A slight sense of vertigo washed over her.
When Luo Tiantian opened her eyes again, she was staring at the ceiling of her rental apartment.
“Ugh…”
Luo Tiantian tried to move, but her entire body immediately felt like it was falling apart, aching and soft—especially in a certain, unspeakable area.
‘You bastard… you piece of trash player…’
Despite the cursing, there was something else that bothered her even more.
‘Money!’
[Current Total Game Coins: 251]
251.
In other words, after King You had tossed her around inside and out for so long with that damn gold leaf game, she still fucking lost a little in the end.
The only thing that had increased was those 20 assistance points.
She felt so aggrieved.
‘This is pure exploitation—and I’m the one paying for it! I’m literally giving her game coins to play with me!’ Luo Tiantian rubbed her head back and forth against her pillow in frustration, wishing she could rip Shen Xixi’s smug, smiling face out of her memory and stomp on it.
The more she thought about it, the more wronged she felt, and her nose began to sting.
‘My gold leaves could have been worth so many more game coins. Black-hearted capitalists! Game developers are all just beasts, baa baa baa…’
Luo Tiantian slumped on the bed like a salted fish that had lost its dreams, motionless.
A loud growl erupted from her stomach.
She was hungry.
Luo Tiantian struggled to crawl out of bed and found a pack of noodles.
She boiled the water and waited, watching the noodles slowly soften in the boiling water. The rising steam blurred her still-pouting face.
‘Eat noodles, sleep, and tomorrow… tomorrow I have to keep going.’
However, she couldn’t pin all her hopes on the game. She needed to think about how to handle her live streams.
Luo Tiantian patted her cheeks firmly to cheer herself up and checked the time.
It was already 2:00 PM.
After finishing her meal, Luo Tiantian downloaded the Bo Luo Bao Bao Pretty Girl Companion App.
‘Voice acting companion… I shouldn’t have to show my face for this, right?’
ID: Luoluoyousheng.
Bio: New voice actress. Can switch between various vocal ranges. Available for game companionship, bedtime lullabies, and emotional vent sessions.
Then, she tested her voice using the phone’s built-in recording software.
“Hello, I’m Luoluo. What game would you like to play today?”—this was her current soft and cute voice.
“My King~”—this was Daji’s seductive voice, with a lingering, captivating finish.
“Your Majesty…”—this was Bao Si’s sorrowful voice, tactful and mournful.
‘Fine, this will do.’
She started her live stream, titling it: “New Voice Actress, Voice Samples, Taking LOL and King of Glory Game Orders.”
Ten minutes in, the number of viewers: 1.
The ID of that lone viewer was “Passerby Small Transparency,” who sent a message: “Host’s voice sounds pretty good. Are you really new?”
“I really am new. Today is my first day streaming.”
“Can you try a mature woman voice?”
“I’ll try.”
Luo Tiantian strained for a long time, squeezing out a voice she thought sounded like a mature woman but actually sounded more like she had a cold. “Is this okay?”
Passerby Small Transparency tipped 1 yuan: “Good luck.”
Passerby Small Transparency left the room.
Luo Tiantian: “…”
She slumped into her chair.
‘It really isn’t that easy…’
However, she didn’t turn off the stream. Instead, she minimized the interface and opened the game forums to see if there were any other channels for taking orders.
Just then, more than ten people suddenly flooded into the stream.
The ID “Shen Family’s Invincible Dragon Proud Heaven Tyrannosaurus Eldest Miss” entered the room.
Luo Tiantian looked at the ID. It seemed very familiar.
***
City Central Hospital.
Doctor’s Break Room.
Su’s mother clicked on her browser and typed in “how to communicate with children.” An advertisement popped up in the search results:
[*Huaxia God Realm*—The most realistic virtual world, the best bridge to repair parent-child relationships!]
Below the slogan was a promotional video: a mother and daughter who were cold to each other in reality smiled at each other in the game after completing a task together; a rebellious youth came to understand his father’s youthful dreams through the game…
At the bottom of the page were user reviews:
[Anonymous User A]: Played with my daughter. She chose my old profession in the game and finally understands why I always worked late.
[Anonymous User B]: My dad apologized to me in the game. In real life, he’s never said he was sorry.
Su’s mother had heard of this game. A few young doctors in the department had been discussing it, saying the realism was extremely high and could even affect real-world emotions.
Repairing parent-child relationships…
As if possessed, she clicked the purchase link.
“Your area supports 10-minute delivery. The equipment will arrive within 10 minutes.”
She still had half an hour of break time left; she could try it out first.
Ten minutes later, Su’s mother received the equipment.
Inside was a sleek, pure white helmet with a high-quality texture and a quick-start guide.
Following the instructions, she connected the power and put on the helmet.
[Welcome to *Huaxia God Realm*.]
[Detected that this is your first login. Creating character…]
[Reminder: This game uses deep personality scanning and emotional mapping technology. Character image and traits will be generated based on your real personality data. Do you wish to proceed?]
Su’s mother hesitated for a second before selecting “Yes.”
A slight sense of vertigo followed.
When she opened her eyes again, she was standing in front of a dilapidated house.
Su’s mother looked down, staring blankly at her hands.
They were rough, covered in callouses, and the knuckles were somewhat deformed. The coarse cloth clothes she wore were covered in patches.
In front of her was a dried-up well.
A system prompt appeared:
[Status Window]
Character: Lady Si
Status: Struggling through despair for a glimmer of hope
Current Mindset: Just abandoned the thought of throwing herself into the well, deciding to live for her daughter and secretly find a way to help her.
[Loading memory fragments…]
Suddenly, countless images flooded her mind.
Being taken away at age 12 or 13 to be a concubine for a wealthy family; none of the children she bore survived; being driven away and sold repeatedly to other commoners; giving birth to Bao Si at 34 years old; holding a young Bao Si while fleeing from war; her daughter being forcibly taken as a tribute; stubbornly following her daughter to the state of Zhou; being abandoned in a cold palace; falling seriously ill with no one to care for her, fearing she would become a burden to her daughter…
Finally, there was the moment just now: standing by the well, one foot already in the air, when she suddenly remembered her daughter as a child, clutching her hem and crying while sick, begging her mother not to leave.
She had pulled her foot back.
Su’s mother clutched her chest.
That despair, self-reproach, and humble yet resilient maternal love… it surged in her heart with such realism.
This wasn’t acting.
She truly felt as though she had a daughter struggling in the deep palace, while she, a useless mother, wanted to help but had no idea where to start.
Su’s mother pushed open the door to the room.
The smell of mold hit her nose.
The cramped space contained only a thin quilt.
She walked to the wall and touched it; it was damp, even covered in moss.
“This kind of environment…” Su’s mother’s instincts as a doctor were triggered. “Living here long-term would cause rheumatism, respiratory infections, and malnutrition…”
Only then did she realize: this was a game, but it was also the living environment of a mother and a patient.
And this mother was the character she was currently playing.
A system prompt appeared again:
[You have one unread character background supplement: Lady Si carries an old sachet with her, the only relic left by Bao Si’s biological father. The inner layer of the sachet is suspected to hide some information, but Lady Si is illiterate and never discovered it.]
Su’s mother reached for her waist.
Sure enough, there was a faded, worn sachet with fine stitching, showing the care put into its making.
She untied the sachet. Inside were a few withered flower petals.
She felt the inner layer—there was indeed a slight bumpiness, as if words had been embroidered there.
But just as the system said, Lady Si was illiterate.
However, Su’s mother was literate.
She leaned toward the window, carefully identifying the embroidered patterns that had been nearly worn flat.
It was seal script.
She had studied ancient Chinese medical texts in her youth and could barely recognize it.
The first line: “Secret of Bao State…”
Before she could finish reading, footsteps suddenly sounded outside the door.
A young girl dressed in a maid’s attire pushed open the door. Seeing Lady Si standing by the window, she blinked in surprise before bowing respectfully.
“Lady Si, the King has ordered for you to be moved to a sunnier room. I have been assigned to serve you. Please, follow me.”