On Wen Zhou's birthday, Li Zechen booked the most expensive restaurant in the city with a view, dropped to one knee, and proposed to her. Everyone applauded and said they were a match made in heaven: the industry's youngest game worldbuilding architect and its most promising project director.
Wen Zhou's phone screen lit up. Someone had sent her a text: [Happy birthday].
Li Zechen leaned over with a smile. "It's so late. Who is it?"
Wen Zhou turned the phone face down without changing expression. "A junk marketing text." She didn't say a word about who had sent it: Shen Mu, the top investor whom Li Zechen had begged for three months to meet, without success. He was also her ex, whom she hadn't seen since they broke up three years ago.
*
Half a month later, at a reception hosted by the team behind "Divine Revelation."
Li Zechen enthusiastically introduced them. "Mr. Shen, this is our chief worldbuilding architect, and my fiancee, Wen Zhou."
Wen Zhou extended her hand politely. "A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Shen."
Shen Mu looked at her. Three seconds later, he turned his gaze away and said coolly, "Likewise," before turning to chat with someone else. He didn't look at her again for the rest of the reception.
When the reception ended, Wen Zhou went to get her car and found someone had blocked it in. The other car's window slowly rolled down, revealing Shen Mu's handsome profile.
"Get in," he said.
*
"Divine Revelation" was a full-dive game Wen Zhou had written years ago, but for one reason or another, its release had been delayed.
Li Zechen had always thought an NPC in the abyss of "Divine Revelation" was the game's biggest bug: a fallen angel with broken wings, kneeling in an underground temple, bound in shackles bearing holy marks, gazing up at the goddess like a fanatical believer.
He had tried several times to get the programmers to delete the character, but Wen Zhou stopped him. She wanted to investigate for herself who had added this character to the game she had designed.
The day she descended into the temple's underground depths from the perspective of a god, the fallen angel lifted his head. "You've come."
He crawled toward her. Even as the shackles rubbed his wrists raw and bloody, he didn't care. He kissed the hem of her clothes, then took her lips, which he had just bitten until they bled, into his mouth again. His tongue traced them again and again. "Last time, you left too quickly..."
When Shen Ran climbed out of the game pod, her legs were still weak. How could anyone be this crazy, crazy enough to pour every unspeakable thought and forbidden act into a character?
[Reader's Guide]:
· A full-dive game, with parts of the story taking place in the real world and parts in the game.
· `while (she isn't here) { I kneel; }` is a programming statement. Its literal logic is: as long as she hasn't come back, I'll stay kneeling, over and over, without ever stopping.
Theme: May we all stand tall again.
