If the first time had been a coincidence, the second was a little harder to explain.
The material dungeon Zheng Xun had chosen was extremely remote. He didn't want to see anyone, so naturally he had picked it with care.
No normal person would go somewhere this remote to mine.
Though puzzled, he said nothing. He nodded by way of greeting.
As before, they barely spoke and mined on their own.
Material dungeons had a fixed time limit, with four hours being the maximum. Zheng Xun finished mining and slung his haul over his shoulder.
When he turned around, a sack stuffed full of ore was waiting behind him.
Huo Ziyan had mined it and left a note saying "For Zheng Xun," but he was nowhere to be seen.
Zheng Xun didn't stand on ceremony. He took both sacks of ore back to Songbird.
"Did you find some money?"
Cheng Jie happened to find Zheng Xun in their room when he returned to get something during a break in training.
Seeing that Zheng Xun could barely hide his delight, he couldn't help asking.
"Something like that. I met a kind person."
Cheng Jie was baffled.
The same thing happened for the next three days. The two met in the mining dungeon, mined in silence, and Huo Ziyan left his ore for Zheng Xun.
Before he knew it, Zheng Xun had amassed a considerable sum from selling the ore.
On the fourth day, in the mining area.
Huo Ziyan stood at the bottom of a pit, pickaxe in hand, mining with complete focus.
"Don't you need to train?"
A voice came from above. Huo Ziyan looked up and saw Zheng Xun crouching on a small, flat patch of rock. His pickaxe hung loosely in his hand, tracing several marks on the ground.
"I..." Huo Ziyan hesitated. "I took a few days off to rest."
"Oh."
Huo Ziyan's excuse didn't hold up, but Zheng Xun didn't press him.
He drove his iron pickaxe into the ground, gripped it with one hand, and slid down from his perch. Landing five paces from Huo Ziyan, he started chipping away.
"If you need my help with anything, just say so. I've taken quite a bit of your ore, after all."
"No, I... I don't have any use for that ore." Huo Ziyan rubbed the back of his head. "I just come here to relieve stress."
He didn't say where the stress came from, but Cheng Jie had been talking about him every day lately, so Zheng Xun knew a little about his situation.
"All right." Zheng Xun tossed a piece of golden ore into his sack. "My offer stands. If you need someone's help, you can ask me anytime."
The two miners continued mining together in this unspoken understanding for a week. During that time, Zheng Xun was called away a few times to sign papers. Xiao Jun was reliable and handled the entire process with great care, leaving Zheng Xun little to worry about.
During that time, the focus online shifted elsewhere: which guild had signed a newcomer, which guild had entered a high-difficulty dungeon. The White Tower's arrival had threatened humanity's survival, but it had also brought a wealth of opportunities.
While the outside world buzzed with activity, Zheng Xun enjoyed his peaceful days alone in the mining area.
The one drawback was that his good mining buddy Huo Ziyan hadn't shown up for two days straight, and half his income had vanished just like that.
Zheng Xun found that a little regrettable.
Xiao Jun called him that afternoon to say all the paperwork would be finished in another two or three days.
Zheng Xun planned to mine for two more days, then continue tackling other dungeons and return to his previous routine.
The portal had been designed to look like a tall chimney. Not long after Zheng Xun climbed out of it, another person popped out ten meters away.
It was Huo Ziyan, whom he hadn't seen in a while.
"Hi, Little Huo."
Zheng Xun greeted him first. Huo Ziyan didn't look well; he seemed more troubled than before. Zheng Xun didn't know what had happened.
But when he heard Zheng Xun's voice, he still managed to force a smile.
"Long time no see."
"Two days. That's not so long."
Zheng Xun was happy. Huo Ziyan's arrival meant he would have twice as much ore that night.
But Huo Ziyan remained preoccupied.
Zheng Xun noticed, but he didn't ask. He wasn't good at comforting people.
In any case, if the other person trusted him enough, he would speak up on his own.
As before, the two mined on their own in an unspoken understanding. Amid the rhythmic strikes, Huo Ziyan finally opened up.
"I might have to leave Azure Mist."
A guild consisted of a decision-making tier of higher-ups, management, teams, and ordinary players. Huo Ziyan had initially been placed on a team, but now, with no outstanding results from him, Azure Mist didn't want to support someone who wasn't pulling his weight and had given him an ultimatum.
He could either voluntarily terminate his contract and become an ordinary player in the guild, or leave altogether.
"I've been up for loan for over a month, and no team is willing to take me. For one thing, almost every guild has enough people right now. For another, they also think... loaning me would be a waste of money. I wouldn't be any use."
Zheng Xun didn't respond. Huo Ziyan went on talking; he needed someone to confide in too badly, even if the person wasn't a good listener.
"I never thought I'd end up like this..."
Back then, Huo Ziyan had been full of spirit when he came to the Azure Mist Guild, bringing lofty goals and hopes with him.
Unfortunately, various circumstances had kept him from putting his talents to use, and he had ended up like this. It would be a lie to say he had no regrets.
But what could he do?
It wasn't as though he hadn't tried.
The iron pickaxe clanged against the ore.
Zheng Xun spoke.
"Then there's nothing you can do. You'll just have to find another path."
That was worse than no consolation at all.
Huo Ziyan felt uncomfortable hearing it, but when he saw Zheng Xun's calm profile, those distracting thoughts briefly drifted away from him again, though he didn't know why.
"I really envy you."
"That's only natural. It shows you have good taste."
Huo Ziyan couldn't help laughing.
"Do you talk like this with everyone? I mean, you're pretty blunt."
"Yeah. People who care will care no matter what you say, and with people who don't, it's no use dressing things up. That's how I talk. People can take it or leave it."
Having been given a second life, Zheng Xun didn't want to live it feeling stifled. He didn't care what other people thought.
"That must be nice." Huo Ziyan envied him even more. "If... never mind."
It was now eight in the evening. They had been mining for an hour when Huo Ziyan's wristband beeped twice. It seemed someone from the guild was contacting him.
After glancing at the message, Huo Ziyan's good mood for the evening vanished in an instant, and his shoulders slumped.
"Zheng Xun," he said, having been corrected on how to address him, "I have to go."
"Oh, all right. Take care. See you another day."
Zheng Xun didn't even look up, concentrating on mining a particularly deep piece of ore. By the time he finally dug it out and looked up, Huo Ziyan was already gone.
Little Huo had forgotten to leave him any ore.
That wouldn't do.
Seeing that the chimney portal was about to disappear, Zheng Xun slung his sack of ore over his back and climbed in through the entrance.
As soon as Huo Ziyan came out of the portal, he was stopped by members of the team.
He had called in sick and taken time off because he didn't want to attend training. A teammate had reported it to the third team's captain, and somehow the first team had now been alerted as well.
In any case, when Huo Ziyan returned to Azure Mist, a group of people were sitting around the couches in the portal room. Among them were Xu Guan, the first team's captain, Meng Yijia, its vice captain, and the third team's captain and vice captain.
The moment the third team's captain saw Huo Ziyan appear, he flew into a rage and berated him.
"Huo Ziyan, you skipped training for no reason and ran off to have fun! You've made the third team lose all face!"