Chapter 203 - An Excuse to Meet

As a rational adult, especially a grown man trying to woo a girl in a game, he most certainly shouldn’t be using a loli account to pursue a girl-one who exuded the mature charm of a true lady in both appearance and personality.

Just looking at their characters’ proportions, there was absolutely no sense of compatibility!

On this point, Mu Yunchen knew he was in the wrong, but he also felt quite aggrieved. Glancing at Gu Yihan’s frozen avatar, he abandoned typing and switched to voice messages. His tone, pitiful and full of grievance, rang out, “It wasn’t what I wanted to do, okay? It’s just… when Gu Yihan came over, she saw my computer, and coincidentally, she caught a glimpse of my game screen. I-I… didn’t have a choice…”

Even the trailing whine in his voice revealed his deep frustration.

Taking a deep breath, Chu Qianqian decided not to comment on this awkward misunderstanding. Clearing her throat, she forced herself not to laugh out loud, fearing it would hurt her master’s fragile pride. “Alright, just tell me what happened,” she said.

Though Mu Yunchen felt the tone of his disciple wasn’t quite right-making him seem overly pitiful-in this case, she was indeed the only one who could help. After hesitating for a few seconds, he began to recount the recent string of events, albeit haltingly.

Since Mu Yunchen had met Chu Qianqian in person that day, their interactions had dwindled. They’d only chatted a few times before he was left alone again. The reason? Simple. Chu Qianqian had just received his help in securing audition spots for Qingyi and Chu Ziyu. With so much preparation to do, she had been incredibly busy and had no time to log into the game. Their few chats during that period had ended just as quickly as they had started.

While it might seem a bit like being used and discarded, this was genuinely how Mu Yunchen and Chu Qianqian had interacted during that hectic phase. Fortunately, Mu Yunchen’s personality was as gentle as his appearance. He understood how demanding her work was and didn’t express any complaints. After all, even before their in-person meeting, this had been the norm for their relationship. They were both adults, after all. In the end, gaming was just a pastime; work was the top priority.

However, what set this time apart was that Mu Yunchen had just wrapped up his latest book. Coinciding with the adaptation of Ling Xiao into a TV series, he discussed with his editor and managed to secure a two-month break.

For freelancers who spend most of their time indoors, getting used to a homebound lifestyle means that even with a vacation, most would still prefer not to go outside. Activities like hiking or sightseeing often feel far too exhausting. And for those with social anxiety and general anxiety disorders, there’s an added discomfort: the air outside feels thick with the presence of people, an overwhelming sensation they have trouble coping with.

In such circumstances, Mu Yunchen’s rare vacation quickly became an empty, uneventful stretch of boredom.

There are some things that are easy to overlook when life is busy. But, once you have free time and nothing to distract yourself with, those previously ignored things suddenly leap into focus, turning impossible to ignore.

And for Mu Yunchen, Gu Yihan was the thing he couldn’t take his mind off of.

After a few days of internal struggle, Mu Yunchen finally summoned the courage to take that step. He got on a bus and went to Gu Yihan’s MISS Café on his own. Since he didn’t have Chu Qianqian accompanying him this time, he hesitated outside the café for an even longer time than before.

Having seen this sort of behavior from him once already, Gu Yihan didn’t react outwardly to his internal tug-of-war. She merely slid the café’s glass door, the one near the counter, open just a crack so she could subtly glance outside.

Later, in Mu Yunchen’s recollection, the thing that ultimately convinced him to take that step and walk into MISS Café was the wind chime hanging at the entrance, constantly giving off its soft, ringing “ding-ding” sound, and that faint, almost imperceptible gaze directed at him from within.

That was the first time Mu Yunchen, without any external prompting, decided to step into an unfamiliar public space purely on his own accord.

Then again, perhaps “without any prompting” wasn’t entirely accurate. Although his thoughts weren’t completely clear at the time, Mu Yunchen did enter the café with no other reason than wanting to see Gu Yihan.

“And then what happened?” Chu Qianqian asked, her voice soft as she cradled the flower tea she’d prepared in advance.

On the screen, her Swordsman character had already made it to the arena entrance, while Gu Yihan’s cat lady character was still standing still in her original position. After taking a sip of her tea, Chu Qianqian made an educated guess: Gu Yihan must have stepped away momentarily for something. Based on what she knew about Gu Yihan, who was still single, such an unannounced departure was likely related to Honey.

Gu Yihan was, without a doubt, a devoted cat owner.

“And then? Well, there’s not much else to say. I kept going there for coffee, and eventually, we got to know each other better,” Mu Yunchen replied casually.

As soon as he finished that line, Chu Qianqian made a mental note: Mu Yunchen wasn’t being fully honest, or rather, he was only telling part of the truth.

In truth, Mu Yunchen didn’t just visit MISS Café often-he went there every single day.

When he went to MISS Café for the first time, he convinced himself with the excuse that he wanted to see Honey. However, as luck would have it, Honey had been taken to the pet hospital for a checkup on the very same day.

Not being able to see Honey left Mu Yunchen both disappointed and, strangely, a little relieved. He didn’t leave as he had initially planned. Instead, he ordered a cup of coffee, a slice of Black Forest cake, and perched himself quietly in a corner, stealthily watching Gu Yihan for an entire afternoon. It wasn’t until 5:30 p.m., when the café started to fill up with the evening crowd, that he finally left.

Because he hadn’t seen Honey on the first day, Mu Yunchen used the same excuse to convince himself to go back to the café the very next day.

Then came the third day, the fourth day, the fifth day…

The excuses evolved from wanting to see Honey to claiming that the café’s coffee was particularly delicious; then it became about how amazing the cake was; how the pleasant environment sparked his creativity when it wasn’t crowded… eventually, it boiled down to this: the owner of the café was stunningly beautiful, and he simply wanted to see her.

After so many visits, Mu Yunchen and Gu Yihan gradually started talking to each other.

Mu Yunchen discovered that, despite appearances, Gu Yihan was an avid reader of novels. She had even collected numerous highly-rated, successfully published online novels-including a few of his own…

As for Gu Yihan, she realized that although Mu Yunchen seemed soft-spoken and a bit awkward when it came to general conversation, the moment the topic turned to novels, he became eloquent and passionate. His words brimmed with an effortless confidence, and they got along surprisingly well…

There was also one more revelation: they both played the same game.

On the day they uncovered this wonderful coincidence, the weather wasn’t great, and the café was relatively quiet. Having checked the weather forecast in advance, Mu Yunchen had guessed that business would be slow that day and decided to spend his entire day there. Uncharacteristically, he even brought his laptop to the café, planning to play a bit if boredom struck. To avoid interruptions, he specifically chose a secluded corner with little foot traffic.