VRMMO: The Unrivaled

Emotions I couldn’t describe coursed through my veins as I hugged Lin Yixin. I had finally found her, and it felt like the world had cleared up in an instant.

……

"Where did you go last night, Yiyi? I was so worried!" Still holding her, I asked the first question that came into my mind.

Lin Yixin looked up, wiped away her tears and broke into a bright smile. "I didn’t go far. I was inside the bun shop on the opposite side of the road rolling dough for the auntie. She allowed me to spend the night there…"

"Holy shit, you know how to roll buns?" I stared at her. "Still, you should’ve come to the train station to check if someone had shown up to get you! I was waiting for you the whole night! Do you know how cold it was?"

Lin Yixin said, "Well, it was snowing hard outside. Also, I didn’t know that you came to look for me!"

She then grabbed my hand, rose to her feet and said smilingly, "I missed you so much, Little Cheat… Now treat me to breakfast…"

If the first part of her sentence made me feel like I was dreaming, then the second part shattered my heart into many tiny pieces.

I fished out the four coins in my pocket and showed her. "We have a problem. The cab driver who drove me here took everything I had except these…"

Lin Yixin’s eyes widened. "So you’re telling me that we’re going to have to starve for the whole morning, is that it?"

I wrapped my arm around her shoulder. "Weren’t you working for the bun lady yesterday? Let’s buy a few buns on credit and eat them while I call Chaos Moon over to bring us some cash!"

Lin Yixin pursed her lips. "Buy on credit? I… can’t possibly do that. Last night the bun lady asked me who I was waiting for, and I told her that I was waiting for my ‘tall, rich and handsome’ boyfriend. You want her to expose my lies?"

My mouth twitched. "You say that, but I feel like I’m the one who’s going to be exposed when I get there."

Lin Yixin burst into a giggle before hugging me again and kissing me on the cheeks. "Whatever. Anyway, I don’t mind eating nothing for the morning. I’m happy with just being able to see you!"

I returned her gesture with a peck on the lips before saying, "I’m happy to see you too, but we can’t have you starve. Let’s sit at the station entrance and beg for food together."

"Seriously? You’re so shameless!"

Me: "..."

……

Lin Yixin then pulled me toward the bun shop. "Come on, I’ll introduce you to the auntie. I didn’t have a single cent with me. If she hadn’t taken me in, I would’ve been forced to sleep on the streets last night."

I curled my lips. "How lucky of you. I already slept on the streets last night…"

Lin Yixin giggled. After we crossed the road and arrived at the bun shop, she greeted the bun lady, "I’m back, auntie…"

"Oh! Have you found your boyfriend?"

The bun lady smiled at me. "Your boyfriend looks pretty good, girl!"

The praise filled me with happiness.

"He reminds me of Bi Fujian…" she added.

The "praise" filled me with shocked disbelief.

Not noticing my reaction, the bun lady asked, "You two haven’t eaten yet, right? Come, I’ll treat you to some buns and hot soup."

"Ohh! Thank you!"

Lin Yixin immediately dragged me to a table. Frankly, I was about to faint from hunger myself, so I swallowed my pride, ate nine buns and drank 3 bowls of soup. At the end of the meal, I wiped my mouth and said, "Aiya, I’m so full..."

The bun lady stared at me with widened eyes. "Boy, you sure have an amazing appetite…"

Lin Yixin’s expression turned even more guilty and apologetic. "Auntie, neither of us have much money on our person right now. If you don’t mind, let us repay your kindness by helping you with your work for the morning, okay?"

The bun lady broke into a wide smile. "Of course I don’t mind! I was going to close the shop temporarily to buy some fresh wheat and pork meat, but since the two of you are here you may as well watch the shop for me. The big meat bun is 1 yuan, the vegetable bun is 80 cents, and the soy milk is 1 yuan. Don’t mix them up!"

Lin Yixin replied confidently and smilingly, "No problem!"

"Mn!"

The bun lady got on her small electric bike and left like the wind, entrusting her shop to Lin Yixin and my care. I was still hungry, and the baskets of steaming buns were really starting to tempt me. I licked my lips and inquired Lin Yixin’s opinion, "Er, Yiyi, is it okay if I eat another big meat bun?"

Lin Yixin rolled her eyes at me. "No! You didn’t eat anything last night, did you? You’re going to break your stomach if you stuff yourself like this. If you’re really that hungry, then you can buy a bowl of porridge from that stall."

"Never mind then. Business is more important…"

It didn’t take long before the street was filled with people who were trying to catch the early train, and a lot of them stopped by the shop to buy breakfast from us. Soon, we became too busy to even speak with each other.

Although Lin Yixin was currently wearing a ragged down-filled garment, it couldn’t conceal her gorgeous features and beautiful hair. Countless customers who weren’t planning to buy breakfast still stopped by the shop and bought a bun or two just to speak with her.

Tree-ling-ling...

It was at this moment three highschool girls riding a bicycle each stopped by the shop. The thin girl looked at me and said, "Two vegetable buns and one soybean milk for each of us, and please keep the food separate, handsome."

I replied without looking up, "Right away! It’ll be 7.6 RMB, thank you!"

After I packed the food and passed it to the girls, another girl with huge, round eyes abruptly exclaimed in surprise, "OMG, why do you look so familiar? Wait a second, you… you’re the CGL Hall of Famer and Little Heavenly King, Falling Dust! My older sister is a big fan of yours!"

I was far calmer than I was last night, so I replied with a grin, "Nope! I’m just a bun seller…"

"You’re lying!"

The girl pointed at Lin Yixin next. "I might mistake you for someone else, but there’s no way I can mistake the Fruit Knife Goddess! The rumors are true after all! The Fruit Knife Goddess and Little Heavenly King really are dating each other! Man, you two came all the way to the north just to open a stall and sell buns together? So romantic…"

Judging from the look on Lin Yixin’s face, I was sure that she was feeling as exposed as I was feeling right now.

After all three girls took out their phones and snapped our pictures, they bade us goodbye with wide grins on their faces. "See you next time!"

……

"Well shit, everyone’s going to know that we’re here now…" I said while staring at the school girls’ departing backs.

Lin Yixin wiped away the sweat on her forehead as she giggled. "So what? It’s not like it’s bad publicity. It’s not our shop, but we’re still working hard and earning an honest living. Seriously though, have you called Chaos Moon yet? We can’t be selling buns here forever."

I laughed. "I did, but she hasn’t accepted my call. She’s probably in an instance or leveling right now. I did leave her a message though, so I expect her to show up by noon at the latest."

"Okay…"

……

We continued selling buns until it was almost noon. During lunch time, the bun lady finally returned and shot us a smile, "Your friend isn’t here yet? Hmm, it’s noon. I bet you’re all hungry now, aren’t you? Come, I’ll treat you all to a meal!"

Lin Yixin hurriedly shook her head. "No, no, we’ve already troubled you too much, auntie!"

While saying this, she took off the down-filled garment the bun lady had lent her and returned it before grabbing her bag. Her gaming helmet was in it. Thank goodness she hadn’t lost her luggage as well, or it would’ve been really bad.

However, the bun lady said, "It’s fine, a simple meal isn’t going to cost me too much. Also, the two of you helped to sell a lot more buns than I usually did. I won’t rest easy if you don’t let me repay the favor."

Lin Yixin giggled. "Okay then, thank you so much, auntie…"

"Mn!"

We followed the auntie to a small restaurant. She ordered some kibbeh and a bowl of sticky, green soup.

I took a bite from the kibbeh. It was great. I then bent down to sniff the soup once before asking, "What is this soup, auntie? I’ve never seen it before. Is it green bean soup? Are there green beans in the north?"

The auntie simply smiled and said, "It’s very tasty. Give it a try?"

"Sure."

I took a sip, and it kind of smelled of some sort of odor and tasted bitter. The aftertaste wasn’t bad though. On the other hand, it could just be my hunger lowering my usual standards of tasty food.

Lin Yixin stared at me with her cute, round eyes while asking, "So? Is it good?"

I nodded. "It’s not bad…"

Lin Yixin tried a sip but frowned almost immediately. She let out a chuckle as she said, "This taste is a bit too weird for me. You can have it all if you want, Little Cheat. I’m fine with just the kibbeh…"

"Okay…"

……

I drank about half the bowl of soup, but I still couldn’t get over my curiosity, so I asked again, "Auntie, what is this soup exactly? Its taste is very unique. I’ve never drank something like this before."

The auntie replied mysteriously, "It’s called the Yangbie soup. It’s very nutritious…"

"Yangbie soup?"

Beside me, Lin Yixin performed an internet search using my phone, "Let me check…"

For some reason, Lin Yixin’s complexion turned as green as the soup. "Little Cheat…"

I stared at her with trepidation. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

It was at this moment we heard the sound of cooking from the kitchen. The auntie said, "Oh, they’re making the Yangbie soup right now. Do you want to see how it’s done?"

Again, we allowed our curiosity to lead us by the nose and walked to the kitchen. We shouldn’t have. We saw the cook dropping a bunch of green intestines—fresh lamb intestines with fresh green shit all over it—into the frying pan. As he fried the intestines, its contents flowed out and formed some sort of green muck. A bit of water, oil and spring onions later, voila, the legendary Yangbie soup was born...

"BLARRRRRGHHHHHH…"

Both Lin Yixin and I threw up our stomach’s contents when the realization finally hit us.

……

By the time I was finally done retching, my complexion was almost as green as grass. While supporting Lin Yixin, I said, "Yiyi, why did you vomit everything when you only took one sip? I know the Yangbie soup looks bad, but doesn’t actually taste that bad…"

Lin Yixin shut me up with a purple complexion. "Never say that name to me again!"

Her misery was my happiness. I laughed.

"You’re laughing at me!?" Lin Yixin punched me again and again with her small fists.

It was at this moment we both heard a familiar voice, "Have I arrived at the wrong time?"

Both Lin Yixin and I shivered. Finally, our savior was here!

We turned around, ran toward Chaos Moon like lightning and grabbed an arm each. "Did you bring the cash? Did you bring the cash?"

Chaos Moon slapped her handbag smilingly. "Yep! More than you can spend, I promise!"

I replied, "Oh thank heavens. Let’s head back now, eat something less hardcore and catch some sleep. I’m so tired I can die…"

A puzzled Chaos Moon asked, "Hardcore? What did you eat?"

Lin Yixin pointed at the bowl of green on the table, and Chaos Moon laughed so hard that she nearly shed tears. "Oh, my stomach. I can’t wait to tell the guild our Little Heavenly King and Fruit Knife Goddess came all the way to the north to enjoy our fresh northern delicacy…"

Me: "..."

Lin Yixin: "..."

……

We arrived at the hotel in the afternoon, and when we arrived at the registration counter, I kept a firm hold on Lin Yixin’s hand while saying to the female receptionist, "Hello, I’m the guest living in room 807. My girlfriend came today and insisted on booking a new room, but the hotel’s already fully booked, riiight?"

The receptionist stared at me for a long time before breaking into a grin. "As you wish, sir. It is the weekend, and we’re fully sold out."

Lin Yixin: "..."