The overly realistic scene made Yun Li instinctively shrink back, her hands slipping off the motorcycle handles. The VR headset's audio system played a cute chime inside the glasses: "Little one, hold tight to the handles so you can hug Daddy."
"......"
Even though she knew it was all virtual, the visual realism in the VR world still made Yun Li reluctant to actively embrace Fu Shize.
But the more she dwelled on it, the more these ordinary actions took on special meaning.
Within seconds, the motorcycle began moving. Fu Shize rode through the mountain forests while shooting at monsters that darted out—their designs paying homage to that classic arcade game. The motion simulator's effects were excellent, and several flipping scenes made Yun Li shut her eyes in fright.
When she regained her composure, she realized she had unknowingly gripped the handles again. In the game, her tiny arms were wrapped around Fu Shize's waist.
Yun Li felt fine beads of sweat on her forehead. The limitations of virtual reality meant there was no tactile feedback, yet even this visual embrace made her heart leap into her throat.
Fu Shize kept his gaze fixed ahead, seemingly oblivious to her presence. Yun Li hesitated, about to withdraw her hands, but then pressed her fingertips into her palms—already damp with sweat. Taking a deep breath, she relaxed her fingers and saw herself hugging the figure in front once more.
Just a secret little hug... surely that was okay...
The journey ended at the edge of a canyon. She watched Fu Shize dismount the motorcycle. His in-game avatar wore a helmet and sunglasses, with faint scratches on his cheeks.
He reached out both hands toward her.
Holding her breath, Yun Li saw Fu Shize's arms slide beneath hers, lifting and setting her down on the ground.
In those few short minutes, they had traversed mountains and rivers. Staring at her small palms, Yun Li mustered the courage to take his hand.
In her vision, his hand gently clasped hers in return.
By now, Fu Shize had removed his VR headset, feeling only a slight vibration in his left glove. He turned to Yun Li, who took a moment longer before slowly taking off her headset, as if still lost in the experience.
After a brief silence, the system began broadcasting safety reminders for exiting. Fu Shize unbuckled his gear first and walked over to Yun Li.
Her gaze wavered slightly. "This mode seems... a bit special."
Fu Shize bent down to undo her safety rope. Unlike her, he appeared unaffected by the game. "How so?"
"The parent-child mode settings seem designed to prevent kids from learning driving or shooting actions..."
Fu Shize paused. "You didn't fire any shots?"
"No."
"Or ride the bike?"
"No..."
His expression turned puzzled. "Did you even enter the game?"
"......"
Yun Li hung her head, thoroughly guilty. "In parent-child mode, the child can't operate anything. You just... watch the scenery."
Fu Shize glanced at her. "Was it nice?"
She nodded.
She didn’t need to ask to infer from their conversation that Fu Shize had been completely unaware of her presence behind him.
Of course—he’d probably never played the parent-child mode before either.Unable to discern whether she felt relief or disappointment, Yun Li thought she had already gained so much today. Under the blessings of technology, just like the exhilaration arcade games once brought her, she had personally experienced an entirely different world here.
But she hoped it was real.
After shutting down all the equipment, the two returned to the office.
Holding a folder in her arms, Yun Li whispered a soft "Thank you for your guidance" to Fu Shize before turning and running off.
There were already three or four people in the office, making Yun Li suddenly nervous. She tiptoed back to her seat, fortunately drawing no one's attention.
Deng Chuqi, who was delivering materials nearby, arranged to meet her at the café on the first floor of Sea Sky Mall. Yun Li packed her things and sent a message to He Jiameng saying she wouldn’t be having lunch at the company.
Deng Chuqi remarked, "So, you spent the whole morning just playing games."
Yun Li retorted, "It’s work, okay?"
Deng Chuqi added, "Games you have to pay to play."
Taking a sip of coffee, Deng Chuqi asked, "Did Xia Xia’s uncle show any care for you? Though, given his icy demeanor, he doesn’t seem the type to look after others."
"Self-reliance," Yun Li shot her a sidelong glance.
Not wanting her words to be interpreted as Fu Shize having "done nothing," Yun Li carefully phrased her response, "Xia Xia’s uncle has been quite kind to me. The other day, when he came to our school to accompany Fu Zhengchu to a soccer match, he took me along too."
She omitted the other details.
"You went to a soccer match together? Since when do you understand soccer?" Deng Chuqi suddenly remembered something and lightly slapped the table. "Oh right, didn’t you participate in that robot soccer competition before? You must know the rules well."
Yun Li shook her head. "That competition only required scoring—even a basketball counted as a win."
The robot soccer competition Deng Chuqi mentioned took place during Yun Li’s second year of high school. Both of them attended the best high school in West Fuling, where activities to enhance students’ overall abilities were plentiful.
It was Yun Li’s first time hearing about the existence of a tech festival.
Having barely made it into the school, Yun Li felt suffocated by the excellence of her peers. The monthly exam rankings were especially torturous. Several times, Yun Li held that ten-centimeter-long score slip—unknown to her homeroom teacher—its jagged edges a testament to the explosive nights at home.
She didn’t want to go back.
Yun Li would often stand dazedly with that slip, two blocks away from home.
Five meters apart, she’d repeatedly kick the same pebble from one side to the other.
Until the night grew too deep to avoid returning.
The announcement for the tech festival came right after the monthly exams. Unsurprisingly, Yun Yongchang refused to let her participate in this "meaningless" activity.
In Yun Yongchang’s eyes, academic performance was everything.
Attending a good university was the only way for ordinary people to change their fate.
He placed the same expectations on both his children.
"Look at yourself. What kind of grades are these? With scores like these, you still want to waste time on nonsense?" Yun Yongchang tore the slip to pieces and threw it into the trash.
Though the paper was light, the moment it was shredded, it felt so heavy Yun Li could barely breathe.
That day, just before the registration deadline, Yun Li remembered the viral video she had seen over a year ago.As if possessed, Yun Li signed up for the robot soccer competition. Each team needed to build their robots under the guidance of a coach.
The school had invited top students from West Fuling Science and Technology University to mentor them, with each team's captain being a student from West Science and Technology University.
Nearly sixty teams participated.
Yun Li's team spent three weeks building these six robots. The official matches were 5v5, requiring one spare robot as backup.
Initially, their captain wrote the code remotely from West Science and Technology University, but in the final stretch, he came to the school to assemble the robots with them.
Only a few days remained before the competition.
The captain instructed them to find a surface with high friction to familiarize themselves with operating the robots.
It was a weekend, and the rubber track of the playground was still damp with morning dew.
Yun Li found a corner and placed her robot on the ground. The robot wasn’t much to look at—a dark gray, boxy torso with two round yellow eyes and a white head.
Ugly as it was, as long as it could move, that was enough.
She manipulated the joystick on the controller, but the robot responded sluggishly, often requiring her to push in one direction for several seconds before it would slowly crawl forward.
After an entire day of effort, Yun Li still couldn’t get the robot to push a stone. By the time the midday sun peeked out, she bought a bread roll from the convenience store and sat back on the field.
Staring at the dumb robot, she nibbled on her bread in frustration.
She felt nothing but disappointment. Flicking the robot’s head with her finger, she complained, “Why are you so stupid?”
Later, she crouched on the ground, watching the robot as it inched toward a stone from half a meter away, carefully following behind it.
A warm northern breeze swept over her face like a tide. As she lowered her head, her peripheral vision caught sight of a pair of canvas shoes appearing beside her.
She looked up to see a tall, lean boy who looked somewhat familiar. His eyes and hair were a light brown, but his features were soft and handsome. Yun Li was momentarily stunned.
“Sorry to bother you,” the boy said with a smile. “It’s just that my friend and I—we were passing by today. He’s a bit shy, so he didn’t come over.”
He pointed toward the spectator stands, where, far in the distance, a lone boy sat amidst the sea of blue seats.
The boy was also watching them. Yun Li could only make out his pale complexion but couldn’t discern his features clearly.
Yun Li stood up.
“We’ve been here all day and saw you playing with this robot the whole time.”
Yun Li was naturally shy around strangers, but hearing his words, she instinctively retorted, “I’m not playing! I’m training it!”
The boy paused, then suddenly chuckled.
Feeling awkward, Yun Li asked, “Why are you laughing?”
Instead of answering, he crouched down to examine her robot. “This robot is pretty cute. Did you build it yourself?”
Yun Li stayed silent, eyeing him warily, afraid he might accidentally damage her precious creation.
As he leaned forward, a pass slipped out of his pocket, encased in a transparent cardholder. Yun Li recognized it as the special pass the school had issued to students from West Science and Technology University.
He was the captain of another team.
Yun Li wasn’t sure how to react.
Noticing her gaze fixed on his pass, the boy assumed she was curious and casually picked it up to show her.
The photo slot displayed a picture of Ultraman.
“...”The picture covered his name, leaving only the character "Yuan" visible.
At that time, Yun Li hadn't interacted much with men of that age group. She only felt that he was gentle yet rebellious. She shrank back a step nervously, staring at him.
The boy picked up the small stone and tossed it into the grass. A graceful arc traced through the air before the stone disappeared. Then, he pulled out a tiny football from his pocket, adorned with a doodled smiley face, and placed it in front of her Robot. "See? Doesn't this seem fitting?" he asked.
Yun Li looked skeptical.
The boy took a step back. "Try again," he said.
Yun Li fiddled with the joystick, and the Robot, which had been acting sluggish all morning, took two steps forward. But when it came to pushing the football, it suddenly froze again.
The boy looked slightly embarrassed. "Maybe I should give it a try?" he suggested.
After wrestling with the thought for a while, Yun Li handed him the controller.
In the gentle afternoon light, the boy patiently explained how to better control the Robot and the direction of the ball.
Once she managed to move the little football with the Robot, Yun Li flashed the first smile of their encounter.
"I have to go. My friend's waiting for me," the boy said, his soft features bathed in sunlight. Yun Li picked up the small football and looked up, only to see him already running into the distance. Faintly, she could make out a word starting with "U" printed on the back of his jacket.
Yun Li's eyes widened.
"Wait—"
The call died on her lips as she stood there, watching them.
At some point, the person who had been sitting quietly in the spectator stands had made his way to the field entrance. The two were about the same height, wearing identical jackets, but the letters on their backs were now completely indistinguishable.
Yun Li never got a clear look at the other boy's face.
That fleeting encounter faded into the recesses of Yun Li's memory. Later, she threw herself wholeheartedly into her Robot. Though she didn't place highly in the competition, she won her first small trophy.
She placed the little football next to the trophy on her bookshelf.
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