Chapter 114: All Wishes Will Come True

“Come to think of it,” Yuki Tamura suddenly asked, “Ye Zhao and Uemura-san aren’t going to launch some kind of ‘night raid’ while we’re asleep, are they?”

Yuki Uemura gave her a look that seemed to say, Are you an idiot? “How could something that unrealistic possibly happen?”

“Though after hearing tonight’s conversation, I think we’re the ones who ought to worry about being subjected to a ‘night raid.’” Ye Zhao looked at Yukie Nakama with amusement in his eyes.

Her face instantly turned red all the way to the roots of her neck, like a pink-skinned little mouse just pulled from a hot spring.

…

Of course, nothing like a night raid was ever going to happen.

The following morning, after the four of them had eaten breakfast on the first floor of the inn, they went to visit Toshogu Shrine and Futarasan Shrine. Outside Futarasan Shrine, Yuki Tamura suddenly pulled Yukie Nakama aside with a mysterious expression and whispered to her for a while. She then patted the bewildered-looking Yukie on the shoulder and encouraged her, “Do your best!”

Ye Zhao watched the exchange between the two of them in bafflement. “Miss Tamura, did you say something strange to Yukie?”

“Nope~” Yuki Tamura denied it decisively. “Right, Yukie?”

“…Y-yes.” Yukie Nakama’s eyes met Ye Zhao’s, then darted away as quickly as if she had been startled.

Only afterward did Ye Zhao learn that Futarasan Shrine was famous as a shrine for finding love, and that many couples came there to pray.

At the purification fountain, they picked up the long-handled ladles, washed their hands, and rinsed their mouths. Then they went to the main sanctuary, grasped the rope attached to the enormous bell, and gave it a vigorous shake. Carefully placing the five-yen coins they had prepared into the offering box, they clapped twice and bowed.

Though he had no idea whether the gods of the two worlds were connected, Ye Zhao first prayed for the health of his family from his previous life. Then he prayed for the health of his parents and younger sister in this life. Finally, he prayed that everything would go smoothly with the film ahead.

After finishing his prayers, Ye Zhao glanced at Yukie Nakama and Yuki Tamura, who were still praying with their palms pressed together, and at Yuki Uemura, who, like him, had already finished. He could not help wondering inwardly what wishes they had each made.

The four of them then drew fortunes. Ye Zhao and Yuki Uemura both drew “Minor Blessing.” Ye Zhao did not care much, but Uemura was delighted. Yuki Tamura, who had drawn “Great Curse,” wrinkled her nose irritably, tied her fortune to a tree, and came back. Leaning over beside Yukie Nakama, she took a look at her slip and exclaimed in surprise, “You got Great Blessing!”

“Really?” Ye Zhao leaned over as well. “Congratulations. The wish you made just now must certainly come true.”

At his words, Yukie Nakama’s expression suddenly became somewhat complicated. She looked at him with flickering eyes and murmured, “…Yes.”

After lunch at a restaurant near Lake Chuzenji, they went to Senjogahara in Oku-Nikko and took a walk along the wooden boardwalk. Senjogahara was extraordinarily beautiful in summer, with wildflowers blooming everywhere.

At three in the afternoon, the four took a taxi down the mountain and boarded a train back to Tokyo. By the time they returned, it was nearly six in the evening. Ye Zhao and Yuki Uemura left the station first, with Yuki Tamura and Yukie Nakama following behind. The four of them had dinner at a restaurant near Asakusa, after which Yuki Tamura escorted Yukie Nakama back to her apartment.

…

Once the trip to Nikko was over, Ye Zhao swiftly put away the leisurely mood of his vacation and plunged into a relentless whirl of activity.

After successfully winning Yukihiko Tsutsumi over and making him a “collaborator” on the film, the prospect of filming *I Heard Kirishima Is Quitting the Club* seemed to become a little more reliable. Tsutsumi might not have been particularly famous yet, but at least he was a director with experience independently directing films and years of cooperation with television stations.

This was also a very good thing for Ye Zhao. Tsutsumi was among the highest-caliber directors Ye Zhao currently had access to. In the process of working with him, Ye Zhao would not only complete the film but also gain the thing he wanted most: experience in making movies.

In any case, he had only one ultimate goal—to acquire enough knowledge to produce a film independently.

Deep down, Ye Zhao was still grateful for the favor Michi Iijima had done him back then. After composing the music for *The Files of Young Kindaichi*, he had, at least nominally, established a connection with NTV. Yuko Yama, the producer of *The Files of Young Kindaichi*, had a very favorable impression of him, and she was also on good terms with Michi Iijima. With her assistance, and with Yukihiko Tsutsumi working for NTV at the time, the script for *I Heard Kirishima Is Quitting the Club* was sent to NTV’s production department without much effort at all.

Backed by newspapers and major conglomerates, television stations possessed ample funds and extensive publicity channels, giving them an enormous inherent advantage in the competition for the film market. As the film industry became a “sunset industry,” countless talented professionals changed course, and a considerable number of them were absorbed by television stations. This, in turn, gave the stations access to the very best production talent.

The support of a television station did more than satisfy the need for equipment, technical personnel, and studio space. If those were all that was required, any film production company could provide them. The greatest advantage of bringing a television station on board was the wealth of publicity it could offer. At the very least, the film could appear on practically every variety show produced by that station.

When it came to Japanese films, the choice of subject matter and the ideas behind them had always been remarkably bold. This became even more apparent after the country entered the 1990s and then the new millennium.

Yet although filmmakers of the new era possessed abundant imagination, they lacked the daring of their predecessors. As a result, once production began, the material often failed to support the depth of its ambitions. Combined with the Japanese film industry’s customary mildness, lack of intensity, and dearth of conflict, this frequently produced works that felt awkward and ill-conceived.

Television dramas handled such matters much better. In the 1990s, for instance, there was Shinji Nojima’s famous trilogy exploring human nature.

But in *I Heard Kirishima Is Quitting the Club*, that boldness was handled with perfect restraint. The story did not spend too much time probing profound themes. Although its subject and premise departed from the traditional formulas of campus romance and passionate youth, it did not attempt to court controversy merely for attention. At heart, it was still conveying something positive: even futile effort, even talent that was never chosen, could not invalidate the effort made in the present. Youth might be hollow, but one still had to find an appropriate meaning within it.

A script that stepped just far enough outside convention while retaining such clear self-awareness naturally aroused NTV’s interest. And the terms they offered were precisely what Ye Zhao needed most and lacked most urgently at that stage: publicity channels. He could invest his own money, assemble his own production team, and even scout for actors himself, but he could never create a publicity network from nothing.

After a series of negotiations, NTV ultimately became a member of the production committee for *I Heard Kirishima Is Quitting the Club*. In exchange, it agreed to provide technical personnel and venues on a rental basis, assist with the film’s post-production publicity, and cover part of the expenses.

As the first film Ye Zhao would invest in and produce during the fledgling stage of New Map, he was not so deluded as to believe he could proceed entirely by himself without relying on outside support. As long as he could retain control over the broad direction of the project, he did not mind sharing the cake with others—even if all they could offer was a modest amount of assistance.

Besides, NTV’s help was anything but modest. It was exactly what he needed most at that stage. As for NTV, although it had hopes for the film’s prospects, it was not especially anxious about the outcome. After all, Ye Zhao himself was financing the production. Even if the film failed spectacularly, NTV would suffer no particularly serious loss.

It was, in its own way, a matter of fate. Along the historical path Ye Zhao remembered, the company that invested in, produced, distributed, and released *I Heard Kirishima Is Quitting the Club* was NTV as well.

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