Waiting For You Online

011. Gossip Post

Even if he did not sleep well the night before, in the morning He Jin still woke up on time. He Jin climbed up from his bed gloomily and went to wash his face before going to class.

It might be because he thought about it too much last night, but right now He Jin’s brain was still filled with Fire-related things, especially his last sentence “eight years, I have and will always wait for you online, Ah Jin“.  Although it was only a text message, but somehow He Jin could imagine Fire saying it to him, the rhythm and tone of his voice.. over and over again it echoed magically in his mind.

He Jin shivered and shook his head to empty his thought, forcing himself to concentrate on the lectures.

However, a few minutes later…

His smart bracelet projected a big square light curtain on the table, He Jin then unconsciously typed four words in the search engine bar box – Fire Ruthless. (= _ =)

The search showed a large result, which surprised He Jin. One of the first result was a character encyclopedia of Fire Ruthless written by netizen –

〖Fire Ruthless〗

Overview: “Demon God” gamer, ranked number 1 on the expert ranking list, one of Fly Tour Network host.

Chinese Name: Unknown

Alias: Ruthless, love brother, S-level God, the first Demon God, husband (?)

Sex: Male

Date of birth: Unknown

Description: “Demon God” most famous player, very mysterious, according to netizen is a student in a famous university, has countless female fans because of his beautiful voice.

The content was very brief, He Jin did a quick overview and did not see any exceptional information, but the second half of the profile did make him slightly surprised – a game host?

He returned back to the search page result, and sure enough, there were a lot of video-related links. He Jin found the official website to Fly Tour Network, and clicked on Fire’s home page. There, he saw the number of individual fans unexpectedly reached more than eight hundred thousand people!

He Jin did not follow any idol, so he did not know what was the significance of this 800,000 fans, but he did apply for a microblogging account before, which he had not used for a long time. For years, his number of followers there were a constant double-digit number, and almost all of them were ghost accounts. So, looking at this high popularity of Fire, He Jin felt like a mortal encountering a God, like a peasant seeing the emperor, totally shocked!

The broadcast room was currently closed. There was a notice saying Fire Ruthless broadcast times were every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday evening at eight o’clock. On the bottom of the home page displayed old broadcast videos, with each video reaching up to seven digits number of views!

At this time, He Jin was attracted by a floating text on the right side of the page, and saw an official popular post titled “Fire Ruthless last night did not broadcast, causing numerous viewers to be ditched”. He Jin was stunned – last night? Wait a minute… yesterday was Tuesday, and the time when he was playing yesterday seemed to be around eight o’clock in the evening… So, the culprit that caused Fire to ditch broadcast was him(He Jin)?

He Jin learned the truth and felt … heavy pressure! (||| ￣_￣| | |)

Feeling frightened, he turned off the Fly Tour Network page. He Jin took a deep breath to calm himself down, and then looked back at the other content on the search page result. The rest of the results showed posts of Fire Ruthless from major gossip forum. He Jin swept around and found a post with “Flower Yiyi” as one of it’s keyword, taking a closer look, he saw the title of the post was – “The women who appeared around Fire Ruthless’s side”.

After looking through it a little, He Jin later realized… since when did I’m actually interested in this kind of thing! He wanted to close it off, but could not restrain his curiosity. In the end, He Jin gave up and looked at it, feeling slightly egg-ache…

[T/N: Egg-ache 蛋疼 means someone who did something stupid or crazy because they feel bored or curious.]

The post was made two years ago, with still ongoing updates until now. Inside, there were details that was brutally spread about female players around Fire Ruthless, complete with pictures as proof. Most of the “pictures” were screenshots from the game, such as confessions record from female players to Fire Ruthless, of roses being sent to him, and record of people shouting their love in the world channel… They numbers were numerous.

There was almost no response post captured from Fire Ruthless. Only one was posted there, it was from the first and last time Fire ever replied to someone, the screenshot went like this –

World Channel ‘Xiao Xian Ah-Jing’: “Fire ~ ~ ~ Fire Ruthless ~~~”

World Channel ‘Fire Ruthless’: “?”

World Channel ‘Say No Summer’: “ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah screenshot!!!”

World Channel ‘early spring’: “The God actually replied!”

World Channel ‘Toffee’: “Who is Ah Jing?

World Channel ‘Xiao Xian Ah- Jing’: “I’m here ……”

World Channel ‘Fire Ruthless’: “Private chat.”

World Channel ‘Yishui Han’ :” Crap! Private chat! Boy, aren’t you tall and cold?”

{T/N: Tall and cold (高冷) means someone with a cold and indifferent attitude.)

World Channel ‘Say No Summer’: “Do not private chat ah ah ah ah ah ah !!!”

World Channel ‘Small Artifacts Day’: “Xiao Xian Ah-Jing coordinates is in 142,381, let’s team up.”

World Channel ‘Lan Feng’: “Can I kill her? [Heartbreak]”

World Channel ‘Yao Yao’: “I want to kill her +1 [anger]”

World Channel ‘toffee’: “I want to kill + 1, people above, let’s team up! [Anger] [anger] ”

World Channel ‘Red Star Eleven’: “Women are terrible …”

…

That was the end of the screenshot, with Xiao Xian Ah-Jing saying two sentences, and Fire Ruthless also replied two times. There was no screenshot of the private chat. According to the follow-up explanation, that “Xiao Xian Ah-Jing” was soon killed by a bunch of female players and never appeared again.

He Jin’s cheek turned slightly hot, he had to say, “Xiao Xian Ah- Jing” and “Xiao Xian-Jin”, these two names were too similar ah.

Sighs. He really did not want to feel these troublesome emotion ah….

The last edited time of this post was a year ago, meaning when that incident occurred, Fire had waited for him for about six or seven years. Imagining what Fire must have felt when he discovered that “Xiao Xian Ah-jing” was not him.. He Jin was soon flooded with remorse and guilt!

What to do, go back and explain? Tell him that I’m a man, so that he’ll completely give up?

…It felt so cruel.

But if he did not explain, or continued not coming online, it seemed even more cruel. Because, according to Fire’s character, he might continue to wait, kept on waiting for him to come online again…

Nooooo…….

Why did he encounter such a tangled thing! Orz..

He Jin’s heart was troubled, but he continued to scroll down the post until Flower Yiyi’s name began to appear. Unlike the previous screenshots filled with cringey confessions, most pictures of Flower Yiyi and Fire Ruthless together were taken from the system announcement, for example, news about them completing dungeons , killing bosses together, and so on. There were also a few screenshots of her and Fire Ruthless “flying” together. These pictures of the two of them did seem pretty justified to cause gossip.

Flower Yiyi’s ranking was also posted there, if you removed all “Heavenly Being” characters on the list, then Fire Ruthless and Flower Yiyi’s names would appear one after the other. The people speculated that they were a couple in real life, only not out to the public. A real photo of Flower Yiyi accompanied this speculation. According to a famous player who also hosted a show, her photo was so beautiful, not the pretty-and-delicate type of beautiful, but the glamorous and elegant one. This post was followed by either comments of people conveying their feelings of “envy, jealousy, hate”, or messages like “Why did I grow up like this, unfair ah, no matter appearance or strength, nothing is equal”.

However, He Jin couldn’t really see Flower Yiyi in a “black” light. He felt that this girl’s assessment was very good, in the minds of other users, she was also seen as worthy of Fire Ruthless. But, after all, gossip was just gossip, there was no real proof, He Jin also knew very well, there’s nothing between Flower Yiyi and Fire Ruthless. And anyway, whatever relationship those two people have, it’s also none of his business!

All day, He Jin looked at Fire Ruthless’s gossip posts from the past.

When the last lesson finished in the afternoon, He Jin turned off the smart bracelet’s projection, and stood up with an unreadable look… then he went to canteen to eat some rice.

On the road, he received a call from Tong Xuan, asking him to go to the School Academic Office after dinner to organize some activities.

Tong Xuan was the Vice President of the current student union, a royal girl type figure, a popular flower in Hua University, who at the same time, was also He Jin’s ex-girlfriend …

Why did they become an “ex”? Well, according to Tong Xuan’s words, He Jin was too “stuffy”.

He Jin wasn’t handsome, but his body had a pure temperament aura. When Tong Xuan got into the student union in freshman year, the first time she saw Jin, he was wearing a white shirt, a pair of jeans, looking so elegant and as pure as spring water.

He Jin’s appearance met all of Tong Xuan’s “white scholar” fantasy, it was love at first sight, so she immediately started pursuing him.

As the saying goes, women who chased after a man would have it easier.

He Jin did not have a cold attitude, but he also did not think much about love. So, when he saw Tong Xuan, who looked good and lively, also seemed not annoying, He Jin thought that he might like her, and they began going out.

However,  as the time went by, Tong Xuan felt that this He Jin, who always looked cool and abstinence, actually acted like a reincarnation of Lu Xiahui, so boring! For six months, there was no fire between the two of them, even when she took the initiative to ignite it, there was still no use. So after one year, they finally broke up and became ordinary friends.

{T/N: Lu Xiahui is an ancient politician in China who was known for his moral virtue.}

After that, every time Tong Xuan met He Jin, her teeth would itch with a wanting-to-abuse feeling. He Jin to Xuan Tong also felt like he owed her something, so as long as a request was made by Tong Xuan, He Jin would not refuse if he was capable of fulfilling it.

Hurriedly finishing his rice, He Jin then wearily rushed to the Academic Affairs Office. Tong Xuan was already there, holding out an apple to him.

“I heard from Zhou Heng that you want to withdraw from the student unions?” Tong Xuan started with this sentence.

He Jin held the apple in his hands, his head down, letting out an “ah” sound.

Tong Xuan frowned: “What happened to you, so listless!”

He Jin: “Nothing, just feel powerless.”

Tong Xuan hated this look of He Jin. Even before their relationship, this stuffy attitude of him always made her felt like he did not take her seriously. But that was not the case, it was just his natural character. She understood that, and she also knew she couldn’t change him, so in time, she just withdraw herself.

Tong Xuan advised him: “If you want to quit then quit, but don’t take down your title yet, let it stay temporarily. After graduation you can also add it to your resume, no need to retreat completely ah! You did not participate in the presidential election, but you at least take the lead on organizing it… but now, what’s the matter ah, you just shoved all your duties to the deputy and officers below you! ”

“So that’s why you called me.” He Jin grumbled and complained.

Tong Xuan glared at him: “I have something only you can do, that’s why I find you today!”

He Jin: “Alright, Miss. Just say it.”

Tong Xuan: “Foreign Language club wants to make a joint study to let the younger students to learn English in an open lecture, isn’t your score in last year’s exam get the highest score?”

While they were still talking, another girl approached, exclaiming: “Senior! You come! I called you all day but you did not pick up!” This girl is Guo You Ling, the Vice President of Foreign Language Club. She looked to Tong Xuan , and said happily: “Xuan sister, how did you find this senior, amazing!”

Tong Xuan side-eyed He Jin, then smiled toward Guo You Ling, her face a lot better.

He Jin did not answer Guo Youling, single-handedly leaned his chest at the table, and nibbled on the apple in his hand: “What’s the good in talking about that exam, can’t you just do it online?”

Guo Youling made a bitter melon face: “Don’t ah, Senior, we don’t want to have recruitment of new members as our, Foreign Language Club’s, only biggest event every year! It’s next Wednesday night at 8:00, the notice has been sent in the student activity network … just help us ah!”

He Jin’s fingers drummed on the desk, his eyes slightly open, his mouth moved asking: “It has been sent?”

Tong Xuan looked at He Jin: “Right, remember to make five hundred copies of your review notes from last year. We need to make booklets, it will be made available to students for five yuan, as voluntary purchase.”

What Jin stared at her with big eyes: “You still want to collect money!?”

Tong Xuan: “Of course, those guys in the Liaison Department are not giving their money, and the student union funds have been in short supply since the last semester. We have to be self-sufficient.”

He Jin: hello, isn’t that mean it’s my money that will be sacrificed…!