SMMW | Chapter 35

Wen Qing was dressed in bright red wedding robes, and nine huge pearls hung from his crown, pressing down until his neck felt sore and his head tilted slightly to one side in a rather playful way.

As expected of the most expensive one, the materials really were excellent.

Song Hao was quite satisfied. He reached out to steady Wen Qing’s crown for him and share some of its weight.

Wen Qing smiled, and Song Hao smiled along with him.

“Qingqing, kiss me.”

After all, it was their wedding night. Asking for a kiss was not going too far, right?

Wen Qing’s face turned red in an instant, but he still endured his shyness and kissed Song Hao lightly on the cheek. It was so light that Song Hao barely even felt that he had been kissed.

Song Hao was actually embarrassed too, but he wanted to put on an act in front of Wen Qing, to act as though he were perfectly calm, so he only dared to shamelessly order him around. “Qingqing, come here and give me a hug.”

So Wen Qing moved a little closer, leaned into his arms, and buried his head against his shoulder.

Satisfied, Song Hao tightened his arms around him.

“What?” Wen Qing seemed to have said something, but Song Hao had not heard clearly.

Wen Qing raised his voice and said it again. This time Song Hao heard it clearly. What he said was,

“Yuan Hao.”

Yuan Hao?

No, that is not my name.

Song Hao panicked. He pulled Wen Qing away, wanting to properly tell him his real name.

But what he saw was a face streaked with tears.

Wen Qing choked with sobs as he accused him, every word steeped in hurt, “Why did you cast me off?”

“I…”

There was too much he wanted to explain. He wanted to say,

Being the Crown Princess was too unfair to you, your talent was buried because of it.

The game could only continue if I married five wives and concubines, but there was an oath card blocking me, so there was no way around it.

After becoming emperor, there was a palace-struggle plotline. It was too dangerous, and I did not want you to have to fight in it.

Someone gave a very large gift, and according to the rules, I had to fulfill his request.

I was unemployed at home, and I did not have much savings left. I thought it would be enough to just click the mouse a few times, and anyway I could always load a save.

I thought you were only a game character, that you would not remember…

But Song Hao’s mouth opened and closed, and not a single sound came out.

Wen Qing cried and cried, as though he wanted to cry every drop of moisture out of his body. Song Hao could not speak. He wanted to wipe away his tears for him, only to discover that he could not touch him at all.

“I’m leaving,” Wen Qing said.

Where are you going?

“You can’t cast me off, so I’ll leave on my own.”

I didn’t! I don’t want to cast you off. That was never what I wanted.

“Goodbye, Yuan Hao.”

Don’t go. At least let me tell you my real name. I’m not called Yuan Hao.

Qingqing, don’t go!

“Qingqing, don’t go!”

Song Hao suddenly opened his eyes and woke from the dream.

He picked up his phone and checked the time. It was already one in the afternoon. Even though he had just woken up, he still felt exhausted. It could not be helped. After all, he had only fallen asleep at five in the morning.

Ever since he gave up the game, or rather, ever since he started trying to quit the game, his schedule had become completely chaotic. Day and night were reversed, black and white blurred together, and he often had no idea how many days had even passed.

He could not sleep well either. He was always dreaming about things from the game. That was all because he had been too immersed in it before.

But fortunately, all of this was about to end. At midnight tonight, the game servers would shut down, and then he would not have even this last bit of attachment left.

The computer sat right on the desk beside his bed. Song Hao was deliberately avoiding looking at it now, but the rented room was only so big. How could he possibly not see it?

Then he would just avoid it. If he could not afford to provoke it, he could at least hide from it.

Song Hao sent messages to his friends and asked them to get together for a meal. That whole bunch of guys all said yes, but even if they gathered up, it would not be until seven in the evening. After all, they all had jobs.

So how was he supposed to get through the six hours in between?

Song Hao first cooked himself a bowl of noodles and ate it, then took a shower. Only one hour had passed.

But he really could not stay in the house any longer, so he put on his shoes and went out. First he found the barbershop with the most people in it and waited for a haircut. The result was pretty good. By the time he finished, two hours had passed, but it was still only four in the afternoon.

Then he found an arcade and bought a whole box of tokens. Racing, basketball shooting, claw machines, in short, he played through them one by one. After he used up all the tokens, he bought a cup from Snow King and sat in the mall’s rest area, spacing out in the air-conditioning.

He waited and waited, and finally the time came. He let out a sigh of relief and headed for the restaurant they had agreed on.

Lamb skewers, crayfish, iced beer, loud voices, and bragging.

Song Hao ate in silence. Even though it was he who had proposed the gathering, he did not really join in the conversation. To be honest, he could not. They talked about work, cars and houses, funds, women, children. He had none of those.

“Hey, Haozi, I heard you quit your job. Haven’t seen you for so long. Have you found a new one yet?”

“No, not yet. I haven’t started looking,” Song Hao answered absentmindedly.

“Holy shit! It’s been months already and you’re living this comfortably? That’s the advantage of being single. Otherwise you’d have been kicked out by your wife already.”

“Hahahaha, you think everyone’s like you and scared of their wife?”

“What do you know? That’s called respect.”

The topic started circling around him again, and someone else asked, “Then what have you been busy with these past few months?”

Song Hao picked out the peanuts from the cold dish as he answered casually, “Streaming. Playing games.”

“Can that make money?”

“It can,” Song Hao took a gulp of iced beer and felt it was only so-so. He probably still liked Snow King better, “but I spent it all again. Didn’t have much left.”

“Ah, streaming’s not doing well these days. It’s hard to make money. Are you looking for a job or not? I can keep an eye out for you.”

Song Hao tried hard to keep his spirits up, making himself sound less dejected. “Sure. If you hear of anything suitable, let me know. I’ll treat you to a meal.”

“Done. If you ask me, you’re just too much of a shut-in. You always seem so gloomy. Us brothers should be getting together more often. Come on, come on, let’s clink glasses!”

The glass cups knocked together, and the atmosphere became lively again. Song Hao kept eating and drinking, listening to gossip with his ears while his thoughts drifted off who knew where.

Halfway through the meal, he got tired. Song Hao took out his phone and started scrolling through videos.

Once he opened the short-video platform, the algorithm was still busy “guessing what you wanted to watch,” and it kept pushing him all kinds of news related to Dynasty.

Song Hao clicked “Not Interested” on them one by one, but the idiotic algorithm picked up on how long he lingered and decided this person must be protesting with his mouth while loving it in his heart, so instead it pushed them even more aggressively.

Dynasty tangled with the buyer for three months, finally sold for one million, new company does not promise to preserve server data.

Game bugs explode, Dynasty players collectively demand refunds, official team plays dead and does not respond.

Dynasty servers shut down tonight at midnight, veteran players log in one after another for a final farewell.

Don’t let the Dynasty dev team off easy. Unused top-up funds can absolutely be refunded. One video explains it all clearly.

…

Song Hao glanced at the time. 23:11. There were still forty-nine minutes before the servers shut down.

He seemed to remember there was still some of his top-up money left unused. By the end of it, there should still have been… two yuan left?

He had forgotten, but there was definitely some leftover. Two yuan was money too.

Song Hao could not sit still anymore. “Um, how about we call it here for today. Something suddenly came up.”

“What could possibly come up this late at night?”

“One of the games I play is shutting down. I just remembered the money I topped up hasn’t been refunded yet. There’s still two… thousand-something.”

“Holy shit, that much! It’s already after eleven anyway. Perfect, let’s break up here and meet again another time.”

The others all agreed too. “Come on, come on, one last toast, then let’s call it a night.”

They drank one last cup together before finally dispersing.

Song Hao walked out of the restaurant and directly flagged down a taxi by the roadside. “Driver, quick, quick, quick, xx Residential Complex.”

Actually, that restaurant was not far from his home. He could have gotten there on the night bus without even needing to transfer. But the bus meant waiting, and a taxi was faster.

A little over ten minutes later, Song Hao reached home smoothly. It was now 23:37, and there were twenty-three minutes left before the servers shut down.

Song Hao did not even change his shoes. He rushed straight to the computer, powered it on, logged into the game, all in one fluid motion.

Eastern Palace, Yaoyue Residence, Wen Qing.

Only after seeing Wen Qing in Yaoyue Residence did he relax a little. Panting, he sat down in the chair.

23:41

Song Hao clicked open the affection value. It was still 998, unchanged.

Song Hao gave up completely and thought, forget it, let it be. I’ll just watch for a while and wait for the game to shut down.

Wen Qing’s greeting line did not appear. On the screen, he was speaking anxiously about something, his mouth opening and closing, but no dialogue box appeared, so Song Hao could not understand it either.

“Another bug.”

After a while, the dialogue box finally appeared, but it was an earlier plot scene.

[Wen Qing: My surname is Wen, given name Qing. May I ask this brother’s honored name?]

The damn official team deserved every bit of cursing. It was already the very end, and there were still bugs everywhere. They would not even let the players have peace for the last stretch.

This was the scene from when they first met, and there were no options here, so Song Hao could only click continue.

[Yuan Hao: This unworthy one’s surname is Yuan, given name Hao, a native of Hezhou County.]

See? It had all turned into Yuan Hao. Later on, I was clearly called Xuanyuan Hao.

The bug kept going. Wen Qing asked his name again, and Song Hao could only keep clicking continue.

After the second round came a third. When the third question ended, Wen Qing started crying.

The moment he saw Wen Qing cry, Song Hao’s heart clenched in pain along with him. Right now he truly wanted to burn down that damned official company. If it had to bug out, could it not at least bug out into something happy?

He reached out and wanted to wipe away Wen Qing’s tears, but what he touched was not skin and tears, only the cold computer screen.

The screen again. The screen again. The screen again.

The emotions he had suppressed all day broke loose completely. Song Hao cursed while pounding the desk, as though if his body hurt, his mind might feel a little lighter.

His right hand split open and started bleeding from the blows. His fingers trembled unnaturally, and the desktop was stained red too.

“Forget it,” Song Hao shouted in self-abandonment. “Who these days doesn’t have at least a little mental illness?”

“Hiss…” Song Hao gripped the mouse again. The wound pulled, and blood ran from his palm onto the mouse.

Enduring the pain, Song Hao controlled the mouse and gently slid it over Wen Qing’s face, wiping away his tears for him.

Wen Qing stared blankly at him and let him wipe them.

Song Hao opened the gift system again. Sure enough, there were still two yuan left on the account, along with tens of thousands in gold. He exchanged all of it for writing brushes and sent every single one to Wen Qing.

The floor of Yaoyue Residence was covered in writing brushes, but Wen Qing’s affection value did not change.

“Can’t it really go up even a little? Just a little.”

Song Hao looked at the silent, unmoving 998 affection value. Anxiety and disappointment churned inside him, but there was nothing he could do.

[Wen Qing: My surname is Wen, given name Qing. May I ask this brother’s honored name?]

“Hahaha, here we go again? Are you a broken record?”

Song Hao laughed and continued playing this line-matching game with Wen Qing.

A fourth time, a fifth, a sixth… all the way until the tenth.

[Wen Qing: My surname is Wen, given name Qing. May I ask this brother’s honored name?

※Please enter nickname: _ _ ]

“Is this… bugged?”

Song Hao stood up and leaned in for a closer look. He discovered that the preset answer had not appeared. Instead, it had turned into a text input box. This input box had only ever appeared once before, when choosing a nickname during the wedding. You could type anything you wanted, but it had to be two characters.

Song Hao’s heart started pounding violently. His first instinct was to check the time. 23:54. There were six minutes left before the game shut down.

Is he talking to me? Is he asking what my name is? Or is this just another bug?

His thoughts were in complete chaos, and in an instant a hundred possibilities flooded his mind, but his hands never stopped. Three seconds after the input box appeared, Song Hao had already rapidly typed in the two characters “Song Hao.”

For the first time ever, he was incomparably grateful that his name was only two characters long.

23:55

Wen Qing froze. He looked extremely emotional. His mouth opened and closed as though he were saying something, but there was still no dialogue box. He swept his gaze around and even angrily threw out several writing brushes.

At last he spoke again. This time, a dialogue box appeared.

[Wen Qing: Linglong dice set with red beans, do you know that longing runs to the bone?

※Please enter nickname: _ _ ]

He is asking me if I know his feelings.

I know. Of course I know. You helped me again and again, and your affection value reached full marks. How could I not know?

Song Hao felt that he had to be crazy. It was only a bug, and yet he was acting along with it. But maybe he had gone crazy long ago. Fine then. Today he would just be a madman.

[I know]

23:56

Wen Qing laughed and cried at once, and his whole person looked almost crazed. Song Hao also laughed and cried with him, laughing at the fact that they were a pair of lunatics.

[Wen Qing: When will we meet again after this? On my lapels and sleeves, there remain only tears needlessly staining them. At the place where sorrow cuts deepest, I gaze from the high city till the end, and the lights have already dimmed into dusk.

※Please enter nickname: _ _ ]

He is saying goodbye to me. He is saying we will never meet again.

Song Hao clutched at his chest. The emotion was so violent that his vision darkened, but he still sent his reply back at once.

[Don’t go]

23:57

[Wen Qing: Fish sink and geese vanish on the road to the ends of the earth, only then do I believe how bitter parting in this human world truly is.

※Please enter nickname: _ _ ]

He is saying farewell. He says he is in terrible pain, and how am I any different? I do not want this to end. I do not want you to leave. I do not want to never see you again.

Song Hao had far too much he wanted to say, but he could only send two characters. There was no time to waste. A thousand words gathered into a single cry.

[Qingqing]

23:58

On the game screen, Wen Qing was already crying so hard he could barely control himself, but after getting the answer, he still immediately began speaking again through his sobs. Because both of them knew there was not much time left.

[Wen Qing: Whether in life or death, separated or together, we have made this vow.

※Please enter nickname: _ _ ]

No matter life or death, we have to make a promise.

A promise of what? Why was there no second half? Had he forgotten to say it?

But Wen Qing stopped there and waited for a reply, clearly showing that he had already finished speaking.

Of course Song Hao knew the second half. In a panic, he hurried to complete it.

[Grow old]

Hand in hand with you, grow old together with you.

We have to stay together forever, never to part.

23:59

Wen Qing broke into a smile through tears and stopped speaking, nodding desperately instead.

Song Hao knew it. He had agreed.

[※Wen Qing Affection +1]

He had forgiven him. That one point of affection he had lost had come back.

Remembering the lesson, Song Hao moved to use the mouse to wipe Wen Qing’s tears, but it was already too late.

00:00

The whole screen turned gray, and a dialogue box popped up.

[Thank you for your support and love for Dynasty. This game journey has now reached its end. Please follow the development of the new version. We look forward to meeting you again.]

The game shut down. Wen Qing disappeared. His lover disappeared.

Song Hao leaned back in his chair and tilted his head up as tears streamed down.

He knew why Wen Qing had not finished reciting that line.

Song Hao lost all strength. He could not even be bothered to control his body anymore. His whole self slid down along the back of the chair onto the floor. He lay there on the floor just like that, eyes open, letting the tears blur his vision.

Grow old together?

How were they supposed to grow old together? How could they grow old together?

Between the two of them, they had only exchanged five lines, ten characters in total.