After hearing what Felix said, Ren was momentarily stunned, blinking in confusion.
Apparently, yesterday, Felix's girlfriend suddenly asked him, "What would you do if I got pregnant, but the baby wasn't yours?"
Felix explained that recently, he had noticed his girlfriend's belly looking a bit bigger, which made him anxious. That's why he had been zoned out all day today.
Ren, however, was a bit stumped. This was beyond his expertise — he had never encountered a situation like this. But then again...
He looked at Felix with a bit of sympathy. Poor guy.
"Felix, you're handling this all wrong!" Just then, Jaz, who had been eavesdropping for a while, suddenly stepped forward and said bluntly, "Clearly, you didn't do well in school!"
"Huh?" Felix was puzzled.
What did his school performance have to do with this? Wasn't this the time to feel bad for him and help him figure out this issue?
Not only Felix, but all the other men in the room were staring at Jaz in bewilderment.
Seeing their confusion, Jaz began explaining, "Pay attention to the phrasing! She said 'if she got pregnant,' right? That's hypothetical! It's not necessarily true. All that stuff about being pregnant and the baby not being yours? Those are just distractions! You see these types of questions all the time in exams."
"You need to understand that women think differently from men. It's like when girls ask you, 'If your mom and I both fell into the water, and you could only save one, who would you save?' This question your girlfriend asked is the same type of thing! Do you really think she's dumb enough to tell you directly if she cheated? Of course not!"
"So, after filtering out the distractions, her question really boils down to: 'Do you trust me?' That's the real question!"
"!!"
"You can interpret it that way?"
"No way!"
After hearing Jaz's explanation, everyone in the room sucked in a sharp breath. A true genius!
Seeing the awe in everyone's eyes, Jaz wore a smug grin and cleared her throat. "So, in this case, what you need to say is, 'Who else could the father be if not me?' This shows that you trust her completely."
After all, girls tend to overthink things. Sometimes, a careless comment or seemingly insignificant action from a guy can make them feel like they're not loved. And saying something nice doesn't cost you anything, right?
"That makes sense!" Felix nodded, feeling enlightened.
If his girlfriend really had someone else's child, would she be bold enough to come straight out and tell him? Normally, she'd probably try to hide it, right?
But then Felix remembered something. "But what if it's true? What if I say, 'I trust you,' and it turns out the child really isn't mine?" he asked nervously.
"Oh, you're so dumb!"
Ren, who had been silent until now, couldn't help but smack Felix on the back of the head.
This wasn't even a problem.
"Look, you two are just dating. If she's really pregnant with someone else's kid, isn't that perfect? Once she's about eight or nine months along, just break up with her!"
"Ohhh..."
Felix's eyes lit up with realization.
He finally relaxed, feeling like a huge burden had been lifted.
"Feeling better now? Go back to your work."
Ren patted Felix on the shoulder. "And next time, just speak up when you've got something on your mind. As the saying goes, 'Three heads are better than one.' We've got a whole bunch of creative minds here — that's gotta be worth a hundred heads, right?"
"Got it!"
Felix nodded enthusiastically.
Seeing that Felix was back to normal, the rest of the group slowly dispersed.
Just then, Claire approached, holding some papers.
"Teacher, this is my new manga!"
Claire's voice was filled with a mix of excitement and nervousness.
After all, she had poured so much effort into this project. If it got rejected, it would be a huge blow.
"A new work from you?"
Ren smiled as he looked at the papers.
He had always thought Claire was a promising artist.
But while Felix and the others had already released several works, Claire had only completed Your Lie in April and had been quiet ever since.
At one point, Ren even wondered if Claire had decided to stay on as an assistant and pursue something else as her main career.
He took the manuscript from Claire, but instead of looking at the character designs first, he decided to start with the storyboard. After all, looking at character designs could give away too much of the story early on, and Ren preferred discovering the story as he read.
Flipping through the storyboard...
The scenes felt oddly familiar to Ren — they reminded him of the time he went to a shrine while working on Your Name.
"Is this the place you visited during your break?" Ren asked, recalling Claire's recent time off.
"Yes, a lot of the story I'm writing involves ancient elements, so I needed to do some research," Claire explained, nodding.
Satisfied with her explanation, Ren continued reading.
As he went on, he began to notice more familiar elements.
Kagome... a shrine... the Shikon Jewel...
Suddenly, Ren's eyes widened. Wasn't this Inuyasha?
"No way, maybe the names are just similar?" Ren thought as he kept reading.
The story followed Kagome, who, on her 15th birthday, was pulled into an ancient well at her family's shrine by a centipede demon. She was transported back to ancient China, where she encountered a village.
The village elder, an old priestess named Kaede, noticed that Kagome bore a striking resemblance to her late sister, Kikyo, and suspected that Kagome might be Kikyo's reincarnation.
When the centipede demon attacked again, Kagome was injured, and the Shikon Jewel, a sacred artifact that had been cremated with Kikyo, reappeared from within Kagome's body.
To protect the village, Kagome lured the demon into the forest where the half-demon Inuyasha was sealed. In desperation, she freed Inuyasha, who killed the centipede demon. But then, Inuyasha turned his attention to the Shikon Jewel, desiring its power...
"Well, damn!"
By this point, Ren was certain.
This was Inuyasha, but with all the elements reworked to fit into a Chinese historical setting.
Honestly, Ren had thought about creating Inuyasha himself in the past, but there had been too many details that needed altering. In the end, his laziness had won, and he hadn't gone through with it. Now, seeing Claire take on the task, Ren felt it was actually a pretty good idea.
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