Zhang Jiahui: Sis, I’m logging off. I got you to King rank in Honor of Kings.
Wen Xiao replied, Okay.
She had put all the money Xie Shijin gave her into games. Her Honor of Kings account had reached Nobility Level 10 and had more than seven hundred skins. Her younger cousins all liked borrowing her account to play.
Zhang Jiahui: By the way, I ran into your in-game partner today. He’s ridiculously good with Li Bai.
Xie Shijin played jungle and had a deep hero pool. He was very skilled. The original Wen Xiao had first taken a liking to him because of his skill, and often invited him to duo with her. She liked telling everyone she’d once rescued a little boy by the sea. After asking for details, Xie Shijin realized she was the person who had saved him back then. That was why he agreed when she confessed to him later.
Wen Xiao didn’t ask whether Zhang Jiahui had told him she wasn’t the original person. She assumed Zhang Jiahui had already told him, while Zhang Jiahui assumed she’d told her in-game partner. Otherwise, he couldn’t have shown no reaction at all.
So they both just assumed the other had said something.
Wen Xiao planned to make minced pork with eggplant and scrambled eggs with chili peppers. After that, she’d reheat the dishes Tian Wanrou had made that morning.
Fang Ruman held up her phone, filming Wen Xiao washing and chopping vegetables.
“This angle makes it look like I’m your boyfriend. You look so beautiful on camera.”
Wen Xiao turned her head, her eyes curving into a smile. “We can use this part in the vlog, too.”
“Right, exactly. Keep smiling like that. Lean back a little…”
Cooking should have taken only half an hour, but with all the filming, it dragged on for nearly an hour and a half.
The two of them quickly polished off lunch.
Fang Ruman’s mother called her home to help shell beans, and Wen Xiao went to the front courtyard to think about how to fix it up.
She could start a few more accounts, with one dedicated to documenting the renovation of the rural home.
The original Wen Xiao’s family still lived in an old tiled-roof house. The floors inside were cement, while the outer courtyard had only been filled with stones. Whenever it rained, mud mixed with the rainwater, and muddy footprints ended up everywhere.
Wen Xiao worked out a plan. Renovations would cost money, and she’d need traffic and followers before she could earn any.
Some upfront investment was unavoidable.
The original Wen Xiao also had several game accounts. She’d spent nearly a million yuan on one mobile game alone, mostly on fancy outfits. Wen Xiao planned to sell the game accounts and keep only her Honor of Kings one.
Remembering that Xie Shijin was on her friends list in those other games, she messaged him.
Naiyou Paofu: I’m going to sell my old game accounts. You should delete me from your friends list.
Xie Shijin: Why?
Naiyou Paofu: I’m going to be really busy from now on. I won’t have time to play.
Xie Shijin held his phone. Busy?
Busy falling in love online with someone else?
Xie Shijin: Okay.
Wen Xiao looked through their chat history. Xie Shijin had transferred a total of 1,973,200 yuan to the original Wen Xiao, in bits and pieces. Including the supplementary family card he’d set up for her, she added it all on a calculator: she owed him 2,307,453 yuan in total.
Her vision went black. Why was the amount longer than a verification code?
Wen Xiao immediately checked the going rates on Xianyu, then listed the game accounts for sale at market price.
If she could sell the accounts for what she was asking, she’d recover around 730,000 yuan.
She still had to calculate the renovation costs. The initial investment couldn’t be too high. Fortunately, building materials were cheaper in the countryside than elsewhere.
Just thinking about the numbers gave her a headache.
She frantically researched online, then cleaned the front courtyard again.
She was so busy she didn’t have time to look at her phone.
By the time it got dark, she’d hurriedly cooked herself a bowl of noodles and taken a shower. Only then did Wen Xiao collapse onto the bed, exhausted.
When she picked up her phone, she remembered she still hadn’t raised Xie Shijin’s affection level.
Naiyou Paofu: Want to talk on the phone?
Five minutes later, he replied: Sure.
Calling every day had been the original Wen Xiao’s rule. Wen Xiao could tell Xie Shijin wasn’t very willing, and she couldn’t keep making him do things he didn’t want to. So she carefully typed: If you don’t want to call, that’s okay.
She was being so considerate. Surely the male lead’s affection level would go up.
The next second, he called her.
Wen Xiao heard Shijin ask, “I was busy just now. What were you doing this afternoon?”
Wen Xiao froze. Xie Shijin had actually started asking about her. Did that mean things between them were getting better?
Wen Xiao’s exhaustion vanished. She sat up on the bed, her voice rising with excitement. “I’ll tell you! This afternoon I cleaned the front courtyard. The soil at my place is so fertile, there were weeds everywhere. Pulling them made my hands hurt…”
Wen Xiao was like a faucet turned on full blast as she talked to Shijin, one sentence tumbling after another.
Xie Shijin didn’t interrupt. He listened quietly.
When she mentioned to Shijin that her hands hurt, her voice sounded aggrieved, with a hint of coyness.
Xie Shijin’s voice softened as Wen Xiao listened. “Why didn’t you use weed killer?”
“I didn’t think it through at the time.” Wen Xiao paused. Then she remembered she still hadn’t met today’s KPI. In a voice full of sincerity, she praised him: “You’re so smart. How did I not think of that?”
Wen Xiao heard the other end fall silent for a moment. Then he said, “You’ve changed.”
Wen Xiao’s heart pounded. Had he noticed?
The male lead really was sharp.
She did her best to imitate the way the original Wen Xiao usually spoke to Shijin. “I compliment you a little and you don’t like it? You’re practically asking to be insulted.”
After saying it, Wen Xiao only grew more nervous. If she kept talking to Xie Shijin like that, he’d probably want to kill her even more.
“Mm. That sounds more like you.”
Shijin…
Did Xie Shijin have some kind of special fetish?
“Do you not like it when I compliment you?” Wen Xiao cautiously tested the waters.
“No.”
Apparently realizing how cold he sounded, Xie Shijin softened his tone. “I’m just not used to it.”
So he just needed time to get used to it. Wen Xiao knew it—how could anyone refuse compliments?
“Oh. Then you’d better get used to it. I’m going to compliment you a lot from now on.”
To make herself sound more threatening, Wen Xiao even put extra emphasis on “a lot.”
A quiet laugh came from the other end of the phone.
Wen Xiao’s heart gave a flutter. His laughter made half her body go numb.
Annoyed, she said, “What are you laughing at?”
“Naiyou Paofu.”
Xie Shijin called her name.
“What?”
Wen Xiao suddenly had a bad feeling.
Xie Shijin asked, “What’s your real name?”
Oh no. She’d known this would happen.
Xie Shijin didn’t know the name of the person who’d saved his life. The female lead had left after rescuing him, and all he remembered was a vague impression of what she looked like. He knew nothing else about her.
That was why the original Wen Xiao had been able to pass herself off as the girl who saved him for so long.
Wen Xiao was so nervous her palms were sweating. “I-I’m Xu Xiao.”
She didn’t dare tell him her real name, but the transfers showed the last character of it.
Making up a surname should be fine, right?
“Xu Xiao.”
Xie Shijin said her name softly, repeating it once.
Wen Xiao answered several times in quick succession. “Then what’s your name?”
“Xie Shijin.”
In case she didn’t know how to write the three characters, he sent them to her too.
Not a single character changed. He really used his real name online.
His game nickname was the same, too: Jinshi, just the last two characters of his name reversed.
“Xie. Shi. Jin. I’ll remember it.”
The girl’s voice was soft. She pronounced his name slowly, one character at a time, each one clear.
It felt as if a kitten had scratched at his heart.