Shen Xingyao had an in-game partner she’d teamed up with for more than two years, a player called “Big Black Wolf.” He didn’t say much, but he logged on every night without fail to run dungeons with her and listen to her complain about clients. She didn’t know what he looked like or where he lived. All she knew was that he had a deep, pleasant voice, and that the white-robed zither player always stood in front of her to tank the monsters.
Then one night, the faucet in her home started leaking again. She casually complained about it in the game, and he said, “Send me your address. I’ll come fix it.” Twenty minutes later, the doorbell rang.
Wrapped in a bath towel, she opened the door. Standing outside was a six-foot-two man with broad shoulders and long legs, holding a toolbox and a shopping bag. The moment their eyes met, his phone screen was still lit up with the voice message she’d just sent: “You’re not actually coming over, are you?”
“...You’re Big Black Wolf?”
“...Yeah.”
“You’re the client-side designer, Engineer Lu, who makes me proofread punctuation every day?”
“...Yeah.”
“You’re the same person?!”
“...Yeah. Put some clothes on first.”
After that, he made her soft-boiled eggs every morning, always cooking them for exactly two minutes and forty seconds. He kept track of her period in his notes and prepared brown sugar and ginger tea a week in advance. He took her back to his hometown, where his father handed him the thermos he’d used for more than thirty years and said, “Finish this, and you’ll officially be a son-in-law of the Shen family.” On top of the lighthouse, he knelt on one knee and slipped a purple seashell ring onto her ring finger. Inside the band was engraved one word: “Lighthouse.”
From game voice chat to whispers in each other’s ears, from client and contractor to lovers, from two people to five. In a soft Rongcheng accent, she murmured, “You really are a sweetheart.”
Season Four is complete. Part Two is on the way. The sea breeze never stops.
