Chapter 18.1: [University Volume]

Title: Baby’s Breath

Translator: System Yaoi

Note: Kindly read this novel at https://secondlifetranslations.com/novel/babys-breath/

————————————————

Chapter 18  [University Volume]

[This chapter enters the University section of the next volume. All the events during the blank years will be recounted in flashbacks later on, so don’t worry!]

The phone rang, and Xue Youka grabbed his phone to answer the call.

The following parts of the text will be scrambled to prevent theft from aggregators and unauthorized epub making. Please support our translators by reading on secondlifetranslations (dot) com. If you are currently on the site and and you are seeing this, please clear your cache.

“Tlzzs! Jkt casvbla?! Gal usw wr? El’zz cl zyvl qsa vbl nsxkn lmbkckvksd!”

“R’x yoyjl,” Dwl Zswjy awccle bkp lulp, yde okvb xlppu rkdj byka alplxczkdt y ckae’p dlpv, bl pyv wr qasx vbl vsr cwdj, bkp lulp hynydv qsa y xsxldv.

“R’hl rynjle vbl qyjl okt yde nzsvblp. Zsw dlle vs cakdt uswa nsdvynv zldplp!” pyke vbl hsknl qasx vbl svbla lde sq vbl rbsdl.

Tl clnyxl xsal yzlav, “Gb, es R byhl vs olya nsdvynv zldplp ytykd? Uyd’v R pjkr vblx?”

“Rq usw bye y ryka sq lxlayze talld lulp zkjl Lknj, vbld usw nswze pjkr vblx.”

“Xb,” Dwl Zswjy eked’v zkjl olyakdt vblx. Mbl qkapv vkxl bl vakle, bl prldv bswap kd qasdv sq vbl xkaasa clqsal qkdyzzu xydytkdt vs rwv vblx sd.

Myjkdt vblx sqq yv vbl lde oyp yzps y nbyzzldtkdt rasnlpp vbyv vssj yd bswa.

Dwl Zswjy cawpble bkp vllvb yde pvsse yv bkp elpj. Tl srldle bkp cwzju zyrvsr, yde vbl pnalld pbsole vbl Psdtqydt Wkdydnl olcrytl.

After checking today’s A-share market for a while, he closed the computer.

As he squinted and adjusted the contact lenses in front of the mirror, his roommate came out of the bathroom and said, “Hey, Xue Youka, going to the comic exhibition?”

It was the first day Xue Youka moved into the dormitory during his freshman year, and he was sporting this imposing pink short hair. One of his roommates asked him, “Hey! Are you into… Cosplay?”

“Yeah,” he replied, “but I’m just an amateur.”

With the contact lenses on, his vision became a bit blurry. Xue Youka stood at the school gate, squinting to find his friends. Sun Wenhao noticed him first and waved from inside the car, “Kaka!! Over here!!”

“Hey bro¹Mimi uses 耗子 – which is a slang for bro, buddy, mate

,” Xue Youka bent down and got into the taxi.

“Why are you wearing your university’s cultural shirt to come out?”

Xue Youka was wearing the short-sleeved shirt the school had distributed during the first two days of the semester. It was of excellent quality, with the university’s emblem and name printed on the chest.

“You were rushing me, so I just grabbed whatever and came out. I’ll change it later anyway.”

The two had been high school classmates and got to know each other in the anime club. Back in high school, Sun Wenhao had dragged Xue Youka to attend comic exhibitions. During the summer vacation before their graduation, just two or three months ago, Sun Wenhao lent Xue Youka a cosplay costume of Naruto Uzumaki, which he had bought but never worn before, and took him to the comic exhibition. Unexpectedly, the effect was surprisingly good.

With a cosplay costume that cost just over 100 yuan, paired with a 30-yuan golden wig, 20-yuan contact lenses, and a 10-yuan makeup transformation… Xue Youka managed to create a cosplay that didn’t exceed 200 yuan. At the comic exhibition, dozens of people surrounded him, crazily taking pictures and screaming.

The pictures were quickly tagged with #ChangshaComicExhibition#²#长沙漫展#

and were posted on Weibo and Douban by some second-hand photographers and passersby, causing a small stir within the community.

“Oh my gosh! Who is this cosplayer!!! I want all of his information in five minutes!!!”

“F*ck, this is the best Naruto cosplay I’ve ever seen. His face looks exactly like the character!”

“Does anyone know who this cosplayer is? My god, he’s so handsome!”

“My heart can’t handle it! I want to know who he is. Can someone kindly tell me?”

“Is it @CoserZhiso?”

“…This can’t be the same person! Are you blind, person above? The Naruto cosplay by Zhiso may not be ugly, but the guy in these pictures is much more handsome!”

Zhiso was a big V with four hundred thousand followers and was considered a prominent figure in the cosplayer community.

But Sun Wenhao was originally just a small fan of Zhiso. After the Changsha Comic Exhibition, he suddenly saw fans passionately cursing an shameless and fraudulent 18th-tier Cosplayer in their group chat. Sun Wenhao joined the fray and cursed along, only to realise that this 18th-tier Cosplayer was his buddy, Xue Youka!

“Oh my god, bro, this is kinda amusing!” Sun Wenhao showed him the photos of his Naruto cosplay. “Look, so many people are cursing you, they’re all Zhiso’s fans. You’re going to get popular. You should quickly register a Weibo account, repost this, and get verified.”

At first, Xue Youka didn’t pay much attention, thinking that people can vent their frustrations online, and with such heavy makeup, no one would know who he really was. Besides, who would come to his doorstep to confront him?

Sun Wenhao explained, “Do you know how much money some Cosplayers make?”

“How much?”

“For example, someone at Zhiso’s level, with four hundred thousand followers, can get at least a hundred thousand yuan per appearance at a comic exhibition.”

“How much??”

“A hundred thousand.”

Xue Youka immediately took out his phone, “How do I register for Weibo?”

Unfortunately, by that time, the peak of the trend had already passed. Now, Xue Youka’s Weibo account, named CoserKaka, had only gathered five thousand followers. Sun Wenhao spent ten yuan on Taobao to buy more than ten thousand fake followers, bringing the total to twenty thousand, and got him verified.

This time, they were heading to the National Day Comic Exhibition, located at the National Convention Center, not far from T University, just seven kilometres away.

In the car, the makeup artist, who Sun Wenhao found, worked quickly to apply foundation to Xue Youka’s face, saying, “Brother, your face is so handsome, I’m sure you’ll become popular.”

The makeup artist was also familiar with the cosplay community. This handsome high-achieving student from T University was an unknown 18th-tier Cosplayer.

The handsome guy smiled at her and thanked her.

The makeup artist’s heart skipped a beat, and she blushed, saying shyly, “Close your eyes, little brother. I’ll apply eyeshadow for you.”

During the morning rush hour, the traffic was heavy, and the driver occasionally glanced back, asking, “Are you guys going to perform?”

“No, we’re going to the comic exhibition for cosplay.”

“Oh, I see! Comic exhibition, I know. Dressing up as anime characters, right?”

During the peak hour, it took them half an hour to arrive. By then, Xue Youka’s makeup was nearly complete. He checked himself in the mirror, the makeup was decent, and it complemented his pink hair. The only thing was that he applied too much white foundation to his face.

He put the hair net over his pink hair and topped it with the orange wig, resembling the fluffy, reddish ears of Nick Wilde, the main character from the movie “Zootopia.” The character had high recognizability and wasn’t easily mistaken, making him eye-catching at the comic exhibition.

Arriving at the International Convention Center, there was a sea of people outside. Cosplayers, cute girls, otaku photographers, and anime enthusiasts gathered for this grand event of the 2D world.

In the changing room, Xue Youka changed his clothes and shoes, tidied up a bit, and as soon as he went out, he was spotted within a second.

A passerby turned to look at him as they entered the restroom and instinctively took out their phone to snap a picture.

A girl passed by him, her eyes fixed on him as she took out her phone to take multiple pictures. She turned to her friend and asked, “This Cosplayer is so handsome, do you know him?”

“I think I do!” Sun Wenhao suddenly popped up from behind two cute girls. The girls were startled, but they turned to see a middle-aged man. He said, “He seems to be called CoserKaka on Weibo. You should search for him!”

Xue Youka’s attire, complete with the fox ears and fluffy fox tail, was incredibly eye-catching.

It didn’t take long for a crowd of photographers to surround him, and Xue Youka had received some training beforehand, so he somewhat skillfully struck poses with a carrot as a prop.

“Kacha-…”³The sound of clicking photo~

If chu would like to support System, chu can consider leaving your System kofi at https://ko-fi.com/systemyaoi 

Please note: System kindly requests you to read all of her translations exclusively on Second Life Translations. Posting her works on any other website is not authorised by System.