The white rose I picked up cried and said she liked me.

"Good heavens!" Xu Nian was so angry she laughed, pointing to her women's clothing. "I'm playing the younger sister, and you're playing the older brother? Are you trying to turn the world upside down, Xiao Xi?"

"Hahahaha!" Xu Xi playfully stuck out her little tongue and said coquettishly, "So what? You've been the older brother for so long, shouldn't it be my turn to experience what it's like to be the older brother? Emperors take turns, this year it's my turn~ don't you think so, my dear little sister?"

Xu Nian's lips twitched, and she couldn't help but feel embarrassed.

He never imagined that after being the older brother for so long, he would one day be called "little sister".

"Okay, okay, I'll listen to you, my good brother," he said helplessly, deliberately emphasizing the word "brother".

Upon hearing this, Xu Xi smiled broadly, as if she had gained some incredible advantage.

She took Xu Nian's arm: "Come on, little sister, let's go to the comic convention!"

But as soon as they took a step, they both slipped and fell to the ground with a thud, wincing in pain.

"Ouch!"

Xu Nian rubbed her head, which was sore from the fall, and looked helplessly at her high heels.

He was a grown man who had never worn these kinds of shoes before. Now, for the first time, he couldn't even walk properly or stand steadily.

He silently complained to himself: How could anyone invent such inhuman shoes? They're hard to wear and hard to walk in, making you stumble and stagger when you walk, and they're not practical at all.

On the other side, Xu Xi, who was also dizzy from the fall, looked down at the height-increasing shoes on her feet.

Normal height-increasing shoes will only increase height by five to twelve centimeters at most.

But for this cosplay, she specially ordered these 30-centimeter platform shoes, which were even more difficult to walk in than Xu Nian's high heels. It was like walking on stilts, and she would fall if she wasn't careful.

"Xiaoxi, how about... we change back into our old shoes?" Xu Nian suggested helplessly, rubbing her bottom. "If we keep wearing these, we'll probably fall and end up in the hospital before we even leave the house."

"But..." Xu Xi's face showed a troubled expression.

It's fine when Xu Nian changes back into flat shoes, but if she takes off her platform shoes, she'll be much shorter than Xu Nian.

In this way, she and Xu Nian no longer looked like brothers and sisters, but rather like older sisters and younger brothers.

After all, what brother only grows up to his sister's chest?

"No buts." Xu Nian helped her up, both amused and exasperated. "If we don't change our shoes, we'll have to use crutches to walk everywhere. Then we won't be playing anime characters anymore, we'll be playing disabled people."

Xu Xi sighed and finally gave in.

The two changed back into flat shoes, and were finally able to walk steadily out of their house and head towards the comic convention.

On their way to the comic convention, the two attracted the attention of many passersby.

Although anime culture is no longer surprising in this day and age, and people won't be considered crazy for wearing strange clothes on the street, two particularly eye-catching anime characters still garnered a 100% head-turning rate when walking in a crowd.

Xu Nian kept her head down the whole time, her head almost buried in her chest, so embarrassed that she dug her toes into the ground, wishing she could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.

He still couldn't accept that he, a grown man, was appearing in front of the public dressed as a woman.

If I get caught, I might be seen as a pervert.

He subconsciously shrank his neck, bent down, and hid behind Xu Xi, avoiding eye contact with others, looking every bit like someone with social anxiety disorder.

In contrast, Xu Xi appeared calm and composed, with a confident smile on her face. She even had the leisure to wave and greet those watching them nearby, behaving exactly like a socially anxious person—a social terrorist.

"Don't worry, brother, it's okay." Xu Xi reached out her little hand and rubbed Xu Nian's head to comfort him. "Don't worry, I dressed you up so beautifully that as long as you don't speak, no one will know you're a boy."

Xu Nian nodded reluctantly, but the fear in her heart did not diminish at all.

After all, walking down the street in such strange clothes makes them look like monkeys on display in a zoo.

The feeling of being pointed at and watched the whole time is like being roasted over a fire, making you feel very uncomfortable.

As the two approached the venue of the anime convention, more and more cosplayers dressed as anime characters appeared around them, and their costumes no longer seemed out of place. Only then did Xu Nian breathe a sigh of relief, muster up some courage, and dare to raise her head slightly.

There's one monkey in the zoo, and a hundred people—that's people watching the monkey.

But if you reverse it, with a hundred monkeys and one person, then it becomes a monkey-watching-person situation.

The feeling of mingling with the monkeys and finding her own kind made Xu Nian feel much more at ease.

The convention was held in a large square, which was especially lively today. Everywhere you looked, it was packed with people, shoulder to shoulder. There were cosplayers dressed in various anime character costumes, as well as anime fans who came to visit the convention.

The entrance to the exhibition was lined with stalls selling all sorts of anime and manga merchandise: anime phone cases, water bottles, backpacks, cards, Inuyasha's Tessaiga model, Platelet hats, Violet's dress, and even people making sugar threads in the shape of anime characters. The variety was dazzling and all kinds of goods were available.

These goods vary, but they all have one thing in common—they are extremely expensive.

Xu Nian's gaze swept over the stalls, and she gasped in shock at the prices displayed.

An umbrella with an anime print sells for 398 yuan, an ordinary water cup sells for 98 yuan, and even a sausage grill machine with anime characters printed on it sells for 10 yuan a sausage.

What Xu Nian found even more unbelievable was that quite a few people actually bought these "IQ tax" products.

He may never understand that there's a saying in the business world: "Money from the world of anime and manga is the easiest to make."

A wall of anime characters can buy a house in Beijing. The amount of money these anime fans are willing to spend on their favorite characters is unimaginable to ordinary people.

......