Chapter 4: Telephone

Having heard that, Yun Li’s emotions that became relaxed after he came to assist immediately tightened again.

What do you mean first time?

Yun Li didn’t quite understand what he said and asked hesitantly, “Have you not tied it for others before?”

“Mm.” The man replied.

“……”

She was shocked speechless by what he thought was a natural response.

Yun Li was even starting to doubt if she was making too much of a fuss.

Although the height of this project seems to be only more than two meters, it also had certain dangers. At this moment, without any other thoughts on her mind, Yun Li asked him again to seek comfort, “Then did you have any prior training?”

The man didn’t even lift his eyes, “What training?”

“Like,” Yun Li couldn’t think of anything else at the moment, so she spoke rather directly, “How to tie this safety rope to be the safest, and to minimize the risks.”

The man waited for her to finish, then said, “No.”

“……”

At this moment, Yun Li felt like she was going on a real bungee jump. And then the staff told her that the rope might break, but it might also not. Good luck.

Yun Li’s whole body froze, “Will I be thrown out if the safety rope is not fastened properly?”

The man glanced at her and seemed to think for a moment, “Not sure.”

Seeing that both of them looked relaxed, Yun Li pursed her lips. Just as she was wondering if she was just overthinking, the man suddenly tapped the buckle on the safety rope, and said casually, “Do you want to try it?”

Yun Li: “…..”

Yun Li: “?”

The words of the person in front of her were like the whisperings of a demon.

But the man just mentioned this, and then he withdrew his hand without any extra motions. Yun Li somehow started to feel guilty again, forming the feeling that he held a grudge because of her previous words, and so he used this to scare her.

Yun Li stiffened her back, then lowered her head to touch the buckle to check if it was loose.

At the same time, someone in the distance called Xu Qingsong over.

Before leaving, Xu Qingsong laughed softly and assured her, “He’s just joking with you, don’t take it seriously.” Immediately, he turned to remind the man, “What are you doing, be more responsible, and stop talking scary nonsense like that again.”

The man was still acting casual and uncaring, but because of this, at least he finally said something human to Yun Li, “Don’t worry, I’ve checked everything.” Then he pointed to the rope next to him, “If you get scared, grab here.”

Yun Li nodded, hesitated, and then slowly moved her hand away.

The man picked up the VR glasses from the side and put them on for her, “There is a button at the back, adjust the tightness yourself.”

The picture in front of Yun Li turned into a line of long-distance characters; there was also some fire blazing underneath the characters as special effects.

“Is it clear?” asked the man.

Yun Li narrowed her eyes, “It’s a little fuzzy.”

As soon as the words fell, she could feel the man’s hand against her glasses and buckled it down. The vision also immediately became clearer, then Yun Li raised her hand and fine-tuned the glasses to a comfortable angle.

Because the project involved some physical movements, the glasses were easy to fall off just by wearing them like this. Therefore, two straps were reinforced and buckled at the chin, like a helmet.

After wearing the VR glasses, her eyes became disconnected from the real world. 

Yun Li didn’t know what was going on around him and was a little nervous, only to hear the man say “it’s starting”. Immediately afterward, the scene began to change.

A bottomless cliff, with mountains and clouds in the distance.

The game did not start the jump right at the beginning. The NPC in front of her opened and closed his mouth, as if he was talking. After that, Yun Li’s perspective was that the protagonist wanted to jump off the clip, but he didn’t dare to jump, so he hesitated for a long time.

Before she could react, the protagonist suddenly jumped down.

The bungee equipment she was on started to take effect.

When she fell to the bottom, she was immediately pulled back up because of the elastic rope and repeated the up and down motion for a while. The sense of weightlessness was strong, and just as the deep sea was close at hand, she was pulled back up.

Yun Li closed her eyes in fright for a moment and then forced herself to open them again.

She was the cowardly yet playful type. Every time she went to the amusement park, she would be very interested in those high-altitude simulation rides, but when she got to the entrance, she would never have the courage to actually go in and ride it.

And this kind of VR experience project, Yun Li knew that it was virtual, and thought that she would try it out. After all, things might not be as scary as compared to reality.

In short, her courage existed only in the virtual world.

Once she got back to reality,  it all returned to zero.

The experience did not last very long, but because of the insanely realistic feeling, Yun Li felt as if time had slowed down. But after “escaping the catastrophe”, she felt refreshed and excited.

The man took it and untied the buckle for her.

Yun Li returned to the ground. She turned her head and saw a screen next to it, which seemed to be synchronized with the scene she had just seen. That was what she just saw, and everyone else could see it too.

According to He Jiameng, the video was produced to show better effects, and then these scenes would all be sent to the corresponding people.

Yun Li thanked him, thought for a while, and asked, “Is there no sound in this game?”

The men looked up. 

Yun Li explained, “I saw someone open their mouths, but no sound was heard.”

The man wasn’t very sure either, so he just put it on himself. After a while, he took it off and held the VR in his hand to see. “There is sound, but the right ear speaker seems to be broken.”

After speaking, he asked to confirm, “Did you not hear anything?”

“……”

Yun Li took a breath.

This really wasn’t her fault.

With the right speaker broken, it meant that only sound coming from the left speaker could be heard.

But she was born deaf in her left ear.

Therefore, she didn’t hear anything.

“Ah, is that so?” YunLi said dryly, “That might be because I was too nervous, so I didn’t hear it clearly.”

“Alright.”

The man didn’t continue asking. After finishing “dealing” with Yun Li, he resumed his attitude of “nothing really matters to me”, focused back on the device, and quietly continued to test it.

–

After that, Yun Li went to play with some other projects, and when she passed by here again, the man was already gone. By the time she finished with most of the projects she was interested in, most of the day had already passed.

She was the most energetic of the people who came.

Some people would feel dizzy after playing for a long time, so they finished very early and were chatting in the rest area at this time.

Finding a corner where no one was around, Yun Li quickly checked the clips she had just filmed and went over in her mind on how to edit them.

After a while, He Jiameng found her and notified her of a news.

As the host, Xu Qingsong wanted to treat everyone to a meal, as well as use this opportunity to officially get to know them and send them off. Hearing that the others had readily agreed, Yun Li had no choice but to put away her refusal thoughts and choose to go with the flow.

……

The dining place was in a famous restaurant in Nanwu.

EAW reserved a private room with two large round tables. Yun Li sat at the inner table, with He Jiameng and “Unknown” beside her.

Some people knew each other before they came, and some people were naturally good at socializing with others. The dinner tables were very lively, and most of them were talking about the post-play feelings of each project.

Yun Li was afraid of situations like this the most. The moment she got seated, she started to pretend that she was playing on her phone.

Xu Qingsong and the man were the last to arrive.

There were only two empty seats at the back table, and the two came over. He Jiameng blinked. After seeing them, she turned to Yun Li and asked, “Miss Lazy Cloud, did you see this handsome guy under the mask today?”

Today? 

Yun Li replied truthfully, “I didn’t see it today.”

After a pause, she wondered if she should add “But I’ve seen it before.”

Before he could say anything, Xu Qingsong shouted, “Xiao He.”

He Jiameng, “Ah?”

“Would you like to change seats?” Xu Qingsong looked around the seat and patted the man on the shoulder, “He’s caught a cold these days, the AC is facing this seat, I’d like him to sit elsewhere.”

He Jiameng got up immediately and said repeatedly, “Of course, of course, no problem.”

Before Yun Li could react, they had already somehow sat together.

She was already put in discomfort being in a social event like this, and now the person beside her was a stranger that she has only met a few times. Yun Li didn’t know whether to say hello or not, and she became even more restless.

She didn’t look over, and only lowered her head to drink some water.

Xu Qingsong did not seem to have any intention to introduce the man. Someone at the table tried to start a conversation with the man. He was silent for a moment before answering, as if to confirm whether the other party was talking to him. But all his replies were very brief as well.

It seemed that another “conversation ender” appeared.

Yun Li could imagine what he felt right now and wanted to see if he was annoyed too, but she didn’t dare to look.

It didn’t take long for the focus of the topic to return to Xu Qingsong.

Yun Li also turned away.

But soon, it started to occur to everyone that they all seemed to have forgotten to ask the man’s name.

Not long after, the man took off his mask.

The first few times Yun Li met him, either the lighting conditions were poor, the angle wasn’t a clear view, or she didn’t look carefully. After looking closely at this moment, Yun Li realized that his hair color was a little light, not knowing whether it was dyed or natural.

Looking down, there wasn’t the slightest thing about his facial features that looked bad, and he also looked somewhat half-blooded.

Only considering his looks, he was excellent.

Yun Li suddenly felt that he looked a little familiar.

She seemed to have seen……

Before she had time to think about it, the waiter started serving the food.

The dishes on the table were varied and catered to everyone’s taste.

Perhaps it was because he had a bad appetite, or maybe he was too picky, but Yun Li could see from the corner of her eye that the man barely ate anything during the meal. He barely finished the porridge halfway, which was the only thing he asked for.

After the dinner, someone suggested going to a nearby KTV to sing.

Xu Qingsong agreed with a smile.

This meal was quite expensive, and the guest didn’t want him to pay for everything again. Someone proposed to play a small game, with the two tables divided into two groups, and the losing group would pay the bill.

After some discussions on what game to choose, it was settled to play a simple and fast communication game, called “telephone”.

The rule was simple: each group would have one person come up with a sentence to say to the first person in the opposing group. The sentence must be less than 30 words, and the more confusing it sounded the better. Then the opposing group would pass it on. The sentence must be whispered so that no third person could hear it.

The group with the most correct words repeated by the last person would be the winner.

Yun Li groaned in her heart.

Later, she heard even more bad news: “Then let’s pass it counterclockwise.”

Counterclockwise, from left to right.

That meant, the man on the left would be the one to telephone her the sentence.

Which also meant… she would have to lean her left ear over…

The sentences set by each group were discussed quickly, and the game began.

Xu Qingsong was the person to start their table. He was sitting four seats away from Yun Li. The speed of the message was fast, and as the distance got closer, her anxiety surged.

The deafness in her left ear had little effect on Yun Li’s life, and she never really cared about it either.

Still, she didn’t want to announce this flaw of her’s to the public.

Yun Li hesitated and looked at the man: “Uh…”

The man turns his head. 

She opened her mouth and wanted to say, “Can I listen with my right ear when it’s my turn?” But she felt discouraged before even saying anything, “Nevermind, it’s okay.”

Before she knew it, it was the man’s turn.

Looking at the person next to him whispering him the message, Yun Li leaned over to eavesdrop, but she didn’t hear a word.

The whisper ended, and the man looked at her.

Yun Li looked at him and was left with no choice but to lean her head over.

The air froze for a few seconds.

The man didn’t move, then suddenly said, “Come closer.”

Yun Li was stunned, “Huh?”

Although he said it emotionlessly, the meaning was still quite misleading. Someone at the dinner table couldn’t help but crack a few jokes about it.

He pretended that he didn’t hear the jokes and lazily rested his elbow on the table. As if he understood her concerns, he looked towards her right ear and repeated emotionlessly.

“Come closer.”