weddingnovel Chapter 164 Sitting on the Mountain and Watching the Tigers Fight
Chapter 164 Sitting on the Mountain and Watching the Tigers Fight
Chapter 164 Sitting on the Mountain and Watching the Tigers Fight
1980, April 2.
The Takarajima-sha Building in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo.
The president of Takarajima-sha, Hosho Shirakawa, sat in his office, drinking one glass of whiskey after another, his face full of worry.
Standing before him were Matsushima Shunma, the sales manager of Takarajima Publishing, and Kamiyama Daisuke, the editor-in-chief of the magazine department.
Faced with this situation, Matsushima Shunma and Kamiyama Daisuke were speechless.
Even breathing felt difficult.
The reason is self-evident.
Because of the sudden emergence of the "mystery genius" Kyosuke Maijo, Takarajima Publishing House has been in deep trouble!
"A Bellflower", "The Astrological Murders", "Convergence", "The Mystery of the Death Row Inmate", "Summer of the Ubume", and the "police novel" "The Third Statute of Limitations" which was published just four days ago.
Every book and every story here is a masterpiece that would be among the top 100 in the history of Japanese mystery fiction!
But it was as if by magic that this masterpiece was written one chapter after another by that guy, Kyosuke Maijo!
Having such high quality is already incredible.
But when I think about how these works were written by Kyosuke Maijo in less than a month, I realize that they were written one after another.
No one could withstand such a blow!
Thanks to Kyosuke Maijo's prolific output and high quality, coupled with the vigorous promotion by Genjiro Noma and Yasunori Mikoshiba of Kodansha.
Thus, Kodansha, relying solely on Kyosuke Maijo, created one "rope" after another!
They hung the presidents of all Japanese publishing houses on streetlights!
Other publishing house presidents might still have the "strength" to grab onto a rope or cling to a lamppost to survive.
But Hosho Shirakawa was not so lucky.
He was hanging from a rope called "Maishiro Kyosuke".
The more they struggled, the tighter the rope tightened!
Now, the rope named "Maishiro Kyosuke" has pierced his skin and is tied around his throat!
Each time the magazine "Top Hat" featuring works by Kyosuke Maijo is released.
The sales of Takarajimasha's "Fiction Mystery" magazine plummeted!
This is the moment when the "Fiction and Mystery" magazine is coming to an end!
Hosho Shirakawa downed his drink in one gulp, his voice hoarse, his eyes bloodshot as he looked at the trembling Daisuke Kamiyama beside him: "Editor-in-Chief Daisuke, tell me, how much has the sales of our 'Fiction Mystery' magazine dropped this time?"
Upon hearing Hosho Shirakawa's words, Daisuke Kamiyama carefully placed the report he was holding on Hosho Shirakawa's desk and said, forcing himself to remain calm, "President Hosho, the situation is very dire."
"Our Takarajimasha magazine, 'Fiction Mystery,' has consistently maintained a circulation of 400,000 copies per issue for decades, ranking among the top three short story mystery magazines in Japan."
"But with the sudden release of the first issue of *Top Hat* magazine, and the sales of *The Astrological Murders* through new book releases, paperback editions, and collector's editions, sales were effectively blocked."
"Our magazine, *Fiction Mystery*, published by Takarajima Publishing, has seen its circulation plummet from 400,000 to 250,000!"
"Although subsequent intervention by Minister Shunma Matsushima put the Top Hat magazine and Kodansha's magazine department in a brief predicament."
"But unfortunately, Maijo Kyosuke's 'Convergence' is just too powerful!"
"I don't think there's any problem at all in ranking it as the number one short mystery novel in Japan."
"Therefore, our 'Fiction Mystery' has once again failed."
"After that incident, our 'Mystery Novel' sales plummeted to around 130,000 copies."
"Crunch—crunch—"
"6
Before Daisuke Kamiyama could finish speaking, a sound was heard from Hosho Shirakawa's hand, which was holding a whiskey bottle, as if he was about to crush it!
"Don't stop! Keep talking!"
Daisuke Kamiyama swallowed hard and pressed his hand against the muscles on his face that were twitching with fear. "I saw that the sales of the 'Fiction Mystery' magazine were declining with each issue, and the GG distributors were either running away or disappearing. So I contacted Department Manager Shunma Matsushima to find a new GG distributor."
"Hopefully, the newly brought in GG merchants can revive the 'Fiction and Mystery' magazine."
"but----"
"Kyosuke Maijo has once again written a masterpiece of 'logic-driven mystery' like 'The Mystery of the Death Row Inmate'."
"Because the double logical reasoning in 'The Mystery of the Death Row Inmate' is so powerful, it even surpasses the previous work, 'The Convergence,' on the level of 'classic mystery'!"
"The appearance of 'The Mystery of the Death Row Inmate' caused a huge sensation in the Japanese mystery market and also revitalized many long-dormant readers of 'orthodox mystery'."
"This caused our Takarajimasha's 'Fiction Mystery' magazine to hit another low point, with only 80,000 copies sold out of a planned 130,000 copies."
"And 'The Third Time Limit,' written four days ago, has reached the pinnacle of the 'police novel' genre!"
"Under such strong pressure, our 'Fiction and Mystery' magazine only sold 40,000 copies —"
"President Baosheng, did you know? We have so many unsold copies of 'Mystery Novel' magazines in our warehouse that we need to use trucks to transport them all—"
Upon hearing Daisuke Kamiyama's words, Hosho Shirakawa angrily threw the whiskey bottle to the ground with a loud "bang".
Then, in a hoarse voice, he pointed at Daisuke Kamiyama and asked, "Daisuke Kamiyama! As the editor-in-chief of the magazine department of my Takarajima Publishing House, why didn't you take any action under these circumstances?"
"How can a magazine with a weekly circulation of 400,000 copies be reduced to selling only 40,000 copies?"
Upon hearing Hosho Shirakawa's words, Kamiyama Daisuke was so startled that he immediately bent over at a ninety-degree angle: "President Hosho, I'm so sorry, I failed to save 'Novel Mystery'!"
"But—I also tried to save the magazine 'Fiction Mystery'."
"For example, we can promote outstanding mystery writers under our Takarajima Publishing House in newspapers, or promote the design and layout of 'Mystery Novel'."
"Unfortunately, due to the huge popularity of Kyosuke Maijo's 'Convergence' and 'The Mystery of the Death Row Inmate'."
"I simply can't find any writers or manuscripts that can compete with it —"
Hearing Daisuke Kamiyama's words, Hosho Shirakawa became even angrier: "The business world is a battlefield! The business world is a battlefield!"
"If you can't find any writers or works that can rival Kyosuke Maijo, then go and smear him! Hire someone to discredit him! Do I really need to teach you such a simple principle?"
Upon hearing Hosho Shirakawa's words, Daisuke Kamiyama's face darkened: "President Hosho, I've smeared you!"
"I also specifically found a group of down-on-their-luck writers who were jealous of Maijo Kyosuke and had them frantically smear Maijo Kyosuke in the newspapers."
"I thought I could use these envious writers to smear Maijo Kyosuke. Even if I failed to smear him, I could still disrupt Maijo Kyosuke's creative process and destroy his mental state."
"But what I didn't expect was that among Maijo Kyosuke's fans was Kiyoshi Kasai, who is also a mystery critic and mystery writer!"
""
"I wonder if this guy is just bored out of his mind? Or did he take some kind of bribe from Maishiro Kyosuke!"
"They actually launched a 'critic war' against the envious writers I'd gathered, right there in the newspapers!"
"It's been a full twelve days since the 28th of last month."
"This 'critic war' initiated by Kiyoshi Kasai is still ongoing!"
"This Kiyoshi Kasai is truly amazing; he's practically a real-world detective!" He catches someone smearing Kyosuke Maijo, immediately starts investigating their background and family history, then uses philosophical methods to analyze their motives for doing so!
"Anyone who gets targeted by this guy would probably wish they were dead!"
"They're too busy running away to even think about smearing Maijo Kyosuke."
Upon hearing Daisuke Kamiyama's words, Hosho Shirakawa slumped into his chair like a deflated balloon: "So, Daisuke—what are your thoughts on the future of 'Novel Mystery'?"
Daisuke Kamiyama did not answer Shirakawa Hosho's question, but instead turned to look at Shunma Matsushima, the sales manager behind him.
Seeing Daisuke Kamiyama's pitiful look of seeking help, Shunma Matsushima sighed heavily and looked at Shirakawa Hosho, saying, "President Hosho, although I know that 'Novel Mystery' magazine is the foundation of Takarajima Publishing and also the result of the previous president's hard work."
"But now, the number of copies of 'Mystery Novel' has plummeted from 400,000 at the beginning to 40,000 in just over 20 days."
"Under these circumstances, the best course of action is to immediately announce a halt to publication and cut losses as quickly as possible!"
"Only in this way can our Treasure Island Society extricate itself from this terrible vortex!"
Upon hearing Matsushima Shunma's words, Hosho Shirakawa's face showed an extremely pained expression, clearly indicating his reluctance to discontinue the publication: "Matsushima—is there no other way but to discontinue the publication?"
Seeing how upset Hosho Shirakawa was, Matsushima Shunma continued to comfort him, saying, "President Hosho, you don't need to be so sad."
"As the president of Takara-sha, the decision to suspend or resume publication of the 'Fiction Mystery' magazine is entirely up to you."
"But what I want to say is that we are now ceasing publication of 'Fiction & Mystery' magazine to avoid getting involved in the disputes with 'Top Hat' magazine and other magazines, and to cut our losses in time."
"Although ceasing publication will plunge our Takarajima Publishing House into a low point, it is also due to the pressure of the situation."
"However, this period of pain will soon pass."
"Today is February 8th, and there are sixteen days left until the hard-boiled mystery competition between Kyosuke Maijo and Professor Toshiyuki Nishimura."
"I personally have great faith in Mr. Nishimura Toshiyuki's abilities, and I know very well that he would never hold back."
"Therefore, in my opinion, Maijo Kyosuke will inevitably lose to Nishimura Juuki in their hard-boiled mystery contest!"
To put it more bluntly, the professional career of "the mystery genius Keisuke Maijo" only has sixteen days left, plus one month!
"In other words, as long as our Takarajima Company survives this month and a half, until Maishiro Kyosuke is completely finished."
"Our Takarajima Publishing House can revive 'Fiction Mystery' and make a comeback!"
"After all, without Kyosuke Maijo's *Top Hat* magazine, it's basically a third-rate magazine, completely unable to compete with a long-established magazine like ours!"
"As for now—we just need to cut costs and sit back and watch the show!"
"Just watch Kodansha's *Top Hat*, Kobunsha's *Novel Jewel*, and Bungei Shunju's *ALL Reader*—these three beasts will fight each other to the death!"
"The best outcome would be for the three beasts to fight to the death, resulting in mutual destruction!"
"Then, with our revitalized 'Fiction Mystery,' Takarajima Publishing will crush all three of these short story mystery publishers and become the leading force in Japanese short story mystery fiction!"
Upon hearing Matsushima Shunma's words, Hosho Shirakawa's ashen face slowly regained color, and the fatigue on his face gradually disappeared, turning into joy.
"Okay, okay!"
"Minister Matsushima, as expected of you! You have such foresight!"
"Why didn't I think of such a good solution?"
Hosho Shirakawa looked up and glanced at the terrified Daisuke Kamiyama beside him: "Alright, Daisuke, stop looking so scared."
"Now that we have a plan, let's implement it. Go back to the magazine department and start making arrangements, including the staff there."
"After all, our Takara-sha will be suspending publication for almost a month and a half this time."
"It's completely unnecessary to maintain so many staff members. Those who can be laid off should be laid off, and those who cannot be laid off but require compensation should be transferred to other departments. They can be transferred back when the publication resumes!"
When Daisuke Kamiyama heard that Shirakawa Hosho wanted to split up his magazine division, he was naturally unwilling.
"President Baosheng, our magazine department at Formosa Publishing House is full of long-time employees who have worked there for over ten years. Isn't doing this a bit... *bang!*"
Hosho Shirakawa slammed his hand on the table and looked at Kamiyama Daisuke with some displeasure: "Kamiyama Daisuke, you've already ruined the 'Fiction Mystery' magazine. I've already given you a chance by not firing you. Don't take it for granted."
"What do you mean by 'long-term employees'? They just eat and don't work? What's the point of keeping them around?"
"I'm only giving you two days. If you can do it, do it; if you can't, get out of here!"
Upon hearing Hosho Shirakawa's words, Kamiyama Daisuke realized that there was no point in saying anything more at this point. He could only bow to Hosho Shirakawa and Matsushima Shunma before turning and leaving the president's office.
At 3:00 AM on February 9, 1980.
Asakusa, Taito Ward, Tokyo, Chomei no Yu (Long Life Hot Spring).
Kyosuke Maijo, wrapped in a blanket, sat by the floor-to-ceiling window of the luxury suite, sipping tea.
He carefully examined the completed manuscript of "Dear Mr. S".
Although the short story "Dear Mr. S" is not long and has few words.
However, since "Dear Mr. S" is a novel that revolves around "narrative trickery".
Therefore, Maijo Kyosuke must proofread the text multiple times to provide readers with the best reading experience!
Therefore, this time, Maijo Kyosuke stayed indoors and wrote for four whole days.
Over the course of four days, Kyosuke Maijo wrote and deleted repeatedly, all to polish "Dear S-kun" and add details, making the already wonderful story even more wonderful!
After reading it three times.
Kyosuke Maijo confirmed that there were no problems with the manuscript for "Dear S-kun".
Although Maijo Kyosuke wants to gather all the members of the "New Orthodox Mystery Club" to appreciate his latest work.
But unfortunately, it's still too early.
He did not call Otto Penzel or Takao Tsuchiya in advance to inform them.
Thinking of all this, Maishiro Kyosuke could only stretch lazily.
I lay down on the big bed in the master bedroom and fell asleep.
We also look forward to the members of the "New Authentic Mystery Club".
What kind of review would you give after watching "Dear Mr. S"?
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