After being elected as the governor of Tokyo, he will debut as a band!

Deng nodded, took the phone that Ai Yin had returned to her as soon as she went to school that morning, and went to tell her family.

As Li Xi watched Deng's slightly excited back, a subtle smile appeared on her face.

……

After the band's rehearsal that night, apart from Ai Yin playing the guitar part in a wild and off-key manner, Deng, Li Xi, and Su Shi all performed well.

Especially for Deng, after overcoming her psychological barriers, she was finally able to sing songs written by others with her own emotions. Although there were still some parts where her emotions were not quite there, the overall effect was already quite satisfactory. With a little more refinement, she would be able to meet the requirements for performing on the RinG stage.

Seeing Xiaodeng's outstanding performance, Lixi became incredibly excited, as if she had been given a shot of adrenaline. Despite being right-handed, she played with the feeling of being a double-handed expert, delivering powerful and gorgeous drumbeats that complemented Xiaodeng's voice, which seemed to tell a story. The whole song actually gave off a feeling of both confusion and determination.

Seeing that the two of them were in good condition, Su Shi's strumming became smoother, and her performance was decent.

As for Aine... well, it's hard to say... she definitely can't handle the lead guitar, but she'll probably be okay at rhythm guitar. Fortunately, when Hitoshi Shio Rui arranged the arrangement, she didn't allocate much space for rhythm guitar, so if the guitarist's skills are slightly lacking, it's not easy to notice. After all, Mofornica only has one guitarist, so it's already good that they didn't forget about the rhythm guitar part when arranging the music.

Actually, it wouldn't be a problem if she was just bad at cooking, but the problem is that Aine is not only bad at cooking, she also loves to show off.

"How about it, Xiao Mu? Aren't I pretty good at playing the guitar? I can play C chords, D chords, and A chords just like I said."

Ai Yin boasted to Xiao Mu, who was sitting obediently on the sofa watching.

Xiangzi was furious.

Why do you only talk about these few simple chords? Why don't you mention how when you press the F chord, it feels like you're about to fly? Just like that, before you even got the keys down, a sudden burst of noise almost made the song go off-key.

Xiao Mu looked at the pink-haired girl with a bewildered expression, as if she wanted to praise her but couldn't bring herself to do so. After a long pause, she finally managed to utter a single sentence—

"I played it badly."

That is, Aine. If it were someone with a personality like Xiaoxiang or Sushi, they might think that Xiaomu was mocking them.

But let's see how Ai-yin answered:

"Then we can improve together!"

When Xiangzi and Su Shi heard what she said, their fists hardened.

Can you two progress together?

If you practice for another ten years and reach Xiao Mu's level, you'll be considered to have been possessed by the spirit of the legendary Jimmy Heng.

Xiao Mu didn't think too much about it and simply replied with "Mm".

"Oh, I'm so happy today. This is exactly how band activities should be."

Aine stood there triumphantly, hands on her hips, then turned to Toyokawa Shoko, who was packing her things to leave, and said:

"Xiao Xiang, Su Shi, Deng, and I are thinking of having a get-together tonight while Xiao Mu is here. Would you like to come too?"

"I don't need to..." Xiangzi refused swiftly. "I'm an outsider, so I have no reason to dine with you. Besides, you need more practice right now than eating and drinking."

"Oh, speaking of practice, I think I'm not the only one in the team who needs to practice."

As Ai Yin spoke, she gave Su Shi a knowing look.

Su Shi: ? ? ? Is this implying that I'm the one who needs to practice? Are you saying I'm bad at playing bass?

...I just don't want you to say that to me.

Ai Yin thought that Su Shi understood her hint, so she confidently moved closer to Xiang Zi, took out her phone, opened Hiroi Kikuri's contact interface, waved it in front of Xiang Zi, and then lowered her voice to say the words she had already thought of.

"How about we let Su Shishi go and study 'one-on-one' with a senior?"

Upon hearing this, Xiangzi's expression changed, and she subconsciously reached for Aiyin's phone. Aiyin quickly stepped back, bumping right into Su Shi, who was walking over with a smile, wanting to ask her what she meant by what she had just said. She almost dropped the phone.

She shouted "Watch out!" and grabbed at her phone several times with both hands before she could hold it firmly.

"You, what do you mean?"

Xiangzi asked with a cold face.

"I just wanted everyone to go out for a meal together."

"……All right."

Xiangzi gritted his teeth and agreed.

She dared not imagine what the consequences would be if she allowed Su Shi and Hiroi Kikuri to come into contact...

"Great! Xiangzi agreed! Now let me see which shop we should go to..."

Aine picked up her phone to look for restaurants suitable for a group dinner, only to see the words "Hiroi Kikuri" and "Calling" displayed on the screen.

"A get-together? Where? Can we drink? I want to go too!"

The next moment, such a sound came from the phone.

Gogomachi Music Awards: 031 I heard something incredible.

"Um, Hiroi-nee, I'm sorry, Sho and I were just playing around, and I accidentally pressed the call button," Chihaya Aine explained to Hiroi Kikuri on the other end of the line, holding the phone to her ear. "If it's nothing else, I won't bother you any longer."

"Wait a minute!" Kikuri Hiroi shouted into her phone, the sound startling Aine, who instinctively moved the phone away from her ear. "Are you guys going to a party? Count me in!"

"Eh? Hiroi-nee is coming too?"

Chihaya Aine looked at Shoko with some embarrassment. The latter, while giving her a "quickly refuse" look with her wide, kitten-like eyes, shook her head slightly.

"Um, Hiroi-nee, everyone at our get-together is a high school student, so it would be awkward for you to come. Perhaps another time..."

"Awkward? How could it be awkward?" Hiroi Kikuri answered quite firmly. As long as there was alcohol to drink, she was the most dazzling person in the room. Peers, seniors, and juniors were all just her prey. "I'm the understanding and charming Hiroi-neechan! I'm not some boring middle-aged man like Haksan, and there won't be a generation gap between me and high school girls!"

The reason why Hiroi Kikuri insisted on mooching off Shoko and the others was simply because she was penniless. If she didn't seize every opportunity to freeload, she would run out of food. Her usual methods of freeloading had already been used up the night before last, and she couldn't use them a second time in a short period of time, otherwise she would really incur other people's displeasure and completely cut off her freeloading route... Even begging for food should be done in a slow and steady manner.

Even if you say that...

Chihaya Aine cast an inquiring glance at Toyokawa Shoko, while silently mouthing to Shoko, "Why don't we just let her come?"

After all, apart from the time at Hanekawa Academy, the only other interactions between Chihaya Aine and Hiroi Kikuri took place in the Starry Night Performance Hall, where the owner, Iji Tomoka, suppressed Hiroi. Therefore, she didn't dare to act too out of line and managed to maintain her image as a reliable older sister.

So

In Aine's eyes, Hiroi Kikuri is just an independent musician with high popularity, talent and skills. Although she likes to drink, she is decent when drunk. Having her attend the party is not all bad. Maybe she can even impart some performance experience.

But Toyokawa Shoko, who understood her lip movements, immediately panicked.

How could Kikuri Hiroi not know what state she was in when she was drunk?

She was Hiroi's neighbor, living only a wall away from his house. When she was studying or practicing the piano with headphones on at home, she would often hear Hiroi, drunk, falling down in the hallway outside, then groaning and crawling around in a distorted way. If she left him outside, she was afraid he would freeze to death. If she went out to help him up, he would say strange things like, "Xiangzi is such a good child who takes care of people. If I had a daughter like Xiangzi, I would have no regrets even if I died." Then he would try to dance with Xiangzi. When he saw the electronic keyboard in Xiangzi's house, he would try to drag her to the street to sing. Dancing was one thing, but the worst part was that he would spin around a few times and then get dizzy and start vomiting without any warning... He was extremely difficult to deal with.

In short, while Ms. Hiroi might not end up like her jerk father, getting drunk and causing trouble that lands her in jail, she's just as annoying. If she gets involved at tonight's dinner party, none of the high school girls present will have a moment's peace.

Xiangzi felt a surge of anger when he saw Aiyin's eyes asking for his opinion.

What's wrong with this person? Isn't he too much of a pushover? He can't refuse someone who just spouts a few twisted arguments?

Xiangzi sighed, and was just about to take Aine's phone to refuse Hiroi Kikuri's request on her behalf when he saw Aine's eyes suddenly light up, and her face showed a look of amused curiosity.

She first held the phone away, then turned off the microphone, and gave Xiangzi, Su Shi, and Li Xi and Deng, who were standing a little further away, a mysterious look on her face. Then she said in a meaningful tone:

"There's a man with Hiroi-nee."

"A man? You mean a male voice came from the other end of the phone? Hmm, but... isn't that normal? It's not like we're at an all-girls school like Tsukinomori or Haneoka. Ms. Hiroi is probably... in a crowded place."

Su Shi thought she was going to reveal some shocking secret, but it turned out to be just this...

"No, that man was talking to Hiroi-nee, and you can tell from their conversation..."

Ai Yin turned on the hands-free mode, and then a clear and slightly magnetic male voice came from the phone.

"Hiroi, are those your panties on the shelf next to the bathtub?"

"The one with the sunflower pattern? That's my panties. If it's the penguin pattern or the blue and white stripes, I wouldn't know whose they are~"

"...Could you please put away your worn panties after you finish your bath?"

"Hey! I had such a relaxing bath yesterday, I completely forgot about my panties."

"...Okay? Put the panties aside for now. Could you please drain the water from the bathtub after you're done?"

"Such a big pool of water, it's such a waste to just drain it. Adding some hot water would allow me to soak two or three more times. I took a proper shower before going into the pool, the water was very clean. Oh wait, Yi-zhen, are you disgusted with me? It wasn't like this last night."

"What nonsense are you talking about? Don't you know what you were like last night?... And what about those things on the bed? If you don't clean them up, I'll call someone else to do it."

Looking at the six high school girls over there, apart from the ever-silent Wakaba Mutsumi and the still clueless Takamatsu Akari, the other four exclaimed "Oh dear," "This is terrible," "Is this the adult world?" and "Why does Ms. Hiroi say everything?" For some reason, Toyokawa Shoko's face turned bright red.

Shiina Tatsuki even covered the lamp's ears with her hand after the male voice finished speaking the first sentence.

"Lixi?"

Gao Songdeng tilted his head to look at her, not understanding why.

The latter blushed and muttered:

"It's not something nice to say, but it's okay if you don't listen."

"Hmm..." Deng blinked, reluctantly accepting the statement.

Regardless, high school students are at an age where they're interested in intimate relationships. Right now, they're all too preoccupied to refuse Hiroi Kikuri's advances, completely absorbed in gossip.

"Are they living together? Is this Ms. Hiroi's boyfriend?"

"Judging from their conversation, the two of them might have already taken a bath together... And those things on the bed, could it be...?"

"Su Shishi, you sound very knowledgeable. Could it be that you've had this kind of experience yourself?"

"Ahem, what are you saying, Chihaya-san? I just often listen to people confide in me at school, so..."

"So you know more?"

"It's not what you think."

"It's not what I thought, what is it then?"

"Chihaya-kun...sometimes silence is a virtue."

"All right......"

"Could you two please go talk somewhere else? What if you break the light strip?!"

"Lixi, you can take the little lamp and hide somewhere else. Nobody's forcing you to stay here and listen to Su Shishi and me discuss this."

"Huh?! If I leave, won't there be no one to keep an eye on you?"

Lixi, her face flushed, hissed at Aiyin like a cat.

Igomachi Music Awards: 032 Preliminary Round Recommendation Right for the 'Igomachi Cup'

Unlike the three who were having a heated discussion, Toyokawa Shoko seemed a little flustered.

She recognized the male voice on the phone as belonging to Aoyama Mukai, and she also knew that Aoyama Mukai and Hiroi Kikuri had stayed at Aoyama Mukai's Kugayama Villa last night.

But she never expected that the conversation between Aoyama and Hiroi Kikuri would become so intimate and explicit just one night later.

There's only one reason why such a change could occur between a man and a woman overnight...

Both Aoyama and Hiroi Kikuri are adults, so there's nothing wrong with them doing this. But in Toyokawa Shoko's eyes, the difference in their social status is too great. Moreover, it's simply unbelievable that Hiroi Kikuri, with her terrible personality and usually undignified appearance, would attract someone like Aoyama.

Don't assume that all men are womanizers who will accept anyone. Young high-ranking officials like Aoyama, who have never had any scandals, are usually extremely strict about relationships. They have all sorts of requirements for their partners, and Hiroi Kikuri doesn't seem to meet any of those requirements at all.

Toyokawa Shoko was unaware that Aoyama Muko and Hiroi Kikuri were old friends who had been close since their student days, and when they were chatting in the presence of outsiders, they hardly needed to be shy about what they said.

In fact, after Toyokawa Shoko sent Takamatsu Akari back yesterday, Hiroi Kikuri searched out and drank all the bottles of sake stored in the Kugayama Villa. Those sakes were left there by Aoyama Yukiko's father, Aoyama Yukiko. They weren't very strong, but they were quite potent. After drinking them, Hiroi was completely drunk and unconscious, and he couldn't do anything that required a lot of energy.

Qingshan watched her vomit once, then stripped her naked, threw her onto the guest room bed, and went back to the master bedroom to rest... However, although...

They had sex, but Hiroi Kikuri's body was completely exposed to Aoyama Mukai. According to the customs of that time, she could only marry Aoyama Mukai as a concubine.

Hiroi Kikuri was more confident than usual when she spoke to Aoyama because she realized she had no privacy when she woke up that morning.

Aoyama was used to hearing beautiful women from the entertainment and business worlds flirting with him, and his auditory nerves had long been equipped with the function of automatically filtering out the hints in women's voices, so he didn't hear the changes in Hiroi's tone at all.

But the girls on the other end of the phone were different. They were all at an age where they were very sensitive, and they could clearly hear the emotions and hints that Aoyama could not understand.

But Su Shi, Ai Yin, and Li Xi were alright. After all, they didn't know who the male voice on the phone belonged to. In their eyes, it was just a conversation between a thick-skinned woman and her aloof live-in boyfriend.

Toyokawa Shoko felt that her values ​​had been shaken, and the thought of the white lie that Aoyama had told Takamatsu Akari the night before to protect his self-esteem made her even more upset.

Just then, they heard new voices coming from the phone.

"Wait? Hiroi, are you on the phone with someone?"

Aoyama's voice became much clearer on the phone, indicating that he had been talking to Hiroi Kikuri in another room.

"Don't worry, Yi-zhen, I won't hurt you... It's not a reporter on the other end of the phone, it's Aine."