Chapter 32: Hua Xian Yuan // Painting Immortal's Fate 1

When Yan Chi was an undergraduate, he once played a popular role-playing game called

with Feng.

When he was naming his character, he didn't know why he had a flash of inspiration and suddenly thought of this name “Ye Sanqian2“. Instantly, he grew favorable of this name; this was this sort of familiarity and it was very easy on the lips. This name had personality, wasn't pretentious, and even held a whiff of unruly chivalry. He decided on that name at that moment.

It wasn't long afterward that he met a woman named “Baby Yan” in the game.

His name couldn't be considered to be popular, but this person just had to name herself with the word “Yan”. At that time, Yan Chi felt they were brought together by fate. Later, by coincidence, he became even more familiar with “Baby Yan”. The more they interacted, the more they get to know each other, such that they even got married in the game and invited their friends as their guests. They spent the next two years in the game in harmony.

In their everyday conversations, Yan Chi learned that Baby Yan was also a student that attended school in A City just like himself. So, with an indescribable expectation and longing, he euphemistically put forward a request to meet with her, but he was refused un.o.btrusively by the other party. Since then, Yan Chi didn't dare to mention it anymore. Later on, he was busy with his postgraduate studies, writing a graduation thesis and other things, so he no longer logged on to the game.

Until a weekend one month after the start of his postgraduate course, Old Yuan, an undergraduate student of the same course dragged him to attend

's players meeting held near A University as an accompany.

It was at this meeting that he met Gu Xixi.

Gu Xixi said that she was Baby Yan. She had specially went to Yan Chi's school to study. When the players reported their game server and their ID to collect their souvenirs, she found out that the Yan Chi was “Ye Sanqian”, so she hurried came to meet with him.

Chi Yan admitted that he was very surprised when he first saw the real “Baby Yan”. However, it might be because human's behavior, in reality, was different from that in a game, because it didn't take more than one hour spent with Gu Xixi for him to feel that she gave off a very different feeling as compared to "Baby Yan" in the game. That made him very disappointed.

After all, he had once imagined that if “Baby Yan” and he had met in reality, he would ask the other party to be his girlfriend… Even to the point of marrying her home…

Nevertheless, Gu Xixi remembered every detail of their interactions in the game. Moreover,

this game did allow the players to customize their character's appearance, commonly known as “Kneading Face”. The characters created by each player were different, but unfortunately Gu Xixi and the game, "Baby Yan" looked practically identical. The girl had created her character according to her own appearance.

All these made it impossible to deny that Gu Xixi was “Baby Yan”.

Out of affection for Baby Yan in the game, Yan Chi had been politely maintaining a friends.h.i.+p with Gu Xixi. He couldn't even bear to be too frank and reject her obvious advances.

It was late October now and it had been three months since he left school.

But he and his roommate, Ye Yingzhi, were still not on familiar terms.

The postgraduate dormitories were all in a unit of two. As Ye Yingzhi's home was in A City, there was no need for him to return to the dormitory every day. Basically, he only stayed three days out of the whole week. He also doesn't attend cla.s.s very often, so his cla.s.smates in the Philosophy Department doesn't see him much. Moreover, he was very low-profile. He wouldn't partic.i.p.ate in any activities nor did he publicize his actions. Yan Chi could only simply judge that his family background was pretty good; because his own family was relatively rich, so he was able to tell that Ye Yingzhi's clothes were simple but exquisite.

He was from the Department of Economics and Ye Yingzhi was from the Department of Philosophy. He heard from his cla.s.smates in the Philosophy Department that Ye Yingzhi's results were quite good. Whether it was undergraduate or postgraduate studies, he could choose any major he wanted. Philosophy was one of the least popular majors nowadays. It was not easy for this specialized field to find jobs. Most people would prefer to go towards the finance field as it was easy to get jobs and had a high income. Most students who had good grades but chose to study philosophy were mostly people that loved the course and had no family's issue.

Chi Yan chatted with the philosophy student about Ye Yingzhi at that time. He supported his chin and said with some perplexity, “I can't imagine that Ye Yingzhi would like Kang De3.” that sort of indifference.

That student was surprised: “Why do you think so? Isn't he indifferent too?"

Yan Chi held his chin and felt that something was wrong.

——————

After breakfast, Yan Chi took the initiative to clean the pot and wash the dishes. He put the pot back to its original place for Ye Yingzhi.

Ye Yingzhi was wearing a coat. It looked like he was going out.

Today was Sat.u.r.day and there was no cla.s.s. He thought Ye Yingzhi would not come back until night. He went to bed at 11 o'clock last night. He didn't know what time the other party came back and why he had to go out again in the early morning.

He stood up and looked at Ye Yingzhi. “Are you going out again?”

Ye Yingzhi nodded, “I have something on.”

The relations.h.i.+p between them was not close enough for them to ask each other about their private affairs. So, Yan Chi didn't inquire any more, thinking that maybe Ye Yingzhi was going to meet his girlfriend? Does Ye Yingzhi have a girlfriend? What is he like to his lover? Will he be cold or will he be gentle and make her breakfast? The more he thought about it, the most distracted he was until he was interrupted by the vibration of messages coming in.

It was Old Yuan who asked him to come out to play basketball in the afternoon.

Old Yuan was his undergraduate roommate and they had a good relations.h.i.+p. He was also the one who introduced Yan Chi to play games. After graduation, he went to B University next door to study, however, every weekend when he was free, he would ask his former cla.s.smates to play basketball.

Yan Chi gladly accepted the invitation. After changing clothes at noon and having a quick meal in the canteen, he played basketball with several friends in the playground for the whole afternoon and they left after five o'clock.

Old Yuan did not leave. He groaned and said that the food in B University was simply bad. The spicy hot pot was almost boiled rather than stir-fried; His old school was still better. He begged Yan Chi to take him to eat his favorite teppanyaki on the second floor that had good quality and was inexpensive.

When they were chatting over dinner, Old Yuan suddenly said, “Hey, where's your wife?”

Yan Chi: “… I don't have a wife!”

“I'm talking about Gu Xixi. Isn't she your wife in the game?”

“How can this be mixed together…” Yan Chi was somewhat speechless. “The game is merely a game, we are ordinary friends, and we don't really have much contact with each other.” He better not mention about the breakfast delivery, otherwise, Old Yuan would only add more things to add to his imagination.

Old Yuan also looked puzzled: “Why? On the day when we went to the meeting, I can sense that she is very fond of you. Don't you like her all the while in the game? Setting off fireworks, staying up late to brush equipment for her? At that time, we all said that even if your wife is actually a man, you also won't give up on her. Now, in reality, she is a pretty little girl, but you aren't interested…”

He muttered to himself: “… And I really think you two have some fates. She's called Baby Yan and looks quite like you…"

“What did you say?” Yan Chi was so shocked that he forgot to eat. He put down the chopsticks and pointed to his nose, saying, “Do you think I look like Gu Xixi?” Gu Xixi was a beauty and she really looked like a game character. How could she look like himself?

Old Yuan waved his hand: “Alas, don't be agitated, ruler4. Gu Xixi actually doesn't look like you. I meant the character she has created, "Baby Yan", although everybody can see that she made it according to her face, but with the game modeling, that eyes, that mouth, just… It feels like you."

Yan Chi's face was just confused. He couldn't handle hearing this conversation anymore and he quickly came up with an excuse to buy drinks for them. After buying the drink, he directed Old Yuan to change the topic so that he could continue to scold B University's canteen.

After sending Old Yuan away, Yan Chi went back to his dormitory alone. He went online and listened to songs. Soon, it was 12:30 p.m.

He remembered that tomorrow would be Sunday. He was guessing that Ye Yingzhi wouldn't come back tonight when he heard a key getting inserted and the door lock being turned over.

The door “creaked” after being pushed open. Yan Chi took off his earphone and turned around, seeing Ye Yingzhi pus.h.i.+ng the door.

Ye Yingzhi closed the door, took off his coat and hung it in the wardrobe. He turned, saw the dazed Yan Chi and suddenly laughed.

He went over and stood at Yan Chi's front with his head bowed slightly. “Why are you looking at me all the time? Why don't you sleep? Thinking of me? The last three words were almost blurted out, but he swallowed them back.

Yan Chi looked up at him. “Why aren't you going back to your house?”

Ye Yingzhi acknowledged, “En, it's not very safe outside recently. I'll stay in school. You should come back as early as possible too."

Not very safe?

Chi Yan was just about to ask when he saw Ye Yingzhi took a gla.s.s of water from the water dispenser and sat down. He unb.u.t.toned the two chest b.u.t.tons on his s.h.i.+rt, then lowered his head and unb.u.t.toned his cuff b.u.t.tons. He said in a plain voice: “Didn't you hear? Just two blocks away, someone died with their eyes opened. The heart was gouged out and the tongue was cut off."

Yan Chi was horrified and looked at the other party with widened eyes. His sight rammed straight into Ye Yingzhi's quiet, dark and bottomless eyes.