The Great God's First Move, a Trial Run

Chapter 8: The Great God's First Move, a Trial Run

Yu Banshan picked up his phone and called Xiao Nai, only to have the call rejected. He stared at his phone in disbelief and muttered, "Third Brother actually isn't answering!"

"Xiao Nai probably went to find Senior Sister Bei," Jia Honghai chimed in.

As soon as everyone heard Jia Honghai, they erupted. When had Senior Sister Weiwei come back to Beijing? Xiao Nai was way too good at keeping secrets!

Just then, Wang Yue said, "Yeah, Senior Sister Weiwei was here a moment ago. Look!"

It turned out Wang Yue had returned to his seat at some point. His computer was playing a loop of Weiwei entering the company and Xiao Nai leading her away.

"They actually eloped?" Yu Banshan stared wide-eyed at his phone, hardly able to believe it.

"It's not like this is the first time Third Brother's let a pretty girl make him forget his friends." Qiu Yonghou sighed and waved to everyone. "Let's go eat, too."

Everyone scattered, and Wang Yue and the others followed Qiu Yonghou and his three roommates downstairs to the restaurant, where they got a private room.

While they waited for the food, Wang Yue texted Er Xi, telling the silly girl to hurry to Beijing. He couldn't let Xiao Nai have all the fun showing off his girlfriend—after all, Wang Yue had a girlfriend too!

As Wang Yue texted, everyone else joined in denouncing Xiao Nai's disloyal behavior. They kept at it until all the dishes had arrived.

They were all old friends, and the eight young men attacked the food like a whirlwind.

Hao Mei had a cute face, but he ate with remarkable efficiency. While the others were only half full, he had already finished.

Hao Mei wiped his mouth, picked up his drink, and took a sip. Then he let out a long sigh. "I once had a sincere relationship with someone I met online. Too bad I gave my heart to the wrong person!"

"With who? How come we've never heard the senior brothers mention it?" Eldest Brother Huang Tao was a natural straight man, always ready with the perfect response.

Hao Mei said, "It wasn't in A Chinese Ghost Story. Before I played A Chinese Ghost Story, I played another game called Fantasy Planet! I played a Heavenly Healer in it."

"Wasn't the Heavenly Healer class only available to female characters? Brother Mei, you played a girl?" Fourth Brother played all kinds of games, and as it happened, he'd played this one too. He couldn't hide his surprise. He'd never have guessed Brother Mei played a female character.

"Heh heh, that character matched my aesthetic." That was his explanation, but everyone gave him a look that said, "Yeah, right." Still, when they saw that Hao Mei was about to get angry with embarrassment, they quickly urged him to go on.

"Later, all my friends got married, and I thought I couldn't stay single forever! So I decided to find someone to marry!" Hao Mei said solemnly, leaving everyone stunned.

Liu Wei trembled and quickly moved farther away from Hao Mei. "But you were playing a female character. You were going to find a man to marry?"

"Wrong. I planned to find a 'yaoren'—a male character played by a woman. There was a male class that a lot of women played. I wanted to find a woman who played one and marry her. I even picked a really poetic name. It sounded like it had to belong to a woman: Hand Can Pluck Stars!"

"With a name that bold, why would you assume it belonged to a woman?" Everyone was baffled.

"I thought only women liked stars and the moon and things like that. But who could've known that person was a man playing a woman's character!"

"So was it a man or a woman?" Liu Wei's head was spinning.

"Probably a real man, or Brother Mei wouldn't be so upset. But Brother Mei, what happened after that?" Seeing that no one else had anything to say, Wang Yue cleared things up for Liu Wei.

"After that, how could I ever go back to playing that game? Just thinking about it gives me goosebumps." Senior Brother Hao Mei looked miserable.

"You pretended to be a female player, deceived someone's feelings, then dumped him without a second thought!" Seeing him still playing the victim, Qiu Yonghou couldn't resist taking a jab at him.

"My intentions were pure at first!" Hao Mei protested indignantly.

"Was your server called Under the Chang'an Moon?" KO, who had been quietly eating, suddenly set down his chopsticks and spoke up.

"How do you know? Are hackers really that good?" Hao Mei seemed to think of something and suddenly grew tense, his voice changing.

"Because I'm the 'yaoren' you were talking about—the man playing a woman!" KO looked at Hao Mei with deep grievance.

The scene was painfully awkward. Wang Yue had seen it coming, so he handled it a little better. Yu Banshan, on the other hand, spat a mouthful of soda all over Qiu Yonghou's face.

Qiu Yonghou stood up, taking advantage of the moment. "I'm going to wash up." With that, he headed straight for the restroom.

Yu Banshan was only half a beat behind him. He hurried after Qiu Yonghou, saying, "I'll go pay. You guys take your time eating."

Wang Yue and Eldest Brother, Second Brother, and Fourth Brother stared at one another. The senior brothers really were something—their reactions were so quick.

"Brother Mei, that was a pretty lousy thing to do, deceiving someone's feelings. Since Master KO is right here, you should go apologize properly." Seeing there was no way to escape, Wang Yue finally spoke up to break the silence. "We'll leave you two alone."

Without waiting for them to respond, he hurriedly urged his three roommates out of the restaurant with him.

"Third Brother, do you think KO already knew that Senior Brother Hao Mei was the one who deceived him back then?" Eldest Brother Huang Tao asked uncertainly.

"Almost certainly. Didn't you see how well Master KO treats Hao Mei?" Wang Yue wasn't actually sure himself, but he had to make himself sound like Kongming.

Eldest Brother, Second Brother, and Fourth Brother shuddered and hurried back to the company together.

When everyone returned to the company, they got back to work. About two hours later, Hao Mei and KO came back, one after the other. As soon as Hao Mei returned, he rushed into Xiao Nai's office and went at it like a tiger, only to end up with four two-hundred-and-fifty-yuan bills.

For the first time, Xiao Nai found Hao Mei unbearably annoying. Couldn't he see that Weiwei's face was red? To get the guy to leave as soon as possible, Xiao Nai went along with Hao Mei's plan.

Then Xiao Nai had to put on a profound air in front of Weiwei and say, "Using Hao Mei for a marriage alliance—just imagine how exhausting it is to maintain my image."

That afternoon, the two of them downloaded the game again at the company and got married. It was a wonder the game company hadn't shut down the server after all this time, despite there being hardly anyone left playing.

After getting married, Hao Mei was beaming, and he stopped complaining about being tired at work. It was hard to tell whether it was the thousand-yuan motivation or the glow of his new marriage.

Seeing this, Wang Yue decided he needed to get a better price for Hao Mei next time. He bought a cake specially so everyone could congratulate KO and Hao Mei on their wedding.

While everyone was celebrating, Wang Yue pretended to be perfectly serious as he took a cup of tea from Xiao Nai and brought it over to KO. Then he bowed and said, "Wishing you a happy wedding, Master!"

The other employees joined in the teasing when they saw this. Xiao Nai watched Wang Yue's actions thoughtfully, but didn't say anything.

KO's eyes filled with delight. Seeing Wang Yue holding out the cup of tea, he quickly took it and sipped before saying, "If you have any questions about technology, just ask me."

That was exactly what Wang Yue had been waiting to hear. He seized the opportunity and immediately pulled KO into a discussion, asking him about a few things.

From that day on, with two top hackers teaching him, Wang Yue studied even more diligently, and his hacking skills kept improving. Even when Er Xi returned to school ahead of schedule, he didn't think to fool around with her at all. After picking her up and showing her around the company, Wang Yue buried himself in studying hacking again.

Seeing the man she loved so obsessed with a computer, the sweet and silly Er Xi couldn't help complaining to Weiwei. "No wonder most programmers are single. Look at Wang Yue—right now, his computer matters more to him than I do."

Weiwei laughed at that. After she'd laughed for a while, just before Er Xi could tickle her, she quickly said, "You can feel more at ease when he's like this. No matter when he doesn't answer your calls, you'll know he's playing on his computer and not fooling around!"

Er Xi listened to Weiwei's explanation and looked at her suspiciously. "Are you and the Great God like that too?"

Weiwei's cheeks flushed. She lied through her teeth. "Yeah. Haven't you noticed how much time I spend with you?"

Er Xi believed her and relaxed.

As the new semester approached, the three roommates who were senior students finished their internships. Wang Yue, however, stayed at the company. There wasn't much left for him to learn; he just kept getting hands-on experience and improving his skills.

Zhiyi Technology had already reached a partnership agreement with Fengteng Company. Once Xiao Nai had some free time, he started working on Wang Yue's project proposal. Xiao Nai didn't keep anything to himself; he had Wang Yue follow the project from the initial planning stage, step by step. Wang Yue gained a lot from it.

It was with this project that Wang Yue seemed to return to the 996 work schedule he'd had before transmigrating. Xiao Nai's friends saw a side of Wang Yue they'd never seen before.

They'd been more or less unhappy about Wang Yue idling around at the company every day. If Xiao Nai hadn't kept them in check, they would have shown him their displeasure long ago. Now, at last, they felt things were fair.