Chapter 344 Adding fuel to the flames
The headquarters of Kadokawa Shoten was moved from Minato Ward to Chiyoda Ward.
Even the physical publishing industry—records, anime Blu-ray discs, comics, and books—has seen a comprehensive decline visible to the naked eye.
Everyone knows the Wall of Masterpieces, right? The sales volume of IS series 33813 is difficult to break even for famous products.
Getting back to the subject, it just didn’t have a big impact on Kadokawa Bookstore.
"President Inoue, Hua Xia has just returned. We..." Zhecheng reported.
If you are good at flattering, you will definitely be promoted. Look at Zhecheng, he was a small editor five years ago, and now he is the editor-in-chief of Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko.
"Do you need to worry?" Inoue asked, "Five years ago, he didn't win. Now with the decline of physical creation, can he still win? What are you worried about?!"
< br>Baga, didn’t you yourself ask me to check the traces of that Chinese talent from time to time? I came to report to you as soon as I received the news, but now you are acting aloof. Zhecheng wanted to expose the true face of the old immortal in front of him.
I saw him lowering his head, "President Inoue is the eagle of Kadokawa Bookstore. He masters the navigation of our ship and has far-reaching knowledge. I cannot compare with him."
The wrinkles on President Inoue's face did not change at all, but his tone changed, "Why did Gu Lu suddenly return? He is 22 years old this year."
"It seems so." Zhecheng was not sure either. .
"He was born in 1996, oh, this year should be the 23rd, his birthday in February." President Inoue touched his finger, not knowing what he was planning.
Good guy, you know it too well, even Zhecheng only knows a vague idea. This is your enemy who knows how powerful you are.
"The news came out from Bai Tongshe, the return after five years of absence." Zhecheng said, "They have all begun to contact the translator. Should we..."
"The last book with two million sales was released three years ago." President Inoue shook his head, "I said a few years ago that humans cannot go against the flow of the times."
" So shall we stand still?" Zhecheng asked.
“How’s Katsudauchi Maru’s new book going?” President Inoue asked again.
"Still thinking about the ending, soon..."
"Huh, I'm going to a custom shop or club again." President Inoue looked down on Katsudauchi Maru. After he became famous Each work is worse than the last, with no progress at all. But then again, after all, he is the one who brought out the people.
"Help Shiro Dosha to publicize it and let Katunai Maru's new book be released later." President Inoue said.
The amount of information is a bit large, what do you mean? Zhecheng is waiting for the follow-up.
"Although Gu Lu cannot resist the wheel of history, it is still very simple to crush Katsudauchi Maru." President Inoue knocked on the table, "As long as Katsutanamaru does not release a new work, then the opponent of Gu Lu's return It's "Shooting Bullets into the Sun."
The Kadokawa Group can make another book a "Nationally Recommended Book", but he is only the president, and the Kadokawa Group cannot completely make the decision.
Zhecheng understood, and made Gu Lu's return more popular, so that Katanai Maru could become popular again and the book could be sold more.
"Then "Bungou Stray Dogs"..." Zhecheng brought up another thing.
Bungou Stray Dogs is a comic from Kadokawa Shoten's monthly comic magazine "YOUNGACE". The author Asagiri Kafka was originally a big fan of Gu Lu. There is a shadow of Gu Lu in "The Cthulhu Mythos".
Asagiri Kafu also wants to learn from Kuroko's basketball and Shokaku no Soul, and get good luck, so he puts Gu Lu (also an idol) into the game. However, Kadokawa Shoten was competing with Shiro Dosha at that time, so this plan was stopped.
“With Bungou Stray Dogs’ current popularity, do you still need to ride on this popularity?” President Inoue asked.
“Kafka Asogiri particularly liked Gu Lu’s works.” Zhecheng explained.
"Okay, our Kadokawa Bookstore is still very liberal and open-minded." President Inoue said, "Use three levels of promotion to help raise the reputation of Gu Lu's return work."
The promotion of Kadokawa Bookstore is divided into one Level, Level 2, Level 3, Level H. H stands for huge, and non-great writers will not use it. To put it simply, Level 3 is already the best-selling book promotion level.
What if Gu Lu's new book exceeds...
Zhecheng quickly put an end to his terrible thoughts. One person cannot withstand the torrent of the times.
None of the books such as The Prince at That Time, Flowers for Algernon, The Wandering Earth, and Ice Fruit could win.
As a result, Bai Tongshe publicized it, Kadokawa Bookstore added fuel to the flames, and the news of Gu Lu's return after five years spread all over Neon in an instant.
Neon, a small place likes to investigate at all times.
Isn’t this also a post:
“Are you looking forward to Gu Lu’s return work? 》
Thirty-two percent of people are looking forward to it, 45% are indifferent, and the rest are not looking forward to it.
...
Dinner party.
This dinner was invited by Li Guyuan. Because Gu Luzhong started publishing new books again, Tangyuan was very happy, so he invited him to this meal no matter what.
“Among the twin stars of our eighth middle school, we must leave one Miaomiao!” Li Guyuan smiled and clinked glasses.
“Speaking of which, why don’t you continue creating Tang Yuan?” Gu Lu was also curious. He stopped serializing after going to college.
Hearing this, Li Guyuan picked up two peanuts. If he had eaten less peanuts and drank more wine, he would not be so sober now.
"After attending Tsinghua University, I really realized that there are really two gaps between talents and geniuses." Li Guyuan said, "I have lost my spirit and can no longer write."
Tsinghua University and Peking University are indeed full of geniuses. Li Guyuan is a genius in Gu Lu's eyes. He can plan everything well and find faster methods. I don’t know what happened to Li Guyuan after attending Tsinghua University.
"On the other hand, you are a first-class genius no matter where you are." Li Guyuan put down his chopsticks, "And I feel that chemical engineering is quite suitable for me."
Sometimes it's really Quite envious of people who can comfort others, Gu Lu looked at Tangyuan who was a little depressed and could only raise his glass.
Although Gu Lu couldn't drink much, it was mainly because of his original father's presence that he kept a distance from alcohol. So never get drunk.
Alcohol is really addictive. Just like Gu's father, no matter how determined he is to quit drinking, he will never succeed. Now he no longer gets headaches after drinking, but becomes sober after drinking, and gets headaches and dizziness without drinking.
The side proves that Gu’s mother’s choice of divorce was right, but she was too cruel to the original person. Not worthy of forgiveness.
Drinking a lot of glutinous rice balls tonight, Gu Lu knew that it was not only the dream of writing in the past, but also the current graduation season. After graduation, whether to stay in Sijiu City or return to Fog City is a very nerve-wracking decision.
Li Guyuan didn't often come to him to complain, but occasionally he would reveal that his work was not going well during a chat.
"This is a celebration for me." Gu Lu smiled and shook his head, becoming drunk with glutinous rice balls.
Fortunately it is quite close to where he lives.
Go home and visit Gu Lu’s house in Sijiucheng.
More than 130 square meters, with three bedrooms and two living rooms. The decoration style is a relatively ordinary Nordic style, with large carpets and long floor-standing chandeliers, all of which look relatively formal.
Because this suite was for a stay, Gu Lu didn't put much thought into it. Not even the marked living room was changed into a "study".
The only thing the owner paid attention to may be the ornaments on the light-colored shelves, which are all related to the little prince. It is worthy of being the king of peripherals in fairy tale books, and other fairy tale works combined cannot compete with it. The whole shelf is filled with different peripherals, bits and pieces, which is quite spectacular.
After putting the drunk glutinous rice balls on the bed, Gu Lu went back to his bedroom. He drank two bottles of beer and was completely fine. I wrote more than 10,000 words that night.
Gu Lu regained his typing speed in a day or two. Of course, the hand speed seems not as fast as that of a fifteen or sixteen year old.
The next day, it was gray outside the window, and Gu Lu got up around eight o'clock. Because he had joined the teaching project, he had more freedom in class.
Walking around the room with bare feet, the floor was so cold, Gu Lu went to the second bedroom to take a look——
Li Guyuan has cleaned the second bedroom and made the bed neatly. Even the toilet outside was flushed. Li Guyuan was probably not sure whether he had vomited yesterday.
"Why did my slippers come to the living room? Is it possible that Li Guyuan was also drunk and looked for shoes in my room in the middle of the night?"
Gu Lu thought, it seemed that it was possible that he was trying to cool off yesterday. , open your phone to check your itinerary.
"I'm going to report to Professor Lu this afternoon." Gu Lu didn't do anything in college, at least he had to work harder than he did in No. 8 Middle School.
The biggest thing I did was to become my teacher, Professor Lu Jianming.
To be successful, the writer's reputation would be a huge bonus, but King Gulu really did use his best efforts.
And his teacher Lu Jianming is a true expert, and his research directions are "Modern Chinese syntax, modern Chinese function words, teaching Chinese as a foreign language..."
How specific is his specialty?
President of the National Society of Chinese Linguistics, President of the World Chinese Teaching Society, etc., Professor Lu can really say that modern Chinese is based on his research.
In school, Professor Lu was also the director of the Linguistics Research Center of Peking University, and Gu Lu was a very experienced person.
"But what about Jiajia?" Thinking of school, Gu Lu thought of his sister again. He was only a freshman in high school when the accident happened. It would be too difficult for him to go to college directly. It was not feasible to go back to high school, so Gu Lu was thinking about whether to send him to study abroad. Of course, he did not decide directly, but just provided such an idea to his sister.
The phone interrupted King Gulu’s deep thoughts.
"Hey, Mr. Gu. If you have a good article, be sure to submit it. Our magazine is still alive."
The caller is the editor-in-chief of "People's Literature" - oh now Deputy editor Liu Yong.
At that time, many magazines ceased publication, but People's Literature, which represented the pinnacle of domestic serious literature, was still alive and well, and the corresponding royalties were higher than before.
"I still read People's Literature every day, and I also know that the sales are good." Gu Lu responded, "But where did Editor Liu get the news?"
Tang Yuan, Weird Girl, etc. People know it because the person involved said it himself.
"Why do you have to hide it after you return? The news came from Neon." Liu Yong said cheerfully on the other end, "The news has been published in the Global Times. I can Don’t you know? After all these years, I still remember how amazing “Liao Zhai Xin Yi” was. ”
Global Times! Gu Lu was stunned. Do I have such a big reputation?
"If there is a suitable manuscript, I will submit it." Gu Lu then said.
"Then I'll be waiting for Teacher Gu's masterpiece." Liu Yong also hung up the phone.
The call from the deputy editor of People's Literature was just the beginning, because soon, Gu Lu received calls from President Jian and President Wang one after another.
The core of the chat between the two presidents was that he was very happy to be able to write again. They also discussed how to publish the novel published in Neon in China.
More than a dozen phone calls, including the editor-in-chief and the editor-in-chief.
People all sent "congratulatory messages". To be honest, the commotion was very loud. It felt like half of the publishing industry was alarmed.
Many young students feel that Gu Lu has been around for a long time and that the talented writer has become a ghost.
But those who have worked with him in the publishing industry feel that the glorious moment is just around the corner.
"It's been a long time since I visited, right? Didn't I spend the Chinese New Year at Uncle Jian's house last year?"
Gu Lu only hung up the phone and remembered that he seemed to have been "unjustly accused". As President Jian said, we haven’t seen each other for a long time.
"Global Times - what did it report? I'll buy it later and take a look."
It was almost noon when King Gulu's phone calls stopped, but the clear "bang bang" knock on the door rang again.
Who?
Why are there so many things in the morning?
Gu Lu opened the door and saw a foreigner. Gu Lu knew him as Mr. Dubot, the French ambassador to China. The two of them are relatively familiar and have met several times.
It's just that King Gulu doesn't want to see him, because every time he sees him, Dibo will take away more than a dozen autographs.
I have no idea what I am doing with so many signatures. Logically speaking, given Dibo's identity, he cannot be a second-rate dealer selling autographs. The key point is that he has been silent for five years and his autographs cannot be sold at all!
Dibo gave Gu Lu a hug very enthusiastically.
"I just came from France and brought you some gifts. All of them are our French specialties."
Indeed, the foreigner was holding two pockets in his hands, and Gu Lu was Introducing the door, Dior's men's wallet. It seems that Dior is also a French luxury product?
"So Mr. Dibo, why are you here today?" After dealing with him so many times, Gu Lu knew that the foreigner in front of him would definitely come to the Three Treasures Palace for anything.
"What can be the matter? Gu, you are one of my favorite writers, and I have made great contributions to the release of the French version of "The Little Prince."" Dibo said, "Is it nothing? Can't I come and see you?"
Hearing this, Gu Lu put down the paper cup. He was going to pour water for Dibo. But last time I heard something similar, I just sat down at the table and signed 31 signatures.
This time I also brought a Dior men’s bag! It was so terrifying that Gu Lu became cautious.
"Do you know when July 14th is? Gu." Dibo put down his bag and asked the question first.
"It's a bit familiar -" Gu Lu remembered learning it in history class, mainly because he memorized this knowledge for the exam.
“Bastille Memorial Day?” Gu Lu even guessed.
"Absolutely right! Gu, you are indeed knowledgeable." Dibo then said, "July 14th is our National Day again. On July 14th, 1789, the people of Paris captured Symbolizing the feudal Bastille, this day has become the most important day for us in France.”
“This year is the 230th year,” said Dibo, “Gu, I saw the Global Times. 》You have started your creative career again. Can you write an article about France, the same as The Immortal Fugitive and The Battle for Antarctica? "
Ask me, a Chinese, to write about your France. Zanwen, have you woken up? Gu Lu looked at the foreigner with a strange expression.
"No, no, Gu, don't look at me with that strange look." Dibo immediately explained, "Every time this ten-year National Day, all countries will send congratulatory messages. Just like October 1st in China, if it is a full We will also send a congratulatory message from France when the time comes."
"Because this is something worth celebrating," Dibo said.
"So?" Gu Lu asked Dibo to talk about the key points. In fact, it wasn't about signing, he was also quite relaxed.
"Gu, you can write us an article on behalf of China's foreign affairs department." Dibo said, "Ten years ago, during the National Day, China also gave us a panda as a gift."
"It's not a gift, I remember saying it was loaned to a zoo in France." Gu Lu corrected, remembering this as soon as he mentioned it.
"The pandas at Beauvale Wildlife Park are very cute. I have visited them many times." Dibo said, "But your article is equivalent to a panda."
Such a compliment? Gu Lu touched the non-existent beard on his chin. Pandas are quite popular abroad, so this compliment is quite valuable.
The Beauvale Wildlife Park is one of the foreign zoos with the largest number of pandas, with five of them.
You must know that panda diplomacy is also a strategy, and France can welcome so many pandas. It is conceivable that China attaches great importance to France.
"Gu, I have taken care of the details. I hope it can be seen in our friendship, in the friendship between France and China." Dibo said.
"Why..." Gu Lu didn't understand why he had to write an article. To be honest, France has produced so many literary giants that there is really no shortage of people to write hymns.
Dibbo gets angry when he talks about it. When he gets angry, his Chinese becomes worse. He doesn’t understand the order of words before and after. He has to control his emotions later to speak clearly.
Originally, five years ago, at the cultural exchange meeting to celebrate the anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France, Dibo hinted and made it clear that he hoped that Gu Lu would come.
But... Dibo's heart was broken.
Looking at it also, there are many great writers in France, but can the quality of writing about one’s own country be the same as the praise of geniuses from other countries?
It’s different! That's why Dibo took this opportunity to do this.
What makes France worse than Spain and Norway? It can't be.
After hearing what happened, Gu Lu sent Dibo away. His response was that if someone from domestic officials invited him, he would not refuse.
Writing articles by yourself to praise other countries, and taking on national missions, the former is a bit public knowledge, Gu Lu chose the latter.
Dibo left with satisfaction. He was already sure, but out of respect for the writer, he came to ask first.
Now, only Gu Lu was left in the room. The phone also stopped ringing.
""People's Literature"... wait until this novel and the French manuscript are finished before taking action." Gu Lu made a plan in his mind.
Now that the copying has started again.
Then the short story career will also continue. The small goal he and the strange girl set together (although the other party does not know it) is that the other party becomes the Secretary-General of the Global Model United Nations and has reached the seat of the Youth Secretary-General of the China Model United Nations. He was slowly progressing away from becoming the most famous short story writer in the country.
"Seriously, the most famous short story writer in modern times on earth should be Mr. Wang Zengqi, right?" Gu Lu pondered.
Forget it, don’t think about what you have or what you don’t have, just do the business first.
For the next two hours or so of typing time, the top priority is to write out the suspect quickly.
The suspect created a sales miracle on earth, giving Keigo Higashino the title of best-seller. Even though this title spread to China, it became a derogatory term due to the lower quality of his later works.
In the parallel world, it shouldn’t be too bad.
……
Go to school in the afternoon and work on projects with professors. In fact, Professor Lu Jianming, who was born in the 1930s, is already old this year. This project, as well as Gu Lu, are almost his last research and apprenticeship before retirement.
When leaving the school, Gu Lu was stopped by a sophomore.
"Teacher Gu Lu, can I delay you for a few minutes?" Ozawa asked.
(End of this chapter)