The setting sun cast a caramel glow on the gymnasium's transparent windows, while outside, the sky was ablaze with a tapestry of crimson hues.
Xue Meng and Little Dragon strolled around the vast space. At this hour, the gym was deserted, as training had ended, leaving only the fluorescent lights in the equipment room shining.
The duo exchanged glances before heading towards the equipment room.
They saw Mo Ran from his junior high days. Since he was only in the first year, his impoverished background hadn't provided him with adequate nutrition, so naturally, the boy hadn't grown much. He looked much the same as he did in the noodle shop—his diminutive frame clad in a baggy school uniform, with dirty black hair draping over his cheeks, like a ghostly, unremarkable youngster.
Mo Ran sat on the ground with his legs crossed, tidying up the used badminton shuttlecocks left by his classmates.
"Where are the others?" Xue Meng wondered. "Don't they help?"
Little Dragon flipped through the guidebook, frowning. "Hmm, they just played a badminton match against another class this afternoon and lost miserably... The rest of the team believes that Mo Ran held them back, so they left him here to sort out the equipment for everyone..."
After reading, he couldn't help but gasp. "Wow, that's harsh."
As the favored son of heaven, Xue Meng had never experienced being a scapegoat, so he was momentarily stunned. After a long moment, his eyes widened as he finally grasped the situation.
"Curses!" he exclaimed angrily. "What nonsense is this? Blaming one person for losing the game? Have these people's brains been stuck in a door?!"
"I admire your righteous indignation, Young Xue Meng," said Little Torch Dragon. "But it seems our current task is to trigger the female protagonist's encounter plot for the scapegoat, Mo Ran."
"I admire your ruthless pragmatism, you four-legged insect," Xue Meng rolled his eyes but still joined Little Dragon to study the available female characters they could pursue.
At this point in the game, there were three female characters that could be activated.
"One is called Yao Lan, a senior two years ahead of Mo Ran,"
"Well, graduation is coming up soon," Little Torch Dragon shook its head. "No way, there are too many unpredictable factors here."
"You're right about that," Xue Meng narrowed his eyes and looked at the next entry. "The second one is Rong Yan. Wait—what? The dean of students?!?"
Little Torch Dragon was stunned. "Mo Ran can actually romance the dean?"
"She's 36 years old! He's only 13! This isn't just a May-December romance, it's an aunt-nephew thing!"
In the midst of their cries, a large red cross suddenly appeared on the guide, followed by a shy, crooked line of text:
"orz My apologies, I miscalculated. This one can't be conquered."
Little Torch Dragon: "...."
Xue Meng: "So this guide isn't artificial intelligence, but artificial idiocy, right?"
Embarrassed and hurried, the guide swiftly erased the text about Rong Yan. In its rush, it even accidentally wiped out half of Yao Lan's photo.
"There's only one left," Xue Meng flipped the page. "This one, Luo Xianxian."
The guide described Luo Xianxian as the belle of Mo Ran's class, much sought after by the male students. She was gentle in nature, with high morals, never arrogant due to her beauty, and had a kind heart.
"Alright, alright, let's go with this one then," Xue Meng said. "If you keep praising her, I might fall for her myself. A perfect wife material."
"That's how it is for you," Little Torch Dragon, knowledgeable in such matters, replied. "Some men have unique tastes. They prefer ladies who are extra spicy, heels must be exactly 10cm, not a centimeter less. Fiery red lips, tiny leather whips, sunglasses, military caps, tight outfits – when angry, they don't slap just one side of the face, but both sides evenly."
Xue Meng commented, "Sounds like an advanced VIP member of an S&M club you're describing there."
Whether Mo Ran was such a VIP member, they had no idea.
Yet, they joyfully agreed on the notion that Luo Xianxian had a greater chance against Yao Lan.
The plan unfolded.
"Find a way to keep Mo Ran occupied in the equipment room until six o'clock when the evening self-study session begins," Xue Meng read aloud. "And make sure Mo Ran looks utterly miserable at that time."
"And what else?"
Xue Meng carefully perused the guide three or four times. "That's it."
"Is that all?" the little dragon asked in surprise.
"That's it," Xue Meng closed the book.
The dragon peered out and glanced at the wall clock. "It's almost five now. Just stall him for another hour. Easy enough."
Rolling up their sleeves, they got to work, stalling being a simple task. They watched Mo Ran carefully, and just as he managed to hang the ping-pong paddle on the rack with great effort, they cast a slight spell that made the rack wobble before toppling over in an absurdly anthropomorphic manner.
Amidst the commotion, the ping-pong balls tumbled to the floor like a cacophony of dissonant notes.
Mo Ran: "......"
Observing the puppy-like, wounded expression in the dark, pools of the little one's eyes, both Xue Meng and Little Torch Dragon couldn't help but feel an intense pang of guilt.
However, they still firmly believed that their actions were justified.
Mo Ran started to scramble, rearranging the scattered sports equipment on the floor—his movements were deft, and before long, he had almost everything back in place. Despite being drenched in sweat, his moist lips slightly parted as he caught his breath.
It was undeniable that he had a real knack for organizing.
Xue Meng watched, dumbfounded, as Mo Ran swiftly returned the last fallen ping-pong ball to its tube, pushing it into the corner. The entire cleaning process took only fifteen minutes.
"..." Xue Meng swallowed, nudging Little Dragon with his elbow. "Try again."
Thus, Mo Ran helplessly witnessed the equipment rack behaving as if possessed, inexplicably toppling over for a second time.
"......"
Then came the third, the fourth time...
They watched as Mo Ran, exhausted and diminutive, dashed around the court after the ball, drenched in sweat with a bewildered and helpless look in his eyes. Yet, he still earnestly tidied up the ball and meticulously checked if all four legs of the stand were stable before carefully placing the equipment back in its proper position.
However, the stand would always collapse at the very last moment.
In the end, Mo Ran stood in front of the stand, his eyes moist and filled with grievance—it seemed he believed that one of his classmates had set up an elaborate prank to tease him.
With the basketball hugged to his chest, his slender and solitary figure appeared both pathetic and vulnerable.
Xue Meng's conscience was already severely battered; he couldn't bear it anymore. "We're acting like villains."
Little Torch Dragon covered his pea-sized eyes with his chubby dragon claws and wailed, "No. Only you are the villain. I'm just a bad dragon, wuwuwuwu."
It was five minutes to six.
Mo Ran, once again gasping for breath, managed to set up the towering stand, which was four times his height. He descended from the ladder.
This time, he hesitated and stood in front of the stand, waiting for about ten seconds.
Nothing happened.
No one fell.
After a dozen seconds, he finally let out a sigh of relief and turned around, preparing to leave the equipment room with his heavy steps.
However, unbeknownst to him, Xue Meng and Little Dragon were already embroiled in an argument.
"You do it!"
"No! I just did it!"
"I pushed the rack more times than you!"
"I won't! My conscience won't allow it! I feel like I'm bullying the junior student!"
"Well, what about my conscience?!"
It was two minutes to six. Seeing that Mo Ran was about to exit, the mission was on the verge of failure. It was then that Xue Meng mustered up his courage, drawing upon the audacity he had honed from stamping blindly. With a determined bite of his lip, he raised his hand and struck the equipment rack forcefully.
Crash!
The entire rack, along with its contents, crashed to the ground in a cacophony, stirring up a cloud of dust beneath the illumination of the lights. It was a more complete collapse than any previous incident.
Both the translucent Xue Meng and the frightened little dragon, who had shrunk back at the entrance with a startled look, were left staring in disbelief.
"…But we did manage to hold on until after 6, didn't we?"
Afterward, it took little dragon a considerable amount of time to soothe Xue Meng's shattered psyche, which had been fragmented along with the fallen rack.
"Oh, come now, it wasn't your intention, you see... Heaven bestows great tasks upon those chosen..."
Xue Meng still had his hands over his face, crouching beside Mo Ran who was sitting with his lips bitten, quietly sorting through tools. "Shut up."
The little dragon fell silent.
But after a short while, Xue Meng heard its voice squawking again, "Hey! Hey, look over there—"
Xue Meng: "I said, shut up!"
Little Dragon: "Luo Xianxian is here!"
Xue Meng snapped his head up to see Luo Xianxian's plump yet graceful figure emerge from the slightly ajar gymnasium door, bathed in the gentle yellow light. She pushed the door open, revealing her long, fair legs beneath her school uniform's pleated skirt, as her sneakers softly tapped against the rubber floor, like a mermaid's graceful steps from the depths of the sea.
Holy. Light. Descends!!
That was all that echoed in Xue Meng's mind.
Tears welled up in his eyes. Finally! He no longer had to dishonestly prop up the equipment rack!! For this reason alone, he would give Luo Xianxian a perfect score for her entrance!
"Mo Ran?" Luo Xianxian's voice was soft and melodious, like summer orange blossoms.
Xue Meng and Little Torch Dragon wept tears of joy, believing that Mo Ran's gay life was now saved.
Class beauty Luo soon made her way to the equipment room, cautiously peering in with half her face. Upon seeing Mo Ran still occupied, her lovely eyes widened.
"Oh... Why is it such a mess?"
Mo Ran turned around to see her and sighed. "The rack fell."
"Torch Dragon, your teacher asked me to fetch you for evening study," Luo Xianxian entered the equipment room, scanning the area. "…I'll help you. It'll be faster with two of us, and we can head back together once we're done."
Mo Ran was taken aback, sweat trickling from his eyelashes into his eyes.
He wiped hurriedly, muttering gratefully, "Thank you."
"A beautiful start," Little Torch Dragon said, deeply moved.
"Reassuring," Xue Meng commented, profoundly touched.
The two teenagers, a boy and a girl in the dim-lit room, began to assist each other busily. The pleated skirt swayed gently with each step, while the boy's hands held up volleyball after volleyball, passing them to the lovely girl atop the ladder as she organized the equipment.
"Sob, sob, sob," Little Torch Dragon teared up. "Human love is so adorable."
Unusually, Xue Meng agreed, perhaps because he had orchestrated this scene. "Truly innocent and pure, it touches my heart."
The classmates climbed up and down, but Xue Meng's final move had been too rough, leaving the room in such disarray that it took longer than ever to tidy up. After over an hour of hard work, they still hadn't finished.
Thus, it was time for the gymnasium to close.
As the footsteps of the weekly patrol students echoed outside the door, Xue Meng and Little Torch Dragon were still basking in their joy, unable to snap out of it.
It wasn't until they turned around and saw the handsome senior enter with a clipboard and the patrol badge on his chest that they froze.
Xue Meng: "…"
Little Torch Dragon: "…"
Their smiles stiffened like dog feces under the sun, both of them involuntarily forming an 'O' shape with their mouths.
"This is the…" Xue Meng's throat went dry.
Little Torch Dragon, on the other hand, simply screamed, "That's Chu Wanning!"
Chu Wanning stepped into the cluttered equipment room, surprisingly calm despite his young age. He merely frowned at the aftermath of the tsunami-like chaos, "What happened here?"
Mo Ran turned his head, his eyes shining brightly with a sheen of sweat from the exertion.
The act of tidying up alongside Luo Xianxian had lifted his spirits and brought him happiness. Thus, he beamed a radiant smile at this unfamiliar senior, the dimples on his cheeks deepening.
"Items have spilled everywhere, we're currently tidying up. Senior, if you want to close the door, you'll have to wait a moment longer."
Chu Wanning sighed, setting down his notepad amidst Xue Meng and Little Torch Dragon's synchronized headshakes, before entering the small room that was originally occupied by just one man and one woman.
Though the senior had a stoic expression, their heart was kind: "I'll assist you both."
Luo Xianxian smiled, saying, "That would be wonderful. Thank you, Senior."
Little Dragon and Xue Meng roared in unison, "Thank him for what?!?!?!"
Due to the force with which Xue Meng slammed his elbow into the cabinet, a butterfly's wings flapped, altering fate's course once more.
When they used the Time Jumper to peer into the future twenty years later, they tragically discovered that Mo Ran, who had become the president of the school's investment firm, was leisurely chatting with the current Dean of Education on the stands of the very gymnasium. This was why the Guide's calculation had gone awry – it had mistakenly conflated Dean Rong with Dean Chu.
It was still around six in the evening, with the sky painted in a sea of scarlet hues, resembling a burning maple forest at dusk.
The spacious gymnasium was nearly deserted, with only the two of them seated in the stands and a pair of duty students sweeping the floor below. The facility had undergone extensive renovations and expansion since their school days, now several times larger than what they remembered. They sat at one end while the cleaning students were at the other, the distance so great that they appeared as nothing more than two indistinct shadows, their features obscured.
"And where is Luo Xianxian?" Little Torch Dragon asked persistently, hoping against hope with a quivering voice.
Xue Meng chose silence.
For he had seen Mister Mo grasp Teacher Chu's hand in a subtle, unassuming manner.
Later, when no one was looking, Mo Ran leaned in and swiftly planted a gentle kiss on Chu Wanning's cheek.
Damn it.
...Let's do this all over again!!
I refuse to believe there's no way out of this!!!
And so they used the teleportation device once more to reach another turning point in the game.
"Where are we this time?" Little Torch Dragon asked, still fuming and impatient, even as it regained its footing.
Xue Meng shared its anger and frustration. He quickly scanned their surroundings and made an accurate assessment. "It seems like an earlier era. Mo Ran is probably just starting kindergarten, and might not even have a clear concept of gender yet. This could be a prime opportunity to alter the game's ending."
"So, where exactly are we, then?"
Xue Meng pointed to the three o'clock direction on the left, accurately reading the cursive font on the entrance gate: "Trick or Treat Children's Amusement Park."
The Little Torch Dragon rubbed its fists eagerly, as if it was enveloped in a golden glow of determination. Its eyes blazed with fire: "Great! Amusement parks are where sweet little girls gather. This time, we must help Mo Ran win over the perfect partner – failure is not an option!"
But Xue Meng wasn't as impulsive as before. From their previous two failures, he had gleaned some experience. Before they began, he squinted in thought for a moment, then lifted his head.
"I'm wondering if we should try a different approach this time."
"Hey?" The Little Torch Dragon's whiskers twitched. "What do you mean?"
Xue Meng explained, "Our failures so far have been due to Chu Wanning's appearance. I have a bad feeling that even if we trigger the female protagonist's storyline again, Chu Wanning's subplot will still be triggered at some point. It's as if he has some special connection with Mo Ran, like a bug in this game."
The little dragon unhappily swished its tail. "Their so-called 'fate' is more like a buy-one-get-one-free shampoo deal at the supermarket."
"Exactly," Xue Meng said. "Imagine if we work hard to follow the guide and attract a pretty girl, but for some damned reason, Chu Wanning 'happens' to pass by again..."
The little dragon rolled its pea-sized eyes for just a second before letting out a heart-wrenching scream: "Then we're totally screwed!"
Xue Meng slapped his thigh. "Exactly! It's all ruined!"
"So what should we do?"
As a brilliant student unafraid to innovate, Xue Meng said with determination, "So I think, this time not only do we need to trigger the female route, but we also have to stop Chu Wanning, the NPC, from appearing!"
Little Dragon immediately clapped in approval. After a while, it realized it was still confused and tried to scratch its head with its tiny claws. Unfortunately, they were too short to reach its forehead.
Xue Meng glanced at it and kindly lifted his hand to scratch the little fellow's head.
As Little Torch Dragon purred contentedly, it asked, "Your plan sounds great, but there's one problem. We're not programmers, so we don't know if or when Chu Wanning will appear."
"I've thought of that," Xue Meng grinned. "This time, let's do nothing and let Mo Ran roam freely. Let's see under what circumstances he'll meet Chu Wanning. If they don't meet, that's perfect. If there's any chance of them crossing paths, we'll have to be extra cautious during the actual playthrough and avoid such situations as much as possible."
Little Dragon, either very pleased with the massage or genuinely impressed by the plan, or both, smacked its lips and sincerely praised, "You're right. You're just too amazing."
Thus, the two friends happily reached an agreement.
They decided to observe from the sidelines for this round, watching how Chu Wanning and Mo Ran serendipitously crossed paths within this amusement park.