Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

That day, she kept staring in a daze at the cell phone number she was given.

She felt a myriad of emotions in her heart, including both hope and anxiety.

She silently committed the cell phone number to memory and then nervously logged out of the game.

She could not concentrate for the rest of the day.

When she was attending lessons in school, she would laugh unexpectedly.

When she was doing her homework, the cold expression of his in-game character would appear in front of her eyes.

When she was eating, she could not help but think about whether he was a normal person. Even someone who was so good at playing video games would need to eat, right? So what had Zi Chuan eaten for lunch today? What was his favorite food?

She did her homework until 8pm.

Yet, her eyes kept drifting to her cell phone.

Still, that evening’s exercises were all rather simple. She actually did not find a single exercise which she was unable solve.

As she hesitated, she flipped ahead to the next lesson and looked at some of the questions listed there. After looking at the questions, she realized that she did not really know how to answer them. Thus, she excitedly picked up her cell phone and dialed his cell phone number, one digit at a time.

Then, she bit her lip and called him, her heart fluttering.

The cell phone started ringing, but all she heard were beeps. Clearly, he had not set a ringtone.

Qiao Lian pursed her lips. Zi Chuan must be similar to his in-game character, in the sense that both were boring and dull.

Right as she thought of this, her call was picked up. Immediately, she heard a voice on the verge of changing due to puberty. “Hello?”

His polite greeting had a noble and graceful disposition, leaving her speechless.

Zi Chuan’s voice in-game had always had a tinge of irritation. His commands were short and straight to the point, so she had always thought that he was a brutish man. In reality, his polite greeting had made her so nervous that she was rendered speechless.

She could not open her mouth to speak at all. On the other side of the call, he silently waited for a while, before he suddenly laughed and said, “Xiao Qiao?”

She nervously answered affirmatively.

“Oh, you aren’t that dumb after all.” His voice had a tinge of mockery and irritation, so Qiao Lian finally felt a sense of familiarity and dependability.

She pursed her lips and said, “I’m not dumb! Given that I’m so clever and witty, how could I be dumb!”

“A dumb person would never admit that they are dumb.”

“You…!”

“All right, which question do you need me to help you with?”

She immediately went along with his change of topic, lowering her head and looking at her textbook. However, she then asked another question, seemingly unconvinced. “How did you know that it was me?”

“Heh, do you think that I’m you?”

Qiao Lian froze for a while before comprehending what he meant. She had become synonymous with the word ‘idiot’ in his eyes.

“You…!”

“What’s the question?”

She once again got distracted by his change of topic.

From then onwards, they would practically call each other daily.

Each call lasted approximately half an hour, and she sent him all the questions that she could not answer for that day.

In the next monthly exam, her ranking improved by 15 spots. Her mother was so happy that she did not bring up the topic again.

However… in the end, she still decided to stop playing the game.

As she thought about this, Qiao Lian took a deep breath, lowered her head and looked at her cell phone.

She did not know what she was thinking. After finally waking up from her daze, she realized that she had unwittingly reminisced the events from a few years ago in her mind.

She had called that number again. However, she only heard the following, “The number you have called is no longer in use. Please check the number before calling again.”

She laughed bitterly and hung up.

The same thing had happened again.

Since that incident, she had never been able to contact Zi Chuan ever again.