After getting off work and heading home that day, Chen Yi glanced at the game notifications on her phone. She felt like the sun must have risen in the west.
Heaven must have taken pity on her for the torment she’d endured at the office, sending the angel Fade to rescue her.
The moment she logged in, Fade asked if she wanted to run a dungeon.
As if Chen Yi would ever say no.
Sister Don’t Hit Me: Da da da da~ Let’s go go go~~~
Fade: Pull me.
Without a word, Chen Yi added Fade to her party.
She opened voice chat. “F, you’re online super early today.”
Fade was rarely around at this hour.
Fade typed: Really?
Chen Yi: “Yeah.”
“Still got that cold? Throat any better?”
Fade: Yeah, stuck to typing today. You mind?
Chen Yi: “Not at all! I’m just happy to play with you. Voice chat’s optional!”
Chen Yi: “Dailies first?”
Fade agreed.
The two dove into duo queuing for dungeons.
Fade’s skills had improved by leaps and bounds, and Chen Yi was always on point. Sure, she played the occasional newbie or damsel in distress around Fade, but she never faltered when it mattered.
They wrapped up a four-player dungeon, and Chen Yi was about to pull Fade out when one of the random teammates suddenly posted in the public channel.
Under the Smoky Rain Tower: Hey hey, Sister Don’t Hit Me—you’re still a sprout, huh? Wanna take a master? How about me?
As mentioned before, this game marked newbies with a little sprout on their avatar’s head. Players called them sprouts. Teaming up with one and forming a master-apprentice bond gave veterans bonuses to experience, resources—even better equipment drop rates.
Sprouts were hot commodities, and ones with solid skills and game sense like Chen Yi were especially prized.
Under the Smoky Rain Tower had a good eye for talent.
In the span of one dungeon, he’d spotted Chen Yi’s potential and fired off the invite in public chat.
Sister Don’t Hit Me: Thanks, but no thanks for now.
Under the Smoky Rain Tower: Why not? Bro’ll carry you /winky face
Under the Smoky Rain Tower: Ohhh, is the one next to you your master?
Chen Yi maneuvered her character to glance at Fade standing beside her.
She quickly typed an explanation that she and Fade were just friends—but Fade’s message beat her to it.
Fade: No.
Two simple words, purely factual. Yet for some reason, Chen Yi felt inexplicably irritated. It was like Fade couldn’t wait to clear up any connection between them.
Chen Yi typed after her.
Sister Don’t Hit Me: Right, not.
Almost instantly, another message from Fade popped up in the public channel.
Fade: Not master. She calls me wife.
Chen Yi froze.
The other two players in the dungeon froze too.
Under the Smoky Rain Tower looked the most awkward: Well damn, couple alert. I’m out.
With him gone, only Fade and Chen Yi remained in the dungeon.
It was the Church Dungeon. After defeating the boss, the surroundings shifted to a dilapidated chapel. Sunlight streamed through the stained-glass windows, casting colorful patterns across their characters. The statue of the saint loomed precariously, on the verge of toppling. Cracks marred the ceiling frescoes, letting in shafts of faint light.
The woman in red stood beside the girl in her black combat suit.
For a subtle moment, the digital world seemed to pause. Neither typed. Neither spoke.
If not for the network speed widget ticking away in the corner of her screen, Chen Yi might have thought she’d disconnected.
She didn’t dare use voice chat, afraid her voice would betray too much. After agonizing over it, she sent: F Sis—nice one!
Sister Don’t Hit Me: Joke’s on. Dudes, step aside.
Fade: What joke?
Sister Don’t Hit Me: Like…… calling you wife?
Fade: Didn’t she?
Chen Yi racked her brain. Had she? When? She didn’t have the guts!
Wait—
Pulling a sour face, Chen Yi typed: Sis, you’re not still mad about that, are you?!
Too flustered to type anymore, she switched on voice chat.
“Sis, I explained already—I didn’t mean it that way. I just hit send too fast. Don’t be mad, okay? Pretty please?”
Chen Yi had a lovely voice, which was why fans lined up every day to watch her streams.
When she unconsciously wheedled, it was even cuter.
Xu Yan was noticing it for the first time.
She lounged against the back seat of the car, clutching a black-and-white checkered pillow. Around them, vehicles crawled through rush-hour gridlock, horns blaring with frustration.
The driver said worriedly, “Miss Xu, it might be a bit before we reach Xitu Lanya Restaurant.”
Xu Yan: “It’s fine.”
The driver snuck a glance in the rearview mirror.
Miss Xu had been glued to her phone since she got in. Who knew what she was up to.
What else would Xu Yan be doing?
Playing games with the kid—and fishing for the intel she wanted.
She typed idly.
Fade: Not mad.
A sly, foxlike glint flickered in Xu Yan’s eyes.
Fade: Just a joke. Why so nervous?
Chen Yi’s heart fluttered wildly.
Seeing Fade’s reaction, she exhaled in relief—then started fretting all over again.
Fade had to be straight. Straight as an arrow!
Only a straight girl could toss out stuff like that so casually.
She didn’t care one bit.
At a loss for words, Chen Yi fired off an emoji.
Fade: Besides, it’s the truth.
Chen Yi mulled it over, typing one painstaking word at a time: Fair enough.
Feigning nonchalance, she added: But don’t say it like that again. People might get the wrong idea!
Fade: Wrong idea about what?
Thump—thump—
Her heart hammered.
Her breaths came short and ragged.
Something caught in her chest. As she typed, her fingertips went numb.
What to say? Which was the perfect reply?
Misunderstanding our relationship. Misunderstanding you’re my soulmate. Misunderstanding…… you’re my girlfriend.
She couldn’t pick one.
Lips pressed tight in bewilderment, Chen Yi watched as Fade sent another message.
Fade: A misunderstanding wouldn’t be so bad.
Hearing that—reading that—Chen Yi wanted to scream.
She itched to screenshot the chat, blast it across Weibo, and beg her friends to decode what Fade meant.
Was this flirting?!
Her elation lasted all of three seconds before Fade’s next message doused it.
Fade: I think taking an apprentice sounds good. What do you say? Up for it?
Chen Yi stared at the screen. After a long pause, she let out a soft sigh.
Now she truly understood what they meant by a crush turning one’s world upside down.
In over twenty years of life, this was her first taste of heartbreak.
How could one person hijack all her emotions with just a few words?
Joy, anger, resentment, reluctance.
She’d really fallen for Fade.
Across vast digital distances, to an operator who might as well be a ghost.
In this utterly virtual realm, Chen Yi experienced the first flutter of her twenty-one years.
She typed a line.
Sister Don’t Hit Me: Sounds good, Master /sweet smile
Chen Yi’s mind raced. In an instant, she’d hatched a plan.
As the saying went: The tower by the water gets the moon first.
If she wanted Fade, why not start as her apprentice?
Every gamer had heard the juicy gossip about master-apprentice drama. One day, she’d turn that “Master” into “wife” for all the world to see.
She vowed it.
