A Slight Smile is Very Charming (微微一笑很倾城) : Part 37

Part 37: Flowers Blooming

The heatwave in City B has gone on for a few days now.  Even when it’s nighttime, the temperature does not go down a degree.

The conference finally ends at 6pm.  YuGong follows Xiao Nai to the office, wanting to tag along for dinner.  After taking a seat on the sofa leisurely, YuGong asks frivolously, “Hey, so you and our department’s beauty are just going to live in two different cities?”

Xiao Nai walks behind to his desk, leans over slightly, and starts typing on his keyboard, “Our relationship is not to that degree yet.  It’s unjustified. What do you want me to do?”

Would you listen to that?!

Those words!  That tone!

It’s finally your turn to be in pain!

YuGong is elated and can’t suppress the joyous feeling, but he carefully restrains himself from revealing it.  The fellow in front of him is too smart, and he still owes him a couple hundred bucks.

“Sigh, this is quite depressing.” YuGong shows his sympathy.  Just as he is about to say “let us two unfortunate people have dinner together,” he sees Xiao Nai shut down his computer and looking like he is about to leave.  YuGong suddenly panics.

“You’re leaving so soon today?”

“Mm.”

“Where are you going?”

“Getting married and having kids.”

At the same time in City W, there is a rainstorm happening.  In the study room of a luxurious house, Wei Wei is tutoring a little boy on a middle school problem.

“Draw a line to connect the corners first, then one here.  Now we can write the equations……and then we can substitute it into the formula……solve it like this……got it?”

The little boy shakes his head almost in tears.  He looks at Wei Wei in confusion.

“Eh, it’s okay.  Let’s go over it again.”

 

When Wei Wei returned home last week, before she even had spent enough time catching up with her parents, her dad sent her off to tutor his factory’s boss’s son.  At the same time, her dad dismissed her desire to get a new cell phone, saying that she could buy one after she made enough money from tutoring.

Wei Wei can’t help but feel sour in her heart from just thinking about it.  If she knew that this would happen, she wouldn’t have given all her scholarship money to them.  Good thing that this kid is not naughty and difficult to teach.

 

After explaining things in another way, the little boy understands it.  She explains two other questions to him and the rain finally stops.  Wei Wei bids goodbye and leaves.

The sun peeks over the clouds after the rainstorm, but its shining power has been greatly reduced.  The air carries the cool and refreshing scent from after the rain.  In the cool night breeze, Wei Wei rides on her bike wearing a green straw hat.  She passes through the windy streets and hurries home.

There is something very important to do today.

 

It’s almost 7pm after she finishes eating dinner and washing the dishes.  Wei Wei says goodnight to her mom and dad and heads to her bedroom.  She puts on her earphones, opens the computer, and logs into the game.  The Great Master is already online.

Wei Wei adjusts the microphone, “How long have you been online?  It was raining hard today, so I got home late.”

Wei Wei is using voice chat.

Back when she was in the dorm, they only typed messages to each other as she didn’t want to disturb her roommates.  Now that she is home, it’s better to use whichever is more convenient; there’s a living room between hers and her parents’ bedroom, so nothing can be heard after she closes her door.

Xiao Nai replies, “I just got on.”

“Oh, should we go get married now?”

 

What Wei Wei means is obviously not for them to get married, but for their spiritual tigers.

Besides doing chores, Wei Wei has been leveling-up her pet.  Although pets can get married at level 30, the pets’ characteristics and skills may impact the quality of their next generation.  Therefore, Wei Wei has been leveling-up her pet until it reached its max level before letting it marry the Great Master’s little kitten.

Pets getting married are very simple; they just need to receive a blessing from the God of the Beasts.  However, the wedding night is rather troublesome.

First, they need a bridechamber.

Pets also have dignity; there’s no way that they would mate in broad daylight, therefore, players must build them a bridechamber in their home.  Wei Wei and Xiao Nai have been splitting up the tasks; Wei Wei works on leveling up her pet while Xiao Nai buys bricks to build the bridechamber.

Besides that, it has to be nighttime after 8pm.

As mentioned before, pets also have dignity; they will not indulge in lascivious acts in daytime.  Everything must be done secretly at night.

As long as these two criteria are satisfied, alright, they can begin their wedding night.

 

Wei Wei and NaiHe bring their pets together to get married.  Once it’s 8pm, they send them to their bridechamber.

According to what other players have said on the forum, the scene of their pets’ wedding night is very perverted.  The house will shake continuously with pink hearts floating above it.

But Wei Wei is not lucky enough to see it because just when they send their pets off to the bridechamber, the system alerts her——

“Sorry, your pet has not been born for more than 150 hours.  It is considered a minor.  Therefore, it cannot proceed with XXX.”

Can this game be more twisted?  It’s already at a level for getting married, yet it can’t proceed with the wedding night?  The system shows its shameless act again!

Wei Wei gapes with her eyes wide open for a bit, and then asks Xiao Nai, “Dream Voyage 2 won’t be this twisted, right?”

“No.”

Xiao Nai denies right away.  After a few seconds, he says slowly, “With this level……”

 

Wei Wei can only keep silent.

Continue to be silent.

 

Wei Wei hears familiar footsteps coming toward her door, so she says, “My mom is coming,” and quickly pulls her earphones off and pretends to be browsing on the internet.

Mrs. Bei gives a few knocks on the door and enters.  Her hands are held high as she goes straight to Wei Wei’s face; she rubs her face while saying, “There are so many things for girls to learn, why learn computers?  I heard that if you look at computers too much, your face will become square shaped.  Radiation is also bad for your skin, so you should put more moisturizers on before going on the web……”

Wei Wei has long gotten used to this, so she lets her mom rub and pinch her face all she likes.  She only argues back, “Then you shouldn’t let me wash the dishes.  The dishwashing soap is not good for the skin.”

Mrs. Bei says, “Why don’t you wash the vegetables then?”

The Bei Family divides up their tasks very clearly when it comes to dinner.  Wei Wei’s mom washes the vegetables, her dad is the cook, and Wei Wei washes the dishes.  Wei Wei really hates washing the dishes, but washing vegetables……

It’s better to wash dishes.

Mrs. Bei overrules her daughter’s unreasonable request and feels satisfied.  She leaves after helping Wei Wei put on some night cream.  And the moment the door closes, Wei Wei shouts, “Mom, you should watch less TV.  TV is also square shaped.”

 

Wei Wei puts her earphones back on.  The Great Master is quiet on the other end.  Wei Wei asks, “What are you doing?”

“Studying a dishwashing machine.”

“……”

Xiao Nai clarifies, “I don’t like washing dishes either.”

“……You eavesdropped on us.”

“Mm, I don’t mind listening openly.”

Wei Wei clears her throat, “……If the buds of revolution is exposed too early, it will be destroyed.”

Wei Wei has not told her parents about Xiao Nai.  Putting aside the fact that her dad opposes her being in a relationship while she is in university, her mom loves to get to the bottom of everything and flaunts to others.  If she tells them, all her relatives will know that she has a boyfriend within two to three days.

 

Xiao Nai corrects her, “Wei Wei, buds rely on photosynthesis.  It’s bean sprouts that don’t need sunlight.”

……Dry.  The Great Master sure is the Great Master.  Even his lame jokes are on a Godly level.  It gives people goosebumps even on a summer day like this.

“You sure you didn’t turn on the air conditioner?”

>o<

Okay, hers are just as lame……

Wei Wei quits chatting with him, “I’ll bring my tiger to increase its play time.  You can go busy yourself with other things.”

“Mm.”

 

This is how they’ve been these days; they wear their earphones and talk when they want to, or continue with what they’re doing when they don’t talk.  He’s always coding his programs on his end, while Wei Wei either levels-up her pet, watches movies, or reads the programming books that she brought back.

They sometimes don’t say a word for half an hour, but it never feels awkward.

Er Xi despises their way of communication, saying that it’s such a bore that they’re still stuck with online gaming.  She believes that they should at least go on a trip together to a place with beautiful sceneries or something.

Wei Wei doesn’t feel the same way; what’s wrong with online gaming?  There are mountains, rivers, and the Great Master too.  It’s clearly very beautiful and heavenly like.

And it saves long distance calling fees >o<

 

Listening to the Great Master’s rhythmic sound of typing, Wei Wei walks her tiger around in the game to gain its play time.

Speaking of the Great Master, it’s not easy for him.  He often has to code or work on the project’s planning until very late at night.  If they would just follow the market’s trend in making the game, it would be a lot simpler, and they wouldn’t need an expert like Xiao Nai to do hands on stuff for it.  He would only need to split up and delegate the tasks to others.  But if the goal is to be innovative, he will definitely need to spend a lot of effort in producing a new engine and write the main infrastructure of the program.

Perhaps, a genius will always have to work harder than normal people.

 

After playing the game for a while, Mr. Bei, the glutton, calls Wei Wei to come out to eat some wontons that he cooked.  Her mom watches bitterly as she eats until her stomach is full and then returns to her room.  She praises her dad’s cooking skill in front of the Great Master and then asks what Xiao Nai had for dinner.

The Great Master answers, “I forgot, but I’m a bit hungry now.”

Just as Wei Wei is going to tell him to go grab some food, she remembers that the Great Master’s parents are on some trip to excavate historical remains; so he’s alone at home.

Wei Wei thinks for a moment, opens a crack on her door to take a peek to confirm that there’s no one in the living room, and then quietly moves over to grab the phone and dials long distance.  She sneaks back afterwards and asks Xiao Nai, “You have change, right?”

The keyboard tapping doesn’t stop as he continues working while chatting with her, “Hm?”

“Nothing.”

Thirty minutes later, Xiao Nai says, “Someone is knocking, let me go see.”

Wei Wei smiles.

Another ten minutes later, she hears him picking up the earphones.

“You called take out?”

“Yeah, the beef rice at this place is not bad,” Wei Wei says in satisfaction, “How come you were gone for so long?”

“I didn’t have change, so I had to ask next door.”

Wei Wei ::sweats::

Xiao Nai laughs, “You know who’s my next door neighbour?”

“……It can’t be the principal, right?”

“It’s the dean of our department.”

……

……

 

Their on and off random chatting continues until 11pm.  Wei Wei’s mom, who finishes watching TV, hurries her to bed.  But she can’t seem to fall asleep, so she gets up.

In the quiet night and under the sea of stars, Wei Wei rests her arms on the window-sill and hums a melody while gazing at the moon.

 

It’s the most ordinary day in the midst of summer, but she can feel happiness even from minor and usual things.

 

At the end of the month, daddy Great Master and mommy Wei Wei finally welcome a newborn cub.  However, the cub’s quality is poor and its characteristics are extremely bad.  Although coupling spiritual pets does not necessarily reproduce a spiritual pet, the level that this one is at is beyond bad.  This must be what it means when things reach an extreme, they can only move in the opposite direction (idiom).

Many players throw away garbage cubs reproduced by their pets, but Wei Wei can’t bear to do that.  She finds elixirs to help improve the cub’s characteristics a bit.

Wei Wei completes tutoring for a month after a couple of days.  Wei Wei, who has become tanned from running to and from her student’s place, receives a paycheck of 2000 RMB; she quickly buys a new cell phone with it.

Wei Wei is very efficient in buying a cell phone.

No need to choose the brand, she’ll just buy the same as the Great Master.

No need to choose the model, she’ll just get the same as his.

As for color, the Great Master’s is white, so she’ll get a pink one.

Mm, she is definitely not trying to get couple cell phones!  It’s just that……she trusts the Great Master’s taste, that’s all ^_^

 

On her way home, Wei Wei keeps thinking of what to text the Great Master; it’ll be her first text message on the cell phone, so it has to be meaningful.

An idea springs into Wei Wei’s mind when she arrives home, so she sends the following message:

“It’s the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s Gui corporation.  To express our gratitude, we have held a drawing.  Your number has been picked for third prize, which is a laptop.  After you’ve deposit $1000 for taxes and administration fees, we will deliver the prize to you via expedited mail.”

 

Every time Er Xi receives one of these ridiculous text messages, she always has to recite it to everyone at the dorm.  After listening to so many of them, Wei Wei doesn’t even need to think before typing one.  For the sake of authenticity, Wei Wei flips out her bank card and copies her account number exactly to the text.

After finishing typing the text and admiring her work, Wei Wei sends it out proudly.  Hehheh, the Great Master will definitely think that it’s a spam message and delete it.  She’ll tell him later at night that it was her who sent it; it’ll definitely be fun to hear his reaction.

 

Since it’s obvious that no one would reply to these types of messages, Wei Wei goes to eat dinner after sending it.  While eating, she thinks about how she will blame him for deleting her message——you actually didn’t reply and deleted my message!

Wei Wei feels joyful just from thinking about it.

 

Unexpectedly, her cell phone’s message alert suddenly sounds.  She hasn’t even told anyone about her new number yet, who would send her a message?  Wei Wei takes a look curiously.

 

Sender: 777795559

 

What’s this?

Clicks open.

 

“Hello Bei Wei Wei!  Xiao Nai has transferred $1000 into your account with the last four digits: XXXX, via online banking.”

 

Wei Wei is dumbstruck.

Disregarding her parents’ strange gazes, Wei Wei grabs her phone and goes hide in her room to make a call.  The call is answered quickly.  Wei Wei says first thing, “Why did you actually transfer money?  It was fake.”

Wei Wei is really embarrassed.

Xiao Nai chuckles and says softly, “I know it was your prank.”

Wei Wei shivers in her heart and doesn’t know what to say.  After a long while, she asks, “How did you know that it was me?”

“I checked where the number was from.  It was from the same city as you.”

Oh……

“Do you check the location every time you get a fraud message?”

Great Master, what kind of habit is this?

“No, it’s just that the account number you provided looked familiar, so I decided to check.  Wei Wei, your pranking technique is not up to par.  You didn’t even provide the name for the transfer.”

Xiao Nai still has the heart to point out her mistakes.

Wei Wei is speechless.  So it turns out that was the loophole, but she has only used the card once at school to withdraw money; she has only taken it out once in front of him, yet he has already remembered it?

She’s really defeated by him!

“Go buy a plane ticket.”

“You knew it was me and you still transferred the money……”

Wei Wei is stunned.

On the other end of the phone in City B, Xiao Nai leans on the back of his chair at his office.  His eyes rest on a pot of cactus blooming with flowers; looking at the yellow flower petals, Xiao Nai’s gaze becomes gentle.

“Wei Wei, the flowers are blooming, will you come back now?” (you have been home long enough, it’s time to come back.)