I have a life simulator.

"No, and we're not just here to participate in the cultural festival."

Tsubaki Sakura pouted, the stick of her lollipop shifting from her left to her right as she spoke, replying in a muffled tone:

"Although, sister, you would definitely choose that person's side without even thinking about it."

"Hmm? Isn't Sakurako one too? After all, we're all family."

"...Anyway, I'll have to wait until I really understand what kind of person the other person is before I say anything. Besides, I still can't figure out why you two seem so familiar with each other. Did you know each other before?"

"That doesn't seem wrong, does it? As for what kind of person Ryo really is, it's probably pointless for me to tell you, since Sakura only ever says I'm love-obsessed."

"Well, isn't that right? After all, your older sister was able to get Dad to change your age so you could enroll here with me next year."

As she spoke, Tsubaki Sakura herself sighed with a hint of helplessness.

It has to be said that ever since this boy named Kitagawa Ryo suddenly appeared in her field of vision, the curiosity and interest that she had previously placed on her older sister Yuki has also been transferred to him. After all, just like the relationship between a subset and its parent set, this boy undoubtedly knows everything about her sister's past while also harboring more secrets.

"Sigh, Sakura's words are practically reminding me that I still have to wait four or five months before I can enroll here."

Xue also sighed with a touch of melancholy.

In a sense, unlike Ichinose Honami and Karuizawa Megumi, who see their experiences as rebirth, Yuki's situation is closer to that of Horikita Suzune and Sakayanagi Arisu. However, all her painful memories from the past have been completely erased as if formatted, replaced only by the memory of that one simulation.

Of course, Kitagawa Ryo also told Yuki this fact when they first met. However, for Yuki at that time, none of this was as important as the simple fact that Kitagawa Ryo himself was standing right in front of her. Even now, several months later, this feeling still beats clearly and passionately in her chest, boiling and unwilling to stop.

In a sense, Kitagawa Ryo is her anchor point for perceiving the world, just as before.

"...Love-obsessed people are terrifying."

Although she made that subtle complaint, Tsubaki Sakura knew very well that compared to her sister's PTSD state in the past few years, it was already better than her sister being able to stand here and chat with her with a smile.

Besides, it seems quite normal for a high school student of this age to develop a crush on someone.

As Tsubaki Sakura thought this, she curled her tongue slightly to wrap the lollipop, which was getting smaller and smaller and almost completely licked out, in her mouth, quietly savoring the sweetness emanating from it.

Kitagawa Ryo.

Ayanokouji Kiyotaka.

Tsubaki Sakura recalled once again the two names her father had mentioned and the serious instructions he had given them before they came here:

The choices they make at this cultural festival will have a significant impact on everything that follows when they enroll in Tokyo Advanced Educational High School six months later.

"By the way, if Sakura's bored, would you like to watch some old recordings of Ryo's performances with me? They're way better than those variety shows like 'Genius Showdown'—"

"What 'Genius Showdown'? Is there such a variety show? I've never heard of it."

"Hmm... Don't worry about the details. Just come and watch with me. I've always thought Liang is a great actor. Even though they're not that close in private, she still pretends to be a couple in front of the audience. It must be really tough."

"CP? Does sis mean K&K?"

"Alright, let's begin. Let's watch without talking."

After saying that, Xue held up her phone in front of the two of them and began to enjoy watching the theatrical performance by Kitagawa Ryo on the screen.

On this timeline, which is different from the past, what she is most satisfied with are naturally those variety shows that have disappeared and only exist in the memories of a few people, featuring Kitagawa Ryo and Sakayanagi Arisu. Even after so long, she can still clearly remember the specific scene when she was just an audience member watching the two interact on stage.

Thinking of this, Xue subconsciously asked softly again:

Will it snow today?

"Didn't we just say not to talk? And why are you suddenly asking this kind of question? It's true that it's gotten colder these past few days, but it's only mid-November. It'll be at least two more months before it snows."

Tsubaki Sakura took out the lollipop she had finished eating, leaving only the stick, and casually tossed it into a nearby trash can. She answered these two sentences in a lazy tone, feeling that her biological older sister was sometimes incredibly smart, but at other times she would often ask such inexplicable and childish questions, which was quite contradictory and strange.

"Oh."

Just as Xue nodded thoughtfully, her thoughts drifting back to some past night, Chun Yingzi suddenly heard a weak voice behind her, as if it were speaking to the two of them.

"Excuse me, may I bother you?"

Turning around, she saw a girl who looked to be about the same age as them. She seemed to have just finished her morning exercise nearby. Her bright golden hair was tied into a high ponytail for easy movement, and she was wearing a breathable sports shirt. She was quite beautiful, but what attracted Tsubaki Sakurako's attention the most at first was the girl's broad-mindedness, which was completely unlike that of a middle school or high school student.

"Hmm? What is it?"

"Well, I overheard some of your conversation just now, unintentionally—well, not exactly unintentionally, but out of curiosity."

Nanase Tsubasa carefully organized her words, as eavesdropping on other sisters' casual conversation was indeed not a very honorable thing to do, so her tone was somewhat hesitant. However, because she really wanted to know and wanted to ask something, she finally decided to speak up:

“My name is Nanase Tsubasa. I’m a third-year junior high school student who will graduate in less than six months. I’m here today to attend the cultural festival of Tokyo Advanced Educational High School. And like you, I will be enrolling here as a freshman next April… So, the Ryo you just mentioned, is her full name Kitagawa Ryo?”

What do you mean by asking this?

Perhaps it was because the name Kitagawa Ryo suddenly triggered some kind of automatic reaction mechanism in her brain, Yuki, who had just been lost in thought, suddenly looked sharply at Nanase Tsubasa in front of her, her tone quite unfriendly.

"...So you're saying my sister is love-struck? Isn't it obvious that she's just like us, and someone told her she had to choose between two people and two camps?"

Compared to her sister, whose smile vanished abruptly, Tsubaki Sakura remained as languid as ever, even asking her another question with apparent interest:

"By the way, which side will you choose? This is supposedly a very important choice that will affect our entire high school life."

"This...how do you say it?"

Faced with Tsubaki Sakurako's blunt question, Nanase Tsubasa simply shook her head, somewhat puzzled:

"Actually, I have no idea what kind of people Kitagawa Ryo and Ayanokouji Kiyotaka are. I can find a lot of information about the former online, but there is absolutely no information about the latter."

"Then I overheard your conversation, so I was wondering if you knew more about the inside story of these things, since I'm still a bit confused. It seems like you two are quite familiar with the people involved."

"Indeed, but I wouldn't say that Ryo and I are very close. We're lovers who have slept in the same bed many times—hehe."

At this point, Xue raised a finger and spoke up under her sister's subtle gaze that seemed to say, "Here we go again! Someone, take my sister away!"

Meanwhile, at Tokyo Advanced Educational High School, which is just a wall away from them, Hideo Tomura, who had also gotten up early and was standing in front of the main gate to prepare, continued to give detailed instructions to the students in Class 1-A:

"Once the door opens, we'll do it exactly as we rehearsed. We'll start by making a grand entrance, then quickly unfold those huge promotional photos from top to bottom like this. The effect has to be stunning, understand?"

"learn!"

"no problem!"

Chapter 331: The Scream of the Sugar-Free White Bread

Although the official opening time of the cultural festival was 10:00 AM, the students of Tokyo Advanced Educational Junior High School obviously wouldn't wait that late to come to the site. Most of the students arrived from the dormitory area as early as 7:00 AM, just in time for the campus to open. Some changed clothes, while others set up the venue. In particular, the main gate, which had the most stalls, was already a bustling and lively scene.

However, Kitagawa Ryo didn't come over here. He was still working with Horikita Suzune and Sakura Airi's dessert team, keeping track of the baking time. They were busy baking various desserts according to the special menu for the cultural festival, striving to provide customers with the freshest quality and hottest taste.

In this situation, the task of keeping an eye on the publicity department of Class 1-A in front of the main gate naturally fell to Ichinose Honami, the general director of this cultural festival. However, she was happy to handle this kind of matter, and she was extremely meticulous in every detail. She made sure to fill all the guests' field of vision as soon as they entered the venue and proudly display the signs of the remaining three projects of Class 1-A.

It must be said that compared to the other students around them who were busy starting fires and preparing ingredients at their stalls, mainly selling food and snacks, the students from Class 1-A who had been hiding there tinkering with drones and small robots since morning were quite eye-catching. Even students from other classes cast curious glances in their direction. After all, thanks to the harmonious atmosphere during the preparation for this cultural festival, most classes had successfully kept their plans hidden until the very end, meaning that no one knew what the other class had prepared until the day itself.

However, such doubts were soon answered as time passed. With the announcement over the school's loudspeaker, "The 13th Tokyo Advanced Ikusei Junior High School Cultural Festival has officially begun. Please enter in an orderly manner," and the school gates of Tokyo Advanced Ikusei Junior High School, which had been closed to the outside world for a long time, finally opened with a bang, several drones operated by the students of Class 1-A quickly buzzed into the sky under the command of Hideo Sotomura. Following the postures they had rehearsed in the past, they skillfully arranged themselves into formation and directly unfurled several promotional photos that had been rolled up like scrolls in mid-air, either horizontally or downwards.

Such a grand display even surprised many students who had just mustered the courage to speak to the guests who had just walked in. Half of their words got stuck in their throats, and they could only unconsciously squeeze out a few incoherent exclamations.

"Holy crap, that's amazing."

"No wonder I didn't see any students from Class 1-A printing flyers. Did they have something up their sleeve?"

"I'm going to suggest this to my class next year for the school festival too—"

However, for one of the guests who had been waiting outside since 7 a.m. and was therefore the first to enter, her mood was not so pleasant.

Although the artistic fonts printed below the promotional photos, such as "Let the cute cats heal you" and "Shop location: 3rd floor of the Special Teaching Building," were also quite large, Yuki herself seemed to ignore them as invalid information. Her wine-red eyes seemed to turn even redder, and the way she bit her lip made Tsubaki Sakura next to her feel a jolt in her heart.

"Ah, isn't that Kitagawa Ryo? I've seen his picture on Wikipedia, and he looks much better than he did a year or two ago."

Following closely behind the two girls was Nanase Tsubasa, who had quickly changed her clothes at her hotel and then ran back to the gate of Tokyo Advanced Educational High School to chat with them. She was now looking up at the huge promotional photo with great interest.

The boy and girl faced the camera shoulder to shoulder, their intertwined hands holding a pure white cat that lazily raised its front paws, as if greeting the guests. The entire promotional photo indeed highlighted the handsome man, beautiful woman, and adorable pet described by Hideo Sotomura, and even had a subtle atmosphere of family happiness, making it hard for the guests to look away.

"It's just for publicity at the cultural festival, right? Sister, don't just stand here at the entrance, you're blocking other people behind you."

Unlike Nanase Tsubasa, who was completely unaware and still studying Kitagawa Ryo's promotional photos, Tsubaki Sakurako cleverly pulled Yuki a couple of steps down a side path. At the same time, she took a flyer from another student nearby, waved it in front of her sister, and said reassuringly:

"Look, it's about the same as this."

As she spoke, she handed over a flyer covered with images of several maid outfits, seemingly an advertisement for a maid café:

"Let's go, let's go. There are already quite a few customers interested in this cat cafe because of this promotional photo. If we wait any longer, we won't be able to squeeze in, let alone find Ryo who's looking for you to show you around this cultural festival."

"……Um."

Although she nodded slightly in response, Yuki seemed unable to accept the reality before her and the psychological gap in a short time. She hung her head sullenly, completely lacking the excitement she had shown when she was chatting and laughing with Nanase Tsubasa at the gate of Tokyo Advanced Educational High School a few tens of minutes ago. The huge contrast made Nanase Tsubasa, who had just finished observing Kitagawa Ryo's appearance, notice the abnormality.

"Huh? What's wrong?"

"It's nothing. We're planning to go over there and look for them later. What about you, Nanase?"

Having barely composed himself, the half-graduate in the white room, who had been somewhat naive enough to believe that Sakayanagi Arisu and Kitagawa Ryo had no past relationship and therefore felt almost no sense of crisis, took a few deep breaths and smiled again as he asked Nanase Tsubasa a question.

"Hmm... I feel like there should be a lot of people here right now, and the special teaching building is quite far from here. I'm thinking of just wandering around here for a bit. You guys go ahead, I might wander over there in a little while."

"Okay, we'll be going now. See you later."

Watching the girl disappear before his eyes in a flash after saying those words, half-dragging her younger sister as they raced towards the special teaching building, Nanase Tsubasa belatedly realized what had happened:

"Oh right, I think she just said that she and Kitagawa are in a relationship."

However, none of this mattered to her for the time being. Soon, Nanase Tsubasa's attention was drawn to the nearby stalls again. She began to look around carefully, asking about the prices of anything that interested her before deciding whether to buy it. After all, the Tokyo Advanced Education Junior High School only gave minors 5,000 points, which was a quota that could be easily spent within an hour without them noticing.

Thinking about this, Nanase Tsubasa herself felt a little confused. Although the staff of Tokyo Advanced Educational High School had told everyone before entering that they could use these so-called points as yen, and one point was indeed equivalent to one yen, why go through all the trouble of using these points instead of just using cash as the payment method?

With these doubts in mind, Nanase Tsubasa tried to strike up conversations with the students who worked as employees when buying snacks, but each time she received only vague replies, and in the end she could only give up the idea of ​​getting to the bottom of things with some disappointment.

Thus, Nanase Tsubasa only wandered around the main entrance area for less than ten minutes before feeling somewhat uninterested. Besides not getting the answers she wanted, it was also related to the quality of the food and snacks offered there.

Frankly, you can't really expect students from Tokyo Advanced Educational High School to make anything particularly exquisite or delicious on an outdoor setting, especially in a situation where there are long queues and speed is crucial. After trying two stalls, Nanase Tsubasa could only give the food a passing rating of "not bad."

Just as she was moving towards the teaching building, feeling hungry and a bit aimless, she suddenly overheard two girls passing by excitedly discussing a dessert shop inside. They seemed reluctant to leave, their words full of praise and compliments. This immediately revived Nanase Tsubasa, and following the map sign at the entrance of the teaching building, she quickly ran up to the third floor and found the dessert shop called Hotaru that she had heard about from the other guests.

"Welcome! What would you like to eat?"

Nanase Tsubasa had barely settled into her seat when Sato Maya, a first-year student from Class A who worked there as a waitress, immediately greeted her with a smile. As the saying goes, if you can't be a chef who steals food, then apply to be an employee here. Maybe you can even get some leftover desserts as a perk after you finish.

Because Kitagawa Ryo's strategy for the dessert shop was to win over guests with its taste and generate word-of-mouth marketing, business was naturally lukewarm for the first half hour of the cultural festival. However, Nanase Tsubasa casually glanced around and could clearly see the genuine surprise and enjoyment on the faces of every customer sitting there enjoying their desserts, which made her look forward to it as well.

"Um, do you have any recommendations?"

Unable to find himself short of money, Nanase Tsubasa could only ask this question somewhat timidly.

"Do you recommend it? Actually, every dessert here has undergone countless processes to improve its flavor, ensuring that every bite is something you can't find anywhere else. If you're looking for cake, we highly recommend the Blue Enchantress Fondant Cake, Peach Mousse Cake, and Yogurt Cheesecake Mousse. For drinks, we have Hong Kong Style Caramel Milk Tea and Papaya, Tremella, and Peach Gum Sweet Soup. For snacks, you can try the Mango Glutinous Rice Balls and Mango Double Skin Milk Pudding. The Dorayaki and Blueberry Pie are also quite delicious."

With great difficulty, Nanase Tsubasa resisted the urge to say, "Please give me one of everything." She carefully selected a few items from the menu, comparing the prices with her own balance, before finally placing her order.

After receiving the order, Horikita Suzune took over as head chef from Kitagawa Ryo, who had just left and whose whereabouts were unknown. After methodically garnishing and plating each dessert according to the order requirements, Horikita Suzune lazily lay on the counter, enjoying the atmosphere here with a touch of nostalgia.

But less than two minutes later, she snapped out of her daze after Maya Sato whispered a reminder.

"What's wrong?"

"Yes, that's the guest who really wants to see our head chef."

"Really? Let me see. They actually ordered desserts for over four thousand people in one go? Minors, that means they basically spent all their money here. Let's go take a look."

Following the direction Sato Maya pointed, Horikita Suzune glanced at the blonde girl sitting there, blissfully resting her chin on her hand, her mouth full of a spoon, unwilling to take it out. She then took off her chef's apron and walked over to sit down opposite her.

"Hello, I am one of the head chefs of this restaurant."

"Hello, hello! Your desserts are amazing! They're so good, you could totally open your own shop here! I've never had anything this delicious before."

For some reason, Horikita Suzune always felt that this girl had a strange kind of sillyness, or rather, a naivety? It always felt a bit of a contrast to the other girl's figure, which was obviously not that of a middle school student, and she could almost be compared to Ichinose Honami.

"Thank you. I also accept your praise on behalf of Ryo and Airi. They are also the head chefs of this dessert shop."

"Hmm? Ryo? Um, is your full name Kitagawa Ryo?"

It felt like some kind of special fate; I kept hearing this name from all sorts of people since morning, and Nanase Tsubasa subconsciously asked to confirm it.

"Yes, but he's not in the store right now."

Horikita Suzune wasn't surprised that this guest had heard of Kitagawa Ryo, after all, he was a very famous theatrical actor, and maybe she was a fan of Ryo before. However, she didn't forget to promote the other projects in the class and added another sentence.

"Liang should be at the special teaching building now. There's a cat café on the third floor that our class runs. If you're interested, you can check it out later."

However, what Horikita Suzune didn't know at that moment was that as she smiled and began to introduce the cat cafe to the customer in front of her, the cat cafe she was talking about was already in a rather unfortunate situation.

-------------------------------------

"So this time, can I put it on Ryo myself?"

Shiina Hiyori took a step forward, and lying quietly in her palm was the other ring from the pair that Kitagawa Ryo had always held.

Hotaru, who was pretending to be a lucky cat while lying on the coffee shop counter, looked away guiltily, but happened to catch a glimpse of another pair of sisters who had just come over from the crowded queue.

"Meow--"

White flour, sugar-free mini bread squealing.jpg.