They all pushed me!

The temperature in Tokyo in early January had dropped below zero. Inoue kept blowing hot air into his clasped palms, rubbing his hands and stamping his feet, but his eyes were fixed on the door of the building, paying close attention to the people coming and going.

At this time, the editor-in-chief's catchphrase "Think about what Tanaka would do" appeared in his mind again. Although every time he heard this sentence, he wanted to complain that the grass on Tanaka's grave must be three feet high, but Inoue, who had just become a reporter and entered this circle, occasionally fantasized that one day he would be like Tanaka and rise to the pinnacle of life with a hit article.

However, thinking of the tragic experience of his senior Tanaka, Inoue shrank his neck. Another thing he learned from him was to be content. One can have an active mind, but one cannot write a random manuscript.

Anyway, Inoue believes that he can't manipulate public opinion to stir up confrontation and generate traffic. As a new reporter, he now only hopes to get one or two first-hand interviews on hot social events and show his face in front of the editor-in-chief a few times.

As for why he was crouching in front of the TBS TV building, it was quite a surprise.

Inoue, who just graduated from college and entered the society, is actually still a hidden idol fan. The new idol group ACE, which has been the most popular in the past two months, is naturally his focus, especially MEM啾 in the group. As a senior fan who has been following them since the Bishoujo Contest that year, he can be said to have witnessed MEM啾's journey from the winner of the Bishoujo Contest Special Award to an unknown idol trainee and then to today's official idol. Last time, he also went to watch ACE's performance at the Tokyo Idol Festival.

For Daichi Inoue, who has become a fan of ACE temporarily following MEM啾, the schedule announced by ACE on a regular basis every month is naturally one of the objects he pays close attention to.

As luck would have it, he just remembered that in early January of the new year, all members of ACE would appear as special guests on a variety show on TBS TV. And if he calculated the date forward, the recording time of the show would happen to be these two days.

In short, all of this was done to get more information about his relationship with Hoshino Ai from ACE member Kitagawa Ryo's sister Kitagawa Rumi.

It's definitely not because I want to take this opportunity to interview MEM.

Just as Inoue Daichi was killing time in his random fantasies, until the sky gradually darkened and he still didn't wait for ACE, he sighed and prepared to leave, but suddenly he caught a glimpse of a few people wrapped in big black cotton jackets, who looked like they had just finished recording a show, and were walking out of the building towards the parking lot.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute, is this ACE? I'm Inoue from Weekly Entertainment Live, here's my press card, could you please spare a moment of your time for a quick interview? Just two, two questions, quick."

Inoue trotted over and hurriedly bent over to hand over his press card. He kept a low profile and waited anxiously for the other party's response.

He could hear a whisper of “As expected, there are reporters here,” but Inoue Daichi immediately received a reply that sounded like heavenly music to him:

"can."

Kitagawa Rumi had already reached out to take the digital recorder handed to her by the other party. She pursed her lips. Although she still felt a little bitter in her heart, she was mentally prepared after last night and the whole day today.

But what she and others didn't expect was that while Inoue Daichi took out the interview notebook and pen from his bag, he handed the digital recorder in the direction of yesterday's MEM without hesitation:

"My first question is for MEN啾. As the oldest member of ACE, Ruby and Abiko have both mentioned in previous interviews that MEM啾 is very caring in daily life. How does MEM啾 think about this?"

"Well... just like you said, since I am indeed the oldest in the group, and I already have two younger brothers at home, I may have consciously or unconsciously taken care of Abiko and Ruby as my younger sisters in life."

Having never expected that they would come to find me, MEM啾 also gave a reluctant answer with a rare stammer. He secretly looked at Kitagawa Rumi beside him. It was agreed that there would definitely be reporters coming to ambush. An ambush was set, but how could I be the target of the ambush?

"Thank you very much for your answer. My second question is still for MEM. In the second album that ACE announced before..."

Just like that, after asking MEM three or four times in a row, Inoue Daichi suddenly remembered the real mission of his trip, and quickly cast his eyes on Kitagawa Rumi who had been waiting for a long time:

"The next question is for Ruby, and this is also the last question for today's interview. I would like to ask Ruby, regarding Brother Shiling's announcement of his relationship early this morning, what do you think? Or do you have anything to say?"

Seeing that the person being questioned had finally turned to her, Kitagawa Rumi managed to cheer herself up, took the recorder, and said with a smile:

"Regarding this matter, the first thing that needs to be clarified is that all the malicious speculations on the Internet are untrue. I also hope that everyone can stop spreading rumors and attacks, because in my opinion, my brother and his sister are in a completely normal relationship and their relationship is very good."

Basically, she just repeated what she had already thought of last night, which no one could find fault with.

"So, Ruby has known about the two of them dating for a long time?"

"My brother and sister Ai were just good friends before. In my opinion, the opportunity for them to get together should be during the filming of the drama "Escape is Shameful but Useful"."

Kitagawa Rumi did not reveal any flaws. Although her wording was a bit vague, she still nailed the time when the two began dating as after Kitagawa Ryo turned 20, indirectly responding to the rumor circulating on the Internet that an adult took the initiative to hook up with a minor.

"Can you tell us how far your relationship has progressed?"

"…This involves my brother's privacy. I have no comment on this."

"Okay, that's the end of today's interview."

Seeing Kitagawa Rumi gradually showing an impatient look, the newbie Inoue immediately gave up the idea of ​​continuing to ask questions and bowed sincerely to thank the group:

"Thank you all for your assistance, it is much appreciated."

Seeing the interview was over, Saito Kyoko hurried forward to help Kitagawa Rumi put on the plush hood that came with her down jacket again, patted her on the back and said softly:

"Let's get in the car and go back. It's a bit cold outside."

"Ah."

Kitagawa Rumi took another look at the reporter who ran away excitedly, then nodded and agreed, and walked towards the parking lot again against the gradually growing night wind.

Her impromptu performance ended successfully.

Although now there is still a vague feeling of nausea in my mind.

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

"This is... the first-hand interview you boasted about on the phone?"

In the editorial department of "Weekly Entertainment Live", the bald editor-in-chief put on his reading glasses seriously and used his thick fingers to flip through the manuscript handed to him by Daichi Inoue.

"MEM啾, MEM啾, MEM啾, MEM啾, are you here to interview Kitagawa Rumi or to interview MEM啾? And you finally get to interview someone who knows about this incident at this time, and you only ask these two questions?"

The editor-in-chief quickly showed an expression of disappointment, and pointed at Inoue Daichi with a headache:

"Do you think there's anything explosive about this news? How could a twelve-year-old child say such empty official rhetoric? It's obvious that someone taught her to say that, and you gave it to me like a treasure... Oh, I don't know what to say."

After shaking his head in disappointment, the editor-in-chief patted Inoue Daichi on the shoulder, who had made a bad start, and earnestly taught him:

"You should remember that when you interview such children, you should ask questions that are a little off the beaten track. It's okay to use a variety of methods. This will make it easier to get the truth out of them."

Inoue Daichi immediately humbly pretended to listen attentively.

“For example, you can suddenly ask some seemingly ordinary but very informative questions.”

"Is Ruby still living with her brother? What delicious food did you eat last night to welcome the New Year? Why didn't you repost the official announcement from her brother? Did you forget?"

The editor-in-chief spread his hands helplessly:

"These questions and their answers are obviously better than the two dry ones you wrote back. They can easily be used to make a big fuss."

"I thought too little."

Inoue Daichi was no fool either. With a slight thought, he quickly understood the mysteries contained in these seemingly ordinary questions.

"But at least he is the only insider who has spoken out. I can still write a report, but it will require some skill."

After teaching this seemingly good newcomer in the company, the editor-in-chief stroked his chin and slowly picked up the pen to write a few strokes on Inoue Daichi's manuscript.

"Is Beichuan Liang's love affair a mystery? His sister revealed the truth in an interview. The reason is——"

"In today's interview, in response to our questions, Kitagawa Rumi confessed that her brother Kitagawa Ryo and Hoshino Ai were good friends, and that they started dating during the filming of the new drama "It's Not Easy to Be a Good Girl" last year. But when we asked about the progress of their relationship, her expression changed drastically, saying that it involved privacy and therefore she had no comment, but she also vaguely stated that the relationship between the two was very good and that it was a normal relationship. The malicious speculation on the Internet was untrue, and she called on netizens to stop denouncing and attacking the two."

"It is reported that in the second half of last year, both Kitagawa Ryo and Hoshino Ai were photographed by netizens many times in Miyazaki Prefecture. The former was even confirmed to have attended the wedding of Amemiya Goro, chief physician of the obstetrics and gynecology department of a local hospital in Miyazaki, and served as a best man."

"If you have any thoughts on this matter, please leave your opinions in the comment section and discuss with the editor."

Chapter 41: Thank you, Ruby

Thanks to the report released by "Weekly Entertainment Live" which seemed to say nothing but said everything, for a time, rumors on the Internet that Kitagawa Ryo and Hoshino Ai were dating and even married because of pregnancy were once again rampant.

After all, there are many such precedents in the Japanese entertainment industry. Takuya Kimura, a national idol who was a generation earlier than Kitagawa Ryo, announced his relationship and even marriage to the public when his girlfriend Shizuka Kudo was four months pregnant. The two even officially registered their marriage in the second month after the official announcement and gave birth to their eldest daughter the following year.

Although twenty years have passed and Kudo Shizuka herself gradually faded out of the entertainment industry after getting married, to this day, there are still a large number of fans who are still brooding over the matter. Almost every year, the media will break the news about their divorce, and every three months there will be news about the couple's relationship discord. Kudo Shizuka herself has since topped the list of "the most hated women". Not only has she received a large number of intimidation and threatening letters, but red paint is often splashed on her doorstep.

Although Kitagawa Ryo himself is more of an actor than an idol in the circle, as an artist who has been active in the public eye since his child star days, he can almost be said to have grown up under the attention of the audience. Among his large number of fans, a considerable number of viewers have almost grown up with him.

As the saying goes, when they were in kindergarten and elementary school, they watched TV series starring Ryo Kitagawa on the TV at home. When they were in junior high school and high school, they watched TV series starring Ryo Kitagawa on their mobile phones. After entering university and society, Ryo Kitagawa was still there, and together with them, he built a part of the youth memories of this generation. Most of his female fans are basically distributed in this age group.

In their words, the process of chasing stars over the past ten years is like having a childhood sweetheart of similar age who grew up with them. In a sense, the emotions they place on Kitagawa Ryo are no different from the emotions their mothers placed on Kimura Takuya.

So the one who is wrong definitely isn't Kitagawa Ryo, it must be the problem of the woman named Hoshino Ai!

But what is different from that year is that when they were planning to return to the nostalgic server to replicate the operations of that year, they suddenly discovered that on the Internet today, a considerable proportion of the audience actually gave their blessings to their relationship.

Compared with Takuya Kimura and Shizuka Kudo who were all idols 20 or 30 years ago, although Hoshino Ai has been a professional idol for a long time, she has graduated for four or five years. A considerable number of audiences know Hoshino Ai as an actress. After all, she appears as the heroine in a popular TV series almost every year.

Moreover, "It's My Fault in Our Stars," which just finished airing and won last year's ratings championship, also added a romantic atmosphere to the announcement of their relationship. In the comment section under Kitagawa Ryo's official announcement, where Hoshino Ai reposted the post and left the message "Please give me your guidance in the future, forever," one netizen even replied jokingly, "Is this also a contract marriage?", which received a considerable number of likes and replies.

It can be said that thanks to the basic base and popularity accumulated in the past few years, according to Mr. Izaki's statistics, the negative effects and the number of fans lost caused by the official announcement of Kitagawa Ryo and Hoshino Ai are actually acceptable. It's just that due to the survivor bias, the voices of the most dissatisfied people seem particularly loud.

And, in the final analysis, the silent majority of audiences are actually concerned about the artist's work itself, just like when Kimura Takuya was criticized by thousands of people for a while after he officially announced his relationship, and was considered to be derelict in his duty as an idol. However, the TV series "HERO" starring him the following year still won the ratings championship, becoming the only TV series in the history of commercial Japanese dramas with ratings of over 30% per episode. Besides, Kitagawa Ryo was not a traditional idol to begin with.

Perhaps they realized this, and those fans who were dissatisfied with Kitagawa Ryo's relationship quickly turned their attention away from Kitagawa Ryo and focused their attacks on Hoshino Ai.

They tried to break through Hoshino Ai's psychological defenses and force her to break up with Kitagawa Ryo to end the relationship. After all, when faced with thousands of cyber violence, many people will choose to retreat. For example, after Kimura Takuya became a national idol, Ito Kaori, his first love, felt that the two of them could no longer live and interact like ordinary couples under public pressure. She painfully came up with the idea that she had lost herself and freedom in this relationship and chose to break up with Kimura Takuya.

Just in time, "Weekly Entertainment Live" handed over a handy knife, and for a while, rumors appeared on the Internet that defined Hoshino Ai as a scheming woman with a chaotic private life who secretly designed Kitagawa Ryo to get married and have a child.

"how so?"

Kitagawa Rumi read the report of her interview over and over again. The other party did not modify her original words, but simply changed the order and added some true and false rumors to directly mislead public opinion. It was really eye-opening for her.

What's even more outrageous is that after reading most of the reports that sounded very detailed, even Kitagawa Rumi herself had the thought that 'Sister Ai might really be pregnant'.

Although she had only seen the two of them... like that, before that day, she had always thought that their relationship was only at the level of kissing.

In order to verify the growing speculation in her mind, after hesitating for a while, Kitagawa Rumi found the number of Dr. Amemiya Goro in her address book and called him.

But soon, there was a hollow electronic sound of "the other party's phone is turned off" from the other end of the line.

Yes, once this report comes out today, there will definitely be a lot of reporters targeting Dr. Golang.

After thinking for a while, Kitagawa Rumi guessed the reason why she couldn't contact the other party at this time. After silently apologizing to the other party in her heart, she lay down on the bed again, stretched out her hand to lift up the stuffed bear beside her, and stared at it blankly.

To be honest, she really doesn't have any emotional fluctuations about their relationship or even marriage. When a certain emotion crosses the threshold, they will all end up in a numb state.

But Kitagawa Rumi really doesn't want to suddenly have another child in the family.

This was not because she felt bored being ordered to take care of the baby, but because Kitagawa Rumi had seen from her mother in her previous life and the current Tendoji family what the birth of a newborn meant to a family.

By that time, if she still couldn't make Liang accept her, the bond of blood relationship would truly isolate her from the door called the Kitagawa family.

Thinking of this, Kitagawa Rumi took a deep breath, got up from the bed, put on her slippers, opened the door and walked out.

Since the first day of the new year, because she was worried about being photographed by reporters, Hoshino Ai has been living in Kitagawa's house. She didn't even think about going back to get daily necessities and clothes. The toothpaste, toothbrush and face towel she used were all Kitagawa Ryo's. Now, what she is wearing are all Kitagawa Ryo's shirts and down jackets, which wrap her loosely and warmly.

"Hahaha, look at this comment, it actually said something like 'It must be because the mother didn't educate her well since she was young that she became such a bitch', and this and this, 'You can tell at a glance that her upbringing was not good, I guess the mother is also a bitch, so she would have such a bitch daughter', it's just too funny, can you please give me more?"

As Kitagawa Rumi walked into the living room, she heard Hoshino Ai's sweet laughter. Looking towards the sofa, she saw Hoshino Ai, who was half leaning on Kitagawa Ryo's chest, resting her head on his thigh and browsing her cell phone, holding her cell phone upwards. She seemed to be in a very good mood.

"Come to think of it, that person in the mental hospital should have been able to see the news. She probably still thinks that we two deliberately acted to frame her. But now that it's officially revealed, I kind of want to see her expression."

Beichuan Liang also laughed when he heard this:

"Love's attitude is better than I thought. Kyoko was worried that you would be affected by these online comments. She secretly sent me a text message this morning and told me to try not to let you go online in the next two days."

"Why should I care? Liang is by my side now. Even if they send a thousand or ten thousand more messages, it won't change this fact."

Hoshino Ai raised the corners of her mouth playfully, but then she also raised her white calves, kicked the air lightly twice, and snorted softly. It seemed that she was not as indifferent as she said.

"Is Ruby up yet?"

Kitagawa Ryo was originally planning to talk to Hoshino Ai about the details of the wedding preparations, but he suddenly looked up and saw his sister walking out of the room with messy blonde hair, and he nodded and greeted her.

"Well, I was not thoughtful enough about yesterday's report. I caused trouble for my brother and sister Ai. I should not answer anything at this time..."

Kitagawa Rumi pursed her lips and tried to look at Hoshino Ai's belly in a covert manner while speaking. But it was winter after all, and although the heating was on at home, Hoshino Ai was still wearing an oversized Kitagawa Ryo's down jacket, so it was completely impossible to see clearly.

"This is how reporters are these days. Just now, Dr. Goro sent me a message from his wife's phone, saying that many reporters went to the hospital in Miyazaki, so I had to take a leave of absence and stay at home temporarily. But I should be fine after a day or two when the fever subsides. Ruby, don't worry at all."

Beichuan Liang reached out to help tidy up his sister's hair and replied with a smile.

"Yeah, and I also know that Ruby wants to relieve some of the pressure on me and Liang. Her intentions are good, and she will definitely not blame you."

On the other side, Hoshino Ai also smiled, stood up from Kitagawa Ryo's thigh, walked to the sink, took the comb and hairband, and gently opened Ryo's hand that was caressing Kitagawa Rumi's head:

"The more you rub it, the more tangled it becomes. Let me do it."

"No, I will..."

Kitagawa Rumi subconsciously opened her mouth to refuse, but Hoshino Ai pressed her down on the stool without saying anything and gently stroked her head:

"Of course I know Ruby can do it, but I also want to comb and braid Ruby's hair. Don't worry, I'm very skilled. If you don't believe me, just ask Liang."

"That's true."

When Hoshino Ai called his name, Kitagawa Ryo was stunned for a moment, then nodded.

"There's no need to hesitate at all."

Seeing this, Hoshino Ai pouted a little in dissatisfaction and gave Kitagawa Ryo a coquettish look:

"Even during the first two years when Ruby came to the Kitagawa family, someone who had no idea how to take care of a child was desperate and asked for help everywhere. At that time, I even taught Ryo how to braid her hair."

"Yes, yes, although at that time, she didn't even know how to put on lipstick, and her fashion sense was terrible. She had to ask me to help her buy clothes, and the only way for her to dress herself up as a girl was to braid her hair. But she did make a great contribution... right?"

Faced with Hoshino Ai who suddenly took credit for it, Kitagawa Ryo smiled and shook his head and joked.

"I know everything now, why do you keep bringing up these dark histories?"

Although Hoshino Ai said this, the corners of her mouth rose unconsciously, and her hands seemed to move more quickly. After a short while, she had skillfully tied Kitagawa Rumi's hair into her most common swallowtail hairstyle.

"cute!"