It was pretty fun.

Yu He stared at the “kitten acting cute” sticker and curved his lips into a smile. The clingy little softie from childhood, he had no idea what he’d grown up to look like now.

Daming Lake’s Xia Yuhe: It’s fine.

Daming Lake’s Xia Yuhe: If anything comes up, just come to me. Don’t worry about bothering me. I’m pretty free.

With fewer classes in his third year and no rush to graduate, work, or prep for grad school, of course, he was free.

Tang: Okay.

Tang: [Kitten kiss]

Of course, there was no fear of being a bother; he even wanted to ♂ bother ♂ him ♂ even ♂ more so.”1The insertion of ♂ turns the word bother into a suggestive double entendre.

After reminiscing for a bit, the two of them went off to grab lunch. Tang Shaoqing really hadn’t changed much from when he was a kid. He was still pretty cute.

In the afternoon, Yu He went to class for a while, then listened to his dormmates rant nonstop all the way until the end of class.

The dorm head’s mom had recently remarried, which has been a real pain. The stepdad brought back a younger son, and they had to listen to that idiot stepbrother brag every single day.

The guys in the dorm were all pretty decent. It was just that Yu He needed to record audio and do voice acting sessions; doing that in front of people was awkward.

When his dad found out, he just waved a hand and arranged a small apartment for him. Yu He felt a bit uncomfortable about it. After all, being able to buy an apartment just like that was way too extravagant. To outsiders, he only said he was renting.

That evening, the dorm mates went to the plaza to grab a small meal together, chatting from games to girls, and from girls to Yu He.

“Old Four ah, you’re already a third year now. You’ve gotta find a partner sooner or later, right? If even our dorm’s top looker doesn’t get taken, we’ve got no chance at all.” Dorm Head Liu Baobao patted his shoulder meaningfully.

Yu He was good-looking, especially with those slightly upturned peach-blossom eyes, gentle and warm, and ridiculously attractive. He’d once been dragged by the anime club to wear hanfu for recruitment, and a bunch of girls had fought over his contact info.

Unfortunately, he’d successfully turned that whole pack of watchful girls into just friends, never crossing the line even a little.

“Maybe later,” Yu He mumbled, taking a bite of cheese corn.

If there were someone suitable, who would actually want to stay a pitiful single dog?

“Why haven’t you been gaming lately? We’re waiting for you for sweet squad matches, He-jiang.” Lu Nan and Lu Bei were twins, and by some stroke of luck, they pretty much got into the same university and even used connections to get assigned to the same dorm.

Just hearing that nickname made Yu He mad.

“I’m socially dead. Don’t feel like playing.”

It wasn’t just being socially withdrawn; he practically wanted to quit the game altogether.

Now, whenever he saw that name, he immediately thought of the three huge words “Doting on He-jiang,” which filled his mind and refused to go away.

“New season’s coming soon. We should find a top-tier jungle big brother to carry us four sisters to the King rank.” Liu Baobao opened his phone and glanced at his □□. In the dorm group chat, the member list showed four profile pics of girls in lolita dresses, neatly lined up.

“A top-tier jungle little brother works too.”

“Hehehehehe.”

Men’s pleasures really were that plain and simple.

After some idle chatter, Yu He slipped back to his small apartment, fed the cat, then sat down at his computer and logged into the game.

Another hot post had appeared on the forum—

[Let’s Appreciate the Couple Names of White Lotus and Voice Changer]

1F: White Lotus changed to “He-jiang,” and Voice Changer changed to “Doting on He-jiang.” My brain short-circuited

2F: …Feels like I time-traveled into some MOBA game

3F: srsly though, name-change cards are 99 RMB each. They’re rich as hell QAQ

4F: LOL, what are those two still hopping around for?

5F: To be fair, White Lotus really went too far, but Voice Changer actually seems like a decent person… Yeah, scamming isn’t right, but isn’t gaming just about having fun? A game romance doesn’t mean a real couple. Putting a bounty on White Lotus is one thing, but putting one on Voice Changer is too much, isn’t it?

6F: First, it’s scamming about voice, later it’ll be scamming for money. The scam failed before it even started

7F: That’s a bit of a conspiracy theory, ah

8F: I’m Mingyue nmsl. Voice Changer made my best friend quit the game. Is it wrong for me to put a bounty on him?

10F: I kinda agree… Isn’t the internet all about an ambiguous charm? If no real feelings were deceived and it was just a game romance, it really isn’t that serious

11F: Honestly, same… orz

…

The thread eventually veered completely into attacking “Voice Changer.” Yu He wasn’t interested in him, so he stopped scrolling.

He logged into the game. Voice Changer wasn’t online. Yu He quietly slipped out of the manor and met up with Yu Guo in secret.

Yu Guo’s ID was Guojiang; a mature female Qin player avatar, towering far above his little loli character.

[“Guojiang” has invited you to join the party]

Accept. Accept.

“Bro.” Teaming up allowed voice chat, but in-game voice often lagged, so people usually went to YY for dungeon runs.

“Don’t let anyone find out,” Yu He laughed.

“It’s fine. Let’s go to Beiyuan.2Lit. North Plains No one basically goes there.

Beiyuan was a vast snow-covered region. There were no quest points, no NPCs, no bosses, and the journey was long. You had to buy a six-yuan pass just to get there, so almost no one ever went.

Some people still refused to give up, convinced there had to be hidden treasure inside, but since the map update, no one had farmed anything there.

In the end, it just quietly faded away.

“I’m exhausted. Military training is driving me insane.” The two of them just idled and chatted in Beiyuan.

“Hang in there, it’ll pass. It won’t take long.”

“By the way, why did you suddenly change your name?” Yu Guo was still pretty surprised when she saw it.

He-jiang, He-jiang… truly worthy of being her bro.

Yu He fell silent.

There was no way he could say it was because of Voice Changer provoking him, right?

“Are you planning to keep playing on this account long-term?” Yu Guo asked again.

After all, name-change cards were 99 RMB each. If this account was just meant as a temporary one, there was no need to change the name at all.

He actually hadn’t thought about that.

“The name-change card was given to me by Voice Changer,” Yu He said after thinking for a moment, telling the truth.

“Huh?” Now it was Yu Guo’s turn to be shocked.

Yu He briefly explained what had happened. Yu Guo rubbed her chin. “That Voice Changer guy is pretty devoted… Who would’ve thought? Unexpected taste, for real.”

“Probably something wrong with his brain,” Yu He said bluntly.

“Does his voice sound good?”

“It’s okay, I guess. He’s still using a voice changer, though.”

As they were talking, a romance alert suddenly popped up on the screen.

Yu He: “…”

How the hell do you even cancel this stupid thing?

“Hello?”

“Your husband’s here…”

Voice Changer’s voice overlapped with Yu Guo’s, and a black-clad assassin appeared beside them.

Husband, my ass.

Yu He felt the vein on his forehead start throbbing.

[Player “Doting on He-jiang” has requested to join the party]

Yu Guo thought for a moment, then clicked Accept.

Tang Shaoqing stared at the familiar name “Guojiang,” the smile at the corner of his lips unmistakable. After casually turning off the romance alert, he opened team voice chat. “How did you end up here?”

Guoguo: giao,3OMG/Gyaah/Aaah his voice is so nice QAQ

Guoguo: I also want to be friends with Voice Changer

Guoguo: Even if it’s fake happiness

Daming Lake’s Xia Yuhe: ?

Sis, wake up.

Yu He took a deep breath and spoke in a female voice: “This is my younger sister. She pulled me into the pit a few days ago. This account was bought just a few days ago, too.”

I’m really not the original owner. Can we divorce this marriage already?

“So it’s your younger sister.” The voice from the other end of the computer sounded thoughtful.

Yu He: “?”

Did you completely miss the point, little idiot?

Guoguo: [Screenshot]

Guoguo: ? woc4Curse word.

The screenshot showed a transaction record:

[Player “Doting on He-jiang” sent you “Chasing Moon” ×1]

[Note: Welcome gift]

“Chasing Moon” was a newly released outfit set; you couldn’t get it without dropping at least 998.

Yu Guo panicked and trembled as she smashed the Reject button a few times.

It felt like she was selling her bro or something…

She wasn’t that kind of person!

“Heard there’s a hidden dungeon here. Want to go check it out?” Voice Changer didn’t push the gift.

“I’m going to sleep…” As soon as the words left his mouth, Yu He glanced at the time in the bottom-right corner of the screen: 8:40 p.m.

…That was fake as hell.

Just as the world fell into a moment of complete silence, a man’s voice with a slightly hoarse tone suddenly rang out: “Who are you?”

Yu He jolted in fright, almost letting out his real voice with a “holy shit.”

“… Who?” Yu Guo froze for a second.

“Me,” the voice answered.

Yu Guo: “Who are you…?”

It’s that No Money For Porridge guy.

Why is he even in the party??

Author’s Note:

When Tang Shaoqing was a child, he really hated Yu He’s cousin, Yu Guo, due to a kind of “only I can be the brother” possessiveness.

The current Tang Shaoqing…_(:з」∠)_ please give him lots of support.

Here’s a content warning: If you’re bothered that the shou’s younger sister hired the gong for a booster/relationship quest rewards, or where the gong can conveniently use a main account to form a game bond with her, you might want to skip this story. qwq

That’s how it’s set up: After completing the quest, the gong ends the relationship in-game, which allows the later plot to happen. If this really bothers you or you can’t accept it, it’s better to stop reading.