Chapter 88
Mo Yi stared at the message displayed on the screen, momentarily dazed.
Jiang Yuanrou returned from the instance?
His dark eyes brightened a little, and his heart moved slightly.
If Jiang Yuanrou and Jiang Yuanbai were in the game for this whole period, then the instance they experienced would have lasted for at least half a month—this would be very valuable information.
He tapped at the screen, replying with a [yeah.]
Then, after a short period of deliberation, Mo Yi sent another message.
[Are you two okay?]
Jiang Yuanrou replied quickly, and her message was very brief, only two words.
[Still alive.]
—But this was not a direct answer to his question.
Mo Yi frowned, yet before he could respond again, Jiang Yuanrou sent another message.
[We need to meet.]
Mo Yi’s fingers resting on the screen paused. They moved away, sliding off to the frame of the device.
Wen Chen looked over as if he sensed something.
Seeing Mo Yi’s preoccupied look, he strode over and asked with his light grey eyes narrowed, “What’s the matter?”
Frowning, Mo Yi raised the screen to Wen Chen, and then said in a low voice, “Jiang Yuanrou asked me to see her.”
Wen Chen glanced at the screen, his indifferent eyes flicking across it. Then he fixed on Mo Yi’s pensive expression again, his gaze deepening.
“You don’t want to go?”
Mo Yi shook his head, his light lips pursed into a straight line.
“I just feel a little uneasy, after all… As you know, my identity is a bit inconvenient.”
Wen Chen nodded. He untied the apron he was wearing and put it on the back of the chair beside him. He rolled his broad and slender shoulders slightly, and with no expression on his aggressive face, he said, “I’ll go with you.”
Mo Yi glanced at him thoughtfully—although the Mist seemed unable to fully exert its abilities in the real world, but according to his usefulness in the second instance, it would indeed be much more reassuring to bring him along.
Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the apron hanging on the back of the chair—its cotton and linen texture was dyed in contrasting colours, and there were even a few lively cartoon characters laughing on it.
Super ugly…
Mo Yi’s eyes stayed on it for a moment, and his expression was unreadable. “Did you buy this?”
After all, he knew what items he had in his apartment… And this was definitely not one of them.
Wen Chen, “…”
It was actually a gift from the supermarket downstairs.
Before he could open his mouth to explain, Jiang Yuanrou’s text message arrived again. [Meet at the fitness villa, ok?]
Mo Yi lowered his dark eyes to the phone screen, then sent a word [OK].
He glanced at Wen Chen. With his facial expression schooled back to his usual indifferent gentleness, Mo Yi turned his head and smiled at Wen Chen.
“Let’s go.”
When he reached the foyer of the fitness villa, Jiang Yuanrou was actually standing there, waiting for Mo Yi.
Mo Yi felt relieved.
The night was dense and cold. Under the cold white light of the street lamps, her slender and thin figure appeared stretched, making it seem as though she had lost a lot of weight. The large windbreaker on her body made her look small.
Mo Yi approached and found that Jiang Yuanrou’s complexion was very bad.
Her complexion was so pale that it almost appeared bloodless. Her chin seemed a little sharper, in turn, making her light brown eyes look bigger and brighter in comparison. Dark shadows lined her under-eyes and she looked as if she hadn’t had a good rest for several days.
Seeing Mo Yi approaching, Jiang Yuanrou couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.
“I’m sorry for calling you here in such a hurry… Actually, I was already prepared for you not to come.”
—After all, their period of partnership was not long, and they both knew that they were still far from being able to trust each other.
Mo Yi shook his head, showing a distant smile.
“Don’t pay it any mind.”
Jiang Yuanrou seemed distracted. She inhaled deeply, opened the door to the villa, then turned her head and spoke.
“Let’s go, let’s talk in the room.”
She entered the villa first. The lights inside were brightly lit, making her back look even more petite and thin against the background.
At this moment, a layer of soft mist wrapped around Mo Yi’s palm, rubbing his fingertips lightly, half comforting and half intimately.
Mo Yi’s expression remained unchanged. He followed Jiang Yuanrou into the house, then closed the door behind him.
Jiang Yuanrou went straight to the couch, and sank half of her body into it. There was a deep trace of tiredness which couldn’t be concealed on her pale face.
She took out a pack of cigarettes, twisted one out with her long and thin fingers and held it between her fingertips. Suddenly, she paused, as if she had realised Mo Yi’s existence, so she raised her head and looked at him.
“Do you mind…?”
Mo Yi’s gaze paused at the thick blue-black shadows under Jiang Yuanrou’s eyes, then shook his head quietly.
After getting an affirmative answer, Jiang Yuanrou lowered her head halfway, her long chestnut hair gently drooping down her fair neck. There was the soft metallic click of a lighter, and a bright flame flickered at her fingertips.
The scent of tobacco permeated the air. A coil of smoke rose slowly, blurring her facial features and eyebrows.
Mo Yi waited patiently.
Jiang Yuanrou seemed to have relaxed a lot. She raised the hand that was not holding the cigarette and rubbed her temple, then finally spoke.
“Yuanbai and I survived for fourteen days in the last instance.”
Mo Yi’s expression remained unchanged, but he did a rough calculation in his heart—the time lapse in reality and in the game was one to two, so this meant that they returned to the real world one day after him.
He still appeared calm, patiently waiting for Jiang Yuanrou’s next words.
Her fingertips trembled twice before she brought the cigarette back for another swig. The reddish fire at the end grew in intensity, followed shortly after by a coil of smoke puffed out between her pale lips. Her expression was still downcast.
A forced smile appeared on Jiang Yuanrou’s face. “Do you still remember our conversation after your last instance ended?”
Mo Yi nodded.
Jiang Yuanrou shook the ashes off, and continued, “At that time, I told you that the game instance and parts of reality were interlinked, but all those who search for the connection died in their next instance so I suggested that you better not take the risk to do so.”
She paused, raising her eyes to look at Mo Yi. The expression on her face dimmed and her pair of light brown eyes looked deep and serious.
“Yet you still went. After you got off the plane I did not ask you about the relevant information because firstly, this game will definitely not allow its players to leak such crucial information, and secondly… What I was more worried about is, if we knew about the connection, then we might have to bear the risk in our next instance too.”
Jiang Yuanrou’s lips twisted into a self-deprecating smile.
“Although I have been in this game for so long, I am still a coward deep down.”
Mo Yi took a slow step forward. The hands by his side twitched as he tried to find a way to offer some words of comfort.
As though to suppress her turbulent emotions, Jiang Yuanrou took another quick puff of the cigarette. She choked on the strong and spicy taste, and began to cough violently.
Mo Yi filled a cup from the automatic water dispenser beside him, and slid the warm water in front of Jiang Yuanrou.
She stopped coughing. There was a sickly flush on her pale face and tears at the corners of her reddened eyes. She thanked him hoarsely, then put out the cigarette on the ashtray on the table.
“…I’m actually not very used to the smell of cigarettes. The number I’ve smoked in the past few days after I came back is several times more than what I have smoked in the past decade.”
Mo Yi pursed his lips. He keenly noticed that from just now, Jiang Yuanrou’s sentences all used ‘I’ instead of ‘we’.
What about Jiang Yuanbai?
He kept his doubts in his heart, and remained calm, watching Jiang Yuanrou quietly, waiting for her next words.
Jiang Yuanrou continued.
“Yuan Bai was very close to me when we were young but we gradually became estranged when we grew up. I wanted to learn how to manage a company, and he also had his own dreams. Furthermore, after I was dragged into this game, I intentionally alienated Yuan Bai even more…I am really a very terrible sister.”
She lowered her eyes and stared at the splatter of lights reflected on the surface of the water in the cup. Then, she took a deep breath, and continued.
“After his first instance was over, he actually used his own connections to unravel the relationship between the game and reality—he had indeed become full-fledged in the past few years, and actually kept me completely in the dark.”
Mo Yi was taken aback, and his expression instantly became serious.
After he found out the connection between the real world and the game, he chose to start the membership test immediately, so… what about Jiang Yuanbai?
Since Jiang Yuanbai did everything without consulting Jiang Yuanrou at that time, he probably didn’t know the hidden dangers involved. Then… the choices he made were likely influenced, and perhaps even misguided and manipulated by the biased language used by the game.
After all, if Mo Yi didn’t know that all of Jiang Yuanrou’s related friends had disappeared after searching for the truth, he might also have chosen not to start the membership test for the time being, and wait until he gained more props and experience.
Jiang Yuanrou’s fingertips trembled slightly, causing shallow ripples through the surface of the cooled water in the cup.
She narrowed her eyes and continued calmly.
“In the last instance, although we made it to the end, Yuanbai did not complete the membership challenge.”
Mo Yi was stunned. This matter about the membership… the game did not allow players to divulge any information about it, yet now Jiang Yuanrou was able to talk about it without any hindrance, which meant—
Jiang Yuanrou raised her eyes, showing him a pale smile.
“Yes, I am now a candidate for the Senior Member Club.”
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