I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 12 The shortlist is out, but who is this guy?

Kitagawa Hide, who was hurrying home with a bag of mid- to high-end cat food in one hand and a bag of steaming yam buns in the other, did not lie to Saito Rena.

If Okatake Yomiuri is really his biggest competitor for the Group Portrait Newcomer Award, he has every confidence in winning the award.

And to be honest, it is hard to compare a so-called "best-selling author" who cheated on his wife with more than 50 women and became famous entirely because of an autobiographical novel with the award-winning Haruki Murakami.

Kitagawa Hide felt that this was an insult to the great Murakami.

The more he understood the Japanese literary world, the more confident he became. He felt that any masterpiece he picked out in his mind would be able to make a big splash in the current literary world.

However, before he made a big move, he still had to pray that the editors at the "Qun Xiang" editorial department would act quickly and announce the awards as soon as possible.

After all, he can wait, but those snobbish bank employees who only know how to "collect umbrellas when it rains and lend them out when it's sunny" won't wait.

Thinking of this, Beichuan Xiu turned a corner and finally returned to his nest before 11 o'clock in the evening.

The lights in the rental house were bright, it seemed that my wife Yumeko had already arrived home.

Kitagawa Hide came to the door and pushed it with his butt, and sure enough, the door was ajar.

Every time he came home later, no matter what time it was, my wife Yumeko would wait for him quietly like a gentle wife.

She won't sleep until he comes back.

"Meow~" Pete, shaking his big fat butt, jumped out of my wife Yumeko's arms and ran straight towards him.

"You, do you have such a keen sense of smell?" Kitagawa Hide took off his leather shoes and gently stroked Pete's head with his foot. Then he put on indoor shoes, put down the cat food, and walked into the house with a yam bun in his arms. "I'm back, Mengzi."

"Xiujun, you're back. You've worked hard today. Did you work overtime?" My wife Yumeko rubbed her sleepy eyes, yawned a little, and immediately ran over to help him take off his coat.

"No, I just bought you some food on the way. You've worked hard."

Beichuan Xiu handed over the bag of sweet potato buns in his hand.

"Clang clang clang~ Your favorite yam buns from Shiozawa Sohonke~"

"Ah!" My wife Yumeko happily took the steamed buns, but soon a trace of distress appeared on her face, "Thank you, Xiujun, but this is so expensive."

"It's okay. I got some extra income today, and we have to indulge ourselves occasionally." Kitagawa Hide looked at Pete, who was circling around the new cat food at the entrance, and sat down at the table. "It's a good opportunity to improve Pete's diet. Hey, is this the tempura and sushi from the izakaya?"

"Well~ I got my salary today. I happened to pass by that izakaya, so I bought some." My wife Yumeko sat down next to him, took out the still hot steamed buns, and placed them on the plate one by one.

Seeing that the steamed buns were still hot, she felt a little touched.

The store of Shiose Sohonke was not convenient for his way home, so he deliberately turned there to buy steamed buns and then hurried back.

Otherwise the steamed buns will get cold early.

Xiujun seems to have really become different.

"Silly girl! That izakaya is so far away from the University of Tokyo, you have to go around half of Tokyo. Don't you think it's troublesome?" Kitagawa Hide glared at her with heartache.

From the University of Tokyo to the izakaya, it takes more than half an hour to walk after getting off the subway station. Given their current financial situation, the girl definitely won't take a taxi.

It takes more than an hour to go there and back!

What a fool!

"Because I don't have to go to class tomorrow." My wife Yumeko lowered her head and looked at her thighs.

"I can't do anything about you! This won't happen again!"

"Okay, let's eat the buns first. They taste better while they're hot."

He picked up a small steamed bun and gently put it into my wife Yumeko's mouth. My wife Yumeko was not used to this intimate action. She hesitated for a moment, but finally opened her mouth with a blushing face.

Beichuan Xiu chuckled, opened his mouth and pointed at himself.

My wife Yumeko blushed but still picked up a piece of tempura and fed it to him.

The two of them ate and talked about what happened during the day.

Kitagawa Hide thought about it and decided not to tell my wife Yumeko about the contract and the nomination for the Newcomer Award for the time being. He lied that the money was a newcomer bonus from the company.

The amount was also changed from 10 yen to 1 yen.

Anyway, King Records is one of the largest record companies in Tokyo, so isn't it normal to have some small benefits?

The reason I kept it secret from my wife Yumeko was that I was worried that with her personality, after hearing that he was shortlisted for the Group Portrait Newcomer Award, she would unconsciously expect to win the award.

But the fact is often that the greater the expectations, the greater the disappointment.

Rather than putting her on an emotional roller coaster, it would be better to surprise her instead.

"Speaking up about things that you can't do or haven't done often only makes you a laughing stock."

This sentence was the motto he always adhered to in his two lifetimes.

"I will be able to submit the translation to the studio tomorrow, which will bring me some extra income. I will also get a salary next month. In short, life will get better and better. The new school year is coming soon, and you can quit your other two jobs and concentrate on your studies. I'll be at home with you."

"Well! Xiujun, don't work too hard and pay more attention to rest." My wife Mengzi said softly.

"Understood, I will pay attention."

Kitagawa Hide put his arms around my wife Yumeko's soft and sweet waist. The two of them were close together, covered with the same blanket, and the big stupid cat Pete also forced his way in.

Although life is still difficult now and he still has a debt of 4 yen to pay on April 20, as he said, he believes that life will get better and better.

He still clearly remembered the ideal life that my wife Yumeko had mentioned.

The two opened a jazz cafe together and named it "Peter Cat", the same name as their big stupid cat.

Then they work from morning till night in the cafe, drinking coffee during the day and wine at night, with jazz, piano and lazy cats in the shop.

Maybe their income is not high, but their lives are full of warmth and they can pursue their dreams.

This kind of life is also what Kitagawa Hide longs for, so he will accompany Yumeko to realize it step by step.

After a while of tenderness, Beichuan Xiu suddenly remembered something, patted his head heavily, and lowered his head to remind: "By the way, Mengzi, let's not go out this weekend, just stay at home honestly."

"Eh? But I made an appointment with Rei-chan to go shopping on Sunday." "Where to? Not to Ginza in Tokyo? No, no, absolutely not. I have to hand in my manuscript tomorrow. Go tell Jabami-san not to go out on weekends!"

Although she didn't know why Kitagawa Hide was so reluctant to go out on the weekend, Agatsuma Yumeko, who always listened to him, nodded and kept it in mind.

1995年，3月20日上午7时50分。

Five Aum Shinrikyo extremists disguised as ordinary company members boarded five subway trains on the Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line, Hibiya Line, and Chiyoda Line.

They brought sarin in plastic bags wrapped in newspapers, placed them at their feet after getting on the bus, then punctured the plastic bags with the tips of their long-handled umbrellas and quickly got off the bus.

Soon, people in the subway began to vomit, convulse, faint, and even die.

After the Tokyo subway sarin gas attack that shocked the world, the first people to arrive were NHK reporters.

These reporters used video equipment to record the incident on the streets of Tokyo:

Panicked and crowded crowds, biochemical police wearing gas masks, running doctors and nurses, and fire trucks and ambulances whizzing past.

Several main subway lines were forced to close, 26 subway stations were affected, and both underground and road traffic were thrown into chaos.

The "Tokyo Subway Sarin Gas Incident" ultimately confirmed 132 deaths and at least 5500 injuries.

Because the situation was so serious, people even ignored the death of Yasuo Yamada, the voice actor of the protagonist of the anime "Lupin the Third" yesterday.

On June 6 last year, these criminals spread sarin gas in a company, killing seven people and injuring 27.

而在今年1月17日的清晨5点46分，神户市发生7.3级强烈地震。

Since the epicenter of the earthquake was in Awaji, not far from densely populated cities such as Kobe, Osaka, and Kyoto, the water, electricity, gas, roads, railways, and ports in major cities in the Kansai region were severely damaged.

Of the more than 6500 deaths officially announced by Japan, 95% actually died from secondary disasters such as fires in urban areas after the earthquake.

The Mainichi Shimbun described the disaster as follows: "The situation was just like the day after the defeat."

Now, with the addition of this subway poisoning incident and the wave of unemployment caused by the bursting of the bubble economy since the Heisei era, it can be expected that Japan will experience another surge in the number of suicides.

Two weeks after the Tokyo subway sarin gas attack, two things gradually became popular in Japanese society: one was Nostradamus's doomsday prophecy, and the other was "The Complete Suicide Manual," which became a million-dollar bestseller.

The overall social atmosphere has become extremely depressing and miserable.

Walking on the street, you can feel the loneliness and confusion coming from all directions.

Officials from the Ministry of Education noticed that something was wrong with the social atmosphere and immediately put pressure on major newspapers and magazines, asking them to use literature to lead the people out of this depressed life.

In Japanese society, there are three types of people who are generally respected by the public: lawyers, doctors and writers.

Among them, writers are called national teachers, and the portraits of several well-known literary masters are even printed on banknotes.

Therefore, whenever such social events occur, the Ministry of Education will ask writers to come out and comfort the people.

As one of the top five pure literature magazines, Gunzo naturally could not escape the pressure from the Ministry of Education.

But now the sales of "Group Portrait" are declining month by month, and there is no substantial result to meet the needs of these officials.

After much deliberation, Muramatsu Tomoshige decided, with the approval of the board of directors, to announce the shortlist for the Group Portrait Newcomer Award one week earlier than originally scheduled for April 4.

Among the five major pure literature newcomer awards, the Group Portrait Newcomer Award is the only award whose selection is completed in the first half of the year. Every time the shortlist is announced, it causes a sensation in the entire literary community.

After all, there were only two pure literature awards of sufficient weight awarded in the first half of the year.

One is the Group Portrait Newcomer Award, and the other is the Akutagawa Prize.

The former is a gateway for new writers to make their debut.

The latter is to select the best one from a bunch of excellent works published or posted this year to be canonized as a god, which can be regarded as one of the must-win awards for ordinary writers on the road to becoming a god.

As soon as Kodansha announced the shortlist for the Gunzo Newcomer Award in advance, it immediately attracted the attention of a number of literature lovers, readers, practitioners, and even university professors of literature.

Early morning on December 4th.

Maruzen Marunouchi Bookstore, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, next to Tokyo Station.

The aftermath of the poisoning incident in late March has not yet passed.

Tokyo Station, which was usually crowded with people, was unusually deserted for a few days.

But today, dense crowds of people filled the subway passages, and men, women, young and old, wearing various masks walked towards this side in an orderly manner.

Mixed in the crowd, Jabari Rei put her hands in her pockets, attracting attention because of her tall stature and hippie-like outfit.

She has been in a good mood these days because thanks to my wife Yumeko's sudden warning, she successfully avoided the poisoning incident and saved her life.

That stupid love-brained guy is indeed my lucky patron saint.

Jabami Rei thought so and followed the crowd into Maruzen Marunouchi Bookstore.

A group of people were pointing and talking around a huge red poster at the door, on which were written in big black pen the words "Group Portrait Newcomer Award Shortlist"

Jabami Rei, who studies in the Faculty of Literature at the University of Tokyo and is an avid fan of pure literature, immediately went over to see if there were any new faces on this year's shortlist.

"Kitagawa Hide? Who is this guy? I don't think I've ever heard of him."

"I can tell you clearly that this person is a completely new writer. I have followed and submitted works to every group portrait new writer award, but I have never seen his name!"

"Yes, yes, yes. I have seen the other nominees. Many of them are regulars at the Group Portrait Newcomer Awards and have published novels in other magazines. Who is this Kitagawa Hide?"

“Could it be that Group Portraits really put a completely blank slate of writers on the shortlist for the Newcomer Award?”

"I know this guy! Kitagawa Hide seems to be the illegitimate son of a Kodansha executive. Oh, it seems that Gunzo has also started to play this game."

Listening to the noisy discussions around me, I didn't know who started it, but soon the focus of the discussion shifted from evaluating the shortlist to discussing "who exactly is Kitagawa Hide".

"Beichuan Xiu, 'Hear the Wind Sing'. I must have drunk too much last night. Why did I think of that guy? Bah bah bah."

Jabami Rei shook her head, put the ridiculous idea behind her, entered the bookstore, and began to choose a novel to give to Agatsuma Yumeko as a thank-you gift.

(End of this chapter)