“Ugh, this place is still so noisy. How tiresome… Oh, I hadn’t realized this world’s sun would be so vicious too. Is it jealous of my flawless skin? Does it want to rob it of its purest, softest white…? Bleh! How ghastly…”

The voice was high and delicate, near-perfectly a young woman’s — though listen closely and you’d catch a certain grating wrongness in the cadence. Its owner appeared to be about eighteen or nineteen: red lips, white teeth, a face like fine jade, a long slender frame, and a pair of peach-blossom eyes that cast out an idle, half-there enchantment. A single look from those eyes was fully capable of hauling a man’s soul out of his body. The pale-green hunter’s outfit and the long bow glowing bronze across the back marked out an Archer. The garb didn’t hide the beauty; if anything, it added a dashing, martial grace to it.

And beside this great beauty walked a companion who fit rather badly. Dark-skinned, with a face that looked ready to commit murder — and what really commanded the eye was the frame. Very tall, nearly two meters, and very solid… or rather, very fat. Both his height and his sheer bulk were staggering, the overall proportions roughly those of a certain shark who once played for a certain NBA team. A colossus like that was the focal point of any place he walked into. And walking alongside a slim little beauty, the two of them likely differing by a factor of three or four in body weight, the visual effect was considerable.

“You dead ladyboy, keep that revolting talk away from me,” the huge man muttered.

“You fat oaf, you understand nothing about living. Don’t you know? Late nights and ultraviolet light are skin’s most terrible enemies. My complexion, which a breath could break, may not fear a baptism of blood — but it dreads this silent, merciless ravaging… Such a shame. Why does this outfit still not cover all of my skin? It’s simply too cruel to me.”

The man addressed as “fat oaf” acquired a row of black lines on his forehead. Had he not known this person’s history, and known him far too well, he’d have reacted in ways that hardly bear thinking about.

At that moment, a reasonably tall player wandered over to the great beauty’s side wearing a charming smile, his mouth curving into an expression of considerable lethality where women were concerned. “Beautiful. Could I add you as a friend?”

The great beauty stopped walking. He looked the smiling player over seriously and delivered, in a voice that struck the man like lightning from a clear sky, “Sorry. I don’t do men.”

The lightning wasn’t the content of the sentence. It was that the voice coming out of his mouth was an unmistakably, unimpeachably male one — slightly husky, evenly paced, and deeply magnetic.

That said, he waved a hand grandly and departed with the fat man, who was fighting so hard not to laugh he was doing himself internal damage.

The man who’d tried his luck stared after that receding figure. The back was lovely — exquisite, the waist slender as silk, more womanly than a woman… And it was from that moment, under an enormous psychological blow, that his worldview, his life philosophy, and his values were all comprehensively demolished. From that day forward, the poor lad would live for a very long time under a shadow he could not shake off.

The “great beauty’s” gender was, in fact, male. A man more womanly than a woman.

The two of them stopped in front of the gate of Guoguo’s Cottage and looked up at a mansion so absurdly extravagant it was hardly reasonable. They had to admit that a residence like this could only exist in a game world; the chance of one appearing in the real world was essentially zero. And even if it did, nobody could afford it.

The huge man looked around and muttered, “Second Brother can’t have arrived yet, can he? Let’s wait a bit.”

“I loathe waiting. But if it’s for my beloved Second Brother, then I would wait a beautiful hundred years, a thousand, and count it a joy.” The great beauty pinched his fingers into an orchid gesture and batted his lovely eyes.

Familiar as he was with this creature’s distinctly inhuman personality, the huge man still felt an urge to kick him into orbit.

Just then the gate behind them opened, and Su Feifei and Ye Tianxie walked out side by side, meeting their eyes as they turned. Ye Tianxie shut the door and smiled faintly. “Pojun. Qiushui. You’re here.”

“Second Brother… Second Brother! I’ve missed you to death!!” Having finally laid eyes on Ye Tianxie, the huge man leapt up like a delighted child and hurled himself forward for an enormous hug — then, half a step in, noticed Su Feifei pressed close at his side, and stopped, grinning foolishly.

It was only in front of Ye Tianxie that this man, who could run riot through the whole of Jinghua City with nobody daring to touch him, ever showed a side this excited and this artless.

“Zuo Pojun!” Su Feifei let out a cry of astonishment, her eyes wide… She’d found him here. And he was the friend Ye Tianxie had mentioned. And a moment ago he had called Ye Tianxie Second Brother — with an expression on his face that beggared belief.

Zuo Pojun. Young Master Zuo, known to everyone in Jinghua City, famously vicious of temper, whom no one from the highest official to the wealthiest magnate dared provoke — even the man they called the Son of Heaven wouldn’t touch him. And the root of all of it was his father: a father standing at the very summit of power in Huaxia. The Supreme Leader, Zuo Zhenhua.

“Heh heh. Miss Su, we meet again. I don’t imagine you expected it to be like this.” Zuo Pojun’s eyes darted between Su Feifei’s face and Ye Tianxie’s, and their intimate stance set something glinting in them as he muttered privately to himself…

“So you do know each other. The world really is that small,” Ye Tianxie said with a smile. The daughter of the wealthiest man in Huaxia and the son of the most powerful — it would have been odder if their paths hadn’t crossed. At that altitude there are only a handful of people, and the circle is very small indeed.

“Of course we know each other. We’ve met eight or ten times.” Astonishment was still all over Su Feifei’s face. Friend. Second Brother… She was beginning to understand why Li Tianpeng had done what he did yesterday after one phone call. In Zuo Pojun’s excitement and delight she’d also caught something almost fanatically reverent in his eyes… For a man of his standing, his character, and his famously explosive temper to look at anyone like that… If yesterday’s business had been his doing, then Li Tianpeng’s behavior was entirely to be expected. However great the Li family’s power, they would never dare provoke the Zuo family — not unless they wanted to be finished in Jinghua and in Huaxia entirely.

She realized how far from sufficient her understanding of him was. Had she not seen it with her own eyes, she would never have believed that the Zuo family’s eldest son, whom nobody dared cross, could show anyone this side of himself.

“Ahem. Allow me to introduce myself properly. I am Zuo Pojun, twenty years of age, a mere seven months younger than my Second Brother. My name at present is… Shield That Breaks a Thousand Armies. I hope Miss Su will look kindly on me hereafter.”

The name floating above Zuo Pojun’s head was indeed Shield That Breaks a Thousand Armies. Obviously, with a name like that, his class had to be Guardian — and that enormous frame did suit one. Standing there, the area he could shield was at least double what a normal-sized man could cover. All right, fine — that was arguably a form of natural talent too.

“Oh… so you can be polite. As I recall, you used to ignore anyone who greeted you.” Su Feifei said it wickedly. She had to admit that the Zuo Pojun in front of her and the Zuo Pojun she’d known might as well have been two entirely different men. This only son of the Zuo family, who would very likely one day hold the highest power in Huaxia… was asking her to “look kindly on him.” The whiplash left her somewhere between laughing and crying.

Zuo Pojun looked briefly awkward, then lowered his voice and, sneaking glances at Ye Tianxie’s face, said with some squirming, “Because you might end up being my sister-in-law, so…”

“Ahem!!” If Ye Tianxie had had anything in his mouth, all of it would have gone into Zuo Pojun’s face. Su Feifei, meanwhile, went faintly pink, dipped her head, and did not offer a single word of contradiction — and pressed herself a fraction closer to Ye Tianxie. She suddenly found that the eldest son of the Zuo family, who had once left her with a distinctly frightening impression, was in fact rather sweet.

Watching the two of them, Zuo Pojun muttered inwardly… Bloody hell, is Second Brother serious about this? Then she… Well, if it’s real, it ought to be a good thing, shouldn’t it? At the very least it means he’s walked out of the shadow that nearly destroyed him… But then — what about Big Sister? If it’s real, what will she think? What will she do?

“Ahh… The burning sun cannot drive the desolation from my heart. I am but a pitiful soul forgotten by the world, counting my own heartbeats alone in some lonely corner…”

The forgotten soul gazed up at the sun and murmured his desolation to himself…

Ye Tianxie: “…”

Zuo Pojun: “…”

Su Feifei smiled, very nearly laughing out loud, and stepped forward. “Sister, you must be Young Master Zuo’s girlfriend. I’m Su Feifei — Su Causeway in the Misty Rain.”

Ye Tianxie: (⊙o⊙)!!

Zuo Pojun: (⊙o⊙)!!

Girl— girl— girlfriend?

The forgotten soul finally turned around and looked at the woman who had at last noticed him, his face full of gratitude. “Hello, beautiful lady. Your voice is like the singing of an angel. It has driven away my loneliness and soothed my wounded spirit. I shall remember your voice until the day I die… Oh! Why is there nowhere in this world to buy roses? Only roses could express what stirs in my heart at this moment.”

Su Feifei’s scalp began to prickle… This sister was very pretty indeed, but the way she talked was… rather like someone with a psychiatric condition.

“I’ve forgotten to introduce myself… Hello, big sister. My surname is Murong, my given name Qiushui. My other name is — Autumn Waters.”

Pfft—

Ye Tianxie very nearly sprayed water across the courtyard.

Autumn Waters? Oh, hell.

(End of Chapter 141)