Chapter 25

After sending that message, Jing Huan quickly opened Taobao, searched for “stress relief gadgets,” placed an order, and confirmed the shipping address—completing the entire process in under a minute.

Is this something a normal human being would say?

Fuck this shit.

Life forced me into this.

It was all forced upon me by Yearning Heart.

I have no conscience; to get revenge on the one I admire, I would do anything.

These are not my true feelings.

Scumbags should all die.

Jing Huan silently repeated this phrase several times in his heart before calming down enough to continue spewing his rainbow farts.

[Team]SweetJing: So don’t be too hard on yourself, big bro~ [holds hands]

Heart’s Desire stood in place motionless for a long time, not saying a word.

Xiang Huaizhi was almost amused to the point of laughter. This woman’s ability to lie with her eyes wide open had reached a level that could be called a superpower.

And according to her logic, the person she was pursuing should have been Lu Hang.

After silently laughing for a moment, he typed: I’m not a scumbag—

But just as his finger hovered over the send button, he suddenly hesitated.

A few seconds later, he pressed the backspace key and deleted all the content.

[Team]Heart’s Desire: Okay.

Hi, my ass!!!

Jing Huan got up to make himself a cup of tea. The tea leaves were something his mom insisted he bring to school, claiming they were especially good for cooling internal heat. He hadn’t wanted to bring them at first, but now they were actually coming in handy.

When he returned, he was still in Xiangwangzhi’s party. The two of them had been standing stupidly in the main city for ages without even changing their poses.

They happened to be standing right where most players set up their stalls in the main city, yet now the sellers had actually cleared a small open space around them, moving elsewhere. The two of them stood there conspicuously, like exhibits on display.

For a moment, Jing Huan even suspected that they might become the next couple to be featured in a forum gossip thread.

Oh no, at best he’d just be the supporting female character.

Xiang Huai Zhi stayed because he was privately chatting with LoveIsSharingWithYou.

[Friend] LoveIsSharingWithYou: Actually, Xianxian wasn’t like this before… I’ve known her for several years. Although she has a flamboyant personality, she’s not malicious at heart. It’s just after meeting you…

[Friend] Love is Sharing with You: She’s already offline now and won’t answer our calls. If possible, could you help reach out to her?

[Friend] Love is Sharing with You: I know she was in the wrong here. I’m not asking you to comfort her, just want to make sure she’s okay…

[Friend] Heart Yearns For: Not available.

After sending this message, Xiang Huaizhi closed the chat window.

Then he saw the little fox beside him break away from following and start circling around him.

[Team]Heart’s Desire: Angry?

Jing Huan was stunned. He had just sent many emoticons without receiving any response from Heart’s Desire and thought the other player might be AFK.

[Team]Little Sweet Jing: Huh, what?

[Team] Heart’s Desire: About Xian Mengmeng.

Mentioning it only made Jing Huan angrier.

If Heart’s Desire hadn’t arrived just now, he would have really been killed by Xian Mengmeng—right in front of the server’s players and his live-stream audience.

Losing money was a small matter; the real issue was the humiliation.

Jing Huan usually goes easy on girls, but that doesn’t mean he’s a pushover.

If he didn’t have other things to deal with right now, he’d definitely help her kick her internet addiction.

But in front of Heart’s Desire, he’d never say that.

[Team]Sweet Little Scene: How could I possibly argue with a woman? [cute]

[Team]Heartyearns: Aren’t you a girl too?

[Team]LittleSweetScenery: …What I mean is, we’re all sisters. Why should women make things difficult for women? Besides, I’ve never been someone who holds grudges. [pats head]

[Team]LittleSweetScenery: lovepeace~

He, a perfectly good seven-foot man, was forced to become a two-faced charmer like this.

Sigh.

Life is hard, Jingjing sighs.

[Team] Heart’s Desire: [Little Rabbit Nods]

[Team] Sweet Little Jing: [Surprised] Brother!

[Team] Heart Yearns For: ?

[Team]Little Sweet View: You sent me a sticker! This is the first time you’ve ever sent me a sticker!!!

[Team]Heart’s Yearning: [Wipes sweat]

[Team]Heart’s Yearning: Haven’t been to the arena during this time?

[Team]Little Sweet View: No, the rank is too high now, all I get matched with are top-tier players. [Tragedy]

Jing Huan thought Heart’s Yearning wanted to take him to the Arena again, but the next line was—

[Team] Heart’s Yearning: Mm, then do your best.

[Team] Little Sweet Jing: …Alright.

[Team] Heart’s Yearning: I’m off to do dailies. If you get PK’d by her again, just message me on WeChat.

[Team]SweetScenery: Okay, will you come save me again, big bro? [shy]

[Team]HeartYearning: I’ll come.

Jing Huan was slightly stunned. He had only intended to tease a little, never expecting HeartYearning to actually agree.

After sending this message, Xiang Huai disbanded the team, flew away from the main city, and prepared to finish the daily quests he hadn’t had time to complete earlier.

“Fuck!!!” A loud, spirited curse came from behind him. Lu Hang asked, “Xiang Xiang! Was Little SweetJing PKed by your ex-girlfriend?!”

Xiang Huaizhi didn’t even turn his head: “I don’t have an ex-girlfriend.”

“You even went and saved her…” Lu Hang, seemingly talking to himself about the incident, widened his eyes dramatically. “You actually counter-killed Xian Mengmeng?! She even dropped equipment, what terrible luck… Wait, how could you not call me for something like this?”

Xiang Huaizhi: “I was enough by myself. What would I need you for? To be a cheerleader?”

“Damn, that’s not what you said when we took the Fox Immortal Cave to the arena,” Lu Hang retorted. “At least I’m the top warlock in the server. If I had been there, the three of us could’ve wiped out their entire team! Especially those two assassins—they were specifically trained for killing, with all their gear stats stacked on damage. Total glass cannons. If I had locked down their warlock, and you had gone in to land a couple of sword strikes on those assassins, they’d probably have been down for the count.”

Xiang Huaizhi said, “Cherish that top warlock spot while you can.”

Lu Hang, deep in his fantasy, asked, “What do you mean?”

“Qiufeng is back,” Xiang Huaizhi drawled. “His cultivation points are only about 20k behind yours, and his arena ranking is just a tad lower…”

Upon hearing this, Lu Hang quickly opened the leaderboard to check: “Oh no, oh no, oh no! Wait, wasn’t he supposed to be traveling and relaxing? How is his cultivation score still rising?!”

Xiang Huaizhi: “Their faction has a fixed leveling service, like a gaming studio. The office is right next to the leader’s house. Although they aren’t strong in PvP, they grind cultivation points very quickly.” A few years ago, when Idle Pavilion tried to recruit him, they had told him about these things.

“The office is right next to their leader’s house? That’s convenient. If only you had joined Idle Pavilion back then, at least you wouldn’t be in a situation now where you can’t even find the person to settle the score…”

Xiang Huaizhi frowned: “Enough said?”

“……OK, I’ll shut up.” Lu Hang made a zipper gesture across his mouth with his hand.

With early classes tomorrow, after finishing the arena matches, Xiang Huaizhi left his character idling in Penglai Wonderland and got ready for bed.

His phone suddenly buzzed. He picked it up to see that Lu Hang had created a WeChat group chat with just the three of them.

Glancing at the group members, he asked, “Don’t you have anything better to do?”

Lu Hang: “Hey, isn’t this for our convenience in future dungeon runs?”

The discussion group interface was empty, with no one speaking yet. Xiang Huaizhi clicked on Little Sweet Scenery from the member list to check her Moments.

This was his first time looking at Little Sweet Scenery’s Moments.

Little Sweet Scenery’s WeChat, from her profile picture to her Moments background, was all pink, making his eyes slightly dizzy. The Moments only displayed content from the past month, and currently, there were only two posts.

It’s raining so hard, good thing we came back early~[image]

The photo shows a rain-streaked window, perfectly framed and full of atmosphere.

The second post consists of just an image with no caption.

A nine-square grid filled with pink-toned stuffed dolls from start to finish.

Somehow, he always felt this color scheme didn’t match Little Sweet Scenery, yet Little Sweet Scenery was indeed a very coquettish and撒娇-prone girl.

An illusion?

Thinking this, he exited Little Sweet Scenery’s friend circle, intending to watch the basketball game when his peripheral vision caught sight of her WeChat ID.

Kobe824.

Kobe, jersey numbers 8 and 24?

For some reason, the image of that junior student popped into his mind—pale, thin, always smiling, wearing a yellow number 8 jersey.

But would a girl like Sweet Little Jing actually like basketball, like Kobe?

This thought lingered in his mind for only three seconds before he quickly dismissed it.

It’s impossible to think that way; it must just be a coincidence.

    ——

After class that day, Jing Huan went out to eat with Lu Wenhao and the others at a Northeastern restaurant. Since Lu Wenhao was from the Northeast, he loved stewed dishes.

“Sigh, if only the pot was still here—I really miss drinking coconut chicken soup,” Gao Zixiang propped his chin on his hand. “After I graduate, I’m definitely opening a coconut chicken restaurant near campus. It’ll be a hit for sure!”

“That stuff is only something you can stomach,” Lu Wenhao said.

“Bullshit, Huanhuan loves it too,” Gao Zixiang retorted.

Speaking of which, Lu Wenhao remembered something: “Hey, Huanhuan, what’s the deal? Why did you steal my picture?”

A few days ago, when it was raining, he took a photo of the window and posted it on his social media. He was happily waiting to see how many likes he would get, but when he refreshed the page, he was stunned. Jing Huan not only stole his photo but also added a line of text to it.

“…and you even used a tilde, how girly.”

Jing Huan: “I don’t take photos as well as you do.”

Despite being a burly northeastern man, Lu Wenhao was surprisingly meticulous when it came to taking photos, often kneeling on both knees just to find the perfect angle: “And how are tildes girly? Didn’t you use tildes all the time when chatting with your ex-boyfriend?”

“…Not only did you steal my photo, but you’re also attacking me?” Lu Wenhao said, wounded.

“Just borrowing it temporarily. I’ll delete it after using it.” Jing Huan gestured toward the food with his chin. “Isn’t treating you to this meal enough thanks?”

Lu Wenhao waved his chubby little hand: “Madam! Menu! We’d like to order more dishes over here!”

Jing Huan chuckled and turned his gaze to Gao Zixiang: “What are you doing? All I see is you playing with your phone during this whole meal.”

Gao Zixiang sighed: “The group is assigning teams for the guild dungeon run. With so many people in the guild and several having personal grudges, it’s hard to divide the teams properly – they’ve been arguing about it for hours.”

Jing Huan took a sip of water: “Guild dungeon?”

“Yeah.” Gao Zixiang didn’t even look up. “Oh, you probably don’t know yet—Nine Swords’ official website just announced next week’s maintenance updates. They’re rolling out several new guild dungeons, including 5-player and 20-player versions. You have to run them with guild members, but the experience rewards are huge, and the loot’s pretty good too. The best part is they’ll drop forging materials—basically creating a second way to get them.”

Forging materials were exactly what Jing Huan lacked. The news initially delighted him, but his excitement quickly deflated—he didn’t belong to a guild.

What’s more, with a character like Little Sweet Jing, joining a guild was out of the question. Avoiding being hunted down by other players was already a blessing.

As he was brainstorming solutions, his phone suddenly pinged—a message from their three-person group chat.

Xiao Lu Xiao Lu, never getting lost: @Xiao Jing Ya, when are you coming back today?

Xiao Jing Ya: Ah, soon, I’ll be back right after finishing my meal.

Xiao Jing Ya: What’s up? In a hurry to run the dungeon?

Xiao Lu Xiao Lu, never getting lost: No, just asking. No rush, I’m still reading the official guide for the guild dungeon. Take your time with your meal.

Xiao Jing: [nodding obediently]

Xiao Jing: Are there any requirements for guilds in this new dungeon? I want to join a small guild to run it too. [wiping tears]

Xiao Lu Never Loses His Way: What are you talking about? You’re coming with us.

Xiao Jing: Huh?

Xiao Jing: I’m too noob, I’ll probably drag you guys down… Brother Xiang, would you be willing to carry me?

Little Path Never Gets Lost: Your Brother Xiang.

Little Path Never Gets Lost: [Picture]

Jing Huan clicked open the picture.

【[Horn] Heart’s Desire: Looking for a guild to run guild dungeons with. No requirements except guild must be max level. Party of three – Qiya Mountain, Warlock, Fox Fairy Cave. We’re a premade trio, won’t split up. Whisper if you have spots.】