Zongman: A Second Dimension Girl Comes to Me

Wednesday morning, June 6

"Dingle bell! Dingle bell!"

Duanmu Che reached out from under the quilt, turned off the alarm clock that had been ringing, and lay in the quilt for a few minutes before he rubbed his sleepy eyes, sat up and put on his clothes.

On the bedside table is the work "Love Metronome" by Kasumigaoka Utaha.

He was so engrossed in reading this light novel last night that he stayed up until one in the morning in order to finish it.

"Let's go meet Kasumigaoka-senpai at noon today."

Duanmu Che thought as he stirred the eggs and prepared breakfast.

At a book signing event last weekend, Kasumigaoka Utaha wanted to ask him about his thoughts on her work. At the time, he thought it would be a novel experience to exchange thoughts with a light novel writer, so he agreed.

Now that he has finished reading "Love Metronome", as a reader attracted by the content of the book, he does have a lot of thoughts to share with Kasumigaoka Utaha.

After breakfast, it was only six o'clock.

Duanmu Che pulled up the alloy rolling door and waited at the door for a while. Then a white truck slowly stopped in front of Yuedaoxuan's door.

“Here’s today’s manifest.”

The truck driver got out of the car, handed Duanmu Che a form, opened the compartment, and took out two boxes of food.

Duanmu Che took the shopping list, did a rough inventory, and put the two boxes of ingredients into the kitchen.

Ten minutes later, another truck arrived.

Since Tsukishimaken reopened and business got back on track, he signed supply contracts with several large grocery stores in the Adachi Ward Farmers' Market, and people deliver goods to his door every morning.

Although it would cost him an extra 10,000 or 20,000 yen, he wouldn't have to waste a lot of personal time going to the market to purchase things, and it would be easier for him to balance his studies and work.

At seven o'clock, Duanmu Che picked up his schoolbag and went out to school.

In June, the birch trees along the road are lush with green leaves, and the branches and leaves rustle in the breeze.

The distance from Ikebukuro where he lived to Ochanomizu where Shuchiin Academy was located was not far. It only took a 900-meter walk and a 20-minute train ride.

Duanmu Che swiped his card to enter the station, squeezed into the carriage with many office workers, and got off at his destination.

"Good morning, classmate Duanmu."

As soon as he got out of the station, a girl from Shuchiin greeted him.

"Good morning."

Duanmu Che responded politely out of habit.

Because of his talent for [Charm] and the fact that he himself was quite handsome, scenes like this would happen more than ten times a day in Ochanomizu, except for the weekends.

When we arrived at the school gate, four discipline committee members were maintaining order and checking whether the dress code of the students of Xiuzhiyuan was in compliance with the regulations.

At this time, a black custom-made extended luxury car drove over from not far away and stopped in front of the school gate.

The right door of the car opened, and the person who appeared in front of Duanmu Che was Shinomiya Kaguya whom he had met yesterday.

"Vice President Shigong!"

The students of Shuchiin Academy around her made way for her, with awe on their faces.

In Shuchiin, everyone knows how powerful Shinomiya Kaguya's family background is.

There was once a young lady whose family assets amounted to tens of billions. She openly contradicted Kaguya Shinomiya and opposed the student union's policies. As a result, the young lady was forced to transfer schools the next day.

It can be said that it is a consensus among the students and even teachers of Shuchiin that one must never offend Kaguya Shinomiya.

"Look over there, it's Yukinoshita-san!"

Behind Duanmu Che, the excited voices of two boys were heard.

He knew who they were talking about without even looking.

Yukinoshita Yukino walked quietly into the school gate, carrying her schoolbag in both hands. Under the warm sunshine, her soft and shiny long black hair fluttered in the wind.

Although she has only been in school for two months, Yukinoshita Yukino is already the object of admiration for many boys. A week ago, she was voted the most popular girl among the first-year high school students by the Shuchiin News Department.

From the school gate to the teaching building, some young and beautiful girls greeted Duanmu Che.

Walking into the shoe cabinet area, he opened his own shoe cabinet and a light blue love letter fell out.

"Here we go again. Why won't you give up?"

Duanmu Che sighed.

He has rejected so many girls.

scoff!

She tore open the love letter and found that it asked him to meet on the rooftop at noon.

"It's on the way."

Duanmu Che changed into indoor shoes and walked towards the classroom.

At noon, he went to the rooftop and rejected the girl who wrote him a love letter with just a few words.

Then, turning the stairs on the west side, I found Kasumigaoka Utaha taking a rest on a bench.

Her long legs were lazily crossed together, her calves were straight and slender, and she was wearing thin black tights under her school skirt. In her hand, she was holding Natsume Soseki's book "I Am a Cat". When she heard Duanmu Che's approaching footsteps, she opened her eyes and looked over.

"Senior Kasumigaoka, I'm here." Duanmu Che greeted.

"Student Duanmu, have you finished watching "Love Metronome"? " Kasumigaoka Utaha said in a voice as sweet as a nightingale, with a hint of anticipation in her tone.

"Yeah, I just finished watching it last night." Duanmu Che said casually.

"What do you think?" Kasumigaoka Utaha patted the other empty side of the bench, motioning Duanmu Che to sit down.

"The relationship between the male protagonist Isumi and the female protagonist Sayuka is delicate and interesting, the description of daily plots is novel, and the hazy and beautiful love between the boy and girl is quite touching." Duanmu Che was not polite and sat naturally next to Kasumigaoka Utaha.

If other people in Xiuzhiyuan saw this scene, many boys would be so envious that their eyes would turn red.

"Really? Then do you think there are any shortcomings?" Kasumigaoka Utaha frowned. What she wanted to hear was not praise, but criticism.

"Weaknesses? Why are you asking this?" Duanmu Che was stunned.

"The sales of my novel are very poor, so..." Kasumigaoka Utaha didn't continue speaking, but her meaning was self-evident.

So that's how it is, Duanmu Che suddenly understood.

No wonder Kasumigaoka Utaha specifically asked him what he thought of "Love Metronome". Is it because of low sales and bad market feedback that she has lost confidence in her work?

He thought for a moment and said, "I think that as a commercial light novel, there is nothing wrong with the character creation and plot of "Love Metronome". The low sales volume should be due to insufficient publicity and unclear selling points."

Duanmu Che remembered that in the original work, Kasumigaoka Utaha's "Love Metronome" also had poor sales at the beginning. Later, with the protagonist's strong recommendation on a blog website, the sales of the second volume increased by 30%, forming a small-scale spontaneous publicity effect.

When the third and fourth volumes were released, due to the excellent quality of the first two volumes, they broke through the circle among light novel readers and became popular works. In the end, the cumulative sales of all five volumes reached 500,000 copies.

This shows that Kasumigaoka Utaha is not lacking in writing talent, but that the selling points of her works are not clear enough. Compared with the current trend of light novels that can quickly attract attention, her works are a bit slow to heat up, and require vigorous publicity to screen out a large enough audience.