Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 145: The Dogeza from Shinkai Makoto (vote request at the end of the month)

The person who called was Shinichiro Inoue, the director of Kadokawa Corporation. He spoke English with a very heavy accent and Zhang Chao had a hard time understanding what he was saying.

Zhang Chao was puzzled as to how he had suddenly won a literary award from an island country. He only had a few Japanese literary awards:
The Akutagawa Prize is awarded to new pure literary talents from the island nation and is selected and awarded by the literary magazine Bungeishunju.
The Naoki Prize is awarded to works with strong storytelling and aimed at the general public, favoring unknown writers and newcomers;
The Tanizaki Junichiro Prize and the Kawabata Yasunari Prize are awarded to core writers of pure literature.

The only novel I have officially published in the island country is "Your Name". Even though I am an islander, this work has nothing to do with the above awards.

Other awards include the Edogawa Ranpo Prize for mystery novels and the SF Grand Prize for science fiction novels.

It has nothing to do with "Your Name"!
Shinichiro Inoue found that his explanation was not clear, so he handed the phone to someone else. This person could speak Mandarin with a foreign accent but was fairly fluent, and Zhang Chao finally knew what award he had won:

The grand prize of the 12th Dengeki Novel Award, which is also the highest award.

This award was quite unfamiliar to Zhang Chao. After some explanation on the other end of the phone, he learned that this was a literary award sponsored by a publishing house called MediaWorks under Kadokawa Bunko, and the main award recipients were new light novel writers.

Zhang Chao then remembered that he was indeed a literary newcomer in the island country, and that "Your Name" was indeed classified as a light novel.

However, Zhang Chao, who had just been inspired by Marquez's profound and exciting speech in the morning, was a little reluctant to participate in the selection of such a popular novel award, so he politely declined to receive the award.

The man on the other side was obviously anxious and said hurriedly: "Zhang Chao-san, the grand prize is 300 million yen. If you don't come to claim it, we will be very troubled."

Zhang Chao: "300 million? ... Then I'd better go."

After hanging up the phone, Zhang Chao couldn't help but marvel at Kadokawa's generosity. 300 million yen was equivalent to more than 2005 yuan in 20, which was enough to buy a house if you were not in a first-tier city.

Popular literature is about making money!
At that time, most domestic literary awards had no prize money, or only offered a few thousand yuan or tens of thousands of yuan in prize money. The highest prize was the "Chinese Media Literature Award" of the Southern Daily, which was only 10 yuan.

The award ceremony was on November 11th, so Zhang Chao refunded his flight to Beijing and booked a flight to Tokyo directly at Cedar Rapids Airport, the nearest airport in Iowa City.

After a 12-hour flight, Zhang Chao landed at Tokyo's Narita Airport. Due to the time difference, it was already noon on the 14th, Japan time, and Kadokawa Bookstore specially sent the young man who spoke Chinese on the phone last time to pick him up at the airport and take care of all Zhang Chao's affairs in Tokyo.

As soon as Zhang Chao walked out of the airport lobby, he saw him waiting for him with a big sign.

After saying hello, the young man introduced himself in Chinese: "I'm an editor at Kadokawa Books' International Department, my name is Yusuke Tanida. Please leave everything that Zhang Chao-san has to do in Tokyo these days to me."

Zhang Chao asked: "Your Chinese is pretty good, where did you learn it?"

Yusuke Tanida replied, "I studied abroad at the Language University of Yenching for four years."

Zhang Chao said, "No wonder."

Yanyu University is the only international university in China whose main mission is to provide Chinese language and cultural education to international students. The teaching level in this aspect is very high, so it is no surprise that Yusuke Tanida is good at Chinese.

After saying that, Yusuke Tanida immediately took Zhang Chao's luggage. When Zhang Chao refused to let him take it, Yusuke bowed and apologized to Zhang Chao repeatedly, so Zhang Chao had no choice but to give him the suitcase.

In order to receive Zhang Chao well, Kadokawa specially allocated a Toyota Prius to Yusuke Tanida to ensure that he could follow orders at any time.

Yusuke Tanida drove Zhang Chao through the busy city of Tokyo and gradually came to a residential area with shady trees and a quiet environment.

Looking around, this place is full of traditional Heshi courtyard buildings, the tallest of which is only two stories high.

Yusuke Tanida parked the car in front of a courtyard, got out to help Zhang Chao with the luggage, and rang the doorbell at the entrance of the courtyard.

After a while, a Japanese woman wearing a kimono, a traditional bun, and her face painted white like paper, whose real age and appearance could not be seen, came to open the door.

Zhang Chao was considered well-informed, but he was almost frightened by the pale face that suddenly appeared behind the door.

Yusuke Tanida introduced: "This is the 'female commander' here, Miss Ogiwara Miho. Although she doesn't speak Chinese, she is very good at English. She will serve you in this 'Qingjiyuan'." After Ogiwara Miho gave Zhang Chao a deep bow, she said in English: "I hope my service will satisfy you!"

Zhang Chao nodded and followed Ogiwara Miho inside.

This is a typical Japanese garden building. After entering the door, you will first pass by several clumps of shrubs that are trimmed very delicately and neatly. After crossing a small bridge, what comes into view is a "dry landscape" landscape composed of white sand, black stones, moss, and stone lamp bases.

Follow the path next to the "karesansui" landscape to reach the main building consisting of four traditional wooden houses. The overall style is very simple, light and restrained, fully reflecting the characteristics of traditional Japanese aesthetics.

Zhang Chao asked with some confusion: "Am I the only one living here?"

Yusuke Tanida said: "Yes, until you leave Tokyo, 'Seijiroin' belongs to you alone.

This is a property that Kadokawa Group uses to receive VIPs. We have equipped this place with the most professional service team. In addition to regular cleaning, there are also chefs, masseurs, hairstylists, etc., all managed by "female generals".

You can ask her anything you want.”

Zhang Chao wondered how much money "Your Name" made for Kadokawa. Was it necessary to make such a grand ceremony?
After Zhang Chao settled down in the house, Yusuke Yada bowed and left. Miho Ogiwara took over the service for Zhang Chao. She took Zhang Chao to the back garden of "Qingjiyuan", where there were tall bamboos planted, one section higher than the wall, completely blocking the view from outside.

And under the bamboo is an open-air hot spring bath with a steaming hot air.

After explaining the various facilities and precautions, Ogiwara Miho bowed and left. If Zhang Chao wanted to find her, he could just ring the bell in the room.

Zhang Chao watched the pale face disappear completely from his sight, and then he breathed a sigh of relief. To him, no matter how attentive and considerate the service was, it could not offset the weird feeling brought by this face.

Zhang Chao took a bath and then took a nap. When he opened his eyes again, it was already past 5 o'clock in the evening.

He went to wash his face before ringing the bell. Less than a minute later, Ogiwara Miho appeared in the corridor outside the room, knelt respectfully, and asked Zhang Chao if he needed anything.

Zhang Chao was really hungry, so he specifically asked for no sushi or sashimi, just a bowl of ramen and some other side dishes.

30 minutes later, Zhang Chao stared at the ramen, rice and fried dumplings in front of him and couldn't help asking, "Is this the staple food for a meeting?"

Ogiwara Miho bowed her head and apologized, "We Japanese eat ramen with rice or fried dumplings. Since you didn't specify what dishes to pair with it, I made them all for you. If you're not satisfied, I'll pour it out and ask them to redo it."

As a relatively traditional Chinese, Zhang Chao could not bear to see the food being wasted like this, so he quickly said no. Then he asked Ogihara Miho to leave, and he finished the three servings of staple food.

Fortunately, the food served by Japanese people is usually in small portions, and Zhang Chao was extremely hungry, so he barely finished the food in front of him.

Not long after Ogiwara Miho cleared the plates and left, he heard a noise at the door. A short while later, Ogiwara Miho came to the house with three people. In addition to Yada Yusuke, there was also Kadokawa Koyomi, the president of Kadokawa Corporation, whom he had met before. The other young man was a skinny guy who was in his twenties or thirties.

After the greetings, Kadokawa Leyan asked through the translation of Yusuke Tanida, "What do you think of this place, Zhang Chao-san?"

Zhang Chao said: "Very good. Kadokawa's reception to me this time was so grand, I am very grateful." These were truly his sincere words.

Kadokawa Leyan said: "Zhang Chao-sang's novels have sold more than 30 copies this year, which is very popular. And we will have a lot of cooperation in the future. Only by using 'Qingjiyuan' to receive Zhang Chao-sang can we show our sincerity."

Zhang Chao pointed at the strange young man next to him and asked, "Who is this?"

Kadokawa Lehiko said something to the young man, who immediately gave Zhang Chao a "kick down the seat" and said a bunch of Japanese, which scared Zhang Chao.

Yusuke Tanida quickly translated: "He said, 'My name is Makoto Shinkai, please let me supervise the production of the anime version of Your Name!'"

(Ask for a monthly ticket, thank you everyone!)
(End of this chapter)