Chapter 80

"Master Akiwara, you should also be clear about the rules of the Mantanshe Literary Award," Awazu Hideki said, "The ones who make the final decision on the awards are the members of the judging committee."

Akiwara Yuto nodded; this proved his guess. The fact that he did not get the Jin Shang was not just pushed by Kikuchi Tai; as the general manager of the judging committee, he should have also acquiesced.

"And in the few days before the awards, Editor-in-Chief Kikuchi's performance was very strange," Awazu Hideki said.

"Where was it strange?" Akiwara Yuto was puzzled.

Awazu Hideki organized his language: "During that time, Editor-in-Chief Kikuchi came to find Editor Takei several times, and his attitude was very respectful."

He actually left out a part; according to the informant, during those days, Kikuchi Tai's attitude toward Editor Takei was like that of a subordinate to a superior.

Akiwara Yuto began to ponder. Kikuchi Tai was the editor-in-chief, a position higher than Takei Kohei, the deputy editor-in-chief, and the sales of "New Novel" had also gone up. Theoretically, there was no need to be respectful to the other party, right?

Could it be that there was something he didn't know?

He frowned, recalling Takei Kohei's two visits to invite him, and felt something was wrong.

"Tokyo Literature" already had excellent writers like Seto Tamae and Ishii Right, and sales were maintained at 150,000 copies. Even if they invited him to join, it would be impossible to replicate the miracle of "New Novel," after all, the reader base overlapped a lot.

Unless, the other party had some reason they had to do it?

He thought for a while and asked tentatively, "Editor Takei, has he encountered some trouble recently?"

"Master Akiwara, so you've heard about it too?" Awazu Hideki didn't know his intention and answered directly, "The editor-in-chief of 'Tokyo Literature' is about to retire. It was originally arranged for Takei Kohei to take over, but some trouble has arisen."

"Trouble?" Akiwara Yuto asked, "Please tell me in detail."

Awazu Hideki picked up his coffee and took a sip, then said, "This matter is related to you. After you helped 'New Novel' sell well, the fact that Editor Takei rejected your submission was also exposed, which made some upper management think he lacked the vision and responsibility to lead the development of 'Tokyo Literature'."

"However," he hesitated, but still said, "It seems I heard he is looking for a way to make up for this mistake."

Akiwara Yuto was not moved by this news.

Although the relationship between the two had eased a lot because of Takei Kohei's polite attitude recently, it was indeed the other party who rejected his manuscript at the beginning, so he had no reason to sympathize with the other party at all.

Seeing Akiwara Yuto's expressionless face, Awazu Hideki thought he was not interested in this content, so he changed the subject: "Master Akiwara, who is your editor now?"

Akiwara Yuto frowned and said, "Why do you ask?"

He didn't think the other party didn't know his editor was Asano Aiko.

"It is said that Editor-in-Chief Kikuchi Tai applied to personnel to transfer Editor Asano to the proofreading department. This morning, many people saw Editor Asano holding a cardboard box and taking the elevator to the basement floor where the proofreading department is located."

Hearing this news, Akiwara Yuto was shocked. Recalling the words Asano Aiko said on the phone earlier, his heart sank.

In his past life, Nihon filmed a drama called "Proofreading Girl Kono Etsuko." Although this drama was filmed very passionately, in reality, the work of the proofreading department is very boring and tedious.

And from the perspective of career prospects, proofreading staff are also difficult to find a path for promotion. After all, for book proofreading, proofreading correctly is the duty, and proofreading incorrectly is a dereliction of duty.

Asano, why didn't you call me to discuss it?

He sighed, vaguely guessing her thoughts.

As he was crowned with the fame of a genius, Asano Aiko, as an ordinary editor, would undoubtedly be under great pressure. And at this awards ceremony, Asano must have felt that she didn't help him fight for the Jin Shang he deserved, and thus felt even more ashamed.

"Master Akiwara, this is everything I know," Awazu Hideki responded.

What he said was basically all he knew. He speculated that Akiwara not getting the Jin Shang this time should be an act presided over by Kikuchi Tai under the instruction of Kihara Daigo. As for Takei Kohei's role, to be honest, he didn't know much.

Akiwara Yuto nodded, indicating he understood.

In fact, after a series of information revealed by the other party, he already had his own judgment.

As a veteran detective fan, he firmly believed that behind any event, there is a corresponding motive, and this motive will drive the person behind the scenes to perform corresponding behaviors and leave clues.

According to the clues, one can analyze well who is the real mastermind.

Combining these clues mentioned by Awazu Hideki, he immediately ruled out the possibility that Kikuchi Tai was the mastermind.

Because transferring Asano Aiko to the proofreading department was of no help to Kikuchi Tai. As mentioned before, with Kikuchi Tai's slick personality, if he really wanted to award the Jin Shang to Menxie Youzhen, he would have discussed it with him first.

Secondly, the general manager. The other party's motive was to pave the way for his daughter's boyfriend, Menxie Youzhen. After all, a Jin Shang could gild Menxie Youzhen's qualifications quite a bit. However, apart from this, he had no reason to do more things, let alone instruct Kikuchi Tai to transfer a small editor in the editorial department.

So according to this matter, the purpose of the mastermind might not be the honor of the Jin Shang selection itself, but the consequences triggered by this selection—for example, the break between him and the "New Novel" department.

If it weren't for Master Seto's impromptu remarks, then after he learned that Kikuchi Tai had changed the Jin Shang recommendation list, he would inevitably be dissatisfied with the "New Novel" editorial department. At the same time, Asano Aiko's transfer would also make him lose the reason to stay at "New Novel."

In this situation, he would inevitably jump to another editorial department, and achieve the purpose beneficial to the mastermind.

Akiwara Yuto lowered his head and continued to think.

Finally, the mastermind must have influence over Kikuchi Tai, otherwise, there would be no way to make him change the person recommending the Jin Shang, and take the initiative to take responsibility for this awards accident.

Recalling what Awazu Hideki said about Kikuchi Tai's respectful attitude toward someone recently, Akiwara Yuto already had the answer in his heart, and his hands subconsciously clenched.

However, how should he respond next?

According to the agreement signed before, if his "ZOO" series of novels were to be published as a single volume, it could only be represented by Mantanshe within 3 years. If he chose to leave Mantanshe because of this incident, then the 20 million yen profit that the single volume could bring would undoubtedly have nothing to do with him.

Apart from this, he only had a cooperative relationship with Mantanshe, and he couldn't help Asano Aiko in terms of position.

Awazu Hideki seemed to have guessed the reason for Akiwara Yuto's entanglement and took the initiative to propose: "Master Akiwara, if you are worried about the copyright of your work, our Publishing House can come forward to communicate with Mantanshe. You don't need to worry about this."

Akiwara Yuto looked at his smile, his heart full of doubts. He didn't doubt the truth of what the other party said. After all, as one of the four major publishers, Publishing House should also have cooperation with Mantanshe.

However, what was the purpose of the other party helping him so much?

Akiwara Yuto stared at Awazu Hideki's line of sight: "Editor Awazu, I don't believe there is such a thing as a free lunch. Can you tell me what your requirements are?"

Awazu Hideki smiled, then gave an answer that Akiwara Yuto did not expect.

"Publishing House hopes that Master Akiwara can exclusively serialize for 7 years on the pages of 'April Youth'!"