Strayed Imagination
Yu Xuejiao was lying on her stomach, her face buried on her pillow.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
The pillow worked hard to muffle Yu Xuejiao's scream. What a pity that it could only do so much.
She had been shouting for about three minutes, ten minutes after she got into her room.
After she probably felt like she had screamed enough, she sat up and looked at a random corner in a daze.
'What if I quit now?' Her brother would definitely scold her for lacking commitment.
'That guy lives on the same floor as me!' Her eyes widened as she moved her focus toward her foot.
She started imagining countless scenarios about what could happen if they coincidentally bumped into each other.
'What if, in the elevator, I meet him again, and he goes—Oh, if it isn't Yu Xuejiao, my new personal assistant who applied because I'm tall and handsome.'
In her mind appeared an image of Xiao Chunsheng, leaning against the wall as he looked down on her with a small smirk.
'Nah. He's not… He's not narcissistic, right?' Yeah, Xiao Chunsheng looked calm and classy, neither humble nor overbearing—it was just right.
'At least he could not be as bad as my persona when I play games.'
The background changed in her mind. Xiao Chunsheng now had arms crossed and chin up, saying, 'I'm rich, tall, handsome, and even my voice is nice. What do you have?'
Yu Xuejiao subconsciously shuddered and cringed. Cursed. That was absolutely cursed.
She smacked her face with both hands.
'But just in case I do meet him, I can just go—Hehe, of course, Sir, you're tall and handsome. But I solemnly swear that I applied because I believe that Nexiv is… erm, what pretentious stuff could I say about the company?'
'Then he kabedons me and goes—Hm? Really…'
In her imagination, she was now pushed against the wall, his hand on her waist. Staring into each other's eyes…
'YU XUEJIAO GET A GRIP! WHAT ARE YOU THINKING? THAT'S YOUR BOSS! THAT'S YOUR BOSS! THAT'S YOUR BOSS! Important things must be repeated three times.'
Yu Xuejiao smacked her forehead. 'Fly away. Erase. Erase. My head shall be blank'
She closed her eyes and imagined a depthless white expanse of area. Nothing. There was nothing to see.
Then a familiar handsome guy showed up, pulling his tie, unbuttoning his shirt…
'EARTH TO YU XUEJIAO! Ew! How could you think of that? AAAAAAAH! STUPID!' Yu Xuejiao once again started cursing herself. She was furiously blushing.
Pulling her pillow from the side, she went back to lying on her stomach, burying her face into the pillow.
"Jiao Jiao, you must be desperate after not seeing any handsome guy for a long time."
She pulled herself up again and crawled out of the bed, in the direction of her PC.
"After I play games, I won't think of it anymore."
This was Yu Xuejiao's attempt on gaslighting herself. Would it work? Heh, of course not.
She booted up her PC and logged in into Realms Online.
With raised eyebrows, she grinned. "Oh? The daily tasks are done?"
If there was anything common between her and the guy she just commissioned, it was that he liked to cram everything at the last minute.
"Lili, what time is it?"
"7:38 in the evening."
That guy usually started at either 9 or 10 pm. How strange.
But it seemed like he was changing for the better. Good for him!
When Yu Xuejiao was about to teleport to their guild, she suddenly received a ping.
It was a message from Three Days.
[Chestnut, is it you this time?]
Yu Xuejiao quickly replied.
[What do you need?]
She stared at the screen, staring at the three dots as she waited for Three Days to reply.
Ten seconds…
Twenty seconds…
Thirty seconds…
Her eyebrows furrowed together as she thought, 'He better be sending me a long essay.'
One minute….
Two minutes…
[What made you think that I only look for you when I need something?]
Yu Xuejiao closed her eyes and sighed. 'It took him two minutes to type this? Oh God.'
She quit the message tab and went to the guild. If Three Days was going to send more messages, then she'd just read it when she was in the mood.
No more waiting for that guy.
She checked the guild quests available and found out that the pilot guy had done her part already.
'He's suddenly providing extra service? It's unlike him.'
With nothing else to do, Yu Xuejiao finally checked Three Days' messages, which she had been marinating for a few minutes.
[Where did you get the guy who played on your behalf earlier?]
[He's good.]
[His skills are even better than yours.]
'Better than me?'
A faint wrinkle etched its way across her forehead as she looked at the screen with squinted eyes. She wasn't even offended, just confused.
Who's better than who?
This wasn't her first time hiring that guy. After all, every time that grinding was the only thing she could do, she hired that guy to do it for her. He was pretty mediocre.
Thinking that she wouldn't get answers by just assuming, she decided to ask for more details.
[Do you remember what time he logged in with my account?]
[I think it was around lunch. Past 11 AM, I think. And then he logged out before 1 pm.]
"..." Yu Xuejiao.
Yeah, she needed to ask that guy about whom he gave her account details to. He would never wake up that early. The earliest time he'd wake up was 2 pm, but it was normally around 4 pm.
She started looking for her phone. Craning her neck around, she found that her phone was in the bed.
It didn't seem too far, so she simply turned her chair and picked up her phone using her foot.
"There we go. What was I going to do again?"
All of a sudden, Xiao Chunsheng's face surfaced in her mind again.
"AAAAAAH! WHAT THE HELL!"
"Hey Chestnut," Blood Jade's cool feminine voice sounded as her avatar materialized in front of Yu Xuejiao's avatar.
For a moment Yu Xuejiao was startled.
She tried to compose herself before opening her mic. "D-don't you have an exam tomorrow? Why are you online?"
"There was nothing to do after you logged out yesterday, so I used that time to review. Also, two of my classes were cancelled today. I made sure to review, so I can play now."
Yu Xuejiao chuckled. "Perfect logic. When I was still a student, my brothers would put my gadgets on my table by 10 pm and watch over me until I fell asleep. So every time I'm desperate to watch anime, I would set up five consecutive alarms from 3:00–3:15 with a three minute interval."
"In high school?"
"Nope. College."
When she was in high school, she wasn't that into anime, so she slept for eight hours every day. That all changed when she got into college.
The students around her, who were adults, always talked about not getting enough sleep. She thought that it wasn't a big deal and copied them.
With lack of sleep, she became increasingly irritable. Her brothers caught on that and took it upon their hands to correct the bad habit.
"You're already an adult at that point. Why are they still tucking you in?"
Oh, right. Everyone usually started college at eighteen years old.
"I started college when I was fourteen."
Blood Jade was incredulous. "For real? You talked about working a few years ago, so I thought you were around the same age as me!"
Yu Xuejiao giggled, which came out creepy to Blood Jade's ears because the former had a voice changer on.
"Did I seem mature?"
"No. Talking to you feels like talking to a teenager."
Yu Xuejiao was aggrieved. In a whining tone, she complained, "How—"
"Found you!" Moon Lamp's avatar also materialized.
"I especially checked where you guys were. Why are you guys just dawdling here? Can't you see the discussion in the World Chat?"
Yu Xuejiao pulled down the tab on the top, but too many people were sending messages at once. She only caught a few words here and there.
"Too fast. Just tell us already," Yu Xuejiao said.
"Jade's scammer ex—Protective whatever, offended a Healer, I think." Moon Lamp's excitement was seeping through the screen.
Yu Xuejiao might be gossipy, but she wasn't even a tenth as gossipy as Moon Lamp.
"Anyway, it's DPS vs Healer, yet the DPS is losing. Pathetic. Come. Watch the live show. Quick, quick, quick!"
After urging them, Moon Lamp's avatar disappeared.
It was silent for some time, with neither her or Blood Jade saying anything.
As a result, Xiao Chunsheng's image appeared inside her mind again, but she quickly pinched her own thigh and brushed the thought off.
"Jade, let's watch the fun!" Her mind would be too full to think anything else once they were there.
Blood Jade seemed to hesitate before agreeing. "Alright."
They went to the duel's venue.
Seeing the two characters surrounded by the crowd, Yu Xuejiao's interest was instantly piqued.