My Unconventional Online Dating - Chapter 21
Lian Qiushui stood there with her mouth agape in shock, taking a long moment before she managed to squeeze out a sentence: “Shouldn’t it be me as the master?”
“I don’t know,” Xiao Nianyuan replied with a faint smile. “As soon as I entered, I already had this title.”
Thankfully, Lian Qiushui could see the title—otherwise, Xiao Nianyuan would have worn it for nothing. She watched as Lian Qiushui’s expression shifted from shock to numbness, then finally to a pout of grievance. Xiao Nianyuan couldn’t help but find it amusing.
“No, we have to go back and change it right now!” Lian Qiushui protested stubbornly.
“I think it’s fine as it is,” Xiao Nianyuan said mercilessly.
Lian Qiushui immediately grew upset, her eyes reddening as she insisted, “No! I’m the master—I can teach you so many things!”
“And I can teach you many things too,” Xiao Nianyuan countered.
“But… but…” Lian Qiushui stammered. She couldn’t deny that was true. After struggling for a moment, she finally muttered, “But I want to be the master, not the disciple.”
Xiao Nianyuan tilted her head in confusion. “Why don’t you want to be the disciple? Either way, we’re still master and disciple, aren’t we?”
“It’s not the same!” Lian Qiushui grew agitated. “There can only be one master, but there can be many disciples.”
She wanted to be Xiao Nianyuan’s only master, not just one of her many disciples.
“I’ve only ever known you in this game. I won’t take anyone else as my disciple,” Xiao Nianyuan reassured her.
To be precise, Xiao Nianyuan only knew Lian Qiushui as an NPC—she wasn’t familiar with any other players or NPCs.
Lian Qiushui fell silent. Right now, Xiao Nianyuan only knew her, but the game would go on for a long time. What if Xiao Nianyuan met other players or NPCs in the future? Would she take them as disciples too? If another NPC clung to Xiao Nianyuan like she did, and Xiao Nianyuan couldn’t resist agreeing, what then?
The more she thought about it, the more insecure she felt. Standing there, she asked Xiao Nianyuan in a small, pitiful voice, “You really won’t change it?”
Curious about what Lian Qiushui would do if she refused, Xiao Nianyuan nodded firmly. “No.”
The moment the word left her lips, Lian Qiushui lunged at her.
Xiao Nianyuan didn’t move, letting herself be tackled to the ground. Lian Qiushui cushioned her head with one hand while the other wrapped around her waist, ensuring she didn’t get hurt. Then, bracing her hands on either side of Xiao Nianyuan’s head, she whined, “Change it, please? Just this once?”
Xiao Nianyuan deliberately kept a straight face. “No.”
At that, Lian Qiushui finally lost her patience. She flopped onto Xiao Nianyuan, hugging her tightly as she sniffled, “No, no, you have to change it! I want to be the master! If you don’t, I won’t let you go!”
As she spoke, she started tickling Xiao Nianyuan.
Xiao Nianyuan squirmed, unable to bear it, and tried to push her away—but Lian Qiushui easily pinned her hands down, threatening, “I’ll let you go if you agree.”
Xiao Nianyuan laughed breathlessly for a while before gasping, “No, it’s already done. How can we change it now?”
Lian Qiushui stared at her for a long moment before suddenly deflating. She slumped onto Xiao Nianyuan and muttered in reluctant surrender, “Fine… if you like it this way, then we won’t change it.”
Xiao Nianyuan was surprised by her sudden compliance. She hadn’t expected Lian Qiushui to give up so easily—given her personality, she usually wasn’t one to back down without a fight.
Xiao Nianyuan didn’t realize that Lian Qiushui’s compromise was solely because it was her. Had it been anyone else, Lian Qiushui would never have yielded so easily.
Lian Qiushui lay on top of Xiao Nianyuan. Though her weight wasn’t too heavy, the realness of her touch and warmth made Xiao Nianyuan acutely aware that Lian Qiushui wasn’t just a virtual NPC—her presence was almost indistinguishable from a real person.
A faint scent of bamboo leaves clung to Lian Qiushui, a fragrance rarely encountered in the city, inexplicably soothing. Without realizing it, Xiao Nianyuan leaned in slightly closer.
“Xiao Nianyuan?” Lian Qiushui’s voice carried a trace of confusion.
Xiao Nianyuan snapped back to reality, only to realize she was tightly embracing Lian Qiushui, her hand still gripping her wrist.
Startled, Xiao Nianyuan abruptly pushed Lian Qiushui away and sat up herself, her expression troubled. She turned her face slightly, unable to meet Lian Qiushui’s gaze.
Even though this was just a game, her actions still felt excessive. Closing her eyes, Xiao Nianyuan took a deep breath, frustration gnawing at her: Why was I so impulsive? Why did I do something so irrational?
At least this was just a game. If it had been real life, her behavior might have been labeled as perverted, landing her in a police station.
Lian Qiushui watched as Xiao Nianyuan sat on the ground before sitting up herself. She had been happy about the embrace—until Xiao Nianyuan suddenly pushed her away.
Uneasy, she asked, “What’s wrong?”
Xiao Nianyuan didn’t explain, only murmuring, “This isn’t right.”
“What’s not right about it?” Lian Qiushui pressed, puzzled. She had assumed Xiao Nianyuan pushed her away because she had hurt her, but judging by Xiao Nianyuan’s expression, that didn’t seem to be the case. Xiao Nianyuan was clearly avoiding her.
“Nothing. I just… have a small issue,” Xiao Nianyuan replied evasively.
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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