What if Bei Weiwei fled the gym when Xiao Nai started going toward her in the bleachers? What if Xiao Nai has to work a little harder than he expected to win over Weiwei? That's where our Love O2O alternate universe starts...
First chapter published...
Xiao Nai pushes aside these thoughts of other male students (and maybe some female ones) asking Weiwei on dates. They're all just in his mind right now. Unlike Weiwei. A real actual girl sitting in her dorm room just meters away from him.
He smiles.
How did she look, trying to write her message to him!? He can picture her puffing out her cheeks, staring at her laptop. Furrowing her brows. Deleting everything and starting over. In his mind, she has all the same expressions that crossed her face when he sat next to her in his father's class. My cute, scared, brave rabbit.
The reply he drafts to his furen—it ends up being quite gentle. Then he hits send. Not a moment too soon.
His roommates burst into the room.
"Wahh," says Yu Banshan. He's hunched over in front of his laptop, scrolling through rumors. "The message boards say you gave some girl a ride on a bike before the game!"
The three roommates stare at Xiao Nai, who looks back at them with one eyebrow raised.
Now everyone's crowding around Yu Banshan. "Only blurry photos online! You can't see her face!"
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"How is modern camera technology still so bad!?"
"Why'd you have to bike so fast?"
They scroll through the school message board.
_________________________
Yuyu6688: It was Bei Weiwei the second-place beauty! I saw it. They were standing by the campus convenience store.
ExamAssassin: No, it was number-one belle Meng Yiran on the bike. I'll bet my life savings on it.
Mist_Before_Rain That's not even Xiao Nai, you all are idiots.
TypeAB: Anyway it doesn't mean anything if he gave some girl a bike ride.
BeidaLuckystar: The girl was me, guys! I twisted my ankle and the great Xiao Nai helped me get to class!
_________________________
(Hao Mei: "Laosan, you're such a knight!")
Xiao Nai laughs. You could always count on online disinformation.
Hao Mei grabs the basketball and throws it towards Xiao Nai.
"Wait, Laosan. Was the mystery woman... the woman from your date?"
No denial comes out of Xiao Nai's mouth. Just the sound of the basketball bouncing to a stop.
The three roommates rush toward him. Who is she? Where is she?
"I told you earlier. She ran," says Xiao Nai.
"Wah! Xiao Nai. But then where is she now? Did the legendary Laosan get...rejected by a woman!?"
His roommates fall over themselves, pretending to faint.
Xiao Nai smiles to himself. No, just a slightly longer courtship than I expected.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Back in the girl's dorm, Weiwei looked at her watch. Adjusting her backpack on her shoulders, she locked the door and ran down the hall. She couldn't be late to tutor Xiao Yang.
She didn't want to tutor that night. At all. Her head was completely swimming with thoughts of Da Shen. The sight of him playing basketball. Her admiration for him was making her dizzy.
Yixiao Naihe!?
She was so lost in thought that she almost missed her stop on the bus ride to her student's house. Apologizing to the driver, she exited the bus, and made her way into Xiao Yang's ritzy gated neighborhood.
All she wanted to do was turn around, catch a bus straight back to campus, track down Xiao Nai, and take back everything she'd said. She wanted to beg him to just take an evening stroll with her across campus quad, holding hands. Let the cameras click. Deep down she longed to jump to a future moment when she and Dashen were together. She already caught her self imagining being by his bedside, putting compresses on his forehead where he'd been hit in the collision.
But no. She had to stick to her decision. Things needed to unfold more slowly and privately. If they were well matched in real life too, she'd end up in a relationship with him, sooner or later. At that point, she felt she could face the wagging tongues.
Why was this whole thing was progressing in such an odd way?
First of all, why did she already have to be in-game wedded to the boy she was now just getting to know? In the game Dreams of Jianghu, they already shared bridal chambers. Nothing explicit. But still! Everyone knows what that means. Now she had to look Senior Xiao Nai in the eyes, and suppress that memory! Arrrrghhh
Secondly, in real life, why did it have to be like dating a C-drama idol?
Did she need to go hire a full-time PR team?
Thirdly, what if something in real life made them incompatible?
For example, she had no special talents. She got pretty good grades, but that was it. Meanwhile, he was a champion at basketball. Swimming. Guzheng. Game design. A coding prodigy. Not to mention he was the number one player on their server.
Would he get bored of her average skills in a week?
If she was just going to get rejected by Xiao Nai down the road, she didn't want her assassination to happen in a public courtyard, with a crowd liveblogging the whole thing.
Why couldn't this just begin like a normal relationship?
But wait. Was she being too stubborn? Would Xiao Nai give up on her in disgust?
