I could not beat Murong Shanshan so I could only bite the bullet and walk up to that girl. I sat down while feeling embarra.s.sed. [1]

mm only looked at me in surprise and without acknowledging me she continued to eat. [2]

I searched my intestines and sc.r.a.ped my belly before finally coming up with n sort of plan to strike up a conversation —— [3]

"Miss, there's no one sitting here, right? Can I sit?"

mm did not look up, but smiled slightly. More accurately, it was that she slightly raised the corner of her mouth.

From far over came Murong Shanshan's discordant voice: "Idiot, you've already sat down. Why are you still saying that sort of nonsense?" [4]

I suddenly felt awkward and stretched my head to look at mm's bowl of scrambled eggs and tomatoes: "Miss, this red-green of yours is truly pleasing to the eye. Can I order the same thing as you?" [5]

mm still kept her head down while slightly smiling.

I was out of things to say. After a bit, I stared at the ring on mm's hand and said: "Miss, your ring is so colorful. It's very beautiful. Is it Beijing cloisonné?"

mm stopped because she had already finished eating. She lowered her head and retrieved a tissue from her purse. After carefully wiping her mouth, she lifted her head and said while looking at me: "I'm done eating. Are you going to invite me to see a movie?"

I was instantly dumbstruck and froze for a long while without being able to say anything. mm smiled lightly: "Well, I'm leaving. Bye!"

Not until mm walked out did I awaken from my shock. This mm is a little too easy, isn't she… …

"Hey, stop looking already. She's already walked far away." Murong Shanshan patted my shoulder and then suddenly seriously asked: "Did you feel like we've met that woman somewhere before?"

"Met before? No way!"

Murong Shanshan thought for a while before suddenly realizing: "That woman seems to be that female thief called 'You Lan' that was with Romantic Master before. Do you still remember? We met during the first auction."

I carefully racked my brain, failed, and then asked: "I have dealt with Romantic Master quite a few times but why have I never met this woman before? My impression was that all of the people working for Romantic Master are men. I'm pretty sure there were basically no women."

"Afterwards she no longer appeared, but during the first auction she was definitely with Romantic Master. I'm sure of it."

I shook my head and said: "Stop thinking about it. Weren't you hungry? Hurry up and eat. I'll wait to accompany you home."

After she finished eating, Murong Shanshan was still not done as she pulled me into a video store that was nearby. The shop owner was very enthusiastic as he said to the beautiful lady: "Miss, what sort of movie do you want to see?"

Murong Shanshan glanced at the discs on the shelf and said: "Are there any standout new movies? I want the genuine versions too."

"Of course there are! This here is a good movie that just recently came out." The shop owner hurriedly pulled out a disc from on the shelf. On the cover is a conspicuous image of a practically ** woman dangling a juicy cherry. The movie's name was and the boss's face was completely red as he introduced it: "This is a film that just recently became available for sale. It can compete with previous years'

Murong Shanshan never thought that the shop owner would bring out this sort of film and immediately flushed completely red: "Who said that I wanted this sort of film? Are there any stimulating movies? Though not that sort… …"

The shop owner thought for a while and then immediately took some discs down from the shelf before he said: "These films are pretty good. They're horror films - very exciting!"

Murong Shanshan debated for a bit before finally deciding to buy two of the films. I looked at the two films. One was a zombie film while the other was a Western horror film.

After walking out of the video store, I asked in confusion: "Shanshan, weren't you scared quite a bit today by the monsters in-game? Why are you watching these sorts of horror films then?"

Murong Shanshan giggled: "It's different now. Aren't you here? If you accompany me to watch them, then what is there to be afraid of? You don't know this, but staying here alone has almost made me bored to death. Without at least watching these sorts of exciting things, I'll go crazy.

I was instantly speechless and after a while I said: "You need to be mentally prepared; I'm not a person with large amounts of courage either. If the movie is too terrifying, I might rush into your arms instead."

"You're not serious… …"

After walking through the door, I turned around and locked it. Murong Shanshan grabbed some drinks and took them to her room. Laughing, she said: "Feel free to be at home. After all, it's just me here."

I was suddenly amazed: "Be at home? Are you suggesting something?"

It then dawned on Murong Shanshan that her words were too ambiguous. Her snowy face immediately turned red as she glared at me and said: "So what? Even if I was being suggestive, would you even have the guts to be so reckless?"

Because I noticed she was about to freak out, I immediately said: "Of course I wouldn't dare. Didn't you want to watch some movies? Hurry up and open your computer, okay?"

Murong Shanshan closed the door to her room with a "Hong" sound and said with a smile: "How can you use a computer to watch movies? The quality would be too poor. Using a DVD player would be better."

At this moment, I noticed that Murong Shanshan's room had a thin widescreen TV and on the ground nearby was what seemed to be a small DVD player.

Murong Shanshan lithely ran over, turned on the TV, and inserted a couple of discs. As she ran back, she hugged some blankets in her arms. Afterwards she * at the head of the bed while smoothly turning off the only light in the room. [7]

I sat by her side. The unique fragrance of a girl's room wafted over. Moreover, because Murong Shanshan seemed to use some kind of faint perfume I then asked: "Shanshan, do you usually wear makeup?"

"Normally I don't because I don't have the time. If I am going out to meet with friends or taking pictures then I might wear some light makeup.  What's up? Why are you asking about this?"

I chuckled and said: "I was just curious."

Murong Shanshan raised the corners of her mouth a bit and slightly smiled: "Do you like girls who wear makeup or girls who don't wear makeup?"

I hesitated for a moment and replied: "Normally speaking, if a girl is pretty enough, then not wearing any makeup is fine. However, girls who wear light makeup make me feel like they have a slightly better temperament."

"Oh, I get it."

"What?"

Murong Shanshan laughed instead of answering. Instead she said: "The movie has started. This is the one I invited you to watch so you'd better concentrate on it~"

Half an hour later, Murong Shanshan no longer had a smile. The movie's plot was brilliant without forgetting to incorporate new ideas. Most importantly, those zombies were truly too horrible. After the death of Master Lin Zhengying, a new talented zombie director had finally emerged in China!

Murong Shanshan said in a quiet voice: "Can we change to another film? This one is too terrifying. How about we watch Crayon s.h.i.+n-chan instead?" [8]

"I don't want to watch a j.a.panese show…"

"Let's continue then…"

A little over an hour later, Murong Shanshan would not even dare to drink water. She said that because she would be too afraid to go to the bathroom at night she was not willing to drink too much right now.

The zombie film continued until nearly 11pm before it finally finished. Murong Shanshan said she would rather do anything instead of watching the next horror film because she could not handle any more.

I rubbed some sore parts of my waist, looked at my watch, and said: "Shanshan, I should head back now otherwise Lin-jie and the others will think that I've gone missing."

"That…" Murong Shanshan's words stopped.

I looked back at her in surprise: "What's wrong?"

Murong Shanshan lightly bit her lips and said in a small voice: "Can you stay here tonight? I'm a little scared…"

I could not help but laugh: "Silly girl, you aren't afraid of inviting a wolf into your room? I'm not some gentleman. Saying these sorts of things, aren't you afraid that I'll make a mistake?" [9]

"Afraid of what?" Murong Shanshan changed from her previous vulnerable state and said while glaring at me: "The nearby room has two blankets inside. Tonight, you can sleep on a makes.h.i.+ft bed on the ground in my room."

I immediately objected: "No way, the ground is too cold. I'll catch a cold!"

Murong Shanshan said with confidence: "You won't. I'll turn the heating up a bit. Plus, there's a decently thick mattress in the next room. Just carry it over."

I could not refute so I could only go prepare my own bed. When I had brought the things over, I saw that Murong Shanshan had already her clothes and was about to enter the bathroom while holding some things: "Lin Fan, I'm going to take a bath. You can go online for a bit before sleeping."

The bathroom was just a room over and after a short while a "hualala" sound could be heard, making me feel an incredible yearning.

I turned on the computer, opened 's official forums, and worked hard to get my focus on the computer instead. Unfortunately, it was disappointing that my ears were able to filter out the music and all I could hear were the vague sounds of Murong Shanshan bathing. I could not help but starting imagining: If it were Xin Yu in Murong Shanshan's position right now, I probably would not be having such fantasies. Although I am extremely attracted to her body, the thing that moved me the most about Xin Yu was the touch of sadness deep in her heart. Every time I see her desolate look, my heart aches for her. Once upon a time, she was also a cute girl who deserved people's pity… …

Towards Lu Xuehan, it was probably more just admiration and a desire to pamper her. Bing Xue was smart enough to sufficiently move any normal man. Otherwise I would not have tried to protect her in spite of everything back then. [10]

As for Xu Lin, although she was also a generous beauty, in the past year I have never seen her heart stir towards any man. Thus, I am guessing she has also suffered some sort of trauma in the past. Alternatively, she could be a lesbian. However, I hope it is not the latter because it would be such a waste.

As I was thinking this, the door to the room was suddenly pushed open with a "huala" sound. Lifting my head, I saw the just finished bathing Murong Shanshan. I was nearly stunned looking at her ——

A head full of long black hair brought crystal-like water droplets dripping down her exquisite shoulders. Under the light and against the background, her snowy face seemed as if it were plated with a layer of holy and magnificent l.u.s.ter. Her big and beautiful eyes brought with them some light mist while her long eyelashes brushed up and down like small brushes. I felt like I was suffocating.

This did not count as much though since I spent the past few days with Murong Shanshan. I have seen her beautiful countenance quite a few times and I was basically immune. However, Murong Shanshan's current state of undress still made my heart thump wildly. A not very large towel was tightly wrapped around that beautiful body. It was slightly visible that her chest was a bit crowded and the towering twin peaks seemed as if they were ready to burst out. Beneath her abundant hips were her very round and impressive b.u.t.tocks that were threatening to cause the towel to split. Her two ample and snow white thighs were particularly seductive. Looking at her made me dry-mouthed and I felt some stirrings. I was entranced to the point that I lost awareness. [11]

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[1] Again, we encounter this phrase: 厚着头皮. It translates directly as "thicken scalp", which sounds a bit odd in English. The meaning is essentially to prepare oneself to endure embarra.s.sment and the closest English idiom that I could think of was to "bite the bullet". If there are any other suggestions, please let me know.

[2] Again, mm is in the raws. The sentence was written as mm只是诧异的看了我一眼. Refer back to Chapter 164 footnote 9.

[3] The phrase in Chinese is 搜肠刮肚. It translates directly as "search intestines sc.r.a.pe belly" which sort of is the equivalent of the English phrase "pulled it out of my a.r.s.e". Basically, it means he came up with something on the spot. The latter part of that sentence is 终于想出了n种搭讪的方案. The n种 means "n type" and n is commonly used to refer to variable amounts in Chinese.

[4] So something tells me this chapter is going to be absolutely filled with footnotes. Why can't they just stay in-game forever and stick to non-colloquial phrases? Anyways, the raws use the phrase 咬牙切齿. It literally means "bite tooth cut tooth". Another colloquial phrase that I'm guessing is being used here to indicate a grating/irksome/discordant tone of voice.

[5] So the raws literally said 红红绿绿 which translates as "red red green green". There was no object. He literally says "your red red green green is nice to look at". I'm just leaving it like that so that he sounds even more awkward.

[6] As usual, the ** and xx are written in the raws. a.s.sume ** is referring to a state of undress while xx is some sort of name that the other didn't bother putting in.

[7] This makes no sense to me, but the raws literally had 然后*在床头. Reference:

[8] Well, I through the phrase 蜡笔小新 into google and got the following as a result: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crayon_s.h.i.+n-chan

[9] If you've ever seen a teenage boy talking to a pretty girl, then I'm going to imagine that the wolf metaphor needs no explanation. For anyone who's lived under a rock, basically it means that a girl inviting a man to stay the night is basically the same as inviting a wolf.

[10] Is Bing Xue (冰雪) some sort of nickname for Lu Xuehan (陆雪涵)? Please remind me someone.

[11] So he uses this phrase 口干舌躁 which translates literally as "mouth dry tongue impatient". I kept the dry-mouthed part but saying "my tongue was impatient" just sounds… either weird or downright creepy. Instead, I'll took the liberty of saying that he felt some "stirrings" since that'd be the normal response to seeing a beautiful girl in nothing but a towel.

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TL Note: Hi guys. I’m currently looking for two people (or one very versatile person) that can do either one of the following:

Look up previous translators’ terms used for certain phrases. For instance, some of the skill names can be translated many different ways and most of the time I like to stay consistent. Someone who has a good grasp of modern Chinese phrases/idioms/slang who wouldn’t mind explaining some of these phrases for me. You do not need to be able to explain it in English. Explaining it differently in Chinese would be fine as well.

Leave a comment somewhere on the site (or on this chapter) with a way that I can contact you. Thanks!

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