Chapter 92: X’s Lucky
Shoutout to nyanmaru for the commission!
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Ding-ding—
The morning sun streamed in through the curtains, and Chu Feng’s phone was ringing.
A fair hand stretched out from the covers, slender fingertips pressed the answer button:
“Hello?”
“Good morning! Chief Chu, sorry to bother you, but Chief Jin from Haihua Group called to ask if you’re available. He wants to have lunch together and play golf.”
Chu Feng yawned slightly:
“No, I’m busy. I have to go pick someone up later.”
“Okay.”
The secretary thought to himself, which person had such a big face that Chief Chu had to pick them up personally? He tactfully responded:
“In that case, Chief Chu, shall we arrange a car for you?”
Chu Feng: “No need, it’s a private matter.”
“Okay, Chief Chu, you’re busy, I won’t disturb you.”
He hung up the phone.
Chu Feng opened the WeChat chat with X and clicked on the itinerary card:
Flight MF1109, estimated to arrive in China’s City H in 3 hours and 31 minutes.
“Cousin—Cousin!!”
In the living room, Lin Lan called out: “Do you want breakfast?”
Chu Feng walked out of the bedroom, glanced at the clock in the living room, feeling strange because Lin Lan usually couldn’t get up this early.
Looking at his cousin, dressed in new clothes with tags still attached, and even with styling water sprayed on his hair.
“Where are you going so early in the morning?”
Chu Feng asked softly.
“Uh, to pick up a few friends.” Lin Lan scratched his head somewhat embarrassedly:
“Well, you know, the Dream City’s fifth-anniversary convention is being held in our City H, so a few friends I met in the game are coming for the offline event. I’m going to pick them up at the train station.”
Chu Feng listened while opening a takeout bag: preserved egg and lean pork congee with a fried egg.
Snap. Chu Feng split open the chopsticks, picked out the fried egg, and set it aside. He didn’t like any eggs if Xie Shiyu didn’t make it.
“Nice new clothes. It’s rare to see you so well-dressed.”
Chu Feng said softly, blowing a mouthful of hot congee.
Lin Lan suddenly felt a kind of exposed guiltiness, awkwardly laughed a few times, and confessed:
“Actually… there’s a girl coming today.”
Chu Feng understood immediately. If Lin Lan were going to pick up a group of male online friends, he would definitely sleep in and then casually throw on a T-shirt and jeans, grab his hair, and rush out. How could he have the leisure to buy new clothes and spray water on his hair?
“Cousin, I won’t be back for the next three days. I’ll take my friends out to see some sights and have some meals.”
Chu Feng nodded.
He thought, after X arrived later, maybe he should take X to see some sights and have some meals to extend hospitality.
The happy Lin Lan went to tidy up his hair again before leaving energetically. Chu Feng watched his cousin’s figure, the young face in his twenties, filled with youthful vigor and vitality, as if everything he did had hope, and tomorrow would always be better.
After finishing breakfast, Chu Feng silently returned to his solitary bedroom.
On the bedside photo wall, there was a picture of 22-year-old Chu Feng and Xie Shiyu wearing bachelor’s gowns at their university graduation ceremony. Xie Shiyu was tossing his bachelor’s cap in the air, and they were laughing happily, with a promising future ahead.
The nearly thirty-year-old Chu Feng looked at himself in the photo, as if looking at another world.
Buzz—
The phone vibrated.
Chu Feng picked up the charging phone from the bedside, and several notifications from the Dream City system popped up on the screen:
“Master, master! Something’s wrong! Little Xie in the transparent ball is missing!”
***
“What’s going on?”
Chu Feng returned to the game, and the system spirit was fluttering anxiously in front of him:
“The transparent ball is missing! It was there in the game backpack yesterday. When I came to check today, it was gone!”
Chu Feng opened his backpack, and indeed, the grid where he had placed the transparent ball Little Xie was now empty.
“It’s impossible. I watched him fall asleep last night.”
Last night, Chu Feng had deliberately come into the game to chat with Little Xie, who was trapped in the transparent ball. At 11:30, Little Xie fell asleep, and Chu Feng put the “Little Xie spirit Ball” into the game backpack before logging out.
System spirit: “Could he have woken up in the middle of the night and run away by himself?”
Chu Feng’s expression froze. He remembered this 17-year-old Little Xie’s ID: Nighttime Explorer.
How could a character fixed to “nighttime exploration” go to sleep obediently at 11:30?
He suddenly remembered the night when he went to the principal’s office. Xie Shiyu had specifically come to the school gate to see him, and then left, very inexplicably.
At that time, he recognized this 17-year-old high school bully Xie Shiyu, but he didn’t know that the 17-year-old high school bully Xie Shiyu had actually been separated into four by the Dream City system.
In his eyes, no matter how many Xie Shiyus there were, they were all Xie Shiyu, but the Dream City system had separated countless copies of him, and each character Xie Shiyu was hinting that there had been subtle changes in Xie Shiyu’s status in reality.
If someone experiences heartbreak, in the eyes of others, whether before or after the heartbreak, they are still the same person physically. However, in system analysis, pre-heartbreak and post-heartbreak are parsed into two different characters because their mental states are vastly different.
In other words, during the stage of “[17-year-old – High School Bully]”, Xie Shiyu had four distinctly different states.
Chu Feng recalled their chat IDs in the QQ group:
“[Daydreamer]”. Chu Feng could roughly guess that this was just a sleepy, academically struggling Little Xie during the daytime.
“[No Afternoon Nap]”. Chu Feng remembered that when Xie Shiyu was 17 years old, his mother was diagnosed with stomach cancer, so Xie Shiyu couldn’t have lunch at the school cafeteria and had to rush to the hospital to bring food for his mother at noon, sometimes skipping afternoon classes to take care of his mother when her condition wasn’t good.
“[Adult Reserve]”. This should refer to the Little Xie in love.
At that time, in high school, Chu Feng was secretly dating Xie Shiyu, sneaking around without their parents’ or teachers’ knowledge. They would walk a distance together after school, find an empty alley, quietly hold hands for a while, and then part ways.
So, what was “[Nighttime Explorer]” doing?
In Chu Feng’s current understanding, Xie Shiyu should also be going to the hospital to take care of his mother at night. If he had time, he might do some homework, but if not, he wouldn’t bother.
So, the mental state of this Xie Shiyu should be similar to that of the [No Afternoon Nap] who takes care of his mother. He shouldn’t be analyzed by the system as a separate character.
At night…
“There’s nothing, just came to see you.”
Xie Shiyu said this to him that night at the principal’s office.
In reality, was there any night when Xie Shiyu inexplicably came to see him…
Chu Feng couldn’t recall for a moment.
“Expand city-wide surveillance,” he commanded the system.
The system spirit said aggrievedly, “I searched the entire city range immediately, but he’s now hiding in that tiny transparent ball, and I can’t detect the character signal. I can only check where the transparent ball is, but… there are too many things similar to small balls in the city!”
Chu Feng paused for a moment, then immediately ordered, “Find the driving trajectory.”
The Little Xie with the ID “[Nighttime Explorer]” was moving according to a certain pattern. Since virtual characters have no autonomous consciousness, this regular activity is written into the code of the character Little Xie. When the time comes, he will unfold his “[Nighttime Activities]” as scheduled.
If it happened every night, then checking all the road components of Dream City for code composition would reveal a repetitive driving trajectory diagram, which should be “[17-year-old – Nighttime Explorer]”.
The system spirit suddenly realized this and quickly pulled up the past nighttime road backend records, starting a big data comparison to see if there was a driving trajectory with the highest repetition frequency…
Soon, several segments of trajectories popped up, and the system spirit filtered them out: this is CEO Xie’s commuting route, pass; this is high school Little Xie’s route to school, pass… The spirit set the trajectory filtering time to the latter part of the night, and the routes for commuting and going to school all disappeared:
On the map, a complex trajectory pattern emerged.
Chu Feng calmly looked at it and ordered, “On this trajectory, recheck the transparent ball object and tell me where it is now.”
***
“Found it!” the system spirit exclaimed. “In the bushes at the entrance of the Traffic Police Center!”
Chu Feng frowned slightly, feeling something suspicious. Why would Xie Shiyu go to the Traffic Police Brigade?
He immediately summoned his Lamborghini sports car from the game backpack…
After waiting for two seconds,
The stylish Lamborghini sports car model did not appear before his eyes.
Chu Feng frowned. He opened the game backpack panel and checked again:
In the [Garage], it was empty, without the Lamborghini.
Chu Feng was a bit puzzled. He tried clicking on the empty grid where the Lamborghini was supposed to be:
Ding—
A red warning popped up in front of him:
“Due to illegal parking, your Lamborghini has been confiscated by the Traffic Police Brigade.”
Chu Feng: …
He had to summon another silver Porsche, opened the car door, sat in, and just as he grasped the steering wheel—
Another red warning popped up:
“Due to multiple violations of traffic rules, your driver’s license has been revoked, and you are not allowed to drive.”
Chu Feng: …
***
At the Traffic Law Enforcement Center,
Chu Feng rode his speed wind bicycle and rushed here.
“Master, master…”
Before the system spirit could say anything, Chu Feng had already hurriedly gotten off the bike and rushed towards the bushes on both sides of the Traffic Police Hall:
No, no, no glass ball containing 17-year-old Little Xie.
Chu Feng looked up and saw the surveillance video spinning in the upper right corner of the hall entrance:
“Sneak in and see what’s going on.”
The system quickly brought up the surveillance video, just three minutes ago, a traffic police uniformed Little Xie stopped in the bushes for a moment, then picked up a glass ball and left.
“Master… um… wait, wait—”
Chu Feng had already turned and rushed into the Traffic Police Hall.
“Tell Captain Xie to come out and see me.”
The on-duty traffic police Little Xie in the hall heard the sound, glanced at Chu Feng, and then looked away.
Chu Feng felt the gaze of this Little Xie lingering on him.
Chu Feng looked down…
And saw the sailor collar on his uniform.
He forgot to change clothes.
Little Xie’s gaze slid down inch by inch along the sailor collar, paused for a moment on Chu Feng’s skirt, then casually turned away, and then solemnly reported into the walkie-talkie:
“Captain Xie, someone’s looking for you.”
The voice deliberately sounded loud, attracting the attention of other Little Xies on duty in the hall.
In the solemnly enforcing Traffic Police Center, the hall was clean and bright, reflecting the shadows of people, reflecting Chu Feng’s sailor suit, exceptionally clear.
Chu Feng suddenly felt a strange sense of shame. He wanted to… change into a normal outfit.
The system spirit was about to fly in but was grabbed by the on-duty traffic police Little Xie standing guard at the door.
“What’s flying around in the traffic police center?”
The little spirit whimpered twice as Little Xie pinched its wings and threw it out.
***
“Someone looking for me?”
Tap, tap, the sound of leather boots on marble tiles.
Captain Xie wore a light blue traffic police uniform, with a white traffic police cap, and silver shoulder badges twinkling in the sunlight. The uniform set made him look even more upright and handsome.
Xie Shiyu walked up to Chu Feng, casting a shadow with his 190cm height.
Chu Feng felt Captain Xie’s gaze scanning him from head to toe, finally stopping at his short sailor skirt.
“What.. are you looking at?”
Clad in a sailor suit, Chu Feng suddenly felt much shorter in stature.
“Nothing.” Captain Xie in his traffic police uniform shrugged indifferently, then asked seriously, “Do you need something from me?”
“Give it back to me.” Chu Feng reached out to him, demanding, “That transparent ball.”
Captain Xie pretended not to understand, “What transparent ball?”
Chu Feng said, “The one you picked up in the bushes.”
“How do you know where I found it?” Captain Xie asked.
Chu Feng remained silent.
“Oh, did you tamper with our surveillance footage?” Captain Xie asked.
Chu Feng stayed silent.
“You know, dressed like that, are you still in high school? Do you know what crime it is to hack into a national law enforcement agency to steal information?”
Captain Xie said, while deliberately fishing out the transparent ball from his pocket and playing with it in front of Chu Feng. The glass ball kept spinning, with the 17-year-old Little Xie inside, curled up in a ball with his head in his hands, dizzy from spinning.
“Don’t bully him!” Chu Feng moved to snatch the transparent ball.
Captain Xie dodged lightly, firmly holding the transparent ball in his palm. He glanced inside at his 17-year-old self, this rascal had just been cursing him vigorously inside the glass ball, but now in front of Chu Feng, he curled up in agony, looking like an actor in front of Oscar judges, vying for the Best Actor award.
Captain Xie put the transparent ball back into his pocket and said, “If you clear your traffic violations this time, I’ll give it back to you.”
Chu Feng fell silent for a moment.
“Let me see…” Captain Xie leisurely opened Chu Feng’s record of traffic violations: “Ran six red lights, exceeded the speed limit eighteen times. Nearly hit 130 kilometers per hour, huh? Our city’s speed limit is 40, and you drove up to 130, and finally illegally parked at the school gate?”
Chu Feng muttered, “I… it was an emergency.”
Yesterday there was a landslide, and he rushed to see what was going on, not caring about anything else.
“Why the rush?” Captain Xie asked. “Is it useful? There are a thousand rules for traffic, with safety being the first. What if something happens?”
“I’m… sorry.”
Chu Feng, in his sailor suit, lowered his head slightly, subtly exposing his beautiful fair neck to Captain Xie. He softened his voice a bit:
“I… know I was wrong, can you give me back my driver’s license?”
“Give it back to you?” Captain Xie chuckled, “If apologies were effective, what would we traffic police be here for? Your license is revoked, and your car is confiscated. Your actions yesterday were not simply violating traffic rules; you are suspected of endangering public transportation safety, which warrants detention and sentencing.”
“I…”
Captain Xie waved his hand, indicating he should stop talking. “From today on, you’ll stay here, undergo rehabilitation, and relearn traffic rules.”
“You…!” Chu Feng stared at Captain Xie, not saying a word, staring for three seconds, then turned and walked away—
A hand reached out and grabbed Chu Feng’s waist:
“Angry?”
Chu Feng remained silent with a gloomy expression.
The next second, a cool sphere was placed in his palm. Captain Xie smiled behind him:
“Here, not angry anymore?”
Chu Feng held the transparent ball, with the 17-year-old Little Xie safely inside, seemingly tired from the adventure, curling up and dozing off like an obedient little thumb person.
Chu Feng put the transparent ball into his gaming backpack, paused for a moment, and said again:
“Give me back my driver’s license.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll give it back to you later.” Captain Xie affectionately encircled Chu Feng’s waist from behind. “Any other requests?”
“Give me back my car.” Chu Feng said, “And I don’t want to be detained.”
“I can return your car. As for being detained…” Captain Xie looked at Chu Feng’s expression, carefully choosing his words, “We can delay that a bit, but you must undergo safety education.”
Chu Feng leaned back slightly, leaning against Captain Xie’s chest:
“How long is the education?”
Captain Xie hugged Chu Feng, smiling:
“It depends on your performance.”
He gently lifted a corner of Chu Feng’s sailor skirt, leaning close to his ear and said:
“There are quite a few people on duty tonight.”
“..night time.. How about that?” Chu Feng said.
“Do you have something to do now?”
“…Um.”
Chu Feng lowered his head slightly, feeling a subtle sense of guilt. He still had to go to the airport to pick up X.
Although no matter how he played in Dream City, his real body would be fine, but… with so many Little Xies playing around, X would be left waiting at the airport until it turned cold.
“Don’t you have any time at all?”
Captain Xie hugged him, the warm and strong arms wrapping around the maple tree.
Chu Feng cherished this warmth and breath. He didn’t refuse, gently reaching out and holding Captain Xie’s fingertips:
“…Just once, it needs to be… quick.”
Captain Xie rubbed against his neck for a while, then softly said:
“The skirt, lift it a bit more.”
Chu Feng asked, “…Right here?”
The bright sunlight illuminated the clean and spacious office lobby down to the last detail.
Xie Shiyu nodded matter-of-factly:
“The lighting here is sufficient, everyone can see more clearly. Oh, and there are several cute surveillance videos. Aren’t you fond of hacking in to watch?”
Chu Feng glanced up and sure enough, all eight rotating surveillance videos in the hall were aimed squarely at him.
The navy blue sailor skirt was gently lifted—
The feast was about to begin.
Warm hands, carrying nostalgic warmth, pressed against him, and Chu Feng closed his eyes slightly…
Suddenly! Beep beep beep beep—
A series of piercing alarms erupted in his ears.
The romantic atmosphere disappeared in an instant, and Chu Feng abruptly opened his eyes, seeing everything before him turn crimson, with numerous severe warnings popping up:
“[Player detected attempting to engage in inappropriate relationships with [underage characters], protective measures activated]”
Swish—
A protective code membrane immediately erected around Chu Feng, forcefully ejecting Captain Xie who had been leaning against him—
They went from [about to touch] to [maintaining a safe distance of 2 meters].
Chu Feng, holding the sailor skirt, faced the isolated Little Xies one by one, eye to eye, exchanging glances.
—What’s going on?
All the little Xies in the traffic police station were adults, so why would such a prompt appear? Chu Feng tried to click on the warning in front of him:
Bang bang bang—
Rows of complex, unreadable red codes scrolled by, finally popping up a message:
“[Detected all characters in the city as underage, protective measures activated]”
“[Currently, the status of your Dream City is: Platonic City, please maintain a safe distance from your characters, any interaction below the mouth is prohibited, please communicate with each other with loving eyes!]”
Chu Feng:…
He’s nearly 30 years old, a widower in reality, yet in a game, he has to play in a Platonic City…
Chu Feng felt something was amiss. There were so many adult little Xies in his city, why were they suddenly judged as [all underage], and before the popup warning, there were many red codes, which looked like error codes.
A thought flashed through his mind:
That transparent ball prop.
When X gave him this prop, he mentioned that because it wasn’t fully developed, this prop might have some side effects, and showed him tens of thousands of words of research reports.
At that time, Chu Feng just skimmed through the report briefly, and the few side effects were inconsequential, and indeed, as X promised, they wouldn’t harm the characters’ lives, so Chu Feng didn’t bother to read further.
He immediately opened his phone – WeChat – X’s profile picture, and reopened the file, searching for: [Platonic City]
Soon, on page 56, line 96, in the densely packed text, there was a casual mention:
“[This prop may also cause misjudgment of the ages of all characters, mistaking them all as underage and triggering the Platonic mode.]”
Chu Feng:…
That jerk X.
***
“Are you there?”
“Are you there?”
Chu Feng stood in the traffic police lobby, awkwardly adjusting his skirt, then bombarded X with a series of rapid-fire WeChat calls:
“Can you explain what’s going on?”
“Platonic City for the entire city?”
“Are you doing this on purpose…” He stopped halfway through typing this message. After reviewing his previous chats with X, they all seemed relaxed and cheerful. Chu Feng thought for a moment and deleted this sentence.
X is still on the plane and can’t see the messages now, so he’ll directly question him face to face later at the airport.
Chu Feng was about to exit the Dream City game—
Buzz buzz.
His WeChat vibrated, and X on the other end actually replied instantly:
“What’s wrong?”
Chu Feng: “Can you receive messages?”
X: “Yes, there’s wifi on the plane.”
Chu Feng paused for a moment. Some international airlines did offer wifi services, allowing passengers to go online and handle messages while the plane was flying smoothly.
Chu Feng: “All my characters have been judged as underage.”
X: “How did this happen… Sad”
Chu Feng stared at the message X sent. No matter how he looked at it, he felt that X’s tone was tinged with a hint of malicious joy.
He screenshot the sentence in X’s research report about Platonic City:
“You wrote this in your report”
“Is there no solution or alleviation?”
X: “I’m sorry.”
“The probability of the Platonic City side effect occurring is very low, and I didn’t expect it to happen.”
“I’m sorry for using such an incomplete prop on you. I didn’t think it through before.”
Chu Feng looked at the messages popping up in WeChat. These three apologies from X immediately left him speechless.
According to social etiquette, Chu Feng should reply: “It’s okay.”
But… this matter does affect him greatly.
Now, there is a thick layer of code membrane between adult little Xies and him. Once the character little Xie approaches him with adult thoughts, he will be ejected.
Years of marriage have devolved into only being able to communicate with pure eyes.
Chu Feng continued to inquire:
“Is there any solution or relief?”
After a while, X replied:
“I’ll come into your city and take a look at the situation.”
“I’m really sorry.”
“Has it affected your married life?”
Accompanied by a picture: A little cat with its head bowed, looking dejected and apologetic.
Chu Feng stared at this paragraph.
At first glance, it seemed like X was sincere, but upon closer examination, this tone, this emoji, how did they seem to have a… strange flavor?
Clad in a sailor suit, failed in marital relations, Chu Feng waited in the traffic police lobby for the arrival of his regulator, X.
He thought X would appear out of thin air from the regulator’s channel as usual, but after waiting for a while, he received a prompt:
Account: [Regulator X] requests to visit your Dream City, do you agree?
Chu Feng raised an eyebrow. This time, X didn’t use the regulator’s privilege.
He thought for a moment. Currently, as a player, he wasn’t facing any life-threatening danger, and X wasn’t coming in for emergency rescue, so he didn’t enter or exit without authorization, but sent a [visit inquiry] to his Dream City in a personal capacity.
Chu Feng clicked [Agree].
Soon, he felt a warm sensation behind him.
Just like the feeling when Xie Shiyu approached him from behind… His 193cm tall figure casting a shadow…
Chu Feng immediately turned around and saw a dark gray windbreaker.
X was teleported behind him.
Feeling that the distance between them was too close for comfort, Chu Feng was about to step back when X, as if reading his mind, took a step back first.
Only stepping back half a step still felt a bit too close, but Chu Feng couldn’t step back now. He pointed to the adult Little Xies isolated 2 meters away:
“Is there a way to alleviate this?”
X solemnly called up the code display screen with regulator privileges and copied the code for the Platonic isolation membrane:
“For now, you’ll have to bear with it. I’ll go back and see if I can remove this isolation membrane.”
After copying the code for the Platonic isolation membrane, X, in an extremely gentlemanly manner, nodded slightly to Chu Feng:
“Then I’ll leave first, the plane is about to land, and the wifi will be cut off soon.”
Chu Feng could only nod.
X turned around and walked into the sunlight—
Suddenly, Chu Feng noticed something flashing on the collar of X’s windbreaker in the sunlight.
He squinted, carefully looked, and found a small piece of metal.
Today, there was inexplicably a small letter pin on X’s windbreaker collar:
Lucky~
The silver letter sparkled in the sunlight, emitting a happy glow.
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