Chapter 237 The Third Player

When Kurumi Mochizuki's new novel "Reader's Letter" was published, Dazai Osamu was sitting in a chair in the middle of the room on the top floor of the Minato Kuroko Building...working overtime.

And Nakahara Chuuya next to him was staring at him viciously... while he was working overtime.

——Yes, even though he became the leader of the Port Mafia, he still had to work overtime when it was time to work overtime. Especially since the Port Mafia had just replaced its new leader, it was a time when the Mafia was in a state of great weakness and needed to be revived. Dazai Osamu was extremely busy.

Fortunately, he still has some helpers. While he is busy, he can also bring others to work with him... and then he can quietly hide away and laze around.

It can be said to be extremely immoral.

Specific victims include but are not limited to Nakahara Chuuya, Rimbaud, Ozaki Koyo, Imai Akito, Sakaguchi Ango... and so on.

However, this behavior is not always effective after it happens so many times. At least after Zhongyuan Chuuya responded with strong protests, and with the unanimous agreement of many "victims", some small agreements have been temporarily reached - such as bringing someone to work overtime with the leader when he works overtime - which is essentially to prevent the leader himself from "lazy behavior".

But unfortunately, Nakahara Chuuya, who was with Dazai Osamu today... was still fooled by Dazai Osamu, and he found an opportunity to slack off.

Thus, the new work "Letter from a Reader" published by "Mochizuki Kurumi" came into Dazai Osamu's sight.

When he saw the title of the book, Dazai Osamu was stunned for a moment.

On the one hand, in his memory, the publication time of "Reader's Letter" was much earlier than the time he saw in the "book"... According to the future trajectory in the "book", the novel published by Mochizuki Kaoru at this time should be another one. This subtle difference made him suspicious; on the other hand, the title of this book made him recall the conversation with Mochizuki Kaoru in the villa which was his "temporary residence" some time ago.

——At that time, he was in Mochizuki Kaoru's study, opening a letter from a reader to "Mochizuki Kurumi", and jokingly said to Mochizuki Kaoru, "Why not name Mochizuki teacher's next work "Reader's Letter"."

At that time, Mochizuki Kaoru was writing the manuscript of her new work and did not react to his words. Dazai Osamu just thought that he didn't care and didn't hear it. He also knew that Mochizuki Kaoru would often unconsciously ignore the movements around her when writing novels, so he didn't take it to heart... But, but, looking at it now, is it possible that he did take his words seriously at that time?

Dazai Osamu couldn't help thinking this way.

Because in the "book", in the memory of "Dazai Osamu", the novel titled "Reader's Letter" which was written by Mochizuki Kaoru more than a year later was also chosen as the title by Mochizuki Kaoru based on the suggestion of "Dazai Osamu" at the time.

So this time, did he do it on purpose?

Dazai Osamu couldn't control himself, and his hands were faster than his brain and he opened the novel "Reader's Letters".

***

In the cafe, Saikai Haruto is discussing the plot of his new book with someone.

The new book under discussion is Letters from Readers.

This novel is slightly different from several other books he has published in the past - this is the first novel he has chosen to serialize on the Internet.

Although there are novels serialized on the Internet, this is the first time for Mochizuki Kurumi, who has always said that she wants to "maintain her own mystery."

A few days ago, in order to stop him from doing this rare, impulsive act, Editor Maeda was sweating profusely, called him countless times, and painstakingly analyzed countless pros and cons, trying to persuade him to temporarily give up this idea. His hair was almost falling out. In the end, he still failed to stop his behavior.

"You seem to be right," Xi Haiqing Dou listened to him in silence, and then said slowly, "But I still want to try this new possibility."

For the first time, Maeda Hikaru deeply understood a truth: once a person who has always been silent and casual chooses to be "willful", no one can stop him.

Maeda Hikaru gave up.

However, as the editor of "Mochizuki Kaoru", he also has an advantage: that is, he is generous enough. Of course, in Maeda's own words, it should be called "trust and confidence in Mr. Mochizuki."

I tried to stop it, but I couldn't...so "Readers' Letters" was serialized directly on the Internet.

Although the Internet is not particularly developed in this era, at least it is far less developed than the world before Saikai Haruto traveled through time... but fortunately, the name of "Mochizuki Kurumi" is still well-known - after all, in this relatively poor literary world, especially in Yokohama, there are very few famous novelists. "Mochizuki Kurumi", who debuted as a dark horse seven or eight years ago, is now definitely one of the outstanding ones.

——To put it simply, with his fame and the bonus from his past, he has enough financial resources to be able to sustain the publication of “Readers’ Letters” even if no one is interested in it on the Internet.

Editor Maeda consoled himself by preparing for the worst possible scenario.

Xi Haiqing Dou didn't know what he was thinking, but even if he knew, it probably wouldn't matter - he didn't think it was wrong anyway.

The facts are actually very similar to Dazai Osamu's guess. The name of the novel "Reader's Letter" was indeed deliberately chosen by Saikai Haruto, a name that Dazai Osamu had proposed before. In this respect, he did it on purpose for the sake of "Dazai Osamu", and part of the inspiration also came from the past letters he received from readers.

But in fact, it’s not all for Dazai Osamu.

The so-called "letters from readers" are of course important letters sent by readers - coincidentally, "Mochizuki Kurumi" has a reader named "Oda Sakunosuke".

The first time this reader sent him a letter was three years ago, with the signature written in black and white on the letter paper. It was honest and had not been changed at all, which made it difficult for Xi Haiqingdou to ignore it.

Thank him for not throwing away all the readers' letters.

——After confirming the other party's identity, Xi Haiqing Dou quickly became good friends with him through the method of making friends through letters and they could talk freely.

The two of them maintained a certain tacit understanding, and no one ever mentioned the idea of ​​"meeting". Even though as time went on, they would occasionally exchange interesting or bad things in each other's real lives, they still insisted on communicating in this silent way through letters for three whole years.

Saikai Haruto didn't know what Odasaku was thinking, but he had never mentioned it before because he thought it was not a good time. But now he suddenly felt that the time was right.

"Letter from a reader", who says that the reader he is writing to, the source of his inspiration, cannot be the reader Oda Sakunosuke?

Then, as was natural, he mentioned in another correspondence with Oda Sakunosuke that he wanted to use Sakunosuke's letter as a source of inspiration for his next novel.

As for why he suddenly thought of using "readers' letters" as inspiration for a new novel... well, it was because of the inspiration brought to him by his "another friend".

Oda Sakunosuke, who was on the other side of the case, had no reason to refuse the request from an author he had known for many years and whom he admired and liked to use him as inspiration in his novel.

Then, as if it was natural, Saikai Haruto tentatively asked Oda Sakunosuke for a further "face-to-face conversation" which was three years late, "for the sake of more exchanges of inspiration."

Including but not limited to stating in the letter: "We have known each other for several years. If you are willing to meet me, I will be there at 3 o'clock in the afternoon of ■ month ■■ at ■■ in three days to find new inspiration for the new book. Please feel free to meet me. I look forward to meeting you."

And posting your itinerary for the next few days on social platforms, and secretly adding a few vague words like "looking forward to meeting".

As for the final effect... well, anyway, that day Saikai Haruto waited for a red-haired young reader in a nearby bookstore.

The meeting between the two was unexpectedly smooth. There were almost no disturbances and no accidents occurred... It was so smooth that even Xi Haiqing Dou was a little surprised.

I always feel that it shouldn't be so smooth... No, has he been tortured to the point that he becomes the type who is unhappy unless something unexpected happens?

Xi Haiqing Dou firmly put this thought behind his mind.

Of course, this meeting was not just a one-time meeting. The friendship between the two people was further enhanced after the meeting, and for the sake of someone behind, Saikai Haruto and Oda Saku checked in at a nearby cafe for nearly a week under the pretext of "discussing the contents of the book."

——Finally today, he successfully waited for a guy who bumped into him outside the cafe.

"Dazai-kun? Long time no see. I didn't expect you to be here now?"

Haruto Saikai stood up and opened the glass door of the cafe. He slowly stopped Dazai Osamu who seemed to want to turn around and leave, and gave him a surprised smile that seemed to be the most natural.