Chapter 81

"Master Akiwara, apart from the 7-year condition, the other manuscript fees and royalties are still the standards I mentioned before. Please consider it."

After Awazu Hideki finished this sentence, he stared at Akiwara seriously, waiting for his reaction.

To be honest, the 7-year requirement was something he added specifically on the spur of the moment, but he believed that even if this condition was a bit harsh, the possibility of Akiwara Yuto agreeing was still very high.

First of all, after this awards incident, Akiwara Yuto had already broken with "New Novel" and was unlikely to continue publishing on it; and it was said that the other party was rejected by "Tokyo Literature" at the beginning, and the relationship with "Tokyo Literature" was not harmonious either.

And because of the contract, the other party's single volume was restricted by copyright and could not be published. The only ones who could help solve it were the other three major publishers.

But the conditions that other publishers could offer might not be much better.

Akiwara Yuto looked at Awazu Hideki's eyes, which were convinced that he would agree, and smiled. Although he was smiling, there was no smile in his eyes.

He was a little disappointed.

He originally thought that Awazu Hideki was an object to make friends with, but he didn't expect the other party to make such a request after learning of his predicament.

Although because of the copyright, he could not get 20 million yen in income through the single volume, he was only slightly entangled and didn't take it to heart.

After all, with the works he remembered in his mind, many could easily sell a million copies and get hundreds of millions or even billions of yen in income.

So this 20 million yen was a loss to him, but it was not unacceptable.

After 3 years, he could still contact other publishers to publish the "ZOO" series of works.

Conversely, if he agreed to Awazu Hideki's request and tied himself to "April Youth" for seven years, it would undoubtedly be more than the loss. In fact, he rarely heard of writers signing such a long contract with a publisher.

Since the other party had this attitude, then he had nothing to be polite about!

Akiwara Yuto sneered, then looked at the "confident" Awazu Hideki and asked a question: "The person who provided information to Editor Awazu should be an internal staff member of Mantanshe, right?"

Awazu Hideki raised his eyebrows and answered: "Master Akiwara, this has nothing to do with our topic today, right?"

He was not surprised that Akiwara Yuto would guess this way. After all, he had already said so much content just now, and anyone could guess that he had an informant at Mantanshe.

But he didn't want to talk too much about topics like industrial espionage.

Akiwara Yuto ignored him, but after picking up the coffee and taking a sip, he said: "Can I guess who it is?"

"Master Akiwara, we..." Awazu Hideki tried to lead the topic to other aspects.

Although he didn't believe Akiwara Yuto could guess who it was, he was too lazy to play this kind of game with the other party. After all, in his view, Akiwara Yuto's current situation was likely only to accept the conditions he offered.

Before he could finish speaking, Akiwara Yuto interrupted him: "Your informant is the other deputy editor-in-chief of 'Tokyo Literature', right?"

Hearing this sentence, Awazu Hideki's mood was instantly stirred up, but he immediately calmed down, forced himself to be calm, and smiled: "Master Akiwara, your imagination is really rich, worthy of being a writer."

Akiwara Yuto ignored him and said to himself: "Because of the confidentiality principle of the writer's identity, my address cannot be known by ordinary editors and staff. From this point of view, only three types of people can know my address: first, editors who have worked with me; second, staff in the legal department; third, relevant personnel with a certain level of authority."

He glanced at Awazu Hideki: "So, may I ask where you learned my address?"

Akiwara Yuto learned from Asano Aiko that in order to prevent contracted writers from being poached by personnel from other magazines, the writer's address could generally only be known by the responsible editor and editor-in-chief, and even other editors of "New Novel" were not clear about it (although this point could not be fully guaranteed).

But later, Takei Kohei, as the deputy editor-in-chief of "Tokyo Literature," visited his address after moving, proving that personnel at the level of deputy editor-in-chief could obtain relevant information and resumes of contracted writers.

Finally, because of the contract, his address after moving also needed to be updated on the contract, so staff in the legal department might also know.

Seeing that the other party had no intention of answering, Akiwara Yuto continued: "In addition, according to the news you mentioned, the other party can learn about the trouble Takei Kohei encountered and try to make up for it, which shows that the other party is a member of 'Tokyo Literature'."

Awazu Hideki smiled and said: "Master Akiwara, you are wrong about this. It's not just people inside 'Tokyo Literature' who know Takei encountered trouble; even some people in other departments know."

Akiwara Yuto nodded and answered: "You are right, but Editor Awazu, please explain how you knew that Kikuchi Tai's attitude toward Takei Kohei was very respectful?"

"It's just hearsay," Awazu Hideki answered.

Akiwara Yuto shook his head, "Kikuchi Tai as editor-in-chief, if he was respectful to the deputy editor-in-chief of another editorial department, it would inevitably be discussed by many people, but Editor Asano never told me about this. So, it must be in private or in a relatively hidden occasion that Kikuchi Tai would behave like this."

Akiwara Yuto's voice became more certain, "So if your informant wants to know this situation, he must continue to observe Takei Kohei to learn this news, which requires his position to be close enough and have the motivation to continue observing."

Akiwara Yuto paused and continued: "Looking at it this way, only the other deputy editor-in-chief of 'Tokyo Literature' would have both such motivation and such conditions to learn this information."

This guess of his actually included a certain amount of speculation. After all, he had not been to the "Tokyo Literature" editorial department and was not very clear about the layout of the location.

However, according to his understanding of the "New Novel" editorial department, he believed that the arrangement of the two editorial departments should not be much different. The offices of deputy editor-in-chief level personnel should naturally be next to each other.

Awazu Hideki waved his hand, "Please, Master Akiwara, I can understand your creative desire as a detective writer, but all your guesses are just wishful thinking."

Although he appeared light and breezy, he was actually very uneasy inside. He thought he could use copyright as a threat to make the other party retreat, but he didn't expect even the informant to be exposed.

Akiwara Yuto smiled and said: "You are right, I really don't have evidence."

Hearing this answer, Awazu Hideki breathed a sigh of relief, but immediately he heard: "But does this kind of thing need evidence? If the fact that that deputy editor-in-chief is an industrial spy spreads, the publishing house's loss will definitely be very large, right?"

Hearing this sentence, Awazu Hideki couldn't help but break into a cold sweat.

Just as Akiwara Yuto said, once the information that the informant is suspected of being an industrial spy is exposed, even if Mantanshe wants to eliminate rumors, it will inevitably conduct an investigation, and many things cannot be hidden at all.

If the upper management learns that it was he who leaked the source of the news, he would probably be sent to that broken place in Shikoku, right? By then, he would probably be worse than Kikuchi Tai. After all, the other party is still a deputy branch manager.

He lowered his voice and said: "Master Akiwara, this matter is not good for you, can you tell me what you really want?"

After finishing this sentence, he stared closely at Akiwara Yuto's eyes and found that the other party's eyes were much firmer than when they first met, as if the temperament of the whole person had changed.

Could it be the influence brought by this awards ceremony?

He regretted it a little for a while. If he had known this, he shouldn't have opened his mouth wide to mention the 7-year requirement, and just followed the normal ordinary serialization contract.

Seeing him soften, Akiwara Yuto said: "The favor mentioned before is written off. In addition, about the internal news of Mantanshe, you must also tell me a copy. Finally, you must also help me with some things within your ability."

He was not interested in helping Mantanshe catch industrial spies, let alone that the spy was Takei Kohei's biggest competitor. He wished the other party would trip Takei Kohei.

And although Awazu Hideki had coercive behavior, he also told him a lot of internal news.

On the other side, Awazu Hideki hesitated for a while, but still agreed. However, he was still a little puzzled, what did the other party want these news for?

Akiwara Yuto had no intention of solving his confusion. He still had a breath of anger in his heart.

He originally just wanted to write manuscripts well, but ended up encountering these broken things again and again.

So, even if he couldn't retaliate against the other party immediately, he should find some trouble for him!

Thinking of this, Akiwara Yuto raised his head and made a request: "Editor Awazu, I hope that deputy editor-in-chief can do me a favor..."