Chapter 319 - A MILLION MILES AWAY

LUO YAN looked at the young woman with aqua blue hair standing at the door. Her hair had pearls scattered on them, making her really looked like a mermaid princess. Her pale skin looked translucent. And her light blue eyes were currently only looking at Shen Ji Yun. 

 Seeing her focused look, Luo Yan felt that stirring of annoyance once again. Just like last week, when he first met her here in the pavilion. He knew it's not right to feel that way. Because the girl literally hadn't done anything to him. And yet, he felt irritated for some reason. She even doesn't even look pleasing to the eye. The more he thought that she's beautiful, the more unpleasant she looked to him. 

He then glanced at the said focus of Nereid's light blue eyes. Shen Ji Yun looked at her and his eyes stayed there. The irritation that Luo Yan felt just magnified by a hundred times. 

[What is this guy doing, staring at her like that? Do you think she's pretty? Is that it? I'm the one you like, right? What are you doing staring blatantly at a beautiful girl in front of the person you like? I didn't know you are this fickle!]

[Mashter, if you don't like that fish girl, I could scratch her face for you.] – Eclipse said, licking his paw while staring at Nereid.

Eclipse's sudden statement seemed to awaken Luo Yan. What the heck was he thinking just now? He was acting like some wife who got cheated on by his husband. That was so not like him. And totally unattractive. Then he stopped. Just realizing what Eclipse said just now. 

[No, there's no need.]

If he didn't stop him, Eclipse might really just do what he said. And Luo Yan couldn't have him doing that. Because as mixed was his feelings were right now, the captain of team Sirens really hadn't done anything that warranted her face to be scratched. He was not such a narrow-minded person that he would retaliate against someone who hadn't done anything. 

Luo Yan looked back again at Shen Ji Yun. He was still looking at Nereid. But this time, Luo Yan could see something else in those beastly amethyst eyes. Displeasure. 

He had to look closely just to make sure. Because there's a chance that he was just imagining things. Just so he could see what he wanted to see. But no matter how much he looked, the emotion he saw in Shen Ji Yun's eyes was indeed displeasure.

"Do you need anything?" Shen Ji Yun asked in his usual expressionless manner. But if one would just look closely, they could see a slight frown on his perfectly sculpted face. As if he was wondering why this girl suddenly entered their private box, interrupting his alone time with Luo Yan.

At least, that's how it looked like to Luo Yan. Not only that, it was also quite obvious that he didn't know Nereid at all.

If Luo Yan remembered correctly, when he listened to the talk among team Sirens last week, this Nereid was also attending the same university as Shen Ji Yun. He thought by now, the two at least knew each other. But that seemed to not be the case at all.

Suddenly, the irritation he had been feeling just now slowly subsided. 

Zhu Lian, who heard what YUN asked, suddenly clamped up. She wanted to say, 'hi, YUN, I just saw you enter this box earlier and I just want to say hello'. But what came out of her mouth was;

"I thought I saw an acquaintance entering this room. Who would have thought I would see someone so… disagreeable." 

Zhu Lian almost slap herself. What was she doing? Why was she being like this again? This nature of her was the main reason why despite knowing about YUN for more than three years, she still hadn't able to make any headway in her feelings.

She still remembered the first time she had seen him. It was during her second year in high school. She and four other students represented their school for a friendly cultural exchange that would be held at another school. The said school was also a key private high school almost the same as the school she was attending. Meaning it was full of noble sons and rich second generations.

Zhu Lian was set to play a Mozart piece that day. She was so nervous. Not just because of the performance, but mostly because of the male students. She had been attending an all-girls school since her primary education. She rarely interacted with boys her age.

So, to calm herself, before the performance, she went to the back of the auditorium to take a breath. But who would have thought that three boys would spot her and surround her for no reason? What happened next was still etched in her mind up to this day.

=====

"Oh look, is this one of the princesses who came to visit our school today?" one of the boys said.

"Why don't you just come and play with us?" another one said.

"Yes, we promise to show you a good time," the last one said while looking at her from head to toe.

Zhu Lian just felt like something disgusting was creeping on her skin with the way this person looked at her. So, she totally clamped up. She raised her head and looked down at the three like she was looking at a group of peasants. 

"Stay away from me, you group of degenerate low-lives."

She bit the inside of her cheek. What was she doing? This was hardly the time to antagonize this group of people. But she just couldn't help herself. Whenever she was nervous or afraid, she would just find herself acting this way. It's like her own body's defense mechanism. Which never hardly worked for her favor. And she would guess that the same thing would happen today.

Just like what she thought, the expression of the three completely changed because of her insult.

"What did you say?"

"Don't think that we would just take what you said lightly just because you're pretty!"

"Why don't you apologize, huh, princess?"

Zhu Lian nervously swallowed her saliva and stepped back. Her back hitting the tree behind her. But despite that, she still said in a queenly manner, "Why should I apologize when I'm only telling the truth?"

"You--!"

One of them stretched out his arm and was about to hold her. But then, all of them heard rustling from above. After that, someone suddenly jumped down from the tree behind her. It was a tall boy probably of the same age as them. And he landed between her and the three boys. 

"You ruined my sleep," he said coldly.

The three seemed to recognize the tall boy because of the scared expression they showed.

"We didn't mean to, Shen Ji Yun. Actually, we're leaving just now."

"Yes, yes, that's right."

And the three scampered off like mice being chased by a cat.

The tall boy didn't bother to look at them and just walked forward.

Zhu Lian seemed to awaken from her trance just now and quickly called out to the tall boy who inadvertently saved her. "Wait!"

The boy stopped and looked back at her. The first thing she saw was those pair of startling blue eyes. They seemed to penetrate deep into her soul. And she couldn't speak for a second. She just felt her heart beating faster and faster and faster.

Being so nervous, she clamped up again. "Who told you to save me?"

"Who said I saved you?" the boy coldly retorted back.

Then he continued walking away from there, without as much as looking back at her. 

Zhu Lian just stood there watching the boy's back. Her mind constantly whispering the boy's name – Shen Ji Yun.

And that's the beginning of her tragedy. 

=====

Zhu Lian then did everything she could to find all the relevant information about the boy named Shen Ji Yun. It was not that hard since he was pretty famous in his school. But it was all just superficial information. Like what family he belonged to and who his friends were.

Then she found out that he was playing the VR game Arcadia and that the team he created won the first championship to some tournament. So, she also decided to play the game and make a team. When she found out that he would go to T University, she also decided to go there.

But despite doing all those things, she was still at the same position as she had been more than three years ago. 

A million miles away from him.