Otaku Translation: Literary Genius: This Kid Was Born Smart C54

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Chapter 54: The Release of Chronicles of Mystery

Gu Lu had to go out of his way to buy the June issue (Gold Edition) of Chronicles of Mystery, walking all the way to a distant newsstand.

Unlike bestsellers like Young Literature, Story Digest, or Soulmate, even as China’s top mystery magazine, its reach wasn’t widespread.

And just like Gu Lu, Dagger Zhang walked all the way in the rain for more than twenty minutes to get to Xinhua Bookstore, just to buy the magazine.

Why was he so determined? Because his short story was being published in this issue of Chronicles of Mystery. Dagger Zhang was his pen name — Zhang is his surname, and Dagger represents his aspiration: he hopes that his works will strike the stagnant world of detective fiction like a dagger to the heart.

The current state of detective fiction has been largely exhausted — ever since Edgar Allan Poe founded the genre, and Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie, and the Queen brothers ushered in its golden age, most of the clever tricks have already been written.

Mechanical tricks, psychological tricks, narrative tricks — it's become very difficult to offer anything truly original.

"At last, I've got it," Zhang said, wiping the rain from his head and changing into dry clothes.

Even though the editorial team had already sent him a complimentary copy, he wanted to buy one himself. There was something special about holding a copy you’d paid for with your own hands.

First up — the cover recommendations. Naturally, these were what the editors considered the best stories in the issue:

---

[Cover Feature: Best of the Month]

Original Stories:

Doctor Mera's Mysterious Crimes

by Gu Lu

Murder on D Street

by Gu Lu

A Feasible Crime Plan

by Dagger Zhang

---

[Classic Reads]

The Red-Headed League

by Arthur Conan Doyle

---

“Hmm? Who’s this Gu Lu? Sharing equal billing with me?” Zhang raised an eyebrow, intrigued.

Chronicles of Mystery always featured translated foreign classics, so the inclusion of The Red-Headed League didn’t surprise him — Holmes was a classic for a reason.

Flipping open the table of contents:

[What Is Historical Detective Fiction? To talk historical detective fiction, one must mention Western works like The Daughter of Time and The Name of the Rose…]

Zhang loved reading the introductory essays at the front of the magazine. Though he was a detective fiction writer himself, there was still plenty he didn’t know. Like the three “W’s” of detective fiction: Who committed the crime, How it was done, and Why they did it — the core elements of any great detective fiction: killer, method, motive.

After finishing the section on historical detective fiction, he turned his attention to this mysterious Gu Lu.

He noted from the table of contents that there were three stories by Gu Lu in this issue. Zhang didn’t think for a second that the magazine had run out of submissions — if three stories were published, it meant the editors held him in high regard.

“The setting of Murder on D Street is in japan?”

Opening the first story, Murder on D Street, Zhang immediately noticed the structure felt familiar — a classic “Holmes-style” narrative.

Narrated from the perspective of a sidekick character, with the detective named Mingzhi taking center stage. But there was a twist: the narrator actually suspects Mingzhi of being the culprit.

A bookstore owner has been found dead with bruises on her body. Both the narrator and Mingzhi witnessed the scene, but no one else entered or left the room.

Eyewitness accounts contradict each other — one claims the suspect was wearing white, the other says black.

The reasoning seemed logical at first: only Mingzhi’s fingerprints were found on the light switch, and since he wore striped pajamas, the witnesses mistook the pattern through the window panes.

“This deduction is ridiculous,” Zhang muttered. “If that’s the case, they'd be more likely to see a black-and-white pattern.”

But then Mingzhi systematically debunked every clue. The bulb burned out, the witnesses were mistaken — citing psychological research that most eyewitnesses get details wrong under stress. In the end, the real killer was the bookstore owner herself.

“That’s it?”

Still curious, he read the next two stories. Doctor Mera’s story didn’t feature Mingzhi, and the method was even more absurd.

The story described a victim who saw a hanging dummy thanks to some clever lighting — and then mimicked the act by hanging himself.

“What the hell is this? No method at all!”

Then came the third piece, The Stalker in the Attic, told entirely from the criminal’s point of view.

There was barely any reasoning process — it was like Mingzhi had divine insight, solving the case instantly without explanation.

By the time he finished all three, Zhang had a strange thought: Is this even a detective fiction?

“The editorial standards at Chronicles of Mystery are getting worse. This kind of work gets a cover feature? Not a trace of intellectual thrill.”

Frustrated, Zhang called the corresponding editor— guess who? Han Cang, the same guy who handled his own submissions.

Full of indignation, he figured Gu Lu must be someone with connections, otherwise how could his stories share the cover with his carefully crafted work?

“Brother Han, quick question — do you know who this Gu Lu person in this month’s Gold Edition is?” Zhang kept his tone polite.

“Oh? You’ve reached the right person! Are you trying to connect with Mr. Gu too?” Han spoke enthusiastically.

“You’re not alone! Mr. Gu’s style draws from Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio — truly unique in the detective fiction world. It’s only natural you’d notice,” Han said. “Even Chief Editor Gao praised it: This is the kind of work that throws a boulder into a calm lake, stirring up ripples.”

“…” Zhang had a lot to say, but swallowed it all back. Chief Editor Gao was a hardcore detective fiction fanatic — if he liked it…

“But I can’t give you Mr. Gu’s contact info directly,” Han said. “I can pass along a message for you, though.”

“Ahem…” Zhang stayed silent for a beat — long enough to hear both Han’s admiration for Gu Lu and the sound of his own heartbeat.

“Brother Han, what do you like most about Mr. Gu?” Zhang asked carefully.

“His character creation and portrayal of evil,” Han replied without hesitation. “I’m dying to see him write a full-length novel — or at least something longer than short stories.”

“And you?”

“My views align perfectly with yours,” Zhang lied smoothly. “Great minds think alike.”

“Well, gotta get back to editing. Mr. Gu just messaged me — I’ll let you know when I have more updates.” And with that, Han hung up. Their relationship was pretty good, so no need for extra politeness.

Character creation? That made Zhang think of Mingzhi — the central figure in two of the three stories. Sure, his personality was richly developed.

For instance, while studying human behavior, Mingzhi watched someone try to steal a book without stopping them — instead, just counting silently.

In another scene, he inadvertently inspired a murderer.

“A person who understands criminal psychology so deeply — of course he sees through the ceiling poisoning plot easily,” Zhang mused.

He flipped back to a passage in the story:

“Oh dear, what a failure. Don't misunderstand me — I'm not mocking you,” Mingzhi explained. “Your idea is interesting, but your reasoning only looks at surface-level, material clues. For example, have you ever explored the internal psychology behind my relationship with that woman?”

That moment fully captured Mingzhi’s nature — indifferent to physical evidence, obsessed with criminal psychology.

“Now that is interesting,” Zhang murmured, suddenly seeing more depth beneath the surface.

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