“It’s starting,” Jun Yingzhe called out, startling Wen Xi.

Wen Xi hastily kept his phone as if he had done something wrong. He was still new to the flirting game and got nervous sending out those kinds of messages. But Gu Qingfeng was always over the moon whenever he showed a bit of affection, jumping all over him like a big dog. Wen Xi smiled as he pictured the bright eyed Gu hugging him tightly and plastering his face with kisses…

“What’s the little puppy so happy about?”

Wen Xi glared at the smirking Jun Yingzhe as the screen behind him showed the ‘MATCHING…’ page as the game randomly matched up the registered teams for the party battle.

Registration had opened up an hour before, where party leaders could sign up their party of four. The game would then assign random pairings, with the winners of each round progressing to the next until the final winner emerged. It was a simple system based on luck and strength of the teams. The teams consisting of all members from the same guild would also earn bonus guild points with each victory. The final team of winners would each win the same set of limited edition clothing and rare items.

“Nothing,” Wen Xi intoned as he sat behind Jun Yingzhe to watch his screen. Their guild had formed one team to participate in the competition, and had been practicing together over the past few weeks.

For Wen Xi to hear them, Jun Yingzhe turned on his laptop speakers while still using his headset’s microphone to communicate.

Spring Rolls Around: “Who do you think we’ll get matched up with first?”

Pretty Clothes Farmer: “Hope it’s not our brother-in-law’s guild~”

Pretty Clothes Farmer: “Senior Wen, is it alright if we defeat them?”

Leaf Me Alone: “Tch, the battlefield does not recognize familial bonds.”

Jun Yingzhe chuckled and turned to ask Wen Xi, “Is it alright if we beat the Windy Seas teams, Guild Leader?”

Wen Xi calmly answered, “Of course.”

Leaf Me Alone: “See, I knew our Undying ge would not be blinded by love.”

Wen Xi choked at Ye Xiaosi’s description as Jun Yingzhe quickly turned his laugh into a cough.

As luck would have it, their first match up was with a bunch of familiar names.

[All Chat] Panda Says No (WS): !!!

[All] No Name Hero (FP): !!!

Similar to the guild war, there was a short trash talk session before the battle mode started, but with the party leaders being able to converse instead.

“What a coincidence, it’s our in-laws, Windy Seas~” Jun Yingzhe, the party leader, greeted, with a smile in his voice.

“Hello enemy,” Jia Xiong on the other side replied. “Ready to lose? Don’t think we’ll go easy on you just because we’re affiliated by marriage.”

Wen Xi twitched at Jia Xiong’s words, the corner of his lips uncontrollably curving up slightly—since when did he and Gu Qingfeng get married? He opened his mouth to chide the other party to not speak nonsense when he stopped himself. What if Gu Qingfeng was listening on the other side? If he kept quiet, it meant he agreed? He did… call the other ‘lao gong’ before…

Jun Yingzhe did not notice his friend’s reactions and laughed as if he heard a big joke. “Who needs you to go easy on us? Might I remind you who was the one who won during the guild war?”

“That was just pure luck!” Jia Xiong shot back. “Might I remind you of the team that lost in the battle last night?”

Both teams had been practicing with their teams in the arena for the past few weeks and it was inevitable that they would get matched up every so often, with both sides being quite evenly matched. They had also met the previous evening, with the Windy Seas team narrowly clinching the victory.

Jun Yingzhe smirked as he thought of a way to play with the opponent’s psyche. “Are you sure you want to win? Can your leader stand it if his beloved’s team lost?”

Wen Xi’s jaw dropped at Jun Yingzhe’s ploy. What utter nonsense!

“I-ah…” Jia Xiong stuttered, at a loss. He was the one who asked Jun Yingzhe if Gu Qingfeng should lose in the solo battle—he did not consider if it extended to the party battle. Did his buddy need him to throw this game as well to help chase brother-in-law?? But-but they had practiced so much… and he really wanted the rare items that the winner would receive. His damned good friend had already run off so it was not like he could not ask for his opinion.

“Don’t listen to him,” Wen Xi grabbed Jun Yingzhe’s headset microphone and spoke into it. “Play properly and fairly.”

Jun Yingzhe tilted his head awkwardly for Wen Xi to access the microphone as he gave a wry smile while reaching out to type instead. Oh well, worth a shot.

[All] No Name Hero (FP): Hehe

[All] No Name Hero (FP): Yes, listen to our guild leader

“Yes, brother-in-law!” Jia Xiong heaved a sigh of relief. “Brother-in-law is the most understanding and magnanimous!”

Why is Gu Qingfeng not saying anything? Wen Xi wondered. Usually that boyfriend of his would have said something by then. It was not very appropriate to ask in the voice chat, so he picked up his phone to message Gu Qingfeng.

“Stinky hero! We’ll beat you fair and square!” Jia Xiong taunted.

Jun Yingzhe was about to reply when the trash talk session ended and the screen loaded the battle page. “Damn it,” he cursed, irritated that he did not get the last word.

“Let’s go, let’s go!”

Jun Yingzhe adjusted his mentality and took over leadership of the team. “It’s the forest map, Pretty stick with me, we’ll go left. Leaf and Spring pair up and go to the right. We’ll try and sandwich them in the middle.”

Distracted by the game, Wen Xi put down his phone, without seeing the message notifications from Gu Qingfeng. He did not intend to interfere much in the game, it would not be fair if he coached from the side, but he could provide some mental support and encouragement.

“Nice,” he complimented as Pretty Clothes Farmer (Miao Yixian) gave a timely heal to Jun Yingzhe’s character.

“Thanks, Senior Wen!” the girl happily replied as the character on screen did a spin.

Unfortunately for the Frost Pavilion team, the Windy Seas team’s strategy was to approach from the right side as a group, and with a 4v2, they managed to get the two players Leaf Me Alone and Spring Rolls Around’s health bars down before the other two players rushed over to their rescue.

Despite valiantly fighting back and evening out the score to 3v3, the Frosty Pavilion team could not make up for the loss in the beginning and eventually lost the match.

“Sorry guys, my bad,” Jun Yingzhe sighed as the ‘YOU LOSE’ message appeared on screen.

Leaf Me Alone: “No, it’s not your fault, we had practiced that formation before and it worked well most of the time!”

Leaf Me Alone: “It’s cause I and Spring didn’t manage to hold out long enough.”

Pretty Clothes Farmer: “No, it’s because I didn’t go over fast enough to try and close the gap… it’s because of me.”

Spring Rolls Around: “Haha, or maybe… their team is just better?”

Leaf Me Alone: “…no way!”

Wen Xi nudged Jun Yingzhe to hand over the microphone to give his analysis, “All of you played well, but there were some flaws in your play: the pairs shouldn’t have been positioned so far apart in the beginning, Hero should have noticed and called it out, Pretty should have moved a bit faster to meet up for the initial clash, Leaf should have scaled back on the attacks and used more defensive spells, and Spring should have supported her more. It’s not a matter of a better or worse team, practice more and you can win next time.”

Spring Rolls Around: “…Yes, Leader!”

Leaf Me Alone: “Heard, Undying ge!”

Pretty Clothes Farmer: “Understood, Senior Wen!”

Jun Yingzhe smiled as he agreed, “Yes, sir!” In the past, Wen Xi would also give such advice, but would not pepper it with any pleasantries which made it harder to swallow.

Spring Rolls Around: “Aiye our journey ended so early, I thought I was going to play games the whole day… guess I’ll do my homework.”

The two teams appeared outside the arena. Each round of battles would start every hour, in order to ensure that all the battles were completed and each team had some rest in between each twenty to forty minute match before the next round.

[All Chat] Panda Says No: Hehehehe

[All] Take Me Lying Down: Hehehehe

[All] Bamboo Shoots In The Wind: Hehehehe

[All] Can’t Think Of A Name: Hehehehe

The Frost Pavilion members saw the stream of messages and their faces turned black at the provocation, but they had no words to refute. Such was the fate of the losing party.

Jia Xiong sent Jun Yingzhe a private chat which Wen Xi happened to see.

[Friend Chat] Panda Says No: Hello defeated enemy

[Friend] Panda Says No: Your leader really won’t take offense right?

Wen Xi: …

Wen Xi gritted his teeth and took over the keyboard.

[Friend] No Name Hero: No, I won’t.

[Friend] Panda Says No: !! Brother-in-law!

[Friend] Panda Says No: You’re still there? Isn’t Ah Gu with you?

Gu Qingfeng?

[Friend] No Name Hero: What do you mean? Isn’t Gu Qingfeng with you?

[Friend] Panda Says No: No? He left half an hour ago to go find you?

Wen Xi looked down at his neglected phone to see a bunch of message notifications.

Gu Qingfeng: -blush- hehe

Gu Qingfeng: Xiao Xi’s the sexy one

Gu Qingfeng: Especially when you…

Wen Xi quickly scrolled past the x-rated messages with a red face to see the latest messages sent ten minutes ago.

Gu Qingfeng: Handsome boyfriend delivery~

Gu Qingfeng: (image)

Wen Xi opened the image to see his boyfriend smiling brightly at the camera with that prominent dimple showing in a familiar background. Isn’t that our dormitory lobby?

Reading the messages on screen, Jun Yingzhe turned around to tease his friend, “Is the little puppy’s boyfriend here?”

But behind him was just an empty chair with their room’s door left ajar.

Jun Yingzhe laughed and gave a low whistle. “Little puppy moves fast! Ahh, I also want to see my Xiao Miao~”

From the speakers, Ye Xiaosi asked: “Who are you calling ‘little puppy’, Yingzhe ge?”

Oops, forgot the mic was still on. Jun Yingzhe chuckled sheepishly and returned, “Who do you think?”