The interior of the venue was very large.
What had originally been a gymnasium for basketball, badminton, table tennis and other sports had now been renovated into all kinds of sales and demonstration stalls.
Many people were preparing to enter, and Su Bai’s group was among them.
All sorts of boys and girls dressed in magical girl cosplay came and went.
Su Bai also found it quite novel.
There were tens of thousands of magical girls registered with the association.
Combined with the association’s many years of marketing—including but not limited to comics, animation, games and other topics—under the pretext of making magical girls more acceptable to society,
the profession of magical girl had gradually transformed from the image of warriors fighting demonic beasts into idols closer to everyday life.
Yu Xiaoyan also grew excited.
Every time she went to an exhibition, the first thing she did was take photos, to the point of filling up her phone’s storage.
“Over there, that cosplay has such high accuracy, really nice. Let’s go take a photo with her.”
Yu Xiaoyan excitedly ran over and began chatting with that cosplayer.
Su Bai and Jiang Yuelan exchanged a helpless glance and shook their heads, clearly already somewhat used to Yu Xiaoyan’s behavior.
“What, you’re a boy? Really? I truly couldn’t tell.” Yu Xiaoyan cried out in surprise, a rare flush even appearing on her face.
The late-arriving Su and Jiang also looked astonished.
From the outside one truly could not tell this was a boy.
“I… can I add your WeChat? Expand my circle a bit. I also do cosplay normally. We can exchange tips.” Yu Xiaoyan’s voice weakened a few degrees.
“Looking at that shy appearance, I never expected this girl is actually a trap fan.” Jiang Yuelan quietly introduced to Su Bai.
“Trap? What’s that?” Su Bai looked at Jiang Yuelan with a blank face.
“Uh, you can simply understand it as a boy who looks like a girl, wearing girl’s clothing and such?” Jiang Yuelan explained, not expecting that Su Bai was not even very clear about the word “trap.”
Su Bai had little interest in “surfing the internet,” so she naturally knew very little about these niche cultural terms.
“Wouldn’t that get called a pervert?” Su Bai said in a voice only the two of them could hear.
“It’s like this, Xiao Bai. Maybe in the mainstream view of the public, some people do think that way. But there is always a place willing to accept people like that.
Isn’t that right? Just like here, there are people who will accommodate him.”
Jiang Yuelan looked pointedly toward Yu Xiaoyan, who was chatting and laughing happily with that cross-dressing young man.
Perhaps it is like that. Su Bai nodded half-understandingly.
Then she thought of her own situation—having changed from a boy into a girl.
She wondered if there existed the kind of place Jiang Yuelan spoke of that would accommodate her.
Su Bai shook her head again, as if denying herself, or perhaps feeling that thinking about these things now was useless.
Seeing Su Bai’s appearance, Jiang Yuelan raised her brows slightly.
She was very familiar with those online evaluations targeting [White Iris].
And now she seemed to be starting to understand a little where Su Bai’s distress lay.
“Classmate Xiaoyan, why don’t you properly chat with this young man? We’ll go look around on our own.”
Jiang Yuelan wanted to take Su Bai to walk around and look.
Perhaps she could understand her thoughts more deeply.
“Okay… okay. Um, my good friend’s stall is here.” Yu Xiaoyan pointed to a certain location on the brochure map. “You can go take a look first. Mention my name and they’ll give you a discount.”
“All right, all right. Contact us by phone if anything comes up.” Jiang Yuelan raised her phone and shook it, the screen showing that she had already added Yu Xiaoyan as a friend through the class group.
“Let’s go, Xiao Bai. Come look with me. I’m quite interested.”
The two of them said goodbye to Yu Xiaoyan and then headed toward the place Yu Xiaoyan had mentioned.
The two walked side by side.
From time to time Jiang Yuelan would take Su Bai’s hand, and the resisting reaction grew lighter and lighter.
Along this path they passed many stalls, and Jiang Yuelan also went forward with interest to compare them.
Is this witch serious? Does she really like these useless decorations? Su Bai said in her heart.
If it’s true, isn’t this an opportunity for me to raise favorability?
Thinking of this, Su Bai felt she had to quickly take action.
Then she also imitated Jiang Yuelan’s manner and walked up to the tables to begin picking and choosing.
Jiang Yuelan was also startled by Su Bai’s actions.
Just a moment ago she had shown little interest in these things. Why the sudden change?
“Sister Xiao Lan, this one looks pretty nice. I’ll give it to you.” Su Bai held up a magical girl standing plaque and showed it to Jiang Yuelan.
“This… is quite cute…” But it’s not the type I like, Jiang Yuelan added in her heart, yet completely failed to show it as she continued, “Then I’ll accept it. Thank you, Xiao Bai.”
Seeing the smile on Jiang Yuelan’s face, Su Bai felt a surge of joy in her heart.
Looks like I successfully gained trust. I have to continue.
And so a very comical scene appeared:
Jiang Yuelan had just finished picking out the types of merchandise she did not particularly like and set them aside, only for Su Bai to turn around and buy them back for her the next moment.
She was too embarrassed to say she did not like them and no longer needed them.
Going back and forth like this made the muscles on Jiang Yuelan’s face unable to stop twitching. She did not know whether to laugh or cry.
Jiang Yuelan had just wanted to speak up and find an excuse to stop Su Bai when the time came.
Not far ahead of them, a burst of noisy arguing attracted both of their gazes.
In front of one stall many people had gathered, blocking it so tightly that water could not pass through.
Everyone wanted to see what exactly was happening inside.
“It seems to be the stall Yu Xiaoyan mentioned. What happened? Why are so many people crowding around here?” Su Bai stood on the periphery looking blank.
“Let’s just go in and take a look.” With that she took Su Bai’s hand and began squeezing into the crowd.
“Make way, make way, let us in for a moment.” Jiang Yuelan used just the right amount of force to push the crowd aside, moving through this dense crowd like a swimming dragon.
The pulled-along Su Bai was relatively petite in build.
Additionally, with Jiang Yuelan forcibly opening the path, she did not even deliberately dodge yet was not squeezed either.
The two of them quickly arrived at the innermost area.
Su Bai immediately noticed the things hanging and displayed on that stall.
When she saw them, her face twitched almost imperceptibly a few times.
So strange.
Everything on it was exquisitely made [White Iris] merchandise of all kinds—figures, hanging paintings, and so on.
There was even a cosplay costume.
Even Su Bai herself felt the accuracy was high.
“I’m saying, why are you still selling [White Iris] merchandise? Don’t you know she already fell from grace and exploded with scandal?
Still selling here. She has no qualifications to be a magical girl. What right does her merchandise have to appear at a magical girl exhibition?”
A group of people aggressively spoke loudly toward the stall and the surrounding crowd.
“There are no regulations saying this exhibition does not allow sales.” A staff member of the stall retorted.
“Hmph, we’re not being unreasonable either. Other stalls selling a little here and there is fine.
But you filling the entire stall with this—what do you want to do? Aren’t you just trying to disgust us fans of [Golden Lantern]?
Do you know what that pervert [White Iris] did to our [Golden Lantern]?”
This group of people was emotionally stirred, as if the other party had truly done something that went against heaven and reason.