“Chen Yi?!” Yu You’an had been lying comfortably on the bed, scrolling through Bilibili. She was watching a compilation of awkward acting moments from the entertainment industry and laughing so hard she doubled over, completely lost in it and oblivious to everything else. When she heard someone swipe a keycard to enter the room, she looked up from her screen toward the sound.
It was Chen Yi who had returned.
She looked utterly bedraggled, soaked to the skin from head to toe, with a towel from a hotel staff member draped over her shoulders to catch the rainwater streaming down from her hair. Chen Yi had tried at first to dry her hair with it, but it was hopeless.
Her whole body was hunched over, her head hanging low in dejection.
Yu You’an clearly remembered how radiant Chen Yi had looked when she stepped out the door earlier—not exactly strutting proudly with her chest puffed out, but certainly brimming with eager excitement. And now, after just a short outing, she had come back looking like a drowned rat. It was just like a pretty little white dog heading out all pristine, only to roll around in the mud and return covered in filth.
Most importantly, Chen Yi had completely lost her usual spark. She swiped her card to open the door and shuffled inside like a walking corpse, her eyes glazed and unfocused.
Yu You’an’s heart skipped a beat. She set her tablet aside, scrambled off the bed, grabbed a towel from the bathroom for Chen Yi, and asked, “What happened? Are you okay?”
Chen Yi shook her head.
She didn’t claim everything was fine; she simply had no words left. She had already poured out so much back at Xu Yan’s place that it felt like she had emptied her entire vocabulary.
After a brief pause, Chen Yi rasped to Yu You’an, “I’m going to take a shower first.”
Yu You’an agreed and quickly set about boiling hot water for her.
The hotel didn’t provide a kettle; this one was something Yu You’an had bought back home and checked in her luggage.
It was a classic Chinese habit—when anything went wrong, you needed a sip of hot water to steady your nerves. At least, that was how Yu You’an felt.
She bustled around outside.
From Chen Yi’s appearance, she could guess that the meeting hadn’t gone well.
Yu You’an felt a pang of sympathy for her friend.
In the bathroom, Chen Yi stood under the cascading shower water.
She washed away every trace of wetness from her body, but she couldn’t rinse away the profound sense of loss weighing on her heart.
When she emerged from the bathroom again, Yu You’an had already prepared a cup of ginger tea for her.
The steaming mug warmed her palms as she held it, and Yu You’an’s gaze brimmed with concern.
Chen Yi couldn’t hold back any longer. She broke down and started crying.
Truth be told, she wasn’t the type to cry easily. She might shed tears a handful of times in a year, usually from sheer joy or from being moved by a scene in a movie or drama.
She seldom cried out of sadness.
But ever since she had gotten tangled up with Xu Yan, she had burned through her entire annual allotment of tears.
At a complete loss, Yu You’an grabbed some tissues to help wipe away the tears, then asked cautiously, “What happened?”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Chen Yi didn’t respond, sobbing so hard she could barely catch her breath. Yu You’an stopped pressing and simply pulled her into a hug, gently patting her back.
“It’s okay,” Yu You’an soothed. “There are plenty of women in the world. We don’t have to pin all our hopes on one.”
Those words only made Chen Yi cry even louder.
Once Chen Yi had cried herself out, Yu You’an ventured, “So, about our trip tomorrow… um, are we still going?”
Chen Yi sniffled. “Yeah! I need to clear my head!”
“Yu You’an, I think I just got my heart broken.”
Hearing that, Yu You’an found the whole situation strangely poignant.
Back when Chen Yi had first fallen for someone, she had announced, “Yu You’an, I think I’m falling in love.” The phrasing was the same; only the core had flipped from love to heartbreak.
But how could a single meeting trigger such a massive turnaround?
Did it fizzle out the moment they met in person?
Yu You’an desperately wanted to ask, but she knew Chen Yi wouldn’t open up, so she let it drop. Instead, they dove into planning tomorrow’s itinerary together.
Little by little, amid the mundane conversation, Chen Yi’s emotions began to steady.
Su Dai messaged her too, checking in across the time difference to ask how things had gone with her girlfriend that day.
Chen Yi replied that it hadn’t gone well.
Su Dai called immediately, firing off a barrage of questions in a nonstop stream.
Chen Yi couldn’t answer them one by one—at least not with Yu You’an right there.
It involved Xu Yan, and she wasn’t ready for things to escalate that far. She didn’t want Xu Yan’s image in Yu You’an’s eyes to turn bizarre. Even a whisper getting out would set company gossip ablaze.
“Fine, you don’t have to talk if you don’t want to right now,” Su Dai rambled from the other end of the line. She started by badmouthing Fade, then shifted to comforting Chen Yi.
Chen Yi listened as she always did, and suddenly it hit her just how fortunate she was. No matter what happened or when, there was always someone to catch her—her parents, her friends, over and over. But what about Xu Yan? If something like this had happened to her today, would she confide in someone? Who would that be?
For some inexplicable reason, her thoughts circled back to Xu Yan.
Chen Yi forced herself to stop.
She resolved to relax thoroughly over the next few days, to find distractions and redirect her focus. Otherwise, she feared she would plunge irretrievably into the swirling vortex that was Xu Yan.
The next day, as Yu You’an and Chen Yi got ready to head out—their plans already reported to Xu Yan—Yu You’an still hemmed and hawed over whether to say goodbye to her in person.
Chen Yi stayed quiet.
Whenever Xu Yan came up, she played dead.
Fortunately, what had transpired between her and Xu Yan was so wildly improbable that no one would ever suspect it. Yu You’an had no inkling that Xu Yan was the online flame who had crashed and burned upon meeting in real life. She simply assumed Chen Yi was nursing romantic wounds, too dispirited for work, much less for dealing with the boss.
From another perspective, if she herself had just been dumped, she wouldn’t want to lay eyes on her boss either.
In the end, Yu You’an sent Xu Yan a message letting her know they were about to depart, along with some polite formalities.
Xu Yan took a long time to reply: Have fun, you two.
She added that, due to work commitments, she would be flying back home early. Xu Yan and Yu You’an could stick to the original return schedule.
Seeing the message, Yu You’an remarked with a sigh, “Chief Editor Xu sure is busy.”
Chen Yi lowered her eyes.
She knew Xu Yan’s early return probably had less to do with work and more to do with avoiding her.
The realization sent her heart plummeting into darkness.
When the two reported back at the office after returning home, they learned Xu Yan hadn’t shown up for work those past few days.
Puzzled, Yu You’an said, “Huh? But she mentioned coming back early for work matters.”
The HR rep handling their travel reimbursements replied, “Did she? Well, she put in for a week’s vacation.”
That was when Chen Yi finally chimed in on the topic of Xu Yan.
“Did she give a reason?”
HR shook her head. “Nope.”
“But hey, it’s probably for the best, right? You two might not have realized, but Chief Editor Xu hasn’t taken a single day off since she started here. Zero annual leave. She even works through public holidays sometimes. When she messaged me a couple of days ago about using her vacation days, I nearly fell over. Thought her account had been hacked.”
Chen Yi leaned on HR’s desk, her fingertips digging into the surface so hard it seemed they might burrow right through.
So Xu Yan had upended her own habits just to dodge her? Was avoiding her really worth going to such extremes? Was she some heinous plague or horrifying beast? And hadn’t Xu Yan’s poker face been flawless before? They crossed paths at the office every day, and she played it off without a hitch.
Sweet “baby” nicknames online, total indifference face-to-face.
Now she couldn’t even fake it through one meeting?
And what was Xu Yan’s plan for tying up these loose ends?
Quit her job?
Chen Yi’s mind raced through a parade of grim possibilities. Then it struck her: she and Xu Yan still had their in-game connection.
After several days, Chen Yi finally made it home and booted up her computer. The Miracle icon glowed to life.
Inside the game, Xu Yan was still on her friends list.
Fade. Last online three days ago.
The name now stirred entirely new feelings in Chen Yi. The image it conjured in her mind was no longer that of a virtual beauty in red silk, but Xu Yan herself—the commanding one, the composed one, the disheveled one, the awkward one…
Her head was filled with her.
Chen Yi shook her head sharply, banishing the flashes from her thoughts.
Scrolling down Xu Yan’s profile, she saw their soulmate bond was intact, as was their master-disciple relationship.
Xu Yan hadn’t cut the ties herself.
Chen Yi wasn’t sure if she should be the one to pull the trigger.
She had every reason to—she had been the one deceived from beginning to end—but even so, she couldn’t bring herself to do it.
Maybe just leave things as they were.
Worst case, she could quit playing.
Chen Yi thought.
She was about to log off when she noticed 【A Smile Captures the City】 light up in her friends list.
Chen Yi wasn’t sure how much this “little niece” knew about her and Xu Yan’s mess.
Given Xu Yan’s track record of hiding so much from her, she couldn’t even confirm whether this person was truly her niece.
After a moment’s hesitation, Chen Yi gave in to temptation and probed indirectly.
【Sister Don’t Hit Me】: hi, how come your little aunt hasn’t been at work lately?
【A Smile Captures the City】 replied almost instantly.
【A Smile Captures the City】: Vegetable Sister!!
【A Smile Captures the City】: How’d you know my little aunt hasn’t been working? Oh! Did she tell you?
Sister Don’t Hit Me: Hmm—
A Smile Captures the City: That’s strange. Didn’t she tell you anything else? You had no idea? My little aunt came down with a fever.
A Smile Captures the City immediately started sending voice messages.
“Ah, didn’t she go on that business trip to France a while back? The moment she got off the plane when she returned, she headed straight to the hospital. They said she was on the verge of collapse. She was only discharged today and is recuperating at home now.”
“Ahh! Vegetable Sister!! Hold on!!! When did you marry my little aunt?? I’ve barely logged into the game this month because of midterms, so how did you two—how did you—”
Xu Yixiao unleashed a barrage of voice messages.
She rattled on and on, but Chen Yi couldn’t hear a word.
Chen Yi typed out her questions one word at a time.
Sister Don’t Hit Me: Discharged?
Sister Don’t Hit Me: Was it serious?
“It was just a fever that lasted a few days—over 104 degrees every day. It scared the hell out of me back then, but she’s doing better now!”
“Oh, right, Vegetable Sister, aren’t you in A City too? Now that you two are married, why don’t you come over and visit my little aunt?”
Sister Don’t Hit Me: Which unit in xxx neighborhood? Room number?
Xu Yixiao blurted out the address without thinking.
Then it hit her: Holy shit! How did Vegetable Sister know what neighborhood they lived in?
Had her little aunt already told Vegetable Sister?
Vegetable Sister’s latest message flashed across the screen.
She wrote: I’ll be there in five minutes.
Xu Yixiao was stunned.
Five minutes?! Vegetable Sister, are you flying over?! Ahh—she hadn’t even explained things to her little aunt yet!!
