Li Shuoxing’s fingers were on the keyboard on the screen.
He typed a sentence and deleted it; he typed another sentence and deleted it; he typed yet another sentence and still deleted it.
After ten years of writing, Li Shuoxing had rarely deliberated over a sentence for so long.
After a few moments, Li Shuoxing felt that he wasn’t getting anywhere, so he just closed the dialogue box for the time being and looked at Su Mingqian on the screen with a complex expression.
Cub.
Wake up.
Even if you max out my favourability, the favourability in the game won’t increase.
Our family will still be poor.
Your little snacks, little clothes, little toys, and little furniture will also be gone.
So…
“Little rascal.”
Li Shuoxing muttered, gently tapping his finger against the little person’s forehead.
He saw the tiny head sway backwards with his finger. Su Mingqian, whose body was still shaking on the chair, quickly raised his hand and pressed it on his forehead.
“Little rascal who deducts my favourability every day.”
Li Shuoxing started again, changing from tapping his forehead to rubbing his head. He saw Su Mingqian move his hand from his forehead to the top of his head, changing from one hand to two. Beside him a little frustrated expression of a tangled twine ball popped up.
Li Shuoxing had a bad feeling and quickly drew back his finger.
Unfortunately, it was too late.
One -3.
No!
Su Mingqian put down his hand. “Sorry, my request earlier may have been too much.”
Another -3.
Wait!
Su Mingqian: “After all, you also have your own life to live.”
And another -3.
Stop it!
Su Mingqian: “I…”
I know you’re super mean!
Li Shuoxing wanted to cry. He opened the chat box and typed with superhuman speed, “I agree!!!!!!!!!”
Su Mingqian was overwhelmed by Li Shuoxing’s long string of exclamation marks.
A -3, already halfway out his head, froze in mid-air, neither going up nor down, before it finally faded away under Li Shuoxing’s watchful eyes.
It shrunk back.
Su Mingqian: “You really agree?”
Did Li Shuoxing dare say no? He affirmed multiple times, “I agree, I agree.”
Su Mingqian: “I don’t want to force you.”
Li Shuoxing said firmly, “Not forced, not forced.”
Su Mingqian: “Maybe you’ll get tired of me after a while.”
Li Shuoxing sighed. “You’re so cute, cub. How could I possibly get tired of you?”
Su Mingqian: “So, we have a deal?”
Li Shuoxing’s fingertips hovered over the keyboard.
He saw the little person on the screen sitting upright, his clear eyes staring straight ahead at the blue light screen. And the light from the light screen reflected on his face, pale and charming.
He’s waiting for my response.
Li Shuoxing thought.
I actually got a sense of commitment from playing a game. Is this game finally feeling like a love game?
He followed the feeling of his heartbeat and replied to the little person with three words:
“It’s a deal.”
After typing those three words, Li Shuoxing thought for a moment and added, “Okay, let’s eat. Aren’t you hungry? I’ll set a reminder alarm for myself. From now on, if something comes up and I can’t make it, I’ll come over and tell you first…”
He sent out this text and waited a little until he saw the little person move his chopsticks in accordance with his words before he exited the game and turned on the alarm clock.
Keeping to his word, Li Shuoxing really set himself a recurring alarm at 11:55 so that he wouldn’t lose track of time the next time he wrote and chatted.
After setting the alarm, he thought for a moment before adding more alarms at 11:50 and 12:00 in case he didn’t turn them off immediately.
That way, he was sure to be safe.
Li Shuoxing was satisfied and cut back to the game.
In the game, the little person was still eating. Although he was only 2-D, he still ate with a sense of unhurried elegance.
My cub’s so cute and beautiful, such a little angel.
Li Shuoxing sincerely appreciated this picture, which was perfect as an appetizer to accompany a meal.
However, the takeout was still on the way. Li Shuoxing had nothing to eat yet, so he tapped on the menu in the game while watching the little person eat.
First, he checked how many favourability points were left in the favourability pool in the top left corner.
Next, he opened the store system to see if there were any updated items.
After that, he tapped on the game narration to observe what the little person had done while he was away.
And then.
Hmm?
Hmm…
Li Shuoxing saw the “pervert”.
He was calm inside, even a little pleased.
Isn’t it just a pervert? I’m used to it.
I knew it. A pervert may be late, but it won’t be absent.
Although the little angel flies, the little devil is also fun.
Playing with an angel is a bit of a guilty pleasure, but playing with a devil makes it especially exciting—
With a mysterious smile on his lips, Li Shuoxing watched as Su Mingqian unhurriedly and steadily finished his lunch, cleared the table, washed the dishes, and finally walked to the front door. A sentence popped out of his head.
“Shall we start working now?”
Li Shuoxing responded carefreely, “Mm~”
Su Mingqian: “Deal with the dead trees in the courtyard first?”
Li Shuoxing remained the same. “Mm~”
Su Mingqian didn’t say anything more.
He opened the door, picked up his tools, went to the nearest tree, and started chopping it down.
The system’s novice guide popped up again. The cooperation mode wasn’t much different from picking up weeds before. When Su Mingqian was chopping down the tree trunk, he tapped a couple times more on the screen. It said that this would help his lover increase his strength to deal with large obstacles that he wouldn’t be able to deal with otherwise.
The two worked in silence.
Li Shuoxing tapped the screen sitting down, tapped the screen lying down, tapped the screen forwards, tapped the screen backwards… He didn’t know how many times he’d tapped the screen, when suddenly, with a ding-dong, the task was completed!
At the same time, changes had taken place in the game.
First, a shining badge with the word “Teamwork” popped up in the centre of the screen. Then, the silhouette of a swing appeared under the only healthy, dense, uncut tree in the courtyard.
Two system alerts popped up at the same time.
[Do you claim the title? Yes/No]
[Do you want to hang the swing? Yes/No]
Li Shuoxing selected yes for all.
The swing was hung on the tree, swaying in the wind; the title turned into a new icon, flashing at the edge of the screen.
Li Shuoxing first tapped on the icon and found that this was a title reward page, each title corresponding to a reward. Now, only one title was unlocked.
Your cooperation with your lover has finally paid off. When you are in the courtyard, favourability points your lover generates for you will be doubled. (A small note: Negative favourability points will also be doubled.)
This reward was very generous.
Li Shuoxing raised his eyebrows, a little expectant.
He accepted the reward directly and used it on the courtyard.
When he used it, he found that the courtyard decoration wasn’t completed instantly. There was still a three-minute countdown.
Weird design.
Li Shuoxing muttered, but didn’t care too much about it. He just looked at the courtyard again and found that the little person’s attention had been attracted to the newly hung swing. He was standing next to it, grabbing the rope and shaking it, looking like a thinker.
Li Shuoxing: “Want to sit on it?”
Su Mingqian: “…”
Su Mingqian: “Okay.”
He sat on the swing for a while, and a force was exerted on the swing, pushing him to swing back and forth.
He was thinking about something.
The Watcher is always operating.
The line I wrote in the morning must’ve been seen by the Watcher by now.
I thought I’d be questioned, and was prepared to be questioned.
But, for some reason, the Watcher didn’t ask any questions or get angry.
Through the cold screen, he began to wonder, for the first time, what she, hidden from his sight, would look like.
The shadow of the tree was swaying and the shattered gold was shimmering. When the wind passed through the tree and rushed to his face, Su Mingqian whispered:
“I don’t know your name yet, but thank you.”
You can do a lot of things.
You didn’t.
In the cold wind, there was a wisp of fragrance.
Then, a pumpkin head suddenly sprouted out of the ground!
Su Mingqian was dumbfounded.
A second and third pumpkin head followed, and they surrounded the swing where Su Mingqian was, bouncing on the ground. It… it was a little scary, but also a little funny.
Su Mingqian unconsciously gripped the rope in his hand and immediately felt that the rope didn’t feel right.
He turned his head to see that the rope of the swing had at some point turned into white candles stitched together!
Looking up along the candles, the originally lush and erect tree shed its leaves in the blink of an eye, replaced by a number of owls hanging upside down from it. These owls had one eye open and one eye closed, each with a small triangular scarf around its neck in a different colour. Far up from the bottom, it looked like a string of small coloured flags hanging from the treetop.
Su Mingqian hurriedly let go and moved in the direction away from the tree. But, before he could make his next move, the light screen in front of him flashed and new text quickly appeared.
“Don’t be afraid. This is my gift to you. It’s been hard work clearing the courtyard. Now enjoy it.”
The cold words carried a magical power that soothed Su Mingqian’s tense heart.
Su Mingqian calmed down. He once again gripped the rope that’d turned into candles, then looked at the courtyard.
A blanket of green velvet grass had covered the bare brown ground at some point. More and more pumpkin heads appeared on the courtyard ground. Some of them wore hats, some wore capes, and some even had small brooms on their bodies. They were very lively, bouncing on the ground constantly, and with every bounce, some colourful candies grew out of the ground…
Before he knew it, Su Mingqian had gotten off the swing.
He stood on the soft grass, bent down to pick up a candy from the grass, examined it for a moment, but still didn’t dare to put it into his mouth.
Squeezing the candy, he tried to approach a pumpkin head. He saw it suddenly light up, seeming to light the way around him.
Su Mingqian looked up and found that the sky had darkened at some point.
An indifferent darkness pressed down from the sky, but it didn’t seem oppressive. Because one after another, pumpkin lanterns lit up at the same time, illuminating the mysterious fantasy of the renewed courtyard.
Suddenly, the sound of horse hooves and wheels came into Su Mingqian’s ears at the same time.
Su Mingqian followed the sound and saw a sturdy black horse dragging a pumpkin-shaped but extraordinarily gorgeous carriage. It leisurely drove into the courtyard from outside and stopped at a corner.
The light screen flashed again and the content refreshed.
“Cub, isn’t the courtyard we decorated together beautiful? This is my gift to you, and your gift to me.”
The words were reflected in his pupils.
Su Mingqian almost had an illusion at this moment.
She and I are equal.
He knew it was an illusion, but he still felt a strong surge of joy bubbling up from the bottom of his heart.