Chapter 59: Exclusive to Jinjiang 1/2

Teacher Wang looked at the two of them who had finally finished laughing and casually said, “Back to normal?”

“Ah.” Song Fuzhi straightened up, tears still in the corners of his eyes. “Everything has been quite normal.”

Shi Zhang recovered much faster than Song Fuzhi. When he saw Teacher Wang, he almost stopped laughing.

He didn’t dare be presumptuous in front of the class teacher. It was engraved in his bones.

Shi Zhang solemnly cleared his throat, lowered his head, and stood upright.

Teacher Wang looked at him with a smile and said, “You’ve really grown up. You behave when the teacher looks at you.”

When Teacher Wang said this, Shi Zhang became embarrassed. It was because he was quite mischievous when he was in high school.

On the way back to the hotel, Shi Zhang opened the door and pulled Song Fuzhi in as soon as Teacher Wang was swiping the room card at the next door. He closed the door, turned around, and kissed Song Fuzhi against the door.

This kiss came suddenly, and Song Fuzhi dared not make a sound with his head tilted up. His parents were just two meters away.

On that night, they drove back. This revisit brought back quite a harvest in various aspects.

After returning, Song Fuzhi, during the free time when Shi Zhang was not around, spent a long time browsing Teacher Zhang’s Weibo.

In fact, Song Fuzhi didn’t study Teacher Zhang much before, except for the cosplay pictures; he didn’t pay attention to anything else.

So he looked very serious now. Teacher Zhang was no longer just a distant, second-dimensional coser for him. Song Fuzhi wanted to understand another side of his husband from a different perspective.

Teacher Zhang’s captions for each Weibo post were concise, mostly a line of dialogue from the character, without much fuss.

If it was a collaboration, such as cosplay promotion or business-related, it could be easily identified because it had a strong business feel. Those words were obviously provided by the collaborating party.

There was absolutely nothing about daily life in the three-dimensional world. Teacher Zhang at least shared some small difficulties encountered during the cosplay photography process. He wouldn’t say much more.

In summary, over the years, Teacher Zhang has been silent, producing a lot and speaking little.

The Weibo post with the most words and the most emotion was probably his quitting announcement.

So Teacher Zhang and Professor Shi in person gave a somewhat different feeling. In reality, he was very easygoing, but online, he seemed cool and capable, relying solely on strength. With his figure that hadn’t diminished at all over the years, it was no wonder he was called the ‘total attack,’ and it wasn’t without reason.

Unconsciously, Song Fuzhi scrolled through his Weibo half a year ago. In the cosplay pictures, he found a repost.

This repost happened to be on Teacher Zhang’s last birthday.

The original post had 18 pictures, each a different birthday wish from fans to Teacher Zhang.

Drawings, retouched pictures, handwritten notes, doll-making, video editing—various talents, all very impressive. Fans expressed their birthday wishes to Teacher Zhang in various creative ways.

Teacher Zhang reposted this Weibo with a simple sentence: “Thank you all. I will continue to work hard.”

Song Fuzhi clicked into the comments and slowly smiled.

Haha, it’s the familiar Teacher Zhang. Every year, he posts this sentence without changing a single word. Thank you for taking the time to thank us amidst your busy schedule.

– I only became a fan of Teacher Zhang this year. Some friends enlightened me. Why do we collect everyone’s blessings and send them together?

– As a fan for fifteen years…

In the past, Teacher Zhang didn’t celebrate birthdays, nor did he want fans to wish him a happy birthday. Even if fans sent blessings, he wouldn’t repost them. However, fans still sent blessings every year. Later, Teacher Zhang slowly started accepting birthday wishes, but he would only repost a few and express his gratitude.

So, fans spontaneously created a consolidated version so that Teacher Zhang could see more wishes.

– Old Octopus has been like this for many years, always reposting only one birthday wish; he’s too lazy to repost more!

Song Fuzhi is different from other fans; he quickly understands why Zhang doesn’t like celebrating birthdays.

He probably doesn’t feel his own birthday is worthy of blessings.

Song Fuzhi sighed lightly. Zhang’s image seemed to gradually form a round shape in front of him.

Looking back over the years, Song Fuzhi occasionally took screenshots as markers. Some of the Teacher Zhang cosplays became representative works and even gained popularity overseas.

Song Fuzhi can still remember the shock he felt when he saw those cosplays for the first time. It was like witnessing a deity—from makeup to atmosphere, perhaps no one could better replicate Zhang’s work.

Even today, when people mention the cosplay of this character, everyone’s first reaction is still Teacher Zhang.

Even though countless cosers have portrayed the character afterward, none could surpass Zhang’s version.

After some contemplation, Song Fuzhi decided to include two of Teacher Zhang’s representative works in his own cosplay schedule.

He certainly couldn’t surpass Teacher Zhang, but he wanted to showcase Zhang’s past glory in this way.

Later, Song Fuzhi switched to the computer and scrolled through Teacher Zhang’s earliest Weibo posts.

Song Fuzhi was quite surprised; Teacher Zhang’s Weibo was so open. Many people set visibility restrictions for six months or a year, but Teacher Zhang openly displayed all his past for everyone to see.

He didn’t mind exposing his early embarrassing moments, acknowledging that back then, he was young and inexperienced, and many cosplays from that time would be laughed at today.

However, fans loved it. Even under blurry and simple-clothed early cosplays, fans enthusiastically dug up records without mercy and laughed at him.

They commented, “Teacher Zhang was so young and inexperienced back then, a little adolescent.”

Song Fuzhi had never delved so deeply into the past. It seemed like the first time he saw Zhang in his youth.

Even with poor image quality, he could still see the youthful aura of Zhang at that time—unrestrained, with a bit of laziness and a rebellious spirit, cool.

Young Zhang’s makeup wasn’t heavy, with refreshing facial features and slender muscles typical of a young man. He was tall with long legs and very eye-catching.

A guy with such charisma should have had many admirers in high school.

But at that time, Zhang was probably genuinely rebellious. He had crossed the boundary of a bad boy, and not many dared to approach him.

Song Fuzhi suddenly felt a bit regretful. If only he had known Zhang during high school, he wouldn’t have missed such an important period of his growth.

But then he thought again that, based on their personalities and experiences in high school, they were like two parallel lines. Even if they had brushed past each other, they probably wouldn’t have known each other.

Song Fuzhi spaced out for a while, then refocused and continued to browse through Zhang’s early Weibo posts.

He scrolled to the bottom of the first Weibo post by Teacher Zhang.

It was a compilation, and Little Zhang said, “Some of the works were previously posted on the forum, moving them to Weibo.”

Oh, Professor Song smiled and pursed his lips. He even used quotation marks and acted cute.

Casually calculating, at that time, Weibo had not been launched yet, and even the internet was not well developed.

At the beginning, Zhang’s works were all posted on forums. There were fewer players then, and the community was simple and clean, driven by a passion for anime characters.

Song Fuzhi clicked on the first picture. Zhang noted the date on it, saying, “First official release.”

You could tell at a glance which character Zhang was cosplaying—it was too classic, probably the childhood of many people.

A slender young man wearing a white kimono with red patterns, long white hair, golden eyes, a cold expression, two red demon marks on both cheeks, and a crescent moon on the forehead.

Zhang was accompanied by two people, and after scrutinizing for a while, Song Fuzhi found that they seemed to be Ouyang Xi and Zhong Ziyan. The two of them portrayed the main characters in the anime; Ouyang Xi also had long white hair, smiling brightly. Zhong Ziyan stood in the middle, wearing a sailor suit with gentle, long black hair.

All three looked very youthful, and while the makeup was not exquisite, it was evident that they put a lot of effort into it, and their ages matched.

Without retouching or high-resolution cameras, this photo was probably not only their first official cosplay but also a testimony to a happy old time.

A slight smile unconsciously appeared on Song Fuzhi’s lips, but gradually it faded away.

This was the first time Zhang officially cosplayed, and at the same time, he had a conflict with the neighborhood hooligans.