I Ship My Rival x Me

CHAPTER 8

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One's gotta treat everyone equally. I dragged him over so that my Pretty Yans could take some pictures of us too, and it was about time for the session to end.

I watched the staff as they urged the fans to leave and reminded them to be safe on their way back. Then I caught a glimpse of a girl that didn't look too familiar. She stood not far from me and was staring at me hesitantly.

I waved at her with a smile and asked her to be careful, but as if she had suddenly made up her mind, she started running toward me in little thumping steps. She took out a handheld banner from her bag and handed it to me together with a sharpie, saying that she wanted an autograph with a 'To' message.

"Why didn't you give it to me just now?" I took off the pen cap. "To whom?"

She said in a whisper, "To... @WilLiam..."

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The name sounded a little familiar. I looked down, and I immediately knew why she didn't hand this banner to me together with everyone else.

On the pink-and-blue handheld banner was a picture of a chibi Gu Yiliang throwing his arm around a chibi me — All inside a baby pink heart-shaped bubble.

This fucking banner fucking was a fucking Niangzi version!

And WilLiam, wasn't that one of the big-name shippers that I just followed last night?!

And she was an extremely productive one! The Yuan Longping of the fandom! One that reigned half of the fanfiction kingdom!

So it was you?! My author-sama!

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I contained the turmoil in my head and quickly readjusted my demeanor, resuming my ever-so-calm idol face.

I feel that it was time to re-examine the composition of my fans.

So while you guys were pretending to be my fans, you were secretly fancying the fact that my adversary was screwing me over?!

Each and every one of you looked so dignified, righteous, upright, and plainspoken, yet all of you have written tens of thousands of words of smut behind my back?!

Kiddos, you're giving your dad a hard time.

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The shippers were in a rather awkward position in the fan base, and disturbing people in real life was considered a very rude act. Perhaps I had been petrified for too long, but WilLiam became a little uneasy as she waved her hands, "It's fine. Totally fine if you don't want to sign. Don't force yourself!"

To sign, or not to sign, that was the question. I was trapped in a dilemma. Gu Yiliang then came over and asked me, "Why are you still not going back yet?"

Subconsciously, I shot him a pleading look asking for help.

Then I sharply caught wind of WilLiam letting out a low 'Eek' while standing beside me.

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Alright, I know. Tonight, I'm going to be the star in another tens of thousands of words of smut.

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Abandoning myself to despair, I spread out the banner in front of Gu Yiliang and asked for his opinion, "Can I sign this?"

WilLiam was now making a stream of low 'eeks' like a rooster crowing at dawn. But I no longer cared. After all, not all fans had the fortune to personally witness their bias spreading love right in front of them. It's understandable.