However, b.u.t.terfly Dance shook her head immediately and said, "No thanks. Me and my cla.s.smates are all staying together in Candle Dragon"s first subguild, and I have no intentions of parting ways with them. It feels really lonely to play a game solo."

I nodded. "That"s fine too. Candle Dragon"s first subguild is a good guild at least. I know your guild leader, Purple Dawn. He"s a powerful archer for sure."

b.u.t.terfly Dance"s eyes lit up like a bulb at that. "Mn mn, Purple Dawn is the number one expert of our school, and his girlfriend is my roomie! She"s a very cute little girl… Speaking of which, do you know Purple Dawn, Lu Chen? Are you on good terms with him?"

I grinned. "Oh yes, very good terms even. Every time we meet inside the game, I make sure to beat him up…"

Everyone started laughing at the same time. The grudge between Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and Candle Dragon was a well-known fact. Now that I thought about it, players from many different forces were all gathered at one table right now. This was turning out to be an interesting gathering for sure.

With that done, a sharp-looking youngster stood up and introduced himself. "Good evening, everyone. I am Unwilling to Fight, a Level 148 archer from Wind City. I"m currently in the second subguild of Peach Garden, and my champion arena ranking is 249th. Nice to meet you all…"

While he was talking, I chided Beiming Xue a little. "Do you see how polite this guy is? Now think back to your own introduction. You didn"t even say good evening to the others…"

Beiming Xue stared innocently at me for a moment. Then, she employed her cutesy tactic, her eyes watering as if at will.

While we were fooling around, I heard He Yi speaking, "Unwilling to Fight, there aren"t many Level 148 archers at this stage of the game, much less one that placed this high in the champion arena. Would you like to join our main guild? It"s certainly better than serving a subguild of Peach Garden, right?"

Unwilling to Fight"s eyes lit up. "Oh? Are you serious? I"ve always wanted to join Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, but I just couldn"t find a way to get connected with your guild. I had no avenue, no guides… is this a promise you can give?"

He Yi put down her gla.s.s and smiled a little. In that instant, every male around the table was electrocuted by her beauty. As if sensing the growing heat around the table, He Yi caught herself, tidied her clothes and sat back down beside me before nodding. "Of course. I am the guild leader of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. I don"t think anyone will disagree with my choice of recruits."

I nodded. "Naturally. When Eve says the word, we obey. She is the guild leader!"

Unwilling to Fight replied happily, "Okay, I"ll contact you the moment I get back online and apply to join Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls! It"s time to fight hard in another city! Sky City, here I come!"

"Mn, no problem. Welcome to Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls!" I welcomed him smilingly.

Seeing that the gathering was about to turn into an interview to join Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, Rose hurriedly interrupted us and said, "Alright, enough. Shall we talk about the team now?"

He Yi and I nodded and replied in unison, "Speak…"

Rose giggled. "There shouldn"t be any big tournaments for the next two months to come. There are small, regional tournaments such as the PCL league tournament at the Shanghai Carnival, which will be attended by many clubs such as TCL, Founder, Dell, Apple, Asus and more… but top-tier players such as Candlelight Shadow, Wind Fantasy and Legendary Brave all refused to partic.i.p.ate. For that reason, Lenovo believes that it"ll be better if we refrain from sending our best players, Lu Chen and Beiming Xue as well. Instead, we"ll send our secondary roster, namely Remains, b.u.t.terfly Dance, Unwilling to Fight and so on to attend the tournament and gain some experience in the process. I don"t know if this decision is fine with you though, Lu Chen, so I would like to hear your answer right now!"

He Yi and I exchanged a smile with each other before turning around. "No problem, the youngsters can have their fun. We are way too busy handling the stuff going on in Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls anyway, hahaha…"

On the other side, Dark Fragrance added with a giggle, "I know it"s because the top-tier players such as the Martial G.o.d Candlelight Shadow, the Fruit Knife G.o.ddess Lin Yixin, and the guild leader of Purple Lily Luo River G.o.d of the Capital aren"t attending. There"s no challenge even if you chose to attend, am I right?"

I smiled and allowed my silence to be taken as acceptance.

Rose nodded affirmatively before saying, "That"s settled then. Still, the two of you must partic.i.p.ate in super tournaments like the WSL, okay?"

"Of course!"

Rose smiled and rose to her feet with her gla.s.s raised. "There are two objectives behind this gathering. One, it"s to let our club members get acquainted with one another. Two, it"s to celebrate Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls" success at Immortality City and miraculous rise from the 41892th place to the 3rd place on the CGL Guild Ranking! Congratulations!

I was a bit dumbfounded by her declaration. "You still remember our old ranking?"

"But of course, it"s quite difficult to forget…"

"f.u.c.k…"

……

Get-togethers really do get people together. It didn"t take long before the alcohol started to pry open some mouths, and even better, Hunting Moon Dynasty"s Heart Like Water, Blazing Hot Lips" Little Little Hero and Purple Lily"s Dark Fragrance all requested to join our main guild. The reason they wanted to join us was because they weren"t valued despite being experts in subguilds, and we were only all too happy to accept them.

The gathering lasted until past 8 pm. I told He Yi I needed to go to the gents before leaving.

Because I was drunk, I accidentally went the wrong way and found myself at the entrance of the hotel instead. When I looked to the opposite side of the street, I suddenly noticed a giant board with the flas.h.i.+ng words "Second Affiliated Hospital”.

Hey, isn"t that the hospital Lin Yixin"s mom was staying in? I still remember where her ward is. Maybe...

I immediately put my thoughts into action. With luck, I might even find Lin Yixin in the ward right now. She had been avoiding all this time, so it was time for me to take a bit of initiative.

While the traffic lights were still green, I ran across the street and toward the high-cla.s.s sick ward at the high speed of 9 metres per second.

I quickly located the familiar-looking, villstyled sick ward and went upstairs. Almost all of the lights were dark. When I went into the room and looked around, I found that the room was cleaned and returned to its original condition, and the person living there was gone. The medical instruments on the table were gone as well.

I saw a wilting flower on the window sill. Obviously, it was a flower Lin Yixin had brought for her mother. She has probably been gone for several days now, hasn"t she?

Thud!

I leaned against the window sill and inhaled deeply. Lin Yixin"s mom was transferred out of the hospital this quickly?

……

Suddenly, I heard a voice behind me. "Boy?"

I turned around and saw that it was a janitor.

"Hey there, auntie. What happened to the patient here?"

"She was transferred away this morning. Are you her family or something?"

"I"m a friend of her daughter. I came here before."

"Ohh, I remember now!" The auntie"s smile suddenly grew a lot wider. "She was a really beautiful girl. Are you her boyfriend? I understand now why she wasn"t willing to meet my nephew even though I tried many times to change her mind. You"re quite the handsome boy, aren"t you?"

Slightly embarra.s.sed, I said lamely, "Oh, well. I guess I should go then…"

"Wait!"

"What is it?" I stopped in my tracks.

The janitor opened a cabinet before procuring a thick bundle of papers from within. "Your girlfriend left so urgently that she even forgot to grab her medical report and pathology report. Since you"re her boyfriend, can you give it to her? I wouldn"t know how to deal with this otherwise…"

"Oh."

I accepted the doc.u.ments but wasn"t sure what to do myself. As I walked out of the sick ward and got on a small forest path, I thought to myself: How am I going to give these to Lin Yixin?

It was at this moment the wind blew a piece of paper to the ground.

"Oh?"

I bent down and picked it up. The moment I saw the contents of the paper though, I froze as if I was struck by thunder. It was a certificate of blood donation, and it stated clearly—

Donor: Lin Yixin

Recipient: Lu Chen

Amount: 500 cc

Note: Per Lin Yixin"s request, the blood donation will be kept a secret from Lu Chen.

……

How… how can this be?!!

I felt like the world had just turned upside down. My mind turned blank as I collapsed to the floor.

So Lin Yixin has known about my condition all along, and stuck by my side ever since. Not only was I completely oblivious to this, I even bullied her on occasion. What the h.e.l.l is wrong with me?

My heart felt like someone was twisting a knife in it when I recalled the tournament. At the time, Lin Yixin looked pale when she lost horribly in the hands of Peach Garden. Remembering the aggrieved look in her eyes, I knew that she had wanted to spill it all on me back then. Instead, she hid it in her heart and never said a word. 500 cc was an amount of blood no ordinary person could normally function without, and I heartlessly poked fun at her before the final...

"What"s wrong, boy?" Behind me, an auntie sweeping the floor caught sight of me and asked.

I rose back to my feet while feeling like I had run a marathon or something. "It"s nothing…"

"You look really pale, boy."

"It"s really nothing…"

I quickened my footsteps and ran out of the hospital. Then, I took out my phone and gave He Yi a call—

"Where are you, Lu Chen? I couldn"t find you." He Yi"s voice sounded a bit worried.

I sucked in a deep breath before replying, "Eve, can you take Beiming with you to the company? I don"t think I"m going back to the hotel, but don"t worry, I"ll be back at the workshop later tonight."

"Okay. Come back soon!"

"Got it."

He Yi seemed to have noticed that something was wrong with me, but she chose not to stop me from whatever it was I was doing.

……

It was at this moment my phone suddenly rang. It was an unfamiliar number, and when I clicked Receive I heard Sun Qingqing"s voice from the other side of the call—

"h.e.l.lo, is this Lu Chen? I"m Qingqing!"

"Hey, Qingqing!" My heart skipped a beat as I asked, "You callin" me for something?"

Sun Qingqing giggled. "Oh yes, something great. Yiyi was… overjoyed with the pet egg you gave her, so she decided to repay the favor, you lucky man. Yiyi is going to fly tomorrow afternoon, and she managed to cheat an hour out of her father"s strict schedule to see you. She"ll be waiting for you at the eastern gate of the university, 11:30 am tomorrow. Remember, you only have an hour. If you miss it, you"ll regret it for the rest of your life!"

It was like the night had turned into day. "Really? That"s great! Can… can I speak to her right now?"

"No way, she"s enjoying her dinner right now!"

"Fine, tell her to be careful not to choke on the food while eating."

"What the f.u.c.k, dude, can"t you wish something pleasant for once…"

I let out a hearty laugh before ending my call with Sun Qingqing. Lin Yixin"s going to meet me in secret tomorrow? This is probably our last meeting for the next couple months to come, isn"t it? Only heaven could tell exactly when she was going to come back from Canada.

……

At that moment, I felt like someone had recharged my battery to full. Alright, time to go back and upgrade Dark Moon City"s buildings a bit. After that I should sleep and get ready for the meeting with Lin Yixin tomorrow!