CHAPTER 24: MOCHA

After ten seconds, or perhaps ten years in silence, the two slowly separated and the frozen atmosphere gradually began to flow.

“F*ck…” It was unknown whose low voice had made the mumble, but like a drop of ice water falling into a deep fryer, the scene immediately flared up.

“Happy birthday!” An Yu nodded to Lu Ying and took Shen Mu’s hand, saying, “We still have something to do, we’ll be going back first.” Neither delight nor anger could be heard in his voice, which was both clear and cold.

“Ah? Oh!” Lu Ying, whose three worldviews* had just been shattered, paused for two or three seconds before reacting, and hurriedly said, “Ah, that. It’s already over, just go, no need to be polite. Ah, that’s not right! I meant, there’s nothing left to do… “

*T/N: Shattering the three worldviews – a way to express how someone’s perception of the world (outlook, values, life view) has been shaken or dramatically changed.

“I know now…” Lin Huiru suddenly stared at An Yu. “Now I know who you are, you are An Yu! No wonder I constantly felt that I’d seen you somewhere…” Lin Huiru’s slender eyebrows were screwed together. When participating in the damned Suspended Life Game that day, Lin Huiru had always felt that No. 8 seemed a little familiar when she’d first seen him, yet she couldn’t remember where she might have met him before. Plus, No. 8 had been with Shen Mu, and together they were irritating to the eye, making Lin Huiru even more disdainful to spare him a glance. Seeing him again at this moment, shedding the expression of mental retardation, Lin Huiru finally remembered where she’d seen him before. In the current year’s Yan University’s admissions video, An Yu had appeared as the president of the current student union and introduced campus district A and the association building in district B where the freshmen were. “You… you guys…”

Seeing Lin Huiru’s despondent look, Xu Zijin, who’d temporarily been frozen, also recovered and his complexion was very unsightly. He said to An Yu, “What do you mean?!” Immediately afterward, he felt some regret. Shen Mu had finished the dare. By saying this, it instead seemed as though he couldn’t afford to lose and wanted to pretend as if nothing had happened. But the words were already spoken, and Xu Zijin’s complexion became even uglier.

An Yu gave him a glance, then withdrew his gaze and no longer looked at him. He nodded to Lu Ying, and then took Shen Mu’s hand, preparing to leave. Seeing this scene, Xu Zijin suddenly felt that he’d been insulted. The alcohol rushed into his brain. If it wasn’t for his remaining rationality that restrained him, he wouldn’t be rational, and he just wanted to rush up and use his fists to determine the victor.

“Pfff.” Shen Mu, who’d remained quiet up until then, suddenly smiled and tilted his body, saying to Lu Ying, “Class monitor, we’ve had a great time at the party today, thank you! You’ve done quite a lot of preparations right?”

“Ah, not really, don’t be so polite. I just bought some games and red wine. Just call me Lu Ying.” Lu Ying had also drunk a lot that night. She hurriedly waved with a flushed face, “We’ll all be classmates in the future. If there’s anything you need later, you can tell me… en, just talk to An Yu!” Near the end, Lu Ying couldn’t help but smile, hastily turning her head around to laugh.

“Class monitor, you need to put away your newly purchased cards properly ah.” Shen Mu winked at Lu Ying and, intentionally or unintentionally, swept by Xu Zijin, saying to Lu Ying, “It’s a pity to lose cards after only playing once. Well then, we’ll be going first!”

“What do you need to do? Open a room?!” Bai Luo, who’d finally recovered, asked in a trembling voice.

Shen Mu smiled mysteriously at Bai Luo.

“Oh my god! No one stop me! I’m going to heaven!”

“Wait!” Zhu Meng suddenly murmured, whether because he’d drunk too much, or because of other reasons, Zhu Meng’s face had turned into the colour of pig liver. He looked intently at Shen Mu, “What do you mean! Do you want to make trouble as soon as you’ve come to the dormitory?!”

“Then we’ll move out to live.” An Yu looked at Zhu Meng coldly and stopped speaking, directly pulling Shen Mu out of the room.

The room fell into silence again.

“… He admitted?” Bai Luo absent-mindedly mumbled to herself, “My God? His intentions are that he has admitted, right?!”

The other girl also couldn’t help but say: “A few girls confessed to him before, yet he rejected them all. I was YY* if he was gay, my dream came true, I’m going to be a koi** today!”

*TN: YY – Chinese internet slang 歪歪 [wāi wāi] is a pinyin acronym for 意淫 [yì yín], which means to fantasize or have sexual thoughts regarding something. Interestingly, the character for the abbreviation 歪 [wāi], means slanted, crooked and evil. Guess who’s having crooked thoughts ah!

**T/N: A type of colourful carp symbolising luckiness.

“Have you all noticed? “Bai Luo seemed to have thought of something, and revealed a silly sweet smile , “They have always been holding hands! They haven’t let go ever since kissing! Hehehe…”

……

After leaving the MiLa restaurant, the cold wind of early winter came head-on, making people tremble involuntarily. The campus was still as lively as it was at 10 o’clock, especially XueLe Street in district B. Both sides of the street were mostly lined with various restaurants and snack bars. District B was the largest campus of BaiYan University. Most of the sophomore and junior students were in district B. Even though the weather was already very cold, the students still came and went, and the whole street was filled with the smell of smoke and fire.

Shen Mu felt that the temperature of his palm, which had just risen a little, had become cold again. It was just like the cold temperature he’d felt when he’d first held him in the swimming pool. He couldn’t help but hold An Yu’s hand, holding those ice-cold fingers in his palm: “Why is it so cold?”

An Yu stopped to look at him, and there seemed to be a smile in his eyes: “It’d be the same for  you if you were the one to stay outside for a while.”

Shen Mu looked at him and didn’t continue to speak. But his heart was filled with inexpressible tranquility and joy. The gazes of the two met, feeling the affection and tenderness deep in the other’s eyes. Although they hadn’t exchanged words, they felt as though nothing more needed to be said between them.

A burst cold wind blew past.

“Should we go back to the dormitory?” Shen Mu, having regained his spirit, whispered with a smile.

“Aren’t we going to get a room?” An Yu asked, smiling.

“Did you bring your ID card?” Shen Mu questioned.

An Yu couldn’t help but laugh: “I didn’t. Let’s go and find a place to sit. I want to tell you something.”

Seeing that Shen Mu still stood there unmoving, unsure of what he was thinking about, An Yu asked “What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing.” Shen Mu gently shook his head. Looking at the undeniably real person in front of him, his heart was once again filled with emotion. He smiled: “I just think…” He thought for a while and then said, “The way you are now and the way you were before, I think that…they…both these versions of you … are the right person for me in this world.”

…………..

‘24 CoF’ was a coffee shop that was open for 24 hours and sported a small store front and a unique interior. The entire coffee shop was covered with red floorboards, a shade somewhere between dark red and warm yellow. The walls were hung full of quotations and photos left by previous students, with exquisite small round wooden tables, and soft, circular stools. Inside the store, there was only one student who seemed to be writing a thesis in their notebook. Seeing someone come in, he merely glanced up before continuing his writing.

“Two mochas, thank you.”

The store manager was an artist around 30 years old with slightly longer hair, and he didn’t pay much attention to the newly arrived guests. He just prepared the coffee that was ordered before disappearing behind the counter.

Finding a corner by the window, every now and again An Yu used a small spoon to stir the warm coffee: “Shen Mu, in the Suspended Life Game, although our body is fabricated, its state is still the same as when you enter the game, and at that moment, it is synced with your state in reality. If you have a cold, you will still have a cold after you enter. If you…”

“If I drink, I will be drunk after entering.” Shen Mu felt a little guilty, “Actually on the first day, it’s just dealing out the cards so I’ll be fine even if I’m drunk, I wouldn’t make a low-level mistake… “

“No.” An Yu stopped for a second, the little metal spoon colliding against the porcelain cup with a crisp sound, “It is only in the preliminary round that the players will necessarily appear in their own room.”

Hearing this, Shen Mu could not help but straighten up: “What?”

An Yu first asked another question: “Do you know much about the punishment turntable?”

Shen Mu shook his head.

Although the word ‘punishment’ was included in its name, being able to turn the punishment turntable, actually gave players hope since even the most severe punishment on the turntable wouldn’t be more severe than the penalty for direct failure.” An Yu said, “Some common punishments, for example include the 1st level punishment, turn the turntable again; 2nd level punishment, play another round; 3rd level punishment, return to the game after being in a coma for one month… A single level doesn’t necessarily have only one punishment and different rounds can also have different punishments. But there is only one level 0 punishment, which is having no punishment, and it’s equivalent to winning the round.”

Shen Mu thought of Lin Huiru, unsure if she’d accepted the punishment and passed the preliminary round before returning to reality, or by virtue of her luck, had directly drawn a level 0 penalty? Thinking of this, Shen Mu was struck by an idea: “Is the probability of getting each level the same?”

“Not necessarily.” An Yu picked up the cup of Mocha that he’d stirred for a long time, taking a small sip, “The turntable is different in every round, you can see the probability when you turn it.”

“Then,” Shen Mu raised his head, asking with great interest, “Ah Yu*, you…” When he called out these two syllables, a burst of electricity seemed to flow through his body, causing Shen Mu to momentarily forget what he wanted to ask.

*TN: An affectionate name for An Yu, used only by family or close friends to express familiarity. Shen Mu has made himself dazed somehow even though he was the one to say it … facepalm

An Yu seemed to know what he’d meant to say, his eyes containing traces of a smile: “I’ll tell you tomorrow.”

Returning to the original topic: “Except for the preliminaries, players who revisited previous rounds via the turntable and players who returned to the game after experiencing a coma, are both different from  players who’ve advanced the normal way. These players aren’t part of the official quota. This means that in order to join the suspended life game, they must forcibly grab a place before the official game starts.”

An Yu took a sip of his coffee, and continued to say: “If there are replacement players participating in the round, at the beginning each player won’t appear directly at the location of the game’s initiation. It might be like the villa in the previous round, or maybe another type of building, but the first few players to reach the specified location will become the official players of the game while the other players will directly fail and fall into a coma.”

Shen Mu immediately thought of his sister Shen Xin: “If you meet other players, do the rules allow you to kill the opponent directly?”

“Before the official start of the game, the rules for the round aren’t announced, so in reality there are no rules and no violations at this point.” An Yu obviously thought of Shen Mu’s concerns. “Don’t worry, the smaller the quota, the larger the number of reserve players. The first round generally doesn’t have players above quota.”

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