Chapter 28 Roll up your money, the money-grubbers... Please be my friend...
The beautiful dream before dawn left Risa feeling unsettled all day.
During physical education class, the girls are practicing volleyball.
Risa absentmindedly dribbled the ball, her thoughts drifting back to the art studio yesterday afternoon. That paint-stained hand, and that ambiguous "You've gotten it dirty"... it was all that brat's fault.
"Matsuno-kun! Catch!"
The sudden shout startled her awake.
Risa snapped back to reality, her body reacting before her mind could process it, executing a beautiful diving save. Even the PE teacher couldn't help but blow his whistle: "Well done!"
A chorus of gasps immediately erupted from the sidelines.
"Did you see that? Matsuno's save technique..."
"Hmm...it's just like a professional athlete in a movie."
Risa: "..."
(It's been exposed again.)
In order to star in a volleyball-themed movie, she trained with a professional coach for a full six months.
"That save was so cool."
"Matsuno-kun, so you can play volleyball."
"Hey, Matsuno-kun, how about joining our women's volleyball team?"
"..."
The girls crowded around, excitedly demonstrating her save.
Risa waved her hand, her smile awkward yet polite: "It really was just good luck~"
"You're kidding." Another girl chimed in, "That move was super professional."
Risa blinked, about to continue making excuses, when the referee's whistle suddenly rang out.
When it was her turn to receive the ball again, she deliberately tripped and fell forward.
"ah--!"
His body fell heavily onto the hard floor.
Risa clutched her right ankle, her brow furrowed. "It hurts so much..."
This isn't an act.
She seemed to have overdone it, and her acting was a bit over the top. She really did twist her ankle.
"Sister Risa."
A familiar boyish voice pierced through the indoor playground.
Kirihara Akaya rushed to her side like a gust of wind.
Risa looked up and blinked: "Akaya? What are you doing here?"
“We also have PE this class.” Kirihara Akaya knelt down beside her. “Are you alright? Can you stand up?”
His gaze fell on her swollen ankle, and his heartache was written all over his face: "It's all swollen. We need to get to the infirmary right away."
The PE teacher strode over and squatted down to examine the injury: "It's definitely not a serious injury." He turned to a few girls and said, "You guys take Matsuno to..."
“No need to trouble them.” Kirihara Akaya turned around, his back to Risa, “Risa-nee, come up.”
Before Risa could respond, the boy had already nimbly carried her on his back. The boy's back was more muscular than she had imagined, and the taut muscles beneath his sportswear were clearly visible.
"Aka..."
"Don't move!" Kirihara Akaya interrupted her, unusually serious.
"Last time, Minister Yukimura said that you should try to minimize walking after a sprain."
Risa was slightly taken aback, a pang of guilt rising in her heart.
"Okay~" She climbed onto his back, deliberately swinging her legs: "If you feel heavy, feel free to put me down anytime~"
"N-not heavy at all!" Kirihara Akaya's ears burned. "Risa-nee, you're as light as a feather. You must not eat properly."
He paused, then muttered under his breath, "Senior Liu said that the standard weight for girls should be increased by five kilograms..."
Risa couldn't help but chuckle, gently poking his bright red ear with her fingertip: "When did Akaya become so caring?"
"I've always been reliable, okay?!"
The boy carefully adjusted his posture, afraid of bumping her injured ankle.
Risa noticed this small detail and her heart softened.
As she left the stadium, a sharp gaze fell upon her. Risa turned her head and saw Yagyu sitting on the opposite bench, adjusting his glasses, the lenses reflecting a cold, white light.
(Has it been seen through again...?)
She turned back nonchalantly, buried her face in the boy's shoulder, and pretended not to see anything.
(That's all...)
This moment of tranquility is so precious, like stolen time.
Risa quietly tightened her arms around the boy's neck, lingering on this illusory kinship.
She didn't want to think about Liu Sheng's probing gaze, nor did she want to recall that absurd dream from that morning.
Such pure warmth should not be tainted by any gloom.
Even if it's just for a moment, let her temporarily hide in this fictitious safe haven.
-
Upon arriving at the infirmary, the school doctor examined the patient and confirmed it was just a minor sprain, and applied a simple ice pack.
"Akaya, you should go back to class."
Risa sat on the hospital bed, shaking her bandaged ankle. "I'll be fine after a rest."
“But…” Kirihara Akaya scratched her fluffy curly hair, worried about her.
"Your sister isn't seriously injured. She'll be able to go back to the classroom after a rest," the school doctor comforted him with a smile. "If you don't go now, you'll be late for the next class."
Kirihara Akaya reluctantly left, but before he left, he turned back to remind her, "Risa-nee, wait for me after school. Please wait for me, okay?"
"Okay."
The boy's footsteps faded into the distance, and the infirmary returned to silence.
Risa leaned against the pillow, gazing blankly at the swaying shadows of the trees outside the window.
After an unknown amount of time, footsteps suddenly came from the doorway.
"What's wrong? Did you forget something?" She thought Xiao Hai had forgotten something, but when she turned around, she was met with the reflection of her glasses.
Liu Sheng leaned against the door frame and slowly said, "His acting was quite good. Even the PE teacher and the students believed that the save was accidental."
Risa's heart tightened, but she still smiled innocently: "What are you talking about, Yagyu-kun? It was just good luck."
"accidental?"
As Liu Sheng walked to the bedside and pulled out a chair to sit down, the metal chair legs scraped against the floor with a harsh sound. He leaned forward slightly, his long, slender fingers interlaced.
"Would you risk spraining your ankle for this 'chance'?"
His tone was calm, yet accusatory.
Risa subconsciously furrowed her brows, but quickly relaxed them, a slight smile curving her lips:
"Don't worry, what I promised you won't be affected."
Liu Sheng didn't reply, but just watched her quietly.
"Can you tell me what your purpose is in doing this?"
"What's the meaning?"
"It was the same in the quiz at the end of last month, in PE class, and even in other classes—you know a lot of things, but you deliberately hide it. Just like now, you risked getting injured to pretend it was 'accidental'."
He paused, then asked her in a deep voice, "You did all this just to get Kirihara-kun's attention?"
Risa's fingertips paused slightly.
She looked up, staring directly into Yagyu's eyes, and suddenly smiled: "Yagyu-kun cares so much about me, could it be that you like me?"
Yagyu adjusted his glasses, his expression unchanged: "You're quite skilled at changing the subject."
Risa still had a smile on her lips, but her eyes turned cold.
“Yagyu Hiroshi,” she tilted her head slightly, the smile in her eyes freezing into ice, “I don’t need to explain my affairs to you, and you have no right to ask.”
Everyone has their own secrets.
—Like those nights when no one knows.
She dropped out of school at 17 and bravely entered the entertainment industry for a 5,000 yuan prize, debuting at 18. After that, in order to earn a huge sum of money, she turned herself into a machine.
For seven years, I've been climbing up the ladder on the edge of a knife.
Countless sleepless nights of practice earned him a "smile worth a billion dollars" in front of the camera.
He endured a high fever and performed a concert while taking painkillers. He even took on dangerous action scenes just to earn a comment from the director and audience: "This actor is really dedicated."
At 25, she succeeded. With the Best Actress award in hand, her salary skyrocketed.
But with fame comes trouble, including endless prying and malice.
Stalking by obsessive fans, misinterpretation by the media, and carefully crafted smear campaigns by competitors... everything came to an abrupt end when she was murdered by a male artist's toxic fan due to the company's forced creation of a CP (couple pairing).
In her previous life, she had no choice but to gamble everything. Therefore, in this life, she has set a plan for herself:
To be an ordinary high school girl, going to school peacefully and enjoying youth. To graduate smoothly, get into a good university, and then get a job in the public sector. To not get married, not have children, not worry about gains or losses, and live a stable and ordinary life.
I don't seek to make a great contribution to society, but only to avoid causing trouble.
...
"I apologize, I overstepped my bounds." Yagyu stood up.
His gaze lingered on Risa for two seconds, and his tone softened: "I didn't mean anything by it, I just felt you didn't need to do this. Even if you didn't intentionally get hurt, Akaya still cares about you."
He stopped at the door and said, "I hope your foot gets better soon."
The door closed gently, and the infirmary returned to silence.
Risa's smile slowly faded.
She looked down at her swollen ankle, her eyes filled with an unreadable emotion.
Outside the window, the shadows of trees swayed, and sunlight filtered through the gaps in the branches and leaves.
The floor inside was dappled with light and shadow.
(How ironic...)
Even if one is reborn with memories of their past life and vows to relax and enjoy life, their inherent instincts, like stubborn weeds, always manage to sprout from the soil without them even realizing it.
Just like now, even though he could have let the ball fly out of bounds, his body reacted faster than his thoughts, making a save.
Originally, I just wanted to earn a little money to buy Akaya a new pair of shoes, but before I knew it, I had run the Tennis doujinshi club very successfully.
Faced with the influx of digital funds, she even had the idea of accumulating capital.
The pre-sale backend was flooded with orders, the merchandise in the community store was piled high, and the inbox kept popping up with collaboration invitations from boutiques... all of these reminded her that the "ordinary life" she was pursuing was spiraling out of control.
In any world, money is always the most straightforward rule of survival.
The so-called stable and ordinary life also requires a large amount of capital to support it.
For money, people are forced to wear masks and live the kind of life they once hated most.
That's all...
Since we can't just lie flat, let's just crush them.
Rather than being bound by rules, become the one who makes the rules.
-
The club activity, originally scheduled for after school, was moved online because Risa injured her ankle.
The LINE group keeps flashing new message notifications:
[Yatsuki: President! The pre-orders in the back office are overflowing again! *^_^*]
[Chika: Senior, senior! Three more boutiques have sent collaboration offers.]
[Asuka: I heard my handmade items are being sold for three times the price on the secondhand market. Should I set the price higher?]
Risa's fingers flew across the keyboard as she steered the conversation back on track: "Everyone, the second batch of merchandise pickups will be held this Friday after school. Please make sure you've completed your preparations beforehand."
As soon as the message was sent, Yuzuki's reply popped up: 【Understood. 98% of the order has been packaged, and the rest will definitely be finished before school ends today.】 followed by a string of cute emoticons.
[Yatsuki: President~ Could I see the design sketches for the new product I mentioned in the pre-sale last time? (v*)]
Risa's lips curled slightly upward as she continued typing:
I'll show you the design drafts once they're finished. Let's focus on this batch of orders for now.
[Chinatsu: Senpai—! Senpai—! Amazing!!!]
[Chika: I just received an email! Harajuku Concept Store actually contacted us to discuss a long-term collaboration! Their creative director specifically requested to meet the designer in person!]
Risa's finger, which was swiping across the screen, suddenly stopped.
finally--
Did you let her wait?
Concept Store—Tokyo's most influential themed retail space, renowned for its avant-garde design concepts. Having your work exhibited and sold there is tantamount to obtaining a ticket to the fashion world.
Two weeks ago, the creative director of Concept Store shared a sketch of her four-leaf clover hair chain on Instagram, captioning it, "This is the most inspired student work in the past six months."
This tweet immediately ignited the pre-sale, and collaboration offers from other boutiques followed one after another.
But Risa remained inactive.
She was waiting, waiting for a platform of sufficient weight, waiting for an opportunity to break free from the "student design" label.
Now it seems...
She gently stroked the words "long-term cooperation" on the screen.
She won the bet.
She pursed her lips and replied:
[The new product planning will be discussed in detail at Friday's regular meeting. Chinatsu will first compile the cooperation details with Concept Store, Asuka will create a visualization of the pre-sale data, and Yuzuki will be responsible for calculating the commission rate and profit margin for the buyer's store.]
[Chika: Okay, senpai.]
【Chika: [Animated emoticon] Excited】
[Yuzuki: No problem, President.]
【Asuka: OK】
He just wanted to earn some pocket money...
Who would have thought it would trigger such a chain reaction?
Pre-orders are growing like a snowball, and attention on social media platforms is soaring. Now, even Zhi Retail Space has extended an olive branch.
Risa exhaled softly and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear.
If we can collaborate through design patents and brand licensing, the community can not only obtain a stable income, but also entrust the tedious production and sales processes to a professional team.
This ensures both quality and allows time to focus on studies.
Risa suddenly remembered her past life; the first time she received a collaboration with a major brand, it was also a romantic sunset like this.
She was overjoyed then, but now...
It did give him a more composed air.
-----------------------
Author's note: Starting tomorrow, the update time will be changed to 8:00 PM every night.
[Heart emoji]
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