From the beginning of their meeting this time, Fire still had yet to ask He Jin about the reason he suddenly went offline before, as if he was deliberately avoiding this problem. Instead, he was now considering about possible problems that He Jin might encounter later, seriously thinking of their future, giving He Jin both gifts and promisesâŠ
In face of such warmth, of course He Jin would feel touched. He finally couldnât hold himself back from asking: âFire, if I still didnât come online, would you continue to wait?â
Fire was silent for a moment, before answering softly âYesâ.
Sure enough, this would be his answerâŠ
âWhy?â He Jin asked, âAre you really so sure that Iâll still want to continue playing this game? â
âYou donât want to play? Then what are you doing here? â
He Jin, who was asked, suddenly felt choked. Indeed, he wanted to play⊠But he asked that because he was also curious about what was Fire thinking ah, why would he do this for such an ordinary netizen!
Xiao Xian-Jin: âSo many years have passed, did it never cross your mind that maybe Iâm not going to come online ever again?â
At the other end of the network connection, Qin Yu was looking at the dialog box thoughtfully⊠To be honest, he also felt strange, because he did never thought of that.
Everyone in the game could see his âmarriedâ status, but few people knew that his wife had not been online for years. Dead Water was one of them. He had inadvertently asked Fire once whether he was still waiting for his wife, and after hearing Fireâs affirmative answer, he would occasionally use this matter to ridicule him, and even advised him to forget his so called wife once, to find another new one. But Qin Yu never took him seriously, he was used to it.
Qin Yu said lightly: âIf I think about it, then Iâll probably stop waiting.â
Yes, because thinking about it, in a way, had already represented a feeling of hesitation and withdrawal.
So, he simply stopped thinkingabout it.
Fireâs answer caused a heat to bloom in He Jinâs heart. He Jin was originally a calm person, but meeting this type of people, to hear such words being said to him, he couldnât help but feel a bit overwhelmed.
Pressing down the uneasiness that had risen within him, He Jin carefully chose his words, hinting tactfully: âBut after all these years, what if that person youâve been waiting for has changed, and become different from your original impression of them?â
Ah Jin no longer online, Qin Yu indeed became depressed for a period of time. He felt so lonely, so frustrated, but without Ah Jin, he also could not simply stop playing the game. So he imagined that Ah Jin was still there accompanying him, staying by his side⊠After that, every time he met interesting things, or saw new scenery, he would try his best to remember it all, always thinking about waiting for He Jin to come back so that he could show them to her later, to accompany her to see these new things once she returned.
Some things, he did remember, while some others, he ended up forgetting. The world would continue to change and the game was always evolving, but he had never once forgotten the feeling of playing the game with Ah Jin⊠to be protected, but also wanting to protect each other, as long as they were together, he was very happy. Especially after their in-game wedding, whenever he thought of Ah Jin then, he could not restrain the sudden skipping of his heartbeat.
This heartbeat, except for Ah Jin, no one else has ever made him feel so.
In this way, unconsciously, eight years had passed, and then Ah Jin was online once again. The moment he saw that name, Qin Yuâs heart almost jumped out of his chestâŠ
It was like magic, allowing him to confirm, that this person really is the only one.
Qin Yu: âWhy should it be a problem? You are you, even if at the other end of the computer the real you are actually a dog, I wouldnât care, you are still my wife. â
The tone used by Fire, so vulgar with a hint of intimate tenderness, numbed He Jinâs ears, making his whole face flushed hot. And his âperfectâ answer, somehow made He Jin feel flattered, as if the tangled mess of his gender issue had become meaningless.
In this moment, He Jin had a sudden urge of wanting to continue being like this with Fire, to not say anything else to him, to make up for this eight years of debt, and to meet all of his expectationsâŠ
However, before he had the chance to answer, Fire suddenly changed the topic: âHowever, I indeed feel you have changed a little.â
He Jin: ââŠ.!!â Did Fire realize it?
The fire: âI think you have become even more lovely.â
He Jin: ââŠâ
Fire continued mischievously: âDonât tell me you were frightened by my last sentence before⊠So scared that you immediately went offline, huh? â
Xiao Xian Ajin: âI ⊠There was a power outage in the dorm.â
This time, Fire burst out laughing, apparently did not believe in He Jinâs âexcuseâ, but he still said: âI guess so.â
He Jin: ââŠâ Why do I have a feeling that Iâm being teased? (=_=)
Having had enough fun, Fire calmed himself and explained: âI did not deliberately wait for you, you donât have to feel sorry for me. I have played a good game these years, and also have gained many friends. Iâm playing very happily.â
He Jin was stunned, is this true? He was still doubtful, however, Fireâs as-cool-as-the-wind attitude did help a lot in easing He Jinâs mind.
Fire: âOf course, with you here, I am also feeling more happy⊠However, if you donât want to play anymore, just tell me, donât leave without any notice. We can say goodbye properly then, I promise I wonât prevent you from leaving. What do you think?â
He Jin: ââŠâ
That might be as well, although He Jinâs feeling about playing this game was a bit complicated. He did want to continue to play. How could he not? He had just received a wonderful gift from this person! And now he even got to hear him saying, âWith you here, Iâm also feeling more happy,â so, how could he refuse? Itâs justâŠ
Xiao Xian-Jin: âBefore, when we did the husband and wife task, there was a question asking whether youâd want to develop a realistic relationship with me, and you answered âwillâ⊠Are you serious about this? â
Qin Yu frowned and asked, âWhat, you have someone special in reality?â
Xiao Xian-Jin: âNoâŠâ
The corner of Qin Yuâs mouth lifted up: âI see, you donât want to involve real life in playing this game?â
Xiao Xian-Jin: âYes.â
Qin Yu promised: âFine, I promise you, what happens in the game stays in the game. I will not be noisy about how you looked like in real life, whether you are tall or thin, man or woman, beautiful or ugly, healthy or have disability⊠As long as you stay as my wife in the game, I donât care about the other things. If you donât want to say it, then I wonât ask. How about it? Do you still have anymore questions? â
He Jin sighed and said,â No.â
What else did he have to say? It almost felt as if Fire could read his mind, because every words. he said, almost all of them were what He Jin had been thinking in his heart. They were exactly as he wanted.
Fire Ruthless: âSince you no longer have any problem, then I also have a request for you.â
Xiao Xian-Jin: âWhat is it?â
Fire Ruthless: âLater when we play the game, call me husband.â
He Jin: ââŠâ
Fire Ruthlwss: âCan you do it?â
Qin Yuâs request was actually not that weird, after all they were âhusband and wifeâ in the game. But for He Jin, a normal boy, to suddenly have to call someone of the same gender as âhusbandâ⊠It always made him feel very embarrassed ah!
He Jin tried to negotiate: âCan you give me some time to adapt?â
Fire teased him: âTo adapt to what, the more you call the more you will become used to it. Not to mention, you are also only typing now, not even speaking with your mouth.â
He Jin: ââŠâ (=_=)
Xiao Xian-Jin: âWe havenât seen each other for so many years, Iâm not used to it.â
Fire Ruthless: âAh, so shyâŠâ
He Jin: ââŠâŠ.â OrzâŠ.
Fire: âFine, then Iâll give you three days.â
***
â»Â The Past in the Spirit Fairy â»Â (vii)
Ah Jin no longer in the game, Qin Yu who was initially feeling lost and sad, slowly began to accept this reality. It took a full three years for him to do this.
For the past three years, he had refused to send friend request to anyone, and deleted other passers-by who inadvertently added him. Only leaving one name, âXiao Xian-JInâ, in his friends list, because he did not want to see the system prompting âyour friend xx-and xx is onlineâ, or see his friendâs column lit up. If it did not come from this one name, then he felt more happy to leave it empty.
Every time he felt lonely, Qin Yu would point his cursor to open Ah Jinâs name, and sent an offline message to the other player.
âAh Jin, while you are not online, Iâm almost at level 40!â
âYesterday I did a dungeon task in Fairy Island, luckily got a crane, I now can fly ah. When you come back, donât be too envious of me hehe.â
âIâm only teasing you!⊠When you come, I will take you to upgrade, wait until you reaches the same level as me, then weâll continue to play! ^_^ â
âAh Jin, Celestial is so beautiful!â
âThere are many high level players in Celestial, I died several times âŠâ
âApparently if you jump down from Celestial, you will fall directly to the boundary and die, I fell for a full 20 seconds ⊠But the scenery is so beautiful âŠâ
âAh Jin, I have began to study seriously, learning seems to be very interesting.â
âAh Jin, Iâm almost at full level!â
ââââ-
Of course, it wasnât always messages like these, Qin Yu would also fantasize sometimes, about something like what should he say to He Jin when he came back.
âAh Jin, you finally come, Iâve waited for you for so long, I feel bitter!â
Okay, as a husband, thatâs not cool enough! (=_=)
âAh Jin, I miss you âŠâ
-Itâs disgusting! Canât say that! (=_=#)
âAh Jin, long time no see âŠâ
âSo proper and polite! Just be an actor instead! (/= _ =)/~âŽâŽ
ââââ
Once, Qin Yu accidentally found his name appeared on âSpirit Fairyâ ranking list, the first person he wanted to share his excitement with was Ah Jin-
âAh Jin! Iâm on the charts! Ha ha! [Cool] When you come online, you can call me big God! [Cool]â
âAh Jin, Iâm ranked 37 today, this game is getting more and more fun!â
Of course, there are times when things were not going well.
âToday met a very powerful guy, every time was killed by him ⊠[Anger]â
âHe was ranked 30 ⊠[Anger]â
While there were optimist times, there were also times of depression â
âAh Jin, because Iâm not strong enough, thatâs why you donât come back âŠâ
âMaybe you are waiting for me to become first rank, become the real great God, if I do, will you come back?â
âI will take the exam too, just like you âŠâ
ââââ
The leaderboards in the game became another big motivation for Qin Yu to keep playing. He tried his best to practice his technique and PK skill.
In this way, two years later, Qin Yu with excellent results was also admitted to a popular high school, however the âXiao Xian-Jinâ name in the game remained gray. Qin Yu kept on sending news about himself to Ah Jin, but as if he was talking with a tree, he never got a reply.
Slowly, the number of messages Qin Yu sent to Ah Jin became less and less. Itâs not like he forgot about Ah Jin, but he felt that his messages were too stupid, sometimes when he looked over the previous record, he would scold himself ⊠How can you be so childish!
For example, when he climbed to the top ten in ranking list, and then looked back to see his excited message to Ah Jin when he first entered the list, it was so unbearable to look at. Qin Yu felt shy, he did not want Ah Jin to see so many of his nonsense once he came back.
After another year, âFire Ruthlessâ name got more and more high on the ranking list, more and more players also began to know about him, and even female players began to openly confess to him. But Qin Yu had been accustomed to playing the game alone, for him, he only needed opponents on the game, not wives.
In the third year, the game officially announced that âSpirit Fairyâ was about to be revised into âDemon Godâ. In the revision, the game company would clean up all the players chat records, including the offline playerâs cached offline messages.
Seeing this news, Qin Yu felt both relieved and sad.
On the night of the game revision, the 17-Year-old Qin Yu stole his fatherâs secret stack of whiskey, sitting drunkenly in front of his computer, staring at all the past messages he had shared with Ah Jin. Going back to 1175 days ago when they first met⊠Even if 1100 days of those were filled with only his one-man monologues.
He looked at each of them one by one, grinning for one moment, then crying for another, while also pessimistically wondering if Ah Jin had forgotten about him.
Just before the clock turned to 12, Qin Yu silently entered one last sentence in the dialog box-
âAh Jin, I like you.â
The countdown became zero , and the server connection was cut off, all chats data from the previous version would be cleared, and along with it, Qin Yuâs silly âFirst Love Diaryâ would also disappearâŠ
Since then, âXiao Xian-Jinâ in Fireâs friends list stayed gray, remained only a hollow name.
But Qin Yu would continue to wait, even if his connection with that name was only a short-lived dream, he was willing to indulge himself in it, never wanting to wake up.
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The author has something to say:Â (This is written by the original author, not me, but I feel this is somehow important.)
I see a lot of readers discussing about why He Jin did not just confess about his gender, and so I want to explain.
Because He Jin knew Fire had waited for along time, he felt guilty, and also would like to compensate him, but he felt that the way to compensate is not to immediately told Fire about his gender frankly, because Fire might become âdevastatedâ (it might also make him angry), but to do as he had always been doing, to meet Fireâs fantasies and expectations. This way of thinking was caused by his childhood education and upbringing character, so his sub-consciousness would persuade himself to play the âwifeâ role, even if he wasnât used to it at first, he would do it (He Jin never really fell in love, so he didnât know that emotional problems arenât something that could be solved rationally), but in his mind it would never going to be real, because in his opinion, a wife could only be âfemalesâ, so when he got Qin Yuâs âwhat happens in the game stays in the gameâ commitment, needless to say, He Jin felt relieved.
Before I made this story, when writing He Jinâs character set up, I wanted to create a self-contradictory role, a depressed and boring one. The ârebellionâ mentioned in the previous chapters is a beginning of his attempt to break through. But it does not mean that he would suddenly undergo a âbig change of temperamentâ. I see many readers are anxious, using normal âmoralâ to standardize and judge Ah Jin, as if the fact that he did not confess about his gender was a sin that could not be forgiven ⊠But Ah Jin is not a moral role model, he has his human weakness, he may be selfish, may be despicable, may be hypocritical⊠but I hope you will patiently wait for his growth and transformation.
I may or may not have expressed this well, so there might be some misunderstanding, so today Iâll repeatedly look over and over again and change some psychological description details. But I have limited capacity, if at my current state I canât meet all of your expectations, I can only apologize here. (ïŒïŒżïŒŒ)