Otaku-7

The comic strip was about the currently most popular anime’s….. two supporting characters.

Xu Feifei took out his phone and looked at the comic strip, muttering to himself, “Yi? Why is it these two characters ah? They can also be shipped? Is there even anyone who eats¹As in liking, you know people “consume” contents. Anyway these kind of “eat” or “cook” terms might be found often in the future as it refers to the terms in the fandoms this CP pair? It sure is a rare pair²The RAW actually said 北极圈 literally means Arctic circle, means CP that is very rarely shipped and unacceptable by the mainstream fandom, which is why it’s “very cold”.”

Ruan Cunyun didn’t respond, all was quiet.

Xu Feifei continued to scroll down, and after he finished reading the comic strip, he finally burst out, “Damn it! It’s so emotional, this is a match made in heaven!”

Ruan Cunyun still ignored him.

Xu Feifei nudged Ruan Cunyun’s arm with his elbow, “Hey, you touch my arm, goosebumps! Look I got goosebumps, it felt like I got hit in the head and got enlightened! As it turns out these two are so shippable!”

Ruan Cunyun still remained focused on his phone.

Xu Feifei discontentedly exclaimed, “What are you doing ne? If you don’t touch my goosebumps soon they will disappear!”

Ruan Cunyun’s expression was solemn, not even lifting his head, “Writing, proper business.”

Xu Feifei leaned over to take a look, surprisingly it was Teacher Balls’ Weibo post’ comment section. Ruan Cunyun was typing in the comment area——

@BALLS my LimpD cure³Ruan Cunyun’s username is actually @BALLS老师治好了我的阳尾 which literally translates to “Teacher BALLS cured my impotence” 🙂: [I have read the original manga and followed it episode by episode. I could vaguely feel the mysterious pull between these two, but I have never felt their inseparable connection so clearly. They are so sweet, so well matched, what a destined match! Both of them endured silently, sacrificed for each other, your depiction is all so accurate, I cried and laughed at the same time. Now, outside my window has been filled with the neighbour’s children trying to tear down my door frame as they drooled, saying they were so hungry as they wept. Teacher Balls, do you know why? It’s because the food you made⁴Again, the creators “cook” or “make food” (make content) for people to “consume”, too fragrant as in “the food’s scent was delicious” is too fragrant!]

Fuck, it turns out: Proper Business = Blowing Rainbow Farts.

Ruan Cunyun finally finished typing, reread it a few times, edited the text, and then contentedly pressed send.

Among the others’ short sentences like “Aaaaahhhh”, “Kill me with the sweetness, never imagined this CP before”, “so fragrant so fragrant”, and “Dear Teacher Balls you are my God,” and so on, a long rainbow fart appear extremely prominent. Soon, some people replied to Ruan Cunyun.

[Ya ya is using her alter to chase⁵Chase means follow closely or be a bit obsessed with someone Teacher Balls again, hahaha!]

[Wife didn’t get to be the first commenter on Teacher Balls today ah. How long has it been since we last saw you like this? (Doge)]

[Hi, Rainbow Fart Great Master. Do you remember you are a cosplayer? When will you release a new cosplay?]

[Sticking⁶贴贴 actually refers to this action in anime where two (usually girls) stick their cheeks together (or just being close and hugs), basically it shows intimacy. I will be translating it as “sticking” because I don’t know what to call this in English to wife Ya mei⁷Mei in little sister (妹妹)!!! (Hugs and Kisses)]

[What are you sticking on, upstairs? Do you see Yaya noticing you? Let go and make way for me!]

Madame artists generally don’t like others chatting in their comment section, so Ruan Cunyun rarely replies to his own comments.

He simply said to the 3rd commenter, “talk later.”

Xu Feifei sobbed and cried, “At least I’m also a cosplay prince, right? I also commented on Teacher Balls’ post, why hasn’t anyone sticking to me!”

Ruan Cunyun scrolled down to Xu Feifei’s zero-likes-zero-replies comment and benevolently replied, [Sticking to son.]

Xu Feifei dropped his phone, “I’m your dad!”

Two elementary school chickens fought on the topic of “father and son”⁸You know chinese people like to sometimes refer to themselves as “Dad” because it means the “Dad” is higher-ranked, with Ruan Cunyun finally begrudgingly lost.

Xu Feifei smiled a victorious smile, “Son, aren’t your fans urging you to cosplay? When will you do it?”

“Working people don’t have freedom,” Ruan Cunyun said helplessly. “The last pictures we released were over six months ago.”

Ruan Cunyun first cosplayed at that comic exhibition four years ago, and since then, it seemed like he has opened the door to a new world. He just can’t bring himself to stop.

Compared to the upper echelon stage at the comic exhibition, Ruan Cunyun clearly prefers to privately take pictures and post them.

As for Xu Feifei, everytime he cosplayed a character, some of his own person’s sand sculpture⁹It’s actually a pun for basically “foolish fucker,” refers to someone stupidly funny style penetrates through the character, completely unable to restore the character’s temperament. It can be said that Xu Feifei isn’t a good cosplayer. But he is a social butterfly in the otaku community and knows a lot of people in the circle.

From makeup artists, photographers, post production people, even other cosplayers, Xu Feifei is very familiar with many big name Masters¹⁰大大 refers to professionals in certain fields (in fanwork making). It’s usage is genderless, while 太太 (Madame) is clearly a woman. Also, 大大 (master) is considered less skillful than 太太 (madame).

Xu Feifei loves having fun and organizing activities. From the beginning to the end, he has helped and produced a lot of pictures with Ruan Cunyun.

Ruan Cunyun’s appearance is very pretty, he can easily capture many roles like Lolis, Shotas, even boys and girls in teenage years.

In his freshman year, Ruan Cunyun had once cosplayed the female lead in a popular anime at the time. From the appearance and styles, to the character’s personality traits, have all been extraordinarily restored.

As soon as the photo was released, it immediately gained him tens of thousands of followers. The Weibo homepage and Qzone¹¹it’s social media launched by QQ were all dominated by reposts, later it even went viral outside of the country, making him receive rainbow farts in many languages.

This abrupt and sudden fame in the internet era has increased Ruan Cunyun followers to almost 70 thousands. His notification kept on ringing, scaring him so much that he almost threw his phone away and ran away to the moon.

When he had just entered the pit, because Ruan Cunyun had a pair of small tiger teeth, he crudely chose “Hu Ya”¹²虎牙 (hu ya) means tiger tooth/teeth as a circle name.

After rising to fame overnight, fans flocked over and got captivated by the cute, lovable, and sweet-faced Ruan Cunyun. They affectionately called him “Ya mei“, “Hu Ya mei mei“, and “Baby Ya”.

Ruan Cunyun looked at the overwhelming “Ya mei” filling the screen and found that the situation was a bit out of control.

Everyone thinks he’s a girl!

Although there are indeed some Masters in the Cosplay circle who didn’t make their gender public, Ruan Cunyun himself doesn’t really like his gender being misunderstood. It feels like he was deceiving his fans.

Thus, Ruan Cunyun posted a clarification on Weibo that very night.

@Lil Hu Ya¹³Username is actually 虎牙子, the 子 in here doesn’t really mean anything, just adding a bit of cute flavor there (牙子 and 牙 both means the teeth ): [That, I’m actually a male….. (picture)]

The picture was just casually taken by Ruan Cunyun. He was wearing loose white short sleeves that revealed the curves of his neck, and there, a protruding Adam’s apple could clearly be seen.

His face wasn’t captured in the photo, but it still showed a soft and gentle jawline and delicate chin.

The background was a blurred dark green forest, contrasting his youthful aura. Even the cool breeze in the summer doesn’t have such charm.

This Weibo post was instantly drowned with countless comments. Ruan Cunyun initially thought everyone would say “Sorry, I misunderstood your gender!” or “It turns out to be a boy ya, then we will call you Ya ge!”

As a result, the style people wrote in the comment area suddenly threw Ruan Cunyun into the mess of——

[Wooowwww, it’s actually a boy!! Wife!! My heaven-sent destined wife!!!]

[Pretty wife, baby, Ya mei!! I became crazy for you! I will take my disguise for you, I will turn into a werewolf for you!]

[I kinda feel that the name ‘Ya mei’ is more suitable (Drooling)]

[Ya mei (Crazy) (Crazy) (Crazy) (Crazy) tears are about to flow down under my pants……]

[Cute, I want to stir fry¹⁴Basically (in showbiz) means hyping up something, could be done by spreading some rumors or creating “materials” that the masses enjoy… I mean I want to stir fry a dish for Ya mei to eat, there’s really no other meaning.]

Ruan Cunyun stared at the spiralling-out-of-control comment section, he couldn’t say anything for a long while.

Xu Feifei crouched on the ground, laughing to the point his stomach ached.

Clarification is ineffective. Ruan Cunyun’s “Ya mei” title wasn’t just not removed, he also gained an additional “Wife” title.

Xu Feifei pinched his voice and said coquettishly, “Ya mei mei~”

Ruan Cunyun’s two fingers directly struck Xu Feifei’s mute acupoint¹⁵哑穴 Acupuncture point in the back of the neck, might cause someone to be mute and other effects.

Later on, whenever Ruan Cunyun posted new Weibo, the comments were full with “Wife”s in short or long sentences.

Ruan Cunyun doesn’t dislike the nicknames his fans call him. When it comes to entertaining the public, if everyone is happy, he will also be happy.

What Ruan Cunyun really cares about is that he has an alter account called “BALLS my LimpD cure”, which he specifically used to praise Teacher Balls’ artwork.

Every time Teacher Balls posts a picture, this Gentleman LimpD¹⁶the Raw was 阳尾君 or gentleman impotence will post a long string of rainbow farts in the comments. The netizens have gotten used to it.

If one clicks on Gentleman LimpD’s homepage, most of the content is all forwardings of Teacher Balls’ artwork, there are also some rants and recommendations about some anime and manga works, as well as some trivial thoughts in life. But all in all, it is Balls’ advertising¹⁷fans who promote their fave artists works fan.

No one knew that this alter account is the cosplayer Hu Ya, Ruan Cunyun also didn’t want to let anyone know.

After all, it’s an account used when he went crazy, it would be so embarrassing if others were to see it ah.

Until one day——

Teacher Balls posted a new picture, and shockingly, there was actually a cosplayer “Lil Hu Ya” avatar appearing in the comment section, posting a full 100 character rainbow farts essay.

Netizens:???

Ruan Cunyun: !!!

He was careless and switched to the wrong account!

Ruan Cunyun deleted his comment at once, but the gossipy army possessed remarkable abilities, they had already murdered over and arrived at his doorstep.

[Confess honestly and I will be lenient! Wife, are you having another wife behind my back?]

[Ya mei is actually a fan of Teacher Balls! Double the kitchen, so happy!!]

[Wife Ya ya…… I really didn’t expect you also would love others so much you turned into a werewolf]

[My wife likes my other wife, but both of them ignore me. What should I do, waiting online ASAP]

Xu Feifei had long known that Ruan Cunyun likes Teacher Balls’ art, but he didn’t expect that he would make a specific alt account just for that.

Xu Feifei sent Ruan Cunyun a Wechat message in shock: [I’ve never seen you say so many words before! Did Teacher Balls give you some sort of drugs?]

Ruan Cunyun really wanted to depart from this beautiful world. Now how should he spend the rest of his lifetime….

Under BALLS’s Weibo post, there were already some fans of Ruan Cunyun saying: [Teacher Balls, that person who loves to blow rainbow farts for you the most is called Hu Ya! He is a cosplayer! Can you reply to him once? He really hopes his card can be chosen!]¹⁸Actually the raw original meaning was “flipping the wooden blocks” (翻牌子). In the past, the Emperor would flip over wooden blocks that have a concubine name on it, he would choose one among them to have sex with that night. So yeah here the guy jokingly called Ruan Cunyun the “concubine” waiting for the Emperor (Balls) to chose him (to “spend the night”)

Teacher Balls’ account never did anything except posting pictures, she also doesn’t reply to anyone’s comment no matter how much they wail excitedly.

Ruan Cunyun switched to use the alt account to send out a Weibo——

@BALLS my LimpD cure: [Isn’t it that Teacher Balls never replied to any comment? Indulging in the fantasy of cards being chosen TAT]

When this Weibo post got discovered by everyone, they ran to Teacher Balls’ Weibo comments requesting for Hu Ya to be chosen.

Ruan Cunyun shuddered, quickly using both his alt and main accounts to send the same message: [Don’t mention my name in Teacher Balls’ comment section! Everyone shouldn’t bother Madame, otherwise I will be very angry.]

Because Ruan Cunyun said so, everyone also reacted and restrained themselves a lot, consciously deleting the comments about requesting to choose the cards.

They just turned to Ruan Cunyun’s Weibo to play around.

[I love my wife, but wife has someone else in her heart!!]

[This feeling of Wife not loving me at all is so damned fascinating 🙂 ]

[Okay ah, Wife got angry at me because of another woman, this one got divorced in place in just three seconds.]

Since the car overturned, Ruan Cunyun’s alt account went quiet for a while. He really felt a bit embarrassed.

As a result, the netizens instead rushed to his doorstep, urging: [It’s the 23rd day since the leader of Balls’ fan isn’t around, miss him.]

Ruan Cunyun himself was also a bit stifled. After all, it was too difficult to look at beautiful images but unable to send out rainbow farts. 

Xu Feifei advised him kindly, “Anyway, everyone are all netizens. They have never seen your bare face, who would recognize who! Abandoning an alt account just for this isn’t worth it. Besides, what if Teacher Balls is actually a peeping Emperor¹⁹As in a person who doesn’t like to interact, just reading the comments! Maybe she noticed you a long time ago, what would she think if you suddenly stopped blowing rainbow farts? She will definitely be sad!”

The last sentence woke Ruan Cunyun up. He picked up his alt account again and returned to his normal comment and forwarding frenzy.

And so it has lasted until now. Ruan Cunyun’s fans have long ago been accustomed to this wonder.

There were a small number of people who would “tease” him under his alt’s rainbow farts, but Ruan Cunyun was generally too lazy to bother with them.

Xu Feifei picked and flipped open an original manga from the Secret Base’s bookshelf, chatting casually, “Teacher Balls is really aloof ah. It seems like she has never replied to anyone.”

Ruan Cunyun, “Maybe it’s just because she is too God-like.”

Xu Feifei continued, “She has been drawing for so many years, but I have never seen her leak out any personal information. Quite impressive.”

It is normal for online artist Madames to not disclose their personal information, let alone BALLS, who has never shared any of her daily activities on Weibo. The only thing she posts are her artworks. It’s already extraordinarily uncommon for her to share her visit to the Secret Base a few days ago.

Over the years, the only unanimous idea that was reached by many fans is that Teacher BALLS is a woman.

BALLS has a unique and distinct art style with bold color choices. No matter how obscene or violent her fanworks are, the setting is novel and always full of delicate emotions and extremely touching atmospheres.

The comment she received the most was “Teacher Balls’ drawings made me shoot and cry at the same time.”

Perhaps it is also because there are more women in the circle compared to men, added with the fact that the majority of male artists’ drawings tend to “please” the audience²⁰The word here is 媚宅, referring to when animes or other works ignores the plot or logic just to cater to audience taste, you know those “fanservices” where the girls basically got molested, and some even like to give advice and knowledge on Weibo. One could recognize their gender almost at a glance.

Driven by various signs and stereotypes, everyone thinks that BALLS is a woman.

Ruan Cunyun remembered what the netizens used to say, “My wife likes my other wife.” If he was wondering about something, ask Xu Feifei, “Fei, do you really think Teacher Balls is a girl?”

Xu Feifei convincingly said, “Of course ah! Just by looking at her style, you can tell that Teacher Balls must be an independent and liberal beautiful woman with a cold and aloof personality.”

 

***

 

Qin Fanglu was indolently leaning against the bed’s headboard, a tablet resting on his thighs and fingers sliding down with a tablet continuously.

Scrolling through the comment area after posting his art is Qin Fanglu’s most enjoyable moments.

He doesn’t mind being criticized, and also not really enthusiastic about being praised, because drawing is a way for him to enjoy himself. Other people date, but for him drawing is enough.

As for the artwork he draws, regardless of how others see them, it has nothing to do with him.

It’s just that, as the audience grew more and more, Qin Fanglu discovered that this kind of feeling, when someone praises and ships the same thing as him, was actually not bad. There are actually so many like-minded people like him in the world.

Qin Fanglu never replied to anyone in the comment area. At first, he just doesn’t feel like replying. But later as more people came, he just didn’t know how he should reply.

If he replied to one person, what about the others who he didn’t reply to? What about those viewers who didn’t leave a comment? What basis should he use to formulate the rules for replying?

So he simply just doesn’t reply to anyone.

Qin Fanglu posted pictures, and people poured out their views in the comment section. This way is better.

Qin Fanglu had long long ago noticed this person named “BALLS my LimpD cure”. First, because the name is incredibly impactful. Second, because every analysis he posts actually hits the mark of what Qin Fanglu wants to express.

It’s quite rare.

Qin Fanglu looked at the comment area for a while before putting the tablet aside, and picked up his laptop to review last week’s work summary.

Tomorrow is Monday again. Qin Fanglu is accustomed to reviewing in advance last week’s work on Sunday afternoons.

On the screen, Qin Fanglu scrolled over the various materials and meeting records, reading them very quickly.

When he got over to the mid-year conference’s meeting summary’s notes, Qin Fanglu’s fingers halted.

Making meeting notes is actually a really basic thing, it’s fine as long as one can really record the content.

But this one meeting notes are different. In addition to organizing the key points that Qin Fanglu talked about at the meeting, there is also a lot of extra information on things he had mentioned but didn’t have the time to unfold. For example, the technical performance of their competitors and the market changes in the past few years were added by the recorder after their own research, and all of the data is valid and correct.

Qin Fanglu sent a message to Rain, “Who made the meeting notes on the mid-year summary’s meeting?”

Rain also replied quickly, “Ruan Cunyun.”

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The author has something to say:

Ya mei!