He Can Be The Villain

"A partner? But I never had one!"

Ziran clenched his fists, hoping it was nothing but a joke, but deep inside he also knew it was the reality.

"Er….why don't you set up a new account for me?" Xixi blinked at him cutely.

"Are you sure? Didn't you participate in any couple games?" He asked persistently.

"No, of course I am sure, Daniel would be furious if I did that." Xixi said without a tinge of hesitance.

Ziran stayed silent.

"I am really sorry for the inconvenience, but I really don't understand why…..maybe some system glitch.." Xixi trailed off apologetically. 

"Mazeland is constantly updated and checked for bugs or glitches. It's highly efficient." He cut her off.

"Oh." Xixi couldn't find anything more to say with his factual explanation.

"Who is Daniel?" Just when she thought he would stay quiet, He asked.

"Huh?" Xixi responded.

"Who is Daniel?" He asked again looking everywhere but at her.

"Daniel is my ex-boyfr.. I mean he is my ex-lover." Xixi cringed internally with the word 'lover'.

"You love someone?" Ziran's countenance turned dark as he enquired.

"loved...I used to love him, but he kind of vanished. She furrowed her brows trying to recall the sequence of events that year.

"So you don't love anymore right?" His tensed muscles relaxed visibly.

"I suppose so.." Xixi said. She looked into his deep eyes, trying not to get lost in them.

"What do you think of me?" He asked, holding her soft cold palms in his warm ones.

"You know what? You are behaving really weirdly." Xixi tried to loosen his grip on her fingers.

Ziran grabbed her hand firmly in a way that was strong yet didn't hurt her.

"First answer my question." He demanded.

"No matter what I think of you, I don't want to be your consort." Xixi said, raising her chin.

"We will see that." Ziran let go of her and left with a wink. A sunny smile spread across his lips unnoticed by Xixi.

'What am I supposed to do with this large screen now?' Xixi was speechless.

______________

"Regardless of where you are from, whether you remember me or not, now that I have found you, I won't let go of you." Ziran determinedly swore to himself.

"Lucas, you have exactly three hours to submit every single version history of the platform to me." He sent the text.

"I will re-investigate the portraits." He added.

Lucas checked his inbox. As expected, another task. The return isn't too bad.

He worked swiftly on the keyboard.After an hour nine Mazeland old version apk packages popped up one by one. Lucas took a look at the timer in his watch.

' ⅓ rd of the time, still not up to that bastard.' he muttered before merging the versions into a package and sending them to Ziran.

Within two minutes the ticks turned black, indicating the receiver has opened the file.

"So impatient!" Lucas scoffed to himself.

'Ting' the notification sound rang along with the device assistant speaking out, "You have received a crimson packet."

He tapped on the .lmb link.

The 3d letter came into view.

'A bloody capitalist, just how long has he hidden this?' Lucas explained proceeding to digest the detailed information about the portraits.

The portraits were awarded to Cordellia's grandparents by a ruler of the eastern zone. He already knew this. However, whether this was really an award or an exchange was something not quite clear. The mysterious technology behind the images is also dubious. He had been looking into this matter for the past two years, initially this was the only reason he got close to Cordellia.

However, she had that irresistible charm that made him divert his attention. Just when he was ready to confess the truth to her, she found out about it.

"In the Rin dynasty the old monarch Rin Wuhao before his death, left a secret message to his adopted son Rin Baoduo. Baoduo declared a revolt exactly after the mourning period passed. 

The old man's biological sons were obviously enraged by his betrayal and conspired together to murder him after being chased away from the kingdom. In the journey they met up with an unknown mishap. Every single clue to Baoduo's sudden death disappeared after that, leading people to believe that it were the Rin brothers that killed them, as there was no other suspect. The portrait was awarded to Cordellia's great grandfather Marquesses Alcibiades, who turned out to be a distant relative of the old king."

"Cliche royal politics" Lucas remarked finishing the first page.

"Hopefully, this will erase the misunderstandings between us." He sighed softly.

______________

Riwansa stepped back.

Steven trembled in anger sensing her disgust and contempt.

"You find me disgusting? Riwansa, where exactly did I go wrong? I never cheated on, let alone cheating, I never took a second look at any other woman. Why did you end our relationship all of a sudden? I begged you in front of thousands of people, yet you left! Then why are you behaving as if I wronged you?" He softened his voice, looking at her eyes filled with tears.

"Steven….this is where you are wrong, just because you never treated me wrong, I have to stay indebted to you even when I am tired of you?" She asked, breaking the last bit of hope he was holding on.

"Tired? Am I some kind toy to you? That you can get rid of when you wish? Riwansa, it doesn't matter if you wish to stay or not, but you are going to be mine. Yes I am immature and I don't regard anyone's feelings. I won't let you marry anyone else other than me." Steven declared.

A sense of peace finally took over him. 

Yes it doesn't matter if he is the villain in the story, as long as she is with him.