Chapter 43: The Group Leader is Actually a Beautiful Girl?!

The cold air from the air conditioner, wrapped in the scent of fried chicken, rushed through the exhibition hall.
Bai Ling huddled behind a pillar at gate A of the venue, and the corner of her snake-tail-shaped skirt was lifted by the crosswind.

Not far away, under the huge poster of “Xuanhuang Ji,” a certain minotaur cosplayer was giving a thumbs-up, surrounded by flashing lights.
The support banner hanging on his horns read “Requesting a photo together.”

“Wow! Little sister, are you cosplaying the snake demon swordswoman from Xuanhuang Ji? Can I get a picture with you?”

A little lolita holding a cotton candy suddenly jumped in front of her.
The sequins on her pink tutu were dazzling.

The girl fumbled to make the sword seal gesture from the game and took a picture with the little lolita.
The silver bell on her hairpin jingled with her movements.

She was not good at dealing with strangers, let alone a place as crowded as a comic convention.

‘I want to go back…’

“I’m here.
Where are you?!”
Her phone vibrated wildly in the secret pocket of her sash.
The emoji sent by Ye Yuan was tap-dancing on the screen.

This message, however, became the girl’s lifeline at this moment.

Compared to strangers, an online friend whom she had not yet met but had a deep friendship with could still give the girl a little sense of security.

“At the entrance of gate A, I’m the snake demon swordswoman…”
The girl replied with a message, stood on her tiptoes, and looked around.
Her sharkskin cloak accidentally got caught on the long spear of a gacha game character’s standee, causing the whole row of acrylic keychains to rattle.

“Ding, ding!”
The message notification sound came from behind her.

A fluffy, crimson fox tail suddenly swept across her ankle.
A girl with animal ears poked her head out from behind a stall full of merchandise.
The maple leaf hairpin on her ear trembled.
The LED lights on her nails were flashing with the BGM of the exhibition hall.

“You stinky brat, you’re actually a beautiful girl!”
Ye Yuan’s fox claws were holding a crumpled line art drawing—it was the Q-version self-portrait that Bai Ling had drawn last week while slacking off during her practice.
“Brat, with your looks, tsk, tsk, a country-toppling beauty!”

Her fingertip poked at the scale armor on Bai Ling’s chest but hit a hard 3D-printed heart guard.
The props master had mischievously engraved the words “steel plate” on the back of the heart guard, which was now reflecting a subtle light under the cold light lamp.

“Where did you get this silicone pad?”

“Get lost!”
The girl slapped away the claw like lightning.
In order not to make Ye Yuan suspicious, she deliberately lowered her voice to a neutral tone.

“Hehe, this reaction, it’s really Qing Lin!”
Ye Yuan extended her hand.
“Let’s get to know each other formally.
My real name is Gu Xiyan.”

“My name is Bai Ling…”
The girl’s words were interrupted by the “click, click” of the surrounding cameras.

“Look this way, you two!”
A photographer with a media pass suddenly appeared.
The lens cap of his camera hit a pile of dolls at a nearby stall.
“I’m the official photographer of this comic convention.
The photos taken later can participate in the selection.
The winner will get a prize!”

“Of…”

“Of course!”
The girl’s “of course not” was cut off by Gu Xiyan before she could finish.

Bai Ling subconsciously made the game’s standby gesture, but Ye Yuan’s fox tail suddenly wrapped around her waist.
This girl, who was dressed as a half-demon fox girl, grabbed the girl who had not yet reacted and struck various poses.

The “click, click” of the cameras was instantly endless.

The cold air from the air conditioner, wrapped in the scent of takoyaki, rushed through the exhibition hall.
The fat man wiped the sweat from his forehead, and the salty sweat formed a silver thread on his fingertips.

“I’m telling you, Qing Lin is definitely a dead fat otaku!”
The boy with glasses and a face full of pimples asserted.
“Otherwise, why wouldn’t he even post a photo!”

The few people gathered around nodded in agreement.

This group of people were the girl’s group friends.
As otakus, they often came to comic conventions to join in the fun.
They all knew each other offline.

They were huddled under the parasol of an anime-themed cafe.
The glass of the figure display cabinet reflected their greasy reflections.

“I bet five bags of spicy strips!”
The skinny monkey patted his bony chest under his itasha shirt.
“That guy definitely wears glasses as thick as the bottom of a beer bottle!”

“Ye Yuan said Qing Lin is wearing a cosplay today.
We’ll just have to wait to be blinded!”
The fat man had already imagined a fat otaku with a similar figure to his, wearing a cosplay costume and posing provocatively.

“Hehe! I’m going to take a picture of his cosplay and make it circulate in the group forever!”
The boy with glasses held his phone, as if he could already see the heated discussion that would ensue when the thousands of people in the group saw the blinding photo of the group leader, Qing Lin.

The crowd suddenly stirred.
The turquoise twin-tails of a passing diva cosplayer swept across a display rack, causing a pile of anime badges to teeter precariously.

“Hey, hey! We’re here!”
Gu Xiyan’s fox tail was like a banner, splitting the crowd.
Her animal ears drew a meteor trail in the crowd of the exhibition hall.
The half-demon fox girl pulled the girl through the crowd and appeared in everyone’s sight.

“Ye Yuan?”
The fat man squinted and saw Gu Xiyan, who was running towards them.
Because he often frequented the Lin’an comic convention, he had met Ye Yuan before.

“I know she’s Ye Yuan, but the problem is the one next to her.”
The boy with glasses nudged the fat man with his elbow.
“It can’t be Qing Lin, right?”

“Probably not, right? Maybe she’s her friend?”
While the fat man was denying it, Gu Xiyan had already pulled the girl to them.

“Surprise—!”
Gu Xiyan bounced and pulled the girl who was hiding behind her.
“Quick, tell them who you are!”

The girl who was pulled to the front stumbled half a step.
The blush on her face was even redder than the eyeshadow at the corners of her eyes.

Her sharkskin cloak got caught on the Nichirin sword model at the “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba” stall.
Kamado Tanjiro’s standee smiled kindly behind her, as if witnessing this epic identity reveal.

“I… I’m Qing Lin…”
The girl lowered her head and stared at the tips of her shoes, her voice as soft as a mosquito.

“This… this…”
The merchandise bag in the fat man’s hand fell to the ground with a thud.
A keychain of a certain gacha game character in a maid outfit rolled to the girl’s feet.

The boy with glasses’ phone camera faithfully recorded his own stupid look with his jaw dislocated.
The BGM of a Sailor Moon transformation device was playing in the background.

“A genuine A4 waist~”

Gu Xiyan’s claws suddenly attacked Bai Ling’s sash.
The scale sticker she hooked with her fingertip drew a parabola in the air and nearly fell into the skinny monkey’s open mouth.

“The female protagonist of the seventh issue of the group’s doujinshi…”
The skinny monkey suddenly let out a dream-like moan.
“She actually has a prototype in the third dimension…”

“Are you sure this is Qing Lin? It’s not that he found a professional cosplayer to fool us, right?”
The fat man was still unwilling to believe that this girl, who was so different from the image of Qing Lin in his imagination, was the group leader who drew hentai all day.

“I really am Qing Lin!”
The girl shouted with her eyes closed.
She had finally steeled herself to wear a cosplay, but because she was too pretty, this group of friends didn’t believe her?

This made her a little angry.

“Tsk, this girly behavior.
It’s a pity you’re a boy.”
Gu Xiyan whispered in the girl’s ear with a playful tone.

“I don’t believe you, unless you tell me what the theme of your third doujinshi is.”
The boy with glasses pushed up the frame on his nose, a wise glint flashing in his eyes.

Even if Qing Lin had really found a professional cosplayer to impersonate him, she wouldn’t have told her the content of her work, right?

“The third one is… shota… with a mature woman…”
The girl was flushed with embarrassment, her eyes darting around.

“Holy crap! You really are Qing Lin!”
The boy with glasses had a look of disbelief on his face.

Before he could finish, the fat man suddenly knelt on one knee with a thud.
A Cheetos ring had somehow appeared in his hand.

“Will you marry me? I don’t care if you’re a girly boy!”
He put on a smile that he thought was handsome and passionate.

“Get lost! Qing Lin is mine!”
The fingertip, stained with potato chip crumbs, was just about to touch the girl’s skirt when it was stepped on by Gu Xiyan.