As a stay at home dad with a child, Shen Xiangyu played the game purely to kill time, and his gaming skills were indeed terrible. Therefore, Qi Tao and Ming He would sometimes even look down on Shen Xiangyu for playing poorly and would secretly play alone behind Shen Xiangyu’s back.
Lu Que had never touched this game. He didn’t like playing games in high school, was busy in the police academy during college, and didn’t touch them at all. After working, the two younger team members felt a barrier with him and didn’t dare to mention these things to him much.
Only this one at home dared to command him to download it.
“Have you played it before?” Shi Yunmu peeked at the installation package still downloading inside the game and asked.
Lu Que shook his head: “No.”
Shi Yunmu was full of enthusiasm: “It doesn’t matter, I’ll carry you!”
Lu Que raised an eyebrow: “So the past few days when I saw your bedroom light still on at night, you were playing this?”
Shi Yunmu paused, changing the subject: “Hey look, it’s downloaded! Come, come, come, let’s clear the novice tutorial!”
Accompanied by the youth’s loud shouting, Lu Que finally managed to clear the novice tutorial with great difficulty.
“Our ranks are different, so we can’t play ranked matches. I’ll take you to play a casual match,” Shi Yunmu actively suggested.
His curled finger rested on the screen, moving slightly. The man with loose long hair at home casually lowered his dark eyelashes, looking at Shi Yunmu who was being a bit overly enthusiastic: “Shi Yunmu.”
He rarely called Shi Yunmu by his full name.
Shi Yunmu raised his head blankly: “Hmm? What’s wrong?”
Narrowing his eyes, Lu Que observed him: “You’re very strange today.”
Recalling his purpose, Shi Yunmu coughed and puffed out his chest: “I am doing this out of care for you!”
“Care for me?” Lu Que repeated with an ambiguous tone.
Shi Yunmu nodded his little head: “Right! After all, you always cook for me, so I decided to carry you in a game for free!” He was very proud, “Am I good to you?”
Lu Que: “…”
So the slime was hatching this idea. Was this a monster’s peculiar way of “repaying kindness”?
He was afraid it wasn’t to repay kindness, but to seek revenge.
By the time Lu Que realized that playing games with the slime was a mistake, the game match on his screen had already welcomed its ninth black screen.
The little robot died repeatedly in the canyon, dying a tragic death. His teammate was so angry that they typed furiously: Is that you, bro? Are you delivering food? You keep feeding them over and over, do you even know how to play?
Looking at the countdown that required dozens of seconds to respawn, Lu Que glanced at Shi Yunmu’s game interface: the heroine wielding a shield killed repeatedly, the game broadcast sounded over and over, and the youth even had time to press the keyboard to swiftly counterspeak the raging teammate.
Jellocloud: What does it have to do with you? Mind your own business, you’re 1-5 too.
Jellocloud: Don’t even know how to get carried to a win?
The teammate chewed on this and realized that the feeding little robot and the superb jungler were a duo. Their face-changing speed was faster than Sichuan opera: Hahaha I was just joking, marksman you can feed as much as you want, the game needs this to add fun!
Shi Yunmu even distracted himself to comfort Lu Que: “It’s fine, it’s your first time playing. Playing like this is already very good.”
Lu Que expressionlessly put down his phone: “Mm.”
But after a few rounds, he indeed had no gaming talent, perhaps playing even worse than Shen Xiangyu.
With great difficulty, they finally welcomed another victory. Shi Yunmu stretched, too lazy to even look at the MVP and top-tier badges, closed the phone, and turned his head to look at Lu Que.
Their eyes met. Recalling that prominent “0-4” next to his brilliant top-tier badge, Shi Yunmu’s mouth twitched, and he asked Lu Que tentatively, “How about we don’t play anymore?”
Lu Que nodded: “…Sure.”
Shi Yunmu breathed a sigh of relief, feeling somewhat relaxed inwardly.
To be honest, Lu Que’s gaming level was not even as good as Xiao Wei’s. If Xiao Wei rolled across the phone screen, its score might be higher than Lu Que’s.
Looking again at that terrible “2.7” ultra-low rating, Lu Que turned off the screen and maintained his composure: “Next weekend, why don’t we go out to play?”
Shi Yunmu swiftly turned his head to look at him: “Hmm?”
“Didn’t you say you wanted to eat a big meal?” Lu Que still remembered what the other party muttered when getting into the car at the hotel entrance.
He had been a bit discouraged by Lu Que’s gaming level, but upon hearing Lu Que’s invitation, Shi Yunmu was instantly cheered up: “Okay! I’ll eat!”
Lu Que gave an “Mm.” He wanted to say some other arrangements, but the phone in his hand vibrated. He picked it up to look; it was old Yan calling.
Chief Yan respected the young people’s wish to commute on time. Generally, unless it was an emergency, he wouldn’t call.
Fearing that some monster was causing trouble, Lu Que stood up and said to Shi Yunmu, “I’ll go out to take a call.”
Shi Yunmu picked up the soy milk prepared on the coffee table, tore off the plastic wrapper of the straw, inserted it, and began to sip: “Okay.”
The man walked to the balcony, lowering his eyes to look downstairs. It was already past ten o’clock at night. There weren’t many people on the residential roads, with only a few vehicles passing by. The old security guard wobbled on a bicycle, slowly following behind to direct traffic.
As soon as he picked up, old Yan’s loud voice drilled out from the other end of the phone: “Lu Que, what are you doing? You just picked up.”
Accustomed to the other party’s impatient nature, Lu Que unhurriedly used Shi Yunmu as a shield: “Accompanying my partner.”
Old Yan instantly stopped talking and began to cough heavily.
Perhaps it was on speakerphone; his wife on the other side could also hear Lu Que’s reply. She immediately began to speak sarcastically to old Yan: “I say, Yan Daichuan, young Lu knows to accompany his partner, what about you? During the Mid-Autumn Festival, I asked you to accompany me back to the countryside, and you kept making all kinds of excuses…”
Old Yan’s face turned red with embarrassment. His dignified image established in front of the younger generation was completely shattered by his wife: “Oh, my good wife, give me a break. Didn’t I agree with my old comrade-in-arms to go fishing! It wasn’t intentional not to accompany you. Next time, wherever you say to go, I’ll go. If you say one, I definitely won’t say two!”
Old Yan’s wife said lightheartedly, “Heh, I’ll remember this sentence. Wait until your daughter comes back, and you can declare your loyalty again…”
Old Yan repeatedly agreed, quickly changed to another place to make the call, ducked into the kitchen, coughed several times, and only then straightened his tone: “You didn’t hear that just now, right?”
Lu Que calmly exposed him: “I heard everything.”
Old Yan: “…”
Old Yan: “Forget it, forget it quickly! You can’t always side with your Auntie Liu just because she treats you well. Do I not treat you well?”
The old man began to mutter, counting in detail his care for Lu Que since he entered the police academy. In the end, Lu Que could only interrupt him: “Old Yan, why did you call?”
Ultimately, it couldn’t be just to chat if it were to eat at old Yan’s house, this kind of thing was usually invited by old Yan’s wife, since the financial power and dining choices of the Yan family were all with his wife.
Old Yan coughed and finally circled back to the main topic: “I called this time to tell you an important matter.”
“What?” The man’s eyes swept across the hanging planter on the balcony, which held a pot of spider ivy growing vibrantly.
This was what Shi Yunmu had clamored to raise on a whim. Even though the slime’s passion dissipated after three days and he washed his hands of it, the responsibility for watering was entirely pushed onto Lu Que.
Old Yan spoke in a deep voice, his voice gaining a bit of heaviness and seriousness: “The criminal your mother once personally captured, Yang Zhiming… he has been released from prison.”
“He was sentenced to twenty years back then, but it’s said he behaved well in prison, allowing his sentence to end early. But I always feel something is wrong.”
“You know, that case was handled by your mother and me together. I know Yang Zhiming’s character too well… he is extremely vindictive. Now that your mother has passed away, he will definitely shift his hatred onto your family.”
Lu Que spoke carelessly: “Then his revenge plan will probably fail.”
His irresponsible father had been abroad for the past two years, not even making a single phone call; his younger brother seemed to have participated in some experiment again, his phone confiscated, and wouldn’t be back for at least two months.
Old Yan was still very worried: “Lu Que, you still have to be careful. You don’t know what that madman can do.” He instructed Lu Que, “If you meet him, don’t confront him head-on, do you hear me?”
Lu Que: “Is he more powerful than a monster?”
Old Yan was speechless, blowing his mustache and staring: “Lu Que! Caution keeps the ship safe for ten thousand years, do you understand!”
He sighed and said, “What if that fellow Yang Zhiming brought a weapon and you didn’t, what then?”
Lu Que stopped arguing with him, knowing old Yan was worried about him: “Okay, I know.”
Old Yan was still very uneasy about this restless Comrade Lu Que, instructing him with a few more words before finally agreeing to let him hang up the phone.
Lu Que turned back, sat on the sofa, and lowered his eyelids, happening to see Shi Yunmu’s phone screen.
The youth was still sitting in place playing games, focusing intensely, his profile written with seriousness.
Lu Que looked closely; without him, Shi Yunmu’s record was even better.
Sure enough, as long as he wasn’t there, Shi Yunmu could perform better.