Chapter 21 Sixth Sense: Yukimura says someone is plotting something behind the scenes.
"Coming right away!"
Risa responded without looking up, but her hands continued to draw lines without stopping.
At the dinner table, she mechanically shoveled rice into her mouth, her mind filled with unfinished plans. Before dessert was even served, she hurriedly stood up: "I'm full."
Kirihara's mother and son were left looking at each other in bewilderment.
Kirihara's mother asked her son, "What happened to Risa?"
Kirihara was completely bewildered: "I don't know... It's so strange, she doesn't even want her favorite pudding anymore."
In the middle of the night, Risa rubbed her sore eyes and finally put down her paintbrush, which was covered in paint.
On the sketchbook, a set of vivid "Q version little devil" emoticons has been completed, with round faces, sly smiles, and even a pair of small wings drawn in a mischievous way.
“Perfect.” She stretched lazily, her joints making a slight cracking sound.
After stretching her body, Risa turned on her computer.
The blue light from the computer screen reflected on her tired yet unexpectedly excited face. In the modeling software, the 3D renderings of Baji, Xiaoka, and Lasercard were slowly rotating.
She had a sudden inspiration and added a plush toy version to the design. The contrast between the soft and cute shape and the devil horns made her laugh out loud.
She casually grabbed her phone and created a new Twitter account with a playful ID: "Lisa-chan's Merchandise Workshop".
After uploading all the preview images, Risa noticed the time displayed at the top of the screen: [Monday 03:51].
"Oh no!" she gasped, frantically setting three alarms.
The paintbrushes and erasers were still scattered on the table, but she didn't bother to tidy them up and went straight to the bed that had been neglected all night.
In her last moments before drifting off to sleep, she vaguely thought, "I hope I won't be late for school..."
-
The consequences of staying up all night are a hangover-like headache and severe sleep deprivation.
In the morning's modern Chinese class, the teacher was explaining Natsume Soseki's "Kokoro".
"Does anyone know the psychological motivation behind 'Sir's' eventual suicide?"
Risa was in the middle of a slumber when she was suddenly called upon.
She stood up reflexively, and the lines she had memorized in her previous life came out of her mouth: "A typical case of post-traumatic stress disorder, coupled with survivor guilt, is a typical case of depression, accompanied by suicidal tendencies."
The entire class fell silent.
The teacher adjusted his glasses: "...Matsuno, what you said is very professional."
Risa was dozing off while standing when she swayed and suddenly woke up with a start.
Stared at by dozens of eyes, Risa glanced at the blackboard and roughly guessed what had happened, so she pretended to be clueless and said, "Ah, um... the son of my uncle's grandfather's daughter's husband's friend... happens to be a psychologist..."
The entire classroom seemed to be paused, falling into an eerie silence.
Sanada turned to look at Risa, his eyes sharp as knives, his face so dark it could drip ink—to speak carelessly in front of teachers and students, such a frivolous attitude was truly lax.
"Thud—"
The crisp sound of the pen hitting the ground broke the stillness.
Yagyu slowly bent down, his slender fingers picking up the pen. As he straightened up, he elegantly adjusted his glasses: "Truly... astonishing social connections."
“…That’s what I mean.” Risa chuckled dryly as she sat down.
-
As soon as the bell rang, Risa collapsed onto her desk like a drowning person who had been rescued.
She buried her face in her arms and instantly sank into darkness.
When I woke up, the classroom was empty.
She looked up, the blinding sunlight outside the window making her squint, the wrinkles of her school uniform still imprinted on her cheeks.
Through blurry vision, a lunchbox tied with a blue ribbon lay quietly on the desk. The sticky notes underneath trembled slightly in the breeze.
[Risa-nee:]
Senior Yagyu said you're being plagued by a sleep demon.
I won't bother you anymore!
Remember to finish your bento!
—Akaya (sticking out tongue in a cute emoji)
Waaaaaah ┭┮﹏┭┮
"Akaya, my little angel," Risa said, feeling her tired body instantly rejuvenated after reading the message.
She rubbed her aching temples and solemnly vowed in her heart: I will absolutely, absolutely go to sleep before midnight tonight.
After finishing her bento, Risa lay on the table scrolling through her phone.
The moment I opened Twitter, the red numbers on the message icon kept jumping: 99+
[This demon wing design is absolutely stunning, please release it online!]
Are there any hidden items available for the draw? I'll pay double.
[Hidden item giveaway +1! I'm willing to pay three times the price!]
[Do you accept custom orders? I'd like a Nioh fox design!]
[Have you considered making a standee?]
...
Risa's fingertips hovered over the keyboard when a shadow suddenly loomed over her.
She turned her head and found that Yuzuki was standing beside her at some point, her gaze fixed on her phone screen.
"I'm sorry!" Yuzuki hurriedly clasped her hands together, a faint blush rising to her ears. "I really didn't mean to look..."
Risa blinked and silently locked the screen.
After returning to her seat, Yuzuki suddenly turned her chair around and sat down facing Risa.
She twirled the ends of her hair with her slender fingers: "Um... Risa-san, are you making merchandise?"
“…Huh?” Risa was taken aback.
“My dad’s friend runs a merchandise manufacturing plant. If you’re into merchandise, I might be able to help you.”
Risa sat up straight, her eyes lighting up: "Really?"
Yuzuki nodded. She pulled a business card from her textbook, "This 'Starry Sky Printing' company specializes in custom-made anime merchandise..."
Risa took the business card, her fingertips trembling slightly with excitement: "Yuzuki! If this works out, I'll treat you to crepes for a year, and you can try every single flavor!"
Jieyue was amused by her reaction and gave her some advice: "I suggest you open an intention link first and see the order volume. If the volume is large, we can also go to the factory to negotiate a discount."
Risa thought what she said made sense and immediately opened the link.
In less than five minutes, the number of orders on the screen exceeded double digits, and the number continued to rise.
By the time school ended, the number of orders had exceeded three digits.
-
next day
As soon as Risa entered the teaching building, she was pulled to a corner of the corridor.
"Risa, good news."
Risa rubbed her sore neck and yawned: "It's Yuzuki, you startled me."
Jieyue leaned closer mysteriously: "My dad's friend said that if the first batch of orders exceeds 500 units, the unit price can be reduced to this amount." She gestured.
Risa instantly snapped to attention: "So low?!"
"Don't get too excited yet." Jieyue pulled out a calculator from somewhere and started typing away on it.
"The platform takes a 15% cut, packaging materials cost 80 yen per set, shipping costs vary by region... and we also need to consider return and exchange plans..."
Risa's expression gradually froze, her almond-shaped eyes wide open, looking just like a cat suddenly exposed to bright light.
Seeing this, Yuzuki's voice trailed off: "Risa...you didn't even consider these things, did you?"
Sunlight streamed through the window, making her blank expression appear even more exaggerated.
Yuzuki sighed, took a professional book out of her bag and slapped it into Risa's arms: "My family is in the wholesale business. I've heard my dad talk about these things since I was little, so I know a little bit about them."
Risa opened the thick book "Business Practice," which was covered with highlighter marks—red for cost accounting, blue for tax rate calculations, green for logistics plans...
"First, we need to make a cost calculation table..." Jieyue took out her notebook and began to formulate a work plan.
Risa stared blankly at the formulas, the cute chibi-style merchandise in front of her gradually twisting and deforming, finally turning into a gold-devouring beast with a gaping maw, grinning maliciously at her.
Sure enough, money is hard to earn, and life is tough.
It's the same no matter which world you're in.
After school, Yuzuki didn't go to the club; instead, she stayed in the classroom with Risa to do cost calculations.
The setting sun bathed the classroom in an orange-red hue. Risa and Yuzuki lay sprawled on their desks, surrounded by a dense carpet of scrap paper. The numbers on the calculator finally settled on a breathtakingly low value.
“Platform commission plus logistics fees…” Jieyue bit her pen cap, her brows furrowed. “The profit from 500 orders isn’t even enough to buy 10 crepes.”
Risa slumped in her chair, staring at the ceiling fan: "So, after all that work, we might end up losing money?"
Suddenly, Yuzuki had a new idea and slammed her hand on the table, exclaiming, "I've got it!"
She quickly pulled out a club application form: "We want to apply to be a doujin circle and set up a stall directly at the Haiyuan Festival. This will save us platform fees and logistics costs, and we can also collect payments face-to-face."
"But wouldn't that reduce sales significantly?"
"Idiot." Yuzuki tapped Risa's forehead lightly with a ballpoint pen. "We can do pre-orders. We can accept pre-orders on Twitter first, and then do club-direct sales on the day of the school festival or at other times. We can have batches every two weeks, with pickups at the same time."
Her eyes sparkled, "They can even hold a limited-edition raffle..."
Risa felt enlightened by what he said: "For example... the 'Rikkai Three Giants' set?"
“That’s right!” Yuzuki had already started writing furiously on the application form. “How about we call the club ‘Tennis Doujinshi Research Association’? Sounds formal enough, right?”
The sound of the tennis club's training whistle came from outside the window.
Risa watched the figures running back and forth on the court and suddenly had a flash of inspiration: "We can also make a training diary photo book. We can secretly take pictures of... ah, I mean, record the players' heroic postures every day."
"That's fantastic." Yuzuki suddenly lowered her voice, "But..."
She pointed to the mentor section on the application form, "We need to find a teacher to be listed as mentor."
The two exchanged a glance and simultaneously revealed sly smiles.
“Let’s go find Ms. Sato from the art club,” Yuzuki winked. “She’s a huge fan of Yukimura.”
“However…” Risa suddenly frowned, pointing to the application form, “The establishment requires at least four members.”
She counted on her fingers, "You, me, and including Chika, there's still one short."
Yuzuki smiled mysteriously and took out her phone: "Watch this."
Three minutes later.
"Done." She waved her phone screen. "Asuka from the literature club agreed to be credited. The condition is..."
"...A bonus card for Nioh Masaharu?"
"Pfft, you heard that?"
In the afterglow of the setting sun, they rushed to the office with their application forms in hand.
-
Meanwhile, on the tennis court.
"Achoo!" Yukimura suddenly sneezed.
He looked up as if sensing something, his gaze passing through the barbed wire fence and landing in the direction of the distant teaching building.
A late-blooming cherry blossom drifted down in the wind, twirled in the air, and gently landed on his shoulder.
Sanada frowned: "You have a cold?"
“It shouldn’t be…” Yukimura picked up a petal, a slight smile playing on his lips. “It’s probably someone who’s up to no good.”
A gentle breeze swept by, carrying away the cherry blossom petal from his palm, which continued to swirl in the air.
Renji Yanagi's notebook rustled in the wind, finally settling on the page with "Risa Matsuno" written on it.
“Yukimura,” Yanagi’s voice held a hint of hesitation, “you went to the haunted house at the amusement park with Matsuno last Saturday?”
Yukimura: "Yes. What's wrong?"
Renji Yanagi: "But the data shows that Risa Matsuno is most afraid of ghosts and monsters."
Yukimura paused slightly: "That's surprising. That day at the haunted house, she was even able to calmly point out the flaws in the staff's costumes."
Liu circled the words "sudden personality change" with her pen and said softly, "It really is like he's become a completely different person."
Yukimura and Sanada exchanged a glance and remained silent.
Meanwhile, in the corridor of the teaching building.
After much persuasion, Risa and Yuzuki finally completed the club's registration.
"Finally got the key to the activity room!" Yuzuki excitedly shook the keychain in her hand. "Although it's in the back hill of the school, and the location isn't as conspicuous as other clubs, it's perfect for covering up our activities of selling merchandise privately."
“This is called…” Risa started to speak, but suddenly shivered.
She turned sharply and looked towards the end of the corridor—
The corridor was empty; there was nothing there.
Only one cherry blossom drifted in through the half-open window and gently landed at her feet.
"What's wrong?" Yuzuki asked with concern.
“It’s nothing…” Risa unconsciously touched the back of her neck.
"I always feel like... someone is talking behind my back."
A note from the author:
----------------------
To those who join later:
The next chapter will be paid, with 80% anti-piracy measures and a 72-hour subscription period. It's recommended to buy one chapter at a time, but if you really like it, you can subscribe to all chapters at once.
JJ's standard rate for paid content is 0.03 yuan per thousand words on the app, so a 3000-word chapter is about 0.1 yuan. It seems the PC version is more expensive. I'm not sure about the WAP version (mobile browser). iOS users (Apple devices) don't incur transaction fees when topping up on the WAP or PC versions (the author learned this the hard way, topping up 6 on the app only got 3.6 yuan [cheek resting on hand]).
A side note:
The author spent 3-4 hours writing 3000 words, earning less than 0.05 yuan. It's truly heartbreaking. [laughing and crying emoji]
So, I hope those of you who can afford it will support the official release financially. Those who are really struggling financially can simply support it by adding it to their favorites. Thank you so much! [heart emoji]
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