That evening, after he finished discussing the wedding preparations, Dark Flame came to knock on Jing Yang's door.
"Is there something?" Jing Yang opened the door and asked him.
"Can I come in and talk to you?" Dark Flame said.
Jing Yang knew what he wanted to talk about, but didn't really want to listen to those explanations of his. But right now making everything clear would also be good, so he moved to the side and let him in.
Jing Yang sat down on his bed, and Dark Flame wanted to sit next to him, but Jing Yang immediately said, "Stand up, I still have to sleep at night, if you sat down how would I sleep?"
Dark Flame knew that Ding Nuoyang was somewhat obsessed with cleanliness, but did not know that Jing Yang did not have this obsession, and not letting him sit was completely because he disdained him.
Dark Flame's butt hadn't yet reached the bed when he could only stand back up. This room didn't even have a chair, so he could only stand by a wall and speak to him. "The matter of me marrying Easy Nobility is only to increase the likelihood of us being able to survive. I assure you, my heart has always only loved you alone from beginning to end. Anything that happens in this game world, I hope that you won't take it to heart, can you?"
"I'll speak to you frankly." Jing Yang folded his arms and leaned against the head of the bed, looking at him. "I do not care at all who you marry, so taking advantage of this opportunity, let's just make everything clear. No matter whether it is in reality or in the game, we will no longer have this so-called lover relationship, we are not even friends, we could only be considered old classmates."
"Nuoyang!" Dark Flame stepped forward in panic, kneeling on one knee beside the bed. "Nuoyang don't do this, I really only agreed to marry Easy Nobility because we had no other choice. I am the team captain, so I can't help but have to consider for the entire team. If it were normally, I would definitely not agree to marry him, but right now this is related to our own survival ah! I want to still live and always be with you, so I can only do this."
"I also want to live." Jing Yang looked at him. "But I do not want to be with you, so if I have to choose between dying and being with you, I would still rather choose to die. I have already made my words very clear, so no matter why you married Easy Nobility, it has nothing to do with me. Afterward, you and I will only be old classmates."
Dark Flame did not think he would say such heartless words, and used a disbelieving gaze to look at him. "This is the game world, everything that happens here is not real, and in order to live, you can't even tolerate a fake marriage?"
"I have nothing more to say to you. Please go out, I need to rest." Jing Yang pushed him outside.
"Nuoyang, Nuoyang, listen to me…" Dark Flame had already been pushed out the door, but still relentlessly said, "If you really can't accept it, I can not marry him, I'll find a different way…"
"It doesn't matter to me whether or not you marry him. In short, I already have nothing to do with you!" Jing Yang forcefully slammed the door shut. He already knew that dealing with this man would be such a struggle.
Dark Flame rested his hand on the door and stood there for a long time. Easy Nobility stood in his own room, watching this scene through the slit in his door, his mood very complicated. He had just been excited that he would be able to marry Dark Flame tomorrow, only to suddenly hear him say that as long as Ding Nuoyang would not accept it he would not marry. He had painstakingly said so much to him, could it be that so many people, and even including his own life, were all inferior to one Ding Nuoyang?
Easy Nobility closed the door. He would follow through with this marriage no matter what, he would definitely make Dark Flame fall in love with him. No matter whether it was in the game, or in reality, as long as Ding Nuoyang no longer existed, Dark Flame would belong entirely to him.
~
The next day, the teammates decorated the house up a bit, it seemed quite festive. They even spent money to hire a mid-level chef NPC to make a two table banquet, but these dishes could only fill their hunger bar. None of them were able to replenish their energy, and even the ingredients were not good, just looking at them you would know that the taste would not be anything great.
Jing Yang looked at the dishes on the table without any appetite. He had at least paid two shares of the money, they only gave him these things to eat? He might as well just eat his own food then. Easy Nobility was really awesome, he could even embezzle from his wedding feast funds. It seemed like in order to save money for his surgery, he was really doing everything possible.
Jing Yang ate a couple bites for appearances sake and returned to his room. Instead of sitting there and looking at a table of terrible food, he might as well go back to his room and use that time to learn refining. This way if he later made a particularly powerful weapon, he would not make the technicians feel like anything was strange. At least he would have a record of studying.
"Into the bridal room! Into the bridal room!"
The players surrounded the two people as they entered Dark Flame's room. This room had also been simply arranged, but actually did look quite like a wedding room.
The crowd of people stayed behind in the bridal room, and had to watch the two people perform a kiss. Dark Flame was somewhat reluctant, so Easy Nobility took the initiative to embrace his neck and kiss him. The room burst into cheers.
When those people had had enough fun and left, only the two of them were left in the room. Easy Nobility held Dark Flame's face. "We have known each other for so many years, you must know my feelings toward you. Then what about you for me? Have you ever felt the least bit of attraction? Even if it was only once or twice."
"I…" Dark Flame looked at his teary eyes, and didn't know how he should answer him. Actually he had, and more than once or twice. But he felt that he more deeply loved Ding Nuoyang. In the end the game was the game, he didn't want to take the feelings of the game world seriously, but also really enjoyed his ambiguous feelings with Easy Nobility. He believed that any man would have his vanity, and any man would feel proud and satisfied being adored by such an outstanding man, so he didn't think that him being attracted was anything wrong.
"I beg you, tell me the truth." Easy Nobility pleaded with him.
Facing such a beautiful face, pathetically begging him at this moment, he really couldn't bear to say such words that would make him sad, so he could only tell him the truth. "For you…I have been moved, many times."
Easy Nobility hugged him excitedly. "I knew that my feeling was right, your heart must have me too. Even though now you definitely love Ding Nuoyang more, but that does not matter, later on we will work together to forget him until you only have me in your heart, okay?"
"I…"
Easy Nobility covered his mouth. "Don't talk, you also don't need to answer me, I understand. Tonight is our wedding night, we shouldn't waste a second of it."
Jing Yang practiced refining until the sky had begun to turn bright. He placed everything back into his storage space, pulling out his page to check his learning progress. Seeing that his intermediate refining level was already quickly becoming full, he thought, this speed was a little fast, but who let time be so tight. In a few days, the task layer may appear at any time, so after he left this team and started moving solo, in order to protect himself, he still needed to upgrade his other skills. Even if the technicians thought his progress was a little strange, he only needed to make them not be able to find any flaws. After all, after leaving this game, he didn't intend to come back again.
Jing Yang casually flipped the page and saw that the team's energy value had already increased a lot. It had only been a single night, these two people really worked hard enough.
Closing the page, Jing Yang closed his eyes and began to sleep. This game was really troublesome, if they stayed online too long, their tiredness value would decrease, and if it reached the red line and they still did not sleep, their energy level would start dropping. This was really forcing people to rest. And because he was continuously learning refinery, his tiredness value dropped very quickly. But fortunately he could secretly use the system to speed up the energy recovery while sleeping, so he did not have to rest as long as the other players.
Before falling asleep, Jing Yang's last thought was whether his lover would also be in this game?
~
When Jing Yang went downstairs the next morning, he saw Easy Nobility and Dark Flame huddled together intimately.
Easy Nobility say Jing Yang in his peripheral vision, and immediately hugged Dark Flame's arm, intimately saying, "Husband, I helped you create an advanced weapon, next time when you go to fight, you can use it."
"En." Dark Flame looked up and happened to also see Jing Yang. Subconsciously he moved to the side a bit, pulling apart the distance between the two people, and then said to Easy Nobility, "Still call me Dark Flame ba, I'm not too used to other names."
Easy Nobility moved closer to him again and tightly held his arm. "Suddenly changing your greeting is really a bit strange, after all, I have already called your name for several years. Then later we will just do the same as last night, when it's only the two of us I will call you husband, and when there's other people I will call your name, okay?"
Dark Flame looked at Jing Yang, who had already gone into the kitchen, and whispered in agreement, "En."
In the kitchen Jing Yang made a simple meal and quickly finished eating it. In the game he still needed to eat and sleep, he felt it was quite troublesome. Right now his time is really tight ah.
When Jing Yang went back upstairs, he saw Easy Nobility standing at the top of the stairs, obviously waiting for him.
Sure enough, not out of Jing Yang's expectations, just as he had gotten up to the second floor, Easy Nobility said to him, "I have something to say to you."
"My time is precious, I don't have time to listen to some nonsense. Please say the point in less than a minute or something, and I'll decide if I want to keep listening."
"Good, then I'll just directly say the point." Easy Nobility said, "Please stay away from my husband later."
Jing Yang scoffed. "This you can completely rest assured, as long as you can take proper care of your so-called husband and let him not come to provoke me, I will definitely never take the initiative to find him."
"You should know that Dark Flame still has feelings for you, he will definitely not be able to control going to find you. I hope that you can avoid him and not respond to him. If you can't, then in this world, you will be the adulterer in our relationship."
Jing Yang looked at him with some surprise. "I have seen many faceless people, but people as faceless as you are quite rare ah. What? You're afraid that I will tell him your true appearance, so you don't want me to talk to him, right?"
Easy Nobility had his motives revealed, so his eyes started dodging a bit, but he immediately calmed down. "If you dare to slander me without any evidence, I will make you unable to stay in this team. If you don't believe me you can try, and see if the players will believe you or believe me."
"I'm scared to death!" Jing Yang made an exaggerated face of fright. "You quickly make me unable to stay in this team, I really could not thank you more, and even express my heartfelt thanks to you."
Jing Yang turned back to his room, Easy Nobility looked at his back with hatred until his teeth itched, his eyes full of venom and gloom.
Watching the start of the task layer approach, the team members were all working to improve their equipment, but the treasure they could get from monsters was very limited, and still not as fast or efficient as going directly to the commercial street to buy them. It was always said that going from frugality to luxury is easy, but going from luxury to frugality is difficult, after experiencing those days of buying whatever they wanted, when they looked at the treasure they received from the low-level monsters, they would always feel that the grade was not enough, and the uses were not great.
So some team members again mentioned to go to the commercial street to buy goods, the implicit meaning was all to say that this time Jing Yang had to pay.
"I don't have anything I need to buy right now, so I don't have to go to the mall." Jing Yang directly refused.
Black Hawk glared at him. "You don't have anything to buy, but our team has things we have to buy. If you aren't willing to pay, then go and fight the monsters yourself and hand in the items."
"Why do I have to buy the things that this team needs myself?" Jing Yang said.
"Because you are a complete trash on this team, and only drag us down. Paying money is the only thing you can do." Madman responded.
Jing Yang was also not angry, speaking not fast nor slow, "Then you can tell me, how many times I have dragged you down, exactly where and when, and also tell me who and when had saved me. Just say one, and I can pay the money for one item, no matter what you buy."
Everyone looked at each other, but no one could say anything.
Easy Nobility said, "You are a complete rookie, and if you weren't in our completely professional team, you would long have already been killed by the other crazy players."
"For this issue, I have already said before that with the extent of my wealth, no matter which team I go to I will always be welcomed. After all, at this kind of time, having money means having a weapon, and the better the weapon, the higher the chance of survival. Plus the money that I have already paid for this time is completely beyond the value of what you have done for me."
"You don't need to say this crap." Easy Nobility said. "Did you think that if you went to a different team you wouldn't need to pay? Either pay or quit the team, you only have these two options."
Dark Flame who had always stayed silent opened his mouth to advise him, "Nuoyang, this time you just pay the money first ba, it's pointless to keep arguing like this, just consider it as for your own…"
"I choose to quit your team!" Jing Yang loudly interrupted Dark Flame's persuasion.
"You…, what did you say?" Dark Flame thought he had misheard.
Jing Yang looked at him, and said word by word, "I said, I want to withdraw from your team."
Translator Notes:
[1] we have no other choice – 迫不得已, idiom, means to have no alternative, compelled by circumstances
[2] doing everything possible – 无所不用其极, means committing all manner of crimes, completely unscrupulous
[3] going from luxury – 由俭入奢易,由奢入俭难, idiom, basically literal
Random Notes:
Almost an hour: 11:30 am – 12:30 pm, for 4.1k characters to 2.8k words. I actually was very productive yesterday so I'll attempt to translate two chapters of this today. Catch up the least bit.