Yao Ye had previously conned numerous sleazy shut-ins on the internet, looking to “hook up with chicks” online. His techniques were refined to a fine art. In just a couple of days, he had successfully charmed Blank and become his online girlfriend, constantly acting coy and naive, and had managed to extract a fair amount of spending money from him.
As the saying goes, men understand men best. Yao Ye, who had seen plenty in his online ventures, found Blank, a neophyte in matters of the heart, exceedingly easy to manipulate. A few words and some fake photos were all it took to spin Blank around his finger.
Such immature minds, single-mindedly focused on pursuing girls, were just too easy to deceive. Yao Ye felt no guilt in tricking such simpletons.
Blank was a peculiar case. An orphan living with his aunt after the death of his parents, he had naively handed over his inheritance. Despite being an adult, he was pathetically submissive, showing little to no backbone or wit.
Unsurprisingly, his aunt, having successfully seized the inheritance, kicked him out. Fortunately, Blank had a house which he partially rented out. He lived in a small room and subsisted on the rental income. Now, even that income was nearly swindled away by Yao Ye.
Yao Ye was infuriated just thinking about it.
Blank’s dispossession and solitary life were partly why he considered suicide, seeing no hope in life, as emotionally fragile as a vulnerable teen girl in the midst of puberty. It was this sensitive tone in Blank’s post that had initially misled Yao Ye into thinking he had found a kindred spirit, a soulmate of sorts.
But upon discovering Blank’s true gender, any sympathy evaporated, replaced by intense revulsion. Yao Ye loathed this man, who lived like a worm, because Blank reminded him of his own school days.
Naive to the point of stupidity. Anyone could trample on him, forcing his head down, making him bark like a dog. But Yao Ye considered himself far superior to Blank.
Although an orphan himself, Yao Ye was not foolish. Even at seven or eight, he knew to clutch his money tightly, never letting relatives know, preferring to watch it devalue rather than attracting their greed.
This, of course, meant none of his relatives were willing to take in a freeloader, but Yao Ye didn’t care about those greedy kin and had long since severed contact with them.
In Yao Ye’s eyes, a grown man like Blank, unable to protect what his parents left him and reduced to such a state, was utterly useless and despicable.
Thinking this, Yao Ye gazed at the chatroom’s dark background, his eyes weary, no longer wanting to continue this pointless interaction with a spineless weakling.
Perhaps it was too easy to deceive him, making Yao Ye feel no sense of accomplishment. He quickly grew tired of Blank’s clinginess and incompetence, finding each conversation torturous.
Besides, Blank had little money left, so Yao Ye had no interest in continuing this charade. He had suggested breaking up just yesterday, simply forgetting to leave the chatroom.
Blank had been messaging non-stop since yesterday. Though there had been a brief silence in the afternoon, which made Yao Ye think Blank had finally accepted reality, he was now back to his old habits, messaging in the middle of the night.
Yao Ye was genuinely repulsed by this obsessive behavior. Initially, he had intended to let Blank down gently, somewhat satisfied with his pitiful life story that gave Yao Ye a sense of superiority. But now, with Blank so shamelessly overstepping boundaries, Yao Ye decided to be blunt.
——[Tsk, you’re disgusting.]
Yao Ye tapped the keyboard with his swollen fingers, venting all his anger and resentment.
A flurry of messages appeared in the chatroom from the avatar of a long-haired girl in a sailor uniform.
——[Didn’t I tell you yesterday? We’re done.]
——[Is there any point in being so clingy? You’re seriously disgusting!]
——[I wonder how you even have the courage to live! Don’t you find yourself gross?]
——[Why aren’t you speaking? Don’t tell me you’re cursing me behind my back!]
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
——[Haha, I know your type. You badmouth people once they leave you, right? Don’t think I don’t know!]
——[Today has been terrible, I burnt my hand. Maybe you cursed me! You’re such a jinx!]
Tjb Tf gjqlvis asqfv bea atfrf wfrrjufr, j wjilmlber rwlif bc tlr afjg-ragfjxfv, qjif ojmf.
“Lwqt! Kfjmt sbe j ifrrbc, sbe oja rtea-lc. Ofa’r rff lo atja qlu-ygjlc bo sbegr mjc ugbk rbwf klar!”
Thank me and don’t be so stupid in the future. You’re so stupid it’s funny.
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Tjb Tf tjv j ubbv ugjrq bo Dijcx’r mtjgjmafg joafg atflg tjio-wbcat gfijalbcrtlq. Rba bcis kjr Dijcx lcfqa jcv offyif-wlcvfv lc tlr jmalbcr, yea tf kjr jirb uibbws jcv ecjqqfjilcu, j rbilajgs jcv tsqfgrfcrlalnf rbei ktb abbx batfgr’ bqlclbcr ab tfjga. Tjb Tf xcfk kfii atja tlr tjgrt kbgvr kbeiv vffqis lwqjma Dijcx.
The thought of this detestable, foolish shut-in sobbing helplessly under his blankets brought Yao Ye immense satisfaction, a sense of relief permeating his entire being.
You deserve to be conned, haha, Yao Ye thought, a smirk forming on his lips, now flushed from the hot soup he had consumed, contrasting starkly against his pale skin, where even the veins were visible.
“Haha, serves him right. A toad lusting after swan meat without even considering his own appearance. As if a real beauty would ever fall for him,” Yao Ye thought disdainfully.
Receiving no response to his torrent of abuse, Yao Ye grew impatient. Just as he was about to close the chatroom, Blank finally responded.
A message appeared next to a plain white avatar icon.
——[I didn’t Ye’er I didn’t curse you I love you]
The message seemed hastily typed, without any punctuation, reflecting a sense of panic.
Yao Ye had hoped for a retaliatory outburst, a chance for a heated exchange where he could reveal his true gender, adding thrill to the confrontation. But Blank’s lackluster response was a letdown.
Yao Ye hadn’t expected him to be such a boring thing. His behavior was like that of a scum, yet anger still had not come to Blank.
Was this guy a complete simp?
Yao Ye smirked, looking down on Blank even more.
Not a single hint of backbone. You threw your temper and self-respect away for a woman. Heh, how pathetic.
——[Ye’er, are you hurt? Anything I can do for you?]
Seeing this message, Yao Ye paused, looking down at his swollen fingers.
Oh, it still hurts.
Being beaten up too often in school had made him somewhat accustomed to pain, so much so that he had momentarily forgotten about his injured finger.
Recalling his school experiences dimmed the smile on Yao Ye’s face, his eyes clouding over.
“What a pathetic life I lead,” he thought. “All grown up and the only person who shows any concern is a net friend I’ve never met and whom I despise.”
After a moment of reflection, Yao Ye’s slender fingers, resting on the keyboard, hesitated briefly before typing a response.
Regardless of whether Blank’s concern was genuine or not, Yao Ye saw no point in continuing the relationship. It was better to end it sooner rather than later.
——[I don’t need your false kindness! Stop bothering me, it’s so annoying!]
Blank seemed to fall into a state of confused pain again, typing for a long time without sending a message. The chatroom continuously displayed “The other party is typing.”
——[Ye’er, let’s not break up, okay? You’re the only reason I can keep living. I can’t be without you.]
Blank sent a message, filled with hope and appended it with numerous rose icons.
Yao Ye frowned, really annoyed by Blank’s constant repetition.
The same old cliché lines about not being able to live without Ye’er. At first, Yao Ye found Blank somewhat pitiable, seemingly more miserable than himself. But the more Blank repeated these lines, the more Yao Ye found him pretentious and melodramatic.
He couldn’t really think such lines would move a girl.
——[Then go die.]
Yao Ye typed the last word disdainfully, feeling sleepy.
Checking the time, he saw it was already 11:30 PM.
Though it wasn’t as late as his usual bedtime of 1 or 2 AM, he was too exhausted today and decided to sleep early.
With that, Yao Ye shut down his computer, ignoring his persistently clingy net friend, and went to bed.
In the chatroom, the sailor uniformed girl avatar went dark.
In the black chatroom meant for two, only Blank’s avatar remained.
——[Please, don’t leave me.]
——[Please, don’t leave me.]
——[Please, don’t leave me.]
…
Blank’s avatar flooded the chatroom with the same plea, until at midnight, he finally typed the last message.
——[If I die, will Ye’er come back?]
In the dark chatroom interface, there was no response, only the blinking cursor, which did not move from its position.
The next morning, Yao Ye woke to the sound of his alarm, bleary-eyed.
Today was the day he had to submit his online commissions. Although it was just drawing some low-quality avatars for a modest income, it was his main source of livelihood. Without this income, he would struggle to make ends meet.
So, unlike his usual habit of sleeping until he woke naturally, Yao Ye got up early.
Ding!
Ding!
…
As soon as he turned on his computer, a series of message alerts nearly crashed his old machine.
Huh? What’s going on?
Yao Ye, baffled, quickly refreshed the page and ran a disk cleanup to smooth out his computer’s performance.
“What’s this bastard playing at…” he muttered, his eyes blazing with irritation as he saw the 999 message notifications in the chatroom.
“This idiotic shut-in is doing this on purpose! Who sends so many messages in the middle of the night?”
The chatroom, a private and not particularly high-capacity site, could easily become sluggish with too many messages. Yao Ye suspected this was all part of Blank’s calculated scheme.
He opened the chatroom, ready to unleash his fury on Blank, but stopped short at the last message Blank had sent.
Message log: 0:00 am
Blank: [If I die, will Ye’er come back?]
Yao Ye’s face was a mix of confusion and skepticism.
This message… he can’t be serious about suicide, right? He was just bluffing!
——[Hey, are you there? Are you really dead?]
The chatroom remained silent in response.
A minute later, the notification “The other party is typing” finally appeared.
——[I’m here]
Blank’s avatar lit up again in the chatroom.
But unbeknownst to Yao Ye, on the other end of the internet connection, blood was spreading across the floor.
Blank, sir, what is it that you did that caused so much blood? 😭
Fr. Like did he stab himself???
We don’t know yet but maybe..
Wasn’t expecting that ⊙.☉