Orange Berry, Orange Peach, and Father all smiled and waved to her, then turned and got into their respective cars.
Today was a bit tumultuous, but overall it was okay.
In the end, I hit someone, and the family head also showed up.
Orange Quiet Forest’s position was delicate.
Legally, she had married out, but in fact, she had neither changed her surname nor truly joined the Kujū family.
In reality, she was still a member of the Orange family.
When the Tachibana Family Head stepped forward, that matter was settled.
It seemed that her tactic of throwing away her pride and frantically acting cute and crying in front of the Old Family Head that day had truly worked wonders.
The situation almost got out of control at the time, but the other party was in the wrong to begin with.
Moreover, Orange Quiet Forest still had killing intent lingering after hitting someone, so for a while, there really weren’t many people who dared to reproach her.
After all, the sight of that huge fat guy flying straight out was too shocking.
After getting in the car, with the sound of the engine starting, the scenery outside the window slowly moved past.
The inside of the carriage was very quiet.
Suddenly, a slight touch came from the back of the leather passenger seat in the front.
Miho, sitting in the back seat, extended a slender finger and gently poked Orange Quiet Forest’s shoulder, like a little rabbit that had mustered up its courage.
Orange Quiet Forest came back to her senses.
Carefully avoiding the part where her skirt had torn, she slowly turned her head.
She turned her profile toward the back seat.
In her pink eyes, the coldness from the banquet had already faded, leaving only a tenderness like water.
“What’s wrong, Miho?”
Miho slightly raised her head.
The lights from the road flying past the window fell in mottled patches on her slightly childish face.
Her eyes were still a little red, but her eyes sparkled.
“Thank you… thank you, big sister, for protecting us today.”
Kunomi Umi, sitting next to Miho, also tightly held her younger sister’s hand and spoke softly.
“Thank you, Quiet Forest. If it weren’t for you… I really don’t know what I would have done.”
Looking at the two sisters, Orange Quiet Forest just smiled.
“What’s there to be so worked up about?”
As she spoke, Orange Quiet Forest naturally extended her right hand, still wearing its velvet glove, backward through the gap between the seats.
“We’re friends who are going to shine together on the stage. In that situation, seeing you two humiliated with no limits like that, it would be strange if I didn’t strike back hard, right? Your mother… is very important to you, isn’t she?”
Looking at that extended hand, Miho was stunned for a moment, then broke into a smile.
She extended her own small hand and firmly grasped Orange Quiet Forest’s.
One large hand and one small hand, thus in the dim light of the carriage, across the front and back seat backs, tightly clasped together.
Orange Quiet Forest looked at Miho and playfully winked.
The two exchanged smiles.
All the negative emotions dissipated like smoke in the warmth of their palms.
Umimi, sitting nearby, quietly watched this scene.
Watching Orange Quiet Forest, who usually slacks off in the practice room, now being so gentle and reliable.
Even if she didn’t say it out loud, Umimi was very grateful to her.
Half an hour later.
Orange Quiet Forest pushed open the familiar door of her home.
“I’m home—!”
Orange Quiet Forest skillfully kicked off her high heels at the genkan.
In the living room, Ms. Orange Peach was holding a cup of hot tea, Father was reading news on a tablet, and Orange Berry was lying on the sofa, not yet gone home.
She probably wanted to see Orange Quiet Forest.
Although these people had all witnessed firsthand an hour ago how Orange Quiet Forest had kicked a 200-pound fat guy like a ball, at this moment, everyone tacitly chose to have temporary amnesia.
“Welcome back. There’s hot red bean soup in the pot. Help yourself.”
Orange Peach didn’t even look up, flipping a page of her documents.
“Got it~”
Orange Berry picked up her bag.
“Since there’s nothing to worry about, I’ll go to work now.”
Everything was as usual, warm and routine.
After taking a long hot bath, Orange Quiet Forest finally changed into her favorite loose cotton loungewear.
Like a regenerated liquid cat, she extremely comfortably collapsed into the gaming chair in her room.
“Ah—my own nest is the most comfortable!”
As she sighed, she skillfully pressed the power button of her computer.
As the screen lit up, Orange Quiet Forest, who had been about to open a game, suddenly thought of a name.
‘Wait.’
She glanced at the time in the bottom right corner of the screen.
Tonight… wasn’t it the day of Cao Qian Ju’s debut first broadcast as ‘Qianyin’?
Because I went to the banquet, I completely forgot about this.
Orange Quiet Forest immediately moved the mouse and very quickly opened the URL of that familiar streaming platform.
To be honest, when she first joined this group, Orange Quiet Forest actually felt it was fine either way.
At that time, she only thought: interesting, but not enough to bet her whole life on it.
After all, she had a fallback.
But after these weeks of spending time together, whether seeing how hard Hoshisuna worked, Xuan Xiang’s dark-horse yet reliable saves, or the warmth when Umimi and Miho held her hand today…
Without realizing it, she actually began to feel that being an idol… seemed really interesting.
She even started to look forward to it a little.
She remembered the operational strategy that Chu Yongji had revealed in the office a few days ago.
“The virtual avatar is just a first step as a buffer. After a while, once we’ve built up enough hype, we’ll debut as real persons.”
“Real person debut…”
Orange Quiet Forest looked at the streaming room screen that was buffering on the monitor.
Her slender fingers gently stroked her chin, and those light pink eyes sparkled again.
‘Really looking forward to it.’
—
Tonight’s live stream was finally back to normal.
Through the one-way glass, Orange Berry sat in front of the director’s console, looking at the smoothly running data on the screen, and almost shed tears of gratitude.
Tonight, Chu Yong had other things to take care of, so only Orange Berry and other team members were there, but Cao Qian Ju’s livestream performance was as good as at the very beginning.
The avatar was a girl with fluffy brown hair and two soft cat ears on top of her head.
Her uniform was adorned with some nature-inspired green vine patterns, and there was a bright green ribbon tied at her chest.
In the official school setting, Qianyin was a girl who always liked to nap in the greenhouse botanical garden of the Dongwei University Affiliated High School.
Cao Qian Ju perfectly mastered this somewhat lazy yet healing setting.
She didn’t put on a cold and aloof attitude like Hoshisuna, nor did she aggressively throw jokes like Xuan Xiang.
She was like an understanding junior, able to smoothly guide the atmosphere of the live stream room.
While telling the background story of the botanical garden, her keen eyes still kept an eye on the scrolling bullet comments at all times, firmly grasping the audience’s emotions.
Even the well-experienced Orange Berry, sitting backstage at that moment, couldn’t help being attracted by her live streaming style, which was like a spring breeze.
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.