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Edited by: kapekopicoffee
Star Magician 3.0
Su Mingqian glanced at Li Shuoxing, then made a couple movements in the void to summon a control panel.
Li Shuoxing was panicked, and found that Ask was panicked too.
Because he clearly saw that Xingxing and Qianqian, temporarily controlled by Ask, shook on the table and nearly fell off it.
“
Cub, cub cub cub!” Li Shuoxing rushed up and grabbed onto Su Mingqian’s hand. “Say what you have to say! We educate our child when it does something wrong, not just punish it. Children need to save face too. Look at how good and obedient Ask is. If you really want Ask to return the money
”
He gritted his teeth and, with the fearlessness of cutting flesh to save the system, said:
“Then Ask will agree too!”
[System: 
]
The system was silent.
Because the system had already analysed and read Su Mingqian’s thoughts.
Ask found out.
Ximu’s the only one who’s silly. He’s worried about me bullying Ask, when he’s clearly always bullying Ask too. It turns out that when Ask is really at risk of punishment, he’s the first to agitatedly jump up.
Su Mingqian felt very happy. The favourability above his head jumped even more cheerfully, and +20’s were even starting to bounce out.
He lifted his other hand and, under Li Shuoxing’s watchful eye, tapped on the sound button to turn off the system log prompt tone.
“I’m just turning off the sound. What are you worried about?” he said gently.
Li Shuoxing: “
”
He looked at the change in favourability above Su Mingqian’s head and suddenly understood something. The corners of his mouth twitched a little.
So, when I say words of love, it’s +5; when he teases me, it becomes +20.
This difference in treatment
 Cub, my cub, what exactly are you thinking about in your heart?
Li Shuoxing felt faint heartburn. Just as he was about to discuss it with Su Mingqian in a roundabout way, the sound of a bell came from outside.
“Ding—”
That long sound came from the horizon, flying over the lawn, over the porch pillars, and into the room, into Li Shuoxing’s and Su Mingqian’s ears.
The two dolls on the table also moved at the same time.
They suddenly came to life, their small hands and feet filled with agility. They jumped from the table to the sofa, then from the sofa to the floor, and then stomped over to Li Shuoxing and Su Mingqian and grabbed on their trouser legs.
Su Mingqian: “It’s time for us to go out.”
Li Shuoxing: “Let’s go.”
They linked arms and, accompanied by two tottering dolls holding bouquets, made their way out of the dressing room and onto the lawn.
Bright sunlight immediately fell on them both, and chubby little angels flew in the sky, whistling a cheerful wedding march and showering heart-shaped petals to pave the way for Li Shuoxing and Su Mingqian.
This was a trick that Calm Egg and Ten Zero Mausoleum had created.
Thunderous applause rang out as a group of men who looked like bodyguards in black suits and black super sunglasses were clapping hard to add to this wonderful wedding’s joyous atmosphere.
That was what Deer Over Fragrant Grass had created.
Of course, the more people present in the wedding, the more lively and atmospheric it’d be. So, when she was buying clothes just earlier, she had also Kryptoned for lots of super handsome bodyguards to serve as warm-up hands for the wedding.
This was her original idea, and now looking at it, its effect was quite good.
It was just

Deer Over Fragrant Grass’s eyes rested on the dolls beside Li Shuoxing and Su Mingqian’s feet.
It was as if a thunderbolt had struck Deer Over Fragrant Grass’s head.
That!
Isn’t that!
Isn’t that the Su Mingqian doll from Lofter?!
She watched, dumbfounded, as the Qianqian doll, clutching onto Li Shuoxing’s trouser leg, waved the bouquet of flowers in its hand as it lurched forward.
She, who’d been sitting in the middle of a row of chairs, involuntarily swapped places with the bodyguard beside her, and then swapped places again. By the time she’d moved all the way to the edge of the row, Qianqian was walking with Li Shuoxing, coming towards her hand.
Deer Over Fragrant Grass couldn’t control herself as she reached her hand out towards Qianqian.
The little doll, controlled by Ask, nimbly dodged Deer Over Fragrant Grass’s fingers and went straight from the outside of Li Shuoxing’s left leg around to the inside.
It dodged, but Li Shuoxing, who was moving forward, almost fell flat on his face from the Qianqian doll’s movements.
He stumbled a little. His puzzled gaze fell first on the doll, then on Deer Over Fragrant Grass, and, next to him, Su Mingqian did the same.
Deer Over Fragrant Grass was a little stressed, being watched by the new couple.
Her stomach was stuffed with doubts and impulses, but she still smiled awkwardly and politely. “Those two little dolls are so cute
”
Li Shuoxing was generous. “The one that looks like Mingqian is called Qianqian, and the one that looks like me is called Xingxing.”
After that, Li Shuoxing didn’t delay. He took Su Mingqian’s hand and continued forward.
At the end of the path paved with flowers and red carpet was a white house, surrounded by coloured glass. The glass was painted, but it seemed a little different from a normal painting.
On it were two people, one big and one small. The big one was wearing a pointed star hat, and the small one seemed to be a little boy.
The two people entered the house.
They walked all the way to the empty table, on which a book lay open, familiar words on it. It was the story of the Star Magician, written by Li Shuoxing himself.
The words in the book radiated with a mysterious light under their gaze, which then converged to outline the shape of a magician.
The magician was wearing a long cloak which hung down to his ankles, and the wide brim of his hat covered his face.
With a flick of the magic wand in his hand, the patterns and people on the coloured glass flew down into the room one after another, turning into moving pictures that combined to form a comic strip around Li Shuoxing and Su Mingqian!
These comic strips recreated the heartwarming story Li Shuoxing had once told.
The star magician and the little boy were holding hands, talking and smiling as they went on their own journey together.
The dolls that followed next to them then jumped onto the table, and pulled out rings from within their flowers.
The rings were a pair, with their names engraved inside.
Li Shuoxing took the ring with his name and placed it on Su Mingqian. Then, he held out his hand for Su Mingqian to place the other ring on his finger. When the two rings were on both their fingers, Li Shuoxing took Su Mingqian into his arms and deeply kissed him.
Wind and time both stood still.
This heartwarming scene was etched into memory.
***
The wedding finally ended at three in the afternoon that day.
When everyone took off their helmets one after another and returned to reality, looking at their familiar furniture, they felt a little bewildered, and a little dazed. They picked up their phones one after another and gathered once again in the Terminal Food Group, expressing their deep emotions to each other about the magical journey they had been taken on in the past few hours.
Amidst all the emotion, Deer Over Fragrant Grass’s words were out of place.
Deer Over Fragrant Grass: “[image]”
The others were puzzled. “Why did you screenshot Professor Simon’s Weibo?”
Deer Over Fragrant Grass: “Did you guys notice? Professor Simon’s Weibo is Su, which is the same Su as in Su Mingqian
”
What else could people think? “So what if his Weibo’s named Su? Couldn’t Eunuch have set it up for Professor Simon?”
Deer Over Fragrant Grass: “
”
Deer Over Fragrant Grass then looked in Lofter, found the video of Su Mingqian dancing, and sent it to the group.
Everyone in the group watched and laughed. “What’s this? It’s quite funny.”
Deer Over Fragrant Grass said, with deep meaning, “It’s a Nine Crossings fan video.”
Everyone in the group: “It’s exquisite!” They took a closer look and realisation dawned on them. “Isn’t this the little doll that appeared beside Eunuch at the wedding today?”
Deer Over Fragrant Grass felt excited. “Yes, that’s it. You guys—”
Everyone in the group said one after the other:
“Did Eunuch also watch this video and think it was cute, so he got the same doll?”
“It must’ve been.”
“If someone made me a doll that cute, I’d want to take one and play with it too.”
Deer Over Fragrant Grass: “
”
Deer Over Fragrant Grass: “
You guys really don’t feel that there’s anything wrong at all?”
Everyone felt confused. “What’s wrong?”
You’re all really a bunch of idiots! Can’t you be any smarter?
Deer Over Fragrant Grass felt very depressed. She wordlessly closed QQ, opened Weibo and Lofter, and looked at the Nine Crossings fanwork circle, which had dominantly topped all the charts and become the most popular fanwork circle since the Fire War.
There were also a few writers and artists that she got along well with in this circle.
Before today, she and they were united on the battlefront and connected in spirit.
After today

Deer Over Fragrant Grass felt a deep and heavy loneliness. She let out a long sigh.
But, after today, no one can understand my heart anymore. They won’t know what kind of shocking secret I’m burdened with.
Life is so lonely.
The lonely Deer Over Fragrant Grass logged into QQ again. This time, she logged on to her mini account, which had a bunch of Nine Crossings fanwork groups in it. She sent Su’s Lofter account to the groups, and @All members.
“Don’t ask why, just like it; if you don’t like it now, you’ll regret it in the future
”
She was hard-hearted as she typed that sentence.
I need to keep a healthy lifestyle to take care of my health and I need to live for a long, long time. If I ever get the chance to be in Su Mingqian’s memoirs in the future, I can be the first top-secret gossip informant.
***
On May 21st 2020, Nine Crossings ’s first movie was released in cinemas and didn’t do badly at the box office.
After that, Nine Crossings ’s second and third movies had been released one after the other. Following on from the first movie’s success, both movies had achieved critical acclaim and box office success, making Nine Crossings widely known, with its protagonist, Su Mingqian, becoming one of the most famous fictional characters in the world.
After that, many TV dramas, stage plays, musicals and other derivative works had been created about Nine Crossings .
On May 21st 2024, the virtual online game of the same name, Nine Crossings , had been decided to go into public beta.
This game, which had been jointly developed by the most powerful game companies in the world under the master control of the superintelligent brain Ask, was officially launched.
On the first day of launch, the number of people who were online at the same time exceeded 200 million!
After that, the number of people online had climbed all the way up and had finally stabilised at about 500 million.
Of the 7 billion people in the world, 3.5 billion used the internet; of the 3.5 billion people who used the internet, 1 in every 7 was in the game.
A game that could hold 500 million people was no longer just a game.
It was a new world, worthy of its name.
***
The brain nerve access device detained the gaze cast towards reality and presented the virtual world again in front of Li Shuoxing’s eyes.
He was on the cliff of a deep mountain.
The mountain was submerged deeply in clouds and fog. The surrounding peaks were jagged and strange, like swords stuck into the ground, pointing straight up towards the sky. Between the peaks, there was a sea of pestilential clouds that no bird could cross, in which lived a very bad-tempered dragon.
That was why this mountain range was also called the Qilong <sup>1</sup> 栖韙 [qÄ« lĂłng] literally translates to perching/roosting dragon. Mountains.
By definition, this was a place for a high-level instance in the game where people were rare and birds and beasts were scarce.
For that reason,  Li Shuoxing had operated the game’s plot character, Cunxing, to go online at this place.
But, just as he came online, he immediately locked eyes with a player living in a tent here.
They both stared at each other.
The player moved swiftly and rushed out of his tent. He first rushed towards Li Shuoxing to take a photo with the black fog, then quickly opened the map channel. “Cunxing, it’s Cunxing! I’ve been guarding this place where birds don’t shit for three days and finally found Cunxing!”
The originally cold and quiet map channel instantly started boiling.
“I’ve been guarding for 30 days and still haven’t seen a single atom of Cunxing’s black fog @JOU(*#@!&(“
“Good people live in peace. Lucky player, quickly say the coordinates!”
“Coordinates: xxx, yyy”
“Thomas loves you, muah.”
“Dear Cunxing, wait for me. I’ll fly to you right away!”
“Damn, battle reports are coming in from the front line. Su Mingqian also appeared, and he isn’t far from here!”
Those who’d appeared on the channel moved incredibly fast.
Li Shuoxing had just seen the words scrolling past on the public channel when dazzling flashes of colour appeared in front of him. Players appeared on the mountain peak amidst these flashes one by one, and, in just the blink of an eye, they occupied half of the originally quite wide mountain peak.
Those who’d appeared here, whether male and female, were all looking straight at Li Shuoxing.
Their deep eyes were so focused that they were like
 the look of mothers and fathers crowding the food market when they spotted the best pork.
Li Shuoxing was alert and took a step back.
It was just a single step back, but the public channel had come up with a new trick.
“It’s moving, it’s moving, it’s moving! Cunxing’s moving ahhh!”
“Was it just my imagination? Was there a flash of fear on Cunxing’s face just now?”
“Bah, how could Boss Cun be afraid? That was displeasure! It must be because we’re crowding Boss Cun’s space, so he has no way to look at the scenery around him. Everyone scatter, don’t block Boss Cun!”
With these words being said, the crowd suddenly parted to both sides like a knife was cutting through waves, giving Li Shuoxing a wide view ahead.
You have eyes. You’re good!
Li Shuoxing took a look at the person who’d just said on the public channel that he couldn’t have been afraid.
That person felt instantly excited, so excited that they stammered, ”Boss Cun looked at me! 
Boss Cun actually looked at me! 
Boss Cun interacted with me!!!”
Li Shuoxing: “???”
Just looking at you is interacting with you?
Is interacting with you such a simple thing?
He coldly averted his gaze to avoid meeting anyone else’s eyes. At the same time, he transformed into fog and scattered into the miasma ahead of him, ready to quietly head to where Su Mingqian was

However.
The public channel refreshed once again.
“Cunxing went down into the fog. What’s he doing in there? Could he be going to find the dragon?”
“That makes sense. Maybe Cunxing suddenly came here to try to kill that dragon below!”
“Let’s follow him down and have a touch. Maybe we can pick up some dragon scales and horns.”
Li Shuoxing was surprised when he saw this appear on the public channel. But, before he could do anything, the crowd did as they said and sprung into action. Everyone who’d been standing on the mountain jumped down the cliff like dumplings.
Many people who weren’t of sufficient rank were directly dissolved by the fog.
Some who weren’t badly ranked and were more powerful managed to hold on until they saw the dragon emerge from the fog
 and were then swallowed by the dragon’s open mouth.
Li Shuoxing locked eyes with the dragon for two seconds, then calmly averted his gaze.
What did this dragon do wrong? Why should I kill it?
He directly left this cliff and flew to Su Mingqian’s side.
The two were online at the same time, and not far apart.
Next to the Qilong Mountains was Luofeng <sup>2</sup> èœć‡€ [luĂČ fĂšng] literally translates to falling phoenix. Lake, where Su Mingqian was standing. When Li Shuoxing arrived at Su Mingqian’s side, many players were gathered around him. With crowds of people surrounding Su Mingqian, it looked like a celebration was about to take place.
Of course, the public channel was also being spammed. With his recent experience, Li Shuoxing wisely didn’t glance at the public channel, but went straight to Su Mingqian’s side and grabbed onto Su Mingqian’s hand.
The crowd was first shocked, then excited.
“Both of them are in the same frame.”
“And they’re shaking hands!”
“They’ve even shaken hands, which basically means that they’ve fit together. I declare Xing Su is locked!”
“What more do these two need to fit together? They fit together every day. The space battle against the mechanical world has become a famous scene.”
Su Mingqian still felt a little uncomfortable being surrounded by so many onlookers.
He leaned over to Li Shuoxing’s ear and whispered, “Should we get out of here and find a place where no one’s around?”
Li Shuoxing also tilted his head and whispered, “This is a place where no one’s around. It instantly filled with people because we’ve come here. It’ll all be the same no matter where we go.”
Su Mingqian: “Then?”
Li Shuoxing pondered, “Let me think.”
Their whispering, of course, caused a bunch of exclamations:
“Look, they’re biting their ears, biting their ears!”
“Su Mingqian’s even blushing. Oh my god, how is Su Mingqian so cute!”
Li Shuoxing wasn’t as unaccustomed as Su Mingqian to the onlookers around him.
He had a bit of vanity. The vanity in his heart felt greatly satisfied, especially when these people started bragging about his and Su Mingqian’s “feelings”, which made him unable to help but want more.
If only there was a way to let them keep bragging without getting in the way of me and Mingqian kissing

Li Shuoxing absentmindedly opened up the various character interfaces to see what he could use.
Disguise Pass.
The item bag had a lot of good things that could be thrown out to lure people away. But, while it would be luring people away, he was afraid it would lure in even more people

Character task release system, what’s the use of this

Hmm?
Wait.
Character task release system?
Li Shuoxing’s gaze turned back to it.
He tried to tap on the interface and found that the system was quite intelligent. He could release single-person tasks, as well as area tasks and world tasks.
Li Shuoxing’s heart moved.
He knew just what to do with the people in front of him.
He lifted his finger, pointed it at the task system, then pressed down hard.
[Dingdong.]
[Currently refreshing the area map task.]
[Cunxing has released a task: [Pink Sweetheart].]
[Area Task]: Pink Sweetheart
[Task Introduction]: Please form a free team at Luofeng Lake and arrange yourselves into a peach heart pattern.
[Task Reward]: Pink Sweetheart Badge × 1, Experience Points × 10000
Everyone: “???”
Everyone: “!!!”
At that moment, the people surrounding Li Shuoxing and Su Mingqian abandoned their chat tools. Everyone in the whole map could hear their shouts. “Cunxing released a task??? Cunxing released a task for the first time since the game went online?!!!”
An absolute mainline character who’d never released a task before had released one for the first time, and it caused an unprecedented impact.
First, the players at Luofeng Lake all accepted the task, and all held hands to arrange themselves into a peach heart pattern.
Then, the news spread. People were talking about the task Cunxing had released on every channel in the world. The players on Earth all rushed towards Luofeng Lake. The players from other planets couldn’t come to Earth for the time being. They even took to the game forums in a fit of rage, asking the game’s script designers to be fair. If a mainline character were to release a task, they should release it on every planet; they shouldn’t have extra preferential treatment for Earth just because it was their birthplace.
We don’t need this reality!
We need tasks, tasks! More tasks released from Cunxing and Su Mingqian!
In the roaring requests for tasks, Luofeng Lake was already occupied by crowds of people coming from all directions.
Li Shuoxing flew up into the sky with Su Mingqian.
Looking down from the sky, there were hearts, large and small, made up of people.
Big hearts set with small hearts, small hearts set with even smaller hearts.
These players were imaginative. Because of the original article, and also because of the released task’s name, they more or less changed into their pink equipment.
A sea of pink appeared in front of both of them just like that.
A more spiritual player exploded a firework in this sea of pink.
One firework flew upwards, then countless more followed, thunderous banging sounds ringing out. The crowd effect was suffocating. All the players who had been carrying fireworks had taken them out and ignited them.
The pink waves were churning, tumbling out its glory and brilliance.
The chat on the public chat channel that followed was a bit skewed.
“It’s pink peach hearts and fireworks. Why does this look so much like a wedding scene?”
“Wedding scene? Is Su Mingqian and Cunxing, this couple, finally publicly coming out now lololol?”
Li Shuoxing’s fiery eyes immediately spotted these two messages among the countless others. With a flash of inspiration and a burst of courage, he reached around Su Mingqian’s waist and picked him up horizontally, then dropped a Cunxing quote to the dumbfounded crowd:
“You guys have given me a little inspiration.”
With that, he pulled out a pink embroidered ball from the character’s backpack, dropped it down from the sky, then complacently flew off with Su Mingqian in his arms as the crowd was shouting “Cunxing dropped an artifact” and “Cunxing’s actually holding Su Mingqian”.
I can’t help it. Your national idol’s my wife.
I’ll hold him as much as I want to.
The pink embroidered ball made a long parabola high in the sky and landed into the arms of a female player.
She took a close look and saw:
[Name]: Cunxing’s Pink Embroidered Ball
[Skill]: Live and die together
[Note]: Can link with any one target within ten minutes, allowing damage to be divided equally between two people.
The female player nearly fainted when she saw it. She quickly bound the prop, then posted it on the public channel, and, sure enough, it sparked some more world-wide attention and discussion.
In addition to the excitement, there were also some remarks that made people think deeply.
“‘Cunxing’s Pink Embroidered Ball’. That name means a lot.”
“Apart from the hydrangea <sup>3</sup> 绣球 [xiĂč qiĂș] can refer to a ball made of strips of silk or the hydrangea flower. of the same name, it’d only appear in one place, right?”
“
”
“
”
“Wedding scene my god!!!”
***
After they had wandered onto the game on a whim and caused a lot of commotion, Li Shuoxing and Su Mingqian went offline.
They were going to attend a long-agreed-upon interview about the Nine Crossings game.
The interview was arranged at a hotel not far from Su Mingqian’s home. The journalist who came to interview them asked a lot of questions about the Nine Crossings game and, of course, followed the hot topic in the game as well, tactfully asking them what they thought about the relationship between the characters Su Mingqian and Cunxing.
At this point, Su Mingqian suddenly interjected:
“My Chinese name is Su Mingqian. That character’s name was given precisely because of my name.”
Interviewer: “?!”
Li Shuoxing: “?!”
After that outburst, Li Shuoxing was absentminded throughout the rest of the interview.
Until the interview finally ended, and the both of them went home and lay in bed, quietly biting each other’s ears in the dead of night.
Li Shuoxing: “Cub, didn’t you say that this little secret was to be revealed in the future in Li Shuoxing’s Autobiography or Su Mingqian’s Autobiography ?”
Su Mingqian looked down in embarrassment. “I got bold and just said it. It was unplanned, but I’m very happy
”
“It’s okay. I’m actually very happy too. When this interview comes out, everyone will definitely be bragging about us like crazy. Alas, I’m not going to see how people are bragging about the beautiful love of the century between us. I’ve already finished imagining what they’ll say,” Li Shuoxing also quietly told Su Mingqian.
Su Mingqian rolled over and hugged Li Shuoxing.
He buried his head in Li Shuoxing’s neck and added, “Anyway, I love you, and that’s no secret.”
Li Shuoxing’s heart was rattled by those words.
He gazed sideways at Su Mingqian. The slanting rays of the setting sun passed through the sparse bamboo, through the flourishing flowers, shimmered glazed colours on the transparent glass, and finally, fell on Su Mingqian’s body.
Those rays of light were beautiful, enchanting, and sparkling.
He said to Su Mingqian, “Mingqian, we’ve talked about Star Magician 1.0 and Star Magician 2.0 before. I think it’s time for their story to end now. Let me tell you how this story ends.
“The Star Magician took the little boy across mountains and rivers. They went to many places, did many things, and helped many people.
“They had been walking the continent for a whole year, and, finally, they came to a kingdom called ‘Eternal Night’. The people in this kingdom recognised the little boy.
“It turned out that the little boy was the prince of the kingdom. He had suddenly fallen asleep a year ago.
“Now, the Star Magician brought the picture frame. The little boy returned to his body and he awoke.
“But there were also shortcomings in beauty. The little boy, who had travelled with the Star Magician through all the corners of the continent, had seen the sun. He stayed in his castle and was sullen. He longed for the sunshine, but there were only the moon and the stars, persistently hanging in the sky.
“The little boy, as in the past, asked the Star Magician for help, and the wise Star Magician gave him a solution. He said, ‘My dear, I know the magic to make the sun come out, but the power from me and you is not enough to fulfil this wish. Your magic is very unique. It can be shared with everyone. So, if you want to make this wish come true, you must let everyone have magic.’
“The little boy began to ask his father and the people of the kingdom for help. The King of Eternal Night and the rest of the people were happy to hear the news of the sun. They were willing to help the little boy.
“They did as the Star Magician asked. Each person dipped into the paint and placed their fingerprints on the painting. All of them formed a sun on the painting. The Star Magician and the little boy lifted this painting up to the sky together.
“The moon had set and the sun had risen. The people of the Eternal Night Kingdom could see their own sun as well!”
“And finally, according to the most cliched phrase.”
Li Shuoxing said that, paused for a moment, then smiled as he looked at Su Mingqian.
“From then on, the Star Magician and the little boy lived happily ever after.
“Just like me and you.”
1
栖韙 [qÄ« lĂłng] literally translates to perching/roosting dragon. 2
èœć‡€ [luĂČ fĂšng] literally translates to falling phoenix. 3
绣球 [xiĂč qiĂș] can refer to a ball made of strips of silk or the hydrangea flower.