Chapter 8 Grievance Go with your ge
In the dorm, it wasn’t until 2 PM that sounds emerged from the bed. Li Qingming lifted his bed curtains. Seeing that Mu Jiu’s bed across from him was already empty, he didn’t take it to heart and went down to wash up.
It wasn’t until 3 PM when the dorm lights were turned on that they noticed only Mu Jiu was missing. But he always had a lot of his own things to do, and he held many secrets, so the roommates didn’t think there was any problem. It wasn’t until 11 PM that night, with Mu Jiu showing no signs of returning, that they slowly started to get a bit worried.
“This Mu Jiu… he isn’t going to stay out all night, is he?” Although their dorm didn’t have bed checks, Mu Jiu rarely disappeared without giving notice.
Li Qingming had the best relationship with Mu Jiu, so ultimately, they had him send Mu Jiu a message to ask if he was safe.
When Mu Jiu received his message, he had just finished a match, leaning back in his esports chair to massage his aching shoulders.
“Mu Jiu, what are you doing? Why aren’t you back yet?”
Only then did he realize he had actually been playing for a whole day. The private room had no windows. He basically seamlessly transitioned into the next match right after finishing one. Half a piece of bread he gnawed on at noon was still resting by his hand, eaten during the gaps while queueing. He was very insensitive to the passage of time.
At the same time, his ranking had pushed into the top 2%.
“I have some business, don’t worry.”
Mu Jiu replied. The sound effect for a successful match queue rang from the computer screen, and he immediately tossed his phone aside, ready to start the next match.
The internet cafe boss came in to deliver the functional drinks he ordered. Seeing the bread by his hand and the half-drunk bottle of mineral water, he placed the drinks on the desk, turned, and left.
After closing the door, he pursed his lips and shook his head.
He had seen at least eight hundred, if not a thousand, internet-addicted youths who played games crazily, but someone this crazy was still a rare sight.
In the beginning, the boss would send things in from time to time, estimating that he’d have to sleep after playing for a few more hours. It wasn’t until he saw him chugging functional drinks one bottle after another, and directly using the cold water in the bathroom to wash his head in the morning just to refresh himself—playing as if his life depended on it—that he completely submitted.
When the front desk girl came to change shifts, the boss specifically pointed to the security camera of one private room and said: “Keep a close eye on this young man, don’t let him have an accident in my place.”
By the second day, it wasn’t just the internet cafe boss who was shocked. People on the internet quickly noticed the ID “juice.” The ranking shot up like a rocket, and it hadn’t stopped for over twenty hours.
A topic titled [When exactly does Brother Juice rest?] quietly entered the hot discussions on the forum. The hot discussion right before it was [Counting the sins Nine committed].
[Is it a team boosting an account? How could any human withstand this kind of wear and tear?]
[No, no, no, I’ve been keeping an eye on Guozhi ge‘s spectator mode since last night. The mechanics are smooth and flowing, with a very distinct personal style. It’s definitely one person playing.]
[Am I the only one who feels that this style carries quite a bit of an old friend’s shadow?]
[So if you can’t get on the leaderboards, think more about whether it’s your own problem. Are you not working hard enough?]
[With Guozhi ge‘s perseverance, he would succeed in whatever he does.]
[Wait, bro, what are you doing? There are only two days left until the leaderboards lock, and suddenly this immortal bro pops out. Everyone’s starting to play ranked like crazy, my boosting orders!!!]
Li Qingming woke up in the morning and casually browsed the forum. Seeing this topic, he clicked into it in a second. Sure enough, the account everyone was spectating was Mu Jiu’s.
And calculating the time, aside from stopping for an hour in between, this account had been playing without sleep or rest for two days straight.
He was instantly so shocked he almost jumped out of bed.
“!!!”
“Is Mu Jiu crazy?”
He yelled very loudly, directly waking up the other two roommates who were still sleeping. They threw a pillow at Li Qingming, “I think you’re the one who’s crazy.”
“No, look at the forum quickly. Mu Jiu stayed out all night, he’s been playing ranked.”
Hearing his clamor, the two roommates sobered up a bit. They grabbed their phones and sat up. The topmost post was the one Li Qingming mentioned, and the number of replies inside was still increasing non-stop.
[Live updates, Guozhi ge is already top 1%. I wonder where Guozhi ge will stop pushing.]
[Forget it, even an immortal couldn’t keep playing like this. The further up you go, the smaller the point differences become, and it’ll only get harder to play.]
They knew the bracket of Mu Jiu’s “juice” account, so they knew even better how terrifying the rank he had reached now was. They immediately put on their clothes and got up.
While washing up, they urged Li Qingming to find Mu Jiu’s location. “Hurry up and go find him, we can’t let him play anymore!”
Without them having to say it, Li Qingming was already frantically messaging Mu Jiu asking for his location. Unfortunately, Mu Jiu’s phone had already run out of battery and shut down a few hours ago.
“It’s no use, he’s not replying.”
The few of them, including Li Qingming, were dizzy with anxiety. Aside from Mu Jiu’s account ranking continuously rising, they had absolutely no way of getting any news from him.
On the other side, Si Yan, who had also seen the post, was originally eating his breakfast peacefully. He got so scared he couldn’t catch his breath, choked on his soy milk, and coughed for a long while.
Does he not want his life anymore?! Just to pull him into the team? It was originally just a tactic to brush him off. Si Yan completely didn’t expect Mu Jiu to actually go play. He instantly panicked.
But he didn’t have the contact information of Mu Jiu’s roommates either, leaving him even more at a loss. Finally, he clicked open a person’s chat box.
Ever since they added each other, the two hadn’t chatted. The blank chat interface only had one line: “I have passed your friend verification request, we can now start chatting.”
He went straight to the point and asked: “Do you know where Mu Jiu is?”
The other side instantly replied with a “?”.
Si Yan sighed in disappointment. Indeed, no matter how good Shi Wen and Mu Jiu’s relationship was, that was a matter of three years ago. He was just turning to any doctor in a panic.
His phone chimed with a “ding-dong.” Si Yan looked down; the other party had sent another message.
“What happened to Mu Jiu?”
Si Yan roughly explained the situation to Shi Wen. The other side didn’t reply again, but he couldn’t care about that anymore, because Mu Jiu’s roommates had come looking for him.
The three of them surrounded Si Yan, pressing him for Mu Jiu’s whereabouts.
Other than him, they truly couldn’t think of any other recent interlude that would make Mu Jiu act like this.
“What exactly did you say to Mu Jiu!”
Si Yan knew he was in the wrong, so even when interrogated, he didn’t get angry. He sighed and explained to them: “As long as ‘juice’ reaches the top 100 within three days, I’ll join the team.”
“Three days? Top 100?! Are you crazy or is he crazy!”
Bringing this up also angered Si Yan. He forcefully threw his soy milk into the trash can and yelled: “Who knew he would actually go play! Hurry up and get him to come back. I agree, I agree, okay?! I’ll go fill out the registration form right now.”
He originally thought Mu Jiu was just acting on another whim and wasn’t taking the matter seriously, but seeing him now risking his life just to pull him into the team, he truly submitted.
“We don’t know where Mu Jiu is either,” Li Qingming punched the wall, extremely remorseful.
“What about the game? Do you have his game account? He’s been online the whole time, go in the game and ask him.”
With Si Yan’s words, the few of them instantly experienced a flash of realization and immediately ran back to the dorm to log in. However, because the “juice” account had become famous, too many people were sending messages. To focus on playing ranked, Mu Jiu completely ignored them all, and their private messages quickly drowned in the flood.
On the other side, Shi Wen’s phone rested on the forum interface, his eyes dead set on the forum updates, his brows tightly furrowed.
Once the red light passed, he slammed on the gas and flew out, arriving at the A Da entrance with the fastest speed possible. The place Mu Jiu had him drop him off last time should be the gate closest to his dorm.
If Mu Jiu was pulling an all-nighter to play games, he definitely wouldn’t stay in the dorm and disturb his roommates. The only place he could go was an internet cafe.
Shi Wen’s hand gripping the phone trembled slightly. He clicked open the map; there were too many internet cafes near the university. Just on one street alone, there were over a dozen.
He closed his eyes for a moment. Opening them again, Shi Wen steadied his mind and took large strides toward the nearest one.
Scrolling his photo album to the very bottom, he found a picture of Mu Jiu from inside and asked door to door.
“Boss, have you seen this person?”
He didn’t know how many places he had asked. The bosses either waved their hands or hadn’t seen him. Shi Wen searched for three hours, going from the East Gate to the West Gate without taking a single sip of water, as the sun slowly rose from the east to directly overhead.
Reaching the next place, Shi Wen propped his arm against the doorframe, caught his breath, and walked in.
The front desk girl zoomed in on the photo Shi Wen handed over, looked carefully for a couple of seconds, nodded at him, and said: “I’ve seen him, he’s right inside. He hasn’t slept for two days, truly doesn’t care about his life.”
Because of the boss’s instructions earlier, the front desk girl had paid special attention to him. So even though he was wearing a mask in the photo, she recognized Mu Jiu very easily.
The stone hanging in Shi Wen’s heart finally dropped. With a gloomy expression, he walked toward the private room the front desk girl had just pointed out. The front desk girl chased after him all the way: “Sir, you haven’t registered yet, you can’t go in.”
Shi Wen fished his ID card out of his bag and directly handed it over. Without the patience to wait for her to confirm and return it, he walked straight in.
Behind him, seeing Shi Wen’s ID card, the front desk girl gasped in shock.
“Oh my god, Shi Wen?”
The private room door was forcefully pushed open. Mu Jiu, who had just finished a match and was drinking water, turned his head and instantly widened his eyes.
“Ge? Why are you here?”
Mu Jiu’s entire body was in a state of extreme exhaustion. The first moment he saw Shi Wen, aside from shock, his brain felt like it was stuffed with cotton, dizzy and woozy.
“Heh, why am I here.” Shi Wen mockingly repeated his words. He had been searching for a whole morning, almost going crazy with anxiety, and he actually had the nerve to ask him why he was here.
Shi Wen walked straight over, turned off his computer monitor, grabbed the back of his neck, and hoisted his entire body up, his tone furious: “Let’s go, stop playing!”
Bewildered, Mu Jiu was pulled up, but he successfully struggled out, sat back down in front of the computer, and prepared to restart it.
“Ge, I have something I need to do, stop worrying about me.”
“What could you possibly need to do, isn’t it just the Gaoxiao Bei? Is it worth throwing your life away over!”
Seeing Mu Jiu’s nonchalant attitude, Shi Wen’s emotions suddenly erupted. His roar made Mu Jiu freeze, and he felt a bit wronged.
Shi Wen had never treated him like this before.
He continued to play dumb: “Ge, what are you talking about, I’m just playing games for a bit…”
Mu Jiu still didn’t know that the “juice” account had already blown up on the internet, let alone that he had been completely sold out by Si Yan.
But Shi Wen didn’t want to waste any more words with him. He took a deep breath, suppressing his emotions, and gave him an ultimatum: “Are you leaving or not?”
Stubbornly, Mu Jiu shook his head.
He had finally reached the top 0.01% with great difficulty. He was just a tiny bit away from entering the top 100; he definitely wasn’t going to leave.
This angered Shi Wen terribly.
The front desk girl who came to return the ID card naturally heard the commotion inside and found it novel. In the past, there were often minors who skipped class to play games at the internet cafe, getting scolded and dragged back by their parents. Even after they started checking IDs, this was still a common occurrence. It was just that seeing these two, who weren’t that far apart in age, acting out such a scene was quite interesting.
The front desk girl knocked on the door, opened it, went in, and returned the ID card to Shi Wen. Seeing Mu Jiu’s full face in reality for the first time, she was still startled.
The bangs on his forehead were a bit messy, his long eyelashes hung quietly, his lips red and teeth white, sitting obediently in the chair.
Mom, she thought she just saw an angel.
Originally, she was going to impatiently urge the person to leave quickly—after all, she thought Mu Jiu was just an internet-addicted youth obsessed with games—but suddenly, her tone softened: “You’ve been playing for two days already, you must be tired too. Just go with your ge, ah.” It carried quite a bit of a tone of coaxing a child.
Shi Wen knew right away this was another person deceived by his outward appearance. God knows how infuriating this dead kid could be.
Translator’s Notes:
- Guozhi ge (果汁哥): Brother Juice.
- md: Abbreviation for a common Chinese profanity (mā de).
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