Wei Wei didn't think she would see RealWaterIsScentless again; and at University A, her own school, to add to that.
The day when Wei Wei went to the library to return some books, she bumped into a few of her male classmates; they greeted each other by nodding, and that was when she saw RealWaterIsScentless standing beside one of her classmates in shock.
Wei Wei also nodded towards him, and walked passed him.
She could hear her classmates talking behind her, "Did you see? We also have pretty girls at University A. She is our department's number one beauty. Not bad compared to your school's top beauty, right?….."
That brief encounter is quickly forgotten by Wei Wei. It has been a month since school has started, and she has been busy going from point A to B; not only she has to go to school, she's also working at the Great Master's company, so she really doesn't have time to think about other things.
It was YuGong's advice for her to continue working at Zhi Yi.
One day during lunch, YuGong said, "Third sister-in-law, just continue working at the company after school starts. Come whenever you're free. You'll learn a lot more practical things at the company than in books."
Wei Wei was convinced. She learned a lot of things fast at Zhi Yi. With many talented experts at the company, she was able to learn new and useful things just from following them around. Furthermore, apart from the enjoyable working environment, she couldn't put Dream Voyage 2 down, and of course...being able to look at the Great Master a few more times a day was also a bonus.
MoZhaHim added, "Just be a contractor. Third Brother, you should give her a good wage."
Wei Wei said, "I don't need any pay. I just need a free meal =="
Xiao Nai nodded, "That's good. Just deposit her pay to my account."
Wei Wei, ">o<"
MoZhaHim, "..."
MonkeyWine, who returned from summer holidays to continue his graduate studies, spoke everyone's mind out bravely, "Third Brother, you're too shameless."
Therefore, Wei Wei is still a free working intern at Zhi Yi. It's October. Besides work as usual, Zhi Yi Technology (Devoted Technology) is also busy with working on Dream Voyage 2 promotions.
Dream Voyage 2 promotions are finally starting to roll out.
Before this, there weren't a lot of buzz for Dream Voyage 2 on the internet. This was partly because everyone felt that having a prolonged promotional period would lower the anticipation, and the other reason was due to the possible impacts on Dream Voyage 1. Now that Dream Voyage 2 is out for initial testing, the promotions are also in time.
Designing the website, gathering information, making various promotional clips, and planning for various events...Wei Wei is working frantically with the product management department.
But even so, Wei Wei doesn't forget to log onto Dream Voyage 1 to feed her tiger cub. She can't give up on her attempt to raise her cub's stats; she'll feel like she has left something undone. It's quite costly to raise a cub, so Wei Wei often makes some armor and sell them at the marketplace. She has arranged to meet with a buyer at 8pm tonight, but one of her classes suddenly gets rescheduled to night time, leaving her with no choice but to ask Xiao Nai to complete the trade.
Xiao Nai naturally knows her username and password. He logs in on time at 8pm with her account and completes the transaction with the buyer. Just as he is about to go offline, RealWaterIsScentless appears in front of him.
His appearance doesn't stir any emotions from Xiao Nai. Xiao Nai continues to move his mouse towards the red "x" at the upper right hand corner. At an instant just before he clicks on it, two characters appear on screen.
"Wei Wei."
RealWaterIsScentless calls out: "Wei Wei."
It has been a long time since he last called her "Wei Wei." He used to call her "Wei Wei" when they were married. After they divorced, he switched to "ReedWei." He can't help but feel a bit of nervousness for calling her "Wei Wei" again. He feels a tint of hope seeing that there isn't any negative reaction from ReedWeiWei.
RealWaterIsScentless doesn't know why he called ReedWeiWei. Ever since he saw ReedWeiWei in person during the summer, he felt a bit upset inside his heart; he often became absentminded when he was with LittleRainYaoYao.
It was not until Tobacco told him that there was no such person as ReedWeiWei at University X that he finally felt better; his passion came back for LittleRainYaoYao. LittleRainYaoYao has higher education than ReedWeiWei, so he definitely made the right choice to be with her. In order to prove that his true love had not changed, he bought dozens of gifts for LittleRainYaoYao. Although his actions and behaviour pleased YaoYao, he was also trying to persuade himself.
And then he saw ReedWeiWei again at University A.
She's actually a University A student?!
RealWaterIsScentless felt awful. The nausea feeling rose to the top when he heard from StormGoddessNiNi that ReedWeiWei's boyfriend was ASmileNaiHe.
If...he hadn't divorced her, would her boyfriend...be him?
Regardless of how many twists and turns RealWaterIsScentless's heart has gone through, after calling out to Wei Wei just now, he suddenly doesn't know what to say to her. Thankfully, there aren't a lot of passersby in the area to witness his embarrassment. And just like fate, they happen to be at a place where they once completed a quest together before.
RealWaterIsScentless finally finds something that he can talk about; he starts to reminisce.
Xiao Nai doesn't have the patience to listen to his touching stories word for word, but he also doesn't stop him. He continues to busy himself with work and only taking an occasional glance at the screen. When RealWaterIsScentless asks ReedWeiWei why she hasn't said a word and if it's because she has fallen offline, he moves her legs a bit.
Seeing her legs move is like encouragement for RealWaterIsScentless, so he continues further down memory lane. When RealWaterIsScentless is finally out of things to say, Xiao Nai moves his mouse over to the conversation window and types the following:
"I am ASmileNaiHe."
Instakill!
KO!
A few seconds later, RealWaterIsScentless disappears in front of ReedWeiWei for good.
Xiao Nai never mentions this to Wei Wei, so naturally, she doesn't know that he instakilled his love rival with just three words. Wei Wei continues to feed her little tiger. When she doesn't have enough money to buy medicine, she would log in using ASmileNaiHe's account and transfer some funds over. He also has responsibility to raise the little tiger anyway, so it's only right for him to help out.
The end of October approaches in the midst of everybody's busy schedule; all the preparations are ready for launch at the company. Dream Voyage 2's website opens with all the promotional advertisements and videos. Its visitor count achieves record breaking results on the first day; the promotional ads and videos are widely re-posted and/or forwarded to many other online gaming forums.
Wei Wei spends several hours skimming through the forum posts before she remembers to go back to Dream Voyage 1 to take a look; there should be many people discussing about it there too. Sure enough, the moment she logs in, she sees a bunch of players talking about Dream Voyage 2 on the world channel. The majority praises the game, while a few still have some reservations, worrying that their equipment will become lower valued. Many are anticipating for the beta release and are discussing on how they can get an invite for it.
Wei Wei is happy that the Great Master's game is getting so many compliments, but deep inside, she feels a sense of loss after hearing everybody say that they will go play Dream Voyage 2. She is walking aimlessly around Chang'an when Xiao Nai messages her to say that his meeting is over. Wei Wei replies him: "I'm in Dream Voyage 1. Come online. A lot of people are talking about Dream Voyage 2."
Not long after, the white robed musician comes on. The two of them hides their statuses and go for a stroll on the streets of Chang'an, watching others busy themselves around them. Wei Wei says, "Now that Dream Voyage 2 is out, Dream Voyage 1 is the most impacted. Will it eventually stop running as less and less people come play?"
"No. Dream Voyage 1 will continue running," as Feng Teng's (Soaring Wind) partner, Xiao Nai obvious knows this very well.
"But Dream Voyage 2 will definitely attract a lot of people over. If players continue to decrease, the gaming company will shut the server down at some point, wouldn't it?"
"No matter how good the new game is, there are some things that it cannot replace from the old version. Not everybody will leave," Xiao Nai says, "Furthermore, Feng Teng promised to keep the game running."
"It's what they say, but there has been other games that shut down even though they said they would run forever."
"I can't guarantee it for long term, but I don't think it would be a problem to keep it running until our kids learn how to play online games."
Wei Wei is dumbstruck, "Kids..."
"Mm," the white robed musician pauses his footsteps and says serenely, "I at least have to bring him here and tell him that this was where we first spoke to each other."
It is then that Wei Wei realizes that they have arrived at Vermillion Bird Bridge. The willows continue to sway beneath the bridge; the area continues to be a beautiful scenery. The white robed musician still looks the same as the first time she saw him.
The white robed musician says, "Let's go. We haven't been sight-seeing for a long time. Let's go look around."
Therefore, they ride their white condor and soar through Celestial Mountains Snow Basins, West Lake Lake Bottom, Icy Snow Sea, and Mount Penglai...just like they did on their honeymoon.
They stop at Sunset Summit.
The sunset is gorgeous.
Wei Wei suddenly feels that everything that she has been worrying about the whole day is no longer of importance.
It's okay if the server shuts down one day.
As long as she remembers when and where he first spoke to her.
As long as she remembers where they went for sight-seeing.
As long as she remembers that they once rode the white condor together and passed through mountains and rivers...
These memories will not disappear just because its digital form is gone.
Therefore, even when the game is no longer available in the future, there will always be a place in the world——perhaps in my heart, or in both of our hearts, where the white robed musician and the red clothed heroine will stand together side by side.
They'll watch the never setting sun on Sunset Summit.