Chapter 16: Interference

Xia He’s words still lingered in his ears, refusing to be chased away no matter what.

“I only do this for you alone.”

Jiang Yueming had already returned home. 

He was curled up in his chair playing a game. 

The holiday would end tomorrow, yet he had not reserved this last bit of time for his beloved games at all.

“Can I clear the whole game in one night tonight…”

The words “Failure” popped up on the screen. The display instantly turned gray.

His condition tonight was not great.

An unremarkable side boss—one he would normally crush without effort—had already cost him several lives tonight.

It was not that the boss had gotten stronger. It was that he kept getting distracted. 

Midway through the fight, his mind would drift elsewhere.

It drifted to the white steam rising from the hotpot. It drifted to the upturned corners of Xia He’s mouth.

“One more round. I’ll sleep after I die!”

Jiang Yueming shook his head. 

He pressed the revive key. 

His in-game character stood up once more, mounted the horse, and galloped across the wilderness.

Since normal play wasn’t working, he might as well stack some buffs.

He controlled his character to pull a bunch of consumables from the inventory and shove them all into his mouth at once. 

In the next second, layers of glowing light enveloped the character.

Dull Potion—reduces damage received.

Rage Potion—increases critical hit rate.

Hotpot Delicacy—slightly boosts all attributes and grants immunity to cold.

The buffs stacked fully. Accompanied by a roar, intense music kicked in.

These items had been saved for the final boss. Their crafting materials were extremely troublesome to gather, so Jiang Yueming had prepared only one of each, planning to use them at the very end.

But tonight, he did not want to wait. Final boss or not, he would clear this stage first.

In the game, the wilderness temperature plummeted without warning. Wind and snow descended abruptly.

The sun was swallowed up. 

A crack split open in the sky as a massive white dragon burst through the clouds, roaring as it dove downward.

The first-stage cold debuff was completely nullified by the Hotpot Delicacy. 

Jiang Yueming flicked his fingers. 

His character rolled nimbly, narrowly dodging the first dragon breath.

“Immunity to cold is really useful.”

Without the slowing effect from the cold, the character felt as agile as a cheetah in his hands. 

The Hotpot Delicacy had been the hardest buff to obtain in the entire set, but its effect was immediate.

Speaking of hotpot…

His mind drifted back to the dinner that evening. Xia He sat across from him, chopsticks holding a piece of meat, her eyes sparkling brightly as she said—

“I only do this for you alone.”

Calling those words a veiled confession would be an understatement.

Jiang Yueming felt that Xia He was a bit too straightforward. 

How could she say something like that so casually to someone she had only known for a week?

Yet she spoke it so naturally, as if the line had been rehearsed in her heart a thousand times, ten thousand times, just waiting for this exact moment to slip out.

The battle on the screen continued.

The ice dragon flipped over and entered its second stage. 

Its scales and claws became coated in frost. Its long tail swept across. 

In the moment Jiang Yueming was distracted, the character was struck. 

The health bar plummeted by a third.

“Tsk.”

Jiang Yueming quickly downed a healing potion and created distance. 

He forced his eyes back onto the screen.

He had been playing this game for a long time. 

His home console could not run online games, so he could only buy single-player titles.

Behind him, a transparent display cabinet was neatly filled with games of all sizes and types.

He did not have many hobbies. 

His only hobby was playing games. 

Even Dong Ziyang, that shut-in, had told him he was too much of a homebody and should go outside more often.

“Like you’re one to talk about going out.” Jiang Yueming had shot back at the time.

Dong Ziyang had replied righteously, “At least I go to the net cafe once a week.”

“Isn’t that still indoors?”

“The net cafe has cigarette smoke. It’s different.”

“How is it different?”

Dong Ziyang had thought for a long time before squeezing out, “It has the smell of the human world.”

Jiang Yueming had laughed for a long time back then.

Dong Ziyang had said that homebodies like him were not popular with girls. 

Didn’t he want to experience a sweet romance during high school?

But if girls don’t like me, what am I supposed to use to date them?

Am I supposed to stay holed up at home playing games, waiting for a girl to come find me?

As these thoughts crossed his mind, his hands slowed unconsciously. 

The health bar on the screen continued to drop.

For some reason, Xia He’s face appeared in his mind once more.

She really was beautiful. So beautiful that it created a sense of distance. 

One could only admire her from afar, like something “admirable from a distance but not to be profaned.”

He could not imagine Xia He standing beside him. 

That girl was so radiant that light seemed to shine wherever she went. 

When she smiled, it felt like spring had arrived and flowers were blooming.

Yet such a person had held his hand during the day—not just once—and had smiled at him, smiling only for him.

Jiang Yueming suddenly felt a little scared.

He looked forward to what would happen next, yet feared it would disappear in an instant.

He feared being toyed with. 

That those smiles were nothing more than her well-practiced techniques. 

That he was merely a casual distraction she had picked up in her boring life.

She had been so skilled.

Those movements and those perfectly timed approaches—had she practiced them on others before?

The ice dragon reared its head and let out a long roar. 

The sound echoed across the wilderness. The music intensified. 

Fierce winds carrying heavy snow descended from the sky, devastatingly ripping away all the trees. 

The wilderness transformed completely into an ice plain.

It was the final stage.

The healing potions were gone. 

He could not afford a single mistake from now on.

The ice dragon did not know that the challenger before it was still thinking about other things at this life-or-death moment.

Jiang Yueming also did not know that a long, long time ago, Xia He had performed these same maneuvers countless times—all of them landing on him.

He had originally thought that he would not get involved with romance at all before university. 

Xia He’s appearance had shattered all his plans.

A variable that could not be ignored had suddenly appeared in his world.

The ice dragon’s movements grew increasingly frenzied. 

The blizzard was so thick it blocked all vision. 

Nothing could be seen beyond five meters. The giant dragon vanished into the snow curtain without a trace.

In this stage, the player could not deal damage and could only dodge.

Sharp claws would suddenly thrust out from the snow to attack the player with no predictable pattern. 

One could only rely on reflexes to dodge visually.

Jiang Yueming narrowed his eyes. 

His fingers gripping the controller tightened slightly. 

He held his breath and poured all his focus into his pupils.

One.

Three.

Five.

…

The last one!

As long as he dodged this final attack, the boss would enter a brief stun period. 

He could then unload a full damage combo to finish it off.

He was about to clear it.

Jiang Yueming’s concentration peaked. 

He stared intently at the swirling wind and snow, alert for any incoming assault.

His finger pressed lightly on the dodge button, like a trigger pulled halfway.

Just then—

The phone on the table suddenly chimed. Someone was messaging him in the middle of the night.

He instinctively turned his head and glanced at the lit-up screen. Sender: Xia He.

He was about to look down at the content when a dragon roar suddenly exploded from the game screen.

Caught completely off guard, Jiang Yueming did not have time to turn his head back. 

His fingers frantically mashed the dodge button.

Too late.

The claw slashed across the screen. 

The sword-wielding warrior knelt powerlessly as the blade plunged into the frozen earth.

[Failure]

Large red characters appeared before Jiang Yueming’s slightly agape mouth.

“Fuck?”

Jiang Yueming cursed. 

He frowned and gritted his teeth as he snatched up the phone.

It couldn’t have come earlier or later—it had to be right at this moment! Do you have any idea how long I spent gathering these items?!

He opened the phone. The message left him stunned.

“Go to bed early, okay? You can’t stay up playing games tonight! Tomorrow I’m going to check on you. If you have dark circles, I’ll get angry!”

Jiang Yueming stared at the line of text. 

He opened his mouth but could not utter a single word.

Once again, because of a woman, he had been defeated by a simple side boss. 

And this woman was not even inside the game.