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

Eriri Sawamura began to shake her head rapidly, her signature twin-tail slapping technique striking her face repeatedly.

Although she always acts like "I don't know you," her actions are very honest! Yes, that must be it! Eriri Sawamura has never trusted her intuition so much!

Eriri Sawamura, who hadn't noticed anything amiss just moments before, suddenly became flustered and unconsciously took two steps back, creating a small distance between herself and Jiang Jinghua.

"..." Jiang Jinghua suddenly turned his head. "What's wrong? Why is your face suddenly so red?"

"It's...it's okay!" Eriri Sawamura shouted, revealing her sharp little fangs.

This time, Jiang Jinghua didn't turn around to talk about random topics with Kato Megumi. Instead, he continued to stare at Sawamura Eriri: "You've been acting strange since just now. Would you mind telling me why?"

"I really mind!" Eriri Sawamura blushed and turned her head away, no longer looking at Jiang Jinghua.

Damn it, you're the one who likes me, yet you pretended so well!

No, I can't keep acting like this. I need to control my emotions a little... He's the one who likes me, so why am I acting like I like him?

Eriri Sawamura made up her mind to refrain from speaking to Jiang Jinghua for the time being, to avoid causing him any unnecessary misunderstandings. One of the three great illusions of life is "she likes me," right? Therefore, to prevent her supervisor from being troubled by strange fantasies and thus unable to concentrate on his work, Eriri Sawamura felt she had to take responsibility for this.

"What's wrong, Sawamura-kun?" Kato Meguya leaned closer. "Is something on your mind?"

"Why are you all crowding around here?!" Eriri Sawamura stepped behind the two of them. "You guys talk! I... I just have something on my mind! Anyway, don't bother me now!"

"...That's really strange." Jiang Jinghua turned around, no longer looking at Eriri behind him, but lowered his voice and said to Kato Megumi, "Based on my many years of experience in the industry, Sawamura-san's behavior must be due to her tsundere nature acting up. But I don't understand why. We just had a few drinks, how did she become like this? Did we get those drinks from the set of Somaru-san next door?"

"...What is the Medicine King?" Kato Megumi asked.

"You haven't seen it... really." Jiang Jinghua sighed. "A complete failure to use a meme."

After thinking for a moment, Kato Megumi said, "I think it's probably because of Aki-kun. Sawamura-kun has been busy until very late every day lately, but Aki-kun hasn't shown any intention of comforting him. So Sawamura-kun must be very unhappy."

“Although he wanted to be comforted, he didn’t get any,” Jiang Jinghua speculated. “So he started throwing a tantrum. Right now, Sawamura’s inner monologue is probably something like, ‘Hmph, I don’t need your concern!’”

“Jinghua-jun’s imitation is quite good,” Kato Megumi laughed.

And so, under the gradually reddish-orange sunlight of the setting sun, the black-haired boy and girl walked side by side, whispering to each other, while behind them, the blonde girl walked alone with a shy expression, her head down, lost in thought.

What a harmonious and beautiful scene!

what

Section 29, Chapter Twenty-Nine: I Guess Tonight Will Be a Sleepless Night

Night fell.

After returning from Akihabara, the three went their separate ways, with Eriri Sawamura going home alone. She is currently eating dinner at the table.

"So, Dad won't be back from England for another two months?"

At the Sawamura family's dining table, Eriri Sawamura asked a question while stuffing a small rice ball into her mouth.

“It’s not just two months,” Sawamura Sayuri shook her head. “It’s at least two months. I think you understand the relationship between the two, right?”

"Oh well, he's only home a few days a year anyway, I'm used to it." Eriri sighed.

Eriri Sawamura stuffed the last few rice balls into her mouth, then used her fork to pick up a piece of fried fish and chewed it. Her mother's cooking skills were truly amazing; even British cuisine, notorious for its culinary culinary disasters, could be transformed into such astonishingly delicious dishes under her hands.

As Eriri Sawamura savored the delicious meal her mother had prepared, she inexplicably thought of Jiang Jinghua.

That guy's parents seem to have both become martyrs, so he probably lives alone now. If he lives alone, and is the kind of rigid guy, he's probably either eating takeout meals that cost hundreds of dollars, or filling his stomach with cup noodles or frozen packaged food.

"Oh dear, Eriri-chan is unusually quiet while eating today," Sawamura Sayuri said with a knowing smile. "Normally she'd be chattering away at this time. What are you thinking about now?"

"...Think about whatever you want, but I'm not thinking about the kind of things you think I'm thinking," Eriri replied expressionlessly.

"Oh dear, is your attitude that bad?" Although she said Eriri's attitude was bad, Sayuri's smile became even brighter. "I think you were thinking what I think you were thinking, weren't you?"

"Shut up! I'm absolutely not thinking anything you think I'm thinking!" Eriri yelled. "Are you reciting a tongue twister?"

"Alright, alright, don't be angry. You know best what kind of person your mother is. Do you think I can't guess what you're thinking?" Little Lily coaxed gently. "So tell me, what are you thinking? What's there to be ashamed of between a mother and daughter!"

"...It's nothing. I think there's a boy in my class who likes me." Eriri Sawamura took a sip of her drink. "That's all."

Sawamura Sayuri was beaming with joy; she had finally heard what she wanted to hear.

"But as far as I know, our Eriri-chan has always been very popular in class, right? Putting aside the number of suitors, there are at least a lot of people who secretly have those kinds of feelings for you, right? So, that boy must be quite special to you! Otherwise, why would he take up so much of your attention?"

Eriri Sawamura remained silent, simply gulping down her drink.

"Let me guess, could it be the one from this afternoon..."

"Mom, you're always so quick to jump to conclusions!" Eriri Sawamura snapped. "How can you slander someone like that out of thin air?"

Ah, quite a strong reaction... It seems that's the one! Sayuri Sawamura concluded.

However, Eriri seems quite angry now, so it seems that the boy from lunchtime was indeed quite important to her. It's best not to tease her any further.

"Okay, okay, I've seen the wind and thought it was rain. My words were wrong. I apologize, okay?" Despite being a woman in her forties, Xiaobaihe's demeanor and tone were still like those of a cute high school girl, and it didn't seem out of place at all.

"..." Eriri Sawamura's anger subsided slightly, and she began to quietly finish off the remaining fried fish.

……

After the meal.

Normally, after washing the dishes tonight, it's my go-to time to watch anime, but Sawamura Sayuri is going to postpone it a bit because before watching this week's episode of Violet Evergarden, she needs to do some research on that guy from noon.

Sawamura Sayuri's first impression of the Chinese-American boy wasn't bad. Both in appearance and demeanor, he seemed like a well-behaved and honest person, completely different from Aki Tomoya, that loud and boisterous otaku. And he'd probably be quite cute in women's clothing... ah, no, that's not the point.

Furthermore, Sawamura Sayuri overheard part of Jiang Jinghua and Eriri's conversation upstairs at noon. This boy and Eriri must have only become acquainted recently after the club was formed; before that, they were just acquaintances. In other words, Jiang Jinghua is quite attentive even to casual friends. Unlike Aki Tomoya, who completely ignores his childhood friend.

Although Aki Tomoya has excellent taste in otaku, marriage is not as simple as just finding an otaku friend. Although both Sayuri and Eriri's father, Mr. Spencer, respect their daughters' wishes, Sayuri is still a little worried about the fact that her daughter likes an extremely self-centered otaku like Aki Tomoya.

Xiaobaihe went to the computer and logged into SCIC's personnel file page using her daughter's account.

Although student accounts don't have high privileges, they can still check basic personnel files.

"Um……"

Jiang Jinghua is a martyr's family member; both his parents sacrificed their lives for the country in the Foundation's interdimensional military operations. Despite his family's misfortune, Jiang Jinghua himself is a remarkably positive and motivated person. Judging from his past exam results, while his grades aren't outstanding, they are generally in the upper-middle range, a world apart from Aki Tomoya's, who frequently fails.

What's even more commendable is that Jiang Jinghua's homework completion was exceptionally good. As a parent, Sayuri Sawamura is well aware of SCIC's optional homework system, so she understands that Jiang Jinghua's ability to complete virtually all assignments across all subjects is extremely valuable at SCIC.

After closing the student file, Sayuri Sawamura opened her social media app and found Jiang Jinghua's account. This was effortless, as Jiang Jinghua's nickname was simply "Jiang Jinghua." The best way to understand someone is to look at their social media activity. Sayuri Sawamura had used this trick countless times, and it always worked…

...Okay, this time it's "satisfying." Sawamura Sayuri was surprised to find that Jiang Jinghua's account basically had no real activity; all his posts were directed at very specific issues. Therefore, it was completely impossible to glean any insight into his personality from such posts.

Even so, Sayuri Sawamura was still able to glean one piece of information about Jiang Jinghua from this data: he must be a rather rigid, serious person with very low desire to perform.

He's an honest person.

Whether in real life or in anime, being a truly honest person is a very popular trait. This is certainly true for Sayuri Sawamura as well.

Satisfied, Sayuri Sawamura closed the webpage. Although Jiang Jinghua himself was unaware of this, at least he had now passed Sayuri Sawamura's test.

Well, now we'll see if these two are destined to be together... so it's time for some serious analysis!

what

Section 30, Chapter 30: The New Song of the Muses

Meanwhile, at Jiang Jinghua's home.

Jiang Jinghua was still full of energy today. Although he had spent the afternoon shopping with a girl, he now had a lot of homework to do, but it was still within an acceptable range.

After a hard-fought battle, Jiang Jinghua finally solved the last two challenging math problems, letting out a long sigh of relief. He grabbed a large bottle of ice-cold cola and gulped it down. Indeed, the feeling of taking a big gulp of ice-cold cola after intense studying and then collapsing on the desk to slack off was the best…

When people have free time, they start thinking about all sorts of random things. For example, Jiang Jinghua couldn't help but let his thoughts drift back to this afternoon.

Although Kato Megumi may seem unremarkable at first glance, upon closer inspection she's actually quite cute, and her personality is undeniably wonderful. In her previous life, where girls were scarce, a girl like her would be enough to cause countless conflicts in the class. As for Sawamura Eriri, needless to say, even in this world she's an absolute idol.

For Jiang Jinghua, who had almost never been within a meter of a girl in his previous life, being attacked from both sides by two girls today was definitely a rare experience.

For an ordinary person like me, this kind of treatment is already quite good. Jiang Jinghua thought.

The life he was living now was something his past self could never have imagined. Although the fact that he had never met his parents before their deaths felt somewhat unsettling, the monthly pension from the foundation, deposited into his bank account without fail, was always there. The foundation's benefits were quite good, and the pension was enough for an ordinary family of three to live a very comfortable life without having to be frugal. With this money, even if Jiang Jinghua lived a life of leisure without working, as long as he managed his finances well, he could make ends meet.

One shouldn't have too high expectations of oneself. For Jiang Jinghua, being able to spend his high school years peacefully and happily was already a blessing he couldn't have asked for.

As for other things, you can think about them, but just don't take them seriously.

"Drip drip drip!"

It was another notification sound from his phone. Jiang Jinghua suddenly realized that he had been using LINE more and more frequently lately.

"We have a new song and we'd like you to listen to it and give us your thoughts." The sender was Honoka, and the message was quite direct.

Hmm... if we're talking about μ's songs...

There are currently two songs released online: "START:DASH" sung by three second-year students, and "Bokura no LIVE Kimi to no LIFE" (Bokura no LIVE Kimi to no LIFE), the first new song released after the members expanded to nine.

It must be said that for high school students, the level of these two songs is almost abnormally high. Jiang Jinghua believes they have completely reached the level of professional composers of this type of song. As for the nine members' singing ability, it's also unbelievable: although they are just nine ordinary high school students with no professional training, their singing skills are comparable to established singers. In short, these nine are simply geniuses when it comes to idols.

However, Jiang Jinghua had heard quite a bit of this style of music in both his current and previous lives. In short, it's a product of intense "boom boom boom boom" rhythms, extensive use of electronic instruments, and fast-paced, energetic vocals. Listening to one or two songs is great, but after listening to too many, you'll experience aesthetic fatigue, and your ears will hurt: this is especially true for Jiang Jinghua, who likes to listen to music with headphones.

As for the recording of this song, it has already been sent using the file transfer function. The file name is simply "New Audio File.mp3", which is quite straightforward.

"What's this called?"

"I haven't decided yet."

They've already written the song and recorded it on tape, but they haven't even thought of a name yet... What a strange thing to do.

In short, you should first download it and listen to it carefully.

"Oh, by the way, I should mention that this song is still unfinished, so the only accompaniment is Maki-chan's piano, and only Umi and Maki are singing," Honoka added.

Maki is likely referring to Nishikino Maki, the member of the group responsible for composing music (and providing sponsorship). Her family owns a private hospital, making her a wealthy heiress. She also seems to be a very talented spellcaster, especially skilled in modern magic.

Jiang Jinghua downloaded the "New Audio File" and started playing it on his phone.

When the play button is pressed, the first thing that plays is not the singing or the intro of a song, but the voices of girls talking.

"Then I'll play and sing at the same time? Sonoda-senpai, you go first."

"Okay, I'll go first. Let's not say anything more, I've already started recording."

Then there was a series of clanging and rattling noises, I don't know what was happening.

The piano music started playing for the first time about six seconds after the play button was pressed.