They all pushed me!

Kitagawa Rumi nodded to show that she understood. Being much taller than Kurokawa Akane, she didn't need a stool. She took the curved spoon from the other person's hand, stood on tiptoe slightly, scooped some soup from the pot, blew on it gently several times, and then put it into her mouth, giving a very high evaluation.

"Because I often watch various cooking instructional videos with my mother recently, and she also teaches me some of them, but now I can only cook simple dishes like this."

Kurokawa Akane shook her head and said with some disappointment:

"After all, there really is nothing to do during this period of time."

"Well... although my brother always tells me that Xiaoqian needs to figure things out on her own and put her thoughts aside, in my opinion, it's completely unnecessary to dwell on these things."

Kitagawa Rumi nodded in understanding, pointed at herself, and said nonchalantly:

"After the rookie protection period, I am still scolded by all kinds of people online every day, saying that I am a team bully, that I only became famous because of my brother's popularity, and that I am not worthy of my position. But I never care. And despite the scolding, the trophy for the Rookie of the Year was finally taken back by our ACE, and it is now placed in my room."

"This is the umpteenth time I've heard Ruby talk about this trophy in the past two days."

After returning from the balcony with a pile of clothes, Beichuan Ryo, who was sitting on the sofa in the living room and folding clothes in an orderly manner, also let out a leisurely sigh. Although he knew that his sister had a special liking for this award that she had never won, he did not expect that her obsession would be so deep. If it was not so cold and disgusting, he would have doubted whether Rumi would abandon her teddy bear and put the trophy into bed before going to bed at night.

"As for Xiao Qian——"

Beichuan Liang lowered his head and pondered for a while, then he spoke:

"Let's try harder tomorrow and go to the LALALAI Theater again."

"But, but..."

"But if you want to go, remember to go early. Before your official rehearsal, you can come to the practice room to find me and listen to the class like before."

Just like a kitten being held by the scruff of the neck by fate, as soon as Kitagawa Ryo said this, Kurokawa Akane stammered her lips, and suddenly she couldn't even utter a word of refusal. After a long while, she reluctantly nodded.

Beichuan Ryoya stopped talking and concentrated on folding the last piece of Hoshino Ai's underwear that was draped over his thigh and putting it aside. Then he stood up, took a deep breath, stretched his arms, and spoke with a slightly higher voice:

"Then let's eat first. Ai has to record "B Komachi x B Komachi" today, so she will be back a little later, so you don't have to wait for her."

Perhaps because she saw the neatly arranged pile of clothes next to Beichuan Liang, Beichuan Rumi suddenly slapped her head and hurried to the second floor:

"I just remembered that I haven't collected my clothes yet. Brother and Xiao Qian, please wait a moment. I'll be down after I finish packing. It will be quick."

"Got it. Ryo-senpai and I will wait for Ruby."

Upon hearing this, Akane Kurokawa quickly agreed. This was one of the strange rules of the Kitagawa family that she knew. It seemed that it was because Sister Ai said that she wanted to cultivate and train Rumi's self-care ability, and she felt that Rumi was getting older and older, and it was not convenient to give all her underwear to Kitagawa Ryo to wash, hang and put away as before. So not long ago, she began to consciously let Kitagawa Rumi take care of her own clothes, and the place for drying clothes was also separated from Kitagawa Ryo and Hoshino Ai, and was placed separately on the second floor where her bedroom was.

Of course, any process is gradual. What Kitagawa Rumi is responsible for now is just to collect and fold the clothes she has hung out to dry every day. The cleaning work is still left to Hoshino Ai, who is currently the most idle person in the family.

While waiting for his sister, Kitagawa Ryo naturally turned his gaze to Kurokawa Akane, who was sitting opposite him with a wandering look and seemed to be distracted.

Although he had anticipated that his cute junior who was too naive compared to Kana Arima would suffer after officially entering the entertainment industry, Kitagawa Ryoya did not expect that Akane Kurokawa's character actually had an almost stubborn tendency to get stuck in a rut.

There has never been a perfect star in the industry who is only praised. Praise and slander are actually twin brothers. There are indeed examples on the Internet where people do not know the person, but when they see others praising him so much, they want to insult him out of rebellion.

And if you happen to see someone else cursing, then the psychological burden of joining in to vent will be further reduced. In the context of anonymity, even the slightest malice will be infinitely amplified when it comes to emotional output.

In fact, after the performance of "Matilda" at the beginning of the year, Kurokawa Akane's acting skills have not declined. She is still learning and improving steadily, and there is no arrogance in her attitude. It is only because of her rising popularity and increased attention that some negative comments inevitably appeared on the Internet.

However, for Akane Kurokawa, who has never experienced malice from others at such a close distance, and can even be said to have never suffered any setbacks outside of Arimaka, these comments are undoubtedly very shocking.

At first, Kurokawa Akane would reply seriously and say something like "I'm sorry, I will try harder next time", but immediately someone followed her reply to say that there was nothing wrong with Akane's performance and she didn't need to care about these rubbish comments.

After seeing that two factions with clear-cut stances turned the comment section of this comment into a battlefield of mutual abuse and accusations, Kurokawa Akane never dared to reply to others individually in this way again.

What really pushed Kurokawa Akane to the forefront was a stage accident two months ago during the LALALAL Theater's revival of "Matilda". Her sleep quality was getting worse and worse, and she suddenly lost focus on the stage and fell from the prop swing.

Although it was just a small mistake, the swings prepared for the child actors were placed very low, and the stage floor was covered with soft carpets to prevent injuries, and Kurokawa Akane, who fell from it, was indeed not hurt at all. The audience in the front row even wondered if this was an impromptu performance designed by Kurokawa Akane to further express the character's personality, and they were ready to applaud.

But the reality was that Kurokawa Akane fell there at a loss like a child who was on stage for the first time. She could not stand up or speak. The stalemate lasted for a long time. In the end, Kitagawa Ryo, who happened to be backstage that day, came forward to carry her off the stage. The troupe leader Kindaichi Toshiro came forward and hastily ended the performance on the grounds that Kurokawa Akane might be injured and needed to be examined.

It was that huge mistake that triggered a series of impacts. Kurokawa Akane, who was almost destined for the Best Newcomer of the Year, ultimately missed it. Since then, Kurokawa Akane has begun to resist performing on stage again. Everyone originally thought that she just needed some time to relax, but the result is that in addition to not wanting to perform on stage, now Kurokawa Akane even rarely goes to the troupe. Instead, she escapes and goes to the Kitagawa family every now and then under the pretext of visiting Ruby.

If there was one thing that surprised Kitagawa Ryo in this incident, it was that he had never noticed that Kurokawa Akane was actually a child who was very good at hiding things in her heart. He originally thought that when there were signs of such a thing, Kurokawa Akane would tell her parents directly, but the result was not the case.

According to what Kitagawa Ryo knew, even when Kurokawa Akane cried for a long time in his arms after stepping down that day, she was still choking up and didn't want him to call home, saying that she didn't want them to worry.

Although at first glance this may seem like a very sensible child, even so, Kitagawa Ryo would feel worried. In his opinion, being sensible or not is one thing, and wanting to keep everything to oneself and solve problems is another.

After all, one day you will encounter a situation that you cannot face or solve alone.

"I've done it! Did my brother not cheat on me?"

Just when Kitagawa Ryo was thinking about Kurokawa Akane, Kitagawa Rumi came back like a gust of wind, pulled out the chair next to Kitagawa Ryo, sat down and talked.

"Of course not, eat now."

Beichuan Liang also smiled when he heard this, and then nodded to Kurokawa Akane who was sitting opposite him:

"Xiao Qian, too."

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

Frankly speaking, ever since Kitagawa Ryo and Hoshino Ai got married, or since they officially announced their relationship, he hasn't given Kurokawa Akane acting lessons in a systematic way. On the one hand, it's because he was busy with various affairs and often couldn't spare the time. On the other hand, he has been teaching her for four or five years after all, and Kurokawa Akane herself is fully capable of becoming a master.

Just when Kitagawa Ryo was sitting alone in this familiar practice room after a long time, waiting and reminiscing about the past, the door of the room was suddenly pushed open. First, a timid little head poked in, and then Kurokawa Akane squeezed in through the crack in the door like a cat, closed the door carefully, and finally sat down in front of Kitagawa Ryo.

"Senior Liang."

"Yes—I am coming."

Beichuan Liang nodded, cleared his throat, and then skillfully entered the role of teacher, and said straight to the point as before:

"Today we are going to talk about the relationship between actors and audiences. In a drama performance, the actors' creation and the audience's appreciation complement each other, so some people say that any drama performance is a joint cooperation between actors and audiences."

"Xiao Qian will check the audience's comments about her online after each performance. That's why she hopes to get positive feedback from them."

"Well...but there are hundreds, thousands of people talking about me."

"But Xiao Qian, have you ever thought that these people only account for a few percent of the audience? If you only look at the number, they have indeed increased, but the proportion is actually the same. It is only because the base of Xiao Qian's audience and fans has increased that it seems that the number has increased rapidly in an instant."

"For the vast majority of the audience, they just look forward to a wonderful performance. For example, since I and Ai officially announced our relationship last year, the private messages between me and her personal accounts have totaled nearly five million messages. As for the letters sent to the company, there have been a total of 20,000."

"But the movie version of Tokyo Tower, which I starred in and released earlier this year, has set a record for the fastest initial box office revenue of over 10 billion yuan in domestic film history."

"When I think about the tens of millions of people who are willing to support me and walk into the theater, compared to them, those private messages and threats seem nothing more than that."

"I once said that Xiao Qian and Kana will become the best actresses in the country in the future, so it can be expected that if Xiao Qian is not prepared to give up and continues to move forward, she will only encounter more criticism and smears in the future, but at the same time, more people will like her."

After a long while, Kitagawa Ryo heard Kurokawa Akane ask in a low voice:

"Is it really?"

"If what Senior Liang said is true, Kana should be under more pressure than I am now, but she seems to have never had this kind of trouble."

"…Maybe I'll never be as good as her, and I won't be able to become the best actress in the country with her, as Ryo-senpai hopes."

After noticing that Kurokawa Akane was getting stubborn again, Kitagawa Ryo shook his head helplessly and took something out of his bag and placed it in front of her:

"No matter what Xiao Qian thinks, I have never doubted your talent or your efforts, and I believe you will not stop here just because of the current public opinion."

"I believe in my own judgment and vision, and if Xiao Qian is willing to believe in herself, I will still be waiting for you here tomorrow."

He handed over the draft contract from the agency, looked at the pendant hanging around Kurokawa Akane's neck that read "Misfortune befalls you" and said with a smile:

"I still remember the agreement between us, and I'm still waiting for the day to present the award to Xiao Qian."

Chapter 3: The story of the third year

Kitagawa Rumi is a somewhat strange idol.

This argument may be difficult to convince ordinary audiences outside the circle. After all, looking at the three members of the idol group ACE, which has debuted for more than two years, most people would probably prefer to apply the word "strange" to Abiko Samejima, who often uses emoticons to express her mood and expresses what she wants to say with single-frame or four-frame comics.

After all, in the eyes of the public, Kitagawa Rumi, who is the youngest, most boisterous and better-looking member of the group, is closer to the traditional impression of a training idol. After all, apart from the somewhat strange Samejima Abiko, it is indeed difficult for MEM, who is about to celebrate her 20th birthday this year and may be older than some fans, to provide this kind of emotional value.

Compared to her childish image when she first debuted, Kitagawa Rumi, who has already passed her 15th birthday, does not show any signs of growing crooked or even ugly. With her secondary development basically completed, Rumi, who can be called a beautiful girl in every sense, has also experienced a surge in popularity, and has gradually begun to consolidate her position as the number one in the group's popularity ranking.

However, as an independent producer in the industry who has worked closely with the ACE group many times, Katsuya Kaburagi holds a completely different idea.

In his opinion, MEM is the closest to a traditional idol among the three. He is good in front of the camera, has outstanding variety show skills, and is smooth and friendly in dealing with people. Even if he quits the idol industry and opens a personal channel on YouTube or Tiktok to host some shows like Hoshino Ai does now, his popularity should not be bad.

The advantage of Samejima Abiko is that she has a clear idea of ​​how to build and maintain her own personality. She has good looks, which makes the show very effective. She also has outstanding drawing skills among professional idols, and can even be considered the best comic artist among idols. Based on these aspects, Kaburagi Katsuya thinks that virtual idols that have been gradually emerging and gaining popularity in the past two years and live broadcasting on the Internet are more suitable for her than professional idols who sing and dance on stage.

And Kitagawa Rumi's words——

Katsuragi Kaburagi once heard a colleague at Kitagawa Ryo's wedding that year say that Rumi was a bit similar to her new sister-in-law Hoshino Ai, but having known Hoshino Ai for more than ten years and witnessed her entire idol career, he did not quite agree with this statement.

The only similarity between Kitagawa Rumi and Hoshino Ai is that inexplicable quality that can attract all the audience's attention and focus on them. But this is not exclusive to these two. Most national-level actors have this superstar quality. Not to mention, Rumi's brother Kitagawa Ryo also possesses this talent.

However, unlike Kitagawa Ryo and Hoshino Ai, who have an almost natural temperament that they have exuded after more than ten or twenty years on the stage, Kitagawa Rumi now only vaguely reveals such a feeling.

The most direct example is that in the past two years, among the six albums and thirty singles released by ACE, Kitagawa Rumi only served as the center thirteen times. Although her performance was amazing every time, she was still not as good as Hoshino Ai, who served as the unchanging center in B Komachi from beginning to end.

Actually, this is not because ACE officials are deliberately equalizing the number of C positions among the three members of the group. In fact, just like the competition mechanism when they filmed their debut single "The Sun and Sunflowers", the production team has always decided who will take the C position based on the specific performances of the three. In those singles where Kitagawa Rumi failed to compete, her performance was obviously not as good as that of MEM啾 and Samejima Abiko.

Compared with her two teammates, Kitagawa Rumi has not yet formed her own fixed style. Although she can now interpret the gloomy unrequited love and show an overflowing girlish feeling, Kaburagi Katsuya has never seen the kind of extreme and eye-catching performance that she showed in "The Mermaid Princess" and "The Sun and Sunflowers" when she debuted.

If it were any other idol, Kaburagi Katsuya would probably come to the conclusion that this girl has lost her original aura. However, at the ACE's third anniversary concert not long ago, Kitagawa Rumi once again broke his doubts with an impeccable performance. Her every move was just as stunning as when they first met.

However, just when Kaburagi Katsuya thought that Rumi had come out of this bottleneck period, in the next game, Kitagawa Rumi returned to her mediocre state. Although she was still outstanding and the audience was just as satisfied, it always felt like something was missing.

It’s really... a bit strange.

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

"Yes, today I will also be broadcasting on behalf of the doll camera, so I won't be on camera this time."

"Hmm? Why? Because my hair isn't completely dry yet. It's actually very troublesome to maintain long hair like mine. I always ask MEM啾 and Abi子 for help. I think they have an extra hour of free time every day than I do."

"The little bear is very cute. Can you send me a link? I want the same one. Sorry, we don't have the same one. This is an exclusive custom-made one that Morinaga gave to my brother a long time ago. Of course, it is really cute. Thank you for the compliment."

“Hey, hey, hey, what do you mean I’m making comments again? Thanks to the SC (short for super chat, i.e. eye-catching comments) for ‘I’m only pushing Ruby’. Yes, my hair is too long, it’s not convenient for me to blow it by myself.”

"Have you ever thought about cutting your hair shorter? Well - although it always feels really troublesome, I haven't really thought about cutting my hair short."

"Of course, it's because I think long hair looks better, and there are many hairstyles that can be done with long hair. Recently, Sister Ai taught me how to make a fishtail braid (Asuna's hairstyle in Sword Art Online), which makes me look like a princess!"

"..."

After chatting with fans for half an hour, Kitagawa Rumi leaned to the right, reached out her hand to hold the doll's left arm, and waved it up and down and left and right at the camera:

"That's the end of today's live broadcast. Tomorrow night, ACE's official channel will update the latest episode. Don't forget to watch it on time."

After saying these words, Kitagawa Rumi quickly turned off the camera, live broadcast software and computer, then clamped the doll on the chair next to her with her legs, lifted it up, slightly loosened the gap, and used her hands to catch the doll that was slowly sliding down from between her legs due to gravity.

After lightly kicking off her slippers, Kitagawa Rumi hugged the doll and fluttered onto the big bed not far away. When she was about to roll around, she found that one side of her hair was still a little wet.

Looks like I still need a hair dryer.

Because she couldn't turn on the hair dryer during the live broadcast, Kitagawa Rumi, who thought her hair would dry naturally, had to slowly get up from the bed. After rummaging around the room for a long time, she remembered that she had left the hair dryer in the living room on the first floor yesterday.

After tying her hair up with her hands, Kitagawa Rumi opened the door of the room. When she walked to the entrance of the corridor, she subconsciously looked upstairs, then turned back with her lips pursed, held the handrail of the stairs, and walked to the first floor step by step.

Although Hoshino Ai also suggested that she should buy a hair drying cap, Kitagawa Rumi had already worn enough caps. In her previous life, this cap had almost become a fixed external organ for her.

She would rather let them hang loose like this, because in Kitagawa Rumi's eyes, they grew from her previous life to this life, and they finally gained freedom from the cage of imprisonment and restored their original appearance.

After turning a corner in the stairwell, Kitagawa Rumi opened her eyes wide in surprise. The lights in the living room were on. After walking two steps down, she saw Kitagawa Ryo sitting on the sofa in the living room, teasing the cat at home.

Perhaps due to her breed, Hotaru, who had been in the Kitagawa family for more than seven years, had not changed much in size. She was still as petite and cute as ever. As if she had noticed Kitagawa Rumi's gaze at her, Hotaru, who was quietly lying in Kitagawa Ryo's palm, suddenly raised her head and called out softly in her direction:

"Meow."

Following Hotaru's gaze, Kitagawa Ryo turned back and seemed to know exactly what Kitagawa Rumi was here for. He pointed at the hair dryer on the coffee table and said:

"Ruby is here to blow dry her hair, right?"

"Yes, brother."

Kitagawa Rumi nodded, walked over and picked up the hair dryer, plugged it in, and said with some doubt:

"But I remember I put it over there in the cabinet yesterday. Did your sister use it?"

She and Hoshino Ai both have the same long hair, and they do occasionally borrow each other's hair products and hair dryers.

"That's not the case. I used it myself. I just gave Hotaru a bath. Ai should still be chatting with Umino-san right now. After all, the special episode of "It's Not My Fault That I'm Not Popular" is about to start filming."

Kitagawa Ryo gently scratched Hotaru's chin. Today, almost three years after he and Hoshino Ai got married, the storm of public opinion surrounding them has finally died down a lot. Apart from reproducing Kimura Takuya's annual fixed program and tabloids promoting a wave of rumors of their "marriage breakdown and cheating" every once in a while, the various extreme behaviors of fans have been reduced a lot.

It was under this premise that the production team of "It's Not My Fault That I'm Popular" which had been silent for so long felt that the time was right and brought up the special episode plan that had been confirmed before to the two of them again. They even generously expanded the original budget of one episode to three episodes. Looking at the situation, if it weren't for the name of a special episode, they would have wanted to shoot a second season directly.

For Hoshino Ai, who has basically only appeared on variety shows on Berry Pro and her own channel, as well as on the stage of the LALALAI troupe in the past two years, this project is also quite attractive. It is not only an excellent opportunity to test public opinion, but she herself also clearly wants to star in this special episode.

After all, theoretically speaking, half of the screenwriters are sitting on her side.

However, Kitagawa Rumi, who had become so skilled that it became a passive skill, automatically filtered out words such as "Umino-san" and "Escape is shameful", and looked at the cat in her brother's arms with some concern, holding up the hair dryer in her hand and asked:

"Brother, did you dry Hotaru thoroughly after bathing her? If not, she might catch a cold, or even develop respiratory or digestive tract infections."

"Also, did Firefly not move around while she was blowing? Many pet cats are very afraid of the noise of hair dryers. Was Firefly behaving well?"

Kitagawa Ryo could understand his sister's skeptical attitude. After all, as the owner of Hotaru who had been working diligently since he first came to the Kitagawa family, it was not a problem for her to worry about it. Therefore, he smiled and replied:

"Don't worry, Ruby. I blew Ying's hair very carefully. It's been about an hour, and it should be completely dry. Ying was also very obedient and lay quietly on my legs without moving."