My Unconventional Online Dating - Chapter 55
It definitely existed—Xiao Nianyuan had seen it with her own eyes. There was no way all of that had been just a dream. She glanced at Lian Qiushui, who seemed to understand her thoughts and nodded, confirming that it hadn’t been a dream.
Xiao Nianyuan couldn’t explain it to them—that she had been to Sky City before, nor could she explain how the game had forcibly logged her out for an update just to keep her away from it.
Ji Rongxue suddenly asked, “Weren’t players able to see Sky City before? Why hasn’t anyone mentioned it now?”
“With other fun things to do, Sky City was forgotten,” Xiao Nianyuan replied without surprise. Back then, Sky City’s appearance might have been to attract beta testers—letting them see it without allowing her to go up. Probably just a show of technical prowess. Maybe Sky City would appear later as part of the main storyline.
But Xiao Nianyuan couldn’t wait for Sky City to appear in the future. She couldn’t afford to. The sky had already been altered like this—by the time the game officially launched, everything might be completely unrecognizable.
Unable to find the Sky City she was looking for, Lian Qiushui couldn’t help but feel down. Was there any way she could locate it through data?
Internal game data was likely only accessible to the developers. She was just an NPC—there was no reason she would know.
But what if she was a virus? The moment this thought crossed her mind, Lian Qiushui felt a tingling sensation, as if she had been lightly shocked.
“What’s wrong?” Xiao Nianyuan asked worriedly, noticing Lian Qiushui’s dazed expression. “Are you feeling unwell?”
“No,” Lian Qiushui instinctively denied. “It’s just… a little strange. Since we can’t find Sky City, what should we do now?”
Xiao Nianyuan forced a lighthearted tone. “If we can’t find it, then we can’t. There are other things we can do.”
With no leads on the real Sky City, they had no choice but to temporarily give up on searching for it.
After abandoning the search, Xiao Nianyuan felt strangely empty, unsure of what to do next. Lian Qiushui tentatively suggested, “Want to go sightseeing?”
She thought Xiao Nianyuan would enjoy it—after all, every time they came across beautiful scenery, Xiao Nianyuan would pause to admire it.
Lian Qiushui wasn’t wrong. Xiao Nianyuan did like sightseeing and agreed immediately. Ji Rongxue wanted to tag along, but Jing Siyan grabbed her arm. “Didn’t you promise to help me out more?”
Ji Rongxue glanced between Xiao Nianyuan and Jing Siyan. “Now?”
Jing Siyan nodded. Though reluctant, Ji Rongxue couldn’t go back on her word and had no choice but to follow Jing Siyan with visible displeasure.
With Ji Rongxue gone, Lian Qiushui visibly brightened, even talking more with Xiao Nianyuan.
She wasn’t afraid of being ignored—with no one else around, Xiao Nianyuan’s attention was entirely on her. It would be strange if she weren’t happy.
She asked Xiao Nianyuan, “What’s your favorite color?”
“I don’t have a particular favorite,” Xiao Nianyuan admitted. She had never really thought about it.
“That’s fine,” Lian Qiushui said. “I’ll take you somewhere. You’ll figure it out.”
She led Xiao Nianyuan to a vast field of flowers. The golden sea of blossoms was so dazzling that for a moment, Xiao Nianyuan thought she was standing in a rice field.
“Do you like it?” Lian Qiushui asked.
Xiao Nianyuan nodded.
“Then let’s stay here a little longer,” Lian Qiushui said.
The yellow flowers were ones Xiao Nianyuan had never seen before, their petals soft and abundant, clustered closely together, swaying gently in the breeze.
Xiao Nianyuan reached out to touch the petals—just as soft and cool to the touch as she had imagined, making her want to caress them again. The delicate flowers were so tender that she couldn’t bear to pluck even a single petal.
Lian Qiushui reached out to pick one, but Xiao Nianyuan stopped her by grabbing her hand. “They’re beautiful just like this,” she said.
Lian Qiushui happily gathered many flowers for her, but each time, they withered soon after. Xiao Nianyuan couldn’t help feeling regretful—if the flowers had been left untouched, they might have lasted longer.
Lian Qiushui hummed in agreement, then took Xiao Nianyuan’s hand and asked, “Want to see something else?”
Xiao Nianyuan was surprised. “You know other places?”
Lian Qiushui nodded proudly. “Of course.” To ensure Xiao Nianyuan could see more flowers, she had sought out many flower fields, hoping to lift her spirits whenever she felt down.
The next field Lian Qiushui took her to was purple—though, strictly speaking, they weren’t flowers at all, but leaves shaped like petals, easily mistaken for blossoms from a distance.
Xiao Nianyuan had never seen such a plant before and turned to Lian Qiushui in astonishment.
Lian Qiushui smiled, pleased. “These leaves can be used to make various medicinal pills. Many physicians like to come here.”
Xiao Nianyuan glanced around but saw no one. Puzzled, she looked back at Lian Qiushui, who explained, “Fewer physicians come here lately—most are off participating in a competition.”
“A competition?”
“Mm. Some contests test combat skills, others medical knowledge. The rewards are quite generous.”
Xiao Nianyuan’s presence in the game had little to do with the game itself. Her first login had been out of curiosity, but after that, it was no longer the case.
She had never paid attention to in-game events, so she followed up with another question. “What kind of rewards?”
Lian Qiushui answered uncertainly, “One of them is a chance to visit the game company.”
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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