Chapter 78 - Giving a Name

Making a quick glance at Xi Long she maintained a calm expression. It was inevitable that this situation would come and she was prepared to answer it easily. The issue, however, would be what name to give. While Xi Long only knew her as Ying Ying, she was hesistant to repeat the title since it held part of her true name. She was also known as Viper in the underground fighting circle and they would have definitely heard of her by know. There was no doubts that Zhuang Wei was equally involved in the dark side of Xi Long's affairs. To have a friend this close to him, they must be privy to both sides of his life. So Viper was not an option at this point, she didn't want Xi Long linking her to the fight from that night. He would connect the dots and find out that her bruises were from that night, purely based on the timings working out. Adding on, if he investigated it would create a trail back to her which would cause unnecessary problems.

'Hmm what should I say?' Running through names in her mind she felt herself fall back on ones she had used previously for her cover. She had gone undercover multiple times throughout her life and kept track of every name she had used. It was dangerous to reuse a name so even though it was easier she was still hesitant to use them. Even though her mind was racing it had only been around 10 seconds since Zhuang Wei had introduced himself. She had approximately another 10 seconds before it would look unnatural. Reaching out her hand she went to meet his handshake when she felt another hand grab her's.

Following the hand she looked up in confusion at Xi Long. He gave her a knowing look before talking to Zhuang Wei. "Why do you need to know her name? No need, you won't see each other often."

She could instantly tell that he was doing this to buy her more time. This situation was not much to faze her but it was nice to have him support her regardless. Him giving her time, even if she didn't need it, made her feel warm on the inside. Immediately after Xi Long responded to Zhuang Wei, you could see the laughter in his face. It was as if he could not fanthom that his best friend was acting so childishly.

"What do you mean?? Are you plan on hiding her away? Are you ashamed....." Zhuang Wei threw back a trap within his sentence. If Xi Long could be childish so could he!

"You...! Don't spout such lies! Who would be ashamed of my girlfriend, I just don't think you need to know her name."

"....I really think you need a vacation if your brain is deteriorating. I'm your best friend and childhood friend, I will be seeing her often. What am I supposed to call her then? XiXi's girlfriend each time??" A flabbergasted expression was on his face as he questioned his friend. Each sentence of him shocked him further.

"Yes...that is fine. You can cut the XiXi and use my full name but I agree with your suggestion." As soon as he said that both Ying Yue and Zhuang Wei stared at him in shock. A blank stare glazed through their eyes while they tried to process his words. On one hand Zhuang Wei could not believe how shameless would be, on the other Ying Yue was just shocked that he held pride in his statement. He looked at her after for confirmation with happiness in his eyes. It looked like a child looking at their mother once they had done something 'good.' Not holding it any more she stepped away from him and turned her face away to laugh. Her burst of chuckles prompted Zhuang Wei to follow her in laughter. They really could do nothing else but laugh in this situation.

She did not rebute him when he introduced her as a girlfriend because she did not want to be disrespectful in front of his best friend. Though they did not have a confirmed status there was no other way to clearly introduce her relation to people. As long they both had clarity on their situation it was fine with her. It would also be rude of her to immediately shut down his statement in front of someone he holds close and would make the situation awkward. However, she could respond to this sentence without considering him. "Stop stop, I can't do this anymore." Laughing again she took a second to calm her breathing before tapping Xi Long on the side. She lightly hit the side of his body and turned back towards him. His eyes held a gentle care and amusment as he watched her laugh.

"You can call me Valentina, Val for short." Reaching her hand back out she shook Zhuang Wei's hand in a formal handshake. During the short break Xi Long gave her she decided on using Valentina as her answer. It was something she hadn't used yet and if she had to continue introducing herself to other people she would prefer an "expensive" name. While she personally didn't care, in the business world your name carried weight. Valentina was a classier name and gave off a foreign feel, it also incidentally shared the same first letter as a Viper. This made it easier to remember. The additional bonus of having an english name is that it steered away from Chinese completely and people would easily assume she was an international.

"An english name? Are you a foreign born chinese?" His eyebrow raised in response to her name.

Just as she expected, his first thought was to assume she was a foreigner, her features were Chinese but you couldn't not tell much behind her mask. "What do you think?" She threw the question right back at him. Since he was close to Xi Long she wasn't sure how much she should lie or how far to stretch her story so it was better to leave the onus on him. Then later she could deny ever lying since she had not confirmed nor denied anything.