My daily life in various anime crossovers can't possibly be this sci-fi.

Therefore, even though Eriri doesn't have the same extraordinary obsession with doing homework as Jiang Jinghua, she has also been spending the past few days in a cycle of constantly burning out her liver and then growing a new one. Together, the two of them can be considered the Prometheus duo in the club.

Due to overworking herself for the past few days, Eriri Sawamura's mental state is now on the verge of collapse.

But I still need to finish drawing Kato's character design... Besides, I haven't finished the line art for the notebook... and I haven't done any of my homework yet...

"I want to die..." Eriri Sawamura lamented.

"Damn it, why did I ever agree to do this thankless task that idiot Tomoya did?!" Eriri Sawamura shouted angrily in her heart.

Let's get some rest before those two arrive.

Eriri buried her head between her neatly folded hands, curling up like a stray dog ​​on the street.

Should I give up on the job I promised Tomoya, or should I give up on releasing my work at this exhibition...?

Should I not give up either...? It's such a difficult choice...

As a result, Eriri, who couldn't sleep at all, raised her head again, staring blankly at the white wall in front of her desk with bloodshot eyes. If she continued to work so relentlessly without expecting anything in return, she was afraid she would break down completely.

"Idiot Tomoya, useless Tomoya, shut-in Tomoya..." Eriri Sawamura muttered to herself, "Even though he worked so hard for you..."

So it would be good to pay a little more attention to Eriri Sawamura as a person, rather than to her works.

"Oh dear, you look terrible. This won't do. You can only create excellent works when you're in good physical and mental health!" Even if he saw Eriri's current state, that's all he would say.

After all, in that guy's eyes, there were only two-dimensional characters.

"...So, that guy has absolutely nothing to offer that makes girls like him..."

Eriri Sawamura buried her head between her arms again, but this time it wasn't because she felt sleepy.

what

Chapter 23: A Few Things That Happened at the Sawamura Residence (Part 1)

……

I don't know how much time passed.

"...Oh, hello, are you looking for...she's upstairs."

"Oh, okay, I'll get right away..."

Faint conversations could be heard coming from downstairs. It seemed Jiang Jinghua had arrived.

However, the voices were only from a man and a woman; one was his mother, and the other was Jiang Jinghua. It seems Kato hasn't arrived yet.

Eriri looked up, tidied her messy hair a bit, and then pulled out a tissue to wipe her face, waking up the computer that was in hibernation.

"Knock knock knock."

"Please feel free to come in." Eriri picked up the water glass on the table and took a sip, not caring at all how old the water in the glass was.

Eriri turned her head toward the door and looked at Jiang Jinghua who was walking in from outside.

"Good afternoon, Eriri. The key drawing is finished... Huh?" Jiang Jinghua stared in shock at Eriri, who was in a dazed state. "What's wrong with your face? You're acting all wrong!"

"Never mind that," Eriri replied expressionlessly. "Anyway, since you're here, hurry up and help us out. We still have a ton of manuscripts to finish today..."

"What a load of crap!" Jiang Jinghua rushed forward and snatched the pencil from Yingli's hand. "If you keep mistreating yourself like this, you'll hurt yourself! Tell me honestly, what time did you finally fall asleep last night?"

The way Jiang Jinghua was staring at Yingli now seemed to her just like the reproachful yet caring look her father gave her when she was fooling around until the middle of the night... No, to be honest, even her unreliable father wouldn't give her that look!

"Eh? Uh, um..." Eriri was a little flustered, "It wasn't very late... I only fell asleep around 3 a.m. and woke up around 8 a.m..."

"That's all?" Jiang Jinghua shook his head violently. "Last time I worked on a project proposal, I only stayed up until 2:30. Look how sleepy I was at noon! Sawamura Eriri, as your supervisor, I'm ordering you to go catch up on your sleep right now! And if you ever dare to go to bed after midnight again, I'll get angry with you!"

What... what's going on? Why all of a sudden...?

Eriri felt a little dizzy and lightheaded.

Jiang Jinghua seemed to suddenly realize that something was amiss, and quickly changed his words, saying, "Ah, sorry, I accidentally said some nonsense just now. Anyway, you should rest well now and take care of your health. Just don't stay up late in the future. As for those nonsense things I said earlier, just forget about them..."

"But if we do that, won't we be unable to finish the manuscript?" Eriri asked. "As a director, it's not right for you to let your illustrators fall behind on their work."

“If you have to stay up all night to finish the manuscript, then it means the workload I set is too heavy for you. In that case, we’ll reduce what needs to be reduced and postpone what needs to be postponed. There’s no issue of delaying the manuscript,” Jiang Jinghua said. “But your work efficiency shouldn’t be that low, right? Logically speaking, the workload I set shouldn’t make you stay up until 3 a.m. to sleep, right?”

There's really no other way; it seems like I have no choice but to say it out loud...

Eriri pulled out the line drawings from the notebook on the table and showed them to Jiang Jinghua.

"Whoa!" Jiang Jinghua was startled. "Why are you suddenly showing me this kind of picture..."

"Well, because I really want to participate in the CM exhibition in the fall, I have to work on two articles at the same time..."

Jiang Jinghua's expression darkened further: "Hey, Sawamura-kun, wasn't it you who said 'I don't have any manuscripts to finish lately' and then joined the production plan?"

Eriri was a little annoyed by Jiang Jinghua's questioning, but her tone only got louder and louder: "So, that's why! I worked so hard to complete this project, and I even kept it a secret that I had a manuscript to finish. Why don't you thank me!"

“First of all, the person who should be thanking you for this is Aki Tomoya, who took the lead, not me. I’m just a supervisor under him,” Jiang Jinghua said. “Secondly, since you had your own things to do, you should have made that clear at the time. We would all understand. Now you’re doing two jobs at the same time, making yourself like this. This is not only disrespectful to yourself, but also to us, and even to the CM exhibition.”

"W-what?!" Eriri twisted her body in the swivel chair, turning to face the other side of the room. "Disrespecting myself is one thing, but what do the last two mean?!"

Jiang Jinghua said, "By trying to have your cake and eat it too, you may seem to be pleasing both sides, but in reality, you're losing out on both. How can you possibly create excellent works when you've made yourself like this? Instead of messing things up on both sides, you should focus on doing one thing well... Oh, I'm sorry, I just started lecturing again. Please don't be angry."

Eriri remained silent.

"But speaking of which, the fact that you're willing to go to such lengths for Lun shows you have a really good relationship," Jiang Jinghua suddenly changed the subject. "You really are childhood sweethearts..."

This seemingly insignificant remark actually infuriated Eriri Sawamura.

"Who's on good terms with that idiot, lazy bum!"

After uttering such an indignant remark, Eriri Sawamura slumped onto the table, remaining silent.

……

Jiang Jinghua sighed helplessly as he looked at Sawamura Eriri, who had inexplicably slumped onto the table and refused to speak to him anymore. It must be because she had said some presumptuous things earlier, thinking they were on good terms.

I'm really not good at talking to girls. Damn it, how am I ever going to change this overly outgoing personality of mine...?

There was another knock on the door downstairs; it seemed that Kato Megumi had arrived.

This situation is really awkward... It's so good that Kato Megumi came at this time.

With soft footsteps, Kato Megumi came up from downstairs.

Today, Kato Megumi was wearing a beige dress and a white sun hat. It's strange, though, that although she usually looks unremarkable, Kato Megumi changes her clothes frequently and is surprisingly good at dressing up... although no matter how well she dresses, she rarely gets noticed.

"Huh? What's Sawamura-kun doing?" Kato Megumi asked, looking at Eriri who was slumped over the table. "Is she throwing a tantrum?"

"I don't know either, maybe I said something inappropriate just now..."

"I'm not angry at all because of this guy! You two idiots!" Eriri Sawamura, who was lying on the table, suddenly shouted.

"..." Jiang Jinghua helplessly shrugged.

"Girls' minds are the most unpredictable thing in the world," Kato Megumi said in a low voice. "You'd better do your best, Jinghua-kun."

what

Chapter 24, Section 24: A Few Things That Happened at the Sawamura Residence (Part 2)

"Now, as the supervisor, I will announce the task arrangement for this afternoon," Jiang Jinghua said. "Sawamura can do anything except rush to finish his manuscript. It is best to find something that can relax your mind and body. As for me, I will do my best to draw some original drawings that are relatively easy to draw, just to help Sawamura lighten his burden."

"And what about me?" Kato Megumi asked.

What Kato Megumi is going to do is indeed a question. Originally, Eriri Sawamura was supposed to use this afternoon to contribute to the Megumi emoji collection; but now that Eriri Sawamura, the illustrator, has crashed, Kato Megumi, the model, naturally doesn't know what to do.

"As for you... you'll be responsible for accompanying Sawamura-kun this afternoon to do something relaxing," Jiang Jinghua said. "In this day and age, text-based games will never become popular without good original artwork, right? So making the illustrators happy is a very important task for game production."

"It seems there's no problem." Kato Megumi nodded. "By the way, Jinghua-kun, you're not actually very good at drawing, are you?"

"That's true, but..."

“Then let’s not push ourselves too hard.” Kato Megumi shook her head. “How about the two of us accompany Sawamura-kun around this afternoon? I’ve heard that the best way to recover from mental fatigue is through physical activity. Sawamura-kun doesn’t seem like the type to do any physical labor, so how about the rest of us just walk around the neighborhood and get some exercise? What do you think?”

“I don’t care. Although I feel it’s a pity to waste an afternoon…” Jiang Jinghua said.

“You can’t say that. If you really think that spending time with Sawamura is a waste of time, she will definitely be unhappy,” Kato Megumi said firmly.

Jiang Jinghua realized he had misspoke: "Ah, yes, that's right. It was my fault, I didn't express myself clearly..."

Eriri Sawamura suddenly looked up and said, "Then please go out first, I'll tidy myself up a bit."

The two left Eriri's room.

Just then, footsteps sounded from below. Coming up from downstairs was Eriri's mother, Sayuri Sawamura.

Although her actual identity is Eriri's mother, and she's well past the age of a young woman, Yuri's face shows no signs of aging and looks almost identical to Eriri's; they could easily be mistaken for sisters. While her hair is black, she wears it in lively twin tails like Eriri, making her appear at first glance like a high school student.

She was carrying a plate full of fruit as she walked up the stairs.

"Would you two like some fruit?" Sayuri asked with a smile. Perhaps Sayuri Sawamura's kind, wifely smile was the only part of her that suited her age.

"Ah, no need." Jiang Jinghua waved his hand. "We're going out together later."

"Huh? The three of you are going out together?" Sawamura Sayuri giggled. "Oh dear, as Eriri's mother, I can't allow this kind of behavior, you know?"

"...I didn't mean that, sister...no! Auntie, don't worry..."

Damn it, I mispronounced the address!

"Oh, it doesn't matter," Xiaobaihe said with a smile. "Even though I'm in my early forties, I still feel happy when people call me 'older sister.' It's okay if you're going out, just finish these fruits before you leave."

At that moment, a continuous clanging sound came from Eriri Sawamura's room.

“If that child is going out, he will definitely spend a lot of time getting ready.” Little Lily looked at the door with a smile. “So you two can finish these fruits first.”

“Then, Sawamura-nee, we won’t stand on ceremony.” Kato Megumi nodded.

You learn so fast...

A dozen minutes later, in the restaurant downstairs.

All the fruit in the large plate in front of Jiang Jinghua had already undergone a complex physical transformation process and entered the two people's stomachs to begin further chemical changes, but Sawamura Eriri still showed no sign of coming downstairs.

"I'm not saying this to be mean, but she really is a bit slow," Jiang Jinghua said while drinking water.

"That's normal. If a girl is particular about what she wears, it's perfectly normal for her to spend half an hour deciding what to wear," Kato Megumi said calmly. "If Jinghua wants to get a girlfriend in the future, learning to endure this level of waiting is a must."