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Hiya! This is a new novel by Mo Chen Huan and since I love all of her works so friggin" much, I really wanted to share this with y"all! Hope you will all enjoy! One word of warning though – my chinese is primary school level at best, this translation was only made possible through strict perusal of the Chinese popup dictionary, so the translation may not flow smoothly in some parts.
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Chapter 1
August, the blistering heat of the summer sun scorched down on the aisles of the Yangtze.
On TV currently was news of an upcoming heat wave.
A rich, middle-aged woman wearing a red cheongsam and a gold bracelet handed a peeled apple to her son who was at the moment reviewing for his exam.
The anchor on TV once again emphasized the high temperature warning.
“Oh my G.o.d, it"s going to be this hot. Son, let"s not go to cram school this afternoon, okay?”
Upon hearing this, Ji Xiaoli said: “Mom, the test is in two months. If I don"t study now, will I pa.s.s the entrance exam?”
Mrs. Ji, mumbling to herself: “you won"t get in even if you study.”
Ji Xiao Li: “….”
Was she really his biological mom?
At the sound of a door opening, the youngster sitting on the couch turned to look and yelled, “Dad! Persuade mom for me! Mom is once again telling me not to attend cram school. Even though the money"s already been paid for, four thousand this much!”
Mr. Ji removed his straw hat and gave the basket of freshly caught fish to the nanny in the kitchen before silently retrieving a card from his pocket and giving it to his son: “What costs four thousand? Go, quickly go buy! Father has money!”
“…” Ji Xiao Li was rendered speechless.
After things have been cleared up, Mr. Ji puzzedly stared at his son, “Xiao Li, you still want to be a civil servant? What"s the purpose of becoming one? You"ll have to work everyday, even driving to the city takes an hour. You"ll have to get up at seven in the morning. Son, how can us nouveau riche suffer such hardship. Work, what work? Just wait to receive dad"s inheritance!”
“Dad, you aren"t dead yet!”
Mrs. Ji jumped in, “exactly! What inheritance? Those are properties!”
Mr. Ji nodded, quickly changing his tone, “son, now that you are going to work, who will come inherit your father"s property?
The old couple anxiously watched their son, fearful that he would refuse to part from the idea.
Ji Xiao Li, “……”
Ji Xiao Li wordlessly retreated to his room with his review booklet. Rearing to his large velvety bed, he plopped down and allowed his whole body to sink into the soft fabric.
Lying there, he ruminated his parents" words, coming to a conclusion they were not necessarily wrong.
“Indeed, why should us nouveau riche work that hard anyway!”
Ji Xiao Li threw the brick-like review book into the thrash can and flipped open his cellphone.
A melodious tune echoed shortly after Ji Xiao Li entered the game. Appearing on screen was a handsome swordsman clothed in blue and white. Above his head were the words, “Teacher Orders a Salute.”
Ji Xiao Li controlled the swordsman around the map step by step along the way.
Games nowadays required much less hand action than before. As long as your character had reached a certain level threshold, then they were perfectly capable of solo-ing their fights themselves. Ji Xiao Li delivered his blue-attired swordsman to a dungeon and aggresively picked out two dungeon BOSSes while conjunctly searching the game shop for good equipments.
This game is called《Knight Errant Road》 and is currently the hottest ancient-styled RPG of the moment. Although it had only been out for a month, because it can be played on mobile anytime one wished, it immediately became popular. Soon after becoming a nouveau riche, Ji Xiao Li too began playing.
He bought the equipments just in time for the round to finish, his character reaching level 60.
At level 60, one can accept a disciple.
Ji Xiao Li rubbed his hands excitedly.
Illuminated from head to toe in a golden light, the blue-attired swordsman shot like a rocket towards Tao LiTang.
Tao Li speaks not, destiny is of your own choosing.
“Knight Errant Road” was similar to every other RPG game out there in that all disciples had to fulfill a certain requirement, this was the same for the teachers. Since Ji Xiao Li had just reached level 60, this should be his first time accepting a disciple, yet he seemed familiar with the motions of it all. Directly entering Tao LiTang, he found the recipient NPC who was responsible for matching disciples with teachers and bought the prop “Esteemed Teacher"s Signboard.”
【Prop:Esteemed Teacher"s Signboard】
【Level:60】
【Function: Allows you to issue Esteemed Teacher"s delcaration in Tao LiTang and accept a disciple】
The courtyard of Tao LiTang already hosted more than a dozen players. Every player clenched in their hands a signboard, and were sitting on the floor. The signs distinguished different ranks by prices and colors, although they were all capable of accepting a disciple. An overwhelming majority of the signs displayed were gray, with one exception that was bronze. Ji Xiao Li only maneuvered his swordsman to the area, arranged the hem of his robes, extracted the sign from his inventory, and sat down.
In an instant, a golden light flashed through the entirety of Tao LiTang, blinding the eyes of everyone present.
Tao LiTang instantly drew quiet.
The Shaolin sitting to the left of Ji Xiao Li exclaimed with astonishment:
【A Tyrant(1) ah! This signboard costs 88RMB! Just to take in a disciple, you are willing to expend this much! Big bro, lemme kneel for you.】
Ji Xiao Li did not see what he said because he was currently browsing the game shop for equipments.
At present, the level cap in «Knight Errant Road» was 138. Newcomers received a bonus and with only two days, can easily reached level 60. As a matter of fact, Ji Xiao Li"s account had only been established for two days yet his strength was not low.
The Shaolin gloomily observed Ji Xiao Li"s equipment before crying out in surprise:
【f.u.c.k! You"re only level 60 yet your Xiuwei is already 7800! Big bro, you really are a big shot!】
Upon seeing the Shaolin"s words, the other players in Tao LiTang all subsequently checked Ji Xiao Li"s stats.
Xiuwei is the value of a player"s strength in «Knight Errant Road». A player"s equipments, grade, and cheats will be taken into account in the calculation of this number. Ordinary level 60 players will at most have a Xiuwei of 4000, while players who spend money can obtain a Xiuwei of 6000 and above.
The prying players mauling over Ji Xiao Li"s stats did not know that the person himself was still engrossed in the shop.
After debating for half a day, Ji Xiao Li finally obtained a pair of boots he regarded as not bad and happily equipped it, noticing on the side that it increased his Xiuwei by 50 points.
From the blue-attired swordsman"s body soared a golden light filling the air with a sour copper stench. The blue-attired swordsman merely held his signboard and sat down; not far from him sat a nearly indistinguishable looking swordsman also dressed in blue, however why did Ji Xiao Li feel like he had such a n.o.ble and graceful bearing in contrast?
It was precisely because while both of them were level 60, one had a Xiuwei of 7850 while the other – a measly 4500. Even if they had to PK with eyes closed, Ji Xiao Li was confident he could still one-sidedly beat the other to death.
No one entered Tao LiTang even after waiting for so long.
Ji Xiao Li sensing something was wrong jabbed the abreast Shaolin and asked: 【dude, why is no one coming?】
Shaolin: 【Tyrant!】
Ji Xiao Li stared blankly at his screen, thinking to himself, that"s right, I am a tyrant.
Thus he calmly accepted it and continued:
【Normally shouldn"t it only take around 10 minutes to receive a disciple? It"s been an hour already, yet how come not a single person showed? What"s da occasion today?】
Have all the novices disappeared?
Without waiting for the Shaolin to respond, the Emei beside spoke:
【Did you not see the trumpets bro? Everybody already left to see the show, how can there still be people heading to Tao LiTang searching for teachers.】
Ji Xiao Li, dumbfounded, checked the world chat in a haste.
He wouldn"t have known had he not checked, but it still gave him a big shock after he checked.
While Ji Xiao Li was in the midst of haggarding for equipments, an explosive courtship drama was happening in the world chat. The district"s first ranked Emei, who was also the first ranked Emei of the entire server, the well respected senior sister “Bei Yuan,” had sent 520 trumpets professing her love for the server"s number one Huashan disciple, “YueJian ChunHe.”
In《Knight Errand Road》, if players wanted to broadcast a message to the world then they only needed to spend 500 copper coins, however sending trumpets costs actual RMB. Trumpets also had different ranks and cla.s.sifications. The pink ones Bei Yuan issued were worth 28RMB each. The trumpets sprinkling dozens of cherry petals on screen made for an absolutely romantic sight.
520 trumpets in total were worth 14560 RMB….
Even a nouveau riche like Ji Xiao Li felt pained.
Ji Xiao Li had just arrived yet this courtship drama already reached its epilogue. After Bei Yuan issued the trumpet, she waited half a day but the male lead still hadn"t make his appearance, and so five minutes later, she sent out a few more strips.
【Bei Yuan: ChunHe, I can see you are online.】
【Bei Yuan: ChunHe, I will wait for you by the Stone of Three Lifetimes.】
【Bei Yuan: ChunHe……】
10 minutes later.
【YueJian ChunHe: Had a call, didn"t see the messages. I"m not interested in seeking a marriage partner. 50,000 RMB accept all gold ranked skills, 100,000 for advanced, you are allowed to bargain. Welcomed to negotiate privately. No buy no gold.】
Barely 2 seconds later.
【YuJian ChunHe: 50,000 RMB accept all gold ranked skills, 100,000 for advanced, you are allowed to bargain. Welcomed to negotiate privately. No buy no gold, not seeking a marriage partner.】
Bei Yuan: “……”
Ji Xiao Li：”……”
Everyone：”……”
…..the f.u.c.k you mean not seeking a marriage partner!
And even issuing the cheapest 4 yuan trumpet!
Ji Xiao Li felt he lost face on the guy"s behalf.
The world chat suddenly grew heated.
There were comments saying Bei Yuan"s good intentions were snubbed, as well as those calling YueJian ChunHe trash.
Even in the small Tao LiTang, similiar conversations were taking place.
The female Emei:【YueJian ChunHe is truly trash！Just two days ago I saw him and Bei Yuan raiding a dungeon together, just the two of them! It"s clear he was just purposely getting people"s hopes up! tsk tsk tsk!】
Shaolin：【I don"t think so, everyone knows Bei Yuan is YueJian ChunHe"s healer. These two dungeoning together is quite normal.】
Another hair clasped into buns female Emei:【Senior sister wasted 520 trumpets, since he"s not looking for a marriage partner, why didn"t he out-rightly refuse her upon her first request, making people needlessly waste 520 trumpets. 10,000 yuan ah! Truly a sc.u.m, he"s just enjoying the feeling of being confessed to!】
Currently in Tao LiTang, there were two Huashan, Ji Xiao Li and the other guy. There were indeed many Emei healers, thus they reverberated each others" words up to the point YueJian ChunHe became Knight Errand Road"s number one sc.u.m male.
The Shaolin seeing that he was unable to out-talk this group of female Emei, pulled Ji Xiao Li over and said：【hey fella, your Huashan brethen"s gossip, why don"t you say a few words?】
He hadn"t even finished speaking when he saw a glistening trumpet fly over his head.
【Teacher Orders a Salute：YueJian ChunHe you are sc.u.m! Go die!!!!】
Shaolin："……"
There were many players calling YueJian ChunHe sc.u.m on the world chat, but only one – Ji Xiao Li – who issued a trumpet. But when the others took a look at his stats：Oh, just a level 60 newcomer ah, no one paid anymore attention to him.
After issuing the trumpet, Ji Xiao Li did not even bother to explain and only echoed a loud sigh in response before patting his b.u.t.t up to leave.
Shaolin yelled：【Ei bro! why are you leavin?】
Ji Xiao Li：【I received a disciple ah.】
Shaolin：【eh??!!!】
【System】 Tao Li speaks not, destiny is of your own choosing. The player "Milk Tea Small Crisp" asks to worship you as a teacher.
Accept or Refuse.
This name was totally that of a girl"s, especially that of a cute sister!
Ji Xiao Li quickly accepted and held his RMB-bought signboard atop the small crowd of Tao LiTang. On the other hand, Milk Tea Small Crisp stood by the NPC searching for her teacher. Turning, she saw from her peripheral a shimmery ma.s.s of light from a gold-staccato-ed signboard, as well as the blue-attired swordsman standing beside it.
The Loli Emei with her hair clipped into two buns stood distractedly by her station, as if blindsided by the brilliant rays of the RMB halo.
As she drew closer, the words on the signboard grew clearer.
【Current】Milk Tea Small Crisp：……
【Current】Teacher Orders a Salute：Disciple!
The signboard in the blue-attired swordsman"s hands——
『Your teacher I, am h.e.l.la rich!』
(1) Tyrant: Slang – Noveau riche