Plague (26): Successful proposal

On the 29th day of the month, at 8 PM, the public loudspeakers on every street and alley, as well as the local news radio station, were broadcasting the mayor’s powerful voice.

Tan Xiao, who had already returned home from the hospital, was using a floor scrubber to clean the room, while Wen Yi, wearing an apron, was washing the dishes.

To celebrate the conclusion of the matter, they had soft, green, sticky mugwort rice cakes for breakfast, and for lunch and dinner, they had tofu flower rice with a whole duck marinated with perilla and ginger slices.

The custom in Tan Xiao’s family was to eat tofu pudding rice after getting sick. The word for duck sounded like “press,” which was meant to ward off bad luck and calm the spirit. Tan Xiao made the rice, so Dr. Wen washed the dishes.

Today, a fresh pomelo leaf was floating in the dedicated water basin used for washing the floor at home, perfectly enhancing the ritual of warding off bad luck.

The mayor’s voice drowned out the soft music playing in the living room: “During this period, thanks to the hard work of our city’s medical staff and volunteers, and the active cooperation of all citizens, I hereby announce that at 19:35:18 today, the citizens of S City have achieved the ultimate goal of a 100% vaccination rate for the X12-T1 vaccine!”

After a round of enthusiastic applause on the broadcast, the mayor’s commendation for the meritorious individuals followed.

“In the face of this sudden disaster, under the leadership of Dr. Wen Yi, the chief physician of Huaxi Hospital, and with the joint assistance of medical personnel such as Professor Li Mingyue and Professor Zhu Qing, the T1 drug was developed and improved, saving the lives of the citizens of S City. It successfully defeated the X12 infectious disease that brought countless pains to S City. Let us take this opportunity to especially thank them for their tireless efforts day and night”

When Tan Xiao heard this, he had just finished mopping the living room and entered the kitchen. He gently poked his boyfriend’s back with his finger: “Your name is first, wow, my taste is really good, I found such an excellent boyfriend.”

In one sentence, he praised both of them. Wen Yi carefully dried the water off the dishes with a kitchen towel: “I’m the lucky one.”

The mayor suddenly raised his voice: “I announce that starting today, all lockdowns in the entire S city will be lifted, all production orders will be restored, and I wish everyone peace, health, and happiness! Be happy every day!”

His speech ended, and the loudspeaker fell silent, but immediately after, the sound of fireworks launching into the sky could be heard. In the playground of the park across from them, brilliant fireworks began to burst into the sky.

“Wen Yi, be happy every day!” Tan Xiao shouted, putting down the sweeper in his hand. “You can’t see much from the kitchen. Let’s go to the rooftop to watch the fireworks.”

Through the glass, only part of the fireworks could be seen, but from the open high ground, the full view could be enjoyed.

The two of them took the elevator up to watch the fireworks. Many citizens who had received the news in advance went to the park and riverside, but on the rooftop, it was just the two of them.

It was the hot summer season, but by night, the heat had dissipated a lot. The cool night breeze blew the ice silk pajamas on Tan Xiao, making them stick to his calves. The wind blowing against his body felt particularly comfortable.

The fireworks celebration lasted a long time, with countless dazzling fireworks lighting up the sky. Watching the fireworks, Tan Xiao was somewhat lost in thought.

Wen Yi noticed his distraction and waved his hand in front of his young lover: “Baby, do you think the fireworks are not beautiful? If you find it boring, we can go back.”

Fireworks are indeed beautiful, but for Wen Yi, the most important thing was having Tan Xiao by his side. Even without fireworks, as long as Tan Xiao was happy, he would find the scene beautiful even in the face of a raging storm, thunder, and lightning.

Tan Xiao shook his head, “Fireworks are indeed beautiful, but I was just thinking about how much it would cost to get such beautiful fireworks.”

He looked at Wen Yi and couldn’t help but sigh, “Proposing under such a beautiful fireworks display must be amazing.”

Unfortunately, he had donated those supplies, and his own savings were needed for tuition fees, so he really didn’t have the money to buy fireworks for Wen Yi.

Wen Yi successfully grasped the point: “Proposal?”

“Yeah, doesn’t Dr. Wen want to be with me for a lifetime?”

Tan Xiao pouted: “Although it’s only been forty days since we met and established an intimate relationship, in this short time, I’m very sure of one thing: I want to spend my life with this person by my side, with Wen Yi.”

Wen Yi didn’t answer immediately but suddenly knelt on one knee, holding a silver ring shaped like a Möbius strip in the palm of his hand: “Tan Xiao, I, Wen Yi, swear I will love you for a lifetime, our love will never fade. Will you marry me, and never part ways?”

Eh, eh, eh?!

Tan Xiao couldn’t help but pinch his thigh: “Why so sudden?”

It hurt so much, this wasn’t a dream. If he had known, he wouldn’t have pinched so hard.

Wen Yi raised his head and looked at him intently, his eyes like black jewels reflecting the fireworks blooming in the sky above: “This ring was a gift I bought when I came of age, but now I want to give it to you. Will you accept it?”

This gesture was indeed very sudden, but after hearing Tan Xiao’s natural love words just now, he wanted to do something to respond to his young lover.

He had nothing and always greedily asked Tan Xiao for more. But because of his deep love, he always felt indebted to Tan Xiao.

This ring was the first ring he ever owned in his life, and it was also his burial item. It was the most precious and meaningful ring that Wen Yi could present right now. Wen Yi wanted to give the best thing he had to Tan Xiao.

Tan Xiao stared blankly at Wen Yi, feeling a bit flustered and at a loss: “But I don’t seem to have reached the legal marriage age yet. Can I accept it now?”

Wen Yi couldn’t help but curl his lips: “For both of us, that thin piece of paper doesn’t matter. Would you stop liking me just because I haven’t reached the marriage age?”

“Of course not!” Tan Xiao immediately snatched the ring from Wen Yi’s hand. “Once you give it to me, you can’t regret it, dear fiancé.”

He lowered his head and kissed Wen Yi’s lips amidst the fireworks. Although this engagement ceremony was simple and sudden, with the starry sky and countless deities as witnesses, their love transcended life and death, unwavering until the end.

After a night of madness, the time came for the final day of the game world.

Unlike the exhausted and sleeping Tan Xiao, tonight, many people in this city couldn’t sleep.

Nie Cheng stayed awake all night with his eyes wide open, fearing that if he closed them, he would fall back into the endless nightmare.

But as dawn broke and the once quiet city became lively again, he nervously opened his window and saw bright, healthy smiles on the faces of people.

In that moment, Nie Cheng finally believed that everything before him was not a dream. The cycle had ended, and the city plagued by disease had finally regained its true health.

A calm day passed, and as the clock struck midnight on the 30th day, all the players heard the system notification sound.

They had never felt the system sound so pleasant like they do now.

[Congratulations to players Wang Mingming/Li Shengnan/Liu Yanyan…… for successfully completing the instance ‘Plague Infection’. We are now calculating your rewards for this instance.]

[Your performance in this instance was C/B/A……]

The player’s consciousness was extracted, and the suppressed NPCs regained their awareness.

And beside Wen Yi, the consciousness of Tan Xiao also withdrew.

The face remained the same, but the young man had completely fallen into a deep sleep, his body turning into a quiet shell.

The originally calm and gentle Dr. Wen transformed into black mist the moment he was taken away by an external force, and the black mist spread throughout the city, enveloping the sky above City S.

“Give him back, give him back, give my love back to me!”

The black mist grasped that wisp of white light, trying to force this power composed of data to return his lover.

The sleeping citizens trembled, their lost memories forcibly awakened, continuously supplying energy to the black mist through their pain, sorrow, fear, and hatred.

The white light composed of code struggled desperately, making a screeching sound: “He has already been teleported out, but he will enter the instance again. You can go to another place and wait for him there!”

After confirming the authenticity, Black Mist finally calmed down and left the instance without any hesitation.

After receiving the data, the system changed from a white orb to a red orb, indicating that it was in an emergency error state.

A bunch of garbled code appeared, and the white orb finally repaired itself successfully, conveying the notice issued by the game headquarters.

[Detected that the plague infection instance has lost its core, the plague infection instance rating has been downgraded to extremely easy, the instance is temporarily closed, and will be reopened after successful maintenance.]

Without the soul-infused core of the instance, the difficulty of the plague infection instance had significantly decreased. When it reopened, it would become a relatively easy benefit instance for new players.

All the players who were pulled into the game instance returned to reality. They were very surprised to find that while they couldn’t reveal their player identities in the game, there were no such obstacles in real life.

Moreover, after clearing the instance, the game also rewarded them with abundant survival supplies based on their performance.

Because City S was originally a resource-rich metropolis, even the lowest-rated F-level players received at least 30 bottles of clean drinking water and 30 bags of bread.

This was enough to sustain a person for a month. In the past, these items were not considered precious, but after the fog descended, clean drinking water became a lifesaving resource for some people.

For players with higher ratings, the resources they obtained in the novice instance would be even more abundant.

In addition to bread, there were also boxed meals, self-heating hot pots, and even hearty dishes like braised pork and sauerkraut with intestines. Of course, there were also weapons.

Apart from basic living supplies, the game also distributed game coins and points. Game coins could be used to shop at the coin shop, which sold various living supplies and weapons that could be used in game instances.

Points were even more precious; they could be used to purchase special abilities and artifacts, such as space backpacks, talismans for exercising ghosts, and the ability to communicate with animals, among other things.

Of course, for players who had completed an instance, the items sold in the points shop were worth a fortune.

Points could not be traded, but they could be inherited by other players after dying in an instance. Of course, this malicious rule that sowed discord among players would only be discovered by players much later.

The God Game was clearly a well-structured game with comprehensive measures. After players completed the beginner instance, they found themselves pulled into the forum and became officially registered members.

The forum was directly linked to the trading mall, where the transactions refered to the trading of special items obtained from system instances.

After a game, the number of players on the forum quickly surpassed 100,000, including those who failed the game for the first time.

Regardless of whether the game was a failure or not, novice players had the opportunity to choose whether to give up the game. The difference between players who succeed and failed in the game was: if a novice quest was successful, they could receive abundant game rewards, and the talents drawn in the novice instance would become permanent talents, following them into every instance.

However, if the players failed the game, they would have nothing but a forum identity.

The system would not give players any extra time; they needed to decide whether to quit the game within an hour. If they exceed the time limit, it would be assumed they wanted to continue participating in the game.

A post by a player who failed to clear an instance was floating high on the forum’s homepage: [This game is too dangerous. The supplies they give are practically useless. I’m choosing to quit and won’t be playing with you all anymore. Goodbye, everyone.]

Many players who didn’t want to take risks, after recalling the pain in the instance, successively quit the game. Most of them were players who failed in the game, but there were also a few who successfully cleared the instance.

After seeing those special items for sale in the forum, smart people should realize that after the fog, the world had already undergone tremendous changes.

Without powerful strength, many people would fall to the bottom of society. Being addicted to the game was both dangerous and an opportunity. After seeing what was for sale in the store, they were even more reluctant to give up this special opportunity.

Moreover, this time the game captured over a hundred thousand players, and next time it would capture even more. When everyone became a player, could ordinary people still maintain their previous status?

The number of players rose to a certain point and then quickly declined, finally stabilizing at 67,895 after the countdown ended in the last hour.

[Congratulations to all players, choosing to continue the game is one of the smartest decisions you have made. Next, the game will distribute leaderboard rewards.]

[Congratulations to player Shao Shan for completing the novice instance “Salt Lake” and achieving an A-grade score. You will receive a surprise big wheel opportunity once.]

[Congratulations to player Dong Hu for completing the novice instance “Green Mountain Hospital” and achieving an A-grade score. You will receive a surprise big wheel opportunity once.]

……

That’s right, from the forum, they could see that players who received an A rating or higher in the novice instance could get a chance to spin the surprise big wheel.

The surprise big wheel had a 100% chance of winning, with prizes including skills of different levels, a large amount of game coins, a large amount of game points, and high-level items.

No matter what game it was, excellent players were always favored. Players who achieved high scores in the novice stage for the first time would obviously progress faster and more steadily than others.

[Congratulations to the player Tan Xiao for clearing the beginner instance ‘Plague Infection’ and achieving an S-rank! You will receive three chances to spin the surprise grand prize wheel! Supreme member special badge! One month of post pinning privileges!]

[Congratulations to the player Tan Xiao for clearing the beginner instance…]

The exact same announcement was posted three times, giving the only S-rank player in the novice instance a lot of face.

The game forum allowed them to search for names to access player pages. All players’ real names were displayed on the forum, but other personal information about the players was hidden.

Names could be the same, but IDs were unique.

The remaining players all searched for Tan Xiao’s name, and then saw a dazzling, colorful, and cool page.

They all tried to send friend requests to the great god.

[Master Tan Xiao, you’re amazing! Can I cling to you?]

[Master, are you releasing game strategies?]

[What did you do to get such a high score?]

Besides clinging, there were also those trying to morally blackmail and freeload.

[Master, I’m starving, can you send me some supplies? S-rank supplies must be very generous.]

[Boss, can I borrow some supplies? I promise to return them double!]

[We humans are a community with a shared future, we should unite!]

Of course, there were also those who immediately formed small groups, trying to recruit Tan Xiao for a team.

But this god-like player seemed unusually aloof, not accepting any friend requests from players, nor making any comments on the forum.

Wang Mingming, who also participated in the plague infection instance, was particularly excited to see the name Tan Xiao.

Tan Xiao, wasn’t that the beautiful young man who worked at Xiao Zhao’s fruit store?! He even had a doctor boyfriend!

Wasn’t Tan Xiao the NPC who scared him on the first day of the game? How did he become an S-rank player?!

Wait, Wang Mingming suddenly remembered that the game had warned him at the time: [You are being watched by the unspeakable.]

At that time, it was indeed Tan Xiao who suspected, but there was another person watching him from the stairs, the genius doctor Wen Yi who developed the T1 vaccine!

The game didn’t say Tan Xiao was an NPC, which meant the unspeakable should be Wen Yi!

This instance was called “Plague Infection,” and “Wen Yi” sounded like “plague.” Wasn’t the system hinting at something? The special NPC Nie Cheng caused the instance difficulty to rise to hell level, but Doctor Wen easily took out a vaccine, forcibly lowering the instance’s difficulty to extremely easy!

What did this mean? It meant Wen Yi was very likely the true final boss behind the scenes of the instance!

Wow! The player’s banter was so impressive, no wonder he got an S-rank score.

He excitedly sent a request: “Boss, it’s me, Wang Mingming, the one from the fruit store, Aunt Zhao. Do you remember me? We entered the same beginner instance together…”

These messages, of course, were also silent. In fact, not only did the players’ messages fail to reach Tan Xiao in a timely manner, but even the system’s messages couldn’t get through.

In the vast fog, the building was filled with bones eroded by the fog’s power, and among them lay a sleeping beauty with an extraordinarily handsome face.

The young man was peacefully asleep, enveloped in a faint red glow.

The meteor shower had trapped him in the fog, but the red meteorite that struck the back of Tan Xiao’s head had saved his life, using its energy to maintain his basic life signs.

After clearing the game instance, a massive amount of energy surged into the beautiful meteorite, which looked like red agate, making its color even more vibrant.

Tan Xiao’s consciousness once again appeared in that familiar small space, a living room set in a void, with an old, familiar television in front of him.

Squatting in front of the television, Tan Xiao looked around ten years old because, in his subconscious, this familiar childhood environment made him feel very at ease.

[Player… reward… zzzz!]

Each player received different notifications, and Tan Xiao, who got an S-rank rating, had a ton of rewards. However, there was a malfunction in the information transmission channel.

The TV emitted strange, unidentifiable sounds again, and Tan Xiao, dissatisfied, looked at the chaotic snowy screen and slapped it hard again.

What? The TV was malfunctioning again.

He hit it too hard, and it seemed like the TV was leaking electricity.

With his hair frizzed up like little curls, Tan Xiao had only one thought: “The TV is broken; I can ask my parents to buy a new one!”

A flash of white light passed by, and he disappeared again from this virtual little space.

Moments later, Tan Xiao opened his eyes in an office that exuded the smell of ink.

Familiar school scenes, the sounds of teachers and parents exchanging words, the wind rustling the blinds.

Tan Xiao looked at the strange yet familiar scene in front of him with a somewhat dazed expression, straining to find corresponding memories in his mind.

He glanced at the calendar hanging on the wall: January 16, 2024.

Not long ago, due to work reasons, his parents brought him to this new city, making him a transfer student at Yuying High School.

Having read many novels, Tan Xiao quickly realized: he had been reborn, reborn in his senior year of high school.

A look of frustration appeared on Tan Xiao’s extremely handsome yet somewhat childish face: “Heavens! People usually get reborn to start a new life from their childhood. How come he was reborn and it was a year earlier?! No, it’s now the second semester of senior year, so it’s just a few months earlier.”

He did pretty well in the college entrance exam, right? Why did he have to repeat his senior year?

The boy with the trendy little curly hair couldn’t help but frown, vaguely remembering that when he passed out, he seemed to have said, “In 18 years of life, I never had a single relationship. If only I had been brave enough to date early!”

Could it be that God heard his wish and decided to give him a chance for an early romance?

Oh my God, he had made so many wishes, and he even wished to get rich. If he had known, he wouldn’t have made such silly wishes!

Tan Xiao’s mother paid the fee and stood up from her chair: “Alright, the procedures are done. Tan Xiao, go with your homeroom teacher.”

She introduced, “From now on, Teacher Xu will be your homeroom teacher. She is also the math teacher.”

Tan Xiao had always been a good student and obediently showed a bright smile: “Hello, Teacher Xu.”

Math teacher Mrs Xu loved good students the most. Although Tan Xiao was a transfer student who came in halfway, his past academic performance was excellent, and even after entering their school, he could still rank among the top.

Tan Xiao followed Mrs. Xu into the classroom of Class 8, Senior Year. Being new, he didn’t plan to be too high-profile and gave a standard self-introduction: “Hello everyone, I am Tan Xiao, Tan for talking about everything, and Xiao for smiling happily¹. I come from City A, and I hope to get along well with everyone in the next six months. Thank you.”

Because he was a transfer student, Tan Xiao didn’t wear the Yuying High School uniform. From his casual clothes, it was clear that the transfer student came from a well-off family, and his looks and demeanor were top-notch.

Facing his good-looking face, the students of Class 8 gave him a warm round of applause, especially the girls, who clapped especially hard.

However, some boys jealously booed, “Tch.”

So what if he was a pretty boy? They still didn’t know how good his grades were.

Teacher Xu had a very friendly attitude towards the academically excellent transfer student: “Tan Xiao, where would you like to sit?”

Tan Xiao looked around the classroom and immediately spotted a solitary seat.

All the desks in the classroom were paired up, except for the one where a student was sitting alone.

He asked the teacher, “Mrs. Xu, may I sit next to that student?”

As soon as Tan Xiao’s words fell, the once lively classroom suddenly fell into an eerie silence.

Someone with an extremely strong sense of insensitivity tilted his head and asked again, “Isn’t it okay, Teacher Xu? But I see that the only empty spot in the classroom is next to that desk.”

He looked over and saw that his future deskmate had their head lowered, but judging by the length of their hair, it should be a male classmate.

Early romance was impossible, so finding a male classmate to be his deskmate was the safest option. Moreover, in high school, students usually sit with someone of the same gender at their desks, and only in cases of being alone do they pair up with someone of the opposite gender.

“Hehehe…” Teacher Xu let out a strange, dry laugh, looking at the new transfer student with a speechless expression. “Sure, of course, you can sit there if you want.”

Although it was a bit unfortunate, since the transfer student seemed eager to die early, she didn’t plan to stop him.

Tan Xiao moved a set of empty desks and chairs from the back of the classroom, pushed the desk against his deskmate, cleaned it, and sat down.

He wrote a note to his new deskmate: “Hello, I’m Tan Xiao. What’s your name? Can we be friends?”

A deskmate is supposed to be closer than an average classmate, so it was best for him to get along well with his deskmate, especially since they would be together for half a year. The second semester of senior year was the most important half year.

His new deskmate looked up, allowing him to see the latter’s full appearance.

The new deskmate’s hair was a bit long, at an artistic length, long enough to tie into a small bun.

His complexion was excessively pale, giving him a gloomy aura.

A pink little arrow from Cupid suddenly struck Tan Xiao’s heart: he decided to take back what he said before, sorry mom, he couldn’t let down the divine arrangement of this rebirth, he wanted to fall in love early!

Notes

1. 談笑 (Tan Xiao), 談(Tan) means talk/chat, 笑 (Xiao) means laugh ↩︎