Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 82 The Dutiful and the Negligent

Island country, Tokyo, Chiyoda, Kadokawa Shoten headquarters.

President Kadokawa Toshihiko looked gloomy. He stared at Inoue Shinichiro standing in front of him and said coldly, "Baka! That man still won't give up?"

Inoue Shinichiro lowered his head and said respectfully, "After he came out, many members were eager to leave us and join his firm. At the same time, I also heard that he was going to use his old tricks again..."

Kadokawa Toshihiko interrupted, "Another foreign work?"

Inoue Shinichiro nodded.

Kadokawa Shoten was first founded by Japanese scholar Kadokawa Genyoshi, and later developed into a corporate group integrating publishing, imaging, and online media content.

After Kadokawa Genyoshi died, Kadokawa Bookstore was inherited by his eldest son, Kadokawa Haruki. Haruki Kadokawa is a legendary figure who spans multiple fields such as literature, publishing, and film. He has the romance of a writer, but also likes big-money business operations. He is both manipulative and unrestrained.

Kadokawa Kojihiko is his younger brother, who served as deputy general manager for a long time. Later, due to differences in ideas, he was forced to leave and set up his own faction.

The turning point occurred in 1992, when Haruki Kadokawa was arrested by the island police for breaking the law and was later sentenced. Kadokawa Koyomi made a comeback and became the president of Kadokawa Bookstore.

In 2004, Haruki Kadokawa was released from prison and reorganized "Haruki Kadokawa Office Co., Ltd." and planned to take back Kadokawa Bookstore from his brother.

The reason why Haruki Kadokawa was able to inherit the family business in the 70s was that he used his keen sense to translate and publish the original novel of the American movie "Love Story", which was all the rage in the island country at that time, and achieved huge commercial success.

At present, the publishing industry in Japan is basically divided among Kadokawa Group (with Kadokawa Bookstore as the core), Hitotsubashi Group (with Shueisha and Shogakukan as the core), Otowa Group (with Kodansha as the core) and Shinchosha. It is extremely difficult to get good domestic works from these publishing houses.

Therefore, starting with foreign works is an ideal choice.

Kadokawa Toshihiko asked, "Did you find out what foreign works he likes?"

Inoue Shinichiro took out a stack of papers from his briefcase and handed them to Kadokawa Koyomi respectfully, saying, "These are some foreign works that he has been paying attention to recently. I sent people to collect and translate some of them. Pay special attention to this one—"

Kadokawa Koyomi picked up the manuscript, saw the title was "Your Name is", and started flipping through it.

Inoue Shinichiro had someone translate several thousand words, which added up to less than 10 pages. Kadokawa Lehiko quickly finished reading it and asked in confusion, "Light novel?"

He graduated from the Department of Political Economics at Waseda University and is not proficient in literature, but his many years of work experience have given him basic judgment skills.

Inoue Shinichiro nodded and replied, "It is indeed very similar to our light novels, but it also has the bright and lively characteristics of Chinese culture that our island country's light novels do not have. The translator said it is an excellent work he has not seen in recent years!"

Kadokawa Toshihiko was furious. He slammed the table with the manuscript in his hand and shouted, "Bakayarō! He is trying to demonstrate to us! We must not let him succeed!"

Kadokawa Bookstore is the largest publisher of light novels in the island country. The "Kadokawa Bunko" and "Dengeki Bunko" of the three major light novel publishers are both affiliated with Kadokawa Bookstore. So in Kadokawa Koyomi's view, his brother's move was a targeted sneak attack!

Kadokawa Toshihiko asked, "Sign this man and this book! Now! Fly over and talk to him!"

Shinichiro Inoue looked embarrassed and explained, "Actually, I called the editor-in-chief of the Chinese magazine that published this novel two days ago, but he said that the author was undergoing military training and could not be contacted."

"What? A soldier?" Kadokawa Lehiko was also surprised.

Inoue Shinichiro said quickly: "However, he should attend the Shanghai Book Fair in a few days. There will be a new book of his to be released at the book fair. It is said to be "Your Name is"."

Kadokawa Koyomi pondered for a while and said, "If you were a soldier, you might not have enough weight... You did a good job this time, very diligent and energetic! Keep up the hard work in the future." Inoue Shinichiro was overjoyed and bowed deeply again: "Hi. Thank you for your cultivation, President!"

Zhang Chao naturally didn't know what was happening outside the base.

During these days of military training, he has already earned a nickname: "Little Senior Brother!"

Although he was about the same age as the other freshmen, he was actually a junior. Of course, this was also the old rule of the "writer class" jointly run by Yanda and Luyuan, where students were directly admitted to the class until their junior year and graduated in two years. However, in the past, such students were mature writers over 30 years old, and no one had expected someone like Zhang Chao to appear.

What the Yan University students didn’t expect was that although Zhang Chao was already a well-known writer, he was not arrogant at all when interacting with his classmates. He ate and drank the same as everyone else, trained and rested the same as everyone else, made the same jokes, and looked at the same beauties as everyone else…

Some classmates brought "Youth Literature", "Flower City" and "Young Like You" to Zhang Chao for autographs. Zhang Chao did not refuse, and often asked them kindly whether they wanted to write any blessings or something.

But this made a lot of boys suffer. This period was originally a good time to pursue girls. The hormones that had been suppressed for several years were eager to be released in the close contact of the queue training and the majestic singing under the moon.

Many students at Yanda are not only academic masters, but also multi-talented. They can perform street dance, Latin dance, somersault, folk dance, bel canto, and hip-hop whenever they have free time, and they always win a lot of applause.

Zhang Chao was also urged to do some tricks many times, but he usually managed to get away with it by begging for mercy.

A boy whispered to the girl next to him: "What a great writer, but he's useless. I heard he doesn't know anything except Chinese..."

The girl rolled her eyes at him and said, "This is called being low-key, low-key. Do you understand what low-key means? Haven't you read the news? Zhang Chao can earn at least 100 million yuan by writing a book now."

The boy said awkwardly: "We, as students of Yanda University, can't just focus on money..."

The girl rolled her eyes at him again and said, "Then let's look at your talent? Publish an article in Huacheng or Youth Literature this year and let me see it."

Boy: "..."

Fortunately, I heard that Zhang Chao is moving around in class and won’t be stuck in the Chinese Department’s Class of 04. Otherwise, how could he have this sweet first love?
Seven days passed quickly, and it was time for the new students to return to school. More than a dozen buses were parked in front of the base, waiting for the students to file out and get on the buses in an orderly manner.

Zhang Chao followed the team to the Chinese Department bus and suddenly heard someone calling him: "Zhang Chao, don't get on the bus, come with us!"

Zhang Chao turned around and saw that it was Zhu Yanling from Huacheng Publishing House. He couldn't help but asked curiously, "Editor Zhu, why did you come here from Guangzhou?"

Zhu Yanling said, "I came specially to pick you up to go to the Shanghai Book Fair. The book fair opens today, and you are still here leisurely. We are so worried. I have applied to your school, and your teacher has agreed."

Zhang Chao looked at the teacher in charge, who nodded and said, "The Academic Affairs Office has approved it. You can go first."

Zhang Chao had no choice but to follow Zhu Yanling to a Toyota Crown sedan, throw his backpack into the trunk, and get in. The sedan drove away in a cloud of dust.

The boy looked at the girl with a squinting look in her eyes and said depressedly: "Is this what you call low-key?"

In the car, Zhang Chao curiously asked Zhu Yanling: "Why are you so anxious?"

Zhu Yanling sighed and replied, "Zhang Chao, I failed in my duty!"

(End of this chapter)