Tokyo: The life of a literary giant begins with home self-defense!

Chapter 30 A Mayfly Sees the Blue Sky 2
To get to Yamanashi from Tokyo, you can take the JR Chuo Line to Otsuki Station, and then take a bus to the vicinity of Kawaguchiko.

After explaining to his wife several times that he would not be able to return home on time tonight, Taro Ono put down his phone.

"Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Mishima."

Sitting on the train to Yamanashi, Ono Taro expressed his gratitude to Mishima Kazuya who came with him.

The other person is in his fifties with gray hair at the temples. It would be embarrassing for him to accompany me on the winter solstice.

But Ono Taro was eager to meet the young man, but the young man's address was too remote.

"Yamanako, what an ancient name. It's okay, Mr. Ono. I haven't been back for a long time."

Mishima Kazuya was from Yamanashi Prefecture and moved to Tokyo 20 years ago. With his guidance, it would be easier to find that remote village.

Taro Ono couldn't even find the remote village after searching on the Internet.

There was a constant stream of conversations on the train. Tokyo was only about an hour's drive from Yamanashi, and many people traveled in groups on this short journey. Taro Ono suddenly thought of the beginning of the manuscript.

A girl came up to him, opened the window, and shouted "Mr. Stationmaster" to the outside.

"The moment her eyes overlapped with the lights, they were like the enchanting and beautiful luminescent insects dancing in the afterglow of the setting sun?" Ono Taro looked out the window, imagining that as night fell in the sky, the glass that reflected the girl's face also reflected the lights outside the window.

"It's so beautiful. Every word is like a work of art."

Taro Ono sighed. The more he read, the more he realized how terrible the manuscript was.

It’s like someone built a castle in a fantasy world, and in the castle there lives a nihilistic, immovable demon king. The more deeply one studies modern literature, the more one can feel the horror of the demon king.

Taro Ono felt inexplicably uneasy, as if he was going to meet his first love. The closer he got to that person, the slower he felt time passed.

"My wife and I are in pure love."

The editor-in-chief sighed. He was looking forward to meeting the author named "Snake Husband", but he was also a little worried that the author would not be able to give a good ending.

Who could the other party be?
An old man in his twilight years, or a hermit who has seen through the world?
With this idea in mind, Ono Taro came to Yamanakako Village and met the young and excessive snake man under the guidance of a villager.

"For girls, I like bigger ones."

"Hey~ What do you think of me like this?"

"Ms. Matsueda's words are eight out of ten."

"Only eight points?"

"What else do you want?"

Taro Ono stared at the young man blankly, if he had heard correctly.

"What does 'bigger' mean?" Ono Taro looked at Mishima beside him.

"That's what I mean." Mishima also shrugged.

"Is this guy teasing girls?"

“Maybe it’s just normal communication.”

Their conversation was interrupted by the villagers who were leading the way.

"Archer, someone's looking for you."

"Mrs. Watanabe?"

In the grocery store, the boy in front of the table turned his eyes over here. Ono Taro learned the name of the villager who led the way and also saw the snake husband he had always wanted to meet.

He was wearing a black coat, holding a half-finished brush in his hand, with a frivolous smile on his face from when he was chatting with girls. His face was handsome, but his lips were too red, which immediately attracted most of the attention in this snowy world.

"Find me?"

Ryuukawa Toru looked at the two people who had suddenly arrived.

One was about thirty years old, and the other had gray hair on the temples. The younger one was well-dressed and looked rich, while the older one was looking at him curiously.

"Are you the snake husband? Ryukawa Toru?" Looking at the young man who asked the question, Ono Taro felt a sense of absurdity.

Through his brushstrokes and works, it is easy to imagine the image of an old man who is indifferent to the impermanence of life and who believes that everything he does and hopes for is in vain.

The other person was a little too young. "There may be people named Ryukawa Tetsu in this country, but I am the only one who uses the pen name of Snake. Are you the editor of Shinchosha?"

Ono Taro saw the other person looking at him for a few seconds, then lowered his head again.

He arranged some of the hair neatly and combed it with a knife.

"Yes, my name is Ono Taro, and I have read your submission."

The editor-in-chief walked to the table and sat down. He first nodded to the girl next to him, and then asked Longchuan Che curiously.

“Are you making a brush?”

"Ah."

Very magical feeling.

After knowing his identity, the person opposite him did not try to please him like the authors he had met before. He continued to focus on the task at hand, as if finishing the calligraphy in his hand was more important than meeting him, the editor-in-chief of Shinchosha.

"I plan to sign a contract with you."

"Ah."

"I am very optimistic about your manuscript."

"Thank you."

In the form of a question and answer, Ono Taro's expression became somewhat resentful.

The resentment made Songzhi Muzi next to him shudder. The other party was too much like someone who had traveled thousands of miles to meet his lover and then was despised by the other party.

"What exactly do you want to say about this manuscript "Snow Country"? " Seeing the other party doing his hand skills slowly, Ono Taro couldn't help but speak.

Along the way, the closer he got to the small mountain village, the more frightened Ono Taro became about the manuscript.

He saw the opposition between fantasy and reality in the manuscript, and the other party seemed to be establishing an aesthetic foundation that worshipped fantasy and rejected reality.

Beauty is illusory and is opposed to the ugliness of reality. Ye Zi's "car window mirror" evokes Shimamura's infinite sense of beauty and his longing and memories for Komako from the Snow Country. In Shimamura's eyes, the reality of women has no beauty. In fact, this concept turns the entire reality into ugliness.

What Shimamura is really obsessed with is the "illusion in the mirror" that Komako and Yoko are trying hard to get rid of.

Taro Ono was eager to know whether he had guessed correctly, but Toru Ryukawa just looked at him strangely.

"Editor, how do you interpret the word 'snake husband'?" Long Chuan Che took the pen knife and scraped it slowly, and a brush gradually took shape.

Ono Taro was stunned for a moment, then spoke.

"When it comes to the word Ophiuchus, I can only think of the constellation Ophiuchus, which crosses the zodiac from November 11 to December 29 every year."

Ophiuchus is one of the equatorial constellations. It is the only constellation that is connected to Serpens. It is also the only constellation that spans the celestial equator, the galactic equator, and the ecliptic. From the earth, it is located south of Hercules, north of Scorpio and Sagittarius, and on the west side of the Milky Way.

Ono Taro looked at the other party hesitantly.

"Right?"

"It's up to the readers to interpret the words written by the author. Whether it's right or wrong doesn't matter." Ryukawa Toru smiled at Ono Taro. Ono Taro, who came in a hurry, suddenly felt that whether he guessed right or not didn't seem to be so important.

"How do you plan to end the story?"

"Life is futile, and everything is meaningless."

"Komako hinted at the 'futility of the world', so you will kill the futility of reality in the end?"

"Ah."

The conversation between the two left people around them puzzled, and after two or three cups of tea.

"You should have some saved manuscripts, right?"

The more they talked, the more Ono Taro looked forward to the remaining manuscript. At this point, he had already given up the idea of ​​whether the other party could write the follow-up. He just wanted to take a good look at what the author wrote as a reader.

Longchuan Che hesitated for a moment, looked at the house opposite, and then nodded.

(End of this chapter)