So satisfying

"Ring, ring, ring!" A shrill phone rang.

Text message: All team members have been captured. The game is over. No one survived to the end.

Lu Xingchen pulled Huo Chuyun along, eager to find Director Song. Seeing this, Jiang Jingyi, Song Anran, and Su Tianle followed them.

On the way, Jiang Jingyi spotted the actress who played Xiao Qian and hugged her tightly, her heart aching for her. "Xiao Qian! Thank goodness you're okay!"

A Qing smiled. "I'm fine, but it looks like my acting really moved you."

"Moved us?" Song Anran said emotionally. "We practically cried ourselves to death. Our hearts just broke for you."

Su Tianle asked curiously, "How did you start shedding bloody tears while you were crying?"

A Qing shook her head mysteriously. "The director said to keep that a secret."

Jiang Jingyi happily pressed herself against A Qing, then raised her arm and cheered, "I declare that revealing it was all acting is the best trope in the world!"

Lu Xingchen found Director Song leisurely drinking tea and asked, "Director Song, what exactly was going on with Xiao Qian's ending? No matter how I analyze it, everything points to this episode's story being nothing more than a dream Xiao Qian had."

Song Zhiyan took a sip of tea and gave him an ambiguous smile without saying anything.

Seeing this, Huo Chuyun silently mouthed two words to Lu Xingchen. Lu Xingchen immediately understood and softened his voice.

"Auntie~ Just tell me, please~"

Only then did Song Zhiyan set down her teacup with a beaming smile, happily explaining, "This episode could be considered Xiao Qian's dream, but not entirely."

Lu Xingchen was full of questions. "What does that mean?"

Song Zhiyan continued, "This episode was adapted from a story someone submitted. We barely changed what happened to Xiao Qian, but the submitter's ending was too... supernatural. After discussing it, the production team was afraid it wouldn't pass review, so we adapted the ending too."

"In the submitter's story, she jumped off a rooftop five stories high. Apart from a few scratches, she was completely unharmed, but when the police checked the surveillance footage, it showed Girl B pushing her."

"According to the submitter, she went to the rooftop alone, and there couldn't have been anyone around her. Besides, Girl B was downstairs from the rooftop at the time and even filmed a video, but the surveillance footage took precedence."

"After surviving that brush with death, the submitter figured things out. She went straight to a police station in the provincial capital to report the case and also brought an attempted murder charge against Girl B. Girl B and the other two girls all went to prison."

"Apparently, they went mad as soon as they entered prison, saying someone gouged out their eyes, cut off their noses, and carved out their flesh every night."

"According to the submitter, the people who cyberbullied her all had nightmares of that sort of torture to varying degrees. They couldn't sleep night after night and were on the verge of losing their minds. Tell me that isn't supernatural."

"That's so satisfying!" The more Lu Xingchen heard, the more excited he became, clapping in delight. "What did the school say? Did she get her scholarship back? What happened to those nude photos?"

"Don't get impatient. Let me tell you everything." Song Zhiyan took a sip of tea to moisten her throat.

"The police dealt with all the nude photos. The incident caused quite a stir. The submitter went to the hospital for another medical examination, and she wasn't sick at all. The higher authorities also ordered the school to apologize publicly and revoke the notice advising her to withdraw."

"Of course, Girl B's family and the other two roommates paid the submitter quite a lot in compensation. The submitter said she also received an anonymous donation. The money was just enough to support her through all her studies after graduate school."

After hearing this, Lu Xingchen looked at Huo Chuyun with a pout. "I told you someone who works hard and strives to better herself shouldn't end up like that. This is the ending Xiao Qian deserved."

Huo Chuyun felt a pang of sadness. He knew Lu Xingchen was also hurting over his ending in the book. Gifted people, brave and kind people, all deserved happy, fulfilling endings.

The three who had said goodbye to A Qing arrived just in time to hear Director Song's explanation.

Jiang Jingyi hurriedly asked, "What about A Kai? Did A Kai really exist? Did the submitter mention her lover?"

Song Zhiyan nodded. "A Kai was the male lead in a niche romance game the submitter played, but the game had already shut down because it wasn't profitable."

Song Anran's eyes widened, and she said sadly, "Huh? How could that happen?"

Song Zhiyan changed tack and smiled. "I haven't finished yet. After the submitter became successful in her career, she bought the romance game."

"She said that during her hardest days, she could always look into A Kai's eyes through the screen and feel herself engulfed by surging love. A Kai used virtual data to build her a utopia of love."

"She loves A Kai very much. She still wants to wait with him for the first snow and for the spring that isn't far away."

A faint redness touched Lu Xingchen's beautiful foxlike eyes as he offered his best wishes.

"Then I wish her and A Kai happiness forever. May she always be passionate and free, with boundless courage to embrace tomorrow."

Huo Chuyun gazed at Lu Xingchen's foxlike eyes, glistening with tears like sapphires, his heart pounding deafeningly. Lu Xingchen's pure heart made him fall hard for him all over again.

Lu Xingchen wasn't merely moved by Xiao Qian and A Kai's love that crossed the boundary between dimensions. He was also thankful that he had been able to break through that boundary himself, enter the book, meet Huo Chuyun, and fall in love with him.

Huo Chuyun's eyes reddened too. In that instant, he deeply realized how hard-won and precious his relationship with Lu Xingchen was.

At the end of the episode, Director Song donated the total value of the Speed-Up Coins, along with the additional donations from Lu Xingchen, Huo Chuyun, Jiang Jingyi, Song Anran, and Su Tianle, to the Blue Tree Foundation.

The Blue Tree Foundation was a nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing and treating school bullying among young people.

The viewers who watched this episode came to deeply understand the severe trauma school bullying and cyberbullying could inflict on a person.

Through horror and supernatural elements, the show conveyed ideas of karmic retribution to teenagers whose values had yet to fully form: good would be rewarded, evil would be punished, and people would reap what they sowed.

[Rumors are seriously terrifying. They get more ridiculous with every retelling, and people actually believe them.]

[Was Girl B insane? She was even jealous of a scholarship someone earned by studying hard.]

[It takes all sorts to make a world. Whether you get a scholarship or just a pay raise, there'll always be plenty of jealous people. Keep your money to yourself.]

[Xiao Qian had it so rough. She got bullied and slandered over an admirer she didn't even know.]

[She even held a grudge because Xiao Qian wouldn't let her copy her exam answers.]

[People are vicious. Killing someone over a recommendation for graduate admission? Did she want to study that badly? Couldn't she take the entrance exam herself?]

[As someone who plays romance games, I felt this. The more you play, the more you really feel wrapped in love.]

[At their core, romance games teach players to love themselves.]

[I cried so hard. I kept thinking A Kai was a ghost. I never expected it all to be Xiao Qian's dream. In her imagination, A Kai got revenge for her, and she could leave in peace.]

[Of course, if something like this happens, please report it to the police immediately. If someone spreads rumors about you, please use the law to protect yourself. I hope none of you ever goes through anything like this.]