One moment, still running on the school playground, the next moment, Rong Yi and Ice rushed to the closest boxing ring near the locker room, stopped by the elastic ropes of the fence.
Those boxing in the ring, those warming up around, all quieted down.
The owner of the boxing gym exclaimed and came up to punch Ice, lowering his voice and shouting, “Where were you two running off to? Eloping?! Seven days!”
“How did you come out from the locker room? The aunt who just cleaned it said there was no one inside!”
Rong Yi glanced at the window, bright daylight outside. He had changed back into his own clothes, checked his pocket, and found his phone, cigarettes, and keys.
The phone miraculously maintained the battery level from seven days ago, with messages and emails from these days coming in.
Looking at the time: noon.
They entered the game at midnight seven days ago, and returned to reality at noon seven days later.
Ice rubbed his shoulder and complained, “What are you doing! My student has money, can’t he take me on a trip?”
“Then couldn’t you at least say something?!” The boxing gym owner grabbed his hair in frustration, “If I weren’t your brother, I would have fired you right now!”
Ice and the surrounding coaches and students circled around arguing, while Rong Yi made a few calls to the company to inform that they would be back at work today and replied to some important emails before escaping the gym with Ice.
While halfway through eating braised chicken and rice, Rong Yi suddenly felt a sense of unease in his mind.
He took out his phone and re-read the messages and emails – sure enough!
That guy Fan Xingze, who caused a commotion when he went missing for a night before, now directly disappeared for seven days, didn’t even send a WeChat message to check in?
This is too abnormal!
“Zoe… he’s in big trouble.” Linda said.
As soon as Rong Yi returned to the company, Linda, catching wind of the situation, piled up all the documents that required Rong Yi’s signature on her desk, while gossiping, “On the day you didn’t come to work, Zoe took a day off citing a high fever.”
Rong Yi paused in signing, “…Fever for seven days?” Could his precious brain have been fried.
Linda shrugged, “I don’t know. I heard the CEO and a few VPs went to his house to visit him, but they were met by the smart home system, with the AI doctor taking care of him while he slept in the bedroom, they didn’t even see him.”
Rong Yi knew that Fan Xingze’s home was very futuristic, with no maids or chefs, as all household matters were managed by his self-developed IoT smart home system, even documentaries were made about it.
He didn’t expect that he had even developed an AI doctor, such a futuristic thing. I wonder when it can be put into the market, it will surely cause quite a stir.
Rong Yi’s thoughts involuntarily drifted back to work.
“Linda, do you care about him?” Linda cautiously asked. Since Fan Xingze tried to edge into Rong Yi’s field on social media, the two of them had been in a strange love-hate relationship. She was the most important source of gossip about this couple, she couldn’t fail the expectations of her company colleagues.
Rong Yi smirked, “I care about him not frying his brain and affecting the company’s performance and stock market.”
Linda was satisfied. Rong has always been sharp-tongued but kind-hearted. She says such things just to cover up her concern!
Really heartwarming.
Suddenly, outside the office, a tired and hoarse male voice could be heard:
“When you say that, it really saddens me. When you were sick, I stayed by your bedside until the end of the bed; I took seven days off due to illness, but you didn’t even send a comforting message.”
“You are truly a heartless woman.”
Linda immediately quieted down, reducing her presence, clutching the documents signed by Rong Yi, and escaped from the office filled with tension.
Fan Xingze leaned against the door frame with his laptop bag, obviously just back from sick leave and returning to work.
Seeing him looking weary, pale with a sickly complexion, and slouching as if lacking bones, Rong Yi’s tone involuntarily softened: “If you’re not well, rest at home. Our company isn’t a devil’s den.”
“I heard you also took seven days off?” Fan Xingze casually tossed his laptop bag onto Rong’s office sofa, lowering his voice: “…Did you suddenly get into a game?”
Rong Yi nodded, summoned a floating screen, copied down the code for controlling NPC character attributes that Senior A had sent her in the team chat, and sent it to Fan Xingze.
“This code determines if the NPC is human.” Rong Yi explained, “Although its actual effect in the instance is to turn NPC into a person or a ghost, in my understanding, the ‘human’ or ‘ghost’ in the instance does not distinguish between ‘alive’ or ‘dead,’ but rather two different species.”
“So I also guess that this is a code for controlling the type of species.”
Fan Xingze nodded, his handsome face looking pale as he sat on the sofa studying for a while, then he took out his computer and started typing away.
Rong Yi couldn’t help but ask, “Have you had lunch?”
Getting a negative answer, Rong Yi ordered takeout for him, opting for nutritious and easily digestible chicken soup dumplings and pork buns due to his recent recovery from a serious illness.
After doing all this, she couldn’t help but send a message to her boyfriend:
Rong: I’ve started to care about Fan Xingze. It’s ridiculous. Do you think games can change people’s thinking?
Her boyfriend was probably still busy with the “Confidential Z Mansion Project” and hadn’t replied to her.
She missed him a bit, wondering when he would fulfill their promise of a video call.
Contrary to Linda’s expected intense argument, there was peace between them. They quietly worked in the office until someone knocked on the door.
Rong Yi thought it was the delivery of the food and casually said to put it on the coffee table. But the person at the door smiled and said:
“Rong Yi, I have a package for you to sign for!”
It was the company’s mailroom guy, handing her an EMS envelope.
Linda usually dealt with paper documents at work, so it was rare for her to receive one directly.
She opened it curiously.
“Oh, Fan Xingze is also here, perfect, so I don’t have to make another trip.” The guy handed Fan Xingze a similar EMS envelope.
Rong Yi opened the envelope, inside was a gold-embossed invitation:
Ms. Rong Yi:
The 2010 class reunion of the graduates of the third senior high school in E City, sincerely invites you to attend.
“Remembering our youthful days together.”
Moving down is the time and place, surprisingly it’s tomorrow evening.
Rong Yi couldn’t help but smile. She had just left school and was about to attend a high school reunion with her classmates. What a coincidence.
On the other side, Fan Xingze poured out a card from the EMS envelope, similar to the embossed gold invitation in her hand.
Rong Yi: … Such a coincidence.
In the evening, Rong Yi received a message from her boyfriend.
X: [GIF of a cat giving a back massage]
X: What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?
X: The game itself doesn’t directly affect brainwaves. But the twisted survival environments and intense competition in the game can indeed alter behavior and thought patterns of some individuals. Just watch a live stream; there are plenty of psychologically distorted players.
X: But Rong Rong is so amazing, clearing three high-quality instances. She must be someone who can persevere in any situation!
X: [Cat: “I love you more today.jpg”]
Rong: Are you done with the confidential project? Can we video chat?
“After typing for a while,” X replied:
X: Okay! Tomorrow night at ten o’clock!
Satisfied, Rong Yi set an alarm for tomorrow night at ten o’clock.
Even if some classmates get drunk and perform pole dances publicly at the gathering tomorrow, she would not linger in the excitement but would make sure to video call her boyfriend on time, not giving him a chance to avoid this meeting.
Feeling much more relaxed after his agreement, Rong Yi started chatting casually with him.
Rong: Isn’t it a coincidence that Fan Xingze and I are from the same school and class, he was in the class next to mine!
Rong: I can’t remember him at all!
X: You said he’s a tech geek. The geekiness of a tech geek only increases in school and boys mature late. Maybe he was secretly crushing on you wearing those bottle-bottom glasses in the adjacent class.
X: You’re a normie, not understanding the struggles of a geek.
X: [Cat sighing.jpg]
Rong: How can you relate so well?
X: I’m a tech geek too. Just got lucky to meet you hehe.
X: So don’t reject Fan Xingze that much. You mentioned he has to endure sickness alone at home; he’s a bit pitiful. Be kind.
Rong Yi read her boyfriend’s message repeatedly.
Rong: Got hacked?
Rong: Whenever I mentioned him before, you’d get upset. Why are you so understanding now?
Rong: Hearing that we were old classmates in such a risky relationship, you’re not even angry… When did you become so mature?
X: … I guess I suddenly felt confident that I’m the main one.
Rong: ???
The author has something to say: Second update!
After being led through the school instances by Rong Yi, experiencing a school love adventure with her boyfriend, it was when she was at the peak of her confidence and a sense of security.
No, can’t let him be too complacent, strive for the next chapter to make him lose his footing.
