Chapter 22

Xian Mengmeng was extremely unwilling to let it go.

She had been in this server for five years and had admired Heart’s Desire for just as long. Since the game’s launch, he had been at the pinnacle, his name forever topping the leaderboards—always within sight but forever out of reach.

What girl hasn’t fantasized about being with a man who shines so brilliantly?

So when the tenderness from Heart’s Yearning showed through, she simply couldn’t resist and charged forward with her eyes closed.

When meeting Heart’s Yearning in person, his appearance didn’t meet her expectations at all—it even repulsed her—yet she willingly spent money on him. At their parting, she clung to the man, insisting he promise to marry her upon returning.

At times, Fairy Mengmeng couldn’t even tell whether she liked the real person behind Heart’s Yearning’s account or just this virtual game character.

What she never expected was that right after they parted, even before she got off the plane, he blocked her on WeChat. When she confronted Heart’s Yearning in the game, he coldly informed her that a substitute player had been using the account for the past few months—it wasn’t him at all.

Months of day and night together had turned into a joke. Heart’s Yearning would never marry her, and wouldn’t even appear in the same team with her again.

What she couldn’t stand the most was that Heart’s Yearning now had other women by his side—first Ran Xin, then Little Sweet Scene. That little fox spirit followed him around constantly. They fought side by side in the arena, teamed up for dungeons, and he even gifted her a purple-tier equipment…

She took a deep breath and started typing.

[Friend] Fairy Mengmeng: Of course I’m awake, just hear me out.

[Friend] Immortal Cutie: It’s just marriage, not being together. I only want the couple title.

“I find this woman really strange. If it were anyone else who got scammed, wouldn’t their first reaction be to go after the scammer? Why does she keep pestering you?” Lu Hang said exasperated. “And your account was obviously acting out of character for the past few months, right? If you just send a server-wide announcement to clarify now, I guarantee everyone in the game would believe you.”

This was the truth. Having played in this server for so long, the impression players had of Xiang Huaizhi was simply that he was skilled, low-key, and wealthy. Aside from trading items, his character “Heart’s Yearning” rarely ever surfaced in world chat or server announcements.

When this incident first happened, many friends had even asked if his account had been hacked.

Xiang Huaizhi neither confirmed nor denied, remaining silent, which only solidified his reputation as a scumbag.

Xiang Huaizhi: “No need.”

It wouldn’t be appropriate for the entire server to know that she and another girl were scammed by a substitute player.

Moreover, this incident wouldn’t have any negative impact on him—at least not for now. In fact, it had even saved him a lot of trouble.

There’s nothing wrong with that.

[Friend] Heart’s Desire: The compensation I mentioned refers to reimbursing you for the flight and hotel expenses you previously paid.

[Friend] Fairy Cutie: I just want a title, is that really not possible?

[Friend] Fairy Cutie: Which city are you in? Can we meet up and talk?

Lu Hang was shocked: “Is this woman crazy? How long have you guys been talking, and she’s already asking to meet up?”

[Friend] Heart’s Desire: If you don’t need those compensations, then there’s nothing more to discuss.

[Friend] Fairy Cutie: Fine, then I want other compensation—game items, OK?

[Friend] Heart’s Desire: Name them.

[Friend] Xian Mengmeng: I want the Ninefold Lotus, the one you gave to Sweet Little Jing.

Xiang Huaizhi glanced at it and closed the chat window.

Lu Hang: “Hah, interesting. She’s dead set on breaking you and Sweet Little Jing up? I, Lu Tiaotiao, won’t stand for it! Xiang, forget about reimbursing the hotel and flight tickets—just delete her already.”

Xiang Huaizhi gave him a sidelong glance. “You seem to really like Sweet Little Jing?”

“It’s not that, I just think she’s really fun. I crack up every day just listening to her talk,” Lu Hang said.

Xiang Huaizhi nodded, “Then go chase after her, so she’ll talk to you every day.”

“Sure, when she logs in, tell her to come after me. She’ll definitely listen to you. I promise I’ll take care of her like a big brother.”

“Get lost, be serious,” Xiang Huaizhi shot him a glance, “How much longer are you going to stand behind me? Addicted to peeking at my screen?”

“Tch… Fine, fine, I’ll go.”

Xiang Huaizhi mounted his horse and headed to the wild map to gather materials. With a casual glance, he noticed the system notification.

[Your friend Little Sweet Scene has logged in.]

A few seconds later, his friend notification lit up.

[Friend] SweetScenery: [Throwing flowers]

[Friend] Heart’sDesire: ?

[Friend] SweetScenery: Big bro, running a dungeon today?

[Friend] Heart’s Desire: Yeah, finished the dailies.

[Friend] Sweet Scenery: Okay, brother~ Call me when you’re done, I’ll be ready anytime #^0^#

The dailies were completed quickly, and Lu Hang formed a party for the daily dungeon.

“Little Jing Jing,” Lu Hang couldn’t help but voice his opinion when he saw her outfit after entering the dungeon, “change out of this outfit.”

Jing Huan asked, “Why though?”

“This is way too ugly.”

Jing Huan frowned, not seeing what was so ugly about it: “It’s not ugly at all! It matches perfectly with the ring my brother gave me!”

Lu Hang remarked with a click of his tongue, “Tsk tsk, speaking of that ring, just now…”

Xiang Huaizhi interrupted him, got off the car and formed a team: “I’ll go get the magic treasure in a while.”

“Alright,” Lu Hang tactfully shut up, “Little Jingjing, are you going with him?”

This dungeon requires two people to collect a magic treasure at one stage—no difficulty, no combat needed.

Before Lu Hang could finish speaking, Jing Huan had already swiftly left the team and boarded Xiang Huaizhi’s car. The two of them headed out of the scene one after the other.

“Brother.” Jing Huan proudly sent the ring to the party chat, “Look, I’ve upgraded the gem on the ring to tier seven!”

Xiang Huaizhi clicked to check, and indeed it was.

A tier seven gem cost several hundred gold. He hesitated for a moment: “You don’t do PVP, so you don’t need to upgrade the gem this high.”

“It’s not that high. I promised you before that I’d get it to tier fifteen.”

A fifteen-tier gem is even more expensive. Xiang Huaizhi said, “I didn’t ask you to upgrade the gem so high. It’s your item—you can upgrade it with as many gems as you want.”

Finally, he asked, “After upgrading the gems, do you still have money for food?”

Just as Jing Huan was about to answer, he suddenly froze—Wait, why wouldn’t he have money for food?

He had told so many lies that he couldn’t react immediately, hesitating for a moment before cautiously replying, “…Huh?”

“You’re a student, right?” Xiang Huaizhi said. “Didn’t you say you only get two hundred yuan in pocket money per week?”

Jing Huan subconsciously bit his thumb.

…When exactly did he make up this story?

Afraid the other might become suspicious, he cleared his throat lightly: “Y-yes, that’s right… How did you know, bro?”

“You mentioned it before when you were being chased,” Xiang Huaizhi said. “Are you in high school?”

It took Jing Huan a long moment to recall—it was when he was being hunted by Yuanqi Xiao Wenxiang. To catch Xin Xiang Wang Zhi’s attention, he had casually made it up on the spot.

…What kind of memory does this guy have? How could he remember such an offhand remark until now?

“No, I’m in college.”

With the amount of time he spent gaming, it was impossible to convincingly pass himself off as younger. Jing Huan’s mind raced, and within seconds, he had fabricated a flawless story.

Sniffling, he put on a tearful voice: “Big brother, the truth is… my parents divorced long ago and both have new families with children now. To them, I’m just an unwanted afterthought… Last month we had a huge fight, and I swore I’d never ask them for money again. I used up all my savings to buy this gaming account, and now I’m barely scraping by on part-time work. Since I’m still a student, the pay is terrible—after covering food, clothes, rent, and transportation, I can only save up about 200 bucks a week…”

Jing Huan could hardly bear to continue his own tragic tale.

My god, my life is just too tragic!? This story could make angels weep and stones shed tears.

What kind of man could resist showing care and concern for such a pitiful and helpless young girl!!

Sure enough, there was silence on the other end after hearing this.

Jing Huan forced a brave smile: “It’s alright, brother, you don’t need to worry about me. I’ll work hard and carve out a bright new future with my own hands… Besides, the boss at the part-time job place treats me very well, often giving me instant noodles…”

“What you’re doing isn’t right.”

“Occasionally, he even gives me a ham sausage… Huh?” Jing Huan was stunned.

“Even though you’re already so strapped for cash, you still spend tens of thousands on gaming. Your internet addiction is too severe,” Xiang Huaizhi said coldly.

Jing Huan was speechless: “I…”

“If you really want to make something of yourself, you should spend more time reading books instead of wasting it on games,” Xiang Huaizhi thought for a moment. “Three hours a day of gaming is plenty.”

“No…”

“Three hours should be enough for you to finish your daily quests and dungeon runs.”

“……”

“From 7 PM to 10 PM?”

Scumbag, you have no heart.

“I… don’t necessarily need to start a new life.” Jing Huan forced a smile and said word by word, “I’d be perfectly content just living happily day by day.”

After handing over the magic treasure, they rejoined their team and began rapidly defeating the BOSS.

Just as combat started, a horn message popped up.

[Horn] Xian Mengmeng: Looking for a faction. I’m from Putuo Mountain, maxed cultivation skills, decent operation. Factions offering management positions please PM me.

Jing Huan was taken aback. If he remembered correctly, shouldn’t Xian Mengmeng be from the Idle Pavilion?

He right-clicked to check the other’s profile and noticed the guild section was unexpectedly empty.

[Team] Lu Tiaotiao: Chichi, why did your little sister leave the guild?

[Team] Love is Sharing with You: No idea, maybe because Xiang Si removed her as a hall leader.

[Team] Lu Tiaotiao: Damn. I’ve always wondered—even though Xiangsigubu is pretty reckless, Chunxiao seems pretty level-headed. So why did they make Xianmengmeng the guild leader?

At that time, Xian Mengmeng told Xiangsi Bugubai that she wanted to recruit Heart’s Yearning into the guild, so they needed a position with recruiting privileges.

Given Heart’s Yearning’s strength and reputation, which guild wouldn’t want him to join? Even the Idle Man Pavilion, before the scumbag incident, would have gladly welcomed him with open arms and grand ceremony.

This wasn’t exactly a secret, but with the person in question present, Love Shared With You couldn’t just come out and say it directly.

[Team] Love Shared With You: I’m not too sure about that [shuts mouth]

Xian Mengmeng is a female streamer with tens of thousands of viewers in her live broadcasts every day. Although many of these viewers are bots, her fame is undeniable. As soon as her announcement appeared, the world chat immediately became lively.

[World] Love Spicy Crayfish: Why did Xianxian leave the guild? Isn’t Idlers’ Pavilion pretty good?

[World] Dancing Petals: I heard Xianxian was demoted from her hall master position [surprised]

[World] Ten Miles of Red Dowry: Xianxian, join our guild, we’ll make you deputy leader, +++

【[Horn]Xian Mengmeng: Please don’t ask about the reasons, I don’t want to mention it again—it would just make me look foolish. Let’s just say we don’t share the same path, and it’s best we go our separate ways. Only guilds ranked in the top 15 of the server need to contact me. The rest, please don’t message me. Thank you.】

At first, it wasn’t a big deal, but with Xian Mengmeng phrasing it like that, it really did sound like she’d been wronged.

Jing Huan stared at her messages on the horn channel, his expression darkening slightly.

Back then, Xian Mengmeng had used this exact kind of influence to cyberbully his sister into quitting the game. Though he’d already destroyed one of her prized pieces of equipment, it still didn’t feel like enough to settle the score.

He withdrew his gaze and was just about to heal Heart’s Yearning with a blood pool when a message popped up on the screen.

[Autumn Maple has added you as a friend.]

[Friend] Autumn Maple: Are you there?

[Friend] SweetScenery: ?

[Friend] Autumn Maple: I’ve heard about what happened earlier. I’m reaching out to apologize.

[Friend] Little Sweet Scene: …Huh?

[Friend] Autumn Maple: I’m really sorry for getting you hunted down before. I happened to be busy these past few days and couldn’t log in, otherwise I would have stopped this farce.

Jing Huan seemed to sense something and opened the other’s profile for a look.

Autumn Maple, Warlock, title: “White Tiger Hall Master of Idle Pavilion”.

[Friend] Sweet Scenery: You are…

[Friend] Autumn Maple: Oh right, I forgot to introduce myself. Hello, I’m the ex-husband of this account, the unlucky guy who got scammed and had his account cleaned out.

[Friend] Sweet Scenery: ……Hello, I’m the unlucky guy who bought your ex-wife’s account and got cursed at and hunted down.