Conan's grammatical investigator

Chapter 296 Initial Contribution of "Mountain of Madness"

After a simple business exchange, Qin Zhibo handed over the original manuscript of "Crazy Mountains" to the editor-in-chief Masao Iwata.

Masao Iwata took the manuscript of the novel with both hands, and frowned unabashedly when he saw the title of the book on the manuscript.

In his impression, the novels created by famous detectives should be detective novels, but this "Mountain of Madness".
Could it be a murder that happened in the mountains?

It should be based on the Blizzard Mountain Villa model created by the famous reasoning writer Ellery Quinn for story creation.

The theme is a bit old-fashioned
The detective story case pattern of Blizzard Villa is not new at the end of the [-]th century, and even such cases often occur in reality.

But if the content is good, it is not without the possibility of being brilliant.
Masao Iwata deserves to be the editor-in-chief, and he recognized so much information as soon as he saw the title of the book.

Turning to the first page, Masao Iwata began to read the main text.
While Masao Iwata was reading, Qin Zhibo looked towards the main entrance of the publishing house while drinking tea comfortably.

No case happened for three days, Qin Zhibo felt it was time for a "chance encounter".

The person I met by chance is of course the elementary school student of the god of death——Conan.

But after waiting for a while, Qin Zhibo felt that Conan should have no reason to come to this publishing house again, so he gave up the idea of ​​waiting and concentrated on observing the expression of the editor-in-chief Iwata.

A lot can be read from the micro-expressions on a person's face.

In the previous case, Qin Zhibo has mastered the skill of [psychology], which can be used to interpret the current psychological state of editor-in-chief Iwata.

First of all, Qin Zhibo saw a slight frown with negative emotions from the editor-in-chief Iwata's face.

This kind of negation existed from the very beginning of the text, so Qin Zhibo guessed that his novel should have made editor-in-chief Iwata feel inappropriate from the very beginning.

As the reading progressed, Editor-in-Chief Iwata frowned even deeper.

The two slender eyebrows were as close together as possible, indicating that his confusion was gradually deepening.

But the editor-in-chief Iwata still didn't give up the idea of ​​reading, but wanted to figure out what kind of novel it was.

Even when I felt my throat was a little itchy and wanted to drink a cup of tea to soothe my throat, Editor-in-Chief Iwata never took his eyes off the text on the manuscript.

It wasn't until a certain part of the reading that Editor-in-Chief Iwata's brows gradually relaxed, and his tightly closed lips opened slightly, as if he had suddenly realized something.
In the end, the editor-in-chief Iwata finished reading the last page of the manuscript of "Mountains of Madness". Before he could put the text back on the table, he said in a deep voice, "I have a question to ask."

"Please tell me." Qin Zhibo replied.

"What is a Shoggoth?"

Editor-in-Chief Iwata's question caught Qin Zhibo a little off guard, because Qin Zhibo thought he should ask some questions about the writing techniques of the novel, but it turned out to be the content of the story.

It's just that Qin Zhibo doesn't know what this "Shoggoth" is.

After all, in Master Mamiya's research manuscript, it was his assistant Danvers who followed Professor Dale to find the missing persons of the expedition.

In other words, only Professor Dale and Danvers should know what Shoggoth is in this world.

And Professor Dale passed away decades ago, and Danvers was admitted to the Arkham Asylum after the expedition, and he didn't know whether he was dead or alive.

Therefore, Qin Zhibo did not write about the adventures of Professor Dale and Danforth in the Black Mountains of Antarctica, but only announced the final results according to the research manuscript.

"Shoggoth" Qin Zhibo looked troubled, he hesitated and said, "This is it."

Before Qin Zhibo could think of an answer, the editor-in-chief Iwata was startled, and suddenly said: "I understand! Your Excellency wants to leave a foreshadowing for the writing of 'Revealing the Secret'?"

Qin Zhibo, who has writing skills, knows that this is a novel creation mode, which is often seen in detective novels.

It is to set the case occurrence part of the detective novel as the "problem-making chapter", and the part of solving the case as the "secret-revealing chapter".

Although formally it is the first and second chapters of an ordinary novel, it is more ritualistic when placed in a detective novel. It is easy to arouse readers' curiosity, actively put forward various conjectures, and finally verify the answers in their hearts.

It's just that the editor-in-chief Iwata completely misunderstood Qin Zhibo's intentions. The reason why Professor Dale and "Shoggoth" were not mentioned in the article was simply because Qin Zhibo didn't know.

Qin Zhibo possessed by Brother Dao: I can't make it!

At this moment, the editor-in-chief Iwata enthusiastically filled a cup of tea with Qin Zhibo, and said excitedly: "I really didn't expect your creation to be so bold."

"Oh, of course, and by 'bold' I mean avant-garde boldness, which is a compliment."

"When I first saw you using the No.1 title, I thought it was a detective novel. You must know that it is very taboo to write a detective novel from the perspective of a detective in a detective novel."

When I first read it, the editor-in-chief Iwata, who already had a subjective judgment on the type of the book from the title, thought that Professor Dale was the protagonist of this detective novel.

It is very appropriate for a professor, a profession known for his wisdom, to appear as a detective character in a detective novel.

Just use the No.1 term to describe the professor's psychological activities, and there will be no sense of suspense at all.

Therefore, the editor-in-chief Iwata felt at first that this was a cross-industry work of a layman.

Even the editor-in-chief Iwata has already thought about how to tactfully reject the celebrity introduced by this acquaintance.

But as the reading progressed, the editor-in-chief Iwata found that this "Mountain of Madness" is not that simple.

Starting with a foreign background that is not common in Japan, it tells the story of an expedition team entering Antarctica in a more rational and documentary writing style.

The first half of the story is relatively trivial, like excerpts from a boring real expedition log, all of which are detailed records with little artistic processing.

The only fascinating place is that the adventure location is set in Antarctica. Even with the rapid development of science today, Antarctica is still a mysterious area for most ordinary people.

But when the narrative was started from the perspective of another professor named Lake, the style of the story suddenly changed.

Black mountains with a height equivalent to the Himalayas, a large number of fossils of paleontology hundreds of millions of years ago, and mysterious five-pointed star biological samples.
The acquisition of these mysterious things brings vitality to the story, as if a door to a new world is opening for readers.

Coupled with Qin Zhibo's brilliant pen and flowers, the editor-in-chief Iwata can feel the joy of the expedition team's fruitful harvest through the words.

But then the story took a turn for the worse. After a lost contact blizzard, all members of the expedition sub-team were killed and the unimaginable and inhumane scene at the expedition camp.

The responsibility of Professor Dale as the protagonist is actually to decipher what happened on this snowstorm night.

This is the standard detective novel "problem".

In the end, Professor Dale only brought back the crazy assistant and asked the readers the question of "what is Shoggoth", which also set up suspense for the "Secret Revealing Chapter".

"Amazing! Awesome!"

Editor-in-Chief Iwata became more and more excited as he talked, and he stood up and clapped his hands: "This is a new understanding of the Blizzard Villa model!"

(End of this chapter)