Chapter 46: Now the Whole World Knows

“Pfft! Now you’re really famous!”
The river surface, like shattered gold, was wrinkled by the evening wind.
Gu Xiyan stuffed the white snake pillow into Bai Ling’s arms.

She shook her phone.
The group chat on the screen was in an uproar.

“I’m telling you, the group leader is really good-looking!”
This was a comment from a group member named Shinbachi.

“That A4 waist is amazing!”

“I declare Qing Lin-sama to be my one and only goddess! What? You say he’s a boy? What’s wrong with a girly boy?!”

“Give me a break…”
The tail of the white snake pillow in the girl’s arms drooped to the ground, dragging a winding shadow.
In the garment bag she was carrying, the corner of a gold-plated trophy was barely visible in the neon lights.

As expected, their performance had won the championship.

Unfortunately, the prize money had already been eaten by the girl and her group friends.

And this Gu Xiyan had eaten the most!

“Look, you’re number three on the local hot search!”
Gu Xiyan suddenly opened a short video app.
The first video that came up was of them on stage, their swords clashing.

That camera angle, that clarity, it was definitely a professional camera and a professional photographer.

The girl took a look.
The title was: “Is this what the famous artist Qing Lin actually looks like?!”

The button eyes of the white snake pillow reflected the wildly scrolling bullet comments.
Things like “Qing Lin-sama is both beautiful and can fight” and “Isn’t a girly boy even better?” were simply unbearable to look at.

Now, the “girly boy” label was firmly attached.

Gu Xiyan suddenly poked her earlobe with her nail.
“Look at this one! Haha, they actually think you’re a girl!”

The top comment in the short video’s comment section was a long analysis by a medical doctor: “Judging from the height of the iliac crest, this cosplayer’s pelvic tilt angle is within the normal female range…”

It seemed that someone had also expressed their clear understanding of human anatomy.

But the first hot comment below was an emoji: Tom Cat holding a “I’m not listening, I’m not listening” sign and shaking his head frantically.

And then the comments below started to go crazy again.

Things like “Tsk, it’s no fun if she’s a girl,” “Are there really girls who draw doujinshi?” and “Tsk, I don’t believe it.
Her cross-dressing skills must be superb,” were even harder to look at.

The mental state of this generation of netizens was hard to judge.

“You owe me my innocence…”
The girl buried her head in the pillow and wailed, her voice muffled.

She had just come for an offline meetup, and now the whole circle would know what she, Qing Lin, looked like.

The number of plays on that damned video was rising by the hundred thousands per minute.
In just two hours, it was about to break ten million.

The number of requests to join the girl’s small group was exploding.
When they had just left the comic convention and arrived at the restaurant, it was almost full.

The girl had no choice but to open several thousand-person groups at the table to accommodate these Bilibili users who had come to join in the fun.

“Look, you’ve topped the topic list!”
Gu Xiyan scrolled through her phone.
On the screen, a martial arts instructor was analyzing the girl’s sword-sheathing motion frame by frame.
“This old brother said you must have practiced ancient sword techniques for at least ten years.
Are you really not considering starting a live stream?”

Whether it was a girly boy doujinshi artist, a female doujinshi artist, or a handsome, beautiful, and capable doujinshi artist, they all had a fatal attraction for these otaku who were idle and crazy all day.

“I’m not considering it!”
The girl’s wail was swallowed by the evening wind.

She still cared about her reputation.
She really couldn’t bring herself to do something like milking her fans for money.

“By the way, you’re dressed like this.
It’s not very convenient to go back to the dorm, is it?”
Gu Xiyan suddenly looked the girl up and down.
The girl was still wearing her cosplay costume, and the long snake-tail skirt was sweeping across the grass on the roadside.

“I brought a change of clothes.
I’ll just change into them before I go back.”
The girl shook the garment bag.
Fortunately, she had specially prepared a set of men’s clothes.

The only gain today was that her female identity had not been exposed.
This silly girl Gu Xiyan still thought that the girl was actually a boy.

That was why she had been so wary of the host sister, but had not been on guard against the planner uncle, Liao Cao.

“There’s a public toilet up ahead.
I’m going to change!”
The girl stuffed the white snake pillow into Gu Xiyan’s arms and ran into the public toilet not far ahead.

“Remember to get on the game tonight! There’s a surprise!”
Gu Xiyan shouted at the evening wind.

Her voice disappeared along with the girl’s figure, leaving only the rusty door hinge of the public toilet to creak mournfully.

The small path by the river was empty at this moment.
The cross-river bridge in the distance was lit up with neon lights.
The preview for the new version of “Xuanhuang Ji” was playing on a loop on the advertising screen.
The LED lights cast jumping light spots on the road.

The evening wind blew Gu Xiyan’s bangs, and also the long hair of the figure behind her.

“Tss!”

A cold light suddenly appeared.
Five scarlet claws tore through the light curtain cast by the advertising screen.
The strong wind, wrapped in the smell of rotting flesh, blew away the maple leaf hairpin she had pinned to her temples.

The moment the girl pushed open the door of the men’s restroom, the man who was unbuckling his belt in front of the urinal froze.
His neck turned the color of pig’s liver.
The buckle of his belt “clanged” against the edge of the ceramic urinal, echoing piercingly in the awkward silence.

He didn’t even bother to buckle his belt.
He pulled up his pants and ran out of the restroom.

The girl’s face was full of embarrassment as she squeezed into a toilet stall.

‘I’m sorry.
Gu Xiyan was staring at me, so I couldn’t go into the women’s restroom…’

The girl apologized in her heart.
She was really sorry for scaring that kid.

The fish line of the cosplay costume’s sash dug into her skin, leaving a light red mark under her collarbone.
She stared at the snake-tail skirt that had fallen to her ankles and saw the pearly color of her toenails.
The girl couldn’t help but sigh.

That was the nail polish she had borrowed from Chengzi the day before yesterday.
That girl always said that no girl didn’t paint her nails.

The men’s clothes in the garment bag lay quietly, and fine water droplets condensed on the surface of the buttons.

‘It had been less than a month since she had become a girl, but why did it feel like the last time she had worn men’s clothes was in a past life?’

‘She could barely remember what she looked like as a boy…’

‘Human adaptability was truly terrifying.’

“Bang!”

The muffled sound of a suppressed pistol firing shook the glass window, and the smell of saltpeter and a familiar yet strange scent rushed into her nasal cavity.

Only the subsonic spiritual energy bullets specially made by the Demon Suppression Division would make such a muffled sound, and that familiar yet strange scent…

It was the demonic energy unique to an ancient demon, but it was also wrapped in a strange aura that the girl had never seen before.

Looking at her body, which was only in her underwear, the girl gritted her teeth.

“There’s no time…”

There was no time for her to change her clothes or put her cosplay costume back on.
The demonic energy clearly belonged to an ancient demon, and there was a member of the Demon Suppression Division present.

If she wasted time, not only would that ancient demon be in trouble, but the boy who had just escaped and Gu Xiyan would also be affected!

Frost flowers seeped out from the cracks in the tiles and wrapped around her bare ankles.

The girl held her breath.
When she opened her eyes again, her amber-gold vertical pupils constricted in the darkness.
Her heart rate gradually decreased, and scales, like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, crawled up her skin!

A cold air suddenly exploded in the restroom.
Frost patterns suddenly crawled up the partition.
The water droplets dripping from the untightened faucet condensed into an ice cone in mid-air and “smack”ed into a crack in the tiles.

The next second, the sound of an ice explosion shattered the silence.
The stall door was covered in a crust of frost, and only a floor of ice crystals was left in the stall.