Chapter 54: Chapter 54: Love and Death

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

He didn't pay it any mind, as he had already guessed who it was.

Because of the layout of his 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 editor in charge.

Sure enough, following the "clack-clack-clack" of footsteps, Asano Aiko walked up to the second floor.

After seeing Akiwara Yuto, she took a deep breath and said excitedly, "Akiwara, the sales figures for Tuesday are out! The number is truly astonishing, guess how many there are?"

Akiwara Yuto looked up, feeling a bit puzzled; the first-day sales were only 15,000 copies, so the second day would surely be lower, right?

He probed, "13,000 copies?"

"Wrong, higher than that." Asano Aiko shook her head, feigning mystery.

"Then 14,000 copies."

"Still wrong..."

Seeing that Akiwara Yuto hadn't guessed it after a long time, Asano Aiko gave up on the idea of letting him continue guessing.

She opened the small bag she was carrying, took out a sheet of paper covered in dense data, and smiled, revealing shallow dimples.

"It's a full 33,000 copies, we've gone to reprint!"

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

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

The previous weekly sales of *New Novel* barely reached 30,000 copies, and now it was over 30,000 in a single day? Even *Tokyo Literature* couldn't reach that number, right?

Had Asano gone drinking again, or was she just crazy for sales?

He let his thoughts wander for a moment and even wanted to step forward to smell if there was any scent of alcohol on her, but feeling that wasn't quite right, he just looked at her suspiciously and said, "Asano, are you drunk again?"

Asano Aiko did not expect to receive this response. After obtaining the data, she had been full of joy, wanting to celebrate the novel's success with Akiwara Yuto, but the other party not only didn't believe her, but even suspected she was drunk.

For a moment, she was so angry 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 began to read carefully.

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

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

However, what exactly happened to make *New Novel* make such a comeback? He thought for a moment and raised his doubt: "What happened?"

Asano Aiko didn't keep him in suspense and told him the reason directly: the writer Miyagawa Yosuke, who had watched the stage play, had published a book review in the *Neon Industry Review* issued on Tuesday morning.

As one of the top three newspapers currently, the *Neon Industry Review* had a circulation as high as 2.72 million, which naturally attracted many book fans to purchase it, thus creating the miracle of *New Novel* reaching 30,000 copies in sales on Tuesday.

Her tone was steady, but her heart was actually quite unsettled.

In the morning, someone from the statistics department suddenly came to inform the editorial department that the published and reprinted copies of *New Novel* had sold out, and that sales had reached 33,000 copies on Tuesday.

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

Editor-in-Chief Kikuchi Tai pulled the colleague from the statistics department into his office, asked him three times repeatedly, and then called the head of the distribution bureau to confirm the authenticity of the news.

After confirming it was true, Kikuchi Tai announced the achievement to everyone in the editorial department.

Everyone was stunned for a moment, and then a burst of cheers and applause immediately erupted; although they didn't know the reason for the surge in sales, since the editor-in-chief said so, the achievement must be solid.

Asano Aiko immediately photocopied a copy of the statistical report and drove over to find Akiwara Yuto, wanting to share this good news as soon as possible.

During the drive, she received another call from Kikuchi Tai and was told the reason for the surge in sales.

Upon learning the reason, Akiwara Yuto realized he had misunderstood Asano, but he couldn't spare the time to apologize and immediately turned to the mailbox at the door to retrieve the newspaper—he subscribed to many newspapers, but only looked at them when he had free time.

He brought over the copy of *Neon Industry Review*, spread it out 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 on page B4 of the newspaper, which was the cultural life section, and perhaps because Miyagawa Yosuke was quite influential, the review was placed in a relatively prominent position, which could be considered a small headline.

The title of this book review was "Sad Warmth," occupying one-third of the upper page, about 3,000 words, and from the content, it was an undisguised endorsement.

"Last night I watched Akiwara Yuto's work *Poem of the Sun*, and this article brought me a very big surprise. I have to say, in the literary world these past few years, there have been very few authors with such talent..."

"Generally, robots are considered cold and rational, keeping a distance from emotions, but the story *Poem of the Sun* happens to have a robot girl as the protagonist, using her perspective to learn about love and death, expounding on a reflection and realization of life and death."

"The author seems to want to expound on a point of view: that the deeper the love, the heavier the meaning of death often is. From this point of view, the relationship between death and love is nothing more than two sides of the same thing..."

Akiwara Yuto scanned from beginning to end and found that this critic named Miyagawa Yosuke was indeed worthy of being a writer; his writing style was extremely excellent. Although there were no particularly flowery words, he explained the connotation of the story *Poem of the Sun* clearly without over-spoiling it, just giving people an urge to buy it.

Next to this book review, there was a sidebar listing all the works Akiwara Yuto had written before, with corresponding short reviews for each.

*Koshu 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 also mainly praise and compliments.

After reading, Akiwara Yuto pondered for a moment. He looked at Asano Aiko, who was drinking tea, and raised his confusion: "Did the editorial department... push this?"

He still didn't quite believe in such a pie-in-the-sky good thing. As a critic for one of the top three newspapers in Neon and a member of the Mystery Writers Association, why would he write a recommendation for a newcomer like him for no reason?

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

Asano Aiko understood Akiwara's concerns and explained.

"The editorial department did not contribute to this book review. In fact, for a newspaper with a circulation of over 2 million, even a corner advertisement would cost over 10 million yen in budget."

She put down the tea in her hand, took the newspaper handed over by Akiwara Yuto, and added, "Moreover, Mr. Miyagawa Yosuke is a well-known writer; he is not affiliated with the newspaper and would not write this kind of advertorial content."

Asano Aiko let out a long sigh.

"Akiwara, don't pretend anymore. No wonder you wanted to participate in the stage play content for Ikawa Akemi's club; it seems you had this plan all along. Sorry, I misunderstood you."

Akiwara Yuto was a bit dumbfounded for a moment; he just wanted to earn some extra money and improve his adaptation skills, never expecting to be understood by Asano Aiko in this way.

But this was 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? Could you accompany me to a place?"

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

Could it be that he had finally figured it out?