They all pushed me!

Instead of answering, Guest No. 4 simply pointed his finger in his direction.

What she meant was: she hit herself.

“Sometimes I hit myself.”

Yusuke reached out and wrapped the right hand of guest number four. He lowered his head, tears flickered in his pupils, and pursed his lips and said:

“It must be very painful.”

"It must have hurt."

He wanted to ask more, but the timer next to him beeped, reminding him that Yusuke's service time was over.

Guest No. 4 sat up almost reflexively, but left a few tears on Beichuan Ryo's thighs, which flashed very clearly under the erotic purple light.

She immediately reached out to wipe it.

He didn't even dare to touch it with his palm, but instead used his elbow very respectfully to try to wipe away those tears.

But Yusuke grabbed her arm with his backhand, then leaned forward and suddenly hugged her in his arms.

The timer was still beeping and the music in the room was still playing, but both of them felt a huge silence at that moment, and the neon-like purple lights swept across their bodies in patches.

It was as if something new and unfamiliar was cruelly trying to grow out from somewhere, bubbling out little by little from beneath the skin, from deep in the blood vessels, and from the roots of the bones.

“It’s very warm.”

Kitagawa Ryo hugged Hoshino Ai's neck, as if he had no extra strength left, and only said this in a voice as soft as a mosquito.

Then, there is guest number four, which is also the only frontal shot of Hoshino Ai in the entire film.

Half of her mask fell off because of the previous action, and the embarrassing scar was revealed.

Hoshino Ai's eyes were filled with panic and confusion at first, but after hearing what Kitagawa Ryo said, they instantly turned into relief and relaxation. Her shoulders shrunk as if she had lost all the strength, as if she had handed over all the weight to them.

It turned out that the two people were hugging each other sincerely and whispering in each other's ears.

They can't see each other's faces.

Chapter 64: Everything in moderation

LALALAI Theater Building, Tokyo.

The rehearsal of the drama "Oedipus Rex" has reached its final chapter. However, today, in the front row of the audience, in addition to Kitagawa Rumi, who has been eagerly awaiting the final scene, Kurokawa Akane also came along.

Ever since she was defeated by Kana Arima in the previous audition, Akane Kurokawa did not choose to audition with several other crews assigned to her by Ryo Kitagawa. Instead, she stepped up her acting training in the troupe, and even during breaks, she would concentrate on observing other senior actors' interpretations of various roles up close.

Therefore, unlike Kitagawa Rumi who was only interested in having fun, Kurokawa Akane hoped to learn something from this rehearsal, or to try to apply some of the things she learned from the pile of new books she bought home in the past two days.

During the preparation time before the rehearsal started, Kitagawa Rumi was sitting idly in a comfortable chair, swinging her calves back and forth restlessly and chatting with Kurokawa Akane beside her.

"Hey, has Xiao Qian started to tie her hair now?"

Kitagawa Rumi looked up and was somewhat surprised to find that Kurokawa Akane did not have her hair loose as she had when they first met, but had her hair combed into a side-swept pigtail that looked somewhat familiar.

"My mother tied it for me."

"I see... But I happen to know how to style this hairstyle."

After being confused for a while, Kitagawa Rumi recognized that this was the hairstyle she usually wore, and she spoke proudly.

As she grew older, Kitagawa Ryo began to intentionally or unintentionally instill in her sister some independent ideas of doing things on her own, such as the matter of braiding her own hair, which Kitagawa Rumi had just taken over from her brother two days ago.

However, in front of friends who are younger than her, Kitagawa Rumi naturally has to show off. On the one hand, to prove that what she said is true, on the other hand, it is just right to kill the boring time before the opening. Kitagawa Rumi also jumped off the seat directly, moved closer to Kurokawa Akane, and boasted proudly:

"Xiao Qian's hair is a little loose, and the angle is a little crooked. Why don't you let me help you tie it again... Well, I'm very good at tying this hairstyle."

"Oh."

When she found out that Kitagawa Rumie didn't see through her little thoughts, Kurokawa Akane felt relieved and nodded in agreement.

"My brother used to braid my hair, but I never thought that one day I would be able to braid other people's hair as well."

After getting Kurokawa Akane's reply, Kitagawa Rumi hummed a little tune happily, quickly took off the hair tie on her head, put it around her wrist skillfully, and then began to help tidy up Akane's hair.

Because it was a relatively simple hairstyle, it didn't take much time. Kitagawa Rumi copied her own look on Kurokawa Akane's head, and then took two steps back with a great sense of accomplishment:

"All right."

"Thank you for your hard work, Ruby."

"It's okay, it's okay. I think it's pretty cute. I'll ask my brother to come and see it later."

Kitagawa Rumi smiled and reached out to touch her work. She glanced at the time before sitting back in her seat.

“It’s about to start.”

"Ruby looks excited?"

"Of course, I am looking forward to the performance of my brother and sister Ai."

Hearing the other party's intimate name, Kurokawa Akane tilted her head in confusion and asked hesitantly:

"Ruby, do you also know that Hoshino-senpai who always follows Ryo-senpai and always seems to be glowing?"

"Do you love your sister? We have indeed known each other for a long time, probably since I was just born?"

Kitagawa Rumi looked up and recalled for a moment, but immediately turned around and warned Kurokawa Akane mysteriously:

"She and my brother have been friends for a long time, but her motives have become increasingly impure recently, so Xiao Qian must keep an eye on her actions in the troupe for me."

"Is the motive impure?"

Akane Kurokawa was taken aback by Kitagawa Rumi's description. She seemed to have only seen this kind of embellishment in criminal investigation works.

Kitagawa Rumi then realized that the friend in front of her was just a six-year-old child, and that she was not a reincarnated person like her, so she could only rack her brains to explain with difficulty:

"That's the one……"

She held back her words for a long time, feeling that it was not a good idea to say such lewd things on the Internet to a six-year-old girl. However, it was Akane Kurokawa who understood the meaning first and spoke innocently:

"Are you going to get married? Become a parent?"

"…How about we skip this topic?"

Kitagawa Rumi, who was suddenly hit hard, turned her head stiffly and changed the subject in an even stiffer way:

"Rehearsal is about to begin."

"Uh-huh."

Akane Kurokawa didn't expect that her words would smash Ruby into the center of the earth. She stroked her hairstyle and felt it was a bit strange. Now she obviously didn't know and couldn't understand Ruby's thoughts.

She just felt that Ruby had a brother like Liang and could live with him under the same roof. If it were her, she would have been satisfied long ago.

Akane Kurokawa shook her head in confusion, choosing to focus all her attention on the stage that was about to begin.

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

King Oedipus, who was about to question the shepherds of that year and learn about his own life story from them, was dissuaded and even pleaded by the pale-faced Jocasta, who now understood everything.

Jocasta, who was still feeling happy because others praised her happy marriage in the previous scene, has now fallen into great sorrow and fear. She leaned on Oedipus' shoulder and kept lamenting:

"I beg you to listen to me and not do this."

"I wish you the best and advise you with good intentions."

"Unfortunate man, I wish you didn't know your origins."

But King Oedipus, who was only interested in finding out the truth, blatantly rejected his wife's plea. After Jocasta could no longer bear the blow and did not want to hear the cruel truth and fled back to the palace, he finally faced up to all his past.

The fate predicted by the oracle had actually caught up with him a long time ago, just like the Monkey King who had been circling in the palm of the Buddha but thought he had reached the end of the world. For the self-righteous King Oedipus, everything in the past had become a joke.

Then, there is Jocasta's suicide.

Kitagawa Rumi was actually quite happy when she first watched this part. Hoshino Ai's acting was great, and she perfectly reproduced the final scene in the script where Jocasta went mad and groaned, burst into tears, and finally locked the door and hanged herself.

But she immediately saw King Oedipus, who had also fallen into madness, rushing into the bedroom. He rushed around, holding a sword snatched from the guards in his hand, waving it wildly as if he was going to fight some invisible enemy, and asked the servant next to him hysterically:

"My wife... no, where is my mother?"

Then he broke open the locked door, lowered Jocasta, who was hanging dead, and, removing the two golden pins from her robe, stabbed his own eyes.

Even though it was just a rehearsal and no props were used, and no blood was dripping, Kitagawa Rumi still felt it deeply. She felt that her brother in front of her was shrouded in great pain and he was crying for the woman lying on the ground in front of him.

I know it's just a fake performance on the stage.

But it was cold, that acting that swallowed up the eyes and hearts of all the audience around like a black hole.

Just like when Hoshino Ai saw Kitagawa Ryo in front of the cemetery, Kitagawa Rumi's throat seemed to be lost at this moment. All her original feelings and thoughts were swept away at once, and her calves, which had been swaying leisurely back and forth, also stopped moving.

An inexplicable idea suddenly popped up in her mind:

When he died, did Ryo cry and feel sad for Tendouji Sarina like this?

It's like a weird competitive mentality.

Eager to get the answer to the question in her mind, Kitagawa Rumi took out her mobile phone, found Dr. Goro's name in the address book, thought for a moment, edited a text message and sent it.

She remembered that her brother had taken time out to visit Miyazaki Prefecture last month. It seemed that he had helped Hoshino with his love for his mother, so they took this opportunity to have dinner and travel together for two days.

"Doctor Goro, I saw a fan online saying that he took a photo of his brother at a cemetery in Miyazaki Prefecture last month. Weren't you traveling together? How did you end up in a place like that?"

If Goro Amamiya answered no, then she could also say that the fans must have seen it wrong; if Goro Amamiya said yes, then it would be convenient for her to continue asking.

Kitagawa Rumi was holding her cell phone, watching the final scene of Oedipus Rex while waiting for a reply from Amemiya Goro.

About five minutes later, she also received a reply from there.

"Yes, Ruby. Ryo and I did go to the cemetery at that time. Did a fan take a picture of it? We have to be more careful next time. As for the reason for going there, it was to pay tribute to a friend of mine and Ryo."

Perhaps because he felt that Kitagawa Rumi was still young, Amemiya Goro did not explain too clearly and just replied simply.

But this at least makes Kitagawa Rumi feel at ease.

It has been nine years since her death. If my brother still goes to pay tribute to her, it means that the identity of Tendoji Sarina must occupy a very important position in his heart.

After completing this series of inquiries and self-comfort that even she felt was a bit neurotic, Kitagawa Rumi finally calmed down.

It's strange to say, because she had already decided to completely abandon the identity of Tendoji Sarina and live a second life under the name of Kitagawa Rumi, which was many times more exciting than her previous life.

Why is it?

When Kitagawa Rumi supported her little face and raised her head again, the rehearsal on the stage had completely ended, and she could see the backs of Kitagawa Ryo and Hoshino Ai returning to the backstage together.

"I'm going to find my brother."

Kitagawa Rumi said this to Kurokawa Akane beside her, then she jumped off her seat and ran towards the backstage, just in time to hear two people inside joking with each other about a topic related to the lines, and their cheerful laughter was very clear even through the curtain.

"Hey, Ruby's here."

Hoshino Ai was the first to notice her, then she walked up to her and rubbed her little head with a smile:

"Ruby, you've always wanted to see the final chapter of Oedipus Rex, right? Today you finally got your wish. What do you think of my performance with Ryo?"

Her palms were two sizes larger than Kitagawa Rumi's own, and were the hands of an adult.

At this moment, Kitagawa Rumi finally realized what she was worried about.

If she hadn't been sick and hadn't been reincarnated, she would be the same age as Hoshino Ai now.

But she immediately thought of another point.

If she hadn't fallen ill and hadn't been reincarnated, it would have been impossible for her to have formed such a bond with Kitagawa Ryo now.

Just as Kitagawa Rumi was standing there in a daze, Kitagawa Ryoya seemed to have remembered something, took out a small gadget from a bag beside him, walked over with a smile and squatted in front of her:

"I forgot about it before, so I'll just take it as a way to get some free stuff from the troupe. How about I give you a small gift?"

"want."

Although her consciousness was still in a mess, Kitagawa Rumi's brain automatically processed and accepted the gift from her brother.

It was a small and cute pendant in the shape of a girl with animal ears, with a soft texture and strung with a rope. Beichuan Ryo stepped forward and after getting his sister's answer, he carefully put it around her neck.

Kitagawa Ryo received a complete set of three styles of pendants from Kindaichi Toshiro. He gave the one engraved with "Know Yourself" to Arima Kana, and he originally planned to give the remaining two to Kitagawa Rumi and Kurokawa Akane today.

Now that his sister happened to come over, he took it out and helped Kitagawa Rumi put it on.

Thinking about the fact that he had once told his sister one of the maxims, "Making a false oath will bring disaster upon oneself," and the one about "Knowing yourself" had already been given to her, Beichuan Ryo specially chose the last of the three maxims.

【μηδ ν γαν】

"The meaning of this sentence is 'everything should be done in moderation'. As the last of the three maxims, the main reason why it is regarded as an oracle is..."

Beichuan Liang also planned to take this opportunity to tell his sister some short stories from Greek mythology, so as to make it both educational and entertaining.

But his words were immediately interrupted by Kitagawa Rumi's words.