Lin Yixin threw her arms around me the moment she saw me. When she moved my arm away from the pavement though, she caught sight of a terrifying pool of purple blood beneath my wrist and shuddered from head to toe. Heart wrenched in pain and biting her lips, she murmured, "Already? I thought… no, no! I still have time, I still have time…"

I opened my eyes and exhaled a little. Then, I shot Yiyi a smile and said, "You’re here. Can I… rest here for a bit though? I’m feeling very tired for some reason…"

Lin Yixin nodded repeatedly while crying, "Mn! You’ll be fine. You’ll be fine. I will always be with you no matter what…"

Confused, I raised my hand with some difficulty and wiped away the tears on her cheeks. "Er, I know I’m not looking my best right now, but you don’t have to cry over it. I just drank a bit too much alcohol is all. I’ll be fine once I have a good night’s sleep."

However, Lin Yixin simply hugged me harder and choked out, "Lu Chen, I… Promise me you’ll never leave me, okay, Little Cheat? Promise me!"

My confusion grew. "Yiyi? What’s wrong?"

"Just promise me already!"

I let out a helpless sigh—the simple action took a bit more effort than I thought, but I didn’t pay it much attention at the time—and said, "Fine. I, Lu Chen swear on my character to the heavens that I will always be together with Lin Yixin for as long as I live. Satisfied now?"

Lin Yixin finally broke into a smile. "Yes. Are you feeling stronger now? If so, let’s get you into my car already. In fact, you may as well stay over at my place tonight."

"Sure."

……

After I regained some strength, I climbed to my feet and slowly made my way to the Porsche’s front passenger seat with Lin Yixin’s support. She fastened my seatbelt for me, started the engine, and took off. When I looked at my arm and saw the purple blood stains on it, I hurriedly grabbed a napkin and tried to wipe them clean. However, my attempt only seemed to irritate the wound and triggered even more bleeding.

Panicking a little, I pressed an entire stack of napkins onto the wound and hid it inside my sleeves. Then, I attempted to distract Lin Yixin by making some small talk, "It’s a beautiful night tonight, isn’t it Yiyi?"

Lin Yixin made a noncommittal sound before looking away from me. Where I couldn’t see, tears began sliding down her lamp lit cheeks again.

……

"Du du…"

A short time later, my phone started ringing. I checked the display and saw He Yi’s number on it.

"Do you want me to answer that for you?" Lin Yixin asked.

"Yeah, please."

She kept one hand on the steering wheel while taking my phone with the other. Then, she accepted the call and greeted,

"Hello. Is this Sister He Yi?"

He Yi’s reply was clearly tinged with surprise. "Oh, Yiyi? Where’s Lu Chen? It’s almost 11 pm, and he still isn’t back at the workshop…"

"Don’t worry, Sister He Yi. I’m with him right now. He’s feeling unwell—I think he caught a cold or something—and I’m taking him back to Snowy Cathaya’s senior player workshop because it’s closer. He needs a warm bath as soon as possible, or the cold is going to turn into a fever."

"I see. Okay!"

He Yi hung up, and so did Lin Yixin.

I asked, "Snowy Cathaya has a workshop for their senior players now?"

"Yeah? It was built a month ago. How do you only know this now?"

"Where is it?"

"It’s a detached villa at Yuexi. There are 7 of us living there right now including me, Qingqing, Lexi and Shadow Chanel. I’ve been staying there unless I needed to stay overnight in the university for projects or something. It’s livelier and more relaxing this way."

"Alright…"

I quickly fell asleep as I rested against the comfortable chair. Right now, I felt like my blood, my internal organs and nearly every ounce of energy in my body had gone up in flames. I was so exhausted that I almost didn’t have the strength to sit straight.

……

An unknown amount of time later, I was woken up by a kiss to the cheek. I realized that the car had come to a stop in a parking lot in front of a detached villa. Lin Yixin smiled at me and said, "We’re here. Let’s go."

"Mn."

However, I nearly dropped to my knees when I exited the car. Lin Yixin hurriedly supported me before asking, "Do you feel completely exhausted or something?"

I nodded. "Mn. I don’t know what happened to me. I can’t even remember the last time I’ve been this weak. It’s strange."

"Heehee. It’s fine. A good bath and a glass of milk will restore your strength."

"Okay."

With Lin Yixin’s support, I slowly walked into the extraordinarily luxurious detached villa. This was just a guess, but I reckoned that the purchase price of the villa was tens of millions at least. Of course, it was far from unaffordable considering Lin Yixin and Snowy Cathaya’s current financial abilities, but knowing how frugal Lin Yixin was she had probably just rented it for a short period.

I saw two young women reading magazines inside the living room of the first floor. The one in rather sexy pyjamas was resting her long, exposed legs on a table. She was none other than Nangong Lexi. The other woman was Sun Qingqing. Naturally, I knew her even better than the former.

Creak!

When the glass door opened, and we walked into the living room, Nangong Lexi looked at us and immediately exclaimed in surprise, "Yiyi? Why are you carrying a dirty man with you? This isn’t some super hardcore fetish or somethng, is it?"

Sun Qingqing’s eyes widened in realization. "Wait a second. That’s Lu Chen! What the hell happened to you?"

Lin Yixin let out a chuckle. "Lu Chen drank too much and took a nap by the roadside. It was getting too late to drive him back to the Frost Cloud workshop, so I brought him over for an overnight stay. Is that okay with everyone?"

Nangong Lexi shrugged. "Sure! He’s the Heavenly King of Heavenblessed. If he dares to lay his grubby hands on us, we’ll simply expose him and axe his career."

I complained from Lin Yixin’s shoulder, "Who would dare to lay a hand on you, Beauty Lexi? I at least don’t provoke girls with broad shoulders, thick waist, and muscles big enough to punch me through the wall…"

"Your tongue is surprisingly sharp for someone who’s drunk out of his mind. Anyway, get your ass into the bathroom already so I can mop up the mess you’ve made to the floor…"

"..."

……

After Lin Yixin had carried me into the bathroom, she filled the bath tub with warm water and tested the temperature like an obedient wife. "The temperature’s just right. You can bathe yourself, right? I need to buy some new clothes for you. We only have women’s clothes here, so…"

"Of course. It’s really late, so make sure you drive carefully, Yiyi."

"Don’t you worry. I’ll be back in ten minutes."

"Okay."

After Lin Yixin left the bathroom like the wind. I took off my clothes and lay myself in the bathtub. It felt like every pore on my skin was expanding to the warm, extremely soothing water. However, my blood soon dyed the water purple-red, and it looked so scary that I had to release the water and pour myself a new one.

It took five bathtubs’ worth of water to finally wash away the purple substance—it looked a bit like coagulated blood lipids—coating my body. The good news was that I felt much stronger after I finished bathing. When I gave my fist a tentative swing, I felt that I had regained at least 50% of my strength. Did I suddenly bleed purple blood because my virus-modified body was undergoing detox or something? Would I be as clean as a newborn when the detox was complete? This shit had been weird from the get-go, but this was getting a bit too weird, wasn’t it?

In fact, my skin did seem a lot whiter than it used to be. That being say, the tan I had gotten during summer was still visible. Also, I was still very dark compared to a snow beauty like Lin Yixin. Anyway, I felt much more relieved since it seemed like tonight’s episode was—probably—beneficial to me. At the very least, it wasn’t life-threatening.

……

Knock knock...

A while later, Lin Yixin knocked on the door and asked me, "Are you done yet, Little Cheat? Don’t you dare use up the water! There are people who still haven’t taken a bath yet, you bastard…"

I laughed. "Yeah, yeah, I’m done. Do you have the clothes, Yiyi?"

"Mn. You’re 177 cm tall, right? The clothes I bought you are for 180 cm, they should fit just fine."

"Thanks. Bring it in for me, please?"

"No way, I bet you’re completely naked right now…"

"Fuck, is that your impression of me? I’m wrapped in a towel, so stop dilly-dallying and come in already…"

Lin YIxin carefully opened the door and shot me a glance. She immediately shut the door after she passed me the set of clothes she bought. They were all Versace, and came with a shirt and even a pair of underwear. The entire set had to have cost at least 50k RMB. Lin Yixin was the kind of woman who would rather pay through the roof than buy a set of clothes she disliked but were a bit cheaper. This was even truer when she was buying me clothes.

While I was changing, I heard the girls chatting outside the bathroom—

Nangong Lexi said, "I don’t know if you realize this, guild leader, but you’re acting like a kitten currying favor with her owner right now. He should be the one buying clothes for you, not the other way around! Also, this brand is lomda wasted on his looks…"

Sun Qingqing replied, "You’re being too harsh on Lu Chen. Yes, he’s a bit vulgar sometimes, but he’s way more mature and responsible than the greenhorns in the university…"

Lin Yixin: "..."

Shadow Chanel giggled and said to me through the door, "You heard that, Lu Chen? Do you know how lucky you are to win the heart of a girl like Yiyi? Just marry her already, you slowpoke!"

An embarrassed Lin Yixin chided them all, "Shut up, you all! One more word, and I’ll kick you out of the guild and make you dig coal in Africa!"

"..."

……

After I was done putting on my clothes, I scratched my somewhat messy hair and stepped out of the bathroom. I prayed to god that I wasn’t such an embarrassment of a man that I would let down Lin Yixin and the Versace-brand outfit I was wearing. Please, please don’t let me look like a country bumpkin wearing an outfit he absolutely doesn't deserve!

The girls abruptly fell silent when I stepped into the dazzling light of the living room. It almost looked like they couldn’t believe what they were seeing. The saying that the tailor makes the man was right after all. In Metersbonwe, I looked like a healthy young male who was striving to make a life for himself. But in Versace, I looked like a successful and easy-going man with a bright future ahead of him. Thank goodness Lin Yixin hadn’t spent all that money for nothing...

"Hmm…"

Nangong Lexi blinked once before starting in a surprised tone, "This guy in this outfit actually reminds me of an old acquaintance…"

Sun Qingqing asked, "Huh? Who?"

"He reminds me of Ding Shusheng… they both give off the vibe where you feel like beating the shit out of him, but you can’t because it’d feel like beating a child!!"

Sun Qingqing: "..."

Lin Yixin: "..."

……

I walked to the nearest sofa and took a seat, pulling Lin Yixin with me. After I put an arm across her shoulders, I shot the other girls an easy-going smile and said, "I’m a member of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, so I cannot frequent this place too often. Thank you all for taking care of Yiyi and keeping her company."

Lin Yixin bowed her head and giggled to herself. She seemed really happy to hear this.

Nangong Lexi said, "I don’t know. You sound a bit lacking in sincerity."

"Oh? What should I do to show my sincerity then?" I asked.

She replied in a meaningful tone, "Since you’re already here, you may as well stay for a couple more days and keep Yiyi company…"

"The Cities of Heaven patch is out tomorrow though…"

"So? Are you saying that Ancient Sword can’t conquer Silver City without you?"

"That is true. What is Snowy Cathaya’s plan, by the way?"

Lin Yixin answered, "We’re planning to conquer Bronze City and strengthen our archer party with the Dragon Punisher Archer skill."

"Oh? You’re going to avoid Candle Dragon?"

"Yep." Lin Yixin passed me a glass of milk from the table before continuing, "Candle Dragon, Warsky Alliance and Purgatory Mad Dragon all declared on the forums that they will seize the Gold City for themselves. Rather than running headfirst into that conflict, I would rather strengthen our archer party to the point where enemy cavalry cower at the sight of them!"