Chapter 132: Blow the Horns, Beat the Drums

Liu Yue isn’t coming to the gathering anymore?

Why so suddenly?

Staring at her message, Chen Xiaoyan was stunned for a moment.

Chen Xiaoyan: Did something happen?

Liu Yue: Yeah.

Chen Xiaoyan: Is it serious?

Liu Yue: It’s a family dinner between the two families, I can’t refuse.

Chen Xiaoyan: Alright, I guess we’ll have to find another chance to meet up next time.

Liu Yue: I didn’t mean to stand you up, sorry, Xiaoyan.

Chen Xiaoyan: It’s fine, don’t be so polite.

Liu Yue: Okay, I won’t.

Liu Yue: So when the gathering’s over, tomorrow or the day after, do you have time?

Chen Xiaoyan: I should. Why?

Liu Yue: Want to come hang out at my place?

Chen Xiaoyan: Huh?

Liu Yue: How about a free three-day tour of Kyoto?

Kyoto?

Liu Yue is from Kyoto?

To be able to found a gang as big as Sword Pavilion, she must be someone on the same level as Mu Qingxue.

Because behind Sword Pavilion, just like Xueyan Pavilion, there’s also a stable salary to be earned.

So, this girl’s either rich or noble.

And she’s a Kyoto native.

Surname Liu.

Chen Xiaoyan hurriedly went to Baidu and searched for powerful people surnamed Liu in Kyoto, and sure enough, Baidu gave plenty of results.

(Baidu info: Liu Hengtian, male, 45 years old, member of an organization, currently Party Secretary of Kyoto.)

(Baidu info: Liu Qiran, male, 41 years old, member of an organization, currently serving as Deputy Director of the Propaganda Department in Huaguo.)

Wait a minute…

So many prominent people surnamed Liu.

Chen Xiaoyan didn’t know how many of these were related to Liu Yue, but in any case, the Liu family was a big deal in Kyoto.

In terms of wealth, they might not rival the Mu family, the richest in Zhongzhou, but in terms of political standing, even the entire Mu family couldn’t compare.

Someone started crying.

How come everyone else is a big shot, and only she herself is the most ordinary and weakest in real life?

Chongchong Girl is still the cutest.

As for those two, no matter who they are, she can’t afford to offend them.

Rich beauty falls for a poor guy—sorry, fairytales are all lies.

Chongchong Girl is great, but she’s into girls too. Still can’t handle that.

So who else is there?

Xianyun?

Dream of a Fleeting Curtain?

Or maybe some other fragrant young lady.

Sigh, didn’t Chen Xiaoyan also wish to find a cp in-game and have a sweet romance?

But ever since her game character was a female, that dream could never come true.

Anyone who’d catch her eye in-game was either into girls or was a guy.

And since she wasn’t into guys, she wasn’t about to go for that.

But girls…

Ugh, thinking too much just brings tears.

Forget it, maybe she just isn’t meant to have a cp in-game at all.

As the saying goes, when God opens one window for you, He must close another.

Better to face reality.

As for Liu Yue.

She really didn’t know what to do.

Maybe she’d fallen into a trap of her own making.

Liu Yue liked her, but that feeling wasn’t for Chen Xiaoyan, it was for Chen Xiaoyan’s in-game persona.

Even if she managed to woo her in the game, what about real life?

Approach her as Chen Xiaoyan?

That’s basically hanging herself for being too bold.

If she kept living with this pretense, she’d just stay trapped in lies forever.

There would be no future; that was the unchangeable truth.

Actually, there was another option.

Just have fun in the game and don’t talk about real life.

Given how real the Immortal Realm game felt, it wasn’t dull like traditional MMOs.

It had everything.

The only downside was you couldn’t take off clothes, meaning you missed out on physical pleasure.

But if she did that, game and reality would be two completely different lives.

Her in-game cp would get married in reality and become someone else’s wife.

And she herself would marry in real life, becoming someone else’s husband.

Just thinking about it made her uncomfortable.

Either way, she couldn’t accept it.

That’s why in-game and real life syncing up is best—no wonder so many online romances rush to meet up.

If she couldn’t find a cp in the game, she’d look in real life.

Earn money in the game, spend it in real life—no problem at all.

Back to reality.

Chen Xiaoyan accepted Liu Yue’s invitation, saying that if she had time she’d go to Kyoto for a visit.

Of course, she’d have to dress as a girl.

Crossdressing~

Thinking of those two words, she let out a powerless sigh.

These days, she was crossdressing more and more often, and there was no way around it.

She’d truly become the embodiment of that internet saying: “Crossdressing, there’s only zero times and countless times.”

There was one more thing, and it was the most important.

After the gathering, she definitely needed to go to the hospital and check out what was going on with her little brother down there.

Absolutely no response at all—if it couldn’t be fixed, forget finding a cp, nothing would matter. Might as well head to Thailand.

With the way she looked now, she didn’t even need plastic surgery in Korea.

Then she could have a wild and forbidden romance with a few “little sisters.”

But that was just fantasy.

She was the only child, and if her parents’ only son turned into a woman, it would be a devastating blow for them.

Forget it, stop overthinking, just hurry up and get to sleep. Still have to wake up early tomorrow.

Chen Xiaoyan turned off her phone screen, put it next to her pillow, pulled up the covers, and went to sleep.

But…

As soon as she closed her eyes, she suddenly opened them again, a puzzled look in her eyes.

Did I forget something?

Chen Xiaoyan thought for a while, but couldn’t come up with anything, so she gave up and closed her eyes again.

Whatever, I’ll remember when I wake up.

***

Zhongzhou City, 7 a.m.

Mu Qingxue opened her bedroom door, her bloodshot eyes full of exhaustion.

Seven hours.

A whole seven hours.

Did she know what I went through in these seven hours?

No!

She didn’t.

Still hadn’t replied, not even a single word.

Right now, Mu Qingxue really wanted to fly over and use her own hands to spank her hard, make her sit on pins and needles.

Just to vent her anger.

She checked the time—almost seven-thirty.

She should be awake by now, right?

With high hopes, she opened Penguin, but there was still no new message arrow by Chen Xiaoyan’s profile picture.

Mu Qingxue took a deep breath and put on an extremely gentle smile.

Then she dialed a number.

“Lingling, I remember we have a mall under our name in Qingzhou, right?”

“Good, arrange for some people to go downstairs to her building within half an hour, beat the drums and strike up the music. The louder the better.”

“Who? Chen Xiaoyan.”

“Yes, that’s right. Also, make sure they keep their mouths shut.”

After giving her instructions, Mu Qingxue hung up.

Curling her lips, she stared at her unchanged message list on her phone.

Sleep, are you?

Let’s see you sleep.

Qiu Xue put down her phone, her small eyes full of big confusion.

The young miss actually told her to send people to beat drums and play music under Xiaoyan’s building?

What kind of move was that?

Did they have a fight?

Qiu Xue shook her head, unable to figure it out, but the young miss’s orders had to be carried out.

As a neighboring city, the Mu Group had more than one business in Qingzhou.

Getting a few people together for a performance was easy.

Barely twenty minutes had passed before several cars arrived at their destination.

They pulled out a full funeral parade and began to bang gongs and beat drums and blow suona horns.

“Dong dong qiang, dong dong qiang, dong dong dong dong qiang”

The sound of gongs, drums, and suona blared and shook the entire neighborhood in an instant.

“Cnm, are you nuts?”

“Who’s that crazy guy wailing at dawn like someone died?”

Many residents in their pajamas rushed out to the balcony, cursing at the noisy crowd downstairs.