Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After Li Yao had freshened up, he looked up at the time. It was only 8am, still early for his 10am reunion.
The hover cars nowadays were extremely fast. Once he boarded the car, he would be able to reach Mingzhu Hotel in just ten minutes. Hence, Li Yao was not in a hurry, he went back online for a while.
He had trained with AdorkableTong for the entire day. In the end, his supplies for Explosive Sheep and Spike Traps were running low. He went back to the work station, paid the mentor the rental fee and began creating.
These items were must-haves, but too much of it would not benefit him as well. They required a lot of money to make. AdorkableTong and HundredFaceWitch had only seen the precision and high damage output of Li Yao’s Mech Hunter’s attack. Little did they know, it took Li Yao an entire day and an expenditure of gold coins to learn and make these items. Meanwhile, most players were now Level 3 on day four of the game, but their income was only four or five silver coins per day.
Initially, the mentor did not care much when Li Yao rented the work station. What caught his attention was the Explosive Sheep that Li Yao had created effortlessly. The mentor realized that Li Yao was not a newbie and he had yet to see him fail.
An hour later, Li Yao had created a few hundred Explosive Sheep.
“Not bad young lad, you’re a budding engineer. Next time when I’m not around you can still use the work station, just leave behind the rental fee,” said the mentor while Li Yao was getting ready to leave.
“Thanks a lot.” Li Yao nodded and went offline.
“Seems like I have to train at least two players who are interested in engineering. It is such a waste of time to create the items by myself.” After he had pondered for a moment, he changed into clean clothes and went out.
There were dedicated air lanes made for the hover buses. Since the bus frequency was quite high, Li Yao only waited two minutes for the next bus to arrive.
There was an advertisement screen for World of Ancient Gods suspended on top of the roof of the bus, Li Yao smiled. The game received full support from the government and the advertisements could be found literally everywhere.
It was hard to not notice the advertisements. Outside the window, skyscrapers had humongous screens that were advertising the game. Until the game had fully become the ‘Second World’, only then they would take down the advertisements.
Mingzhu Hotel was one of the most iconic buildings in Mingzhu Town. From afar, the building looked like an Azure Dragon taking off into the sky.
The building was made using new types of building materials and architectural structures made by China’s new generation of architects. The design was based off the Azure Dragon of the East.
“Li Yao, you’re finally here.”
When Li Yao arrived, he was greeted by a beautiful, capable-looking woman.
“It has been a while class president, you’ve grown prettier,” said Li Yao with a smile.
“Quit trying to sweet talk me, I have only grown older, not prettier,” laughed Wang Xiaolei as she led Li Yao into the hotel. “Let’s go in now, everyone is here, you’re the last one to arrive.”
“Sorry, I didn’t expect everyone to reach this early.” Li Yao’s cheeks had gotten slightly red. He was the last to reach even though he lived in town, he felt apologetic. “My bad.”
“It’s okay, it’s only 9:30am.” Wang Xiaolei and Li Yao got on the lift and pressed the 105th floor. Now that there were just the two of them in the lift, Xiaolei whispered to Li Yao. “Today it is Li Haitao’s treat. It’s hard for us to have a gathering, so try to keep a low profile and not get into trouble.”
“Relax, I know what I’m doing.” Li Yao understood Xiaolei’s concerns, he was clear on his intentions and thoughts. Li Haitao was his rival, and let’s not even talk about the four years of grudge he had held toward him. No matter how much he tried to keep a low profile, Haitao’s friends would not let him get away that easily. His past life was the perfect example of it.
When they first started university, they did not see eye to eye with each other. That was because Li Yao would not acknowledge him for having to rely on his dad to buy his way to make him the class president. On the other hand, Haitao despised Li Yao for being poor, even so Li Yao was still praised by many.
The real conflict began when both men had the same crush, Qin Fengyi, a graceful and outstanding woman.
It was said that Qin Fengyi had a mysterious background and identity. She was a noble, but was humble and polite to people around her. She was never arrogant. When she first attended university, she became the dream girl of every university student from every part of China.
When she became the top of the campus belle, no one could ever top her. By right that would make the other girls in the campus hate her, which was far from the truth. On the contrary, she was friendly with the girls around her and they even looked up to her.
Based on Li Yao’s standards, with Fengyi she would be the sky and he would be the mud. Although Li Yao was handsome, he was not the school hunk and was from an average family. Based on their identities, Fengyi could be said to be a sky phoenix whereas Li Yao was merely a chicken on the ground.
That saying was not satire by any means, it was the undeniable truth. As planets were aligned and destinies were created, the statuses of the people were equal in the eyes of the law. In reality, however, the situation was nowhere near as such.
Both Li Yao and Fengyi were from the same class. By right, the two of them would just be classmates and nothing more.
During the camping trip organized by the school, they had encountered problems with their equipment. Li Yao and Fengyi were assigned to the same group, and they ended up being trapped and lost in the forest.
Other students went panicking while the duo worked together to bring the students back to their assembly ground safely. Since the incident, they became close and got together a year later.
Li Haitao thought that he was the only guy fit and qualified to become Fengyi’s boyfriend. He could not stand watching his crush kissing and being passionate with his rival.
Since then, he started competing against Li Yao and thought of ways to set them both up and ruin their relationship. However, the couple were smart and intelligent. Their bond became tighter after each of Haitao’s pathetic attempts.
In their fourth year, Haitao had already given up hope. While he was in a high-class banquet with his dad, he saw Fengyi. She was beautiful, like a moon amongst the stars, and that was when he found out what her true identity was.
Then, he stirred up trouble in Fengyi’s family by bringing up Fengyi’s relationship with Li Yao. Li Yao then found out about Fengyi’s noble identity. What broke his heart even more was when he found out that her family had already planned an arranged marriage for her since she was a child.
Li Yao knew nothing about the arranged marriage. With the interference of Fengyi’s fiancé and his family, they had threatened Li Yao with his family.
Under the pressure from all sides, they finally broke up over a conflict. They did not break up in good terms, therefore a cold war had begun.
They were both arrogant and stubborn. In his past life, they had yet to make up with one another at this point in time.
Now that he was reborn, Li Yao had not seen Fengyi in almost ten years. When he finally laid eyes on her, his heart was filled with mixed emotions.
The two of them quietly stared at each other for a few seconds. Li Yao forced a smile and went to find his best friend. He was unsure of what he was feeling.
Did the kind of love that would be forever etched in your memories exist? Li Yao was uncertain. After ten years of pain and heartbreak, he thought that even the most sincere kind of love would not last forever.
Things had changed over the years, maybe this kind of love would only exist in fairy tales. The complexity of changes that came with time was hard to describe.
“He was arrogant in university, who would have thought that he is still the same after graduation,” said Wang Qiang, the guy besideLi Haitao.
“I think he looks down on us. He lives the nearest but arrived the latest,” said Zhang Ming, the other guy by Haitao’s side.
After he found out about Fengyi’s family and background, Haitao dared not approach Fengyi even though he was from a rich family. Even so, his rivalry with Li Yao would still go on.
“Look at him, he is in his casual attire. It is obvious that he doesn’t care much about us and the reunion. From what I can see, this low-life must not have mingled well with other people. Like I said before, graduating with good academic results does not mean that you will mix well with people in the future.”
Before Li Yao could say anything, his buddy, Zhao Lei stood up for him. “That’s enough, I thought that we were supposed to have a friendly class reunion?” he shouted.
Zhang Ming let out a sarcastic laugh. “Zhao Lei is right. Li Yao must not have come late on purpose. From what I heard, he does not mingle well with people and has never came to a high-end place like this. Getting lost here is normal for first-timers.”
Some people roared in laughter, but some were displeased by the comment. The moment Li Yao walked into the hall, the once friendly atmosphere had turned gloomy. Now, the crowd was divided into two sides, Li Yao’s supporters were not fewer than Haitao’s.
Zhao Lei was furious and he wanted to slam the table. Li Yao caught his arm, and sat down calmly without batting an eye at them.
“Yao, how can you bear this?” Zhao Lei was mad.
Li Yao pulled Zhao Lei forcefully onto his seat. “Calm down, there is no need for us to stoop to the level of such insensible dogs.”
This time, people that were on Li Yao’s side laughed out loud. Even Fengyi, who was pretending to look down and examine her drink looked at Li Yao in surprise. It was like she did not really know who he was anymore.
The ex-couple had lived together for more than two years and knew each other very well. With just a short sentence, she could point out that Li Yao was not the same person as he was before. However, she could not quite put the finger on what had changed.
This time, it was Wang Qiang who got mad. “All of you should know that if it were not for Big Bro Haitao, we would not have such a grand venue for our reunion. Is this how you show your gratitude?” He shouted as he pointed at the laughing classmates.
Mingzhu Hotel was surely expensive, not many people could afford it. Most people who could afford to come here were high ranking socialites. After hearing his Wang Qiang’s words, everyone went pale and silent.
“Let me get things straight, are we here for a class reunion, or is someone here to buy us lunch?” Li Yao gave a faint smile.
“Are you dumb or what, of course it’s a class reunion,” sneered Zhang Ming.
This time, the smile on Li Yao’s face became more evident. “Now I’m even more confused. Since it is a class reunion, everyone here should be the main star of the event. I admit I’m not able to pay for such a huge bill, but at least I’m able to afford my own plate of food so I will pay for my own bill. I don’t need such nonsense from anyone.”
“I will pay for my own bill too, it is much better than others using this as an excuse to ridicule others.”
“I will pay for my own too.”
Suddenly, at least half of the dozens of people wanted to pay for their own bills.
Li Haitao gave Li Yao a deep glare and stood up. “Everyone calm down. Believe me, I, Li Haitao, never had this kind of thoughts. My dad let me use this ballroom after he was done with his meeting, the bill is already paid for. How can we let such a small matter get in our way after being classmates for so many years?” said Li Haitao aloud.
After Haitao was done with his speech, he stared at Li Yao again with his hatred-filled eyes. Then, he picked up his glass of wine and said to Li Yao, “Sorry for the misunderstanding earlier, I hope that you won’t mind, this one is on me. Cheers.”
Li Yao stood up too. “I wouldn’t hold grudges with my classmates. Cheers.” He smiled.
After he had finished his glass of wine, he sat down with a smile on his face. All of the classmates began cheering for Li Yao.
Li Yao looked at Haitao, he was still holding his glass up high and was stunned. Deep down, Li Yao sighed, who would not have gone along with the act? It was futile to try and fool him, Li Yao had ten years of experience living in the society and Haitao was no match for him.
Haitao was seriously shocked as Li Yao had always been arrogant, short-tempered and would never back down from a fight until the other person was seriously roasted, especially when it came to Haitao. He was the one who ruined Li Yao’s relationship with Fengyi, and Li Yao was even more aggressive with him as though Haitao had killed his father. Li Yao would never be this chill and laid back.
Haitao’s goal for the day was to ruin Li Yao’s prestige. Although his underlings might have failed to do so, he must show that he had more tolerance than Li Yao, thus coercing the entire crowd into believing that he was the real God’s favored one.
He had already laid down the foundation of his plans, but never would he have thought that the first step of his plans had completely backfired…