I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 45 None of the sows in the production team are as productive as you!

"Good morning, Saito-san." Relying on his height and physique advantage, Kitagawa Hide opened up a path through the long queue of office workers and squeezed to the side of Saito Rena.

When he got closer to her, he realized that Saito Reina had completely changed her dressing style today.

Before, she either wore an intellectual OL suit or a jumpsuit in warm colors. Her overall style was mature and conservative.

Today, she not only wore a figure-hugging suspender skirt with sexy black tights, but even her hairstyle changed!
The two long ponytails disappeared, and the long black hair was tied into a bun, smoothly placed on the right side of the chest, supported by a rather exaggerated but seductive plump arc, exuding the fragrance of lavender.

"Good morning, Kitagawa-san. Uh, am I dressed a little too weird?" Saito Reina blushed rarely, holding her handbag in front of her, and asked in a low voice, "Because today is the release day, every time there is a major holiday, when my mood is up and down, I will change my clothes to change my mood."

"Oh, I see. No, I think this outfit suits you very well, it's very beautiful." Kitagawa Xiu suddenly realized that this was probably a little way she used to regulate her emotions.

Social pressure is enormous, and many office workers develop some strange habits under heavy pressure in order to change their mood and maintain a smooth rhythm of life.

Some like to eat and drink a lot when they are feeling depressed, some like to watch horror movies alone at night, and some like to fall asleep after running until they are exhausted.

Kitagawa Hide thinks that having strange habits is okay as long as it doesn't interfere with others or commit any crime.

After all, it's not easy for everyone under the heavy pressure of society. Who can't have some little quirks?

"Thank you for the compliment! I'm glad you don't blame me." Saito Rena breathed a sigh of relief. In order to establish an image that everyone can remember in the company, she basically did not change her clothing style and hairstyle, and her interests and hobbies remained consistent.

But in fact, she has liked to change into sexy clothes to adjust her mood since middle school, but such moments are very rare, and may not happen once a year.

"By the way, Saito-san, didn't you say last time that you would show me the manuscript of your new book as soon as possible? I just finished writing it these few days, would you like to review it first?"

Beichuan Xiu looked at the endless stream of people and motioned her to wait on the public bench.
"Anyway, it looks like we won't be able to get on the subway anytime soon."

"A new manuscript? Could it be 'A Wild Sheep Chase'?" Saito Rena glanced at her own outfit and didn't want to squeeze into the subway, so she nodded and followed him.

"Yes." Kitagawa Hide took the manuscript paper out of the bag.

The book has a total of 14 words. In order to save money when printing, one A6 paper was filled with 4 words.

Even so, the whole book has 146 pages, which he divided into ten parts and bound them.

Hearing that this was the final work of her long-awaited "Youth Trilogy", Saito Rena immediately became interested. She carefully took the manuscript and started flipping through it before she even sat down.

In fact, she has always had a question: why the third part is called "A Wild Sheep Chase".

The theme of "searching" is easy to understand.

In "Hear the Wind Sing", Kitagawa Hide uses prose-like sentences and divergent plots to explain to readers the theme of "What is the wind saying?"

By the time of "Pinball in 1973", his writing style had obviously become much more mature and stable, and the theme of "searching" was revealed, leading the trend of this subject matter ever since.

After the last supplement was released, countless "searching flow" novels appeared on the market overnight, which shows how popular "Pinball in 1973" is.

It is expected that the final work will continue with the theme of "searching".

But why are we looking for sheep?
In the preface, Kitagawa Hide told her the reason.

Almost all of Japan's large sheep farms are concentrated in Hokkaido.

Kitagawa Hide said that he saw real sheep there, communicated with sheep breeders, and looked up information about sheep in government departments.

After that, he realized that there were no sheep in Japan originally!
Sheep were imported as a rare animal in the early Meiji period.

At that time, the Meiji government implemented a policy to encourage sheep farming, but later sheep farming was completely abandoned because it was an industry with no economic benefits.

Based on this interesting history, Kitagawa Hide turned the image of "sheep" into a symbol of the Japanese government's desperate efforts to promote modernization.

This is the origin of “looking for sheep”.

He is a total genius!

Just by reading the preface, Saito Rena truly felt this in her heart.

What are the most criticized aspects of "Hear the Wind Sing" and "Pinball 1973"?
The content of the book adopts the story model of romantic novels that is not recognized by the mainstream literary world and has been criticized for being without depth and connotation.

"Since you guys say I have no substance, I'll show you some substance."

Rena Saito seemed to be able to feel the cry that was about to burst out from Hidefumi Kitagawa.

He was silently refuting the scholars who criticized him.

"What do you think?" Kitagawa Hide asked curiously as he saw Saito Rena's expression changing.

In the Youth Trilogy, the most famous one is actually the first one, Hear the Wind Sing, while the third one, A Sheep Chase, did not receive as much response as the first two. But when he was studying Japanese literature at the University of Tokyo in his previous life, he learned that this final work actually caused a small craze in the literary world, and the reason was the "depth" that was different from the first two works.

But it is hard for Kitagawa Hide to say what kind of waves it will stir up in Japan and the literary world.

"Sorry, I only read the preface. I was touched by the 'depth' contained in it, so I read it over and over again several times. I haven't read the main text yet."

Saito Reina smiled awkwardly, then she stopped smiling, held the manuscript to her chest, and said to him solemnly,

"Just from the preface, if the main text is really written in this direction, I think it will set off a new reading craze!"

"That's good. I wrote it so quickly that I haven't read it carefully, so I'm a little unsure. I feel relieved to hear that you, Saito-san, have such a high opinion of it."

Kitagawa Hide took out the remaining manuscripts in his bag.
“In fact, I have already finished writing it all.”

"What?!" Saito Rena held the first dozen manuscripts and felt herself being blown away by the wind.

She also didn't want to lose her composure in front of Kitagawa Hide every time, like a tabloid editor who had never seen the world.

But there’s really nothing I can do!
It can almost be said that "Hear the Wind Sing" and "Pinball in 1973" will definitely be recorded in the history of Japanese literature, and he only spent less than two months to write these two novels.

That's shocking enough.

Now, today is only June 6th, and Kitagawa Hide has finished writing his final work!

Fortunately, she didn't know the joke about "the sow in the production team", otherwise she would really have to buy a book called "Postpartum Care for Sows" to study it, so as to avoid being unable to communicate with Kitagawa Hide, the "high-yield sow".

Saito Reina opened her mouth into an "O" shape. Although she couldn't say anything, her expression seemed to say, "The sows in the production team are not as productive as you!"

"A manuscript paper this thick should have more than 100,000 words. So this is a novel, right?" Saito Rena took the manuscript and was no longer as relaxed as before. She quickly looked around and secretly stuffed the manuscript paper into her handbag.

Keep it well and be careful, don't lose it!

This is a manuscript that will make the Japanese literary world gasp in shock again in the future.

Kitagawa Hide nodded and said, "Yes, the main text has a total of 14 words, and I have finished writing it all. In addition to showing it to you and the teachers in the editorial department, I also want to discuss the new manuscript fee contract for this book with Kodansha in detail."

"A new contract?" Saito Reina suddenly realized. She held her bag tightly to her chest with both hands and didn't dare to continue reading the manuscript. She looked at him and said, "Indeed. Not to mention the sales of "Hear the Wind Sing", the popularity of the supplement alone is enough for the company to give Mr. Kitagawa a new contract."

The price of 6000 yen per sheet of manuscript paper is now a bargain for Kitagawa Hide's books. He would definitely not accept serializing "A Wild Sheep Chase" at this price.

In this matter, Saito Reina stood by his side without thinking, but still reminded him: "If Kitagawa-san wants the best contract, I suggest not to hand the manuscript to the editorial department yet."

"It's just like when you're in love. Even if you like the other person very much, you should try to take the initiative. You can't be a bootlicker, or people will look down on you and think you're 'cheap'. Is this what you mean, Saito-san?" Kitagawa Hide was very familiar with this.

Sometimes "delaying updates" and "delaying submissions" is a strategy to take the initiative.

Many writers are not as stuck in writing as editors and companies imagine, but they always procrastinate and interrupt their work, keeping publishers and readers hanging like a hunger marketing campaign in order to maximize their profits.

Because he was thinking about earning money to buy the bar as soon as possible, Kitagawa Hide ignored this point.

"A bootlicker? This metaphor is very appropriate. As expected of Mr. Kitagawa who is very good at writing pure literature of youth love. In short, this is what he meant!" Saito Rena secretly gave a thumbs up.

After the two reached an agreement on when to submit the manuscript and how to increase the value of the contract, they continued to chat about the subsequent content and ideas of "A Wild Sheep Chase".

While we were chatting, a new subway arrived. There were indeed fewer people getting on the train, but the number of original passengers on the train did not decrease at all.

The two of them squeezed in shoulder to shoulder. The relatively short Saito Rena could only be squeezed against the glass door. It was difficult for her to face Kitagawa Hide, so she had to hold the glass door with both hands, slightly bend her body, and stand with her back to him.

Kitagawa Hide's 1.78-meter height makes him stand out in the subway car, and his strong physique makes others afraid to approach him. But in this situation, he can only learn from other men and raise his hands to avoid misunderstanding.

Although there are women's carriages on the Japanese subway, during peak hours, many women still squeeze into normal carriages with a group of men.

As we all know, due to the large number of wolves on the Japanese subway, some unpleasant sexual harassment incidents often occur.

This phenomenon is even more obvious in the repressive society of 95.

In order to avoid being misunderstood by women and then being taken away by the uncle in the hat for no apparent reason, men will raise their hands to show their innocence.

Kitagawa Hide leaned against Saito Rena, his hands on the glass door above her head, his eyes wandering around the car.

In one carriage, he saw more than a dozen people holding "Group Portrait" in their hands, and many young people were excitedly discussing the "Group Portrait" supplement released today and discussing the story plot.

No wonder there are more people today than ever before!
Kitagawa Hide suddenly remembered that Maruzen Marunouchi Shoten was one of the few large bookstores that helped market his "Gunzo" supplement. When you bought a supplement, you would receive a delicate postcard printed by Kodansha (with some famous quotes from "Hear the Wind Sing" printed on it), so many readers went there to buy it.

Maruzen Marunouchi Bookstore is located at Tokyo Station, close to the Kodansha headquarters, which caused Kitagawa Hide and Saito Rena to suffer inexplicably.

"Marketing is killing people." Kitagawa Hide sighed in his heart, isn't it just a postcard?
As for? ? ?
(End of this chapter)