[Raid] [Wumei Qianlan]: Shenye, did the guild master and Chenxi really get pushed out by Lian Feier as a third wheel?
Even though Chenxi and Canmo Wuhen had left the party and logged off, the Zhanming Hall party hadn’t disbanded yet.
[Raid] [Shenye Qianxing]: …Sis, can we maybe not bring that up?
[Raid] [Wumei Qianlan]: No no, I’m just saying Chenxi and Canmo Wuhen are way better suited together.
[Raid] [Juhua Guniang]: Agreed. Watching those two ride off together, even I started wanting to find a romantic partner.
[Raid] [Fujia Hongniang]: Same! I’m not even into straight ships, but a top player and Chenxi standing side by side is just so adorable!
[Raid] [Xiao Dongxi]: Standing with every single thing these three sistas said.
[Raid] [Shenye Qianxing]: …
An Jing quietly glanced sideways at Xia Zichen and didn’t ask anything. They shared a dorm room — aside from attending separate classes, they spent more than ten hours a day together, and he genuinely hadn’t noticed anything off about Xia Zichen, nor did he feel that Xia Zichen and Canmo Wuhen had anything particularly special going on.
From the day he’d first met Xia Zichen, An Jing had always felt that Xia Zichen was someone who lived with a great deal of clarity — knowing what he needed, and knowing what might disturb his life and should be kept at a distance. Because Xia Zichen was that kind of person, he kept a clear separation between the game and real life, and was similarly calm about his own character-gender situation. The others had no desire to cause Xia Zichen trouble over the character thing, so they’d made a point of keeping it quiet, and Xia Zichen had gone along with that. No reluctance about it, no sense that anything was wrong — because to him, it was just a game and nothing more.
An Jing liked gossip, but there were times he didn’t quite dare to gossip about Xia Zichen. Xia Zichen had always been tightlipped — if he didn’t want to talk about something, it didn’t matter how many times you asked. And if you pressed too hard for answers, the things he eventually said would end up hurting the listener far more than expected.
Like the time An Jing had noticed Xia Zichen’s feelings for Shen Yicheng, and waited until Shen Yicheng was out of the room to corner him — dragging along a reluctant Tang Hui — and confront Xia Zichen directly. Xia Zichen had kept completely silent at first, but An Jing had physically blocked the dorm room door in a clear “you’re not leaving until you talk” stance.
Xia Zichen had stood in front of him for a full minute before he finally spoke. “I’ll admit I’m gay. But I don’t want to affect anyone else’s life. If either of you finds it unacceptable or disgusting, I’ll move out right now.”
The Xia Zichen who said those words had shown no expression throughout. His eyes hadn’t looked toward either of them. But that quiet, soft voice had landed on An Jing and Tang Hui like a blow, with no hint of vulnerability — only a clean line being drawn between himself and the two of them. As if the moment anyone told him to leave, he would walk out without a second glance.
Hearing those words, An Jing felt something indescribable well up inside him. The words he wanted to say got stuck in his throat and wouldn’t come out.
In the end, Tang Hui pulled An Jing aside and formally apologized to Xia Zichen, asking him not to mind what had happened, to treat it as if neither of them had ever asked or heard anything. An Jing could only nod vigorously from the side — the one thing he wanted was for him to stay.
Xia Zichen said nothing more, and the matter was considered settled.
After that, neither An Jing nor Tang Hui ever brought it up again, as if it had never happened. Neither of them ever tried to pierce the thin membrane between Xia Zichen and Shen Yicheng — they simply paid more attention to looking after Xia Zichen from all sides, caring for him the way you’d care for a little brother, terrified of him being mistreated by anyone.
The dividing line that had almost been drawn between them was worn away by An Jing, who shamelessly worked at it with gentle persistence until it disappeared. If anything, his relationship with Xia Zichen ended up closer than before.
Thinking it over, An Jing decided to let it go and not ask. When Xia Zichen was ready to talk, he’d talk on his own.
Besides — he was also starting to think that Canmo Wuhen seemed like a pretty decent person.
In the days that followed, An Jing kept himself quite busy, which in turn kept Xia Zichen quite busy as well. For no other reason than making money in the game. Ever since his conversation with Baicao Zhe about gear optimization, An Jing had set a personal goal of earning gold, leveling his life skills, and working toward self-sufficiency to push his gear up another tier.
Of the four of them, Xia Zichen was the only one who had ever bothered with life skills — regularly gathering herbs and mining ore. The other three had never had any interest in it. Whatever they needed, they’d just ask Xia Zichen, and because that convenience was always there, An Jing had essentially forgotten that life skills even existed.
Tang Hui, when he needed to save up gold, would take lower-level characters through leveling runs. His character was well-suited for it — excellent AoE mob clearing, fast pace, a decent method of earning that suited him. When Shen Yicheng needed gold, he’d just top up with real money — much less hassle. When An Jing needed gold, he’d stretch out a hand to borrow from the other three, and all three would lend it to him — though “borrow” was a generous term for money that never made its way back.
This time around, the gear refinement method Baicao Zhe had recommended couldn’t be solved with gold alone. Some of the materials needed to be customized with attributes specific to your class, which made crafting them yourself the better option — and that was what had finally shifted An Jing’s attitude toward life skills.
When it came to leveling those skills, the other two were obviously useless. Only Xia Zichen could help. Xia Zichen had been doing it for a while, so he knew exactly where ore was most concentrated, which areas had the fastest herb respawn rates, which small enemies dropped the materials they needed, and which activities leveled life skills the fastest. An Jing was not about to let that go to waste.
And so the days that followed fell into a routine — after finishing dailies, An Jing would follow Xia Zichen out to level life skills: mining, gathering herbs, killing small mobs, then selling the haul to Jianlang thanks to Chenxi’s connection, with whatever the guild didn’t need going up on the auction house. After a few days of this, they had a decent amount to show for it.
On one day when the guild had nothing going on, An Jing dragged Xia Zichen out mining again. After a few days of research, he had concluded that mining was the most profitable option, and had decided to dedicate himself to being a professional miner.
The two of them were at the riverbank mining when a white figure dropped down right in front of Chenxi. An Jing looked up, and to his surprise, it was Canmo Wuhen. He hadn’t seen him since the dungeon run.
Canmo Wuhen quickly joined the party, gave An Jing a polite greeting, then turned to Chenxi. “How much stamina do you have left to mine today?”
In Sword Soul, mining and herb gathering consumed stamina, while crafting skills consumed energy. Each player had a cap of three thousand for both stamina and energy. After spending them down, a certain amount recovered each day, taking five days to fully refill. So even using these skills as an income source, you couldn’t just go non-stop all day — you had to budget your daily consumption carefully and try not to go over, so you’d have resources for the days ahead.
“Almost out for today.” Xia Zichen always planned out his stamina distribution so there was always something to sell each day.
“Mm. Sit and rest a bit — I’ll mine.” With that, Canmo Wuhen began mining along the route Xia Zichen had been following, making sure to leave a portion for An Jing as well.
“Does Canmo earn money this way too?” An Jing asked in the party channel, watching Canmo Wuhen mining away in Chenxi’s place.
“Not really. My stamina and energy never had anywhere to go, so this works out — and Chenxi gets to earn a bit more.” Canmo Wuhen said casually, continuing what he was doing.
“Wait a second…” An Jing’s mind turned over, and something suddenly struck him as not quite right. “We sell all of this to your guild master too, don’t we?”
“Yeah.” Canmo Wuhen acknowledged.
“So what you’re doing is… taking money from your own people?” An Jing had originally wanted to say “stabbing your own guild in the back,” but somehow that phrase felt slightly off when applied to Canmo Wuhen.
“It’s not that much money.” Canmo Wuhen said lightly.
“You might as well just give the gold directly to Little Chenxi.”
“Chenxi won’t take it.” Canmo Wuhen kept mining.
“…” Xia Zichen sent a row of ellipses. When Canmo Wuhen had first suggested helping him gather, Xia Zichen hadn’t thought much of it — stamina sitting unused was wasted anyway. But with An Jing pointing it out like this today, something did seem a little off.
When you put it plainly, the situation had turned into him and Canmo Wuhen collectively draining Jianlang’s gold together. Or to put it even more directly… he was being bankrolled…
“Little Zhen-zhen, looking at you two just now, a phrase suddenly came to mind…” An Jing, lounging lazily in his chair, let his gaze drift unconsciously toward Shen Yicheng, who was mid-dungeon.
“What?” Canmo Wuhen was mining for him, so Xia Zichen had nothing to do and was sitting to the side tidying up his inventory.
“Husband and wife, working as one.” An Jing gave himself a nod of confirmation as he said it.
Tang Hui looked over with a puzzled expression but didn’t ask further.
“I’m the husband.” Xia Zichen responded to An Jing’s unreliable teasing with a completely straight face.
“Ha…” An Jing’s eyes scanned him up and down. “Little Zhen-zhen, setting everything else aside — with that voice of yours alone, you are never going to be the husband. The moment Canmo hears you speak, he’d pin you down on the spot.”
“Why not say he might fall over on his own without even needing to be pushed?” Xia Zichen shot An Jing a sideways look.
“Not a chance at this point — the man is a top-tier player.” An Jing tilted his chin up with certainty.
Xia Zichen let out a helpless sigh, feeling that An Jing, in addition to his gossip habit, had been getting increasingly vulgar lately. He got up to make himself a cup of coffee, turned around, and met Shen Yicheng’s probing stare head-on — brow furrowed, expression not particularly pleased.
Without any explanation, Xia Zichen curved his mouth up slightly, looked away from Shen Yicheng, picked up the electric kettle, and walked out of the dorm.
By the time he came back with his coffee and settled into his chair, he saw that Shenye Qianxing had come to sit beside Chenxi, no longer mining.
“Done already?” Xia Zichen took a sip of coffee and sat back down.
“No — looking at you two just now, bro suddenly feels a profound sense of loneliness.” An Jing propped his chin up on one hand. “Bro wants to find a romantic partner too. At this point bro wouldn’t even mind if it’s a guy.”
“Spare the guys.” Tang Hui, who had been quiet the whole time, cut in.
“I’m just expressing the depth of my longing.” An Jing shot Tang Hui a disgruntled look.
“The depth of your desperation, more like.”
“Hmph!”
…
Xia Zichen had no interest in participating in the bickering unfolding between the two of them. He turned his attention back to the computer — and found a private message from Canmo Wuhen waiting.
[PM] [Canmo Wuhen]: Jianlang wants to run 6v6 next week. Interested in joining?
[PM] [Chenxi]: Sure, is the lineup set?
When it came to running the arena with Canmo Wuhen, regardless of the format, he had no reason to say no.
[PM] [Canmo Wuhen]: Right now it’s just me, Jianlang, and Baicao. If anyone on your end wants to join, bring them along.
[PM] [Chenxi]: Let me ask around.
An Jing was sitting right next to him, but Xia Zichen thought about it and still chose to message him through the game. If An Jing came, Tang Hui would definitely come along too. Asking directly out loud might give Shen Yicheng the feeling of being excluded — after all, the four of them had always played together, and even with Lian Feier now in the picture, he had no desire to unilaterally give Shen Yicheng the impression that he was being left out. Even if they couldn’t be what he had once hoped for, they were still friends. There was no reason to make things unpleasant.
[PM] [Chenxi]: Canmo and his group are doing 6v6 next week. You coming?
The message had barely sent when Xia Zichen felt An Jing’s eyes on him. He turned to find An Jing nodding vigorously, eyes practically sparkling.
[PM] [Chenxi]: Got it. You go tell Hui-ge on your end.
[PM] [Shenye Qianxing]: On it!
An Jing understood perfectly why Xia Zichen hadn’t said it aloud, and played along with a well-timed message back.
Subtly, quietly, something seemed to be undergoing a silent transformation — though none of them were inclined to think too hard about it. Not everyone was willing to see things with perfect clarity. Sometimes a little obliviousness was the greatest wisdom of all. Everyone, that is, except for Xia Zichen…