"I really like you. I think the seed of my heart was planted the moment I woke up in the hospital and saw your smile."
Zhu Yao brushed the wet hair stuck to Yu Nan's face aside and slowly lowered her head... Yu Nan also wrapped her arms around Zhu Yao's neck...
In the distance, Mr. Yu, carrying a shrimp trap and mosquito net, slowly walked towards the riverbank: ...
Yu's mother, who followed: ...Ahem, let's buy some water for the child.
…
There are three main methods for catching river shrimp in wild rivers. The first is to catch them directly with your hands, and the second is to use a mosquito net to catch them.
Take a square mosquito net, fix the four corners with bamboo strips, and then use a rope to string the bamboo strips together and tie them to a bamboo pole.
Stick a bamboo pole into the riverbank, place a mosquito net in the river, put a piece of shrimp bait inside the mosquito net, wait quietly for a while, and when the shrimp gather in the middle of the mosquito net to eat the bait, suddenly pull up and you can catch a net full of lively green shrimp.
The third method is to place the shrimp trap in water and empty the shrimp that have been put into the trap at regular intervals.
Yu's father took Yu Nan to set up mosquito nets and shrimp traps, while Yu's mother and Zhu Yao set up a small table by the river, on which were placed the drinks and fresh ingredients that Yu Nan's parents had just bought.
Yu's mother skillfully built a kiln out of mud, then took out a few pieces of charcoal and placed them inside. "Miss Zhu, city folks probably don't know what a country picnic is like. Yu Bao and her brother used to like coming to the river to catch fish, and her father and I would use whatever was available, watching them play in the water while we treated them to a nice meal..."
Zhu Yao was indeed unfamiliar with such a bold method of outdoor cooking, but she knew how to use charcoal for grilling, so she lent a hand to Yu's mother.
While helping out, I listened to Yu's mother recount Yu Nan's childhood stories—
For example, being scared to tears by catching an ugly fish, or crying because you didn't know to remove the innards when grilling fish and found the gall bladder unpalatable...
On the other side, Yu Nan and her father came over carrying half a bucket of lively river shrimp. "There are still some in the shrimp trap. We'll fry some more and take them to the neighbors later..."
Yu's mother skillfully steamed the river shrimp, then took a few to grill over charcoal, and also grilled some of the other ingredients she had brought.
"Why is there chives here? It's so spicy!"
"Old Zhou sent them, right?" Mother Yu glanced at them, then looked back into the brothel. "His chives are so spicy, and he sends them everywhere. Who eats spicy chives anyway..."
Zhu Yao instantly remembered that it was Old Zhou, the man who pedaled the tricycle.
"Let's find a stone slab later and have some grilled shrimp."
“Sure, Dad, I just saw a piece of bluestone that would be perfect.”
"You two," Yu's mother said, both angry and amused, "it's a lot of trouble to make the stone hot!"
"Little Zhu has come all this way, let him show off his skills!"
Yu's mother stopped talking. Yu Nan had just caught a few loaches, which were now covered in mud and roasted in the kiln.
Zhu Yao was stunned when she saw such a natural way of eating for the first time.
“At times like this, you should have a drink,” Mr. Yu said with a satisfied burp and a touch of emotion. “Next time, bring more people over, and I’ll open a jar of good wine to treat you!”
Yu's mother was somewhat surprised, "You're not referring to the jar of Shaoxing wine buried when Yu Nan was born, are you?"
There is a custom in this small town: when a family has a daughter, they bury a jar of Shaoxing wine, and on the day the daughter gets married, they dig out the wine to entertain guests.
"Yes, it's time to take it out. I can finally put my mind at ease after handing my daughter over to Xiao Zhu."
Even though he was mentally prepared, seeing Yu Nan nestled shyly in Zhu Yao's arms and kissing her passionately still greatly shocked Yu's father.
Even when the net was being set out, Yu's father gave Yu Nan a private instruction: "Be mindful of the occasion. It's still outside. If there's anything you need to do, you can do it at home."
"Dad!" Yu Nan blushed.
"Oh, so you're feeling shy now?" Yu's mother teased Yu Nan. "Whose daughter was so unrestrained just now?"
Yu Nan buried her face almost entirely in the table, while Zhu Yao, sitting beside her with chopsticks in hand, was also a little shy. Just now... her uncle and aunt had seen them.
And... Yu Nan's parents were surprisingly accepting?
Zhu Yao never imagined that coming out of the closet would be so smooth, nor did she expect to have such easy-going parents.
They understand and respect their children's choices, are willing to trust their children, accept new things, and allow their children to develop freely.
Always full of love and tolerance, it is a trustworthy haven that gives people the confidence to face failure.
Even Zhu Yao could feel the care and concern from Yu Nan's parents, who were her elders.
Chapter 54 Night Talk
The picnic by the river was tiring, so after returning home, the two of them took a shower and went to sleep.
The lights were turned off and the curtains drawn, plunging the room into darkness. The two lay side by side. Yu Nan snuggled closer to Zhu Yao and embraced her openly.
It's my girlfriend, why not hug her?
Yu Nan heard a soft laugh, but the person's joy was evident.
It seems that Zhu Yao is no longer as depressed as she was a few days ago and has completely relaxed.
"elder sister!"
"Hmm, what's wrong?"
"Sister, I just wanted to call out to you."
Zhu Yao chuckled softly, then turned and embraced Yu Nan, saying, "Catching shrimp all day is tiring, go and rest."
Yu Nan immediately perked up, "When you and Mom came home, Dad and I went to deliver the extra shrimp. When we delivered them to Uncle Zhou, they actually stuffed a bunch of chives into our hands!"
"My mom is worried now. No one in my family eats spicy chives, and she feels embarrassed to throw away the ones that others gave her..."
As Zhu Yao listened to Yu Nan's endless chatter about the people and things in the village, she was also touched by the simple and honest atmosphere of the town.
The town is small, but everyone lives in peace and contentment, and the town is thriving.
"Yu Nan... I'd like to ask a personal question."
"Sister, go ahead and ask!" Yu Nan felt a little excited.
Zhu Yao asked her personal questions... Zhu Yao was willing to strip her naked and do some private things with her! She was super excited!
"Your family seemed very wealthy in Binhai, but now that we're here... I'd like to know where your family's money comes from..."
This is a bit of an embarrassing question, but Zhu Yao is really curious.
When Zhu Yao first met Yu Nan, seeing the luxurious villa she lived in, she always assumed that Yu Nan was the beloved daughter of some wealthy man.
Yu Nan doesn't need to work and plays games every day... and she doesn't care about her image at all, so much so that she was treated as a "commodity" since childhood. Zhu Yao, who was strictly required to be polite, thought that Yu Nan's family was some kind of nouveau riche.
After taking a stroll around this town, it's not hard to see that Yu Nan's family background is very ordinary; they are just residents of a typical fourth-tier town, and her family members receive a fixed salary with no extra income.
Yu Nan said smugly, "I'm a self-made millionaire!"
"First, there's my brother. He saved up some money writing code, and then he saved up some more money by opening a studio. You know, domestically produced pay-to-win mobile games are extremely profitable, and their ability to make money in a short period of time is terrifying."
"As long as a character has exquisite artwork and godlike abilities, many players will spend countless amounts of money (648) on that character, and the game experience will not be affected even if the character is not played."
“And every now and then, they release some limited-edition digital souvenirs. A few lines of code are enough to make collectors willingly part with their money. Even just an avatar frame can fetch several hundred dollars.”
"Later, Wolf Blade joined my brother's studio, and she designed exclusive gacha pools—gacha pools with different probabilities for different types of players. For example, players who spend a lot of money have the highest probability of getting a gacha pool, followed by non-spending players, and players who consistently spend money have the lowest probability..."
"Wait, why are the number of players who consistently spend money on in-game purchases the lowest?"
"Some people quit the game as soon as they don't get the cards they want. The developers naturally wouldn't give these people a bad card pool. But most people are a continuous source of income. They have too much sunk cost in the game and are very tied to it. Even if they don't get the cards they want, they won't quit. Instead, they will spend more money to draw cards."
Zhu Yao stared in disbelief, "Domestic mobile games are so... uh..."
“It’s awful, isn’t it?” Yu Nan said, expressing Zhu Yao’s feelings. “The games I let you play are all buy-to-play games, so you have no experience with mobile games. It’s just another form of working.”
"Aren't there a lot of people playing it?"
Yu Nan nodded. "That's what countless 'planners' do—design the gameplay in the early stages of a mobile game to immerse players in the game, then add a world view, draw a few character portraits of 'wives' or 'husbands,' and most Chinese players will obediently fall for it."
"No..." Zhu Yao was a little confused. "At least, I'm not interested in the type of game you described, so why do players fall for it so readily?"
"Sister, you don't usually socialize much, do you?"
"That's true..." Zhu Yao mostly chats and interacts with people in the novel group.
She didn't have any close friends or familiar old classmates.
"Domestic games rely heavily on social interaction... and because of the game bans in the past, excellent foreign games could not enter the Chinese market, which led to the proliferation and expansion of these kinds of garbage games, which have captured most players and trapped them with the social attributes attached to the games."
"You know... many Chinese players don't have access to or can't accept single-player games. Sister, you're starting from a higher level."
Zhu Yao fell silent. "Aren't there any good domestically produced single-player games?"
"Yes, but most of them are dead."
"This brings us to the era of rampant piracy. We had a gaming desert that lasted for more than a decade. Because everyone was playing pirated games, conscientious companies went out of business without making a profit. The ban killed games, and Chinese players also killed games."
"But now that consumer spending has picked up, hasn't the market recovered yet?"
Yu Nan sighed: "It did recover at first. Most players were compensating for the decline of Chinese single-player games because of nostalgia and a sense of guilt. They would buy any game that came out and support it whenever it was released... There was a short-term recovery during that period..."
"Then, capital noticed this lucrative opportunity. Businessmen are very good at disguising themselves... They used many mediocre game shells to cheat players out of the money they paid for out of nostalgia, and also exhausted the last bit of nostalgia and guilt of domestic game players."
Yu Nan grinned self-deprecatingly: "Yu Miao, who made a promise but didn't make the game, also damaged the credibility of domestic independent games... I think there were probably many people who wanted to make good games during that time."
However… more than a decade of gaming desertification has left most people in this vast land unclear about what constitutes a good game, how to make a good game, and lack the skills or ability to create one. Naturally, it can't compare to the flourishing gaming scene outside.
"Furthermore, reskinned pay-to-win games have made Chinese players very blind... You know, the most playable part of these games is the beginner phase, because to lure players in, the beginner phase is the most engaging... Ironically, some domestic players dislike the storyline and find the tedious front-line mechanics annoying, wanting to skip that phase and just start mindlessly grinding."
At this point, Yu Nan couldn't help but chuckle, "Isn't this just finding myself a job?"
"Most domestic players have lost the ability to play games."
"So I had a fight with Yu Hua. He really knows what a good game is, but he dragged Lang Xi, who was studying game development, to make more money-making reskinned games with pay-to-win elements. They know too well how to exploit players' desires."
"So, you guys started out by making money through reskinned games and spending real money?"
Zhu Yao sensed that the person in her arms was slightly downcast, so she gently stroked Yu Nan's back as if to comfort him.
"Uh... half, I guess," Yu Nan realized she'd gotten a bit carried away. "Actually, I used to research building materials and developed a new material... It just so happened that my labmate and Li Yue started a company together, and I invested my patent, reaping the profits every year... But research is tough, you know. I often do experiments day and night. If my hand hadn't been injured in an explosion, I'd still be a lab technician..."
Yu Nan blinked: "So, sister, I saved my own money, I made my fortune in technology!"
Zhu Yao: ...So that's why we just talked for so long about the history of games.
Having received a reply, Zhu Yao's feelings were rather complicated.
After returning to the Zhu family at the age of eight, her quality of life was truly excellent. Although the atmosphere at home was strange, there were plenty of resources and choices. The strict, even abnormal, family education forced her "older sister" to get into Dihua University, which also prompted her to get into Beiling University.
Later, because she chose to rebel against her family's arrangements, her source of income and future was cut off—others could save money and live on their own after severing ties with their families, but she couldn't.