SUNSET SMEARED caramel light on the glass of the gymnasium. Outside, the skies were the rich red of brocade. Xue Meng and the little dragon did a lap around the building. Hardly anyone was here at this time of day; practice was over, and the only lights left on were in the equipment room.
Man and dragon looked at each other and struck out in that direction.
Inside, they found an adolescent Mo Ran. He was in seventh grade but had yet to hit his growth spurt, likely because his family was too poor; food was scarce at home. He barely looked different from the child at the noodle shop. Mo Ran's scrawny limbs were drowning in a school uniform that swallowed him up like a burlap sack, and his dirty hair hung lank around his face—a ghostly little thing, easy to overlook.
The little ghost sat cross-legged on the ground with his back to them, tidying up the badminton birdies left by the other students.
"Why's he all alone?" asked Xue Meng. "Isn't anyone going to help him?"
The dragon flipped through the mission pamphlet, frowning. "Let's see—they had a badminton tournament with the neighboring class this afternoon and lost badly. His teammates all thought it was Mo Ran's fault, so they left him here to clean things up alone." It clicked its tongue. "Ah, poor kid."
Being made a scapegoat was a novel concept to Xue Meng, spoiled darling of the heavens. He blinked in confusion, and only after several long seconds did his eyes widen with comprehension.
"Fucking hell!" he raged. "What kind of bullshit is this? Picking on someone just because you lost a game? Did these people get their heads slammed in a door as kids?!"
"I commend your righteous spirit, dear Xue Meng. But our objective right now seems to be triggering the next meet-cute for the little underdog."
"I commend your ruthlessness, Four-Legged Worm." Xue Meng rolled his eyes, then scooted closer to study up on the new female love interest.
At this point in the game, there were three routes they could trigger.
"The first one is called Yao Lan. She's a senior two grades above Mo Ran."
"Then she's going to graduate soon." The candle dragon shook its head. "No way; there're too many things that could go wrong."
"You're right." Xue Meng narrowed his eyes and looked at the next entry. "The next is Rong Yan, she's… The fuck? The principal?"
The candle dragon gaped at him. "Mo Ran can romance the principal?"
"She's thirty-six! He's only thirteen! That's not a fucking age gap, that's an age Mariana Trench!"
They were still arguing when a big red X appeared on the guide, followed by a line of small text, wobbly with embarrassment. I'm so sorry orz, I made a mistake. She's not romanceable.
The candle dragon gawked.
"So the AI in this AI guide stands for Artificial Idiocy?" Xue Meng asked.
Abashed, the guide scrubbed out the lines about Rong Yan, moving so hastily it accidentally wiped out half Yao Lan's photo as well.
"One left." Xue Meng flipped the page. "This girl. Luo Xianxian."
According to the guide, Luo Xianxian was the prettiest girl in Mo Ran's class. Lots of the boys had crushes on her, but she never let it go to her head. She was gentle, well-behaved, and kind.
"Perfect, this is the one," said Xue Meng. "Sing her praises any more and I'll fall in love too—perfect wife material."
"That's just your opinion." The dragon was far more worldly than he. "Some men have more unique tastes—her heels have to be four-inch stilettos, no shorter, complete with red lipstick, a little leather crop, sunglasses, a uniform cap, and a skin-tight bodysuit. The type of woman who doesn't just slap you once when she gets angry—she'll backhand both cheeks equally."
"I think you're talking about elite VIPs of a BD—ahem—SM club."
Whether Mo Ran had VIP tastes, they didn't know, but they were at least certain Luo Xianxian was a likelier target for success than Yao Lan.
Let the romancing commence!
"Figure out how to keep Mo Ran in the equipment room until six o'clock, when the self-study period starts," Xue Meng read aloud. "Make sure he looks super sad and pathetic."
"What else?"
Xue Meng reviewed the guide again. "That's it."
"That's it?" exclaimed the dragon.
"That's it," said Xue Meng as he closed the book.
The dragon craned its neck to peer at the clock on the wall. "It's almost five. We only have to keep him here for another hour."
The two of them rolled up their sleeves and got down to business. Stalling for time was too easy. They watched Mo Ran carefully, and just as he'd painstakingly put each racquet back on the rack, they cast a spell to make it sway. With an unnatural totter, it collapsed, scattering ping-pong balls and paddles across the floor.
Mo Ran stared in silence. As the teen's ink-dark eyes widened in puppyish hurt, Xue Meng and the little dragon both felt guilt prick their hearts. But surely they weren't doing anything wrong?
Mo Ran hastily began tidying up again. He was nimble, and clearing the floor took him hardly any time at all. Though he was left sweaty and panting by the time he finished, he seemed born to tidy. Xue Meng watched in shock as he put the last fallen paddle back in the bucket and shoved it in the corner. The entire process had taken barely fifteen minutes. Speechless, he swallowed and elbowed the little dragon. "Do it again."
Mo Ran watched the equipment rack have an aneurysm and collapse for a second time.
He was beyond words.
Then came the third and the fourth collapses…
They watched Mo Ran exhaust himself scampering all over the gymnasium after those balls. He was dripping sweat and his eyes were hopelessly confused, but he still cleaned up each time. He repeatedly checked the steadiness of the rack and carefully put the equipment back in its place—only for it all to go tumbling out again.
After the fourth time, Mo Ran stood dazedly in front of the equipment rack, tears welling in his eyes—he likely thought another student had set some high-tech prank on him. Clutching a basketball, his scrawny form looked all the more pitiable.
Xue Meng couldn't take it anymore—his conscience was killing him. "Are we the bad guys?"
The candle dragon put its pudgy paws over its small, beady eyes. "No," it wailed. "You're the bad guy, I'm just a bad dragon."
It was five minutes to six.
Panting, Mo Ran fixed the rack, at least four times taller than he was, and climbed down the ladder.
He stood in front of it, hesitating, for over ten seconds.
Nothing happened. It didn't fall over.
Finally, he let out a breath of relief. He shuffled wearily in the direction of the door, blissfully unaware of Xue Meng and the dragon squabbling right next to him.
"You do it!"
"No! I just did it!"
"I did it way more times than you!"
"I refuse! My conscience won't let me! It feels like I'm bullying a little kid!"
"You think I feel any better about it?!"
It was three minutes to six. Just as the handle turned in Mo Ran's hand—just as their mission was going to fail again—Xue Meng pulled through. He clenched his jaw and hardened his heart, thinking of those long hours rubber-stamping proposals. Squeezing his eyes shut, he struck the equipment rack as hard as he could.
With a tremendous crash, the entire rack slammed into the ground. A huge cloud of dust ballooned up. The room was an even greater mess than when Mo Ran started.
They were all struck dumb—be it the invisible Xue Meng and candle dragon, or the young Mo Ran cowering by the doorway.
"But it's finally six, right?" The dragon patted Xue Meng, whose heart had shattered alongside the equipment rack. "Aiya, it's not like you wanted to do it. You know how they say heaven gives its hardest battles to its strongest—"
Xue Meng was still crouched next to Mo Ran, who was silently picking up yet again. He bit his lip. "Shut up."
The dragon fell silent. But no time at all passed before Xue Meng heard it shrilling again. "Hey! Hey, look—"
"Shut up!" yelled Xue Meng.
"Luo Xianxian's here!" cried the little dragon.
Xue Meng's head snapped up. In the dim yellow glow of the gymnasium lights, the supple lines of Luo Xianxian's figure appeared outside the cracked-open doors. She pushed them open, long, pale legs moving beneath her pleated uniform skirt. Her sneaker-clad feet seemed to skim over the vinyl flooring as elegantly as a mermaid from the depths of the sea.
The clouds parted, light burst forth, angelic choirs sang!
At least that was how Xue Meng felt. His eyes glimmered with tears. Thank goodness! He didn't have to go against his conscience and shove the rack over again! Just for that, he'd give Luo Xianxian full marks!
"Mo Ran?" Luo Xianxian's voice was sweet and soft, like orange blossoms in summer. Xue Meng and the candle dragon looked to each other with tears in their eyes, convinced Mo Ran's gayness would be cured.
Miss Luo, class sweetheart, swiftly followed the light to the equipment room and carefully stuck her head in. As soon as she caught sight of Mo Ran still working, her beautiful eyes widened. "Huh…why's it so messy in here?"
Mo Ran's head whipped up. Upon recognizing her, he sighed. "The rack fell over."
"The teacher told me to get you for evening self-study." Luo Xianxian took another step into the room and looked around. "Why don't I give you a hand? It'll go quicker with two of us. We can go back together once it's done."
Mo Ran blinked. Sweat dripped from his eyelashes and into his eye, and he scrubbed at it hastily. "Thanks," he mumbled.
"What a beautiful beginning," said the candle dragon, deeply moved.
"Positively heartwarming," Xue Meng pronounced.
The teenage boy and girl busily began to help each other in the dim little room. Luo Xianxian's pleated skirt swished in time with her footsteps. Mo Ran grabbed wayward volleyballs and brought them to her. The pretty girl stood on the rack scaffolding and arranged the equipment.
The candle dragon sobbed, tears streaming over its scaly face. "Human love stories are sooo cute."
For once, Xue Meng agreed—likely because this one was of his own making. "How sweet and simple. You can't help but be moved."
Those two classmates went up and down the ladder, but Xue Meng's final destructive shove had been a bit too strong. It took much longer to tidy up the mess he'd made this time; even a full hour of two people firing on all cylinders wasn't enough to finish the job. Soon it was time for the gymnasium to close.
When the footsteps of the student on patrol that week sounded outside the doors, Xue Meng and the candle dragon were still busy congratulating themselves. They turned to see a handsome older student walk in, clutching a clipboard next to the badge on his chest.
Both of them stared in blank shock. The smiles on their faces had stiffened like dog poop left in the sun.
"That's…" Xue Meng's mouth had gone dry.
But the candle dragon could still scream, and scream it did. "That's Chu Wanning!"
Chu Wanning walked into the dim equipment room. He had surprising composure for a teen—the sight of that hurricane-swept room only made him frown. "What's going on?"
Mo Ran turned, eyes sparkling with healthy exertion. Cleaning with Luo Xianxian had both cheered him up and calmed him down, and he thoughtlessly beamed at this unfamiliar student, his cheeks dimpling. "The rack collapsed, so we've been cleaning it up. Xuezhang,3 you'll need to wait a while longer before you can lock the doors."
Chu Wanning sighed. As Xue Meng and the dragon shook their heads frantically, he put down his clipboard and stepped into the room that'd previously been inhabited by one girl and one boy. Despite his resting bitch face, the older boy had a kind heart. "I'll help."
Luo Xianxian smiled. "That'd be awesome. Thanks, Xuezhang."
"Thank you, my ass!" wept Xue Meng and the dragon.
Xue Meng's last blow to the equipment rack had been just a bit too strong. This was the butterfly effect at work—his small error had led to a completely different outcome.
To their great dismay, when Destiny Permutations brought them twenty years into the future, they found Mo Ran, who'd become a key stakeholder in the school, chatting in the gymnasium stands with the present principal. This must have been why the guide had miscalculated—it had confused Principal Rong with Principal Chu.
It was once again just past six, the sunset like a bright sea of glorious red maples on the horizon. Hardly anyone else was in the empty gymnasium. Mo Ran and Principal Chu sat in the stands, watching the students on cleaning duty mop the floor. The facilities had been renovated and enlarged some time ago, and the gymnasium was now several times bigger than it'd been when they were students. The students worked on one side of the gym while the two of them sat at the other, too far away for the students to see their faces.
The candle dragon clutched the last of its hopes in its sharp little claws and asked shakily, "Where's Luo Xianxian?"
Xue Meng said nothing. He'd noticed Mr. Mo holding Principal Chu's hand in the shadows. When the students weren't looking, Mo Ran even pressed close and snuck a peck on Chu Wanning's cheek.
For fuck's sake.
…Another respawn! Don't fucking tell me it's impossible!
They gathered themselves and instructed Destiny Permutations to take them to another inflection point in the game.
"Where are we this time?" groused the little candle dragon, still reeling from the jump.
Xue Meng was just as irritated. He scanned their surroundings. "We're way earlier in the timeline; Mo Ran's probably in preschool right now. I doubt he even knows what gender is yet—maybe this is our chance to change the ending."
"So where is he?"
Xue Meng pointed to their right, reading out the words emblazoned on the door in round, inviting font. "Just Kidding Children's Playpark."
The dragon rubbed its paws together. It was glowing gold with passion again, its eyes bright with excitement. "Okay! Playgrounds are full of cute little girls. This time, we have to find Mo Ran a perfect match—we can't fail again!"
But Xue Meng, wiser after the last two failures, was more cautious this time. Instead of charging in, he narrowed his eyes in thought for a long time. At last he looked up. "I wonder if we should change our approach."
"Wha?" The candle dragon twitched its whiskers. "Whaddya mean?"
"The last two times, we failed when Chu Wanning showed up. I've got a bad feeling that even if we trigger the female love interest route this time, Chu Wanning's secondary route will still turn up. It's like he and Mo Ran are destined to be together—some sort of in-game bug."
The dragon flicked its tail in displeasure. "What they have going on isn't destiny—they're more like a buy one, get one free shampoo deal at the supermarket."
"Exactly," said Xue Meng. "Think about it. If we follow what the guide says and do all that work to bring him a pretty girl, then for some thrice-damned reason Chu Wanning happens to walk by…"
The dragon looked up with its beady eyes. It only had to think for a moment before a reedy scream issued from its throat. "It'd be fucking game over!"
Xue Meng smacked his thigh. "Exactly! It would be fucking game over!"
"So what should we do?!"
Xue Meng, the overachiever who'd bravely abandoned the walkthrough in favor of developing a wholly original playstyle, puffed out his chest with confidence. "This time, we need to do more than trigger the love interest route—we have to stop the NPC Chu Wanning from ever showing up!"
Gratifyingly, the little dragon burst into applause. But after a moment, it realized it was still rather confused. It tried to scratch its head, only to find its paws were too stubby to reach.
Xue Meng glanced at it. Feeling suddenly magnanimous, he reached over to help his little companion scratch its paper scales.
The little candle dragon purred like a tractor engine under his ministrations. "Your plan's pretty good, but I have one question. We didn't program this game. How do we know when Chu Wanning will show up?"
"I've already thought of that." Xue Meng grinned. "This time, hold your horses. Don't do anything. Let Mo Ran make his own decisions and see how he meets Chu Wanning. Of course, it's best if he doesn't. If there's any scenario where they're likely to meet, we have to be careful when we do the actual romancing to avoid anything like it."
Perhaps the little dragon was merely pleased with Xue Meng's massage services, or maybe it actually thought he had a good idea—or both. It smacked its lips and said with real admiration, "You're right. Seriously, you're quite the impressive young man."
Thus the two compatriots were agreed—this time, they wouldn't do anything. They would simply go inside the playground and see how Chu Wanning would meet Mo Ran.