Girls' Wishing Tree

In addition to "Sakura Sakura Wants to See You", she also prepared a song from her previous life.

Flowers Bloom in Parting.

This song is from the era of short videos. The lyrics and music are not particularly outstanding, but the chorus is quite catchy.

Its shortcomings are actually advantages for the performance at the Sakura Festival.

The chord arrangement is nothing new, so Ichigaya Yusaki can just use the score to accompany her without any additional preparation; the lyrics are repeated a lot, and since it is sung in Chinese anyway, they are just used to liven up the atmosphere.

When someone records the clip and posts it online, maybe it will attract more girls who can provide shining points.

Gao Mu danced and hummed along to the rhythm of the metronome. Her Kagura dance became more and more impressive, adding a touch of spring to the ancient shrine.

"Sakura, you're so Kirakira!" The girl's voice sounded after the dance ended.

Gao Mu put down the Kagura bell in his hand and looked over in the direction of the voice: "It's Kasumi and Arisaki, thank you for your hard work during this period."

"Tomorrow we will hire movers to move the guitar speakers, bass speakers and drums to the shrine. We will rehearse here for the next week. Please help us manage the equipment!" Toyama Kasumi grabbed Gao Mu's hand.

"Of course, you're helping me. I'll be staying at the shrine for the next few days and I won't let anything get damaged or lost."

Arisaki stood aside and watched Kasumi grab Gao Mu's hand with a strange expression on her face.

Gao Mu didn't notice Arisaki's expression, but she had something to ask of Arisaki, so she changed the conversation to Arisaki: "By the way, I have two simple songs here. I plan to sing them for everyone at the Sakura Festival. Could you please accompany me?"

"Hey? What song is it? If it's a pop song, it should be no problem if I prepare it." Yousaki didn't expect Gao Mu to ask her to do something like this, but she agreed anyway. The keyboard part of a pop song is generally not very difficult, and even if it's a difficult part, you can use power chords to fool around.

"It's a song I wrote myself. I'll give you the score." Gao Mu turned and went to the small room in the shrine.

Although she didn't have to sleep in the room, Gao Mu still cleaned up a small room in the shrine. She put a single bed in the room and placed some of her personal belongings. The existence of this room allowed her to conform to people's cognition.

She took out a notebook from the room, opened it and handed it to Yusaki Ichigaya.

The arrangement on the notebook is already quite complete. Although the chord progression is relatively simple, it is not so bad as to be abrupt.

What surprised Yusaki the most was the completion of the main melody.

The direction of the main melodies of these two songs gives off a scent of talent. Writing a theme that flows smoothly and emotionally requires a certain amount of talent, especially since one of the songs is in Chinese, further demonstrating the erudition of this shrine maiden.

"Arisaki, is there any problem with these two songs?" Kasumi looked at Arisaki's focused expression, her face full of confusion.

"That's amazing." Yousaki turned his eyes away from his notebook and looked at Gao Mu: "Can you give PoppinParty some guidance on creative work in the future?"

Gao Mu was not that talented in creation. He was just using the "plagiarist" method to reproduce the songs that had been verified in the market in his previous life. Naturally, he was embarrassed to give guidance to the girls' creations.

But she had another solution.

"Every creator has different creative ideas. If I follow your ideas, I may not get better results."

Hearing Gao Mu say this, the light in Ichigaya Yusaki's eyes dimmed a little - this could be seen as a tactful rejection.

Gao Mu quickly put forward his solution: "However, I authorize you to perform commercial covers of the two songs from this Sakura Festival. If I create a song that suits you in the future, I will also invite you to perform it."

Arisaki blushed - she felt that she was indeed judging others by her own standards.

Even though Sakura offered her creative work so gently, I still doubted her sincerity.

"Um...our PoppinParty's song...Sakura can also sing it." Arisaki said this and realized that this statement was not quite right - the other party was a shrine maiden, and she didn't necessarily need the songs they created to perform.

"Okay. Then let's communicate more about the music library in the future." Gao Mu noticed Yousaki's awkwardness and agreed generously.

Chapter 19: Dryad, Live and Music Girl: 19. Unexpected Scale

There are still 3 days until the shrine holds the Sakura Festival.

Hanaoka Girls' Academy, junior high school.

Takamatsu Deng was sitting under a cherry tree on campus, while Shiina Riki was standing beside her.

"Do you believe that the shrine maiden can hold a successful live performance at the festival? Deng, the live performance shouldn't be... that simple." Li Xi said indifferently, his eyes always glancing at Deng.

"Sure." Deng didn't realize the temptation in Li Xi's words and answered firmly: "Let's go to the cherry blossom festival together this weekend."

Shiina Riki looked at Takamatsu Deng, her lips moving slightly, but the words that came out were not what she had expected, but a positive answer: "Okay."

She took the lamp, but was totally helpless.

After entering junior high school, her best friend was Deng.

It’s a bit difficult to say, but most of her classmates just think of her as Shiina Maki’s sister, and only Deng thinks of her as “Riki”.

Yes, Shiina Tachikawa's sister Shiina Maki is a well-known figure in Haneda. Not only does she have excellent academic performance, she is also the leader of the Haneda wind orchestra. She has led the Haneda wind orchestra to win many influential awards.

Classmates' attitudes towards Rikki can be roughly divided into two categories. The first is to directly label her "Maki's younger sister" and always intentionally or unintentionally guide the topic towards Shiina Maki when chatting with her. The other is to impose unbearable expectations on her and believe that she should perform as well as her sister.

Do not make jokes.

Even industrial products produced from the same batch of molds will have slight differences. How could two sisters be exactly the same?

Only Deng neither regards her as a "pendant" on her sister, nor uses her sister as a yardstick to measure herself.

The lights are so cute.

It was rare for Li Xi to wait for his sister's wind band activities to finish after school and go home with her.

"Sister, if someone is trying to gain popularity by fake live performances, how can we expose them?"

Shiina Maki was completely confused by her sister's question. "Wait, Ritsuki, you're saying... using fake live performances to attract attention? Is this for some kind of commercial setting?"

"It's a shrine." Li Xi explained the situation. "The nearby Short Hill Sakura Shrine is on the verge of bankruptcy. A new shrine maiden has arrived... to preside over the Sakura Festival... and they've invited two bands to perform live..."

Maki listened patiently to her sister's explanation of the situation, then asked a question: "Does the Sakura Festival charge an entrance fee?"

Li Xi clenched his fist and said, "There's no entrance fee, but the shrine maidens will accept offerings. Also, they have amulets for sale!"

"Presiding over festivals, accepting offerings and selling amulets are all regular operations of the shrine. The performance of the girl band is just a gimmick to add icing on the cake. Even if the performance level is poor, it's not a big deal, right?" Maki didn't understand why Riki cared so much about this matter.

It doesn't matter if they held a money-making festival live, but what was excessive was that they gave Deng high expectations and tricked her into promoting it in class.

Li Xi didn't intend to tell her sister what she was thinking. She could only make up an excuse: "If a guy like this attracts visitors, wouldn't it ruin the reputation of girls like my sister who play music with all their heart?"

"That's not that exaggerated. PasPale lip-synced in front of tens of thousands of people, and everyone's enthusiasm for the girl band hasn't diminished. Whoever let the audience down should be held responsible. It shouldn't reach the same level as all the girls who play music." Maki shook her finger. "But since you have such a strong opinion about this festival, Riki-chan, I'll go check it out this weekend. If it's really that bad, I'll help criticize it on social media."

Li Xi stopped talking.

She felt that the more she described it, the worse it got, and she made another note of the shrine in her mind.

Such a grandstanding shrine maiden is the worst.

While Li Xi was sulking, news came out that the shrine was holding a live Sakura Festival, and someone was helping to promote it.

The editorial department of a publishing house.

Kagurazaka Ayame was holding the phone and calling the light novel authors under her.

"Hey... can't submit the manuscript? What do you mean? I asked you to go to the festival to find inspiration, and you tell me you can't submit the manuscript? ...Yes, the shrine festival. Bring your sister with you then... What? Taking your sister out is harder than submitting the manuscript?"

She hung up the phone tiredly and let out a long sigh.

I called more than 20 authors at the publishing house, but less than half of them were willing to show up. The rest either made excuses saying they were busy or directly pointed out that this was another new trick used by the cunning editorial department to urge submission of manuscripts.

Although it may have been the case in the past, it is not the case this time.

Kagurazaka Ayame was called to the shrine by her grandfather in a serious manner, and only then did she understand her grandfather's physical condition.

It seemed that she did care less about her grandfather.

Her grandfather was suffering from a serious illness and was at the point where he could not be saved.

Without her knowing, her grandfather entrusted the shrine he had run for a lifetime to a young shrine maiden, bought a cemetery for him, and properly divided the little property he had left.

When she was a child, her grandfather had suggested many times that Ayame become a shrine maiden, but Ayame only joined the shrine maiden club when she was in high school.

She joined the shrine maiden club simply to confirm that she really didn't like the life of a shrine maiden.

Thinking about it now, perhaps there are many things that should not be missed that have slipped away in time.

This time, I invited my authors to the Sakura Festival in the hope that they could find some inspiration, but more importantly, I wanted them to witness together the successors of Grandpa Shrine.

If the successor is indeed an excellent shrine maiden, then these authors will help promote it in various places, such as mentioning in the author's words that there is a shrine with a particularly cute shrine maiden, or mentioning their source of inspiration on social media after writing a certain shrine maiden character.

Of course, if the witch was particularly bad, she would not allow her grandfather's life's work to be taken away like this.

Gao Mu didn't intend to make the Cherry Blossom Festival particularly grand, but the situation was somewhat beyond her expectations.

The members of PoppinParty and PasPale in Hanasakigawa were tirelessly promoting the event, even distributing promotional materials at LiveHouseSpace. Takamatsu Touma told nearly everyone in her junior high school class at Hanegaoka about the Sakura Festival Live. Miyazono Kaoru, who had just returned home from the hospital, used her limited daily time to meet up with Arima Kousei. Kagurazaka Ayame, under the pretext of gathering inspiration, called in an author she'd contacted...

Gao Mu, who had only carved 100 ema, was not fully aware of all this. Now that she had entered the final preparation stage for the festival, she had also begun to hang prayer ribbons on her branches.

PS: There is only one update today. I will try to be fully present in January. I hope I can do it :)

Chapter 20: Dryad, Live and Music Girl: 20, All the Talents Gathered

Shrine, on the day of the Sakura Festival.

The scheduled start time was 9:30 in the morning, but people started to arrive to participate in the festival from 8:30 onwards.

Most of the people present were female junior high and high school students. Gao Mu, along with Wakamiya Eve and Ushigome Satomi, who were dressed in shrine maiden costumes, guided the audience. Ichigaya Arisaki and Yamabuki Saya were making the final adjustments to the equipment, and Maruyama Aya was helping to maintain order in front of the ema frame.

The old priest looked at the gradually gathering crowd, with a slight smile on his face - no matter how well this priestess did, she had definitely done a good job in attracting popularity.

"Grandpa, we still have to wait and see how the festival goes." Kagurazaka Ayame reminded.

"It's a good thing that it can attract people. It's been a long time since it was so lively here." The old priest's tone was very steady, but it was like a heavy hammer hitting Changpu's heart.

How long has it been since I paid attention to the affairs of the shrine? How long has it been since I cared about my grandfather's health?

Why do you have to wait until everything is almost over before you start paying attention to grandpa's affairs?

Changpu lowered her head with some guilt, but happened to see Gao Mu's smiling face.

Just then, an old lady brought her granddaughter to the shrine to participate in the festival, and Gao Mu was guiding them in a vigorous tone.

"Please come this way! We have arranged seats for the elderly. Although they are just plastic chairs, you can still rest for a while!"

"Don't be so polite. I'm not that old yet." The silver-haired old man in traditional clothing shook his head slightly. "This shrine and I have a connection."

"Grandma, guitar." The silver-haired, heterochromic-eyed girl next to her pointed at the guitar case and multi-effects pedal placed next to the speaker and tugged at the old woman's sleeve.

"Lena, stop it, we're here to attend the festival."

As a veteran guitarist, Chikuto Shifune didn't have much expectation for the performance at the festival, but for some reason, she came here. Perhaps it was because she was old and it was time to feel nostalgic, or perhaps she was not completely disappointed with PoppinParty.

When the festival was about to begin, the small courtyard of the shrine was almost packed. Gao Mu roughly estimated that there were about two hundred people.

There were dialog boxes appearing above the heads of several unfamiliar girls in the crowd. Because there were so many of them, the dialog box had been compressed into a dot. It would only expand when she shifted her attention to it. Unfortunately, in such an environment, the system did not provide her with any options.

In the crowd, Gao Mu saw Gong Yuanxun sitting in a wheelchair. Gong Yuanxun leaned on the wheelchair like a doll, breathing evenly, but she did not wake up.

Gao Mu communicated with Gong Yuanxun in the dialog box.

"Xiaoxun, wake up, the festival is about to begin."

With just these simple words, the "Sleeping Beauty" in the wheelchair opened her eyes.

Her eyes swept across the noisy scene and quickly locked onto Gao Mu.

It turns out that this priestess is the student that the gods arranged for him.

She is so cute.

Under Miyazono Kaoru's gaze, her student took two deep breaths, walked to the center of the temporarily enclosed area with an elegant gait befitting a shrine maiden, and bowed earnestly to everyone.

"Welcome everyone to the Aikuoka Sakura Shrine to participate in this year's Sakura Festival. In this season of cherry blossoms in full bloom, I hope my hosting will allow everyone to have a beautiful encounter with the cherry blossoms, solidifying this moment of beauty into a treasure deep in their hearts..."

Gao Mu did not have the stage fright that a novice witch might have, and she spoke the prepared speech very appropriately.

"...Under this cherry blossom tree, may all your wishes come true, guided by the gods. Next, the shrine maidens will perform for you, marking a new exploration for our shrine in the era of large girl bands. The first guest shrine maidens today are the girl band PoppinParty, composed entirely of girls from Hanasakigawa Girls' Academy. Their music is the rhythm of the stars. Today, they will perform two songs, "Sakura Flavored Chocolate Snail" and "StarBeat." Please enjoy!"

Kasumi Toyama, wearing a shrine maiden costume, walked to the center of the venue carrying her red RandomStar guitar, her arms trembling slightly.

She didn't expect so many people to come, and the owner of LiveHouseSpace, Zhudu Shichuan, also showed up.

It is said that Space will be closed soon, and she really wants to hold a live performance on the stage before this LiveHouse closes.

If I don’t get recognition today, it will be a regret forever, right?

And... she heard some audience members questioning their choice of the same music as the cultural festival.

In fact, it cannot be considered an exactly the same song. The lyrics of "Sakura Flavored Chocolate Snail" have been modified, and the arrangement has also been adjusted for the Sakura Festival.

She wanted to explain, but felt that it was unnecessary.

"Um..." Kasumi glanced at the Chikuto Poetry Ship, then swept her eyes over the two hundred spectators.

"We are PoppinParty! Today... we are here to sing for everyone!"

A burst of laughter broke out around them.