I Thought This Was a Slice of Life

Shuya suspected she was taking advantage of him on purpose.

But for the sake of the money, he endured it.

Besides, Blaise was well-maintained and didn't look old, so it was barely acceptable.

Blaise said with emotion, "It is truly rare to hear such good English from Shu-chan here in the Japan Administrative District. I suppose Ms. Hanazawa has always placed great importance on education."

Hanazawa Sakura smiled reservedly, "It's alright, he puts in the effort himself."

In reality, her mind was full of question marks.

She had no idea that Shuya knew English.

Fortunately, she was already accustomed to Shuya's genius, so she was able to play along with his act without changing her expression.

After Blaise complained for a while about Japanese-style English, she added, "Actually, I have quite a bit of research into languages myself, and I even know a little Great Hua Language."

"That is truly impressive, Ms. Blaise."

Hanazawa Sakura said with a compliment.

Blaise boasted smugly, "Hahaha, I even know how to describe my current situation in Great Hua Language... hmm, let me think."

Shuya also looked at her curiously, wanting to see if she really understood it.

Blaise pondered for a moment, then proudly recited with a strange pronunciation, "It is jiu, jiu jiu... feng... right! It is jiu kuang feng gan lu!"

Holy crap! I suspect you're making a dirty joke! Stop it, I'm just a child!

Shuya cursed in his heart, his smile breaking and stiffening for a moment.

"Jiu kuang feng gan lu?"

The woman who came with Blaise repeated it, showing a look of thoughtful reflection, and praised Blaise, "Ms. Blaise is too amazing, she even understands Great Hua Language!"

"Hahaha!" Blaise said triumphantly, "I also know how to praise people in Japanese at a time like this, 'Shi Da Hua Yu Hontou Jouzu', right!"

"Yes! 'Kimi Da Hua Yu Hontou Jouzu'!"

"Hahahaha!"

"Hehehehe!"

The two of them laughed.

Shuya: "..."

These two women were absolutely something else.

It was a pity they were the sponsors and he couldn't roast them... As he thought this, Shuya noticed Hanazawa Sakura's pink lips moving, as if she wanted to repeat, "Jiu..."

"Mom, shall we begin?"

Shuya interrupted her with a smile; he really didn't want his mother to embarrass herself.

"Oh, right. Well, Ms. Lin, Ms. Blaise, shall we...?"

"Ah... apologies, we've been chatting too much. Let's begin."

And so, the four of them officially began their discussion.

Shuya didn't say much; he couldn't make the decisions anyway.

Hanazawa Sakura had helped handle the agency's affairs since she was young and had a certain level of experience and ability in business, so Shuya felt relatively at ease.

It was their own company anyway, so Shuya didn't have to overthink it or worry about being scammed.

Talent agencies in the Japan Administrative District took a very heavy cut; if Shuya weren't in his own company, he would definitely be exploited heavily, and there's no way he could be this relaxed, taking months off whenever he said he wanted a break.

The three adults discussed for a while, reached a cooperation agreement, and finalized the endorsement fee, earning Shuya another considerable sum of income.

Even if he knew his spendthrift parents would scrape away most of it, he should still be able to keep quite a bit... right?

Blaise liked Shuya too much, so she didn't try to drive the price down much. Everything was decided quickly, and they agreed to shoot the promotional photos tomorrow after the recording. These photos would appear on the Children's Dream official website in the Japan Administrative District and in major department stores.

Listening to their discussion, Shuya gathered that the publicity would be quite extensive.

Moreover, there would be a TV commercial later on.

After finalizing the contract, Ms. Lin brought up one thing, "By the way, I believe Ms. Hanazawa and Shu-chan have heard the rumors, right? Our company intends to seek Shu-chan's opinion regarding the selection of the child actress."

"Yes, we have heard of it."

Hanazawa Sakura nodded.

"So we brought the materials. Shu-chan, see if there is any girl who catches your eye."

Ms. Lin took out a stack of documents, placed them in front of Shuya, and handed the decision-making power to him.

"Alright, let me take a look."

Shuya reached out his small hand and flipped through the materials earnestly.

Since it was a girl he would be taking photos with, he still wanted to pick someone who was easy on the eyes.

Just looking at the thickness of the documents, one could tell how many agencies were eyeing this piece of fat.

It wasn't just about the money; being chosen by Children's Dream meant having a track record of working with large companies from other districts, which would be of great benefit in the future.

Shuya flipped through the documents. Every girl listed here was above average in appearance, but having had his standards raised by the Quintuplets, he didn't feel much of anything.

Until a girl with long, straight black hair appeared...

Shuya flipped through the pages quickly, then suddenly paused and turned back a few pages.

"This girl..."

The name was Sakurajima... Mai?

She possessed an outstanding beauty that stood out at a single glance, even among a crowd of cute girls.

Shuya's expression gradually turned strange.

It was happening again, that familiar feeling...

He stared, momentarily dazed, at the girl in the photo who was smiling at the camera.

It wasn't that Shuya had fallen in love at first sight; he was devoted to Rena.

It was just... he had felt this exact sensation before when he first saw the Quintuplets.

Déjà vu.

It was a strange feeling—as if he had met them before, even though he knew for a fact he hadn't.

"..."

...With this, he could finally be certain.

This wasn't just a simple parallel world; it was a world that had (censored) mixed in characters from anime.

Shuya confirmed a suspicion.

This suspicion had started the moment he saw the Quintuplets and the beautiful pink hair of Rena.

No normal person had hair colors like that, nor were they that beautiful.

Today, as that strange sense of familiarity welled up in his heart once more, he could be one hundred percent certain.

His memories...

Were missing pieces.

From the sense of familiarity his body felt, Shuya believed he knew these people.

Combined with the association of their unnatural hair colors and beauty, it was easy for Shuya to deduce that they were anime characters.

However, Shuya hadn't dared to be sure back then because he had only encountered the Quintuplets as a single case, and he hadn't felt much of that familiarity with Rena, so he had always suspected it might be an illusion.

After seeing this girl's profile, Shuya was finally able to confirm that his guess was correct.

Shuya was quite calm about the gaps in his memory; he had already accepted being transmigrated and reborn, so how could he not accept such a minor thing?

Perhaps this world didn't want Shuya to know their fates, which was why it had erased his memories.

But the erased memories weren't everything; many memories of anime were still lying safely in Shuya's mind.

Things like ooo-kei, Osu, o-mon, o-father, oo-ninja, o-pollution...

Huh? Why did I think of those first?

...Forget it, that's not important.

In any case, Shuya still had quite a few ACG memories in his head.

Regrettably, he didn't have the excellent memory he possessed now in his previous life, so he couldn't remember them clearly; he only remembered the general outlines, which really wasn't of much use.

He remembered plenty of melodies and lyrics for songs, but he didn't know music.

In his past life, he had only touched a recorder during school music class and had never even touched the keys of a piano.

But that didn't matter; he was only five years old, he could learn.

Shuya believed that with the evolved body and brain he had in this life, he would be able to master many things quickly.

He hadn't learned in his past life because he knew he didn't have the talent and lacked the time.

Now that he had the talent and all the conditions were met, Shuya really couldn't find an excuse to be lazy.

"Shu-chan?"

Seeing Shuya stop for a moment and stare at this page of the document, Hanazawa Sakura leaned over.

She softly read the name: "Sakurajima, Mai? Oh my, what a cute girl. Does Shu-chan like her?"

"Cough, it's not really 'like.' I just find her easy on the eyes. Let's go with her."

Shuya corrected his mother's phrasing before speaking.

Ms. Lin said: "Hmm... Mai-chan, is it? Shu-chan has a great eye. She could be considered the prettiest one in this batch. We were actually quite fond of her ourselves."

Once she finished speaking, she reported Shuya's choice to Blaise.

Blaise made the decision on the spot: "OK! That's her! Contact her immediately."

"Understood. Then, Ms. Hanazawa, we shall take our leave. See you tomorrow."

"Bye-bye, Shu-chan."

Before they left, Shuya was taken advantage of a few more times.

Hanazawa Sakura and Shuya saw them to the company entrance and watched as the two got into their car and drove away.

Shuya suddenly looked up with a bitter expression and said, "Mother."

"What is it?"

"This... doesn't count as 'pillow talk' for favors, right?"

"Pfft!"

Hanazawa Sakura burst out laughing and flicked Shuya on his little head. "What are you thinking, you silly child? Let's head back."

She took Shuya's small hand and led him back into the company to find Inoue Hikoo.

With everything settled, it was naturally time to head home.

Shuya took Saori's car to get home early again today.

Since the pocket money he had on hand was basically spent, he could only buy a pile of cheap snacks for the Quintuplets.

To make it up to them, Shuya, acting as their "father" (by his own claim), took them out to play at a nearby park.

There were many middle-aged women at the park with their children, so there was no need to worry about safety.

This wasn't the first time Shuya had brought the Quintuplets to this park, so he was quite familiar with the women there; many of them were his "mom fans."

After playing for the whole afternoon, Shuya was fine, but the Quintuplets had successfully covered themselves in mud and sand, achieving the perfect look that would make any mother want to give them a spanking.