Chapter Five: The Waltz at Wimpole Square

  He Fei held her mobile phone with both hands, index fingers facing each other, unsure of how to comfort another person who had been defeated by her English skills.

  The phone rang, and a muffled voice came on: "Are you intentionally annoying me?"

  "I don't have it." She wanted to annoy him, but there was no need to be deliberate.

  "I was going to come back tomorrow and talk about it together," he sighed, "Can you make voice calls in your dorm?"

  "Not very convenient, but I can go to an internet cafe."

  "Let's just stay at my place then. First, let's go online and play games together. Winston Bright Temple Square, you know the one?"

  "What? How did the topic change so quickly?" He Fei blinked, but since it was a diversionary tactic to shift the blame, she had no choice but to listen, "Oh, I see."

  "Log in to Feier's account and come dance the waltz with me, I'll send you the account number by text." He hung up before I could respond. Less than half a minute later, two texts came over - one was the password for the desktop computer, the other was the game account.

  Switch to the swivel chair, sit down, and slide in front of the desktop computer. Log in one by one according to the instructions. She only spoke on the voice channel last time and didn't really operate the character. This time she entered the character screen, her fingers were a bit stiff.

  He Fei had little experience playing games, and "City of Wishes" was the only game she had ever played seriously. Unfortunately, her operation was clumsy, and after more than a year, her character level had just reached 40, and she hadn't even joined a guild. Even when walking on the road, there were few passersby who would team up with her. Suddenly being entrusted with an important task, taking over someone else's account to dance, to be honest, He Fei was really afraid that she wouldn't even know how to walk anymore.

  Fortunately, after logging in, she found that the character's race was a fairy, just like the one she had cultivated before, and she felt slightly relieved. At least the basic skills were still understandable to her. As for the character being close to full level and having top-notch equipment all over her body, this was not within her scope of concern.

  Not even having time to appreciate the game character's European-style palace dress, the friend list received a message, Lucifer: "Take the teleportation array to Winston."

  He Fei adjusted the input method, sent out a "good" word, and searched for the transmission NPC on the map. After running around for half a day, as soon as he came out of the transmission array, he received two system messages.

  Player Lucifer has requested to team up with you.

  Player Lucifer has requested a hug with you.

  She nodded obediently in confirmation.

  Lucifer wore a black long gown, his crimson magic sword shining brightly, and with a spread of his silver bone wings, he flew towards the square, carrying a noble-like young demon girl, stirring up a wave of onlookers in the game's world channel.

  "Running a map is so slow, didn't you say you've played it before?"

  He Fei thought it was refreshing to fly and flashed a smile to curry favor: "How can I compare with the great leader, I'm only level 40."

  Lucifer's wings retracted, and he began to descend from high altitude: "Is that what you call having fun?"

  "...newbies also have the right to occupy server resources."

  "Follow me, there are many people below."

  As he spoke, Lucifer released her and the two of them fell onto the square, immediately swallowed up by the crowd. Fortunately, they had formed a team, with Lucifer holding a small golden flagpole on his head, and HeFi hastily followed him, walking and stopping, until they found a group of people with "Fallen Heaven" ID on their heads.

  Lucifer sent another private message: "Accept the invitation."

  He Fei nodded and returned, the system prompted to agree with the invitation. The background music paused for a moment, then changed to a lively waltz, elegant and luxurious.

  The crowd began to disperse, and the men and women in pairs rotated. Lucifer walked over, took Phyllis's hand, and with a slight bow, the two of them also started dancing to the beat. The whole team slowly formed a circle, while Lucifer and Phyllis danced into the center, as they were the lead dancers.

  "Wishful City" is a Western-style fantasy online game. To reflect the era of its background story, the system's dance steps are older than waltz. Specifically, when the music starts, the ideal male and female partners dance together, after one circle, they have to separate and dance with another person. The traditional meaning of the dance is that no matter which side you turn to, as long as you keep dancing, you will eventually meet your original partner again and leave the dance floor hand in hand.

  However, in online games, it is jokingly referred to as a blind date dance. It's said that eight or nine out of ten couples who met while playing this game locked eyes here.

  He Fei's tragic past also occurred here, at that time, others were the main characters, she was just a spectator. Now, she walks to the designated location, hangs up and turns around, looking at the experience values that keep popping out of her game character's head, still a passerby.

  The gang channel was always lively, with everyone hanging out and dancing while discussing the city war summary. She praised everyone for doing a great job with the fireworks display, so she didn't say anything.

  In the end, she was wearing someone else's clothes. Without Mi Lu's instructions, she didn't even dare to make any extra moves. With her hand supporting her cheek, she stared blankly at the screen for a while. Suddenly, He Fei thought of going back to her own account to take a look. Previously saying that she wouldn't play was just an excuse for herself to save face. Besides entertaining others, who would put it in their heart?

  Besides, she played for more than a year and didn't gain nothing. At least she saved some money, converted it into RMB and put it in her pocket, which can offset the cost of paying out.

  She slightly dragged the game interface down, and He Fei opened the login box again, entered her own account number, and entered the game. It was still the place where she logged off last time - the Kingdom of Stephani, the realm of elves. This is said to be the most beautiful place in the game, with dandelions floating in the sky all year round, eternal sunshine and soft harp sounds.

  She used to stay here often, not only because of the beautiful scenery, but also because there are many good medicinal herbs on this side. Picking herbs and daydreaming, in other people's eyes, is a waste of time, but she likes it - there's a kind of happy feeling of waiting.

  Of course it doesn't exist now.

  He Fei manipulated the character to run to a safe area, turned around in place, opened the storage space to check the amount of wealth, and for an instant, she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her.

  Total gold coins: 0.

  Several hundred thousand gold coins instantly became 0.

  The equipment is still there, and nothing in the package is missing, it doesn't look like it's been stolen. As for this account, she only told one person the password.

  Her fingers pressed tightly on the mouse, but it seemed to be disobedient. The character in the game jumped aimlessly, and He Fei's mind was filled with only one indignant thought: Emotional investment had gone down the drain, and now even money couldn't be earned?!

  She really wants to smash the keyboard and kick the host, why isn't this her computer...

  A certain woman is crying out loud on the global channel.

  Another game interface popped up a message box from Mi Lu: "Go AFK and find something to eat, I'll wait for you."

  Some people say that the sharpest memories require a touch of just one centimeter less, unable to be touched but still able to feel the warmth.

  In the crowded streets, feeling anxious and losing direction, someone shouted to follow him, it's probably this kind of mood.

  In an instant, He Fei's eyes were filled with tears as she found joy in her suffering.

  Subconsciously, she responded with an "oh" in the dialogue box. When she came to her senses a moment later, it was already a minute later. She didn't expect herself to be so sentimental either. He Fei stood up, pulled out a tissue, and wiped her face randomly. Listening to the words, she ran into the kitchen to find something to eat.

  The fridge was full of snacks and fruits, as well as fresh vegetables. She scanned from top to bottom and suddenly felt better.

  Ten minutes later, He Fei carried her hot dinner upstairs and looked at the two characters resting on the desktop. She had originally wanted to directly move the mouse to turn off her character's screen, but then she thought about it and instead found a store where she sold all the items in her package as well as her equipment for 9,000 gold coins, which she then transferred to "Fei Er"'s account.

  No one can send it to the system, right?

  However, after the successful transfer, He Fei was struck again. The other party's package was a legendary Subdimensional Bag with a base amount of 10,000 yuan, so it was still in the decimal place.

  She closed her personal profile page and sadly told Milu: "I'm ready, when will the lecture start?"

  "Switch to audio channel." Mi Lu replied.

  She moved the microphone on the table in front of her and nodded for him to start.

  "What did you have for dinner?"

  Mi Lu's clear voice came over, making He Fei tense up unnaturally for a moment, and she replied in a non-sequitur: "Ah, your computer speakers are really good."

  "Hmm, I know, have you had dinner?" Apparently, Milu's train of thought was not disrupted.

  "Uh, I had roasted pumpkin for dinner."

  "?" Milu sent over a question mark.

  "Cough, it's roasted with your microwave..."

  "Is this okay too?"

  He Fei blinked her eyes and carefully typed out a line of words: "The microwave oven danced the waltz with the pumpkin, the microwave oven is still alive, the pumpkin is cooked."

  Mi Lu spat out a string of bubbles.

  “>_

  "Let's have a supplementary lesson," Miro yielded, the sound of rustling papers came from the other end of the line, "Take out your test paper and copy down notes carefully."

  "Hmm." He Fei put down the bitten watermelon and obediently pulled out the test paper.

  "Given your limited vocabulary, it's quite difficult to fully understand the content of the whole text. So, it's better to first read the questions after the main text and then try to guess, for example, the first one: 'Mi Lu posted a screenshot of a photocopied document with red lines in the chat window', 'What does the high school...'"

  The American beauty indeed knows how to teach according to the students' aptitude. He Fei felt that she had never understood it so clearly before, nodding her head while listening to the lesson and even enthusiastically answering: "I know this, I know, after TO must be followed by a verb in its original form!"

  "This is not necessarily so, for example ——"

  "It's too complicated."

  "Just remember..."