They all pushed me!

"I don't know if this time they will choose a beautiful girl who appears once in thousands of years."

"Brother, do you think I'm a beauty that only appears once in thousands of years?"

Kitagawa Ryou was amused by her question, and Kitagawa Ryou reached out and scratched the tip of her nose:

"Ruby hasn't grown up yet."

"Woo..."

Kitagawa Rumi pouted, showing a very dissatisfied expression.

The first contestant on stage has appeared. She is a twelve-year-old girl.

Although they seem very young, in fact the girls participating in this talent show are not very old, and many champions in the past were girls around twelve years old.

"In two and a half years, I will be twelve years old!"

Kitagawa Rumi spoke unconvinced.

"Sister Ai debuted at the age of twelve, right?"

“I will also debut at that time!”

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

"As long as you don't give up, you can change the world."

MEM啾 was quietly waiting to go on stage in the corner of the lounge. She was murmured softly the lines spoken by Ukiyo Hidetoshi, played by Kitagawa Ryo, in the first episode of "Kamen Rider Polar Fox" that had just been aired.

As expected, she successfully passed the preliminary round of the All Japan National Beauty Contest.

In fact, the fifteen-year-old MEM啾 was even on the older side among the many contestants. During the auditions, he was surrounded by girls who were only twelve or thirteen years old.

After all, among the winners in many past sessions, most of the girls were between the ages of twelve and fourteen.

For MEM啾, she actually doesn’t just want to pursue the final championship.

As long as she can gain enough attention and popularity, it would be great if an agency is willing to sign her and let her debut as an idol.

"I will not give up……"

MEM啾 encouraged herself again.

She didn't want to disappoint her supportive mother, nor did she want to disappoint her future self.

Let your future self regret it one day——

I regret what I should have started with in my life.

Chapter 5: Keep the Book You Like Secret for Now (k)

【The whole view of Tokyo looks like a huge cemetery. The crowded, rectangular buildings are like tombstones. Although the sizes are completely different, there is actually not much difference in this respect. The huge cemetery is vast and boundless, stretching all the way to the distant horizon. People are full of longing for this city and come here from their hometowns. This city is sleeping with the dreams, hopes, regrets, and sorrows of many people. In this way, it may really be a huge cemetery.】

Hoshino Ai was sitting in the back seat of the car. The cars in front of her were stuck in a long line again. It seemed that it would take some time for traffic to pass normally. So she simply took out a book from her bag and found the last progress from the bookmark.

“I never thought that one day I would be able to see the precious scene of Ai reading a book.”

Saito Ichito, the president of Mei Pro Agency, who was driving the car himself, saw Hoshino Ai's action through the rearview mirror, wiped his nose and made a joke.

"That means the president doesn't know me at all. Although I haven't been to school much, I have always been reading various books."

Hoshino Ai was flipping through the pages of the book without looking up.

"Of course I know. I just said that on purpose. After all, when Ai just debuted almost ten years ago, I was planning to shape you into a stupid character."

Saito Ichito folded his hands and rested them on the steering wheel, turned his head and looked at Hoshino Ai, and laughed strangely:

"The love at that time seemed to be unable to even remember my name, no, everyone else's name."

"Hey, that was a long time ago. Does President Saito want me to call you Sato again? Or Saiki or something? People always grow up."

Hoshino Ai curled her lips. She wasn't as stupid as Saito Ichigo said at that time. Although she really couldn't remember people's names, she obviously corrected this problem very quickly.

"By the way, when Ai first went to the LALALAI Theater Company training class, did you call Beichuan's name by mistake? I remember you couldn't remember it at all in the car at that time, and you called him Beiyuan and Bei and so on."

Saito Ichigo's words brought her back to distant memories. Hoshino Ai supported her chin with her right hand and replied with some nostalgia:

"Although I didn't call her by the wrong name when we first met, I didn't call her by the right name either. I think I called her 'orange-flavored toothpaste'."

Upon hearing this, Saito Ichito curled his lips and replied after a long pause:

"It's really... quite your style."

"Almost. After all, when we first met, we didn't know what would happen next, and I didn't think that I would have any intersection with Liang at that time."

“So fate is so wonderful.”

Hoshino Ai was making a summary on her own, but after being interrupted by Saito Ichigo, she lost interest in reading. She lay on her side on the back seat of the car and covered her face with the open book.

"'To-Kyoto Tower', this is the book Liang recommended before."

Because the spine and cover of the book were exposed, Saito Ichigo, who was bored and waiting for the traffic to ease, read out the title of the book and asked with interest.

"Right."

Hoshino Ai's voice came from under the covered book, sounding a little muffled:

"During the release of Shoplifters, Ryo and Nakagawa-san shared some behind-the-scenes footage on social media, including this one."

"'It's a great honor to work with Mr. Nakagawa. I've been a fan of his books for a long time, and today I finally got his autograph.' This is what he posted."

"As a result, this old book published ten years ago has been successfully promoted again. Yes, it has been written on the cover of the reprinted version that 'famous actor Beichuan Liang recommends'."

Saito Ichito also nodded and said with emotion:

"Beichuan is really popular recently."

"But our Ai isn't bad either... Oh, the road is finally open."

After chatting for so long, the traffic conditions finally returned to normal and Saito Ichigo quickly started the car. Although he had already set off earlier, it was always safer to arrive early.

"Today is the second round of the All Japan National Beauty Girl Contest. Ai only needs to show her face for a while. It's almost only in the finals that she really needs to participate in the show. It's still relatively easy in the beginning."

"So when you go to the site today, just get familiar with the other staff and judges around you. This beauty pageant is supported by many financial groups and big agencies, and it has produced many star actresses in the past."

Saito Ichito was driving while admonishing Hoshino Ai. Although he knew that she was already a 21-year-old adult, the habits she had developed over the past ten years could not be changed in a short time. He still patiently explained the work to Hoshino Ai in detail:

"Do you know why you received the invitation from the producers this time?"

"Because I'm a nationally ranked ultimate beautiful girl?"

Hoshino Ai spread out her left hand's thumb and index finger and placed them on her chin, and answered confidently.

“…Uh uh.”

Saito Ichito was speechless and choked up. After a long silence, he explained again:

“Maybe that’s the reason, but it’s not the main reason.”

"The key is that Ai recently starred in the latest Kamen Rider, and she has quite a few scenes. Toei is one of the sponsors of the All-Japan National Beauty Contest. For example, the last year's champion, Ayaka Imoto, later starred as the heroine of Kamen Rider Revice."

"In addition to Toei, many TV Asahi production teams will also pay attention to this area. This is a rare opportunity to expand my network."

Hoshino Ai raised her right hand perfunctorily and responded:

"I got it."

"But don't count on it too much, President Saito. I don't really want to stay in this industry anymore. After all, if we only talk about the money I've earned, I already have enough savings to live on for two lifetimes."

Saito Ichigo also shook his head helplessly, but he couldn't find any reason to refute for a while.

After all, she debuted as an idol and entered the entertainment industry just to find the so-called "love". In fact, after graduating from the Tokyo Dome concert, Hoshino Ai can completely quit this circle without any burden and live an ordinary life...

"Hey, hey, this is not right. You actually got me involved as well."

After pondering for a long time, Saito Ichigo finally realized something was wrong:

"Just for Kitagawa, Ai must have a reason to stay in this circle."

"Meh, you found me."

Hoshino Ai stood up full of energy and stuck out her tongue without any embarrassment:

"Liang is such an acting maniac. He probably makes ten times more than me, but he keeps taking roles and performing. He doesn't seem tired or ready to rest at all."

"Although I can indeed retire from the entertainment industry, if Ryo is still an actor, wouldn't I be the same as Ruby? I can only stay at home every day, and I don't even get to spend half a year with Ryo in a year. I also have to watch Ryo's rivalry and even love scenes with other women on TV frequently."

Hoshino Ai put the book into her bag, took out her phone from her pocket, clicked on Twitter, and muttered:

"I don't want to."

What Saito Ichito couldn't see was that the search bar for Hoshino Ai showed the following:

【Kamen Rider Polar Fox CP】

【Ukiyo Eitoshi Tsumuri】

【Kitagawa Ryo Hoshino Ai】

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

The judging panel of the All Japan National Beauty Contest is quite lively. As Saito Ichito introduced before, there are still too many contestants who have entered the second round of selection through the auditions, and it is impossible to comment on them one by one. So unless there are contestants who are particularly stunning or the judges are particularly interested in, most of the time the process is basically for the contestants to go on stage and introduce themselves, plus one minute to show their talents, and the judges only need to close their eyes and give their scores.

Because elimination and promotion are mainly determined by calculating the number of audience votes, the judges' scores do not account for a high proportion. Unless all votes are one or ten, it is difficult to affect the final result.

"Hmm... isn't this completely out of shot?"

Kitagawa Rumi, who was watching TV, began to instigate restlessly:

"Brother, please change the channel. I can't see where Sister Ai is at all."

"After all, this is not the final round of selection, so it's normal that there are no comments from the judges."

Beichuan Liang's left arm was hugged by his sister, and his right hand was stroking the back of the kitten "Firefly", and he explained with a smile.

From the audience's perspective, the camera occasionally gives a distant panoramic view of the judges' seats, just to allow the audience to see clearly the scores given on the screen in front of each judge. Just as Kitagawa Rumi said, the judges' faces are actually not visible at all.

"I'd better finish watching it. What if I give Ai a close-up shot? If she asks me about it tomorrow, it will be hard to fool her."

Seeing her brother's firm attitude, Kitagawa Rumi had no choice but to patiently accompany him and continue watching the show.

Girls undoubtedly develop much earlier than boys, and many girls aged thirteen or fourteen already have a body shape close to that of an adult. The talents they display are mostly singing and dancing, which may be interesting to male audiences. Hoshino Ai also found it quite fresh at first, but after watching for a long time, she became a little absent-minded and began to feel drowsy.

"Hmm, there's actually a girl here who worked with Hoshino-san."

At this moment, another woman sitting next to her also took the initiative to speak.

"Eh? Is there such a thing, Yonekura-san?"

Hoshino Ai also withdrew her wandering thoughts and asked with some curiosity.

Sitting next to her, the judge of this All Japan National Beauty Contest was none other than the winner of the 6th Special Judges Award, Ryoko Yonekura. However, that was more than 20 years ago. She has now become a veteran actress in the industry, starring in the TV series "Bad Guys", "The Way of Beasts" and "The Black Leather Handbook" adapted from the famous Matsumoto Seicho's mystery novels. Last year, she starred in the TV series "The Housekeeper Saw It!" which was broadcast on Asahi TV and also achieved a 17% audience rating.

"Well, look at it."

Ryoko Yonekura politely showed the tablet in her hand to Hoshino Ai. It was distributed to them by the program team and recorded the basic personal information of each contestant. However, most of the judges obviously did not have the patience for this, because 99% of the contestants had no chance of entering this circle.

After all, the final winner of each session is carefully selected from hundreds of thousands of people.

In fact, contestants who don't make it to the final round won't even get a single glance from the judges.

"Yes, look at this girl named MEM啾. She wrote on her resume that she had participated in the filming of an ice cream commercial for Morinaga."

Following the direction of Yonekura Ryoko's finger, Hoshino Ai also moved her eyes away, then stayed on the other person's photo for a while, trying hard to recall:

"I seem to have some impression. I remember there were three doll costumes. I was the strawberry bunny, Liang was the orange bear, and this child should be the watermelon cat."

"Let me think about it. At that time, it seemed that the original actor who was supposed to play the role of Watermelon Kitten couldn't come, so they chose one of the children in the extras, and that was her."

"I see."

Yonekura Ryoko also nodded, and then said:

"But this is all he wrote on his resume. It seems like he didn't choose to debut after that. I didn't expect him to come and participate in a talent show now. It's a bit of a shame."

Hoshino Ai also understood what the other party meant. After all, Morinaga's ice cream has launched its third round of flavors this summer, and the advertisement has also been re-shot and released. If it were a few years ago, even just relying on this advertisement that was played on TV every day, the other party should have been able to gather some popularity on the Internet.

"Well, it just happened to be on stage, so let's take a look."

The two had just chatted for a while when they saw MEM啾 coming on stage. Ryoko Yonekura nodded slightly and looked down together with Hoshino Ai.

"Ah...I remember this person!"

At the moment when MEM啾 came on stage, Kitagawa Ryo heard his sister beside him shout "凬".

As a senior fan who has collected and sorted out every work of her brother, including commercials, TV dramas, movies, variety shows, etc. in the highest definition and quality, and packaged them in a USB flash drive, Kitagawa Rumi has a deep memory of the ice cream advertisement of that year.

And the name MEM啾 is indeed easy to leave an impression on people, so after the other party appeared, Kitagawa Rumi recognized her at once: