A life without desserts to eat? Absolutely not.
Although the salary of a teacher at the Imperial Mecha Academy could not be considered low, due to his physical condition, simply purchasing medication every month was a huge expense. Over so many years, Lin Xiansheng hadn’t really saved much money.
All things considered, he only had two thousand-star coins to his name right now, while the equipment Dr. White mentioned required five thousand just for the deposit.
Using desserts as a fatal weakness could be said to be a one-hit kill.
Well, why hadn’t he noticed before that Dr. White also had such a dark-bellied side to him?
“Don’t ask me if I can make an exception, oh.” Before Lin Xiansheng could voice it out, Dr. White had already preemptively blocked his last retreat: “If you don’t have the money, obediently listen to the doctor. Alright, I need to prepare the herbs; you can head out.”
With that, Dr. White chased the young man out of the laboratory, adjusted his glasses by himself, and continued to focus on analyzing the fluctuating data and charts on his terminal.
Fine, it seemed begging for mercy was out of the question.
Lin Xiansheng sighed, silently turning around to head up to the second floor. He had better be a good boy and obey instructions for this period; if he really angered Dr. White to the limit, the person suffering in the end would be none other than himself.
Not long after he returned to his bedroom, Dr. White pushed the door open carrying a bowl of dark brown liquid medicine, walking and gently muttering along the way: “This medicine is very bitter, but it’s very effective for reducing the fever. You must drink all of it. It’s a bit hot right now, though; wait for it to cool down before drinking.”
Compared to his previous attitude toward taking medicine, Lin Xiansheng behaved exceptionally well this time, quickly agreeing: “Alright.”
However, Dr. White completely refused to believe Lin Xiansheng’s words this time. Only after monitoring the young man as he drank every single drop of the medicine without leaving any behind did he nod in satisfaction.
Satisfaction was one thing, but the matter of disobeying doctor’s orders couldn’t just be written off. Before leaving, Dr. White didn’t forget to issue one more reminder: “Don’t forget to transfer the money to me within five days.”
Lin Xiansheng helplessly picked up his terminal to check the balance in his star card. Just as he had estimated, it was neither more nor less—precisely two thousand.
Meanwhile, the full price for the equipment Dr. White needed was around twenty thousand, and trying to scrape together so much money within five days seemed somewhat impossible.
The young man suddenly frowned slightly, his pretty eyebrows knitting together. The medicine he had just swallowed unexpectedly left a lingering aftertaste, and a bitterness that made one want to retch instantly filled his mouth.
He felt around in his pockets, but they were completely empty, with nothing inside.
During this period, under Lu Jing’s supervision, the rule of only eating three candies and one cake per week was strictly enforced, and the last candy of this week had been eaten by him two days ago.
The time had already reached three o’clock in the afternoon, and the glaring sunlight outside the window had softened by now. The tiny dust particles floating in the air inside the bedroom twinkled brightly in the sunlight.
He never expected that he would one day be troubled by money.
Not knowing what he thought of, the young man’s gaze drifted aimlessly, not really looking at anything in particular. As the bitterness in his mouth slowly faded away, he finally lowered his double eyelids.
The terminal in his hand lit up, and several news push notifications popped up. None other than the news regarding today’s Xinghai Academy anniversary.
That’s right, the college anniversary wasn’t over yet.
His scattered thoughts slowly returned, and Lin Xiansheng remembered that the college anniversary was still ongoing right now… as well as the General who should have attended the anniversary but suddenly left in the morning.
After falling silent for a moment, Lin Xiansheng opened the Starnet. The topics with the highest current discussion volume were still the General’s appearance at the Xinghai Academy anniversary and his sudden departure.
Actually, Lin Xiansheng wasn’t certain whether Lu Xincheng’s sudden departure from the school was really because he went home. He opened the trending topics, and after failing to see any useful information inside, he backed out.
“Such high traffic.” Although he didn’t log onto Starnet frequently, he still knew how terrifying the traffic was to be able to stay on the Starnet trending search top rankings for so long.
And to achieve this level of traffic, aside from the Imperial General, there were only a few top-tier celebrities in the entertainment industry and the game Virtual Life in the interstellar era.
The game…
The silver-haired young man blinked his eyes. He tilted his head slightly toward the wooden desk, where a holographic helmet sat. The silver-white lacquer finish reflected a metallic gloss under the sunlight outside the window.
The game Virtual Life was immensely popular across the interstellar era, and naturally, it lacked no pay-to-win tycoons. Climbing the various weekly rankings, acquiring precious props required for mechas, and duels between interstellar alliances all required players to invest massive amounts of time and money.
After so many years of development, Virtual Life had long formed a complete system and industrial chain. The in-game currency—Star Points—could even be exchanged for star coins at a certain ratio. Countless studios made a fortune by buying and selling props, upgrading mechas, helping bosses boost their ranking standings, and operating alliances.
Even if someone quit playing the game, account data could still be bought, sold, and transferred on the official website, making account valuations quite good at retaining value.
According to Zhang Zhou, he had started playing Virtual Life when the servers first opened. Back then, his luck was off the charts, and he drew a relatively rare limited-time prop in the shopping mall.
The game wasn’t massively popular at that time, and shortly after he drew it, someone private-chimed him offering a few thousand to buy the account.
Zhang Zhou was still in high school back then, and a few thousand was his entire family’s living expenses for a month. Without even thinking, he sold it directly. By the time the game blew up in popularity later on, and he learned that the out-of-print prop he had drawn couldn’t be bought even for hundreds of thousands, he felt regret to his bones.
From this, one could tell to a certain extent just how well-retained an account’s value was in this game.
Lin Xiansheng thought for a moment, and picked up the silver-white holographic helmet from the desk. His execution ability was always very strong; once he had an idea, without hesitating this time, he placed it directly on his head.
After a brief few seconds of darkness, the vast river of stars appeared before his eyes once again.
Even within the game, there were still many people on the interstellar public channel discussing today’s Xinghai Academy anniversary and the Imperial General.
Having not played for a few days, his operations felt somewhat rusty. Lin Xiansheng sat inside a mecha, simply glanced at the public channel for a few moments, and opened the solo point leaderboard. Because it was already the next week, the solo point leaderboard had reset, and he could only find his name on the historical point leaderboard next to it. His points from last week landed him right at tenth place on the historical leaderboard.
Following the rankings on the historical leaderboard, he casually looked upward. The moment the ID located at the very top caught his eye, his heart skipped a beat.
After skipping a beat, Lin Xiansheng suddenly noticed that something seemed wrong.
“?”
Wait, why did he see a friend badge right behind the ID ranked first on the history leaderboard?
The young man’s eyes widened slightly, losing his usual calm and collected demeanor, to the point that even the action of opening his friend list looked somewhat flustered.
This account originally only added the main accounts of Zhang Zhou and Lu Jing. Yet now, a golden ID was pressed right above the IDs of Zhang Zhou and Lu Jing, appearing at the very top of his friend list!
Furthermore, it was an online status displayed only to friends!
At that time, his mind was unclear, which was why he sent a friend request. Never mind his own muddled mind, why would the Imperial General’s account agree to it?
And this account was even online right now.
…It couldn’t possibly be that the Imperial General left early this morning just to come home and play games.
This reason was far too laughable. After a brief moment of panic, Lin Xiansheng quickly sorted out his thoughts. Rather than believing the Imperial General was playing games, he preferred to believe that someone else was using this account.
As for why his request was accepted, perhaps there was some purpose behind it. Having confirmed this point, the young man breathed a slight sigh of relief. He opened the game map and continued exploring the game.
However, what he didn’t know was that the person logging into the game right now… was actually the original account owner himself.
Not many among the imperial upper echelons knew the whereabouts of the General’s residence, and the things the old man said about people blocking the entrance right before Lin Xiansheng left were simply a lie. The person who truly returned through the front entrance was none other than the Imperial General—Lu Xincheng.
Inside the study of the villa, only a single dim desk lamp was lit. The warm light shone upon the man wearing a black-and-gold-tasselled military uniform, making even the cold and rigid lines of his jaw look much softer.
Lu Xincheng sat before the desk, closing his eyes to rest. Cradled in his arms was an obedient ragdoll cat.
Aside from him, there was also someone lying on the sofa with a book covering their face inside the study. That person was none other than Wen Fengyu, who had just bolted out from the banquet.
Wen Fengyu lazily raised his arm, then suddenly bent it, using his slender fingers to pinch the edge of the book and applying slight force to lift the book up, revealing a quite handsome face.
He glanced at the completely motionless man, sat up briskly and neatly with a resentful look in his eyes, and couldn’t help complaining: “Brother, do you know those ladies at today’s banquet—when they saw that the person who came was me, those looks in their eyes made it seem like they wanted to kill me?!”
Although news that the General would attend the mecha academy anniversary had long been circulating, there were still some aristocratic ladies who refused to give up. When they saw that the person who actually attended the palace banquet was him… just thinking about the fantastic expressions on those ladies’ faces gave Wen Fengyu a chill all down his back, and goosebumps broke out all over.
He shivered, hastily shaking those terrifying expressions out of his mind. Seeing that Lu Xincheng ignored him, Wen Fengyu’s expression grew even more resentful, and he added: “Right, I heard Old Ke say you had him bring back a sick guest today? Who is that person? Do I know them?”
And this question was precisely one of the main points of why Wen Fengyu had rushed straight over after attending the banquet.
Goodness knows how many years it had been since they allowed outsiders to come here, given their General’s cold personality. Besides, the person was sick—never mind not sending them to the hospital, he actually brought someone else home instead?
No matter how he thought about it, something felt off.
Coupled with the fact that shortly after Old Ke brought that person back today, the General—who should have been attending the anniversary—also left early.
All signs indicated that this matter was far from simple.
Wen Fengyu had always been intensely curious; he had to properly dig into this kind of matter.
Sure enough, upon hearing him bring up this topic, the man who was still closing his eyes to rest made a slight movement.
“Say, the two of us have known each other for so long anyway, we’ve been through life and death together—you can’t keep things from me when something happens!” Sensing there was hope, Wen Fengyu raised an eyebrow and continued to relentlessly pursue the question.
The cold-tempered man in front of the desk finally opened his eyes. He stroked the purring little ragdoll in his arms, and after a moment, said calmly: “He is a friend of that late friend of mine.”
This reason was way too perfunctory!
Having waited for half a day without hearing the next sentence, Wen Fengyu secretly made a funny face. However, he also knew that with Lu Xincheng’s cold and (withdrawn) personality, being able to reveal even a bit of information was already quite rare.
Anyway, if he could learn a little bit of news, it would be fine; he could figure out who that person was later. And right now, came the second main point of why he rushed over. The blond youth jumped down from the sofa, grinning as he held a latest-model terminal and placed it in front of Lu Xincheng.
“Fine, fine, I won’t meddle in your affairs either. Virtual Life just released a new dungeon yesterday that requires a team to clear. Hurry, hurry, as your reward for attending the banquet, come help me push the rankings!”