During university holidays, Xu Qingqing often slept until the sun was high in the sky. Life during the break was a bit boring, so after meals, she would hurriedly log onto her computer to play games. This was her new recent hobby.
Zhou Chenyu had developed a fantasy-themed MMORPG. This game was so popular that everyone knew about it; even Xu Qingqing became obsessed with it, and because of this, Zhou Chenyu's status and wealth multiplied, earning him a hefty sum.
Xu Qingqing was very skilled at spending money in the game, ranking first on the wealth leaderboard of her server. Originally, this position belonged to the big boss Zhou Chenyu, but he couldn't afford to provoke a drama queen like Xu Qingqing, so he simply let her have it.
The money Xu Qingqing spent wasn't used elsewhere; it all went on buying cosmetic outfits. Although she spent a lot, her daily routine online consisted of changing clothes, taking screenshots to post on social media, and wandering around gossiping.
Recently, the game updated with a level 90 dungeon, which was also currently the most difficult one. The game's official announcement stated that the first team to clear the new dungeon would receive a special title with stat bonuses and generous rewards.
Thus, less than a day after the update, this dungeon sparked a frenzy among the players. Everyone was shouting in the world chat to form teams to take on the monsters and clear it.
As a vain drama queen who loved the spotlight, Xu Qingqing certainly wouldn't miss this opportunity. Relying on her own skills was basically hopeless, so she planned to ask Zhou Chenyu to carry her, only to find out he had no time recently.
By the time Zhou Chenyu was free, this dungeon would have long been cleared by other players. Sighing and shaking her head while complaining about her childhood friend, Xu Qingqing took to the world chat herself, offering to pay for someone to lead a team and take her into the dungeon.
Money can make the devil turn the millstone. Xu Qingqing successfully managed to join the currently top-ranked, fully-equipped team.
The group of players fought for a long time inside the dungeon. After several hours, they finally defeated the final boss. While everyone else was celebrating, Xu Qingqing, the big spender, started wandering around the dungeon sightseeing.
Somehow, she ended up somewhere and suddenly triggered a hidden storyline.
A butler NPC stood outside a landscape courtyard and said to Xu Qingqing, "There is a monster named Qing in the mansion. He has taken the city lord's favorite plum."
He said, "I hope everyone will enter, drive Qing away, and bring back the city lord's plum."
No one expected this dungeon to have a hidden storyline and boss. Originally, some in the team were quite critical of Xu Qingqing's behavior of wandering around without contributing, but now they felt somewhat awkward.
The players entered the landscape courtyard and saw the monster named Qing. According to the NPC's provided storyline, they just needed to defeat this monster, retrieve the city lord's item, and hand it over.
They just didn't know what the "plum" was—a woman or a treasure.
While fighting the monster, everyone speculated endlessly in voice chat. Someone joked, "It definitely can't just be a simple green plum, right?"
If that were the case, this monster would be too pitiful. In this game world full of rare treasures, stealing a single green plum from the city lord and then getting hunted down for it...
The hidden monster was quickly dealt with. The achievement notification was issued, and a message scrolled across the top of the game world: "Congratulations to the heroes for helping the city lord reclaim the treasure."
Everyone thought that after the monster Qing disappeared, the city lord's lost treasure would drop from its body, and they could take it and hand it over.
However, that didn't happen.
After Qing disappeared, the city lord's treasure did not return.
The butler NPC sighed mysteriously and said, "Opportunity is fleeting. Once a treasure is stolen, it should never return."
Eager for their rewards, no one really listened to what this NPC said, just quickly clicked to skip this part of the dialogue.
Later, players who had been in that dungeon wrote guides, indicating the location that triggered the hidden storyline. Subsequent players excitedly went to try but found that neither the butler nor Qing ever appeared again.
This hidden storyline seemed to be triggerable only once, after which it was removed in a game update. When players asked the official team, they only replied that it was originally a bug.
If it was a bug, why did players still get titles and rewards? No one knew.
Xu Qingqing also found it a bit strange. Relying on her acquaintance with the game's big boss, she went to ask Zhou Chenyu if it really was a bug. He, however, smiled meaninglessly and retorted, "Miss Xu, you had nothing better to do than wander around sightseeing in the dungeon?"
Clearing a new dungeon at its hardest, everyone else was working hard fighting monsters, and this young lady not only didn't help but actually wandered around aimlessly. Zhou Chenyu thought for a moment and guessed she had probably thrown money at the problem again.
Who knows how much she paid those people this time to agree to take her into the dungeon for a tour.
Xu Qingqing was taken aback: "How did you know? If it weren't for me, they wouldn't have triggered that storyline."
Zhou Chenyu laughed and affirmed, "Yes, that's right."
...
With a few words, he changed the subject, coaxing Xu Qingqing into forgetting her questions about the game's storyline. After hanging up the phone, a coquettish voice came from behind him: "You don't have a chance! Just give up already!"
Le Jiaojiao lay on the sofa, rolling her eyes: "With Xu Qingqing's parents making such a fuss, and you being her childhood friend, even without Xie Lianging, you two would absolutely never work out."
Zhou Chenyu liked Xu Qingqing. This was an open secret within the Zhou family. However, because Zhou Chenyu was unwilling, everyone tacitly kept this secret.
Everyone was waiting for when he would confess, but now everyone knew there was no chance.
Le Jiaojiao whined, "Brother, get me a date."
Zhou Chenyu walked past her casually, picked up a date from the fruit bowl on the table, and tossed it to Le Jiaojiao: "Shut up."
Le Jiaojiao hummed and hawed while eating the date, then suddenly said, "Brother, cut ties with Xie Lianging. He screwed you over."
Even she could see her brother's feelings; how could someone as scheming and deep as Xie Lianging not know? He was just pretending not to.
For this reason alone, Le Jiaojiao was very disapproving of Xie Lianging. To think he was her cousin's friend since childhood, yet he took advantage of her cousin's inconvenient position to confess and made the first move to win over Xu Qingqing.
But Zhou Chenyu said, "It's not his fault."
In matters of the heart, there is no first come, first served. He had over a decade more than Xie Lianging, but he himself failed to seize the opportunity.
Before, he always thought there was plenty of time, that he had many more chances. He thought as long as he was patient enough, he would be able to stand by Xu Qingqing's side in the future, waiting for her to grow up and resolve her issues.
It seems his luck just wasn't good enough; there was nothing to be done about that.
What Zhou Chenyu regretted most now was probably that he never confessed to Xu Qingqing. However, this time, planning that game storyline also served as completing his confession.
Although that scatterbrain Xu Qingqing remained unaware, for him, he had already fulfilled this long-held wish.
Later, on the eve of Xu Qingqing's wedding, Xie Lianging invited Zhou Chenyu to attend as a groomsman.
He declined.
The newlywed couple in front of him were sweetly holding hands. Not expecting his refusal, they both looked at him in unison, Xu Qingqing even blinking in confusion.
Zhou Chenyu's expression was as languid as ever as he said casually, "I had my fortune told as a child. It said I must never be a groomsman for anyone, or I'll end up alone and miserable for life."
Both Xu Qingqing and Xie Lianqing were a bit disappointed, but they didn't press him.
Afterwards, Le Jiaojiao mocked him for coming up with such an outrageous excuse, but Zhou Chenyu just smiled without a word.
He thought, just this once, he didn't want to stand behind someone, like their shadow.
In the past, he was always Xu Qingqing's closest person. No matter what happened, he was always the first one she turned to for help, and the one standing by her side.
Later, with the arrival of Xie Lianqing, her official boyfriend, he, the childhood friend, had no choice but to take a step back.
Whenever Xie Lianqing appeared, he had to step away from Xu Qingqing's side, yielding that position to her real boyfriend.
Just this once, he didn't want to stand behind Xie Lianqing, forced by his role to hide the affection in his eyes.
He wanted to sit in the audience, openly and honestly like any other guest, quietly watching her get married.
So on the day of Xu Qingqing's wedding, Zhou Chenyu truly did not stand beside the groom. Instead, he sat among the guests in the audience, watching the newlyweds along with everyone else.
The doors opened, the processional music began, and Xu Qingqing, holding onto Chairman Xu's arm, walked slowly towards him, then passed him by, smiling as she made her way to Xie Lianqing.
Tagore said that love is when your eyes rain for her, but your heart holds an umbrella for her.
And from beginning to end, even now, Zhou Chenyu could only watch Xu Qingqing with a smile in his gaze, seeing her off and blessing her.
Outside, a light drizzle fell from a gloomy sky. Zhou Chenyu felt as if that rain was falling within his own heart.
The light streaming through the doorway shone upon Xu Qingqing's pure white wedding dress. The veil on her head was beautiful, and the train of her dress sparkled behind her.
In the guest seats, a mischievous child bent down, reaching out to touch the hem of Xu Qingqing's dress. Zhou Chenyu immediately turned and frowned at the child. The parents, noticing his warning, promptly stopped their little troublemaker.
A small potential crisis was averted, and Xu Qingqing would never know that a mischievous child had almost caused trouble during her wedding.
Although there was an ill-timed rain outside, her wedding was overall still happy and perfect.
The moment her veil was lifted, Zhou Chenyu gazed at her face, his lips curling into a smile, yet a sigh escaped his heart.
He had fantasized countless times that he would be the one to lift Xu Qingqing's veil. He had also imagined countless times how beautiful she would look beneath it.
So this is how it is, Zhou Chenyu thought with a bitter smile.
Although the one who lifted Xu Qingqing's veil wasn't him, it wasn't Xie Lianqing either, because that bold bride lifted her own veil, boldly inviting her groom to go catch jellyfish with her.
She was as adorable as ever.
After the ceremony came a lively celebration party, with everyone holding champagne and having fun. Zhou Chenyu stood amidst the boisterous crowd, watching as Xie Lianqing and Xu Qingqing, hand in hand, ran outside.
Mid-escape, the bride accidentally dropped a small sprig of flowers, just a few stems from her bouquet tied together like a miniature posy.
Zhou Chenyu walked over and bent down to pick it up.
That little sprig of flowers was later placed in his bedroom, but he never went in to look at it. Eventually, the flowers withered and faded. They were made into a bookmark, hidden within one of the many books in his vast study, becoming yet another secret among the many that could never be spoken aloud.
...
A long, long time ago, when they were sixteen, Zhou Chenyu and Xu Qingqing sat on the rooftop, lost in thought.
Zhou Chenyu asked the girl beside him, "You don't want to get married in the future?"
Xu Qingqing was eating an ice pop. Gazing at the starry night sky above, she said, "Yeah."
Her parents' messy affairs were known to everyone. If even a childhood sweetheart's feelings couldn't be relied on, Xu Qingqing held no expectations for marriage.
Zhou Chenyu looked at her, his eyes playful as he joked, "What a coincidence, I don't want to get married either. If we're both still single by thirty, how about we just make do with each other?"
Xu Qingqing thought for a moment and agreed offhandedly, "Sure, that works."
