Love Began with the First Meeting

The rising mist in the bathroom outlined his robust body inside the glass door of the shower.

Charlie squeezed out some shampoo from the expensive bottle and applied it slowly on his wet hair. He rubbed it in with his fingertips for a while, till white foams appeared all over his black hair. He looked like a hot model under the hazy lights. Charlie was tall and had wheat skin. He had a straight stomach which was adorned with a six pack abs which ended with an inverted triangle, highlighting the manliness below his hips.

The nerd entered the room and heard the sound of the shower. He shrugged with a soundless sigh and continued to read his book. After some time, the sound of the water stopped and Charlie stepped out of the bathroom, dripping wet. A bath towel covered the lower part of the body. His wet hair fell onto his forehead, making him look sexier than always.

The nerd raised his eyes from the book to look at his overly hot roommate. He eyed his abs and his muscular body. "Uh... Charlie?"

"Hmm?" Charlie echoed lazily, as he reached for a dry towel to wipe his hair.

"You don't play any sport and I don't see you working out," Bookworm stated curiously, "How in the world did you build those muscles?"

His question bemused Charlie, he cracked a grin. There was an air of arrogance in his smile. "I have only recently stepped down on my workout sessions." Members of the Long family received relentless training, except his big aunt, who was in poor health. Bookworm gaped at him as Charlie shrugged and removed the towel that was wrapped around his waist. Standing majestically naked, he searched for his underpants and put it on without bothering about his poor roommate.

Every time Charlie did this, it annoyed his nerdy roommate. He felt that Charlie was showing off his splendid body on purpose. It was like salt to his wound. But he understood why Evelyn had fallen in love with him.

He played games on his computer all day and never really took his time to study his subjects. But every time, he scored the first rank. He was handsome, with a body of a Greek God. And on top of all that, he was also crazy rich. It was no wonder that all the girls wanted to catch his eye.

Charlie overlooked how dismayed his roomie was. He kept his eyes on his laptop screen where there was a girl in the blue gauze skirt. Messages flashed in the dialog box beside her. A gentle smile blooming on his lips, he browsed through the messages by controlling the computer mouse.

[Friend] Sweet Dream: Silent Sorrow... I am so sorry for what happened today. Do you think that I can afford the huge loss which you and Legendary Past have suffered? (Pitiful Emoji)

[Friend] Sweet Dream: Are you there?

[Friend] Sweet Dream: I know that you did me a big favor and I am aware of what it means to Legendary Past as well. Please reply, Silent Sorrow!

Charlie looked through the messages his Little Bun* had sent. It looked like she was about to go berserk from all the tension.

(*TN: The nickname for Elsa.)

[Friend] Sweet Dream: Argh! I don't know what to do!

[Friend] Sweet Dream: Silent Sorrow... Could you please reply soon? Are you there? You have gained a lot of unwanted attention after this incident, I am also in a bad situation right now. People are still talking about me. Elsa changed tactics and tried to grab his attention somehow.

[Friend] Sweet Dream: Silent Sorrow, in this virtual game world, we are all strangers. Don't you agree? So... Even though all this has happened, I guess it doesn't matter. Everything will be fine. Do you agree with me?

No reply. Elsa was going nuts in her room. She could not stand his silence anymore.

[Friend] Sweet Dream: Sorrow! Are you there or not?!

Charlie grinned from ear to ear, looking at the girl anxiously revolving around Silent Sorrow on the screen. He finally replied.

[Friend] Silent Sorrow: I am here.

[Friend] Sweet Dream: Finally! Where were you? Why didn't you reply all this time?

[Friend] Silent Sorrow: I had no idea what to say. Can you even imagine what my friends channel and my group channel look like now? I am getting tons of messages every minute. Do you really expect me to pretend like nothing has happened? [Friend] Sweet Dream: ...

[Friend] Silent Sorrow: (Gloomy Emoji) I see... It's just a game after all... No matter how sincerely you treat someone, they are not really obliged to treat you the same way. Besides the hurt, I should also bear the blame and queries from all directions. [Friend] Sweet Dream: ...

[Friend] Silent Sorrow: Forget it!

After sending those two words, Charlie smiled at the girl in his screen. He had his game character removed from the Lover Valley. On the screen, a swordsman in white robes was standing in the wind. He looked rather lonely against the background. Elsa had no idea where he had gone off to.

[Friend] Sweet Dream: Where are you?

Elsa was concerned, her cheeks were round like buns now. She typed more messages, but received no replies from the swordsman.

"Argh! Why won't you text me back?" Elsa asked with a pout. She habitually opened the friend list and checked where Silent Sorrow was. "Illusory Mount?" she muttered. Her eyes opened wide. She was stunned. "He is in Illusory Mount!"

Anna, her roommate, just happened to walk into the room at the time. She heard Elsa's scream and jumped in fear. "What?! What happened?"

Elsa was completely immersed in the game and totally ignored Anna's concerned words. She quickly found the Transfer Rune from her backpack in the game. She rarely used it, especially to go to Illusory Mount. She usually stayed at the Mount when she was offline. So, she knew the basic routes to the Illusory Mount starting from the low-grade places.

But, she didn't have enough time to walk all the way up there at the moment, so she chose to use the Transfer Rune this time.

Illusory Mount was enveloped by mist all year round. On the mountainside was a clump of bamboo trees where the gamers played the Chinese seven-stringed zither and the vertical flute from time to time. On the peak of the Illusory Mount, there was the Peach Blossom Forest. A cluster of bright red immersed in white mist. Such beauty... It was a sharp contrast to the Yama's Palace down below.

Though Elsa had been to the Illusory Mount several times, she had never been to Yama's Palace. Neither had she ever been to the Peach Blossom Forest. The only way to the Peach Blossom Forest was to pass through Yama's Palace, but only very few people knew that.

[Friend] Sweet Dream: Are you really here?

No response.

[Friend] Sweet Dream: You are not gonna do anything stupid, are you?

Elsa had just sent the message, when the speaker channel flashed across the screen.

[Speaker] Silent Sorrow: That's the end of the farce today. In retrospect, the battle is over. But, I'm still not done. For me, the battle is far from over. All along, I believed that as long as I stayed here and silently protected you, you will find and accept my heart one day, but that was just my dream. It is time for me to wake up! As they say, "You can't always ask the ones you love to love you in return."

When Elsa saw his sentimental words, she felt like she was struck by a thunderbolt.

Due to Silent Sorrow's words, World was in an uproar. The players expressed different feelings-doubt, concern and soothing words. Of course, some people were jealous as usual. 000000