Chapter 61
"Welcome to Nightmare Game!"
"In this game, players can choose to be human or choose to be a 'ghost.' From the ghost's perspective, you need to pull all kinds of spooky stunts to get the thick-skinned NPCs to notice you—but every prank damages the NPCs, so our human players also need to complete tasks to build rapport with them."
"For maximum immersion, Nightmare Game uses photorealistic character models and full panoramic VR. Players can fully inhabit the protagonist's perspective. The human and the 'ghost' must work together to survive in a city crawling with serial killers and vengeful spirits."
"The game features three storyline paths: HE, BE—and one hidden Easter egg ending."
At the Mengchen Tech Season One game launch event, a beautiful host was enthusiastically introducing the product details.
Thanks to its extreme immersion (plus the residual hype from when it was Xuanchen Tech), a mere demo on the official website had sent the game trending on day one. The PS4 and AR Magic Mirror title dominated search rankings, with thousands of gaming streamers broadcasting simultaneously, racking up over eight million concurrent viewers online.
With the themed haunted house and immersive murder-mystery experiences opening on the same day, fans spread the word far and wide—and then noticed that Mengchen's CEO had also refreshed his Weibo homepage at the exact same time!
This guy rarely posted, but every time he did, it was a blockbuster!
Following his previous avatar swap to the rosy-cheeked little girl, he had now uploaded his own wedding photos—a full nine-photo grid!
"You are my dream, and I am your minister @Lian XiaoXia."
Notably, the account he tagged had a completely blank Weibo—no posts at all, not even a profile picture.
Somehow it gave off the vibe of someone being so endearingly clueless that it looped back around to being adorable.
Weibo exploded all over again. Lian Xia's background was immediately dug up and dissected. Even her neighbor Ximei gave an interview to the local media, exposing the skeletons in her closet—like the time she'd climbed trees to steal bird eggs as a kid.
Ava had a modest following of tens of thousands on Weibo herself. Seeing the momentum, she swiftly rode the coattails of the trend, posting a blurry photo of Lian Xia hard at work at her desk in the comments section—and gained a hundred thousand followers overnight.
The other roommates followed suit, and the comment section turned into a massive family reunion.
With love and career both in full bloom, Gu Xichen was naturally riding high.
On the sly, he picked up Lian Xia's Weibo account and set their wedding photo as her profile picture, planning to post something to ride his own trending topic. But his phone rang before he could.
Seeing the caller ID, his buoyant mood instantly curdled.
When he didn't pick up, the other party called relentlessly—several times in a row. They remained at an impasse until, at last, Gu Xichen capitulated.
He pressed the speakerphone button, his tone cold: "Hello, Dad?"
The man on the other end was caught off guard, his voice still adjusting, sharp with irritation: "What's this about you getting married?"
"Yeah."
"Have you even looked at that girl's background?"
Given Gu Xichen's father's resources, investigating one person was hardly difficult. He'd probably already slapped the label of "social-climbing phoenix girl" on Lian Xia.
Three generations of farmers, both parents deceased, putting herself through school on scholarships—add a clan of roughneck relatives, and she was practically the poster child for the social-climbing phoenix girl!
"Our Xiao Xia has a master's degree in philology and writes columns for magazines. What's wrong with that background?"
"With her kind of family, she—"
Gu Xichen laughed, not bothering to hide his weariness: "And you? A nouveau riche from Wenzhou who married my mother, a Shanghai girl. If anyone in our family barely qualifies as cultured, it's only my maternal grandparents—you've suffered enough for your own lack of education, so why are you still so obsessed with money?"
"And besides—you're chasing happiness at fifty, with a girl younger than me!"
"You haven't exactly been stingy about supporting her family all these years either."
The line went silent as his father choked on his own words, his bluster deflating: "Still... you shouldn't have just married her..."
"The certificate is registered. It can't be revoked. Please respect the law. Goodbye."
Ignoring his father's emotional counterattack, he hung up without hesitation.
Painful memories flooded back. The man's face darkened, as though a grey pall had settled over his entire being.
Back then, consecutive business ventures had failed. His parents' marriage had disintegrated. He'd become increasingly despondent—brooding, resentful of the world.
How many nights had he lain awake, how many times had he thought about hanging himself?
Was a person nobody needed even worth keeping alive?
The more he thought, the more it hurt. The more it hurt, the more he thought—his fury and anguish accumulating, growing ever denser.
Then, suddenly, someone bounded up from behind and threw her arms around his neck.
"My new book is live!"
"So many tips, so much money!"
To prove her point, she held up the tipping page on her screen right in front of him. He stared at it, counted the long string of digits, and the anguish that had clouded his entire vision vanished without a trace.
"Lian XiaoXia, you're about to strike it rich!"
"President Gu's game is taking off too, soaring!"
They threw their arms around each other, trading boasts and banter, then spent a long while being nauseatingly sweet.
Gu Xichen grabbed his jacket and rose to his feet, sounding magnanimous.
"Come on, let's eat out tonight!"
"I want snowflake steak!"
"I'll order you ten portions!"
"I want to go too..."
They turned around with linked hands—and there was Gu Xichen's mother, face mask plastered on, standing eerily in the doorway.
Chapter 62
Ten years ago, the young Gu Xichen who'd accompanied his father to deliver supplies had felt uneasy in his conscience, wanting to donate another batch of winter coats to the children—but was flatly refused.
Fresh out of school, goaded by people with agendas and too hotheaded to think clearly, he had taken money from his father's company accounts on his own authority, intending to deliver another round of supplies to rural schools under his own name.
When Gu's mother found out, she naturally stood by him—after all, a hundred thousand yuan was nothing in her eyes. But Gu's father flew into a rage, pointing at his son's nose and calling him a thief.
Since almost all of Shanghai's businesses were investments from his mother's side, a desperate Gu Xichen had shot back with one line.
"What are you so high and mighty about? This is all my mom's money!"
That single sentence ended twenty years of father-son bonds.
Gu's father came from a small city in Wenzhou. He'd met and fallen in love with Gu's mother in high school, then built his business with the backing of her parents. Gu's mother was proud and sharp-tongued—daily belittling was the norm.
Under such circumstances, Gu's father, already a sensitive man, had promptly asked for a divorce.
By then Gu Xichen was already an adult. After his parents split and each found new partners, the house that had always been noisy with arguments suddenly went dead silent. He became both the instigator and the outsider.
The wedding went ahead as planned, but more media showed up than family members.
"Your father's off living it up abroad with his mistress. Expect him home for dinner? Dream on."
She'd said that while sprawled on the sofa cracking melon seeds.
Not far away, Lian Xia was diligently working on a flower arrangement, trying to find some refined common ground with her mother-in-law.
Gu's mother spat out a mouthful of seed shells and leaned over to critique her work.
"Look at you—starting high, finishing low. The balance is all wrong!"
"Red with purple—looks like dog mess."
"I don't think this is your calling. Honestly, you should sort out your own wardrobe first."
She went into the bedroom and came back with several dresses, holding them up against the girl: "Other girls dress like blooming flowers, and you look like—" she paused— "a school principal!"
"Okay, Mom."
Taking the advice in stride, Lian Xia went off to change with a cheerful smile.
After enough repetitions, Gu's mother stopped picking on her. This new daughter-in-law was too sweet-natured and mild, with no father or mother to speak of—and she herself had better things to do than bully a pitiful child.
Of course, it also had something to do with Gu Xichen buying their apartment.
That day the whole family went to look at flats. Everyone agreed that the large single-floor unit was ideal. Gu Xichen put down a deposit on the spot—over twenty million yuan—and told the registration clerk to add Lian Xia's name to the deed too.
His mother nearly fainted on the spot.
Her son looked at her, utterly baffled: "How could I not put her name on it? She invested over four million in me."
His mother: ...
After that, she started turning a blind eye to their affairs. After all, Lian Xia's family home was being demolished, she was well-educated, and she was still working hard writing to earn money. She wasn't one of those troublemaking shrews—no point in stirring up boredom.
One day, Gu Xichen cooked personally, planning to invite a few friends over for a gathering.
Xie Yun arrived first. Yun Lu came late, and at the dinner table she kept studying Lian Xia: "I've been researching collective dream psychology lately. Interested in participating?"
"Huh?"
"I recently took on a psychology commission. The dream was very similar to Gu Xichen's perspective."
Lian Xia: "Is the client named Chen Xi?"
Yun Lu was surprised: "How did you know?"
Lian Xia hooked her arm through her man's and gave him a sly smile.