Chapter 1: The Moon Through the Rain

In the darkness, the thunder failed to wake many from their dreams.

Under the endless wind and rain, Nanwu Airport was peaceful as a mountain and bright as the sun.
It seemed to be a giant box, containing the daytime that had already gone off work.

It was just past two in the morning, but the number of people had not decreased.

Tourists and travelers went by Yun Li, who was standing still and checking her phone from time to time; one after another.
[1]Yun (云）means cloud, and Li (厘) means centi, as in the unit of measurement (one thousandth)

This was Yun Li’s second time to Nanwu.

Her last time here was this Spring when she came to attend Nanwu Institute of Technology’s postgraduate retest.
And this time, it was because she received the invitation from EAW Virtual Reality Experience Center.

EAW was Yousheng Technology’s first VR Experience Center, which was planned to open at the end of next month.

Some time ago, they did a trial opening, and the results were not as good as expected.
So they invited more bloggers and social media influencers to come and help promote their business before the official launch.

Yun Li was one of them.

Through email, Yun Li got in touch with Miss He.

The plane ticket, accommodation, and food were all taken care of by the company, and Miss He also informed her that she would arrange for someone to pick her up after she arrived. 

But the weather changed unexpectedly, and Yun Li’s flight was delayed by three hours.

After learning her new arrival time, Miss He once again said that she would arrange for another person to come to pick her up.
And after Yun Li got off the plane and asked her, she said that the driver had already left and that she just had to patiently wait for a little.

Until now, however, the driver still had not appeared.
And Ms.
He had still not responded. 

In three minutes, Yun Li would have waited for an hour.

Yun Li leaned on her suitcase and typed a message with an ugly face.
After she finished, she went back and read it over again completely.

Good.

No curse words.

Explained how it’s her fault.

Passive aggressiveness is used.

But even so, she stared at the screen for a while and still didn’t press the send button.

Sigh.

It sounds kinda mean.

As she was wondering how to make it nicer, her thoughts were suddenly interrupted, “–Hello?”

Looking over, Yun Li saw a stranger looking at him.

The person looked thin and handsome, like a college student who haven’t graduated yet.
It seemed that he wasn’t very good at doing these kinds of things, as he said shyly, “Did you come here for vacation or?”

He was already the sixth person who tried to strike up a conversation with her.

Without exception, the previous five all asked her whether she wanted to ride their car or a hotel room.

So Yun Li automatically filled the rest of his words in her head and waved her hand, “No thanks…”

The man paused, “Huh?”

“I’m waiting for someone, and I don’t need a room.”

The two looked at each other awkwardly.

A few seconds later, the man scratched his hair, “Um.”

He gave a gentle cough, “I just wanted to ask, can I add you on WeChat?”

“……”

Yun Li was dumbfounded.

The man’s voice was clear, but now it was a bit quieter, “Can I?”

“Uh,” realizing that she had mistaken him, Yun Li was rather embarrassed, “…Okay.”

“Thank you,” said the man as he took out his phone.
He smiled, “Should I scan you?”[1]For those who aren’t aware of how WeChat works, it’s a Chinese messaging and social media app where you can scan each other’s QR code to add each other as friends.

Yun Li nodded and tapped her screen.
The long text that she had just composed was shown.
She immediately clicked out of it and opened the QR code for him to scan.

The man bent down and scanned the code while he introduced himself politely, “I’m Fu Zhengchu, if you have time later we can…”

The friend request appeared.

As she took a look at his profile picture, Yun Li felt that something was off.
A guess rose in her head.

Sure enough.

The next second, his username showed up.

–Bar and Chill Inn

“……”

Is this how far solicitors have gone nowadays?

Yet Fu Zhengchu didn’t realize that he had used the wrong account at all.
His expression still had a “yes, I did it!” look.
Immediately after, he asked with care, “Are you going to EAW after?”

Yun Li looked at him.

“That VR Experience Center?”

Yun Li became alert, “How did you know?”

“I accidentally saw your chat window just now and noticed the person’s alias.
Sorry, I didn’t mean it,” said Fu Zhengchu, “And this center opened near my school, so I took a guess.”

Miss He’s alias on Yun Li’s phone was just EAW but did not mention anything about VR Experience Center.

So his explanation was rather convincing.

She nodded again.

“But why are you here at this time? I don’t think it’s open yet, you’ll have to wait a month,” said Fu Zhengchu.

All his information was correct, and Yun Li didn’t know how to reply.
All she could honestly say was, “Uh, I was invited.”

“Invited?” Fu Zhengchu didn’t seem to understand, but he didn’t keep asking either, “So you’re waiting for them to come to pick you up?”

“Mm.”

“I noticed that you’ve been waiting for a while,” after hesitating, Fu Zhengchu did not give up after her indifferent words and expression and kept going, “Where are you going? Maybe I can give you a ride?”

Hearing this, Yun Li’s alertness rose again.
She shook her head, “No, thank you.”

“It’s okay, this matter has something to do with me.”

Yun Li asked puzzledly, ”Mm?”

“Oh,” Fu Zhengchu realized he didn’t explain yet, and said briefly, “Because my brother founded EAW.”

Yun Li: “……”

Yeah right, why don’t you just tell me that you’re the CEO instead?

–

After a second of silence, Yun Li considered it.
This person’s series of actions seemed very strange.

Bunch of lies, and randomly asked her to go with him.
He seemed to be part of some criminal organization th