Chapter 53: I Do Not Approve

At 9:00 PM on Tuesday, mystery writer and part-time book critic Miyagawa Yosuke sat on his sofa at home. He closed his eyes, rubbed his temples, and then set down the copy of *New Novel* he had been holding.

He had put a great deal of thought into writing the review for Akiwara Yuto’s *Poem of the Sun*, and it could be said that he had carefully polished every single word.

He knew this gesture could bring the other party many benefits, but he had no intention of asking Akiwara Yuto to repay him; after all, his own goal was to ensure the next generation of the literary world could grow successfully.

Furthermore, as a book critic, he also had to consider the readers' perspectives. After all, not many readers wanted to see repetitive articles, and if this continued, many might abandon the hobby of reading altogether.

He closed his eyes to rest for a moment before hearing a knock at the door. He didn't get up, simply saying indifferently, "The door isn't locked, come in."

The sound of the door opening followed, and a man wearing a loose gray suit walked in. Miyagawa Yosuke opened his eyes and discovered the visitor was his disciple, Nakata Keito.

Miyagawa Yosuke glanced at him, signaled for him to sit, and asked, "Keito, is something the matter?"

Upon hearing his teacher’s question, Nakata Keito replied respectfully, "Teacher, I would like to ask you a question."

"Go ahead," Miyagawa Yosuke waved his hand.

"Why write a book review for that Akiwara? Is his writing really that good?" Nakata Keito lowered his head, hesitated for a moment, but still voiced his confusion.

As Miyagawa Yosuke’s disciple, he had been studying under him for over eight full years, and only three years ago did he gain the recognition of *April Youth* to make his debut.

Yet in the three years since his debut, his teacher had never once written a book review for him.

He felt very resentful.

In terms of circulation, his work was serialized in *April Youth* with a circulation of over 120,000, far exceeding *New Novel*. In terms of seniority, he had won various newcomer awards multiple times, which was certainly not something a newcomer like Akiwara Yuto could compare to.

Miyagawa Yosuke did not respond directly to Nakata Keito’s question; he turned his head and looked at his disciple earnestly.

"Have you read Akiwara Yuto’s works from these past few issues?"

"I have already read them."

"Then tell me your own understanding of them."

Nakata Keito opened his mouth, but still answered his teacher’s question.

"The other party writes quite interestingly, but as mystery novels, I do not approve."

This sounded like stubbornness, but it was truly what he thought. The series of works the other party wrote were completely under the banner of mystery novels, yet they lacked many mystery elements.

Compared to that, the other serial in *New Novel*, *Searching Footsteps*, was a proper mystery work. Although the story's conflict was slightly weak, it included a series of processes like murder, investigation, and catching the culprit.

Miyagawa Yosuke did not respond to his disciple’s answer and asked another question: "Then what do you think are the merits of his work?"

Nakata Keito hesitated for a while and said uncertainly, "Strong narrative?"

Miyagawa Yosuke felt a bit disappointed upon hearing this answer and shook his head.

"It’s human nature."

He sighed and took the initiative to explain: "In the current mystery novel world, the orthodox school is basically the mainstream. But it has fallen into a misconception, which is the increasing pursuit of flashy tricks and mechanisms, while ignoring or turning the culprit's criminal motives into templates, resulting in a phenomenon of uniformity."

He paused and continued to add.

"Therefore, even though Akiwara Yuto’s works lack mystery elements, just for his narrative on human nature within the works, I believe it is worth writing a proper book review."

There was one more thing he didn't say: he greatly admired Akiwara Yuto’s talent and believed he was destined to rise in the literary world.

After all, as far as he knew, Akiwara Yuto had only debuted for two months and had grown up in a place like a welfare academy, having basically received no literary training.

Yet under such premises, the other party had instead broken through thorns to open up a new world and carved out his own style, which made him involuntarily think of several masters in the literary world.

Perhaps this was a genius destined to be favored by the heavens!

He was moved by this thought and had another idea, feeling that since the other party was bound to rise, he might as well befriend him now, which could be considered a favor.

However, he did not tell his student this, so as not to crush his self-confidence.

Nakata Keito lowered his head and fell into silence.

Regarding his teacher’s explanation, he did not fully agree in his heart. In his view, wasn't the essence of mystery novels the pursuit of tricks and solving cases? Forcibly imposing things like human nature was undoubtedly putting the cart before the horse.

Besides, wasn't the social school already using this human nature stuff in novels? What was so strange about that?

He felt very resentful, but he did not question his teacher; instead, he silently made a decision.

He would join the Talk Club and use the popularity of his own writing to defeat Akiwara Yuto head-on. He would prove that his teacher’s view was dead wrong!

At the same time, Akiwara Yuto did not know someone wanted to challenge him; he was currently with Asano Aiko, studying the first-day sales data.

After the new issue was released yesterday, the first-day sales data for the seventh week of *New Novel* was only 17,000 copies, slightly lower than the 20,000 copies from the same period in the previous issue.

It seemed the gap wasn't large, but in reality, this was a worrying sign, meaning the upward trend of *New Novel* had come to an abrupt halt.

He frowned, but could only force himself to accept this fact.

After all, a considerable amount of time had passed since the little boy incident, and it was difficult for the magazine to capitalize on the corresponding hot topic anymore.

Additionally, *Poem of the Sun*, which he published in the latest issue, was vastly different in style from his previous novels.

Before this, his works such as *Kozue and Yoko*, *Seven Rooms*, and so on, were generally themed around horror and eeriness, using the death of one party to highlight the climax of the story.

But this time, *Poem of the Sun* took a turn in his writing style, using the perspective of a robot girl as the main thread to describe the exploration of the topic of death after the extinction of humanity.

In terms of horror and eeriness, it was far inferior to his previous works, and it could not be ruled out that some readers, after learning the gist of the story online or from others, gave up on purchasing the magazine.

However, there was nothing to regret; after all, market trends and reader tastes were hard to fathom, and blindly catering to readers was not necessarily the right choice.

He thought for a moment, set aside his concerns, and prepared for the sales decline of this issue. He picked up his chopsticks and began to eat the bento Asano Aiko had brought.

He didn't know if it was his imagination, but he always felt this editor-in-charge seemed to have become a bit more concerned about him recently.

After the meal, Asano Aiko left with the bento box and the manuscript for the next issue, while Akiwara Yuto sat at the desk and continued to write furiously.

Since the decline in the magazine’s sales had become a foregone conclusion, he shouldn't worry about this aspect anymore; doing his own work was the most important thing.

But to his surprise, by Wednesday, Asano Aiko brought new news about Tuesday’s magazine sales, which left him stunned...