Chapter 145: A-Rank Is Here!
After eating the steak and paying the bill, Li Mu started to regret going out with Yu Fan.
The steak was really expensive. Even if there were an all-you-can-eat option, it still didn’t feel worth the money...
In the next few days, he probably wouldn’t even be able to afford the cheap meal combo at the school cafeteria. At most, he could eat bread or instant noodles.
He felt really bad about spending so much money on that not-so-tasty steak that cost almost a hundred yuan.
The restaurant was in a newly built shopping area in the suburbs, just about a ten-minute walk from their school. Since school had just finished for the day, the place was now filled with students.
But during the daytime, the area was usually very quiet.
It looked like a video game competition was going on inside the mall. Li Mu looked up at a huge poster. Through the big glass doors, he could see a huge crowd inside, all shouting and cheering.
There weren’t this many people here before they went to eat.
Li Mu’s attention was drawn to the crowd. He felt a little excited and wanted to go take a look, but the tightly packed people made him hesitate. He didn’t really like being in such a crowd.
“Wanna go in and watch the match?” Yu Fan turned and asked.
“No... I’m bringing a ghost.”
Yu Fan froze for a second, then gave Liu Shenglong a fierce glare.
You can’t even come up with a good story, and now you’re ruining my time with Li Mu at the mall!
Liu Shenglong looked innocent.
“How about this, you go in and watch the game. I’ll take Liu Shenglong somewhere quiet with no people around for a while.”
“Alright.”
Li Mu nodded and walked straight into the mall.
Even though he often watched game tournaments on livestreams, this was his first time seeing one in person. Even though it was just a small local event, maybe not even streamed online, he still thought it would be cool to feel the atmosphere of a real gaming competition.
On the other side, the happy smile on Yu Fan’s face disappeared the moment Li Mu walked away.
His face turned serious as he looked at Liu Shenglong. “Alright, tell me, what’s the real deal now?”
“Huh?”
Liu Shenglong scratched his head, confused.
“What’s your real regret? Don’t make stuff up. You’re a ghost, you should know what your own regret is.” Yu Fan put his hands in his pockets. “What’s the one thing you really want to do, something you want so badly that you can’t stop thinking about it?”
The ghost frowned and thought for a long time. Finally, he scratched his head and said, “Well, uh... as an adult, it’s kind of embarrassing to say out loud.”
Adults are supposed to keep a little pride, even after becoming a ghost.
Mostly, he just felt ashamed to talk about something so personal with someone he barely knew.
“Then make something up! Just come up with a touching story or something! Like, say your dad died, your mom died, you never had a good meal in your life, and now that you’re dead you just want to eat one big feast!”
“You’re the one who wants to eat with that girl, huh?” Liu Shenglong muttered. Then he got a bit nosy. “Wait, is that person really a boy?”
“A girl.”
“But you just now said...”
“She’s a bit confused about herself,” Yu Fan replied.
Liu Shenglong suddenly understood. “Oh, got some mental problems?”
Yu Fan paused, then glared at him. “None of your business! I gave you the whole afternoon to come up with a story, and you gave me nothing but a couple of messy, useless ideas!”
“Oh, wait!” Just then, his eyes lit up. “I think if you make up a story like this, maybe Li Mu will really feel something!”
………………………………………
Li Mu stood in the crowd, tiptoeing to watch the ten pro players on stage, each holding their phones and quickly tapping on the screens. Then he looked at the game Honor of Kings on the big monitor and started to lose interest.
He didn’t play mobile games and couldn’t understand what was going on.
But the atmosphere was pretty exciting. Every time one of the players on stage got a kill, the crowd around them would cheer loudly. Li Mu listened carefully to the people around him and finally understood that the two teams on stage were well-known pro teams in China, with lots of fans.
They had been invited by the mall to play a show match.
Li Mu enjoyed the atmosphere for a few minutes but soon felt like leaving.
He didn’t really like noisy places. Staying too long made him feel uncomfortable all over.
Also, he was getting more and more attractive lately, and unlike before, when he was almost invisible to others, he now often caught the attention of strangers. He wasn’t used to it.
He could faintly hear people saying things like, “Why is that girl dressed like a boy?”
His face and body now looked completely like a girl’s, but he still had short hair and wore boys’ clothes. This made him stand out and get strange looks from people.
He touched his hair, which had just started to grow past his ears, and for some reason wished he could have beautiful long hair like other girls. But his male way of thinking still made him feel weird about that idea.
“Li Mu.” Yu Fan came over with a smile. “I’ve taken care of the ghost.”
Li Mu quickly hid the sadness on his face, turned around with a cold look and asked, “What’s going on with that ghost anyway?”
“How should I know?” Yu Fan scratched his head.
“Don’t try to act smart.”
Li Mu looked toward the stage, trying hard not to show his happiness in front of Yu Fan.
Whenever Yu Fan came near him, he couldn’t help but feel happy.
Was he... turning gay?
Or had he always been gay?
But back in middle school, he did have a crush on a girl.
Wait, maybe it’s not his problem. It must be Yu Fan’s fault somehow.
Thinking that way made him feel a little better. After Yu Fan watched the match for a while, he turned to Li Mu and said, “Since we’re already here, wanna look around a bit?”
“There’s nothing worth seeing.”
Li Mu wanted to say no. His plan to slowly distance himself from Yu Fan had finally started to work over the past couple of days.
“Let’s go.”
But before he could say more, Yu Fan suddenly grabbed his wrist and started pulling him through the crowd.
Li Mu looked down at Yu Fan’s hand in shock. For a moment, he didn’t even know how to pull away.
Wait a second! Yu Fan just made an A-rank move!
The danger suddenly hit him. His face turned red, his skin felt hot, and he quickly tried to pull his hand back. But Yu Fan was holding on tightly.
“Hey, wait! What if someone from school sees us?!” Li Mu started to panic.
“It’s fine. Look over there, aren’t those Xu Ze and Wu Lei?” Yu Fan answered casually.
Li Mu looked up and really panicked now. His head started to feel hot, and his ears were ringing a little.
If he were an anime character, there would probably be steam coming out of his head by now.
Yu Fan happily dragged him toward another direction. “Don’t worry, they didn’t notice us.”
“You…” Li Mu stumbled as he followed behind.
“It’s just walking around the mall.”
“Let go of me!”
He put on a serious face and tried to pull his hand back while scolding him.
“If you keep doing this, I won’t talk to you anymore!”
Li Mu felt like he sounded just like an angry little girl, but at this point, he didn’t care.
Yu Fan didn’t seem bothered at all. Instead, he held on even tighter.
“Well, you were already planning to ignore me anyway.”