Mixed with dissatisfaction with reality and drunken euphoria, the air in the izakaya is already muddy at night.

It's the same table last time, Toru Shimizu and Masaaki Kishida, who rushed over, sitting on one side, opposite the angry Shuya Ishii, and Heiichi Irie, who is half-paralyzed in his seat.

The few side dishes ordered had already been served, and the wine glasses in front of them were also filled, but in the strange atmosphere, several people did not have the heart to enjoy them.

"So, what's going on?"

Toru Shimizu looked at the three people with different expressions. Ishii was just at a loss, Irie was still depressed, and only Kishida's face was as usual, as if he could answer this question.

"Alas," Kishida sighed, took a drink from his glass, and slurped, "I have a general understanding of this reason." ”

He picks up a peanut with his chopsticks and puts it in his mouth.

"Shimizu, you should know that Kodansha is a family business, right?"

Toru Shimizu nodded, "The president is the last name... Noma? I remember that Kodansha founded the Noma Literary Prize for novels. ”

"That's right, Kodansha has been the property of the Noma family since its founding. However, in the case of a family business, there are always two kinds of people at the top of the company: one is the family members who own a large number of shares and are born to be on the board of directors. The other is a manager with a foreign surname, although he does not have a good pedigree, but he has climbed all the way up and is the main pillar of the company's business. ”

"Then the problem arises. Shimizu, if you were the president, what kind of person would you value or trust more? ”

The laughter of the guests behind him came over, and as he stared at the night outside the izakaya that was gradually getting heavier, Toru Shimizu already understood what he meant.

"Ideally, it is natural to hope that the two factions can check and balance each other. But the reality... The latter is the only one that can be relied upon. ”

"yes..."

Kishida sighed again, refueled himself with wine, and was about to speak, but Ishii on the other side spoke first.

"Kishida-san, there is no inevitable relationship between the surname and the ability of the person, right? Noma Family... Those people can't be all waste, either. ”

Even when questioned, Kishida just twitched the corner of his mouth, took out a cigarette and lit it, squinting his eyes through the fog.

"Boy, you're the same Shuya Ishii, right?"

Ishii raised his head, "Yes." ”

"I've heard Irie mention it, and he's very optimistic about you. But if you're just at this level, it's still too tender to get along at Kodansha. ”

Ishii was stunned, and his tone became stiff, "Please advise Kishida-san." ”

Let's say that one of the directors of Kodansha is very capable of doing business, can generate a lot of profits for the company, and is so popular that even his partners praise him. Now that Ishii is the president, what are you going to do with this person? ”

"Reuse, of course..."

"But if he has a lot of shares in addition to this, and a large group of shareholders behind him, theoretically all it takes is a board meeting to kick you out of the position of president, what are you going to do?"

Kishida knocked on the table with his left hand, held a cigarette roll in his right hand, and looked at Shuya Ishii, who had a stiff expression, from the corner of his eye.

"Ishii-kun, you must have heard some stories about 'Xia Keshang', right?"

"I..."

Looking at Ishii, who was speechless, Toru Shimizu took over the topic.

"In this case, if I were the president, I would have to strike first and kick him out. After all, a company's profits are far less important than the power in its own hands. As for those company executives with foreign surnames, there is no need to worry. As long as Kodansha is a family business, and as long as they don't have the surname Noma, there is absolutely no possibility that those people will get involved in the position of president."

"That's the reason," Kishida spat out a smoke ring, "and that's what the Noma family has been doing for decades." On the one hand, the president tried every means to buy the shares in the hands of family members, and on the other hand, he isolated them from the core power of the company, and could only serve as consultants and directors. At the same time, do not forget to reuse people with foreign surnames in order to strengthen their control over the company as much as possible. ”

"I was still like that when I left Kodansha. As for the current situation, I can only ask you the head of the Irie Division. ”

"It's been the same for the past few years."

Irie didn't know when he sat up and drank the wine in front of him in one gulp, and there seemed to be a little more strength in his words.

"In recent years, only insignificant departments such as the Dictionary Bureau and the Children's Bureau have been left in the hands of the family faction, and the core comics, magazines, and literary and artistic businesses are completely in the hands of the foreign surname faction."

"When the previous president was alive, he didn't think too hard about his old feelings, and he maintained the last bit of balance between the family faction and the foreign surname faction. It not only relies on the foreign surname faction to suppress the opposition in the family, but also uses the stocks in the hands of the family faction to restrain those high-level people with foreign surnames. ”

But with the unexpected death of the previous president in March of this year, everything has changed. The new president of Noma Province has always been dissatisfied with the family faction, and he is also very close to the foreign surname faction. So after he came to power, he immediately carried out personnel purges and kicked out all the people from the family faction. We are in the Dictionary Bureau..."

Irie took a breath and continued, "Our Dictionary Bureau has always been the territory of the family faction, and this time it will not be immune. The new director Adachi is a person with a foreign surname, so it is natural that he will have to make a big move when he comes. ”

At this, he tugged at the corners of his mouth and put on a wry smile like self-deprecation.

"Maybe I'm the one who has caused you to be a problem. The former director was not bad to me, maybe in their eyes I had already become a member of the family faction, and it was only a matter of time before I was purged. In addition, the revision plan of the "Great Dictionary of the Japanese Language" was approved by the former director-general. Although I don't know where he learned about this news, but when I think about it, it really fits that he chose to take us under the knife. ”

Irie's expression was a little bitter, and he picked up the wine glass he had just poured and drank it, but he accidentally choked several times.

After a brief silence, Toru Shimizu suddenly thought of something else.

"Kishida-san, do you remember the 'Yamanaka Section Chief' I met when I first came to talk about the club?"

"What about the goods?"

A trace of disdain flashed on Kishida's face, and he turned his head and said, "Irie, what is his current situation?" ”

Under the influence of alcohol, Irie's face was already flushed, his tongue trembled, and his words began to be uncontrollable.

"He... Don't you know yet? His father-in-law... Oh, after all, if you have a surname, you should be called 'father'. The former director of the Bureau of Literature and Art, and the current director of Yamanaka, are classmates of the president of the newcomer, and he is regarded as a hardcore foreign surname. That guy took advantage of this, and this time he was also promoted to the director of the Literature and Art Bureau, and took over his Lao Tzu's class. ”

"That's... Is it possible that he ordered the cancellation of the dictionary revision? ”

Toru Shimizu's speculation made the others stunned for a moment.

The public feud between the family faction and the foreign surname faction, coupled with his personal feud with Kishida and Irie, does sound like there is a good motive.

But Irie just shook the wine bottle, and his red eyes were half-open and half-closed.

"What's the point of saying that now? Anyway, under this scale of purge, I definitely can't escape... But Shimizu-kun, you and Kishida are not from Kodansha, and no matter how bad the trouble is, it's none of your business. Instead of worrying about that, why don't you have a drink today? ”

With that, he turned around and shouted at the counter.

"Boss, four more bottles of soju!"

"Okay."

"Come on, Qing Shui-kun, you can have a drink too."

Looking at the wine glass that was stuffed into his hand, Qing Shui Toru suddenly had a bad premonition in his heart.

As the largest company in the publishing industry, is this large-scale purge set off by the new president of Kodansha really limited to Kodansha?

Thinking so, the new bottles of wine on the table have been opened one by one. Picking up the wine glass, Qing Shui Toru could only hope that he was a little worried.