He got up and left the living room. No one noticed the departure of the protagonist; the remaining three continued to argue about the authenticity of the interview notice. His aunt and Lu Mingze felt somewhat disheartened. If this letter were genuine, it would be an enormous stroke of luck that hadn’t befallen anyone in ten years, yet it had landed on Lu Mingfei. His aunt was unaccustomed to this sluggish child suddenly becoming energized; how could Lu Mingze surpass him in the future?
Lu Mingfei returned to his room, logged onto QQ, and stared at the girl’s avatar wearing a baseball cap. The avatar was still gray, either offline or invisible, and there were no messages. He glanced at the wall clock; it had been 18 hours since he left a message asking Chen Wenwen if she wanted to join the literary club’s event tomorrow night.
In reality, Chen Wenwen didn’t wear a baseball cap; she had a head of fine, straight long hair, very beautiful, needing no cap to conceal it. Lu Mingfei had met Chen Wenwen on the day he entered school. She had been discreetly dropped off by a Passat, wearing a white cotton dress and lace-trimmed white ankle socks, with a “Hello Kitty” hairpin in her long hair. The most eye-catching girl in Lu Mingfei’s class should be “Little Fairy” Su Xiaoqian, who arrived in a full DKNY outfit, sent by a Mercedes S500. Her eyes sparkled with pride as she waved goodbye to her father, who was in the coal mining business, before entering the classroom to register, surveying the boys in the new class with an expectant gaze, hoping they would look back at her with admiration. But the boys all looked sideways at the corners by the window. After Chen Wenwen finished her paperwork, she sat on a bench with a copy of Duras’ “The Lover,” the sunlight casting a translucent glow on her cotton dress and skin, as she was transparent.
“The Little Fairy” had been proud for fifteen years, but on her first day of high school, she was defeated by a small, artistic girl, leaving her feeling resentful. To make matters worse, a clueless boy standing next to her pointed at Chen Wenwen and whispered to “The Little Fairy,” “That girl must be the beauty of our new class.”
Having never experienced such humiliation, “The Little Fairy” stepped hard on the boy’s foot and turned to leave.
That boy was Lu Mingfei.
In truth, Lu Mingfei was a very straightforward person; he thought Chen Wenwen was prettier than “The Little Fairy,” so he said so, not realizing he had made an enemy of her for three whole years. At that time, there were seven or eight boys gathered around Chen Wenwen, all thinking the same thing, but everyone else understood the principle of “admiring quietly.” Later, these boys formed a literary club, and the core of the club was Chen Wenwen. Every week they would gather to read some cold and sad European and American literary works and write reflections to submit to their Chinese teacher for grading. According to Lu Mingfei’s uncle, they were reading books that “middle-class white women” would read, leaving him puzzled about why someone like Lu Mingfei, who was a guy with some missing screws in his head, was a council member of the literary club.
For Lu Mingfei, Chen Wenwen was the first female idol in his life, establishing an image of a good girl who is suitable for family life. At fifteen, Lu Mingfei thought the greatest happiness in the world would be marrying Chen Wenwen. He felt he had a glimmer of hope because he had been invited by Chen Wenwen to join the literary club. The club president, Chen Wenwen, had only invited two members: Lu Mingfei and Zhao Menghua, whom “The Little Fairy” was determined to win. Describing Zhao Menghua is simple; he was the most likely candidate in school to become the “second Chu Zihang.”
Zhao Menghua was also applying to study abroad but had not received any offers. Yet this stupid Cassell College had sent an interview notice to Lu Mingfei.
“Want to play a match?” A big cat avatar with the name “Nono” popped up on QQ. Lu Mingfei didn’t remember when he had added this person, but he never refused anyone’s invitation since few people added him in the first place.
“Sure,” Lu Mingfei replied lazily.
Lu Mingfei continued to use the red dot to operate. He had things on his mind and felt sluggish. Moreover, “Nono” sounded like a girl, while the real strong players in the channel were all middle-aged men. However, Lu Mingfei soon discovered that this opponent was not only fierce but also cunning. At the moment he got distracted, his scouting worker bee was ambushed by two small dogs. Losing one worker bee was no big deal, but the clever little trap made Lu Mingfei alert. He reinforced his defenses at home, sending out six dogs to patrol the area, which saved his life. The opposing team’s small dogs were detected by him at the very moment they tried to invade, losing their opportunity to launch a sneak attack.
Lu Mingfei could not afford to be careless again; he connected his mouse.
The formal battle had just begun. The main units of both sides upgraded from small dogs to spike snakes, and they both sent out flying dragons for air strikes simultaneously, executing a dual-line assault. When the queen made her appearance, the fighting had already heated up; both sides had four bases each, and mixed troops were engaged in fierce tug-of-war in the central open area, with splashes of blood spilling across the battlefield. Lu Mingfei was sweating, his hands dancing on the keyboard as if playing the piano. He guessed his opponent was also feeling the pressure; both sides were competing in micro-managing to a level that could rival professional players. This was the first time Lu Mingfei encountered such a strong opponent, igniting his competitive spirit. He decided to take the risk of upgrading his main base to level three and deployed the “three sets of vehicles”: Devourers, Guardians, and Mammoths. This was a fundamental strategic shift. If his opponent hesitated even slightly and did not attack while he was spending resources on upgrades, Lu Mingfei was sure to win.
The upgrade progress bar slowly advanced, and Lu Mingfei’s heart raced, his palms sweaty. He feigned strength by adding a team of spike snakes and three infiltrators outside; if his opponent believed Lu Mingfei was amassing a heavy force and was afraid to attack, she would be fooled. Lu Mingfei had used up all his resources on the upgrade.
It was close—very close—the upgrade was about to complete. Once the “three sets of vehicles” were deployed, they could steadily eliminate the enemy’s bases one after another.
Lu Mingfei felt the dawn of victory.
“You’re upgrading to a level three base,” a line of text popped up at the bottom of the screen.
Lu Mingfei was stunned.
“You can retreat now. I have four teams of spike snakes and four teams of dogs, all upgraded to level two offense and defense,” Nono continued typing.
The progress bar was about to finish, but Lu Mingfei could only type out “GG.” He had been seen through; while Nono was typing, she shared her vision with him. Outside the level three base that Lu Mingfei was upgrading, Nono’s troops were pressing in. Once she attacked, it would be a devastating victory.
Lu Mingfei exited the game and returned to the QQ interface, telling Nono, “Impressive!”
Nono did not reply but left a grinning emoji with big teeth and logged off.
For the first time in his life, Lu Mingfei felt as if someone had seen through him, like a very close friend who had left for many years and then returned to find him. He sat there in a daze for a moment, clicked to view Nono’s profile, but it was blank. He searched his memory, certain he didn’t know such a skilled StarCraft player, and a girl at that.
Chen Wenwen’s avatar was bouncing in the list but was gray, indicating she had been online but had already left.