The Silly Shou Transmigrated Into a Book - Chapter 38

Watching Chu Yueguang’s responses, Kou Huai suddenly felt like he had picked up a stone only to drop it on his own foot. He couldn’t type a word for a long time.

He decided to ignore Chu Yueguang entirely and went to find Gu Qiuyi instead. “Qiu, did you have fun today?”

Gu Qiuyi replied quite quickly this time: “It was alright. I ate a lot of things I’d never tried before.”

Kou Huai: “? That’s it?”

Gu Qiuyi: “That’s it.”

Kou Huai asked: “I told Chu Yueguang to take you around to meet people and have fun. Did he not do it?”

Gu Qiuyi: “No. How could I let him? He’s still mad at me.”

Just as Kou Huai was about to breathe a sigh of relief, Gu Qiuyi continued: “By the way, Brother Kou Huai, I should thank you. It seems Brother Yueguang and I have cleared up our misunderstanding. He took me off his blacklist.”

Kou Huai: “…” Kou Huai felt sour. “I see.”

He was filled with regret. He must have been kicked in the head by a donkey to have reached out to Chu Yueguang in the first place.

Kou Huai turned back to Chu Yueguang and said in a joking tone: “I’m waiting for Qiuqiu to start university. He said he’d date me once he’s in college.”

Chu Yueguang replied: “He said that?”

Seeing a reaction, Kou Huai immediately replied: “Yeah, he did.”

Chu Yueguang didn’t respond.

Kou Huai: “Brother?” Kou Huai: “Chu Yueguang??”

Chu Yueguang didn’t reply again.

Kou Huai: “…” At this point, even a fool could sense that Chu Yueguang’s attitude toward Gu Qiuyi had changed.

Gu Qiuyi knew nothing of the tension between Kou Huai and Chu Yueguang. He returned to Jiang Hansa’s home. Since it was the National Day holiday, Jiang Hansa’s parents had actually returned. They were clearly very hospitable and, having heard of Gu Qiuyi, were exceptionally warm and polite to him.

After sharing a late-night snack with them, Gu Qiuyi returned to the guest room Jiang Hansa had prepared. Not long after he sat down, Jiang Hansa knocked and brought him a fruit platter.

Gu Qiuyi took the platter and began eating with a fork while scrolling through his phone. As soon as he opened it, several messages popped up. He started from the top. The first was from W, asking: “Want to play a game?”

Gu Qiuyi replied: “Wait a second.”

He exited to check other messages. Kou Huai had sent: “I was clearly here first, yet you’ve hooked up with someone else. Tears exploding.jpg”

Gu Qiuyi: “?”

Kou Huai: “At this moment, I am a ‘White Album’ scholar (White Album 2 – tragic romance fan).”

Gu Qiuyi: “Brother Kou Huai, what kind of madness are you spouting?”

Kou Huai: “Trembling while smoking a cigarette.jpg” Kou Huai: “If I don’t go a little crazy, how could I become a tragic scholar? How else would someone else get the chance?”

Gu Qiuyi: “??”

Kou Huai: “Qiu, my heart is bitter. You have to promise me—you aren’t allowed to like anyone else. I’m so good to you; if you’re going to like someone, you have to like me first.”

Gu Qiuyi: “…Brother Kou Huai, how about you wash your face with some cold water and calm down?”

Kou Huai: “Just thinking of your face makes my heart feel sweet. But what did I do wrong for the heavens to treat me like this? My heart aches, my hands shake, my sweat flows, my heart is pierced by a thousand blades—it’s worse than death. My defenses are broken, completely broken. I’ve lost all hope of living, and you don’t understand the forced smile I wear as a mask, leaving me to drink my sorrow and pain alone…”

Gu Qiuyi: “???”

Gu Qiuyi silently set Kou Huai to “Do Not Disturb” and went to reply to W: “Brother, let’s play.”

W: “Mm.”

Gu Qiuyi logged into the game and invited W into the lobby. Seeing that “Orange Soda” was also online, he remembered something and asked W: “Brother, do you know how to delete friends in this game?”

W typed back, teaching him step-by-step, then asked: “Who are you deleting?”

Gu Qiuyi: “That Orange Soda from last time. He added me before and said he wanted to ‘keep’ me for two million a month. I got really mad and deleted him.”

W: “…”

Gu Qiuyi fumbled around and successfully deleted Orange Soda. Returning to the lobby, he hit start. “He actually transferred a million to me, but I’m not that kind of person. I have a bottom line, so I scolded him before deleting him.”

W: “You did the right thing.”

Gu Qiuyi was suddenly curious. “Brother W, why don’t you use your mic? Typing is so tedious.” Especially since W wasn’t a very fast typer.

W replied: “Inconvenient.”

Gu Qiuyi saw him pick Li Bai and was surprised. “Brother, you know how to play this hero?”

W: “I do now.”

Gu Qiuyi felt like W wasn’t in a great mood today; he was talking less than usual. Being considerate, he asked: “Brother W, is something bothering you? If there is, you can tell me. I can help share the burden.”

After a long pause, W said: “I’ll tell you on WeChat later.”

Gu Qiuyi: “Sure!”

Gu Qiuyi picked Daji again. Once in the game, W spent the entire match in silence—jungling and ganking. In just ten minutes, they had pushed to the enemy’s high ground.

The enemy team was shocked: “Is this still the ‘scratching’ Li Bai (Li Bai – low damage meme)?”

Gu Qiuyi controlled Daji to run over to W’s side. His voice couldn’t hide his surprise: “Brother, what is that badge?”

W: “Grand National Badge. Do you like it?”

Gu Qiuyi: “!! I love it!!”

W: “Stay close to me and take some screenshots.”

Gu Qiuyi: “Okay!” He positioned Daji next to W and took several screenshots.

Their team’s marksman also wanted a piece of the action, sending an in-game message: “Brother Li Bai, can I pose with the National Badge too?”

W: “Ask Daji.”

The marksman was clever: “Sister Daji, can I borrow Brother Li Bai’s badge for a second?”

Gu Qiuyi opened his “All” mic and said: “Sure, come over.”

Marksman: “!! It’s actually a Daji Brother!”

The support also followed the marksman to pose with W’s badge. Only the solo laner remained indifferent, crawling over the map to destroy the last high-ground tower and then frantically hitting the crystal as if they’d never won a game before.

Very quickly, the game ended in an eleven-minute victory.

Back in the lobby, W said: “Let’s just play one round today. Let’s chat.”

Gu Qiuyi: “Okay.”

He exited the game and opened WeChat, only to find that W had sent him a transfer. Gu Qiuyi clicked it and saw it was 100,000 yuan.

Gu Qiuyi was stunned. “? Brother, why are you giving me so much money?”

W: “To chat with me.”

Gu Qiuyi said warily: “Brother, this is way too much. You don’t have an ulterior motive, do you?”

W was silent for a long time before saying: “No. Don’t worry, I’m not trying to ‘keep’ you.”

Gu Qiuyi: “Then let’s chat. Brother, what’s on your mind?”

W: “I have a younger brother.”

Gu Qiuyi: “Mm-hmm, and what about him?”

W: “We don’t have a good relationship.”

Gu Qiuyi watched the “User is typing…” status keep appearing and disappearing; he could feel the other person’s hesitation. He waited patiently. W finally sent the next sentence: “But I don’t hate him. On the contrary, I love him.”

“He was very cute when he was little. His voice was sweet, and he always had a beautiful smile when he called me ‘Brother.’ It made me feel like he deserved the best things in the world.”

“I truly, deeply love him. But my parents are very harsh; they only like children who are excellent.”

Reading this, Gu Qiuyi felt a sense of familiarity. He instinctively typed: “And then?”

W seemed to find the following words difficult to speak. After a while, he said: “My brother’s talent was average. So… he was abandoned.”

Gu Qiuyi held his breath, his fingers flying across the keyboard: “Abandoned? What do you mean?”

W: “It started with mental and verbal abuse. My brother quickly became despondent and never smiled like he used to.”

Gu Qiuyi: “…”

W: “Today, I found out that he has already been kicked out of the house by our parents.”

An answer was on the tip of Gu Qiuyi’s tongue. His fingers felt stiff. “…” He sent a string of exclamation marks. W didn’t say anything more for a moment.

The two of them sat in silence for a while until W broke the tension. “I don’t want to make excuses. My neglect of him is a fact. But… I have always seen him as my brother.”

Gu Qiuyi: “.”

W: “I want to ask him if he can wait for me. Wait for me to take over the family, to gain the power to speak. I want to bring him back.”

W: “For the remaining decades of my life, I want to spoil him, love him, and make him happy.”

Gu Qiuyi: “…You might not be able to wait that long.”

W fell silent.

Gu Qiuyi asked: “Where have you been all these years? You didn’t think about being good to him back then, so why do you suddenly remember he’s your brother now?”

W: “I couldn’t before. If I was good to him, it would only make our parents harsher and more disgusted with him. Staying away from him was the only way to be good to him.”

Gu Qiuyi’s mind was a mess; he couldn’t quite grasp this logic. “Then couldn’t you have been good to him in secret?”

W was silent.

Gu Qiuyi: “Even just showing concern or love every now and then? You had so much time in private, yet you turned a blind eye. Is saying this now useful?”

W paused, then said: “I’m sorry.”

Gu Qiuyi: “It’s no use saying sorry to me. You should say sorry to your brother.”

W: “I’m sorry.”

Gu Qiuyi: “!! It’s useless telling me!!”

W: “I’m sorry. I won’t ask for your forgiveness. But… I want to make it up to you.”

Gu Qiuyi stared at his phone in a daze. This situation made him feel like a complete “Muggle.” Who would have thought that W was actually Gu Dancheng?

This situation was even worse than if “Gu Qiuyi’s” parents and brother had all been cruel to him. Did the original “Gu Qiuyi” in the novel know that Gu Dancheng still felt brotherly affection for him? He thought probably not—otherwise, he wouldn’t have gone so mad. The Gu family’s bankruptcy surely affected everyone, and Gu Dancheng would have been no exception.

What a mess. Gu Qiuyi tapped away: “Brother, you’re too late. Your brother doesn’t need you anymore.”

W: “…”

Gu Qiuyi: “Have you heard the saying? Late affection is cheaper than grass!”

W: “…It’s late. You should rest.”

Gu Qiuyi: “Mm-hmm.”

W: “Can you please not delete me?”

Gu Qiuyi hadn’t actually thought of that. He typed back slowly: “I won’t delete you.”

W: “Thank you.”

Looking at those two words, Gu Qiuyi felt that Gu Dancheng was actually quite humble. But the brother he wanted to spoil was already gone. What was the point of wanting to be good to him now?

Gu Qiuyi felt a rare trace of sadness. He exited the chat and saw that Kou Huai had sent over thirty messages. His stomach hurt just looking at them.

He clicked in. Kou Huai was still going crazy: “Bitter wine enters the throat, making the heart ache.jpg” “Qiu, why are you ignoring me? Are you chatting with some other wild man?” “I spent half the day organizing my words only to delete them one by one. Seeing you two talking and laughing feels like a piece of my heart has been carved out. A chill is rising from the soles of my feet. After half an hour, I am cold and numb all over. I don’t want to love anymore QUQ” “Qiu! Tell me, let my heart be firm for you, okay?” “…”

Help! Gu Qiuyi typed: “Brother, what on earth is wrong with you?” “If you keep this up, I’m blocking you!”

Kou Huai: “…” Kou Huai: “My heart is truly bitter. Qiuqiu, you don’t know the struggle in my heart.”

Gu Qiuyi: “.”

Seeing the period, Kou Huai felt a wave of grief. Do these two actually have a “married couple’s look” now? Crap! He sent one more: “Qiuqiu,” then he froze—

A bright red exclamation mark met his eyes.

Gu Qiuyi had actually blocked him.

Kou Huai ignored the red mark and kept sending messages. He felt so “green” (cuckolded), so green. He was so miserable, so miserable. Sob sob sob.