Chapter 28
Lu Hang laughed so hard the entire bed shook.
“Damn, Xiao Jingjing is truly a character, I’m convinced, really convinced… Since Qiu Feng is a good person and she thinks she’s not worthy, then what does it mean that she’s pursuing you?” Lu Hang deliberately stirred the pot, “Xiang Xiang, don’t you feel like you’re being subtly insulted?”
After saying that, he looked up to see what Xiang Huaizhi’s reaction would be.
Xiang Huaizhi didn’t seem the least bit annoyed. With his eyelashes lowered and a slight smirk at the corner of his mouth, he replied, “A little.”
On the other side, Qiufeng was momentarily stunned before bursting into laughter.
Initially, he had only intended to tease Xiao Tianjing, but now he was genuinely intrigued.
[Team] Qiufeng: I can play any role you want. Adding me as a friend won’t be a loss for you.
Jing Huan: “…”
Damn, met my match!
[Team] Little Sweet Jing: Can only give you a friend slot, my heart belongs to someone else so don’t chase me.
After sending this message, Jing Huan moved his fingers and added Qiu Feng as a friend.
“These two, both talking in circles,” Lu Hang asked when he noticed they suddenly went quiet. “Why the silence? Didn’t actually go add each other and chat privately, did they?”
Qiu Feng did indeed send a sticker to Jing Huan in a private message, but Jing Huan didn’t reply. He wasn’t responding because he was busy replying to messages in the class group chat.
The friend icon lit up, and he initially thought it was Qiu Feng again, so he casually clicked on it.
[Friend] Heart towards it: Should I add you to the guild group?
[Friend] Little Sweet Scenery: Are you in it?
[Friend] Heart’s Desire: Here.
[Friend] Sweet Little Scenery: ^^Then I’m coming in!
WeChat buzzed, and a new group chat popped up.
[Heart’s Desire invited Little Scenery to join the group chat.]
There were 169 people in the group chat. Jing Huan changed his group nickname and switched back, only to find the screen already flooded with messages welcoming both him and Heart’s Desire.
Heart’s Desire remained silent. After some thought, Jing Huan decided to greet everyone anyway.
Sweet Little Jing: Hello everyone [extends a paw]~
Peachy Cheeks: Hiiii~
Autumn Maple: @SweetScenery Why aren’t you replying to my DMs [sad face].
Jing Huan thought, “Why else? Of course it’s because I don’t want to reply to you.”
Pretending to be a girl every day was exhausting enough—how could he possibly have the energy to deal with a suitor too?
I’m a catfish, devoid of feelings.
Thinking this, he gripped his phone, pondering how to tactfully make this person keep their distance.
The guild members were momentarily baffled—didn’t Little Sweet Scenery publicly confess to Heart’s Yearning? So why were their hall master’s words so ambiguous?
Only No Questions Asked, ever the bold one, specifically surfaced to tease.
No Questions Asked: Hall Master, that’s just not cool, huh.
Autumn Maple: How am I being unkind? [knocks head]
Undetermined Return: Little Sweet Scene joined the guild with God Xiang. [cute]
Peach Blossom: …Qi, you really have no fear of death.
Autumn Maple: Haha, it’s fine. Although Little Jing and I don’t have anything going on yet, I still have to clarify—Little Jing is single.
No Asking When to Return: [Thumbs up]
Waiting for the Wind: Autumn Maple is awesome.
More people started popping up in the group chat. Jing Huan thought to himself, no wonder this guy got scammed out of so much money—it’s not entirely unjustified.
He finished reading the group messages and closed the chat window, trying to pretend he hadn’t seen anything. But just as he minimized the interface, the WeChat notification sound chimed in his ears again.
Aspiring for the Heart: @Sweet Little Jing
Aspiring for the Heart suddenly popped up, and the previously chatty group immediately fell silent.
Jing Huan was startled and quickly typed a response.
Sweet Little Jing: I’m here, big bro~
Little Sweet Scene: [Cat rubbing hand] What’s wrong, big brother?
Heart’s Desire: Heal me up.
Little Sweet Scene: Coming, coming!! [Komi drinking cola]
Lu Hang had been secretly watching the group chat and found this hilarious: “Seriously, Xiang Xiang, your health bar’s still at least 70% full, the dungeon’s almost over—why on earth are you making her come back just to heal you?”
Xiang Huaizhi said expressionlessly, “Want to kill faster? I’m rushing to do dailies. Why, is that not allowed?”
To help players clear dungeons quickly, each class has corresponding monster-killing bonuses. The class Xiang Huaizhi belongs to has the bonus that the higher their HP, the greater the damage dealt to quest monsters.
Lu Hang watched as SweetJing happily bounced around healing Xiang Huaizhi and nodded, “Fine, whatever you say.”
After finishing the dungeon, Lu Hang disbanded the party on the spot. Just as Jing Huan was about to teleport away, a message popped up on the screen.
[Xin Xiangwangzhi has invited you to join his party. Accept, Decline.]
Jing Huan immediately jumped into his team: “What’s wrong, brother?”
Heart’s Desire didn’t say anything and directly flew the team to the warehouse NPC.
[Heart’s Desire gave you a Gem of Revival x1.]
Jing Huan took a look—it was an eight-tier gem, meant to be embedded in a ring.
[Team]Heart’s Desire: Just realized I have some in storage.
This eight-tier gem is worth nearly four digits. Jing Huan said, “Thank you, big brother. How much is it? I’ll pay you back.”
[Team]Heart’s Desire: No need, I have no use for it anyway.
“That won’t do. You’ve already given me a ring—it’s not right for you to pay for the gems too,” Jing Huan refused.
It’s not about being polite; my goal isn’t just a few thousand bucks. If I accepted it, it would seem like I’m after his money.
Xiang Huaizhi didn’t overthink it. He had seen the gemstone while shopping earlier that day—someone had it displayed at a price dozens of gold cheaper than the market rate, and he bought it without a second thought.
[Team] Heart Leaning Toward: If you don’t want it, just throw it to Lu Tiaotiao.
“No way! If you throw away what you gave me, I’ll never give it to anyone else!” Jing Huan paused. “But why do you keep giving me things?”
Without waiting for Heart Leaning Toward to reply, Jing Huan jumped to his own conclusion: “…Could it be that you’ve fallen for me?!”
“So that’s why you wanted to spend money on me?”
“And you gave me a ring?”
Jing Huan realized belatedly, “…Oh my god, was that what you meant when you gave me a ring?!”
Xiang Huai Zhi: “…?”
Jing Huan: “Wait! Big bro! You don’t need to say anything, I accept! I accept your confession! Let’s go get married at the Matchmaker right now! I’ll pay for the wedding! I’ll cover the bridal sedan! I’ll host the banquet! All you have to do is ride the horse in front of my sedan!”
Hearing her get more and more outrageous, Xiang Huaizhi couldn’t help but unmute to cut off her delusions: “I’ll sell it to you for 300 gold. You can pay whenever it’s convenient for you.”
“…Oh.” Jing Huan muttered softly as she sent the money, “Are you really not considering it, big bro? If it’s really not possible, we could always marry first and fall in love later.”
The moment she finished speaking, Jing Huan heard a brief, soft chuckle.
It was Xiangwangzhi laughing, a low and deep sound.
“No consideration,” he said. “I don’t get married in games, and I don’t like… love after marriage.”
Jing Huan was stunned for a moment before finally asking, “You’ve never been married before?”
“No.”
Jing Huan thought that made sense.
Scumbags love to lead people on and then refuse to take responsibility, not even willing to invite the girl for a wedding sedan ride—utterly despicable.
After the trade was completed, Heart’s Desire disbanded the party.
Jing Huan went to the blacksmith to inlay the gem into the ring. Just as he was about to start his daily quests, a friend message suddenly lit up.
[Friend] Love is Sharing with You: Got time to chat?
[Friend] Sweet Little Scene: Yeah, what’s up?
[Friend] Love is Sharing with You: Nothing much, just wanted to apologize on Xianxian’s behalf.
[Friend] Sweet Little Scene: ……No need, she probably wouldn’t want others apologizing for her.
[Friend] Love is Sharing with You: …Yeah, you’re right. Sigh, actually she wasn’t like this before. But ever since she got together with Heart’s Desire, she’s changed a bit.
Jing Huan could understand. Before all this happened, he wouldn’t have believed his sister could become so fragile over a man either.
He casually checked Love is Sharing with You’s profile and only then noticed the “Guild” field under her avatar was empty.
[Friend] Little Sweet Jing: Huh, what happened to your guild?
[Friend] Love is Sharing with You: Oh, it’s nothing. I just left the guild.
[Friend] Little Sweet Scene: [Surprised] Why? Wasn’t your guild pretty strong?
[Friend] Love is Sharing with You: Just didn’t want to stay anymore.
During this time, Ji Xiaonian had been spreading rumors in the guild about her “defecting” to Little Sweet Scene’s side. She even blamed the incident of Xian Mengmeng storming off and disappearing on her. Together with a few others, they kept making sarcastic and mocking remarks in the guild channel, none of which were kind. She wasn’t one to take it lying down either, so in a fit of anger, she left the guild.
[Friend] Sweet Xiao Jing: But the guild dungeon is about to start soon, aren’t you going to run it?
[Friend] LoveMeansSharing: I’ll find another group.
Jing Huan suddenly remembered something and started typing.
[Friend] Sweet Xiao Jing: Wait a sec, don’t join another guild yet! Let me ask our hall leader first! I just checked – Idler’s Pavilion still has several open slots.
[Friend] Love is Sharing with You: Ah, no need to trouble yourself, I can do without it.
[Friend] Little Sweet Scene: It’s no trouble~ Wait for me a bit. [Flying Kiss]
[Friend] Love is Sharing with You: …Alright.
Jing Huan naturally didn’t go looking for the guild leader. He wasn’t familiar with the people from the Idle Pavilion, and there was old animosity between them. Of course, he’d avoid dealing with them if possible.
He went to find Lu Tiaotiao, who was quite chatty in the guild.
[Friend] Lu Tiaotiao: Chichi? She left the guild? Why? I remember her and her girlfriends were in the same guild?
[Friend] Little Sweet Scenery: [Shut up] Girl stuff is complicated, don’t ask. Can you add her?
[Friend] Lu Tiaotiao: Of course, just in time for guild dungeons. Her healer skills are decent.
[Friend] SweetLittleJing: [Little bunny nodding] Then I’ll tell her to apply to join the guild!
[Friend] FarAwayJourney: Hold on, let me tell XiangXiang first and have him talk to ChunXiao. Idle Pavilion isn’t a small guild—I’ve only been here a day, so I can’t just invite people randomly.
[Friend] SweetLittleJing: …But you just joined the guild too, big brother 0.0
[Friend] FarAwayJourney: That’s different. Your big brother could probably ask ChunXiao for a sub-leader position and get it.
[Friend] Sweet Little Scenery: Bro, you’re amazing [celebratory flowers]!
Lu Hang chuckled and told the story to Xiang Huaizhi across the room.
After receiving confirmation, he opened Sweet Little Scenery’s chat window.
[Friend] Road Goes Ever On: Done.
[Friend] Sweet Scenery: …settled so quickly?
[Friend] Far Journey: Mhm, with your brother in this server, nothing’s impossible. Getting a buddy into the guild is child’s play.
[Friend] Sweet Scenery: Bro Lu, can I ask you something 0.0
[Friend] Far Journey: Shoot.
[Friend] Sweet Scene: Did you and your brother come to play Nine Heroes together? How long have you guys been playing?
[Friend] Lu Tiaotiao: He came first, I joined about half a year later. We’ve been playing together for over eight years now.
[Friend] Sweet Little Scene: [Shocked] Wow, that long. But why do I feel like… Brother doesn’t seem to have many friends around?
This was a question that had always lingered in Jing Huan’s mind. Xiangwang Zhi Yi was clearly a veteran player of Nine Heroes, yet during this entire time, aside from Lu Tiao Tiao, he had never seen Xiangwang Zhi Yi with any other friends.
After a moment, he finally received a reply.
[Friend] Lu Tiaotiao: Well, how should I put this…
[Friend] Lu Tiaotiao: Actually, your brother used to have quite a few friends before, even led a guild. But later… something minor happened, and he stopped liking to make friends in the game.
