Time Chapter 1

Chapter 1.1 – Caught His Eye

It was already spring, the warm season of blossoming flowers. Yao Yuan looked at the peach blossoms outside her cla.s.sroom window and thought that it would be a pity not to go out when the weather was so nice.

The school bell had already rung, but the teacher had not arrived yet. It is very loud inside the cla.s.sroom when a boy walked in. His gaze swept across the cla.s.sroom, and finally went over to the empty seat beside Yao Yuan and sat down.

Because he seemed unfamiliar, Yao Yuan could not help but turn her head to the side and glance at him.

Once that boy sat down, he leaned on the chair and closed his eyes, with an expression that looked as if he had not slept enough.

The girl sitting on the other side of Yao Yuan reached out and tugged on Yao Yuan’s sleeve. In a very quiet voice, the girl said: “Hey, I know this person, he is a senior in fourth year.”

This boy wore a pale blue turtleneck. His hair was thin and soft. His five facial features combined was indescribably eye-catching. Only now, that he is asleep, he seems a little tired, or his complexion did not look very good, as though he is sick.

The girl asked Yao Yuan in a low voice: “I say, should we tell him that he’s in the wrong cla.s.sroom?”

Yao Yuan thought for a while: “Forget it, we don’t know him anyways, just pretend we don’t know.”

In the next second, this person opened his eyes, turned to look at Yao Yuan, both eyes glimmering black, making the person he is looking at feel nervous. He said: “Why are you so immoral?”

Yao Yuan woke up from her dream, baffled, “Why would I have such a strange dream?” she thought. She had already finished her postgraduate degree but still dreamt about a cla.s.s in her first year of university.

“It must be because I have read too many books lately,” Yao Yuan concluded. “When I wake up, I must play a round of online games to compensate.”

Since she was young, Yao Yuan was a model student. She majored in Chinese language and literature for her undergraduate studies at the renowned Jiang Ning University, and afterwards, she was recommended for admission to a graduate school in Canada. After graduation, Yao Yuan returned to Jiang Ning University to work as a teacher for electives courses. She taught Introduction to Aesthetics for two months.

She didn’t have any great ambitions, and only hoped for a peaceful and simple life.

Like when she plays online games, she prays that the internet connection must be fast and stable.

Sunday at noon, Yao Yuan had brunch, opened her computer, and signed in to Legend of the Prosperous Century. Right after she signed in, she saw her character Ruo Wei Jun Gu [1] standing in a courtyard with high walls and a crooked footpath. In front of her was a small pond and the water lilies in the pond were blossoming brightly.

[1] Ruo Wei Jun Gu (若为君故) can be interpreted as “you are the reason”. It is a play on Dan Wei Jun Gu (但为君故), a line from Cao Cao’s poem, Duan Ge Xing. Click here for more info.

Everywhere in the courtyard there were willow trees. The greenery accentuated the courtyard’s spiritual serenity. She found it while she was aimlessly wandering around.

Because this place didn’t have anything to do, players never came here.

Swordswoman Ruo Wei Jun Gu stood quietly under a willow tree with swords on her back. Her long black hair were fastened by three silver hair pins behind her head. Loosely hanging on her body were lilac chiffon undergarments and a grey and purple double layered outer dress. She also wore a matching silver and purple vest and a tunic, making her look valiant and heroic.

“Such a nice meeting place, but there’s only a lonely person like me here. What a waste.”

Yao Yuan lamented, little did she know that at this moment, at the high wall behind Ruo Wei Jun Gu, stood a swordsman with silver white hair, sleeves flapping in the wind, quietly looking in her direction.

Yao Yuan also could keep up interest much longer, her clan-mate sent her a message:

“Xiao Jun (Little Ruo Wei Jun Gu), I heard you recently committed your life to Legend of a Prosperous Century’s true expert Jun Lin Tian Xia.”

Ruo Wei Jun Gu: “Huh?”

Hua Kai (Blossoming Flower): “ You didn’t know? You didn’t go online in the past two days, the world chat has gone insane, saying that after you were saved by Jun Lin Tian Xia, you plan to repay your debt with your body.”

Ruo Wei Jun Gu: “What?!”

To say that this great Jun Lin Tian Xia and I got to know each other… thinking carefully, this is something that happened just this week right?

 

Chapter 1.2 – Caught His Eye

Flashback scene 1:

Recently, one day last week when she walked by the foot of a mountain, she saw in the middle of the beautiful landscape, a couple who were deep in love. The man’s screen name was Ye Zui Shuai (Lord is the most handsome) and the female’s is Mei Ren Yi Jiu (Long lasting beauty). In the middle of all the action, a group of people rushed towards this couple with murderous intent…

Hey killing the lovebirds is enough, why do you need to drag a pa.s.serby like me into this? Yao Yuan was very depressed by the situation. Without a word,Xiong Ying Yi Hao (Valiant Eagle Number One) from the group of people, rushed up to her slashing. Pairs of players fought for almost ten minutes. At last she raised her sword and in one swift move, below the sky full of flowers, on the tip of her sword found a pressure point. This move is called “Hua Jian Yue” (Flower sees the Moon), first scarring your eyes, then reducing the opponent’s attack power at the same time taking advantage of the 3 seconds that the opponent is dazed. Yao Yuan attacked precisely with two moves of“Blood Sacrifice”. One slash every 1.5 seconds, both swords depleted the enemy of all his blood. Xiong Ying Yi Hao was finally defeated. During the fight, the two lovebirds were also defeated.

Afterwards, Yao Yuan thought that she needed to give Xiong Ying Yi Hao’scomrades a beating but to her surprise these people only stood there. After someone resurrected Xiong Ying Yi Hao,  there wasn’t any action.

Yao Yuan was secretly alert at the time when Mei Ren Yi Jiu, who was stabbed by them and sprawled on the ground called out on the world channel to the World Clan’s clan leader, the true expert in Prosperous Century, Jun Lin Tian Xia:  “Jun Lin Tian Xia , can you not spare us?”

At that moment, Jun Lin Tian Xia who was not at the scene replies: “I cannot.”

This half an hour of “emotional dispute” is commonly seen in games, Yao Yuan can only say that her own RP was not good after finishing watching, she was there at the completely wrong time and place, in the middle of a bloodbath between a group of people, it can be considered considered an unexpected calamity.

That day she thought these kind of things had nothing to do with her.  As she was just about to leave, a handsome male character Wen Ru Yu (Warm like jade [1]) came over to her to apologize, saying that their Xiong Ying Yi Hao’s eyesight was poor and was mistaken, asked her if she wants to become friends afterwards.

[1] High quality jade is warm to the touch so he is implying that he is a person of high calibre.

She feels that no words can be said plus she was baffled. She pressed “no” on the friend request that he sent and replied with “Just add good friends, since it was merely a misunderstanding, I will leave now.” After she said that, she moved her character to leave. Before she left, she accidentally glanced over a phrase on the screen. Luo Shui (Descend into water): “Our World Clan’s most valuable member has been rejected?? This has never happened before.”

Wen Ru Yu: “ What are you squabbling about? Don’t you think that our clan leader is not young anymore, isn’t it about time to get married?”

Luo Shui: “You really aren’t afraid of death!”

Author’s notes: 1. Hua Jian Yue: scars your eyes, then disables the opponent for 3 seconds so they can’t attack. 2. Blood Sacrifice: in 1.5 seconds, you lose 25% of your own blood (health) to get 100% on your critical attack 4 times. If you use it 4 times, you could kill yourself.

Flashback scene 2:

Two days after the incident happened , Yao Yuan’s cousin‘s Shui Shang Xian(Fairy on the water) was besieged. Yao Yuan was called in to help and was barely able to save her cousin and ran away. When the opponent’s people, from all corners of the world, were set out to catch them, this Wen Ru Yuperson suddenly spoke a few words. He said: “Whoever dares to kill Ruo Wei Jun Gu, will be my, Wen Ru Yu’s, enemy.”

People with status have a different way of talking, the world chat instantly became lively. When someone asked him who Ruo Wei Jun Gu is, he replied: “Our clan leader’s wife.” Therefore, in the blink of an eye, the world chat was spinning in chaos. Yao Yuan, who was sitting in front of the computer, took a deep breath and sent a message: “Wen Ru Yu, what are you saying?”

At the same time, someone sent the exact same message, even the punctuation was the same.

This person was called Jun Lin Tian Xia.

Prosperous Century’s number one clan’s clan leader.

Then Jun Lin Tian Xia sent another message: “Even if it’s true, don’t spread it everywhere.”

“…”

These words caused too much interest and gossip.

So that day, Yao Yuan’s Ruo Wei Jun Gu became very popular.

 

Chapter 1.3 – Caught His Eye

Flashback scene 3:

Just two days ago, Yao Yuan was doing quests and was lost in a maze and could not find the way out. In the moment of utter helplessness, a character appeared on the screen. The hovering ID was: Jun Lin Tian Xia. A handsome and suave swordsman, dressed in a dark gown, silver hair tied in the back, there are strands of hair scattered near the forehead, two hands were holding the two exquisitely crafted, highest quality weapons, one was a Barrier Sword, [1] the other was a Heng Dao [2]. When he slowly walked towards her, the first feeling was: this is really Jun Lin Tian Xia. As well as, Prosperous Century’s artists are really great.

[1] Barrier Sword 障刀: a sword for protection, not for war  Ref [2] Heng Dao 横刀: Saber, for soilders to carry  Ref

This was Yao Yuan’s first close encounter with this kind of great master.

Afterwards he said: “I’ll lead you out of here.”

Afterwards he led her out of there.

Afterwards Yao Yuan said: “Thank you.”

He replied: “No problem. I have something to do today, I will go offline first.”

Ruo Wei Jun Gu: “…..Oh ok.”

End of flashbacks.

Therefore, where did “repay the debt with my body” come from?

Yao Yuan felt she and Jun Lin Tian Xia were not very close. They couldn’t even be considered as acquaintances, can only be considered as having a “fateful encounter”.

Therefore it must be a false rumour!

After Yao Yuan and Hua Kai concluded that everything was a false rumour, they saw that the n.o.ble and aloof Great Master had sent a message on the world chat: “Ruo Wei Jun Gu, come to the Purple Cloud Mountain.”

The sunset covered the peak of Purple Cloud Mountain. Jun Lin Tian Xia was leaning on a large towering tree, looking into the distance. There were a lot of legends about a great master like Jun Lin Tian Xia.

One legend claims, he played Prosperous Century for half a year and spent more than 200 thousand Yuan, a nouveau riche [3]!

[3]  土豪 is a rich but uncultured person, lacking good taste, manners, and sophistication. Ref

Second legend claims, he is actually the owner of Proserpous Century or the owner’s son, also a nouveau riche!

Third legend claims, he is a professional gamer and came to play online games just to pa.s.s time, a true expert!

Regardless, Jun Lin Tian Xia  is a great master, everyone knows that. This person’s terrible etiquette is also known by everyone.

It has been said he often dumps girls in the game. Each time after he dumps a girl, it is after knowing her for less than two days. He will give them money to send them away. What an extremely heartless playboy. The game always had more males than females, he really doesn’t cherish the girls he gets!

“The people say the players are so great!“ Cannot consider the females of the male gamer’s inner thoughts.

”Even though there are very few myths, but the people are not bad, at least the severance pay isn’t bad, I think I would not be able to forget him easily, if we have fate to meet again.” Some of the abandoned female gamer’s inner thoughts.

“He hasn’t even seen a photo of me. How does he know that I am not the person he is looking for. I am not going to believe in love anymore!” This is another group of female gamer’s inner thoughts.

Besides, the elusive Jun Lin Tian Xia, or to put it in a more exact manner,  the person controlling Jun Lin Tian Xia behind the scenes does not care about the gossip. He only cares about one thing.

Right now Yao Yuan is very afflicted. She finally understands what taking an arrow to the knee feels like.

As for Purple Cloud Mountain? She obviously didn’t go.

She should not get to know him, the rumours cannot make anything, they aren’t lovers or a Final Aeon [4].

 

Chapter 1.4 – Caught His Eye

So she still chose to go to the market.

That day she just got to the exchange market, the world channel displayed: “Jun Lin Tian Xia Great Master is currently operating a stall?” “Really? Did you read it wrong? Didn’t this Great Master just say he was waiting on Purple Cloud Mountain for someone?” “ ID isn’t wrong, it is Jun Lin Tian Xia, operating a stall, selling weapons!” “Oh my G.o.d, World Clan’s clan leader is so rich, does he even need to sell weapons?!” “……” but this was not seen by Yao Yuan.

After Yao Yuan walked around for a while, she saw a group of people gathered around. Then she heard two people that walked past her say, “Great Master’s listing price is very high……. is he toying with us deliberately?”

Yao Yuan didn’t understand the severity so she walked over to see what was being sold. She wasn’t even able to clearly see what was being sold when the seller surrounded at the middle first said: “Ruo Wei Jun Gu, imperial soul sword, price: 1 gold coin. Do you want to buy?”

Imperial soul sword, mid high level item and in the game one gold coin is equivalent to one rabbit’s money, in short, it is super cheap.

Faced with these good things, Yao Yuan didn’t even think twice: “Buy!”

Transaction successful, and she also finally saw the seller’s ID: “Jun Lin Tian Xia.”

The crowd remarked: “Great Master is actually really toying with us…….”

Jun Lin Tian Xia closed the shop, and said to Yao Yuan: “I’m sorry, the price just then was wrong, it is 1000 gold coins, please pay remaining the 999 coins.”

Yao Yuan and the crowd: “……”

The price is wrong, how unscientific Great Master.

Of course you cannot deny that Yao Yuan received an advantage, she is an ethical person, “I don’t have that much money, can I return the imperial sword to you?”

Jun Lin Tian Xia: “Annoying. Accompany me to Purple Cloud Mountain to do something?”

Ruo Wei Jun Gu: “What is it?”

Jun Lin Tian Xia didn’t reply, and just left. Yao Yuan irritatedly could only follow.

That day, on Purple Cloud Mountain, one famous swordsman and one unknown little swordsman were currently dueling, waited for an hour on top of the mountain under the shade of the plum tree, there was nothing to do, not even one piece of rabbit meat to catch.

But at this time, the chat group for Hundred Flower Hall that Yao Yuan was a member of was very lively.

Hundred Flower Hall was established by Yao Yuan’s cousin, Shui Shang Xian. It only had ten members. No great masters, just masters of gossip.

Ya Xi Ya (Asia): “I really want to see Sister Jun [1]. She is walking around with the legendary Jun Lin Tian Xia at one of the top ten place for dates in Prosperous Age, Purple Cloud Mountain.”

[1] Sister Jun refers to Ruo Wei Jun Gu

Hundred Flower Hall’s only male gamer Ah Mi Jing Dao: “What? I asked Xiao Jun and she said she wouldn’t go? Xiao Jun lied to me!”

Ya Xi Ya: “Does Sister Jun really need to repay the Great Master with her body?”

Yao Yuan couldn’t stand it anymore and sent a bunch of ellipses. (ie.: ………..)

Duo La A Meng (Doraemon): “Sister Jun! Did you actually hook up with the Great Master, Jun Lin Tian Xia?! How did you hook up? I want details!”

How did we hook up?

Yao Yuan could only sigh, some things are just the stars aligning… rather the opposite of that.

Ruo Wei Jun Gu: How do I put it, I just owed him money so I’m helping him do some tasks to repay him.

Ah Mi [2]: “What kind of tasks?”

[2] Short for Ah Mi Jing Dao

Yau Yuan look at the dignified and imposing Great Master. She thought, “Does accompanying him on walks count as a task?” Indeed, it is difficult for us mere mortals to understand the world of Great Masters.

Yao Yuan sighed as she replied vaguely: “Anyway, it’s not like what you all think.”

Ah Mi: “Oh, that’s good! Or else I won’t be able to sleep tonight!”

This time, Yao Yuan couldn’t stand it anymore and asked the Great Master: “Jun Lin Tian Xia clan leader, we have basically traveled through all of Purple Cloud Mountain. May I please ask, what are you looking for? If you tell me, I could help keep an eye out for it.”

Jun Lin Tian Xia: “Tired of walking?”

Yao Yuan honestly replied: “A little.”

Jun Lin Tian Xia: “Alright then, we’ll stop here today. We’ll change places next time.”

Yao Yuan was stunned: “Wait, Great Master! The 999 gold coins I owe you wasn’t offset after one time of me accompanying you?”

Jun Lin Tian Xia replied like this: “No.”

Yao Yuan: “…”

Jun Lin Tian Xia: “Add me as a friend.” Then, he added soon after, “so it would be more convenient to repay me.”

Ruo Wei Jun Gu: “Can I return your weapon?”

Jun Lin Tian Xia: “I already said that it’s troublesome.”

Isn’t it more troublesome for you to continue to demand payment like this every time?!

The other party sent a friend request and Yao Yuan was forced with no other choice, but to accept it. And so, Ruo Wei Jun Gu’s friend list had an additional gold coloured famous person’s screen name: Jun Lin Tian Xia.