Chapter 207 The Third Player

All the missed calls on Mochizuki Kaoru's phone actually came from the same person - the editor-in-chief of "Mochizuki Kurumi", Maeda Hikaru.

But I clearly told him before he fell asleep that he would take two months off... Anyway, he had already submitted part of the manuscript for his previous novel, so why was he calling me now?

After simply flipping through the text messages and seeing the reason, Xi Hai Qing Dou simply called back.

"Teacher Mochizuki! Did you receive my message?! Great, I finally got in touch with you!"

The line was immediately connected and a male voice that seemed almost to be crying for joy came from the other end: "That's great! I almost thought something had happened to you and I almost called the police..."

"I'm sorry to disturb your vacation, but I have to share this news with you..."

"...Is that so? I understand." Xi Hai Qing Dou pushed the gold-rimmed glasses on his nose, thinking.

As a fairly well-known and popular mystery novelist, Kaoru Mochizuki has published many works and won many awards. The reason why Editor Maeda has been looking for him for some time is actually very simple - his work "The Last Day" published last year was selected for the Novel Award of the Mystery Writers Association a few days ago.

Because this world is now a fusion world, and most of the characters from the other world have the same names as the great writers of the source world, there have been some small changes in the world after the fusion of the two worlds - for example, some great writers and their works that were particularly famous in history have all "disappeared". As a result, a large blank literary world has been left, as well as various major literature-related awards. At the same time, the world's attention to "literature" has also decreased a lot.

However, in contrast, there are also some other writers and works in the world, as well as other literary awards to fill some of the gaps...but compared with the original world, they still appear inferior.

The Mystery Literature Award is also one of the literary awards affected.

Under the influence of the fusion world, this reasoning award, which is extremely famous and important in both the world where Saikai Haruto lived in his previous life and the original scientific world, has also undergone some minor changes - for example, there have been some shifts in the creation time, selection time, and awarding time.

Fortunately, in the world of science, "reasoning" can almost be regarded as something like a pillar of the world, so the fusion world pays much more attention to reasoning works and related awards than other literary works, and the weight of related awards has not decreased much.

In today's world, the Mystery Writers Association Award is still one of the most important awards in the mystery fiction world. Nine works are shortlisted for selection in February each year, and the awards are presented in April, so it is also called the "Mystery Fiction April Award." A special feature of this award is that it will never be awarded twice. If a writer has won an award for a work before, he or she will not be able to win the award again even if other works he or she writes in the future are successful. [1]

For example, the world-renowned mystery novelist Yusaku Kudo won the award many years ago. Even if the "Dark Night Baron" series is popular now, he will not have a second chance to win the award.

Now that Kaoru Mochizuki's work has been shortlisted and has a chance to win an award, it's normal for Hikaru Maeda to be excited.

Saikai Haruto's attitude was exceptionally calm and peaceful, causing editor Maeda's voice to unconsciously become less excited: "...Mr. Mochizuki, aren't you happy?" he asked.

"There's nothing to be excited about... Didn't we already qualify once last year?" Xi Haiqing Dou was puzzled.

"But this year is different. This year your work has a great chance of winning the prize!" Editor Maeda emphasized, "Our publisher has analyzed the other works nominated with yours and they are not competitive with you at all! Aren't you happy, teacher?"

"...It's okay, but you don't have to get so excited. Maeda-kun, calm down."

Xi Hai Qing Dou spoke slowly, her voice was clearly like that of a cello, low, mellow, elegant, gorgeous, and silky, and she had a kind of Buddhist and indifferent feeling when she spoke.

"No matter what the result is, we will have the answer in April."

"Mr. Mochizuki, I don't have the same good attitude as you. You know, this is the Mystery Writers Association Award."

Editor Maeda smiled and hesitated for a moment: "Well, teacher, Yokohama TV couldn't contact you recently, so they found our magazine and wanted to ask if you would be willing to be interviewed by the X program team... and about this April Awards Ceremony, are you still the same as before?"

To the outside world, "Mochizuki Kaoru" has always been a very famous and extremely mysterious mystery novelist. Apart from Jingfan Publishing House, which has always been responsible for editing and maintaining his business, almost no one has seen his true face, and few people have his contact information.

Therefore, when they couldn't contact him, many people would choose to contact Jingfan Publishing House and Editor Maeda, and most of the time it was Editor Maeda who helped him handle many related matters. This was not the first time Editor Maeda had received such an invitation.

"Ah, of course, Maeda-kun, you know me well. Just like before, please help me turn down all these invitations. As for the April Awards, please attend on my behalf. Please."

There was no hesitation in Nishimi Haruto's answer. Although he said words of rejection and request, his tone was still calm and unperturbed, familiar to Editor Maeda, as if he was not rejecting a major invitation but an ordinary date, as if it was a matter of course.

Although he had already guessed this result, Maeda Hikaru still couldn't help but smile bitterly and complained jokingly: "Mr. Mochizuki, you really are... as willful as ever."

Such a good opportunity would obviously be extremely difficult for others to seize, but for "Mochizuki Kaoru", it seems that she never took it to heart and never cared about it.

Ever since "Mochizuki Kaoru" burst onto the scene of mystery fiction seven years ago, for some unknown reason, he has always maintained an extremely mysterious veil, and has never appeared in front of the public, no matter how important the occasion is - even when he won the Edogawa Newcomer Award, it was editor Maeda who accepted the award on his behalf.

Although the answer he got every time before was "refuse to be exposed on camera", the invitation from the TV station this time was obviously of certain importance, so Editor Maeda hesitated for a moment and still made the call to ask for Haruto Nishimi's reply - the result was of course, unsurprisingly, the same refusal as every time before.

...Perhaps genius novelists all have some unknown quirks? And the quirk of a genius like Mr. Mochizuki is that he is unwilling to expose his image to the public? Maeda Hikaru wondered uncertainly.

"Mochizuki Kaoru" and Maeda Hikaru have always maintained a good relationship. In addition to their working relationship, they can also be considered good friends. Therefore, in response to his complaints from friends, Saikai Haruto just laughed briefly and admitted it very readily, with an extremely calm attitude: "Ah, because I have always been like this, so I'm sorry to bother you, Maeda-kun."

The matter was discussed quickly, and Haruto Nishimi and Hikaru Maeda chatted for a while before hanging up the phone.

Xihai Qingdou let out a breath slowly.

"Mochizuki Kurumi never attends any public events" - this has almost become common knowledge in the novel world since his debut.

Although no one knows why he has always refused to appear in public, as a good partner, Jingfan Publishing House also respects his ideas and has kept his personal information very secret - so far, because of his particularly feminine pen name, there are still many readers who insist that he may actually be a woman, even though this has been clarified several times.

Saikai Haruto expressed his satisfaction with this.

In fact, Saikai Haruto did this not to be mysterious, but for other reasons.

Although on the surface "Mochizuki Kaoru" is just an ordinary mystery novelist, in fact, seven years ago, Saikai Haruto used the pseudonym "Mochizuki Kaoru" as another identity - a gangster and outstanding intelligence dealer.

The acquaintance of "Mochizuki Kaoru" and "Uzen Chiaki" also began in Europe because of the exchange of information.

Of course, seven years ago, when Nishimi Haruto drew a skill related to the talent for writing mystery novels, and at that time, "Mochizuki Kaoru" was besieged because of too many enemies she accidentally made for various reasons, Nishimi Haruto planned to let "Mochizuki Kaoru" fake her death, retire from the darkness, change his identity and leave Europe to prepare to enter the mystery novel world to write.

——Even this was helped by “Chiaki Yuen”.

Of course, this was his original plan.

As a result, another major event occurred at that time - this world encountered a world in the if world line, where the world was difficult to maintain and was about to fall, and the two worlds wanted to merge...

So Saikai Haruto simply set the hometown of "Mochizuki Kaoru" to Yokohama, and naturally put this vest in the set of another world.

Of course, he changed his identity and appearance, but the appearance of "Mochizuki Kaoru" remained unchanged, except for a pair of plain glasses without any degree... but this obviously cannot hide his appearance.

Yokohama is a world full of mixed people, and after retiring, "Mochizuki Kaoru" had no intention of getting involved in the gray and black world any more, so he simply turned down all invitations to appear in public, thus avoiding the embarrassing situation of his enemies accidentally seeing his appearance on some TV program or in magazines.

Apparently, what he did was very effective... At least from the time he left Europe and returned to Yokohama, and emerged on the mystery fiction scene, to now, more than seven years have passed, and except for "Chiaki Yuen", none of his old "old friends" have come to find him.

After solving the phone problem, Saikai Haruto looked around, stood up and cleaned up the house - unlike "Yuen Chiaki" who lived in a safe house, "Mochizuki Kaoru" lived in a house he bought himself, so naturally he still needed to clean and maintain the hygiene of the room.

Then I cleaned and cared for all the flowers that had been grown at home and had not yet died.

Xi Haiqing Dou finally had time to send a message to Lan Bo, telling him that he had returned home, and the request for him to help look after the house could naturally be completed early.

For this he still needs to thank Rimbaud.

Since Yokohama became a concession, it has become a city with mixed crowds and is very unsafe. Fights and even explosions are common here. It was not a big deal when "Mochizuki Kaoru" was there. After "disappearing" for ten consecutive days, the house was not blown up. It must be thanks to Rimbaud. Saikai Haruto is very clear about this.

Perhaps because he was still at work, Rimbaud did not reply to his message immediately.

However, Xi Hai Qing Dou didn't care much. After pruning the flowers he raised, he prepared to go out to buy vegetables.

After all, he had emptied out all the food in the refrigerator before going to bed. If he didn't go out to buy food, "Yuyuan Chiaki" could go to Gin for a big meal, but "Mochizuki Kaoru" would probably have to eat only rice today.