QT: LAC Chapter 59: Fourth World (18)

Chapter 59: Fourth World (18)
Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Sulo

As for his lover who had undergone ‘great changes’, if Bai Duan said that he wasn’t surprised, he would be lying, he almost peed his pants.

Sensing the coldness of Bai Duan’s reaction, Xie Yan opened his arms, his eyes were full of doubts and anxieties, “Are you okay? Isn’t it nice to see me?”

“… No, it’s not that,” Bai Duan was still a little slow, but he glanced up and down at Xie Yan with a complicated expression, he hesitated and asked, “You went for plastic surgery?”

Xie Yan, “No.”

Bai Duan, “Oh.”

Looking at each other, the couple, who had finally been reunited after a long time, were filled with unspeakable embarrassment. At last, Xie Yan was unable to bear his lover’s suspicious gaze and lost the battle first. He stroked his own forehead and said, “I really didn’t have plastic surgery, I was just too busy with work and I kept on exercising as well. If you don’t believe it, you can ask my colleagues!” As he said that, he glanced to his back, assistant Wang Hui suddenly straightened his back, saying that he could testify.

“… Of course I believe you,” Bai Duan looked at his lover who had changed his appearance a lot, he couldn’t even match his face with the round one in his memory. Maybe Xie Yan was too fat at that time, and the fat completely covered the outline of his facial features. “I just… It’s amazing.”

Xie Yan nodded and accepted Bai Duan’s explanation. After all, he was very surprised by the original’s face after he lost weight. Unexpectedly, he was quite a beauty.

After digesting his lover’s sudden change, Bai Duan soon relaxed and chatted with Xie Yan. Xie Yan told Bai Duan how he lost weight during this period of time. Bai Duan was completely heartbroken, and occasionally he raised his hand to touch Xie Yan’s face while full of sympathy.

The two of their posture stabbed the onlookers’ eyes. They were at a loss for a long time and after processing, they finally understood who the person kissing Bai Duan was. Suddenly, they had a sense of being lost, feeling like the whole world had been lopsided.

—Bai Duan was not as ugly as it was said wasn’t that much of a shock. However, Xie Yan, who was already known to be as fat as a pig, had now become a handsome man. How can they still live with themselves after this revelation?!

The frightened masses expressed their disbelief, but reality did not allow them to question it. Of course, the impact brought by Bai Duan and Xie Yan was not over. Soon, the host invited Xie Yan to the stage, and solemnly introduced him as the biggest contributor of the current upgrade of the [Ten Thousand Realms].

Standing on the stage, Xie Yan bathed in the bright light of the stage lamp, put one hand in his pocket while the other held onto a microphone. Xie Yan responded to the questions raised by the host seriously, his performance on stage was very confident, and his eyes were shining. Xie Yan had a slight smile on, his voice was deep and magnetic, which made all the players below stage more confused as they looked and enjoyed the double feast. At this moment, the image of the once self abased, gloomy and cowardly fat man collapsed, and shattered into pieces in everyone’s hearts. Instead it was replaced by a mature, elegant, steady and successful Godly idol.

Cheng Hong looked at the man on stage who he used to trample beneath his feet, the one who he used to ridicule wantonly. Now, he was standing at a height that he could never reach. His heart was filled with jealousy, but he could not vent anywhere. Finally, he stood up silently and left the meeting. He came to the meeting just because he wanted to see Xie Yan and Bai Duan get ridiculed and rejected by others. Now, there was no reason for him to stay.

Luo Xi moved his vision to Bai Duan following the direction of Xie Yan’s gaze on stage. Although one was off the stage and the other was on the stage, the two of them seemed to be connected with each other, as if they were the only ones in the world.

—If he had not left because of the gossip and Xie Yan’s appearance, what would be the situation now? This idea lingered in Luo Xi’s mind more than once. However, fantasy was fantasy, it had no significance at all.

After answering all the questions raised by the host and several players’ representatives, Xie Yan stepped off the stage quickly, he sat back beside Bai Duan.

“You did a great job! Before this, I was worried about whether you would have any problems in the new city!” Bai Duan looked at him admiringly, “It seems that you are used to such a scene?”

“Not really,” Xie Yan retorted softly, then he held Bai Duan’s hand carefully. “You see, my palms are sweaty. I was just forced on stage…”

Xie Yan’s palms were indeed wet, and slightly trembling, making Bai Duan feel sympathetic.

Subconsciously, Bai Duan stood on his toes and held his shoulder, touching the back of his head to appease him.

Xie Yan took the opportunity to lean his head onto Bai Duan’s shoulder and rubbed against it with satisfaction.

Wang Hui, as Xie Yan’s assistant, stood behind the two, his eyes moved slightly, and he coughed awkwardly. As a qualified assistant, he must now forget his boss, who was blatant and determined, the person who did not falter in the face of fierce debate between the company’s shareholders and the senior management.

Hmn, his boss was a pitiful person who would sweat and shiver nervously when he was just saying a few words on stage.

“It doesn’t matter. You did well,” Caressing Xie Yan’s back, Bai Duan searched for comforting words. “When you were on the stage, you were so handsome that I couldn’t even move my eyes away. You fascinated me.”

After a year of saying passionate words, Bai Duan had made a lot of progress, and the cheesy words began to come out at will.

Wang Hui listened quietly. He felt that he was shivering and had goosebumps all over the place. On the contrary, Xie Yan felt good. He smiled shyly, with a serious tone, he said, “Was it? I think I can do anything as long as I’m with you. On the stage, I dared not look anywhere else, I only looked at you. It seemed that whenever I looked at you, my mood would calm down, and my mind would become clearer…”

Bai Duan listened to him with red cheeks, the corners of his mouth was forming a sweet smile. Wang Hui finally couldn’t bear it anymore, he turned around silently and left, winning the sympathy of countless players along the way.

Once Bai Duan and Xie Yan got together, they were really unbearable to others. They all wished they could pack them up and throw them away as far as possible, so that they would never harm the single people out there ever again.

It used to be just in the game. As long as they thought about how their ‘actual’ appearances, they could comfort themselves with the fact that ‘ugly people do bad things’. Now, however, they could only swallow their envy and jealousy in silence. It was as if they were forced to watch several dog blood idol dramas at once.

In fact, they really didn’t want to see them at all. Because even if they had a partner, they would still remember the hardships of being a single dog.

The meeting ended successfully, and all the players left after enjoying themselves. They talked not only about the expected large-scale update, but also Xie Yan and Bai Duan, a couple full of ‘twists and turns’, a couple who ‘scammed’ all the players in various senses.

At the same time, the media had also noticed Xie Yan, a previously ‘penniless’ young person who was now soaring. His success process was somewhat like rebirth from a sparrow to a Phoenix, it was extremely inspirational. In just over a year, he had transformed from a college dropout, a humble and cowardly fat NEET to a person with a successful career, a handsome face, great talents and riches. Such a successful change was just like a dream, as if it was an eye-catching legend.

After the interview, Xie Yan’s experiences were published in magazines and newspapers. After the people read his road to success, the first insight to be gained was that ‘success always favors those who were prepared’. Although Xie Yan had always stayed at home and didn’t liked communicating, he never relaxed and he had been studying up on the most advanced computer technologies on his own, which led to the rapid development later on. As for the second insight, was that ‘the power of love wins over all’.

If it wasn’t for love, Xie Yan would not have ever been able to walk out of his trauma and take the first step into society. Then, such a genius would never have been born.

Xie Yan did all of it only to make himself worthy of Bai Duan and wanted to make himself into someone Bai Duan would be proud of — and he succeeded. He didn’t only become Bai Duan’s pride, he also became someone the motherland was proud of.

Thanks to Xie Yan’s continuous efforts, the [Ten Thousand Realms] continued to maintain its leading position in the sector of holographic online games. No matter how many unique and excellent holographic games emerged in the mainland or abroad, none of them could shake its position.

Xie Yan was also known as the founder of holographic technology. Although he was not the first to develop the technology, holographic technology had improved a lot in his hands. The technology moved from simple games to all aspects of social life, it had become an indispensable part of people’s work, study and entertainment.

Five years later, Xie Yan finally fulfilled his long awaited wish, Bai Duan had finally reached the legal age for marriage. The two of them held a virtual wedding with the whole world’s attention. Bai Duan’s parents, who were living far away on another planet, also participated in the wedding ceremony. They sent their blessings to their beloved son and his partner through the special instrument Xie Yan prepared and sent over.

In the grand virtual wedding, Xie Yan showed the world the greatness of virtual technology. No matter what kind of world they wished for, even if people couldn’t reach those worlds, virtual technology could always create it and give access.

After the wedding, virtual weddings became more and more popular at an unprecedented speed, it became the dream wedding for everyone. Although it was expensive to create a virtual world according to their own wishes, no one could refuse the temptation to turn their dreams into ‘reality’ on the special occasion of one’s wedding.

After marriage, Xie Yan and Bai Duan still led a happy life. Almost everyone knew that what Xie Yan was most proud of and cherished the most was not the advanced virtual technology he created, nor the hundreds of billions of fortune he had, but his lover who loved him and never abandoned him when he was still worthless and penniless.

Xie Yan was usually not talkative, only when he talked about his lover would he be a total chatterbox. He was not reluctant to use all the praising words the world had to offer on his beloved. He even thought that no matter what kind of praises he used, he still couldn’t really express the perfectness of his lover.

When Bai Duan was asked whether he fell in love with Xie Yan when he was still a fat man, he would always show a look of regret and sigh. Half seriously and half jokingly he would say that he actually preferred Xie Yan’s chubby appearance — because at that time, only he knew how great Xie Yan was, but now, he had become a godly idol of everyone in the world.

In an interview program, Bai Duan once revealed that in order to realize his desire of putting some weight on Xie Yan again, he began practicing cooking a lot in his spare time — since no matter how many meals Bai Duan made, and how bad they were, Xie Yan would always eat them clean and leave nothing behind.

When Bai Duan said that, Xie Yan who was sitting beside him, looked straight into Bai Duan’s eyes, his eyes were full of helplessness and affection at the same time.

But unfortunately, Bai Duan’s desire to make his husband fat again was not realized. Even after the two retired from their jobs and began to enjoy a leisurely life of retirement, Xie Yan was still a handsome old man with a standard body figure.

As time went by, even though the two of their hair were all gray, the hot love between them seemed to have never been wavered by the mundane daily life. The public turned from being blinded to being used to them, now, every time they saw the two, they couldn’t help but smile from their hearts.

No matter how indifferent, fickle and fast-paced society became, as long as people looked at them, they would always realize that love — the tender and meaningful feeling, would never disappear from this world.