On the day of the convention, since the convention center was a bit far away, Mo Lan’er personally drove the two of them to their destination.
Although it was already the second time riding in Mo Lan’er’s car, Xiaoxi still felt a bit awkward looking at the little golden winged figure on the hood ornament.
In contrast, once Ye Xinglan got in the car, she lay sideways, resting her head on Xiaoxi’s lap for a nap.
The little rich girl wasn’t used to getting up early, so having her act as a special ops soldier for the convention was a bit of a challenge.
Mo Lan’er saw this scene through the rearview mirror and almost bit her teeth to pieces.
Xiaoxi had no choice but to pretend not to notice and turned her head toward the window to fake looking at the scenery.
Xiaoxi knew that Mo Lan’er was probably still not very pleased with her, a penniless otaku, especially after Mo Lan’er had checked her rather troublesome school records and seemed to regard her as an uneducated delinquent.
This made Xiaoxi strangely recall what Xunmi had said back in school: your records of skipping classes and truancy will follow you forever! The consequences are serious… Turns out, skipping classes even makes it hard to find a girlfriend.
“Miss, the family… things have been taken care of. You don’t have to worry about being forced back into an arranged marriage anymore.”
Realizing Xiaoxi was still in the car, Mo Lan’er quickly corrected herself halfway through.
Although Ye Xinglan trusted Xiaoxi a lot, she was still wary of this Magical Girl, so she never told Xiaoxi her real name, only accepting the title “Miss Butler.”
Mo Lan’er had put in a lot of effort lately to curry favor with the Association, and since they hadn’t found anything suspicious about her, she knew she couldn’t stall forever.
Ye Xinglan responded with an uninterested “Oh.”
“So that means, Miss, you can actually move back home anytime now. And the excuse you made before doesn’t need to be maintained anymore.”
“Alright, I understand.”
Ye Xinglan rubbed her face against Xiaoxi’s thigh, shifted into a more comfortable position, and continued lying down, showing no intention of sitting up.
Ignoring Mo Lan’er’s white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel, Xiaoxi awkwardly continued to admire the scenery outside. Hmm, this street really is a street.
But Xiaoxi also understood that Ye Xinglan had asked her to pretend to be her girlfriend before to avoid the family’s arranged marriage.
Now that issue was resolved, did that mean she no longer had to keep up the act outside?
Looking down at Ye Xinglan napping on her lap, Xiaoxi noticed the little rich girl’s long eyelashes and suddenly had the urge to pinch her face.
“…We’re here.”
Mo Lan’er had wanted to slam on the brakes, but seeing Ye Xinglan in the car, she held back.
Not far ahead was the entrance to the convention center, and although it was still early morning, there was already a long line at the entrance.
“Do we have to line up too?” Ye Xinglan stretched lazily as she got up. “Looks like there are a lot of people. If we queue up, it’ll take forever to get in, right?”
“No need, we’ll use the staff entrance.”
Feigning ignorance of Mo Lan’er’s murderous glare, Xiaoxi quickly said goodbye, then lowered her head to send a message and led Ye Xinglan to the side. Not long after, a staff member approached them.
“You must be Xiaoxi from Feng Li Bao, right? This way, here’s your staff pass, keep it safe. I’ll show you where the Feng Li Bao booth is.”
Xiaoxi felt a bit flattered. It was the first time someone had respectfully called her “Teacher.”
Thinking about the long line outside the convention center and how nice it was to get in without waiting, she wondered if this was what an all-expenses-paid trip felt like.
After showing her pass, the two of them entered the venue through the E8 Passage.
The staff led them through winding corridors lined with many small partitions — probably the backstage area for makeup and such.
It was Xiaoxi’s first time seeing the backstage of a convention. Her eyes widened in curiosity as she looked around, and a common elementary school essay sentence popped into her head.
Today, I came to the convention with my mom. There are so many people here, some wearing cosplay costumes and holding props and wigs, some staff carrying boxes, and Mu…
Xiaoxi suddenly stumbled and almost fell. Wait, why was Muxingge here?! No, she seemed to be looking over!
Instinctively, Xiaoxi wanted to hide behind Ye Xinglan to cover her face, but then thought there was no need to be so paranoid.
“Xiaoxi” and Muxingge had only met once before; she might not even remember her.
Besides, Muxingge didn’t know about her writing those little imperial novels. Even if she saw her, she wouldn’t make any connection.
“What’s wrong, Xiaoxi? If you want to hold hands, just do it. No need for all this pretending…”
“Shhh, don’t call my name. Let’s hurry up and leave!”
Xiaoxi was still a bit nervous and quickly pulled Ye Xinglan away. But even if Muxingge had glanced over once, she probably wouldn’t have noticed such a nobody like Xiaoxi, right?
Muxingge being here made sense—she was a well-known idol after all, probably here as a guest for the convention.
Back when she first gained some fame, she often appeared at events like this, and the whole team’s fees were basically supported by Muxingge at the time.
What Xiaoxi didn’t know was that as she hurried past, Muxingge’s gaze remained locked on her.
Sirius… no, why was Xiaoxi here? And was that the girlfriend she mentioned before?
Muxingge narrowed her eyes slightly. This was backstage, so normally only guests or staff should be here.
After a moment of thought, she snapped her fingers at the event organizer following her.
“Could you please give me the list of exhibitors for this convention?”
“No problem, Miss Muxingge. One moment please.”
Soon, a pamphlet was handed to Muxingge, who quickly found the information she wanted.
Feng Li Bao booth… autograph guest… Not bad! So capable?
Muxingge laughed bitterly. She hadn’t gone looking for trouble with Sirius these past two days, yet the other party had made even more progress. So ambitious!
She had actually intended to go easy on Sirius. A few days ago, she had mentioned to Miss L that she had found the scoundrel writing those little imperial novels about her.
Muxingge’s intention was to probe whether Miss L knew about Sirius writing those novels.
But judging from Miss L’s indifferent reaction, it probably wasn’t related.
Miss L had advised Muxingge not to act rashly in revenge. After thinking it over, Muxingge agreed.
After all, Sirius was a teammate; it wouldn’t be good to retaliate too harshly.
Not everyone was as tolerant of her temper as A Xing and a few other teammates were.
None of this was known to Xiaoxi, who was now standing in front of the Feng Li Bao booth.
“The Feng Li Bao booth number is 13C. I’ll leave now. Xiaoxi, if you have any questions, just message me.”
After the polite staff member left, Xiaoxi scanned her surroundings. Not bad, the venue was quite large.
It shouldn’t be too easy to bump into Muxingge here, right?
Before the autograph session started, Xiaoxi was free to roam.
The convention hadn’t officially opened yet, and the venue looked rather empty.
“Xiaoxi, how many conventions have you been to before?”
“Unfortunately, I’ve never been to one.”
“Huh? I thought otakus like you would love going to conventions.”
Xiaoxi thought Ye Xinglan seemed to misunderstand the term “otaku” quite a bit, but she didn’t go to conventions for one main reason… she was poor.
The prices for two-dimensional merchandise had been rising over the past two years. It was normal for a small metal pin to cost tens of yuan.
Xiaoxi didn’t consider herself to have super strong willpower like those who could browse without buying, so just window shopping was a bit of a torture.
“I was hoping you could give me some advice. Well then, let’s just wander around casually.”
Ye Xinglan seemed to equate wandering a convention to going shopping and strolled about leisurely. But before long, she suddenly shouted.
“Oh my god, Eternal Star!”
“That’s cosplay! Don’t react so wildly, okay?!”
Seeing Ye Xinglan instantly strike a battle pose, Xiaoxi hurriedly covered her mouth.
Ye Xinglan’s stance clearly showed she instinctively took the cosplayer as the real deal, ready to fight.
“Oh, oh, I see. You scared me. It’s just that she looks so much like her…”
What startled Ye Xinglan was an official cosplayer hired for the booth, dressed quite authentically. But Xiaoxi shook her head after a glance.
The details still weren’t quite right. Our Tuan Tuan isn’t this big, okay…
“Xiaoxi! Come see! Here, Eternal Star’s merchandise is so complete, I’m envious!”
Before Xiaoxi noticed, the little rich girl had already drawn near, eyes sparkling as she looked at the row of Eternal Star merchandise displayed on the booth.
As embarrassing as it was to admit, after buying so many Eternal Star items, Ye Xinglan had developed a strange collecting obsession.
She had basically bought all the common Eternal Star merchandise on the market… just to stomp on them later.
But some of the merchandise sold here were ones even Ye Xinglan—the self-proclaimed number one fan of Eternal Star in a way—hadn’t gotten yet.
“These few are convention-exclusive items,” the cosplayer who had been mistaken for the real Eternal Star came up and said. “Because they’re exclusive to this event, they’re only sold at this convention and nowhere else.”
“I’ll buy them!”
Ye Xinglan’s eyes shone brightly as she immediately pulled out her wallet.
She had set her sights on those life-size Eternal Star pillowcases, all new designs she hadn’t seen before.
Just imagining hugging those pillows made her feel amazing!
Xiaoxi shook her head; as expected, Ye Xinglan didn’t have to worry about the troubles of being a poor otaku.
Only then did Xiaoxi notice that many booths in the venue were selling things related to Magical Girls. It seemed this convention was themed around Magical Girls.
Xiaoxi sneered a little. That explained it. The Association often organized or participated in commercial events like this.
Not only could they make money, but it also helped boost the popularity and strength of the Magical Girls. Why wouldn’t they want that?
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