Chapter 306: A New Peak of the Social School

Because it had to be published before the deadline for the judging selection, Akiwara Yuto's *All She Was Worth* was rushed to the market after proofreading.

Even the cover used a fixed template to save time.

And the number of the first edition was rarely only 70,000 copies, not the 100,000 copies of previous detective works.

However, for Akiwara Yuto's return to detective fiction, the many bookstore managers in Tokyo were full of joy, although the traditional literary works Akiwara Yuto wrote before also sold well.

But in terms of audience, traditional literature was far inferior to detective fiction.

Therefore, at the trial reading event, these 70,000 copies quickly sold out 40,000 copies, which was equivalent to each bookstore selling about 400 copies of inventory.

As for the remaining 30,000 copies, half were handed over to the two distributor companies, Tokyo Hanbai and Nihon Hanbai.

But this did not mean a change in the attitude of these two distributor giants.

In fact, when Tsutaya Bookstore settled the payment, it was not surprisingly made difficult by the other party, delaying the payment time.

Generally speaking, book trading companies like distributors usually need to have financial functions.

When they order books from publishers, they will first pay a sum of money as advance payment, and then sell the ordered books to bookstores, collecting all the payments.

After the shipment payment is collected and reaches a certain time, they will return the remaining payment to the publisher.

Akiwara Yuto didn't take such "disgusting" actions to heart.

After all, after *Memories of Murder* was released, the funds collected from the box office greatly supplemented the amount in the account, so Tsutaya Bookstore Publisher was not short of money at the moment.

And after half a year, when his plan was truly implemented, he would kick these two distributors away and completely realize his direct connection with bookstores nationwide.

However, although there was this episode, the first edition of 70,000 copies of *All She Was Worth* was successfully listed and entered the display stands of various bookstores.

Yokohama, Hodogaya Ward, Akari Bookstore.

Uesugi Sonoko, as usual, came to look for the detective works she liked to read.

Passing by the literary book section, she lowered her body and began to look step by step.

"Sigh, why is it still this batch I've seen? Are there no new detective stories?"

As a student of the Literature Department, Uesugi Sonoko had her own requirements for detective works.

She required that the work must highlight the brilliance of the trick on the basis of having a certain literary quality, and achieve a story design that was not cliché.

But to be honest, there were fewer and fewer books on the market that could satisfy her taste.

Among the Honkaku detective works, traditional Honkaku was basically rigid locked-room murders and detective solving routines.

Although the trick was highlighted, it inevitably had the suspicion of repetition.

Some works even directly changed the time and place, and then used similar methods to fool readers.

Although New Honkaku had new ideas, it hadn't developed for many years, and works with earth-shattering murder methods like Akiwara Yuto's *The Tokyo Zodiac Murders* were still a very small minority.

Among the social school works, except for the works of a few excellent writers, most other works were too dismissive of tricks, making people feel a bit insulting to their intelligence.

Uesugi Sonoko frowned, browsed the display stand in a hurry, and couldn't help but sigh.

When she first started to be addicted to detective fiction, no matter whose detective fiction it was, she read it with relish and could even immerse herself in it.

But as her reading experience lengthened, she couldn't read ordinary books anymore.

Even when reading some works, she could know who the murderer was at the beginning.

And in the past two years, due to the rise of Akiwara Yuto, her taste for detective works had become even more picky.

For social school works, *The Devotion of Suspect X* dominated; for New Honkaku works, *The Tokyo Zodiac Murders* was an inseparable masterpiece.

Besides that, in the court school and Biange Sect, Akiwara Yuto also had good representative works.

It had to be said that after reading a series of Akiwara Yuto's works, when she read other people's works, she would always subconsciously compare them, and then feel a bit dull.

Sigh, why did Teacher Akiwara go to write traditional literature? Couldn't he continue to write detective fiction?

Uesugi Sonoko thought helplessly.

She glanced at the display stand again and prepared to leave.

But just then, a bookstore clerk pushed a cart over and placed a stack of books in the center of the display stand.

Seeing the clerk's action, Uesugi Sonoko stopped her steps, feeling curious in her heart.

The center position of the literary area display stand was usually reserved for the most popular and hot books, but she hadn't heard of any popular writer releasing a new work recently?

After the clerk put the books down and left, she walked up to look, and then saw the cover of the book.

On the cover, it was written "*All She Was Worth*, by Akiwara Yuto."

Seeing the author's name, Uesugi Sonoko showed a surprised expression.

Akiwara Yuto actually released a new book, which made her very happy!

And according to the copy on the book band, this book was still detective fiction!

She didn't hesitate, immediately picked up a book, walked to the front desk to pay, and after paying 2000 yen, she took the book out of the door, found the nearest coffee shop, and sat down.

To be honest, she couldn't wait to see what this book was about!

Tearing open the packaging, she lowered her head and began to read.

Time passed bit by bit, and soon 2 and a half hours passed.

But during this time, her posture was like a freeze-frame, except for the almost instinctive page-turning, she basically didn't pay attention to everything happening in the outside world, and even the coffee she ordered cooled down.

"Crack!"

A cup in the coffee shop clerk's hand accidentally fell to the ground and shattered into pieces.

Uesugi Sonoko was startled, only then realizing that her arms and torso were numb from reading.

But she couldn't care about her own feelings, but was very excited from the bottom of her heart.

"Teacher Akiwara's work this time is not inferior to *The Devotion of Suspect X* he wrote before!"

In her view, *The Devotion of Suspect X* was already the peak of social school detective fiction, especially the description of human nature, which was so excellent that it made people marvel.

But Akiwara Yuto's *All She Was Worth* introduced the background of the current era on top of the factors of human nature!

It portrayed the helplessness and bitterness of the characters in this era vividly!

Thinking of this, she was very excited in her heart, wishing she could immediately post online to recommend this book to other book friends!

Without a doubt, this work was a new peak of social school detective fiction! ===== CHAPTER 307 =====