The Peach Blossoms Begin To Dance Chapter 4

The next time I revived myself, I received a guild invitation.

(if you're not reading this on St.i.tchie Translators, please stop reading! and move… This translation belongs to st.i.tchietranslators thanks!) 

Just like my widespread reputation outside, I was someone with a lot of pride and dignity. Since I'd set my goal to be the number 1 guild, then even though my character's power was so low, I still wouldn't anyhow accept another guild's invitation. After all, that wouldn't be fair to the guild, and it also wouldn't be fair to myself. Furthermore, settling for second best wasn't a very heroic action. While I could allow them to look down on Jia Ren Pian Pian, they weren't allowed to look down on me, Feng Wu Pian Ran.

Just like the ancient times, when General Guan Yu rejected Cao Cao and loyally followed Liu Bei [1], today, Warlord Pian would reject this small guild and wholeheartedly chase after the Furious Warring Dynasty Guild!

Still, I decided to accept the invitation.

After I'd joined the guild, I realised that it actually was a tiny, non-compet.i.tive guild. There were only a few people online, and the members were all the former user's close friends. I could see this from the abcc format [2] that their names were in.

[Guild] Beautiful Bao Bao: ‘Pian Pian, have you gone crazy? That disciple of yours knows how to manipulate the game ah, even if you had the same power as her you still wouldn't be able to beat her! Also, why did you delete all of our WeChat numbers? Is it that after you started dating you forgot all about your friends?

[Guild] Cabbage Ba Ba: Welcome back Pian Pian

[Guild] Cloud Tai Tai: Bao'er, nevermind, it's enough that she's back. Pian Pian, to tell you the truth, ever since Mistress Wan first stepped into Wind and Rain Alliance, I didn't like her. But you found her cute, and wouldn't accept her not being your disciple. Our relations.h.i.+ps with her were all pretty ordinary, at most we'd take a photo or two with her when we were bored, but she made it seem like we were very close in the world chat. She's really too great at acting. She liked to act cute, and after getting close to some of the experts she got more popular, and after getting closer to Mu Shang she probably thought that she was amazing, always using PDA to build up their relations.h.i.+p. Even after that she still wasn't satisfied so she wanted to hook in the number two on the leaderboard, but the number two didn't even acknowledge her. So she decided to flatter the number one, throwing around words like sister and G.o.ddess left and right even though she badmouthed her as a old nun behind her back. She's this kind of woman – she's constantly plotting. Now that you've come around, we can honestly tell you all of these things. The reason why we left Wind and Rain Alliance to build this small guild, was actually because we couldn't stand her.

[Guild] Beautiful Bao Bao: Yeah, Furious Warring Dynasty and Wind and Rain Alliance have far too many experts, in the past it was like we were invisible! This place is definitely better; we can speak freely here! Since you've divorced Mu Shang, you can take this place to be your home now!

[Guild] Jia Ren Pian Pian: Sure.

Out of everything they'd said, I'd only paid attention to one piece of critical information: The mistress knew both the number one and two, and it could be said that their relations.h.i.+p was quite strong.

According to what the abcc squad had described, in this game, 80 to 90 percent of the time the mistress was acting out some of her wild, ambitious schemes. The reason why she'd chosen not to go for the number 1 guild was most likely because she hadn't managed to win over the number 2 player, so she'd chosen to instead go after her teacher's husband. But even though she'd failed to hang on to that large golden thigh, it still didn't mean that she hadn't left a good impression on the thigh. This was evident because Furious Warring Dynasty had kicked me out. There'd been no apologies, nor explanations, and there was a possibility that they'd kicked me out not because of my low power but because the number 1 and 2 experts had looked down on the former user.

I went on the leaderboard to find Furious Warring Dynasty, and realised that I was truly an amazing strategist. The guild leader was indeed the number 1.

The former user had really been too dumb and naive, not even noticing what kind of dangerous person she'd taken as her disciple. Not only had she stolen away her husband, but she'd also caused her to offend the number 1 and 2 experts, and now she'd refused to let go of the stain of the former user cheating on the sc.u.m man to try and send her to her death. The former user also had no power, so she wasn't even able to defend herself.

Even more aggravating was that all the former user had in her head was dating and love, and after one hit to her feelings she was as good as dead. She'd already been criticised by the whole world for having a flash wedding with another man, yet she still decided to post that sort of tieba post. With that, there was no way out apart from selling her account.

In the beginning, she just wanted to happily be together with the man she liked, yet in the end they'd fought till they had this kind of messy divorce. There wasn't even a need to mention her husband. Even if it were me marrying her instead, I would have also wished for a divorce.

But when I remembered that she was my fan, I still felt that it was alright. It didn't matter if the girl was a little dumb, after all big brother would help her beat up her wayward disciple tomorrow!

[Guild] Cloud Tai Tai: Do y'all think that this time Pian Pian seems a little different from before…

[Guild] Cabbage Ba Ba: I realised, holding my face in my hands to think [3]. =v=

[Guild] Beautiful Bao Bao: Yeah, she talks alot less! She even went insane to go and challenge the mistress, do you think she received too much of a shock

[Guild] Cabbage Ba Ba: Oh yeah that's true… Pian Pian, do you think you'll be able to beat her >o

[Guild] Beautiful Bao Bao: Of course she won't! That b*tch spent so much money on this game, plus she has all those experts to help her change her stats! Pian Pian, aren't you being too harsh on yourself?

[Guild] Jia Ren Pian Pian: Haha

As I read their conversation, I casually strolled along the capital's streets, looking at the numerous players setting up stalls to sell their goods and finding out the prices that they were going for. Inevitably, I managed to catch sight of Mu Shang and Wan Wan Jiang sitting together on a Qilin mount as they flew past me.

I clicked on Wan Wan Jiang's character to check out her stats.

The character that I played was a Priestess, who was in the Healer Cla.s.s. Looking through the list of equipment, I could tell that Jia Ren Pian Pian had started off focusing on damage output, before she changed her job, most likely to support Mu Shang. But from the abcc squad's conversation, it seemed that Mu Shang had once made fun of Jia Ren Pian Pian for not being able to heal as much as Wan Wan Jiang.

On the other hand, Wan Wan Jiang's character was a demoness, part of the mage cla.s.s. It came with debuff abilites for CC and had a few skills that could help regain HP. This job had always been the best for parties, but was c.r.a.p at soloing. Without considering the difference in power, just from the jobs alone, it could be said that I had a great advantage over Wan Wan Jiang.

And when I carefully went through Wan Wan Jiang's character stats, I realised that both her and the former owner's accounts were… not ideal. Even though she'd spent lots of money, she'd made a lot of newbie mistakes, such as adding her 1.75% Physical Attack increase to her mage equipment. Although it was the most rare equipment with the highest stats, the increase in physical attack was pretty much worthless apart from being able to raise her power. (T/N mage equip is for special attack not phys so upping phys is useless)

Using the fish I'd caught earlier, I made some consumables and sold them before buying a few items to increase my special attack and health regeneration.

[Guild] Beautiful Bao Bao: I just realised, that b*tch's power is already 40k! The women on this game are really dauntless, our server's number 1 is a female, and even the world number 1 expert is also female! This generation is really great for females and terrible for men!

[Guild] Cloud Tai Tai: That top female expert you were talking about is Feng Wu Pian Ran bah. Ever since she was beaten in the Thousand World Bash, we've been under the Demon G.o.d's reign.

[Guild] Cabbage Ba Ba: On that note, what exactly is the Thousand World Bash? Recently I've been hearing a lot about it.

[Guild] Cloud Tai Tai: That's a game-wide PVP compet.i.tion that happens every 3 months. You can go solo or 5v5, and there's always a live recording of it. Cabbage, didn't you notice all of the advertis.e.m.e.nts before?

[Guild] Cabbage Ba Ba: Lately I've been swamped by a.s.signments… qaq

I frowned and decided not to look at their useless conversation, instead opening the inventory to go through the pile of materials used to refine and make equipment. Using these, I made a bunch of new equipment, inlaid them with gems, and then re-distributed my skill and attribute points, following a 3.5 to 1 ratio for my HP to Intelligence stats.

As I did all of this, the time in the game went from night to morning, and then night again. Picking up my cup of water, I gulped a bit down and wanted to stretch a little, but suddenly something in front of me caught my attention.

Moonlight covered the whole of the capital, and peach blossoms stretched as far as the clouds. The neighing of the horses and rumbling of cars were like little silver bells signalling an auspicious night, and the breeze that caused women's skirts to flutter was like a comforting hand. Beneath the thousands of peach blossoms trees, there was an elegant young man riding a dark horse, standing amidst the flickering lights of the nearby lights on the ground covered with petals, and staring straight at me.

Although I couldn't smell the flowers or feel the breeze, seeing him in the midst of the dancing peach blossoms, with the ends of his hair playfully swaying and his sleeves gently billowing, it was as though I could almost smell a scent where there was none, and feel the wind despite its absence.

Moreover, I was an artist, and my imagination was more than enough for these kind of things.

How strange. This little brother was clearly a low-level player, without any legendary equipment, legendary skills, nor legendary mounts. Yet without all of these, he was still so eye-catching.

I realised that he'd unequipped his weapons, and there was nothing of value on his person, apart from a welcome gift from the system for new players – a branch from a peach blossom tree. His clothing was ordinary, merely a green robe that had been dyed to black and white, and his hairstyle was one of the five that all new players could pick upon joining, though a strand of hair on the his right had been lengthened to just below his jaw, partially covering his thick, strong eyebrows and s.h.i.+ning eyes. With just these 3 minor changes, his whole being seemed less like a new player and more like an experienced player, seemingly having of a domineering aura than all of those other players who adorned themselves with special items and equipment.

This little brother's skills at pretending to be an expert were pretty good. Without spending any cash he could still look like this.

As he walked even closer to me, I could take a better look as his face and figure, and felt ever more strongly that his appearance was really too good. In fact, he reminded me a little of my first ever crush. Ah, this brother had good taste.

The best part about this game was actually this – beauty was everlasting. In this virtual world, when you found a man as good looking as this, there would never be a need to worry about him growing up and becoming an old, ugly uncle.

With the grand scenery of the capital, and the peach blossoms scattered around, it really did look like a scene of a beautiful chance encounter that could strike people's hearts. If he came over right now and yelled out “Lady Pian Pian”, my opening words would be, “This little woman is humbled. My name is Pian Pian, may I dare to ask who this gentleman is, and whether he has any wife or children? If not, I would like to accompany this gentleman for a lifetime, and be together with him till the end of this game, does this gentleman agree?”

In the end, he actually did speak to me, but his words weren't as poetic.

“How're you planning to beat that demoness.”

These words harshly yanked me out of my rainbow-like fantasy. Expressionlessly, I answered, “How else? I'll top up another 648 yuan.”

“You're a healer. You need money to use debuffs?”

This little brother's way of speaking was a little too blunt ah. But since he had such a nice face, I wouldn't hold any grudges. “What else can I do? Our power levels are too different. If I want to win I'll need to top up cash, otherwise it'll actually be too embarra.s.sing for me to lose to my own disciple.”

“I think that if you end up spending money on an account that you bought, it would've been more worth to buy an account with a higher power level. This account's power is too low, spending money isn't worth it.”

I was shocked still, and hurriedly messaged him personally. “How did you know that I bought this account?”

He ignored my message, saying, “I don't understand why you aren't willing to tell everyone that this account has changed owners, but if you really want to comfortably fish, it won't end with just you beating Wan Wan Jiang alone.”

“Why?”

“At the moment, Wan Wan Jiang and Mu Shang both have a lot of influence, and all the groups a.s.sociated with them will put you on their blacklist.”

In actuality, although on the surface, the mistress, her groupies and the number 1's relations.h.i.+ps seemed pretty close, all of them were from different guilds. The number 1 and 2 players were from the top guild, the mistress was from the second-best guild, and the groupies were from the third-best guild.

The sense of belonging that guild gives is incredibly significant. Without being from the same guild, even if your mouth says one thing, in reality your relations.h.i.+p with others won't be 100% stable.

Relations.h.i.+ps are fickle, and there's always a chance that someone will stab you in the back.

Doing this would allow me to save some cash. Otherwise, just to peacefully fish, I would have to keep on topping up cash to stay on top of the leaders.h.i.+p rankings, fighting everyone one-by-one, and only after PK-ing everyone on the server then I would get to fish. It's better to go through this pain in the as* now when I have time.

I thought for a moment before replying, “I know, that's why as long as I beat her it'll be okay.”

“Unless you can prove that this account has switched owners, or thoroughly get rid of everyone, there's no way Wan Wan Jiang will give up.”

“No way, I promised the former owner that I wouldn't expose her for 2 weeks. This is to do with my morals.”

“What kind of bullsh*t morals are you talking about, this is a game.”

My lips tilted up slighty. “Little bro, it's not that I'm trying to discriminate against you, but right now you're only at 9k strength. You're still new, so of course you wouldn't understand how this game works. I can be responsible for telling you now, that even in games, morals do still exist.”

“ok. So you think that I'm not qualified to talk to you about this because my power is low. How high should it be to qualify?”

“No, no, I mean that when your power is high and you've played for a long time, you'll come to realise some things.”

Again, he ignored me. “As long as it's the same as yours then it's ok?”

“… Yeah.”

After that, he didn't reply me anymore. As for me, I could only feel slightly mystified. I guessed that I'd probably shattered some teenager's little gla.s.s heart.

Seeing as the time was already pretty late, I modified my equipment stats for a while, and raised my power a little before shutting the computer off to sleep.

In Shanghai, be it eye-catching men, dolled-up women, or even the dogs sleeping outside, everyone understood how it was like in the intense heat of summer. The local weather could be compared to culture, having both the elegance of the countryside, as well as the unrestrained att.i.tude of the big cities. If you switched the air-conditioning on, you'd end up sneezing like mad. But if you switched it off, you'd end up sweating like mad, looking as though you got licked from head to toe by a Shar-pei dog.

After a night full of getting up to switch the air-conditioner on and off, I eventually gave up on sleep and woke up at 9am. Strictly speaking, my mornings usually started at around 3 to 4pm.

Groggily, I opened up my laptop to check out what people were saying on the world chat.

[World] Laziness Leads to Obesity: Where exactly did that Leng Yue come from ah, crazy enough to go and dig up all that treasure. Don't tell me he's actually one of the game mods?

[World] Lei Lei Lei Lei Lei: Our server is already old and full of ghosts yet there's still this kind of person who tops up cash like mad. Really filthy rich ah!

[World] Lord Napkin: I've already a.n.a.lysed him. He's rich as h.e.l.l.

Leng Yue? Wasn't this that little brother I'd met yesterday? The one that seemed like an expert without even spending any money?

I looked through the system history and found a bunch of text saying:

Congratulations to Young Hero Leng Yue for winning [High Grade Zijin Ding] in the Misty Treasure Hunt. Luck is truly coming your way, inciting everyone's envy!

Congratulations to Young Hero Leng Yue for winning [Grade 10 Peach Blossom Gem] in the Misty Treasure Hunt. Luck is truly coming your way, inciting everyone's envy!

Congratulations to Young Hero Leng Yue for winning [Gold Cla.s.s Immortality Pill] in the Misty Treasure Hunt. Luck is truly coming your way, inciting everyone's envy!

Congratulations to Young Hero Leng Yue for winning [88k Silver] in the Misty Treasure Hunt. Luck is truly coming your way, inciting everyone's envy!

…

I opened my personal chat and clicked on his icon. Seeing his character page, a wave of guilt crashed over me.

[Personal] Jia Ren Pian Pian: This fellow cla.s.smate, what exactly are you doing? Your power has actually risen to 30k = = !

He replied with a voice message, only saying three words. “You're awake now?”

[Personal] Jia Ren Pian Pian: Yeah, I just woke up.

Even though I'd already replied to him, I found myself listening to his voice message again.

His voice was really too nice! It was slightly cold, but also clear and clean, and reminded me of my first crush. I couldn't help but wonder if it was because I was standing in the Snowy Mountain map…

Patting my face, I reminded myself not to start fantasising about an online stranger's voice.

[Personal] Jia Ren Pian Pian: This is only a game, and there's no need to get p.i.s.sed off by a stranger ah. And even so, I wasn't even looking down on you…

At that moment, the abcc gang started to discuss the mysterious man.

[Guild] Cabbage Ba Ba: G.o.d Leng Yue is on the headlines for today. I think the whole world is focused on him now qoq…

[Guild] Cloud Tai Tai: All of you come look at these screenshots. Mistress Wan is really a prodigy ah, their whole guild has all kinds of people talking about our Pian Pian.

[Guild] Beautiful Bao Bao: I've seen it! Are they drunk or something? Why would they a.s.sociate Brother Yue with our family's Pian Pian?

[Guild] Cloud Tai Tai: Their guild's people managed to take some screenshots of Pian Pian and Leng Yue admiring peach blossoms in the capital, so she went and poured dirty water all over Pian Pian's name, saying that she was really fickle and that two days ago she'd sounded like she wanted to die on Tieba, yet now that she's run into another not bad man she's started chasing after him.

[Guild] Jia Ren Pian Pian: Does this question even need to be asked? Even if it were another woman, between these two men, I bet everyone would pick Leng Yue. His voice definitely beats Mu Shang's anytime.

[Guild] Beautiful Bao Bao: Wow! Is our Brother Leng Yue's voice that nice to listen to? Wah, Bro Yue can you send a voice message?

[Guild] Leng Yue: Really?

[Guild] Jia Ren Pian Pian:

[Guild] Leng Yue:

[Guild] Jia Ren Pian Pian: Why did you appear on this chat

[Guild] Beautiful Bao Bao: … Pian Pian, what do you mean? He was always here ah.

[Guild] Leng Yue: Can't I be here?

[Guild] Jia Ren Pian Pian: Welcome welcome, you're really welcome. I'll light a candle for this expert. Happy conquering to this expert.

Actually, it wasn't that his power was very high, but to raise your power so high in one night required lots of cash, much, much more cash than one would normally spend to gradually raise their power. Furthermore, this Misty Treasure Hunt was incredibly expensive, and everything that you got were things that you needed for higher power levels, so ordinary peasants like me would never dare to touch it. Usually, only players in new servers or top-level players would suddenly use it. Since this little bro Leng could spend so lavishly, it was likely that he had quite a bit of money stashed up.

[World] Refres.h.i.+ng Sweetheart: Hm? Are my eyes deceiving me? Why is it that  this newest expert is in the same guild as a certain someone? Could it be that this certain someone is jumping to another s.h.i.+p? Wow she's really too good ah.

[World] Mu Shang's Pampered Wan Wan Jiang: I've posted my wedding picture with my hubbie on my board! Asking everyone to help like it! We're really in love with each other, and our love is everlasting! Thank you everyone!

[World] Little White Ning: Haha, this certain someone likes anyone with money. But I wonder how big the thigh she's hugging really is, since even after swiping his card so many times his power is still like that ah.

[World] Xuan Yuan's Buns: I won't talk about that other guy, but I'm just here to say that actually Brother Shang is pretty good.

[World] Mu Shang's Pampered Wan Wan Jiang: Everyone, let's not talk about these unhappy things. Please help like my wedding picture, xx, love y'all.

…

Just as I was enjoying the gossip, a sudden barrage of s.h.i.+ning golden words appeared in the middle of the screen.

[Loudspeaker] Leng Yue: Stop looking at the world chat. Look at your personal chat.

I also didn't know why, but my heart skipped a little, thinking that he was talking to me.

Opening my chat, I saw that he'd actually sent me 2 messages.

[Personal] Leng Yue: I have healer skill books and legendary materials. I can sell them to you at the lowest price, look carefully and make sure it isn't s.n.a.t.c.hed up by other people.

[Personal] Leng Yue: Ey, I'm talking to you, stop looking at the world chat.

How did he know that I was on the world chat…

[World] Number 12 Dog: Ooh, it's a green hat, a green hat, a green hat ah! She's really put a green hat on Mu Shang. (T/N green hat means he's been cheated on)

[World] Little White Ning: Aiyaya, oh no, this new expert's filthy rich. That woman who likes to hug experts' thighs is back again. Bet she hooked him in with her photoshopped photos ah, when's the next “To the man who once helped me buy 200£ worth of in-game money, goodbye”?

[World] Refres.h.i.+ng Sweetheart: Hahahaha you're really too toxic!!

[World] Little White Ning: Hehe, I won't spout nonsense anymore, gonna wait for tonight's show.

[Loudspeaker] Mu Shang: To all the friends on Peach Blossoms, please help like my precious and I's wedding picture, this little brother thanks everyone!

[Loudspeaker] Mu Shang's Pampered Wan Wan Jiang: Mu Mu, I love how you're normally lowkey, and I love how this time you suddenly became highkey for me! I'll love you forever, x.x.x

[Loudspeaker] Xuan Yuan's Buns: Bro Shang, you don't need to say anything else! Your bros will support you!

In the past, at this kind of time, everyone would be busy completing their own tasks and no one would have the time to come and chat mindlessly. But now, seeing the mess on the world chat and the whole bunch of loudspeakers being used, I already knew that the future too, would be a mess.

Ah, why did I even talk about fis.h.i.+ng peacefully. It'll never happen.

Originally, I a.s.sumed that the former owner just had some small problems, but it was actually pretty problematic.

And as for this little bro Leng Yue… He was undoubtedly a disaster in the making.

h.e.l.lo my amazing readers! I am very tired have been translating for 3 hours straight.

Update: It is Wednesday now because I couldn't bring myself to translate the last few paragraphs. Sigh. This was meant to go up on Sunday. But on the bright side, I managed to finish everything in about 15 minutes.

Also the rating for this book is now at 3.4 instead of 3.7 which is lowkey upsetting but at the same time it's not like I update really often so. Oh well.

I'm also sick and down with the flu which sucks. Oh well.

Also, for those interested in what a Shar-pei dog looks like, he is a very, very wrinkly boy.