For Higashinoji, he doesn't have to worry about whether all his identities are exposed.

After all, I didn't do anything wrong, so there was no need to hide it.

If it needs to be exposed, let the media reporters expose it.

As long as it doesn't interfere with their normal lives with Chihaya Higashino, they can expose it however they want, and Higashinoji has nothing to do with it.

Compared with such trivial matters, Higashinoji was more concerned about the good news reported by Hosokawa Koharu.

""The Lonely Gourmet" received 724 votes in "Green Leaf"? It surpassed the record of "Midnight Ring" with 696 votes. "The Ring" sold 150,000 copies this week and accumulated sales of 25,000 copies in two weeks.

Ten thousand copies? Ranked third in comics sales last week on the Oricon list?"

When hearing these two pieces of news, Higashikata was quite surprised.

A little surprised indeed.

The first is "The Lonely Gourmet", which actually surpassed the previous record set by "The Ring" and received 696 votes... This is very shocking.

You must know that the readership statistics before "Midnight Ring" directly broke the record in the publishing history of Urashima Publishing House... and this is equivalent to Higashino breaking the record again.

"The Lonely Gourmet" is in the monthly "Green Leaf", and "The Ring" is in the weekly "Chill". Although the two works are not in the same magazine, even so they are already very scary.

Because the maximum number of support votes counted for each comic, whether it's "Abominable Cold" or "Aoba", is only one thousand votes.

This is equivalent to 72.4% of the readers of "Green Leaf" supporting "The Lonely Gourmet".

This is already a terrifying proportion.

After all, it’s not for nothing that it’s difficult to agree with others. 72% of readers support it...

"What I didn't expect was that "The Lonely Gourmet" actually broke the original record and climbed even higher..."

But Tonoji tried to look at the problem from another angle.

"The Ring", as a horror comic, will drive away some readers in a sense.

"The Lonely Gourmet" is basically very popular among young people and young adults.

Even if a high school student cannot understand the difficulties of social animals in "The Lonely Gourmet", he will still be attracted by the food.

As for whether "The Lonely Gourmet" can finally break through 700 and reach 800 votes... Even Higashino is not sure.

Because in my impression...it seems that no comic has received 800 votes.

On the other hand, "Midnight Ring" directly ranked third among comics in terms of weekly sales... In other words, according to last week's single volume sales statistics, "Midnight Ring" was only higher than one or two old classic comics.

Weaker.

There is nothing we can do about it. Those classic and old comics are often serialized for one or two years and have a large fan base. Once a single volume is released, many fans buy it. It is normal that "Midnight Ring" cannot compare for the time being.

However, since "Midnight Ring" has achieved the third best sales result of the Oricon manga single line this week... Higashino estimates that "Midnight Ring" has already been marked by Akamaru.

The so-called Akamaru is actually a feature of Japan's Oricon. If the sales of a topic or a work increase rapidly, there will be a sign of Akamaru's rapid rise.

"Chief Editor Urashima originally planned to visit Mr. Higashino at your home and inform you of the news directly... Considering that you are still in Kumamoto Prefecture, we had no choice but to give up."

As Hosokawa Koharu spoke, he looked at the Kumamon peripherals brought over by Higashinoji.

The black, chubby Kumamon looked particularly cute, and she fell in love with him at first sight. She also sighed a little at Higashinoji's talent... I really don't know how his brain grew. When Kumamon designed it, "

The updates of "Midnight Ring" have not been interrupted either.

"It is indeed good news." Higashinoji smiled and nodded: "All of this was made possible by the help of Editor Hosokawa. I am very grateful to you for the front page."

After hearing Higashinoji's words, Hosokawa Koharu's first reaction was to open his mouth, and then he glanced to the left and right. After not noticing the editor, he whispered, "Please Higashino-sensei, please don't say that again."

Yes...she didn't like Higashinoji saying this.

Perhaps Higashinoji doesn't know that recently, not only reporters, but also many colleagues invited her to dinner, all wanting to know from her how she cultivated a talented writer like Higashinoji.

Seeing the curious expressions on the faces of those particularly qualified seniors, Hosokawa Koharu almost choked to death.

Although she likes to socialize, you have to ask me how I raised Higashinoji...

Then I don't understand it at all.

But she couldn't say that she completely let Higashinoji go - if she said that, other editors would definitely think that Hosokawa Koharu was perfunctory with them.

But if you don't say that...

So what can be done?

It is true that Hosokawa Koharu has never trained Higashinoji. Regardless of the quality of the manuscript delivered or the completion...it doesn't matter to Hosokawa Koharu.

Even if Hosokawa Koharu was sometimes slow to receive manuscripts, Higashinoji would take the initiative to come to Urashima to publish social manuscripts, looking more anxious than being an editor.

It is simply the conscience of the industry.

Hosokawa Koharu sometimes feels an inexplicable sense of crisis because he is too ambitious.

Maybe Higashinoji doesn't know, but now Urashima's editorial department has secretly nicknamed him Higashino Printing Machine.

Some people joked that Tonoji was a printing machine that would spit out high-quality manga manuscripts from its mouth regardless of whether it was left there.

Some editors also joked about Hosokawa Koharu, telling her to pay close attention to Higashinoji's movements and not to cultivate a pillar author only to be poached by others.

After all, the current "Abominable Cold" and "Aoba" are inseparable from Higashinoji.

Maybe something like a tree vine will happen.

Of course, Higashinoji didn't know about the joke about the editor of Urashima Publishing House. When Hosokawa Koharu asked him not to say it again, he just thought that the other party was a little embarrassed, so he smiled and brushed it off casually.

After chatting in the editorial department for five or six minutes, Higashinoji took his leave.

Hosokawa Koharu also has something to do, and Higashinoji is of course embarrassed to continue disturbing him.

Before leaving, Hosokawa Koharu also suddenly asked Higashinoji: "Teacher Higashino, since you don't care about your identity being exposed, would you like to contact the news media in the name of our Urashima Publishing House and give you an exclusive interview?"

After all, this is also good for the reputation of Urashima Publishing House. The name of Kumamon designer Higashino Tsukasa has spread throughout Japan.

"Okay." Higashino nodded. He never cared about this kind of thing. It has already been exposed, so it is better to burn the fire even brighter.

"Then how about Saturday next week?" Hosokawa Koharu thought for a while and determined the specific time.

Higashinoji doesn't have to go to class on Saturdays and Sundays, so he is naturally free to give interviews.

Higashino agreed to this request and then left Urashima Publishing House.

This time, because of Hosokawa Koharu's reminder, Higashinoji really felt some attention.

Presumably these are the reporters she was talking about...

But Higashinoji didn't care, he quickly left Urashima Publishing House with his shoulder bag.

Anyway, I have to be interviewed by Urashima Publishing House on Saturday, so there is no point in paying attention to them anymore.

...

Returned to Tokyo for the second day.

Today Higashinoji plans to go to Kita Gymnasium for classes.

Although Higashinoji has approval from Ryuichi Yoshimine, if he keeps putting off going to school... this will inevitably make things difficult for Ryuichi Yoshimine.

Higashinoji's emotional intelligence is not that low yet, so he has to go to school today anyway.

As for why I didn't go directly to Kitajuku yesterday...it's because I just got home and there are still many chores at home that need to be solved by Higashinoji.

For example, it is not easy to find a place for these Kumamoto Prefecture specialties and toys that Higashino Chihaya likes.

Yesterday, Higashinoji was busy until seven or eight o'clock in the evening before he stopped.

"Then I'm going to school." Higashinoji said hello to Higashino Chihaya, then closed the door and headed to Kita Gym.

After two weeks of busy work, Higashinoji felt that going to school was quite comfortable. After all, when he was studying, he only had to think about studying, but when he was working, he had to think about various things.

But——this idea completely changed when Higashinoji walked to the gate of Kitajuku.

Looking at the large white banner that read, "Congratulations to our student Higashino Tsukasa for winning the Kumamoto Prefecture mascot design!" that was raised on the front door of Kita Gym, Higashinoji just felt a little bad.

The Japanese regard white as a symbol of solemnity, so when celebrating, they usually give a white banner, a white vertical banner... But when Tonoji looked over... the black characters on the white background looked very much like an elegiac couplet...

.

Especially the Kumamon logo designed by Higashinoji was added to the back of the white cloth... which made him feel even more weird.

But forget it.

Higashikata shook his head.

He had already known and understood some of Kitajuku's propaganda methods, so Higashinoji didn't pay much attention to it and walked directly to the school.

As soon as he walked in, Higashinoji could clearly feel the crowd of people looking at him from time to time.

As soon as many students saw him, their eyes lit up and they gathered together to discuss in a low voice.

This was within Higashinoji's expectations.

He had previously thought about his reputation in Kitajuku after Kumamon became popular. In addition, he had also won a double gold medal at the Tokyo Youth Art Award before, so it only caused discussion among students... which was not unexpected.

Just like this, he stumbled back to his class. Tonoji sat down at his desk with his shoulder bag.

Then he was stopped by Hou Yuanzhong, who was considered his only friend in the class.
To be continued...