Chapter 6: Fortunately, My House Is Quite Spacious
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The May sunshine was warm and radiant, yet Lu Mingfei felt only an overwhelming, chilling coldness crashing down upon him, as if he were trapped inside an everlasting ice cave in Antarctica. He repeatedly confirmed that the phone number on his screen was correct—those eleven digits he knew by heart. He dialed again and again, only to be met with the same gentle yet icy female voice. Unwilling to believe it, he tried calling several other numbers, but without exception, they were all disconnected.
“How could this be?”
The seventeen-year-old boy stared fixedly at the string of unanswered calls on his phone, his gaze as panicked and isolated as a lone wolf wandering the vast tundra. When he first sensed the world line had shifted, he had worried that the relationships from his previous life might not carry over into this reborn world. But he had clung to hope, unwilling to truly face the possibility. Reality, however, had dealt him a crushing blow.
Better than Bit Girl’s Lushan Rising Dragon Strike—this was more relentless!
“No, wait! There’s still QQ—my calls don’t go through, but my friends list must still have them!”
Like a drowning man clutching at a lifeline, Lu Mingfei fumbled to open the newly installed QQ app.
“Account—unchanged! Password—correct!”
Heart pounding with excitement, he logged in to see an endearing bear avatar staring back at him, with the nickname “MingMing” written in a cutesy, repetitive style that almost made him mistake it for a girl’s account. Well, it was at least decent—it wasn’t some trendy emo or punk style.
Without paying much attention to the personal info, Lu Mingfei browsed through his friends list, mostly classmates and gamers he'd met online. He scoured the list over and over but could not find the familiar avatars or IDs. Even searching by QQ number yielded no results.
“How can they be gone?” Frantically, he scrolled down repeatedly. No matter how he searched, only one black-and-white panda avatar matched an ID.
That was Old Tang, a gamer friend he’d met playing StarCraft, who lived in Brooklyn, New York, and was neighbors with Captain America.
They’d been close friends for years. Whenever Lu Mingfei traveled to the U.S. for tournaments, Old Tang would pick him up and arrange lodging, so much so that Lu Mingfei still hadn’t seen the inside of any Brooklyn hotels. It was four in the afternoon here, but nighttime in America. Old Tang, a night owl, was probably just going to sleep. Lu Mingfei sent a casual “Get up to pee” message and then stopped bothering him.
Logging out, Lu Mingfei’s fingers flew over the keyboard as he swiftly logged into his alternate account.
Since the main account had no familiar friends, he hoped his small account might bring some surprises.
But...
“What the hell is ‘Sunset’s Scar’?!”
Staring at the avatar of a short-haired, cute girl with a hint of melancholy in her signature, Lu Mingfei’s brows furrowed deeply.
Something was suddenly very wrong.
Opening the friends list, there was only one contact—someone named “Lonely Greedy Snake,” whose QQ signature echoed the same forced sorrowful tone as the small account.
What on earth was going on here?!
Lu Mingfei felt uneasy. This small account looked like some fake persona. Was it a trap, or was he genuinely hungry?
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Clicking into Greedy Snake’s space, he was met with a selfie of a chubby kid striking a cool pose at a forty-five-degree angle, his round face dotted with unmistakable signs of youthful acne, looking particularly greasy.
“...” Lu Mingfei’s eyelids twitched, a bad feeling rising in his gut.
Suddenly, a “beep beep” notification sounded—an incoming message from a friend.
His hands moved faster than his brain could process, and he opened the message instantly.
“Sunset? You’re online?”
“Sunset, today my piano teacher praised me, saying my silhouette while playing 'Für Elise' looked like the Piano Prince Richard. Next time, I’ll change the melody and name it ‘For Sunset’ and play it for you, how about that?”
Not great—I’m afraid your hundred-plus pounds would break Beethoven’s coffin lid.
“Oh, and here’s a secret: today my troublesome cousin insisted on running away from home. Though I tried to stop him, sadly, I couldn’t keep him.”
That’s not just storytelling, that’s a twisted rewrite. You owe an apology to the whole neighborhood!
“But don’t worry—I secretly gave him my saved pocket money. If he’s careful, he can last at least a month.”
How noble of you, hehe.
Noble? More like a desert cowboy cursing the land! This talent for blatant lying left Lu Mingfei no choice but to fire back a message:
“Really? Then send me your cousin’s QQ number.”
“Why do you want his QQ?” The lonely chubby snake replied instantly, puzzled but still pasted the number.
Lu Mingfei sneered, “Since he’s wandering outside, and my house is pretty big, I can invite him to live with me. Also, my parents are on a business trip, so it’s a bit scary for a girl to live alone~”
Lu Mingze: Σ(°△°|||)︴
“He’s got money, I’ve got a house. We’re a perfect match, thanks~ hehe~”
Lu Mingze: ━Σ(ﾟДﾟ|||)━
Sitting at the computer, the chubby kid’s smile froze on his face. His fingers danced frantically over the keyboard, trying to send a message to confirm if Sunset was joking. But as soon as he sent it, a red exclamation mark popped up: the message was rejected, and he was blacklisted.
Staring at this, the chubby kid stood dumbfounded.
The song “A Thousand Miles Away” that had been playing to celebrate Lu Mingfei’s departure suddenly took on a whole new meaning.
Wait, he was using my money!
No, that’s wrong. He didn’t have money at all. The nine hundred yuan he saved for three years to buy a PS2 was all given to me as hush money—he’s a complete pauper!
Having endured countless heart-wrenching one-sided breakups, the chubby kid tried to recover the situation.
But the explanatory messages never went through; the glaring exclamation mark seemed to mock his foolishness and helplessness.
Lu Mingze’s face twisted with sorrow and rage like a doomed soul about to be poisoned. His chubby hands slammed down hard on the keyboard as he cried out in collapse:
“No——!!!”
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With both fists pounding, the song switched to the melancholic “A Cut Plum Blossom.” The Lich King’s rich, heartfelt voice filled the room as the chubby kid’s sadness overwhelmed him like a raging river:
“(;´༎ຶД༎ຶ`) Sunset!!!”
Next door, an auntie, still reeling from her financial loss, glared with bulging veins on her forehead and shouted angrily, “Lu Mingze, what kind of madness are you having?!”
In the living room, a weary uncle slumped on the sofa, rubbing his face and sighing deeply:
“What a curse…”
Smiles don’t disappear—they just shift.
A faint laugh echoed near Lu Mingfei’s ears. He thought he might have chuckled quietly to himself.
Successfully transferring his negative emotions onto Lu Mingze, he suddenly felt much lighter.
He was a natural optimist.
Not being able to contact friends and family from his past life didn’t matter; he could simply start over and build new bonds.
Man can conquer fate—what’s meant for me will belong to me!
Looking on the bright side, perhaps the reason for having no connection with the Chu family was that, during the typhoon five years ago, neither he nor his father had been involved in a car accident or suffered injuries.
“Yes, it must be like that.” Lu Mingfei nodded and put away his phone as he walked toward the edge of the neighborhood.
Since he had said he was leaving, he wouldn’t look back.
He had money in his pocket; if he couldn’t seek refuge with Uncle Chu, he could always book a hotel room or stay overnight at an internet café if it was inconvenient.
Passing a newsstand, the old man selling newspapers noticed him carrying a bag and stopped him out of curiosity:
“It’s almost evening, where are you headed with your things?”
Today, the one buying “Most Novels” was that fat kid from the Lu family. No one was there to borrow “Home Appliances and Games,” which made him a little uneasy, fearing the evening sun would set in the east.
“The world is so big, I want to take a walk.”
After exchanging payment, Lu Mingfei didn’t feel like airing family troubles. He gave a casual answer to brush it off.
The old man closed his copy of “Dream of the Red Chamber” with a sigh:
“Hey, kid, are you planning to abandon literature for martial arts and roam the world?”
“You caught me, sir, you’ve got sharp eyes.” Lu Mingfei bowed respectfully, trying to glean some information for free:
“Do you have any old newspapers from a few years back? It would be good to have some bedding for when I sleep rough.”
“You’ll have to go to the recycling center. They’ve all been sold.”
“Alright then.” Since it was just casting a wide net, it didn’t matter if he came up empty. Lu Mingfei clasped his hands and said farewell:
“Sir, we shall meet again someday!”
With that, he strode away confidently, the sunlight casting a long shadow behind him—like a young knight brimming with ambition stepping into the chaotic martial world, determined to carve out a glorious name for himself.