Starting Check-in Reward: Tomson Riviera

"What’s a ’Sea Queen’?"

Ning Ruoxi asked, a bit confused.

"It’s nothing. Just don’t be like her, that’s all."

Ye Ling rubbed her head, sighing inwardly.

He actually felt pretty sorry for that Yunzhong Jun. After all, he’d had his own bad experiences with the whole "male best friend" thing.

Since the girl playing Yao Mei was able to get two guys to team up with her, they probably knew each other in real life.

Or even more cliché, maybe the two guys were brothers...

Of course, more than sympathy, Ye Ling felt relieved for the Yunzhong Jun player. Relieved that he found out early and could get out sooner rather than later.

There’s a saying in relationships: "cut your losses."

And compared to carpe diem, cutting your losses is undoubtedly more important.

If it hadn’t been for that slip-up, the Yao Mei player probably could have kept it a secret for much longer... and if that had happened, the guy playing Yunzhong Jun would have been hurt even more.

"Hehe, let’s go set up our in-game relationship!"

Ning Ruoxi didn’t press the issue, just excitedly grabbed her phone.

’Anyway, I’ll definitely never be like that Yao Mei girl.’

"Okay."

A smile spread across Ye Ling’s face, his heart filled with happiness.

He felt so incredibly lucky in that moment, so grateful the heavens had let him meet Ning Ruoxi.

To him, Ning Ruoxi wasn’t just a girl he’d met in a sea of faces; she was... his redemption.

It was her.

Who made him believe in love again.

It was her.

Who made him believe again that there was such a thing as love without reason.

Once their in-game relationship was set, Ye Ling couldn’t resist pulling Ning Ruoxi into his arms. He just really, really wanted to hold her.

"What’s the matter?"

Ning Ruoxi was taken aback by the sudden embrace, freezing for a moment.

"Shh, just let me hold you for a bit. I need to recharge."

Ye Ling closed his eyes, feeling her soft form and breathing in her faint, sweet scent. He felt his whole body relax.

Hearing this, a gorgeous smile touched Ning Ruoxi’s lips. She wrapped her arms around Ye Ling in return and closed her eyes.

After holding her for a little while, Ye Ling let go. "Alright, I’m going to make you lunch."

"Mhm!"

Ning Ruoxi nodded sweetly, her eyes filled with bliss.

After lunch, Ning Ruoxi went to prepare her art drafts, while Ye Ling picked up his phone and started playing the game.

If he wanted to carry his girl and help her rank up, he’d have to raise his own rank first.

A Platinum player like him couldn’t possibly carry Ning Ruoxi, could he?

Carry her to what?

Bronze?

Ye Ling played three matches. His luck was good—he won all three, rising to Platinum III.

"This game is pretty easy, huh?" A satisfied smile couldn’t help but spread across Ye Ling’s face.

Suddenly, a thought struck him. He found Ning Ruoxi’s profile picture and tapped on it.

The next moment, he froze.

He discovered that Ning Ruoxi had five King emblems, meaning she had reached the King rank for five consecutive seasons.

"Are girls these days all this good at games?"

The corner of Ye Ling’s mouth twitched.

More importantly, Ning Ruoxi’s main roles weren’t support, but marksman and mage. She’d even had a national-level ranking before...

At that moment, Ye Ling completely abandoned the idea of carrying Ning Ruoxi. He finally understood why she didn’t care about his rank.

’After all, Ning Ruoxi was more than strong enough to carry him, no problem!’

’Might as well just be a mooch from now on,’ he decided, putting his phone down.

’It’s my own girl I’d be mooching off, so it’d be a waste not to!’

"Hehe, are you secretly trying to rank up?"

Just then, Ning Ruoxi’s voice, laced with a hint of teasing, sounded from behind him.

Ye Ling jumped, quickly hiding his phone. He looked at her, feigning annoyance. "Do you even make a sound when you walk? You scared the life out of me."

"I do make noise when I walk. Besides, I’ve been standing here for a while. You were just too absorbed."

Ning Ruoxi said with an innocent pout.

"You’ve been standing there a long time?"

The corner of Ye Ling’s mouth twitched. He gave up hiding the phone, since she’d already seen everything. "Hmph! I might suck now, but I’ll definitely be amazing later."

"Of course you will. I mean, whose boyfriend are we talking about here?"

Ning Ruoxi winked playfully.

"Are you hitting on me?"

Ye Ling gave Ning Ruoxi a deep look.

"You could see it that way."

Ning Ruoxi smacked her lips, then smiled. "But what I was really going to say is, you don’t need to go to all that trouble. We can just swap accounts. You play on mine, I’ll play on yours, and in a few days, we’ll be able to play ranked matches together."

"That’s a great idea."

Ye Ling slapped his thigh in a moment of inspiration, praising the girl’s cleverness. "Darling, you’re a genius."

"But of course. This young lady is the smartest person in the world,"

Ning Ruoxi said with an adorable pout.

...

Ye Ling spent the rest of the weekend unhesitatingly ranking up—bah, no, that’s not right... he was ranking *down*.

Ning Ruoxi’s account had been around Star Shine II, but after half a day of his "efforts," it had, as expected, already fallen out of the Star Shine tier.

"You did great, baby."

Having finished her drafts, Ning Ruoxi came out of her room. When she saw that the account had dropped to Diamond, she immediately planted a big kiss on Ye Ling’s cheek.

’Ye Ling’s account is Platinum, and this one has dropped to Diamond. Even if I don’t boost his account, we can play ranked together now.’

"Why does this feel a little weird?"

Ye Ling muttered under his breath.

’Ning Ruoxi was praising me, but... didn’t I just spend half a day losing?’

All in all, it was a very strange and rare phenomenon. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"Keep up the good work," Ning Ruoxi said with a light laugh. "Just drop another two or three sub-ranks, and then we won’t have to worry about being unable to queue together after just a couple of wins."

"I’ll play more later. It’s getting dark."

Ye Ling stretched. He’d been sitting for most of the day, and his back and neck were starting to ache. "Let me see the comic you’ve been working on."

"Hehe, I was just about to show it to you."

As she spoke, she brought a stack of drafts from behind her back and handed them to Ye Ling. "You’re the very first fan to see Volume Three of Lingxi’s Love. Are you excited?"

"Excited? Of course I’m excited. I’m Master Ning’s number one fan, after all."

Ye Ling chuckled, taking the drafts and beginning to flip through them.

He had actually read the first and second volumes of Lingxi’s Love before. The wholesome, healing art style was right up his alley, especially after he found out the story was based on him and Ning Ruoxi.