Xiaoxi clamped her hand tightly over Ye Xinglan’s mouth.
Even though the latter let out muffled “mmm-mmm” sounds of protest, Xiaoxi didn’t loosen her grip one bit.
Xiaoxi knew full well that Xinglan wasn’t deliberately trash-talking Eternal Star here—after all, Xinglan trash-talked her everywhere, even when she wasn’t here.
Usually, the rich girl complained about Eternal Star all the time, especially when she used Eternal Star pillows as punching bags—her language was way filthier than what she’d just said.
But the strange looks from the people around them were growing more intense, so Xiaoxi could only force a smile and quickly drag Xinglan away.
“Uh, wasn’t Sweet Xin supposed to have us line up to buy stuff for her? Come on, let’s go…”
Well, she wondered what these fans would think if they knew the one spewing insults was the Blood Moon Witch, and the one desperately covering her mouth was Eternal Star herself.
“…Got it now? This isn’t like home. Badmouthing Eternal Star here will get you in trouble with everyone, okay?”
Da Tianxin had pointed out several booth numbers to them. Xiaoxi lectured Xinglan while picking the shortest line to join.
Seeing Xinglan obediently nod, Xiaoxi finally relaxed and let go of her “physical mute button.”
But just when she thought she could have a moment of peace, the short girl who had been at the very back of the line suddenly turned around and started talking to them.
“Are you two here to buy the CP doujinshi too?”
“Oh, yeah…”
“Soulmates!”
The short girl suddenly grabbed both their hands with an excited expression, startling Xiaoxi. Wasn’t everyone here a fan of Eternal Star? Why was this girl reacting so intensely?
Bad news: this girl seemed to be just as socially fearless as Da Tianxin.
While they waited in line, she started chatting with them, and of course, the topic was all about Eternal Star.
She was so enthusiastic it was hard to turn her down.
Xiaoxi could manage with a few “uh-huh” and “yeah” responses, but Xinglan, who was being bombarded point-blank, was starting to look dark-faced.
She’d only held back because Xiaoxi had just lectured her.
“…Anyway, I originally got into Eternal Star because I shipped the Eternal Star CP! Too bad I started too late—there are so many official merch items I wanted that are already sold out. By the way, when did you start liking Eternal Star?”
“I…”
Xiaoxi was stunned speechless by the sudden question. How the hell was she supposed to answer that?!
“It hasn’t been… that long,” Xiaoxi said vaguely. “I only started simping for her recently, haha…”
“Hmph, I’ve been simping for Eternal Star for five or six years!”
Another girl standing ahead of the short girl joined the conversation, her tone carrying the smugness of a veteran.
Only in a fan club like this could you easily find people who shared your interests.
“I’ve bought all the official Eternal Star merch from the Association, except for a few limited items that are really hard to get!”
Xiaoxi’s polite smile was starting to crack.
She couldn’t help wondering if agreeing to accompany Xinglan to this fan club was a mistake… Hearing someone say they liked Eternal Star this much, right in front of her face, was way too embarrassing!
After the two in front chatted for a bit, the short girl turned her attention to Xinglan, who had been silent the whole time.
“What about you? How long have you been simping for Eternal Star?”
Xinglan’s mouth twitched slightly. She casually threw out a date, making the other two’s eyes go wide.
“You started that long ago? I remember Eternal Star had only just started her activities back then. That’s a real veteran!”
“Then a veteran like you must have bought a lot of Eternal Star merch, right?”
This time, Xinglan tilted her head seriously and thought for a moment.
“Not really. About a dozen sets of each. Mostly because the Association’s merch quality is too low—not very durable.”
Although they didn’t understand the second half of Xinglan’s sentence, the two were caught by the “dozen sets” in the first half, followed by another small gasp of surprise.
Xiaoxi sighed helplessly beside them. What Xinglan said all seemed to be the truth, but why did it sound so weird?
Still, from a certain angle, Xinglan really was Eternal Star’s biggest fan… after all, she’d become her girlfriend. Girlfriend fans are still fans, right?
“Oh, right,” the short girl threw out another question. “So do you ship Eternal Star as the top, or Blood Moon Witch as the top?”
Xiaoxi: “?”
Faced with the couple’s stunned expressions, the short girl blinked in confusion.
“Huh? Aren’t you two here to buy the Eternal Star x Blood Moon Witch CP doujinshi?”
Xiaoxi looked up sharply and noticed that this booth was indeed selling doujinshi about Eternal Star and Blood Moon Witch… Damn it, she should have known! What good thing could Da Tianxin possibly like?!
No wonder this booth had the shortest line, and no wonder the short girl was so happy to see them in line. It was the joy of finally finding like-minded people, huh?!
After a while, Xinglan wrinkled her nose in disgust and tossed the doujinshi she’d bought into Xiaoxi’s hands, then vigorously rubbed her hands on her clothes as if she’d touched something dirty.
“You’d better hold onto this. When we meet up with Sweet Xin, I’m going to make her pay.”
“By the way, Xinglan, did the date you gave earlier have some special meaning? It didn’t sound like it was made up on the spot.”
After all, if you’re just making up an answer to brush someone off, you don’t need to say the exact year, month, and day, right?
Xiaoxi could only say that being that precise really did make it sound like she was a die-hard Eternal Star fan.
“Oh, it wasn’t random,” Xinglan gritted her teeth. “That was the day I first clashed with that bastard. Of course I’d remember it well.”
Xiaoxi: “…”
Well, if black fans counted as fans, then Xinglan was still Eternal Star’s number one fan.
At least, Xiaoxi herself had never bothered to remember that kind of thing.
They wandered around the venue a bit longer, buying all the doujinshi merch Da Tianxin had requested.
Then Xiaoxi messaged Da Tianxin to meet up.
When they met, before Xinglan could explode, Da Tianxin walked over with a teary face.
“Ugh, I lost. I’m so not taking this lying down!”
“What’s wrong, Sweet Xin?”
Da Tianxin pointed toward another part of the venue. “There’s a quiz event over there. If you answer questions about Eternal Star correctly, you get small prizes. I tried just now.”
“I thought, hey, I’m the owner of the Eternal Star fan group, I should at least be able to make it to the end, right? But the questions they asked were just deliberately nitpicking! How could a normal fan possibly answer them…”
Da Tianxin’s eyes suddenly lit up as she spoke.
“Hey, Xinglan, why don’t you give it a try? You’re Eternal Star’s super fan, right? You’ll definitely answer more than I did. And the staff there said if you get them all right, there’s a mystery grand prize!”