Tokyo: My obsession with China led me to become the king of Japanese entertainment.

"Can't we fish? That's a real shame." Takeru Satoh reluctantly put away his fishing rod.

This award-winning actor, who always appears cool and composed in front of the camera, actually loves to have fun in private.

"You haven't done your homework. This area is under a year-round fishing ban. Even if you don't consider that, it's still a fishing ban now, so forget about fishing."

Jun Sakurada calmly scooped the cooked glutinous rice balls from the pot; they were plump and white, quite pleasing to the eye.

Only then did he reveal his first genuine smile to everyone, a smile as gentle as a spring breeze.

I finally got to eat this.

"Huh? Is this Chinese food? Tangyuan?" Hamabe Minami asked.

"It's not 'Zhonghua' (中华), but 'Huaxia' (华夏), the original version that hasn't been localized, and this one is called 'Yuanxiao' (元宵)." Jun Sakurada calmly shook his head.

As a true Chinese with a Chinese soul, Jun Sakurada resolutely refuses to conflate "Chinese cuisine," which has been "localized" beyond recognition by the Japanese, with genuine Chinese cuisine.

After he traveled back in time and regained his memories, he went to eat at a local Chinese restaurant when he was homesick, but of course, he could hardly swallow the food.

So you guys actually consider these things to be good?

So Jun Sakurada taught himself to cook and made authentic Chinese dishes by following tutorials from various Chinese websites, without any localization, just to satisfy his own Chinese stomach.

Like this bowl of glutinous rice balls in my hand, which were made by Jun Sakurada from the very beginning, following the ancient method of making the filling.

After blowing on it to cool it slightly, you put it in your mouth and feel the soft and chewy outer skin, while the rich and sweet filling explodes in your mouth, making you feel much gentler.

Damn it, it was February 19, right around the time of the Spring Festival and the Lantern Festival. If it weren't for that damn Johnny's suddenly going crazy and asking him to go to Tokyo for some kind of interview, he could have been eating this bowl of glutinous rice balls on the Lantern Festival.

Now, we have no choice but to postpone it.

It has to be said that eating, especially when eating hometown dishes, is when Jun Sakurada is most relaxed.

No longer so tense, he would unconsciously show a hint of enjoyment and happiness when eating.

It wasn't flamboyant, but it was incredibly captivating on the boy's expressive face.

The veteran actors standing nearby were somewhat stunned, partly marveling at his talent—a talent that could make Johnny's Entertainment back down—and partly...

He ate so deliciously...

"Jun-chan, can we have some of this?" Minami Hamabe felt she was about to lose her composure.

"No problem, I still have some." Jun Sakurada calmly pointed to the small refrigerator next to him.

Although he was enjoying the food, he knew very well that he couldn't eat too much of this glutinous rice ball; he would get tired of it if he ate too much.

Since I made too many glutinous rice balls while making them because my hands were shaking, I might as well take them out and serve them to friends instead of taking up space in the refrigerator and having to eat them myself.

"Yay!" the girl cheered and ran off to rummage through the refrigerator.

Ever since that shocking phone call, these veterans and newcomers of the Japanese entertainment industry have completely lost any semblance of celebrity composure when facing Jun Sakurada.

A ruthless individual who can earn 500 million yen in two months is absolutely qualified to squeeze into their social circle, and would be a big shot there.

Not to mention he was a genius whom Johnny's Entertainment coveted but couldn't have.

After the phone call ended, aside from the initial exclamations and reflections, everyone tacitly chose to avoid discussing anything related to Johnny's Entertainment and instead focused their energy on having fun.

Their relationship is also rapidly growing closer.

Among them, one particular dog stood out.

After hanging up the phone, Taka clearly showed affection and care for Sakurada Jun, and there was also a distinct feeling of protecting him.

Since Taka turned off speakerphone for the latter part of the call, Jun Sakurada, who missed hearing that crucial sentence, had no way of knowing the source of the monkey's enthusiasm and could only guess that the other party mistook him for a fan.

"Is Sakurada-kun very interested in Chinese culture?" Kamiki Ryunosuke asked, taking a sip of beer.

"It's not that I'm interested, it's how I make a living. My main fan base is Chinese people." Jun Sakurada nodded.

"If that weren't the case, Johnny's could have ruined my account by stirring up trouble."

Ryunosuke Kamiki was taken aback: "The main audience is in China? That's amazing?!"

That one sentence not only woke him up, but also the others.

Every Japanese person, especially those working in the Japanese entertainment industry, knows that across the sea lies a vast market and endless treasures.

However, no one can say for sure how to get there or how to extract the gold.

"Then Jun-chan should be able to speak Chinese, right?" Mori asked a somewhat silly question.

Sakurada Jun swallowed a mouthful of glutinous rice balls, cleared his throat slightly, and spoke in perfect Mandarin:

"I believe that the prerequisite for developing a market is to be able to speak their language, and to be as fluent as possible."

After finishing speaking in Mandarin, he repeated it in his standard American accent, which he had developed before his transmigration. This time, Taka understood, and his eyes immediately lit up.

Finally, when it was switched to Japanese, the others finally understood.

"I don't understand Chinese, so I can't comment, but judging from the English pronunciation alone, Jun-chan's pronunciation is simply impeccable..." Taka exclaimed.

A very unusual fact is that, although they all dream of venturing into Europe and America, the vast majority of Japanese entertainers have extremely poor English pronunciation. It is common for them to pronounce "Dream" as "Dorim" or "r" as "l".

People who can basically eliminate all their Japanese accents like Taka are extremely rare.

Jun Sakurada's English pronunciation is completely free of Japanese accent, and while his Chinese pronunciation is difficult to evaluate in detail, its fluency and distinct intonation are noticeable.

It turns out this kid is a language genius.

"Since we've chosen to specialize in their market, learning the language is just the basics," Jun Sakurada chuckled.

"Unlike Sato-san or Taka-san, I don't have a fan base that naturally comes from my domestic achievements and can spread overseas."

"If you want to start from scratch, you have to learn how to get along with them and how to create content that they like."

"Learning a language is only the first step."

Although the only reason Jun Sakurada frequents the Chinese internet is because he is Chinese, he still needs to maintain a certain facade in front of outsiders, especially Japanese people.

The phrase "pro-China and fawning on China" sounds unpleasant, but "studying hard and cultivating audience needs in order to develop overseas markets" sounds much more normal and inspiring.

However, the sycophants clearly didn't catch the subtle hint in Sakurada Jun's words; they seemed more concerned with something else:

"By the way, speaking of radiation, Runjun, do you know... roughly what kind of influence we have in China?"