The anonymous forum for Xianxia Online blew up again.

Yu He was groggily woken by his cat stepping on him in the morning. He grabbed his phone and checked the time. It was ten o’clock. Luckily, he didn’t have any classes in the morning.

He had to admit, the Xianxia Online app was really well made. It was convenient for checking personal info and just as convenient for browsing the forums and following trending news. Yu He had already bound the little healer account earlier; all the IP records had been wiped by the original owner, leaving nothing to see. Everything was perfectly in place; just waiting for him, the unlucky successor, to take over.

As usual, Yu He scrolled through the forum for a bit. The hot topics were basically down to three topics:

One about the Beiyuan dungeon.

One about Zhizi Yugui winning the Marrow-Cleansing Pill at an astronomical price.

One about White Lotus Jiao Jiao getting cleared of accusations.

In the sweltering heat, lying under the covers with the air conditioner blasting was pure bliss. Yu He rubbed his messy, fluffy hair and used browsing the forum as a perfectly legitimate excuse to laze around in bed.

The official plot details for the Beiyuan dungeon had been posted, and the comments were full of aoaojiao noises. People had even written fanfiction.

The developers also said they’d be optimizing Beiyuan’s NPCs and quest points later. There were plenty of Easter eggs and rewards to look forward to.

When Yu He opened the thread about Zhizi Yugui winning the Marrow-Cleansing Pill at a sky-high price, he was genuinely shocked by the number. Five digits. Seriously treating money like it was nothing.

The comments were also packed with people cursing Tang Chao, saying he’d deliberately driven up the price and sabotaged things. Otherwise, the pill never would’ve gone for that much.

11L: It was already dying down, then Tang Chao kept bidding every time just one yuan more. Absolutely unreal

15L: What kind of grudge do they even have? Is it worth it? If Zhizi Yugui suddenly stopped bidding, wouldn’t Tang Chao be the one eating the loss?

17L: Could it be love turning into hate?

18L: Hard to say. Luo Yan is super pretty. Maybe Tang Chao couldn’t get her and started resenting Zhizi Yugui

22L: Am I the only one with a weird focus here…? If Tang Chao can keep bidding, doesn’t that mean he’s pretty loaded too?

23L: You’re not alone

33L: Tang Chao’s account is basically top-tier on Chang Xiang Si. No way he doesn’t have money. Plus, he’s always boosting accounts and selling materials and gear. He must’ve made six figures at least

39L: u1s1, Tang Chao’s gameplay really is insane

44L: Terrifying

55L: Being able to play a game this well is kind of admirable, honestly.

Admirable, my ass.

Playing the game this well just to deceive people’s feelings.

Scumbag.

After scrolling for a bit, Yu He left the thread.

He couldn’t be bothered to look at anything related to Tang Chao. It was too hard on the eyes.

Opening the last hot post, the thread starter was called “No Money for Porridge.” It was probably him in person.

The main post was written in a familiar style, long and rambling. It explained what had happened the night before, firmly confirming that Yu He had bought the account and even thumped his chest to guarantee that the current account holder was definitely not Jiaojiao.

At the end, he’d also added a dramatic, heart-wrenching love story between Voice Changer and himself, which Yu He promptly chose to ignore.

2L: srds,1说实话地说 / 说实在的说 = tbh, honestly speaking, real talk is the OP really Porridge himself?

5L: It’s him. Porridge said so over World Chat

8L: I’m starting to go full conspiracy theorist. Since the Marrow-Cleansing Pill sold for that much, could there be some kind of behind-the-scenes deal? Like helping clear someone’s name?

10L: Porridge is actually a pretty decent guy, an old player too. He wouldn’t do something like that just for a bit of money

12L: He’s going to keep playing the game anyway. If it were fake Porridge, there’d be no reason to do this. And really, who dislikes Jiaojiao more than Porridge does?

14L: I knew it. No wonder White Lotus hadn’t quit yet. Turns out she really was planning to sell the account and squeeze out one last profit

16L: Is the story at the end real…

19L: I wanted to say this back when Mingyue was exposed; game CP is just game CP. Mingyue only used a voice changer; he didn’t deceive anyone’s feelings. I really don’t get why people were being so fragile about it. Did you add QQ/WeChat privately? Exchange phone numbers? No. Didn’t you get married in-game just for the romance quest? Not the person involved, but I played with them for a while; count me a semi-insider

20L: Didn’t he apologize personally when he was exposed back then??

22L: Any proof? Maybe he was flirting with girls behind the scenes

23L: The girl already quit the game. Where are you supposed to get proof now?

24L: Isn’t her best friend still around? That Mingyue nmsl

25L: Sure, the emotional whiplash must’ve hurt, and being deceived would make anyone angry. But if there are records of Voice Changer flirting, post them. If not, keeping a bounty on him and ruining his reputation feels kind of over the line

27L: Wait, didn’t he come out and apologize when he was exposed before? Doesn’t apologizing mean admitting guilt?

28L: Maybe Mingyue was just kind of dumb…

29L: u1s1, I’ve run dungeons with Mingyue before. He was pretty nice and took good care of people. Back then, I thought his voice was nice and even had a bit of a crush. I’d seen tons of online dating to real life sweet stories, so I joked with him, like, “Why don’t we just get together?” He replied: “I just want to play the game properly. Not interested in online dating.”

33L: Xianxia Online saves chat logs really well. If there was anything ambiguous, just post it

39L: Why is everyone talking about Voice Changer… did Jiaojiao really sell the account?

44L: I’m 29L, screenshots here [screenshot]

45L: This doesn’t prove much, does it? Maybe he’s one way to your face and another behind your back

Yu He’s head started to ache from reading. He went to search for the old posts that had exposed Voice Changer and scrolled for ages before finally finding his apology.

[Sorry. I shouldn’t have used a voice changer to deceive people]

Just that single short sentence. No further replies.

It actually fit his honest, somewhat clueless personality.

After spending so much time around him, Yu He had to admit that the scales in his heart had tilted a little.

Whatever, whatever. Why should he care about other people’s business?

After finishing browsing the forums, Yu He no longer had any excuse to stay in bed. He got up, washed up, heated himself a cup of milk, and stuffed down a few slices of bread. Once he was fed and watered, he opened □□ to clear out his messages.

It was his habit. When he’d just woken up and was still half-asleep, he’d only scroll Weibo, forums, and short videos. He wouldn’t reply to anyone, and he wouldn’t read the messages people had sent him either.

To avoid doing or saying things without thinking.

The □□ account he’d added Porridge and the Voice Changer to last night was a newly created alt, named He-jiang, with a pink soft-girl avatar.

Yu Guo had pulled them into a four-person discussion group called “Get-Rich-Quick.” All four of them had changed their nicknames to their respective in-game IDs.

There were already quite a few messages inside.

Guo Jiao: woc, I got up early and checked the auction house price before military training started, and instantly passed out

No Money for Porridge: I passed out too

No Money for Porridge: Guo Jiao, are you a freshman?

Guo Jiao: Yeah

No Money for Porridge: This senior dog is about to graduate,uate sheds envious tears

Guo Jiao: I really want to graduate already QAQ

Doting on He-jiang: Where’s He-jiang?

Guo Jiao: Probably still asleep, he has a habit of sleeping in

Guo Jiao: she

Guo Jiao: damn input method

Yu He stared at that very much trying-too-hard “she”2她 (she) and 他 (he) are both read/pronounced as tā and couldn’t help laughing softly.

These days, people didn’t really fixate on “he” or “she” in chat. As long as everyone understood, there was no need to be so nervous about it.

Doting on He-jiang: Looks like no one’s bidding anymore. Let’s sell the Marrow-Cleansing Pill to Zhizi Yugui tonight, then split the money afterward

Guo Jiao: Okay, okay, okay, I’m gonna splurge on a set of outfits ( ’w ’ * ) the newly released Flowing Fire set is sooo pretty

No Money for Porridge: Finally can pay off my Huabei…3Ant Group’s credit service (under Alipay).

Guo Jiao: Military training time, military training time. Running off, 884bā bā, similar to bye-bye

No Money for Porridge: Go on, go on

Doting on He-jiang: 88

After thinking for a moment, Yu He sent a [sleepy little penguin just woke up] sticker, then switched over to WeChat.

No one was really looking for him. Aside from some gaming invites in the dorm group, the only messages left were from Tang Shaoqing.

Tang: National Day’s next week. I checked, we’re on the same route going home

Tang: There’s no direct high-speed rail from here. I’ll come to City A first, then we can take the high-speed train back together

The author has something to say:

I heard yesterday’s chapter was a bit too long and thick for some of you to handle (?)_(:з」∠)_So today’s one will be a bit shorter then

Jie Jie: Early update as I’ll be going out tomorrow~