Chapter 54: Love and Death

On Wednesday noon, Akiwara Yuto was thinking at home about how to continue writing the story in his mind when he suddenly heard a doorbell, followed by the sound of the door being opened.

He didn't care, because he had already guessed who was coming.

Because of the structure of the detached house, he had to go up and down the stairs every time he opened the door, so he had an extra key made and entrusted it to his responsible editor.

Sure enough, with the "deng deng deng" footsteps, Asano Aiko walked to the second floor.

After seeing Akiwara Yuto, she took a deep breath and said excitedly: "Akiwara, the sales for Tuesday are out! The quantity is very amazing, guess how many?"

Akiwara Yuto looked up and was a bit puzzled. The first-day sales were only 15,000 copies; the second day would definitely be lower, right?

He tentatively said: "13,000 copies?"

"Wrong, a little higher." Asano Aiko shook her head, pretending to be mysterious.

"Then 14,000 copies."

"Still wrong..."

Seeing that Akiwara Yuto hadn't guessed it for a long time, Asano Aiko gave up the plan to let him continue guessing.

She opened the small bag she was carrying, took out a piece of paper recording dense data, smiled, and revealed shallow dimples.

"It's a full 33,000 copies, we reprinted!"

After saying this, she bowed, "Akiwara, thank you for your hard work!"

Akiwara Yuto stood up subconsciously after hearing this number; he felt deeply shocked and even suspected that Asano Aiko was joking with him.

The sales of "New Novel" in the previous week were barely less than 30,000 copies. Now it is more than 30,000 in one day. This number can't even be reached by "Tokyo Literature," right?

Did Asano go drinking again, or is she crazy about sales?

He was a bit wild in his thoughts for a while, and even wanted to walk up and smell if there was any alcohol on the other party, but felt it was not good, so he just looked at her suspiciously a few times and then said: "Asano, are you drunk again?"

Asano Aiko didn't expect to get this reply. After she obtained the data for the first time, she wanted to celebrate the novel's results with Akiwara Yuto with full joy, but the other party not only didn't believe it, but even suspected she was drunk.

For a moment, she was so angry that she wanted to turn around and leave.

She rolled her eyes at Akiwara Yuto and handed over the statistical report in her hand: "The data is here, see for yourself."

Akiwara Yuto took it and read it carefully.

"Tuesday data statistics, dealer channel sales 11,000 copies, direct sales channel sales 12,000 copies, among which Shinjuku Ward sales 1,500, Minato Ward sales 2,000, Setagaya sales 2,000..."

Akiwara Yuto scanned from beginning to end and found that there was indeed no problem, so he had to admit Asano Aiko's statement; after all, she had no reason to lie to him.

However, what happened to make "New Novel" turn over? He thought for a moment and raised his doubts: "What happened?"

Asano Aiko didn't sell it and informed him directly of the reason: it was the writer guest Miyagawa Yosuke who watched the stage play, who published a book review in the "Japan Industry Review" issued on Tuesday morning.

As the newspaper with the third-highest sales in Japan, with a circulation as high as 2.72 million, it naturally attracted many book fans to buy it, which caused the miracle of "New Novel" reaching 30,000 copies in sales on Tuesday.

Her tone was very calm, but her heart was actually not calm.

In the morning, the statistics department suddenly came to inform the editorial department that the publication and reprinting of "New Novel" were sold out, and the sales reached 33,000 copies on Tuesday.

At that time, the entire editorial department was silent, and many people even suspected that the other party was joking.

Editor-in-chief Kikuchi Tai pulled the colleague from the statistics department into the editor-in-chief's office at that time, asked repeatedly 3 times, and then called the person in charge of the distribution bureau, which confirmed the authenticity of the news.

After confirming it was true, Kikuchi Tai and the people in the editorial department announced this result.

Everyone was stunned for a while, and then immediately burst into cheers and applause. Although they didn't know the reason for the surge in sales, since the editor-in-chief said so, they thought this result must be solid.

Asano Aiko immediately copied a statistical report and drove to find Akiwara Yuto, wanting to share this good news as soon as possible.

On the way, she received another call from Kikuchi Tai and was informed of the reason for the surge in sales.

Akiwara Yuto learned the reason and realized that he had misunderstood Asano, but he couldn't care about apologizing and immediately turned to the mailbox at the door to get the newspaper—he subscribed to many newspapers, but only read them when he had time.

He took the "Japan Industry Review," spread it on the small square table in the living room, and began to read it word by word.

This book review by Miyagawa Yosuke was mainly published in the B4 section of this newspaper, which is the cultural life section, and I don't know if it's because Miyagawa Yosuke is more influential, but the position of this book review is relatively high, which can be considered a small headline.

The title of this book review is "Warmth in Sadness," occupying one-third of the upper page, about 3,000 words, and from the content, it is an undisguised favor.

"Last night I read Akiwara Yuto's work 'Poem of Facing the Sun.' This article brought me a very big surprise. I have to say, in the literary world in recent years, there have been few authors with such talent..."

"Generally, robots are considered cold and rational, keeping a distance from emotions, but the story 'Poem of Facing the Sun' happens to use a robot girl as the protagonist, and with the help of her vision, to learn love and death, expounding a reflection and realization on life and death."

"The author seems to want to expound a point of view, that is, the deeper the love, the heavier the meaning of death often is. From this point of view, the relationship between death and love is just two sides of the same thing..."

Akiwara Yuto scanned from beginning to end and found that this book reviewer named Miyagawa Yosuke was worthy of being a writer. His writing was extremely excellent. Although there were no particularly gorgeous words, he explained the connotation of the story "Poem of Facing the Sun" clearly without over-spoiling, just making people have an urge to buy.

Next to this book review, there was a sidebar listing all the works Akiwara Yuto had written before, and giving corresponding short reviews respectively.

"Little Decoration and Yoko," "Seven Rooms," "ZOO," "Sofar," "Searching for Blood," and "The White House in the Cold Forest" were basically all listed, and all the short reviews were basically praise and compliments.

After reading, Akiwara Yuto pondered for a moment. He looked at Asano Aiko, who was drinking tea, and raised his doubts: "Editorial department... did you push this time?"

He still didn't believe in this kind of pie falling from the sky. As a book reviewer for a newspaper with the top three sales in Japan, and also a member of the Detective Writers Association, why would he recommend himself for no reason as a newcomer.

Is it really because of the stage play that he started to appreciate the articles he wrote?

Asano Aiko understood Akiwara's concerns and explained.

"This book review, the editorial department didn't contribute. In fact, for this kind of newspaper with a circulation of over 2 million, even a corner advertisement requires a budget of over 10 million yen."

She put down the tea in her hand, took the newspaper handed by Akiwara Yuto, and continued to add: "And Professor Miyagawa Yosuke is a well-known writer, not affiliated with the newspaper, and it is impossible to write this kind of soft-text content."

Asano Aiko sighed long.

"Akiwara, don't pretend. No wonder you wanted to participate in the stage play content of Ikawa Akemi's club before. It seems you had this plan long ago. Sorry, I misunderstood you."

Akiwara Yuto couldn't help but laugh; he was just to earn some extra money and improve his adaptation ability by the way, but didn't expect to be understood by Asano Aiko like this.

But this is indeed good news!

He thought for a moment and said to Asano Aiko, who was holding the newspaper and preparing to read: "Asano, are you free this afternoon? Can you accompany me to a place."

"It's possible, but where to?" She was a bit puzzled, then looked at Akiwara Yuto's face carefully, and her face suddenly felt a bit hot.

Could it be that the other party finally opened up? ===== CHAPTER 55 =====