During the summer after Meng Yurong came of age, he followed the trend and started playing the hottest online game around, "Genesis: Chronicles of Mountains and Rivers". His ID was "Moonlit Encounter."
As soon as he left the starter village, a Qixi Festival event began. Keen to get the event rewards, he fumbled around and invited the person beside him, "Tidebound," to team up.
They explored the game's mountains and rivers, slacked off and played with dogs, and became bonded partners. Before long, their relationship seemed ready to naturally move offline and meet in person.
Then one night, Meng Yurong ran into an affectionate stray cat. He furiously typed out a message to share the story, but forgot to send the picture.
Tidebound, getting ready for a morning team meeting: "You worked hard, baby. Can I see your legs? We can keep chatting after the meeting."
Meng Yurong: "??? What happened to my sweet, gentle partner? Why did he suddenly turn nasty?"
Grinding his teeth, he went to the forums to post about how badly he'd been fooled. The thread grew huge, full of sympathetic comments from kind strangers.
So he raised his middle finger between his legs, snapped a photo, and sent it over: "Turns out I was blind before. Our paths never cross again. Bye, then."
Then he blocked him on every platform. The game held no appeal anymore, so he quit. Out of sight, out of mind.
Kind commenters, after seeing the update: "You idiot, just block him! Why send a picture too? Whatever, breaking up is for the best... Oh, the OP's a guy too? Then let me see those legs!"
Two years later.
Meng Yurong's cousin begged him to run a dungeon for her because her deadline was looming. He reluctantly logged in, only to see someone in the party:
[Tidebound] was right there.
Xu Baichuan: "There's no way to clear my name now. Nobody believes me when I say I wanted to see the picture of the cat!"
Theme: Be cautious with online relationships
