Unfortunately, neither He Yi, Beiming Xue nor Murong Mingyue were able to enter the CGL Hall of Fame. In fact, they still had a ways to go before they were truly qualified, not to mention that Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls had yet to become a true king of guilds of the China server. However, I was sure we would achieve that dream soon if we maintained this momentum.
There was one thing that confused me, however. Lin Yixin"s account was deleted, so why hadn"t the committee removed her from the CGL Hall of Fame?
I thought about it long and hard, and only one possibility came to mind. It must"ve been the result of Shusheng and Ling Xue"s negotiations with the CGL officials. Lin Yixin"s ID wouldn"t have appeared in the updated CGL Hall of Fame otherwise.
Regardless, this was good news through and through for me and Lin Yixin.
……
When nighttime arrived, I learned that Warsky had visited the Beijing HQ of Eternal Moon Corporation with October Rain, Lin Bing Dou Zhe, Farewell Song and more in tow. As the representatives of Warsky Alliance, they formally expressed their wish to see Lin Yixin"s account restored. Not long after, Luo River G.o.d of the Capital—who lived close to Beijing—Moonkiss and Stranger of Three Lifetimes also showed up to do the same thing. They were all influential people in the game, so the people of the HQ dared not treat them lightly. The vice president himself had personally received them and promised to do the best he could. We were all Chinese, and only an animal wouldn"t help out their own.
I waited until past 6 pm, but I didn"t hear any new information.
Knock knock...
He Yi knocked on my door a couple of times before calling out to me, "Lu Chen, we"re holding a celebration party at the city. Are you coming with us?"
He Yi"s tone was tentative because she knew what a jumbled mess my thoughts were right now.
I mulled over it for a bit and decided that I should go. It would be rude of me not to attend the celebration just because I wasn"t feeling well, not to mention that Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi, Chaos Moon and everyone else had done their utmost to support Lin Yixin. Everyone had given it their all, and it was now up to fate whether or not our efforts would bear fruit.
I replied, "Mn, I"m coming out right away."
I could almost hear He Yi smiling. "Wear some thicker clothes, by the way. It"s cold out there."
"Okay!"
I put on a black coat and wrapped a scarf around my neck. Then, I left the room.
The girls were already waiting for me outside. No one criticized me for my recent behavior because they knew that the reason Lin Yixin used G.o.d"s Tear was completely because of me. It would be stranger if I wasn"t wrapped in self-guilt and acted like my usual self.
"Are you feeling better, big bro?" Beiming Xue asked while holding my arm.
"I"m fine. It"s not like anything happened to Yiyi, and there"s a real chance we can get back her game account, right?" I replied with a smile.
Beiming Xue broke into a smile of her own and said, "Mn, I"m glad you can think of it this way!"
He Yi looked rather silent, so I smiled at her and grabbed her hand. It felt a bit cool to touch. "Sister Yi, if Lin Yixin gets her account back, I would like to take a few days off and grind with her. Is that okay?"
He Yi nodded with a smile. "Of course."
It was at this moment Murong Mingyue b.u.t.ted into the conversation. "Man, Beauty Lin sure did well this time. I can"t even imagine how much love points she earned with this one epic move. Are you sure Lu Chen will return after he goes away with Lin Yixin, Eve? You don"t imagine that your position is that secure, do you?"
"Of course I"m returning, what are you talking about…" I replied a bit awkwardly.
Murong Mingyue let out a devious chuckle before pus.h.i.+ng my beautiful guild leader into my arms. "How about this: if you successfully win Beauty Lin"s heart, both Eve and Beauty Lin will become your girlfriends. What do you think?"
The mere thought sweetened my heart like honey. Which man wouldn"t like a fairytale outcome like that? Still, I had to show some shame. "No, that is unfair to everyone…"
Murong Mingyue glared at me and said, "Dude, your acting doesn"t match your real thoughts at all..."
He Yi slapped Murong Mingyue"s hands away lightly before saying, "Alright, enough teasing. I"m technically not Lu Chen"s girlfriend, but I"m staying with him right now, aren"t I? Anyone who wants that status can take it for all I care."
Beiming Xue whispered, "But big brother Thirteen said that girlfriends are the kind of girls you can have s.e.x with…"
He Yi turned beet red and scolded the younger girl, "Du Thirteen is also a terrible person. You"re forbidden from talking to him from now on, Beiming! Now come on!"
"Mn!"
We left after the awkward conversation ended, and the outside was as cold as He Yi mentioned earlier. Before I knew it, we were neck deep in the winter season already.
……
At a certain hotel in the city.
The celebration party was a big one just like last time. We spent hundreds of thousands to book a hall all to ourselves and invited all the core members of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls to attend. Everyone was seated already.
When we arrived, Chaos Moon welcomed us at the entrance with a smile, "Alright, the guild leader, the two vice leaders and Beauty Beiming have arrived!"
Almost everyone rose to their feet at once. Holy s.h.i.+t, at least a hundred people are present in the hall.
Sensing my confusion, Xu Yang said, "Besides the players at our gaming base, some of our brothers and sisters came all the way from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and more to attend. Everyone here is registered, so don"t worry. We are all Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls here!"
"Nice!" I nodded smilingly before asking, "So, where do we sit?"
"At the main table, of course. Over there!"
"Oh, thanks!"
I followed He Yi to our table, and everyone there was an executive-level player in the guild. A total of 18 people—He Yi, Beiming Xue, Murong Mingyue, Xu Yang, Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi, Chaos Moon and a couple of subguild guild leaders—were all present, and the atmosphere seemed pretty good. There was a large screen at the front replaying the battles of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls in the Nation War, and right now it was showing the battle against the Behemoth Cavalry at Sunset Swamp. It was a very fierce battle.
……
After we took our seats, I immediately said, "Eve, you"re the boss, so I leave the opening speech to you…"
He Yi let out a helpless chuckle, but she acquiesced and rose to her feet. "h.e.l.lo, everyone. I"m From Water. Without your support and cooperation, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls wouldn"t have been able to show up as well as we did in the Nation War, so I"d like to extend my sincerest thanks to everyone. Here"s a toast of respect to everyone present and those who died in the Nation War!"
We all raised our gla.s.ses and drained our drinks in one go.
The next part of the celebration was eating, drinking and chatting as usual.
However, I couldn"t quite muster the energy to engage the others, and I kept at least part of my concentration on my phone at all times. It was past 10 pm when the party was over, but I still hadn"t heard anything from Shusheng.
It was absolutely frigid outside of the hotel. There were even snowflakes mixed within the storm of wind.
It"s snowing.
"Woo, it"s finally snowing!"
The happiest among us at the snow were without a doubt Beiming Xue, Diamond Dust and Heaven"s Rain. They promised one another a s...o...b..ll fight after the floor was fully covered in snow.
However, my cheeks burned hot the second I heard the words "s...o...b..ll fight”. The corner of Du Thirteen"s mouth was twitching as well. A few years ago the two of us were involved in a s...o...b..ll fight, and the partic.i.p.ants were monsters who hit hard, accurate and without mercy. I suspected that one of us would literally die if we chose to play with the girls.
……
I returned to the workshop, but no news came throughout the whole night. Just like before, I surfed the forums instead of logging into the game.
The next day early morning, I pulled apart the curtains and was shocked by the scenery outside. The city was completely coated in silver overnight, and it was still snowing. It had been years since it snowed this heavily in Suzhou.
I could even hear Beiming Xue laughing from the balcony.
Everything was quiet and peaceful.
Unfortunately, I still didn"t hear anything from my contacts.
This inactivity lasted until the evening. My phone finally rang, and Ling Xue"s number was displayed on the screen. "h.e.l.lo? Is this Lu Chen?"
"Yes. It"s me, Ling Xue!"
"Hehe. It"s done!"
My heart leaped to my throat in joy. "Really? Did you really restore Lin Yixin"s account?"
"Mn." Ling Xue let out a chuckle. "But don"t get too happy yet. The account is restored, but all of her equipment, levels and warehouse inventory are completely reset. That being said, she still has her Famous General Skill and Divine General Skill, meaning that she can use Great Earth Transformation at Level 1! Awesome, right? We even managed to save her pet, the Ice Dragon, after considerable effort. This is a Level 0 Immortal Rank boss pet we"re talking about~~"
I was overjoyed to say the least. "That"s great, that"s great! How on earth did you do it?"
Ling Xue giggled. "Well, after Shusheng went to the New York HQ, he immediately sought out the director, Mark, and submitted a report on the latest CGL Ranking. He then threatened Mark with the fact that Lin Yixin"s was the fifth ranker on the CGL Hall of Fame and a super popular player in China, and showed him the pet.i.tion on the forums. At first, Mark didn"t budge in the slightest, but then Shusheng stayed overnight at Mark"s house and even invited a few Chinese students to start a party at his fireplace. I probably don"t need to tell you how bad it is to hear someone singing "Ke Guan Bu Ke Yi" in the middle of the night, do I? Long story short, Mark threw in the towel and agreed to restore Lin Yixin"s account, hehe!"
"Mn! Thank you, thank you!"
"It"s nothing. We take care of our own, that"s all. Well, I"m heading out for dinner now. See you again sometime!"
"Bye!"
I hung up and called Clear Perfume immediately. The moment the call got through, I said rapidly, "Qingqing, Yiyi"s account is restored, so tell me where she is already!"
"Really? It"s really restored?"
"Absolutely. The president of the southern HQ of Eternal Moon Corporation, Ling Xue herself, gave me the confirmation. What do you think?"
"Fine. You want to see Yiyi now?"
"Yeah! Do you have an address?"
"Not only that, I just came back from there, hehe. It"s closeby, in Shanghai. I"ll message you the address right away, so go!"
"Okay! Thank you so much! I"ll treat you to a meal when I"m free!"
"Mn!"
……
I hung up the call and waited. A while later, Sun Qingqing messaged me the address I requested. I informed He Yi and Beiming Xue about my outing, and all He Yi had to say was: "It"s snowing and the road"s slippery, so do NOT go over 80 mph, you hear me?"
"I know~~"
I rushed down the stairs and started the engine. Then, I vroomed straight toward the streets.
……
It was snowing heavily, so I drove at a snail"s pace and turned on every car light there was. Similar to Ling Xue and Shusheng"s place, the address was a villa in the suburbs of Shanghai.
By the time I reached Shanghai, the sky had darkened completely. The endless snow impeded my vision more than ever.
I finally reached my destination when it was past 8 pm.
Thud!
I walked out of the car, and it took only a moment for my head and scar to be covered in snow. I paid them no heed, held up the paper strip with the address written on it and searched for the villa I was looking for. Finally, I found a red villa sitting at a corner and glowing a warm light through the windows. I could see the shadows of people moving inside.
The house was made of wood and styled somewhat traditionally. Clearly, Lin Xiao was a fairly rich man.
I circled around the building once until I heard a voice from the rightmost room on the ground floor. It was Lin Yixin"s voice. "Mom, do you want some milk tea? I"ll warm one for you…"
"It"s okay. Go do your own thing!"
It"s really her!
Overjoyed, I searched around but couldn"t find anything I could give her as a present. It looks like I must resort to drastic measures...
#%@#%% later.
……
Knock knock knock…
I tapped lightly on the window to Lin Yixin"s room, and she immediately walked over to open it. Covered in snow and smiling a dumb smile on my face, I said to her the moment the window opened, "I finally found you, Yiyi…"
"Ah?! Lu Chen…" Lin Yixin stared at me with dumb shock. I couldn"t tell if she was happy, shocked or both, but I could see tears misting over her eyes.
I pointed at a heap of snow next to a fake hill behind me and asked, "You see that? Do you like it?"
Lin Yixin looked out and saw a message on the ground: "EE, I LOVE YO"
"Hmm?"
Lin Yixin tilted her cute head and asked, "Why is that "you" at the end missing a "u"? I think you"re missing an alphabet…"
I immediately blushed bright red. "Well, I ran out of p.i.s.s at the end, so…"
"You!"
Redness flushed her cheeks as she glared at me. The next moment, she surprised me by opening the window completely, stepping on the sill with her furry slippers, and jumping on top of me. As I crashed unceremoniously on the snow and found a gorgeous pair of eyes staring at me at almost zero distance, Lin Yixin said with a bright smile, "Shut up and let me kiss you first, okay?"
Me: "..."