Chapter 7: Husband of the Year

“It doesn’t hurt.”

Xie Chu said nothing. He simply sat there, watching me.

He was so calm, almost as if he’d already accepted that I was about to leave.

I was the complete opposite. I kept talking while tears streamed down my face like someone had turned on a faucet.

I wasn’t usually a crybaby. I’d always thought crying solved nothing. But whenever I was in front of Xie Chu, I somehow became more and more useless.

Xie Chu walked over and pulled me into his arms.

I casually wiped all my tears onto his shoulder.

Well, if a villain’s shirt wasn’t meant for wiping tears, what was it for?

I looked at the dawn breaking through the clouds outside the window and whispered,

“Xie Chu, I love you.”

“Mm.”

His answer was soft.

There was none of the intimidating final-boss aura of a man preparing to destroy the world. He just sounded like a man trying his hardest not to let the pain show.

As the sunlight outside grew brighter and brighter, he took my hand.

Then, with the tip of his finger, he slowly wrote two words into my palm:

Wait for me.

“Qianqian! What are you spacing out about?”

My classmate slapped me on the shoulder.

I jolted back to reality.

“Huh?”

“There’s a professor from A University giving a lecture today. Are you coming?”

My eyes lit up instantly.

I nodded enthusiastically.

Here we go!

The classic romance-novel reunion trope:

A chance encounter in the lecture hall!

The adorable little college girl meets the cold, handsome professor who’s just returned from overseas!

I practically ran there in excitement.

Only…

Nope.

Not him.

Three years had passed.

Three years in the real world, not the game.

I had gone from a freshman to a student about to graduate.

For those three years, I’d practically gone crazy searching for any trace of Xie Chu.

He told me to wait for him.

And I’d waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Still nothing.

Maybe he’d only told me to wait because he wanted revenge for the way I’d deceived him all those years ago.

Just thinking about it made me furious.

“Qianqian, there’s a graduation party tonight. Seniors, juniors, and students from the neighboring university will all be there. You’re really not coming?”

I shook my head.

I’d attended so many events like that I was practically qualified to become a professional emcee.

I’d gone from a certified introvert to someone who could smile at literally anyone.

But I’d still never found him.

Xie Chu wasn’t there.

I went home.

My mother was doing much better now. Not only could she take care of herself, she also spent every day making sure I ate like she was fattening up a pig for market.

Three years ago, after I’d fallen unconscious for long periods twice, she became convinced I had some undiagnosed terminal illness.

For the past two years, she’d been stuffing me with nutritious food like her life depended on it.

“Qianqian, your Uncle Xie’s son just came back from overseas. He wants to take you out to dinner. You two used to play together when you were little. Why don’t you go see him?”

It sounded like dinner.

But obviously, it was a blind date.

Wait…

The surname Xie?!

“I’m going! I’m going right now!”

I was practically ready to fly out the door.

Classic romance trope number two:

Your blind date turns out to be your long-lost ex-boyfriend!

Or, if that didn’t happen, there was always trope number three:

The domineering male lead suddenly appears during the blind date and gets insanely jealous!

Either one would make me happy.

I put on my prettiest dress and did my makeup so carefully that when I looked in the mirror, I almost wanted to ask myself for my WeChat.

Then I saw a man approaching from a distance.

My heart started pounding.

“Miss Lin, you’re even prettier in person than you are in your pictures.”

…

My heart went cold.

Not him.

Xie Chu would never say something like that.

He would just silently look at me with those deep, dark eyes until I understood without a word:

In his world, I was the only person who existed.

“You liar! You absolute liar!”

I went crazy and started throwing books around my room.

Then I had to pick every single one of them back up myself.

The perfect combination of furious and broke.

“It’s been three years! Thirty-six whole months! You’re probably some middle-aged man by now! Who would even want you anymore?!”

【Really?】

I immediately looked up.

…Was I hearing things again?

“Of course it’s true!”

【I heard there’s an animated character in your world who has been in elementary school for twenty-seven years.】

Me: “…”

The system’s mechanical voice suddenly turned cold.

【Warning: The original world is on the verge of collapse. Mission restarting.】

【New Mission: Stop the villain from going insane and blowing up the original world.】

I stared blankly.

“Seriously?! We’re blowing up the world again?!”

The system continued.

【Mission duration: One year.】

【Failure: You will be unable to return.】

【Success: Reward of one million.】

I immediately snapped to attention.

“Wait a second… Why is it only one million this time? Wasn’t it five million before?”

The system immediately shrieked, its voice practically breaking.

【You’re negotiating your salary for falling in love now?!】

And so began my long-distance relationship with Xie Chu.

A very high-tech long-distance relationship.

I’d originally thought that when he said Wait for me, he meant he would find a way to come to my world.

Who would’ve thought I’d still be the one running back into the game world to see him?

But somehow, using the lifelike portrait I’d once drawn of myself, he managed to create an NPC who looked exactly like the real me.

Classic villain behavior.

Except he’d apparently maxed out his technology stats.

There was also the difference in time between the game and the real world.

One year in the game was equivalent to only one month in reality.

I told my family that I’d taken a job that required me to travel for extended periods.

And then my life became:

One month of vacation in the real world.

One year of romance in the game.

Repeat indefinitely.

And the pay was pretty damn good, too.

Honestly, not a bad deal.

There was just one tiny problem.

Every single side map in the game had already been unlocked.

Once, when I logged back in, I was immediately greeted by an entire horde of zombies.

For a second, I genuinely thought I’d accidentally logged into some post-apocalyptic survival game.

But the more I thought about it, the more fun life like this seemed.

Every now and then, watching Xie Chu fight a boss felt like having front-row seats to a VIP action movie.

Oh, and don’t worry.

Xie Chu didn’t turn into some sixty-year-old man.

Once all the side maps had been fully unlocked, time in the game practically stopped moving.

Only the difficulty kept increasing.

That spring, he took me to see the endless sea of cherry blossoms again.

He also learned a whole bunch of new skills.

For example…

He learned how to block the system completely.

Then he leaned close to my ear and whispered,

“I love you, too.”

— End of Main Story —