Chapter 356 Chain Reaction
Kadokawa Lehiko’s voice almost made the microphone tremble: “This… absolutely not possible!”

Just kidding, this time Ishihara was so angry at Zhang Chao that he had a stroke, which can be said to be a “coincidence” – after all, he went to the “Tokyo in World Literature” event on a whim, which many people can prove.

If Zhang Chaozhen came to “visit” and anything happened to Ishihara, it would be completely Kadokawa Shoten’s fault for being ignorant. In any normal country, this would be considered an immoral and unethical act and would definitely make the company the target of public criticism.

Even if Kadokawa Koyomi hoped that Ishihara would die, it was impossible for him to let Zhang Chao go to “visit” Ishihara at this time.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Chao could only let out a “tsk” and hung up the phone, leaving Kadokawa Lehiko alone on the other end of the phone, feeling mixed emotions.

Kadokawa Shoten’s annual revenue is over 100 billion yen, and no matter how popular Zhang Chao’s new book is, it is only a drop in the bucket in the company’s overall performance.

But it was precisely this one hair that had consumed most of his energy as the president in recent days.

Originally, he only needed to give Zhang Chao a polite reception on the day he came, and leave the rest to his subordinates – he didn’t expect that he would get more and more involved, so much so that he didn’t dare let anyone else take over the matter of receiving Zhang Chao.

Now the leader of the Qinghe faction he supports has told him to “control” Zhang Chao first and stop letting him “talk nonsense”.

How did this happen?

Kadokawa Koyomi racked his brains but couldn’t understand how a simple reception for an author could turn into the current situation?
Thinking of this, Kadokawa Toshihiko picked up the phone and dialed a number: “Moshimoshi… It’s me… You must make sure that Zhang Sang does not leave Qingjiyuan these days… Yes… In two days, someone will come to pick him up at the “Japan-China Young Writers Exchange Conference”… Then it will be none of our business.”

After hanging up the phone, Kadokawa Leyan still felt uneasy and made another call: “Moshimoshi… Miho, you must pay attention to Zhang’s every move, don’t let him leave Qingjiyuan… Be sure to provide him with the best service… Of course, it’s a woman. What else can make a man forget about war?…”

After hanging up the phone again, Kadokawa Koyomi finally felt relieved. He couldn’t help but start to think again: “If Ishihara resigns, there will be a by-election… It seems that Asano-kun has the best chance? Should I go visit him?”

Zhang Chao naturally didn’t know about Kadokawa Lehiko’s arrangements. At this time, he had already asked Ogiwara Miho to return to the side room where the housekeeper lived, while he himself was being bombarded with text messages and phone calls from his friends in China.

After all, the time difference between China and Japan is only 2 hours, and with the speed of Internet transmission, what happens in Japan in the afternoon will basically be known in China in the evening.

[Was Ishihara the old villain angered to death by Zhang Chao? ] has become a hot search topic on the domestic Internet.

Although the Japanese side did not release the full text or video of Zhang Chao’s speech, only his final action of throwing the manuscript into the air was circulated online, but combined with the scene of Ishihara collapsing on the stage, it formed a special symbolic effect in the context of Chinese culture.

“Zhang Chao is scattering paper money for Ishihara’s funeral!”

A comment from a friend on Hupu Forum quickly spread across the Internet. Before 10 o’clock, photoshopped images derived from this comment were posted all over QQ and forums. Zhang Chao was photoshopped with a Taoist hat and robe, and a peach wood sword on one of his hands, making him look like Uncle Ying reborn.
Shi Yuanze was photoshopped into a zombie with a green face and fangs, with a talisman stuck on his forehead.

Zhang Chao couldn’t stand the noise any more, so he opened the back cover of his phone, pulled out the battery, and went to sleep!

……

As the largest portal website in China, Sina tracked the relevant information immediately, but the content of the report was relatively subtle.

“The confrontation between Chinese and Japanese literary circles escalates! Zhang Chao appears on stage, Tokyo Governor Ishihara suffers a stroke”

[Japan’s Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara suffered a stroke and fainted while attending the “Tokyo in World Literature” event. It is reported that this may be related to his previous literary debate with Chinese writer Zhang Chao.

The on-site recording obtained exclusively by our website shows that Zhang Chao compared Ishihara’s style of doing things to “political gigolo” in his speech, and at the end of the speech, he threw away the manuscript in his hand to express his inner anger. The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to whether it would launch an investigation, and Kadokawa Bookstore said that it “will do its best to ensure Zhang Chao’s personal safety.” 】

But the news was removed from the front page within 30 minutes, and replaced by a more “calm and peaceful” and “objective and neutral” report:

《Japan’s “Tokyo in World Literature” events are full of unexpected events》

【Exclusive report from our website in Japan·The literary event “Tokyo in World Literature” held in Tokyo, Japan today was full of surprises. First, the young Chinese writer Zhang Chao brought the event to a climax with his sharp speech. He pointed out sharply that under Ishihara’s administration, “world literature is losing Tokyo”, which won applause from the audience.

Then, controversial Japanese politician and Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara suddenly arrived at the scene and suffered a stroke and fell to the ground during his speech. As of press time, Ishihara is no longer in danger of death. 】

……

“That’s more reasonable!” Wang Meng took off his glasses and stood up from the computer screen. “Zhang Chao said it was his own, and Ishihara died his own death. Is there any connection between the two? If it happened at the same event, there must be a connection?

Ishihara didn’t have a stroke during Zhang Chao’s speech! How can he throw dirty water on himself? The quality of Sina.com’s reporters is worrying! “

It is now evening time with lights on in every house, and several offices and conference rooms of the Writers Association are still brightly lit.

After Zhang Chao called Tie Ning, she realized that this matter was of great importance and might even trigger a chain reaction beyond the scope of literature, so she immediately called Honorary Chairman Wang Meng to work overtime.

Wang Meng is a veteran leader on the cultural front. He immediately pointed out that there is no need to worry about the reaction of the newspapers, but rather to pay attention to Internet public opinion and not put Zhang Chao in a passive position in Japan because of the pursuit of sensational effects.

That’s why Sina.com changed the content of its news.

However, there is still a lot of resentment towards Zhang Chao within the Writers Association. After all, the young writers’ delegation is scheduled to go to Japan soon. If any changes arise because of this incident, it means that a lot of the previous work has been in vain.

This is an important work result that can be included in the annual summary!

Wang Meng also saw the mood of the crowd, so he said to Xiao Liu, the secretary of the Writers Association office, who was sitting in front of the computer: “Xiao Liu, you are a young person who often surfs the Internet. What do you think of this matter now among our domestic netizens?”

Xiao Liu immediately said: “Two words – relieved!”

Wang Meng smiled and said, “Okay, then tell me why you feel relieved?”

Xiao Liu said: “Isn’t it obvious? This old… fellow Ishihara has said so many irritating things before, and the most irritating one is that “The Nanjing Massacre is a ‘fictional story’.” I remember that when the news reported it, I was still in college, and I wanted to fly to Japan immediately to give that old fellow a shocking blow!

This time he was so angry at Zhang Chao that he had a stroke. It can be considered as karma! Mr. Wang, Zhang Chao has given us Chinese people a chance to vent our anger. You can’t criticize him.”

Wang Meng frowned and said, “If I criticize him, would I no longer be ‘Mr. Wang’ but ‘Old Man Wang Meng’?”

Xiao Liu blushed and lowered his head in embarrassment.

Wang Meng laughed and said, “I was just kidding.” Then he turned to the others in the conference room and said, “Look, this is what young people think nowadays.”

Someone immediately said unconvincedly: “This is Xiao Liu’s opinion alone…”

Wang Meng ignored him and turned to Xiao Liu and said, “I’ll give you 20 minutes to capture all the representative opinions on the Internet, make a document, and print it out for us ‘old guys’ to see.”

Xiao Liu nodded repeatedly, his hands flying between the keyboard and the mouse. If you didn’t know him, you would think he was playing “Warcraft 3”.

Twenty minutes later, a 20-page WORD document was printed into multiple copies and distributed to the “bigwigs” of the Writers Association. While distributing the documents, Xiao Liu said stubbornly: “It’s not that I have a preconceived opinion – I have tried my best to find criticisms of Zhang Chao on the Internet, but there are too few…”

As he spoke, his eyes became red.

Wang Meng quickly comforted him: “Don’t worry, we all know that you are very attentive…”

Everyone flipped through the 20-plus pages of documents and found that there were indeed very few criticisms of Zhang Chao. The harshest one was just:
[It sounds nice, isn’t it just to eat up patriotic traffic? ] Other posts and related comments are quite interesting——

[It is recommended that Zhang Chao be declared an intangible cultural heritage. He is truly an intangible cultural heritage in this aspect and should be vigorously inherited and carried forward! ]

[It is time for someone to deal with this old right-winger Ishihara! Throw flowers to support Teacher Zhang! ]

[Lu Xun studied medicine in Japan to save the country, and today Zhang Chao uses literature to fight against the enemy in Japan. What is cultural confidence? This is it! ]

[Can you please stop praising him too much? Lu Xun didn’t send a politician to the ICU. If this is to be considered an achievement, I suggest you apply for the Guinness World Record!]

[I suggest teaming up with Guo Degang. One will make the Japanese angry to death, and the other will make the Chinese laugh to death. ]

……

Wang Meng put the document on the table and said to everyone: “What do you mean by the opinions of the masses? Do you see it?”

Everyone fell silent. Wang Meng sighed and said, “So, don’t complain about Zhang Chao’s harsh words in the future. When he was in China, he still treated the debates in the literary world as “contradictions among the people.”

His relationship with Ishihara has risen to the level of an ‘enemy-enemy contradiction’. Zhang Chao always says that he has ‘restrained his strength’, but you just don’t believe him. “

These words touched many people, especially Bai Ye. After more than a year of “rest and recuperation”, and the fact that the literary criticism community as a whole had eased relations with Zhang Chao, his “sick leave” ended and he began to participate in the activities of the Writers Association as usual.

If we were to ask who among the present felt the most about Zhang Chao’s venomous tongue, it would be him. Bai Ye also sighed and said, “Zhang Chao, this kid… I am convinced! He is not ‘causing trouble’, he is ‘venting his anger’.

We should not always hold on to the old idea of ​​”being kind to others”. The premise of “being kind to others” is “others are kind to me”.

Ishihara’s remarks have repeatedly hurt the feelings of the Chinese people and undermined the general trend of Sino-Japanese friendship. I was relieved to hear Zhang Chao’s speech this time.”

Many people believed that since Bai Ye, who had an “irreconcilable” feud with Zhang Chao, had said so, there were no other objections at the scene, and they began to try their best to think about how to make the matter go as smoothly as possible.

Tie Ning regained her composure at this time. Although she was a little out of control when Zhang Chao called her, she now understood and asked with a smile, “Do you remember why Zhang Chao went to Japan this time?”

Everyone was stunned, and then someone answered: “Isn’t he the host of one of the activities in this visit to Japan? What’s his name? – Oh, “Contemporary Chinese Literature in Japan.”

He went to Japan in advance just to prepare for this.”

Tie Ning’s smile was still as warm as the spring sun, making people feel relieved at a glance. She then asked, “What is Zhang Chao doing in Japan now?”

This sentence was quite profound, and no one could figure it out for a moment.

After a long while, Liu Heng asked, “…Chinese contemporary literature is in Japan?”

It was only then that everyone realized that the commotion Zhang Chao had created was a living example of “Chinese contemporary literature in Japan.”

Apart from him, it is hard to think of any other contemporary Chinese writer who could have such a great response in Japan, and even affected the political situation in Japan – it is said that Ishihara’s ward was surrounded by politicians and media reporters, just to find out whether he was going to resign as the governor of Tokyo.

Since the 20th century, the rise and fall of Chinese and Japanese literature has changed the situation of the past 1000 years. It can almost be said that Japanese literature has achieved unilateral output to Chinese literature.

Except for a few individual writers such as Lu Xun, the influence of modern and contemporary Chinese literature on Japan is almost zero.

Zhang Chao completely reversed this downward trend.

First, he achieved the miracle of continuous best-sellers in Japan despite being a Chinese; he also repeatedly set off trends in the Japanese literary world, causing divisions in the Japanese literary world.

Now it seems that he is about to cross over from the “literature channel” to the “social channel” and even the “rule of law channel” and “political channel” in Japan.

It has to be said that Zhang Chao’s physique is really special, and he can become the focus wherever he goes. The “old guys” of the Writers Association love and hate this, but they can do nothing about it.

Tie Ning’s thoughts were different from most people’s. She said calmly, “So I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing. Besides, Zhang Chao’s previous activities were arranged by Kadokawa Bookstore and had nothing to do with Professor Iizuka Rong.

As long as Professor Iizuka Yoshio has not sent any information about cancelling the event, we will continue to do what we should do. There is no need to worry about the disturbances happening in the Japanese political arena across the sea. “

Wang Meng nodded in agreement and took over the conversation, saying: “Don’t worry, I will make suggestions to the leaders on media opinion. The key is that we must stand firm. This is not about turning a bad thing into a good thing, but it is a good thing in the first place.

Confucius said, “Repay evil with good. How do you repay good? Repay evil with justice!” Isn’t Ishihara the most fond of making provocative remarks? Zhang Chao was just “returning the favor in the way he has been treated.” Did he do anything wrong? No!

So in the past few days, when facing media interviews, we can’t say things like “it was an impulse” or “he is still young”. At this time, we must unite our thoughts and face the outside world in a unified way.”

After saying that, he looked around at everyone in the conference room with a serious look.

Wang Meng has always been known for his “democracy”, “enlightenment” and “moderation”. It has been a long time since we have seen this “old minister” speaking with a stern face, nor have we heard him say “unified thoughts” and other “official language”. But at this moment, his long horse face had an indescribable majesty that would not tolerate any opposition.

Tie Ning smiled brightly and said, “Okay, we have finished discussing the matter, let’s adjourn the meeting. Come to think of it, a small part of the reason for the overtime meeting this year is because of Zhang Chao.”

……

Zhang Chao had been bored in Qingjiyuan for two days. Seeing that the media attention had died down, he wanted to go out for a walk. Unexpectedly, he was stopped at the door by the “bodyguards” arranged by Kadokawa Bookstore:
“Mr. Zhang, the president said that for your safety, you should not go out recently. If you want anything, just tell us or Miss Miho…”

Zhang Chao glanced at the two of them, nodded without saying anything, and turned back, making the two bodyguards breathe a sigh of relief.

Back in the living room, Zhang Chao thought for a moment and rang the bell in the house; soon, Ogiwara Miho appeared in front of him.

Zhang Chao didn’t hesitate and asked directly, “Ms. Ogihara, have you reported everything I’ve done here in the past two days to President Kadokawa?”

Ogiwara Miho didn’t expect Zhang Chao to be so straightforward. She was so scared that she fell to the ground and apologized, “I’m really sorry, this is the president’s order, I can’t disobey…”

Zhang Chao did not blame her, but continued to ask: “If you sleep very soundly tonight and I disappear from the room, when do you think you will find out?

Oh, and the bodyguards, if they drink a little, will they also fall into a deep sleep?”

When Ogiwara Miho heard this, her mind went blank and she didn’t know how to respond.

Zhang Chao squatted down, looked into Ogiwara Miho’s eyes and said, “What is the most famous brand of sake in Japan? I’ll treat you to a drink. This is a request from a distinguished guest, you can’t refuse, right?”

Ogiwara Miho couldn’t stand Zhang Chao’s gaze anymore, so she finally lowered her head and said, “Hi!”

……

At 10 o’clock the next morning, a young man holding a bunch of cosmos and a string of paper cranes appeared in front of the entrance of Tokyo Hachioji Hospital.

(End of this chapter)