were all false information.

Helpless, Honma found the law firm where Shoko had previously declared personal bankruptcy and consulted the lawyer who handled her case at that time.

Lawyer Mizoguchi knew a little about Shoko's past situation, and even knew that Shoko had worked in a nightclub before. Shoko had fallen into a debt crisis due to excessive use of credit cards and finally had to declare bankruptcy.

To understand clearly, Honma specially brought Shoko's photo today.

But a chilling thing happened: after Mizoguchi looked at the photo Honma brought for 10 seconds, he clearly told Honma that the person in the photo was not Sekine Shoko, and he didn't know the person in the photo...

Facts proved that the Sekine Shoko they knew was very likely fake.

Honma, with this confusion, went with Kazuya to re-check the place where the fake Shoko lived before she disappeared, found the fake Shoko's old photo album, and discovered that the fake Shoko had the habit of washing the exhaust fan with gasoline.

Honma also found a colleague at the police station to help check the fake Shoko's household registration information.

In the household registration information, they found that Sekine Shoko had newly established a household registration in Honancho, and there was only her name on the household registration, and her parents had both passed away.

Judging from the newly established household registration information, this fake Sekine Shoko was not just borrowing the household registration; she was actually trying to completely replace this identity.

So, who exactly was Sekine Shoko?

Immediately after, the two began a journey to find the true identity of the fake Shoko and where the real Shoko was.

Through a series of investigations, they discovered that the fake Shoko was named Kyoko Shinjo, from Koriyama, Japan.

Her parents had borrowed money to buy a house and overspent in their early years, eventually being forced to take out high-interest loans; unable to bear the harassment from the debt collection agency, the whole family fled their hometown of Koriyama.

To prevent the debt collection agency from tracking them down, the Shinjo family scattered, each going their own way, but they were still discovered: the mother was forced into prostitution and drug use, eventually dying a miserable death;

After the father finally escaped the clutches of the debt collection agency, he was no longer capable of working, and after making one phone call from Namidabashi, he disappeared without a trace;

Kyoko Shinjo finally met her Prince Charming and married, but because she changed her family register, she was once again pursued by the debt collection agency.

Because their family's debt was the debt of the older generation, Kyoko Shinjo was not legally required to repay it, but under the relentless intimidation of the debt collection agency, it was impossible for Kyoko Shinjo to stay out of it.

Under the pressure of the debt collection agency, her marriage came to an end.

After the marriage failed, Kyoko Shinjo began to wonder: if I just change my name and hide my identity, can I find happiness?

So she killed someone else, used that person's family register to start a new life, but in the end, it was exposed anyway.

Yet when it was exposed, she still wanted to harm another innocent person to continue her flight...

Spending a week, Akiwara Yuto finished this work and brought it to the publisher to prepare for publication.