"Sir, there is an American who claims to be your old friend and wants to see you!" On this day, Edogawa Ranbu had just arrived at the studio, and his assistant reported to him.

Because he was extremely disgusted with the American GIs who had recently been in Japan, Edogawa Ranbu angrily rebuked: "What nonsense, I don't have any American friends!" ”

"But this Monsieur Monet said he was ...... with you in Shanghai."

Before the assistant could finish speaking, Edogawa Ranbu interrupted, "What did you say?" Mr. Monet? Is it Tony Mr. Monet? ”

The assistant nodded and replied, "Yes, yes, yes, it's Mr. Monet!" ”

Edogawa reprimanded angrily: "Why didn't you say it earlier, please!" ”

In fact, Monet's visit to see Edogawa Ranbu today was also due to accident, he saw Edogawa Ranbu announcing his return to the literary world in the newspaper, and then he remembered that he had such an old acquaintance in Tokyo, so he came to visit. (Edogawa Ranbu was extremely opposed to Japanese ****, so he had been "sealing the pen" before, and he did not return to the literary world until the end of World War II.) ）

Seeing Monet, Edogawa Ranbu was very excited: "Mr. Monet, when did you come to Tokyo?" ”

"It's been a while, and I've been busy with a small business, but yesterday I read in the newspaper that Mr. Hirai had returned to the literary world and started the detective magazine "Jewel", so I realized that you are also in Tokyo now, so I came to visit!" Monet explained.

"Thank you, Mr. Monet, by the way, Mr. Michael didn't come with you?" Edogawa asked casually.

"Oh, he's busy helping the police in New York!" Monet then gave a general explanation of the work of the "portrait of the suspect".

Edogawa Ranbu praised this and said: "Those of us who write reasoning are all on paper, or Mr. Monet, you and Michael are using reasoning and deduction in practice, and it is amazing that they can help people!" ”

"Mr. Hirai is humble!" Then Monet said something serious: "By the way, after seeing you start "Jewel" yesterday, I have a little idea, that is, I hope that "Comet" and "Jewel" can communicate regularly and publish each other's works, I wonder Mr. Hirai, what do you think?" (At this time, "Comet" was more than just a science fiction magazine.) ）

Edogawa replied without hesitation, "Of course, this is a good thing that I can't ask for!" ”

In fact, Edogawa Ranbu is right, after all, "Jewel" is only a start-up, and "Comet" is a long-established magazine, so the cooperation between the two sides is "Jewel" to take advantage of the bigger; Another thing that Edogawa Ranbu doesn't want to admit is that, judging from the current Japanese flattery complex, cooperating with a well-known American publication has greatly promoted the development of "Jewels".

Just as the two were chatting, suddenly the assistant knocked on the door and came in and whispered a few words to Edogawa Ranbu, who had just ordered: "Let him wait for a while!" ”

But then, as if he had thought of something, he stopped his assistant again, then turned his head and said to Monet with a smile: "Monsieur Monet, one of your loyal readers is here, why don't I introduce you to you?" ”

"Okay!" Monet replied casually.

"Call Henggou in!" Edogawa commanded.

Hearing the word "Henggou", Monet suddenly had a flash of inspiration in his mind and asked, "Eh, is it Mr. Henggou Masashi?" ”

"Monsieur Monet, do you know about the cross-ditch too?" Edogawa Ranbu asked in surprise.

Monet nodded and replied: "Recently, I was watching Mr. Yokomizo's "The Murder of the Honjin", which was very exciting and left a deep impression on me! ”

In fact, Monet only saw the book "Honjin Murder" at the bookstall and didn't buy it, because he had read it before he crossed over, but to be honest, he preferred "Young Kanedaichi", and today he can be regarded as seeing Conan (Edogawa Ranbu) and Kanedaichi (Yokozo Masashi) at the same time......

At this time, the assistant had already led Yokogou Masashi in, and Edogawa Ranbu helped to introduce: "Yokozo, this is the famous American detective I often mention to you, Mr. Tony Monet, the author of "Detective Downing"; Mr. Monet, this is the biggest surprise in the Japanese mystery world this year, the author of "The Murder of the Honjin" and "The Butterfly Murder", Masashi Yokomizo! ”

In fact, Edogawa Ranbu's appreciation of Yokozo Masashi is not an exaggeration at all, because "The Murder of the Honjin" and "The Murder of the Butterfly", two pure puzzle-solving novels, greatly improved the level of Japanese reasoning and shortened the gap with Europe and the United States, thus changing the trend of declension reasoning becoming the mainstream before the war (declension reasoning in the narrow sense refers to reasoning beyond the focus on puzzle solving, and in the broad sense, it includes fantasy, science fiction, horror, etc.).

"Hello Mr. Monet, in fact, I liked your work very much when I was in "New Youth"!" Yokozo Masashi said respectfully to Monet.

Yokozo Masashi refers to the most well-known mystery magazine in Japan before the war, Yokozo Masashi was only 25 years old when he served as the editor-in-chief, and after he took over, he immediately embraced modernism on a large scale, introduced overseas works, and injected modern European and American literary thoughts, making "New Youth" the most avant-garde modern magazine in Japan. It is a pity that during the war the military banned the publication of reasoning...... (To be honest, I never understood why it was banned.) ）

"That's right, Yokozo introduced a lot of your and Lady Nicole's works at that time!" Edogawa interjected on the side.

"It's my pleasure!" Monet saluted.

"Monsieur Monet, you are so humble, in fact you and Lady Nicole have inspired me a lot!"

Speaking of this, Yokozo Masashi suddenly hesitated, and then asked tentatively: "There is a question, I wonder if I can ask Mr. Monet?" ”

"Mr. Yokomi, don't be nervous, just say what you have to say!" Monet gestured.

"When I read your "Detective Downing" series, I don't know why, I always have the feeling of reading the works of Japanese speculators!" Yokozo asked cautiously.

Monet said to himself, it's normal for you to feel this way, because I basically copied "Detective Conan" and "Young Kanedaichi......

Before Monet could answer, Edogawa Ranbu on the side frowned and reprimanded: "Yokogou, how do you speak?" When Mr. Monet was working on "Detective Downing", let alone you, even I hadn't started writing detectives yet! ”

"Don't get me wrong, Monsieur Monet, I didn't mean that!" Yokozo Masashi hurriedly explained.