A Slight Smile is Very Charming (微微一笑很倾城) : Part 18

Part 18: The Finals

ButterflyDreams greets Wei Wei: “Wei Wei.”

Wei Wei: “ButterflyDreams, you’re also in the competition?”

ButterflyDreams: “Yeah, of course I have to take part in such a big competition.”

 

The two chat for a little.  Although Wei Wei and BattleTheWorld aren’t on good terms, she won’t let this get in the way of her friendship with ButterflyDreams; it looks like ButterflyDreams also feels the same way.

They are in a competition nonetheless, so they don’t chat for long; the battle begins after the 3-minute wait.

ButterflyDreams isn’t an expert in PK battles, so she isn’t on the leaderboard.  Her skill used to be above Wei Wei’s, but since she hasn’t been playing for a while, Wei Wei has caught to her with all her equipment upgrades.  Therefore, their skill level is on par.

As a result, ASmileNaiHe and BattleTheWorld are the deciding factor on which side will win.

The winning couple of this round cannot be more obvious.

After the PK battle, ButterflyDreams sends a private message: “Wei Wei, let’s find a place to talk.”

Wei Wei sends a nodding head smiley.

The points accumulation battle rounds end for the day.  Wei Wei and ButterflyDreams find a quiet spot to chat.

The purpose of the chat is simple; ButterflyDreams wants to invite her to rejoin the guild, but Wei Wei shakes her head to decline the offer, saying that she has many upcoming exams, so she doesn’t want to spend too much time on gaming.

ButterflyDreams doesn’t force her after that.

It’s been a long time since ButterflyDreams has logged in, so the two of them don’t have many things to talk about.  After an awkward moment of silence, Wei Wei remembers the rumor that StormGoddessNiNi told her about; she hesitates on whether to say it out or not.  Although being a busybody on somebody else’s family matters isn’t good, it’s even worse to keep the truth from a friend, so she says reticently: “There’s something that I’ve heard about……”

Wei Wei hasn’t even finished her sentence and ButterflyDreams already knows exactly what she wants to say: “You want to talk about LittleRainQingQing, right?”

Wei Wei is a little surprised: “You know about it?”

ButterflyDreams says: “Of course.  Don’t worry, I will take care of her.”

She sends over a smiley and continues: “My relationship with BattleTheWorld is not something that she can destroy easily.  I’ve never told you before, but we’re actually dating in real life.  Otherwise, I wouldn’t have asked him to help me take care of the guild.”

In real life?

Wei Wei is stunned but knows that it’s not her place to say anything more.  After all, she has never been in a love relationship, so she really doesn’t know what to say.

ButterflyDreams will probably be fine since she sounds confident about it.

 

From end of May to beginning of June, Wei Wei spends her time slashing her sword and reading ABCD.  In the gaming world, she and NaiHe make it to the local server’s final, while in real life, classmate Wei Wei lets out a sigh as she throws away her examination paper.

“I don’t have anymore past examination papers to do!  So lonely!”

Pillows are thrown at her the minute she says this.

Wei Wei grins as she hugs Xiao Ling’s big and soft pillow while logging into the game.  The time is 7:30pm, which is exactly the time that the Great Master said that he would log in at yesterday.

NaiHe is already online.  Since it’s close to 8pm, there’s not enough time for them to complete a quest, so they ride a white eagle around the game to enjoy the sceneries.

Today is the local server’s couple PK competition final.

Their opponents are UnawakenedButterflyDreams and BattleTheWorld, whom they have seen before in the points accumulation rounds already.

 

At almost 8pm, they ride the white eagle back to Chang’an.  An announcement appears as they are just about to set themselves up as a team to enter the battle arena.

[System bot]: “UnawakenedButterflyDreams and BattleTheWorld’s love has broken and are now divorced.  They no longer have any ties together.”

 

Wei Wei is in shock as she thinks that she didn’t read it properly.  After rereading it a few times to confirm, she sends a message to ButterflyDreams, but the message is rejected.

ButterflyDreams has set her account to decline all messages.

However, she receives a message from StormGoddessNiNi, sounding rather anxious: “Wei Wei, what’s going on?  Why are BattleTheWorld and Guild Master ButterflyDreams divorced the moment I log in?!!!!”

Wei Wei: “I don’t know either.  I can’t message her.  She is declining all messages.”

StormGoddessNiNi: “Let me ask the others in the guild.”

She comes back and says angrily: “I knew it!  It’s because of LittleRainQingQing, that b*tch!”

 

Many have also started discussing the news on the world channel.

The competition was considered the highlight of the day, but now that this has come up, it’s hard for others not to discuss.  An insider discloses furtively that BattleTheWorld and ButterflyDreams are divorced because of LittleRainQingQing; ButterflyDreams wanted to kick LittleRainQingQing out of the guild, but BattleTheWorld did not agree, so they had an argument.

The discussions goes even further once the inside scoop was out.  Some quickly links the event to LittleRainYaoYao; a female player says: “Didn’t LittleRainYaoYao steal WeiWei’s husband before?  I’m confused.  How come the LittleRain clan is specialized in doing these things?”

The anti-LittleRain clan members also appear.

[World][LittleRainYaoYaoIsShameless 277]: “LittleRain clan!  The third person clan!  They specialize in stealing others’ husbands!  LittleRain clan!  The third person clan!  They specialize in stealing others’ husbands!  LittleRain clan!  The third person clan!  They specialize in stealing others’ husbands!……”

………

…..

It’s like a riot.

 

Now that there is no competition, NaiHe logs off saying that he has other things to do.  Wei Wei doesn’t log off after him like she usually does and stays online.  She continues to try messaging ButterflyDreams but with no success.  ButterflyDreams’s name soon turns grey.  She has gone offline.

Wei Wei stares at the greyed-out name and remembers how confident ButterflyDreams was last time; she can’t help but feel a little sad.  Coincidently, she hears Xiao Ling criticizing that online relationships are fragile and unreliable, so she adds her support, “Yeah, online relationships are too undependable.”

Xiao Ling pounces over in tears, “Oh Wei Wei, you’re finally listening!”

Xiao Ling has been talking for the Nth time about what she heard, saw online, and read in the news about people getting deceived from online relationships; it’s all for warning Wei Wei not to be swindled by a bad guy online, but Wei Wei hasn’t shown her any reactions for the past few days.  Her effort doesn’t go to waste as Wei Wei finally listens!

Xiao Ling is moved by herself; see how great of a roommate she is?  She is simply too rare and unrivaled!  But Wei Wei immediately says in confusion, “What have I finally listened to?”

Xiao Ling can’t believe her ears.  What?  So it’s a lost effort after all?  She decides not to beat around the bush anymore and says directly, “I’m talking about online relationships.”

“Online relationships?”

Xiao Ling nods and looks at Wei Wei in the eye.

Wei Wei looks back at her.  After a moment of staring, Wei Wei stuffs the big pillow that she is holding into Xiao Ling’s embrace, “Here’s your pillow back.”

She shuts her computer and crawls into bed, leaving Xiao Ling feeling helpless.

Wei Wei stares at the ceiling while lying on the bed and hugging her own pillow.

Online relationships~~~

Mm, online relationships are very bad!

But what does it have to do with her?~~~

Sleep, sleep!

 

Due to ButterflyDreams and BattleTheWorld’s divorce, Wei Wei and NaiHe advance by default to the next round of elimination for all servers.

The next elimination round is between the top couples of each server; Wei Wei and NaiHe’s opponents will have higher skills than the ones they have fought against before.  Nonetheless, they are also a top couple with matching avatar types and are very compatible; they fight their way to the competition finals for all servers.

The day before the finals, NaiHe says before logging out: “I have a dinner to go to tomorrow, so I might be a little late.”

Wei Wei nods: “Mm (big smiley face), I’ll come on later too.”

Wei Wei has already gotten used to asking the Great Master when he will be logging in the next day, and that will be the time she logs in.  She feels bored if she logs in while the Great Master is not online.

NaiHe: “7:30pm the latest.”

Wei Wei: “Okay.”

At 7:30pm the next day, NaiHe doesn’t show up.