Chapter 21

◎XYZ。◎

“First off, I need to correct a misconception of yours. People aren’t chased down; they’re attracted.” Su Dai was holding a pair of chopsticks like a teaching pointer, just short of ordering delivery for a pair of zero-degree glasses. “You can’t chase someone successfully.”

Chen Yi regretted asking Su Dai that question the moment the words left her mouth.

Who did she have to ask? Su Dai?

“I get it,” Chen Yi said with heartfelt dismay. “You’re a living example.”

Su Dai: “……”

Su Dai had the richest romantic history during middle and high school. Back then, she was brainwashed by campus girl comics and was particularly obsessed with those delinquent boys at school. As long as they were handsome, she’d go up and chat with them. Sometimes when she got carried away, she’d pursue them.

Chasing people became her game during her teenage years, but miraculously, she never succeeded.

There were flings, near-misses, but never a real relationship.

Su Dai couldn’t figure it out.

She wasn’t bad-looking, and her family background was great. Why couldn’t she win anyone over?

Chen Yi had said back then, “With your specs, in a girl comic, you’d be cast as the vicious rival. Got it?”

Once she grew up a bit and went to university, Su Dai stopped feeling that flutter of attraction often. She gradually realized the true nature of men and discovered that those heartthrob male leads in girl comics only moved her because they were created by women.

People chasing her increased, though.

Drawn to her looks, her money.

Su Dai looked down on them all.

She’d gone with the flow and dated a couple of times, which only reinforced one fact: men were no good.

Sometimes, Su Dai envied Chen Yi for realizing so early that she liked girls.

“You could too,” Chen Yi said. “Sexual orientation isn’t set in stone anyway. It’s normal for it to be fluid.”

Easier said than done—Su Dai just didn’t feel that way about girls.

Her life had been without the nourishment of love for a long time. Now that the god of love had descended, just giving her perpetually single friend some juicy romance gossip made her happy.

This made Su Dai even more enthusiastic than Chen Yi about pursuing someone.

“Anyway, first, introduce the situation between you two.”

Chen Yi tried to back out: “Maybe we should skip it.”

Su Dai: “Spill it! Chen Yi! I’ve told you about everyone I liked before!”

Chen Yi raised her hands in surrender: “Fine, fine, I’ll tell you.”

She thought it’d be hard to open up, but the truth was, once she started talking about Fade, she couldn’t stop.

Fade was very gentle. Though she didn’t know games, she’d quietly stay in the practice room studying alone. She was smart too, picking up games super fast. During dungeons, her emotions were super stable—even if teammates messed up, she’d just smile and say it’s fine. She’d worry about slowing down the dungeon because she wasn’t proficient yet, but once inside, she was the most serious. She didn’t talk much sometimes, but she’d respond to every single thing Chen Yi said.

“Most importantly, her voice is amazing.”

Su Dai had a knowing look: “That’s the real reason, huh!!”

“You voice fetishist.”

Chen Yi: “This is just the trigger!!”

Su Dai: “I get it, I get it.”

She was a face fetishist herself and had no room to judge.

“Anyway, my advice is don’t reveal your ambitions too soon. Love is all about back and forth. Aren’t you her disciple right now? Use that opportunity to get close to her, make her get used to you, make her unable to leave you.”

Chen Yi listened and felt like the advice sounded familiar.

Wasn’t this the exact strategy she planned to use on Xu Yan?!

“Long-term affection! Do you know what long-term affection is?!” Su Dai’s chopsticks banged on the table with a clack-clack. “All my past failures were because I lacked patience—I’d confess right away. Who could handle that? Chen Yi, listen to me: spend time with her first, show your charm in daily interactions, wait for it to happen naturally.”

Chen Yi agreed.

Su Dai nodded like a proud mentor, then sighed: “Does Miracle have a lot of lesbians? How do you run into one just walking down the street?”

Chen Yi coughed.

Su Dai narrowed her eyes.

Chen Yi said guiltily: “I said orientation is fluid.”

Su Dai raised her hand high: “I’m telling you, this slap of mine is fluid too.”

Chen Yi: “……”

“Alright, Chen Yi, I declare: put the pursuit plan on hold for now. Your current task is to figure out if your goddess actually likes girls.” Su Dai concluded firmly.

Chen Yi: “What if she doesn’t?”

Su Dai: “Snap out of it—!!”

Chen Yi smiled.

How could love be dictated by rational clarity?

But Su Dai was right; she should figure it out first.

After shooing Su Dai out of the gaming room, Chen Yi logged into Miracle on her alt account.

Fade was online.

They teamed up for dungeons as usual.

Fade communicated only via text as always.

During chit-chat, Chen Yi suddenly brought up the photo she took that afternoon.

“What a shame I can’t send it to you,” she said.

Chen Yi’s heart raced as she said it, because she knew better than anyone that she was bringing it up just to naturally segue into asking for contact info. WeChat, Little Penguin, whatever. At least she didn’t want to keep things limited to talking and seeing each other only in-game.

Chen Yi rehearsed her next lines in her head several times, imagining how to phrase adding friends naturally so it wouldn’t seem abrupt, hiding her wolfish ambitions.

Fade sent a string of letters and numbers: an ID.

Pasde913. She said, my WeChat.

Chen Yi didn’t know how she held back her scream. She jumped up from her chair, thrilled to the point of flying. She loved this feeling so much. Some things didn’t need to be said—Fade just understood.

A loud bang echoed to the other side of the computer.

Fade: Did you fall?

Chen Yi grimaced, rubbing her knee that had just slammed into the desk leg—it hurt like hell—but she quickly typed back: I’m fine! Master~~, I’m adding you right now!

Pasde913.

What was Pasde? Such a familiar letter combo, like French. 913? Fade’s birthday? She pulled out her phone and searched—913 was Virgo. The next second, Chen Yi searched the compatibility between Leo and Virgo.

69%.

Fine, zodiac signs are scams.

Fade’s profile pic was a bouquet of flowers with a particularly blue sea behind them, light spots filtering through, giving it a great atmosphere at a glance. WeChat name: XYZ, simple. Friends list was clean, just a gray line. Had she sent nothing, or cleared the chat history? Ideas swirled in Chen Yi’s head, but she held back.

She fired off a message: Master~~!

XYZ: Hi.

Chen Yi: Hehe Master~~, your ID looks like a math nerd’s, like coordinate axes!

Xu Yan thought she might have overestimated Chen Yi’s IQ.

She’d originally worried if adding her with her personal WeChat would give away her identity, but now that worry was totally unnecessary.

A little dumb was good—more fun that way.

Chen Yi: Here’s the photo I took today! Pretty, right!

Xu Yan hadn’t expected much, but once the picture came through, she was instantly captivated. Photography freezes a moment, capturing not just the scenery but the photographer’s mood in that instant. Every detail and shadow in this photo screamed Chen Yi’s gentleness.

XYZ: Very pretty.

The next second, Chen Yi watched in shock as the person she was chatting with instantly changed their profile pic.

—?!?!

The universe exploded.

Chen Yi thought.

If not the universe, then she had.