Early in the morning, He Chuzhou was awakened by a series of small movements.

He opened his eyes drowsily and found Pei Xi chatting with someone. His fingers moved at a rapid pace, tapping the screen loudly.

“What are you doing?”

He gave a big yawn, still sleepy, and his eyes started to close again.

Pei Xi didn’t even raise his head: “I’m chatting with Mom.”

He Chuzhou: “Oh. You guys are talking so early—”

He Chuzhou: “…..?”

He Chuzhou stared blankly: “Mom?”

Pei Xi hummed, his eyes focused unwaveringly on the phone: “Mom says the rice dumplings and specialty dried fruits she sent us will arrive soon, and we should remember to go and get them.”

After speaking, he typed another line. Just as he was about to hit send, a hand suddenly reached out and covered his phone.

His gaze followed that hand and fell on a pair of tired, smiling eyes.

“What are you doing?” the owner of those eyes asked again.

There was also a smile in his voice, along with the sticky hoarseness of waking up and a hint of teasing, pouring into Pei Xi’s ears together with his breath.

“Chatting with Mom.”

Pei Xi subconsciously repeated his previous answer, raising a hand to touch his ear: “Didn’t I say that just now?”

“Yeah. I forgot.”

He Chuzhou told a bald-faced lie, his smile widening at Pei Xi’s answer.

He didn’t mean to poke fun at him, but Pei Xi’s name for Mrs. Chu was just so pleasant to the ear. He couldn’t help but want to hear it more.

The conversation ended there. He Chuzhou retracted his hand and didn’t bother him further. Pei Xi went on to reply to Mrs. Chu’s message.

He just looked up from time to time.

Another look.

When he looked up for the third time, he finally said: “Chuzhou, can you ask me again?”

He Chuzhou was puzzled, but he obeyed: “What are you doing?”

Pei Xi pursed his lips and didn’t answer.

He Chuzhou: “What’s wrong?”

Pei Xi curled the corners of his mouth cryptically and shook his head.

Not much. I just thought it sounded good and wanted to hear it more.

When He Chuzhou half-closed his eyes and yawned for the second time, Pei Xi finally remembered something worth sharing and sat up on his elbows: “Gege, I had a dream last night.”

Like this, air leaked out from under the blankets.

He Chuzhou stretched out his long arms and hooked the other’s waist, dragging him into his embrace. He buried his head in his shoulder, nearly asleep: “Really? What kind of dream?”

Pei Xi didn’t mind this. As long as he could speak, he had no objection to any movement: “A very strange dream. I dreamed that we were back in high school. You repeated a grade and became my classmate and deskmate.”

“You didn’t get good grades. You always asked me for extra lessons, but you didn’t understand what I told you. You often fell asleep after a few words, and had to hold my hand to use as a pillow.”

“But you were a very good person. When my father wanted to send me out of Wancheng, it was you who stopped the car on the road and took me back to your home, crying and begging your dad to let me enter your household registration…..”

Before he finished speaking, there was a muffled laugh in his ear. He started laughing too: “Isn’t it strange? Why did I have such a dream?”

“What’s strange? It’s not strange.”

He Chuzhou’s voice sounded, loud and clear: “What you think about during the day, you’ll dream of at night. It’s happened to me too. It’s normal.”

What you think about during the day, you’ll dream of at night…..

Pei Xi chewed on the meaning of those words: “Chuzhou, are you saying you want to go to school with me?”

“Yeah. Don’t you want to?”

“I want to study with you and see you in a school uniform. I want to take you to eat spicy malatang soup at the back door of the high school. I want to take you back home and keep you there before your father went crazy.”

“Ai, my intestines are turning green just thinking about it.”

He Chuzhou released a long sigh, and he couldn’t say if it was more from emotion or regret: “It’s a pity we can only imagine it. There’s no time machine in this world, and we’re too late.”

“You have a point.” Pei Xi nodded. “But are you sure high school is enough?”

“Huh?” He Chuzhou raised his head. “What do you mean?”

Pei Xi: “I mean that if you really went back to high school, would you go back farther through junior high and elementary school and steal me from my house before I even attended school?”

He Chuzhou sucked in a silent breath: “Indeed, that’s what I would do. Tsk, how do you know me so well?”

“Because I know how much you like me, ah.”

Pei Xi’s eyes curved somewhat proudly. One cheek sunk into the soft pillow as he looked at him: “So, Chuzhou, it’s not too late. No matter when we met, it would have never been too late.”

“You don’t have to regret not being able to help sixteen-year-old Pei Xi, or even younger. After all, I’ve already conveyed your good intentions to all of them.”

“So…..can a certain person get up and cook now?”

Pei Xi held He Chuzhou’s slightly dazed face and kissed his chin: “Your wife is hungry.”

Sure enough, no matter when, sweet words were lethal to men.

Pei Xi watched that person walk out of the room in a daze, holding back his laughter. Then he looked back to his chat with Mrs. Chu. When he saw a small red dot among his circle of friends, he clicked on it—

The first article on the nine square news grid was displayed, and he could clearly see the content of the photo. The smile on his face stiffened, shrunk, and then disappeared at a speed visible to the naked eye.

. . . . . . 

Before cooking, He Chuzhou slipped out with He Xingxing and picked up the express delivery.

Mrs. Chu was an out-and-out overachiever. She had sent two big boxes full of things, and it was rather difficult to carry them all the way back.

Among them, red bean rice dumplings took up an entire box. He Chuzhou picked out a few of the better-looking ones and planned to heat them up for Pei Xi to try later, then sorted out the rest and stuffed them into the refrigerator.

He quickly steamed some ready-made food, and the soy milk was almost too hot when it was ready.

The rice dumplings were wrapped in dumpling leaves and tied with string, their surfaces moist from steaming. Fearing that Pei Xi would get his hands dirty eating them, he peeled them in advance and placed them into a bowl, serving them with soy milk.

He clapped his hands, planning to call that person down. As soon as he walked to the door of the room, he met Pei Xi, who passed him silently with his head lowered.

He Chuzhou: ?

What was going on?

Wasn’t he quite happy just before he left?

*

*

He Chuzhou: [Mom, what did you and Xinxin talk about?]

Chu Yuelan: [Just some family matters. What’s the matter?]

He Chuzhou: [Are you sure? Why does Xinxin seem to be in a bad mood right now? I asked him, but he won’t tell me.]

Chu Yuelan: [Huh?]

Chu Yuelan: [Is it because I told him about how you used a rope to drag dried cow dung around as a pet when you were little, and it shattered the domineering CEO filter Xinxin had on you?]

He Chuzhou: [……]

He Chuzhou: [Thanks bunches.]

Chu Yuelan: [You’re welcome.]

Chu Yuelan: [In any case, it has nothing to do with me. Xinxin was very happy while we were chatting. You should reflect on yourself.]

Chu Yuelan: [If you don’t coax him right away, your mom will deploy punitive measures against you. Little brat, you don’t measure up to your father.]

He Chuzhou: [……]

He Chuzhou: [Don’t deploy punitive measures against me.]

He Chuzhou: [Forget it, I’m going to coax him. Do what you want. Also, the rice dumplings are a bit hard. You guys remember to steam them for a while before eating them.]

After the meal, Pei Xi sat on the sofa and watched TV. 

With a pillow in one hand and the remote in the other, he changed channels continuously, going through more than two hundred of them without finding anything to watch.

He Chuzhou took a thin blanket and covered his legs, asking him: “Do you want to go watch a movie?”

Pei Xi glanced at them, then turned back with a lack of interest: “I’ve been to the cinema. I don’t want to go.”

What did it mean that he’d been there but didn’t want to go?

He Chuzhou didn’t understand, but from the look of the dark sky outside, it was going to rain. He gave up the idea of taking this person out.

He recalled that Pei-calico didn’t like rainy days very much.

He Chuzhou: “Do you want to eat anything? I’ll make it for you, or order takeout if we don’t have it at home.”

Pei Xi shook his head: “Not hungry.”

He Chuzhou: “Did you not get enough sleep this morning? Do you want to go rest?”

Pei Xi shook his head again: “Not tired.”

Almost at his wit’s end, He Chuzhou tried to find some inspiration from his surroundings.

His gaze wandered around, and instantly settled on a certain place. An idea flashed through his mind.

“Do you want to play a game?” He picked up the phone and waved it.

Pei Xi’s eyes finally fluctuated a little as they followed his cell phone. He really wanted to, but hesitated: “But I can’t.”

Seeing that he’d fallen into the trap, He Chuzhou directly took Pei Xi’s phone and downloaded one for him: “Piece of cake. Gege will teach you the secret to becoming a game master in ten minutes.”

It was the same game as last time, developed by He Group’s game studio. It was still in the player test phase, and its popularity was extremely high. The lowest number of players each day was 300,000, which was very active.

He Chuzhou helped Pei Xi create an account, and created a character in one go.

When Pei Xi logged into the game and saw a completely unfamiliar screen, he didn’t know what to do, and just manipulated his character to spin around in circles in boredom.

He Chuzhou taught him some of the simplest, most basic operations, took him to kill small monsters and upgrade, went to small dungeons to kill big monsters, and went to inaccessible corners to kill Easter Egg monsters.

But Pei Xi didn’t seem interested in these things. He fidgeted next to him, or sat on the floor absent-mindedly.

He Chuzhou had no choice but to change his thinking. Instead of taking him to kill monsters, he took him on missions to watch the plot, watch NPCs fight, ride on strange mounts, and see the most popular landscapes on the map.

But Pei Xi still found it boring. Reclining next to him, he swiped the screen listlessly, accidentally opening and closing the interface from time to time.

Did he also dislike games?

While He Chuzhou was thinking that he’d have to talk to the studio later about improving the game play, he also thought about what other interesting models he could show Pei Xi.

He happened to catch a glimpse of a creepy figure in the corner of the screen, walking around him and Pei Xi with unknown intentions.

It was an eyesore, so he drew his blade and cut him down.

“You can kill people in this game?”

Pei Xi, who hadn’t said anything since entering the game, finally spoke up and asked his first question about it.

He Chuzhou smoothly replied: “You can.”

He returned from his thoughts after answering, and an uncertain guess arose in his mind: “Do you want to kill someone?”

Pei Xi blinked: “Can I?”

Could he?

He Chuzhou lowered his head to look at Pei Xi’s game character.

From a suit of gray-scale, low-level equipment, to the battered, chipped longsword in his hand, to the shabby, single-digit level above his head…..

“Of course, let’s go, let’s go now!”

He Chuzhou brought Pei Xi a set of the best equipment at his level, put a fashionable outfit on him, then got on a flying dragon mount and took him straight to the Heavenly Gates.

“You can kill people here?” Pei Xi looked around.

He Chuzhou: “Yep.”

Pei Xi asked again: “How do I kill them?”

He Chuzhou happened to catch a player who was stuck in a game bug. With a few swings of his sword, he tossed the bloodied player at Pei Xi’s feet: “Here, stab him.”

This one was simple.

Pei Xi raised his sword and stabbed downward. The bloodied player screamed and spit out a mouthful of blood at the screen, dying instantly.

A dialogue box slowly floated up above the corpse: [ ? ]

Pei Xi was surprised: “A corpse can still talk?”

He Chuzhou pondered: “Actually, I’ve always felt that this design isn’t very humane. I’ll contact the planning department later and suggest that they lock the corpses’ mouths.”

The corpse quickly vanished from its spot. Perhaps its time was up and it had returned to camp.

However, there was never a shortage of players at the Heavenly Gates.

And after He Chuzhou used the same method to send more than ten heads to Pei Xi, that first player appeared again.

Pei Xi: “Has he come to us for revenge?”

“It’s not that.” He Chuzhou grabbed the player who was trying to sneak past him, and with two swipes, he threw the blood-splattered character at Pei Xi’s feet: “And he’s weak. He can’t beat me.”

Pei Xi struck down with his sword and completed his second kill of the same character: “Then why did he come back?”

He Chuzhou: “Because he’s doing a series of tasks. This is the last level, and he can also get a divine weapon after passing through the Heavenly Gates.”

Pei Xi was surprised, and looked at the corpse, which had a row of question marks over its head again: “So should we not kill him?”

He’d still thought this place was similar to the game’s open battlefield, and that just coming here meant he wanted to fight.

“Why not?”

He Chuzhou chuckled: “The event has only been out for two days, and players should still be doing normal tasks and wandering around at the foot of the mountain. All of these are stuck in enabled bugs, and they’re not far off from being banned.”

With that said, he threw two more howling and screaming characters at Pei Xi’s feet.

In this game, you could also gain experience by killing people, only much less than doing tasks. More than ten minutes passed, and Pei Xi was raised from level 7 to level 12 by He Chuzhou.

Pei Xi became increasingly familiar with the controls, and couldn’t help but sigh: “These cheating players are so polite. We’ve killed them so many times, and they haven’t cursed.”

That was because of the game’s powerful and sensitive word blocking. If it was detected that a player had a dirty mouth, they would be given a ban warning, and then banned for a week after the third time.

But He Chuzhou didn’t mention it. He just asked Pei Xi: “Is it fun?”

Although it was a bit unethical to gain joy from another’s pain, Pei Xi still nodded, bright-eyed: “It’s fun.”

When the red character “killed” popped up on the screen, it really went to his head.

He Chuzhou beamed: “If it’s fun, just play more. Believe it or not, this person will be back again.”

At the same time, at the game studio owned by He Group:

“Boss, Boss, the customer service department received a complaint, saying that some players deliberately intercepted and killed passers-by at the Heavenly Gates to prevent players from completing tasks normally, which seriously affects the gaming experience.”

“Someone reached the Heavenly Gates so quickly? ? ?”

“En…..abnormal cheating behavior was detected in the background.”

“Cheating is enough to be banned forever, yet they still have the nerve to make complaints?. Go, go, go, I’m busy testing. Don’t waste my time with such trivial matters.”

“Okay. What about the two killers?”

“Ban them both, just for a week…..never mind, just for one day.”

“Boss, I don’t dare.”

“You don’t dare? Is it your father playing?”

“A level up from that.”

“What do you mean?”

“And probably…..a level up from your father too.”

“ ? ? ? ? ? ”

He Chuzhou bought a new set of more advanced, more sparkly equipment for Pei Xi, who had reached level 15.

Just after the transaction was completed, he received a private message from the game manager in the background.

GM: [President He, are you online?]

He Chuzhou: [I am. Is something the matter?]

GM: [No, no. I just want to confirm with you that, um, are you doing game experience testing?]

He Chuzhou: [En.]

GM: [Okay.]

GM: [It’s just that some players are complaining that you’re maliciously killing people]

He Chuzhou: [Have you not detected cheating in the background?]

GM: [We have.]

He Chuzhou: [You’re this slow to ban them?]

GM: ……

GM: We really are.

He was sweating profusely.

GM: [We plan to do a sweeping ban process later. Of course, if you think that’s too slow, we’ll ban them immediately!]

GM: [Have you seen any other areas that require improvement?]

He Chuzhou didn’t plan to reply.

But seeing how long it took Pei Xi to reach level 15, and seeing how fewer and fewer players were lingering at the Heavenly Gates after his violent domination…..

He Chuzhou: [/screenshot /screenshot]

He Chuzhou: [Give these two accounts titles and issue a region-wide announcement]

Three minutes later, a region-wide announcement was sent through the system, scrolling above the screens of every player: 

[System announcement: Special Event Notice. To celebrate 500,000 people online in this region today, we have specially set up two humanoid NPC players at the Heavenly Gates. Anyone killed by the humanoid players more than 10 times will receive a permanent special effects title. This event is limited to one day, effective immediately. Warriors, proceed at your own pace.]

As soon as this message was issued, half of the so-called 500,000 players (authenticity unknown) had a lifeless look in their eyes, and the other half were dumbfounded.

Only a few people were quick to react, swiftly crossing the map on their swords to the Heavenly Gates, radiant with vigor. Before they could clearly see the two people in the distance, they caught sight of two enormous system titles: 

[Humanoid player NPC 001, level: 150]

[Humanoid player NPC 002, level: 15]

“ ? ”

“ ? ? ”

“ ?  ? ? ”

Why was a level 15 baby NPC out working?

How to be killed by him?

Take off their pants?

---

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Chapter 46 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 48