Guide on How to Fail at Online Dating

Chapter 13 - What does she have to do with Jing Huan?

The two healers in the party knew each other. They were chatting away happily but upon seeing Xiao Tianjing join, they immediately turned off their mics and stopped talking.

On the contrary, Lu Hang’s interest was piqued. “Hei…why did you call her over?”

Xiang Huaizhi said concisely, “Casually asked.”

Lu Hang sat cross-legged in high spirits.

[Party] Long Road Ahead: Good evening [blows a kiss]

[Party] Long Road Ahead: Have you done the Water Demon instances before?

[Party] Xiao Tianjing: No ei [shuts up]

Jing Huan was telling the truth, he really hadn’t done one before. In the four years since he left the game, NCH had added quite a lot of new instances, and “Water Demon Riot” was one of them.

[Party] Xiao Tianjing: Is this instance very difficult?

[Party] Long Road Ahead: It’s the most difficult instance, but it’s nothing much. You can just breeze through all the small monsters at the start even if you afk, only the BOSS is difficult to kill. If you have a low defense, it’s easy to get killed at one shot.

[Party] Xiao Tianjing: Okie! [touches head]

After Jing Huan replied, he opened up a Water Demon strategy guide and roughly skimmed through it.

Just as Long Road Ahead had said, the little monsters in front were all the Water Demon’s “battle spirits” and weren’t much of a threat. But after they die, they will attach themselves to the Water Demon and strengthen it. A lot of players expressed that it takes ten minutes to clear the small monsters in this instance, but 2 hours to kill the BOSS.

The comments under other strategy guides could only reach up to two digits; only in the Water Demon instance did the comments go up to four digits, and most of them were just asking the game designers to eat shit.

Nevertheless, no matter how difficult it was, it was still just an instance. Five questing characters could still complete it if they worked together, let alone with deploying someone like Yearning For. With this character with them, a party could pass even with four healers.

In the few minutes that Jing Huan was reading the strategy guide, everyone in the party was afk-ing, and no one said a word.

Only the two healers were complaining in PM.

[Friend] Love is For You to Eat: Why did Xiao Tianjing come? I don’t want to do the instance with her at all.

[Friend] Ji Xiaonian: I don’t know either. We’re both healers here, so what’s the use of her coming? To be a cheerleader? [rolls eyes]

[Friend] Love is For You to Eat: And she should be a catfish ba, look at how she’s talking? So freaking fake… [shuts up]

[Friend] Ji Xiaonian: She shouldn’t be. Someone heard her voice before, it was a girl’s. She’s probably just annoying to the extreme.

[Friend] Love is For You to Eat: Those men must have been blind ba? Have they never seen women before? Can’t believe they were deceived by this.

[Friend] Ji Xiaonian: I heard from a friend that the account changed hands. The previous owner didn’t play as well as her.

[Friend] Love is For You to Eat: Not necessarily. If she isn’t a swindler, then why is Idle Pavilion still hunting her? Actually, her plays are just average. In the Yao King quest, it was mostly due to luck + Yearning For knows how to move. In any case, I don’t like her!

[Friend] Ji Xiaonian: Me neither. I can take down ten people who speak like that by myself! Yi, hold on, I suddenly have an idea…

Girls’ goodwill and hostility often emerge in bafflings ways. Jing Huan didn’t know that he had already made enemies in the team. He finished what was left of his popsicle and went back to the game.

[Party] Xiao Tianjing: God of War Gege [peeks out], have you had dinner?

Xiang Huaizhi cast a glance at those words, then looked down and continued texting on WeChat.

“Xiao Tianjing’s looking for you.” When Lu Hang saw this, he couldn’t help but say, “You’re too mean aren’t you, why are you still pretending to afk in this day and age?”

“What do you care.” Xiang Huaizhi didn’t look up.

Lu Hang uttered two tsks and tapped on his keyboard.

[Party] Long Road Ahead: He’s afk-ing and watching a movie [shh]

[Party] Xiao Tianjing: Oh oh, how do you know 0.0

[Party] Long Road Ahead: We’re in the same dorm.

[Party] Xiao Tianjing: Ah, company dorm?

[Party] Long Road Ahead: No, student dorm!

Student dorm?

Jing Huan frowned doubtfully. He remembered that Immortal Mengmeng mentioned before that Yearning For was a 30-year-old uncle?

…or does he just look old?

His friend messages flashed. Jing Huan shook his head and temporarily cast aside his doubts.

[Friend] Vigorous Little Mosquito Repellent: Wow, Meimei!

Jing Huan had cleared his friend list in the past few days, leaving only Yearning For and Vigorous Little Mosquito Repellent behind. Nothing needed to be explained for the former, and as for the latter…

He was pretty interesting, and it wouldn’t be troublesome to just keep him.

[Friend] Xiao Tianjing: [doubtful]

[Friend] Vigorous Little Mosquito Repellent: Aren’t you too wild?

[Friend] Vigorous Little Mosquito Repellent: But you’re super enthusiastic, Gege supports you! Don’t take it to heart! Never mind what others say!

[Friend] Xiao Tianjing: …what are you saying.

[Friend] Vigorous Little Mosquito Repellent: Your confession to Yearning For ah! I saw it all!

Jing Huan was baffled.

He did want to confess…but that was still in the planning phase. With Yearning For’s current attitude, he would have to be crazy to want to go and confess.

[Friend] Xiao Tianjing: I didn’t confess to him ya [surprise], what did you see?

[Friend] Vigorous Little Mosquito Repellent: Can’t be ba, you still don’t know?

[Friend] Vigorous Little Mosquito Repellent: [Shared Link: Broadcast of Xiao Tianjing’s heartfelt feelings!]

Just by looking at the title alone, Jing Huan felt like it didn’t seem quite right.

He clicked on the video, and the moment he saw the conversation clearly, an indescribable sense of embarrassment immediately sprouted from the bottom of his feet and rushed straight to the top of his head!

Fuck!!

Why did his chat record with Immortal Mengmeng appear here???!!!

Jing Huan was stunned silly in an instant, and he was so shocked by his bold speech in the video that he felt a tingling sensation on his scalp.

And the worst thing was that this video was edited. Only his words could be seen, while Immortal Mengmeng’s replies had all been edited out.

After a while, Jing Huan gradually snapped out of his daze and drank a sip of water while he was still in this panicked state.

Calm down, you must calm down. There were only a few hundred views for this video, and more than half of them mostly just came to watch a show. There probably weren’t a lot of people in the game who knew about it, let alone Yearning For.

He could only leave it up to luck as he glanced at the game.

[Party] Long Road Ahead: What about you, Xiao Tianjing? How old are you? In school too?

[Party] Long Road Ahead: Hello?

[Party] Long Road Ahead: [doubtful] Are you ignoring me because I’m not bad enough?

Jing Huan, “…………”

Fuck!!

I’m going to kill Immortal Mengmeng!!!

Xiang Huaizhi saw that sentence and frowned. “Are you too bored? Must you mention that?”

“Just teasing her ma…” Lu Hang said, “Don’t you think she’s pretty interesting? Gamer girls are getting fiercer and fiercer nowadays, and when they get into a fight, it can be considered the war of the century. Such cute girls like Jingjing are a rare breed.” Seeing as how the little fairy fox kept silent, Lu Hang muttered, “Ai but, why did she afk halfway through chatting too?”

Of course Jing Huan wasn’t afk-ing. He bolted from his computer and ran to the toilet to wash his face.

That video was too shameful, even his cheeks were burning. He didn’t really feel it when he was pretending to be a girl and acting cute in front of Yearning For, but when that chat record was suddenly put in front of his face…

He even doubted whether he had been possessed by some other soul back then.

Right after using a towel to wipe his face, his phone rang. It was a special notification from Weibo.

Jing Huan’s Weibo was a wasteland; it was full of dumb remarks that he had published when he was younger. He was too lazy to make a new one, but he was also too lazy to delete this one. He had a few dozen people he was following on his account, and they were all his friends. The only one he specially followed is his Jie, Liang Ran.

He quickly opened his Weibo.

【Liang Ran: Everything will get better. [photo]】

The photo was a picture she took of the sea; it was azure blue and calm without any ripples.

Jing Huan immediately liked it and commented on it.

【Mancheng No.1 High School’s Boss: [hugs][hugs]】

Liang Ran replied very quickly.

【Liang Ran: [crying]】

Jing Huan looked at the tears on the yellow emoticon and recalled Liang Ran’s haggard figure when she passed through the security checkpoint, and he instantly stamped a few times on that tiny bit of emotion he had felt just now. Then he buried it and sealed it up tight.

He sat back at his computer desk and threw his phone aside.

[Party] Xiao Tianjing: Aaahh sorry, I went to the toilet just now…fortunately we haven’t started killing the BOSS yet. QAQ

[Party] Xiao Tianjing: Long Road Ahead you meanie, why must you mention that!! [anger][blushes]

[Party] Xiao Tianjing: …don’t tell me God of War Gege saw that video too? Ah I don’t want to live anymore! [covers face and shrieks][crying]

Jing Huan selected all the expressions for acting cute in the game and sent them all out.

Embarrassment? Shame? Bashfulness?

They don’t exist.

The one confessing passionately in the video was Xiao Tianjing, what does she have to do with Jing Huan?

—

Juurensha: Awwww, I’m glad his Jie is feeling better (although when she hears what Huanhuan is up to, she might laugh until she falls over)