Chapter 81 – Rewinding the Clock Back to One Year Ago
One Year Ago
Hu LuoBo was a professional gamer.
There were many types of professional gamers. There were the e-sports experts, the farmers grinding for gold and equipment, the ones that helped level accounts, while Hu LuoBo was a professional ladyboy.
His record was having three ladyboy accounts at once, specialising in luring the rich guys in the server. He had a very good understanding of the likes and dislikes of different types of guys. Like how he had lured this warrior called Night Wolf, who liked obedient little girls, his performance of Bell completely catered to his taste.
To not be exposed as a ladyboy for so long, it was not only due to his excellent performance, but also because he had a naive girlfriend, LingDang, who believed every word he said.
He would purposely find opportunities to video chat with his girlfriend and record her separately, then manipulate the videos and the chat program such that others would see LingDang when chatting with him.
To prevent letting the cat out of the bag, he would only video chat with every ‘husband" once, and the chat would also be very short. Once he gained the trust of the other party, he would start his money scamming scheme.
Night Wolf was one of his sources of wealth, and also the most generous one. However, he was not satisfied with just him, as long as there was a chance, he would try to look for an even more suitable target.
Someone had told him that all the compet.i.tors who qualified for the PK semifinals would appear at this bar tonight, so he sneaked in to see if there were any worthy targets, or if there were any interesting and useful information he could eavesdrop on.
The bar had been booked by the developers tonight. It was mainly for the compet.i.tors to interact with each other, and so, they chose not to play any loud and distracting music, allowing him to eavesdrop easily.
He found a random corner and took a seat. Not too far from him, two guys were having a conversation, although their voices were not loud, but he could still hear them clearly.
“Your performance was too weak today, it"s not up to even half your usual standards. If not for their mistake, we wouldn"t have pa.s.sed this round.”
The person being reproached kept silent.
That person continued, “I know that Tiger has gotten married in the game, and so you"re not in a good mood. However, if we go by your performance today, no doubt, we"ll lose tomorrow.”
“Sorry…”
“There"s no point apologising to me, you better just go and make things clear with Tiger. Whether you"ll live or die, at least there"s a resolution. It"ll be better than you continue suffering like this.”
“But… He"s already married…”
“It"s only a marriage in the game, you also know that Tiger is a soft-hearted person, and that girl is very good at dealing with people. For all we know, she might have lied to him and said it was to complete the tasks for couples, and he agreed naively. Haven"t you already understood what Tiger is like? Every day, other than training, he would only accompany you and play games. When he"s on break, he"ll come and look for you, when have you ever seen him hang out with that girl, Fan?”
“But…”
“No more buts, you"re just too timid, that"s why you ended up being only brothers with him for so many years.”
“I"m afraid that once I tell him, we can"t even be brothers anymore.”
“You think that with the relationship between the both of you now, you can still be considered brothers?”
He kept silent again, and the other person sighed.
“According to my observations, the feelings Tiger has for you, should not only be brotherly. I"ve also known him for over ten years already, and we"re also neighbours. Have you ever seen him treat me like he treats you?”
“Do you still remember when we PK-ed a few days ago, I said that if you lost you"ll have to confess your feelings to Tiger, and you lost?”
“It was due to lag…”
“That"s providence. Now, I"m asking you to fulfil the bet, go and clarify things with Tiger.”
He was silent for awhile, “It"s the finals tomorrow, why not after the compet.i.tion…”
“No, with your current condition, there"s no difference whether we play in tomorrow"s match or not.”
Then another period of silence.
“The best result would be that your confession is successful to the satisfaction of everyone. The worst result would be that he rejects you, and the two of you will go your own way. To tell the truth, even this result would still be better than your current situation. Stop deceiving yourself, could you really just be brothers for life?”
“Let me think about it…”
“Don"t think any more, just go. You must trust that my intuition is correct. I still have something on later so I have to leave, I"ll wait for your good news tomorrow morning.”
Hu LuoBo had only wanted to test the waters to see if there were any big fish to be caught. He had never expected to hear something like this, and his curiosity was baited, even forgetting his original purpose in coming here. At that moment, he also wanted to follow that person and listen to his confession to see if he would succeed.
Just as he was about to stand up, he heard another conversation drifting from the opposite side. Turned out he was not the only eavesdropper around.
After a few chuckles, that person spoke. “How interesting.”
Another person replied, “So Little Antelope"s a gay? The tiger they mentioned, it"s that Bengal Tiger right? Isn"t Bengal Tiger the husband of ShenMa"s cousin?”
“That"s right. Looks like not only does Little Antelope likes a straight guy, but even wants to be the third party. No matter what, ShenMa"s cousin is from our guild. To not help her out I"ll really feel bad about it.”
“Then HuLi, what do you want to do?”
So this person was called HuLi. Hu LuoBo thought, this person can be considered part of my family clan, but I seem to have heard this name somewhere before.
“I"ve heard that Bengal Tiger"s alcohol tolerance isn"t very good. I just happen to have some good stuff here, apparently after consuming it, it can temporarily paralyse a person"s nerves. They won"t be able to hear, speak nor move, and even their vision would be blurry. After sobering up, they would only think that they got drunk… Ah, I don"t know if it"s really as good as what people say it is, just nice, we can test it out.”
“You want to let Little Antelope confess his feelings to a wooden puppet? He would definitely discover that something"s wrong.”
“He"s already nervous to this extent, on top of that, the lighting here is so dim, I doubt he"ll be able to notice anything. Go give ShenMa a call and tell him there"s some entertainment here, and ask him to bring along his cousin. I"ll go collect evidence,” He chuckled again. “Little Antelope, Little Antelope, this time you"ve really fallen into my hands.”
Seeing that people were leaving the section next to him, Hu LuoBo hurriedly shrank into his corner. He watched as one of them headed out, most likely to make a call, while that one called HuLi walked to the bar and said something. Soon after, the bartender gave him a gla.s.s of something that looked like wine. From Hu LuoBo"s angle, he could not tell if the other person had doctored the drink.
After that, HuLi stopped a server, and nodded towards some direction. Hu LuoBo watched the server send the gla.s.s of alcohol over, and guessed that in that direction was the unlucky b.a.s.t.a.r.d they were planning to drug.
HuLi strolled over and sat one section away. There was a wall on the other side, and this time, Hu LuoBo did not have a place to hide, and could only watch the proceedings from afar.
After a long period of time, the person they called Little Antelope finally walked out from the washroom. It seemed like he had went in to prepare himself. Even Hu LuoBo felt anxious for him, to prepare himself for so long, the drug would have taken effect already.
However, he was not so kindhearted as to inform him, it was up to that simpleton to notice anything strange himself.
He witnessed Little Antelope enter that section, but he was unable to hear their conversation, and could only feel vexed about it.
A male and a female then swiftly entered the bar, they were mostly the ones that had been called here. They quickly found HuLi, and after awhile, Little Antelope walked out. Looking at his expression, Hu LuoBo knew what was the conclusion.
Hu LuoBo thought, that person was right, when a person was nervous enough, there would be many things that they would fail to notice.
His eyes followed as Little Antelope headed to the exit despondently. The big guy who just entered chased after him, throwing an arm around his neck, he dragged him out, with the female following behind. Hu LuoBo quickly pursued them, and secretly trailed behind them to a dark alley next to the bar.
Next, he witnessed an incidence of violence. Although Hu LuoBo was a professional ladyboy, but the worst thing he had done was only to scam money out of people. To do something this violent, he had never once thought about it.
At the same time, he was also very timid. Afraid that the others would discover him and give him the same treatment, he hurriedly ran away.
However, before he could go far, he heard a scream behind him. That scream was heart-rending, so bloodcurdling that it frightened him.
With the fastest speed possible, he left the bar street. After a long struggle, he finally ran to a public phone and called the police. To be able to do something like this as a scammer, he could be considered to have done his utmost duty.
Hu LuoBo dared not stay around. After calling the police, he hastily made his way back to school. Having walked through two streets, he finally heard the police siren in a distance.
He thought, that person would most likely be rescued now.
※
When ShenMa and Fan BeiBei heard someone coming, they ran off, heading to the back entrance of the bar.
Going closer, they saw HuLi standing there.
“So?” HuLi asked deliberately.
“Taught him a lesson. Let"s see if that little fellow would still dare to show off in the future.”
“Don"t forget, we still have the evidence of him being the third party.” HuLi"s hand opened to show the voice recorder in his palm.
“We really have to thank you this time,” Fan BeiBei spoke to HuLi. “However, the drug you gave Ah Hu…”
“It"s harmless, the drug effect would wear off after a couple of hours, by then, he would only think that he got drunk.”
“That"s good.” Fan BeiBei sighed in relief.
“What"s that sound?” ShenMa spoke suddenly.
HuLi"s ears also p.r.i.c.ked up, “It sounds like police sirens.”
Fan BeiBei became very nervous, “The person just now must have called the police, what to do?”
“Don"t worry,” HuLi consoled her. “My car is just outside, I"ll drive you guys back.”
“Good, quickly, let"s go.”
On his way back, Hu LuoBo unexpectedly met his girlfriend, LingDang.
“What are you doing here?”
“I"m looking for you.”
Hu LuoBo had mentioned to LingDang that he was going to the bar, but he did not tell her his purpose in going there, and never imagined that she would come here looking for him. “Why did you come here looking for me? I didn"t go to the bar to hook up with girls, also, I"m heading back right now.”
“Have you been lying to me all these while?” “What are you saying?”
“Someone I don"t know called me his wife today.”
Hu LuoBo was alarmed, “He must have got the wrong person.”
“He told me everything, saying that he had met me in the game. That game is the one you"ve been playing! Have you been using my ident.i.ty to deceive people?”
“No, how can that be? I"ve already told you that person must have gotten the wrong person.”
“Then why did you insist on video chatting with me that time? We can just meet everyday, what"s more, the outfit he described was exactly the same as the one I was wearing when we were video-chatting, how do you explain this?”
“… Aiyah, even if I told you, you won"t understand anything,” Hu LuoBo saw that the cat was now out of the bag, and quickly escaped.
“Stop!” LingDang chased after him.
Hu LuoBo sped across the road, and there was a sudden bright light. He turned his head, only to see a car flying towards him…
※
“What happened after that?”
“After that… At that crucial point, LingDang pushed me out of the way. The driver had slammed his brakes, and so LingDang was not seriously injured, just that she knocked her head as she fell over… However, the knock also wasn"t too serious, she was still conscious after that, but for some reason she then lost her memories.”
Hu LuoBo looked very indignant. “When I brought her to the hospital for a check up, the doctors could not find anything wrong with her. They said that it was not necessary for her to lose consciousness before she got amnesia, even emotional distress together with receiving a fright could cause her to lose her memories. All these quacks, I also know how to list out the possible causes just like they did.”
“Because of her accident, I had no choice but to continue scamming people as a ladyboy. To take care of her, I finally ama.s.sed a sum of money in the game, then sold all the accounts, the rest of the events, you know them as well.”
“You said that you know HuLi"s secret, is it that he secretly doctored the drink?”
“That"s not it! Up till now, he still doesn"t have a clue that I know about it!”
“Then what is it?”
Hu LuoBo struggled with himself for another period of time, “When the driver knocked down LingDang, it drove away immediately. I recorded its car plate…”
“Then why didn"t you report it to the police then?”
“I was afraid that the police would ask me all sorts of question, and end up ask something inappropriate. Also, I had already made a report to the police that night, the cool down hadn"t ended…”
“…”
“One day, I walked past a newsstand and saw the entertainment section of the newspaper. Only then did I realise that that HuLi was some popular campus singer. No wonder I had found his name very familiar.”
“From the newspaper, I learnt that he would be performing on those days. Out of curiosity, I went to take a look. In the end, I found out that his car was the one that knocked LingDang down!”
Hearing all these, YeLang was nonplussed. HuLi had schemed to harm LingYang, Hu LuoBo secretly called the police, HuLi knocked down LingDang, Hu LuoBo was forced to sell his accounts, and LingYang happened to buy one of them, was this what they meant by the b.u.t.terfly effect?
Hu LuoBo continued, “During that period of time, I was unable to scam any money in the game. When I decide to try my luck again, I was dragged out by your people, and lost my financial source, and so, and so…”
“And so you blackmailed him, right?”
“But it"s because of him, that"s why I became like this. I was fine being a ladyboy…”
“You made your bed, you have to lie in it.”
Hu LuoBo felt wronged, “How can you say this about me, after all, I"m your ex-wife, we did have a relationship…”
YeLang"s face darkened, “Shut up, there were only two things you did correctly. One was to call the police, and two was to sell your account to the correct person. Now, no one can help you, you better surrender yourself as soon as possible.”
On the way home, no matter how LingYang asked him, YeLang did not reveal the happenings at the sports school. LingYang was so frustrated that he puffed his cheeks up as though he was a toad.
YeLang suddenly thought of something. If HuLi had not heard the conversation between LingYang and BaiLong, MengHu had not been drugged, and LingYang"s confession had successfully made his way to the recipient… What would the outcome be today?