Chapter 262: Knock Their Socks Off
Shu Chen was happily holding onto her pillow as she came to Gu Xiqiao’s room, and as she walked in, she flashed a smile at Jiang Shuxuan, closing the door with a ‘bang’.
Jiang Shuxuan pressed his finger against his temple, whipping out his phone as he sent a text message—[Can you control your wife?]
Ten minutes later, the other replied—[You talk as though you can manage yours?]
This was the second time now.
Jiang Shuxuan raised his head, frowning as a helpless, reluctant look crossed his face.
He stood beside the door, turbulent in his deep, black eyes. After a while, he turned and left the area.
***
Inside the room, Gu Xiqiao had already deleted the page filled with Chu Ziheng’s information. Jiji sat in the chair that she had vacated, already playing the online game from Nine Heavens, even wearing the virtual helmet. Gu Xiqiao rubbed her head as she looked at the scene.
Jiji, do you have any brains? Do you need the helmet? You can invade an entire network with just a thought and sitting on the ground. Do you really need this?
What stunned her more was what Shu Chen said next.
“Qiao Qiao, what game is this robot playing? It looks very fun!”
And so, Gu Xiqiao chased Jiji away, and taught her future mother-in-law how to play the online game. As she did, she thought about what would happen if Shu Chen became an internet addict, would Jiang Shuxuan want to beat her to death for making this happen?
Gu Xiqiao found another laptop, then got another stool and helped Shu Chen to register an account.
When filling up the account username, Shu Chen glanced at the name that Gu Xiqiao used, and filled in her own—A Blooming Dawn.
Gu Xiqiao glanced at the name, and her insides became（⊙o⊙）! (Editor note: Because in Chinese 一夕花晨, is in a similar format as Gu Xiqiao’s 一顾千年 For A Millenium)
On the outside however, she merely glanced at the name, then immediately logged into her own account and brought Shu Chen around to complete her daily quests. Because the quests were lower level and relatively simple, she was quick in her actions. As she did the tasks, she also watched the alliance chat. There were still so many people online in the game, and not only were they online, they were quite active too.
Glancing at the chat again, she noted that the discussion was all about the offline meeting.
Under Smoke On Water’s leaders.h.i.+p, their guild had become the number one guild in the server. They also had countless masters in their guild, in addition to the local tyrant that was Tang Qingqiu, who had injected a quite a sum of money into the guild, they had more members and was growing more powerful over the days. There were many who became professional players and were also earning money from the games they were playing.
After close to four months of socializing, there was somewhat a feeling of closeness.
[Guild] [Elder] Suns.h.i.+ne: Remember it’s the day after tomorrow… wait, it’s midnight already. So it’s tomorrow, in the capital. We won’t leave until we see each other.
[Guild] [Elder] Suns.h.i.+ne: I’m so excited thinking about it!
[Guild] I Love Watermelons: Is the great G.o.d coming? I just want to know if the great G.o.d is male or female. If it turns out to be female, is it possible that she’s my G.o.ddess?
[Guild] The World Is Ruthless: Suns.h.i.+ne said it before, great G.o.d’s techniques are sharp and precise, it’s definitely a guy.
[Guild] I Love Watermelons: Are you looking down on girls? ╭（╯^╰）╮
[Guild] [Elder] Suns.h.i.+ne: … I was wrong!
Seeing this, Gu Xiqiao typed into the chat.
[Guild] [Elder] For A Millenium: I’m a man ^_^
[Guild] [Elder] Suns.h.i.+ne: See, I told you! Also, do you know how long you haven’t come online! Without your presence in the highest dungeon, our team is just waiting to be wiped, okay!
The highest level dungeon in the game, and only the team led by ‘For A Millenium’ had been able to clear it.
Having not come online for almost half a month, the guild had also not entered the dungeon for the same amount of time and were nearly in tears due to that.
At this time, Gu Xiqiao hid away once the topic was brought up.
[Guild] [Elder] Suns.h.i.+ne: Mom, you’re still online in our friend list, don’t play dead with us!
Just as he finished typing in that sentence, the name ‘For A Millenium’ became grey.
The guild members all thought that she had gone offline, and were silently sobbing in sadness, until they went out on the field, and b.u.mped into her. She was leading a newcomer on tasks, and her name was clearly above her character’s head, with the guild ‘Elder’ t.i.tle on her head.
They opened their friend list to stare at the name, but it was still greyed out, indicating that she was offline. “… WTF?”
Jiji glanced at the group of players with sympathy in her eyes. ‘Why did you guys pick a fight with Beauty Qiao when there was no reason to? Didn’t you know that she can tamper with the server as she wanted? Don’t talk about being ‘offline’, she can even go up to the heavens if she wanted to!’
Gu Xiqiao was playing the game with Shu Chen, and a knock came on her door ten minutes later.
Jiang Shuxuan was holding two gla.s.ses of milk. Gu Xiqiao and Shu Chen drank it down.
Shu Chen was looking at Jiang Shuxuan with a strange look on her face. This lazy, smiling, considerate person in front of her… was he really her cold-hearted son? Wasn’t this too much of a change?
Jiang Shuxuan left after they finished their milk, and Shu Chen was only momentarily shocked before she was absorbed into the game once again.
Another ten minutes later, Jiang Shuxuan came in with a plate of cut fruits.
It was a repet.i.tive cycle, and Shu Chen at first thought that her son had changed completely, and was being considerate of the people around him. But after the third and fourth time, she looked into her son’s eyes, and then took up the laptop. “Qiao Qiao, I’m going to play all night. You still have things to do tomorrow, so I won’t disturb your rest. Taking care of your body is important for young people.”
Having said that, she left the room.
Jiang Shuxuan glanced at the door that closed behind his mother, and he waved his hand lightly to turn off the lights. “Sleep!”
***
In the Chu family household, Chu Ziheng was sitting on the sofa as he flipped through a pile of materials. His eyes were lowered slightly, long eyelashes fluttering lightly.
A few moments later, his secretary came in, holding a pad in his hand with a strange look in his eyes. “President Chu, I spoke to the host of the awards ceremony. That woman’s name is Gu Xiqiao, she’s a newcomer who just debuted, but she has a lot of fans. The strange thing is that I can’t find any information on her, not her whereabouts, or even her basic information.”
Hearing this, Chu Ziheng raised an eyebrow, his slender finger tapping the table.
In the deep, dark night, his clear tapping made the secretary feel the pressure in the air, and he felt inexplicably nervous. Finally, Chu Ziheng said, “Let me see.”
The secretary quickly handed over the tablet to him.
Chu Ziheng took the device and looked at the picture of a fat pig on the screen. As long as he typed in ‘Gu Xiqiao’, the pig would appear. It was a pink, fat pig, with an indifferent expression on its face.
“Interesting, very interesting.” Chu Ziheng chuckled lowly. “Have you found that kid’s trail?”
The secretary nodded as he lowered his head slightly. “Yes, a private investigator found his trail at the airport. Yesterday, a man took him to enroll in a middle school.”
Chu Ziheng stared at the tablet in his hand, his fingertips sliding across the edge of the pad, deep in thought.
***
The next day, Gu Xiqiao woke up early.
Although she had only slept for a few hours, it had no effect whatsoever on her mentally. As usual, she was refreshed as she went out for her morning run.
Today, she didn’t bring Haha with her, because Haha had followed Xixi to the training grounds.
When she came back, Shu Chen was already up. She hadn’t slept all night, and her tiredness was clear on her face.
After an entire night of processing the events, Gu Xiqiao could finally face Shu Chen with a somewhat normal face. She greeted her softly, and Shu Chen yawned as she returned the greeting. Then she launched into a discussion on the game with the younger girl.
While they were eating breakfast, Shu Chen couldn’t help but sigh. “I’ve never played such a fun game before. Every bit of it contains the culture of old China, especially the techniques and moves in the game. The spiritual scenes all look so realistic… it’s amazing and mysterious. I can’t imagine who would be able to develop such a game.”
She was curious to see how the martial arts exercises and realistic scenes were developed, it really was an amazing piece of work.
Jiang Shuxuan ate without saying a word, not wanting to comment on his mother’s words.
Gu Xiqiao took a bite of egg, and thought inside, ‘If you want to see the ones who developed the game, they’re probably still bickering right now.’
After eating, Gu Xiqiao went to the training ground in the slums.
Before she left, she turned to smile at Shu Chen. Her face was bright and stunning, and she said, “Aunt Shu, I’m the one who developed the game.”
Shu Chen stopped dead in her tracks as she processed the words that Gu Xiqiao just said.
Even the words that she had wanted to say for Jiang Shuxuan to be careful on the road were stuck in her throat.
After Gu Xiqiao had dropped that bombsh.e.l.l, she slid into the pa.s.senger seat of the car, and the black car rolled out slowly. She pulled out her phone and started studying the matter on the training grounds.
Behind them, Shu Chen turned to look at Mrs. Zhang who was waving to Gu Xiqiao, and Butler Jiang. Her tone was stiff when she asked, “Just now, what did Qiao Qiao say again?”
“Madam Jiang.” Mrs. Zhang smiled lightly at her. “The game you played yesterday should be Nine Heavens, right? That’s a game that all the youngsters are playing now, and Miss Gu is indeed the one who developed it.” Mrs. Zhang’s face was full of pride as she boasted.
Shu Chen turned her gaze to the butler, and he took out his phone silently. “Madam, you probably don’t know the weight of the words ‘Nine Heavens’, as well as their position on the international scale. Allow me elaborate on it…”
***
Gu Xiqiao got out of the car with Jiji at the entrance, then she turned to Jiang Shuxuan to wave. She waited for his car to leave before heading into the training grounds.
“Why did you bring Dog Feed along?” Gu Xiqiao stopped her tracks, suddenly looking at the pink flower in Jiji’s arms.
Jiji looked down at the man-eating flower, and said, “I’m afraid that it will eat Auntie Zhang and Madam Jiang if I left it at home.”
Dog Feed: “…” Am I that kind of man-eating flower?
Yes, yes it was.
Gu Xiqiao stared intently at the flower, which quieted and its leave wilted down.
She rubbed her fingers together, initially thinking to just grind it down to dust, but it wasn’t easy for her to be able to take it out from where it came from and she was reluctant to let it die after all the effort she put into acquiring it. After thinking a while more, she finally pulled out a handful of jade spiritual stones, shoving it into its mouth. “Is it delicious?”
Dog Feed instantly felt refreshed. Delicious! It was way more delicious than any kind of meat it had ever eaten!
“Be good, and don’t eat anyone else in the future, then it’s all yours.” Gu Xiqiao threw another brown pill into its mouth.
Dog Feed felt even more energetic after this meal! It vowed to be faithful to Gu Xiqiao from this time onwards.
From that day onwards, there was one more mad demon in the ancient martial arts world that collected all kinds of jade stones everywhere. If people were to find out that Gu Xiqiao was feeding these precious jade stones that could advance a master to a flower, they’d definitely puke blood.
Yao Jiamu and the group of people had partied late into the night, and after returning, fully devoted themselves to their training.
When Gu Xiqiao arrived, they were all inside the cave. Xixi had taken Haha into the cave to play. Haha was sitting solemnly in its place, while Xixi was breathing fire for it to play with. Haha didn’t move at all, but its beady eyes lit up suddenly, and it stood up, running as fast as its four legs could towards the entrance.
Before it could reach outside, a pair of arms picked him up and hugged him.
“Haha, you’ve grown again. If you grow anymore I won’t be able to pick you up anymore.” Gu Xiqiao sighed.
Xixi flew to her side, and it opened its beak to say something, but then it caught sight of the robot behind her. There was also a man-eating plant in its mechanical arms. Xixi trembled before asking, “Beauty Gu, what is this?”
Gu Xiqiao glanced at Dog Feed, then back to Xixi. “Your relative.” They all grew up within the influence of malicious aura anyway, so they were the same.
Xixi: “…” I don’t have such ugly relatives, okay!
Yao Jiamu had already felt Gu Xiqiao’s arrival, and he came out from the training grounds immediately. “Miss Gu.”
Gu Xiqiao returned his greeting, and then looked around the cave. “How is everyone’s strength levels now?”
Hearing her question, Yao Jiamu couldn’t help the smug look that blossomed on his face. “According to the algorithm of the Trial Tower in the ancient martial arts world, among a hundred people, 50% are at the thirtieth floor, 30% on the fortieth floor, 10% on the forty-fifth floor and another 10% on the fiftieth floor!”
Although she had expected it, she was still surprised when she heard his answer.
Even in the ancient martial arts world, the top ten in the ranking list was only on the forty-fifth floor. With such a lineup in her hands, it looked like they could already match them in terms of strength?
“Are the elders of the ancient martial arts world still looking for you?” Gu Xiqiao asked curiously.
Yao Jiamu smiled. “I recently had a fight with a strong old man from the ancient martial arts world. He told me that those elders were still chanting away.”
The group that went out on patrol for the Peace Squad were those on at least the thirtieth floors, and even such a lineup was able to beat them. If they found out about how the other half of the people were way more powerful than the ones they had met, it would definitely knock the socks off them all!