Welcome to the Misogyny Game

Cars came and went, horns blared, and the muddy ground made the traffic jam resemble cargo on a chain.

Mu Li and Liu Chaoque sat among the cargo.

They went to their usual restaurant as compensation for having been bombarded with gossip and vague rumors about themselves.

"Indeed, the only purpose of class reunions is to shatter the image that was established in high school or college."

"Perhaps those we're still in touch with don't feel like strangers. But those we haven't seen in so long..." Liu Chaoque thought, covering his face, "I can only sigh at how things have changed."

Those are the pasts they can never return to, and the futures they can never reach.

They met and got to know each other over three or four years, but parted ways before falling in love. Those friends who could talk about anything were gradually thrown into some corner of WeChat during busy periods and periods of no contact. When they occasionally stumbled upon them, they would sigh, feel embarrassed, and scratch their toes, realizing how foolish they had been.

I hope he never finds out that I was the one who used translation software to convert his Chinese confession into German.

Mu Li glanced sideways: I always feel that Si Man's high school life is quite eventful.

Thinking about his high school: because of his outstanding talent, he not only skipped grades in elementary school, but also took the high school entrance exam with his junior high classmates not long after entering junior high school. He achieved excellent results and successfully entered a key high school.

Because of his age and mental limitations, he didn't have many long-term friends. Soon after, he was admitted to Tsinghua University at the age of ten, completed his studies in two years, was sent to Harvard, and finally earned two doctoral degrees in three years.

Few could keep up with him. Perhaps they felt ashamed, or perhaps they felt unworthy. The friends they had finally made distanced themselves from him for fear of being bullied.

Bullying exists everywhere, but guns aren't banned in the US. Mu Li was almost shot by a psychopath who entered the school and barely managed to dodge. After changing her identity, she started to seek out a coach and learn martial arts.

After returning to China, he mastered various martial arts, attended the Shaolin Temple, served as a lay disciple, and also worked as a Taoist priest, where he learned some techniques for self-cultivation and immortality.

Even now, he doesn't know what skills he has.

At 5:30 pm, right in the middle of the evening rush hour, Liu Chaoque pulled out a French fry from somewhere and asked him if he wanted some.

Mu Li refused with a dark expression: "I won't eat."

Liu Chaoque nodded, indicating that he understood, and then pulled out a handful of melon seeds from somewhere. Mu Li's mood immediately brightened.

Alright, I know he ate too much abroad and got scared of it.

The traffic jam is pretty bad, otherwise why would it be stopped here before even seeing the traffic light? The sound of electric bikes passing by seemed to be a silent mockery of the car's incompetence.

The driver opened the window and started smoking. The smoke drifted away with the wind, but some of it still returned to the car.

Liu Chaoque looked at the time, then at the red taillights ahead, wanting to say something but not knowing how.

Mu Li was much more natural: "Master, my wife is sick and can't stand the smell of smoke, please put it out."

"Oh, a young couple or lovers?" the driver asked, glancing at them through the rearview mirror.

"Master, don't let our youthful appearance fool you. We're all forty. As we get older, we develop all sorts of health problems. If we don't go to the hospital for a checkup, our blood tests will show abnormalities, and we'll find things like thrombosis and high cholesterol." Mu Li was basically just making things up.

"You look so young, how can you be forty?" The master couldn't believe it.

"Well-maintained."

"Only you rich people can talk about maintenance, while we sports car drivers don't even have time to eat," the mechanic complained.

"I don't have much money." Liu Chaoque nudged Mu Li and smiled sheepishly, as if trying to make amends for him: "I just look young. When I get to my fifties or sixties, I'll age faster than others. That's just how the genes are in our village. I can't really say why."

"By the way, Master, where are you from? Your accent sounds like you're from xx?" Liu Chaoque changed the subject.

"How did you know?" the man asked, surprised.

“One of my relatives married into that family, so that’s how we met,” Liu Chaoque said with a smile.

Finally, the tense atmosphere in the car lightened up, and the car stopped jerking and entered a very smooth road, giving them a taste of speed. The two finally arrived at their destination.

After finally seeing the driver off, the two arrived at their reserved private room with the help of a waiter and closed the door.

Liu Chaoque said speechlessly, "Muli, why did you provoke this driver? He was already in a bad mood because of the traffic jam."

"I was just trying to tease the driver, but he got really angry," Mu Li said somewhat guiltily.

"A forty-year-old baby-faced passenger, right?" Liu Chaoque replied with a deadpan expression, "I'm young but already quite old."

"Maybe it really is..." Mu Li muttered softly.

"What did you say?" Liu Chaoque bristled.

The private room was filled with a very cheerful atmosphere.

When the waiter brought the food, I almost couldn't help but laugh.

Liu Chaoque stood on a stool, grabbed Mu Li's ear, and the two of them remained in that position, staring blankly as the waiter came in and then quickly closed the door.

Liu Chaoque kicked Mu Li and returned to his seat to silently eat his food.

Mu Li rubbed her ears, hiss, it really hurts.

Hot pot is an option for dining in, but Liu Chaoque gets agitated at the mere mention of fire and abruptly gives up this delightful treat.

Even though she really wanted shrimp balls, she still ordered the crab hot pot, which is safe because there's no open flame.

The three elements of a flame are air, ignition point, and fuel; none of them can be missing.

Liu Chaoque was somewhat dazed as he smelled the faint scent of smoke and watched the smoke seeping in through the cracks in the private room.

No... she didn't even order hot pot, and Biancheng isn't here either.

The fire spread quickly, accompanied by the sound of explosions. The door knocker was hot, and she seemed to hear someone crying for help. When she regained consciousness, she saw herself holding a handful of cold water that had been given to her and splashing it on herself.

He burst through the door and dragged Muli towards safety.

In the firelight, she seemed to see many figures: some lying on the ground, some struggling, and others swallowed by the flames without leaving a sound.

"Why?" she asked herself.

Why is a perfectly good otome game filled with blood and violence?

Why is it that the female protagonist is always surrounded by danger?

Mu Li's face was red in the light of the flames, like a burnt tomato or a dried fish that was about to dehydrate.

What I thought was a story about saving others turned into a danger for myself.

Sifeng is, Zhou Man is, and now Muli is too.

If she puts him down, he will be swallowed by the fire serpent; if she takes him away, she can only watch indifferently as a living person dies.

Why? Why is she all alone? Why can't she save everyone?

A soft white light emanated from her body, a light that resembled flames but was gentle enough to heal all wounds.

Wherever the white light passed, it gradually devoured the flames, and the people enveloped in the flames gradually revealed their true forms. He scratched his head, but his hand was covered in ash.

As the survivors cheered, they seemed to overlook something: it seemed they should have died in the fire, but since they were alive, perhaps it was better to be a little oblivious.

Mu Li carried the exhausted Liu Chaoque on her back. The blood-red bone jade shone with a faint red light, gradually healing Liu Chaoque's wounds.

Her body felt as if it were inside a furnace, constantly being burned.

The white light engulfed the flames and entered her body, causing them to evaporate and then extinguish. Her body temperature rose to forty degrees Celsius.

It gradually dropped to thirty-six degrees Celsius.

When she woke up, it was already the fifth day.