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

Before Fukaba could finish speaking, the front door suddenly opened again. Chihaya Aine's voice came like a gust of wind from the doorway: "Satsuki! I'm here!"

With Ai Yin's call, she and Xiao Deng pushed open the door and walked in together.

The moment the two stepped inside, they immediately sensed that something was off.

Ai Yin stopped speaking abruptly, looking around with a puzzled expression. She immediately realized that several elders were sitting in the living room.

In the kitchen, Yuri covered her face in exasperation, while Fukaba smiled kindly and looked calmly at the two people who had just entered through the door.

“Oh my~ This must be a friend from the Little Moon Band.” Shen Yu said with a smile, his eyes sweeping over Li hope and Yue.

Then the focus shifted to Aine and Kotomi. "I think their names are Takamatsu Akari and Chihaya Aine, right?"

"Uh..." Ai Yin suddenly became a little flustered. She had been in high spirits just now, but now she was suddenly stared at by this scrutinizing smile, and her whole body immediately tensed up.

She swallowed hard, forcing a smile that was as confident as ever but slightly awkward at this moment: "Yes, yes! I'm Aiyin, and this is Xiaodeng. Uh... hello, Auntie."

"Hello, Auntie," Xiaodeng greeted politely in a low voice.

"What a polite child." Fukaba smiled, her eyes still gentle.

She stood up and said to the two of them in a friendly manner, "Since we are all friends of Yue, please don't be shy and come in and sit down."

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

After listening to everyone's explanation, Shen Yu finally understood the situation. She nodded slightly, seemingly relieved, but still said with a hint of teasing, "So everyone from Mygo came here to practice? That's great, Xiaoyue, you're really not a bad girl."

"Mom... what kind of image do I have in your eyes?" Yue felt like her head was about to explode, and sighed while rubbing her forehead.

"..." Shen Yu did not respond immediately and fell into a brief silence. She had always trusted her daughter. When she first saw those promotional videos, she thought they were just ordinary marketing tactics for yuri (lesbian) films.

However, after learning about Yue and Lixi's relationship, she developed new doubts about those videos.

Especially after seeing Aine and Xiaodeng together today, she almost thought Yue was a "scumbag".

For a time, Shen Yu even began to question her own methods of educating her daughter.

Shen Yu's silence made Yue's heart skip a beat, and she felt a faint sense of heartbreak.

She looked helplessly at her mother, silently pleading in her heart, "Mom, please believe me..."

Just as the atmosphere became delicate again, Yuri broke the silence by bringing out a plate of hot tea and snacks from the kitchen.

With her usual gentle smile, she said in a relaxed tone, "Come on, everyone, have some tea and snacks, some freshly baked cookies."

"Wow, cookies!" Ai-yin's eyes lit up instantly.

"Thank you!" Ai Yin picked up a cookie and put it in her mouth. "Delicious!"

Seeing this, Xiao Deng also picked up a cookie, took a small bite, and said softly, "It's really...delicious."

Lixi was a little tense because of the atmosphere just now, but when she saw the cookies that Xili brought out and smelled the delicious aroma, she couldn't help but relax a lot. She picked up a cookie and took a small bite.

“Thank you, it’s delicious.” Yi (two) Ling Shan Er Lin) Si (eight) Li Xi said softly to Xi Li.

Yuri smiled and gently patted Lixi's shoulder, "I'm glad you like it."

The tense atmosphere eased considerably with the arrival of tea and snacks, and everyone began to sit together, eating and chatting.

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The part about the rising sun won't be in the main text; it will probably be in the side stories. I've almost finished writing it, and I usually use it as a reserve of drafts.

Stage Climax: Chapter 104 Peach and Mount Hikami

The two members of the Hinasaki family didn't stay home for very long. Perhaps to give their daughter's friends more space, Miyu and Yuuri quietly left after Tsuki and the others started rehearsing. As soon as the door closed, the atmosphere in the room immediately became much more relaxed.

"Phew..." Miss Aine leaned back in her chair and let out a long sigh of relief. She said with a hint of nervousness, "Xiaoyue's family came back suddenly, completely unprepared... Won't we leave a bad impression on them like this?"

The little lamp beside it nodded and looked at the moon with concern.

Su Shi and Rakuna, who arrived late, did not see Yue's parents, so they just listened quietly and did not participate in the discussion much.

"No, relax." Yue smiled and waved her hand to signal Aine not to worry too much. "My two aren't serious people, or rather... they're both pretty easygoing."

"Really?" Aine was still a little uneasy, so she sat up straight and stared intently at Yue.

"Really!" Yue shrugged helplessly, recalling her experience in the second year of junior high school.

At that time, she earned a lot of money through her acting career. She thought her parents would pay more attention to her, but instead of disciplining her, they simply left her at home and went on a round-the-world trip.

Thinking of this, Yue couldn't help but chuckle and added, "Think about it, I earned quite a bit of money by working when I was in the second year of junior high, and they actually left me at home and went on a world tour with me! Can you imagine how crazy parents are?"

Lixi couldn't help but laugh, completely forgetting the pressure she had felt from Shenyu earlier. "Hearing you say that, they seem quite easygoing."

“Yes,” Yue said with a smile, “My two family members would never have any complaints about you over such trivial matters, Aine, don’t worry.”

Hearing Yue say that, Aine finally felt relieved, scratched her head, and gave an embarrassed smile: "Hehe, that's good."

"Ah...right, there's one more thing I wanted to tell everyone." Yue remembered the story that Fuka had told her about returning to the mountain and suggested it to everyone.

"Would you all like to soak in a hot spring? A genuine mountain hot spring, you know," she asked everyone.

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

"Achoo..." Momoko Kurosawa suddenly sneezed, frowned, and gently rubbed her nose. She looked up at the air conditioner hanging on the wall; the temperature display showed 26 degrees Celsius, which wasn't particularly low.

"Have I caught a cold?" she muttered to herself, picking up the remote and turning the temperature up by one degree. However, this did not dispel the unease in her heart. Since the afternoon, her right eyelid had been twitching incessantly, as if something bad was about to happen.

As she was pondering, her phone suddenly rang. Momoko looked down and saw a familiar name on the screen—"Aunt Hinasaki".

"Aunt Fukaba?" Momoko was taken aback, somewhat confused. She remembered that Aunt Fukaba had been traveling recently, so why would she suddenly call her? She hesitated for a moment, but still pressed the answer button.

"Hello, Aunt Fuka?" Momoko asked with a hint of doubt.

A gentle yet slightly mischievous voice came from the other end of the phone: "Xiao Tao, how have you been lately?"

Momo breathed a slight sigh of relief, a gentle smile playing on her lips, and replied politely, "Aunt Fukaba, I'm doing quite well lately. I've recently joined a girls' band called 'Ave Mujica,' and you're welcome to come and watch our performances sometime."

"Another girl band?" Fuka raised an eyebrow. She hadn't expected that several of her juniors were playing in bands. Was this some new trend?

Aunt Fuka smiled and said with a touch of elder's concern, "Since you've said so, Momo, your Aunt Yuri and I will definitely go and support you if we have time."

“Okay, Aunt Fuka, then I’ll be waiting for you to come see my performance,” Momoko replied with a smile.

However, after this brief exchange of pleasantries, Fukaba suddenly fell silent on the other end of the phone.

After a brief pause, she slowly spoke, her voice filled with caution and hesitation: "Actually... there's something else I wanted to confirm with you, Xiaotao, before I called."

"Hmm..." Peach roughly guessed what the other party wanted to say. "Aunt Fukaba, just tell me what's on your mind."

On the other end of the phone, Hinasaki Miha seemed to ponder for a moment before asking, "Then I'll just ask directly... Is Mika-nee... alright?"

"Hmm... Mom's health is pretty good. She even asked me before why I didn't go back to visit her during the summer vacation," Peach said, without any particular expression on her face.

"Momoko...did you go back to see her afterwards?" Fukaba continued to ask.

On the other end of the phone, Momoko Kurosawa was silent for a moment, then walked to the window and looked out at the bustling Tokyo city through the glass.

Her hand rested unconsciously on the windowsill, her fingertips gently tracing the cold glass.

The sunlight shone on her face, but it seemed unable to dispel the heavy sense of oppression in her heart.

"I haven't been back since I left junior high school." Her voice was calm and low.

Hinasaki Miyu was silent for a moment on the other end of the phone, as if she was organizing her thoughts, before slowly saying, "In a while, Yuuri, Tsukiko, and I are planning to go back to Mount Hikami. Momoko, do you want to come with us?"

She remained silent for a long time, so quiet that one might almost think she had hung up the phone.

Inside the room, the ticking of the clock was clearly audible, as if infinitely prolonging the tranquility of the moment.

However, Fukaba on the other end of the phone did not urge him, but simply waited quietly.

Finally, Peach's voice came from the other end of the phone again, her tone filled with a hint of helplessness and compromise: "...I'll have to trouble Aunt Shenyu then."

Shen Yu chuckled softly on the other end of the phone, her tone gentle: "Okay, let's go together then. You should go back and see her too."

"Hmm..." Peach responded softly, ending the conversation.

After hanging up the phone, Peach stood by the window, still gazing at the street scene outside.

The crowds and traffic seemed to have nothing to do with her.

Peach opened her phone's photo album and looked at a picture of herself as a child with a middle-aged woman. She sighed and lay back down on her bed.

With her eyes closed, her thoughts drifted to her hometown—Rishang Mountain.

That's where it all started. To be precise, it's also where Hinasaki and I first met. However, we didn't know each other back then and were just playmates for an afternoon. But it seems neither of us is aware of that now.

Climax Stage: Chapter 105 Joint Live Performance in Preparation

Inside Circle's meeting room, ten people were slumped over the table, with various papers scattered around.

Judging from the final version (which will absolutely not be modified) written on the whiteboard, it seems that the members of each band had fully exchanged opinions and finally reached a consensus... right?

"Ah..." Yue let out an extremely weak sound, her head resting on the table, her face turned to the side, her eyelids drooping heavily, "I'm so tired..."

Rimi slumped down beside her, her body completely sunken into the chair, her limbs hanging limply at her sides, mechanically muttering, "Me too... I really want to eat chocolate snail bread..."

"Beef jerky..." Chu2's voice squeezed out from her mouth, which was almost open, and you could vaguely see some white stuff floating out of her mouth.

"Are you really... okay?" Rui Yashio looked at Chu2's listless appearance, her brows furrowing slightly as she couldn't help but ask with concern.

Maya rubbed her temples hard, trying to stay awake. She glanced at the dense scribbles on the whiteboard and said with a tired but satisfied tone, "But... the final plan has finally been... settled."

Tsugumi sat in the corner, her head slumped against the back of the chair, looking as if she were about to melt into a puddle of mud, her eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. "Finally made it..."

"Hopefully... there won't be any more changes." Misaki leaned back in her chair, her eyes filled with exhaustion. She didn't even want to think anymore; she just wanted to go back and fall asleep.

Saya sat at the other end of the conference table, her face pale. Her fingers slid weakly across her phone as she muttered, "Can I go back now... Hina is still waiting for me at home..."

"We still have rehearsals... It seems... it's about to start." Xiangzi stared at the time on his phone, his tone revealing an undisguised sense of helplessness.

"Have we... stayed up all night?" Rinrinko asked with a hint of surprise, slowly raising her head and staring blankly at the people around her. Her voice was light and airy, as if she herself did not believe the fact.

Upon hearing this, Yue slumped back onto the table with a snap, completely giving up on fighting off her exhaustion. "So that's why... I'm so tired..."

"Good morning~" Chihaya Aine pushed open the door and entered, and was instantly stunned by the scene of "corpses lying everywhere" next to the conference table.

Two small question marks appeared above her head, as if she couldn't understand the scene before her at all.

"Good morning, seniors." Takamatsu Akari cautiously peeked out from behind Aine, her voice timid.

But when she saw the people scattered haphazardly on the table, she was completely stunned.