Chapter 5

Pei Jin: “That’s hard.”
Wen Xi: “It’s easy.”
Pei Jin: “Then can you teach me to play games later? My classmates say I’m trash—they won’t play with me.”
Wen Xi: “Games are a separate score—you need 95.”
Pei Jin looked at him mournfully.
Around eleven thirty, Pei Yingzi arrived with the two elders.
The moment she saw Wen Xi, she fussed, “You’ve gotten thin again—move back in with me if it’s not working…”
“I’m not thin.” Wen Xi cut her off.
Pei Yingzi: “Your face is half the size it was.”
Wen Xi: “My face was always small—takes after you—oval face.”
Pei Yingzi bought it and nodded. “True enough.”
After lunch, some guests were sent to play cards; others kept drinking tea and chatting.
Wen Xi hadn’t slept well that morning, so he slipped out to the car for peace and a nap.
After about an hour, someone tapped his window. Wen Xi opened his eyes—Pei Jin’s chubby face was pressed flat against the glass, nose squashed.
Wen Xi rolled the window down. “What? Cosplaying a pig?”
Pei Jin muttered, “I don’t wanna hang with the grown-ups.”
Wen Xi: “I’m a grown-up too.”
Pei Jin: “You’re a middle-grown-up.”
What a vocabulary.
“How’d you know I was here?” Wen Xi asked.
“Aunt brought me.”
Pei Jin pointed at Pei Yingzi not far off.
She was still waving, telling him to watch Pei Jin properly.
Wen Xi unlocked the doors with a sigh. Pei Jin climbed into the passenger seat with his tablet.
“Keep the volume down.” Wen Xi warned him, then closed his eyes again.
“Mm-hmm.”
Pei Jin obediently turned the volume way down—but the car was quiet, and Wen Xi could still hear the game SFX clearly.
Not noisy; for someone who gamed long-term, it was almost ASMR.
Car seats beat a bed, though. Wen Xi’s legs were cramped, arms folded—he shifted a few times, nothing comfortable, and finally opened his eyes.
Pei Jin was still inting in the Rift—badly. Wen Xi had just heard their jungler flame over mic: “You die faster than my blue buff.”
He pitied that team.
Wen Xi adjusted the seat, sat up, pulled out his phone, replied to a few WeChats, and when he backed to the home screen, his eyes caught the pink icon again.
Yesterday he’d sworn he’d flash the phone; today he hesitated.
He had time to kill anyway—he’d open it again and see if it was worth keeping. Flashing was a hassle.
Just in case, he set the phone to silent.
Watching the familiar splash, he vaguely remembered logging off with a new quest pending last night.
What was it again?
Author’s note:
Wen Xi rubbed his forehead with a wry smile: Idiots—I’ve got two at home.
The game loaded. First thing he saw was still yesterday’s shabby little flat—but it was empty; the chibi sprite was gone.
Wen Xi thought he was hiding in the tub again; he panned and zoomed inside the tub—still no sprite.
The room was a shoebox with nowhere to hide. The character had legs, sure—but he wouldn’t just run off without telling the player, would he?
A bug?
While he wondered, he noticed the recorder icon at the bottom of the screen blinking red—and remembered what it did. He tapped in.
It wasn’t video—long text narration.
【Wen Siran wanted a bath but couldn’t fill the tub—he asked you for help.】
【Wen Siran waited a long time with no answer. He washed his feet, got in bed, said good night, and explained he always washed his feet before sleep—he’s very clean—hopes you don’t misunderstand.】
【Because you slept well, Wen Siran felt warm, full, and dreamed sweetly.】
【Early morning, Mr. Fenrir woke him and sent him to school through a special passage.】
【Wen Siran couldn’t wash his face or change clothes—he showed up to class in pajamas.】
【Classmates laughed at him—he was embarrassed.】
【When seats were assigned, his assigned deskmate refused to sit with him—said he smelled. He was upset and bared his teeth at someone.】
【Teacher Eric soothed him, picked a new deskmate—they shook hands nicely.】
【The school handed out books and notebooks. Wen Siran had no bag—he felt glum.】
【Class is in session—please wait until he comes home to show you today’s progress.】
Oh—so he was at school.
Showing up in PJs as a student was on Wen Xi—that was negligence. Time to hit the shop.
As soon as Wen Xi left the recorder, Fenrir’s bubble popped.
Question from Fenrir: 【Welcome back, dear Master. Today is little Siran’s first school day—but without a uniform he’s treated like a freak. Will you buy him one?】
【Yes】【No】
Same question as last night.
Having read the log, Wen Xi naturally chose “Yes.”
The moment he tapped, a purple gift box bounced onto the screen.
【Limited super-value bundle】
【Was 88 yuan—now 1 yuan】
Contains:
【Fine suit set × 1】
【Ultra-practical messenger bag × 1】
【Black dress shoes × 1】
【Points × 88】
【Unlock auto-dress】
System: 【Purchase?】
For one yuan, there wasn’t much to think about.
Couldn’t lose, couldn’t be fooled.
Even if he quit the game later, no pain.
Wen Xi tapped buy.
Payment succeeded; everything went to the bag on the right—then another alert.
System: 【Achievement unlocked: “Big Spender I”—home feature: Gold Mailbox.】
Gold mailbox?
What was that?
While he wondered, two pink bats appeared—one with a pole, one lugging a tin box. They landed at the sprite’s door, hammered away, and assembled an outdoor mailbox.
The moment it was up, Fenrir’s chatter box appeared.
Guidance from Fenrir: 【Amazing—Master got the gold mailbox! Claim gold every time you log in from now on～Let’s learn how it works.】
Wen Xi followed the arrow and tapped the exclamation mark on the mailbox to read the rules.
Per the description, the mailbox had two reward modes:
Offline rewards and online rewards.
The longer you stayed online, the more gold. Offline rewards capped at twelve hours—beyond that, gold stopped accruing. Gold also scaled with the sprite’s rank—higher rank, more gold online and off.
It nudged players to log in often and grind quests to level the sprite. Like other games—base currency came from grinding.
Wen Xi had been down to 300 gold; above the mailbox a transparent box appeared with a coin icon and the number 2000.
System: 【Mailbox installed—bonus 2000 gold. Please claim.】
Stingy as always—but better than nothing.
After claiming, Fenrir guided him to outfit design.
Request from Fenrir: 【Kind Master—all succubi love looking good. Please get little Siran a few more outfits～】
As the caption vanished, a transparent finger pointed at the premium gacha’s ten-pull button; small text read: 【Guaranteed set】
A premium ten-pull cost 2000 gold—the gift hadn’t even cooled before it was all gone.
Understandable; every game pushed spending somehow—how else would the company make money?
Wen Xi hit the ten-pull.
Effects played; prizes popped one by one.
Four pairs of torn socks, two plain white tees, one pair of blue jeans, fuzzy slippers and sandals one each, and the “premium” set was a khaki coat and black casual pants.
Most of it made sense—but torn socks? Those were wearable?
System: 【Congratulations—2000 gold spent total. Map unlocked: secondhand market Moyu.】
A… flea market?
Fenrir: 【Wow—of course you found it, Master—I won’t hide it～Come learn about Moyu with me—it’ll save you more gold～】
Wen Xi opened the map, saw the new icon glow, and tapped in.
Under Fenrir’s intro, he listed the torn socks from the pull—15 gold a pair—then skimmed Moyu’s buy page.
Discounted furniture and clothes—fifteen to thirty-five percent cheaper than the shop.
Random stock, not as complete as the mall—gold only.
Wen Xi spotted a blue bed for 96 on sale—soft mattress included, 100% new, never used.
Thinking of the sprite’s broken plank bed, he splurged and bought it to swap in.
The kid had to wake early for school—let him sleep soft at night or he’d doze in class.