Chapter 44: A Great Person Is Magnanimous
Wei Yu Ning Qiu turned to Qingzhou Yiguo. Her slender hand gently fanned herself with a Light Silk Fan, a cash-shop cosmetic that sold for 328 yuan. The shimmering firefly visual effect was so dazzling that Xiao Chi could barely see his screen.
That was… A 328-yuan visual effect.
[Nearby] Wei Yu Ning Qiu: Qingzhou Yiguo, does your guild need a healer?
At the same moment, a guild application popped up in front of Qingzhou Yiguo.
Player [Wei Yu Ning Qiu] has requested to join [Xiao Cai Guild]. Accept?
Xiao Chi's pupils shook. His mind went blank. He couldn't think of a single thing to say.
Then he remembered Wujin Shi had said no, and with trembling fingers, clicked Reject.
After a moment's thought, he reported it to Wujin Shi. "Wei Yu Ning Qiu just applied to join Xiao Cai Guild. I rejected it first."
The moment he finished speaking, another message from Wei Yu Ning Qiu appeared.
[Nearby] Wei Yu Ning Qiu: Heh.
[Nearby] Wei Yu Ning Qiu: Qingzhou Yiguo, we're even now. Neither of us owes the other anything anymore. If you're still angry, I'll stand right here and let you kill me. Keep killing me until you've vented your anger.
[Nearby] Qingzhou Yiguo: ...
[Nearby] Baobao Hong: Ooooh.
[Nearby] Qiao Qiao: Ooooh.
[Nearby] Qian Yu: You can't kill people in the main city. I recommend going into the wilderness.
Xiao Chi was speechless. Completely, utterly speechless.
The livestream chat, meanwhile, had gone insane again. The bullet comments flooded the screen, gifts poured in, and viewers begged Qian Yu to keep talking.
The viewer count shot up once more.
At last, Xiao Chi realized something. Everyone on this team… And even Wei Yu Ning Qiu outside the team… Had far more talent for being streamers than he did.
Especially Wei Yu Ning Qiu. And Qian Yu.
The traffic his stream was getting seemed to have been brought entirely by these people. He himself had almost nothing to do with it.
After Wei Yu Ning Qiu stirred up such a commotion, the area outside the battlefield became packed with spectators. Players stopped queuing for matches altogether, gathering instead to enjoy the drama. Seeing that, the four of them simply gave up on battlefields for the night and teleported back to their guild's Sanctuary.
The four stood there, looking at one another. No one spoke.
Wujin Shi hesitated. "Um..."
Xiao Chi immediately understood what he meant. Glancing at the time, he said, "Everyone, it's already 9:30. I don't think we'll be playing any more battlefields tonight, so let's end the stream here. I've been streaming for eleven and a half hours today. I'm exhausted. Completely wiped out."
[?]
[Don't think I don't know you guys are about to have a private discussion.]
[Your husband only got out two words, and you instantly read his mind?]
[There's this much juicy drama and you're not letting us watch?!]
[Report! Someone from Way of Heaven has already started an 818 gossip thread on the forums!]
[Charge, everyone!]
[If you let Wei Yu Ning Qiu join the guild, your stream will definitely hit ten thousand viewers!]
[Can't wait for the goddess to stir up more chaos.]
Xiao Chi skimmed a few comments and immediately got a headache. Calling out, "Bye-bye!" he hurriedly ended the stream.
Qingtian Wai looked puzzled. "Huh? Xiao Chi, why'd you end the stream? Isn't there still over half an hour until ten?"
Wujin Shi understood immediately. "You didn't have to stop streaming. We interrupted your work."
Xiao Chi felt a little embarrassed. Work? It hardly felt like work. "No, really," he said quickly. "I'm just genuinely tired."
Wujin Shi didn't dwell on it. "About two or three months ago, I asked Wei Yu Ning Qiu if she'd like to join me for this year's Wendao tournament. The goal was to win the championship. Not long afterward, the confession incident happened. Then she marked Xiao Chi for vendetta, and everything turned into complete chaos for a while. Later, the three of us all left the guild, so I just assumed she wouldn't be joining our team."
Qingtian Wai pondered for a moment. "To be fair, Wei Yu Ning Qiu's mechanics are genuinely excellent. You could say she's one of the strongest healers in Way of Heaven. It's just... well...there's a bit of emotional baggage between you two."
Wujin Shi answered frankly. "Wei Yu Ning Qiu's biggest problem is that she loves making a scene. Haven't you noticed? She likes blowing every tiny issue completely out of proportion inside the game. She's impossible to figure out. You never know what's going on in her head."
The usually quiet Qian Yu finally spoke. "We only need to play games together. We don't need to know what she's thinking."
Then Qingtian Wai suddenly turned to Xiao Chi. "What do you think?"
"Huh? Me?" Xiao Chi was caught off guard. "I don't really have an opinion... I'll leave building the team to Pro Wujin Shi."
"Report—!"
Gou-jie's voice suddenly rang out over YY, startling everyone.
"Guild Leader Xiao Chi already ended his stream? Great, then I'll just say it here! This is explosive, everyone! Absolutely explosive! Han Jian Ying and Wei Yu Ning Qiu have broken up! Apparently, during the month they'd been game partners, Wei Yu Ning Qiu only wanted to be his in-game partner. Once they logged off, she almost never replied to his WeChat messages. When Han Jian Ying wanted to send her a present and asked for her address, she refused. She said virtual partners should only exchange virtual gifts. She wouldn't do voice calls. Wouldn't do video calls. Eventually, Han Jian Ying got suspicious and insisted on meeting in person. She refused. Han Jian Ying couldn't take it anymore! He's the mighty guild leader—how could his in-game partner turn out to be a renyao?" (a slang term referring to someone whose real-life gender differs from the gender of the character they play, often implying a man playing a female character)
"So Han Jian Ying went to ask Han Bing Zi Yu, supposedly Wei Yu Ning Qiu's best friend in the guild. And this is where it gets wild. Han Bing Zi Yu claimed to be Wei Yu's closest friend… But she'd never even had a voice call or video call with Wei Yu Ning Qiu! Even on Moments, Wei Yu Ning Qiu only let her see posts from the last three days. Han Jian Ying completely exploded. Only then did Wei Yu Ning Qiu realize how serious things had become and finally agree to a video call. But there was one condition. Only Han Jian Ying was allowed to see her. She refused to look at Han Jian Ying. And Han Jian Ying had to keep his own camera turned off."
Everyone listening to the gossip was completely absorbed. "..."
Sha Polang, who had originally been reading the 818 gossip thread but had been completely drawn in by Gou-jie's vivid storytelling, asked, "Huh? Why?"
Gou-jie sighed dramatically. "Han Jian Ying asked her the same thing. Wei Yu Ning Qiu said it was because she didn't want to ruin her fantasy while playing the game. She wanted Han Jian Ying to remain a two-dimensional character in her mind forever."
Everyone: "..."
Sha Polang couldn't help but remark, "That's such a blow to his self-esteem!"
"Exactly!" Gou-jie said. "His self-esteem got absolutely crushed. Han Jian Ying broke up with her on the spot. At the time, Wei Yu said all those heartless things in Way of Heaven's YY channel. A lot of guild members spoke up for their guild leader, saying she'd been playing with Han Jian Ying's feelings. Guess what Wei Yu Ning Qiu said in response?"
Qingtian Wai answered sincerely, "I have no idea."
Gou-jie nodded. "Right? Who could possibly guess?"
Wujin Shi spoke up. "Did she say something like, 'Online dating in games is just for fun. It's fake to begin with. Things in a virtual world aren't real'?"
Gou-jie stared at him in disbelief. "Holy crap, Wujin Shi! What's going on with you? Are you and Wei Yu Ning Qiu telepathically connected or something?"
Wujin Shi answered calmly. "You people really don't understand Wei Yu Ning Qiu. That's just the kind of person she is."
Gou-jie immediately pressed him. "Seriously, why do you know her so well? Because that's exactly what she said in Way of Heaven. She said online relationships in games are just for fun, fake from the start, and that nothing in a virtual world is real. That only poured fuel on the fire. Everyone accused her of deceiving Han Jian Ying's feelings, and in the end she quit the guild."
Qian Yu quietly nodded. "She's not wrong."
Qingtian Wai looked utterly confused. "This lady's logic is... incredibly powerful. It seems right. But somehow it also feels... really wrong?"
Xiao Chi spoke softly. "It's because she never took it seriously. But Han Jian Ying did. And when one person takes it seriously... they're the one who gets hurt."
Sha Polang nodded vigorously. "Yeah. That makes sense."
Gou-jie still wouldn't let it go. "No, seriously, Wujin Shi. Why do you understand Wei Yu Ning Qiu so well?"
"Because that's exactly how her so-called pursuit of me went," Wujin Shi replied. "I never felt like she actually liked me. Other than running dungeons and battlefields together, we'd never even had a private conversation. Then out of nowhere, she set off fireworks and confessed to me in public chat. It felt more like a performance for everyone else than a confession to me."
Xiao Chi was stunned.
Qingtian Wai couldn't wrap his head around it. "If she didn't actually like you, then why was she so angry when the confession got ruined? Why did she have the entire Way of Heaven guild put Xiao Chi on their kill list and make such a huge scene?"
Wujin Shi looked at him. "She was angry? Was she?"
Qingtian Wai froze.
Caught off guard by the question. Xiao Chi thought back carefully. "...Come to think of it, every time I've seen her, she's always been very calm. She never actually seemed angry. ...Even though she kept hunting me down."
Wujin Shi nodded. "She just enjoys stirring up trouble and throwing her weight around in the game. I've always suspected she was doing it on purpose. Now it's finally been confirmed. She absolutely was."
Gou-jie looked bewildered. "Then... is Wei Yu Ning Qiu actually a woman or a man?"
Wujin Shie shrugged. "I don't know. Does it matter?"
"It still matters," Gou-jie replied. "If she's really a woman, then no matter how much she toyed with Han Jian Ying's feelings, he probably wouldn't go after her. But if she's a guy playing a female character… Way of Heaven will hunt 'her' to the ends of the earth."
Meanwhile, Wei Yu Ning Qiu continued tirelessly posting guild recruitment messages in World Chat.
Given the current controversy, no guild wanted to offend Way of Heaven by immediately accepting her. But she never stopped. Every so often, she'd post the exact same recruitment message again, drawing another wave of spectators and discussion.
Looking at it now through the lens of Wujin Shi's analysis...it really did make perfect sense.
She was doing it on purpose. Deliberately attracting attention. Deliberately making herself the center of everyone's gaze. The center of every conversation.
The members of Xiao Cai Guild clicked their tongues in amazement as they worked on upgrading their guild's Sanctuary.
After watering the Nameless Seed and hauling construction stones for the guild instance, Xiao Chi logged off. After thinking it over, he decided to send Wujin Shi a private message on WeChat.
[Xiao Chi]: If you think Wei Yu Ning Qiu is the best choice for our healer, then we can invite her to join both the team and the guild. I don't really have any grudge against her. Fighting and killing each other in games is normal.
[Shi]: You're really not angry?
[Xiao Chi]: Ah, I got over it a long time ago. I'm honestly not upset.
[Shi]: Xiao Chi-ge has such a good temper.
Xiao Chi immediately blushed.
[Shi]: I'm mainly worried she'll join the guild and stir up trouble.
[Xiao Chi]: Xiao Cai Guild is so small. There's not much trouble she could cause.
[Shi]: I'm worried Way of Heaven will target you and affect your streams.
Xiao Chi felt a warmth spread through his chest...Ah.
Wujin Shi was actually an incredibly considerate person. Whenever Xiao Chi was live, Wujin Shi always knew what should and shouldn't be said. Xiao Chi streaming all day inevitably caused the others a bit of inconvenience while they played together. But Wujin Shi had never once complained. If anything, he worried about whether it would affect Xiao Chi's broadcasts.
Likewise, Xiao Chi didn't want to interfere with Wujin Shi's battlefield ambitions.
He knew Wujin Shi wasn't afraid of being targeted by Way of Heaven. Nor was he afraid of Han Jian Ying.
[Xiao Chi]: It won't affect me. Honestly, compared to peacefully playing games, my viewers actually enjoy watching drama more. If Way of Heaven really starts targeting us, it'll probably increase my stream traffic instead.
[Shi]: Xiao Chi-ge is too nice. Are you trying to comfort me?
[Xiao Chi]: No...
[Shi]: Thanks for being so magnanimous, Xiao Chi-ge.
[Shi]: But... you don't have to be so well-behaved.
"...Huh?"
Xiao Chi blinked at his phone, confused.
[Shi]: You don't need to worry about putting the team together. We won't have trouble finding a healer. If you want to play with Wei Yu Ning Qiu, we'll let her join. If you don't want to play with her, we'll reject her.
[Shi]: You're still pretty young, but you're always thinking about everyone else.
[Shi]: When you're playing games... don't be so obedient.
Xiao Chi stared at his phone in a daze. He was so distracted that he even forgot to say goodbye to Wujin Shi.
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