Chapter 333: National Treasure-Level

On the television screen, Funabiki Hisashi faced the camera and continued in a tone of utter shame.

"In fact, after Shimotake Kazuo announced that Akiwara Yuto had hired a ghostwriter, someone contacted me and instructed me to do this. Not only that, they also made me..."

After 15 minutes, he had clearly explained the entire sequence of events he had experienced.

The female host cooperated by expressing surprise and asked, "Who was that person?"

"I'm sorry, I don't know," Funabiki Hisashi said with his head lowered, "but I suspect it might be some stakeholder."

After finishing his statement, he immediately knelt down and performed a "dogeza" pose.

"I apologize to all the citizens; this was not my original intention..."

Bang!

A water glass smashed against the television screen, leaving a crack across it.

Even so, Funabiki Hisashi's voice continued to echo in the room.

Honda Kohei lowered his hand, his face filled with rage.

As the president of Keihan Publishing, he never imagined that the foolproof plan he had meticulously arranged would be resolved by Akiwara Yuto in such a way.

Moreover, the other party had used this method to "advertise" his own three books.

There was no doubt that once the works hit the market, they would surely be met with a fanatical following from the public.

Once that happened, Keihan Publishing's market share for mystery paperbacks would continue to be squeezed.

"President, I'm coming in."

Following the sound of the door opening, a woman in a professional suit walked in; she was the managing director of the Business Intelligence Department, Hosome Reiko.

Honda Kohei suppressed his anger and spoke in a voice that was hard to hear clearly.

"Regarding the subsequent public opinion, what is your Business Intelligence Department's assessment?"

"It's not optimistic," Hosome Reiko said hesitantly. "After this explanation by Funabiki Hisashi, many people will inevitably feel they have been fooled. Not only that, they will also develop sympathy for Akiwara Yuto."

"I know all that," Honda Kohei waved his hand, "but is there any possibility it will lead back to us?"

Hosome Reiko shook her head.

"When I made contact with Funabiki Hisashi, I had someone else do it, and I only contacted the other party unilaterally, but..."

"Hmm?"

"Professor Shimotake might be a bit of a problem."

Honda Kohei frowned, and after a while, he said, "He is a smart man. You go and make it clear to him that I will compensate him for everything he has lost. But the only requirement is that he stays quiet and doesn't talk any nonsense."

"Understood, I will contact him shortly," Hosome Reiko nodded.

Looking at the president who was pretending to be calm, she now felt a sense of sorrow in her heart.

Since when did Keihan Publishing, one of the four major publishers, have to be forced to use such methods to deal with a writer?

More importantly, they had actually failed.

Although with their current capabilities, they could make some informed individuals keep their mouths shut.

But in the eyes of many, Keihan Publishing was the mastermind behind this Akiwara Yuto ghostwriting scandal.

After all, once Akiwara Yuto was labeled a "ghostwriter," his market share would plummet, and at that point, the biggest beneficiary would undoubtedly be Keihan Publishing.

This point was impossible to hide.

On the day Funabiki Hisashi made his statement, public opinion on the internet exploded again, and everyone felt angry.

Some even felt a deep sense of being fooled.

Especially the "Anti-Akiwara" faction, who had initially believed his statement and expressed sympathy for Funabiki Hisashi, reacted even more strongly.

For a time, countless related posts were filled with words like "go die," "go die."

Someone even exposed Funabiki Hisashi's home address and phone number.

It was easy to imagine that if Funabiki Hisashi were still living in his original place, he would inevitably be found.

However, after the wave of angry posts, many people were also asking who the mastermind behind Funabiki Hisashi's actions was.

After all, according to Funabiki Hisashi's testimony, he didn't know from start to finish who was behind it, and could only guess it was some stakeholder.

Therefore, many netizens left comments on a 2ch thread to discuss it.

"Is it the traditional orthodox writer Wada Shin? I heard he had conflicts with Akiwara Yuto before, and was even humiliated by Akiwara Yuto during the awards ceremony."

"Unlikely, Wada Shin wouldn't do something like this."

"I think it might be Mantan Publishing."

"Why? Didn't Mantan Publishing also issue a statement condemning Funabiki Hisashi? After all, the other party also leaked his manuscript to Mantan Publishing."

"You're all wrong, it's Keihan Publishing."

"Why?"

"Although there are no reports of direct conflict between Keihan Publishing and Akiwara Yuto, Akiwara Yuto is now snatching a lot of their market share."

"But there's no evidence. Let's wait and see what that Shimotake Kazuo says?"

As the other side of public opinion, Shimotake Kazuo, who accused Akiwara Yuto of hiring a ghostwriter, was also nailed to the pillar of shame this time.

Although a very small number of die-hard fans still believed he was innocent, the reason being that Akiwara Yuto's writing style was very different, leading Professor Shimotake to misjudge and mistakenly believe Akiwara Yuto hired a ghostwriter.

But most people did not accept this explanation.

After all, he and Funabiki Hisashi had launched attacks on Akiwara Yuto one after the other.

Since one was acting under orders, wasn't the other one as well?

However, even in the face of external criticism, Shimotake Kazuo had no intention of standing up to accept interviews.

Instead, Kyushu University, where he worked, imposed certain disciplinary actions on him.

At 11:00 PM on the seventh day, which was the last day Akiwara Yuto had promised, he finally completed the creation of his final work, *White Night Crab*.

And after this news spread, both the public and the media circles could not help but sigh with emotion.

Especially in the book review circles, some critics even called him a "national treasure-level" writer, believing that he alone was worth more than half the mystery world.

After all, there had never been such a writer who could write so many works in such a short period of time.

And all these works had been recognized by the Mystery Writers Association.

This meant that all three books were excellent works!

Immediately following this, according to the Tsutaya Bookstore where Akiwara Yuto was located.

These three books would also be launched and sold successively in various places within the following month.

By that time, the public would naturally be able to see the specific content of the books.

However, before these three books could even be released, news from across the ocean became linked to Akiwara Yuto.

Akiwara Yuto had won the Dublin Literary Award!