Chapter 28 The probability of a cat killing someone is small, but never zero
The controversy over "The Ship of Theseus" had not yet subsided. Just half a month later, "Contemporary" announced a new detective novel project led by the author Intermediate, which caused an uproar.
Natsume Soseki, who was about to warn Fukuzawa Yukichi to temporarily stop writing the book, was stunned when he heard the news and thought about it for a while.
Detective novel…?
Are you opening a new track?
Nothing serious should happen, right? Hahaha, actually he really wants to see it.
The new project is called "Two-thirds of Seven People" and is organized by Mujie and his two friends. The manuscript collection period is three months after the release of the prologue, and the expected number of manuscripts is 10, for a total of thirteen. The accepted manuscripts must meet the following requirements:
1. The story centers around seven people, and their appearance is not fixed, but there must be seven central characters in the story.
2. The identity is divided into three parts: detective, deceased, and murderer. These seven people must possess two of the identities, namely, the deceased detective, the deceased murderer, and the murderer detective. This combination is two-thirds. Apart from that, try to add two-thirds of any element to get some extra points.
3. The identity information of the main perspective of the story will be provided: a famous detective as the eighth person. The detective can set his own personality, but the beginning of the story should be written by the interlude himself, and the rest of the story should be written according to the prologue.
4. You do not have to strictly follow the "Twenty Rules of Detective Novels", but the logic must be rigorous and the story must be complete.
5. Real name is not required, but the magazine and the interlude must sign a waiver. The profits will be distributed in batches in various forms after the event is completed and published.
6. If there are any works that do not conform to the theme of detective novels, but are excellent, they will be published separately as a special edition and compiled into a separate volume for publication. We hope you will participate.
This project has a lot of freedom. There is no limit on the location, no limit on the relationship between characters, and only a few empty characters. Theoretically, there are many possibilities.
You don't even need to strictly follow the rules of detective novels. If you really can't write detective novels, you can write some romance novels, but they cannot be published as a full-length work.
It’s not that no one has ever planned such a project, but the Japanese literary world has been barren for too long, in the past five years, or even in the foreseeable future, in the past ten years. Who could be more suitable than Intermission to lead this project?
The tortured and screaming readers, under the bombardment of "don't be silent", "save yourself", and "don't deceive yourself", have become very enthusiastic about this project. At least they are much more enthusiastic than the ones at home.
Dazai Osamu was more interested than the other three.
He wrote a super depressing article about everyone dying, saying it was a detective novel, and it really had that flavor, but the novel was so depressing that it made one speechless after reading it.
Lately he has been working on enriching his articles to make each person's death more heroic.
You don’t say it, you really don’t say it, it might very well be selected for the extra chapter.
Ranpo had been at the shrine for half a month. He was very busy with the president's renting and decorating of office space, and he also had to help them contact editors for planning. Even though Nakai later took on some of the work, he was still very busy.
He felt quite comfortable there. Nakaimoto was a very considerate and all-round man (...). He would arrange snacks for him that were not excessive but would last him a long time. He could also chat with Chikanmaku when he had nothing to do. He would write when he was in the mood, and put it aside when he was unhappy.
Occasionally, he would meet customers who came to the shrine to pray and draw fortunes. He would come up to them and tease them a few times. Together with Nakai, everyone who came would say, "Master, your predictions are so accurate."
He still had a bit of a problem with Dazai, but the two of them actually enjoyed it. For example, when Ranpo wrote half of it and felt it was not good enough, he showed it to Dazai and said, "It is indeed not good enough." Ranpo would use the blow as an excuse to stop writing and slack off for two days, then continue writing when he felt like it.
Finally, after working hard, all three of them finished writing their own article drafts within half a month after the prologue was published. Then he booked future manuscripts in the order of Sengenmaku, Ranpo, and Nakai.
The prologue of Qian Jianmu was not very elaborate. All he could do was to explain the restrictions as much as possible without solidifying the pattern. He wrote it like this:
【
Dear viewers, how do you evaluate a detective story?
A thrilling plot, ingenious ideas, and complex relationships, is that enough?
What I'm saying is, this is not enough, folks, this is not enough.
As the best detective of this century, I will never forget that case in my life, a bizarre tragedy that was born in a family called Mitani.
What I can tell you is that among the seven people in this family, each of them has two different identities.
Is it the murderer? Are you a detective? Or will you become the dead?
Go ahead and guess as much as you want. No matter what, more thinking and more guessing are far less terrifying than reality.
I am Matsunaga Saint, and I will tell you this story below:
The story begins one evening twenty years ago.
…
】
The three people have read each other's manuscripts.
The most breathtaking one is probably the one written by Ranpo.
It would be too much to arbitrarily define Ranpo as a simple and clean person based on his appearance. He is indeed as clear-sighted as the surface of a calm water, but even the calmest surface of the water has once reflected the filth underneath.
Beings like detectives will mostly go to hell after death and will never live in the Garden of Eden.
The most valuable thing about Ranpo is his clarity of mind that is independent of the filthy world. It is not that he has never seen filth, but that he has truly walked out of filth with clarity of mind. Compared to anyone else, the lower limit of what he can accept, understand, and judge is much lower. Many things, no matter how shameless, despicable, or horrifying, are nothing more than passing clouds to him.
He even knew his own problems clearly. For some questions that are morally "allowed" but logically "rejected", his answers will never lean towards the emotional side. He has a kind of ruthlessness and clarity unique to the elderly, as well as a kind of antisocial personality.
This character of absolutely following his own rules rather than social rules is a huge hidden danger in Edogawa Ranpo's humanity. Edogawa Ranpo gets bored very easily, and many things are too boring for him, so in the end he is too lazy to do them. This kind of emptiness and boredom day after day was a situation worse than death for him.
Because he is not influenced by any social rules, he acts entirely on his own. He could feel his own emptiness. Day after day, he was disappointed with the human community and had lost his empathy. What could he do in his pursuit of "not being bored"?
But he was well educated. Understanding his own problems, being affected by the residual rules, understanding the preciousness of life, and being able to distance himself from the world and analyze himself, the extremely smart Edogawa Ranpo will try to save himself. He is an absolutely cold machine, and it is precisely because of this that he needs an emotional steering wheel to control the direction of his life.
In the end, he chose Fukuzawa Yukichi.
The Armed Detective Agency revolves around Edogawa Ranpo, not only to make better use of his abilities, but also to stabilize Edogawa Ranpo's nature, just like Watson to Sherlock Holmes.
But what's wrong with that?
"If it suits my taste, everything is fine." That's what he thought.
Therefore, when Ranpo wrote, the shameful and meanness that was revealed carelessly, and the filth and darkness revealed in just a few words, would probably shock people who were deceived by his appearance and seduced by his behavior.
Confused emotions, creepy gazes, crazy emotions, ingenious puzzles, and spine-chilling answers. It's like a perfectly staged opera, but it uses the light-hearted tone of teenagers, which makes it even more eerie.
In this world full of ghosts, where even a glass bead can be used to kill someone, this is how the world is for Edogawa Ranpo, right?
Compared to Edogawa Ranpo's orthodox reasoning, Nakai's description is more unconventional.
“Compared to posing a difficult question, it might be more interesting to let people watch the comedy of tragedy.”
Someone said this shamelessly in front of the orthodox mystery writer.
His description of reasoning techniques is also very exquisite, but he does not focus on describing coincidences and strict logic. Instead, he focuses more on the dark and twisted description of human nature itself. The reasoning process is not so rigorous, and even a bit fantasy. Actually, this is somewhat off-topic for a mystery novel, but he has a good grasp of the pacing.
It gives people a sense of sarcasm and indifference, as if he has the skill of reasoning, but he doesn't want to use it.
However, Chijianmu's works tend to be more social in nature. Each link is closely linked to the other, and when the story should not continue but has to continue, it often gives people a feeling of being driven by fate. It's like a speeding train, and every guest on board is a passenger. The moment you read, Qianjianmu has deprived you of the ability to think in other directions, and you can no longer think.
You can only watch the train derail and head towards the bottom of the cliff, feeling powerless and with cold hands and feet. When you look up, you find that this is how the world is. Everyone is sitting on a huge, helpless train.
The only thing these three have in common is probably their pioneering approach to this topic.
There are so-called seven people, but in fact three people are not enough to write seven people. Some are just key characters in a topic, some are just bodies, and some are even more outrageous, they are ghosts. This has broadened the perspectives for those who came after, and can be considered an intentional move by the three.
What is different and special is that Ranpo and Nakai's manuscripts show a strong sense of danmei.
There are more or less danmei elements in the family in their story. Ranpo's style is more subtle, and is mostly reflected in the description of body movements, giving people a sense of skin-to-skin contact. Nakai's was particularly clear, for example, he directly told the two that they were in a relationship, where they went in and out, etc.
Completely different character relationships, completely different stories, and completely different identity expressions under the same background. It's like a hearty staple at a meal. After passing it around to each other, we both felt that the world's literary world has been poisoned for too long.
"Hey! Look at mine! Look at mine, I carefully revised it. The gentleman and the lady first had sex and then had sex and finally died tragically. It was a beautiful love story -"
Dazai-san is shouting non-stop.
He didn't really feel bad about being kicked out of the party, but it would have been a really fun party if he hadn't written about himself so heartfeltly. The people here are very playful, speak nicely, and don't bother to beat him to death. He likes it here very much.
…
Get out! The mystery world does not welcome you decadent people (especially Dazai Osamu)!
We jumped around at home for a few days and got along very well with each other. Although he had a premonition that Ranpo would return to the detective agency sooner or later, when one day Ranpo suddenly left him alone, Chigenmaku sighed with realization.
It's rare to meet someone who is both smart and likable, and I feel a little reluctant to leave.
In his life, no one has ever been so determined, persistent, and smart to try to get close to him and save him again and again.
So one evening, the young man looked at him, as if he knew everything, and asked with a frank smile:
"...Maku-kun, your special ability was given to you by something, right?"
A clever yet terrifying young man whose words and breath can turn into cruel blades. A pair of beautiful eyes can see through the turbid and chaotic essence beneath all kinds of skins, and then like a precise surgeon, directly insert into the key point of the incident. In a calm moment, one sentence can kill people invisibly.
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