Li Xian remained dazed for a while. Only after Ji Xie waved a hand twice in front of his eyes did his thoughts return to reality.
"How long has it been?"
He forced down his emotions as he asked.
"About a minute. The instance should be about to..."
Before Ji Xie could finish, the system announced, "The instance has officially closed. We wish all players an enjoyable game next time!" and sent Li Xian back to the logout point in the Player Center.
Li Xian instinctively felt his pocket. When he touched something soft and springy, he actually breathed a sigh of relief.
Then he pulled his hand back as though his own thoughts had burned him and started toward his room, only for an oddly familiar voice to reach his ears:
"Stop... stop crowding me. I'm really not buying anything!"
Li Xian looked ahead and to his left, where three or four players had gathered around someone, gesturing as they pitched items or information. Some even seemed to be trying to recruit him into a guild-the person receiving their sales pitches tried hard to push them aside, but their overwhelming enthusiasm left him unable to take a single step.
Li Xian shifted his position to get a different view of the player in the middle and discovered that it was actually Song Qingzhang.
Although he had already suspected as much when he heard the voice, confirming it still surprised him.
When Song Qingzhang had said "as soon as possible," he really had meant soon.
While Li Xian was reflecting on this, a slightly hunched man wearing a hat appeared beside Song Qingzhang, leaned in, and said:
"Hey, handsome, need an item appraisal?"
As he spoke, he kicked twice at the other players surrounding Song Qingzhang and snapped, "Stop pestering