About 20 minutes later, Yu Qingxue finally finished her shower.
“The spare towels are in the drawer,” Gao Sijin said, his eyes glued to the computer screen. He didn’t dare cross the line by even an inch.
“It’s fine. I used the blue one.”
“Qingxue, that’s my towel…”
“What’s yours is mine, and what’s mine is still mine.”
“Are you Pang Hu?”
Under the glow of the bathroom lights, she must have looked like a radiant water lily emerging from the pond, breathtaking and fresh. Gao Sijin could already imagine her nearly perfect S-curve body, her fragrant shoulders exposed, and her fair back glowing. If he could truly be with such a beautiful woman in this life, he wouldn’t need to scour group chats for lewd pictures all day.
Her snow-white feet stepped onto Gao Sijin’s floor. Even though he had prepared spare slippers for her, she seemed to prefer walking barefoot.
“Can’t you put some shoes on?” Gao Sijin glanced at her feet but quickly averted his gaze.
At that moment, Yu Qingxue was only draped in Gao Sijin’s blue bath towel.
“Why should I? Isn’t your floor wiped clean?”
“But it’s still the floor.”
“I like it this way.”
Yu Qingxue walked up behind Gao Sijin and focused her eyes on the computer screen. He was currently playing League of Legends.
“You boys really do love playing games.”
Droplets of water slid down her beautiful dark hair and onto the back of Gao Sijin’s hand. The cold sensation made him shiver, causing him to miss his Ultimate.
Immediately afterward, the enemy bot lane began to counterattack. Without the advantage of the Ultimate, the team instantly collapsed and was wiped out in a one-for-four trade. The 0/4/0 Yasuo immediately began flaming in the chat.
“I’m dead. It’s all your fault.”
“Aren’t you going to ask me to stay?”
“You should head home early. As you can see, I only have one bed. If my place were even a bit bigger, had an extra guest room, or even just a sofa, I would invite you to stay the night.”
Gao Sijin looked helplessly at his rented apartment, which was less than 40 square meters. It was pathetically humble.
She sat on Gao Sijin’s bed and said with a beaming smile, “Then you can come stay at my place. My house is quite big, and my graphics card is a 4080TI. The games definitely won’t lag.”
Incidentally, the graphics card Gao Sijin used was a second-hand card from 4 years ago. To buy that card back then, he had hesitated for 3 days.
“No, I’m not going to your house.”
“Are you afraid I’ll eat you?”
“Who eats whom is still undecided. You’re just a 20-year-old college student, while I’m already a member of society. Do you understand the weight that carries?” Gao Sijin pushed up his non-existent glasses.
Right after, during a mid-lane team fight, Gao Sijin landed a perfect Ultimate on five people. The Yasuo followed up with his own Ultimate immediately. However, after Gao Sijin’s Malphite finished his Ultimate, he used Flash to escape, leaving the Yasuo alone to wither in the wind.
Unsurprisingly, they lost the game.
“I’m Challenger Rank in League of Legends. If you come to my house, we can duo.”
“Qingxue, what do you actually see in me? I don’t get it.”
“Does liking someone need a reason?”
“Is this a confession?”
“If you think it is, then it is.”
Yu Qingxue sat on the bed next to the desk chair.
“If this were a novel world, a woman throwing herself at a man for no reason would only be repulsive. We haven’t experienced anything together; we just had one meal at a French Restaurant. Why on earth would you like me?”
“Sijin, this isn’t a novel world. It’s reality. Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction because fiction is forced to follow a certain logic, whereas reality often has no logic at all.”
“A Mark Twain quote.” Gao Sijin hadn’t expected the queen-like Yu Qingxue to say such a thing.
“So, you don’t need to feel uneasy about the fact that I have feelings for you. Why not just view it as a tiny ripple in your otherwise stagnant life?”
“There’s no such thing as a free lunch. I’m afraid you’ll harvest my kidneys without anesthesia,” Gao Sijin said, taking a bottle of barley tea from the fridge and tossing it to Yu Qingxue. “Go home already.”
“What a boring man. Not even letting me stay the night. I’m deducting points from you.”
“Deduct away.”
It was better to end a relationship that could never succeed as early as possible. The time saved would be better spent writing more chapters. It was best to say goodbye to a woman who was so perfect it was chilling.
“I’ll ask you out again next week. Don’t play dead on me.”
“If you still remember me next week.”
“I’m leaving then.”
“Aren’t you going to wear your black stockings?” Gao Sijin asked, glancing at the patterned stockings.
“You can have them. Keep them for yourself.”
“Wear them your damn self!”
Yu Qingxue left the rented apartment without looking back.
After she left, Gao Sijin returned to his state of solitude. The word ‘perfect’ was too dazzling for a recent college graduate with a monthly salary of only 3,000. Opening the author’s backend on the webnovel site, his earnings were still pathetically low.
‘Change comes from poverty, Gao Sijin.’
Staring at the empty desktop, Gao Sijin ultimately decided to start another round. He would start writing after one win.
***
Yu Qingxue brushed her long black hair and tied it into a high ponytail as she sat in her BMW i8. Her bag was tossed carelessly onto the back seat.
The items that spilled out weren’t just a phone charger and an electric toothbrush. There were other little toys — handcuffs, hallucinogens, black tape, syringes, a GPS tracker, and a taser, among other professional equipment.
She took out the latest iPhone, dialed a number, and held it to her ear. “Lady Yuexue, I have made contact with the target.”
“Good work, Qingxue. How does he look?”
“He’s not as mysterious as you made him out to be. He just feels like an ordinary shut-in otaku.” Yu Qingxue crossed her long legs. The seductive and pure expression she had shown Gao Sijin had completely vanished, replaced by a face as cold as a machine.
“That’s because you don’t know him well enough. Why don’t you read more of his books?”
“A novel used for self-indulgent fantasies about maids? Sorry, I have no interest.”
“If you dare say that again, I’ll dock your pay.”
“It’s a masterpiece, but my current taste just isn’t refined enough to appreciate it.” A contemptuous sneer appeared on the corner of Yu Qingxue’s lips.
She didn’t understand why Lady Yuexue was so enamored with such a common, mediocre man. Given the power of the Tsukiyuki Foundation and Lady Yuexue’s own pedigree, she could take her pick of the most elite men in the world. Yet, she had fallen for Gao Sijin.
She couldn’t wrap her head around it.
“He is indeed obscure, but he has written twenty-five books in his life. In his books, the characters aren’t just tools for wish fulfillment; they are flesh-and-blood people. Thanks to him, I was able to gain human emotions from this garbage-like world.”
“I am grateful to him for teaching me how to smile, how to cry, and for ensuring I had someone with me when I was lonely and someone to warn me when I was arrogant.” The voice on the other end of the line paused. “Yu Qingxue, I love him. So, no matter what, I must have him. I want his body and soul to stay by my side forever. I will change that dull, boring life of his that borders on tragedy.”