With an hour and a half left until the signing event, Gao Sijin and Tsukiyuki Rio took the elevator down to the underground parking lot. Up until that moment, their hands had never once separated.
“You get to go out again today, Gao-kun,” Tsukiyuki Rio tilted her head and asked tenderly, “Are you especially excited right now?”
“Of course. But Rio, what makes me happiest is that I’m going out with my most beloved girl, and that’s why I’m excited. If I were going to the signing event alone, I think my heart would feel much more indifferent.”
Facing Tsukiyuki Rio’s sweet affection, Gao Sijin returned it with equally clingy words—the cheesier, the better.
In short, in order to eventually escape one day, he had to make Tsukiyuki Rio believe he was as harmless as possible.
“Bleargh!”
Not far away, Yu Qingxue stood ramrod-straight in front of the Mercedes-Benz, making an exaggerated vomiting gesture.
“Qingxue, are you okay? Could you be having morning sickness already?” Gao Sijin asked in a slightly flippant tone.
“Nee, could it be Gao-kun’s child?” Tsukiyuki Rio’s eyes lost their highlights.
“Impossible. I belong only to you.”
“Good. In the future, I’m going to have lots and lots of children for Gao-kun, so Gao-kun must never sneak a taste.”
Yu Qingxue opened the car door for them with a voice on the verge of tears, complaining at the same time, “This sour stench—I really can’t stand it.”
“Then Qingxue, you should hurry and leave the singles club too,” Tsukiyuki Rio linked her arm with Gao Sijin’s and slowly, elegantly, sat down in the back seat.
“Yeah, Qingxue, right now you’re just like a dog,” Gao Sijin teased as well.
Furiously, Yu Qingxue took the driver’s seat and stepped on the accelerator. “When I read or watch movies, I usually like the sweet stuff, but you two clearly have way too much sugar, okay? Greasy and tooth-sticking. Standing next to you, I’m going to get diabetes.”
“What do you hear, Gao-kun?”
“Woof woof—woof woof woof!”
“Mm, I heard the same thing. It’s a single dog barking in frustration?”
The two’s taunting nearly twisted Yu Qingxue’s mouth with rage. She spun the steering wheel and said, “Meow dammit, if you two keep this up, this old lady will deliberately cause a car wreck and take you both down with me.”
“Sorry, Qingxue. But it’s about time you found a boyfriend. That distant relative from the Tsukiyuki Clan I introduced you to before is a good choice,” Tsukiyuki Rio snuggled into Gao Sijin’s arms and acted cute. “If it were Morgana and them, they’d definitely jump at the chance.”
“I’m not them.”
The Mercedes-Benz slowly pulled out of the underground parking lot. Outside the window, the ordinary yet magnificent world reappeared.
The Tsukiyuki Rio nestled in his arms was indeed beautiful, but Gao Sijin could no longer tear his gaze from the scenery outside.
How he longed to walk the streets on his own two feet, to break free from Tsukiyuki Rio’s control and embrace infinite unknowns.
Resting in his arms, Tsukiyuki Rio flipped through the book he had written, her face brimming with happiness. She used slender, jade-like fingers to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear, yet a few strands still escaped. That gesture of a woman brushing back her hair was truly captivating.
“Rio, come home with me?”
“If Gao-kun doesn’t want to attend the signing event, I can terminate this activity immediately.”
“No, what I mean is: come home with me—back to China.”
“That won’t do. The home Gao-kun is referring to will no longer let Gao-kun return. This is for the sake of Gao-kun’s life.”
A faint smile hung on her beautiful lips, like a hunter savoring her spoils.
The book in Tsukiyuki Rio’s hands was one Gao Sijin had already looked through completely. It was a beautifully printed volume, and its condition went without saying—the front cover, back cover, appendices, and book shape were all flawless. However, the text was in Japanese. With Gao Sijin’s current shallow understanding of Japanese, he could barely read any of its contents. Sometimes, he even began to doubt whether the story inside truly matched his own.
“Gao-kun’s book truly never gets old. And Katakura’s illustrations are excellent too.”
“If it satisfies Rio, it is my greatest honor.”
Gao Sijin held the girl in his arms. Confinement-type yanderes had always been his favorite trope in fiction, but now Gao Sijin realized that what he liked were 2D confinement yanderes. 3D brought only a heavy, oppressive gloom.
“Akihabara is here!”
Along with Yu Qingxue’s voice, Gao Sijin looked out the window and saw a street with an extremely high 2D concentration. Shoulder-to-shoulder crowds filled the area, and every kind of shop could be seen—ramen shops, manga bookstores, toy stores, and maid cafés.
Colorful billboards displayed the latest anime and games. In the past, Gao Sijin had thought his own 2D concentration was already high, but coming here, seeing those people shamelessly wearing cosplay outfits, he couldn’t help but want to say: “You guys are the true masters of 2D.”
This place was known as the otaku holy land—the equivalent of Jerusalem to Christians, Mecca to Muslims.
Gao Sijin had seen many anime featuring Akihabara, but it wasn’t exactly friendly to tourists. He remembered his cousin, who had studied abroad for eight years, once telling him not to go to Akihabara—rip-offs happened all the time. The moment they sensed you were a foreigner, they’d gouge you even worse. Instead of Akihabara, Nipponbashi in Osaka was a much better choice.
“Hey, Master, look.”
Gao Sijin turned and saw that the cover of his own book had been turned into an enormous poster, hanging on a high-rise building.
On the street, girls strolled everywhere, dressed in clothing identical to that of Gao Sijin’s heroine.
Wait.
That one just now—seemed to be a guy…
For Gao Sijin, visiting Akihabara for the first time, his heart felt deeply shaken. Colorful goods and unrestrained people all around, and some cars were even plastered with all sorts of stickers…
A motorcycle sped past. The female character affixed to that motorcycle was a figure from Gao Sijin’s story. She was the second heroine to appear—beneath silver hair, crimson eyes and exquisite features. She always carried a black parasol and wore a black Gothic Lolita dress. Her petite frame involuntarily roused a protective urge.
“Eh, was that Katakura just now?”
“Seems like it…”
But because he wore a hard hat, Gao Sijin couldn’t make out the person’s real face.
However, judging by the build and the metal baseball bat strapped to his back, it felt like it was almost certainly him.
Gao Sijin never expected that the one who had initially called his work garbage would actually like the heroine from his novel.
This honor brought Gao Sijin considerable inner joy.
“Toranoana will be here soon, Gao-kun,” Tsukiyuki Rio said gently. “You mustn’t be too surprised when we arrive.”
“I won’t be surprised. I’ve prepared myself mentally.”
But when they reached the vicinity of Toranoana, Gao Sijin was still shocked by the scene before him.
