My Unconventional Online Dating - Chapter 12
Xiao Nianyuan had a feeling that if she honestly admitted she was just humoring her, Lian Qiushui would definitely make a scene. Despite Lian Qiushui’s occasional composure, the moment she opened her mouth, her playful nature became apparent. If she really started acting up, she might even outdo Wu Jinghe in making a fuss.
“Then it’s settled. Once we leave Sky City, you’ll become my disciple,” Lian Qiushui said, staring intently into her eyes. Xiao Nianyuan met her beautiful gaze and couldn’t help but nod in agreement.
Only after nodding did Xiao Nianyuan realize what she had done. She scratched her head in frustration—since when had she become so soft-hearted?
In the past, she could endure conversations with others until they lost patience and walked away. Yet now, with just a few words from Lian Qiushui, she had relented so easily. This wasn’t like her at all.
But Xiao Nianyuan quickly shook her head. It must be because she was desperate for answers right now and didn’t want Lian Qiushui to pester her, which was why she had agreed so readily.
It wasn’t that she was soft-hearted—just that she had weighed the situation and decided this was the best course of action.
Lian Qiushui, unaware of Xiao Nianyuan’s thoughts, was already planning whether to formalize their master-disciple relationship immediately after leaving Sky City or to wait for an auspicious day.
Xiao Nianyuan had originally intended to wait until nightfall to see what would happen in Sky City. But as time passed, there was no movement at all—just Lian Qiushui’s intermittent chatter and Ji Rongxue outside the door, trying every possible argument to persuade Xiao Nianyuan to leave.
Sky City remained unchanged. Time here flowed the same as in reality, so she couldn’t actually wait until nightfall.
The dormitory door was locked from the inside, making it impossible to open from the outside even with a key. Her roommates would return by evening at the latest.
Not wanting to trouble them, Xiao Nianyuan listened quietly as Ji Rongxue pleaded earnestly.
“Staying here won’t help you find the person you’re looking for,” Ji Rongxue said, her voice slightly hoarse. She took a breath and continued, “I can help you search and let you know if I find anything. But for now, you need to leave.”
“How will you contact me?”
“I was just saying—” Ji Rongxue, thinking Xiao Nianyuan was refusing, stopped mid-sentence when she realized Xiao Nianyuan had agreed. “I can come find you in person!”
“Fine.”
Once Ji Rongxue left, Xiao Nianyuan turned to a stunned Lian Qiushui. “I have something to take care of and need to log off. I’ll be back later.”
“Oh… okay.”
Still processing the situation, Lian Qiushui responded instinctively. By the time she snapped out of it, Xiao Nianyuan had already logged off.
Something felt off, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
“You’re still here?”
Ji Rongxue, who had been secretly watching from outside, couldn’t hide her glee when she saw Xiao Nianyuan was gone. “She left you behind.”
Lian Qiushui: “…”
She gave Ji Rongxue a dark look. “You think I’ll leave just because you said so?”
Ji Rongxue: “?”
Lian Qiushui snorted and plopped down on the chair Xiao Nianyuan had been sitting in. “I’m staying right here. I won’t leave even if I die.”
—How could someone be so shameless?!
Furious and flustered, Ji Rongxue could do nothing but stomp away in frustration.
Meanwhile, as soon as Xiao Nianyuan logged off, she heard noises at the door. Scrambling out of bed, she called out, “Coming!”
The chatter at the door stopped when they heard Xiao Nianyuan’s voice. As the door opened, all three roommates had returned, looking at her with concern as they bombarded her with questions.
“Are you feeling unwell?”
“Should we accompany you to the infirmary?”
“Maybe we should go to the hospital instead—they’re more professional there.”
“No need,” Xiao Nianyuan waved them off. “I’m fine, just slept too deeply.”
The three exchanged doubtful glances, clearly unconvinced by her explanation about sleeping too soundly. They’d been shouting at the door for a full five minutes—even the heaviest sleeper would have been roused by now.
A girl from the neighboring room, woken by the commotion, poked her head out to ask, “Is everything alright?”
After glancing at Xiao Nianyuan, the roommates motioned for the girl to go back inside.
Though they temporarily stopped insisting on a hospital visit, they kept their eyes fixed on Xiao Nianyuan ever since returning. Whenever she tried to retreat to her bed, they’d immediately tense up and stand, making her too self-conscious to climb up.
For dinner, Xiao Nianyuan deliberately waited until the cafeteria was less crowded. Normally, her roommates would eat early regardless of the crowd, but this time they insisted on accompanying her.
She couldn’t refuse—they were just worried, and she had frightened them by taking so long to open the door earlier.
At her usual eatery, the staff recognized her and weren’t surprised by her late arrival. Smiling, they asked if she wanted her usual order.
When Xiao Nianyuan nodded, they glanced at the people behind her.
Tan Xialan flashed a bright grin: “We’ll have the same.”
Xiao Nianyuan usually took a corner seat. When she turned to look at Tan Xialan and the others, Tan Xialan quickly said, “Don’t mind us.”
After dinner, they still hadn’t let up. Checking the time—already 8 PM—Xiao Nianyuan grew anxious to log in. Pressing her lips together, she said, “I’m going to sleep early to rest.”
Ji Rongxue replied softly, “Alright, rest well. We’ll keep quiet.”
Once in bed, Xiao Nianyuan added through the curtain, “Please don’t open my bed curtain unless necessary.”
Normally, Ji Rongxue and the others respected boundaries and wouldn’t dream of pulling back her curtain. But this time was different—their gazes practically burned through the fabric, as if they wanted to sit by her bedside and watch her directly.
“Of course not,” Tan Xialan’s voice carried a hint of guilt.
Only after repeated assurances that they wouldn’t disturb her did Xiao Nianyuan finally take out her gaming device.
Upon logging in, she was met with complete darkness. For a long moment, she wondered if she’d actually entered the game—it was so pitch-black she couldn’t see anything.
Groping forward blindly, she touched something wet and branch-like, recoiling in surprise. Then a hand grasped hers in the darkness, followed by muffled laughter.
“You’re finally here.”
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I have mixed feeling about this story. In one hand, I absolutely adore the relationship between Xiao Nianyuan and Lin Qiushi, despite the rocky start, their relationship quickly evolve into a very soft and clingly relationship where Xiao Nianyuan get to indulge her need for physical contact through Lin Qiushi due to the fact that she’s less self conscious about it with her initially since she’s an NPC, and Lin Qiushi get to indulge in her need for companionship through Xiao Nianyuan, who is pretty introverted and as such don’t interact with other players or NPC in the game, so Lin Qiushi get to have all of her attention. As time goes on, they become pretty clingly with each other, both physically and emotionally.
My main gripe is that I don’t think enough time in the story is dedicated to their relationship
A good third of the story is dedicated to a rather boring mystery about a classmate of Xiao Nianyuan who’s using her photo to scam people online in order to ruin her reputation and take revenge on her over a perceived slight about his scolarship, but it feels pretty disconnected from the main point of the story, Xiao Nianyuan never actually exchange a single sentence with the perpetrator, outside of once, when he’s about to get caught.
The mystery of the sky city take another large chunk of the story, but in my opinion, it really wasn’t all that interesting. Xiao Nianyuan caught a glimpse of a silhouette that she recognized in the sky city early on, and then obsessed over the sky city to try to find that person and find out what’s the sky city is. While the story doesn’t explicitly said it, the person is most likely Ji Rongxue, who Xiao Nianyuan thought was dead. But the mystery is revealed in a rather boring fashion and so is the true nature of the sky city.
I also have a slight gripe with the ending, I do think that Xiao Nianyuan and Liu Qiushu relationship benefited a lot from the dynamic of one of them being a real person and the other being an NPC who was stuck in a virtual world, and while I always expected this barrier to eventually fade for an happy ending, I do have a slight problem with how it happened. Firstly, it’s a personnal preference but I would have prefered if they had started their relationship in the game, while Liu Qiushu was still an NPC, and secondly, the story kind of brush off all too quickly how Liu Qiushu was actually a real person with her memory sealed inside of the game, so it almost feels like Xiao Nianyuan end up with a different Liu Qiushu than the Liu Qiushu we got to see for the entire story (since their meeting happen in the last chapter).
Also, there is some hints of a relationship between Ji Rongxue and Jing Siyan (another NPC), but it’s never explicited, Jing Siyan get deleted due to a virus and there’s no resolution on that front, which is pretty sad.
Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts! <3