Girls' Wishing Tree

In the era of big girl bands, there were countless girls willing to spend their spare time in bands.

But most girl bands are just for fun, that is, a few people pool their pocket money to play in the rehearsal room, and they have never even held a decent live performance.

For a "hobby" band, the first component is friendship, not musicality.

Therefore, in this kind of band, you can find guitarists who can't play guitar, keyboardists who can only play with one finger, and bassists who dance hip-hop on stage...

What? Someone who can play bass is also doing hip-hop dance on stage?

That's fine.

In short, there are only a few people like Popipa who have both friendship and playing skills.

Mahiro and Sayu leaned against each other, looking at a tablet computer. Their eyes were inexplicably the same, and they all turned into dizzy "mosquito-coil eyes".

Seeing Ying walk into the rehearsal room, Zhenxun immediately raised his hand: "We looked at seventy bands, and maybe less than ten of them can perform!"

Ying placed a bag of snacks in front of the two of them, clasped her hands together, and bowed slightly. "Thank you for your hard work. You can look after the rest tomorrow. When the special iron plate for making pancakes arrives in a few days, I will make pancakes for you."

Shinxun wanted to complain, but Sakura's attitude was so good that she was too embarrassed to speak. She could only wave her hands at Sakura and said, "It's not so bad actually. There are some pretty good bands."

Ying decided to liven up the atmosphere: "Which of these bands have you heard is the best?"

Mahiro and Sayu looked at each other and gave the same answer: "Morfonica."

"I've never heard of this band." Sakura was stunned for a moment and sat next to Sayu: "Show me the video."

"This is it." Sayu tapped the screen a few times, showing a video.

On the screen, a girl with short silver hair is holding a microphone. The angle of view is obviously that of a mobile phone. Next to her is a tall violinist with short hair. The band's guitarist has a good figure, but the guitar he uses is not very common in girl bands.

The guitar used by the guitarist is Arrow, which is generally used by metal musicians. This guitar is also equipped with a large double-tremolo bridge, so the tremolo can be used to produce large-scale vibrato, which makes it look less like the guitar of a girl band.

Their performance costumes are designed very carefully, giving a feeling of traveling between fantasy and reality. From the perspective of clothing, they form a clear contrast with those bands that are not so attentive.

"We are Morfonica, and we hope to perform at the Sakura Festival." The lead singer said softly, exchanged glances with everyone in the band, and then the drummer with twin ponytails tapped the drumsticks lightly three times, and the music sounded.

The sound of the violin immediately caught Sakura's ears.

Adding the violin to a small orchestra with vocals is quite challenging from an arrangement perspective. Generally speaking, the audience's attention should be focused on the vocals, but the violin, like the suona and bamboo flute, is an instrument whose tone easily and naturally becomes the main melody.

The sound of the violin becomes the main melody at the beginning, so what should be done afterwards?

Sakura's curiosity was piqued.

Soon, she got the answer from Morfonica's music.

This was a very pleasing band. Among them, the violinist was the most skilled, while the remaining musicians were somewhat green.

In this case, they arranged for the violin to absorb most of the attention. In the arrangement, the violin was assigned the position of "second lead singer". When the vocals came out, the violin retreated to a playing area similar to "lead guitar".

This not only makes the band stand out from other bands, but also conceals the lack of playing skills of the members.

Arrangement and stage setting are also part of the hard power. Sakura decided in her heart to let this band participate in the Sakura Festival, and then watched several bands selected by Sayu and Mahiro.

Compared to Morfonica, these bands are a little bit inferior.

There was a band with strong technical skills, but no songwriter and was told that they could only sing covers; there was a band with a well-written main melody, but the arrangement was almost a "disaster", with two guitars squeezed together like a ball of yarn tangled by a cat; there was another band whose overall performance was very good, but the drummer led the whole band to sing faster and faster, and the lead singer almost got a stitch in the side in the last few syllables.

These bands are already the better ones selected by Sayu and Mahiro.

Ying crossed out the names of several bands on the paper, wrote "to be determined" behind the remaining bands, and didn't mention the bands again.

She picked up the bass in the training room and prepared to play the music for Su Shi.

The score had actually been written yesterday, but Su Shi wasn't particularly skilled at playing it, so she had to go over it a few times before sending it over to make sure there wasn't anything particularly difficult.

After writing a score, one tends to be more "intoxicated", so testing it directly might not guarantee accuracy. Playing it again a day later can largely eliminate the influence. This was an opportunity she specifically provided to Su Shi based on his performance.

For this opportunity, Ying set a deadline in her mind - within a week, if Su Shi could basically master the score, she would not need to find another bassist.

It was a compromise she made for the sake of shining points.

Chapter 119 Spring, Sakura and Crychic: 21, Professional Dispute

Tsuki no Mori Girls' Academy.

This is a very famous girls' school in Tokyo.

In terms of teaching standards, its average deviation value is only about the same as that of Yuqiu, and there is still some gap between it and the top high schools; in terms of the level of extracurricular activities, it is not particularly outstanding either.

It is famous for its mystery.

Tsuki no Mori will survey the families of the students who are admitted. Those who are able to attend Tsuki no Mori are from relatively well-off families, and at least they are families that can spend tens of millions of yen without any pressure.

This school charges high tuition fees, and its facilities and security are much better than other schools. Because of this, it is called the "Missing Girls School".

In a trapezoidal classroom, Morfonica is playing at the podium.

They decided to form a band after watching Popipa's anniversary performance. The time up to now is not very long. Except for violinist Yashio Rui, the performances of the other four members are still in the stage of rapid improvement.

As for Rui Yashio, she joined the band only for the purpose of "supervising the four members not to make any noise."

Fortunately, all the members of the band are talented, and now Morfonica can hold small live performances for classmates in the classroom.

Considering that the girls in Tsukinomori all have good musical skills, this is definitely an amazing rate of progress.

At this time, in the stands.

"Xiao Mu, let's form a band!" The blue-haired girl with twin ponytails who had prayed for her mother's resurrection at the shrine seemed to have completely gotten over the shadow of her mother's death, and said, pulling the girl with long green hair beside her.

The girl named "Mu" glanced at the other person but didn't speak immediately.

The blue-haired girl with twintails was not discouraged at all and continued, "Like Morfonica's predecessors, on stage..."

"Xiangzi, sure." Mu agreed reluctantly.

"I'm here to find band members." Xiangzi raised his hand. "Mu will be the guitarist, I'll be the keyboardist, and as for the bassist... I saw a classmate practicing bass alone in the music classroom, so I'll find a chance to ask her."

Mu just listened to Xiangzi talk about his vision for the band's future, and both of them felt very comfortable with this way of communication.

Xiangzi kept talking, and Mu occasionally replied briefly. If it were two little girls, this way of communication would seem a bit strange, but when the two of them talked like this, it seemed very natural.

At this time, a band also gathered at the Sakura Shrine.

Momoka, Nina, Satoshi, and Rupa gathered in the training room to discuss whether to accept Hongxia and the band's future activities.

"Let me start by saying that Hong Xia is pretty good. At least she won't inexplicably quit the band like Meow Meng did." Rencai raised her hand. "No matter what, this band has to resume activities, right? If they keep stopping, people will gradually stop coming."

Everyone in the training room focused their attention on Nina, but their gazes seemed to hold different meanings.

Taoxiang's eyes were the most complicated, while Zhi seemed to be thinking of something in the past.

Finally, it was Momoka who broke the awkward silence: "Nina, I'll probably be the support guitarist for another month or so. I'll accompany RAS for three more performances, and then I'll be back."

Nina was a little dissatisfied: "I was talking about Nijika. She has a good personality and approves of Momoka's musical style."

Zhi rubbed his toes on the tatami twice and whispered, "Nina, no... the biggest problem of the band right now is not the drummer's problem."

"Ah? Can't we resume activities immediately after one drummer is gone?" Nina was stunned.

Momoka echoed Chi's words, "Nina, have you ever thought about why Meowmu quit?"

"She doesn't want to form a band with us, so we can just find someone who is willing to form a band with her." Renai raised her head and looked into Renai's eyes: "Why make a simple thing so complicated?"

"Our band didn't live up to Miao Meng's expectations, so it's understandable that she quit - just like I quit DiamondDust because the band I founded no longer lived up to my expectations."

When Taoxiang said this, her tone was soothing but serious.

Not only Rencai, but Zhi also seemed to have some understanding of this sentence.

The first band Zhi formed after arriving in Tokyo eventually disbanded.

The reason for the disbandment was that Zhi put pressure on the band members and made more professional demands, but the band members could not accept such criticism.

"Not everyone has the same musical talent as you. It's almost time for you to stop." The guitarist said this, strode out of the training room, and never came back.

The biggest gain for Zhi from forming the band 72ShanLingShiQiShiLingMeng was meeting Rupa.

The four people in the room—Momoka, Satoshi, and Rupa—had all experienced band breakups, but Nina was the only one who was in a band for the first time. Only those who had experienced band breakups knew the most important thing to keep a band going.

Zhi suddenly decided to speak out, "Everyone's pretty much calmed down now, right? So I'll tell you what I didn't say to Meow Meng back then. I want to be in a professional band, or at least a semi-professional band that can produce sustained music. I was willing to join because Nina has a talented voice, Momoka has a base of popularity and a stable musical output. And, I think everyone has remembered that we're signed to Jinja, and Sakura has promised to help us promote commercially."

Rupa seemed to want to stop Zhi, but in the end she just gently put her hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay to be a semi-professional. I've already told my sister that I want to play in a band while attending cram school," Nina said quickly.

"I... need to think about joining a professional band." Taoxiang's mind flashed back to the scene of her quitting DiamondDust - the band she had founded was forced by the agency to transform into an idol group due to revenue pressure.

She really didn't like this feeling, and whenever she thought about it, she still felt surrounded by the sticky reality.

"I'm still taking extra classes and I'm willing to do that. Momoka would rather join RAS than stay?" Nina's tone was filled with disappointment.

Taoxiang's anger also rose: "That's different! RAS is a support job and can leave at any time!"

"If you don't give me a definite answer, this band will be gone even for a while!" Rencai refused to give in, and their foreheads touched each other.

"Stop arguing!" Ying pushed the door open and walked in, raising a hand to stop her. "Hongxia has already taken the subway home. What's going on with you two?"

"Nothing." Renai and Momoka each took a step back and said to Sakura in unison.

Chapter 120 Spring, Sakura and Crychic: 22, The World is Wrong

Sakura's eyes scanned the four people in the training room, suspicion in their eyes.

There's no way nothing happened.

Before she left with Hongxia, the atmosphere in the training room was quite relaxed. It wouldn't have become like this after she was gone for more than ten minutes. Furthermore, when Sakura pushed open the door, she saw Nina and Momoka butting against each other like two calves.

"Who thinks Hongxia is unsuitable?" Ying guessed a reason for the quarrel.

"There's nothing wrong with it." Renai glanced at Momoka. "It's not about Hongxia. It's that Momoka would rather work at RAS than come back to play in a professional band."

"I've already told you, it's not like that." Taoxiang leaned closer to Ying: "Let me talk to Ying alone."

Nina still trusts Sakura.

She took Zhi's hand and walked out: "Momoka is sick, let Ying talk to her."

"Don't pull me, it's not me and Momoka who started the quarrel..." Zhi muttered to himself, but still walked out with Renai.

Rupa gave Sakura a slightly apologetic smile and followed the two out.

As soon as Satoshi walked out of the training room, he stopped in his tracks, "Nina, Momoka might have a knot in her heart regarding the professional band...."

"Is she the only one...who has a knot in her heart?" Rencai clenched her fists, and her whole demeanor seemed different.

Rupa held Renai's shoulders. "You're a fan of DiamondDust. You've never been in a band before, right?"

"I'm not a fan of DiamondDust, I'm a fan of former DiamondDust." Nina said emphatically, "I'm a fan only when Momoka is around. DiamondDust back then had a gentle yet rebellious power. It was because of Momoka that I had the courage to stand up."

"If Momoka is willing, I can drop out of school right now." Nina grabbed Rupa's hand on her shoulder. "She was willing to drop out of school without hesitation back then. If she doesn't want to play in a professional band anymore because of a knot in her heart, then I must have made a mistake in choosing her."

"Let's go sit in the store for a while." Zhi walked out of the shrine: "Since Ying asked, let her give it a try."

In the training room.

Sakura leaned against the door of the training room, looking at Momoka in front of her: "Why did you get into an argument with Nina? She has such a childish personality, wouldn't it be better if you just gave in to her a little?"

"...She doesn't understand." Taoxiang looked aside, looking at the guitar amp. "As long as a band is commercialized, it's hard not to make some compromises. The original DiamondDust was like that. That's why I didn't try to keep Miaomeng."

Sakura finally understood what was going on with Momoka.

She is afraid.

Because I cherish this band, I am afraid that it will be like Diamond Dust and lose its place once it reaches the commercial stage.

"Not every band has the same trajectory. It's a terrible thing to be afraid to approach the future because of the past, isn't it?" Sakura took two steps forward. "Everyone has things they don't want to look back on, but... ultimately, we still have to look forward."

Momoka shook her head. "Right now, this band isn't ready for professionalism. Hongxia would be a good fit for us, but she doesn't have the skills to be a professional. She's still in high school. I can't let Renai and Hongxia accompany me to gamble on that vague possibility."

Ying was about to say something when she suddenly received a system prompt: "You can issue Taoxiang's mission to the host."

She did not respond to the system.

She still hasn't figured out Taoxiang's current situation, and she still has the task of helping Zhi find suitable teammates. She still needs to talk to him for a few more minutes before the system can release Taoxiang's task.

Ying put her hands behind her back. "And then what? Let this band pass you by like DiamondDust? First you quit because you don't want to be an idol band, and then you quit again because your teammates all want to go commercial and you want to remain non-commercial?"

Momoka covered her face with her hands and knelt on the tatami. After a few seconds, she spoke: "Ying, is there a fortune stick at the shrine? I want to draw a fortune stick."

Of course, the shrine does have "divination sticks," but the practice has long been discontinued. As the old priests grew older, fewer and fewer people came to draw lots, and the stick box gradually became a thing gathering dust in the warehouse.

However, Sakura was somewhat reluctant to take it out.

She had no way of controlling what lot would pop out of the lottery box. If she drew a bad lot, it might be more difficult to persuade the person.

So she used the "cheating" method.