Chapter 1 Marriage of Convenience

If someone asked Zheng Xiaoguang what the most exciting part about playing an online game was, she would immediately curve the corners of her lips up 45 degrees into a smile and replied that it was being protected by a capable big brother.

Zheng Xiaoguang's big brother was Blooming Pear Tree. He was the gang boss of the Matchless, which was a major gang on this server.

Blooming Pear Tree was quite a somebody in this zone. He was a highly-skilled player and always at the top of the PK (Player Kill) list. He often splashed out a lot of money on equipment in the shop without even blinking an eye. He was not only good at protecting his fellow gang members but also excellent at fighting and slaying monsters in instances. As such, Zheng Xiaoguang always felt great during a mission.

Nevertheless, this good feeling had ended abruptly last week.

Last week, her big brother had "sold" her to Bluegreen-Clad, the boss of another major gang called the League of Strong Families, as he wanted to ally himself with this Bluegreen-Clad.

Yes, Blooming Pear Tree had sold her out.

What Zheng Xiaoguang was playing was a 3D multiplayer online game named Shiny Sky Online. It was set in a world similar to ancient China, and thus the game characters were all dressed in ancient Chinese clothes. The operator of this game claimed that many stars played this game too, including the one who had become enormously famous recently. The server Zheng Xiaoguang played on was Zone 109 Watery South. Within this zone, there are three major gangs. They were called the Matchless, the League of Strong Families and the Sacred Temple respectively.

As this zone was newly opened, it was impossible to organize a powerful team here to slay some World Boss (a top-notch monster). The biggest problem here was the contradiction between the increasing number of players and the limited number of regions for them to upgrade levels. As such, the players, especially members of the three major gangs, competed fiercely with one another in this zone every day.

The happiest person was of course the game master, since the "Kill and Rob" equipment in the shop remained to be in great demand since Zone 109 Watery South had been opened a month ago. Such equipment included "Virtue Pills" which were used to change one's colored ID from red to white (as a way to cover up his or her crimes), and "Clairvoyant", which was used to check one's coordinates.

At present, these three gangs were similar in strength. In this newly-opened zone, most players were still working to gain levels instead of improving equipment. They usually used skills to fight and never backed off during a melee, which often broke out when they were busy gaining levels. Such melees prevented everyone involved from gaining levels smoothly, and thus no one could benefit from this.

To change this situation, Blooming Pear Tree, the gang boss of Matchless had a talk with Bluegreen-Clad, the gang boss of the League of Strong Families. They decided to form an alliance and work together to fight against the Sacred Temple. Blooming Pear Tree chose to ally himself with Bluegreen-Clad because he did not like the Sacred Temple's gang boss and his wife.

Blooming Pear Tree and Bluegreen-Clad avowed their commitment to their alliance just by sending a message on Public Chat channel to everyone that they formed an alliance now and their gangs would fight side by side and slay monsters together.

When Zheng Xiaoguang and Blooming Pear Tree discussed the alliance on YY①.

she illustrated her ideas with a metaphor.

“Such an alliance counts for nothing. It’s similar to the relationship between a couple who call each other husband and wife but aren't legally married. They can hold a wedding ceremony and invite all their friends and relatives to the wedding, so that everybody know that they're a couple. However, when one of them suddenly becomes rich or something and starts to detest his or her partner, he or she don't have to apply for a divorce and can walk out on his or her partner directly. The one who’s abandoned can only admit defeat. Without a marriage certificate, he or she can never safeguard his or her legal rights.

"This is nothing new nowadays."

She had a point. Ties between these two gangs were quite weak, as this was a newly opened zone, and players here were not familiar with one another and usually did not have any personal grudge against one another. The League of Strong Families could make an alliance with Matchless after a talk. It could kick Matchless out and form an alliance with the Sacred Temple in breach of its promise at any time. After all, the League of Strong Families and the Sacred Temple were not deadly enemies.

When that happened, Matchless would be placed at a significant competitive disadvantage no matter how strong it was.

Someone suggested merging the two gangs into one, but this suggestion was rejected immediately. The system of this new zone did not allow that to happen, and even if it was allowed, Blooming Pear Tree would never promise. He would rather fight against the League of Strong Families and the Sacred Temple on his own than disband his own gang to join the League of Strong Families. It was also impossible for Bluegreen-Clad to disband his own gang to join Matchless.

As such, Blooming Pear Tree suggested marrying his sister Flowing Light (Zheng Xiaoguang's game name) off to Bluegreen-Clad to strengthen the relationship between the two gangs. That was easy. They just needed a marriage certificate issued by the matchmaking god. Blooming Pear Tree believed that by doing so, he and Bluegreen-Clad would become brothers-in-law and Bluegreen-Clad would never think of forming an alliance with the Sacred Temple anymore.

"What a ridiculous idea. A marriage of convenience? Am I a princess of ancient times? Come on, I remember the Qing dynasty ended a long time ago," thought Zheng Xiaoguang. She hated political marriages. In her eyes, only some useless men in ancient times would choose to exchange some women for peace, and this was a shameful display of cowardice.

"Think about those poor princesses who were married away by her families. Their stories never have happy endings, and most of them were never able to come back," thought Zheng Xiaoguang. If she had been online at that time, she would have never agreed to marry Bluegreen-Clad.

If only she had been online at that time.

Unfortunately, she was not online when she got married off by his gang boss and when she was online the next day, she found that a "husband" had been added to her friend list and she had received a lot of Private Chat messages.

[Private Chat] Half a Cup of Lovesickness: You got married, Flowing Light. Congratulations. But why didn't you notify me in advance? I heard that you had a splendid wedding last night. Alas, I missed it. How could you do that to your friend? ﹥_﹤~~

[Private Chat] Cool Names Taken by Dogs: You're such a dumb*ss, Flowing Light. You told me that you would never get married. Liar!

[Private Chat] Mulberry on the Grave: Congratulations. I've sent you a wedding gift.

...

Most of the Private Chat messages were congratulation messages. Zheng Xiaoguang scrolled down the page and finally saw Blooming Pear Tree's message. "Hey, sis, I've found you a husband. He's a god-like player. You don't need to thank me."

"It was him. He logged into my account and did this ridiculous thing to me!" Zheng Xiaoguang thought angrily.

She had never taken it seriously when Blooming Pear Tree first suggested marrying her off to Bluegreen-Clad. Back then, she had even wanted to bet her big brother 300,000 taels of silver that the gang boss of the League of Strong Families would never agree to such an awkward "arranged marriage".

"Not to mention whether Bluegreen-Clad has a wife or whether he'll abandon his wife for this 'political marriage', as a gang boss, he must have a high enough IQ to understand that Matchless just wants to plant a 'spy' in his gang and bond the two gangs together. Matchless' intention is so obvious, only an idiot will agree to this marriage."

With this in mind, Zheng Xiaoguang had never paid much heed to this thing before. During the past few days, she had just focused on handling her must-do tasks and occasionally teamed up with her friends to gain levels. She never believed this thing until it became a reality. "Maybe Bluegreen-Clad is really an idiot," thought Zheng Xiaoguang.

She suddenly remembered the metaphor she had made up when talking with Blooming Pear Tree on YY. "I did mention 'marriage certificate' at that time. Maybe that inspired him to think of this ridiculous idea. Oh gosh, did I shoot myself in the foot?" Zheng Xiaoguang thought ruefully and felt that she really wanted to slap herself hard across the face.

In a fit of remorse, she earnestly typed a sentence and sent it to Blooming Pear Tree.

Note:

① YY: YY instant messenger is an instant messaging software typically used by online game players to communicate with one another.