Chapter 43: Sister-Complex Is Absolute Justice!

"That guy is so handsome, and his proportions are amazing! What a shame he isn't in cosplay. If he wore Sebastian’s butler uniform, he’d be drop-dead gorgeous!"

"What's so great about the guys? That girl is the true stunner! I tried cosplaying Sora once and thought I looked pretty decent, but compared to her, I can't even bear to look at myself."

"The host said they go to the same school as him, so they must be from nearby Modu University, right? I can understand the girl being called the otaku goddess, but what does the guy's nickname 'God Luo' mean?"

"Why does that guy look a bit familiar? I feel like I've seen him singing in some short videos before. His voice was really nice, though I can't remember his name."

"He can sing too? He's way too talented! I just wonder if he has a girlfriend. I'm going to try adding him on WeChat later."

"Don't do that. Those two clearly look like a couple, alright."

"Not necessarily. What if they're brother and sister?"

"That just makes it a whole lot worse!"

As Qin Luo and Chu Liunian stepped onto the stage, everyone nearby gathered their gazes upon them and broke into an unstoppable murmur.

There were both men and women among the whispers, with women actually making up the majority.

One girl who had intended to ask for Qin Luo's contact info glanced at Chu Liunian beside him after her friend's comment, thought about the work associated with her current look, and nearly shed a bitter tear.

Indeed, being brother and sister made it infinitely worse...

"They're here, they're here! They've arrived with steady strides!"

Yu Jin's eyes shone brightly as he watched the two slowly approach him, shouting excitedly into the microphone.

"Look at their current appearances! The young lady truly deserves her title as the otaku goddess of our campus. Just this flawless Sora cosplay alone has already earned her the MVP of the entire convention! And speaking of the work this imagery belongs to, it's enough to strike terror into people's hearts!"

"Without a doubt, the moment the male protagonist of this masterpiece was born, it shook the entire German Orthopedics world! As the saying goes, if you have a sister, you curse her not being Sora; if you lack one, you curse Sora not being your sister. Therefore, it is abundantly clear that the young guy walking toward us right now is none other than the legendary German Orthopedics patient, Brother You!"

"Hey, hey, hey! I am not fucking cosplaying!" Qin Luo yelled at Yu Jin from a distance.

Yet Yu Jin completely ignored his self-defense and continued shouting, "Legend has it that Brother You once relied on the legendary 'Battle of the Threshold' to become a renowned military strategist in the anime world! At the same time, Brother You is also an outstanding diplomat who signed the famous 'Kimono Treaty' with the single phrase: 'Do you have the confidence to put on this kimono for me?'"

"Kosaka Kyosuke, belonging to the same complex-ridden family, expressed: 'When I watched the 18th minute and 40th second of episode 11 in Yosuga no Sora, I knew any further struggle was futile.'"

"General Douglas MacArthur, far away in the United States, once stated: 'I am a man who never closes doors, but after seeing this kid, I realized the importance of shutting them.'"

"Even the famed master of pure love, Makoto Itou, offered his evaluation: 'If the protagonist were me, I would split my body in two and slowly drift across the boundless ocean toward Germany!'"

"Pop singer Xu Shankao even wrote a song especially for him..."

At this point, Yu Jin cleared his throat and sang soulfully, "She is just my younger sister, my sister says purple has charm, she is just my younger sister, I'm worried whether you might misunderstand..."

Following his impassioned performance, Yu Jin raised the microphone again and declared with fiery passion, "Just who on earth are Sora and Brother You, the ones who turned countless people into siscons? Everyone, let's give them a round of applause!!!"

Amidst Yu Jin's near-screaming roar, the emotions of everyone around were thoroughly stirred. One and all, they slammed their hands together in applause, their faces plastered with fervor and excitement.

"Ahhhhh! I'm burning up!"

"Siscon is absolute justice!!!"

Perhaps they didn't even know what they were getting so excited about, but what did it matter?

Everyone was losing their minds anyway, so joining in on the madness was the right way to go!

The ACG concentration at the scene was so high that Qin Luo felt slightly oxygen-deprived and almost wanted to join in the madness—for instance, he currently felt like shoving the microphone, drenched in goodness knows how much spit, right into Yu Jin's eyes.

Credit where credit is due, though, he had to admit that Yu Jin was an absolute master at whipping up emotions and stirring the atmosphere. If he actually became a formal host in the future, the rest of the hosting world would undoubtedly face their biggest rival yet.

Qin Luo curled his toes in awkwardness, then glanced at Chu Liunian, only to find that far from feeling the slightest bit embarrassed, she had a smile in her eyes and looked thoroughly delighted.

I really don't understand you two-dimensional people... Qin Luo silently complained in his heart.

"You two, welcome to our stage!" Yu Jin stepped forward two paces to meet Qin Luo and Chu Liunian, asking, "I wonder if you've already familiarized yourselves with the rules of our event?"

Qin Luo and Chu Liunian nodded. They had already figured out how it worked while watching from down below. To be honest, it was quite simple—especially since they had prepared in advance and were participating as two people who already knew each other, making the task a breeze.

Perhaps the organizers hadn't intended to set a high difficulty level in the first place, wanting only to use the event to generate some buzz and attention. Consequently, the prizes were rather ordinary, consisting mostly of figures and anime merchandise.

"Splendid! In that case..." Yu Jin made a grand sweep of his arm. "Come on! Bring out the props!"

With that, Yu Jin ran off to the side himself and brought back six sheets of paper and two pens.

Qin Luo glanced at him. After a moment of speechlessness, he silently accepted the paper and pen.

For some reason, he had the lingering sensation that whoever spoke up first in complaint would lose.

Chu Liunian took the writing materials without hesitation. Her large eyes flickered with a lively brilliance as if she were contemplating what to write.

"Without further ado, let's hand the stage over to the two of them!"

Following Yu Jin's final, melodramatic line, the stage was soon left with only Qin Luo and Chu Liunian.

They sat opposite each other at two desks, separated by a distance of one meter. What they needed to do next was write down character lines from a certain anime of their choice on paper, hand them over to each other, converse using the lines on the paper, and finally guess together which anime the lines came from. Only then would the task be considered complete.

Chu Liunian seemed exceptionally adept at this kind of activity, putting pen to paper without the slightest hesitation. Clearly, she had already decided what to write beforehand.

However, after finishing her first line, she suddenly looked up at Qin Luo, then hesitated over whether to erase it.

After a brief pause, she left the first line intact and took out a second sheet to continue writing.

Qin Luo hadn't noticed Chu Liunian's small gesture. Sitting upright at his desk, his expression looked somewhat conflicted.

As someone unfamiliar with the ACG subculture, being asked out of the blue to write down lines from an anime left him genuinely struggling.

In particular, he also had to guess which anime Chu Liunian's lines were from; the task could only be completed if their written lines originated from the same series.

In other words, this game was quite the test of synergy.

Although Qin Luo and Chu Liunian had known each other for quite a while, today was their first time having an in-depth interaction, so naturally, there was no synergy to speak of between them.

Still...

Qin Luo glanced at Chu Liunian's current appearance and quickly made up his mind.

He wrote on the paper: "I like you."

Surely that anime had this line, right?

He continued on the second sheet: "I love you."

Surely that anime had this line too, right?

Qin Luo wasn't entirely certain. After all, he had been just a child when he watched that anime, and his most vivid memories now were solely of the male and female leads; remembering specific lines was out of the question.

Figuring it was a pure romance anime after all, these two phrases ought to exist. But the third one proved somewhat difficult, leaving Qin Luo completely at a loss.

He scratched his head, feeling as though his brain cells were dying off at a rapid pace.

Suddenly, as if a lightbulb went off in his head, he swept his brush across the third sheet and wrote down a sentence: "Do you have the confidence to put on this kimono for me?"

Looking at this line, a gratified smile appeared on Qin Luo's face.

All the over-the-top, middle-school-syndrome nonsense Yu Jin had spewed earlier was clearly describing that very anime, and "Do you have the confidence to put on this kimono for me?" sounded very much like a line from it. Thus, Qin Luo wrote it down without hesitation.

Right at that moment, Chu Liunian also raised her head.

Their eyes met. Qin Luo smiled slightly, while Chu Liunian's gaze darted away, her eyes seeming to overflow with a hint of bashfulness.

Qin Luo noticed this, then stared down at the first two lines he had written, falling into deep thought.

Come to think of it, this activity required handing the lines to the other person and reading them out loud to each other.

That meant... Chu Liunian was going to... say these phrases directly to him?

Damn, who could handle that?!

Qin Luo alternated between tears and laughter, but he had no intention of modifying them. After all, this was just a very ordinary little game; he bore no psychological burden over it and trusted Chu Liunian felt the same way.

"Oh, it looks like both of our contestants have finished writing their lines. Come, let me take a look!"

Yu Jin strode onto the stage and snatched the papers from Qin Luo and Chu Liunian's hands.

After a quick glance, an ambiguous and subtle smile blossomed across his face. He then swapped the papers and handed one sheet back to each of them.

Chu Liunian froze slightly upon seeing the contents of the paper. She looked up at Qin Luo, her pink lips parted slightly, her expression clearly bewildered.

As for Qin Luo, he didn't quite dare meet her gaze directly, because compared to the lines he had written, what Chu Liunian had written was infinitely more normal...