Love Notes from the Canyon

New story now available: After Her Fake Heiress Identity Is Exposed, She Becomes Everyone's Favorite

An episodic novel inspired by the many stories that came from the author's obsession with Honor of Kings. No AI was used in the writing of this story.

The first story takes place in Season 37, while the others take place in Season 38. The full story is already written.

A disclaimer: The author isn't an expert gamer, and the novel includes artistic embellishments. It's an absurdist story combining drama, romance, banter, and online dating identities coming to light.

Story One: An overthinking Lan who wears himself out x a mischievous, self-assured Cai

Before falling for Bai Yifeng, Zhu Yanhe was a simple guy. His daily routine went like this:

"Honor of Kings, launch!"

"What? Dating? Sounds boring. Forget it."

"Why date online? That's so old-fashioned."

Later, after online dating helped him successfully "land" a rich young lady, Zhu Yanhe was never carefree again. His daily routine became:

"Who's that guy you cosplayed with?"

"Who are those four men you played five-player matches with?"

"Yifeng, I'm really about to lose it."

Story Two: Sunny, eccentric, talkative Lanling King x calm, steady, perceptive Sister Mulan

To avoid unnecessary trouble, Lin Buyu set her in-game gender to male. She never expected people to be so accepting of men these days.

The young Lanling King kept calling her "bro," and she listened in silence until she finally said outright:

"Just call me sis."

She was about to say, "I'm actually a girl," but the other person obediently called her "Big Sis" and repeatedly told her, "Don't feel inferior because of your inner gender identity."

Lin Buyu said nothing and quietly tried to keep her distance. But this Lanling King was so talkative that whenever she took one step back, he took 10,086 steps forward.

In the end, somehow or other, the two met in person.

She thought he would be angry that she'd lied about her gender, but Lin Buyu never expected his first words after learning the truth to be a sigh of relief:

"Thank goodness. I'm not gay."

Story Three: A gloomy little pineapple who pretends to be a girl for his little sister x an angelic mermaid who's willing to swing both ways for her big sister

Shen Zhiguang was a well-behaved girl for eighteen years. When she turned nineteen, her two roommates dragged her into the rabbit hole that is Honor of Kings. From then on, everyone saw her as a game addict who was always looking for a partner to ship with.

When her cousin teased her, asking if she'd found herself a gaming partner yet, she protested indignantly: "I'd never look for a boyfriend in a game!"

She kept her word, stubbornly sticking to solo queue as a mage or support and ignoring all the jungler and marksman bros who tried to invite her to duo queue. Then one day, Shen Zhiguang met an incredibly gentle Marco.

He gave her healing packs, helped her take the blue buff, and high-fived her after every kill.

They were strangers, yet he was so gentle. He must be a girl, right?

The moment she saw that the account's gender was set to female, Shen Zhiguang threw her head back and laughed. She immediately sent "her" a friend request: Big Sis! Can we play together from now on? You're so good!

Shen Zhiguang had known since childhood that girls liked her. Facing her adored markswoman big sister, she turned on the charm, showering her with praise and acting cute and teary-eyed until she finally got the other girl to turn on her mic.

Big Sister's voice was very alluring, though a little strange, almost like a mechanical voice.

But it didn't matter!

Shen Zhiguang propped her chin on her hand and smiled, simply enjoying how nice "Big Sister" was to her.

But as she basked in that affection, she realized something astonishing:

She seemed to have become extremely possessive of her markswoman big sister.

"Big Sister, who were you duo-queuing with just now?"

"My younger brother was playing. I only duo-queue with you."

"Big Sister, who are you closest to in the game?"

"You, of course. You're the only one I'm close to."

"Big Sister, should we set our in-game relationship?"

"Sure. How about making it a couple relationship?"

Shen Zhiguang's heart stopped for a moment, then went into overdrive.

She'd never been in a relationship, she firmly believed she was straight, and... Ah, forget it! Big Sister was so wonderful. What was wrong with liking her? Even best friends could set a couple relationship in the game, right? Forget it, let's do it!

Just as Shen Zhiguang had nearly convinced herself, who could tell her who this smiling male senior was, with the same voice as Big Sister?!

"Didn't we agree, junior, that we were a couple?"

The senior, born with mesmerizing, romantic eyes, bent down slightly to meet her gaze, a gentle smile on his lips. His skin was pale, but his looks made him all the more bewitching. Holding a little voice changer, he smiled as he blocked off every way out:

"Why don't you cling to me anymore?"

Restrained, yet invasive.

All game IDs and novel titles mentioned in each story are fictional. Any resemblance is purely coincidental.

Theme: There's a game that just gets more and more frustrating the longer you play: mobile Honor of Kings.