blueteamnovel Chapter 32 Ancestors
Chapter 32 Ancestors
When Kubo Rito woke up from his bizarre dream, it was already early the next morning. He shuddered and sat up abruptly in bed, his chest heaving violently, his pajamas soaked with sweat.
The sky outside the window was just beginning to lighten, and pale blue light seeped in through the gaps in the curtains, casting a long, thin shadow on the floor. He was breathing heavily, and subconsciously touched his lips—the lingering smell of rust from the abandoned factory seemed to still be there.
"Nono Mio..."
He murmured the name. As a nightmare, everything that happened last night was too real. So real that he could even remember the shape of the girl's teeth. They didn't change at all during their intimate moments. Such a dream was rare.
Just then, the cell phone on the bedside table suddenly started vibrating wildly, its sharp ringtone shattering the morning silence. The name "Yoshio Konno" flashed on the screen, and the time was 5:17 a.m.
"Hello, what's wrong?" Li Ren's alarm bells went off, and she quickly answered the phone.
"Kubo-san, Nishino Nanase has broken her leg and is hospitalized."
Sure enough, a phone call at this hour couldn't be good, so Rito quickly pressed, "What happened?"
In Konno's story, a typical Japanese drama unfolds: a girl who was originally inconspicuous and even a bit withdrawn at school is found to have joined a supernova idol group, and then becomes the target of jealousy from some "campus celebrities," ultimately suffering bullying. However, unlike the standard protagonist who silently endures and eventually succumbs to the burden, our Pigeon classmate is just a little weak in appearance, but she is not as easy to bully as one might think.
"You mean, she took down three people all by herself, and only suffered a minor fracture?"
When Rito first heard about this, he was quite angry and heartbroken, but when he heard about the final result, he couldn't help but laugh. All his anger turned into shock and speechlessness, and he asked again in disbelief.
"Yes, she originally wanted to keep it a secret from the teacher and continue practicing, but her mother couldn't stand it anymore and called to tell me."
Rito pouted, "Alright, I understand. Let her rest and recover."
"Yes."
After hanging up the phone, Rito hesitated for a moment before sending Nana a text message, but she didn't reply immediately, presumably still asleep. He sighed, tossed his phone aside, and sprawled out on the bed.
"It's so annoying. I don't know many people in Osaka. I should have transferred her to Tokyo. It wouldn't have made any difference. She's always causing me trouble."
After shaking his head and complaining, Rito lost all interest in sleeping, got out of bed, and started tidying up the room.
Strictly speaking, Rito isn't exactly a clean person. Before transmigrating, he rarely cleaned himself. However, that was mainly because with the advancement of technology, there were very few occasions where manpower was needed. But precisely because of this, he had become accustomed to the clean atmosphere around him. Every morning, he didn't feel that the environment was dirty, but his body would involuntarily start cleaning.
"I'm thinking of hiring a cleaning service, and maybe moving to a place that better matches my bank account balance?"
Rito squatted on the floor, neatly arranging the comic books scattered at the bottom of the bookshelf, muttering to himself. By this time, the sunlight had climbed over the windowsill, casting warm patches of light on the floor, but he didn't feel much warmth. The rusty smell from his dream seemed to be stuck in his nostrils, refusing to dissipate.
He reached for the dusty ceramic lucky cat in the corner of the bookshelf—probably something left behind by the original owner, which he had been too lazy to throw away. Just as he picked up the cat, a shiny little thing fell out from the gap between the lucky cat and the wall and rolled to his feet.
"What is it?"
Li Ren bent down to pick it up, his fingertips touching something icy cold.
They were a pair of earrings. Delicate silver chains with small skulls hanging from them, their eye sockets inlaid with dark red diamonds that gleamed eerily in the sunlight.
Rito's gaze froze instantly, and his fingers trembled slightly as he examined the earring closely. He held it up to his eyes to confirm its authenticity.
Yes, that's it. The pair of earrings that Mengli Meiqing wore.
"Masaka..."
He murmured softly, clearly hearing his own heartbeat. If such vivid dreams could be explained psychologically, then what did this ornament, exactly like the one in his memory, represent?
Rito gripped the earring tightly and looked out the window. The red Tokyo Tower stood there as always. It had rained last night, and the entire tower looked even more lustrous, with a faint trace of blood-like texture.
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Two days have passed since the release of the third single's lineup. Since there haven't been any major changes, the overall atmosphere in Nogizaka46 can be described as calm and uneventful. There's not much to do, and Rito has become a bit more relaxed than at the beginning, arriving at the company in the afternoon as usual.
Time always flies when you're slacking off. Rihito spent the afternoon playing old-fashioned games and was just about to copy down the sheet music for "On the Time Machine" by Sakurazaka, which she had recently drawn, when an annoying knock came at the door.
(On a side note, after going around in circles, I've realized I still prefer Keyakizaka's songs, whether it's Keyakizaka's Uta vs. Sakura's Uta, or Dangerous Project vs. Drones, not to mention the theme song. Sakura's sixth single is truly unbeatable.)
"Please come in," Li Ren said loudly, putting down his pen.
The door opened, and Watanabe Miho poked her head in, waving at him with a grin. "Kubo-san, are you free now?"
"I'm busy, go to the front desk to make an appointment." The receptionist rolled her eyes at her, led her inside, and casually asked, "What's wrong? Did you think someone's attitude was inappropriate again?"
Perhaps because of her background as a basketball player, Qiuqiu has always been quite strict about training. Although she is not very old, she plays a supervisor-like role in the team. It may also be because the real captain, Sheshe, is too useless. After Liren found out, he thought it was a good thing, so he specially gave her a lot of authority in the Mane League as a supplement to Sheshe's team.
"Don't make it sound like I'm the kind of person who snitches, people will hate me."
Qiuqiu hummed twice, its chubby face twitching, looking quite comical. Liren laughed heartily, pinched it, and then sat back down in his seat.
"They're not the kind of people who can't tell right from wrong. So, what do you want from me?"
Qiuqiu walked to the opposite side of him, put her hands behind her back, and shuffled her toes on the floor. After hesitating for a long time, she finally mustered up the courage to speak: "I...I wanted to ask about Meimei. Why did she drop from the first row to the second row? She clearly trained very hard, and yesterday she was the last one to leave after practicing."
Rito looked at her, his arms crossed over his chest, and did not answer immediately.
The two stared at each other for a long time, but in the end, Qiuqiu couldn't hold back any longer. She deflated like a punctured balloon, rested her chin on the desk, and looked at Liren with a pitiful expression.
"So it really is a problem with the data. Actually, Meimei really tried her best, but she just doesn't know how to please others."
The girl had been an idol for almost half a year, and she wasn't stupid. Of course, she understood many things. However, when something actually happened to her close friend, she still felt somewhat indignant. After all, she had seen how hard Meimei worked, and it was really difficult for her to accept that she was the only one out of five to drop out of the ranking.
"I know," Rito nodded matter-of-factly. "I didn't say she wasn't working hard, but I'm an adult who only cares about money. Data doesn't lie, so, sorry."
"Hey~ the president is just fooling people again."
Seeing Kubo Rito deliberately putting on a vulgar expression, Qiuqiu waved her hand dismissively, not falling for his trick. She knew he must have communicated with Meimei beforehand before throwing her to the second row, otherwise Meimei wouldn't have been so calm. And given his favoritism towards Meimei, he might have given her some incredible compensation. Thinking of this, Qiuqiu wasn't annoyed anymore. She shook her head and said, "Anyway, President, you can't mistreat Meimei," and then prepared to leave.
Rito smiled suddenly, glanced at the time, and called out to her, "Hey, it's dinner time. Stop eating your grass dumplings. The president is treating you to something better."
"Yeah! President, I love you the most!"
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With a happy little ball in tow, Rito went downstairs to the commercial street, turned a corner, and when they were still two or three hundred meters away from the barbecue restaurant, Rito suddenly heard a quarrel coming from ahead.
"Sorry, I really don't plan to be an actress! Please stop following me!"
A somewhat familiar female voice, tinged with a hint of embarrassment and anger.
Li Ren looked up and saw two middle-aged men in suits surrounding a girl in a white dress, handing her business cards. The girl, carrying a backpack, had long hair and a flushed face, and was struggling to break free from the encirclement.
It's Mai Shiraishi.
Upon recognizing an acquaintance, Rito slowed his pace, a gloating smile spreading across his face.
"President, do you know him?"
Seeing his expression, Qiuqiu immediately realized something, tugged at his sleeve, and asked.
Without answering her question, Rito rummaged in his pocket for a while. Since he was out for dinner, he hadn't brought his business card with him this time, but luckily he had received one when he had dinner with someone a couple of days ago. He couldn't care less about that now. He told Qiuqiu to wait for him here, and then he ran forward and squeezed between the two talent scouts.
"Excuse me," he smiled at the two talent scouts, pretending not to know Bai Ma at all, and said in a pretentious manner, "Miss, are you interested in joining our company? I think you are a good fit for our company's image."
The two talent scouts paused for a moment, looked Rihime up and down, and simultaneously asked the same question: "Who are you?"
"Me?" Rito blinked, glanced down at the company name on the business card, and said confidently, "I'm the HR of a housekeeping company, and I'm looking to poach this lady to do sewer unclogging work."
"Nani?" "Huh?"
The two talent scouts looked at each other, hardly believing their ears.
"Yes, yes, look at this young lady's legs, how strong and powerful they are! And look at those big hands, she could definitely grip a toilet seat very tightly..."
Rito nodded seriously, then started babbling nonsense that even he himself almost couldn't hold back. Shirama recognized him by now and tried to keep from laughing out loud, but her eyes were full of laughter, and she almost laughed until she cried.
"Hey sir! Are you here to cause trouble?"
The two talent scouts, who had been driven to the brink of mental collapse by the ordeal, finally came to their senses and looked at him with a hint of hostility. The girl in front of them was clearly exceptional, and signing her into the company would be a sure-fire way to make money. They had no intention of giving her away so easily.
"What? So only your entertainment company can recruit people on the street, but our housekeeping company can't? Miss, I think you have potential that you're not even aware of. Given time, you'll definitely become the god of sewers. How about it, join us?"
Rito glanced at the two of them with disdain, crumpled the business card into a ball, stuffed it into his pocket, and extended his hand to Shiramas.
Under the incredulous gaze of the talent scout, Mai Shiraishi smiled slightly and actually put her hand in his palm. Rito raised his hand in a show of defiance, then bumped his hand against the shoulders of both of them, leading Mai Shiraishi towards the direction of the ball.
"This?... Is housekeeping really that lucrative these days?"
A talent scout, who was so frightened by what he saw that he was out of his mind, looked up and asked his companion hesitantly.
"Baka!"
His companion nearly fainted from anger, giving him a sharp rap on the head and yelling, "Idiot! Those two obviously know each other! You actually believed all that nonsense they were spouting! No wonder you haven't caught a single thing in all these days!"
The talent scout who had been hit shrank back, not daring to utter a sound, only daring to watch Rito and Shiramas' figures gradually disappear into the distance, a trace of confusion flashing in his eyes.
"Hahahaha!"
After hearing the beautiful older sister's exaggerated description, Qiuqiu was also amused by her boss's antics. Her mouth was stretched so wide it almost reached her ears, and her tonsils were visible. In the end, Rito couldn't stand it anymore and patted her on the back to calm her down.
Wiping away the drool that had accidentally spilled out, Qiuqiu glanced furtively at Bai Ma again, her eyes darting around, and tentatively asked, "President, who is Shiraishi-san to you?"
"What do you think?" Li Ren replied with a forced smile.
"Girlfriend?" Qiuqiu was no ordinary person. As soon as the club president asked her to guess, she answered without hesitation. Her straightforward words startled Bai Ma. After glancing at Rito, she quickly waved her hand to explain.
"No, I only met President Kubo once by chance before. He invited me to be his idol, that's all."
"That's right." Rito didn't seem embarrassed at all. Instead, she winked at Shiraishi and said, "This is Watanabe Miho, a first-generation member of Nogizaka46. If you join, Shiraishi-san, you might have to call her senpai."