I turned reality into a romantic comedy.

"Then I'll take Weiwei to buy a gift today and give it to Qianqian so he can put it on his bookshelf. But this time, let me write my name on your gift, and then we'll be even."

At this point, Lin Mu suddenly remembered something and quickly added:

"But I can't deliver it today, Qianqian isn't home."

"Huh? Where did he go? Didn't he just get back from Beijing?"

Xu Youwei, who had been avoiding Chen Junqian for the past two days, neither daring to reply to his messages nor go to his house to find him, was taken aback upon hearing this. She immediately turned to Lin Mu, who was always the most knowledgeable about Chen Junqian's movements because of his good relationship with his mother, and asked him about it.

"Let me think... I think I went to Xuancheng?"

"Xuancheng? Why did you suddenly go there?"

Even though she had been deliberately avoiding seeing Chen Junqian these past two days, Xu Youwei still couldn't help but puff out her cheeks after hearing this news. She felt as if she had heard that her groom had been dragged out by his friends to have some kind of last bachelor night on the eve of the wedding.

"Yes, it's Xuancheng."

Lin Mu nodded, touched his lips with his finger, and then simultaneously showed a thoughtful expression:

"I remember saying we were going over there to attend some kind of... comic convention."

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Chapter 69: A Collection of Stereotypes (Bonus Chapter 3/?)

To be fair, this should be considered the first time Chen Junqian has attended a comic convention in the past two or three decades of his life.

Prior to this, his understanding of such activities was basically limited to the occasional appearance of superhumans in various news reports, their spawn locations or backgrounds, or the unusual appearances and makeup he encountered on the subway or street during weekends and holidays, which would easily lead to children passing by pulling their mothers' fingers and asking, "Is this what anime is like?"

Even after being reborn and actively engaging with the community, and having read reports and stories of various large-scale anime conventions both domestically and internationally in various anime magazines, Chen Junqian had never actually witnessed one in real life.

After all, Guoning is just a small, third-tier county town, and even Xuancheng, which they are going to today, is not a very big city. In fact, even in Hefei, the capital city of Anhui province, Chen Junqian couldn't find much decent information about it online. Xuancheng is a pleasant surprise, mainly because the timing is just around the corner. Considering that Guoning and Xuancheng are only an hour or two apart, it can be considered a spontaneous trip.

Given that a round trip could be completed in a single day, getting in touch with Gu Linguo's family wasn't too difficult. In fact, the two of them didn't even tell Gu Linguo's mother. Instead, they secretly arranged for their sister, who insisted on coming along, to be driven by their mother, who had nothing to do that morning. The group then traveled from Guoning towards Xuancheng.

"Has Lin Guo been to a place like this before?"

Although his initial goal was simply to find a place and occasion to chat with Gu Linguo, Chen Junqian couldn't help but feel a little bit of anticipation for this so-called anime convention he had never met before. After all, from any perspective, he could be classified as a typical anime otaku. There were quite a few fans on Bilibili who followed his personal account to check the latest anime news each season, or to see the translations of various anime-related content such as voice tracks, voice actor broadcasts, and promotional events. There weren't many translation groups willing to do such long translations, and Chen Junqian was one of them. He would occasionally do some translation work as an individual translator.

"No, after all, Guoning has never had this kind of event before, so today is the first time."

Judging from her expressions and demeanor alone, Gu Lingguo's anticipation was even more obvious than Chen Junqian's. After all, her immersion in the world of anime and manga was always much higher than Chen Junqian's. While the former was still a newbie who only watched anime series, this girl had already secretly bought all kinds of related magazines and learned about other aspects of ACGN, including light novels, visual novels, comics, and even more in-depth knowledge about idols, cosplay, and merchandise. In these areas, she was definitely Chen Junqian's senior and mentor.

So what kind of activity is this exactly?

Hearing this, Chen Xi, who was sitting on the other side, asked a question out of curiosity. Although the front seats of the car were empty, all three of them squeezed into the back. This was mainly because the younger sister got into the back first and then called Chen Junqian to sit next to him. Gu Linguo didn't want to choose the front seat either, but squeezed in as well. However, none of them were fully open, so the three of them were only slightly crowded.

"Let me think... I'm not too sure about the domestic ones, but in Japan, there should be many stalls selling doujinshi and doujin games, and there will also be cosplayers who specialize in playing anime or game characters. If it's a large anime convention, many well-known game companies will also use the venue to promote their new games. There might even be stage performances. People can gather together to buy things, play board games, watch performances, and meet like-minded people."

For Gu Lingguo, who had only ever learned about anime conventions from magazines, this was probably the image she could imagine. However, even after she rambled on about it, Chen Xi didn't seem to understand much. She nodded thoughtfully, then quickly raised a new question:

"But a comic convention that can hold all the things you mentioned must be a big place, right?"

As she spoke, she looked down at the car's navigation system and read the address aloud, word by word:

"Tianxin Sports Center, Xuanzhou District, Xuancheng City..."

"Badminton hall?"

----------------------------------

In fact, if Chen Junqian, who was also racking his brains over a certain promise a year or two later, were to look back on his first experience at this comic convention, he would probably be able to understand the organizers' thinking. After all, when it comes to holding a comic convention in a small county town in China, the first choice, or rather, the few venues they can choose, are various sports centers and the banquet halls on the first floor of various hotels.

But for Chen Junqian, who was undoubtedly looking forward to his first comic convention experience, the closer they got to their destination, the more uneasy he felt. His heart finally settled the moment he saw the venue, though in a way that felt like he had fallen from a building, or even sank to the bottom.

Wang Hongling was indeed never interested in activities she had never even heard of, so after dropping off the three children, she went to find a parking spot and let Chen Junqian lead the two of them in to buy tickets.

The three of them spent quite a while just finding the ticket office and the specific venue. Finally, they found the organizer in charge of ticketing under an anime poster that looked like it had been directly taken from a two-dimensional magazine and the text had been photoshopped on with rather crude techniques. It cost 30 yuan per person, regardless of whether they were adults or children. Or rather, it seemed that the main group of people here were actually minors, although most of the children were accompanied by a parent who looked around suspiciously.

Once inside, Chen Junqian understood why the organizers had chosen the badminton hall. Unlike basketball and football halls, the badminton hall, once the central netting was temporarily removed, offered a fairly spacious feel with no obvious obstacles. Even so, it was a place you could see right through, feeling like it was only about the size of two classrooms combined. The only difference was the height, but there wasn't much room to put your feet down. It felt like walking around inside would only take three or four minutes at most.

There were no stalls selling doujinshi or doujin games as Gu Lingguo had mentioned. Near the entrance, there were only a few long tables that had been pushed together to form several makeshift stalls. Behind them sat a few old men and women who seemed completely out of place with the already limited anime and manga atmosphere in the venue. They looked more like old men and women sitting behind a vegetable market stall, fanning themselves with palm-leaf fans and watching the sparse flow of people in front of them with cloudy eyes. On the tables in front of them were all sorts of swords, plastic or wooden ones, cushions with character designs, and other trinkets. If someone stopped occasionally, they would slowly mutter that the prices were not cheap at all and had obviously gone up.

Cosplayers aren't entirely absent, but their numbers are extremely small, scattered here and there. In this environment, they seem rather out of place and lonely. A young man wearing an ill-fitting suit, seemingly cosplaying as Kamen Rider, is taking off his helmet and tucking it under his arm. His forehead is visibly covered in sweat as he looks down at his phone. Next to him, another person wearing a skirt, who appears to be a character from "Puella Magi Madoka Magica," is carefully avoiding a sticky puddle of drink that someone has spilled on the ground while smacking his lips and adjusting his wig.

He had only taken two steps in when a masked man, looking rather furtive, suddenly appeared out of nowhere and secretly patted Chen Junqian on the shoulder. Without saying a word, he simply showed him the screen of his phone, which displayed a page from a memo app, with the following words written in large font:

[The latest and most complete collection of adult anime and manga resources online, including "Oni Chichi" and "Yosuga no Sora," available for just ten yuan.]

After realizing that Chen Junqian wasn't interested, the other person shrugged, turned off his phone screen, and continued to squat there waiting for the next tourist to come in.

On the right front of the venue, you could barely make out what appeared to be a small stage, with a white screen and sound equipment next to it. However, the staff responsible for operating them were sitting around another small folding table nearby, idly playing cards. The sound system was playing the song "LoveLive," which was released in January of this year. Not far from them, you could see a group of guys waving glow sticks and making all sorts of incomprehensible gestures, howling and dancing wildly at the animated music video of Muse projected onto the whiteboard, almost drowning out the background music.

Well, this was probably the first thing Chen Junqian saw at the comic convention.

He turned his head stiffly to look at the two girls beside him. The younger sister on the left seemed to have completely solidified her stereotypes about the anime and manga community, subtly pulling him close as if she wanted to run away. The girl on the right, Lin Guo, seemed still immersed in what she was seeing and hadn't reacted yet. She even seemed to be trying to salvage the situation, pointing to a knife on a nearby stall and trying her best to introduce it in a surprised tone:

"Wow, this is the one from Gintama, right?"

Then the old lady next to her glanced at her sideways:

"Eighty, don't touch it if you're not buying it, you'll have to pay for it if it breaks."

Okay, now the smile on his face is even more stiff.

But since I've already paid, I might as well take a look around the place, no matter how small it is.

That's why "Since we're already here" is one of the most commonly used four-character sayings in China.

With this in mind, Chen Junqian and his two companions began to walk around the area, which looked small and was actually smaller than their school playground.

There weren't many people here, and most of them seemed to be in a similar state to the others, just wandering around aimlessly. Perhaps because they were bored or were forcing themselves to do something, many people did stop in front of those few stalls and start looking left and right and picking things out, just like tourists who have to take a picture or write 'xx was here' when they go to a place.

It's late August 2013, and the hottest anime of the year is undoubtedly Attack on Titan, a half-year series that started airing in April and hasn't finished airing yet. However, the anime's popularity obviously won't be reflected so quickly at a small anime convention like this. So, the most visible cosplay is actually concentrated on last year's Sword Art Online. At least Chen Junqian has already seen several Kirito wearing black trench coats and holding dual swords. There are even many Elucidators and Dark Chaser swords at the booths next to him.

Chen Junqian always felt that besides the popularity of the anime itself, the main reason was that Kirito's black hair and black eyes made him a relatively easy character to cosplay in real life. No wigs or colored contact lenses were needed, and the only costs were the costume and weapons. However, as the saying goes, "It's not scary to wear the same clothes, it's embarrassing to look worse," when several Kirito cosplayers stood together, the difference was obvious, whether it was the cosplayer's own background or the level of care put into the costume and props. The more handsome one had people asking him for photos.

Gu Linguo glanced at the man, then turned to look at Chen Junqian, and suddenly blurted out:

"I feel that my brother is actually quite suitable for cosplaying this character."

"me?"

"Yeah, black hair and black eyes, and Kirito in the first SAO was set to be fourteen years old, which is the perfect age. Anyway, I think my brother would definitely look better than them if he wore this outfit."

Although Chen Xi still didn't understand what cosplay was, she nodded in agreement with Gu Lingguo's words. She didn't know which anime character it was, but the black trench coat and the two swords looked pretty good. Chen Junqian had never worn anything like this before, so Gu Lingguo's suggestion made her want to see it too.

"Yeah, I think it would look really cool too."

As the three were chatting, a young woman, around twenty years old, rushed in from the entrance not far away. She was carrying a rather heavy-looking bag on her back. After looking around, she found a relatively clean spot to sit down and began taking things out of the bag one by one, though it was a bit far away and she couldn't see what they were.

Just as Chen Junqian walked over curiously to check the situation, the two men who had been playing cards—presumably staff members of the organizers—stood up, walked over, and said, with cigarettes dangling from their lips:

“Hey, you’re not allowed to set up a stall here without a permit. Either pack up or leave.”

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PS2: Comic conventions in small towns... I chatted with some friends in the group again today, and I can only say that they are pretty much the same as what I've experienced, a collection of stereotypes in various senses.

Chapter 70: Everyone in the anime/manga world is obsessed with looks, no, everyone is (two-in-one)

"Street vendor's license?"

Seemingly completely unprepared for such a thing, Chen Junqian noticed the girl stop what she was doing with a puzzled expression, look up, and ask the event organizer in front of her:

"This kind of place is probably where like-minded people exchange things, right? Like a flea market or something?"

Faced with the girl's explanation, the staff member with the cigarette in his mouth just chuckled and offered no explanation, instead repeating his previous request once more:

"Either get a replacement stall owner's license, or pack up your goods."

"...Okay, how much is the stall owner's license?"

Noticing that other people were watching them, the girl tightened her grip on her bag, seemingly intending to do as the other person said.

"five hundred."

However, the numbers that followed, uttered lightly like a smoke ring, froze her in place again, and she instinctively asked to confirm:

"How many?"

"Five hundred, that's the price for everything. Go ask them if you don't believe me."

As he spoke, the man pointed to the group of elderly men and women at the stalls behind him.

"Damn, I'm not selling pirated merchandise like them. Those people probably don't even know what anime, game, or character they're selling."

Seemingly feeling hurt by being compared to those elderly people who were less like stall owners and more like mere vendors collecting money, completely unaware of and indifferent to what was being sold, the girl complained this with dissatisfaction. Then, as if she had opened a floodgate, she continued to rant:

"This anime convention is absolutely terrible, okay? And I didn't bring these things from home here to make money. If we have a good chat and meet someone who shares my interests, I'd give them away for free. Speechless."

Even if she said that, the man in front of her would just smoke and quietly watch her, exerting a kind of invisible yet heavy pressure.

After a minute or two of stalemate, the girl, pursing her lips and gritting her teeth, haphazardly stuffed the things she had taken out back into the staff, and retorted curtly:

"Alright, alright, I won't set up a stall here anymore, okay?"

Unlike the other tourists who dispersed after watching the commotion and continued their aimless wandering, Chen Junqian noticed what the girl had taken out of her bag, and Gu Lingguo next to her did the same. So she immediately nudged his arm, stood on tiptoe, and whispered something in his ear:

"Brother, did you see her just now? She looks like she makes cosplay costumes."

"Yes, I saw it. Are you interested?"

"I'd like to get to know them."

In an era when online shopping hadn't even taken off for two years and the anime/manga community hadn't yet expanded, the biggest limitation for ordinary anime/manga enthusiasts in small towns, besides the lack of like-minded people, was the inability to even access the original works or merchandise of their favorite shows. Otherwise, those stalls selling pirated merchandise, run by elderly people, wouldn't have had customers willing to spend money. Rather, the concepts of authentic and pirated were quite blurred at that time, and these fan-made or simply pirated merchandise items were the only anime/manga-related items they could access.

The same applies to C-servers.

Just like several Kirito characters they saw at the event, it was relatively easy to buy the costumes and props for popular characters from these works. Even if the quality looked quite average and the back of the trench coat was sticking out like cardboard, at least you could buy them. But for less popular characters, you would have to find your own way to get them. Whether you bought similar clothes and combined and modified them, or you built a set from scratch, it was not an easy task.

Although Chen Junqian does possess the relevant skills.

Don't ask, the answer is that this is a real talent. He doesn't know which romantic comedy's male protagonist has the ability to make cosplay outfits for female characters, but Gu Lingguo didn't know this either. So when he noticed that the girl seemed to be in this line of work, his eyes lit up and he tried to strike up a conversation with her.

"Lin Guo seems to have come back to life."

Watching Gu Linguo jog over and soon become all smiles, chatting and laughing with the girl who had initially looked rather depressed, Chen Junqian's younger sister, who had been hiding behind him, also curiously glanced over in that direction.

"Well... at comic conventions, as long as you can meet even one fellow enthusiast, it's definitely worth it. However, not everyone has Lin Guo's strong social skills, like your brother me."

After surveying the surroundings and observing the current state of the visitors, Chen Junqian could sense that most of the visitors genuinely wanted to connect with fellow enthusiasts. However, many hesitated to approach even the most approachable cosplayers, simply by asking, "Are you cosplaying xxx? You've done a fantastic job! Can we take a picture together?" Let alone chatting with other visitors. Those who came in groups were fine, but many men and women who were clearly alone seemed to be waiting for a fellow enthusiast to fall from the sky, simply circling around in circles. This was obviously a futile effort, and they would most likely end up silently entering and leaving, as if practicing Zen meditation.

"So do they really find it interesting to come to a place like this for an event?"

For Chen Xi, who knew absolutely nothing about this kind of thing, the scene was not attractive at all. After finding a place to sit down with Chen Junqian, she rested her chin on her hand, looked at the scene in front of her, and subconsciously asked a question.

"I don't know, I'm not one of them. I just feel like Xiaoxi is acting a little strange today."