Chapter 5

Zhenshui and the Xiaoyu clan walked to the front of the crowd together and all four women were staring at Weiwei, who just glared right back. "Yugong, want to place a bet?", Hao Mei typed in the global chat room so Zhenshui and the clan could see it.

"Why are we betting?" Yugong questioned "You think Naihe would lose?"

"Shallow!", Hao Mei responded. "I'm betting on how many minutes it will take for Naihe to finish him off." Yugong, Hao Mei and Houzi were determined to make this as embarrassing for Zhenshui as possible. Weiwei had to admit she was enjoying the protection the guys gave her. She never had to explain anything nor did they ask. They knew her and they did not take any prisoners if anyone made any wrong moves towards her.

Zhenshui leapt on to the stage, Naihe didn't move a muscle he was still sat playing the Guzheng even as Zhenshui pulled the golden bow and arrow and aimed directly at Naihe he didn't flinch. Zhenshui fired 3 arrows in three different directions so that Naihe did not have anywhere to escape, when the arrows left Zhenshui's bow Nai faded away. The character could no longer be seen. There was an ethereal glow around him and then he faded away as if he were nothing.

Weiwei's heart hitched in her chest. "What happened? Did his internet cut out?", before realisation hit her that Naihe had the ability in his character to disappear, she then began to smile.

Zhenshui knew it was one of his abilities, after researching Naihe before accepting the face-off. He didn't lower his bow and began to fire random arrows in all directions apart from the one direction he had started in. Naihe was still sitting in the same place and was still playing the Guzheng, cool as a cucumber, he found Zhenshui laughable.

"Naihe has gone invisible", Yugong told the others.

A purple mist began to form and swirl around Zhenshui, it was not phasing him, so everyone presumed he was creating it to try and find Naihe in some capacity. As Zhenshui walked around the octagon he walked directly up to Naihe with his back towards him and started again to fire arrows in every direction apart from the one that Naihe was sitting in. Naihe was getting bored of this now and let two bolts from his Guzheng fly and both connected with Zhenshui's chest. Zhenshui flew into the air and landed on the canvas. Zhenshui quickly got back to his feet to attack the direction the bolt came from. When all of a sudden, he found his hands bound with a purple rope.

"Oh no!", Mianmian turned to Feifei "He's been hit with Naihe's swing rope. He's doomed"

"Why can't he get free", Feifei started to complain.

Naihe reappeared and just as he showed himself, Zhenshui managed to break through the swing rope that bound his hand with one of his special abilities. Naihe attacked Zhenshui again directly hitting and injuring him.

"Wind to cloud, Naihe's group attack skill!", YaoYao protested. Zhenshui made an advance towards Naihe who used the Chua Gong behind him as a spring board and flipped over Zhenshui to land to the left of him. The Guzheng glowed with a blue glow and a missile made from electricity travelled from the heart of the guzheng and flew towards Zhenshui, which struck him and cost him the first round of the face-off.

Weiwei was going mental in her dorm room. She was his own personal sidekick or cheerleader and she loved it. "I didn't know Zhenshui was so mediocre" Houzi told the group.

"How tedious, unexciting and anti-climactic!", Yugong said in the global chat room and the others could not help but laugh at how obvious he was being.

YaoYao signalled her avatar to run towards Zhenshui as soon as the first round ended. Zhenshui's character was still on the floor. "He is a bully!" Qingqing was telling everyone who would listen in the global chat room. "Everyone knows Yixiao Naihe can take on multiple players at once!"

"Forcing Zhenshui into a face-off is like ganging up on him, winning without honour!", Mianmian joined in the conversation.

Nai sat reading the messages. They talked a big game when they felt they were felt they were being treated wrongly, but they had to learn that all actions have consequences and that he would stand by Weiwei to make sure she was happy and anyone that wronged her would have him to deal with. His screen was going every two seconds with messages the latest from Feifei calling him infuriating. A laugh escaped him. He watched as YaoYao, who was a doctor character in the game healed Zhenshui. "Zhenshui, win or lose, you will always be a hero to me."

"Don't worry about me", he told her "Just stand by and watch."

YaoYao went to walk from the octagon but she felt Naihe was being unfair and she was going to tell him. "Yixiao Naihe, Zhenshui is no match for you, but you went back on your word!", she typed angrily.

"What do you mean?", he asked YaoYao because he adhered to everything, he put in the challenge letter.

"You said you'd give up two artifacts!", Naihe could feel the desperation coming from the message.

"YAOYAO!", Zhenshui scolded her

"For the first round", he started to tell them calmly. "I didn't wear the ring." The global chatroom erupted in conversations about Naihe's missing ring and how no one spotted it.

"I truly pity Zhenshui Wuxiang. How sad for him!" Houzi commented trying to fuel conversations about how inapt he was.

"It takes a month to regain the loss of a grade in cultivated status!" Hao Mei typed "if Nai dropped two grades.... My head is just hurting thinking about it."

A message popped up in the global chatroom from Yugong and Weiwei could not help but begin to feel sorry for Zhenshui, these guys were making him regret this video in every way possible. The guilt faded away quickly after thinking about the video. Did he think about her feelings when he posted that slanderous video? "So boring! It's a one-sided punishment."

"It pains me to watch it", Hao Mei replied.

"For this round, I will fight you with one hand." Nai told Zhenshui to add insult to injury. Nai was ensuring he did everything possible to embarrass Zhenshui, to the level Weiwei must have felt watching that video.

"That's not necessary", Zhenshui replied obviously feeling the sting of Naihe's words. "I will leave some equipment behind too."

"Suit yourself" Naihe told him

The second round of the face-off began with Zhenshui firing his golden bow towards Naihe's feet, they bounced off of Naihe and were shot back towards Zhenshui. Zhenshui dodged the arrows by flipping backwards, landing on his feet he attacked Naihe again by jumping up on one of the wooden pillars that held the Chua Gong and firing from above.

Naihe dodged the arrows and fired one large shot from the instrument that was held on his knee that struck Zhenshui in the chest and he fell from the wooden pillar. That was the second round of the Face-off over even quicker than the first round. YaoYao ran straight to Zhenshui and healed his character and Weiwei ran straight to Naihe.  

Zhenshui stood to face Naihe, anger surged through him and as Zhenshui sat behind his large white marble desk. He didn't like losing and losing to Naihe who was probably a loser in his real life was even worse. "What do you get out of this?"

"If you have no self-respect, how will others respect you?" Naihe asked him

"Fine! I have been shown my place.", Zhenshui replied "I will honour the bet. I will delete the video, YaoYao and I will make a new one." Nai really didn't care if they made a new one just that the one, he made was removed, he was embarrassed in front of the game and his cultivated status was affected. "My cultivated status has already been dropped", Zhenshui messaged Weiwei "Let that be your compensation, we don't owe each other anymore."

"It's fine, just delete the video", Weiwei told him. Zhenshui and the Xiaoyu clan left, leaving Naihe and his friends at the octagon.

"Naihe, Zhenshui Wuxiang also left off some equipment." Hao Mei told him as if Nai didn't already know. "Did you expect him to do that?"

"Why should I bother?" Nai questions

"Naihe doesn't need to think about him", Weiwei announced like a proud parent. She was so happy that he won. "But you knocked two grades off of his cultivated status."

"I think he was prepared to die." Yugong told his friends as Naihe was agreeing with Weiwei. "it'll take him at least two months to recover. "Yugong's avatar froze in the spot with Z's above his head. He had gone to check if the video had been removed.

"You didn't think of a contingency plan", Hao Mei asked Nai "What happened if something went wrong like the power went out and you couldn't get online? Would you let him get away with the video?"

"If I lose, then I lose. The missus is still around", he told them while his avatar was holding Weiwei's hand. Weiwei read the message and her heart fluttered. She was hoping that he felt the same way about her, that she was beginning to feel about him.

"What Naihe means, is that if he loses, he won't get involved anymore." Houzi messaged "But he didn't mention Mrs Nai. Mrs Nai is much stronger than Naihe. Whenever we fight a monster, she's always the first to strike." Yugong returned to the game and looked for his friends that had left him standing on the octagon stage. "Naihe is a deadbeat."

Yugong sent a message that he had checked and that the video had been removed and the guys had all voiced their disappointment as they wanted to embarrass him even further. They mentioned hacking his account and closing it down completely, the one of them courting YaoYao while Zhenshui was trying to find out what was happening. Weiwei laughed at how far these guys were willing to take this. "You guys are awful", Weiwei replied while giggling like a school girl.

"You're to kind", Yugong told her. "Compare to Naihe, we're like...... A drop in the ocean". Weiwei was really confused by the way he used the expression. She looked to Naihe for an explanation but before he could answer her, Yugong told her "Don't mind the details!"

"Let's go, Weiwei." Naihe turned to Weiwei

"Where to?", she asked him

"Somewhere without them", the avatars were still holding hands and walked away from the three guys. Naihe lead Weiwei to part of the game she had never been to before, they walked through a grassed area of the game that was mostly pink colour due to the blossom trees around them. They both stopped and started to watch the sun set over the mountains that seemed to be floating in front of them. The sky was a gorgeous mixture of pink and orange with hints of red, it made such a picturesque view that you would have thought they were in an oil painting.  

"You should have handled this yourself", Naihe told Weiwei "but there are too many busybodies in the public chat room. I thought it best to get it over with." He didn't want her to think that he thought she needed his protection because she didn't.

Weiwei sat in her dorm room feeling giddy by what had happened between her and Naihe. She was questioning her beliefs about in-game relationships staying in the game now. She started to think about Naihe and how his actions had made her feel, why did he feel he needed to explain himself to her.

In the days following the face-off she would find herself lost in the thought of what her and Naihe could become and found herself thinking about him more and more in her everyday life. She started to day dream about the messages they would send each other, about what he looked like and what the future could hold for them both.

She would also find herself when she was meant to be studying doodling Naihe's character shape. She kept a journal that was all of her tips and tricks about the game and decided while she was studying in the library one day that she would draw a full-page Muriel for his character, when it came to his face, she left it blank and decided she would fill in the face after meeting him. She packed up her things to make her way back to the dorm, she had a date with Naihe in the game. As she left the library, she noticed that Cao Guang was waiting on her leaving. She turned and attempted to walk the other way so he didn't notice her.

While Weiwei was trying to avoid Cao Guang, Nai was sitting in his apartment off of campus and trying to find a way to try and spend more time in her presence so he could try and talk to her at least. He was concerned that the myth of who he was would overtake the actual person and she would be worried about the females that seemed to flock wherever he went. He knew her name and knew they were students in the same department, maybe he could get hold of her class schedule. If he knew that she would be able to handle the attention that she would get being with him then he would have approached her already but the girls that followed him around school were sometimes too much to handle.

As he attempted to find out more information about her, he did manage to hack his way into the school system to get her schedule, and he saw a familiar class on there. His father's! The smile swept across his face as he also was scheduled for that elective class but never attended because his father would always provide the resources after the class to allow him to work on his business and other classes.

Cao Guang had spotted the fact that Weiwei had started to walk the other way and ran to catch up with her. "Weiwei, are you free today?"

"You don't need to treat me to a meal" Weiwei told him again. She was beginning to get really uncomfortable with attention he was paying her. He was turning up in places she didn't know she would be.

"Well......" he was becoming more nervous the more she refused. "Do you mind if I walk with you for a bit?" he asked her. Weiwei could not see a way to refuse so allowed him to walk her straight back to the dorm.

Later that evening she was studying and the phone in the dorm rang. Er Xi was the first to answer the phone. "Hello?"

"Hi, is Weiwei there?", Cao Guang asked the familiar female voice.

"Weiwei?" Er Xi questioned, "Who is this?"

"Cao Guang", he replied

Er Xi's temper took over. She did not like Cao Guang for his past attitude towards her best friend but also, he had been really rude to Er Xi in their American cinema classes. "Cao Guang? Weiwei is not here!" Er Xi told him aggressively and hung up the phone.

"Nice!" Weiwei told Er Xi, she didn't want to speak to him. Er Xi walked over to the desk that was at the bottom of her bed and sat on it with an angry look on her face. "Why are you so worked up?", Weiwei enquired, worried about why her friend was obviously upset.  

"Is Cao Guang courting you?", Er Xi asked timidly praying for her friend to say no and that she was just imagining things.

"I think so, what should I do?" she confided in her friend.

"Don't even think about it", Er Xi shouted at Weiwei while slamming her hand into the table. "You cannot consider him! The photo incident proves his flawed character. He only suspected the worst of you because that is how he is? Right?" she looked to Weiwei to see if she was agreeing with what she was saying or if Weiwei looked disappointed. "Plus, he was so mean to me in class. He doesn't pass my standards. You cannot wager your lifelong happiness on this guy." Luckily Weiwei was agreeing with everything that Er Xi was saying.

"Wait", Weiwei wanted to know what happened between the two of them to make her so against him. "Why do I sense a lot of bad blood between you and Cao Guang?"

"I just don't like him", Er Xi explained to Weiwei "He may be the school's handsome genius, second to Xiao Nai, but if I don't think he is good enough. I am sure you don't think he is good enough."

"That's true. I don't have feelings for him." Weiwei told Er Xi.

"On the other hand," Er Xi started to wonder who Weiwei would end up with. "If Cao Guang isn't good enough for you then you'll have to marry Xiao Nai!"

"I think I have been clear with him", Weiwei continued to tell her friend, she hoped she had been anyway. "I don't like to be ambiguous or waste his time."

"You are the best! You hate my enemies too!" Er Xi made her way out to the balcony of their dorm room to get some air even thinking about Cao Guang gave her a headache. When she spotted him. Xiao Nai was walking past their dorm building all of a sudden, she shouted Weiwei's name at the top of her lungs.

"What is it?" Weiwei questioned Er Xi in a slightly irritated voice.

"COME HERE!", Er Xi's voice went louder and even higher, which Weiwei didn't think was possible. "It's Xiao Nai. HURRY!"

"Really?" Weiwei questioned. They watched from the safety of their dorm room balcony. Xiao Nai was really walking past their dorm building, which is unusual you don't normally see him on campus. A girl approached him with a love letter in hand. Both girls could see what was going to happen and felt for the girl. Xiao Nai had never shown an interest in anyone. That is maybe what made him attractive the mysteriousness behind the man. The girl walked up to Xiao Nai to hand over the letter, who promptly took a side step to miss her and ignored the letter completely. It gave Weiwei the perfect way to reject Cao Guang though and she was going to reject him completely the next time they saw each other so it was no longer awkward for her to walk around campus.

The next day Weiwei was sitting in the cafeteria eating her lunch and Cao Guang approached her and asked if anyone was sitting with her. When she confirmed she was by herself he sat to eat with her and attempted to make small talk about how the food looked good. She took a deep breath and told herself the quicker she rejected him the less painful it would be for him. "Are you free after this?" she asked him

"Yes", he told her, excited that he may have finally broken through the protective layers she seemed to have put up.

"I need to talk to you" Weiwei told him.

"Okay", Cao Guang mentally high fived himself, today was the day Bei Weiwei became his girlfriend and he would have landed one of the top 2 beauties in school. They sat and ate the rest of their lunches in silence. Cao Guang tried to contain his excitement and Weiwei trying not to reject him while he was eating at least she could be kind to let him eat in peace.

Weiwei and Cao Guang made their way out of the cafeteria, but little did they know Yiran's roommate and best friend Nana had spotted them and followed them to find out what was happening. She followed them to one of the garden areas of the university where there were some sculptures that the art department had made. Weiwei liked them they made her feel safe; she didn't know why but they did. Weiwei was unaware that Nana was currently hiding behind the bushes close to where she was about to reject Cao Guang. "Cao Guang, I know your intentions", she told him, "but I honestly don't think we are compatible. I'm sorry", she apologised waiting for the anger to come from him.

"How would you know that, without trying?", he demanded. His heart began to break slowly, this was the opposite of what he was hoping for,

"I don't want to waste your time", she told him.

"I don't think I am wasting my time", he responded impatiently "No matter what, I have the right to court you until you change your mind." Weiwei began to panic a little bit this was not going the way she wanted it to go. In her head she kept apologising to Nai because she was about to use him as an excuse.

"My heart has already been given to someone else", she told him

"Who?", he wasn't sure he believed her. If she was telling him the truth, he wanted to know who he lost to and who he had to beat to win her back.

"I have been wanting to date a computer major", she told him, "We speak the same language. So....'

"Computer major?" Cao Guang challenged

"Xiao Nai", she blurted out his name while repeating that she was sorry in her head. She really needed to get Cao Guang to leave her alone. Weiwei walked away from him after he let out a deep breath.

Nana heard everything that was said between Cao Guang and started t harass him about the fact that his heart was just broken. She was trying to find any dirt she could on Weiwei to ruin her reputation. As Cao Guang was walking away from her. "There's got to be dirt on Bei Weiwei. I'll find it, if it kills me", she tells herself. "Wait.... No, I have to tell Yiran that Weiwei likes Xiao Nai!" She runs to try and find Yiran and let her know what happened.

Cao Guang and his friends made their way to the basketball court, for two reasons. The first was to let off some steam after Cao Guang came back from lunch in a horrible mood and to complete their exercise quota for the week. Nai and his friends were already hanging out and practising for the championship game. The game was in full swing when Cao Guang and his friends walked to try and head to the other end of the court. "Hey, isn't that the computer major guy we were talking about earlier?"

"Xiao Nai?", Cao Guang asked him. Cao Guang stood and waited for his opportunity to challenge Nai. Cao Guang thought he was good at basketball and could easily take Nai. One of Nai's friends overshot the hoop and Cao Guang caught the ball on the other side. He took the ball to his side and gave Nai a challenging look. "You're Xiao Nai?" he questioned.

"That's me", Nai stood forward, not knowing why this person was looking for him or why he was looking at him with the pure hatred that was emanating from his eyes. Let's hope that he finds out why in the course of what is happening.

"Care to play?", Cao Guang challenged Nai now.

"It would be rude to decline", Nai told him. He wanted to find out who this was and why he wanted to challenge him. Nai's friend around him were questioning the same thing, questioning the guys sanity. Nai was a god on the basketball court, he could not be beaten. They had never seen it and were not about to see it today. 

As Nai was running circles around Cao Guang on the basketball court Yugong, Dazhong, Hao Mei and Houzi were all sitting watching and cheering Nai on. They knew Nai was going to win, they had no doubt about that. "Who is that?" Hao Mei asked "He's so menacing!"  

"Who cares?", Houzi told them "He's got no chance anyway. Nai is only at fifty percent now." The guys looked on and saw Cao Guang struggling to keep up with Nai, his breathing was laboured and it looked like Cao Guang was chasing Nai around the court.

"Wait, why does he look so familiar?", Yugong questioned. "I've got it", the concentration on Yugong's face was intense while he was trying to remember the guy's name. "He is from the Foreign Languages department", Yugong explained. "His name is Cao...." The guys were looking at Yugong with anticipation. "Cao Guang! He is a genius too!"

"A face-off between two geniuses." Hao Mei told them

"A basketball face-off though?" Yugong told him "He's a foreign languages major. Why didn't he pick English oration? He must be nutty." He tapped his fingers to his temples to indicate that he thought Cao Guang had lost his mind.

"Dude!", Hao Mei interjected "Nai is a freak who excels in foreign languages, too! If they go head-to-head you will never know, who will win."

"But I know, with basketball, Cao Guang is definitely going down", Houzi confirmed to his friend.

On the court Nai was running circles around Cao Guang and when he landed the final basket that indicated that Nai won the game, Cao Guang collapsed in the middle of the court soaked in sweat and struggling to breathe. The sweat was dripping from his face onto his already drenched t-shirt. All of Nai's supporters including the girls that had gathered at the court to watch him play started to clap and cheer. Nai walked up to the group he was with who handed him his bag and a towel. He was tired but not in need of a towel as much as Cao Guang. "Nai, why did he challenge you to a one-on-one?" Hao Mei asked him.

"I think Cao Guang is courting our department belle", Dazhong told them.

"Bei Weiwei?" Yugong asked

"Yeah, Xiaoling told me", Dazhong told them. Nai attitude shifted completely. He went easy on Cao Guang before because he thought he was trying to up his reputation in school. Nai felt protectiveness, anger, jealousy and yearning all at the same time. He was hoping with everything inside of him that Weiwei was not interested in him, but just for insurance let's make sure he is taught a lesson and hopefully Weiwei will hear that Cao Guang was beaten by him. Nai dropped his bags and towel.

"What are you doing Nai?", Hao Mei asked him

"One more game, I was too easy on him", Nai told them. He walked over Cao Guang who looked like he was having an asthma attack with the way he was breathing. Nai saw the sweat dripping from his face and could not help but feel animosity towards him. He was trying to take the girl he loved and that was not okay with Nai.

"I can feel the intensity", Yugong told Hao Mei. They felt the change in their friend's whole aura. He had turned from the friendly Nai to the intense and the ferociousness their friend held within him.

"Get up", Nai told Cao Guang, who followed the instructions Nai gave him because his brain was not functioning properly due to the lack of oxygen in his body at that moment. He stood and got into Nai's face and then round two began.

Nai again was running rings around Cao Guang. Cao Guang actually fell to the ground while chasing him around like a lost boy. Cao Guang had tried numerous times to catch Nai and score against him but it just wasn't possible. He knew this was a mistake, Nai was insanely dynamic and had the stamina of a horse. Nai landed the a mistake, Nai was insanely dynamic and had the stamina of a horse. Nai landed the last basket again to show he won and every one erupted in cheers.  

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***