SFBF CH91.1

Behind the desk, Shen Qing said, “I don’t mind carrying you along, but actually, I’m pretty much a noob myself.”

Meeting Gu Huaiyu’s narrow eyes and his slightly searching gaze, Shen Qing slowly lowered his head, feeling a bit embarrassed. “Let me give you a heads-up first: my position as guild leader was achieved entirely through pay-to-win.”

It wasn’t that he bought the position directly with cash, but rather that from the very moment the game allowed top-ups, Shen Qing had been throwing money into it like crazy.

Because he spent so much, his name would frequently pop up on the World Channel. This made everyone interested in him, and the game’s top-tier players began extending olive branches to him one after another.

Even though at that time, Shen Qing’s level was only (10/100).

—A whale who started paying at level ten, regardless of how his actual skills were, at least showed that he had more money than sense.

If he kept spending money like this, it would be terrifying by the time he reached the max level of one hundred!

Consequently, guilds across the entire server began fighting to snatch Shen Qing up.

And to win him over, they had even engaged in open-world guild wars more than once.

Shen Qing indeed did not disappoint the masses. He shot up to the max level at lightning speed (relying on paying), and after wandering around, he ended up in his current guild. It just so happened that the current guild leader was graduating from university and preparing for the civil service exam, so they quit the game. Following a guild election, Shen Qing became the new leader.

—It couldn’t be helped; at this point, the great god Zi Jin was simply too formidable. His equipment consisted entirely of top-tier divine gear. As long as someone wasn’t completely clumsy with their hands, average players couldn’t take him down at all.

Furthermore, he had contributed far too much to the guild, frequently topping up money to subsidize them and standing up for members who were being bullied.

More importantly, Great God Zi Jin’s mechanical skills were also better than the average player’s—after all, for a period of time, the great god’s online hours were truly long. He spent every day practicing and sparring in the martial arts arena, carrying a lot of hostility.

Thus, Great God Zi Jin becoming the new guild leader was exactly what everyone hoped for.

And Shen Qing telling Gu Huaiyu all of this beforehand wasn’t to show off how formidable he was.

Nor was it because the money he used for his pay-to-win top-ups had all come out of President Gu’s account.

He simply wanted to express that he was just a casual “salted fish,” hoping President Gu wouldn’t be too disappointed after entering the game and learning the truth. …After all, this was Gu Huaiyu, a man who turned absolutely everything into a competition; who knew if he would play the game overly seriously as well, becoming a hardcore grinder and a genuinely skilled player?

But Shen Qing was truly too lazy—except for that period when Gu Huaiyu was on the brink of death and he was in a bad mood, fighting people in the arena all day long, he remained very casual at all other times.

Even leveling up to the max had been done by hiring a power-leveling service.

Hearing his description, Gu Huaiyu didn’t say anything else.

He only asked suddenly, “So, you can hire power-levelers in this game?”

Shen Qing: “?”

Gu Huaiyu’s hands had already left the keyboard, his back still perfectly straight: “Find one for me.”

Shen Qing: “???”

How rare, the big boss is actually starting to take shortcuts!!!

Although the young man’s computer was muted, judging by the way the chat interface on his screen was constantly scrolling, there must be many people talking to Shen Qing.

Gu Huaiyu narrowed his eyes dangerously: “How long will it take to reach max level?”

“…”

Sensing the boss’s expression, Shen Qing asked, “No, what exactly are you trying to do?”

Gu Huaiyu’s thin lips pressed slightly together, not hiding it in the slightest: “Be your older brother.”

Shen Qing: “…”

After all that, the big boss was actually jealous of other people and wanted to occupy a place in his game too!

Shen Qing showed an expression of sudden realization. Gu Huaiyu turned his head slightly, revealing his pale face and a pair of eyes filled with righteousness and integrity, with sharp brows and starry eyes.

“If I play the game with you, it won’t disturb you, right?”

“It won’t.”

Not expecting the other person to ask this, Shen Qing stared blankly: “…It won’t disturb me.”

“That’s good.” Gu Huaiyu hooked his lips again, then turned his head back to look at the screen.

At this moment, the boss’s expression suddenly became indifferent and solemn once more.

His side profile remained matchlessly handsome, except that his thin eyelids were lifted slightly, and the way he looked at the computer was extremely focused, making his phoenix eyes look incredibly sharp.

And… there was a sense of being determined to win.

Shen Qing: …

But why did he suddenly feel that President Gu’s question just now sounded a bit like a “green tea bitch”?

…If you want to come, just come directly!

Besides, haven’t you already come? You’ve already downloaded the game and ordered a new laptop before even asking!

…

So, who did President Gu learn this routine from?

His own husband… had he ever been this “tea-like” before?

Shen Qing also narrowed his eyes along with him.

However, despite his internal complaints, Shen Qing could understand Gu Huaiyu’s current feelings.

After all, from the boss’s perspective, he didn’t know that Shen Qing and those people in the game were just ordinary net friends. President Gu had never played games before… he didn’t even socialize in real life!

Under the circumstances of completely not understanding the patterns of online socializing, and suddenly discovering that his lover was close with other people—even if it was just pure trash-talking—it was normal for Gu Huaiyu not to understand.

Thus, Shen Qing felt it wasn’t a bad idea to let Gu Huaiyu enter the game.

Not only could it put his mind at ease, but maybe it could also take the opportunity to expand the boss’s social circle, and even foster a mood for making friends! …

Shen Qing acted as soon as the thought struck him. Instead of contacting a power-leveler for President Gu, he bought a max-level account directly for him.

There were many people selling accounts nowadays, and since President Gu didn’t come to actually play the game, his requirements for the account’s attributes weren’t high, so it was actually quite easy to buy.

But Shen Qing’s habit of either not doing something or refusing to be too perfunctory kicked in again. He directly bought a pretty decent top-tier account for President Gu… using President Gu’s card, of course.

So this would only be President Gu’s account in the future.

Because he had never played games before, Gu Huaiyu hadn’t realized at first that one could buy accounts.

But watching Shen Qing’s operations, he immediately understood the young man’s intention.

Moreover, he could see that the young man seemed to welcome him to play this game.

This caused Gu Huaiyu’s expression to loosen up a bit.

The corners of his thin lips curled upward slightly again.

He was finally not so serious anymore.

“How is it, are you satisfied?”

After paying the money on the official trading platform, the account quickly landed in Shen Qing’s hands.

Gu Huaiyu looked at the small avatar that appeared on his computer screen after logging into the purchased account.

“I’m not satisfied with the name, and the appearance… is so ugly. Also, this seems to be a lady.”

Shen Qing looked at the female character on the screen with red hair, wearing green clothes, and named “Dao Ge” (Brother Blade), and almost laughed out loud.

At a glance, this was an account raised by a tough guy.

And the tough guy hadn’t wanted to hide the fact that he was a tough guy in the slightest.

Situations like this were actually very common; most account owners had more than just this one account, and some even raised accounts in batches professionally.

Not knowing how to explain it to the boss for the moment, Shen Qing could only say, “These don’t matter, they can all be changed, they can all be changed.”

“…It’s just that the gender can’t be changed.”

Shen Qing straightened his face, acting dead serious: “Really, it’s no use looking at me like that, this game can do anything except a sex change!”

“…”

Gu Huaiyu lowered his eyelids to look at the young man beside him, tilting his head slightly: “Why do I feel like you’re quite happy… enjoying the drama without worrying about it getting bigger?”

Shen Qing shook his head vigorously: “I’m not… Hahaha.”

“…”

Shen Qing: “But it doesn’t matter anyway, the attributes for male and female accounts are the same. It’s not like you’re going to date anyone in the game… except me, of course.”

Gu Huaiyu: “…”

The big boss fell silent under the flirtatious wink intentionally thrown by “Brother Zi Jin.”

Later, under the massive financial modification from the two people’s RMB, the small female account was completely transformed.

Her hair became the currently trendy white hair, and her clothes were also white, suddenly becoming much fresher and more refined.

The name was also changed. Gu Huaiyu thought about it and typed a simple, elegant name directly into the input box: “You You Wo Xin” (My Leisurely Heart / You occupy my heart).

Thus, a max-level boss account named You You Wo Xin appeared in the wild.

[System: Welcome player ‘You You Wo Xin’ to our guild, becoming the 1003rd guild member!]

[Player 1: What’s the situation? Didn’t the leader say our guild isn’t recruiting for the time being? Who pulled her in? Was she pulled in by mistake?]

[Player 2: Who pulled her? We’re about to have a guild war, don’t let a spy in.]

[Player 3: Reporting, it was the guild leader himself who pulled her in.]

[Player 4: Holy crap, I accidentally clicked on the newcomer’s attributes; she has a full set of Xuanwu Divine Gear on her!]

[Qing Qing Zi Jin (Leader): I pulled her in. She will play with us from now on.]

[Player 5: It has to be the leader, able to fish up a divine-gear boss!]

[Player 6: Wait, leader, why did you change your name??]

[Player 7: Qing Qing Zi Jin, You You Wo Xin…? I must be overthinking it.]

[Player 8: Rest assured, you’re not overthinking. The format of their names is the same.]

[Player 9: !!!? So who exactly is that Little Sister You You?! There are only a few sets of divine gear in our server. I’ve never heard of her before!]

[Player 10: Where did the leader hook this person from?]

Shen Qing had indeed changed his name too, adding two words before his original “Zi Jin” and using two minimalist symbols.

It was glaringly obvious—a couple’s name with President Gu.

In truth, having played the game to this extent, Shen Qing had already had his fill… In the beginning, he only wanted to experience the joy of being a whale, which was why he played this game that was rumored to allow ultimate pay-to-win.

But after experiencing it, he felt it was just so-so.

He had been logging onto the game recently purely out of boredom, just to kill time.

But now that Gu Huaiyu was here… even if President Gu was clearly just passing through temporarily, Shen Qing suddenly found it a lot more interesting.

He couldn’t bring himself to do online dating.

But he could date his own husband online!

The guild channel was scrolling like crazy, and Shen Qing also received a lot of private messages on WeChat and QQ, all coming to gossip about how he “won over” the divine-gear goddess.

Shen Qing: …He lowered his eyelids and lightly stretched his fingers.

He began fabricating a 5,000-word gorgeous love story that was out of this world.

At first, everyone was eating up the gossip with great relish.

But the more they listened, the stranger it felt.

Finally, someone couldn’t help but say in the group chat: [Wait a minute, that day the guild leader met the divine-gear goddess on a bridge, heavy rain was pouring from the sky, the goddess was dressed in white with dark hair, holding an oil-paper umbrella, making the guild leader fall in love at first sight… This is too fake. Isn’t this the Legend of the White Snake? Hahaha?]

[And Brother Zi Jin met the goddess sister at the academy, studying and doing quests together, and what’s with the talk about being a woman or not? Are you sure this isn’t a gender-swapped version of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai?]

[…Your focus is off. Shouldn’t the main focus be on whether she’s a woman or not!!]

Shen Qing laughed wildly at the screen.

Over there, although he didn’t intend to truly play the game, Gu Huaiyu, who was habitually familiarizing himself with various game introductions and mastering information, also received a private message in the game.

[Yi Gen Cong (A Stalk of Green Onion): Brother Zhuang, is it really you? You’re back? Why did you change your name?]

Gu Huaiyu controlled the mouse to click it open, took a look, and then closed the dialogue directly.

But after a short while, the small icon for private messages flashed again. Gu Huaiyu opened it once more, having already learned to use the shortcut keys this time—

[Yi Gen Cong: No, why aren’t you talking… And why did you join the guild ‘Shi Fei Cheng Bai’ (Success or Failure)? They are our rival guild!!]

[Yi Gen Cong: Come back, Brother Zhuang, the leader needs you. You two should just make up quickly.

You just came back, so you probably don’t know yet, but the new leader of Shi Fei Cheng Bai is a whale, and he’s very smooth-tongued! During the last guild battle, he angered our leader so much that he almost passed out. That little mouth of his kept going tat-tat-tat… By the way, I heard he’s also a pretty boy. A bunch of people in their guild rely on looks to get by, and they risk their lives for him just because he’s handsome! I don’t even understand it, is it really worth it, tell me…]

Gu Huaiyu: [He is my wife.]

[Yi Gen Cong: ????]

Gu Huaiyu: [Also, you found the wrong person. This account was sold long ago.]

Message sent.

Afterward, the big boss even taught himself how to block someone without a teacher.

However, because the boss’s aura changed too obviously when facing the screen, Shen Qing, as President Gu’s game guide, thought he had encountered some difficulty and leaned over to look.

So even though Gu Huaiyu blocked that person, he still saw a portion of the chat content.

Shen Qing quickly explained, “I can swear on this, no one has ever seen my photo… but I have posted photos of Ao Zai and Duo-duo in my Moments.”

“…They have access to your Moments.” Gu Huaiyu was indeed very good at catching the main point.

And as the very adept-at-catching-the-main-point President Gu held the mouse, a vein suddenly bulged on the pale back of his hand at this moment.

“…This is very normal. Nowadays, when you join a guild, you have to join the group chat to make it easier to call people for backup,” Shen Qing quickly said.

And then, those who had a relatively good relationship or needed to contact each other privately for personal business would add each other as friends.

Shen Qing didn’t say the words that followed.

But President Gu, who was very well-versed in the ways of the world, understood instantly.

In fact, when adding friends individually, Shen Qing had also thought about whether to block these people from his Moments.

After all, he used to be a celebrity, no matter how one looked at it. …Even now, colleagues from the industry would send him messages now and then, reminding him of this fact.

However, Shen Qing’s Moments were set to “visible for the last three days.” People who joined later couldn’t see what he posted before, and he didn’t have the habit of exposing himself with selfies, so he felt it didn’t matter much and didn’t bother to block people individually.

It was just that Shen Qing had also heard about the rumors that he was a pretty boy, looked good, and that the guild members risked their lives just for his face.

But as for where it had spread from, he didn’t know.

According to a certain little sister in the guild who was very good at socializing, it was because the guild leader’s voice was too attractive and his emotions were stable; when directing guild wars, he was never flustered, and his voice sounded exceptionally pleasant.

Thus, with a +1 filter, anyone who heard him thought he must be a major hunk.

But because no one had ever seen Shen Qing, there were also people outside saying he was a hideous monster… otherwise, why would he play the game for several months without anyone knowing his appearance, without even a single photo?

This kind of discussion reached its peak when people learned that Shen Qing had two children.

Shen Qing didn’t post photos of himself, but he would occasionally post photos of the cubs in his Moments.

It was truly because the cubs were just too cute!

Sometimes he really couldn’t help but want to show them off!

And Shen Qing’s social circle wasn’t limited solely to the game; for example, after Duo-duo transferred to his current school, he also added the WeChat of many of Gu Duo’s classmates’ parents.

Where there are people, there is a society, and comparisons exist among parents.

Shen Qing was no exception either.

So on a certain clear and bright day, when he casually posted photos of his own Duo Zai and Ao Zai to his Moments, his friends on the game also came to know about him being a father of two children. Then it spread from ten to a hundred, and soon the entire area, and even the whole server, knew!

—By then, “Zi Jin” already had quite a reputation throughout the server.

“With two kids, he must be a greasy middle-aged uncle.”

“No wonder he’s so rich.”

These were the discussions from outsiders upon hearing about the matter.

Meanwhile, the protective members in Shen Qing’s guild had a different view: “Those of you who haven’t seen the looks of Brother Jin’s kids shouldn’t talk nonsense. Judging by the appearance of his cubs, Brother Jin’s looks definitely won’t be bad!”

Just because of the appearance issue of the new leader of the “Shi Fei Cheng Bai” guild, a server-wide war almost broke out again.

Regarding this, Shen Qing, who was genuinely handsome and had never experienced any appearance anxiety, didn’t care how others speculated about his looks.

He even found it baffling—was his appearance really that important?

Shen Qing had never thoroughly played a game before either, so he didn’t understand the gossiping hearts of casual players that were always eager for action.

And after finishing the stories of the White Snake and the Butterfly Lovers, he paid no more attention to what was being said in the group. He exited the dungeon directly, teleported back to the city on the spot, and then went to find Gu Huaiyu.

“Uh, our friendship intimacy is too low; we can’t summon each other yet, so we can only run like this.” While telling Gu Huaiyu to stand still and not move, Shen Qing ran toward the place where the big boss was.

“I’m going over to find you now, and then we’ll team up to grind quests, and grind our intimacy along the way.”

Gu Huaiyu: “Okay.”

He casually scanned the game introduction on the official website—being able to summon each other required a specific relationship between two players; they either had to be sworn brothers or a married couple to achieve the summoning function.

And swearing brotherhood required an intimacy level of 500, while getting married required an intimacy level of 1000. They needed to grind enough intimacy first before they could go to the NPC to register their relationship.

Scanning through the setting introductions in one glance, Gu Huaiyu leaned his back slightly backward, turning his head to look at the small character sprinting toward him on Shen Qing’s screen.

Entering the game himself, the first thing his wife took him to do was to grind intimacy.

This realization completely eased Gu Huaiyu’s slightly sour mood from just now.

He watched the young man’s fingers flexibly operating the keyboard and mouse, and watched the light leaps of the small characters on the screen. He suddenly felt a sense of racing across mountains and seas.

By the time Zi Jin finally ran to where You You was located, Shen Qing’s hands were so tired they were about to cramp.

This was the one bad thing about this game: the map was too large, and you could only traverse it by running, with very few options for cross-map teleportation.

The game developers explained that it was to provide players with an immersive experience effect.

But the players all knew it was just a way for the game merchants to make more money.

Maxing out a huge, money-consuming skill and possessing good equipment could increase your map-running speed.

Of course, mounts were also very important.

And Shen Qing himself had max skills and was clad in a full set of divine gear, yet it was still exhausting to run so far; it would be even harder for others.

It showed how black-hearted the game merchants were.

The map was difficult to traverse, which was also the reason why Shen Qing hadn’t let President Gu move around blindly and had told him to wait in place.

When the female character with white clothes and white hair finally appeared on his computer screen, Shen Qing let out a sigh of relief and immediately controlled his character to land gracefully.

Yet the moment he landed, fireworks suddenly exploded at his landing spot.

Shen Qing: ?

[World: Player “You You Wo Xin” has gifted Player “Qing Qing Zi Jin” Rose × 99, wishing their friendship lasts forever.]

…