The Radiance from Within

Chapter 8

Weiwei knew that her and Xiao Nai were going to cause the school gossip forum to erupt in posts about their new relationship status but nothing could have prepared her for just how big of a reaction the school gossip mongers were going to have. For days people were snapping pictures of them. Some people attempted to go after her by claiming that she was likely to cheat on Xiao Nai or that Xiao Nai was only dating Weiwei because she was well endowed. As the people who were responsible for any slander or malicious gossip soon found themselves being hacked to various degrees thanks to the members of the computer science department. They took any assault on the computer technology department's monarchs quite seriously. Led by Xiao Nai's dorm mates in the front lines. They were especially protective of their empress once Xiao Nai and Weiwei let it slip that she was in fact also Luwei Weiwei.

The time for the couple's tournament came, Weiwei and Xiao Nai wiped the floor with the competition with little to no issues. In game their couple's experience points were maxed out and with that came various skills that none of the other couple's group had. However, actually attending each of the battles were a bit difficult for Xiao Nai since he and his dorm mates had been going to various meetings to get his business the funding it so needed. In Fact a meeting right before the final battle was nearly forfeited due to a major accident on the road on the way home. Xiao Nai and Yu Banshan were lucky enough to be far enough behind the accident to not get involved. Which was by pure luck because Xiao Nai spotted Weiwei and her dorm mates entering the restaurant they just concluded their meeting in. Weiwei wanted to hear the news on how the meeting went but neither Xiao Nai nor Yu Banshan would tell her. No matter how cutely she pouted. He just kissed her forehead and herded her along with her dorm mates to their meal while he and Yu Banshan left to return to campus. Weiwei was actually quite shocked when she logged in first since he left before her so calling him she found out that they were stuck in traffic and told her what happened. While she was grateful that he wasn't part of it she was however a little worried that he would not make it ontime. She had stayed outside the event with a few members of her former guild and waited for her online husband while staying on the phone to track his progress.

The Xiaoyu family tried to cause trouble for Luwei Weiwei by trying to start a rumor that she had been stood up and dumped. But Weiwei coldly shut the rumors down and told them via general chat that she had just spoken to her online husband and he had been stuck in traffic and just arrived home. He would be online just as soon as his computer boots up. Like clockwork, Yixiao Naihe appeared right next to her the moment she finished her sentence. After Luwei Weiwei and Yixiao Naihe won the battle and were crowned the game wide winners; people by that point stopped listening to the remarks of the Xiaoyu family, labeling them troublemakers and spiteful harpies. A week after the game was once again set a buzz by the Feng Teng group released the Bandit Girl video that Weiwei and Naihe had made for an upcoming promotion for new game play. Further raising the popularity of Yixiao Naihe and Luwei Weiwei. Shortly after, the Xiaoyu family stopped logging into the game and no one in the game wise knew or cared to find out what happened to them.

All too soon it was time for Xiao Nai's graduation ceremony and time for Weiwei to visit her parents for a short duration to be able to replenish her wardrobe for a more professional environment. Her parents were sad that she wasn't going to stay the full summer but came to terms with it well before time before her semester ended. However her father was less than pleased that his little girl was dating. Even less when he found out that the boyfriend was the CEO of the company she was going to intern at. He complained and bellyached a majority of Weiwei's week-long visit. He only stopped after a mysterious call one night between her father and Xiao Nai. She never got the contents of the conversation from either man but her father's about face did concern her some. Especially when he started asking Weiwei if there were ways for her to speed up her graduation thesis. It got even stranger when she would call home during the duration of her school career. Her father kept on asking about Xiao Nai's health and if he could speak with him if Xiao Nai was with her at the time.

On the opposite side of the child-parent relationship Weiwei became Xiao Nai's parents' most treasured daughter and Xiao Nai the unfortunate necessity to have Weiwei as a daughter. Especially when she was the one who was performing the checks to their home while they were away on an archeological dig because Xiao Nai had been too busy to do so and was able to rescue various works of art and manuscripts from being damaged when the water main busted. She organized the needed repairs and even cleaned up the water so any damage from the flood was minimal. Xiao Nai playfully pointed out that he was the one who moved the art and manuscripts to his home but his parents just brushed him off.

By the time summer had ended in the first year of their relationship Xiao Nai's company had just been awarded the rights to make the sequel to Dreaming of Jianghu and with the announcement for the game the Feng Teng Corporation requested that both Xiao Nai and Weiwei to do an interview due to numerous reasons not only because of the game release but also due to being the winners of the game wide couples contest and the creators of the Bandit Girl video which the Feng Teng Corporation was using the interview to finally release the update that fans had been waiting for all summer.. Weiwei had originally demurred at the request for an interview; still a bit uncomfortable being in the line light. But after realising how the interview would help boost the talk about the upcoming sequel to the game that she had a part of making she reluctantly agreed. The interview was transformed into a drawn out event once the director saw the two people that were the focus of it. The director wanted footage showing both players actually playing the game in various quests and PKing battles along with both one on one interviews and an interview with both of them. The interview morphed into a full advertisement campaign much to Weiwei's annoyance. She had to draw the line when the director tried to get the couple to do a photoshoot dressed as their avatars. Much to Xiao Nai's amusement. His fierce little sword women in red spent various negotiations with the director and wardrobe mistress with them agreeing to pose with their avatar's weapon of choice along with having their clothing coordinate somewhat to their avatar's design. Weiwei was ecstatic when the director gifted them the weapon props from the ads as a thank you.

The interview and various advertisements had caused the game forum to erupt in new gossip about the couple champion. Many of the comments remarked on how Luwei Weiwei and Yixiao Naihe spoke about why they didn't compete in any of the game's player looks contests and how Luwei Weiwei spoke about how her looks have given her nothing but trouble due to people making up their own idea on who she was and how she would act without knowing anything about her. Weiwei's words on her experience on being beautiful did cause some people to reflect on how they make assumptions on others. While there were still people who scoffed at the idea of how someone so beautiful could possibly know how it was to be discriminated against because of their looks. They were just too set in their ways to think differently.

Over time people both online and offline stopped focusing too much on the couple's life and went about their daily lives. However every so often Weiwei and Xiao Nai did fall back into the spotlight due to them being their extraordinary selves. The deity Yue Lao was correct when he said the two were annoyingly perfect. But the couple just shrugged it off and went about their lives waiting for the time for Weiwei to graduate and for them to start the next chapter of their lives.

All too soon it was time for Weiwei to finally graduate top of her class and Xiao Nai could not wait for him to finally make Weiwei his wife legally in the eyes of the outside world. To say that the reception was grand with an understatement. The reception was attended by a wide variety of people. Anywhere from CEOs from many of the top technology companies to various professors of Qing university that the couple had both attended to various gamers that the couple had forged tight relationships in the game with. One of the guests that was unexpected was a man named Zhen Shaoxiang. Anyone who played Dreaming of Jianghu a few years ago knew him as Zhenshui Wuxiang. He had come to represent his father's company Zhen Yi Technologies at his own assistance. When he congratulated the couple on their happy union he also thanked them for being the catalyst in changing his life for the better. After leaving the game he had become much more interested in taking the reins within his father's company spearheading integrity conformity in the work effects from within the company. While his father was happy that his son had finally started to act responsible it became a double edge sword when his son was in the way of some of his more unsavory ways to make more money for the company. He had also met a sweet girl and was just recently engaged. Both Weiwei and Xiao Nai thanked him for the well wishes and gave their own well wishes for his future.

Years down the line they would entertain their children with the story of the fed up deity and why it was important not to judge someone by first appearances.

~The End