The three beauties walked side by side through the anime convention venue just like that.
The little loli Cai Xiaotong stood in the middle of the three.
On her left was Bai Yurou, and on her right was Ning Mu.
This combination of the three of them attracted quite a few turned heads along the way.
Ordinarily, even one cosplayer of their level was already rare.
This time three of them appeared at once, and they were even standing together.
Along the way, Cai Xiaotong continuously brought up various otaku-related topics—one moment complaining that the sequel of a certain anime was trash, the next saying how good-looking a certain new character was. Bai Yurou could barely pick up a few sentences and responded in a half-hearted manner.
On the contrary, the Ning Mu to the side had not watched a single anime and could never insert herself into the conversation. She could only silently follow beside the two of them.
During a gap after one topic had been finished, Cai Xiaotong turned her head toward Ning Mu and asked, “Ning Mu, why have you been so quiet the whole time? Do you not like the topics I’m talking about?”
Cai Xiaotong, who had always played the “sunny character” from childhood to adulthood, naturally noticed Ning Mu’s silence and, out of concern, took the initiative to strike up a conversation with her.
“No. I just don’t know what to say. Because the anime you two are talking about, I haven’t watched any of them.”
Ning Mu spoke the truth.
“Ai, these are all hugely popular anime from recent years. Ning Mu, you haven’t even watched a single one?”
While chatting earlier, Cai Xiaotong had specially taken care of Ning Mu’s feelings and had not talked about those relatively niche anime she herself liked—even though she had once recommended them to Bai Yurou—but had instead chosen a few popular anime she felt Ning Mu might also have watched to talk about.
Even so, Ning Mu still could not insert herself into the conversation.
“Ning Mu is not an otaku. The anime she has watched is probably only Detective Conan.” On the other side, Bai Yurou, out of concern for Ning Mu, took the initiative to help her out of the predicament.
The moment she finished speaking, Bai Yurou regretted it.
She saw Ning Mu turn her head to look at her, her eyes carrying doubt.
It was as if she was saying:
“How do you know?”
Indeed, Bai Yurou’s understanding of Ning Mu was actually not much more than Cai Xiaotong’s.
Suddenly blurting out relatively private information such as “she is not an otaku and has only watched Detective Conan” would leave anyone feeling puzzled.
It was like someone you had only met a few times suddenly saying your favorite color right in front of your face.
“I guessed. Just now you didn’t seem very interested in any of these things at the anime convention, and you kept showing expressions of not understanding, so I guessed you might not be an otaku at all and therefore weren’t interested in the slightest. But then I thought again—even if you’re not an otaku, a classic old anime like Detective Conan you should have at least watched, right? So I just said that.”
Bai Yurou hurriedly explained and supplemented.
Actually, she had not guessed at all.
It was Lin Ye’s memories that had told her.
But in order not to let Ning Mu discover anything abnormal, she could only force herself to say she had guessed.
Was the explanation I just gave reasonably acceptable?
But Ning Mu has been very sharp since childhood. Can this explanation of mine really pass her check?
Ning Mu heard her explanation, and the doubt in her eyes dissipated quite a bit. She only said:
“Your guess is not wrong. I really don’t know much about otaku culture. I’ve only watched Detective Conan. Those anime you two were talking about, I haven’t watched any of them, so I couldn’t pick up your conversation.”
It seemed she had passed.
Seeing that Ning Mu was no longer looking at her with doubtful eyes and was instead continuing from her words, Bai Yurou secretly let out a breath of relief.
She truly did not want to expose herself.
“So that’s how it is. What a pity. But Ning Mu, I sincerely recommend that you learn more about the otaku world. There are many very good things in it.”
Cai Xiaotong heard her say she was not an otaku and could only express regret on one hand while once again trying to recommend Ning Mu to enter the circle.
After all, Ning Mu’s looks were this high.
If she could also pull her into the circle, she would be able to encourage her to do more good-looking cosplays in the future.
Setting that aside, Cai Xiaotong also very much wanted to become good friends with Ning Mu as well.
“Mm. I’ll try.”
Ning Mu gladly agreed to Cai Xiaotong’s suggestion.
She had originally planned to start playing the game Magical Girl Witch Trial after returning home. Was this not also a way of learning about the otaku world?
Not long after the three of them had finished chatting about this topic, they heard a female voice ring out from a distance.
“Xiaotong, Mumu, over here.”
Looking in the direction of the voice’s source, it was Zhao Dandan.
For Zhao Dandan, this day at the anime convention had gone like this.
Originally, her younger cousin Cai Xiaotong had begged her to go to the anime convention to help watch the booth until Xiaotong finished receiving her friend and entered.
After that there would be nothing for her to do, and the remaining time she could freely dispose of at the anime convention.
In order to ask for her help, Cai Xiaotong had not only covered the anime convention ticket but also agreed to give her a set of cosplay costume—exactly the one she was currently wearing.
Zhao Dandan, who was also an otaku, gladly agreed.
Previously she had been pulled by her younger cousin to anime conventions to do “hard labor” more than a few times, but each time Cai Xiaotong would offer decent chips, such as the latest anime merch or autographs from voice actors she liked. Over time, this had become a convention between the two of them.
Then she had thought of her good best friend Ning Mu.
Ning Mu had been especially depressed recently because of her older brother Lin Ye’s death.
Zhao Dandan wanted to help her cheer up and so invited her to come play at the anime convention together.
She of course knew Ning Mu was not an otaku, but she felt that the lively atmosphere of the anime convention might be able to infect Ning Mu, and perhaps it could even make Ning Mu develop an interest in the otaku world through this.
So just like that, Zhao Dandan waited for the anime convention to start and brought Ning Mu in.
She stood guard at the booth Cai Xiaotong had applied for, thinking that once Cai Xiaotong arrived she could take Ning Mu to walk around the anime convention.
As a result, Cai Xiaotong did indeed finish receiving her friend and came over, but the moment she saw Ning Mu’s looks, as a face-con she could not help wanting to persuade the other party to also try cosplaying.
Zhao Dandan saw that Ning Mu seemed a bit tempted, and on top of that she herself also quite wanted to see what Ning Mu looked like cosplaying as a two-dimensional character, so she also joined the ranks of persuasion.
Thus Zhao Dandan was once again entrusted by her own younger cousin to lead the two of them to the changing room.
After sending the two of them to the place, Zhao Dandan thought that these two beauty cosplayers would most likely be requested by her own black-bellied younger cousin to help her attract popularity. Why did she know?
Because she herself had been requested like this by her younger cousin before.
So she temporarily changed her idea of taking Ning Mu to walk around the anime convention, handed Ning Mu over to Bai Yurou and Cai Xiaotong, said goodbye to Bai Yurou and Ning Mu, and went off to walk around the anime convention by herself.
Cai Xiaotong was her own younger cousin and needed no further words.
As for Bai Yurou, although she estimated she had never met this young girl before, for some reason she always felt especially at ease handing her good best friend over to the other party.
Along the way she had walked through most of the booths at the anime convention and also taken photos with many beautiful cosplayer big sisters. She had played especially happily.
Just as she was preparing to return to Cai Xiaotong’s booth to find the three of them, she saw the three people she wanted to find.
Then she was shocked by the three of them’s appearances.
She had a clear idea of her younger cousin’s cosplay level in her heart.
Zhao Dandan had long ago felt inferior to her. But how were Bai Yurou and Ning Mu also this strong?
They were completely not inferior to Cai Xiaotong.
She had always considered her own looks not low, and when cosplaying her accuracy was also considered quite good.
As a result, today she had run into two beauties who, just like Cai Xiaotong, not only had looks better than hers but also, when cosplaying, looked as if the characters themselves had descended.
Zhao Dandan felt a bit envious.