After dropping out of school, I chose to join a girls' band.

Shoko Toyokawa stood on the rooftop, her phone still pressed to her ear. A gentle breeze blew through her long hair. She frowned slightly, listening intently to Sakura Sakura's voice.

"Okay, I'll do my best." She nodded, then hung up the phone, sighed, and a hint of worry flashed in her eyes.

"Xiao Mu... what are you hesitating about?"

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Lunch break

Yue and Aine exchanged a glance, looking somewhat puzzled. "Little Lamp, aren't we going to the Astronomy Department at noon today?" Aine asked.

They had originally intended to go to the astronomy club, but they discovered that Takamatsu Akari was walking in another direction.

Deng shook his head, his tone calm. "The instructors from the Astronomy Department want to see our activity records so far."

Reminded by the lamp, Aine and Yue realized that club activities did indeed require regular progress reports. Aine said somewhat apologetically, "Ah...right, because the teacher hasn't been involved, we subconsciously forgot about it."

Yue asked with concern, "Little Lamp, do you need us to go with you?"

Gao Songdeng gently shook her head, a slight smile playing on her lips, and said softly, "No need... I can go by myself."

Tsuki and Aine nodded, watching Takamatsu Akari's retreating figure.

Ai Yin's eyes held a hint of curiosity. "Xiao Deng has always been so conscientious and responsible."

Yue sighed softly, a hint of relief in her eyes. "Yes, although Xiaodeng is not usually good at expressing herself, she always works hard to do her best in the things she likes, whether it's the band or the astronomy club."

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In the classroom lounge, the astronomy department's instructor was looking through the activity records of the astronomy department that Xiaodeng had submitted.

After reading it, the teacher nodded and handed the notebook back to Takamatsu. "Takamatsu, your Astronomy Club's activity records are very detailed, much better than Hina's, and there are also many more members. It seems that the Astronomy Club might be revitalized under your guidance, Takamatsu."

"Hina-kun?" Akari asked, somewhat puzzled, upon hearing an unfamiliar name from the teacher.

"Ah... Little Light, you probably don't know her, since Hina-san had already graduated by the time you went to Haneoka," the teacher explained with a smile.

The lamp nodded, but was still somewhat confused.

The teacher continued, "Hina was the student council president in the previous year, and also the head of the astronomy club. Those detailed records in the notebooks you saw before were all written by her."

Akari suddenly realized, a hint of admiration flashing in her eyes, "I really want to meet Hina-senpai."

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Toyokawa Shoko walked towards the rooftop door, gently pushing open the iron gate; the metallic scraping sound echoed in the quiet stairwell. She descended the stairs, her steps light yet slightly heavy. The stairwell was dimly lit, with posters advertising school events hanging on the walls. Her gaze swept over the familiar faces, but her thoughts had already drifted far away.

As she descended to the first floor, she was about to turn into the corridor when she suddenly heard light footsteps ahead. She looked up and saw Takamatsu Takamori walking out of the classroom lounge.

As soon as Deng came out of the teacher's office, she was still holding the Astronomy Club's activity logbook in her hand. She glanced down at the logbook, and the corners of her mouth turned up slightly, clearly satisfied with the teacher's approval.

Xiangzi and Deng's eyes met in the air. Deng was slightly taken aback. This was one of the rare times that the two of them met alone at school.

The other person was clearly surprised to encounter Deng on the stairs by such a coincidence; normally, Deng should be in the astronomy department by now. A hint of surprise flashed in Xiangzi's eyes, but he quickly regained his composure.

"Xiangzi..." Deng greeted him softly, her voice tinged with a hint of hesitation and unease. Her emotions surged like waves, but she was not good at expressing them.

Xiangzi nodded, a standard, formulaic smile on her face, a hint of melancholy flashing in her dark golden eyes. She gently parted her lips and offered a slightly distant greeting to Gao Songdeng: "Greetings." Her voice was calm and somewhat cold, as if deliberately creating distance between them.

Xiangzi was filled with a myriad of thoughts. She cared about the lamp, but because of her own circumstances, she couldn't express it.

She knew she was no longer qualified to stand beside him, and that she was no longer the one who should be standing beside him.

Xiangzi said calmly, with a hint of forced composure, "If there's nothing else for you, Gaosong, I have other things to do, so I'll be leaving now."

The moment she turned her back, a brief tenderness flashed in Xiangzi's dark golden eyes, but she quickly concealed it. She suppressed all her emotions, turned around, and prepared to leave, leaving Deng with a slightly lonely silhouette.

Deng watched Xiangzi turn and walk away, feeling a pang of loss and helplessness. She wanted to reach out and stop him, but she didn't know what to say.

She could only stand there, watching Xiangzi's figure gradually disappear into the distance, her eyes filled with a hint of reluctance and helplessness.

"Goodbye..." the lamp said softly, its voice carrying a faint sadness and helplessness.

Deng knew there was a barrier between her and Xiangzi, but she didn't know why this barrier existed, nor how she should cross this invisible wall.

When the Stage Opens: Chapter 177 The Moon Forest Music Festival Undergoes Change

Deng didn't tell the other members of the band about her meeting with Xiangzi. Apart from Lixi, Aine, Yue, and Lena didn't know much about Xiangzi either.

Inside the Astronomy Club, Chihaya Aine was diligently practicing her guitar during her lunch break. Her fingers danced rapidly across the strings, skillfully playing a melody. Sunlight streamed through the window, bathing her in its warmth and adding a touch of coziness to the room.

Suddenly, the door was gently pushed open, and Takamatsu Akari walked in. Hearing the door open, Aine stopped what she was doing, looked up, and gave a bright smile. "Akari's back?"

Deng nodded, the slightly aggrieved and frustrated look on her face softening a bit when she saw Aine's smile. "Mm."

Ai Yin put down her guitar, stood up, and asked with concern, "Did the report go well? Did your teacher give you any difficulties?"

Deng shook his head and smiled slightly. "It's alright, the teacher said our activity records were very well done."

Kotatsu glanced around the Astronomy Club room, but didn't see the moon she expected. Her brow furrowed slightly, a hint of confusion and worry in her eyes. She turned to Chihaya Aine and softly asked, "Where...is the moon?"

Ai Yin was tidying up her guitar and sheet music when she heard Xiao Deng's question and stopped what she was doing.

She looked up and thought for a moment before replying, "Yue just said she was going to the student council, apparently to discuss something with the student council president."

"Student council president?" Gao Songdeng asked, somewhat puzzled. She didn't recall having any connection with the student council.

“Hmm.” Aine nodded. “Just now, after Yue saw a text message, she hurriedly said that she was going to the student council to find Yuzawa-senpai.”

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"Senior Yuzawa, is this true?"

Inside the Haneoka Student Council, Hinasaki Tsuki was confirming the authenticity of the information she had just received with Hanazawa Tsugumi.

Tsugumi nodded. "We just received the news too. We didn't expect Hinasaki to know so soon."

"This is really unexpected. I was still thinking about how to get Su Shi to come and listen to our performance... Now we don't have to think about it anymore."

Yue glanced down at her phone again. The text message was from Rui Yashio, inviting all the band girls to join the Tsuki no Mori music festival.

She also knew about the recent uproar in Tsuki no Mori where Mori members signed a petition demanding the revival of the Tsuki no Mori Music Festival. Previously, Rui Yashio had even postponed helping them find Motoyo because of this incident.

I originally thought that even if everyone in Tsukimori successfully got the chairman to revive the music festival, it would probably be organized by Tsukimori itself, just like the previous times. But I didn't expect that this time they would invite students from Hanasakikawa and Haneoka.

"Didn't any of the directors of Tsuki no Mori raise any objections?" Tsuki felt somewhat puzzled about this matter.

Since taking office, the new chairman of Tsukinomori has implemented a strict ban on cell phones and even plans to cancel the music festival.

As a result, they are now planning to invite people from other schools to jointly host a music festival in Moon Forest, and there has been no opposition from the chairman of the board.

Tsugumi shook her head and said, "These are all internal matters of Tsuki no Mori, but Rui-chan told us that they were approved by the council."

Tsuki remembered a legend circulating about Morfonica's lead singer—it was said that Morfonica's lead singer, Kurata Mashiro, gained the ability to manipulate illusions because he ate too many mushrooms.

"Could it be that Zhen Bai actually put the chairman under a powerful hypnotic spell?"

Little did they know that Yue's outrageous guess was, in some ways, incredibly close to the correct answer.

Inside the Moon Forest, the new chairperson looked at the computer screen in front of her and saw several board members expressing their incomprehension and opposition to her proposal to participate in the Moon Forest Music Festival through an external school.

She rubbed her temples, casually closed the email interface in front of her, and closed her eyes, the image that flashed through her mind was Kurata Mashiro giving a dazzling speech on stage that day.

"I hope you can truly bring about new changes to the Moon Forest."

----------------

Shiina Tatsuki stared at the stage reservation list on her computer screen, her mood unusually heavy. Every time slot was densely filled, leaving not a single spare moment.

She sighed heavily, feeling utterly powerless. As a Ring employee, she had initially thought she could use this advantage to find some free time to perform, but now it seemed that hope was extremely slim.

"Are all the performance schedules already full?" she muttered to herself, her voice filled with deep frustration.

She scrolled through the booking list again, trying to find even a gap, but was still disappointed; the performance time had been booked by other bands long ago.

"Should we consider other venues... No... Recently, because of that unknown student from Hanasakigawa, the venues in Circle are basically always full, so the bands that were originally in Circle will be moved to other live houses. The nearby live houses probably won't have many free performance slots for us to use."

Lixi analyzed the reasons, only to find that they had almost no chance of putting on a performance recently.

"Hey? It's Yuusaki!" Kasumi's voice suddenly rang in Ritsuki's ear, interrupting her thoughts.

"Huh? Really? We can go perform too?" Kasumi's tone was full of surprise and joy; clearly, the other person's words had taken her very far.

Riki had no interest in the conversation between Kasumi and Arisa on the phone and was still thinking about how to find a suitable performance opportunity.

However, when she heard the word "performance," her attention was instantly drawn to it, and she turned around and walked to Kasumi's side, wanting to find out more information.

After Kasumi hung up the phone with Arisa, Riki immediately grabbed Kasumi Toyama's hand and eagerly began asking, "Kasumi-senpai, what was that performance you were talking about? Are there any other live houses nearby with available time slots?"

Kasumi was startled to see Riki so close to her. After calming down a bit, she said, "Actually, Riki-chan, you should know by tomorrow. Arisa said that the student council will post a notice tomorrow. This year's music festival in Tsukimori invites students from Hanasakikawa and Haneoka to participate, so our Popipa can also perform in Tsukimori."

When the Stage Opens: Chapter 178 Failed Compromise

During the nameless band's practice time, Shiina Ritsuki saw that everyone had arrived, cleared her throat, and was about to speak when Hinasaki spoke up at the same time, and the two of them said the exact same thing.

"Everyone, I have something to say!"

"Everyone, I have something to say!"

The sight of them speaking in unison startled both of them. Li hope and Yue exchanged glances, and Li hope gestured for Yue to speak first: "Yue, you go first."

Yue smiled and nodded, also indicating that Lixi should speak first: "No, no, Lixi, you go first."

After some back and forth, Hinasaki finally stepped forward and said, "Then I'll go first."

After gathering her thoughts, Yue began to speak to everyone: "I just received news that the Moon Forest Music Festival has resumed, and this time it's not just a music festival for the Moon Forest itself, they've also invited students from Hanasakigawa and Haneoka to participate!"

Li hope had been wondering if what she was going to say would be the same as what she said, but to her surprise, it was exactly the same.

Li hope continued, "Yes, that's exactly the news I wanted to share. It's a rare opportunity."

Chihaya Aine's face showed a surprised expression: "Really? Tsukinomori? That rich girl's school? They actually invited us?"

"Performance? I want to go!" Kaoru Nai was clearly feeling restless because she hadn't had a performance in a while, and she perked up considerably after learning that she could participate.

Xiaodeng also realized the significance of this Moon Forest Music Festival for them: "Su Shi..."

Normally, without resorting to strong measures, Nagasaki Motoyo would have had no chance of coming to see their performance again, but the outcome was different at the Tsukimori Music Festival.

As a member of the Tsukimori Concert Band, Motoyo Nagasaki would never give up the opportunity to perform at the music festival, otherwise her carefully cultivated persona would collapse.

She wasn't the head of the Moon Forest Concert Club, nor would her three-year best friend criticize her for being unqualified as head of the club. As a double bass player, she didn't seem to have any transfer competitors, nor would anyone vote for the mercenary who temporarily transferred in when the votes were 50 to 50.

"Strange... Why do I think that... And why does the friend of three years in the picture look like Wakaba, while the mercenary looks like Hachiman? Does she really play the double bass?"