Chapter 82

Chapter 82

Due to pregnancy restrictions, they could only tackle three-star dungeons at most. The low difficulty meant no need for deliberate strategies, allowing Jing Huan to ponder other things while grinding through the dungeon.

Like when Xiang Huaizhi would realize he was actually Xiao Tianjing.

Jing Huan frowned. He knew Xiang Huaizhi had a rather aloof personality, but surely he wouldn’t remain indifferent after being catfished by someone, right?

Moreover, the one who deceived him was none other than himself… With the two of them standing so close, it looked as if he had ulterior motives no matter how you viewed it.

Jing Huan propped his chin on his hand and thought back for a long while, and indeed, he recalled one incident.

Some time ago, when he went downstairs to buy medicine, he happened to run into Xiang Huaizhi during his night jog.

Now that he thought about it, Xiang Huaizhi hadn’t been sweating at all back then, nor did he have any companions—it didn’t seem like a night jog… more like he had been lying in wait for him.

Jing Huan suddenly realized—Xiang Huai must have been lying in wait for me! He really wants to beat me up!

But why didn’t he do it later?

Because I was sick?

Jing Huan’s mind wandered for a long time, going in circles, but he could only come to one conclusion—

Xiang Huaizhi is truly a good person.

After grinding dungeons until the afternoon, Jing Huan could barely hold on any longer and got up to fetch some medicine.

His home didn’t have any fever-reducing medicine, but there was still plenty of cold medicine left from his last purchase.

He’ll make do with this for now—who knows, maybe it’ll work miracles.

He already had a headache and felt terrible, and after taking medicine, he became even sleepier. As a result, after finishing the low-level dungeon, he lingered in the party without leaving.

“Little Jingjing,” Lu Hang said, “I’d be happy to take you to a high-level dungeon, but your husband doesn’t seem very pleased.”

Jing Huan snapped back to reality and quickly left the party to join Xiang Huai Zhi’s team.

“What were you doing?” Xiang Huai Zhi asked.

[Team]Little Sweet Scenery: Poured a glass of water

Xiang Huai Zhi: “Drink it warm.”

Jing Huan was about to send a nodding emoji, but suddenly remembered something.

[Team]Little Sweet Scenery: ?

[Team]Little Sweet Scene: Why aren’t you going with them to the high-level dungeon…

Xiang Huai Zhi: “Not going, I don’t need experience.”

If Jing Huan were truly a noob in Nine Heroes, he might have believed it.

But in Nine Heroes, grinding is an endless journey. Leveling up, upgrading skills, and even socketing gems into equipment all consume the player’s own experience points. No player in the entire server dares to claim they don’t need experience.

[Team]Little Sweet Scene: It’s okay, you don’t have to worry about me. I can play by myself for a while.

“Who else will take care of you if I don’t?” Xiang Huai asked with a frown.

[Team] Little Sweet Scene: ……

Xiang Huai turned his head and glanced back, accidentally locking eyes with Lu Hang.

Lu Hang: “…”

Lu Hang: “What?”

Xiang Huaizhi: “Put on your headphones.”

Lu Hang: “?”

Xiang Huaizhi: “Don’t eavesdrop.”

Lu Hang: “Damn, do I look like that kind of person? You’re the one being noisy!”

Though he was indeed eavesdropping, his unreasonable confidence made him bold.

Lu Hang genuinely found it astonishing—Xiang Huaizhi usually couldn’t even be bothered to spare others a glance, yet now he was flirting daily with his online crush…

And then there was SweetJing, who was already so bold and unrestrained in front of them. Who knew how much wilder she could be in private!

Lu Hang drew in a sharp breath, his gaze growing even more peculiar.

Xiang Huaizhi narrowed his eyes slightly. “What are you thinking about?”

“I want to…” Lu Hang obediently put on his headphones. “The dungeon should be starting soon. I’ll head to the guild’s YY channel to coordinate with them.”

Jing Huan drank his third cup of hot water. His entire body felt as if it were soaked in hot water—uncomfortable, stifled, and struggling to breathe.

Yet he had no desire to rest at all.

Xiang Huaizhi led him to complete the couple’s quest. By the eighth round, no one in the team had uttered a word.

Xiang Huaizhi asked, “Don’t want to do this?”

[Team]Sweet Scenery: Want to.

The ninth stage of the couple’s quest consists of relationship multiple-choice questions posed by NPCs, designed to test how well the partners understand each other.

Usually, players communicate via voice chat during this phase.

Xiang Huaizhi glanced at the question and asked, “What’s your favorite color?”

The team channel was silent.

By the time Jing Huan snapped out of it, only four seconds remained on the answer timer.

He jolted back to attention and instinctively turned on his mic. Since he hadn’t spoken for a long time, his voice came out hoarse and startling: “Ah, white…”

Time ran out. The challenge failed.

[Team]Little Sweet Scenery: Ahh sorry, I zoned out for a bit just now. Let’s click it again.

The couple quest isn’t strict with requirements, you can retry if you fail.

But Xiang Huaizhi didn’t click the NPC again.

He asked: “Do you have a fever?”

[Team]SweetScene: Hmm… but just a little.

Xiang Huaizhi asked, “How high is it?”

[Team]SweetScene: Low-grade fever, 99.9°F.

Xiang Huaizhi said, “Send me a photo of the thermometer.”

“……”

Jing Huan was caught off guard by this move.

In reality, he had only taken his temperature once that day, and it was as high as 38.7°C.

Jing Huan picked up the thermometer to measure it again, silently praying in his heart as he looked down at the reading.

37.7… 37.7…

Beep, the thermometer displayed a number.

    38.9。

Jing Huan: “…”

Isn’t this way off?!

Xiang Huaizhi: “Did you take it?”

[Team]SweetScenery: The thermometer seems broken, suddenly can’t get a reading 0.0! Seriously!

Lu Hang was passionately running a dungeon when someone suddenly tapped his shoulder.

He took a moment to turn his head: “What now? I swear I wasn’t eavesdropping this time!”

Which implied he had been eavesdropping all the previous times.

Xiang Huaizhi couldn’t be bothered to argue: “Where’s the gift you prepared for Jing Huan?”

“He’s in bed, the courier just delivered it this morning…” Lu Hang paused, “Hey, what are you doing with my gift!”

Xiang Huaizhi: “I’ll help you deliver it.”?

Lu Hang was a bit confused: “Do I not have hands or legs? Why do I need you to deliver it for me?”

Xiang Huaizhi tucked the gift into his pocket: “Is there anything you want me to pass along?”

Lu Hang subconsciously said, “Add a ‘Happy Birthday’…”

By the time Lu Hang finished the dungeon run, Xiang Huaizhi had just put on his coat and was about to leave.

He asked curiously, “What are you going to see Jing Huan for?”

“Something came up.” Xiang Huaizhi closed his laptop.

“Alright, don’t blame me for not warning you. My gift is way cooler than your little crappy scarf. Don’t get all embarrassed when the time comes.” Lu Hang chuckled, “By the way, has Jing Huan added you on WeChat yet?”

Xiang Huaizhi was just about to open the dorm room door when he paused at the question: “What WeChat?”

“Your WeChat ID,” Lu Hang said with amusement. “He asked me for your WeChat ID last night… Speaking of which, didn’t you stop using that WeChat alt account a long time ago? Why dig it up again now?”

Xiang Huaizhi stared at him with a heavy gaze, saying nothing.

Lu Hang felt a chill down his spine under the intense gaze, his smile slowly freezing. “Wh-what’s wrong?”

“Did you give him my WeChat?” Xiang Huaizhi asked.

“Yeah… Was I not supposed to?” Lu Hang was utterly confused.

Xiang Huaizhi stood still. “What did he say at the time?”

“He didn’t say much,” Lu Hang said. “We were going to add each other on WeChat, but then he dropped his phone and didn’t manage to add me.”

Xiang Huaizhi was silent for a few seconds before nodding. “Got it.”

Noticing something off in his tone, Lu Hang was about to ask more when he heard a loud “bang”—his roommate had left without a backward glance, slamming the door behind him.

A light drizzle was falling outside. Xiang Huaizhi casually pulled up his hood and walked toward the front gate, his eyes fixed on his phone.

No wonder the kid acted so strange last night, not daring to look at him after coming back from the bathroom. And even blushing.

The phone lightly chimed. Xiang Huaizhi had just thrown out a “got stuff to do” before leaving, and only now did the person on the other end sluggishly reply to him.

Xiao Jing: Okay, then I’ll go do the dailies.

Xiang: Go lie down.

Xiao Jing: I’ll fall asleep if I lie down…

Jing Huan lay sprawled in his computer chair, his long legs dangling inelegantly over the edge of the bed.

He had taken the day off, so it wouldn’t matter if he fell asleep.

But the moment he woke up, he’d have to face Xiang Huaizhi’s wrath.

The thought of this made him feel he should cherish the time while being sick.

His phone vibrated once, and he slowly lowered his head.

Seeing that the message wasn’t from Xiang Huaizhi, he couldn’t even be bothered to open it, but the people in the group chat wouldn’t let him off and even @ mentioned him.

Lu Wenhao: How’s your illness? Do you need your roommate to come over and deliver some warmth? The weather’s so fucking cold—Xiang’er and I are planning to have hot pot, and we’ll just borrow your kitchen [shy]

Lu Wenhao: @Xiao Jing Where are you? Damn, is our dorm cursed today? I just fell down the stairs and almost died.

Gao Zixiang: Not dead, but the students in front thought it was an earthquake and ran like hell.

Lu Wenhao: I %#!@#……!

Lu Wenhao unleashed a torrent of curses for several hundred words before @-ing him again to ask what he wanted to cook in the hot pot.

Jing Huan didn’t have the energy to type, so he pressed the voice message button: “Are you out of your mind? Your dad’s this sick and you still want to force hotpot on me? Trying to kill me off early?”

Lu Wenhao quickly replied with a voice message: “Damn, your voice… anyone who didn’t know better would think you were screaming all night.”

Two seconds later, he also heard Gao Zixiang burst into laughter.

Jing Huan replied succinctly, “Get lost.”

Lu Wenhao said, “I thought you were pretending to be sick to skip class, but you’re actually ill? Should I bring you some medicine while I’m at it? I’m at the infirmary getting treated right now.”

Jing Huan said hoarsely, “Don’t come, you’re too noisy. Where did you fall?”

Lu Wenhao immediately sent him a photo, accompanied by several crying emojis.

Jing Huan glanced at it casually and was instantly speechless.

Then he sneered and said, “You’d better hurry to the doctor, or it’ll almost heal by itself.”

Lu Wenhao furiously spammed the chat with sticker packs.

Jing Huan didn’t waste any more words on him. Seeing that Xiang Huaizhi hadn’t replied yet, he opened a food delivery app to order some medicine, then tossed his phone onto the bed and steered his game character toward a certain wilderness area.

He had already made up his mind—not only would he apologize, but he would also compensate Xiang Huaizhi for his losses.

Offering money directly might not be accepted by Xiang Huaizhi, so he planned to craft a high-quality belt for him instead. When he had logged into the account earlier, he noticed that Xiang Huaizhi’s equipment was nearly all top-tier, with the only room for improvement being that belt.

And killing the monsters in this wilderness area had a chance to drop small crafting materials for belts.

But he soon encountered a problem.

He basically… couldn’t grab any of the wild monsters on this map.

In his old server, Jing Huan was known as the “King of Wild Maps,” with top-tier hand speed for snatching monsters. But today, his mind was a bit foggy, and his reactions were several seconds slower than everyone else’s—he hadn’t managed to snag a single monster.

He cursed under his breath and was about to leave when a message popped up on his screen.

[Autumn Maple invites you to join his team. Yes, No.]

[Friend] Autumn Maple: Our team is grinding too, and we’re short one person. Come, join us.

Jing Huan hesitated for a moment, then clicked “Agree.”

Better than him randomly pressing buttons alone with no aim.

He summoned his pet, had just set it to auto-battle when the doorbell rang.

[Team]SweetJing: AFK to grab takeout, back soon.

He got up and headed for the door, not even bothering to check the peephole before opening it.

“……”

Outside stood Xiang Huaizhi, his cap covering most of his hair, with a few damp strands sticking up slightly from the rain.

The boy’s dark eyes stared straight at him.

For a moment, Jing Huan thought he was hallucinating.

“Lu Hang asked me to deliver his gift for him,” Xiang Huaizhi said.

Jing Huan instinctively looked down and saw a small gift box and a plastic bag in his hand.

Inside the bag were faintly visible medicine boxes.

“You don’t look too good.”

Jing Huan opened his mouth to say something when the boy in front of him suddenly raised his other hand, brushed aside his hair, and pressed the back of his hand against his forehead.

It was ice-cold and slightly damp.

“Running a fever?” he heard Xiang Huaizhi ask.