Shoutout to Kari for the commission!
There had never been a chance to play the game Zhou Shirui had given him.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to. They simply hadn’t had much time.
Le Cheng had to draw his assignments as well as commissioned work, while Zhou Shirui had been dragged into a hectic schedule because of the game. Usually, the night before, Le Cheng and Zhou Shirui would agree that they absolutely had to play the next day. But when the next day actually came, various things would inevitably tie up their hands and feet.
By the time they finally opened the game, more than half a month had already passed since Zhou Shirui had given it to him.
Le Cheng sat cross-legged in the gaming room, facing the enormous screen and waiting for Zhou Shirui to bring him the controller.
There were many rooms in the flat, so naturally there was a dedicated gaming room as well. Le Cheng pinched a little strawberry and tossed it into his mouth. Zhou Shirui handed him the controller, and Le Cheng found it interesting. He tilted his head and asked, “What kind of game is it? Why do I need a controller to play it?”
Zhou Shirui did not answer and instead began starting it up.
Le Cheng had been sitting there lazily, but when he saw this, he straightened up as well. Zhou Shirui caught sight of him from the corner of his eye and asked with exaggerated seriousness, “Are you ready?”
Le Cheng nodded solemnly. “I’m ready!”
As if they were about to accomplish some hugely important mission.
The moment he finished speaking, the successfully launched game suddenly went black. A round little orange dropped from the sky with a “plop.”
Le Cheng: “…?”
Immediately afterward, more and more things began falling down: a little leather shoe, a small vegetable basket, a loaf of bread, a bunch of daisies… Against the pure black background, they stood out especially clearly.
Just when Le Cheng thought it had finally stopped, a cartoon character suddenly appeared, slowly walking out from the far right side of the screen. It was a fluffy, large gray wolf wearing a monocle, with short arms and short legs, a black hat, a black leather jacket, and combat boots. Despite looking so cartoonishly cute, it was dressed pretty cool.
And just then, the image on the screen suddenly shook. A little squirrel wearing a red cape, its huge tail sticking out behind it, dropped from the sky. The gray wolf, who had walked to the center of the screen, instinctively raised its arms and caught the squirrel securely.
“Doo—”
A spring-like notification sound rang out, and words appeared on the screen.
[New adventure unlocked!]
[Are you sure?]
Even the font was the cute, adorable kind decorated with little flourishes.
Le Cheng had completely forgotten about the game. His mouth had already formed a perfect O as he stared at Zhou Shirui in astonishment.
Zhou Shirui met his gaze. “What’s wrong?”
“This, this was made by you?” Le Cheng asked incredulously.
“Mm.” Zhou Shirui paused for a moment, his tone carrying a rare hint of hesitation. “You don’t like it?”
“No, it’s not that I don’t like it.” Le Cheng shook his head like a rattle. His gaze fell on Zhou Shirui’s cool, expressionless face, and he could not help feeling shocked. Not for any other reason, but because this game was… way, way, way too cute!
Even the opening animation was this adorable!
This was actually made by Zhou Shiru!
“I really like it.” Le Cheng could not hold back anymore. “It’s so cute!”
Zhou Shirui received the confirmation he wanted, and only then did his brows relax slightly. He gave a quiet “Mm,” as though saying with complete calm, “Keep watching.”
Le Cheng was sitting very close to him. Hearing this, he tilted his head and pressed the confirm button.
The scene on the screen moved. A little speech bubble appeared above the squirrel’s head, with the words: “Thank you for catching me, Mr. Gray Wolf.”
Mr. Gray Wolf: “You’re welcome.”
The little squirrel hurriedly hopped down on one foot. Its fluffy little legs were unsteady, making it wobble slightly. It put on its other little leather shoe, picked up the vegetable basket, and stuffed everything inside.
After putting away all the items, the little squirrel held the little orange and seemed very sad. Another speech bubble appeared above its head:
“QAQ”
It was a crying little emoticon.
Mr. Gray Wolf: “?”
Mr. Gray Wolf: “What’s wrong?”
The little squirrel rubbed its eyes with its fluffy little hands. “Mr. Gray Wolf, I can’t find my grandma.”
Mr. Gray Wolf: “Where does your grandma live?”
A huge speech bubble appeared above the little squirrel’s head.
Inside the bubble was an old-fashioned house with a distinctly fairytale-like appearance. Puffs of smoke rose from the chimney, and with a creaky “squeak,” a squirrel wearing a scarf and reading glasses appeared.
Little Squirrel: “My grandma is right here. Winter is coming soon, so I need to bring food to her.”
Little Squirrel: “But suddenly there was fog in the forest, and I can’t find my way. Mr. Gray Wolf, are you willing to help me?”
Mr. Gray Wolf: “Of course. I’m willing to help you.”
Mr. Gray Wolf: “As long as you stop crying.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the screen shook, and large cartoonish letters trembled their way up from the bottom.
【Battle! The Wonderful Adventure of Super Little Squirrel and the Big Gray Wolf】
Le Cheng was so overwhelmed by the cuteness that he leaned sideways onto Zhou Shirui. Suddenly remembering something, he asked, “I remember now. Didn’t you once tell me a fairytale about a little squirrel?”
“Mm.” Zhou Shirui admitted it. “I did.”
“If I remember correctly, there was also a character called Mr. Gray Wolf in that story…” Le Cheng stared at the screen, then looked at Zhou Shirui, going back and forth between the two several times before slapping his thigh. “So that’s it! Mr. Gray Wolf is you, right?”
Zhou Shirui nodded. “It’s me.”
Le Cheng: “I didn’t expect you to remember it, and you even turned it into a game.”
Then he thought of another question. “Then did the other two people in the original story have real-life inspirations?”
Zhou Shirui paused, then said very calmly, “No.”
Le Cheng did not suspect anything either. “Okay.”
The game continued.
A line of small text appeared on the screen.
[Cross through the fog, defeat your inner demons, and return to Grandma’s side!]
[3, 2, 1, GO!]
The game officially began. With a “poof,” the two characters instantly teleported to the main map. The gameplay was very simple, similar to Super Mario, except that they were Super Little Squirrel and Super Mr. Gray Wolf.
All the mushroom monsters had been turned into little clouds, while the reward coins had been changed into little oranges.
Even more player-friendly than Super Mario was the fact that they could actively attack. The little squirrel’s attack consisted of holding the vegetable basket with both hands and smashing it down with a “BANG!” Truly, it was a violent little squirrel. As for Mr. Gray Wolf, he pulled out a double-barreled gun, except the gun fired little stones instead of bullets.
With the two of them working together, they quickly cleared the first level. With a “doo,” a red heart with angel wings slowly floated over and landed in the arms of the little squirrel and Mr. Gray Wolf before disappearing.
Le Cheng hurriedly searched for it. He opened his backpack, only to discover that there was no item inside.
“Huh?” Le Cheng asked in confusion. “Where did it go? What happened to that heart just now?”
Zhou Shirui prompted him. “It’s right above our heads.”
There was an outlined heart on the character interface. If Zhou Shirui had not pointed it out, Le Cheng would not have noticed it at all. The heart, which had originally been completely colorless, now had just a tiny bit of color at its bottom point.
Le Cheng immediately understood. “So this is some kind of buff or something?”
Zhou Shiru: “Yes.”
Le Cheng shamelessly rubbed against him. “Then can you just tell me what the buff increases?”
Zhou Shirui pursed his lips and ruthlessly shook his head.
“Really? You can’t?”
“Can’t.”
Only then did Le Cheng turn away in disappointment, missing the slight upward curve of Zhou Shirui’s lips.
But because the game rewarded them with little red hearts, Le Cheng desperately wanted to know what would happen once the heart was completely filled. So he dragged Zhou Shirui along and quickly blasted through ten levels.
The levels Zhou Shirui designed were neither too difficult nor too easy. They became progressively harder, and as someone with notoriously poor gaming skills, Le Cheng unsurprisingly began to struggle.
It was already dark outside, but Le Cheng was still fighting on the front lines.
Because of the game’s mechanics, some levels required the two players to split up. Both sides had to pass their respective challenges for the level to count as cleared.
Zhou Shirui quickly finished his side. Looking at the darkening sky, he asked Le Cheng what he wanted to eat.
Le Cheng pursed his lips at the screen. “Anything is fine…”
“Let’s have noodles,” Zhou Shirui said. “I’ll go cook.”
Le Cheng hummed and agreed, and anyone could tell without even listening that he was being completely perfunctory.
Zhou Shirui glanced at him and remained silent for a moment, holding back from saying anything. By the time he came back with two bowls of noodles, Le Cheng was still sitting cross-legged on the carpet.
“Eat. Stop playing for now.”
“No, no.” Le Cheng’s controller was taken away, and he was so anxious he nearly jumped up. “There’s just a little bit left, just a little bit! Zhou Shiru…”
In the end, Zhou Shirui quickly helped him clear the final section, and only then did Le Cheng go eat, looking back three times with every step.
At first, Zhou Shirui merely thought this was a temporary obsession with a new game on Le Cheng’s part. But over the next few days, when Le Cheng would nearly fall asleep, only to climb back down and play again for who knew how many times, Zhou Shirui gradually realized how serious the situation was.
But that was not the worst of it.
Zhou Shirui had designed sixty levels. At the thirtieth level, there was a mid-game boss that required the two players to work together. One person had to draw the boss’s fire from outside, while the other entered an illusion to fight its clone. When he had first designed it, Zhou Shirui had thought this was a rather interesting and fun mechanic.
But now….
Every time the little squirrel character was killed by the orange bullets fired by the boss, a “QAQ” speech bubble would appear. Then its eyes would turn into “XX” as it collapsed onto the ground, with its soul floating out of its mouth. So, as the number of deaths continued to increase endlessly, Le Cheng’s expression gradually became identical to that of the little squirrel on the screen, turning into a “QAQ.”
Not only that, because it was more difficult to draw fire from outside, Zhou Shirui could not operate with one hand, so the task of entering the illusion could only be completed by Le Cheng.
Zhou Shiru: “…………”
In the end, after struggling with it for two hours, they still could not defeat the boss.
Before going to bed that night, Le Cheng once again tried to climb down and complete the unfinished task, but Zhou Shirui wrapped an arm around his waist and pulled him back into his arms.
“Going to play the game again?”
Although Le Cheng was terrible at games, he had an unyielding spirit and refused to admit defeat. Hearing this, he said as though troubled, “I can’t sleep.”
Zhou Shiru: “Really can’t sleep?”
Le Cheng hurriedly nodded. “Mm-mm, I can’t sleep… Mmph.”
So Zhou Shirui leaned over him, biting his lips as he said indistinctly, “Then let’s do something that’ll help you fall asleep…”
After tossing and turning until three in the morning, Le Cheng was finally exhausted enough to fall asleep. The effect was exceptionally obvious.
Zhou Shirui helped him shower first before cleaning himself up. When he returned to the bedside, Le Cheng was lying with his butt sticking up, his face buried in the pillow. His cheeks still had a flush from the excessive stimulation, and his thick lashes rested quietly over his eyelids as he slept soundly.
He was even talking in his sleep.
Zhou Shirui’s heart melted completely. He lowered his head slightly and listened carefully.
“Zhou Shiru… Orange… ugh… Orange, hit me…”
Zhou Shiru: “…………”
And so he made up his mind. He opened his computer and spent the entire night adjusting the game’s difficulty.
He stayed up until the sun was shining right onto his butt before he finished modifying and testing it. When Le Cheng woke up, Zhou Shirui called him over to play the game. Rubbing his eyes, Le Cheng grumbled unhappily, “Yesterday I wanted to play, and you wouldn’t let me. Now I just woke up and you want me to play again…”
But once he actually started playing, Le Cheng was extremely happy, because this time he passed the boss level that had trapped him for so long with unusual ease.
Le Cheng was incredulous. “I passed! I actually passed! But… why do I feel like the speed at which it fires the bullets has slowed down?”
Le Cheng was puzzled. “Is it just my imagination?”
Zhou Shirui confirmed, “Mm, it’s just your imagination.”
He spoke slowly, and his explanation sounded very reasonable. “Your proficiency is constantly increasing, so by comparison, the bullets seem much slower. But in reality, nothing has changed.”
“I think that’s it too.” Le Cheng nodded solemnly.
And so, with the support of the “proficiency” buff, they easily cleared all the remaining levels in three days.
The final completion scene showed the little squirrel successfully returning to Grandma’s house, while Mr. Gray Wolf, with his heart gauge completely full, held a ring and confessed his love to the little squirrel.
Mr. Gray Wolf: “Although you’re also very cute when you cry, I’d much rather see you smiling all the time.”
The little squirrel happily agreed and put on a ring woven from vines and flowers.
The image gradually shrank until it became a tiny dot.
Le Cheng tossed aside the controller and happily hugged Zhou Shirui. “That was great, we finished it! This game was so fun! And the difficulty was just right!”
Zhou Shirui’s fingers rested against the back of his neck. He nodded very calmly. “Mm. I think so too.”
So when Le Cheng suggested that he wanted to play a second installment, Zhou Shirui agreed.
Le Cheng asked him, “It’s really so cute. So can you release the second one a little faster?”
Zhou Shirui stared at him without saying anything, then tapped his cheek with one finger.
Le Cheng smiled, his brows and eyes curving as he leaned over and gave him a kiss. “Is it okay now?”
Zhou Shirui said, “Mm, it’s okay now.”
The game suddenly reached its ending, and Le Cheng was still a little unaccustomed to it.
So that night, before going to bed, he asked Zhou Shirui idly, “Who do you think is the cutest one in this game?”
Zhou Shirui was silent for a moment before saying, “The little squirrel is cutest when it cries.”
Le Cheng was so sleepy and dazed that he did not hear clearly. “…Mm? What’s cute?”
Zhou Shirui tucked the blanket around him. “You’re the cutest.”
Le Cheng did not respond to him and quickly fell asleep.
Except…
One day, by chance, Le Cheng came across the nickname Zhou Shirui had saved him under.
It was not Le Cheng, nor was it Chengcheng anymore. Instead, it was a little squirrel emoji, followed by a…
[QAQ]
