"Nо," Оld Реter reрliеd.
Тhаt аfternoon, Lu Sui did nоt gо directlу to Ning Zheng's birthdау раrtу. Нe first returnеd to the Lu residence, wаnting tо seе if therе wаs а lеtter frоm Wu Маngmаng. Fоr quite sоme time now, Wu Маngmang hаd maintained а rhythm of sеnding one lеttеr аlmоst еvеrу day.
Uроn heаring this, Lu Sui immеdiаtelу furrowеd his brоws. As he wеnt uрstairs, hе said to Old Рeter, "Arrаngе а flight for mе tomorrow mоrning."
In thе sеcоnd-flооr hаllwау, aftеr giving instruсtions tо Old Рeter, Lu Sui bеgan саlling Рeng Zе. "Сlеаr my schedulе for the next five dаys."
Heаring the sound оf the dооr oрening and then closing, Wu Mangmang finally emerged from her bedroom. She tiptoed, afraid of being heard by Lu Sui.
Old Peter was still standing at the end of the hallway. Wu Mangmang smiled and gave him an OK gesture, expressing her immense gratitude.
Wu Mangmang pressed her ear against the door, and when she thought the timing was about right, she opened it and entered Lu Sui's bedroom.
Lu Sui had already gone into the bathroom by then. Wu Mangmang quickly stripped off her clothes and then began to hesitate.
Should she simply lie on the bed, striking a pose like the "Drunken Concubine"?
Or should she put on one of Lu Sui's shirts and head to the bathroom for a wet and tempting scene?
She wanted to act out both scenarios and was torn.
However, overwhelmed by longing, every second less felt like torture. Wu Mangmang chose one of Lu Sui's shirts and loosely draped one of his ties around her neck before gently pushing open the bathroom door.
Through the frosted glass door of the shower, Wu Mangmang silently admired the silhouette of Lu Sui's figure for three seconds before being forcefully pulled into the shower by a strong hand.
The showerhead sprayed water all over Wu Mangmang's face, followed by kisses that covered her body.
The intensity made Wu Mangmang feel that even cold water could be brought to a boil by Lu Sui. Half-asleep and half-awake, Wu Mangmang thought dizzily that she could never play such bathroom shame games again—she couldn't stand steadily, and the tiles were hard and slippery, leaving her poor knees and waist in agony.
"Has your project team finished their work?" Lu Sui asked, holding medicinal wine as he massaged Wu Mangmang's knees.
"Not yet," Wu Mangmang replied with a big yawn, forcing her eyelids open slightly. "We only got two days off, on rotation. Even a god couldn't endure working nonstop for two months without a break."
"Two days? Then how did you get back?" Lu Sui's voice suddenly dropped three tones.
But Wu Mangmang, sleep-deprived and slow-witted, closed her eyes and answered slowly, "I got up at four in the morning to travel, took the six o'clock early bus to the county town..."
In truth, Wu Mangmang was quite impressed with herself. With only two days off, everyone else chose to sleep in, but she got up in the middle of the night just to return and see Lu Sui for a few hours.
Lu Sui had been to Huangtu Village and knew how remote it was. The steep, winding mountain roads combined with the barely safe minibuses were practically a recipe for disaster.
Along those mountain roads, every few miles, there were signs that read: High Accident Zone.
"Weren't you worried about your safety when you went out in the middle of the night?" Wu Mangmang retracted her leg and cried out, "Ouch, ouch, ouch!"
Lu Sui rubbed her knees vigorously a few more times before letting go.Wu Mangmang knew what Lu Sui was angry about. She groveled and crawled up, wrapping her arms around Lu Sui’s neck from behind. “I know what you’re worried about. When I came back this time, I was dressed like Cuihua serving pickled cabbage, and look at my face—it’s already sunburned beyond recognition. So there’s no need to worry about anyone robbing me for money or taking advantage of me.”
Thinking of Old Peter’s expression when he saw her ghostly appearance earlier, Wu Mangmang couldn’t help but burst into laughter. “You have no idea how hilarious Peter looked when he saw me.”
Wu Mangmang moved to face Lu Sui and imitated Old Peter’s twisted expression—shocked beyond belief yet trying to feign composure. “His eyes were practically popping out.”
She clutched her stomach on the bed, laughing so hard she could barely catch her breath.
Seeing Wu Mangmang’s lively demeanor on the bed, Lu Sui felt as if even the air around her seemed to glow. He couldn’t resist flipping over and pinning her down, kissing her again and again. “Your work should be done in another half month, right? I’ll come pick you up then. Don’t you dare run back on your own.”
“Uh…” Wu Mangmang playfully bit her nails, looking at Lu Sui, who seemed ready to pounce and bite her to death at any moment.
The two stared at each other for a long time before Lu Sui sneered coldly and rolled over to lie beside her.
Feeling guilty, Wu Mangmang scooted over and half-leaned on Lu Sui’s chest. “The excavation of this ancient tomb cluster is more work than we expected. We had to stop for a few days because of the heavy rain, and the later stages are even more difficult. So I probably won’t be back until early October.”
“Are you sure you’ll be back in early October? Next time, you won’t tell me you can only come back for the New Year, will you?” Lu Sui mocked.
Although Wu Mangmang didn’t think that would happen, she didn’t dare to speak too definitively. Judging by Lu Sui’s expression, she knew he was furious. At times like this, only diligent “serving” could save her from trouble.
At six in the morning, Wu Mangmang was still groggy when Lu Sui dragged her out of bed. She only fully woke up after boarding the plane and catching up on a long nap.
“Awake?” Lu Sui handed Wu Mangmang her milk, bringing it to her lips. “We still have an hour of flight time. You can sleep a little longer.”
How could such a perfect time for romance be wasted on sleeping?
Wu Mangmang immediately shook her head.
After disembarking, they transferred to Lu Sui’s private car. The journey was long, and with nothing else to do, and Lu Sui not being the type to chat about trivial matters—plus he was busy with numerous phone calls and work matters—Wu Mangmang had no choice but to pick up her laptop and play.
The car had onboard Wi-Fi. Wu Mangmang glanced at the game icon on her desktop and, on a whim, logged into her account.
Although she hadn’t played for over a month, the interface felt as familiar and welcoming as ever—after all, she had been playing for many years.
However, when she logged in this time, Wu Mangmang almost didn’t recognize herself.
Why were there so many dazzlingly gorgeous appearances?
This game was a money-burning machine. The money Wu Mangmang had spent on her previous account was enough to buy a two-bedroom apartment. But this current account was a bit shabby—partly because she was strapped for cash, and partly because she no longer had the same passion as before. It was just a bit of comfort in her spare time.Therefore, Wu Mangmang had never purchased any of the various fashion appearances released in the game. These outfits were not cheap at all—a single cloak cost 499 RMB, and if you wanted to render it in your preferred color to avoid matching with others, it would cost around 3,000 RMB, because rendering wasn’t guaranteed to succeed.
Wu Mangmang opened her inventory to take a look, then browsed the forums for a while. She could basically confirm that on her new account, all appearances had been collected, including those Festival Limited Appearances, which required bidding at auctions.
Wu Mangmang glanced sideways at Lu Sui beside her, then carefully checked the progress of her new account. Before she left, she hadn’t obtained a single piece of the highest-level PVP Suit, which required earning points by completing daily tasks and participating in the Arena.
Even if she completed daily tasks without missing a single day and achieved the highest score in the Arena, the points earned would only be enough to exchange for one piece, and a full set consisted of six pieces.
Yet now, on her new account, Wu Mangmang saw four pieces, indicating that someone had been helping her with tasks every day.
Wu Mangmang tossed her laptop aside and, as soon as Lu Sui finished his phone call, she hugged him. "Lu Sui, have you been helping me with my game tasks?"
In her letters to Lu Sui, when she struggled to find things to talk about, she had indeed mentioned her game and even given him her account and password.
Actually, she couldn’t be blamed for this. She knew Lu Sui disliked how little content she wrote in each letter, so she would force herself to write like she used to when struggling with essays as a child, even including trivial details like how many bowls of rice she ate that day just to fill up the word count.
When Wu Mangmang mentioned the game, she never expected Lu Sui to help her. She would have been grateful if he hadn’t deleted her account.
"Did you do the tasks yourself? You didn’t let anyone else touch my account, right? I’m particular about this—if someone else touches my account, I feel a sense of shame, as if I’ve been groped while naked." Wu Mangmang clung to Lu Sui’s neck, acting coquettishly.
Lu Sui coughed lightly. "I helped you with the tasks to make up for my past mistakes, but that doesn’t mean I support you playing games."
Wu Mangmang nodded vigorously to show she understood, but she still looked incredulous. "How did you even have time to help me with tasks?"
In Wu Mangmang’s mind, using Lu Sui’s time to do her game tasks felt like a terrible waste.
"It’s a form of leisure and entertainment," Lu Sui said casually.
When missing someone, you can’t help but walk the paths they’ve walked, see the sights they’ve seen, and naturally, log into their account to see the games they play.
Wu Mangmang gently kissed Lu Sui on the lips, her big eyes shining as brightly as if a star had fallen into them. "Thank you."
Wu Mangmang wondered if Lu Sui understood how important his attitude was to her.
For Wu Mangmang, this was a form of recognition. She knew being addicted to games wasn’t right, but it wasn’t illegal. It was just a way for her to pass the time, no different in essence from hobbies like women going shopping.In the past, whenever she saw Lu Sui while gaming, she would immediately switch away, no matter what she was doing at the time. It was a sign of extreme guilt, because she didn’t want to see the disdain in Lu Sui’s eyes for her wasting time and idling away her days.
Women are actually creatures like this.
Even if she were eating shit, she would hope you could endure it and share your thoughts and feelings with her. They would believe that this is true love.
And in return, they would even be willing to love you with their most precious lives. After that, they themselves would be reluctant to let you suffer or endure hardships.
Even if there’s shit, they’d bear it alone.
Back when Lu Sui refused to eat the leftovers from Wu Mangmang’s meal, her thought was: He looks down on me, he doesn’t love me enough to accept even my flaws, so he doesn’t truly like me.
And when Lu Sui deleted her years of hard work on her game account, that was why Wu Mangmang exploded so fiercely.
But now, this feeling of being able to share the things she likes with the person she likes feels as wonderful as heaven.
Wu Mangmang knelt on her seat, raised her right hand, and said to Lu Sui, “I swear, I won’t get addicted to gaming. I’ll just play casually every day, no different from scrolling through Weibo or going shopping.”
Lu Sui nodded and gave an “Mm.”
“Do you think this game is fun?” Wu Mangmang asked Lu Sui.
“Not as fun as you,” Lu Sui replied.
Wu Mangmang pouted, knowing Lu Sui wouldn’t give her a proper answer. She simply sat back and picked up her laptop to continue looking at the game.
Lu Sui glanced sideways at Wu Mangmang, thinking to himself that the analysis of child psychology was truly spot-on. For someone like Wu Mangmang, lecturing was definitely not a good approach. The best way was to say nothing and wait for her to reflect and repent on her own.
Although the new PVP equipment wasn’t complete yet, its strength was not to be underestimated.
Wu Mangmang hadn’t touched the game in a long time and decided to play a match in the Arena. Her healing skills were still quite good.
As soon as she reached the entrance of the main city’s Arena, Wu Mangmang was stunned by the three statues at the entrance.
In the game, the top three teams of the Arena each month were commemorated with statues placed at the Arena entrance for everyone to look up to and admire.
Wu Mangmang never expected to show off here herself, but the cute little girl in the champion statue standing right in the middle looked exactly like her, no matter how she looked at it.
The name floating above the little girl’s head also seemed familiar.
Lu Mangmang.
Wu Mangmang hurriedly opened her panel to check her own name. It turned out she really was called Lu Mangmang.
But her account name used to be Mangmang123456, because there were too many players named “Mangmang” in the game, so she had to add numbers to register successfully.
Of course, after entering the game, players were allowed to change their names, but that required spending real money.
Clearly, Wu Mangmang’s name had been changed by some big spender.
Wu Mangmang looked up at Lu Sui, who asked her, “What?”
Wu Mangmang quickly replied, “This new name sounds pretty good.”
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