Chapter 76: This is a Black Curtain!

Seto Tamae's words naturally have her intentions.

In her original expectation, her competitor for the Grand Award was undoubtedly Akiwara Yuto, but to her surprise, the other party didn't even get the Jin Shang.

She suspected that the other party was involved in the internal affairs of the publishing house, so she broke out this cold result, but this also made her feel angry from the bottom of her heart.

She thinks this is an insult!

It is so for Akiwara, and it is so for herself and everyone who loves literary writing.

From a convenience store employee to a well-known writer today, Seto Tamae has a heartfelt love for literature and cannot tolerate it being tarnished by other things.

So in her view, the Mantanshe jury did not award the Jin Shang to Akiwara, which undoubtedly violated her literary faith, which she could not tolerate!

What's more, if it was because of other reasons besides literature that decided not to award the Jin Shang to Akiwara, then was her Grand Award also obtained because of other reasons?

So when giving the acceptance speech, she risked offending Mantanshe and said such words that made everyone tongue-tied.

However, she also has her own confidence. With her seniority and contacts accumulated in the literary world for more than 20 years, even if she said such words, Mantanshe would not do anything to her, and even had to send someone to explain to her.

Akiwara Yuto didn't know Seto Tamae's intention, and after hearing such words, he couldn't help but be moved.

He was just angry about the unfair treatment he received, and as a result, an "old senior" he regarded as the biggest competitor stood up and cheered for him in such a way.

This was far beyond his own expectations!

After all, although the other party had always shown appreciation for him, he only met the other party once, and he couldn't think of any reason for the other party to help him.

Could it be that the other party really appreciates his "talent" so much?

Equally unexpected were all the media in the field. These media were originally invited by Mantanshe, thinking it was another boring award process, but didn't expect such a scene to happen.

Everyone was excited on the spot, and many even thought of the title and content of the news—*Black Curtain? The winner of the Mantanshe Literary Award Grand Award publicly questions the jury! *.

For a time, these news workers couldn't care about observing the order of the venue, and directly surrounded the bottom of the ritual platform with long guns and short cannons.

"Teacher Seto, why do you think the Grand Award winner is Teacher Akiwara? Do you think your work is inferior to the other party?"

"Teacher Seto, do you think there is an unfair phenomenon in the competition jury?!"

"Teacher Seto, can you talk about it in detail!"

"Teacher Seto..."

While Seto Tamae was busy dealing with the media, Kihara Daigo under the stage was shaking with anger. As the general manager, he was the executor of this award ceremony and the chairman of the selection committee, directly responsible for the award results.

Once the award ceremony is exposed in the form of a scandal, it will undoubtedly cause a huge negative blow to the external image of the publishing house and will also be extremely unfavorable to his professional future.

He took a deep breath and immediately called the person in charge of the public relations bureau, requiring the public relations bureau to communicate with all the media present today, threatening to suspend advertising, and requiring all reports to be reviewed by Mantanshe before they can be published.

After making this call, he asked the subordinates next to him to call the relevant person in charge of the venue, requiring the end of this farce as soon as possible.

As for the subsequent speeches of the Jin Shang winners and the winners of the Silver and Bronze Awards, they could not be taken care of, and they would be announced directly in the internal journal.

After giving these orders, Kihara Daigo directly questioned Takei Kohei next to him: "Bastard, didn't you say Akiwara had no foundation? Why would Seto Tamae come out and say this!"

Seto Tamae and Mantanshe have been cooperating for nearly 20 years, always showing a "kind and gentle" image.

He couldn't think from the bottom of his heart that Seto Tamae would say such words at this juncture.

He could only guess that there might be a connection between Seto Tamae and Akiwara Yuto that he didn't know.

In the Nihon workplace, superiors are always correct, and all mistakes must be borne by subordinates. So when a superior blames, a subordinate must come out to admit the mistake for the first time.

Takei Kohei naturally had a deep understanding of this truth, so when he heard the questioning, he immediately bowed and apologized deeply: "Sorry, it was my negligence, I didn't investigate the relationship between the two well!"

In fact, he himself was confused.

After all, one is an old-school writer of *Tokyo Literature*, and the other is a newcomer writer of *New Novel*. No matter how you say it, they shouldn't have such a deep friendship.

Originally according to the plan, because of the award, Akiwara was already disappointed with *New Novel*, and the next step was for him to go to appease the other party.

Kihara Daigo also gave up reprimanding the other party at this time, after all, there are plenty of opportunities in the future. What needs to be done now is to try to make up for the impact of this award ceremony accident on himself.

Damn it, if he had known this would happen, he shouldn't have been soft-hearted at the time and agreed to his daughter to award the Jin Shang to Kadowaki Yuzhen!

Soon, under Kihara Daigo's request, the staff responsible for venue reception and layout swarmed around the ritual platform, saying "Excuse me" while isolating the reporters around.

The female host also hurriedly walked onto the ritual platform, holding the microphone, and said with a polite "smile": "Today's award ceremony is temporarily ended, please leave the venue first."

The reporters under the stage were still unrelenting. It was not easy to have a big news, so don't think about running away so easily. Someone must say two sentences.

Some reporters saw that they couldn't grab the opportunity to ask Seto Tamae, so they turned their eyes to the stage scene, looking for another party, Akiwara Yuto.

However, Akiwara Yuto had already seen that the situation was not good and hid aside with Imamura Yuto first.

He must first confirm which link went wrong, whether someone was targeting him, or if there were any other accidents, before he could make his speech public to the outside world.

Otherwise, if he spoke rashly, it would only provide material for the reporters on the stage. Who knows what the words he originally said would become after the other party's processing.

To be honest, although he didn't show it on the outside, his heart was actually very chaotic. Everything that happened today completely disrupted his plan.

He sighed and looked around, trying to find Asano Aiko.

But no matter how he looked, he didn't find the other party's figure.

Asano, where did you go? ===== CHAPTER 77 =====