I, Hiroshi Nohara, the star of Japanese cinema!

Chapter 81: Ratings break 10 in five minutes! Iwata's classroom in despair!

Kumamoto Prefecture, Oyama family.

July 1st, 8:55 pm.

On the low table in the living room, the iron pot of Sukiyaki was bubbling with steam. The sweet aroma mixed with soy sauce, mirin and beef fat was like the most gentle tentacle, wrapping the whole room in a warm and happy atmosphere.

This should have been a perfect family dinner.

If only Yoshiharu Koyama, the head of the family, didn't have that gloomy expression on his face, as if the whole world owed him two bottles of premium sake.

"boom!"

He slammed the Fourteenth Generation wine glass in his hand heavily on the table. The crisp sound frightened the fat beef rolling in the pot.

"What's wrong? The child's father."

Xiaoshan Gaoya, the mother, was using long chopsticks to pick up deliciously roasted mushrooms and tofu for her daughters. She glanced at her husband's dark face and said with a hint of resignation, "He's been looking so sullen since just now. Who has upset our headmaster again?"

"Humph!"

Yoshiharu Koyama exhaled a stream of anger mixed with the smell of alcohol. He picked up the wine glass and poured the expensive sake down his throat as if it were plain water. His voice was filled with uncontrollable disappointment and resentment: "Who else could it be? It's none other than those disloyal old buddies of mine!"

"We had an appointment today to go to 'Tori Nobles'. My treat! I'll rent the whole place! We'll have a drink while watching the premiere of Guangzhi's show. I'll let them see how accomplished my son-in-law, Yoshiharu Koyama, is!"

As he spoke, he slapped his thigh excitedly, and a kind of pride belonging to the founder of Versailles literature appeared on his usually stern face.

But then he made an angry expression: "What happened? One by one, when the time came, they all said something was wrong at home! One said his wife had a stomachache, another said his son needed tutoring, and one was even more outrageous, saying his Akita was about to give birth! Excuses! All of them!"

Listening to her father's indignant accusation, her eldest sister Masae, who was quietly eating konjac noodles, finally couldn't help but burst out laughing.

She quickly covered her mouth with her hands, but her gentle eyes had already curved into two beautiful crescents.

"dad."

She put down her chopsticks, a hint of mischief crossing her usually demure face. "Last month, weren't you constantly promoting Nohara Hiroshi's 'Wonderful Stories of the World' to be aired on July 1st?"

"Yeah! So what?" Xiao Shanfangzhi puffed out his chest confidently, "It's my son-in-law's show, and as his father-in-law, it's only natural for me to help promote it!"

"Then do you also add a sentence at the end of every news item, 'This is a photo of my useless son-in-law, taken by Hiroshi Nohara. It's not a token of respect, but please take care of me'?" Xiaoshan Maya asked again with a smile.

"...That's true." Yoshiharu Koyama's voice unconsciously dropped an octave, and his eyes began to wander.

"Did you also show others the photos of the Toyota Crown that Guangzhi-kun drove and the banquet he hosted for you, and say things like, 'Alas, young people just love to spend money recklessly. They don't know how to maintain such a nice car. It really worries me, as an elder,'"

"I...what I did was..." Yoshiharu Koyama's old face began to turn red at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Hahahahaha!"

Before he could come up with an excuse, his little sister Mengya was already laughing so hard that she almost spit out the fried tofu in her mouth.

"Dad! You're so funny!"

She clapped her hands on the table while laughing, her big, dark eyes filled with gloating delight. "This isn't publicity at all, it's clearly bragging! Uncle Yamamoto and the others must be so fed up with your bragging that they don't dare to attend your Hongmen Feast!"

"Nonsense!"

Yoshiharu Koyama's daughters mercilessly exposed his thoughts, and his old face instantly turned the color of liver. He pointed at the TV and forcibly changed the subject: "Shut up! The show is about to start! Watch it quietly!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the eerie and ethereal theme song appeared on the TV screen as promised.

The moment Kurosawa Eiji's face, full of the sense of time, appeared on the screen, a unified exclamation instantly rang out in the living room of the Oyama family.

"Huh!? Isn't this Director Kurosawa Eiji?!"

Yoshiharu Koyama was the first to sit up straight on the tatami in shock. "When I was young, I loved watching his film 'Samurai' the most! Hiroshi, this kid, actually managed to invite him?!"

"So handsome..." Meng Ya held her face with both hands, pink bubbles starting to appear in her big eyes: "This mysterious and steady uncle is exactly my ideal type! Oh, actually, Nohara Hiroshi's brother-in-law is also good, he is rich and handsome~"

Yoshiji Koyama glanced at her and said nothing.

Watching TV is important.

The story officially began amid the family's shocked and infatuated discussions.

When the heroine Xiao Xunhua, who possesses a unique superpower that can sense people's hearts by touching objects, appears on the stage, everyone is attracted by this novel setting.

"Wow, this ability is amazing! Doesn't that mean she can't hide any secrets from her?"

"This actress is so beautiful and has great acting skills. Look at her terrified eyes, it's so real!"

The plot took a sudden turn when the heroine determined that the seemingly gentle man was the serial killer and decided to strike first, the entire Xiaoshan family was worried about her.

"Zhen'er, look, this heroine is so brave!" Xiaoshan Gaoya nervously grabbed his eldest daughter's hand.

"Yes, Mom, but... isn't it a bit too risky for her to do this?" Masae's face was also full of worry.

Only Koyama Yoshiji, with his dean's sharpness, frowned. "Something's wrong. This story must be more complicated than that. That man doesn't look like a bad guy."

However, when the handsome and wealthy second male lead appeared and helped the heroine successfully solve the murderer, everyone subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.

"Great! The bad guys are finally eliminated!" Mengya clapped his hands happily.

But at this moment, on the screen, the plot ushered in a shocking reversal that was enough to subvert everything.

When the heroine touched the work notebook belonging to the male lead police officer, when she realized that she had killed the wrong person, when the doorbell belonging to the real devil rang outside the door, when that gentle face finally turned into a hideous ghost face...

"ah--!"

As the heroine's desperate scream pierced the sky, the entire Xiaoshan family's living room fell into deathly silence.

Xiaoshan Gaoya and Zhensa subconsciously hugged each other, their faces pale.

Mengya even covered his eyes with his hands, but couldn't help peeking through his fingers. His little face was full of fear and excitement.

Only Yoshiharu Koyama sat there blankly. The wine glass in his hand had tilted at some point, and the clear wine spilled all over the table, but he was completely unaware.

After a long time, he slowly and long exhaled, and in that breath, there was a trembling feeling after being completely shocked.

"This story..." he muttered to himself, "This Guangzhi... what he produced is no longer a simple TV series. This is... this is an analysis of human nature!"

……

At the same time, the shocking storm caused by "The Wonderful World" is sweeping across the entire neon night in an unparalleled manner.

In the late-night restaurant, the owner Shui Shangxiang and a few regular customers stared blankly at the small TV screen. The beer glasses in their hands froze in mid-air, and the cold beer slid down the walls of the glasses and dripped onto the bar, but no one paid any attention.

"...That man, is he a good policeman?"

"...That handsome guy is the murderer?"

"...This is a lie, right? This ending is so...Oh my god! This is totally unexpected!"

In the taxi operation center, dozens of drivers who had just returned from their shifts gathered in front of the TV in the lounge. The air was filled with a mixture of tobacco and sweat, but was shrouded in an even stronger chill.

"Fuck! I'll never let a pretty girl take my car again. Who knows what she's thinking!"

"You're stupid! We're the ones who should be scared! What if we snag a perverted handsome guy like the second male lead?!"

In the hospital's duty room, a young doctor who had just finished an operation and was exhausted, originally just wanted to watch TV to relax, but now he felt his heart beating faster than when he was on the operating table.

In the university dormitory, a few energetic boys, after a brief silence, suddenly burst into a heated discussion.

"Holy crap! This is such a twist! Awesome! My fucking pants are soaked!"

"This is a real horror movie! Those movies that only use blood and ghost faces to scare people are just like children playing house compared to this!"

"I've decided! From today on, Nohara Hiroshi is my god! I'll be angry with anyone who says bad things about him again!"

This storm eventually converged into an unstoppable data torrent, rushing towards Tokyo TV's data monitoring center.

And on the other side of the storm.

In Ginza, inside a brightly lit private room of a high-end izakaya, the atmosphere was as oppressive as an ice cellar.

Masao Iwata tightly grasped the sake cup in his hand, and his face, which always had a bit of arrogance, was now ashen.

Beside him, Hashiji Ichirō's face was as pale as paper, and his bloodshot eyes were filled with unbelievable horror and fear.

The entire production team of the third season of "Dark Zhiju" seemed to be under a spell, with their heads lowered and not even daring to breathe.

Just half an hour ago, they were still talking here with high spirits.

While drinking expensive sake, they used the most harsh language to mock the "young man who is ignorant of the immensity of heaven and earth" and the "shoddy work that is doomed to fail."

They have even thought about how to hold a grand celebration banquet to celebrate their victory and the opponent's defeat after the third season of "Dark Zhiju" is broadcast at 10:30.

Right on this occasion!

But now, they felt like a group of clowns who were stripped naked in public, and their faces were burning with pain.

Sitting in the main seat, the Executive Deputy Director of the Production Department of TV Tokyo, Toshihide Takada, whose face always had a gloomy look, now looked even more gloomy as if water could drip out of it.

He slowly put down his chopsticks, without looking at anyone, but fixed his gaze on the TV which was also playing "Wonderful Stories of the World".

His voice was not loud, but it was like an ice-cold knife, piercing the heart of everyone present with precision.

"Iwata-kun."

"Um...Hi! Deputy Director!" Masao Iwata's body trembled violently, and he quickly put down his wine glass and responded respectfully.

"Is this the shoddy live-action project that Nohara Hiroshi... rushed out and produced?"

Takada Toshihide's tone was very calm, and it was impossible to tell whether he was happy or angry.

But it was this calmness that made Masao Iwata feel a fear deep in his bones.

Because he knows his boss too well.

The reason why Toshihide Takada was able to climb step by step to the position of executive deputy director at Tokyo TV, which was full of factions, was not just because of power politics and taking sides.

His professional ability, his keen sense of market trends, and his appreciation of the quality of a work are all top-notch in the entire production department.

He could tell at a glance how well-made and... terrifying the work "Wonderful Stories of the World" was.

The novel superpower setting, the cinematic camera language, the rhythmic control that perfectly blends suspense and thriller, and especially the shocking reversal at the end that will go down in history...

How can this be some shoddy, rushed work?!

This is clearly a masterpiece that has been refined through countless trials and tribulations, with every detail sparkling with genius...

"I..." It felt like a ball of cotton was stuffed in Masao Iwata's throat. He opened his mouth but couldn't utter a word. His forehead was already covered with fine beads of cold sweat.

What could he say?

Saying that you were wrong?

Say that you were cheated by that young man?