The Young man in Online Romance (18): 

As one of the most popular games right now, Xiuxian had many events, both online and offline.

It was now June, and in two months — in August, during the summer vacation — Xiuxian would host a large offline event, after which the Immortal Realm storyline would be unlocked.

Not long ago, as one of Xiuxian’s top players, Gu Juntian had received an invitation to the event.

In the original storyline, the original owner had also received an invitation but declined, saying he was too busy with work.

Now that Gu Juntian had replaced him, it was different — Gu Juntian intended to participate.

“Great Emperor, did you see that post on the forum today?” The vice leader of the Sky Demon Pavilion sent a private message to ask Gu Juntian. This vice leader, named Capricorn Unrivaled, wasn’t the recent assistant Gu Juntian had promoted to help handle small tasks, but someone he had known for a long time and who had helped him found the Sky Demon Pavilion.

He was somewhat similar to Gu Juntian — after getting into a mediocre technical college, he became addicted to gaming, failed countless courses, and never graduated.

After that, he didn’t continue studying and instead played games every day, earning money by selling equipment and power-leveling for others.

The Heavenly Emperor was generous with his spending, so he had always followed him around. Their relationship was fairly good, and whenever Gu Juntian went to challenge the Imprisoned Dragon dungeon, if Capricorn Unrivaled was online, he would join him.

“I saw it,” said Gu Juntian.

Capricorn Unrivaled said, “Great Emperor, that Little Lamb is no good. You must stay away from him in the future!”

“I know.”

Capricorn Unrivaled cursed, “That little bastard — you gave him so much money, and he treated you like that!”

Before, when he saw how much the Great Emperor tipped Little Lamb, he had been jealous.

But not for long — he soon realized that he and Little Lamb weren’t even in the same competition.

Boyfriend and friend — only one word apart, but a completely different thing!

He liked girls, not men like the Great Emperor, and the Great Emperor would never be interested in him.

Besides, he was just a friend in-game — expecting someone to give him millions was unrealistic.

Still… was the person in that photo really the Great Emperor?

Capricorn Unrivaled couldn’t help asking, “Great Emperor, is what he said true or false?”

“Half true, half false,” said Gu Juntian.

“What’s true?” Capricorn Unrivaled asked. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.”

Gu Juntian trusted this person — he had treated the original owner decently, and in the original storyline, when the original owner committed a huge crime and was imprisoned, he had even visited him once.

“The photo is real,” Gu Juntian said.

Capricorn Unrivaled thought of that photo. “That’s it? Great Emperor, you actually look pretty good — better than me.”

Capricorn Unrivaled was indeed uglier than the original owner… “Back then, I was in a bad state, so the photo came out ugly. In reality, I look just like my in-game character,” said Gu Juntian.

Capricorn Unrivaled: “…” Brother, at a time like this, you’re still bragging?

While Gu Juntian was chatting with Capricorn Unrivaled, Little Lamb, logged in on a small alt account, was watching from nearby.

He couldn’t hear what the Heavenly Emperor and Capricorn Unrivaled were saying, but he stared at them with resentment.

In his past life, the Heavenly Emperor had scammed many people, and Capricorn Unrivaled was probably the one who had lost the most, but he refused to admit it.

After the Heavenly Emperor disappeared from the game, Capricorn Unrivaled even went around saying he was heartless and ungrateful.

The two of them had a close relationship — they were probably insulting him right now!

Little Lamb couldn’t understand what had gone wrong for him in this life — everything had been going smoothly before, but lately, his luck had turned for the worse.

His livestream traffic had already dropped a lot, and now his account had been banned.

Still, thinking that the Heavenly Emperor would soon suffer too made him feel better.

After seeing the Heavenly Emperor’s true appearance, Zhou Qinghao would definitely not want to have anything to do with him. Without Zhou Qinghao, the Heavenly Emperor would have no money!

Unfortunately, Zhou Qinghao was protected by Elder Zhou and wasn’t affected at all…

As Little Lamb was thinking this, Zhou Qinghao came online.

He was ready to watch Zhou Qinghao break things off with the Heavenly Emperor, but instead, Zhou Qinghao cheerfully called out, “Brother Tian!”

“Ah Qing, where do you want to go today?” Gu Juntian asked.

Zhou Qinghao looked around. “Let’s go somewhere less crowded.”

Then, the two of them left together as affectionately as before.

Little Lamb was stunned — was Zhou Qinghao’s love-struck brain this serious?

The Heavenly Emperor looked like that, and he could still smile and call him “Brother Tian”?

If he had known it would be like this, he should have made his own game avatar more handsome and gone after Zhou Qinghao himself.

Capricorn Unrivaled saw this and felt a bit worried.

The Great Emperor was a hopeless romantic — he had been tricked out of a lot of money by Little Lamb before, so would Qingtian Bairi trick him next?

As for the other members of the Sky Demon Pavilion, they mostly thought the forum post was probably fake.

If it were true, would the Great Emperor still log in happily?

But while they thought this way, others didn’t.

That night, in some player chat groups, rumors began to spread.

There were chat logs between the Great Emperor and Little Lamb. Although the Great Emperor’s words were brief and carried the tone of a successful person, they didn’t hold up to scrutiny.

Sometimes he said he was a programmer, other times that he owned a company.

He even said things like “making tens of millions isn’t hard.”

“The Great Emperor is online almost every day — what kind of successful person has that kind of time?”

“I believe it if he says he’s a rich second generation, but a self-made wealthy first generation? That’s too fake.”

“Some of the things he says don’t match up at all!”

…

The leaked chat screenshots weren’t just between the Great Emperor and Little Lamb, but with other people too. Overall, reading them made him seem like he was bragging.

Some even mentioned that the Great Emperor had once said his constant online presence was thanks to a hired power-leveler, but sometimes when it should have been the power-leveler’s time, if something happened in-game, the Great Emperor would appear instantly.

So whether it was the Great Emperor or the power-leveler playing at any given time was just a matter of what he said.

Some had long suspected he had never hired anyone and had always been playing himself.

While the Xiuxian forum remained calm, other places were filled with rumors, and the Great Emperor’s photo and information were being shared.

Many people, though not saying it out loud, suspected that what Little Lamb had said might actually be true.

Still, even if the Great Emperor was ugly and not a rich second generation, it didn’t affect them much — so they just gossiped without taking further action.

Gu Juntian knew nothing about this — he was busy on a date with Zhou Qinghao.

Dating in-game was inconvenient. For example, now they had their characters do a hand-holding action, but there was no real sensation of holding hands.

This had to be improved!

In front of Qingtian Bairi, Gu Juntian tried to speak more like the original owner, occasionally bragging about his achievements.

But unlike the original owner, whose boasts were empty promises, Gu Juntian’s were all true. “Ah Qing, I have a big project coming up, so I might not be able to play every day. We can keep in touch through messages.”

“Okay.” Zhou Qinghao looked at him and agreed.

Gu Juntian added, “This project will take about two months, and right after that, there’s the Xiuxian offline event. How about we meet in person then?”

“Sure, Brother Tian. I’ve wanted to meet you for a long time,” Zhou Qinghao said. “But Brother Tian, there’s something I’ve lied to you about…”

“What is it?” Gu Juntian asked.

“I don’t want to say it yet. If I’ve lied to you, will you forgive me?”

“You’re not married or in a relationship in real life, right?” Gu Juntian asked.

“No, you’re my only boyfriend,” Zhou Qinghao replied.

“Then it’s fine. Everything else is minor — I won’t mind,” said Gu Juntian, reassured.

He had seen the original owner’s future, in which Zhou Qinghao’s real appearance was even better than his in-game character, and his voice was the same as now.

The only lies Zhou Qinghao could tell him would be about small things like personal details.

Compared to the original owner lying to Zhou Qinghao, this was nothing!

If anyone should feel guilty, it should be him.

The two played for four hours before Gu Juntian logged off.

The next morning, officials came to pick him up.

He packed quickly and followed them to the place where he would be staying.

The leader of the group was a middle-aged man called Captain Zhang, whom Gu Juntian had spoken to the day before. “Captain Zhang, does the research institute have a gym?”

“Yes, and we’ve already arranged for a nutritionist to help you lose fat and get in shape,” Captain Zhang replied, glancing at him in surprise.

Yesterday, he had seen Gu Juntian’s photo at Zhou Qinghao’s place — in fact, he had gotten hold of photos from his entire life.

He had been prepared to pick up a listless, overweight man today.

But in front of him stood someone who, while not thin, wasn’t excessively fat either.

For a moment, he thought it was a different person.

Soon, he received recent information about Gu Juntian — surveillance footage from the past month showed him walking in the residential area every morning, gradually slimming down. He had bought fitness equipment and was eating very healthily.

So… was this losing weight for love?

“That’s good,” said Gu Juntian.

They flew to another city, and before long, he was taken to an undisclosed location, where several technicians came to chat with him.

Gu Juntian knew that to get good treatment, he had to demonstrate his skills.

He immediately started talking with them, and as they talked, new knowledge kept surfacing in his mind.

He shared these ideas freely, and soon they were using offline computers.

Eventually, it turned into a Q&A session where they asked questions and he answered. The conversation began drifting toward military technology.

Gu Juntian: “…”

Seeing that it was about time, he said, “Let’s stop here for today. I need to have dinner, and afterward I want to play some games.”

Dinner was a must, but games… he had just discussed too many classified matters, so Captain Zhang apologized and said he couldn’t play for now.

If he had known, he would have waited until tomorrow to talk!

“Then I can at least message my boyfriend, right?”

“Of course,” said Captain Zhang.

Right in front of him, Gu Juntian sent Zhou Qinghao a message saying he was busy and couldn’t log in.

After he was done, the researchers asked, “So can we keep talking now?”

“No,” Gu Juntian said. “I need to work out.”

Getting eight-pack abs in two months would be hard, but slimming down to a normal build was doable if he stayed determined.

The researchers: “…”

At first, officials had been suspicious of how much knowledge Gu Juntian seemed to have.

But after talking with him, the researchers told them there was no need to doubt him — he was simply a genius.

Many things they discussed, he didn’t know at first, but as they talked, he quickly grasped them and even came up with all sorts of wild ideas.

With ideas that unconventional, it was obvious he hadn’t received a formal education.

He was simply a born genius.