Chapter 60

Jing Huan had finished performing long ago, but the counselor wouldn’t let them go and insisted they stay backstage to help.

After helping move the props, Jing Huan sat by the window to get some air. He reached up, tugged at his tie, undoing the top two buttons of his shirt, finally feeling a bit cooler.

Lu Wenhao carried a table in and said, “Finally the damn thing’s moved… Who are you sitting there trying to seduce?”

Jing Huan was dying of heat, and her temper wasn’t any better for it. “Flirting with your ancestor.”

Lu Wenhao chuckled twice and, without further ado, dragged a stool to sit beside him. “I suspect the counselor just rounded us up to be laborers. Even the instruments had to be carried by us—total inhumane treatment.”

Jing Huan nodded with deep sympathy. “Next time we should prank him with a midnight snack. What about Xiang’er?”

“Girlfriend inspection time.” Lu Wenhao stretched his arms. “Once the outside crowd disperses, let’s get out of here too, so we don’t get roped into cleaning up the venue… Come on, let’s grab some barbecue before heading back.”

Jing Huan was about to reply, then suddenly remembered something and took out her phone: “Wait a moment.”

“What for?”

“My brother is here too,” Jing Huan said. “I’ll ask him if he wants to eat barbecue.”

“Your brother…” Lu Wenhao paused, “Xiang Huaizhi? No way, are you really that close with him?”

You even asked him to come along for a late-night snack?

“You’ve asked that twice,” Jing Huan said without looking up. “Anyway, he’s in the small auditorium, and it’s not like he’s letting you treat him.”

“Do I look like someone who cares about money?” Lu Wenhao said. “I just thought you two would keep your distance.”

Jing Huan looked at him, baffled. “Why would we keep our distance?”

“Isn’t the BBS already spreading rumors about the two of you…”

Jing Huan said lazily, “So what? It’s not real. Let them say whatever they want. Can I beat them up through the screen?”

If he had that ability, he’d have died eight thousand times wishing for it.

Lu Wenhao: “But what if one day the BBS posts something about you and me…”

“Get out.” Jing Huan cut him off without looking up.

Lu Wenhao: “……”

Xiang Huaizhi took quite a while to reply, saying he had to take his sister home and wouldn’t be coming.

The three of them went to a barbecue joint near the school, and Lu Wenhao reached out and ordered dozens of skewers.

Jing Huan sat with one leg over the other, gnawing on a chicken wing. Gao Zixiang propped his chin on his hand, glanced at her, and said very earnestly, “Huanhuan, why not just quit school and debut as an entertainer? Hao’er and I would totally be your number one fans.”

Jing Huan was busy savoring the flavor on her tongue and had no time to respond to him.

Lu Wenhao nodded repeatedly. “Yeah, I’ll sell all my game accounts to support your acting career. But how would you even debut?”

Gao Zixiang said, “Entering competitions? Like those ‘101’ trainee shows—there are plenty of them.”

“Jesus, you’re really smart. Then I’ll go look up how to sign up tomorrow… Huanhuan, what are you doing!” Lu Wenhao said mid-sentence, quickly reaching out to shield the food on his plate.

Jing Huan bit into the stolen beef skewer. “You talk so much nonsense, I figured you must be full.”

Gao Zixiang smiled and took a sip of wine. “Oh, by the way, someone in the guild chat just said our server is merging.”

The two people beside him paused, not reacting for a moment.

“What does merging servers mean?” Lu Wenhao asked.

“Two servers,” Gao Zixiang said, clinking glasses with him, “they’re being combined.”

“What the hell?” Lu Wenhao froze. “What the heck, why? Isn’t our server pretty popular?”

Gao Zixiang said, “That’s what you think. The status bars in the other servers are all blazing red; our server hasn’t been red for a long time, right? These days everyone’s playing mobile games, the traffic for Jiu Xia really has been dropping. I heard the devs are already working on a new expansion.”

Jing Huan was also hearing about the server merge for the first time.

Lu Wenhao widened his eyes and asked, “Has Jiu Xia done this kind of thing before?”

“No,” Gao Zixiang said, “so our server is the first—kind of a test subject. I think the news is pretty legit, it’s just that we don’t know which server we’ll be merging with.”

“Server merge…” Lu Wenhao thought for a moment, then suddenly got excited. “Wait, if they merge servers, won’t territories be redrawn? Guild war teams will have to fight for position, right? Guild rankings will be contested, and those big leaderboards…”

He grew more and more animated as he spoke. “Wouldn’t that be a real spectacle?”

The two chatted happily beside him; Jing Huan listened for a few sentences then lowered her head to focus on her late-night snack.

Server merges are routine in other games: new servers open one after another, veterans drift away, newcomers favor the fresh servers, and ghost towns are only a matter of time.

It took Jiuxia ten years of operation to finally implement the server merge system — that in itself was impressive.

After finishing her midnight snack, Jing Huan went home, took a shower, and only then slowly logged into the game.

[Friend] Xin Xiang Wang Zhi: So late?

[Friend] Xiao Tian Jing: Good evening, brother. I just went out with the girls for dessert ^0^

[Friend] Xin Xiang Wang Zhi: Mm, how was the performance.

[Friend] Xiao Tian Jing: Outshined all others [shy]

[Friend] Xin Xiang Wang Zhi: …

[Friend] Xiao Tian Jing: Too bad brother couldn’t see QAQ

[Friend] Xin Xiang Wang Zhi: I can picture it.

[Friend] Xiao Tian Jing: Hm??

[Friend] Xin Xiang Wang Zhi: Where are you? I’ll take you to do the daily quests.

After joining the team, Jing Huan took a sip of hot milk to wash away the taste of barbecue in her mouth.

He was about to speak when a noise from under the screen drew his attention.

[loudspeaker] Ji Xiaonian: I’ve seen through it—love is nothing more than this.

[loudspeaker] Ji Xiaonian: I guess I loved the wrong person.

[loudspeaker] Ji Xiaonian: If I’d known it would end like this, I’d rather never have met you.

What is this girl talking about?

Jing Huan licked the milk from her lips and looked bewilderedly toward the world channel.

[World] Is brother big: What nonsense is this?

[World] Taotao Pretty Girl: ……[sweating]

[World] Rushed Like Frost: Wild Guess — Divorce!

[World] My Beloved Zhizhi Taotao: Here it comes! The breakup and screaming match I’ve been waiting for!

[Loudspeaker] Ji Xiaonian: I once thought you would give me all the tenderness in the world; I never expected you wouldn’t even have the courage to save me from a villain.

Jing Huan had just crossed her legs and was ready to snack on the gossip, but she wilted when she read that last line.

He looked conflicted. “Bro, did you see the horn post Ji Xiaonian made? That last line… doesn’t it sound like she’s talking about us?”

Xiang Huaizhi glanced over and reassured him, “No.”

[Horn] Ji Xiaonian: It’s just a rich list… Is money and face really that important to you?

The two villains in the team fell into silence instantly.

Ji Xiaonian kept blasting the horn, as if he wanted to tell the whole world everything he was feeling.

There are people like this in every server; Jinghuan wasn’t seeing it for the first time. Aside from the annoyance when he himself was mentioned, he still found it rather entertaining.

“What are you doing?” Xin Xiangwangzhi suddenly unmuted, “Why aren’t you talking?”

“I’m watching the speaker, big brother.”

Xiang Huaizhi didn’t particularly like watching these things, but the speaker couldn’t be muted, so he ended up seeing a few lines.

[Loudspeaker] Ji Xiaonian: Love online is all too fake. I hope you ladies keep your eyes open and don’t fall for someone easily. Remember, the person you like may not be the image you have in your heart.

Xiang Huaizhi slightly furrowed his brows, then asked, “Hm, what do you think after watching it?”

“……”

I was just watching a loudspeaker.

Does that require an afterword?

“I think,” Jing Huan said righteously, “no man in the whole world is better than my brother!”

Xiang Huaizhi paused mid-sip. He could never get used to hearing that line, no matter how many times.

“Is that so.”

“Yes!” Jing Huan said firmly, “My brother is the best in the world!”

Xiang Huaizhi remained silent for a long moment, then suddenly felt relieved.

Yeah.

If anyone could get used to this, they’d be a ghost.

After the news of the nine-server merge came out, players made a fuss on the forums for several days; most of them opposed the merge mechanism.

After all, a server merge not only means all the leaderboards will be combined, it will also completely upend the prices within the servers.

Jing Huan had been listening to Lu Wenhao and the others grumble for a week.

Lu Wenhao: “Which unlucky district do you think will be merged with ours?”

Gao Zixiang propped his chin: “How would I know? But are we the only district that got the notice? No sign from the others?”

“Really none. I actually checked the other day — our district does have the lowest traffic in the whole server. Damn… how did we never notice before?”

Jinghuan wasn’t interested in joining the conversation; he was holding his phone and chatting with his crush.

Little Jing: Brother, I heard Jiuxia is going to implement a server-merging system.

Xiang: It’s only a matter of time.

Little Jing: Hehe. I still have twenty minutes left of class. When are you coming back to the dorm? I want to do daily quests with you, brotherヾ(≧≦*)ヾ

Xiang: I have something today, I won’t be logging on.

Xiang: I can’t make it to the arena either.

Xiao Jingya: T.T… alright, I’ll wait for big brother to come back.

After class she went home; Jinghuan opened the game, spent half an hour finishing the daily tasks, then teleported back to the main city.

He stood by a random NPC for quite a while before suddenly realizing—he didn’t actually know what he was supposed to do.

Jing Huan frowned.

What did he usually do?

Do daily tasks with the one he longed for.

And Xin Xiangwangzhi reads books.

And Xin Xiangwangzhi fights in the arena.

Occasionally he pesters Xin Xiangwangzhi to take him to see the scenery and take photos.

………

Damn.

Jing Huan, you’ve already lost yourself.

No—he was still thinking that after teaching Xīn Xiàngwǎngzhī how to be a person, he would buy a DPS account to return to his true self and go on a rampage.

Jing Huan decided to find something to do.

He was lingering near the party members when a message from a friend flashed up.

[Friend] Qiufeng: Xiao Jingjing, what are you doing.

[Friend] Xiao Tianjing: Looking for a party leader to get a quest car 0.0

[Friend] Qiufeng: You have guts, still queuing for a random car in the wild.

Jing Huan hadn’t thought much of it at first, but after he mentioned it, she actually felt a bit hesitant.

[Friend] Xiao Tianjing: Haha… what’s up? You need me for something?

[Friend] Qiu Feng: Since your teammate isn’t here, want to team up for the arena? My teammate isn’t coming tonight either.

[Friend] Xiao Tianjing: How do you know brother isn’t here…

[Friend] Qiufeng: The arena starts in two minutes, and he’s still not online.

[Friend] Xiaotianjing: Uh.

[Friend] Qiufeng: It’s just teaming up for the arena, you can’t expect to only ever PK with your crush for the rest of your life, right? Besides, teaming with him won’t help you improve your skills.

Jing Huan was taken aback by his words.

Qiufeng wasn’t entirely without a point.

Xiangwangzhi’s personal skill was just too strong. If you teamed up with him, your occasional mistakes wouldn’t matter much.

If it went on like that, he’d not only grow lax but also become dependent.

[Friend] Xiao Tianjing: …Alright, fine. Where?

[Friend] Qiufeng: ^^Come to the arena entrance.

Today is Mom Xiang’s birthday, so Xiang Huaizhi specially went home for dinner.

Mom Xiang doesn’t like him staring at the computer all day, so he didn’t bring his computer home.

After eating and drinking his fill, Mom Xiang went with her close girlfriends to the mahjong room to play, and Xiang Huaizhi sat on the sofa, took out his phone and glanced at it—there wasn’t a single message.

He opened WeChat; the Idle Hands guild group jumped to the top, showing 99+ messages.

[Mowen Guichi: What are those two doing in the little black room!!]

Xiang Huaizhi normally hardly ever checked guild messages. This time, for some reason, after seeing the message preview he casually tapped open the guild group.

Mowen Guichi had posted a screenshot earlier: it was a locked room in the guild’s YY channel, and there were only two people inside.

One was Qiu Feng wearing an orange horse mask.

The other was the little sweetheart from a few days ago who had obediently been whispering in his ear, “My brother is the best in the world.”