Samsara Online

What Xie Feng didn't know was that in reality, his thoughts were right in one way, but wrong in another.

When Yao Mei was little, she lost a very important person to her because of her family. As a consequence, she closed herself in a stone shell without allowing anyone to enter in it. She started to spend most of her free time training herself; no matter if it was in the real world or in the virtual world training her reflexes and reaction speed, except when she was sleeping, she never stopped training.

Even right now while sitting down she was wearing two strength bracelets. These two strength bracelets were made with peak technology, and their function was to increase the weight of the body dramatically. Currently, Yao Mei was tempering her physical body with a weight equivalent to nearly 300 kilograms. If it wasn't for the special properties of the bracelet, the chair she was sitting on would have broken long ago!

However, as a consequence of isolating herself from the rest of the people, Yao Mei began to have difficulty when she began to speak. After years of silence, where only a dozen words at most came out of her mouth occasionally, she naturally began to face speech problems. In addition, Yao Mei also did not want to say something wrong that could be misunderstood or hurt others, so she needed a lot of time to think before speaking.

As a result of all this, people who did not know her thought she was arrogant and extremely proud without being willing to talk to anyone as they were not at her standard. But all this was just a big misunderstanding resulting from selfish people jumping to conclusions without knowing the life and hardships she had experienced.

At first, she naturally felt a little bad. But as time went by Yao Mei became indifferent about the matter and got used to the loneliness.

"Curious about me?" Xie Feng asked after coming out of his own inner thoughts. "Why are you curious about me?"

Xie Yao, Gu Qianxue, and Han Xue Nai also looked at her, wanting to know what made her so curious about Xie Feng as to travel from Beijing to Shanghai; even being willing to change universities.

However, even after more than ten seconds, Yao Mei still did not answer Xie Feng's question. 

If it were anyone else, he would probably be upset at being ignored; even more so a person as proud and arrogant as Xie Feng was. Fortunately, Xie Feng had already realized that all was not as it seemed to be.

"Don't worry. Take your time. We'll be fellow students now anyway, we'll be able to see each other more often." Xie Feng smiled easily.

Just at that moment, the door opened and several people came in with dishes and drinks.

Xie Feng thanked them and they all began to eat.

Yao Mei stared at him as if she wanted to find out something. But to her surprise, she realized that no matter whether it was his expression, his tone of voice while talking to the other girls, or his movements; it was absolute calm. He hadn't really been angry or irritated by her lack of response, which confused Yao Mei. 

So far, only one person didn't get upset every time she didn't respond; Lin Tian. However, although Yao Mei was young, she knew that the reason Lin Tian controlled his temper was because he wished to court her.

But unlike Lin Tian, the young man in front of her clearly did not have any secondary intentions. He just didn't get angry, that was all... It was something simple and small, but it was enough to make Yao Mei surprised and her curiosity towards him increase even more.

The group of five continued their lunch in a very friendly atmosphere.

* * *

-On the 1st floor of the Thousand Fragrances restaurant.

As every day, the 1st floor was already full of people. The number of students belonging to Shanghai University was undoubtedly the ruling crowd.

At that moment, a small group of three entered the place.

"Hey, are you really doing it?" one of the young men asked while looking at his roommate.

"My God! Old Luo, who's going to do it is me, what's with that fear!?" Complained the other young man.

The young man who had not yet said anything laughed out loud and patted the second young man's shoulder as he said, "Yue Kai, Xiao Luo is just worried about you!"

This trio was precisely Yue Kai, Hu Chen, and Xiao Luo.

Thousand Fragrances restaurant was also known for its excellent service for couples. At least two or three times a week, a romantic man would confess to the girl he liked in this place. The number of couples among students that had been formed in this Thousand Fragrances restaurant was a few thousand, so the place had become quite famous.

Today, Yue Kai had decided to make his preparations here to finally ask the girl he had been courting for the past two weeks if she wanted to be his girlfriend.

* * *

-Private room, Imperial Sea Hall.

Although Gu Qianxue was not especially close to Yao Mei, although Xie Yao had only met her for the second time in her life, the two beauties seemed to notice something after seeing Xie Feng's attitude toward this beautiful red-haired girl, so they occasionally included Yao Mei in the conversation. 

Thanks to Xie Yao and Gu Qianxue, Yao Mei did not feel left out and at the same time did not feel too much pressure because they both only asked her questions that could be answered with one or two words.

Even the mischievous Han Xue Nai would make several jokes in between, making everyone laugh.

"Yao Mei, your family had no problem with letting you come here?" Xie Yao asked as she helped Yao Mei to pour herself a glass of natural juice.

As the glass was filled with orange colored liquid and after drinking it, Yao Mei took that little time of silence to think and then answered quietly: 

"At first. My father wasn't willing, my older brother wasn't willing either, but my mother convinced them both. So I came."

After hearing Yao Mei's answer, Xie Feng tapped his forehead and said loudly, "Damn, I had forgotten!"

Yao Mei and the rest looked at him with perplexed looks.

Xie Feng looked at Yao Mei and with a forced smile slowly said, "Before I go back to Shanghai you went to Gu Qianxue's house... At that time you had told me that you were going to change colleges... In fact, I had completely forgotten about it."

Xie Yao looked at him dumbfounded... That memory really wasn't commendable. And to think that he forgot something that had happened two or three days ago!

Han Xue Nai looked at Xie Feng as if he was a monster and she couldn't help but mutter, "Handsome big brother, you'd better stop using skin creams.  Apparently they're damaging your brain."

"Han Xue Nai, you!" This brat! She was clearly teasing him about his skin that had become even softer than a woman's! Xie Feng clenched his teeth and looked at Han Xue Nai as if he wanted to eat her alive.

But Han Xue Nai looked back at him. She looked like a pig that wasn't afraid of boiling water.

"Hehe..."

The sound of someone trying to hold back giggles echoed throughout the room.

Xie Feng slowly raised his head and his mouth opened slightly as he looked with surprise at the person who had clearly laughed.

Xie Yao and the rest also looked towards the source of the sound with wide eyes.

"You..." Xie Feng looked at Yao Mei and couldn't help but ask a stupid question, "Did you just laugh?"

Yao Mei's face was indifferent. She picked up a glass of juice, drank it, and after that casually replied, "I didn't laugh."

"Nonono... You definitely laughed." Xie Yao said while shaking her head.

"I didn't laugh." Yao Mei said indifferently.

"Hehehe... Yao Mei, you don't need to be shy." Gu Qianxue followed after her.

"I didn't laugh" Yao Mei repeated the same words again as if she was a machine that had broken.

Now, Xie Feng was genuinely surprised. Even he knew very well that Yao Mei never smiled no matter what. Gu Qianxue's father, Gu Pojun, had told him several months ago that once while chatting with Yao Xiyu, patriarch of the Yao Family and Yao Mei's father, that she had not smiled since she was 4 or 5 years old.

How could Xie Feng not be surprised then?

However, seeing Yao Mei acting as if nothing had happened, Xie Feng suddenly did not want this girl to forget the feeling of smiling.

"You have a very beautiful smile though... Although you are young now, you are already this beautiful. I'm sure when you're older and finish maturing completely your smile would make you look much prettier." 

Xie Feng's first words did not cause any reaction from Yao Mei. Pretty or not, she honestly wasn't worried about it; let alone a man's praise. 

However, Xie Feng's next words really tugged at a heartstrings.

"To this day I don't know who my parents are. For some reason, I was abandoned when I was little. However, I don't hate them. If it weren't for them leaving me behind, I wouldn't have met the most important people in my life." Xie Feng smiled softly and said with weighty freedom. "Although the past may be a little hard to remember sometimes, we can't forget the present either. Just as we regret not being able to do something in the past, we will surely regret in the future for not enjoying the present."