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About half an hour later, a bashful Ning Ruoxi stood up and walked into the bathroom, her hands covered in something... indescribable.

Ye Ling, meanwhile, lay quietly on the sofa, having entered a sort of sage-like state as he began to ponder the meaning of life.

’Sigh, it’s already like this and we’re not even married. What’s it going to be like after we are...’

’I really need to start taking better care of my body,’ Ye Ling thought. ’Things haven’t even really started yet, and I can barely control myself. What’s going to happen if we actually start living that kind of wild, shameless life?’

Yikes~

Not suitable for minors.

Just then, Ning Ruoxi came out of the bathroom, having washed her hands. Her face was still tinged with a faint, shy blush.

"Um, hey..." Looking at Ning Ruoxi’s glowing, rosy-cheeked face, Ye Ling felt a rare twinge of awkwardness. He cleared his throat and said, "You want to play a game for a bit?"

"Okay! What should we play?" Ning Ruoxi nodded and asked.

"How about Glory of Heroes? You have it on your phone, right?"

Glory of Heroes was a recently popular mobile game, similar to League of Legends, but one was for mobile and the other for PC.

Although Ye Ling was terrible at League of Legends, he was actually decent at Glory of Heroes. Then again, that might just be because it was a mobile game with simpler controls.

"I do, but I rarely play it."

Ning Ruoxi nodded, pulling out her own phone and launching the game.

Hearing this, Ye Ling was delighted.

’Rarely plays?’

’Rarely plays? That’s perfect!’

Ye Ling thought gleefully. The whole reason he’d suggested Glory of Heroes instead of League of Legends was that he was an absolute noob at the latter.

That last night in the school dorms had left our dear Lord Ye with a memory so profound he’d probably never forget it for the rest of his life.

"Let’s get online."

Ye Ling stretched his arms and shook his head, preparing to show Ning Ruoxi what he was made of.

Once in the game, he went straight to ranked mode and tried to invite Ning Ruoxi to his lobby. But after scanning his list of online friends, he couldn’t find her anywhere.

Ye Ling blinked, confused. He looked up at Ning Ruoxi. "Ruoruo, are you online?"

"I am," Ning Ruoxi replied, looking over with a puzzled expression of her own.

"Then why don’t I see you... huh, wait a second."

Ye Ling scrolled through his friends list again and suddenly spotted an online friend with the contact name ’Wifey’.

’Wifey’ was his nickname for Ning Ruoxi, so that had to be her.

But...

’Wifey’s’ rank was... Star-Shine!?

Ye Ling’s eyes went wide, his face a mask of utter disbelief.

He didn’t play the game that much, so he was only in Platinum. When Ning Ruoxi said she rarely played, he’d imagined he could carry her and help her rank up.

But it turned out her ’rarely played’ meant she was a Star-Shine rank?

"You... you’re a Star-Shine?" Ye Ling stammered, feeling a little awkward.

"Mhm, I think so," Ning Ruoxi nodded. "I haven’t really played much since last season. I used to be King rank, but I decayed to Star-Shine V this season."

"Why? Is there a big rank difference between us?"

Realizing what was going on, Ning Ruoxi also checked her friends list and found Ye Ling. His contact name was ’My Super-Duper-Favorite-Invincible-Number-One-Most-Handsome-Stinky-in-the-World’.

Then she saw his rank.

Platinum IV!

"Ahem, how about we just play a normal match?"

Ye Ling felt like he was dying of embarrassment. Still, to preserve his standing in the relationship, he mumbled a weak excuse. "I haven’t played in a long time, so my rank dropped."

"Is that so? Hehe, alright."

In truth, Ning Ruoxi’s curiosity had already led her to click on Ye Ling’s profile, where she saw that his highest-ever rank was only around Platinum I...

But she didn’t call him out on it.

’As long as I’m strong, it doesn’t matter if he’s good or not,’ she thought.

Feeling thoroughly humiliated, Ye Ling quickly invited Ning Ruoxi and started a normal match.

’I’m definitely going to have to practice my skills,’ he silently vowed.

"What role are you playing?" Ning Ruoxi asked, blinking at him.

"I’ll play ADC."

Ye Ling was first pick, so he casually selected Li Yuanfang, a hero he was fairly comfortable with.

"Then I’ll support you."

Ning Ruoxi nodded and locked in a support.

At first, Ye Ling thought she would pick a cutesy hero like Yao Mei. To his surprise, however, she actually picked Ox Demon.

’Uh, is this the kind of hero a sweet, cute girl is supposed to pick?’ he wondered.

"I’ll pick Ol’ Ox! My Ox Demon is amazing," Ning Ruoxi said, looking up with a grin.

"Alright. Just stick with me, I’ll protect you."

Ye Ling nodded and said with a small smile.

In this match, their team’s jungler was Monkey, their mid-lane mage was Zhuge Liang, and their top-laner was Kuang Tie. The enemy team consisted of Anqira, Lu Bu, Di Renjie, Yao Mei, and a Yunzhong Jun.

However, Ye Ling noticed something odd: the enemy Yunzhong Jun had a heart icon next to his name, indicating a ’Couple’ relationship...

But he was the only one who had it.

Then, Ye Ling noticed that the enemy Yao Mei and Di Renjie were displaying a ’Besties’ icon between them.

"Now this is interesting," Ye Ling couldn’t help but grin.

Based on his deduction, Yao Mei and Yunzhong Jun were probably a couple, but Yao Mei also had a ’Bestie’ bond with Di Renjie.

This kind of thing happened when one person—in this case, Yao Mei—set her ’Bestie’ icon to have display priority. The result was a lonely Yunzhong Jun, the only one showing off their ’Couple’ icon.

"Should we bind the ’Couple’ icon after this game?" Ning Ruoxi asked, looking up at Ye Ling with blinking eyes.

She had obviously noticed the little anomaly as well and felt a pang of sympathy for the Yunzhong Jun. At the same time, she thought, ’If Ye Ling and I were bound as a couple, I would definitely set our icon to have display priority!’

’As for ’Bestie’ relationships... I wouldn’t even bother binding with anyone else~’

"Of course."

Ye Ling smiled. Comparing his situation to the enemy Yunzhong Jun’s, he felt a warmth spread through his chest. His own girl really was the best.

Once the game loaded, Ye Ling and Ning Ruoxi headed straight to the bottom lane.

To be honest, Ye Ling was under a lot of pressure this game. You see, Li Yuanfang’s dart could be removed by a Cleanse...

And the enemy Di Renjie had taken Cleanse as his summoner spell, on top of having a cleanse effect built into his second ability.

In other words, Li Yuanfang had absolutely no advantage in this matchup.

So, Ye Ling was already prepared to play passively and just try to survive the laning phase.