Chapter 18: Eleven Years Old – Crystal Princess 

“Then wait for me, I’ll go tell Uncle Meng.”

Xuezhu quickly ran back to the private room.

She wouldn’t say that it was her brother who didn’t want to stay here, so she took all the responsibility for it. She acted confidently, using her age as an excuse, pretending to be willful and clueless, and insisted on dragging Meng Yuning away to another place to play.

Song Yanping and Pei Lianyi naturally scolded her for being inconsiderate.

Old Meng waved his hand. “Forget it, let them go play. Anyway, Meng Yuning can’t help with anything here.”

As soon as he finished speaking, his wife Xu Qin urged into the microphone, “Meng Yunjuan, it’s time for the song we ordered, come on.”

“Coming, coming.”

“Don’t go too far, be back before 5:30. Your dad and I will be a little late, but after we come back, you have to be doing your homework. I’ll check your homework when I get back. Also, you are absolutely not allowed to have your brother spend money on you for things, especially junk food, understood?”

A long list of rules came crashing into Xuezhu’s head. In her hurry to leave, she just gave a perfunctory response and escaped.

After Old Meng and his wife finished singing, the next song was one ordered by Zhong Zihan.

It was, of course, another duet love song.

Immediately, some adults yelled, “Oh, Zihan, who are you going to sing with?”

“I’ll sing with Meng Yuning,” Zhong Zihan shouted into the microphone. “Meng Yuning, come out, we’re going to sing ‘^[1]“Roof” refers to the Mandarin pop duet 《屋顶》 (Wū Dǐng), which translates to “The Roof” in English. It’s a well-known love song originally performed by Jay Chou … Continue readingRoof.’ You sing the female part, I’ll sing the male part.”

The adults’ love songs were mostly from the 70s and 80s, melodies that Zhong Zihan couldn’t stand because they were too old-fashioned. So, he chose a popular love song to impress the adults with his modern taste, but no one was willing to sing with him. In the end, he had no choice but to drag Meng Yuning to be the female voice.

Pei Lianyi laughed uncontrollably. “Zihan, if you want to sing a love song, ask your female classmates, why drag Ningning into this?”

“Uncle, don’t say nonsense. I don’t want to sing with a female classmate,” Zhong Zihan quickly explained, showing a strong desire to live.

Hearing this explanation, Zhong Zihan’s parents, Old Zhong and his wife, finally nodded in satisfaction.

“Meng Yuning? Meng Yuning!”

Zhong Zihan searched for a long time but couldn’t find him, so he called out several times.

“Zihan, stop looking. Ningning and Xuezhu went out to play,” Song Yanping said.

“Ah? They went out to play and didn’t tell me?” Zhong Zihan immediately felt deflated.

“Didn’t you order so many songs? Aren’t you going to sing them?”

Zhong Zihan scratched his face awkwardly. “Well, there’s no one to sing with me, and I feel embarrassed singing alone.”

He had picked songs that young people liked, but the adults weren’t familiar with them. They couldn’t sing them, and the lyrics were too hard to pronounce and not catchy. Seeing that the accompaniment for half the song had already passed, Old He stepped in to smooth things over: “Yueyue, stop fiddling with your phone. Come sing a few songs with your brother.”

He Zhengyue immediately looked up, her face twisted in distaste. “Huh? I don’t want to.”

Zhong Zihan quickly refused as well. “Forget it, forget it. I won’t sing, let’s just skip it.”

“What’s wrong with siblings singing a song together? You two even used to sing ‘^[2]Little Rabbit Be Good 《小兔子乖乖》 (xiǎo tùzi guāi guāi), which is a well-known Chinese children’s song. The lyrics tell a story where the baby rabbits stay at home and don’t open … Continue readingLittle Rabbit Be Good’ when you were kids. This song is exactly the kind you young ones like to sing, and we can’t sing it. Come on, sing it, or the song will be over before you know it.”

Old He shoved the microphone into his daughter’s hand.

Only then did He Zhengyue reluctantly put her phone in her pocket and stand up to sing with Zhong Zihan.

Both of them had good singing skills. Although their harmonies weren’t as professional as the original singer’s, their voices were pleasant, and they sang the love song well. After the song, they both felt a bit awkward, but the adults gave them enthusiastic applause, complimenting them on how well they sang.

Their compliments made the two young people too shy to continue singing.

After a few pop songs, the adults couldn’t help but comment on how times had really changed. The songs young people like now are all of this style.

After Zhong Zihan finished singing, he sat down. He Zhengyue raised an eyebrow and looked at him, her tone somewhat mischievous. “Zihan, not bad, you can sing so many love songs. Have you started dating early?”

“…Singing love songs means I’m dating early?” Zhong Zihan twitched his lips. “Sis, can you stop being so nosy?”

“Really not dating early?” He Zhengyue clearly wasn’t willing to let it go. “Tell me secretly, I won’t tell Mom and Dad.”

Zhong Zihan sighed dramatically. “No early dating! How would I have time for early dating? I can’t even finish my worksheets every day, and you want me to date early? Pfft.”

He Zhengyue made a face and then turned her attention to another brother. “What about Ningning?”

“Nope.”

He Zhengyue found this unbelievable. “He doesn’t? He’s top of the class, handsome, there’s no way no one likes him. I remember in my year, the top student was super popular. During breaks, so many girls from other classes crowded into his class’s line for exercises.”

Zhong Zihan felt unreasonably uncomfortable with the double standard and awkwardly said, “Well, I’m eighth in the class, and I’m not bad-looking either.”

He Zhengyue widened her eyes, pretending to be shocked. “Oh really? I guess it’s because I remember watching your mom change your diapers when you were little, so in my mind, you’re still wearing diapers.”

Zhong Zihan: “…”

Back to the earlier topic.

“You two really aren’t dating early? Do you have a girl you like?”

Is this what older sisters are like—so nosy?

Zhong Zihan reiterated, “No, no.”

“How do you know Ningning doesn’t like anyone?” He Zhengyue pressed on.

“He didn’t agree to anyone who confessed to him. And he spends all his time with me except for class. How would I not know?” Zhong Zihan lazily rested his chin on his hand.

He Zhengyue’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Then is he the ‘cold school heartthrob’ type at your school?”

“Ah?” Zhong Zihan froze for a moment, then immediately felt uncomfortable with that nickname. “What cold school heartthrob? You’ve watched too many Taiwanese idol dramas, haven’t you?”

He Zhengyue clicked her tongue. “Tch, you know nothing about what girls like.”

“He just doesn’t hang out with girls much, but he still talks and communicates just fine,” Zhong Zihan gave his sister a look that said “you’re hopeless.” “You know what Meng Yuning is like, he rarely gets angry at anyone.”

He Zhengyue continued to ask, “Then doesn’t he have even one close female friend?”

“He does.”

He Zhengyue made a teasing expression. “I knew it, there’s no way he wouldn’t.”

Zhong Zihan forced a smile, his face not matching his words: “Xiao Zhu, huh?”

He Zhengyue’s expression instantly froze. “…You’re a pervert. Xiao Zhu doesn’t count.”

“Why doesn’t she count?”

“Xiao Zhu is still young. I’m asking about someone he has an ambiguous relationship with.”

“You just said ‘close relationship,’ and didn’t clarify,” Zhong Zihan scoffed.

He Zhengyue sighed. “The high school students of your generation are even more boring than we were.”

Seeing his sister looking disappointed because she couldn’t get anything out of him, Zhong Zihan rolled his eyes, suddenly seeming to remember something. He loudly said, “I think I remember someone, Meng Yuning really likes her.”

“Who?!”

“^[3]Tyrande Whisperwind, a well-known character from the video game World of Warcraft (WoW). She’s a Night Elf priestess and a major figure in the WoW universe. Tai Lan De.”

He Zhengyue looked confused. “This girl’s name sounds foreign.”

“Not just foreign, she’s not even the same race as Meng Yuning.”

“What?” He Zhengyue was even more bewildered. “Caucasian? Black?”

Meng Yuning actually liked someone from another race.

“Night Elf.”

The four major human races, He Zhengyue had never heard of this one.

He Zhengyue felt something was off. “Zhong Zihan, are you messing with me?”

Zhong Zihan smirked mischievously. “Not messing with you, it’s a race in World of Warcraft. Meng Yuning really likes playing that game.”

“…” He Zhengyue slapped Zhong Zihan on the back of his head. “Do you believe I’ll tell your parents you’re secretly playing games?”

Zhong Zihan looked defiant, then turned it around to lecture her. “Do whatever you want. And stop asking me these boring questions. If you have the time to worry about me and Meng Yuning, you should hurry up and find yourself a boyfriend.”

He Zhengyue immediately raised her chin in a haughty manner. “How do you know I haven’t found a boyfriend?”

Zhong Zihan froze for a moment. When he finally realized, he stammered, “You have a boyfriend? When?”

“Just recently, but it’s still in the developing stage, should be soon,” He Zhengyue made a “shh” gesture at him and pointed to Old He, who was picking songs by the karaoke machine. “Don’t tell Dad yet.”

“Oh.”

The phone in her jeans pocket vibrated. He Zhengyue took it out, someone had just sent her a text message.

Although she didn’t say who it was from, Zhong Zihan had already guessed.

She stared at the small phone screen, her face full of excitement, her fingers quickly typing away. Soon, a new message came back.

He Zhengyue finally stopped her nosy interrogation about her brothers’ high school life and lowered her head to continue chatting with her phone.

It seemed that the person in her phone wasn’t satisfied with just text, so they called. He Zhengyue immediately jumped up from her seat like a startled rabbit, covering her mouth, and whispered angrily, “Why did you suddenly call and scare me to death?” She quickly rushed outside the private room to chat on the phone.

No wonder she’s so nosy—she’s in a relationship.

Zhong Zihan twitched his mouth.

Xiao Zhu and Meng Yuning had also disappeared somewhere to play, and since neither of them had phones, he couldn’t find them.

Without anyone to sing with him, Zhong Zihan suddenly felt like the day was pretty boring.

—

On the contrary, Xuezhu thought it was very interesting now.

Since she said she would take Meng Yuning to have fun, where to go and what to do was naturally up to her.

Meng Yuning didn’t have any strong opinions and let her take charge.

However, when they were at home with a computer, Xuezhu didn’t want to play, she insisted on going to an internet café.

Meng Yuning helplessly persuaded, “It’s not safe for you to go to an internet café at your age.”

“But you’ll be there with me, right?” Xuezhu said, “The computer at home is so slow. The computers at the internet café have bigger screens and faster internet. They’re much more fun than at home.”

“How do you know the computers at the internet café have bigger screens and faster internet?”

Meng Yuning immediately frowned, and his tone became a bit serious.

Xuezhu, completely unaware of the seriousness of the situation, honestly replied, “Sister Yueyue took me there to play before.”

The corners of the boy’s mouth tightened, and his normally gentle expression darkened a little. It wasn’t clear if he was angry with her or with He Zhengyue.

He didn’t say anything and raised his hand to flick Xuezhu on the head.

It wasn’t hard, but Xuezhu exaggerated and covered her forehead, pretending to be in pain, making a dramatic sound of suffering, and with a resentful look in her eyes, she complained, “Sister took me, why are you hitting me? Besides, you’re underage too. Didn’t you sneak off to an internet café to play?”

She even managed to make it sound reasonable.

Meng Yuning said, “I’m older than you, and I’m a boy. It’s not dangerous for me to go to an internet café. But you’re a little girl—what if you run into bad people at the internet café?”

“I never go alone,” Xuezhu said, fully aware of the risks. “I only go when someone takes me.”

His serious logic made him laugh despite himself, and, curious, he asked, “What do you play at the internet café?”

It probably wouldn’t be War3 or WOW—at her age, she probably liked playing Kart Rider or Dance Dance Revolution.

However, Xuezhu’s answer was unexpected.

“4399 mini games!”

Meng Yuning was silent for a moment.

“Do you really need to go to an internet café to play web games?”

“Going to the internet café is more atmospheric.”

Meng Yuning was at a loss for words.

Xuezhu was particularly good at pestering people. When she wanted something, if you didn’t agree, she would cling to you and act spoiled, buzzing around your ears like a mosquito. To this day, apart from her mother, Mrs. Song Yanping, no one has managed to escape her when she employs this skill.

In the end, Meng Yuning found a shady internet café and took Xuezhu there.

The internet café owner, cigarette in mouth, asked him, “Two machines?”

“One, for two hours.”

“Three yuan, machine number 18.”

Meng Yuning had Xuezhu sit in the internet café chair while he borrowed a plastic stool from the owner to sit next to her and watch her play.

So, among the row of computers filled with violent and war-themed screens, machine number 18 stood out. Its screen was filled with flashing pink decorations and a cartoon-style Korean game title. The girl in the game wore pink hair buns, did her nails, and styled her outfits, even running a shop selling hamburgers and cakes. The peaceful and loving nature of the game made machine number 18 the best in the row.

The little girl with her hair in buns sat in the chair, her feet not reaching the floor. Her small white legs, like bamboo shoots, happily swung in the air as she played the game. While playing, she excitedly discussed with the boy next to her about how to dress up the best.

“Brother, do you think pink nail polish looks better, or red?”

“Red.”

“But I think red is too exaggerated. Pink is better.”

“……”

“Brother, do you like the white princess dress or the yellow one?”

“Both are fine.”

“No, you have to pick one.”

“……”

Even the boy sitting nearby who didn’t know them couldn’t help but sympathetically glance at him, deeply understanding, “Classmate, you brought your sister to the internet café? You’re working hard.”

In the end, it was Xuezhu who noticed that her brother was clearly uninterested, so she reluctantly closed the dress-up game and played a two-player puzzle game with him.

The two played the two-player Golden Miner game until Xuezhu got bored and stopped.

Xuezhu wanted to see what the people next to them were playing, and to her surprise, she found that apart from the games, one person had just a single window open on their computer screen, and a line of colorful words kept appearing from the bottom of the window. This person typed incredibly fast, almost typing out a long line of words on the screen every few seconds, followed by a cool Enter key press to send the message.

She was amazed.

Xuezhu asked, “Brother, what’s that person playing?”

Meng Yuning glanced over and replied calmly, “QQ chatroom.”

Young students nowadays like to keep up with trends. They no longer use MSN or BBS, they prefer QQ, which allows them to change avatars and decorate their spaces, as well as the popular Tieba forum. If you asked adults, they might not understand the fun these young students find in going online.

“What are they doing?”

“Chatting.”

“Is it just chatting?”

“Yes.”

“Who are they chatting with?”

“With strangers online.”

Xuezhu was confused: “What’s so fun about that? Do you really need to come to the internet café to do it?”

Meng Yuning calmly looked at her.

He didn’t speak, but Xuezhu knew he must be thinking that compared to the person chatting at the internet café, she, who came to the café to play 4399 games, was clearly the weirder one.

“I also want to chat with strangers online,” Xuezhu said, trying to keep up with the trend.

Meng Yuning laughed softly: “Can you type?”

“Of course! I played typing games in the computer class at school,” Xuezhu said seriously, holding up her fingers to recount her glorious typing achievements. “I’ve played Police Catch Thief, Save the Apple, and I’ve also played Frog Jump.”

“Alright then,” Meng Yuning asked again, “Do you have a QQ number?”

Xuezhu shook her head: “No.”

He opened the software on the computer: “I’ll help you apply for a QQ number.”

Xuezhu eagerly nodded: “Okay!”

She obediently gave up her seat and leaned over to carefully watch how her brother helped her create a QQ number.

“First, we need to pick a name,” Meng Yuning said.

Xuezhu replied, “I’m called Pei Xuezhu.”

“Your online name doesn’t need to be your real name,” Meng Yuning explained, “You can come up with one yourself.”

Xuezhu hesitated for a moment, furrowing her brows as she thought. After a long time, the brilliant result of her thinking process gave birth to her online name: “How about Crystal Princess?”

“……”