Flirting Under Favor (GL) - Chapter 11
A milky white mist permeated her vision. Mu Fan felt like she was walking in clouds. The front, the back, under her feet, and above her head were all a hazy expanse. She couldn’t see anything clearly. She walked and walked, not knowing how far she had gone, when the outline of a tall building appeared in front, quickly expanding like ripples caused by a stone thrown into a lake.
“Ah!” The ground suddenly became clear. Mu Fan realized with a shock that she was standing on the roof of a high-rise building. Just one more step forward, and she would miss the edge and fall to her death, shattering into pieces. Terrified, Mu Fan retreated several steps, her legs giving out as she sank to the ground, her heart pounding.
She looked up casually, only to see a man standing on the rooftop of the building opposite.
Mu Fan paled: “Dad!” She scrambled to the edge of the roof, the area below being a dark abyss.
The man on the opposite roof was walking step by step towards the deep chasm. She wanted to go over and stop him, but obviously, she couldn’t cross. One step more from her, and it would also be a bottomless abyss. “Dad!” Mu Fan shouted hoarsely, but the man on the opposite roof seemed unable to hear anything.
“No… no…” Mu Fan’s lips parted and closed. It felt as if something was blocking her throat, which was growing hoarse.
She saw the very calm face of her father.
One step, one step…
The man reached the edge, opened his arms, and fell backward.
“No—” She stretched out her hand despairingly, shouting loudly. Separated by dozens of meters, she still wanted to save the man. She reached forward, she reached forward, and in a careless moment, she too fell down.
The world spun violently. There was no pain. She appeared in a room where a woman stood before her. Just from her back, it was clear that the woman was immensely haggard.
The woman stood still.
“Mom?” Mu Fan called out tentatively. The woman suddenly turned around. Mu Fan was startled. She saw her mother’s expression: hatred.
“It’s you! You killed your dad!” the woman accused her, pressing closer with every step.
Mu Fan backed away: “No, it wasn’t me. Dad lost his business, ran up huge debts, and couldn’t bear it, so he…”
Her mother laughed viciously, shouting almost maniacally: “If it weren’t for you being a lesbian, making it known to everyone, your father wouldn’t have suffered a double blow and taken his own life!”
“It’s you! You are the murderer who killed your dad!”
“What evil karma did I create to give birth to a pervert like you?”
Her mother cried, cursed, and lamented.
“No, it wasn’t, it wasn’t!” Mu Fan shook her head mechanically, tears streaming down her face.
“It was!” Her mother roared, then clutched her chest, breathing heavily.
Mu Fan rushed over to support her.
“I won’t forgive you even in death. I will never forgive you.”
“I will never forgive you even in death.”
In an instant, the scene changed. After another dizzying spin, she returned to the hazy world. Many faces appeared in the mist, each with a different expression: sympathy, pity, ridicule, mockery, disgust, hatred… Each face had a large mouth, opening and closing, speaking one after another.
“Xiao Yu, stay away from that woman. You absolutely must not learn from her.”
“Ha, a pervert. She drove her father to death and gave her mother a heart condition.”
“What a sinner.”
“I heard the heart condition is very serious. She probably won’t live much longer.”
“Now look, being a lesbian ended up driving both her parents to death.”
“Isn’t that right?”
“People like her are definitely going to hell after they die.”
“What are the police doing? Why haven’t they arrested people like her?”
…
Language was an unbearable lightness. Those words were like the Tang Monk reciting the binding spell, and she was the Monkey King who disregarded all propriety. Her head felt like it was going to explode. She covered her ears, squatted down, and cried incessantly, cried incessantly…
/
She slowly woke up in the dark night. Wang Lin, beside her, was breathing steadily, sleeping peacefully.
Mu Fan let out a long breath, calming her turbulent emotions.
She had cried fiercely in the dream, but in reality, her eyes were only slightly damp. Mu Fan wiped them, nestled closer to Wang Lin. Having someone beside her offered some comfort, however little.
No matter how much time passed, as the line in The Green Mile says, nightmares sometimes cling to you, and no amount of struggle can shake them off.
She recalled the dream, the painful past, turned to look at the side where Wang Lin slept, and sighed softly.
She tried to fall asleep quickly, but insomnia kept her awake for quite a while before she finally drifted into a haze.
/
In the morning, Mu Fan was not in good spirits. After the alarm went off, she and Wang Lin lingered in bed for another ten minutes until Wang Lin had to get up for her eight o’clock class.
Wang Lin climbed out of bed. Mu Fan said from the side, “If you had told me you had class at eight, I would have gotten up earlier to make you breakfast.”
Wang Lin yawned, clearly having not had enough sleep: “It’s okay, I’ll just buy something to eat.” Her words were casual, but sensing this might be inappropriate, she added, “Although I’d still prefer home-cooked food, of course.” She observed Mu Fan’s expression, and only relaxed when she saw that Mu Fan looked normal.
In fact, homemade breakfast isn’t necessarily better than what’s bought outside. Vendors make a living from it, so their skills are naturally good. What’s missing is the special effort put into making food specifically for a particular person.
“Mhm,” Mu Fan replied. “Sometimes when I don’t feel like cooking, I just buy something to eat too.”
After coming out of the bedroom, Wang Lin finished washing and dressing. Time was running short, and she had to leave immediately.
“I’m leaving now.”
Mu Fan said, “Go on.”
“Goodbye.”
“Goodbye.”
The atmosphere was a little strange, permeated by a sense of reluctance to part. Watching Wang Lin go downstairs, Mu Fan suddenly remembered something.
“Wait!”
Wang Lin was already feeling reluctant to leave. Hearing Mu Fan call her, she immediately stopped, a bright smile on her pretty face, and tilted her head: “Yes?”
Mu Fan ran back into the room, and quickly ran out again, holding Wang Lin’s laptop.
“You forgot your thing.”
Wang Lin suddenly realized: “Oh, I completely forgot.” She walked up and took it from Mu Fan’s hands. The weight made her frown. “It’s such a hassle to carry this back and forth.”
“You need to exercise more,” Mu Fan said.
Holding the computer with one hand, Wang Lin lifted and lowered it repeatedly: “Mhm, well, I’m practicing right now, aren’t I?” But after just a few times, she cried out that she was tired, quickly switched hands, and shook her arm to relieve the soreness.
Mu Fan covered her mouth and chuckled: “Alright, you’re going to be late.”
Wang Lin stood properly again: “Then I’m going.”
“Mhm.”
Mu Fan returned to the room. She didn’t start work until nine, but she still needed to get ready and leave.
Twenty minutes later, she walked out the front door downstairs and saw a black sedan parked at the entrance. A man and a woman were standing beside it. Although they were in casual clothes, their expressions were cold. Mu Fan guessed their identities: they were Wang Lin’s bodyguards.
Mu Fan was confused. What are they doing waiting here?
Seeing Mu Fan come out, the man stepped forward, bowed slightly, and said in a polite but unrefusable tone: “Miss Mu, Miss Wang instructed us to drive you to work.”
Mu Fan: “Ah?”
What is this supposed to be?
Not giving Mu Fan a chance to refuse, the female bodyguard opened the car door, made a gesture to invite her in, and said, “Please get in the car.”
Mu Fan hesitated, not moving. The two people didn’t rush her, standing straight up where they were. The woman’s hand remained in the inviting posture.
A few seconds passed in a stalemate.
“Thank you, I’m sorry to trouble you both.” Mu Fan forced a polite smile, got into the car, her slender fingers fiddling with a button on her clothes, lost in thought.
The two bodyguards were well-versed in professional conduct—taciturn and expressionless. Seeing Mu Fan get into the car, they sat in the driver’s seats and started the car without a word. Mu Fan didn’t ask if they knew her workplace. Since they hadn’t asked, Wang Lin must have told them. She simply sat quietly.
/
In the afternoon, Wang Lin declined an invitation from classmates to have a meal, returned home, tossed her bag down, sat at the table, and opened her computer. It was still a while before Mu Fan got off work at five. Wang Lin, deeply understanding the principle that “the master opens the door, but individual effort is up to the student,” decided to explore on her own, feeling she couldn’t ask Mu Fan about everything. Wang Lin even wanted to learn things Mu Fan hadn’t taught her, to show off in front of her. She was intelligent and, combining various beginner guides online, she truly understood many things and made rapid progress.
After getting off work, Mu Fan stopped by the wet market. When she emerged, she had two bags of groceries in her hands.
She returned home, wondering what to cook today. Looking at the abundant ingredients, she had no interest in making a big meal.
In the end, Mu Fan only made a few simple side dishes and ate them. She categorized the ingredients and put them into the refrigerator. That’s what living alone was like: often, one couldn’t muster the enthusiasm; even after buying groceries, one didn’t want to cook.
It was almost seven o’clock. Mu Fan looked at her phone. Wang Lin hadn’t sent her a message all afternoon. She hesitated, then typed out a line and sent it: “What are you doing?”
On the other side, Wang Lin, who was lying on the ground in the Secret Realm of Mirror Lake, watching her teammates fight the boss, immediately replied upon receiving Mu Fan’s message: “I’m doing the daily dungeon. Hurry, I feel like I’m about to get scolded.”
Right after she finished speaking, the boss was defeated, and a teammate pulled Wang Lin up. Wang Lin quickly sent a “Thank you,” then saw four lines of text pop up in the chat window, all with the same content:
“It was hard work.”
She had been lying down the whole time. How could it have been hard work? Just as she was about to type that it wasn’t hard work, her teammates all left the group.
Then Wang Lin received a private message: “You’re wearing healer gear. (Pig head emoji)”
Leaving the dungeon, Wang Lin profoundly felt her weakness. Why were other people so powerful? If only I could get stronger by spending money. While she was thinking, Mu Fan sent a private message: “Are you done? Do you want me to help?”
“I’m done. They all told me ‘it was hard work.’ I felt like they were deliberately mocking me. And someone told me I was wearing the wrong gear, and I found out I really was. The boss was too strong. I died as soon as it touched me…” She poured out a string of words, recounting all her gaming experiences for the day.
After she finished, she didn’t get a reply from Mu Fan, but a summon. She clicked “Accept.” She loaded the map and arrived in Yangzhou. There were many people around. She found Mu Fan in the crowd—a Qinniang (Changge School adult female character) dressed in a light green school uniform. She selected her but didn’t invite her to a group.
Idling was another core feature of JX3. The two of them just stood there. Beside them was a Dujie (Five Poisons Sect adult female character). The Dujie had summoned her large pet, which was huge, appearing even bigger than Wang Lin’s little Huā Luó (Wanhua School Loli character). Wang Lin was suddenly inspired to compare sizes with the pet. She walked up to the pet and found that it really was bigger than her. Unwilling to accept this, she walked a few more steps until she overlapped with the large pet. The large pet was indeed slightly bigger than her. She found it amusing and said to Mu Fan: “Look, this pet is even bigger than me.”
Mu Fan replied to her: “You little shorty.”
Wang Lin felt that Mu Fan’s comment was a double entendre, referring both to her Huā Luó as a shorty and to herself as a shorty. She felt a little indignant; after all, she was over one meter sixty tall.
“I’m not a shorty.”
“You are a shorty in front of me,” Mu Fan said, and her Qinniang stood next to her.
Fine.
Wang Lin accepted the fact. Both in the game and in reality, she was a shorty in front of Mu Fan.
Suddenly, she was given a candied hawthorn stick. Her Huā Luó hopped twice, and a white message (in the proximity chat channel) appeared: “Auntie Ge [鴿了阿姨 – Gē le āyí] is the best to me.”
Wang Lin in front of the computer burst into laughter, typing: “Hahaha, Auntie.”
Mu Fan continued to feed her candied hawthorn sticks.
“Big Sister Ge [鴿了大姐姐 – Gē le dà jiějie] is a good person.”
“Thank you, Big Sister Ge.”
…
After being given many candied hawthorn sticks, Wang Lin said: “If I eat any more, I’ll get cavities.”
“You said you liked sweets,” Mu Fan said.
She had indeed said that. Wang Lin was happy that Mu Fan still remembered. She also fed Mu Fan a few skewers of candied hawthorn sticks. Unfortunately, the adult character didn’t have the same speech bubble. She asked: “Is it sweet?”
“Sweet.”
“Am I sweeter, or is the candied hawthorn sweeter?”
…
Mu Fan typed: “You are sweeter.”
Seeing the answer she wanted, Wang Lin felt even sweeter inside. Her little Huā Luó bounced and circled Mu Fan’s Qinniang several times.
Mu Fan said she was a salted fish (slang for a lazy, unambitious person) and only logged into the game to collect items, chase achievements, and try to trigger random rare encounters. She had many pets, which she summoned one by one, explaining how she got them. Wang Lin didn’t quite understand. Mu Fan asked her: “Cute, right?”
“Am I cuter?”
“Of course,” Mu Fan said.
Wang Lin looked at the three words “Of course” and felt a little disappointed, but the words Mu Fan said immediately after made the fireworks in Wang Lin’s heart bloom even more brightly.
“Not as cute as you.”
Taken together, it meant: Of course, (they are) not as cute as you.
Wang Lin was overjoyed, wishing she could suddenly appear in front of Mu Fan and hug her while spinning around.
Mu Fan stared at the screen. The little Huā Luó was running around her, hopping and skipping, as if deliberately trying to get her attention.
She double-clicked twice, taking Wang Lin’s little Loli character flying up into the sky.
There was a sudden lag, and a small figure began to fall to the ground.
Wang Lin: “You must have done that on purpose.”
Mu Fan could practically see Wang Lin’s resentful little eyes on the other side. Feeling guilty, she quickly rescued the character.
“I wanted to try to make you fall into the ‘Yin-Yang’ state [a mechanic to reset a character’s “bad luck” status], but you’re too unlucky; it didn’t trigger.”
Wang Lin said: “Is that my fault?”
Mu Fan imagined how Wang Lin looked saying that and couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Wang Lin, on the other hand, hadn’t expected Mu Fan to have such a humorous side. Normally, Mu Fan was so proper and gentle; this was a cute contrast.