Chapter 490

It was still the restaurant near Shogakukan, which was probably the limit of Kuniharu Morikawa's hospitality budget.

"Naoki-san, is there any progress on the new book?"

Just after sitting down and taking a sip of water, the instinct of Editor Morikawa began to act up, and he began to urge for updates...

"Ah, the new book... I just have a rough idea in my mind, it hasn't reached the level of being able to write it down."

Naoki Nagayama was not panicked at all. Anyway, if you must ask, I can only say there is none~

"Hahaha, is that so? Then there's no way. After all, creation is something that depends on inspiration and timing..." As expected, he was experienced in urging for updates, and Kuniharu Morikawa found a step for himself very smoothly.

After a few pleasantries, as the exquisite dishes were gradually served, Kuniharu Morikawa began to talk about the selection of *Sky of Love* for the Eiji Yoshikawa Literary Award while eating.

"Actually, we also submitted *Garden of Summer*, *Love Letter*, and *Sky of Love* the year before last. However, as a popular award, the Eiji Yoshikawa Literary Award only started considering youth categories this year. Comparatively speaking, *Sky of Love*'s reflection and prediction of society are more profound..."

Naoki Nagayama listened to Kuniharu Morikawa's explanation while eating cream of mushroom soup. *Garden of Summer* was a book for teenagers, and *Love Letter*, although it depicted the love between young people very beautifully, was still a bit lacking in reflecting the era.

And *Sky of Love*, if it came out decades later, it would be ordinary youth, but in this era, it predicted the future social form on popular themes such as realistic school violence and student life, so it looked a bit higher in intent.

Naoki Nagayama felt a bit funny. If I wrote something similar to *Tiny Times* about the future city now, would I create a future fantasy literary genre...

"Naoki-san?" Kuniharu Morikawa called Naoki Nagayama.

"Ah? What's wrong?"

"At the beginning of next year, do you want to hold a few autograph sessions? Create some heat on campus and in newspapers?" Kuniharu Morikawa suggested this. "In this way, it will be more favorable during the selection."

"Eh?" Naoki Nagayama was curious. "Didn't you even create momentum during the Naoki Prize?"

Kuniharu Morikawa explained: "At that time, your *Sky of Love* had just been sold, and it was in full swing. Young people and the literary circle were discussing you every day, so naturally, there was no need to create momentum."

"However, after half a year, the heat has more or less decreased."

"This, isn't it said that it's still being reprinted?" Naoki Nagayama had received the royalties for the reprint before.

Kuniharu Morikawa smiled: "In the end, the sales are not as big as the first batch..."

Book sales are actually similar to releasing records. If it's not a classic that can be read repeatedly and never fade, others probably only have a sales period of more than half a year, which is a bit longer than records~

Among Naoki Nagayama's three books, probably only *Garden of Summer* will continue to sell for a long time.

"Then alright~"

Naoki Nagayama thought about it. There really wasn't much to do at the beginning of next year. Just holding an autograph session, what's the big deal? What is a famous writer! (Tactical backward tilt)~

After confirming this matter, Kuniharu Morikawa seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. Naoki Nagayama was good at everything as a writer, but he didn't like socializing, which made people worry.

The subsequent Italian meat sauce noodles were eaten very happily.

Naoki Nagayama was still curious about another thing: "Bunji-san, didn't you say before that Toho wanted to buy my film and television adaptation rights?"

"Ah, yes!" Kuniharu Morikawa reacted. "Shogakukan and Toho have always had cooperation in terms of copyright. This time when negotiating adaptation rights uniformly, they mentioned several of Naoki-san's books. Section Chief Hirotaku Kawamura of Toho is very interested in these books. So we are acting as a bridge in the middle."

"Oh? Then, what is the price they are willing to pay?" What's the use of being interested, money is the real thing!

Kuniharu Morikawa didn't expect Naoki Nagayama to be so direct. Shouldn't writers be a bit reserved?

When talking to other writers before that someone wanted to buy film and television adaptation rights, they were all surprised and full of gratitude.

"Uh... for *Garden of Summer*, 6 million; *Love Letter*, 10 million; *Sky of Love*, 12 million."

This offer... it looks like Toho also knows that love movies can sell at the box office, and movies that are both abusive and loving can make tears and sell at the box office...

"It feels a bit low." Naoki Nagayama said bluntly. With his net worth, this fee was a bit invisible.

Kuniharu Morikawa hurriedly said: "This is just a preliminary negotiation, and it can be discussed later. However, Naoki-san, this price is already the market price for adaptation rights."

It's not that it will definitely sell well if it's adapted into a movie.

"Hahaha, it's still too low for me." Naoki Nagayama laughed. If he filmed it himself, the money he earned would be much more than this.

"Bunji-san, simply put, I will not agree to this price."

"Eh? Naoki-san, don't you want to wait for the subsequent offer?" Kuniharu Morikawa advised. "Basically, no one in Japan can offer a higher price than Toho."

"Bunji-san, now it's Toho that doesn't know the value, but they will know soon!" Naoki Nagayama was full of confidence in the adaptation of these books. Once *Love Letter* is released, his... will definitely become popular again!

However, he didn't want to kill it with one stick:

"Bunji-san, the matter of adaptation rights can be discussed, but Toho should talk directly to Tree Friend Films when the time comes. I have other conditions, such as serving as a screenwriter, joint development, etc."

If he cooperates with Japan's largest film production manufacturer, the obstacles encountered in the film industry should be much smaller.

"Is that so?" Kuniharu Morikawa nodded. "I will tell Section Chief Hirotaku Kawamura."

"By the way, tell him that there are only *Garden of Summer* and *Sky of Love* left. As for *Love Letter*, it's already being filmed."

"Eh?"

The meal with Kuniharu Morikawa didn't last long, and he didn't want to continue drinking in the middle of the day. However, Naoki Nagayama squeezed out a free afternoon for himself.

As for the editing of *Ringu*, isn't there Shuichi-san!

"A rare whole afternoon, what should I do?"

Naoki Nagayama was driving on the road and soon arrived at the Mountain Cherry Garden, but unexpectedly didn't want to stay at home. He opened the gate with a remote control and shouted inside:

"Eitaro, take the dog leash, I'll take you out to play!"

"Woof?"

The big dog, who was originally digging at the cherry tree in the courtyard, raised his head alertly.

But after hearing keywords like "dog leash" and "go out to play," he immediately rushed to the dog leash placed at the entrance, then picked up the dog leash, quickly ran to the gate, aimed at the target, and jumped into the car from the car window!

Naoki Nagayama hurriedly blocked the big dog's intimacy with both hands: "Eitaro, do you really want to go out and play?! Alright, sit down, don't lick me, you can't be a licking dog!"

"Woof woof woof! (Whatever you say is right!)" Eitaro wagged his tail happily, extremely excited.

The spacious Toyota Century was very easy to turn around. Naoki Nagayama got back on the main road before thinking about the goal. "Where to go... By the way, Old Man Aoyama seemed to have said last time that the chrysanthemum exhibition in Shinjuku Gyoen is being held!"

He touched the dog's head: "Decided, let's go there!"

"Woof!" Eitaro agreed as much as he could!

The traffic on a weekday afternoon couldn't be said to be non-existent, but the road conditions were also very smooth. It only took ten minutes from Chiyoda to Shibuya.

After parking the car, Naoki Nagayama led Eitaro onto the land of Gyoen.

"It's really big!"

Naoki Nagayama looked around. This park, covering an area of nearly 60 hectares, spanned Shinjuku and Shibuya, and next to it were Yoyogi Park and the Togu Palace. It could be said that the scenery of this generation was very good.

In the autumn Gyoen, of course, it was the world of red maples. However, against the backdrop of evergreen trees and ginkgo, the flame-like maple red and ginkgo golden yellow were intertwined, forming colors like gradients,

The ground was covered with maple leaves, withered leaves, and ginkgo leaves, covering up the originally brown land, as if putting a warm autumn coat on the earth.

And today, Tokyo's largest chrysanthemum exhibition was held here. Chrysanthemums as big as bowls were arranged in the park according to different colors and types. Bright yellow imperial chrysanthemums, orange ball chrysanthemums, purple hibiscus, green ping-pong chrysanthemums... were like beautiful patterns on gorgeous clothes, decorating the whole park like a brocade cassock.

Naoki Nagayama led Eitaro to stroll in the picturesque scenery, completely throwing the busy mood of this period behind him,

"Sure enough, the pressure of working every day is still too great!"

While saying this, he struggled to pull Eitaro away from the flowers... This dog didn't know why, but he always wanted to take a bite when smelling the chrysanthemums.

Walking and stopping, not counting the passage of time, one person and one dog were very comfortable.

It is said that the weather in summer changes as soon as it changes, and autumn is sometimes like this.

Clearly, the warm sunshine shone through the clouds and mist before, but now it started to rain.

Naoki Nagayama, who had already reached the middle of the park, could only take Eitaro to a pavilion to avoid the rain,

"Clearly the typhoon has passed, why is it still raining..." Naoki Nagayama patted Eitaro's slightly wet back. "It looks like we have to wait a while~"

The small pavilion standing by the water could probably only hold four or five people. Along the edge, there was an L-shaped wooden chair. Naoki Nagayama sat on the chair and exhaled lightly.

The pattering raindrops drifted from the sky, drifted on the leaves, washed away a layer of light dust, fell on the pavilion, and dripped along the wooden eaves.

Drop by drop, it soon became a thin line... the rain became bigger.

In the pond beside, the ripples of raindrops hitting the water surface became more and more, and finally shattered into an unrecognizable shape, leaving only the sound of *swish swish*.

Coupled with the *rustle* of rain hitting the leaves beside, it actually sounded like autumn rain was playing.

"This is still a pavilion where you can enjoy the scenery~" Naoki Nagayama looked at the water pool outside, but felt that this kind of scenery was inexplicably familiar.

"Where have I seen it... Speaking of which, I shouldn't have been to Gyoen, right?"

Naoki Nagayama couldn't remember when he had been here, but looking up and looking around, an inexplicable sense of familiarity became heavier.

Falling rain, pavilion for avoiding rain, pond, round stones on the shore, that stone lamp, and that short bridge...

The connected memories surged up from his brain again, and exquisite pictures appeared, detailed to the point that every leaf could see the veins...

Those are the funds burning! — *The Garden of Words*

The movie he had seen gradually appeared, known as a movie where every frame was wallpaper, and it really showed the high memory brought by high image quality.

Naoki Nagayama's brain was like paste at this time, full of the picture details of this movie, and he was in a state of downtime for a long time.

After taking a few deep breaths, Naoki Nagayama recovered and couldn't help but complain: "Why draw it so exquisitely..."

At this time, it was still raining, and naturally, there was no way to go to the car to get a notebook to compose the ending song "Rain".

And the basic plot of this movie was actually very simple, mainly because the image quality of the movie was really too high, and Naoki Nagayama had no way to reduce the intracranial pressure by drawing, so he could only lean on the back of the chair and gently massage his temples.

Accompanied by the stress-relieving sound of rain, Naoki Nagayama spent more than half an hour to feel that he had completely digested these memories.

"I seem to have seen quite a few such high-definition animated movies... What if I think of them later? Do I have to learn to draw?"

"Impossible, how can it be possible to draw a movie in a short time?! Even if Osamu Tezuka, Eiichiro Oda, Yoshihiro Togashi, and Masashi Kishimoto came together, it would be impossible to draw it in a few hours!"

After complaining for a while, Naoki Nagayama touched Eitaro, who was looking at him with some worry,

"Eitaro, I'm fine! I just remembered the past."

He turned his head to look at the surrounding environment again. At this time, there was already a picture in his brain, so he could find the difference. "It turns out that because the colors of the trees are different, I didn't find it!"

The trees in *The Garden of Words* were all dark green, but now they were colorful...

The rain kept falling until it stopped in the evening.

Naoki Nagayama had to stay in the pavilion with Eitaro until the evening. When he came back, he was so hungry that he didn't want to cook.

Packing a portion of assorted sushi and other platters in the restaurant, Naoki Nagayama returned to the Mountain Cherry Garden and simply wrote down the song "Rain".

When watching TV in the living room while eating sushi, Meitaro, who smelled the salmon, ran over, and his head leaned to his hand...

"You foodie..." Naoki Nagayama, who didn't take the big orange cat out to play, felt quite guilty and gave the salmon sushi and tuna sushi to Meitaro. "I'll take you with me next time!"

Sigh... After having an even number of pets, it's really difficult to treat them equally!

"Ding-a-ling~"

Just at this time, the phone beside him rang.

"Moshi moshi, this is the Mountain Cherry Garden."

"Naoki-san, you're a father!" An excited voice came from the phone.

"Eh?!!!"

Naoki Nagayama's hair stood up all at once, and the whole person almost jumped up from the sofa.

"Ah no, Naoki-san, I mean you have a son!" The voice in the receiver was Genta Nakai's excited voice. "Ah, no, I mean I'm a father! Hahaha, Naoki-san, my child is born!"

"Nakai-san, you can't talk nonsense next time... others will misunderstand!"

"Hahahaha~"

Hahaha, it's still morning! After all, I haven't eaten yet!