Chapter 251: Silhouette Haloed By Light (1)

After Shen Jingbin and Pure Crane received the Floating Light Silk, they bid their farewell to Marco Polo Bun and left his manor.

A manor was similar to an instance; when a player exited someone else’s manor, they could appear either in Jiuli City or beside the NPC in Xiling City where the entrance to the manor district was. That being said, which of the two locations visitors ended up at was completely random. On the other hand, the owner of a manor had the option to select where they wanted to go.

The two of them were randomly teleported to the NPC outside the manor district in Xiling City. There were more high-leveled players in Xiling City as compared to Jiuli City. Hence, the moment they walked out, the two of them ran into Quiet And Steadfast leading his guildmates back into the city to sort out their inventory after running a dungeon.

Both parties stopped in their tracks by the teleportation array and stared at one another as the atmosphere turned awkward.

Shen Jingbin was faced with the misconception that Quiet And Steadfast had brought his guildmates here to catch her cheating on him.

In the end, it was Little Monk, who was standing behind Quiet And Steadfast, that broke the uncomfortable silence. “Hey, Mrs Guild Leader, you’re here too? What a coincidence. Say, which guild are you in now?”

Shen Jingbin glanced at Quiet And Steadfast. Unable to discern any emotion from his eyes, her gaze fell on Little Monk and she said, “Bronze Tree.”

Little Monk scratched his head. “Bronze Tree? Never heard of it. Whose guild is that?”

Pure Crane stepped forward and interjected, “It’s mine.”

“Uh…” Little Monk swallowed, unsure of how to continue the conversation. Why did it feel like his attempt at lightening the atmosphere was having the opposite effect?

“You managed to obtain the Floating Light Silk?” Quiet And Steadfast asked.

Shen Jingbin nodded her head. “Mm.”

“What do you plan to do next? If you’re free…”

Quiet And Steadfast was cut off before he had the chance to finish. “I’m a little busy these days, so I won’t be logging in much. I only logged in today because I had some spare time. I’ll be going now.”

Quiet And Steadfast’s veil made his eyes look especially mesmerizing. She couldn’t bring herself to gaze into those eyes of his that caused an overwhelming sense of guilt to well up within her.

After a long period of silence, Quiet And Steadfast said, “Oh, then have a good rest. Let’s continue our quests when you’re not so busy.”

“Mm,” She hummed in reply before bidding her farewell to the rest of the people she knew and logging off in a hurry. After glancing at Quiet And Steadfast, who remained silently rooted where he was, Pure Crane also said his goodbyes and left.

Everyone from Jade Sea Pavilion stood where they were. Their Guild Leader hadn’t moved, so they didn’t dare to leave either.

After a few moments of internal struggling, Eternal Rest plucked up her courage and stepped forward to give voice to the question was in everyone’s hearts. “Uh, Guild Leader, did something happen between you and Nutty?”

First, Nutjob had abruptly left the guild. Second, she didn’t even join them when they were running dungeons and instead followed that guy around doing who-knows-what. Now after bumping into her, she exchanged a few pleasantries with them before rushing to log off. They refused to believe there weren’t problems with the couple even if you beat them to death.

“No…” Quiet And Steadfast insipidly replied. “You guys carry on; I still have something to take care of so I’ll log off first. Wechat me later if there’s anything you need.”

After saying his piece, he logged off before they could say anything else, leaving them to exchange looks with one another.

“Where do we go now?” Little Monk dumbly asked.

Big Buddhist Nun gave him a slap and said, “Let’s go our separate ways.”

Everyone glanced at one another once again before leaving to do their own thing. However, that question remained within their hearts.

There were many players going back and forth Xiling City, with even more of them traveling via teleportation array. A number of these people had borne witness to the previous scene. Less than an hour later, the game’s forums was filled with threads discussing the day's incident.

“Today’s hot news: Love Fading Between Jade Sea Pavilion’s Leader And His wife!”

“An Ugly Duckling Is But An Ugly Duckling; Fairy Tales Are Lies - Number One Ugliest Girl Miserably Dumped!”

“Husband Treated Unfairly, Ugly Girl Having An Affair With Swordmaster Pavilion’s Lead Disciple; The Number One God Leaves Dejectedly!”

A myriad of titles that were fuelled by a modern day person’s rich imagination flooded the forums. The simple exchange of words that Shen Jingbin and the rest had said were turned into an epic romance of love, hate, and betrayal that spanned tens of thousands of words.

After logging out of the game, Zhao Chengning went onto the forums hoping to find clues about the epic quest, but lost the mood to do so when he instead found an overwhelming number of nonsensical threads on the front page. In fact, he was even a little annoyed. He’d finally managed to squeeze out some time to play after a week of overtime, so even if he wasn't able to see Shen Jingbin in real life, gazing at her in-game would work for him too. Little did he expect something like that to happen when he met her! He then thought back to his proclamation of love which he’d yet to receive a reply to and was overcome with irritation.

He switched off his computer, took out his phone, then looked up Shen Jingbin’s number. His slender fingers hovered above the screen, and he found himself unable to punch in her number.

What would he say after the call got through? Should he be direct and ask her for an immediate reply, or should he catch up with her first? What if she didn’t pick up his call? Even though there was a pretty good vibe between them, the fact that their relationship hadn’t been clarified meant that it was still subject to countless variables. What if… what if… he asked her for her reply...and she rejected him? After all, it’d been so long already, and her not looking him up could mean that something had changed between them...

The thought of being rejected soured Zhao Chengning’s mood.

Strictly speaking, Shen Jingbin was the first girl he’d liked this much. Even though he’d had favourable impressions of other girls in the past, all he’d felt for them was merely admiration.

Therefore, yearning for something he couldn’t obtain was deeply depressing.

After stressing over it for a good long while, the Second Young Master of the Zhao family realised he was being unmanly and came to a decision. He gritted his teeth and vowed to call her and set the record. But before he had the chance to do so, a knock on his door interrupted him. He looked up and saw his brother enter the room.