Chapter Fifty-Five: Confrontation

As Gao Ying had said, love is a fascinating spiritual and physical need, one that countless sentient beings are innately drawn toward and yearn for. As the deity presiding over this domain, Freya receives no less than tens of millions of prayers and cases of matchmaking to handle each day. With such an immense workload, how does she manage to arrange it all, and how does she ensure nothing is overlooked?

And… what are her standards and criteria for arranging people’s fates in love? Does she weigh appearances, knowledge, values, personality, and other factors, then rigorously match the most compatible souls? Or is it a matter of random assignment—directly rewriting the underlying data, manipulating and altering people’s minds and aesthetics, forcibly bringing two individuals together?

For reasons he couldn’t quite explain, the black dragon found himself increasingly inclined toward the latter possibility; perhaps this goddess of love was not nearly as reliable as legend had it. After all, human nature is a complicated, selfish, and fickle thing—perfect love is a rare, if not impossible, phenomenon in this world.

If Freya truly could arrange perfect romances for people, then, more likely than not, she was inserting her own agenda into the mix.

Of course, the black dragon knew that applying a scientific lens to theological questions was somewhat one-sided, but he couldn’t help it—he trusted science more than theology or mysticism.

…

The black dragon’s clear unwillingness to engage with the caller delighted Gao Ying. She immediately said, “Sorry… there’s no one named Huang Ze here. You’ve got the wrong number!”

Ordinarily, Gao Ying should now hang up and immediately block the number… but since it was an unknown caller, blocking wasn’t possible. In that case, shutting off her phone outright would serve to infuriate the other side even more, which would be deeply satisfying.

Unfortunately, the tech department still hadn’t traced the caller’s information or location, so Gao Ying had to keep stringing her along.

“Impossible! I dialed the number with my eyes closed—how could it be wrong!” the other woman fumed. “Clearly, you’re just a wicked woman refusing to help me contact Huang Ze!”

Gao Ying was speechless.

“Little sister, are you sure there’s nothing wrong with your brain?” Gao Ying snapped, exasperated. “Dialing with your eyes closed—how could you possibly get the right number?”

“You don’t understand!” the other woman retorted. “I closed my eyes so I could feel Freya’s divine guidance, as if she herself dialed the number for me. How could that be a mistake?”

Upon hearing this, Ding Xuewen, who had hurried over, couldn’t help but look grave—had the power of the goddess of love truly begun to influence things within their borders?

“Are you really Freya’s chosen saint?” Gao Ying suddenly felt uneasy. Could this woman actually have the favor of a deity?

“Absolutely,” the caller said proudly. “Freya adores me. If my life’s mission weren’t so important—if I didn’t have to find my destined love, Huang Ze—she would’ve already arranged for me to reincarnate as her own daughter, to become her divine maiden!”

“Seriously? There’s such a thing?” Gao Ying was astonished. “Even deities desire to have children? Does the goddess of love fall in love herself? Who’s her partner?”

“How dare you!” the woman exploded in fury. “The great Freya does not fall in love—she can reproduce asexually!”

“…I probably said too much. It’s your fault, wicked woman!” she added, mortified and angry. “Let Huang Ze take the call, or don’t blame me for what I’ll do!”

“I do know a Huang Ze,” Gao Ying said slowly, becoming more cheerful as the other woman grew angrier, “but I’m not going to help you contact him!”

“Why not??” The caller was so upset she almost lost her composure, but then she reined herself in, lowering her voice. “If it’s because I was rude to you… I apologize. Please, I’m begging you, contact Huang Ze for me…”

“No,” Gao Ying replied coldly, glancing at the black dragon. “Because he’s my boyfriend now. Why would I introduce him to someone like you who’s trying to steal him away?”

“Impossible!” the caller cried, agitated. “You’re lying! I am his girlfriend! Freya herself ordained it! If you keep talking nonsense, beware divine retribution!”

“Don’t try to scare me with Freya!” Gao Ying said with disdain. “I’m the one chosen by the Old Man Under the Moon, anyway!”

“Freya’s authority doesn’t extend to people from our country!”

“You can worship your local deities if you like, but don’t drag Huang Ze into this. I absolutely won’t let you get away with it!”

“Fine!” the caller snarled. “You’re deliberately making this difficult for me, aren’t you?”

“No matter… If love can cross mountains and seas, then so can I! With Freya’s guidance, no matter how you meddle, I will win Huang Ze! And when that day comes, you’ll be sorry!”

“Oh, I’m so scared!” Gao Ying shot back, her own anger rising. “No need to wait for that day—just give me your name now, and let’s set a time and place for a face-to-face showdown! Dare to meet me?”

“What wouldn’t I dare!” the caller snapped, riled by the challenge. “I’ve never changed my name—my name is Wen…”

Before she could finish, the call was abruptly cut off.

“It wasn’t me who hung up—the other side ended the call!” Gao Ying explained quickly.

“I know,” Ding nodded. “Just wait a moment and see if they call again.”

He then turned to the head of the tech team. “Still nothing on the caller’s information?”

“No. This signal is specially encrypted—it’s an entirely unfamiliar algorithm. With our current tech, we can’t crack it or trace the number and location,” the team leader replied with a shake of his head.

“I see,” Ding Xuewen sighed. “It really does seem that Freya’s divinity is at work, keeping things secret.”

“What I can’t figure out is this: Freya’s a peaceable goddess of love, not even a mid-tier one at that. Why would she target Mr. Huang—and how did she find him?”

“Could it really be some mystical fate? I don’t believe it. Divine power isn’t that miraculous or strong, or our country would have been overthrown by now!”

“I’m more inclined to think that someone leaked the information—a believer in the goddess of love who reported Mr. Huang to Freya, prompting all this.”

“I think so too,” agreed the other department heads. They all felt the top priority was to contact the security department and find the leaker.

“Wait—are you only focused on that?” the black dragon objected, baffled. “Didn’t you say divine power can’t affect anything within our country? Then how do you explain this goddess of love?”

“Her power is clearly interfering with affairs inside our borders. Isn’t this serious enough to deserve our attention?”