Will the plagiarism girl be a substitute for the preference for women?

The three of them visited together, which isn't actually a large number of people.

Was it because the nurse thought we were on the verge of arguing when I was talking to Xiangzi at the door, and that it might affect Qiannai's mood, that she made us visit separately?

But then she thought about it again and realized it wasn't all bad, so she cheerfully went along with Xiangzi's account:

"Oh, I see. Then we'll have to let you know in advance before we visit next time."

To ensure that Shoko visited Chika separately each time, she had to contact me frequently.

Su Shi suppressed his triumphant mood, which surfaced on the surface.

The smile on his lips was still as gentle as ever, but his eyes seemed to be slightly thoughtful, and one hand on the table was clenched tightly, as if he was willing to do his best to cooperate with Xiangzi.

I'll just stay in this state. It doesn't matter if Xiangzi is still wary of me. In any case, I can't be the one to give myself away first.

Besides, although he wanted to take advantage of the opportunity for China to contact Shoko more, his concern for China was also genuine.

How could they possibly forget about her sister once they brought Xiangzi back to the band?

"Xiao Su Shi, we're going to practice tomorrow afternoon, right? Is Xiang Zi free to visit his sister tomorrow afternoon?" Ai Yin asked, turning her head to the side after taking a sip of her drink.

"She doesn't need someone to visit her all the time."

Xiangzi said decisively, but then felt that he had been too resolute.

She said this because "it's rare for me to visit China, but China just keeps causing trouble," so she wanted to visit her again.

However, judging from Aine and Sose's convinced reactions, they acted as if they were really close sisters with China, which is why they could easily make judgments about China.

"That's true, Chizuru likes having some private space."

Based on her experience living with China, Su Shi agreed.

Then, following Aine's mention of the word "band," Su Shi gradually steered the conversation in the direction she desired.

She asked Ai Yin:

"Forehead……"

Aine's eyes darted away for a moment.

"What aspect of the problem is Xiaosu Shi referring to?"

Even the questions she asked subconsciously carried an air of evasion and procrastination.

"You will be responsible for both the lead guitar and rhythm guitar parts. You should discuss this with Lixi when she is arranging the music."

Su Shi still didn't directly ask Ai Yin about her guitar skills, but Ai Yin already knew perfectly well.

I was the one who advised Chika to carefully consider whether to join the band. Now that Chika hasn't joined, I can't fill the void.

In a four-piece band, with the guitarist handling most of the music, could Li Xi simplify the arrangement? Of course!

Could you loosen up the guitar parts a bit more and compensate by adding some content to the drums and bass? Perhaps.

Could we trouble Lixi again and ask her to use her brain to ensure that the arrangement is acceptable to the audience, and then simply remove the rhythm guitar part?

Whether Li Xi would agree or not is hard to say, but Aine was too embarrassed to ask her to do so.

The more Ai Yin thought about it, the more pressure she felt. She became restless and almost dropped the pork chopsticks she had just picked up with her chopsticks.

This is exactly what Su Shi planned.

Under pressure, say something like, "We really need another team member," so I can naturally agree with you without seeming too eager.

In her anxiety, Ai-yin almost blurted out some words, while Su-shi waited quietly for the outcome.

Xiangzi immediately knew what tricks Su Shi was playing. No matter how much she pleaded or begged, he simply said he wouldn't join.

"Why don't we let Xiaodeng learn a musical instrument too?"

Ai Yin suddenly had a brilliant idea: this is also a way to solve the problem of not having enough people to play instruments.

For a moment, Su Shi and Xiang Zi were both taken aback.

"Um... it would take several months for Xiaodeng to learn an instrument, right? Let her focus on mastering vocals under Qianna's tutelage."

Su Shi was genuinely impressed. When Ai Yin said that she would work harder and take on the responsibility of being both the lead vocalist and the rhythm singer, she actually admired Ai Yin.

Is the result that they would rather burden the lamp than hire someone else?

She was starting to suspect that Aine was doing it on purpose.

Chapter 115 makes us more united!

Su Shi's view that "the lamp needs to focus on the human voice first" was obviously very convincing, and Ai Yin did not insist on having the lamp learn an instrument anymore, and nodded slightly.

“Right? I feel like we still need another team member.” Su Shi clapped his hands and steered the conversation in the direction he wanted to go.

She had hoped that Aine would bring up the idea herself, so that her intentions wouldn't seem too obvious.

At this moment, Xiangzi's eyes narrowed slightly. She seemed to have a premonition of Su Shi's next question: whether she was willing to return to the band.

But at this moment, Aine made a suggestion without any sense of incongruity:

"Let's make a promotional poster to recruit new team members."

This suggestion once again interrupted Su Shi's plans, preventing her from naturally transitioning the topic to inviting Xiangzi to join the team.

The layman became increasingly convinced that Ai-yin was deliberately obstructing him.

She didn't understand why Ai-yin was doing this, and what impact Xiangzi's joining the band would have on her.

She decided to stop beating around the bush.

“Xiao Xiang… I actually still want you to come back to the band.”

"You used to have so much fun playing in a band, what's the reason you've been avoiding everyone?"

Su Shi looked at Xiangzi with concern.

Even though Xiangzi rarely looked at her directly and deliberately avoided her, she still tried to understand the reason and then slowly persuaded her to come back.

"You used the excuse of visiting Chika to run into me, and you've been insisting on saying these things all along?"

Xiangzi put down his chopsticks and responded coldly.

Su Shi paused for a moment, then said:

"You think... I've been using Chika to get close to you?"

"My care for Chika is genuine!"

"You can ask Chika about how I took care of her."

"So...for this reason...can you answer my question?"

Su Shi slightly emphasized her tone to make it sound sincere, but still kept it at a relatively calm level so as not to make the scene too tense.

Undeniably, she is sincere towards China, but right now, she is indeed using China to control Shoko.

Su Shi silently apologized to Qian Nai again in her heart.

It seemed his words had worked; Xiangzi lowered his head and fell silent.

However, she wasn't thinking about joining the band; she felt completely out of place with Crychic.

On one side are people who are desperately trying to climb back to their original position, and on the other side are people who are still thinking about the so-called good old days in the band.

Even after becoming China's manager, Shoko had some time to rest and her finances were not so tight for the time being.

But they are still far from reaching their original social class.

During her climb, even her breaks and stress relief efforts were designed to be efficient, allowing for a quick recovery without taking up too much time. For example, playing the piano after class.

She will not stop climbing because she refuses to accept mediocrity.

Moreover, she could no longer find that innocent and beautiful feeling from a year ago, and even returning to Crychic wouldn't bring her that joy...

She would not allow the band "Lights and Lights" to sacrifice their youth and freedom for her sake, becoming an appendage to the band's commercialization.

What Xiangzi was thinking about was how to get rid of the situation where Su Shi used Qian Nai to control him.

"For the sake of how much I've taken care of your sister, answer my question. This is Su Shi's intention."

Therefore, the key lies in the sisterly relationship that China has been so publicly proclaiming.

Severing ties with this relationship, ceasing to act as China's manager, and returning the prepaid salary to her will free me from being troubled by these sentiments.

No... that's really unnecessary.

At this point, what's the point of talking about sentimentality?

"Taking care of Chizuru is your own choice, isn't it? Why drag me into it?"

Xiangzi's counterattack made Su Shi's eyes widen, she gasped, and she was speechless.

"Ah, how heartless..." Ai Yin sighed softly as she leaned back.

"So you're speaking up for me again now?" Su Shi was completely bewildered by Aine's actions and somewhat annoyed.

The outsider's sentiments didn't bother Xiangzi for a moment; he simply continued eating calmly, only slightly speeding up his pace.

Su Shi also sped up her slurping of noodles.

After finishing his meal first, Xiangzi got up and left. Su Shi followed closely behind, trying to stop Xiangzi, but was blocked by Aine.

After watching Xiangzi leave, and seeing Ai Yin's stern expression, Su Shi didn't show her resentment. She simply asked, puzzled:

"Little Aiyin, what are you doing?"

"We can't rush things." Ai Yin seemed to be trying to help Su Shi, but they had some differences in opinion.

Su Shi could only shake his head helplessly: "You don't need to interfere."

"Indeed, I don't know much about your past, but Xiangzi must still be concerned about his sister's condition. It's really not appropriate to let her join the band right now."

"Aren't we all concerned about Chizuru?"

Su Shi immediately retorted, but quickly realized that she had been arguing for the sake of arguing because of her emotions, so she waved her hand and said instead:

"I was too hasty, and it was wrong of me to impose my own ideas on Xiaoxiang."

“You’ve been Chizuru’s friend for a long time, and you don’t want her sister to be bothered by other things while taking care of her, right?”

"Um……"

Aine nodded slowly.

"Then do your best in tomorrow's practice!"

Su Shi smiled again, and although the smile was not much different from the one she had given when they first met, it made Aine feel a cold wind blow down her spine.

She must be very unhappy with me right now.

However, what Aine was most worried about was that Shoko would completely break off with Su Shi because she couldn't stand Su Shi's harassment of the band.

Therefore, she needed to stop it in time before the tragedy occurred.

After all, the three of them, as those who knew about China's illness and as her caregivers, were indeed people who would share weal and woe, even if they weren't particularly close to each other.

Only by working together to take care of China can we help her recover as quickly as possible.

……

On the afternoon of the first day of Golden Week, Deng, Lixi, Aiyin, and Sushi arrived at RiNG as agreed. Lixi, who was very familiar with the staff, booked a practice room.

During this meeting, both Aine and Suze wore smiles to ease the overall atmosphere.

However, the complex thoughts in their hearts were probably not as relaxed as they appeared on the surface.

"Um, Ai-yin..."

On the way to the practice room, the lamp quietly approached Aine and poked her arm.

"What's wrong, Little Lamp?"

Deng shook her head slightly: "It's nothing, it's just... Xiao Qianna sent me a message to encourage me yesterday."

Even while hospitalized, she still thinks of others… Aine was touched. Despite the pressure, she still managed to squeeze out words of encouragement: “With China-sensei’s encouragement, Akari will definitely be able to do it.”

However, the lamp still sensed that Aine was distracted.

Upon entering the practice room, a mirror covered the entire wall. Originally intended to help musicians maintain their appearance during practice, it now made Aine notice that her smile didn't look quite natural.

After everyone had plugged in their instruments, Lixi started distributing the sheet music, but stopped when it was Aiyin's turn.

Have you ever played the lead and rhythm together before?