FIMA Ch141: Notes

Regardless of the circumstances, someone like Xie Fengqing—who had thin skin and cared deeply about his pride—was naturally never going to admit that he had been following Gu Siyuan.

The corners of his lips curled up slightly, revealing a row of neat, white teeth: “Classmate Gu must have misunderstood. We both came out of the restaurant and are both heading back to campus. This is just the closest and safest route. Why bring up talk of ‘following’? It makes you sound far too paranoid…”

Gu Siyuan crossed his arms and said lazily: “But, if I remember correctly, Classmate Xie Fengqing is a day student who lives at home?”

“…” Xie Fengqing.

This is the worst part about ex-boyfriends; they know all your baseline secrets.

Xie Fengqing raised his chin slightly: “I’m going back to school to borrow notes from a classmate. Final exams are right around the corner. Shouldn’t I review properly? Did you think everyone is as idle and unmotivated as Classmate Gu Siyuan?”

Gu Siyuan looked at the person wearing the pristine white down jacket, with his slender neck and arrogant expression, looking truly like a proud little swan.

He nodded: “Then I wish Classmate Xie Fengqing a perfect GPA.” With that, he turned and continued walking forward.

“Of course,” Xie Fengqing immediately followed.

However, after walking for a short while, Xie Fengqing noticed something was wrong. The school gate was clearly just one street away, but Gu Siyuan suddenly turned right. This was the complete opposite direction of the university. In the dead of the night, where on earth was Gu Siyuan going?

“Gu Siyuan, aren’t you going back to school?”

Gu Siyuan raised an eyebrow and cast a glance at him: “Who said I was going back to school?”

“Ah…” Xie Fengqing was surprised.

Just at that moment, a crackling sound erupted from not too far away. Colorful fireworks bloomed brilliantly in the night sky.

The surrounding pedestrians immediately broke into waves of cheers:

“Ah, it’s the New Year!”

“It’s a brand new year!”

“Happy New Year!”

Xie Fengqing suddenly snapped back to reality and looked up at the sky.

It was 12:00 AM. It was officially New Year’s Day.

In N City, New Year’s Day was one of the rare occasions during the year when fireworks were permitted. The area around the university town was mostly filled with young people. Seeing this grand spectacle, many stopped in their tracks, closed their eyes, clasped their hands together, and made wishes toward the fireworks.

Xie Fengqing looked at Gu Siyuan’s still-indifferent face and asked, “Aren’t you going to make a wish?”

Gu Siyuan frowned, looking at him with incomprehension: “These fireworks have a shorter lifespan than the alcohol I just drank. If I have to rely on them to make my wishes come true, what hope is there left in this life?”

“…” Xie Fengqing.

How has a person who is this much of a buzzkill not been beaten to death yet?

A moment later, the commotion gradually died down.

Gu Siyuan waved a hand at him: “Come here.”

Xie Fengqing didn’t understand, but he still stretched his neck and walked over, feigning arrogance: “What?”

Gu Siyuan: “Does your phone still have battery?”

Xie Fengqing subconsciously held up his phone to check: “It has over 40%.”

“That’s enough.” Gu Siyuan nodded. He pointed to a taxi that had stopped nearby and said flatly, “Get in. Go home.”

“No…”

Xie Fengqing looked up, meeting Gu Siyuan’s half-smiling expression, and instantly realized his cover had probably been blown from the start. He puffed his cheeks, stubbornly persisting: “I haven’t gone to the school to get my notes yet!”

Gu Siyuan’s voice grew slightly cold: “Stop fussing. Get in the car and go home now. I will organize the notes for all the subjects and send them to you tomorrow.”

Whether in the past or recently, Xie Fengqing had never heard Gu Siyuan speak to him in such a cold, hard tone. For a moment, he was actually intimidated.

By the time he snapped out of it, he had already been manhandled by Gu Siyuan—kneaded like a piece of dough—and shoved into the backseat of the taxi.

Xie Fengqing glared at him, asking unwillingly: “I’m going home, but why aren’t you going back to school? Where are you going…”

Gu Siyuan raised his hand and pointed not too far away. That brightly lit area was primarily filled with various budget hotels, guesthouses, KTVs, and even some unspoken services.

Xie Fengqing blinked, pointing at him in furious anger: “You… you’re spending the night over there tonight?!”

Gu Siyuan nodded: “You could say that.”

“…” Xie Fengqing.

Hehe… so he sent me away because he’s busy going off to have a good time? He probably booked a room in advance and arranged to meet a beauty, didn’t he?

Maybe it’s even that obnoxious Qi Yue. Did they secretly make plans while eating at the restaurant earlier?

“You’ve got some nerve, Gu Siyuan…” Just as Xie Fengqing was about to jump up and curse out this scumbag, the taxi driver stepped on the gas. The car sped off, filling his mouth with freezing winter wind.

Xie Fengqing instantly grew even angrier. He looked up, glaring at the driver in front, and complained quietly: “Mister, were you a Formula 1 race car driver before? Why did you take off so fast? I hadn’t even finished speaking!”

The driver, who drove around the university town area, had seen countless bizarre young people. Hearing this, he wasn’t angry. Instead, he started gossiping curiously: “Ah, you young people just have too much to say. What’s your relationship with that tall guy? Your boyfriend? He’s got quite a commanding presence.”

Boyfriend my ass!

Commanding presence my ass!

He’s just a scumbag—gold on the outside, rotten cotton on the inside!

Xie Fengqing muttered unhappily: “No, he’s just an ordinary classmate. Don’t be fooled by his decent looks, he’s actually…”

The driver waved it off magnanimously: “With looks like that, what else is there to say? Sigh, he looks exactly like I did when I was young. I was quite the playboy back then too, had a whole bunch of young girls and boys chasing after me…”

Xie Fengqing looked at the driver’s profile—the accumulated flab, the beer belly, and the increasingly obvious horseshoe bald spot on his head. He imagined Gu Siyuan turning into this in a few years. By then, he probably couldn’t be a cheating scumbag even if he wanted to.

For a moment, he felt a mix of amusement and sorrow, his emotions utterly complicated: “Mister, I truly hope your words come true…”

Gu Siyuan watched the taxi disappear from sight, then turned and walked toward the sea of lights.

He hadn’t lied just now; he really was spending the night in this area. However, he hadn’t booked a room in a hotel or guesthouse. He passed through the street of hotels and KTVs, heading toward a quiet residential complex lit up in the back.

Gu Siyuan swiped his access card at the complex gate, smoothly entered the elevator of a certain building, and unlocked the door to a one-bedroom apartment on the fourth floor.

This was the apartment he had just rented yesterday. It was fully furnished and ready to live in. During the day, he had already moved essentially all his belongings from the dorm over here.

In half a month, once final exams were over, winter break would begin. Since the original owner’s father had passed away early and his mother had remarried, it didn’t matter whether he went “home” for the New Year or not.

Gu Siyuan naturally couldn’t be bothered to make the exhausting trip back, so he simply rented an apartment near the school in advance. Once winter break started, he would just move here directly.

After going to the bathroom to wash off the smell of alcohol, Gu Siyuan sat at the desk and turned on his computer. Out of habit, he checked his email first. Sure enough, there were two unread emails, both from the client of his freelance programming job.

One was a routine confirmation of receipt and an expression of gratitude. The second was much friendlier in tone, asking about his internship plans for the next semester and whether he was interested in joining their company, offering to process his formal employment early.

The other party’s tech company was highly ranked not only in N City but across the entire country. If an ordinary student received this invitation, they would likely jump for joy.

Gu Siyuan’s expression, however, didn’t change at all. He had taken on freelance programming work because he was temporarily short on funds, but he had no interest in working for someone else indefinitely.

Still, Gu Siyuan politely replied to the email. Recently, he had been preparing to independently develop and launch a website. Once it was officially completed, he would need certain financial backing and promotional channels. And the other party’s company was precisely one of the angel investors he planned to attract.

After handling his emails, Gu Siyuan checked the stock market. The stocks he had bought previously were growing steadily.

At that moment, his phone lit up.

He reached over to look and saw, surprisingly, a message from Xie Fengqing. He remembered that after the original owner’s cheating incident, Xie Fengqing seemed to have blocked him on all social media. He didn’t expect to be unblocked now.

Truly a child’s temperament.

The message was brief, just a few words: “Are you done?” (Note: In Chinese, “完事了吗” often implies “Are you done doing the deed/hooking up?”)

Gu Siyuan narrowed his eyes, unsure of what he was referring to.

But… given how late it was, he probably just meant ‘are you asleep yet?’

He casually replied with two words: “Almost.” (Literal translation: Right away/Soon)

On the other end, Xie Fengqing swiftly caught his phone before it could smash into the bridge of his nose, cursing in annoyance. He then stared fixedly at the two words that had just been sent back.

Almost?!

Meaning he is currently in the middle of doing the deed… and he’s actually chatting with me while doing THAT?!

“…” Xie Fengqing immediately replied with a deeply shocked emoji.

Gu Siyuan stared at the emoji on his phone for a moment, unable to imagine what kind of expression the person on the other end was actually making. He simply asked directly: “What exactly are you trying to say?”

Lying in bed, Xie Fengqing puffed his cheeks and typed slowly: “I just wanted to remind you about the notes we agreed on. Don’t forget.”

Gu Siyuan: “I won’t. I’ll send them to you tomorrow morning.”

Xie Fengqing: “Oh…”

Gu Siyuan glanced at his phone one last time. Seeing nothing else worth replying to, he simply locked the screen.

Xie Fengqing hugged his phone and waited for a long time, but the avatar never flashed again. He grumbled, getting mad over nothing, upset that the guy didn’t even know to reply with a ‘Goodnight’ or ‘Happy New Year’…

And just like that, hugging his phone, he fell asleep.

When he woke up the next day, the sun was already high in the sky. Xie Fengqing rubbed his eyes and hurriedly reached out to grab his phone from the bed. It was already past 10 AM. When he opened the social app, he immediately smiled happily, his eyes crinkling. The familiar avatar was flashing with an unread message.

He stretched out a slender, pale finger and tapped it open gently and slowly, as if it were some precious treasure.

But immediately after, he grew angry at his own inexplicable mood.

Why am I acting so expectant? Why should I look forward to Gu Siyuan’s messages? What is there to look forward to from this scumbag?

Hmph, at most, I’m just looking forward to the notes he organized.

The contents of the message appeared before his eyes.

“…” Xie Fengqing stared at the pale-yellow compressed zip file bearing two massive, icy words: ‘Notes’. He tossed his phone aside.

Hehe, I truly am a prophet.

That guy really didn’t type a single extra word.

That morning, Gu Siyuan woke up at 7 AM as usual. After eating breakfast and organizing the major course notes to send to Xie Fengqing, he headed out to school.

The website he was creating had no issues regarding technology or operations. As for funding, he didn’t plan to rely entirely on angel investors. He was currently a junior and was eligible to apply for the university’s startup incubation grant.

Over the next few days, he prepared the relevant documents and contacted the related professors. If everything went smoothly, he could secure around 500,000 RMB in funding this time.

Consequently, over the following period—while all the students in the university were hopelessly buried in final exam revisions—Gu Siyuan hardly looked at a textbook for even a minute, running all over the city instead. Whenever he got a message on his phone, it would take him half an hour to an hour before he had the time to glance at it. As for the game, he hadn’t logged in for several days.

It wasn’t until the days of the final exams that he saw Xie Fengqing, Tao Xiangwen, and the others again.

N University was a top-tier institution after all. Even an internet-addicted youth like Tao Xiangwen had cut down his gaming time the week prior, burying himself in books day and night. Perhaps because his daily routine had become more regulated, his complexion actually looked a bit better.

As for Xie Fengqing, who knew what he had been thinking about these past few days. The moment he saw Gu Siyuan, he shot him a look reserved for an incurable scumbag.

Gu Siyuan had already gained some understanding of his mission target’s baffling thought processes, so he couldn’t be bothered to argue with him.

They had a total of seven major course exams, which took four days to complete. After that, everyone went their separate ways to head home.

Once final exams were over, the classmates who had been silent for a while became active again, with Tao Xiangwen being the most prominent. Ever since they ran that dungeon together, Tao Xiangwen would constantly message him, asking to party up.

Gu Siyuan naturally rejected all of them. He only instructed Tao Xiangwen to keep an eye out in the game: if he saw the ID ‘Bu Zhan’ (Ying Ning) interacting with Xie Fengqing, he was to notify him immediately.

“Hehe… hehe…” That guy Tao Xiangwen immediately let out a knowing laugh: “Regretting it now, huh? Want to get back together with Great God Xie?”

Gu Siyuan couldn’t be bothered to entertain him.

With the start of winter break, university, high school, and middle school students were all on holiday, making the Great Wilderness gaming community exceptionally lively.

Previously, Gu Siyuan’s ‘Smurf’ account had already gained some fame because both of his dungeon runs had been live-streamed. Shortly after, to earn forum points, he had written a dungeon guide so brilliant he was dubbed the “game developer’s biological father,” completely solidifying his ID’s reputation. Especially among ordinary players, his dungeon guide was practically required reading.

That night, Gu Siyuan had been badgered by Tao Xiangwen multiple times to run a dungeon. Since he also wanted to log on and check if Xie Fengqing and Ying Ning had made any further contact, he agreed.

However, the moment he logged in, his computer screen practically froze from the sheer volume of private messages bombarding his inbox. Having no interest in figuring out what these people wanted, he simply clicked ‘Mark All as Read’ and set them to silent.

“Siyuan, you’re super famous now. Everyone is begging you to carry them…” Tao Xiangwen chatted with him with a smile while they ran the dungeon.

Gu Siyuan ignored him. His fingers flew, creating a blur of afterimages across the keyboard. Several ultimate combo skills fired off continuously on the screen, instantly slaying the hidden boss, the Shadow Panther.

[Kill Successful! Congratulations to the XXX Party led by ‘Smurf’ for slaying the Hidden Boss Shadow Panther. Dropped rare materials: Speed Heart, Shadow Pelt, Shadow Claw, Skill Book…]

Only then did Gu Siyuan speak: “The Speed Heart, Shadow Pelt, and Shadow Claw are mine.”

Tao Xiangwen finally snapped back to reality and shouted, “Fck, fck! How did a Speed Heart drop?! I wanted that thing too…”

Too lazy to listen to him wail, Gu Siyuan directly disbanded the party.

Looking back, the World Channel had exploded again.

“Holy crap, holy crap, another hidden boss?!”

“Our server has only spawned a hidden boss five times in the last two months, right? Including the Azure Profound Snow Eagle last time, ‘Smurf’ has triggered TWO of them?!”

“This isn’t just a Big Boss, this is an RNG God! Why is heaven so unfair, giving all the skills and all the luck to one person?”

“‘Smurf’ got amazing drops both times—an Ice Snow Heart and a Speed Heart. Meanwhile, out of the other three hidden bosses cleared by other people, only one dropped a Strength Heart…”

“This is absolutely insane. Which Great God’s alt account is this Big Boss?!”

Watching the chatter on the World Channel, Tao Xiangwen seemed to think of something amusing and continued chatting with Gu Siyuan: “Siyuan, you haven’t logged onto your main account in a long time, right? I wonder if there are still people relentlessly cursing you out?”

Gu Siyuan: “Don’t know.”

He genuinely didn’t care. If it weren’t for the convenience of his mission, he would have zero interest in playing games.

Tao Xiangwen, however, burst out laughing: “If they knew that the ‘trash mechanics’, ‘sugar baby’, and ‘scumbag’ they curse every day is the exact same ‘Smurf’ Big Boss they’re praising to the heavens right now… I wonder what a beautiful scene that would be?”

Support me on Ko-fi