Chapter 307: A Monster Born for Literature

Contrary to Uesugi Sonoko's praise for the brilliance of *All She Was Worth*, Yabuna Kazuo looked at this book and showed a heavy expression, only feeling a heavy weight in his heart.

He was an ordinary office worker, and even more of a corporate slave working from nine to ten.

But outside of this identity as a corporate slave, he also had an experience that was unbearable to look back on.

Before the economic bubble burst, the economy of Japanese society fell into a trend of luxury and comparison, and the "instantism" of living for the moment began to prevail.

The national normal consumption concept turned into a distorted and deformed "consumption is virtue."

At that time, Japanese television was filled with various consumer product advertisements, all media outlets were promoting the concept of materialism, and various products were dazzling and dizzying, and everyone was frantically "buying, buying, buying."

There were product advertisements everywhere on the streets and alleys. Under the instigation of merchants, every festival had the gimmick of a shopping festival to promote public shopping and consumption.

Gradually, ordinary people also became accustomed to high consumption.

But not everyone had money, so loan shark companies began to expand wildly and develop business extensively.

Yabuna Kazuo's wife naturally became the target customer of the loan shark company.

After her friends scrambled to purchase luxury goods, she was also taken to borrow money from a loan shark company, and from then on, it was out of control.

And regarding Yabuna Kazuo's dissuasion, she even claimed, "If you can't earn money, don't talk nonsense!"

Yabuna Kazuo was helpless and could only hope that his salary and stock investments could support her consumption.

But no one expected that the economic crisis would come suddenly.

The stock market dived, housing prices plummeted, and the company he belonged to was also severely hit.

Although he was not laid off, his income was much lower, and the most painful thing was that all the money in the stock market was gone.

Just at this time, the loan shark company came to the door.

In order to repay the interest several times the principal, he had to sell his car and house, and even knelt in front of his parents to borrow their pension to fill the gap.

But the most painful thing was that his wife always thought she was not wrong, and her friends all did the same.

This also eventually became the fuse for the two to divorce.

And everything experienced by the two female characters in *All She Was Worth* reminded him of his wife.

For example, "Sekine Shoko," who was originally an ordinary company employee, worked in a company with only three people.

According to reason, she could only live the most ordinary life in her whole life.

But she was not satisfied with the status quo, so she over-consumed and constantly bought luxury goods.

Until she owed more than 10 million in debt and had to apply for personal bankruptcy, she still said to the lawyer, "I just hope to become happy."

And Kyoko Shinjo, who killed "Sekine Shoko" and replaced her identity, was also a victim of over-consumption.

Her father, after paying the down payment, because his income could not pay off the mortgage, began to borrow money from a loan shark company, and the debt rolled bigger and bigger.

In order to avoid the loan shark company, they had to flee the whole family in 1983, when she was only 17 years old.

During the escape, Kyoko Shinjo's mother was forced to sell her body and died of pneumonia, and her father disappeared without a trace.

But she met a young master from a rich family and thought her fate could have a turning point.

Unfortunately, the debt collection company still found her. Because her husband's family was in business and was particularly afraid of such entanglement, they divorced three months after marriage, and she herself was later sold to a brothel.

Her fate could not be described as anything but tragic.

After escaping, she decided to use someone else's identity to say goodbye to the past and gain happiness.

So she entered the mail-order company "Rose Line," used management loopholes to steal customer information, and finally found a woman of similar age and very few family members to attack one day.

Unfortunately, fate played a joke on her; the new identity she found with great effort turned out to be a person with heavy debts.

Yabuna Kazuo closed the book and sighed, feeling a sadness from the bottom of his heart.

Whether it was his wife or the two women in the book, their initial thoughts were for a better life and to gain happiness.

Kyoko Shinjo's father had to take out a loan to buy a big house, Sekine Shoko had to take out a loan to travel and stay in high-end hotels, and his wife had to take out a loan to integrate into her circle of friends.

But these goals all required money.

So for the sake of money, they could only go to loan shark companies or banks to borrow money.

But because of the increasingly high interest, their lives could only become doomed.

While Yabuna Kazuo was lamenting his ex-wife, social school writer Miyagi Kentaro looked at this work and made a "tsk-tsk" sound of admiration.

For the Uemura Prize selection in the first half of this year, because of Hehe Xintai's request, he recommended Akiwara Yuto's work to be shortlisted.

And this time, after Akiwara Yuto's new book *All She Was Worth* was published, Hehe Xintai found him again and requested to recommend this work to be shortlisted.

However, unlike the previous situation, he agreed this time basically without thinking.

Although Akiwara Yuto didn't have enough qualifications now, the sales of his works had undoubtedly crowned the entire detective fiction literary circle.

No matter how you look at it, the Uemura Prize would sooner or later be awarded to him.

And the other party was also writing social school detective literature, which made it even more of a non-issue.

He knew that if Akiwara Yuto was willing, he could also write New Honkaku, court school, and Biange Sect works.

Therefore, if Akiwara Yuto could win the award with a social school work this time, it would also have no small benefits for the social school.

But to be honest, the younger generation is truly formidable!

After reading *All She Was Worth*, he found that the theme of this book broke through the limitations of all previous social school detective fiction.

On the basis of human nature, the story background was further linked to the economic bubble and over-consumption.

This sounded not difficult, as if all detective writers could do it.

But Akiwara Yuto's brilliance was completely integrating the whole story into the grand background, highlighting the sorrow of the characters and the motive for the crime with the background of the era.

And then using individual tragedy to highlight the sorrow of the era.

Writers who could achieve this point did not exceed the number of five fingers when combined in the entire history of detective literature.

No wonder other old writers saw Akiwara Yuto's works and always felt that they were being eliminated by the era.

By now, he had the same feeling.

Even if it wasn't for market reasons, just based on the excellence of *All She Was Worth* itself, there was no problem winning the Uemura Prize!

After all, this work had already reached a new peak of social school detective literature!

Miyagi Kentaro put down the book and showed a complex expression.

Although it wasn't the first time he had praised it, he still had to sigh.

Akiwara Yuto, he was completely a monster born for literature! ===== CHAPTER 308 =====