Guide on How to Fail at Online Dating

Xiang Huaizhi had just done his daily quests for a while when he received a system prompt.

【Friend Xiao Tianjing has transferred 1200 gold to you which has been placed into a special treasury for you. Please check it without delay.】

He went to the treasury and transferred all that money to Lu Hang, along with the share of money he spent.

Afterwards, he pondered for a bit before transferring 500 gold back to Xiao Tianjin.

Although they didn't receive any item rewards from killing the Yao King, they got a lot of experience and were even given seven days of x2 experience and a buff from the Yao King. Also, since Xiao Tianjing was so good at casting her blood pools, he had barely used any of his potions, so the five hundred was equivalent to his fare for getting on her quest car.

After finishing his dailing, he was about to log off when his PM box suddenly flashed again.

Immortal Mengmeng had sent a 60s long voice message over. Xiang Huaizhi frowned and didn't even feel like opening it.

[Private Message] Yearning For: Just say what you want.

[Private Message] Immortal Mengmeng: You don't even want to listen to my voice messages anymore.

[Private Message] Immortal Mengmeng: In the past, you would insist for me to turn on my mic with you before you were even willing to sleep.

Xiang Huaizhi felt like he couldn't talk to this person at all, so he didn't plan on replying anymore.

[Private Message] Immortal Mengmeng: Now that you're sick of playing with me, you intend to go screw that Xiao Tianjing, don't you?

[Private Message] Yearning For: ?

[Private Message] Immortal Mengmeng: She's sticking to you so much, yet you find her interesting?

[Private Message] Yearning For: I'll tell you this for the last time. The one playing this account for the past few months wasn't me, the one who dated you online and met you offline wasn't me either. Don't involve me in this, and don't involve others either.

After sending that, Xiang Huaizhi logged off.

He had just turned off the computer when his phone rang. He looked at the caller ID, then went to the balcony with his phone.

It was the rainy season in Mancheng recently. Xiang Huaizhi looked at the rain outside and picked up the call. "Mum."

"Un." The sound of mahjong tiles clacking together could be heard on the other side. "Have you eaten?"

"Not yet, what about you?"

"I've eaten, I'm chatting with some of your aunties right now." Mama Xiang said, "But I saw it raining outside, so I wanted to call and ask. Does your leg still hurt?"

When Xiang Huaizhi was playing basketball a few months ago, he accidentally fell and bruised his bones. It wasn't particularly serious. Even the doctor said that he'd be fine after recuperating for half a month with a cast. However, his mother didn't think so and insisted on making him rest at home for more than two months. He was on the verge of puking from drinking so much bone soup before he was allowed back to school.

"It doesn't hurt. I just had a fall, it's not like I have rheumatism." Xiang Huaizhi leaned on the window sill. "You should worry more about Dad."

"What's there to worry about with him?" A muffled thud travelled over from the other side. "Sigh, I'm sorry ah, I won again…then Xiangxiang, Mum will hang up first. Take care in school, okay?"

Xiang Huanzhi laughed helplessly. "Got it."

The next day, Xiang Huaizhi had a full day of classes.

Lu Hang felt sleepy even though it was early in the morning and slept very soundly beside him. Before long, he began to snore.

Xiang Huaizhi smacked him awake before their professor flared up.

Lu Hang rubbed his eyes. “What is it&#k2026;is class over?”

Xiang Huaizhi said indifferently, “No, but if you continue to sleep, then don’t even think about getting credit for this course.”

Lu Hang quivered and immediately straightened his back.

“Fuck, it’s all because of that movie that lasted almost three hours. By the time I finished watching it, it was almost 4am.” Lu Hang yawned. “Crap, I’m still damn sleepy&#k2026;forget it, I’ll find something else to do.”

Then he took out his phone and began scrolling through NCH's forum.

"Ai, someone uploaded a video of you and Xiao Tianjing killing the Yao King. More than 10,000 views in one night, amazing ah brother."

Xiang Huaizhi, "Only 10,000?"

"Hei listen to that tone of yours. Other people who play server-wide PKs don't get this many views as quickly as you do." Lu Hang scrolled through and suddenly saw something. His fingertips trembled, then he exclaimed in surprise, "…what the fuck!"

The professor couldn't bear it anymore. "Student Lu Hang, if you don't want to listen to class then get out, don't bother the other students in class!'

Lu Hang, "…I was wrong, Professor."

The professor shifted their gaze. Lu Hang quickly yanked on a corner of Xiang Huaizhi's clothes and handed his phone over. "Look, quick!"

Xiang Huaizhi looked down and cast a glance at it. "What is it?"

Lu Hang, "Xiao Tianjing's big confession of courtship!"

Lu Hang, "And the one she's confessing to is you!"

Xiang Huaizhi, "…"

His line of sight finally fell upon the phone.

It was a video recording of Immortal Mengmeng's stream, which showed the conversation between Immortal Mengmeng and Xiao Tianjing in PMs.

When he saw the words "Women love bad guys", the corners of his mouth twitched, and he didn't know what expression he should wear.

Lu Hang was holding back from laughing so much his face had flushed red. "Xiang Gege, are you there?"

"There your ass." Xiang Huaizhi threw his phone back.

"What, Xiao Tianjing can call you that, but I can't?" Lu Hang pouted, "I slept with you for the past two years in vain!"

Xiang Huaizhi corrected, "We've been dormmates for two years. And she doesn't call me that."

Lu Hang, "Then what does she usually call you?"

Gege.

God of War Gege.

…it doesn't seem any better than Xiang Gege.

Xiang Huaizhi pursed his lips. "In any case, that's not what she calls me. Are you still listening to class or not? If you don't want to, get out, don't disturb my studies."

Lu Hang nodded and saved the screenshot of this chat record. "All right, you study, I'll read the comments 'kay?"

After a moment, Xiang Huaizhi put his pen down. "What're the comments saying?"

Lu Hang, "Yo, study properly, don't get distracted~"

Xiang Huaizhi glanced at him, and Lu Hang quickly said, "Okay okay okay, they didn't say much, just said that Xiao Tianjing's shameless for sticking to you bei. Oh…and someone's coming up with a story for you and Immortal Mengmeng. Honestly, it's quite realistic, and much more amazing than any of those dramas my Mum watches. Immortal Mengmeng seems so pitiful in it ah…if I didn't know the whole story, I'd sharpen my knives and fight the slag guy too."

Xiang Huaizhi, "You can't kill me."

Lu Hang, "…OK."

After class, the two of them rushed back to their dormitory after dinner.

After Xiang Huaizhi took a bath and came out, he heard Lu Hang shouting, "Are you done? Log in quick, instances refresh at 12, and we still have 3 instances that we haven't done yet!"

Xiang Huaizhi dried his hair with a towel and coldly said, "Without taking 3 healers along, you can finish in 2 hours."

"I won't anymore, I won't. I only called for two this time. I've already eliminated the other healer because her voice isn't sweet enough." Lu Hang opened up his friend list and flipped through it. "I'll call for another DPS ba…ai, at this sort of time though, almost all of my friends have played their instances."

Xiang Huaizhi turned on the computer and logged into NCH.

No sooner had he logged in than he received Xiao Tianjing's message.

[Friend] Xiao Tianjing: 0.0 Gege, why did you give me back 500 gold?

[Friend] Yearning For: Fare for getting on the Yao King express.

[Friend] Xiao Tianjing: I don't want it, I don't want it! You were the one who helped me finish it, I should be the one paying you instead ah.

[Friend] Xiao Tianjing: I'll transfer it back to you after I finish collecting herbs [touches head]

Xiang Huaizhi moved his mouse over to Xiao Tianjing's game profile.

Her coordinates showed that she was at Herb Valley.

He flew to Mount Luoxia and planned to do two quests while Lu Hang was out looking for people, only to see a five-man team walking over from his right side. What he noticed was that the titles on top of these players' names were all "Idle Pavilion Elite".

He didn't know if it was his misperception or not, but he felt like the leader seemed to either deliberately or unconsciously make a detour by leaving his field of vision after seeing him.

But in a few seconds, Xiang Huaizhi understood.

In the world of NCH, every map was interconnected. You could fly straight to some scenes, while you couldn't for others as you would need to walk into a designated portal before you could reach it.

Herb Valley was a scene that people couldn't fly straight into; it was only accessible through Mount Luoxia's portal.

"Hurry up." At that moment, someone in that party had turned on his To All mic and urged softly, "Don't let Yearning For see us. If he interferes, then we won't be able to kill shit."

"Who says it's impossible? Do you guys really think it's one-sided on Xiao Tianjing's part? Didn't you see how Yearning For helped her kill the Yao King yesterday?"

"Fuck, I actually turned on a To All mic…" The voice stopped abruptly.

Xiang Huaizhi moved his character and began helping the NPC copy a painting.

Idle Pavilion was hunting Xiao Tianjing with great fanfare. If she really wanted to avoid them, after staying in the safe area for a week, the enthusiasm of that bunch of hunters would have waned.

But she just had to be stubborn and insist on wandering around outside the safe area so frequently, so the one being killed could only admit defeat and couldn't be considered pitiful.

Just as he was thinking about it, the stubborn player sent a message over.

[Friend] Xiao Tianjing: [restores spiritual plant]

[Friend] Xiao Tianjing: Gege I dug this out!

[Friend] Xiao Tianjing: You probably need this for killing the God of War right? I'll deliver it over to you after I'm done digging [blows a kiss]

Xiang Huaizhi, "…"

What on earth was this person thinking?

He calculated a little: they'd have to walk 2 minutes to walk from here to where she was. Those five people should be arriving soon.

Forget it, it'd be good for her to get killed once too and learn a lesson. She doesn't even care about getting killed, so why should he worry?

10 seconds later.

[Friend] Yearning For: Water Demon's three instances, have you done them yet?

[Friend] Yearning For: Fly to the main city's NPC. If you don't come in 10 seconds, we'll start without you.

Jing Huan was collecting herbs in full swing and was stunned when he saw the messages.

10 seconds? Is he urging me to die ASAP?

After dissing him, he quickly interrupted his herb-collecting action to cast a spell in situ for three seconds, then whooshed back to the main city.

The five people from Idle Pavilion who had just rushed to the scene stood in place dumbstruck as they watched Xiao Tianjing fly away. They didn't snap out of their stupors for half a day.

"…"

"Fuck! Didn't I say so! Yearning For must have tipped off Xiao Tianjing! She was only halfway through collecting herbs!"

On the other end, Lu Hang flipped through his entire friend list and still couldn't find anyone. "Forget it, I'll just casually drag a passerby in from the World Channel ba. Tsk, I hate taking pubs for Water Demon instances the most, it's easy to fail with them."

"No need, I've already called someone." Xiang Huaizhi said, "Gather at the main city."

"Coming!" Lu Hang flew to the main city with two healers in his car. "I'm here, just apply to join my party. Who did you call? Warlock? Mage? Or a physical DPS?"

"Fairy Fox Cave. Pass me the leader position."

Lu Hang made him leader. "What?! Why did you call that sect over? To cheer us on? It'd be better to call another healer in that case…hold on."

He paused. "…which Fairy Fox Cave did you call?"

Right after he spoke, another person appeared in the party interface.

Familiar clothes, familiar character, and a familiar fox tail.

[Party] Xiao Tianjing: [surprise][cheer][throws flowers]

[Party] Xiao Tianjing: Good evening everyone [blows a kiss]