CH 28

“As long as I pay 188, I can hear my cub’s voice!” Although Shen Cheng feel a little bit heartbroken, it’s this mother’s fault for being too poor. My little one is absolutely innocent!

Shen Cheng happily bought the voice pack and AI dialogue, but the game flickered and suddenly went black.

“What the hell?” Did they cheat me out of 188 and then just black out?

Shen Cheng clicked on the screen and found that the game, which used to update in seconds, started to display a “downloading” icon with a little hamster pulling the progress bar in the middle, and a prompt appeared below:

[Due to the large size of the voice pack data, this update requires a data patch download that will take 14 hours. Maintenance time is from 8pm to 10am. Please be patient.]

“!!!” Shen Cheng was angry. Is this what a game company does? Cheat you out of your money, and then tell you to wait because the update isn’t done yet?

And it didn’t end there. The following line of text was even more infuriating:

[Games are valuable, but life is more precious. Reasonable gaming can improve your intelligence, but addiction to gaming can harm your health. Please arrange your game time reasonably!]

“!!!” If this phone weren’t mine, I’d smash it. Shen Cheng felt like throwing both the phone and the stupid game away.

When they cheated her out of my money, they called her “Master.” Now that she bought everything, they told her to “wait in line?” Is this what humans do?

Instead of buying the voice pack, I might as well interact with my cub first before buying the 188 package!

The time she managed to squeeze out is gone!

Although she said that, Shen Cheng couldn’t help but suspect how the game company managed to achieve such a huge amount of dubbing. If this interactive ability is smooth, it’s even more amazing than Siri. This artificial intelligence is really powerful!

As she thought about it, she opened the App Store and looked at the reviews. She found that the reviews were filled with people complaining about the game company not doing their job and taking forever to update the voice pack.

“Sigh.” Shen Cheng thought to herself. This involves a huge amount of data, so she should just wait a while.

Shen Cheng didn’t understand how “technically complex” achieving this was. She just vaguely wondered if the game company was not well-known because the game itself was bloody, and the pet-raising game targeted the female market, so the game company was losing money.

As Shen Cheng thought about it and remembered the time she spent with her cub in the game, she became a little more tolerant of the game company: Well, let’s not blame them for cheating players out of money. Judging from the state of the game company, they probably don’t have many customers, so I should just focus on earning more money for myself.

What she didn’t see was that at the moment she closed the page, the entire game on the App Store suddenly flickered, and the icon changed to another game, and the comments below also changed.

**

In the game, Li Weilan felt that her disappearance this time was particularly sudden. It was so sudden that he didn’t even suspect that it was her silent refusal.

This time was different from the previous few times—If she refused or denied before, there would always be a thinking time buffer, but this time she didn’t say anything and suddenly disappeared.

Her breath disappeared in front of him in an instant, so fast that all he had time to feel was fear and dread: fear that her leaving was due to something beyond his control, and dread because he was worried he couldn’t resist this uncontrollable force.

These were two emotions he almost couldn’t believe would appear in himself.

Because only when one cares and concerns about someone, would the seed of fear grow in their heart. This seed almost instantly grew into a towering tree, filling his heart and covering up all other emotions.

He knew his heart was trembling.

He didn’t even want to dig deeper or know who she really was and where she came from. Even if she was just “observing” him, he accepted it.

As long as she was safe.

He only wished for her safety.

Li Weilan stood on the balcony for a long time. From sunset to sunrise, from night to day, until the morning dew soaked his sleeves, and until Xi Nan came out of the dormitory yawning and was surprised to see his tired, red eyes. Only then did he seem to wake up from a dream.

The hopeful expression on his face gradually shattered like foam, revealing an exhaustion that made people feel overwhelmed and even heartbroken.

Xi Nan looked at his motionless posture all night, vaguely remembering that Brother Li had been standing there in this position when he left.

But at that time, he was smiling and had a hint of spring in his eyebrows. Now, there was only emptiness and loneliness.

Xi Nan didn’t know what had happened to make him show such an expression. He almost suspected… Did he break up? Will Noah disappear?

Anyway, both the former and the latter are big events.

However, in the face of Li Weilan’s eyes, Xi Nan only opened his mouth but did not ask the question that was already on the tip of his tongue.

Li Weilan lowered his eyelids, concealing the bloodshot eyes.

He nodded at Xi Nan, said nothing, and returned to the room, gently closing the door.

After a moment, a hoarse voice came from inside, “I’m going to sleep for a while.”

**

At noon, Shen Cheng set a reminder on her alarm clock to remind herself to harvest rice before attempting to open the game again.

These past two days, she had been preparing for the stall, and to be honest, setting up a stall seemed like an easy thing, but there were many details to consider.

For example, how big should the watermelon be, should the watermelon juice be prepared in advance, what is the ratio of avocado to yogurt, etc., all had to be carefully considered.

Shen Cheng didn’t have a juice extractor of her own. She had planned to buy one, but when Sister Ma heard her mention it, she offered her own juice extractor, and even comforted her, “My blender has been sitting at home gathering dust since I bought it.”

Of course, there was no such thing as “should I or shouldn’t I help?” among friends. They were just normal friends, and nobody owed anyone anything. If someone gave a helping hand, then the other person should find a way to repay them. Shen Cheng was not a person who didn’t understand this principle.

She had secretly planned to share some of the profits with Sister Ma, but since it was currently unclear whether she would make a profit or not, she didn’t say it directly. She just kept it in mind.

The fruit that Shen Cheng had ordered on Taobao had already arrived. The large pineapples were quite cheap at wholesale price, but they were still green and would take a few days to ripen. Shen Cheng wrapped them in newspapers and placed them at home. She was meticulous, and when she saw that she had extra time at night, she made herself an extra meal, and prepared one for Sister Ma as well.

They have a canteen in their unit, with a simple meal of one meat, one vegetable, and a soup. It’s definitely enough to fill them up, but occasionally some colleagues bring their own meat dishes to add to the meal.

Sister Ma has brought her own lunch a few times, but she says her husband usually cooks at home. Recently, her husband has been away on a business trip, so she has been ordering takeout every day.

Thinking about the upcoming visit from her in-laws, Shen Cheng decides to make some home-cooked dishes to bring to the unit.

When she opens her lunchbox at noon, Sister Ma sees the braised beef still covered in sauce and can’t help but take a deep breath. She looks at Shen Cheng with shining eyes and says, “Cheng Cheng, with your cooking skills, you don’t need to sell fruit in the evenings. You could open a food stall and make even more money!”

Shen Cheng smiles shyly and shakes her head. Her face turns slightly red, and she looks really sweet and obedient. “Sister Ma, you’re too kind. I can only cook home-style dishes, and I can’t make any more than that.”

“This beef is so tender and has a milky aroma,” Sister Ma says, praising the dish after taking a bite.

“It’s mainly because of the beef,” Shen Cheng says, opening the tao bao shop to share with Sister Ma. She had tried several so-called agricultural product stores before, and many of them were selling low quality meat. Only a few small shops sold high quality meat. She shares all this information generously, her eyes shining with happiness. “My cooking skills are just home-style dishes, and the quality of the meat makes all the difference. Sister Ma, if you like it, you can buy some and try making it yourself. The taste is really pure.”

Sister Ma rubs her head and sighs inwardly: such a clever little girl, but she’s also the hardest-working person in their company.

She’s so young and only has a few clothes to wear, all simple and plain, and she doesn’t even wear any extra lipstick on a regular basis. She is always ready to help others, and she thinks about repaying their kindness. Sometimes, people who are wealthy are not impressed by things that others consider valuable, but when they are willing to share what they have with others, it is truly admirable.

Although Sister Ma is kind-hearted, she is also shrewd in her assessment of people. She immediately feels that this girl is worth helping, and she quietly adds a little more care.

After finishing lunch, Shen Cheng’s phone reminds her that it’s time to harvest the grain. She suddenly remembers: did the voice package finish updating?

She opens the game icon and sees that the update is complete!

She happily opened the game, thinking “I can finally listen to the cub’s voice.” As soon as she opened the game, a game update message popped up:

[Thank you for purchasing the voice pack and AI interaction system. This shopping pack includes: protagonist voiceover (synchronized with subtitles) and keyword interaction system. Players can start interacting with the protagonist from ‘Hello, Li Weilan’!]

[System has been updated. This update includes: mood weather report, children’s day set now available in the store!]”

“Ah, ah, ah!” It was indeed the cub’s voice that she had heard earlier!

Almost impatiently, she clicked on the “Protagonist” page. The character now had a gray cloud hovering over his head, but he was unaware of it and sat silently on the bed.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

“Hello, Li Weilan!” With full energy, Shen Cheng greeted him in a small voice. After calling out, she felt a little shy and couldn’t help but stick out her tongue. She eagerly waited for his response with her chin in her hands.

Li Weilan shuddered all over, and three exclamation marks appeared above his head as he slowly raised his chin. It was as if he was looking at Shen Cheng outside of the screen. Although they were separated by the phone screen, looking at the cub’s focused expression on this end, Shen Cheng couldn’t help but feel a flutter in her heart.

“Is it you?” The speech bubble above his head and his spoken words were in sync.

Huh? Shen Cheng was stunned for a moment.

This game was still pulling the bait-and-switch?

Yesterday it was a cold and aloof beauty’s voice, but today it had turned into a husky bass?

“???” Did the game just randomly pick a voice actor to cheat me into buying the voice pack?

Although it was still pleasant to listen to, Shen Cheng couldn’t help but feel that something was off with the cub’s voice.

Shen Cheng was stunned for a moment. She opened her mouth, but suddenly didn’t know how to respond.

She remained silent for a while, and Li Weilan waited for her response on the other side for a long time, but to no avail. He suddenly gasped for breath, feeling short of breath and coughed twice. He felt that the pain in his chest had increased instead of decreased.

“Is it an illusion?”

He coughed, and suddenly realized what was happening.

She clicked on the icon next to Little cub’s head and saw a new debuff:

“Mild cold: -20% speed, -20% HP recovery rate, -30% stamina”

Seeing cub, who was healthy yesterday, now frail and coughing, Shen Cheng wondered what had happened while she was offline.

[Daily mission:

1. Restore the protagonist’s health to healthy or above. Task reward: 50G

2. Your base has surplus electricity. Complete the base power allocation and base work allocation missions. Task reward: 50G]

“It’s me, it’s me.” Her voice suddenly sounded again, with a hint of anxiety. “Rest for a while, okay? Please get better soon!”

Li Weilan’s eyes, which had gradually dimmed, lit up for a moment. “You’re still here!”

He paused and his voice became lower. “If you can’t talk to me, that’s okay. I just need to know that you’re still here and then I can rest assured.”

Shen Cheng couldn’t help but think that if the game company released a Li Weilan version of a wake-up or a goodnight voice app this month, even if it cost 188 yuan, she would buy it.

She didn’t think much about why Li Weilan suddenly said that. She just indulged for a while and then said straightforwardly, “I can talk. It’s no problem for me!”

Li Weilan opened his mouth, but then closed it again.

His thoughts were very delicate, and he was very concerned about her. He clearly heard the joy in her voice, which was full of vitality.

Li Weilan held back the question, “Did anything happen during the time you were gone?” that had almost escaped his lips. He didn’t mention how anxious he was last night and just smiled and nodded. “Then let’s chat, okay?”

“Awesome!” Shen Cheng felt like her blood bar was empty. Who doesn’t want to chat?

Although cub’s voice was hoarse and it was no longer that of a cold beauty, when she heard what he just said, she couldn’t refuse even if she had 10,000 reasons to.

However, Shen Cheng looked at the “exhausted” and cloudy icons above cub’s head, gritted her teeth, closed her eyes and said in one breath, “You go to bed now!”

Li Weilan sighed lightly and lowered his eyes.

“When your mild cold is better, we can chat for as long as you want!” Shen Cheng continued.

Humph! I won’t fall for this garbage game. If I promised to chat with cub now, I would definitely fail task 1 today!

My cub’s health is the most important thing, after all, I am not a stepmother!