Tokyo: They say it's just dating, but they're serious about it.

Yesterday was supposed to be Sayuri's day, but it became Haruko's, and Sayuri now seems a little aggrieved.

Of course, today is Monday, and according to the usual division of zodiac signs, it is still Lily's day.

Katsuhiko noticed that the time locked on Mikoto was passing very quickly, probably because he had exchanged for the entire "White Night Journey". Now there were only a few minutes left. Katsuhiko held Sayuri's hand and quietly collected the ordinary coins that Mikoto had given him to exchange for the [potion]. Before they even reached the convenience store, the time locked on Sayuri had been transferred to her.

If you're just holding hands, you can only get one gold coin every hour.

When they arrived at the convenience store, Mikoto and Masayuki stayed there, while Sayuri insisted on taking Chinatsu to kindergarten. Katsuhiko then drove Mikoto's gray Mazda, taking Chinatsu, Sayuri, and Haruko with him to the kindergarten.

When they arrived at the kindergarten, Haruko was too embarrassed to get off the bus.

The new teacher at the kindergarten—or rather, the new teacher of Qianxia—was a woman in her fifties, the kindergarten principal… We chatted briefly for a bit before saying goodbye.

"Little Lily, you haven't been to the company before, have you? How about I take you there today?"

"Great! I want to see if my husband's employees recognize me as their legal wife."

Sayuri mimicked Chinatsu, tilting her chin up in a haughty manner. It's surprisingly convincing for a little girl to imitate a child, except for her age and slightly large breasts…

Sayuri has indeed never been to the company. When she first learned that Katsuhiko's "Xia Ying She" was a place that filmed pornographic movies, she felt ashamed and was not only embarrassed to go, but she also refused Katsuhiko's offer to let her serve as the president of the company and receive a salary for nothing.

Of course, nowadays, thanks to Tanaka Yutaka's deliberate management, the overwhelming amount of news magazines and entertainment gossip programs all say that Xia Ying She is a very good and serious entertainment company.

This company is a large-scale, legitimate entertainment media company integrating music production and distribution, formal film and television production, legitimate animation production and distribution, legitimate music, and book copyright licensing. Its partner company is "Takenaka Food Processing Plant," whose flagship product is "Blue Bull Beverage," which sells for only 200 yen a bottle but is resold by scalpers for 5000 yen a bottle: those who have drunk it all become top students.

The drawbacks of the "Blue Bull" energy drink, which focuses on concentration, have now become apparent and have even made the news: after drinking it, before the effects wear off, it puts people into a state of "seeing everyone else as idiots"—a state of being a high achiever. Of course, the way to make the effects disappear has also been figured out: just take a nap.

This has led many schools to implement a rule requiring students to "sleep" after every class, otherwise fighting would surge, and some students even called the teachers mentally challenged...

To save face for Sayuri, Katsuhiko specifically called Tanaka Yutaka, essentially saying: Sayuri-chan is my legal wife, so we should give her enough face. She's going to inspect the company today, so please temporarily stop what she shouldn't see...

After all, today is Lily's day.

Sayuri was delighted to hear this and chatted with Haruko about everyday things, such as: How was your last night? Did your husband bully you? How did he bully you? Kotoha must have no sense of boundaries... What?! Eiyo has become a pervert too?

Perhaps it's because she's pregnant now, but many things that used to make her feel ashamed no longer seem so bad. Of course, there's also the influence of the mature Mikoto on her...

Haruko now is just like the innocent Sayuri she once was, too embarrassed to speak up yet too afraid to remain silent...

Several tens of minutes later, the car arrived at the company gate.

Now, across the street from the company gate, a once desolate area overgrown with weeds has become a construction site, seemingly for building a shopping street, office buildings, and residential areas...

Although the overall economic trend is terrible, some real estate developers who haven't gone out of business will still make moves when they see good locations. Just like the wasteland surrounding "Xia Ying She" right now.

Previously, Yutaka Tanaka had hoped to relocate the headquarters of "Kageeisha" to Ginza in Chuo Ward or near Toranomon in Chiyoda Ward, given the high foot traffic in those areas. However, after a group of high-ranking officials from Ota Ward inspected the site, they offered a series of preferential policies, including a plot of land suitable for building the headquarters building, without requiring any upfront payment. They were eager for the headquarters to remain and build there, promising substantial benefits if they stayed!

After discussing it with Katsuhiko, Tanaka Yutaka reluctantly decided to stay.

The Xia Ying Society, which now has nearly 3,000 members, is helping Qin Ye recruit workers for her "Bamboo Food Processing Plant".

The beverage production line in the food processing plant was also expanded. In addition to Mr. Kudo and Katsuhiko's father adding medicine, Mrs. Kudo and Katsuhiko's mother also came to help.

The convenience store branch they ran has become a specialty store for "Blue Bull Energy Drink" and "Takenaka Prepackaged Foods," and has even gained a loyal customer base... The reason is that Mrs. Kudo's convenience store is often robbed by customers, and she doesn't even know what's missing. Moreover, she's too embarrassed to punish or call the police after catching them, since everyone is just a poor soul... She felt that convenience stores had too many products and were too troublesome, so she decided to specialize in beverages and bento boxes, direct from the manufacturers, a business with no upfront costs, since Kotoha is her goddaughter.

This unintentional strategy garnered Kotoha's strong support. She followed Mrs. Kudo's example of a convenience store, renting storefronts under the company name for direct sales from the manufacturer. After all, the [Focus Blue Bull Energy Drink] was incredibly popular; simply hanging up a beverage advertisement featuring Kanzaki Yumi at the entrance attracted many customers. Kotoha then implemented bundled sales, requiring customers to buy a bento box before purchasing the drink, with limited quantities…

Of course, she didn't rent stores on a large scale, after all, the rent was too expensive and there weren't enough beverages... At present, the largest customer group of Qinye's food processing plant is the schools in the 23 wards of Tokyo. She wants to expand the business to all of Japan and even the world, but unfortunately the beverage production capacity can't keep up.

With the explosive popularity of "focused energy drinks," schools are so eager to recruit students that they'll buy lunchboxes but won't eat them, just to get their hands on the drinks, because students need them... It's practically a monopoly.

Today, the food processing plant has expanded again and again, becoming an industrial park with nearly 10,000 employees.

Qinye, who originally didn't want to take out a loan, ended up taking out a large loan because of the bank's interest-free policy and the government's provision of a piece of land that she could temporarily avoid paying for, for the purpose of expansion...

Now, she's more famous than Tanaka Yutaka in the eyes of authoritative media. Tanaka Yutaka is so embarrassed by her presence that he almost collapses and avoids her constantly.

Sheng Yan drove his car and parked it directly in the designated parking space downstairs from the office building.

Before the group even got out of the car, two men in black suits pushed open the gleaming glass doors of the office building. One of them carried a rolled-up red carpet, which he spread from the glass door all the way to the car door. Then, a man and a woman in black suits, along with a group in kimonos, jogged out and lined up solemnly on either side of the entrance. A series of loud claps followed...

Eiyo, Kotoha, and Kanzaki Yumi were also standing at the door, each with a different degree of amusement in their eyes, looking like they were having a great time.

Of course, behind Yumi was Oriko, and on the other side were Chiba Reiko and the other members of the "Aurora Five Girls" girl group, as well as Kuroki Hitomi standing in the corner holding a script, all with curiosity in their eyes.

Tanaka Yutaka walked slowly but quickly to the car with a serious face and opened the door.

"President Takenaka, Mrs. Takenaka, please get out of the car."

Xiaobaihe stared in disbelief, looked down at her maternity clothes, and whispered, "Honey, do I look okay like this?"

“It’s our own company, everyone’s on the same side, order whatever you want.” Sheng Yan pointed to a few people hiding and snickering in the crowd, and continued, “Look at them, they’re laughing at you.”

Sayuri turned her head blankly to look over, while Kotoha was biting her finger and grinning...

Little Lily immediately gained confidence and walked onto the red carpet, patting her little belly.

The smiling faces immediately froze, and Yingdai wrinkled her nose at her as if she was still unwilling to give up.

Katsuhiko said he wanted to give Sayuri a lot of face, and Tanaka Yutaka was very cooperative, mobilizing company employees to welcome her. The line of people was full of adult video actors!

Some employees are really too busy, but fortunately the open space in front of the office building is not large enough to accommodate too many people.

Of course, what Sayuri said in the car was just a casual joke. She couldn't handle this kind of attention; it seemed too flamboyant. She preferred to keep a low profile, so she secretly told Katsuhiko to tell them to disperse and not show off like that, as it made people feel awkward...

Chapter 138 Before Going to Karuizawa

Tanaka Yutaka also prepared a welcome program, which involved the "Aurora Five Girls" dancing for Sayuri, and also introduced that the "Aurora Five Girls" were specially signed by President Takenaka.

Sayuri was about to politely decline, not wanting to delay other people's work, but Tanaka Yutaka's meaningful look piqued her interest. Could it be five new girlfriends again? Well, I'll have to see.

The dance studio on the sixth floor was arranged for them, but Tanaka Yutaka didn't go up. He led the line of people away at a jog.

In the end, only Eiyo, Kotoha, Kanzaki Yumi, Oriko, Haruko, Katsuhiko, Sayuri, and Kuroki Hitomi followed behind and entered the dance studio.

Then Kanzaki Yumi sang, and the Aurora Five Girls danced as backup, and the performance began.

Katsuhiko was also seeing such a scene for the first time. They seemed to be coordinating quite well, especially the short skirts and long legs of the Aurora Five Girls group... Kanzaki Yumi's outfit was not so good, she was wearing leather pants.

Xiaobaihe glanced at the stage, then looked around and whispered, "Honey, it seems like everyone in this dance studio is your girlfriend, right?"

Katsuhiko turned his head and pointed to Kuroki Hitomi sitting in the last row, saying, "She's not."

"Hey! I'm performing for you on stage, and you're whispering to each other backstage! Come up on stage and tell us so everyone can hear."

Yumi Kanzaki stopped singing and jumped off the stage, leaving her backup dancers, the "Aurora Five," looking completely bewildered.

As she spoke, Kanzaki Yumi strode over to Haruko, who was sitting to Katsuhiko's left, and shoved the microphone into her face.

Haruko looked completely bewildered and whispered, "I didn't say anything."

"You didn't say anything, which is wrong!" Kanzaki Yumi said, her left hand on her hip. "Do you know who I am? Do you know who you are? Do you think it's appropriate for me to sing for you?"

Before Katsuhiko brought Haruko and Sayuri, Eiyo and Kotoha had already spoken to Kanzaki Yumi, telling her about their husband's new girlfriend, Haruko. The gist was: Haruko has professional vocal and dance training, especially her dance skills; Katsuhiko even praised Haruko's splits as the best, much better than Kanzaki Yumi, who can't dance at all. Their husband wants her to sing and become a big star, and might even replace Sayuri! Hehe~

Yumi Kanzaki naturally didn't believe she would be replaced, after all, she had over a hundred original songs. In fact, she didn't care about being replaced; she was already planning to move into the convenience store as soon as she got pregnant. Those two despicable women, Eiyo and Kotoha, were just trying to sow discord.

Of course, the two of them didn't hide their purpose at all, and said it quite frankly: Haruko is a newcomer, so let's bully her a bit and let her know the rules of our family. Actually, she's quite fun. She's shy just like Sayuri. If we tease Sayuri, Mikoto will stop us. We can tease her instead.

Kanzaki Yumi certainly wouldn't let such a good opportunity pass her by. After all, everyone carries the feeling of wanting to trample someone underfoot, and this newcomer might have the same idea in the future. So, while she's still a newcomer, she naturally wants to take full advantage of her.

"I'm sorry," Haruko stood up and bowed, "I..."

"What do you mean, 'you'?" Kanzaki Yumi shoved the microphone into her hand. "Go on stage and sing me a song. I heard your splits are really good. Katsuhiko even said they're great. Go on stage and do a split so I can see it too."

After Haruko took the microphone, she really wanted to sing a song by Yumi Kanzaki. She wanted to express her admiration for Yumi Kanzaki and also show off her singing skills to Katsuhiko. After all, she was there to sing, and she couldn't let Katsuhiko down.

However, when Kanzaki Yumi suddenly said "splits," she took a step and immediately blushed, feeling so ashamed that she froze on the spot.

"Why are you bullying her like this?" Sayuri pulled Haruko to her side, puffed out her cheeks at Kanzaki Yumi, and said, "From now on, I'll protect Haruko, and none of you are allowed to bully her."

On the way here, after teasing Haruko, Sayuri realized that Haruko's expression was exactly the same as when Mikoto teased her. It was so funny, she wanted to tease her, but no one else was allowed to. Only she could tease her. When others teased her, she felt like she was being teased, but when she teased herself, it was different…

"It's none of your business!" Kanzaki Yumi pouted, then continued, "I'm only being lenient with you because you're pregnant now. Wait until you give birth, then I'll see how I deal with you. Come on, you guys have fun, I'm going to work."

Kanzaki Yumi was busy enough today, and she was too lazy to explain. Who doesn't know who's inside and out? So she took Oriko, called out to the bewildered "Aurora Five Girls" girl group, and went out with a flourish.

The stage was like a family party where everyone was having fun. Apart from the bewildered "Aurora Five Girls," the speechless Kuroki Hitomi in the corner, and the trembling Haruko, no one took it seriously.

Eiyo and Kotoyo didn't want to see Sayuri's smug face as she patted her belly, so they stood at a distance, waving with smiles, and went downstairs to handle their own work.

At that moment, Yutaka Tanaka walked in.

He was accompanied by Haruko's mother, Mrs. Saionji. Today, Mrs. Saionji was dressed in a professional agent's suit, looking very fashionable.

After she walked over, she bowed to Katsuhiko very professionally and called him "President Takenaka." It was like a superior and subordinate meeting for the first time, and she acted in a very businesslike manner. She also gave Haruko, who was staring in disbelief, a cold look.

As expected of a professional...

"President Takenaka, have you prepared songs for Ms. Haruko?" Tanaka Yutaka asked in a serious tone. "Why don't we have her sign the contract now? I will focus on managing her career, and then Mrs. Saionji will become her exclusive manager."

Tanaka Yutaka warmly welcomed Haruko's arrival. He had also formally spoken with Mrs. Saionji and had even checked her work resume; it was barely passable, so he was somewhat satisfied.

He was more satisfied with Haruko. Through Mrs. Saionji's introduction of Haruko's resume, he felt that Haruko could not become "Mrs. Takenaka". Therefore, he would not have to be as obsequious to her as he was to Miss Kanzaki.

In addition, Haruko will sign a lifetime contract, which means she will always be a member of "Xia Ying Society". We can confidently focus on developing her and allocate resources to her.

As for Kanzaki Yumi, that kind of pampered rich girl who just wants to go home, have kids, and retire is understandable, since she's already Mrs. Takenaka. But she's just giving up now. Even asking her to participate in a variety show is met with endless excuses and refusing to go. There are negative reports about her every day; it's incredibly annoying. Let her do whatever she wants. Freeze her out! Freeze her out!

Katsuhiko held Sayuri's hand the whole time, using it to generate coins. However, only half an hour had passed, and there was still half an hour left. This meant that Haruko and Mrs. Saionji should go to the office with Tanaka Yutaka to sign the contract first, and he would send the song over later.

“Okay,” Tanaka Yutaka thought that Katsuhiko was probably going to ask Kanzaki Yumi for a few songs, and he didn’t expect to get an original song right away. Then, he changed the subject, turned to look at Kuroki Hitomi who had walked over and was standing next to him, and asked, “President Takenaka, the movie is about to start filming. According to the script, there’s a time in mid-July, right? The team I sent to Karuizawa to scout locations has finished their work and returned. The set has been set up there. How about we go over there today?”

Tanaka Yutaka spoke haltingly because he valued this film very much. He personally led a team, including seven or eight departments such as production, cinematography, art direction, and sound recording, to Karuizawa, but he was too embarrassed to show it too obviously.

His main concern was that President Takenaka didn't take it seriously and was being too casual. He was worried that President Takenaka might rudely say, "I don't want to film anymore, find someone else, I want to stay home with my wife..."

Wouldn't I lose all face?

Then you can't let him know how much you value it, because even if he did, given his casual nature, he would definitely refuse without hesitation, just like Miss Kanzaki Yumi.

It would be better to let him think that he doesn't care either. That way, when he rejects me, I can explain to my subordinates: "Oh, President Takenaka rejected me. He probably thought I didn't care, so he didn't take it seriously. I should have told him that I valued this matter. Since he has already rejected me, let's just forget about it!"

Of course, Tanaka Yutaka's worries were unfounded.

Katsuhiko is generally very cooperative with anything he has agreed to.

Tanaka Yutaka's face flushed with excitement. He clenched his fists and nodded, indicating that he would arrange for a convoy to drive there at 3 p.m. that afternoon.

Then, leading Haruko and Mrs. Saionji, he strode away.

Now there are only three people left in the dance studio: Katsuhiko, Sayuri, and Hitomi Kuroki.

Kuroki Hitomi stood quietly to the side, looking like a well-mannered and knowledgeable person, with a serene smile on her lips and her gaze calm and serene as she looked at Katsuhiko.

The temperament she exudes is exactly the same as that of Rinko, the female protagonist in the novel "Paradise Lost".