Ch 90: TGCIR

Outside the space, the others should still be cleaning up the aftermath. Shen Cheng couldn’t believe that Li Weilan, who usually acted so cautiously, would directly pull her into the space, ignoring everything else outside.

But she genuinely didn’t think she was wrong. Let alone her being wrong, she felt it was the cheeky cub who was now boldly asserting his innocence.

Although the leopard was still stiff, Shen Cheng confidently spoke up, “I’m not wrong, you’re the one who’s wrong.”

“Alright.” Li Weilan chuckled in exasperation, regaining his composure. He gently brushed the fuzzy tip of the leopard’s ear, then took her in his arms and said, “I’m listening.”

Shen Cheng was particularly assertive. “It was so dangerous just now, of course I should have gone instead of you. Besides, I wouldn’t have been affected anyway. At most, it would have cost a bit of money. Plus, considering the whole base, only I have the ability to communicate with animals. If you were leading the team, there might have been casualties. Look at how well it turned out now. No one died, and we didn’t suffer any losses. Isn’t it smooth sailing to finish the battle like this?”

The zombie siege was probably a major mission, and Shen Cheng estimated that there would be many rewards once the task was completed. She was still eagerly awaiting the results, but the cub wouldn’t let her see the end of it. Naughty cub.

Her tone was too assertive, leaving Li Weilan silent for a moment, unsure of what to say. Worry and fear, all because of his heart.

His hand, which had been gently tugging at the leopard’s ear, loosened, and he let out a sigh of helplessness.

“You’re right about everything,” he said softly.

Everything was right, except for his heart. When he saw the leopard lying on the ground, unable to move even a step, he felt a pang of pain that he couldn’t suppress.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

Li Weilan couldn’t articulate how panicked he felt inside.

He held onto a glimmer of hope, hoping that one day, when the apocalypse ended and everything returned to calm, they might be able to reunite in some world.

But all of this, perhaps, was just his own dream. To her, he was nothing more than a character in a game, someone to play with when she was happy and to set aside when she wasn’t. His joys and sorrows meant nothing to her.

Shen Cheng noticed the slightly sad expression on the cub’s face on the screen. However, because it was a chibi character, sadness was just a droop in the corners of the eyes, with the smile curve at the corners of the mouth missing, not too obvious.

She only noticed it because of his voice.

Shen Cheng immediately stopped talking.

She softened her tone and said, “I’m sorry if I upset you, don’t be sad.” Even though she wasn’t sure what she had done wrong.

Li Weilan couldn’t help but marvel at how quickly she apologized. Shouldn’t he be grateful that she was still comforting him?

Feeling disheartened, Li Weilan decided not to say anything more.

Shen Cheng, seeing his expressionless face, thought she had comforted him enough and reached out to poke his bun-like cheeks. “Then, um, we should go out now.”

“Cheng Cheng,” Li Weilan paused for a moment, suddenly saying the most heartfelt words he had uttered so far, “I like you.”

He didn’t wait for her response, nor did he feel like he necessarily needed it. “It’s because I like you that I don’t want to see you get hurt, especially because of me. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself.”

Before he could finish his sentence, there was a soft sound of “plop,” and the leopard in his hand suddenly flopped onto the ground, lifeless.

She had logged off.

Li Weilan stood there in a daze, feeling like his world had turned dark in that instant.

At this time, Shen Cheng was staring at her phone submerged in water, feeling utterly helpless.

She shouldn’t have been playing games on her phone in the bathroom just now.

It’s all over, it’s all over.

Her face went from burning red to pale. For the first time in her life, someone had said “I like you” to her. In that moment, Shen Cheng’s heart raced too fast. Her hand went slack, and the phone she had been holding slipped into the sink with a splash, getting soaked inside.

Fortunately, her phone was an X-fruit, although it was an older model, it still had some waterproof capabilities.

Shen Cheng retrieved her phone from the bottom of the sink and frustratingly checked it. Despite being advertised as waterproof, it seemed like water had still managed to seep in.

The phone went from being on to off directly, and she didn’t dare to turn it on immediately. Instead, she reluctantly placed the phone in a bag of rice and left it on top of the fridge at home to let the moisture evaporate and see if there was any hope of saving it.

After going through all these remedies, Shen Cheng couldn’t help but worry about whether Li Weilan would think about her sudden disconnection. All she could do was pray that her phone wouldn’t malfunction due to water damage.

She was concerned that the high-tech game inside her phone might disappear because of water damage or if she switched phones.

If that were to happen, the door to that world would be firmly shut in front of her.

What would Li Weilan do?

Would there be another person who would open the game one day, and would they care about him like she did?

If they did, would he accept them?

Would he do the things they did together with someone else?

The more Shen Cheng thought about it, the more agitated she became, almost bringing tears to her eyes with her overactive imagination.

She regretted it so much—why did she leave her phone on the sink when she knew it wasn’t stable? One slip of the hand, and the phone would fall.

According to online advice, in cases where water has entered the internals of a phone, it’s best to wait at least 24 hours before attempting to turn it on again, or else there might be issues like the motherboard burning out.

Though Shen Cheng’s heart was in turmoil, she didn’t dare to turn on the phone again.

She silently covered her head with a blanket, lying on the empty bed, staring with open eyes until dawn approached. Eventually, she drifted into a fitful sleep for a short while.

Whether it was due to the thoughts during the day or the dreams at night, that night she saw a brief dream. She saw Li Weilan’s silent figure, sitting alone in the vast field of his space, his eyes bloodshot, staring at the black sky. The unconscious leopard lay softly beside him, and after a long while, it seemed like the leopard disappeared too. He sat alone in the space like an eternal stone.

Shen Cheng’s heart ached as she watched, and she couldn’t help but desperately call out, first as “Lan Lan,” then as “Zai Zai,” and finally as “Li Weilan.” The last cry turned into a heart-wrenching scream, as if she felt she was about to lose him.

She suddenly sat up from the bed.

The light of dawn had arrived.

Shen Cheng’s back was covered in chilly sweat as she suddenly realized that her dependency on Li Weilan wasn’t just typical feelings for a character in a game.

She had dreamt of male celebrities, even dreamt of the faces of real-life athletes and cartoon characters, but regardless of who they were, imagining them leaving didn’t cause the same tearing pain in her heart.

Perhaps it was because she had lost so much and was left with so little since childhood, deep inside Shen Cheng rarely felt the kind of stability that could permanently hold onto anything.

It was more of a helpless acceptance and repeatedly telling herself not to place too much importance on external things.

But in her dream, watching him seemingly turned into a permanent statue, and even imagining another game player entering his life, her heart simply couldn’t accept it.

Paper-cutout male gods might belong to many people, but there was only one kind of person, her exclusive possession, her one and only focus.

Shen Cheng anxiously rubbed her forehead, feeling the sweat there.

Yeah, she hadn’t been wrong in her thoughts.

Just like facing his “I like you” sentence, even if she dared not dwell on it too much now, looking back, she still only tasted the sweet honey from the depths of her heart at that time.

Sweet, joyful, and tingly.

Shen Cheng covered her face with her hand, realizing her emotional attachment to the game character, only to find out that she might never be able to log into the game again. What was she going to do?

Damn it, stupid phone.

Shen Cheng went to work that day feeling miserable from beginning to end.

Her complexion was so terrible that even sister Ma, who was close to her, couldn’t help but worry and ask, “Shen Cheng, you don’t look too good today.”

Shen Cheng forced a smile and replied, “My phone fell into the water.”

sister Ma knew about her financial situation, thinking that she was worried about having to spend a lot of money to buy a new phone again, so she advised her, “Nowadays, you can get one with slightly lower specifications for a few hundred yuan. It’s indeed troublesome without a phone. If yours is really damaged, you should buy a new one soon.”

Shen Cheng appreciated sister Ma’s concern, but her mind was in such turmoil that she couldn’t explain to anyone.

She didn’t care about the money for a new phone. What she cared about was if her phone was really damaged, or if there was a bug in it, and when it was repaired, everything would be gone. What would she do then?

Would she spend the rest of her days reminiscing about him?

Was anyone as miserable as her? Just as she realized her feelings for him, she might never see him again.

Shen Cheng bit her lip, forced herself to pull herself together, thanked her colleagues, and got through the day’s work.

Back at home, nearly 20 hours had passed.

Shen Cheng couldn’t wait any longer.

She hastily opened the bag of rice and felt around the phone. There was a slightly damp sensation. She carefully inspected the holes around the phone, and they all seemed dry.

Shen Cheng hurriedly took out her phone and pressed the power button. After a while, the phone started up normally.

“Phew.”

She breathed a long sigh of relief.

Without a second thought, she hurriedly unlocked the phone and saw the familiar home screen. Shen Cheng finally felt at ease.

“What the heck?” Her tone suddenly turned angry as she opened the game, and two seconds later, her anger flared.

She had relaxed too soon.

Shen Cheng felt like her heart was sinking deeper and deeper. She was on the verge of losing her mind.

Opening the game interface, indeed, it was a game about building a base and fighting zombies. But no matter how you looked at it, this wasn’t her apocalypse game.

This wasn’t the game she played.

There was no Zai Zai that she raised.

Shen Cheng incredulously controlled the camera to run around until the main character was overwhelmed by a group of zombies and torn to pieces. She slumped back on the sofa, covering her face with her hands. This wasn’t her game.

Where was her game? Where was the Zai Zai she raised?

Shen Cheng searched everywhere for the company behind this game, finding the name of the legal person and the studio’s phone number. She dialed it like a madwoman. The person on the other end listened to her frantic narration and almost suspected she had gone insane. “What? You said our game turned into another game, and the characters from the game came out?”

The more they listened, the more unbelievable it sounded, and they just hung up the phone.

They said it was impossible.

Shen Cheng searched everywhere, high and low, but all the information about the game, even about real people, seemed to have disappeared without a trace.

No traces were left behind.

Shen Cheng tried every method she could think of, but she couldn’t find him anymore.

Zai Zai seemed to have disappeared from her world.

It was as if, from beginning to end, it was all just a dream.

🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

Thingyan: cubbbbbbb nooooooo if that mummy isn’t available anymore, you can have me as your new mummy hehehe. Ok, I feel like a home wrecker now 🥲