Chapter 12

Xiang Huaizhi had just finished some daily quests when he received a system notification.

[Friend Little Sweet Scenery has transferred 1200 gold to you. It has been placed in your special vault. Please check promptly.]

He went to the vault and transferred all the money, including the portion he had spent, back to Lu Hang in one go.

In the end, he thought it over and sent Xiao Tianjing 500 gold back.

Although slaying the Demon King didn’t yield any item rewards, the experience points were extremely generous, along with a seven-day double XP bonus and Demon King buff. Adding the fact that Xiao Tianjing had provided excellent healing pools, he barely used any potions—so the 500 gold essentially covered his ride fee.

After finishing the daily grind, he was about to log off when a private message suddenly flashed.

Xian Mengmeng sent a 60-second voice message. Xiang Huaizhi frowned, not even wanting to click on it.

[Private Chat] HeartYearnsForYou: Just say what you want to say.

[Private Chat] FairyMengMeng: You won’t even listen to my voice now.

[Private Chat] FairyMengMeng: Before, you wouldn’t sleep unless I voice chatted with you.

Xiang Huaizhi felt there was no way to have a proper conversation with this person and decided not to reply.

[Private Chat] Immortal Cutie: You’re done with me and now you’re going after that Little Sweet View, huh?

[Private Chat] Heart’s Desire: ?

[Private Chat] Immortal Cutie: She’s throwing herself at you like this and you’re actually interested?

[Private Chat] Heart’s Desire: I’ll tell you one last time—the account wasn’t mine for the past few months. The person who online-dated and met up with you wasn’t me. Don’t drag me into this, and leave others out of it too.

After sending this message, Xiang Huaizhi logged off the game directly.

Just as he turned off the computer, his phone rang. He glanced at the caller ID and took the phone to the balcony.

Mancheng has been in the rainy season lately. Xiang Huaizhi looked at the rain outside and answered the phone, “Mom.”

“Yeah,” came the sound of mahjong tiles clattering from the other end. “Have you eaten yet?”

“Not yet. How about you?”

“I have. I’m just chatting with a few of your aunties now,” Xiang’s mother said. “It’s raining outside, so I thought I’d call and ask—does your leg hurt?”

A few months ago, Xiang Huaizhi accidentally fell while playing basketball and hurt his bones. It wasn’t particularly serious—even the doctor said a cast and two weeks of rest would suffice. But his mother didn’t see it that way. She insisted on keeping him at home for over two months, feeding him so much bone broth that he nearly vomited, before finally letting him return to school.

“It doesn’t hurt. I just took a fall—it’s not like I have rheumatism.” Xiang Huaizhi leaned against the windowsill. “You should worry more about Dad instead.”

“Why should I worry about him?” A dull thud came from the other end of the line. “Ah, sorry—I win again… Anyway, Xiangxiang, I’m hanging up now. Take care at school, okay?”

Xiang Huaizhi smiled wryly. “Got it.”

The next day, Xiang Huaizhi had classes all day long.

Lu Hang was drowsy early in the morning, sitting beside him and sleeping soundly, soon starting to snore.

Xiang Huaizhi slapped him awake before the professor could get angry.

Lu Hang rubbed his eyes: “What’s up… class over?”

Xiang Huaizhi said calmly, “Not really, but if you keep sleeping, forget about your credits.”

Lu Hang jolted upright immediately.

“Damn, it’s all because of that movie—almost three hours long. I didn’t finish watching it until almost 4 AM last night,” Lu Hang yawned. “Crap, I’m still exhausted… whatever, I’ll find something to do.”

With that, he took out his phone and started browsing the Nine Heroes forum.

“Hey, someone uploaded your and Xiao Tian Jing’s demon king fight video. Over ten thousand views in one night, damn impressive, bro.”

Xiang Huaizhi: “Only ten thousand?”

“Listen to that tone of yours. Even full-server PK matches don’t get views growing as fast as yours.” Lu Hang scrolled through the screen, suddenly paused his finger, then exclaimed, “…Holy shit!”

The professor finally snapped: “Student Lu Hang, if you don’t want to listen, get out! Stop disrupting the class for other students!”

Lu Hang: “…I’m sorry, Professor.”

As soon as the professor looked away, Lu Hang quickly grabbed Xiang Huaizhi’s sleeve and shoved his phone over: “Look at this!”

Xiang Huaizhi glanced down: “What is it?”

Lu Hang: “Little Sweetie’s grand love confession!”

Lu Hang: “The confession’s for you!”

Xiang Huaizhi: “…”

He finally turned his gaze to the phone.

It was a replay of Xian Mengmeng’s live stream, showing the private conversation between her and Xiao Tianjing.

When he saw the words “Women don’t like good guys, they like bad boys,” the corner of his mouth twitched slightly, unsure what expression to make.

Lu Hang stifled his laughter until his face turned red: “Brother Xiang, you there?”

“With your mom.” Xiang Huaizhi tossed the phone back.

“What, can Little Sweet Jing call you that but I can’t?” Lu Hang said. “After sharing a room with you for two years!”

Xiang Huaizhi corrected him: “Two years as roommates. And she’s never called me that.”

Lu Hang: “Then what does she usually call you?”

Big brother.

War God big brother.

…Seems like that’s not much better than “Xiang big brother” either.

Xiang Huaizhi pursed his lips: “Anyway, that’s not how you call me. Are you going to class or not? If you don’t want to listen, get out. Don’t disturb my studies.”

Lu Hang nodded, saving a screenshot of the chat record: “Alright, you study. I’ll check out the comments.”

A moment later, Xiang Huaizhi put down his pen: “What do the comments say?”

Lu Hang: “Oh, you focus on studying. Don’t get distracted.”

Xiang Huaizhi glanced at him, and Lu Hang quickly added, “Alright, alright, they didn’t say much—just that Little Sweet Jing was shamelessly throwing herself at you. Oh… and some people are making up stories about you and Xian Mengmeng. Gotta say, they’re weaving quite the tale, way more convincing than those dramas my mom watches. Xian Mengmeng is being portrayed as this pitiful victim… If I didn’t know the truth, I’d be sharpening my knife to go after the scumbag too.”

Xiang Huaizhi: “You can’t beat me in a fight.”

Lu Hang: “…OK.”

After class, the two had dinner and hurried back to the dorm.

As Xiang Huaizhi stepped out of the shower, he heard Lu Hang shouting, “Are you done yet? Hurry up and log in! The dungeon progress resets at midnight, and we still have three dungeons left to clear!”

Xiang Huaizhi wiped his hair and said coolly, “If we don’t bring three healers, we can finish them in two hours.”

“No more healers, no more! This time I only called two. The other healer got cut because her voice wasn’t sweet enough,” Lu Hang said as he opened his friends list and scrolled through it. “I’ll call another DPS then… Ugh, at this hour, almost everyone on my friends list has already run their dungeons.”

Xiang Huaizhi turned on his computer and logged into Nine Heroes.

Just logged in and received a message from Little Sweet Scenery.

[Friend] Little Sweet Scenery: 0.0 Brother, why did you refund me 500 gold?

[Friend] Heart’s Desire: Demon King ride fee.

[Friend] Little Sweet Scenery: No no! You were the one who helped me clear it. If anyone should be paying, it should be me giving to you.

[Friend] Little Sweet Scene: I’ll transfer it back to you once I finish gathering herbs [head pat]

Xiang Huaizhi moved his mouse cursor over Little Sweet Scene’s in-game avatar.

The other’s coordinates were in Herb Valley.

He flew to Sunset Mountain, planning to squeeze in two quests while Lu Hang was looking for someone, when he saw a five-player team approaching from the right. Notably, all the players in this team had the title “Elite of the Idle Pavilion” above their names.

It might have been his imagination, but he felt that the captain, upon seeing him, seemed to deliberately or inadvertently skirt around the edge of his line of sight.

However, within a few seconds, Xiang Huaizhi figured it out.

In the world of Nine Heroes, each map is interconnected. Some scenes can be flown to directly, while others cannot—players must enter through designated portals to reach those areas.

Herb Valley is one such scene that cannot be flown to directly; it must be accessed through the portal at Sunset Mountain.

These five people were going to hunt down Sweet Little Scenery.

“Hurry up and go,” someone from that team suddenly turned on their open mic and whispered urgently. “Don’t let Heart’s Yearning see us. If he gets involved, we won’t stand a chance.”

“Who says it’s impossible? Do you really think Sweet Little Scenery is the one chasing after him? Didn’t you see Heart’s Yearning helping her kill the Demon King yesterday?”

“Damn, I left my mic on—” The voice cut off abruptly.

Xiang Huaizhi controlled the game character and began helping the NPC copy the scroll.

If Xiao Tianjing had truly wanted to hide, staying in the safe zone for a week would have dampened the enthusiasm of those from Idlers’ Pavilion who were hunting her down with such fanfare.

But she was stubborn, insisting on wandering outside the safe zone every now and then. If she got killed, she had no one to blame but herself—it wasn’t pitiable.

Just as he was thinking this, the stubborn player sent a message.

[Friend] Little Sweet View: [Restore Spirit Herb]

[Friend] Little Sweet View: Big bro, I dug this up!

[Friend] Little Sweet View: Killing the War God probably needs this material too, right? I’ll send it to you after I finish gathering [blowing kiss]

Xiang Huaizhi: “…”

What on earth is this person thinking about.

He calculated that it would take about two minutes to walk from here to her coordinates, so those five people should be arriving soon.

Forget it, getting killed once might be a good lesson. If she doesn’t even care about being killed, why should he worry?

Ten seconds later.

[Friend] Heart’s Desire: Have you run the three Water Demon dungeons yet?

[Friend] Heart’s Desire: Fly to the main city NPC. If you’re not here in 10 seconds, we’re starting without you.

Jing Huan was happily gathering herbs when he saw the message and froze.

Ten seconds? Are they trying to kill me?

After grumbling, he quickly interrupted his herb gathering, chanted for three seconds on the spot, and whooshed back to the main city.

The five members of the Idlers’ Pavilion, who had just arrived on the scene, stood dumbfounded in place, watching Xiao Tianjing fly away, unable to snap out of it for a long while.

“……”

“Damn! I told you so! Heart’s Yearning must have tipped Xiao Tianjing off! Look, she even abandoned the herbs she was halfway through gathering!”

On the other end, Lu Hang searched through his friends list but still couldn’t find anyone to invite: “Forget it, I’ll just grab a random player from the world chat. Ugh, I hate bringing strangers into the Water Demon Instance the most—it’s so easy to mess up.”

“No need, I’ve found someone.” Xiang Huaizhi said, “Meet up in the main city.”

“Coming!” Lu Hang flew to the main city with the two healers from his team. “We’re here, just apply to join my party directly. Who did you call? A warlock? A mage? Or a physical DPS?”

“Fox Spirit Cave, give me the party leader position.”

Lu Hang handed over the leader role: “What?! Why did you call someone from this faction? To cheer us on? Might as well call another healer… Wait a second.”

He paused: “…Which Fox Spirit Cave member did you call?”

No sooner had he spoken than another person suddenly appeared in the team interface.

Familiar outfit, familiar game character, familiar fox tail.

[Team] Little Sweet Scene: [Surprise][Cheer][Throw Flowers]

[Team] Little Sweet Scene: Good evening, everyone [Blowing Kiss]