Chapter 266 - SHEN YI MU'S UNWAVERING SUPPORT

THE next day, almost all the post on the game forum of Arcadia was about the opening of Yuexing Pavilion. The title of the posts varied. From talking about the guests who attended to the architectural design of the pavilion. But one thing was in common, they were all very impressed with the newly opened pavilion.

Not only that, this topic even entered the hot search list of Weibo briefly. Most of the post on Weibo were as follows;

[Although I only watched the live broadcast so I could see the top players (especially my goddess Liuli!), but the longer I watched the performances on the stage, the more my attention was focused on the NPCs performing. At the end, I didn't even care much about the top players.]

[The performances were so beautiful, I didn't even mind that I barely saw the other top players!]

[The design of the Yuexing Pavilion was very well made. It could be shown that a lot of thought was put in designing it. With the lake at the front and the moon hanging above, it's just perfect.]

[All the NPCs of Yuexing Pavilion were all so beautiful. From the boatmen to the little waiters. Not to mention, those courtesans. Ah. It makes me feel so ugly. But I still want to go and visit!]

[Was no one going to mention the beautiful elf sister? Even though half of her face was covered, I feel that she was still the most beautiful one.]

[I was actually hoping to see the elf sister dance again. But hearing her sing, it's like angels descended from heaven.]

[Our elf sister is of course very talented.]

[I'm living for the elf sister. If she could just glance my way, my heart would probably not be able to take it.]

[I'm a little worried about the membership that NPC talked about at the end. Does this mean that if we don't avail that membership, we couldn't go and visit the pavilion?]

[Upstairs, I think it's only right to do that. If they don't implement something like that, then the pavilion would definitely be flooded with players. No matter how big the pavilion is, I don't think it could accommodate even a third of the people playing Arcadia.]

[Upstairs actually made sense. Just thinking of that many people inside one building was already making me unwilling to go there. So, it's good to use that kind of strategy. I'm just worried if it would cost too much.]

[I don't care about the cost, if I could go there and relax once or twice a week, I'd be willing to pay it.]

If there were positive comments, of course, there would be negative ones. 

[Hmp! What beautiful performances? Are you all blind? I bet the reason why the live broadcast barely showed the players who attended was because all of them were bored to death.]

[Time and time again, Moonlight Media finds a way to extort money from the players playing their game. They could just let the players visit their newly built establishment for free. But no, they had to use a stupid rule like 'membership'. If this is not extorting money, I don't know what is.]

[Really? A pavilion with courtesans? Did Moonlight Media's moral already descend so low that they would allow such an establishment to exist? What's next, would they let NPCs do shameless acts with players? There are minors playing this game! Are they planning to corrupt the young generation of this country? This game should be banned!]

Of course, a lot of other Weibo users immediately refuted these types of comments.

[What bored? I think you're the one who's blind. There are so many of us who thinks that the performances were wonderful. So, are you saying that we all turn blind?]

[That's right! And I don't think the top players were bored at all. I saw a glimpse of Bian Que. He definitely looked like he's enjoying the performances!]

[Although it��s true that some of the items in the game are expensive as hell. But Moonlight Media also allows players to earn crystal coins in the game. If you're dedicated enough, you don't have to buy crystal coins and still be able to be one of those said top players. Isn't the current number one on the Assassin leaderboard a good example of that?]

[Moonlight Media has the right to demand money. After all, they made such a breakthrough in the gaming industry. Even until now, those VR games made by other country couldn't hold a candle against Arcadia. In terms of design – from NPCs to the monsters and to the many places in the game – and gaming experience, Arcadia is still the best.]

[Why are you dragging Moonlight Media down? Banning them? On what grounds? Because of some R-18 stuff that kids might experience? Let me remind you that children under 10 are not allowed to play the game. And those minors could only play using the cradle version of the VR helmet. They couldn't even see a drop of blood. Is this protection not enough?]

[Arcadia is almost integrated in our pop culture. Saying that they should be banned is a bit of a reckless comment.]

With that, these negative comments were immediately drowned by the other more positive ones. It could be seen from here that the opening night of Yuexing Pavilion was truly successful.

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Shen Yi Mu raised one of his brows when he read these comments in Weibo. He wasn't the type to read about these things because his company had a team that was in charged with PR. He left everything related to social medias and things like that to his very reliable PR team. But this time was a bit different. 

His nephew asked him if he could help his new team mate with promoting the pavilion he was about to open. That a single post on Weibo would be enough. You should know that Ji Yun barely asked him of anything ever since he became his legal guardian. So, of course, he didn't even think about it and just readily agreed.

Then he heard that he asked Zhao Cheng – the head programmer of Arcadia – if he could let his team mate buy a piece of land on the recreational garden in Goldcrest City. The same team mate that would open his own pavilion. Add that to the fact that before that, Ji Yun asked him how would someone be able to tell if they were in love and he couldn't help but feel suspicious.

He had a hunch that his nephew finally opened up and was now in love with this team mate. After all, he had never been so thorough in taking care of others. Even his closest friend, the boy from the Bai family, didn't receive such a treatment. 

And then Shen Yi Mu learned that this team mate was actually Bai Ze's little cousin and a boy at that. Thinking of the possibility that his nephew could possibly have the same sexual orientation as him. He suddenly had a headache. 

If that was really the case, of course, he wouldn't reprimand Ji Yun and tell him that what he was feeling was wrong. Loving someone was one of the greatest feeling that one could experience in their life. Why would he deprive his nephew of that? Just because their society dictates that love between the same gender was wrong and immoral? 

No, their kind of love was only viewed wrong because of the constraint of society. In the eyes of people, the norm was a man and a woman should be a pair and nothing else. But who made that kind of law? Was it a crime to not follow it? No. Just as normal love should be respected, their kind of love should also earn an equal amount of respect. But he knew that it would take a lot of time before that could happen in this country. Especially since there were still a lot of people like his father in the older generation. As long as they're here, acceptance of same sex love would be hard to attain.

But even so, he wouldn't stop Ji Yun from what he was feeling. He would let him figure out things on his own. And if by the end, he decided that this was the path that he would take, then he would give him his support. He wouldn't let him feel that he was alone in this. And most importantly, he wouldn't let him feel that there was something wrong with him. That loving someone of the same gender was never an abnormality. It just so happened that he fell in love with a man rather than a girl. And something like that would never ever be wrong.

Shen Yi Mu closed his Weibo app on the phone and what appeared on the wallpaper was a picture of a man soft black hair being blown gently blown by the wind. His pair of apricot eyes were bent into crescents, full of love and dependence. As if the person in front of him was his whole world. 

Shen Yi Mu gently touched the screen, as if he could touch the person inside. [Ah Yue…]