Chapter 58: Come and Snatch the Bride (1)
Jiang Zhiyan casually picked up a book and sat down on the sofa.
The System, watching Jiang Zhiyan’s leisurely manner, was particularly unhappy. It was supposed to be enjoying playing the game, but after acting as Jiang Zhiyan’s substitute, it felt no different from going to work.
Now it felt like working two jobs, which made it even more disgruntled.
“You’re not even willing to play the game yourself, you’re so lazy you’ll die from it. What are you going to do when the topic of the game comes up in conversation?”
“Don’t I have you? Aren’t you my capable assistant?” Jiang Zhiyan said nonchalantly.
System: …
“If I’m not capable, just pretend I didn’t say anything.”
“Who cares about your verbal praise.” Despite saying this, the System diligently played the game, except for when it was forcibly kicked out by the health monitoring system.
Jiang Zhiyan hardly encountered Jiang Ciqiu in the following days, and even when they did, they exchanged few words.
“Host, what are you doing? It seems like your relationship has become even more distant.”
“Because the female supporting character was always causing trouble for her before, now that I’ve settled down and stopped bothering her, it’s a change in image.” Jiang Zhiyan poured herself a glass of water. “The fact that she took the initiative to talk to me about her alternate account that day shows that she’s still soft-hearted and hasn’t reached the point of completely hating me.”
“I haven’t spoken to her these past few days, so she should have started reflecting on whether she was too much that day. If the enemy doesn’t move, I won’t move. Later, I’ll occasionally show some goodwill, and the relationship will gradually improve.”
“What if she’s happy to be left alone because you’re not bothering her?” the System tentatively asked.
Jiang Zhiyan put down the kettle: “Then we’ll see. I’m not in a hurry.”
“She’s already made plans with her friends to go out on Friday.” The System observed Jiang Zhiyan’s expression. Although it wanted to see her cry, it felt that it wouldn’t be good if she actually cried.
Jiang Zhiyan took a sip of water: “Oh, let her go out and have fun.”
“Are you going to follow them?” the System asked.
“No.” Jiang Zhiyan narrowed her eyes. “Let’s stir up some trouble in the game on Friday.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Nothing much.”
Looking at Jiang Zhiyan’s expression, the System knew someone was going to be in trouble.
Jiang Zhiyan flipped through the script and quickly found three unlucky targets.
It had been a long time since she had personally logged into the game. Liang Yan kept asking her when she played and when she leveled up. Jiang Zhiyan said she wanted to play the game alone in peace. After he saw that, he sent her three long messages, which she neither read nor replied to.
Actually, she wanted to break things off with him now, but it wasn’t a good time. She hadn’t yet thought of a way to break things off with Liang Yan and simultaneously gain favor with Jiang Ciqiu.
Liang Yan was still a relatively important person; she had to use him at the right time, to significantly increase her points.
As long as they were used properly, everyone was a tool.
On Friday, as expected, Jiang Ciqiu went out. She sent Jiang Zhiyan a message saying that she wouldn’t be back for the whole weekend. Jiang Zhiyan stared at the phone screen and replied with a “Okay” half a minute later.
“Although she’s furious, she can’t say anything,” the System analyzed.
Jiang Zhiyan didn’t bother with it. She directly logged into the game. After confirming that Jiang Ciqiu and her friends were not online, she took out the communication tool in Cultivation Online and sent a message in the world channel.
[World] Zhiyan: Looking for a kind Sword Cultivator to take me through the Youli Secret Realm. It’s too painful for a Medical Cultivator to solo, and I’ve just formed my Golden Core.
[World] Jiang Xi Tong: Why don’t you ask your sister, Maple Leaf, to take you?
“Host, isn’t this too obvious?” The System sat on a tree. Messages in the world channel flew by quickly, only a few people responded at the beginning. “No one will take the bait, right?”
“Someone took the bait.” Jiang Zhiyan curled her lips.
System: …
“Someone actually bit such a straight hook.” The System was speechless. It looked down at Jiang Zhiyan, “Host, you look like you’re about to go bald.”
“Oh.” Jiang Zhiyan replied to the other party and agreed on a meeting place.
“Do you want me to go with you?” the System asked.
“No need.”
“But Host, you’re really going bald.”
“Who cares about being bald in the game.” Jiang Zhiyan interrupted it.
The three fish hooked by Jiang Zhiyan had a deep grudge against Jiang Ciqiu since they were newbies. It was so deep that they had set Jiang Ciqiu’s game name and the names of those related to her as special attention keywords. Now, these people had gone from newbies to top-ranked players, but their resentment hadn’t dissipated; instead, it had deepened.
Jiang Zhiyan agreed to meet them at the entrance of the secret realm.
From afar, she saw them wearing the latest fashions. Although their figures and faces appeared to be those of elegant gentlemen, their demeanor and temperament revealed their likely real-world appearances.
“Hello.” Jiang Zhiyan nodded towards them.
The three exchanged glances before responding.
“Are you really Maple Leaf’s sister?” The one with the giant sword looked Jiang Zhiyan up and down.
“Yes, do you know my sister?” Jiang Zhiyan asked, showing a surprised expression, looking like a particularly innocent and easily deceived lamb.
“We know her.” The one with the sword next to him laughed. “Not only do we know her, we’re very familiar with her. Since you’re her sister, we naturally have to take good care of you, so we’ll take you through. We don’t usually take newbies into the secret realm.”
“That’s great, thank you. I’m really bad, don’t dislike me.” Jiang Zhiyan said with a smile.
“It’s nothing. The monsters in this secret realm are at most Golden Core stage, and we’re already Spirit Severing. I’m rank six, and they are thirteen and fourteen.”
“So amazing, only a few ranks away from my sister.”
The three of them showed a momentary displeasure, but Jiang Zhiyan acted as if she hadn’t noticed anything.
The System sighed: “Host, you know how to provoke people with just one sentence.”
The four entered the secret realm together. Besides successfully clearing the secret realm, they had all sorts of other intentions.
When they encountered the first monster, they intentionally or unintentionally let Jiang Zhiyan take the lead. Jiang Zhiyan, very innocently, went forward, completely unaware of anything amiss. Then, in her panic, she scattered her specially made poison everywhere. The poison was spread with remarkable skill, with eighty percent of it landing on her teammates.
The other three immediately used items to prevent poisoning.
“What are you doing? Is that how you spread poison? Can’t you see clearly?”
“What? What?” Jiang Zhiyan cried out in panic, her footsteps messy, looking like she was tap-dancing in place. “Speak louder! Ahhh, I’m so scared! Why aren’t you guys doing anything?!”
The three: …
Generally, although Medical Cultivators weren’t good at fighting, they still knew how to fight. However, Jiang Zhiyan seemed to be incapable of anything except randomly scattering poison and screaming.
“Tsk, Maple Leaf’s sister is really bad.”
“She’s only been registered for eighteen days, she’s really a newbie.”
“Golden Core in eighteen days? That’s so fast? Although her basic stats are good, that’s too fast.”
“She must have maxed out her online time. I don’t know if she hired a power leveler or something. She definitely spent money. Look at her equipment, she probably took some kind of medicine to quickly increase her cultivation…”
Although they said they were there to help Jiang Zhiyan clear the secret realm, they barely lifted a finger. They only moved slightly and attacked occasionally when monsters came close to them. Most of the time, Jiang Zhiyan had to deal with them herself.
“Little sister, it’s not that we can’t directly help you solve everything, but you have to learn to do it yourself, you know?”
Jiang Zhiyan rolled her eyes where the three couldn’t see.
When they encountered a late Golden Core stage boss, they directly abandoned Jiang Zhiyan and left, moving very quickly.
“What good dogs,” the System exclaimed. “Host, are you leaving?”
“No.”
Jiang Zhiyan rushed forward to die and then respawned at the resurrection point.
The three of them were also at the resurrection point, shaking their heads at Jiang Zhiyan.
“You can only blame your sister for being Maple Leaf, heh.”
“What do you mean?” Jiang Zhiyan frowned at them. “You did that on purpose?”
Jiang Zhiyan showed an expression of disbelief.
“You’ve only died once.”
The freedom in this world was indeed high. They brought Jiang Zhiyan into the secret realm again. This time, they went to a secret realm recommended for Nascent Soul cultivators. As soon as she entered, she was killed by the small monsters. She died more than ten times, constantly dying and being forced to continue.
Many people waiting near the resurrection point recognized her.
Some originally wanted to intervene, but after seeing that the three perpetrators were all Spirit Severing cultivators, they held back.
“She’s only been registered for eighteen days, how did she provoke those three?”
“I saw her with Maple Leaf before.”
“Speechless, they don’t dare to mess with Maple Leaf, so they target a newbie around her?”
“So tragic, why doesn’t she just log off?”
…
After resurrecting at the resurrection point for the thirty-second time, she finally logged off.
Actually, the System had controlled her for the last twenty-seven deaths. She had logged out of the game early to do other things.
She browsed the game forum. Someone had already posted about it. Now it was just a matter of waiting for the incident to ferment.
“Shouldn’t the game officials punish these people?” the System couldn’t help but complain.
“If they had personally killed me, then there would be something to say. Now they’re just exploiting loopholes in the rules. I was killed by small monsters, not by them.” Jiang Zhiyan lay on the bed and refreshed the forum a couple of times.
A new post appeared. The poster was Old Six, one of the three from earlier.
[Maple Leaf’s sister is such trash?]
Clicking it open, it was a video, a compilation of Jiang Zhiyan’s deaths.
“This person…” The System was shocked. “I thought I would need to add fuel to the fire, but now it seems completely unnecessary.”
“The video editing is quite fast.” Jiang Zhiyan watched carefully. “Your acting is really good.”
“Of course, I’m an intelligent AI!” The System snorted.
The post quickly became hot. Old Six was already a popular figure in the forum, and with Maple Leaf involved, the popularity soared.
Many people cursed Old Six, and many also said he did a good job.
Jiang Ciqiu definitely hadn’t offended so many people, but some people just enjoyed watching others’ misfortune.
“Looking at it this way, you’re really pathetic.”
When Jiang Zhiyan transmigrated, the character’s appearance had already been customized to be highly similar to Jiang Zhiyan herself. At first glance, it looked like Jiang Zhiyan herself dying over and over again, quite pitiful.
She opened her social media app. Jiang Ciqiu had just posted photos three minutes ago. She looked at them one by one.
“So happy.”
“Yeah, the only one unhappy is you,” the System sighed.
“Shut up.”
Jiang Zhiyan turned off her phone, tossed it aside, and lay on the bed.
…
“It seems something happened. That Old Six, Lan An, made a post… Jiang Zhiyan was caught by them and died more than thirty times. So tragic.”
“What?” Jiang Ciqiu frowned, took out her phone, opened the forum, and watched the video from beginning to end.
“Speechless, they don’t dare to mess with you so they mess with others? But how did they know Jiang Zhiyan is your sister?”
“It must have been Jiang Zhiyan herself who told them. Heh, you guys don’t know her. She probably wanted to gain some benefits, who knew she would run into Qiuqiu’s enemies.”
Jiang Ciqiu watched the video twice and stood up, frowning: “I’m going out to call her and ask about the situation.”
“Go ahead. She’s probably crying. She’s really stubborn, she should have just run away after dying three times. To actually die more than thirty times, what was she thinking?”
“Jiang Zhiyan’s going to cause trouble again this time. Poor Qiuqiu.”
“Go back and send Old Six a challenge? I’ve disliked him for a long time. Or mess with them somehow? They’re too despicable, Jiang Zhiyan’s only been registered for ten-odd days, how could they do that?”
Jiang Ciqiu stood in the corridor. Jiang Zhiyan had turned off her phone. Frowning, she called the housekeeper and asked her to check on Jiang Zhiyan.
“I knocked on the door and no one answered, so I opened the door and looked. She’s lying in bed, probably asleep.”
“Okay, thank you for the trouble. She might be unhappy today, please make her some of her favorite food tonight. Thank you, Auntie.” Jiang Ciqiu hung up the phone.
She returned to the private room.
“What’s wrong? Do you need to go back?”
“Her phone is off. Auntie said she’s asleep.” Jiang Ciqiu leaned against the sofa.
“Then leave her alone. She’s over twenty years old, not three. Anyway, if she’s unhappy, she’ll call Liang Yan.”
“Come on, Qiuqiu, we finally managed to come out and have some fun. We’ll be back the day after tomorrow anyway. It’s fine.”
Jiang Ciqiu didn’t speak.
“She didn’t come back,” the System said.
“Mm.” Jiang Zhiyan lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling.
Jiang Ciqiu usually wouldn’t refuse requests from her younger sister. The implication was that she usually wouldn’t take the initiative to do anything.
Jiang Zhiyan exhaled.
“Do you still want me to keep your character online for you today?”
“No, don’t log in for the next few days.”
“Okay, then I’ll continue on my own.” The System comforted her, “Don’t worry, once I’ve leveled up enough, I’ll kill them three hundred times.”
Jiang Zhiyan twitched the corner of her mouth: “Thanks.”
However, she didn’t care about those three people.
Jiang Ciqiu indeed didn’t come back. The next day, Jiang Zhiyan went to the library and picked up a random book.
The game was indeed very popular; people at school knew she had died more than thirty times in the game.
Because most people didn’t know her well, there were quite a few people who liked her. Many people wanted to take this opportunity to get closer to her. Some comforted her, some offered to play the game with her, and some even wanted to help her get revenge.
Liang Yan posted a bounty on Friday night. The price was high, but those capable of killing Old Six and the others weren’t short of money and didn’t want to offend them. Those who were tempted couldn’t kill them, so no one took the bounty.
He also came looking for Jiang Zhiyan, but she had just gone out, so they didn’t run into each other.
On Sunday morning, Jiang Ciqiu returned. She originally planned to go directly to class on Monday, but because she was worried about Jiang Zhiyan, she came back early.
Jiang Zhiyan later turned on her phone but didn’t answer her call.
“How did you encounter them?” Jiang Ciqiu asked.
Her tone wasn’t accusatory, just a normal inquiry.
Jiang Zhiyan glanced at her, her tone indifferent: “Do you think I’m actively looking for trouble for you? You don’t have to care if you don’t want to.”
“I didn’t mean that.” Jiang Ciqiu rubbed her temples. “I’ll help you get even today.”
Jiang Zhiyan looked at Jiang Ciqiu without speaking.
Jiang Ciqiu could sense that Jiang Zhiyan was in a bad mood, but this bad mood was very different from the kind she had before. Before, it was just a simple tantrum, but Jiang Zhiyan’s current bad mood made her feel a sense of danger.
Jiang Zhiyan’s mood was indeed bad. She had spent the past two days calming herself by reading legal articles.
She took her water and went back. Jiang Ciqiu looked at her retreating figure, inexplicably sensing immense sadness and grief in her posture.
Jiang Zhiyan spent the whole morning drinking a single glass of water.
“Jiang Ciqiu ambushed Old Six in the wilderness,” the System reported. “Old Six died twice and logged off. The other two logged off as soon as they saw Jiang Ciqiu. Tsk, their mentality is really weak.”
“Oh.”
Seeing Jiang Zhiyan’s expression, the System shut up.
Jiang Ciqiu knocked on the door: “Which secret realm do you want to go to? I’ll take you.”
“No need, you go ahead and play.”
Jiang Ciqiu walked away.
“Sigh, she’s already offered an olive branch, why not accept it?” The System didn’t understand.
“I’m in a bad mood, it’s better not to play together.” Jiang Zhiyan put on her VR headset.
“Aren’t you not playing?”
“Not playing with her doesn’t mean I can’t play by myself,” Jiang Zhiyan said.
The System felt that it preferred seeing Jiang Zhiyan’s smug look when she was showing off her affection. It thought back to when it first met Jiang Zhiyan; her mood was terrible every day. It sighed.
Jiang Zhiyan logged in. She glanced at her friend list. Jiang Ciqiu and her friends had already entered a secret realm.
“Do you think she was just being polite?”
“What do you think?” the System asked.
“Knowing her, she would actually do that.” Jiang Zhiyan opened her friend requests. She hadn’t logged in since that day, and her friend requests had accumulated to 999+.
“Host, I think you should make some friends,” the System said. “It would be better to have friends here at a time like this.”
In every world, Jiang Zhiyan was alone. She didn’t approach others, and she rejected others who approached her.
“Friendships are just a matter of fate. I don’t have the energy to maintain so many different kinds of relationships.” Jiang Zhiyan cleared all friend requests with one click and then enabled the “Reject all friend requests” option.
She went to the same secret realm as before.
“Want to team up?” someone asked.
Jiang Zhiyan subconsciously wanted to refuse, but then noticed the name above the other person’s head: “Liaoyi”.
Jiang Zhiyan: ???
Was this a coincidence, or…?
“Because I feel like our names are very fated,” the other person continued. Although their appearance had no connection to the appearance in her memory, the feeling and temperament when they smiled were very similar.
“Mm, let’s team up.” Jiang Zhiyan nodded.
“System, check her background information, give me her profile.” Although it felt a bit creepy to look someone up based on a name, she couldn’t help herself.
After all, it was possible to have more than one soul fragment in a world, and she and Xie Liaoyi had a special connection. As long as they were in the same world, they would meet.
Although she was in the game, Jiang Zhiyan still felt her heart racing.
The System was very fast.
“This is crazy, she looks like Jiang Ciqiu’s twin,” the System said, showing Jiang Zhiyan a picture.
Jiang Zhiyan’s steps following behind Liaoyi faltered.
“Mm, she’s considered a nobody in this world. Her real name is Xie Liaoyi,” the System continued. “No father, no mother, an orphan, currently working at the Third City Hospital in Haishi.”
“Mm.” Jiang Zhiyan responded. To be able to directly land in this city and have an identity, it was clear that this fragment was large. Her memories were very likely to recover naturally. Had the other party also sensed something, which was why she took the initiative to talk to her?
She quickly caught up and sent a friend request, which the other party quickly accepted.
“Host, it can’t be such a coincidence, right?” the System tentatively asked.
“It’s exactly this coincidental,” Jiang Zhiyan said.
“Then what about Jiang Ciqiu?” The System felt the situation was becoming complicated.
Jiang Zhiyan didn’t speak.
“You seem to have been registered for a long time, how are you still at Golden Core?” Jiang Zhiyan asked curiously.
“I’m usually busy with work. I only come online to wander around during holidays, usually just to look at the scenery,” Xie Liaoyi said.
“What kind of work do you do?”
“I’m a surgeon.”
“So impressive, that must be very busy. I’m still a student, so I have more free time.” Jiang Zhiyan watched as the other party killed a small monster. Although she didn’t play much, she wasn’t weak. “Are you also in Haishi? I saw a picture of a lake on your profile.”
“Mm, that’s the lake at our university.” Xie Liaoyi threw the half-dead monster in front of Jiang Zhiyan, letting her get the last hit.
“Thanks. I’m at Haishi University. Is that lake at Haishi Medical University? I’ve been there, our schools are very close.”
“No need to thank me, yes, I took that picture when I graduated.”
“I feel like you don’t really need me.” Jiang Zhiyan said. They had walked all this way, and she hadn’t healed Xie Liaoyi once.
“I do need you. Playing games alone is boring, and chatting with you is fun.” Xie Liaoyi smiled. “Besides, Medical Cultivators are very sought after right now, and solo Medical Cultivators are even rarer.”
They were lucky enough to find a lot of materials and herbs in the secret realm, both of them leaving with a full harvest.
“I can play for another hour, I have something to do later. Where do you want to go?” Xie Liaoyi asked.
Jiang Zhiyan was slightly disappointed: “I’m fine with anything, it’s up to you. I can come online every day anyway.”
“Mm… then let’s go to Cloud Peak? It’s very exhilarating to fly down from there with a flying sword. Are you afraid of heights? If so, we can go somewhere else.”
“Okay! But, will you carry me? I’m still a newbie, and a Medical Cultivator, I’m not very good at flying swords. I’m afraid of falling, it would be too embarrassing.” Jiang Zhiyan automatically grabbed the other party’s sleeve and looked at her expectantly.
“Of course, my flying skills are the best, but I’ve never carried anyone before. If we fall together…”
“It’s fine, being embarrassed alone is different from being embarrassed together.” Jiang Zhiyan laughed.
…
“Qiuqiu, isn’t that Jiang Zhiyan? She seems to be in a good mood.”
“She is online.” Jiang Ciqiu followed the direction of the other person’s finger and looked over. “It’s her.”
“Who is that with her? Their names seem quite matching.”