Chapter 7: Cute Little Fish Roll

Placing the snacks and drinks on the table, Chi Qingya didn’t feel satisfied or happy.

This kind of thing shouldn’t even be her responsibility.

Su Li had no awareness at all—she was about to play a game and didn’t even bother to prepare milk tea, snacks, or sliced fruit for her.

She should’ve at least checked before bed to see if there were any snacks left on the table!

Other girls online who live with roommates always have all this stuff prepared ahead of time!

Chi Qingya felt like she really ought to give Su Li a timely reminder!

After buying clothes, Chi Qingya glanced at Su Li’s room but didn’t say much.

She simply returned to her own room and started a new match.

Su Li lay on the bed for a while, thinking about tomorrow, and almost fell asleep.

Now that her work with Jin Ke’er was over, she had lost a major source of income.

She had to find a new client.

In order to have a home she could call her own in this world.

The sound of phone notifications started going off like raindrops, pulling her out of a brief daze.

She had only been away for one minute, and the unread messages had already shot up to 99+.

[Cute Little Fish Roll (Internet-addicted girl): ?]

[Cute Little Fish Roll (Internet-addicted girl): ?]

[Cute Little Fish Roll (Internet-addicted girl): ?]

[Cute Little Fish Roll (Internet-addicted girl): ?]

[Cute Little Fish Roll (Internet-addicted girl): ?]

[…]

[Cute Little Fish Roll (Internet-addicted girl): What are you doing? Why aren’t you answering?]

[Cute Little Fish Roll (Internet-addicted girl): Are you there?]

[Cute Little Fish Roll (Internet-addicted girl): What are you doing?]

[Cute Little Fish Roll (Internet-addicted girl): Say something!]

[Cute Little Fish Roll (Internet-addicted girl): 10]

[Cute Little Fish Roll (Internet-addicted girl): 9]

[Cute Little Fish Roll (Internet-addicted girl): 8]

[…]

[Cute Little Fish Roll (Internet-addicted girl): 1]

[Cute Little Fish Roll (Internet-addicted girl): [Voice Call] Missed, click to call back]

[Cute Little Fish Roll (Internet-addicted girl): [Voice Call] Missed, click to call back]

[Cute Little Fish Roll (Internet-addicted girl): [Voice Call] Missed, click to call back]

[Cute Little Fish Roll (Internet-addicted girl): [Voice] 10”]

[Cute Little Fish Roll (Internet-addicted girl): [Voice] 5”]

[Cute Little Fish Roll (Internet-addicted girl): [Voice] 7”]

Su Li had just tried to transcribe the voice message, but accidentally tapped on the voice clip itself.

A high-pitched, obviously voice-modulated loli voice came out of her phone, endlessly scolding her for not picking up the call.

And for not replying to the messages.

While watching the transcribed text, more messages kept pouring in.

[Chang Li: ?]

[You retracted a message]

[Chang Li: What’s wrong, baby?]

Her reflexes were quick, but it was no use—the other person was clearly watching the chat screen constantly.

[Cute Little Fish Roll (Internet-addicted girl): [Voice] How many times do I have to tell you to call me baby? Why can’t you remember?!]

The other person sounded furious, even let out a little hiccup.

Don’t ask Su Li how she knew—her finger had once again accidentally tapped the voice message.

Xiao Yuyu.

Internet-addicted girl.

Su Li looked at the contact note she had written for Xiao Yuyu.

Even now, she wasn’t sure if Xiao Yuyu was her real name or a fake one.

But as an emotional therapist, real or fake names didn’t matter to her.

They were just codenames.

Just like in her past life, in the game, her codename was simply “Number One.”

[Chang Li: I’m sorry, baby, I was just taking a shower.]

[Cute Little Fish Roll (Internet-addicted girl): Let me see, baby.]

[Chang Li: Sorry, baby, I already finished.]

While replying to Xiao Yuyu’s messages, Su Li opened up her phone’s memo.

She looked at the notes she had saved:

Xiao Yuyu.

Internet-addicted girl. Bipolar disorder. YuYu Syndrome.

Replies instantly. Must call her “baby” in every sentence.

When playing games with Xiao Yuyu, praise her a lot.

If she dies in the game, comfort her immediately.

She reflected on her earlier reply—she had instinctively replied too fast and left out the word “baby.”

[Cute Little Fish Roll (Internet-addicted girl): Then next time, let me see, okay, baby?]

Looking at the custom avatar in the chat interface stamped with a watermark, Su Li thought about how to respond.

[Chang Li: Baby, you know my phone’s not waterproof.]

According to Xiao Yuyu, she was pretty loaded.

At the very least, the original avatar she was using now had cost several thousand just to gain membership.

Even her ultra-rare in-game two-character ID, Xiao Yuyu claimed she had spent over ten thousand to buy it.

She and Xiao Yuyu had met in-game.

At the time, curious about this world, Su Li downloaded a system-recommended app just to try it out.

After a few matches, she felt the gameplay was too easy, and curiously typed in the chat: “Is anyone real?”

That’s when Xiao Yuyu, with her flashy win record, responded with a “?”

Thinking she was just a smurf dominating newbies, Su Li casually praised her a bit.

Then Xiao Yuyu added her and invited her to play together.

Later, even when she stopped logging in as often, Xiao Yuyu would still pester her to get online.

Eventually, Xiao Yuyu asked her to become her game companion, transferring money to her for every match.

It started at fifty yuan per game, then rose to a hundred.

Because she got busy with her part-time job at Jin Ke’er’s place, Xiao Yuyu upped the rate to five hundred yuan per match.

Aside from occasionally calling her noob during matches and demanding instant message replies, Xiao Yuyu was actually a pretty decent client.

Their gaming sessions were strictly just that—gaming—but Xiao Yuyu would still message her at random times and insist on immediate replies.

Not only that, Xiao Yuyu would frequently send her in-game screenshots and replays.

Su Li had to praise her from multiple angles and perspectives each time.

So far, the actual game time between them had gotten less and less—instead, Xiao Yuyu had grown more interested in just chatting with her.

Which, of course, earned her nothing.

At one point, Xiao Yuyu even offered to give her a game account—the account was linked to Xiao Yuyu in a couple’s status.

She insisted that Su Li log in using that account whenever they played together.

Every time Xiao Yuyu got a new skin or reward on the account, she would report it to Su Li.

Su Li maintained her professionalism, and that’s exactly why Xiao Yuyu was so satisfied with her.

[Chang Li: Baby, wanna log on?]

[Cute Little Fish Roll (Internet-addicted girl): Sure, baby.]

By the time Su Li finished dealing with Xiao Yuyu, it was already two in the morning.

The match had only lasted twenty minutes, but Xiao Yuyu spent nearly an hour critiquing the teammates.

Su Li consoled her, praised every move she made in meticulous detail, and even threw in some extra “soothing to sleep” service—only when her phone stopped buzzing did she know it was finally over.

The chat screen finally went still.

[Cute Little Fish Roll (Internet-addicted girl): Good night, baby, love you~]

[Chang Li: Good night, baby.]

Looking at the chat screen, Su Li felt like the word “baby” had completely flooded the screen—to the point where she was starting to forget what it even looked like.