At midnight, when the 108 bells rang, Amamiya Sugawara sent a line message to Mai Shiraishi to congratulate her on the new year.
Not long after I sent it, Shiraishi called.
Amamiya Shiori quickly stood up from the kotatsu table, attracting Hashimoto's sideways glance.
"I'm going to take a call." Amamiya Soi opened the door.
"Oh." Hashimoto looked at the screen and nodded.
Leaning against the window sill at the end of the corridor, Amamiya Soi answered the phone.
"Happy New Year, Xiaozhi!" When the phone call came through, it was not Shiraishi Mai's voice, but Shiraishi Natsuki's voice, mixed with the noisy background sound.
"Happy New Year! Auntie, where are you?"
"Dong~" The sound of ringing the bell also sounded on the phone.
"We are queuing up to worship at the shrine!" Mai Shiraishi shouted into her mobile phone so that her voice would not be drowned out by the ringing of the bell.
"Oh! Are there many people?"
"What?"
"I said, are there a lot of people?" Amamiya Sōri increased his volume to prevent her from hearing clearly.
Hashimoto Nana glanced through the gap exposed by the lightly opened door.
"Of course there are more! It's more than the temple fair, and people lined up at the foot of the mountain."
"Ah, be careful daddy." Shiraishi Mai suddenly shouted in panic.
"it's okay no problem."
"You said it was okay, but you were almost knocked down." Shiraishi Natsuki's slightly complaining voice came.
Amamiya Suga silently listened to the family's interaction.
"Is Xiaozhi also going to Chuyi?"
"Oh, no, no, there are a lot of people tonight, so I'm going to go again tomorrow."
"That's it. Is Auntie here?"
Amamiya Suga swallowed, "Ahem, she's drunk."
"Eh?"
"Listen -" Amamiya Soi walked in the corridor, then stopped, put the phone microphone to his nose, and transmitted his steady breathing to the other side.
"Already asleep." Amamiya Soi replied, covering the phone, then letting go, and pacing for a while.
"My mother was very happy tonight, saying that I would make money, so I won't have to raise money in vain." Amamiya Shiori smiled, "Then I accidentally drank too much and fell asleep in bed."
"Hmm~" Mai Shiraishi actually has a lot of things she wants to say to Amamiya Lin, but she never gets the chance.
"What's the matter? I'll tell her tomorrow."
"Nothing, just..."
"Mai~ hurry up, it's our turn!" Natsuki Shiraishi urged.
"Okay, Mom, I'll be ready soon!" Mai Shiraishi responded.
"Well, Xiaozhi, let's stop talking about it now. I will return to Tokyo in two days. See you then."
"Okay, by the way, Mai will be an adult this year, right?"
"That's right, I will go to Tokyo later this year, and I will also participate in the coming-of-age ceremony arranged by the shrine."
"It's great to be an adult." Amamiya Sōri envied. Japanese law stipulates that adult age is only 20 years old, which really brought a lot of inconvenience to her.
"Mai——"
"I'm coming!"
Shiraishi Mai hurriedly said: "Mom is urging me again, Xiaozhi, I'm hanging up, goodbye!"
"Yeah! Goodbye!" Amamiya Shiori replied with a smile.
The noisy sound disappeared, and the busy signal of the phone hanging up rang.
Hashimoto Nana quickly moved her eyes back to the computer screen.
Amamiya Suga glanced at the time on the screen of her mobile phone. It was 0:15, and the new year had arrived.
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With the new year and new atmosphere, just after the holidays, the operation announced two major events.
First of all, on February 22, Nogizaka will hold a first-anniversary "Birthday Live" concert at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture. It will last for 3 hours and will sing a total of 28 songs, including the upcoming new single "Jun no." Name is Hope".
The second thing is that the selection of second-generation students revealed at the end of last year has now officially begun, and the registration website has been opened. Everyone will be able to meet the lovely juniors no later than June this year.
For the Nogizaka members, the former, Birthday Live is a happy event. The members without a theater cherish every concert. This live is the first time that there are enough songs to last enough time. Everyone has prepared Very serious.
In the latter case, the new news about the second-generation students made the "seniors" of the first-generation students shine.
The recruitment of Nogizaka's second-generation students started more than a year after the first-generation students joined the group. By the time they officially joined the group, it was probably close to two years.
This time interval is not short. In comparison, the difference between the first- and second-term students at AKB next door is only four months, and the difference between the second- and third-term students is less than ten months. The recruitment speed is far faster. Pass Nogizaka quickly.
However, AKB recruits people so quickly to replenish its performance team. Although Nogizaka recruits people slowly, there are already too many selection positions. If the team of members is expanded, competition will inevitably intensify.
The younger members may still be happy about becoming "senpai", but the older members, especially those who have not yet passed the selection, are already worried.
However, this is not what Amamiya is worried about. What she cares about most now is her novel.
There are relatively few channels for promoting light novels. New books are generally promoted on Bunku’s website and Bunku’s Twitter account.
Amamiya Suga took advantage of the convenience of Nogizaka, specially took her new book, shot a small advertisement, and placed it at the end of this year's first issue of Where is Nogizaka?
By the way, this issue of Nogizaka is broadcasting the five single selections.
After watching the first half, fans of Amamiya Shiori complained that the management was biased and did not let Xiaozhi enter the Lucky God. After seeing the second half of the show where several under girls mustered up the courage to check the results and then unfortunately lost, they started to scold the management for being careless.
Until the end, Amamiya Shiori was seen holding the printed first volume of "The Lord of Mysteries", promoting that his new book would be released in major bookstores on January 14th. Fans' dissatisfaction with the management immediately turned into a desire to buy.
Of course, if your idol publishes a book, you must support it. Fans are eager to flex their financial muscles on the day of release.
The first batch of 100,000 copies was printed, and royalties of more than 7 million yen have been paid into Amamiya Shiori's bank account.
Since he doesn't know much about the market for light novels and doesn't know how much power his fans and non-fan readers can have, Amamiya Sugawara is very concerned about whether the 100,000 copies can be sold and whether there is a possibility of additional printing.
However, since Miki and Irma are so confident, they can sell whatever they can. Anyway, it is an unexpected surprise and they will not suffer any loss.
