Su Mingxi set the manuscript down. This time, the look she gave Xia Jing had completely changed.
When her sister first told her she had a "close friend" in the manga field who wanted to submit through her, her first instinct had been to refuse.
And after she heard that this person was actually the same age as her sister, she'd been even more dismissive.
Even though manga and anime culture were huge in China, most mangaka were still adults. How was some high schooler supposed to balance schoolwork and serious manga creation?
How many high school students with real manga talent like her sister could there be—and this one just happened to be her friend?
Most likely, this "submission" would be a self-indulgent passion project at best.
So when she first met Xia Jing and took that intimidating tone with him, it was because she suspected he was trying to use her sister's connection to take a shortcut—and she'd wanted to scare him off early.
But now…
She stared carefully at the manuscript on the table, her gaze flicking between the pages and Xia Jing's face.
She had a feeling: once this work was published, there was no way it would go unnoticed.
"Xia Jing-sensei, right?" Su Mingxi stood up.
"I'd like to apologize for my earlier attitude. I underestimated you and was far too arrogant."
Sensei?
Xia Jing froze, and behind her, Su Qingxiao's eyes also sharpened.
Both of them instantly understood what it meant for her to suddenly start calling him "sensei."
"I've received your submission. It's an incredibly, incredibly good manga," Su Mingxi said.
"So that means… my manga passed your screening, right?" Xia Jing asked, face serious.
Honestly, he'd more or less expected things to go this way before he even came.
Even if 5 Centimeters per Second wasn't the very top of Makoto Shinkai's works, that was only when you compared it to monsters like Your Name or Weathering With You.
How could it possibly not clear the bar for a third-tier magazine in Xia?
Still, when he finally heard it confirmed, he couldn't help letting out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.
"Of course. From an editor's standpoint, I really like this manga. It's the most memorable work I've seen in my two years as an editor at Illusion Dream Group. It's just that…" Su Mingxi paused for a moment.
"I think your work is excellent, but whether it can actually get a serialization slot will depend on the serialization meeting at our editorial department."
"Serialization meeting?"
She went on to explain.
Under the Illusion Dream Group umbrella, there were several manga magazines. Whenever ongoing series in those magazines were about to end or be axed—
The editorial department would naturally hold a meeting to decide which new works to serialize.
In simple terms, all the editors would gather, read through the strongest submissions their department had received recently, and then vote on which ones would be granted serialization.
As an ordinary editor, she didn't have the authority to single-handedly decide who got serialized in Sakura Weekly.
5 Centimeters per Second would have to be brought into that meeting and win the approval of the majority of the editors there.
"So when will this serialization meeting be held?" Xia Jing asked.
He remembered Su Qingxiao mentioning that several series in Sakura Weekly were about to end soon.
"The day after tomorrow," Su Mingxi replied.
The day after tomorrow?
Xia Jing glanced at Su Qingxiao, and she gave him a slight nod.
No wonder she'd dragged him over to submit in such a rush this afternoon. She must've known about this schedule already—that's why she'd been so urgent.
"In any case, Xia Jing-sensei, your work is extremely good in my eyes. And…" she added, "I think it has a very high chance of being the final winner at the serialization meeting and getting a slot."
"Would you mind if I made a copy of your manuscript? The meeting is the day after tomorrow, but in practice, each editor has to register and hand in the submissions under their care by tomorrow. If you don't have any objections, we can treat this as our preliminary cooperation agreement…"
"I…"
Xia Jing stopped for a second, then realized what he was doing and straightened his slightly slouched posture, tugging at his shirt.
"Of course I don't mind, Editor Su. That's exactly why I came," he said, extending his hand.
A faint smile tugged at the corner of Su Mingxi's lips as she took it and shook.
…
At nine that evening, it was Su Qingxiao herself who walked Xia Jing out of the villa and all the way to the gate of the community.
But the whole time, she seemed a little out of it.
"Uh, Su… Su—uh, Qingxiao, what's wrong?" he asked.
After all, she'd just done him a huge favor. Noticing something was off with her and pretending he didn't care wasn't something he could just brush off with a mental "not my problem."
"I'm still thinking about the ending of 5 Centimeters per Second… Xia Jing, do you really think it's okay for Akari and Takaki to just pass by each other like that and disappear into the crowd?" she finally said after a pause.
She knew as a fellow mangaka that nitpicking someone else's story like this was impolite.
But she just couldn't help it.
"Isn't manga supposed to show readers the kind of beautiful things that don't exist in reality? Your ending is way too sad," she added, her voice clearly tinged with hurt by the end.
"That's why you should think carefully about this: what exactly is that 'beautiful unreality' you're talking about?" Xia Jing said after a moment of thought.
"Is it that two people who have almost forgotten each other, who only have a stubborn scrap of their old feelings left, suddenly have their love rekindled years later? Is that the kind of beauty you want from anime and manga?"
She was stunned.
"Or maybe…" he continued, "it's like Takaki. After many, many years, he finally lets go. He can turn away with a smile and walk toward a new life. Maybe that's the kind of beauty we, as creators, should be offering our readers."
"You talk like you've actually been in a relationship," Su Qingxiao muttered. "Aren't you the same as me—a fifteen-year-old first-year?"
Xia Jing gave a faint smile but kept his real thoughts to himself.
[Of course I have. I had two relationships back in college in my previous life. Neither of them worked out, but still…]
"This is just how I see 5 Centimeters per Second," he said instead. "Even though I'm the one who brought this story into this world, you're completely free to interpret the ending however you want, Su Qingxiao. But… I honestly can't think of a better ending than this."
It was like Hamlet or other literary classics—most authors could hardly give a definitive explanation of their own stories that satisfied everyone, let alone someone like Xia Jing, who was basically just a porter of someone else's work.
"You don't have to call me 'Su' anything. Just use my name," she said, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. After thinking for a bit, she sighed.
"Xia Jing, let me remind you: a lot of Sakura Weekly's readers are very emotionally fragile. If this manga really does get serialized… you'll probably be getting tons of thank-you letters."
"Thank-you letters…"
His expression twisted a little.
Right. In that case, before the manga starts running, he'd better come up with a good pen name.
There's no way he was putting his real name on this.