Chapter 11: Is He Following Me?
The hat Lufiel had given Dong Li was white too.
Dong Li had no idea what it was woven from, but it was beautiful and warm, with a tiny purple leaf decorating one side.
Lufiel had said the rear mountains were cold in the mornings, and he was worried Dong Li would catch a chill.
Dong Li had adored the hat the moment he received it.
He put it on happily and asked, “Lulu, does it look good?”
Lufiel sat beside him.
“It does.”
Dong Li leaned closer. “I think so too. Was it expensive?”
“No.” Lufiel lifted a hand. “It’s very pretty.”
Dong Li immediately hugged his hand, tilting his head to rub his cheek against his palm with practiced ease.
“You’re so good to me. I really like you.”
They hadn’t been together for long at the time, and their relationship was still sweet.
Compared to Lufiel, Dong Li was much more innocent and straightforward—and far more willing to take the initiative.
If he liked someone, he said so.
Lufiel’s breathing paused.
He didn’t do anything else, but his gaze remained fixed on Dong Li with such intensity that he somehow also seemed distracted.
Dong Li vaguely sensed something.
He raised his head.
“Lulu?”
Lufiel had the game’s recording and screenshot functions open.
On the screen, Dong Li wore the white hat, a few strands of golden hair falling along his cheeks. It made his already delicate features look even prettier, while his clear violet eyes gazed straight toward the camera.
Lufiel’s Adam’s apple moved slightly.
“Mm,” he answered softly.
…
But later, that hat disappeared.
No matter how hard Dong Li searched, he could never find it again.
Just like Lufiel, who had stopped appearing too.
Maybe it was because they had met again.
Ever since leaving the Fuling Region, memories of the time he’d spent with Lufiel had been surfacing again and again.
Even though before this…
he had thought he didn’t care anymore.
Dong Li lay sprawled over the table, staring blankly ahead as his thoughts wandered for a while longer.
This was a game world.
The owner of the clothing store was an NPC.
So if Dong Li took the hat without paying, would those little metal guys come out afterward and make another one to replace it?
Maybe when he was ready to leave town…he could try it.
Heidan had finally tired itself out and came over to demand food.
Dong Li opened the medicine furnace and gave it some, then fed Yuanbao too.
Rongrong tilted its head as it watched the two little beasts eat.
Then it got up, wandered around the room, quietly nudged open the half-closed door, and slipped into the front of the shop.
There were no customers at the moment.
Shu Bai had his head lowered as he prepared medicine packets and paid no attention to the little fox.
Rongrong trotted over, habitually pawed at the little white fox spirit, then turned to look outside.
There were both players and NPCs of various races on the street.
Many spirit forms followed obediently beside their owners.
Some NPCs with greater freedom had livelier spirit forms that even walked ahead to lead the way.
Rongrong remained inconspicuous as it wandered toward the entrance and peered outside.
Then, spotting an opportunity, it slipped onto the street.
Across the road, Lufiel saw everything from the rooftop.
His afternoon training had been forced to end early, and he had only just logged back into the game.
Liuye stood nearby with her arms folded.
“You went through all that trouble just to stalk him somewhere new?”
She wore a mask, and black robes covered her from head to toe without even a strand of hair showing.
The remark was obviously aimed at Lufiel.
Beside her, Liufeng immediately tried to smooth things over.
“Ahem. Stalking is such an ugly word… Hey, I just upgraded my alchemy furnace. Want me to sharpen your blade for you?”
“No.”
Liuye looked around.
“I’m leaving.”
Liufeng remained unfailingly pleasant.
“Sure, sure. There are too many people here anyway…”
Liuye had exceeded the kill limit some time ago and only recently come out of her red-name period.
Apparently, someone was still hunting her.
She had only happened to pass through today and stopped by to see what was going on.
Once she left, Liufeng sat down.
“I heard your training got cut short again this afternoon. You didn’t do that on purpose just so you could log in early, did you?”
Lufiel didn’t answer.
His eyes remained fixed on the little golden fox.
Then he jumped from the rooftop and followed it.
Rongrong was clever.
One moment it walked behind one person, the next behind another, as if pretending to be someone else’s spirit form.
When it passed the clothing store, it suddenly stopped at the entrance and turned its head toward the display with perfect accuracy.
Perhaps Dong Li’s desire for the hat had been too strong.
Just then, an NPC appeared farther ahead, pushing a mobile snack cart and calling out things like “sweet rice cakes” and “sesame balls.”
The mobile stall was little more than a handcart stacked with several layers of snacks.
Rongrong’s eyes immediately lit up.
It began creeping closer.
There were no permanent food shops in town.
At noon, Shu Bai had shared his lunch with Dong Li as usual, but Dong Li had been too embarrassed to eat much.
Besides, he’d been distracted the whole time.
Dong Li was a little hungry now.
He might not have had the attention to spare for that thought himself, but his spirit form certainly did.
The snack vendor’s spirit form was a parrot perched on his shoulder.
It looked fairly fierce.
Rongrong carefully avoided its line of sight, bit down on a small bag of sesame balls hanging from the lower part of the cart—and bolted.
The vendor stared.
“Hey! You—”
The parrot immediately took off after it.
A figure stepped in front of the bird.
“How much?” Lufiel asked. “I’ll pay.”
The vendor’s outrage turned into blank surprise.
“Oh… sure.”
Rongrong, meanwhile, was already far away with the bag of sesame balls clenched in its mouth.
Without looking back once, it darted into an alley, jumped onto a wall, and slipped back through the NPC-only area into the shop’s rear courtyard.
Inside the back room, Dong Li quickly noticed that Rongrong was missing.
He hurriedly reached out through their connection.
When he realized the little fox had gone onto the street alone, worry rose immediately.
Dong Li closed his eyes and tried calling it back.
Rongrong ignored him.
“Not listening again…”
Dong Li muttered to himself and looked toward the door that hadn’t been fully closed.
A spirit form was part of its owner.
Dong Li remembered that he could also merge his consciousness with Rongrong’s and directly control the little fox’s body.
Unfortunately, he was terrible at using that ability.
His success rate was low.
Just as Dong Li was about to try anyway, he sensed Rongrong racing back at full speed.
Not long afterward, the little fox climbed in through the window with its spoils.
Dong Li took the bag from its mouth.
“Huh?”
Then realization dawned.
He scooped Rongrong up and kissed it, then immediately pulled out a sesame ball and ate one.
Compared to some ex-boyfriend…his own spirit form was definitely the best.
—
Outside the medicine shop, Lufiel returned to the rooftop.
“You sure are busy,” Liufeng teased. “Watching the person and looking after his spirit form.”
He had only just learned how unusual Dong Li’s spirit form was.
Lufiel had kept things far too tightly under wraps before…
If possible, Liufeng would have loved to study Dong Li and his spirit form up close.
Lufiel probably wouldn’t allow it.
Lufiel remained silent and sent his sword aura into the shop’s rear courtyard to check.
Rongrong had just slipped back inside.
The back-room window was now half-open.
At last, he could see Dong Li.
Dong Li lowered his head and ate another sesame ball.
He seemed to offer Rongrong a bite too, but the little fox refused.
Lufiel watched intently for a while before suddenly asking, “Can we continue the data-transfer attempt from before?”
Liufeng blinked.
“Huh? You want to start that again?”
Before the closed beta had ended, Lufiel had once come to him for help.
He wanted to transfer Dong Li’s consciousness data out of the game.
It was against the rules.
And if Dong Li truly possessed some form of autonomous consciousness, secretly extracting him from the game could even be illegal.
Dong Li was technically one of the game company’s assets.
Taking him would amount to theft.
It wasn’t as though Lufiel had never tried contacting the company.
But the company was extremely secretive. The address in its official records was fake, and there was very little information available about it.
Players on the forums were constantly joking about whether the game even had an official company behind it.
Lufiel asked, “How long would it take?”
Liufeng’s expression turned serious.
“I don’t know. We never finished the research last time. First I’d need to find where the game’s terminal power source is located.”
He thought for a moment.
“Finding the terminal shouldn’t be too difficult. Transferring an NPC’s data probably wouldn’t be either. But are you sure you want to continue? What about the Chief…?”
Their work had been forcibly stopped last time because Lu Zenuo discovered it.
No matter what else could be said about Lufiel, he was still Lu Zenuo’s grandson, and his talent was more than worthy of his status as the Chief’s only grandson.
Yet he had fallen in love with someone who existed inside a virtual world.
Fortunately, for the sake of appearances, Lu Zenuo hadn’t interfered too heavily.
He had simply given the two of them a severe warning.
Now that Lufiel was bringing the plan up again, Liufeng could understand why.
Dong Li had left the Fuling Region and come to Dragonbone Town.
The environment was completely different from before.
Lufiel worried about him far too much.
If he could, he would probably stand guard over Dong Li twenty-four hours a day until he woke up.
But there were restrictions inside the game that Lufiel couldn’t simply ignore.
Lufiel lowered his gaze without answering for a while.
Liufeng’s words brought back an old memory.
Lu Zenuo’s furious expression seemed to appear before him once more.
The old man had sat in a wheelchair, visibly ill, but his authority had not diminished in the slightest.
“I hope you understand,” he had said coldly, “exactly what you’re doing.”
Lufiel had understood perfectly.
And because of Lu Zenuo’s pressure, he had neglected Dong Li during the period just before the closed beta ended.
It was the thing he regretted most.
“Yes,” Lufiel said. “I’m sure.”
“All right.” Liufeng nodded. “My classes have been boring as hell lately anyway. Might as well find something interesting to do!”
The monitoring device on top of the medicine shop was close to expiring, so they removed it early.
Before long, the sky darkened and night arrived.
One by one, the shops closed.
Most NPCs were preparing to rest and wouldn’t go out again.
Dong Li hadn’t left the shop all afternoon.
After bringing the sesame balls back, Rongrong had also behaved and stayed inside.
Before logging off, Lufiel placed another fresh monitoring device.
There were fewer players around at this hour, only a handful passing through from time to time.
Lufiel looked around once before leaving.
Far away, several players had just arrived in Dragonbone Town and stopped near the Trial Grounds.
The man leading them opened his interface and saw a message.
“Lufiel’s in Dragonbone Town too?” he murmured. “Figures he’s hanging around those two siblings from the slums again…”
Earlier that day, when Dong Li returned to the medicine shop, Lufiel had briefly removed his mask.
Someone had happened to spot him.
A companion beside the leader said, “Hasn’t he stopped going to the arena?”
The first player closed his interface and scoffed.
“If he enters this time, things are going to get interesting.”
—
Inside the medicine shop’s back room, the entire bag of sesame balls had been eaten.
It was already late.
After washing his face, Dong Li yawned as he arranged the blankets and pillows, then fed pills to both little beasts.
Shu Bai already knew about Heidan, so Dong Li no longer bothered hiding it.
And when Shu Bai saw Yuanbao as well, he didn’t seem to react much.
After feeding them, Dong Li checked the remaining supply in his little medicine furnace.
He should go to the herb field again tomorrow.
Heidan ate way too much…
He should try to fill his entire stock before leaving Dragonbone Town.
Besides, Shu Bai had warned him before that the herb field was dangerous.
Dong Li hadn’t encountered anything dangerous there at all.
Decision made, he hugged Rongrong and climbed beneath the blanket.
—
Early the next morning, Dong Li got up at the same time as Shu Bai.
Once Shu Bai opened the medicine shop for business, Dong Li left through the rear courtyard and headed for the herb field.
This time, Rongrong was coming too.
It hid inside his hood.
Golden fur spilled slightly over the edge, and every so often the little fox poked its head out to sneak a look around.
The sun hadn’t risen yet.
Dong Li pulled his coat tighter around himself as he wondered whether he should find something to eat on the way back.
Shu Bai shared his food with Dong Li every day, but refused to eat the wild fruit Dong Li brought back.
He hadn’t eaten the sesame balls either.
Or the peach pastries before that.
Dong Li felt a little guilty about it.
Lost in thought, he casually raised his head.
Then he spotted a familiar figure standing on the street not far ahead.
It caught him completely off guard.
Fortunately, Dong Li managed to keep his composure.
He continued forward as if nothing had happened and walked right past Lufiel.
…
Again?
Why did he keep running into him?
No—why was Lufiel still around here?
Dong Li took a deep breath and tried to pretend nothing had happened.
And maybe it was just his imagination, but after walking for a while, he began to feel like someone was watching him.
After circling past the Trial Grounds, Dong Li reached a winding side road and turned around.
There weren’t many people nearby.
The tall figure dressed entirely in black stood out immediately.
Lufiel was behind him, some distance away.
And he was walking in exactly the same direction.
Dong Li froze.
Then whipped his head forward again.
He lowered his gaze and tightened his grip on the strap of his medicine furnace.
His heartbeat began to accelerate on its own.
Why did it feel like…
Lufiel was following him?
Author’s Note:
Dong Li: What do I do if I think my ex is stalking me? (T ^ T)
