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"Senior Qingshan, how on earth do you manage her!"
"I'm not Mashiro's parent. I'm just helping take care of her. What does her becoming like this have to do with me?"
He started arguing with Aoyama Nanami. Shiina Mashiro pouted and looked very uninterested. She turned around and saw the target building. She walked in and took the elevator. She listened to the shouts coming from outside and smiled with satisfaction.
How dare you ignore her and argue with her? How tactless of you.
……
On the third floor of the building, Nanami Aoyama rushed up the stairs breathlessly and saw the figure at the entrance of the corridor. She finally breathed a sigh of relief, and then started complaining.
"Why did you suddenly run into the elevator?"
"Nanami, I'm not a child, there's nothing to worry about." Shiina Mashiro pinched Aoyama Nanami's face and said seriously: "Besides, I see you guys are having a great time chatting, I don't think you need me anymore."
Hiss, this strong smell of jealousy, could it be directed at him?
Natsume Rin looked at her, and then found the answer from the disdain in the beautiful girl painter's eyes.
It seems that the act of coaxing the keeper away angered this beautiful girl who needed to be fed.
However, her blatant act of protecting the food actually aroused Natsume Rin's interest. He looked at Nanami Aoyama who was still trying to coax Mashiro, and his tone was particularly gentle.
"Senior Qingshan, would you like to go out for dinner together later?"
Nanami Aoyama looked at him in astonishment, then looked at Mashiro Shiina. Her pretty face was already filled with dissatisfaction, and when she realized that she was being used as a tool by the two idiots, the dark lines on her forehead deepened.
"You two idiots, stop it now!"
After teaching Mashiro a lesson and knocking her on the head to make her behave, Nanami Aoyama couldn't look good in the face of the booing Natsume Rin: "Thank you, Natsume-kun, but I won't go even if you invite me."
"Don't be so sure." Natsume Rin was not discouraged at all, and she explained logically: "After the work is completed, we will definitely celebrate. It's okay for Shiina-senpai to come along. I'll pay for it."
Mashiro Shiina, who couldn't bear to hear the word "treat", pinched the corner of Nanami Aoyama's clothes. Her smart big eyes were full of desire, which made Nanami Aoyama roll her eyes.
How she wished at this moment that Shiina Mashiro's relatives far away in England would help her develop better habits when raising this idiot, instead of letting her be fooled into an idiot by just a few simple meals like she was now.
"We're not the kind of people who are short of money, right? Mashiro, why can't you refuse?"
"You must never miss an opportunity to eat for free. I think it was you, Nanami, who taught me this." Shiina Mashiro was still trying hard to clear herself up as she followed him into the office.
Nanami Aoyama was speechless. She recalled that she seemed to have said this when she worked part-time to earn tuition some time ago.
But that was the teacher treating them to a meal, which is definitely not the same concept as Natsume Rin right now.
It was too late to regret now. Watching Natsume Rin chatting and laughing with the editor of the publishing house, she could only accept the reality sadly.
"Mr. Natsume, are you sure you want to do publicity at the end?" The editor tried to change his mind.
Natsume Rin glanced at Shiina Mashiro, smiled and nodded: "If we give such a cruel ending without leaving any illusions, it would be too cruel, so let's print it like this."
"Okay." The editor who was in charge of coordinating with him at the new publishing house shrugged helplessly, called an employee up, and said loudly in front of Natsume Rin: "Print out the ending as soon as possible. We need to finish the Four Lies project this week."
"Yes, manager!"
Chapter 164 You are cheating!
"Why does he look so reluctant?"
After leaving the building, Shiina Mashiro was still puzzled by the editor's expression. It was clearly they who chose to complete their work, but the other party acted like a dead person.
"He must be unhappy. After all, the sudden announcement of the end of a popular work that has been serialized steadily will also affect his work."
Natsume Rin explained to her with a smile.
In fact, although the work seems to be smooth on the surface, many communications have been carried out in private. If Natsume Rin had not been absolutely confident in the work when it was published and did not accept any unreasonable terms, the other party might have really blocked him.
"Is that so? But isn't it cheating that you promoted the comic convention fan fiction in the ending?" Nanami Aoyama interrupted.
This was the bad idea that Natsume Rin came up with. Anyway, he had agreed with his senior that he was not allowed to use a big account for promotion. But he was using a pseudonym now, which had nothing to do with a big account.
"Don't worry." Natsume Rin comforted her: "Our opponents are definitely cheating as well. Who knows what kind of competition methods they will use by then."
Nanami Aoyama was speechless. She suddenly became quite interested in this boring game.
What kind of opponent is this, that even cheating is allowed as a default?
However, Natsume Rin's judgment was quite accurate. When he was doing something bad, the two young ladies showed no signs of being idle.
Because their initial plan of relying on money fell through, their chances of winning were greatly reduced, so even Yukino started to take action.
"I'm going to go home to find my dad first. Xiaoxue, you have to work hard too."
At the school gate, Shiina Mahiru said goodbye to Yukino. She stared at the message on her mobile phone with a smile on her face.
"Yes." Yukino nodded firmly. Although her situation in Yukinoshita's family was not as good as Shiina's status in the family, as long as she was good at applying her wisdom, she would definitely be able to get her mother to help.
During the conversation, a black luxury car stopped in front of them, and a uniformed man in black got out and respectfully opened the car door towards Shiina Mahiru.
Although the peak time for leaving school had passed, there were still many members of clubs passing through the school gate. After seeing this scene, they caused quite a bit of discussion.
After all, they were well-known figures in the academy, and people soon recognized them as two members of the service department.
"She is really the eldest lady."
"Is the man in black a bodyguard?"
“I don’t know, but he definitely looks rich.”
Although she didn't care about the discussion about the passers-by, Shiina Mahiru didn't want to stay here and be the object of onlookers. After talking to Xiaoxue for a few more words, she got into the car and told the driver to go find her father.
Yukinoshita Yukino watched the car go away, then hailed a taxi on the road and headed towards home.
Their common goal is to find an elder who can make the decision at home. This is also a good idea that they decided upon after discussing with senior sister Kasumigaoka.
If you want to attract attention at a comic convention, the first thing you need is traffic.
Shiina's father is a congressman, and Yukinoshita's family owns a hospital. After the cheating method of using money to increase the number of traffic was banned, they all chose to promote through these channels.
Kasumigaoka Utaha, who had said that she was not allowed to use big accounts for promotion, also began to ask people she was familiar with to promote her.
So among the contestants, only Nanami Aoyama and Mashiro Shiina are truly innocent. The others are all thinking about how to cheat legally.
"...So I'm at a disadvantage in the competition. It's not going to be possible for me to cheat alone." Natsume Rin held a drink and told them about the situation they were facing according to her own guess.
"This competition is really cruel." Aoyama Nanami patted her chest and expressed her surprise: "And what exactly are you betting on that it has to get to this point."
"Well." Natsume Rin pinched her chin and began to calculate with her: "Senior's target is me, Shiina-san may want to teach me a lesson again, the director can't see clearly, and Eriri-senpai is an outsider."
"If I win, I will definitely ask the senior to stay away from me. I'm afraid this nympho will kidnap me one day. Then I will ask Shiina-san to forgive me. As for the club leader, I haven't made up my mind yet."
Nanami Aoyama clapped in admiration. Even Mashiro, who was concentrating on fighting with the food, put down the bread in her hand and started reading with a blank expression.
"Scumbag."
"Thank you for the compliment." Natsume Rin was already able to accept this kind of address calmly. After watching them finish their meal, she took the initiative to see them off to the train.
As his home was not far away, he did not choose to take a car, but walked back slowly, digesting his dinner on the way.
When he saw the bright apartment not far away, Natsume Rin subconsciously quickened his pace. As a result, under the light in front of the door, he saw someone he didn't know whether he should greet or not.
He noticed the other person, and the other person also noticed him. Facing his daughter's neighbor, and also a boy with whom he seemed to have an unclear relationship, Shiina Chaoyang, who had sent his daughter back home, still took the initiative.
"Are you holding a comic convention recently?" He leaned against the car door and stopped Natsume Rin.
Although he tried hard to appear approachable, his tone did have a sense of the arrogance of a politician.
"Yes, it's our club's activity." Natsume Rin's heart moved and he answered honestly.
"That's it."
"Did Shiina ask your uncle for help?" Natsume Rin was not in a hurry to go back.
If Mahiru wants to cheat, in addition to spending money, she will most likely have to rely on her father. At the moment, it seems that Uncle Shiina is completely unaware of their hostile stance, so maybe he can get some information out of him.
"Well, I wanted to refuse, but I couldn't say it when I saw her angry look, so I reluctantly agreed in the end." Shiina Chaoyang looked at him sideways and suddenly hit his chest, "Don't leave this kind of thing to girls, you have to show the role of a boy too."
Natsume Rin thought dimly, the more he showed his ability, the slimmer your daughter's hope of winning would be.
However, in order to cope with the requirement to show his masculinity, he revealed his true purpose.
"Uncle, how did she ask you for help?"
"I get angry when it comes to this. She wants me to promote my works at the comic exhibition in the congressman's speech the day after tomorrow. Mahiru is really afraid that I can still keep my job." Shiina Chaoyang became depressed.
Natsume Rin was stunned, and then her scalp felt a little tingling.
You have to know that there is a chance that the congressman's speech will be broadcast on TV, so Shiina chose to betray her old father and did a pretty good job of promoting their work.
"Uncle Shiina, you can't spoil her like this. Your position as a councillor is more important than our activities!"
Shiina Chaoyang looked at Natsume Rin who suddenly became energetic in a strange way and shook his head.
"It's okay, because the speech was held in a school area, they should be very receptive to this kind of element."
That would be even more terrible!
Chapter 165: The Service Club Does Not Need Natsume Rin
Watching Shiina Chaoyang's black car gradually driving away, Natsume Rin still couldn't recover from the shock.
Everyone was cheating, but Shiina Mahiru was obviously cheating. He had hoped that the people who would go to listen to the congressman's speech would be middle-aged uncles who were not interested in comic conventions, but who knew that he would actually go to the school to give a speech.
Which school is doing this kind of formalistic flattery? Come out and apologize immediately.
Natsume Rin sighed deeply and felt that the next battle would be even more difficult.
Mahiru alone was so terrifying, so he simply couldn't imagine how powerful the other girls combined would be.
Now we can’t just pin our hopes on the upcoming release of a single volume, we also have to take the initiative to attract more people to promote it.
But before that, he has to settle accounts with Shiina-san.
Bang bang bang.
There was a knock on the door. Shiina Mahiru, who had just returned home and changed her clothes, moved in front of the cat's eye, pouted at the boy outside, and had no intention of opening the door.
"Shiina Mahiru, if you have the guts, open the door!" he suddenly shouted.
Did this guy think she was an idiot? Why did he open the door for no reason?
"Since you stole my heart, why did you choose to shut me out..."
hiss.