sinovels Chapter 231 Kitahara Shin's Ultimate Goal
Chapter 231 Kitahara Shin's Ultimate Goal
Chapter 231 Kitahara Shin's Ultimate Goal (4/71)
When Matsu Takako pushed open the office door, Kitahara Shin was buried in a pile of documents.
Hearing the noise, he looked up, saw it was her, and a slight smile appeared on his lips: "You've come."
"Aida said you haven't gone out all day." Matsu Takako put the convenience store bag on his table, sat down opposite him, and looked him up and down. "Haven't you been getting much rest lately?"
"No, I'm in great shape." Kitahara Shin pulled the bag over, unwrapped the rice ball, took a bite, and said, "Look at me, I'm full of energy and have a rosy complexion. I don't look like someone who hasn't rested at all."
Matsu Takako stared at him for a few seconds. He did not look tired at all; his eyes were clear, and his complexion was normal. He did not look like someone who had been staying up all night.
"Are you made of iron?"
"More or less." Kitahara Shin put down his rice ball, propped his chin on his hand, and looked at her with interest. "But you're so worried about me, do you have some feelings for me?"
Matsu Takako: "—I just happened to be passing by."
"On the way?" He chuckled. "Your home is four districts away from here, how is it on the way?"
"I said it's on the way, so it's on the way." Matsu Takako pushed the can of coffee in front of him, turned her face away, and her ears turned slightly red. "Stop talking nonsense and drink your coffee."
Kitahara Shin took it, pulled the tab, took a sip, and didn't pursue the matter further.
The two sat there and chatted for a while. Matsu Takako talked about several offers she had recently received—independent films, prime-time dramas, and a contract offer from a talent agency.
Kitahara Shin listened to her while flipping through the documents. When she finished speaking, without looking up, he asked, "You came to ask me, do you want me to help you analyze this, or do you want me to keep you here?"
"I'm here to ask for your opinion."
"You already have the answer." Kitahara Shin put down the file and looked at her. "I just came to confirm with someone."
Matsu Takako paused for two seconds, then changed the subject, without denying it: "And what about you? Where do you ultimately want to go by doing all this?"
Kitahara Shin turned his chair around, looked at the night view outside the window, and paused for a moment.
"The Oscar for Best Picture, and Best Actor," he said. "Not Best Foreign Language Film, but Best Picture, competing against everyone in Hollywood, and then winning."
Matsu Takako looked at his profile but didn't speak immediately.
She had seen many people who boasted, their eyes gleaming with a kind of arrogance that relied on others' reactions to maintain their composure. But when Kitahara Shin said those words, there was something very steady in his tone, like someone staring at a very distant target in the dark, someone who had been staring for so long that the distance no longer seemed so far.
"It sounds like," she finally said, "that you're planning to spend the rest of your life doing this one thing."
"almost."
"Then," Matsu Takako's lips curved into a smile, "you need to finish this coffee first, and go home to sleep early tonight."
"You're really worried about me." Kitahara Shin lowered his head, took a sip of his drink, turned to look at her, and said with a hint of a smile, "I'm increasingly convinced that you have feelings for me."
"Say it again, I'm leaving."
"Let's go, let's go," he waved his hand, smiled, and lowered his head. "I'll see you off."
"No need." Matsu Takako stood up, walked to the door, glanced back at him, and said, "Kitahara Shin."
"Um?"
"On that stage," she paused, "I want to stand on it too."
Kitahara Shin looked up, stared at her intently for two seconds, and then said, "Then act properly and stop coming to bring me rice balls all the time."
Matsu Takako suppressed a laugh, pushed open the door, and left.
On weekends, Quanshui drives her secondhand car, which has been repaired many times, and parks it downstairs.
Kitahara Shin got out, walked around to the passenger seat, and before he could even sit down properly, Izumi had already started the car, pressed the accelerator, and smoothly drove into the night streets.
"Where to?" he asked.
"casual."
Kitahara Shin turned his head and glanced at her. Her eyes were on the road, her profile illuminated by the streetlights, her expression focused. A strand of her bangs was blown by the wind and fell on her forehead.
He reached out and brushed the strand of hair back.
The spring didn't dodge; it continued to watch the road, only its ears twitched slightly.
"Are you writing a new song lately?" Kitahara Shin withdrew his hand and leaned back in his chair.
"Hmm." Quanshui reached out and turned on the speakers. The demo sounded out; it was still rough, but the melody was already there, with a clean, floating quality.
"What did you write?"
"A person stands in a very high place and looks down."
Kitahara Shin closed his eyes and listened for a while, then said, "What are you looking at?"
"I haven't decided yet," Quanshui said softly. "Maybe it's because I feel like everything is too small."
"Or," he began, his voice soft, "I feel that everything is worthwhile."
Quanshui's fingers moved slightly on the steering wheel, but he didn't say anything; a faint smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
As they passed a newly opened store, Kitahara Shin asked her to stop. A military green M-51 trench coat hung in the window; the light shone on the fabric, making it appear heavy and sleek. Two young people were looking at it nearby, exchanging a few words before pushing open the door and going inside.
Kitahara Shin watched this scene from inside the car, remaining silent for a while.
The spring water turned its head and asked softly, "Are you happy?"
"Yeah," he said, "it still feels a little strange every time it actually happens."
"What's so strange about it?" Quanshui restarted the car, her voice soft. "What you made was good to begin with."
Kitahara Shin turned to look at her, stared at her for a while, and then suddenly reached out and ruffled her hair.
spring:"----"
"Drive carefully." She tilted her head to the side, her tone a little helpless, but she didn't dodge.
Kitahara Shin withdrew his hand, leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and smiled slightly.
Back at the apartment, Akina was already there.
She sat on the sofa flipping through a magazine, her ankles crossed, her posture casual. Hearing the door open, she didn't even look up, simply saying, "You're back."
"Hmm." Kitahara Shin changed his shoes, sat down next to her, put his legs on the coffee table, leaned back, and completely relaxed.
Akina glanced at him sideways, turned a page of the magazine, and said, "You look much better today. You finally look alive."
"When am I not like a living person?"
"Last week," Akina said briefly, "she was even frowning when she drank water."
Kitahara Shin didn't refute, picked up the remote from the coffee table, casually turned on the TV, tuned to a channel that was showing something he didn't know, and just stared at it.
Izumi came out of the kitchen carrying three cups of hot tea, placed them on the coffee table, sat down on the other side of Kitahara Shin, and pushed one of the cups in front of him.
He took it, drank a sip, and said nothing.
The three of them sat there, a variety show playing on TV, occasionally punctuated by bursts of laughter. Akina flipped through a magazine, while Izumi leaned on Kitahara Shin's shoulder, her eyes half-open and half-closed.
Kitahara Shin glanced down at her; she was already showing signs of falling asleep, her eyelashes fluttering gently.
He didn't say anything, but pulled her closer to him.
Akina turned a page, then subtly tilted the magazine towards him, pointing to a headline in an entertainment section from an angle he could see, and said, "This one's about you, saying you messed up your midday slot."
Kitahara Shin glanced at it and said, "I saw it."
"Don't you care?"
"What do you care about?" He put down the remote control, closed his eyes, and said, "We'll talk about it when the movie comes out."
Akina snorted, closed the magazine, and leaned back on the sofa, saying in a nonchalant tone, "Then you'll have to hold out until the movie."
"I can handle it."
"Stubborn to the end."
Kitahara Shin didn't reply, and things just fell silent.
The sound from the television faded into the distance, and the room was warm with the light.
Akina leaned against his left, breathing softly, her eyelashes drooping gently. All her usual calculation and composure were gone; in her sleep, she resembled an ordinary girl. Izumi curled up to his right, palms up, beside the pillow, her cheek lightly pressed against his shoulder.
Kitahara Shin didn't sleep; he stared at the ceiling, his mind replaying the storyboard of the first act of the theatrical version.
Just then, the system interface at the edge of the field of vision suddenly lit up.
It wasn't an alarm; it was a very calm blue light, like something quietly unlocking.
He expanded the interface and saw a new notification:
System Upgrade Notice
Host current stage assessment: Crossing the critical point.
Based on overall achievements, wealth accumulation, social influence, and the depth of interpersonal bonds, the host has completed the growth goals for this stage.
The system's equipment crafting mechanism has now unlocked new rules:
[Designated Upgrade]
Collect any 10 pieces of purple equipment, and you can consume them all to perform targeted synthesis, upgrading one of the specified purple equipment pieces to gold, retaining the core effect of the equipment and greatly enhancing it.
This rule replaces the original random synthesis mechanism, allowing the host to now choose the upgrade direction independently.
Kitahara Shin finished reading the prompt and remained silent for a while.
He had used the random synthesis method twice, each time throwing in a bunch of purple equipment and waiting for the result. He was always very clear about the problem with this mechanism—what you get is not up to you.
But it's different now.
He opened his equipment inventory, scrolled down, and stopped at a piece of equipment.
[Guardian's Oath - Ring of Life] (Purple - Epic)
Current number of registered users: 3/3
Already bound:
—Akina Nakamori, Izumi Sakai, Rie Miyazawa, and Nobu Kitahara stared at these three names for a while.
All three spots are filled.
The purple version can bind to three people, but there are more than three people around him.
If upgraded to gold—
He went through the possibility in his mind, then closed his equipment inventory.
We're still lacking equipment, no rush.
But the goal is already very clear.
He stared at the ceiling again. The Tokyo night flowed quietly outside the window, and the breathing of the two people beside him was even and steady.
He closed his eyes, and the storyboard of the theatrical version resurfaced in his mind.
There is still a lot to do.
Nanako discovered the trench coat on an ordinary workday.
She went out to buy coffee for Kitahara Shin. Passing through the shopping street, she saw the window display of the new store and stopped to look at it for a while. The display in the window was very clean, and the military green trench coat, under the light, exuded a sense of weight and richness that could be felt even through the glass.
She stood there for a while, then jotted down the shop's address and the window display in her notebook before going to buy coffee.
Back at the firm, as soon as she pushed open the door to Kitahara Shin's office, she transformed back into Nanako.
"President! Your coffee and the contract you asked for this morning have been printed out and are in the stack on the left. Oh, and there's a meeting at 3 PM this afternoon. I've already notified the other party in advance. Also, Ms. Matsu Takako called to say that her schedule has been changed next week. Do you want to go back now?"
"Wait, wait, wait." Kitahara Shin raised his hand, interrupting her, "Are you even breathing after saying so much in one breath?"
"He's panting." Nanako placed the coffee in front of him, neatly arranged the contract, looked up, her eyes sparkling, "But I remember everything, I didn't miss a single one."
Kitahara Shin looked at her, smiled helplessly, and took the coffee: "Okay, the meeting is at 3 PM, I understand. Please help me sort out Matsu Takako's schedule change and email it to me."
"Okay!" Nanako jotted it down in her notebook, then suddenly remembered something, "Oh right, I passed by that newly opened store, it sells goods from our own factory, the window display was quite nice, I wrote down the address and display method, do you want to take a look?"
Tell me about it.
Nanako opened the small notebook and read what she had written down to him, saying, "I think the location is very good. The street has a particularly stable flow of people in the afternoon. I counted it last time I passed by, and it was approximately..."
"You counted the people?" Kitahara Shin looked up at her.
Nanako paused for a moment, then said matter-of-factly, "It was just something I did."
Kitahara Shin shook his head, lowered his head to look at the document again, and the corners of his mouth twitched upwards, which he couldn't suppress.
Nanako stood there, saw him smile, and her own lips curved into a smile as well. Then she turned around to organize her documents, and only when her back was to him did that smile loosen a little.
She neatly stacked the documents one by one, secretly thinking about the way he had smiled earlier.
She was better at making him happy than anyone else.
He just didn't know it.
As Nanako walked out of the office, she ran into two new assistants in the corridor. They had just joined the company last month, a man and a woman, and they were holding a stack of documents and discussing something in hushed tones.
Upon seeing Nanako, the two instinctively straightened their backs and said in unison, "Hello, Ms. Matsushima."
"Hmm." Nanako nodded, and walked past them without stopping.
The two women watched her walk away. After she turned the corner of the corridor, the female assistant whispered to her colleague next to her, "She's always like this. I still don't know how to talk to her."
The male assistant shifted his grip on the documents and lowered his voice: "The week I first arrived, I wanted to ask her for the printer's password. She glanced at me, said, 'Ask Mr. Ota,' and then left. That was it."
"that's all?"
"that's all."
The female assistant thought for a moment and said, "But I heard from a senior colleague that she was actually quite easy to get along with at the last company gathering?"
The male assistant shrugged: "Maybe it's different with acquaintances. Anyway, now when I see her, my subconscious instinct is to take a detour."
The two of them talked and then walked in another direction.
The corridor fell silent again.
As Ota Masakazu came out of the meeting room, he overheard these words.
He didn't stop, and continued walking towards his seat, silently thinking to himself for a moment, then found it a little funny.
He had worked with Nanako for quite some time and had long since figured out her ways. In front of strangers, her face could be so cold that you'd think she was born unable to smile.
But there are always exceptions, and there is only one: Kitahara Shin.
The moment that office door opens, she's like a completely different person. She talks so much it could drown you, her eyes sparkle, and she wants to tell him everything that happened to her from morning till night. She can even talk about seeing a cat on the street.
Ota sat down in the chair and recalled the last company gathering, where the new recruits were discussing how difficult Nanako was to approach. But when they turned around, they saw her sitting next to Kitahara Shin, chattering away, completely different from her usual self.
A new male assistant leaned over and whispered to him, "Is Ms. Matsushima always like this?"
Da Tian simply took a sip from his cup without replying.
How should I answer that?
He has been in this industry for so many years and has seen all kinds of people. He has seen too many people who hide themselves very well, and he has also seen too many people who think they are hiding themselves very well, but in fact they have long been seen through.
Nanako probably belongs to the latter category.
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