The Vicious “One of the Guys” Green Tea

My boyfriend and I had agreed to wear matching couple outfits on our date.

But his female bro tagged along, wearing that very couple outfit. With an arm around my boyfriend, she said, “Saozi, we’re bros! You’re so petty. Can’t you take a joke?”

Translator’s note: Saozi (嫂子) means sister-in-law, often used for a friend’s girlfriend. A “one of the guys” green tea (汉子茶) uses her supposed bro status to cross boundaries with men while belittling other women.

I sneered. “Bros? Bros are great. Then let’s have a contest. Which of you can pee higher?”

Her expression changed.

I smiled happily. “Oh? Big bro, why aren’t you competing? Can’t you take a joke?”

1

Seeing my face fall, my boyfriend Zhu Yue hurriedly peeled her hand away. He came over to me with a fawning smile. “Weiwei, don’t be angry.”

“She was at my place gaming last night. Had a few too many drinks, threw up, and had nothing to change into… She grabbed the shirt herself.”

I stared at him indifferently. Guiltily, he scratched the back of his head. “Nothing happened between us.”

A man and a woman alone together all night, and nothing happened? I honestly found that a little hard to believe.

“Aiya, Saozi, I didn’t know these were couple outfits. How about… I take it off and give it back right now?”

As she spoke, she tugged at the hem, exposing a strip of waist.

No defined abs, no A4 waist, and her skin was dark as anything. Where did she get the courage to show it off?

“Hey, what are you doing? We’re out on the street!” Zhu Yue hurriedly pressed her hand down.

Yao Lan let go of the hem and frowned. “Saozi, aren’t you being way too small-minded? We’ve been bros for so many years. If there were anything between us, would you have gotten a turn?”

With an utterly sincere smile, I apologized. “Sorry, Yao Lan-ge, you go ahead and wear it. Ge is right. After all these years, you still haven’t managed to get promoted to girlfriend. Either you’re useless, or you’re a dude. I mistook you for a woman just now. My bad!”

Translator’s note: Ge/gege (哥/哥哥) means older brother; jie/jiejie (姐/姐姐) means older sister. They’re also familiar forms of address. “A4 waist” means a waist narrow enough to hide behind an upright sheet of A4 paper.

A bro-style green tea? Hehe. Watch this little white lotus work!

Yes, I’m sarcastically calling you useless. What are you going to do about it?

Yao Lan’s face changed on the spot.

She’s mad! She’s mad! Hehe.

Seeing that, Zhu Yue immediately glared at me. “Weiwei! What are you saying? Yao Lan’s a girl. She just dresses a bit masculine!”

Look at this boyfriend!

Anyone who didn’t know better would think he was Yao Lan’s boyfriend.

Her expression changed, and he immediately came to scold me.

But I wasn’t sad in the slightest.

I tugged at the corner of my mouth and was about to speak when Yao Lan cut me off. “Zhu Yue, the bros are all here. Let’s go queue up!” Was this… her way of showing she mattered more?

Zhu Yue looked at me awkwardly.

“Saozi, the bros and I already made plans… You’re not going to keep him on that tight a leash, are you?”

As Yao Lan spoke, her arm landed on Zhu Yue’s shoulder again. They really did look inseparable.

I knitted my brows, then immediately broke into a smile. “Of course not.”

I couldn’t wait for more opportunities to spend time with you.

Clearly not expecting me to be unbothered, she gave me a puzzled look.

When we reached the esports hotel, two guys were already waiting.

Yao Lan had barely sat down between them before she started provoking a fight. “Saozi, you care way too much about your image, don’t you? That makeup must’ve taken ages. That lipstick, that eyeshadow… Not like me. I’ve gotten used to being rough around the edges with these guys. I never put on makeup.”

“Tsk, isn’t that little skirt a bit short? It’s above your knees. Bet plenty of men were sneaking looks on the street, huh? A girl wearing a skirt above her knees, how bad is that, letting people peek! Look at me. I always wear sweatpants. Safe!”

Watching her rest one hand on each guy’s shoulder, practically holding a man in each arm, I only felt sick.

That sleazy manner was no different from her father’s!

A thug, a lowlife, a lump of shit!

I forced down the churning hatred and nausea, the urge to strangle her right now, and sat quietly beside Zhu Yue, the very picture of a little white flower. “Yao Lan-jiejie, stop teasing me. If you put on some makeup and changed into a little skirt, you’d definitely be a great beauty!”

“Her? A great beauty?!” Zhu Yue’s eyes rounded in shock.

The other two bros burst out laughing. “Saozi, don’t comfort her! Looking like that? She wouldn’t look as good in a skirt as we would!”

Being called ugly by all three of her own bros—

Yao Lan’s expression was truly a spectacular kaleidoscope!

2

They were one player short for a full team, so Zhu Yue suggested bringing me along.

Yao Lan wasn’t happy. “My good son, you know I don’t usually play with girls.”

Then she turned to me, her face full of disdain. “You girls are trash at Honor of Kings but still addicted. When you lose, all you do is go yingyingying!”

“You girls?” I pretended to be surprised. “Yao Lan-gege, so you really are a guy? Did you have the surgery in Thailand? How did it turn out so well? You really can’t tell if you’re male or female!”

Her two bros laughed themselves into a heap. “Saozi, she’s a tomboy! She’s just running her mouth!”

I put on a look of sudden understanding, then deliberately made myself look so aggrieved I was about to cry. “Then… Zhu Yue, why don’t the four of you play? I’ll just watch from the side…”

“How could we do that? Weiwei’s really good!” Zhu Yue insisted on bringing me.

The other two guys also thought leaving me out would be rude, so they invited me into the lobby.

“Then you play support,” Yao Lan said. “Supports just soak up damage anyway. It doesn’t matter if you die!”

Looking at their matching couple IDs, I sneered inwardly. Zhu Yue was called Qingtian, Blue Heavens, and Yao Lan was Nanyu, Harder Than.

Put them together—Harder Than Mounting the Blue Heavens?! Those paired IDs were disgusting.

Ptui. A bitch paired with a dog, together for ages long.

I deliberately sounded surprised. “Aiya, why are your names so strange? Together they’re a line of poetry. Or does Harder Than really want to… mount Blue Heavens?”

Translator’s note: 难于上青天 (nan2 yu2 shang4 qing1 tian1), “harder than ascending to the blue heavens,” is a famous poetic phrase. Here 上, “go up/mount,” also carries the sexual joke.

They both looked embarrassed. The two bros beside them quickly intervened. “Saozi, don’t misunderstand. Yao Lan changed hers as a joke yesterday. She doesn’t know when to stop! Yao Lan, you have no sense of boundaries. Change it back!”

Apparently those two weren’t stupid. They’d already figured out what was going on.

“Right, right! Change it back afterward!” Zhu Yue hurriedly glared at her. “Keep copying my name like that and I won’t play with you anymore!”

I smiled without speaking, quietly picked Cai Wenji, and took a screenshot while I was at it.

Whether to show she was one of the guys or to show off her skills, Yao Lan insta-locked the jungle role the moment we entered.

Watching her farm jungle with Zhuge Liang, sometimes unable even to stack his passive, I sneered inside.

None of them knew I was a gaming streamer. My best hero was Zhuge Liang.

Even less did they know that I was playing with them on an alt account.

During the match, I deliberately followed only the marksman and mage, staying far away from her. She got angry. “Doesn’t the support know to come heal me? So useless!”

I looked innocent. “Huh? Isn’t the support supposed to protect the marksman?”

At the end of the ranked match, my Cai Wenji had a triple kill and MVP. Her Zhuge Liang had a 1-6-5 score. With that… she dared play jungle?

Her two bros kept praising my support play and wanted another round.

Smiling, I stood. “Oops, I accidentally got MVP. Sorry, everyone, I have something to do. I’ll head out first.”

Too trash. Playing Honor of Kings with this bro-style green tea was simply wasting my time.

Zhu Yue wanted to see me out, but I pressed his shoulder down. “I really have something to do.”

Without even glancing at her, I turned and left. Feeling deeply insulted, she actually followed me out.

“Fu Wei!” she called. “What? Leaving already?”

“I told you, Zhu Yue and I are just bros. You’re so petty! What are you being so precious about? If you’d been more generous three years ago, my high-school bro wouldn’t have dumped you.”

I clenched my fists, nails digging into my palms, hatred surging in my chest.

How did she have the nerve to bring that up?

Three years ago, my first boyfriend and I had only dated for three months before she wrecked it.

It happened at a high-school class reunion. Everyone was playing dare games, and when her turn came, someone egged her on to confess to a guy.

Who knew she’d pick my first boyfriend? Right in front of me, she pretended to be joking around as she told him, “I like you.”

My first boyfriend was sitting on the sofa looking bewildered. Suddenly, her body tilted, and she threw herself at him.

Then… her 32As slammed into his face!

The whole class watched a green hat greener than the Green Grasslands get planted on my head.

Some loudly egged them on, some whispered, and some laughed loud enough to shake the sky.

Only I felt sorry for my first boyfriend. Those 32As—would they bruise his nose?

Yao Lan cried out, “Aiya! Oh, I’m sorry, sorry, Saozi! My foot slipped… I accidentally…”

Taking advantage of the momentum, she wrapped her arms around my first boyfriend and sat on his lap, as if declaring him hers. “Saozi, you’re not a sore loser, are you?”

Yep, I couldn’t take a joke. I kicked my first boyfriend to the curb that very day.

Who told him not to dodge when Yao Lan flung herself at him? Instead, he’d instinctively caught her.

Secondhand goods? This jie didn’t want them.

Now Yao Lan stood on the steps, still grinning that cheap little grin. “Fu Wei, it’s been three years. How are you still such a sore loser? If you’d been more generous, would you have gotten dumped? It’s just an ID. It’s not like I actually mounted Blue Heavens!”

3

I honestly didn’t care whether she’d mounted Blue Heavens.

After all, I was dating Zhu Yue because of her.

Those three months with my first boyfriend had been because of her too.

I turned around and smiled. “Yao Lan, I’ve had two boyfriends in total, and you’ve stuck your foot into both relationships. Wrecking one after another. Anyone who didn’t know better would think you’re Fahai reincarnated. What? Breaking up couples is your KPI?”

“Single guys, you don’t even look at. Taken guys, you circle around. You really are a shitball covered in scheming little holes!”

She had a violent temper and couldn’t stand provocation. Just like her dad.

Fifteen years ago, her dad had given my grandpa a vicious beating. Now, fifteen years later, with me insulting her like this, she should also lash out…

Sure enough, just as I’d expected!

Eyes blazing with fury, she swung a slap at my face—

But her palm stopped dead in midair. Gu Lan had caught her wrist.

Backlit, Gu Lan lowered his eyes to look at me. His peach-blossom eyes seemed to hold spring water. “Jiejie, I’m here to pick you up.”

He was good-looking, far better-looking than Zhu Yue or my first boyfriend. The first time I’d seen him, I’d been certain—this young man’s pretty skin could definitely be useful to me.

Sure enough, Yao Lan’s gaze held a flash of amazement as she looked at him.

“Let’s go.” I looped my arm through Gu Lan’s and got into his Lamborghini.

“Borrowed the car from my young master,” he explained. “Well? Flashy enough? Think it’ll catch that damned bro-style green tea’s eye?”

Smiling, I gave him a thumbs-up. “Beautifully done!”

In the rearview mirror, Yao Lan stood watching us drive away. She didn’t move for a long time.

Hehe. Was the fish really about to take the bait?

4

I didn’t rush to break up with Zhu Yue. Instead, I brought Gu Lan into our circle.

I introduced him as the younger boy from next door.

Gu Lan was a professional esports player. He made an alt to play with us, and soon attracted Yao Lan’s attention.

“Gu Lan, kid, you’re pretty good! Come on, carry your dad for a round!”

“Aiyo, my good son! Block Zhuge Liang’s ult for Daddy! Oh no, what do I do? Daddy’s heart is fluttering!”

Watching Gu Lan smile so gently and elegantly, I thought: The more someone lacks a thing, the more they’re drawn to it.

Someone as sleazy as Yao Lan had very little resistance to this kind of cultured, modest gentleman.

Sure enough, she immediately switched her target from Zhu Yue to Gu Lan.

At every gathering, she always stuck close to Gu Lan.

Every time, Gu Lan smiled politely and backed away, looking like a little white rabbit dodging a big gray wolf.

And when Zhu Yue saw them like that, sometimes he subconsciously frowned.

So it wasn’t that men couldn’t identify different kinds of tea. It was whether they wanted to identify them.

Once, Yao Lan draped her arm over Gu Lan’s shoulder. Gu Lan frowned slightly, but when he saw me watching, he had to pretend he didn’t mind again.

On the way back, he asked irritably as he drove, “Jiejie, when are we hauling in the net? That bro-style green tea is so fucking disgusting!”

When would we haul in the net?

It was still a little early. All I had were videos and chat records of Yao Lan hooking up with my two boyfriends.

I wanted to shove her hard into the mire, never to be reborn again.

Because of her, my grandpa had carried a vile reputation for over a decade. He’d taken me away from our home to drift through life in C City. We hadn’t been back to our hometown in more than ten years!

All of it was thanks to Yao Lan and that father of hers!

Fifteen years ago, Grandpa took eight-year-old me to the town market. We got hungry at noon and found a noodle shop.

Back then, a bowl of shredded-pork noodles was only five yuan. Grandpa ordered two.

But when it was time to pay, the owner insisted on twelve yuan, saying ingredient prices had gone up.

Grandpa pointed out that the price on the menu hadn’t changed and complained a couple of times. “It’s not very decent of you to just raise the price like that, is it?”

“At least change the price on the menu on the wall first.”

Boss Yao was aggressive. “This is my shop. I say the price goes up, it goes up. Who needs your yapping? Fuck, if you can’t afford it, don’t eat. If you’re poor, get out and drink the northwest wind!”

“How can you talk to people like that?” Grandpa had been honest and simple his whole life. His face flushed red at that abuse.

While they were still arguing, a little girl around my age, who’d been sitting silently in the corner, came over.

She wore a dress and looked wronged. “Daddy, just now he… squatted down to peek up my skirt, and even touched…”

As she spoke, she pointed at Grandpa.

I’d seen it clearly. When Grandpa took out his money, a coin fell on the floor. He walked over beside the girl and bent down to pick it up. When he stood, he hadn’t touched her at all!

5

Grandpa couldn’t defend himself even with a hundred mouths. Beside him, I shouted, “No! Grandpa never touched her!”

But Boss Yao seemed to have gone mad. One punch knocked Grandpa to the ground.

Screaming and crying, I tried to pull him away. He flung me aside hard, and my head hit the corner of a stool. The world spun.

Only when the other diners came to break up the fight did they pull him away.

Grandpa and I returned to the village battered and bruised. But rumors traveled so fast that they followed us back!

“That old man from the Fu family is a dirty old thing. Peeking up a little girl’s skirt!”

“I heard he even put his hands on her!”

“Ptui, disgusting. How can he be so shameless? Been alone too long and gone crazy wanting a woman?”

“Those of you with daughters, watch out! That old pervert, what filthy thing wouldn’t he do?”

…

Nobody would sell Grandpa seeds or fertilizer. Nobody would hire him for odd jobs. Wherever he went, there was spit flying and fingers pointing…

That late autumn, my elderly grandpa crouched in front of the stove and sobbed, his shoulders hunched, trying desperately to suppress the sound.

The firelight flickered in the stove, illuminating his thin, stooped figure. Waves of heat rolled out, but they couldn’t warm a heart that had gone cold.

“Grandpa.” I stood beside him and cried too.

“Weiwei, let’s go somewhere else…” he said through tears. “When we miss your grandma, we’ll come back to see her.”

6

We kowtowed three times in front of Grandma’s grave, then left our hometown.

Grandpa and I came to C City. To send me to school, he carried bricks, hauled sandbags, and scavenged trash. If it could earn money, he would do it.

As for me, memorizing schoolwork while doing handicraft piecework was an everyday thing.

Yao Lan transferred to our school in our final year of high school.

She stood at the front of the classroom and introduced herself with a giggle. “Hey, everyone. I’m used to being pretty laid-back, just like a boy. You can call me Yao-ge from now on.”

I sat at my desk with my fists clenched, unaware of my nails digging into my palms.

Even though ten years had passed, I recognized her at a glance!

That strange dark-blue birthmark at the end of her eyebrow, shaped like a scorpion, was exactly like the person she was—a poisonous scorpion.

Because of her, Grandpa had spent all these years oppressed and miserable, rarely happy.

Whenever the moon was full, he would gaze at it wistfully.

I understood him. When people grow old, they always want the fallen leaves to return to their roots. However good the world outside was, it could never be as good as home.

I’d planned to wait until I was in college and could support myself, then return to the town to find her. Who knew Heaven would open its eyes!

To get close to her, I worked three jobs every day after the college entrance exam. I earned my college tuition and enough for a secondhand phone that cost 350 yuan.

Before starting college, I began dating her good bro—my first boyfriend.

To fit in with them, I studied hard and diligently worked part-time. All my remaining time went into studying Honor of Kings.

To save time, before practicing a hero, I always carefully watched videos and read guides, doing my homework before getting hands-on.

I was single-minded about making money and didn’t want to waste my gaming material, so I uploaded videos to the major platforms.

Over a few years, I actually accumulated quite a few fans. I earned my own living expenses and met Gu Lan through the game.

7

To haul in the net sooner, I broke up with Zhu Yue.

Zhu Yue tried to make me stay, but one sentence enraged him: “Me or your female bro. Pick one.”

He said, “Fu Wei, Yao Lan was right! You really are petty! Bros are like hands and feet; women are like clothes. Making me cut off my bros is absolutely impossible!”

I sneered. “What bros? You two do things boyfriends and girlfriends do under the banner of being bros. Don’t you find that disgusting?”

“Was she really drunk that day? Zhu Yue, you know perfectly well. She just made ‘Harder Than Mounting Blue Heavens’ a reality.”

“Hehe, Blue Heavens? You can keep that green-grasslands hat you gave me. This jie isn’t wearing it!”

Zhu Yue stammered, “How did you know?”

By quietly observing them, of course.

“Doing all those clingy things in front of a bro’s girlfriend… Hehe, Zhu Yue, last time at the esports hotel, I saw her grab somewhere she shouldn’t.”

“Zhu Yue, I wish you two stick together like glue and lacquer, forever and ever.”

A scumbag and a whore, stuck like glue forevermore; a cheap woman and a dog, together for ages long!

8

Gu Lan couldn’t stand Yao Lan’s bro-style green-tea talk anymore. He gave me his own account, along with another WeChat account.

Yao Lan thought I was Gu Lan and frequently poured out her tea-flavored lines. “My good son, you’re really not bad! We both have a lan in our names, one mountain and one water. Mountains and waters really do meet!”

“Bro, how about we form a CP? I’ve already thought of a name. How about Lan-Lan?”

“What’s up? Quitting already? Your jiejie won’t let you play, huh? Girls are such a pain!”

Form a CP? With Gu Lan? Don’t stain the poor guy.

She really disgusted me enough to bring up last night’s dinner.

Who could have imagined the change would come so quickly!

So quickly that I wanted to slap myself to death. Why, why had I dragged the battle out so long?

If I didn’t have money to hire someone, I should’ve borrowed it! Borrowed money to hire someone to deal with Yao Lan.

How could I have imagined Grandpa would suddenly suffer a cerebral hemorrhage!

How could I have foreseen everything happening so abruptly?

I felt as if the sky were collapsing. Gu Lan stayed with me and helped me arrange Grandpa’s funeral.

We had no relatives or friends in C City. Apart from a few coworkers Grandpa had grown close to over the years, nobody else came.

I was so useless. In the end, I hadn’t managed to let Grandpa return to his hometown…

The funeral was cold and desolate. I knelt on a prayer cushion and silently wept.

But the phone in my pocket kept vibrating.

I took it out. The messages were from Yao Lan:

“Son, come carry bottled water for Daddy.”

“What’s going on? Why haven’t you replied after so long?”

“Seriously? Did your neighbor jiejie confiscate your phone again? She sure moves seamlessly from one guy to the next! Is she treating you as her backup?”

“Isn’t she sticking her nose in way too much? She’s not even your girlfriend!”

“Gu Lan, women like that are very calculating. You look so innocent. Be careful!”

Soon, my own phone received a friend request.

I’d barely accepted before Yao Lan’s abuse came pouring in:

“Fu Wei, can you have a little shame?”

“Who are you to him? Why are you meddling so much? Gu Lan is my CP! Do you know what CP means? Boyfriend and girlfriend!”

“You homewrecking third party! I’ll let everyone see your true face!”

“You’ve had two boyfriends already. You’ve been played with until you’re worn out, haven’t you? And you’re still fucking pretending to be innocent, pretending to be a little white flower in front of Gu Lan?!”

…

My hand clenched around the phone, my knuckles turning bluish-white.

Yao Lan, you really were vicious. More vicious than a poisonous scorpion!

You wouldn’t even spare my grandpa’s funeral!

9

Gu Lan came over. Seeing my expression, he tried to take his phone from my hand. “Jiejie, what’s wrong?”

He tugged a couple of times before I realized and loosened my grip.

One look at the chat history, and his expression darkened. “That piece of shit!”

I handed him my own phone too.

After reading it, he turned and headed for the door.

I hurriedly grabbed his pant leg. “Gu Lan, where are you going?!”

“To find someone!”

He lowered his head and glanced at me. “I’ll get someone to spread the news that we’re engaged…”

I froze. “That… would cost extra, right?”

Yes. Gu Lan was an “actor” I’d hired, using every bit of the savings I’d earned working my way through college.

All to lure Yao Lan into the trap.

“Free! Free! Jiejie, right now I just want to hammer her into the ground. I’m so pissed off! It’s not like she doesn’t know your grandpa passed away. Yet she sends this disgusting, provocative garbage at a time like this!”

I kowtowed to Grandpa three times, then got up from the prayer cushion.

Grandpa’s memorial portrait was right in front of me. Even the black-and-white tones couldn’t hide the exhaustion and sorrow in his eyes.

The latter half of his life had been so hard, enduring humiliation and carrying a heavy burden.

I clenched my fists, nails digging into my palms. One day, I would make them pay!

In the end, I still didn’t agree to Gu Lan’s proposal.

Because bringing down Yao Lan didn’t require a fake engagement.

10

Gu Lan accompanied me as I took Grandpa’s ashes back to our hometown.

Fifteen years had passed. The village had changed beyond recognition. They didn’t recognize me either. Walking along the road, people actually smiled at me from time to time.

Those smiles looked simple and harmless, just like Grandpa’s honest smile back then.

But it was their rumors that had driven Grandpa out of this little mountain village!

After returning, I spent two full months preparing entries for the Meng Ya skin design competition.

The day the designs were finalized, Gu Lan invited everyone out to dinner. He said I’d designed several versions and wanted everyone’s opinion on which one would be best to submit.

Naturally, Yao Lan was included.

Zhu Yue came too. He and Yao Lan were even clingier than before. Several times, I saw him try to put a hand around her waist, but Yao Lan laughed and slapped it away. “What are you doing? We’re all bros. Don’t act like your Yao-ge is a woman.”

Still pandering to men and putting women down with every word.

I sneered. “Yao Lan, your dad must’ve been in a lot of pain giving birth to you, huh?”

She froze.

“Anyone who didn’t know would think you had no mom, the way you look down on women.” I kept stabbing.

“When did I look down on women?” Her face went cold.

No point arguing with an idiot. I raised my brows and headed for the restroom.

I knew she’d follow.

I set a stack of design drawings on the sink counter and touched up my makeup in the mirror. She sneered. “Fu Wei, you’re still clinging to Gu Lan?”

My treating her like air only enraged her more. She grabbed my collar and twisted it. “I’m warning you, stay away from him! He’s my CP!”

I capped my lipstick and smiled disdainfully. “Is that so?”

As I spoke, I pried her hand away and stuffed the lipstick into it. “Here, it’s yours. You don’t mind secondhand stuff I’ve used, right? After all, isn’t picking up my used trash your favorite thing?”

“But I can’t give you Gu Lan. He isn’t mine.”

I walked out gracefully in my high heels, my little skirt ending just above the knees swaying as I moved.

Normally, she’d have charged after me and grabbed me. But today, there was no movement behind me for a long while…

Ah, was she really this easy to bait?

11

Back at the table, when Gu Lan suggested everyone help decide which design was better, I acted as if I’d only just remembered. “Sorry, I left the drawings on the sink counter. I’ll go get them.”

When I returned to the restroom, Yao Lan was just coming out, looking a little flustered.

I glanced at the drawings on the counter and calmly stacked them neatly.

In the end, everyone thought the design incorporating a Dunhuang painting style looked best. Gu Lan picked it up and smiled at me. “My jiejie really is amazing. The design suits Meng Ya’s personality perfectly. This really is a skin that fulfills the three-part design concept of ‘aesthetics, narrative, and gameplay.’”

Gu Lan looked very good when he smiled. He always made me think of a pine forest clearing after snow, flakes of accumulated snow softly falling from the branches.

Yao Lan stared at him so blatantly that even Zhu Yue couldn’t help frowning.

After we got back, I used Gu Lan’s WeChat to message Zhu Yue, telling him to keep his “female bro” under control and stop her harassing other people.

While I was at it, I sent him the disgusting things Yao Lan had said to Gu Lan’s account in the game.

“Aaaaah, bro, nice job blocking that ult for me! Love you to death!”

“Thanks for the blue buff, Lan-gege. Mwah, mwah!”

“I really want to see you right now, baby! Hurry over and let your Yao-ge bestow some proper favor on you, hahahahaha!”

…

Back when I was gaming with her, seeing those cheap lines delivered under the pretense of being bros had already made me seriously uncomfortable once.

Now, looking at the screenshots, I felt nauseated enough to throw up all over again.

The other side kept showing “typing,” but even after a long wait, no reply came from Zhu Yue.

12

The next evening, one of Zhu Yue’s bros called to say Yao Lan was in the hospital.

It turned out Zhu Yue had gone to see her the night before. They argued on the stairs, and in the shoving, Yao Lan fell down and broke a leg.

Zhu Yue’s family paid Yao Lan’s father a hundred thousand yuan to settle it privately.

I’d barely hung up when Zhu Yue called. “Weiwei, I’m sorry. I was wrong. I was blind. I didn’t know Yao Lan was so disgusting, wearing a man’s skin and hooking up with men everywhere.”

I sneered inside. He didn’t know? He knew perfectly well. He’d simply enjoyed the feeling of having that bro-style green tea pour her tea-flavored lines all over him.

“I’m downstairs waiting for you, asking for your forgiveness,” he said.

I hung up, lifted one corner of the curtain, and saw a spark glowing and fading in the darkness below. I sent him a WeChat message: “Zhu Yue, sorry. Our fate together ends here. Do you know why none of your relationships with your last few girlfriends lasted?”

I sent him another video. It showed Yao Lan at the class reunion three years earlier, telling my first boyfriend she liked him, then deliberately falling into his arms and sitting on his lap.

Among Yao Lan’s college bros, I’d carefully selected Zhu Yue precisely because he was hot-tempered, easily enraged, and impulsive.

This video would give him plenty to savor.

A few days later, I heard Zhu Yue had gone to the hospital and slapped Yao Lan several times as she lay in bed, even knocking out a tooth.

What kind of person was Yao Lan’s father? A thug who’d nearly beaten my grandpa to death over one sentence from Yao Lan, without bothering to ask right from wrong. Could he stand Zhu Yue hitting his daughter right in front of him?

The two immediately grappled and fought in the hospital room.

But he was old and weak now, long past the “valor” of those days. Soon, Zhu Yue had beaten his face black and blue.

Only when the police came and pulled Zhu Yue away did he escape that disaster.

Yao Lan’s father came out of it injured, beaten until he felt nauseated and wanted to vomit. A scan at the hospital afterward revealed a concussion.

13

A month later, the Meng Ya skin design competition entered its final stage. The organizers invited several highly respected big names to present awards.

One of them was my college professor from the game design program.

Onstage, the host gave an elaborate introduction to the second- and third-prize entries, earning waves of applause.

To draw more players’ attention, the organizers had specially arranged for the first-prize winners to compete for a grand prize, with the highest live vote count determining the winner.

To create an inspiring competitive segment and promote positive energy for the game, the organizers had also interviewed the three first-prize winners in advance.

Now the three of us stood together onstage, waiting for the online voting results to be announced.

Yao Lan was in a wheelchair. The organizers gave her more camera time, accompanied by a false script: “Yao Lan, a veteran player of five years and an Honor of Kings streamer. So absorbed in game character design that she accidentally missed a step on the stairs and was injured, she continued creating throughout her recovery…”

The way she looked now really was the standard template for a tearjerking inspirational story.

If Zhu Yue’s parents hadn’t also come, the audience probably would’ve believed it, right?

Before the host even finished reading, a middle-aged man shot onto the stage and punched Yao Lan!

“Nothing but lies! Yao Lan, do you dare tell the truth about how your leg was broken?!”

The punch rocked Yao Lan backward. She nearly toppled over.

Security hurried over to pull Zhu Yue’s father away.

For a while, the scene was chaos. Standing onstage, I watched the audience begin to stir as dozens of young people handed out booklets.

“Someone with morals like that doesn’t deserve first place!” someone shouted.

The host watched in surprise as audience members stood, one after another, filled with righteous indignation. Some even threw the booklets onto the stage.

In the crowd, Gu Lan waved his phone at me. I knew all of this was already connected to his livestreaming platform.

As a professional competitive player, he was extremely popular, with over ten million fans.

Yao Lan, you were about to go viral.

Security was just about to drag Zhu Yue’s father off when the host stopped them. “Wait. Our contestant can’t have her name smeared without explanation. Please produce your evidence.”

“You want evidence?” Zhu Yue’s father angrily held the hundred-thousand-yuan receipt in front of the camera. “Here’s your evidence! This woman, under the banner of being bros, broke up four of my son’s relationships!”

“My son thought what he had with her was true love, so he broke up with Fu Wei.” As he spoke, he pointed at me. “He got together with her, only for her to turn around and set her sights on a new target! Look!”

“My son argued with her. She struck first, fell down the stairs herself, and then made my son pay a hundred thousand! He couldn’t swallow his anger and hit her. She reported him, and now he might get two years!”

Then he held Zhu Yue’s phone photo album up to the camera too.

This was the third time I’d seen those obscene, nauseating messages Yao Lan had sent to Gu Lan’s alt, along with the argument between Zhu Yue and Yao Lan.

“No way! She actually tried to defile our gege!” A fan in the audience recognized Gu Lan’s alt.

“That’s the alt gege revealed a couple of days ago!”

One stone stirred a thousand waves. At this very moment, the internet must have been arguing itself upside down.

“Ptui! Hooking up under the banner of being bros. Shameless bro-style green tea!” Someone cursed on the spot.

Booklets were thrown onto the stage one after another. Yao Lan couldn’t dodge in time, and a sharp sheet of paper cut her face.

Blood seeped out.

Her face went pale.

Hehe, this was only the first layer. Just wait, Yao Lan. There was more good theater to come.

14

As the scene grew more chaotic, our professor stepped onto the stage and took the microphone. “Everyone, please quiet down. I have a question about this competition entry.”

“Yao Lan, when did you finish this design?” The white-haired old professor was usually very kind to us, but at this moment, his gaze on her was sharp.

All his life, he’d cherished and treasured talent. He also hated plagiarism more than anything.

Yao Lan showed not a trace of guilt. “A month and a half ago.”

Hehe. She’d calculated the timing quite precisely, moving the date half a month earlier than when she’d actually seen the drawings.

“Really? I saw this design half a year ago.” As he spoke, the professor opened his email, pulled up the drawing, and turned it toward the camera. “A student of mine sent this to me one week after receiving notice of the Meng Ya skin competition.”

The words in the email were perfectly clear: “Professor, do you think I can submit this design to the competition? Do you have any suggestions for improving it? Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to read my email. Thank you for your hard work.”

It was signed—Fu Wei.

During those two months of burying myself in work after Grandpa’s death, I really had designed several Meng Ya skins. But I hadn’t shown everyone the one I was proudest of.

The one Yao Lan plagiarized happened to be my earliest design, which I’d also poured a lot of effort into at the time.

I knew that with Yao Lan’s level of shamelessness, she wouldn’t admit plagiarism in front of the media.

Sure enough, she said, “Oh? Sorry, I remembered wrong. I’ve designed quite a few things lately and got them mixed up. I finished this one half a year ago. I even showed it to Fu Wei back then.”

Look at that. What a pro at the thief crying “Catch the thief!”

If Gu Lan and I hadn’t set this trap ourselves, she might really have turned around and bitten us.

Fortunately, Zhu Yue’s other two bros had also been invited.

“Everyone knows whose design it is.” I waved toward them. “Yao Lan, shall we ask them to come up and say a few words?”

Death at her doorstep, and still stubborn!

Gu Lan got a microphone from somewhere and handed it to them.

“We saw this design a month ago too. Gu Lan invited us to dinner. He said Fu Wei had designed several versions and didn’t know which one to submit, so he asked for our opinions,” one bro said honestly.

They’d seen what had happened to Zhu Yue. This woman wasn’t merely tea. She was vicious!

So now, they no longer cared about their old friendship.

With witnesses and physical evidence both present, Yao Lan finally couldn’t keep making excuses.

“Yao Lan, plagiarizing my work is illegal,” I said. “If the amount of unlawful income is substantial, you can go to prison.”

Someone shouted, “Plagiarizing dog! Get the hell out!”

“You dare enter a competition with stolen work? How can your skin be so thick? How can you have that much nerve?!”

Booklets flew toward Yao Lan like snowflakes. The other contestant and I hurriedly moved aside.

Stuck in her wheelchair, Yao Lan couldn’t move easily and was stunned by the barrage.

Blood ran from her nose, and several cuts marked her face. She looked as wretched as could be.

15

Because of the commotion, my popularity surged, and my design took first place.

After presenting my award, the organizers released my interview video. In it, I talked about the more than ten years Grandpa and I had spent away from our hometown.

We’d depended on each other and worked hard to live.

Studying while working part-time really was bitter. But with Grandpa beside me, there had been sweetness mixed into those bitter days.

Many netizens were moved and left comments—

[Now I’ve seen what inspirational really means! Hugs, Fu Wei. Keep going. You can have something better.]

[Grandpa’s gone. Fu Wei is all alone. She’s so pitiful…]

[A girl this resilient deserves first place!]

…

Of course, there were doubters too—

[Isn’t Fu Wei’s story just another publicity stunt by the organizers?]

After my high-school and college classmates came forward one after another to back me up, netizens immediately united in fiercely cursing Yao Lan.

Even Zhu Yue’s father spoke out. “Fu Wei is a good girl. Unfortunately, our Zhu Yue isn’t worthy of her!”

I didn’t report the plagiarism to the police. After all, Yao Lan hadn’t ultimately used my work to make a profit. Or rather, she hadn’t succeeded in profiting from it.

Even if I reported her, she probably wouldn’t get so much as three years.

What I wanted wasn’t for her to spend two years in prison and come out as if nothing had happened.

This was only the beginning. What I wanted was for her name to be ruined, for her to rot in the mud forever.

While the incident was still hot, I released the video of Yao Lan deliberately ramming her 32As into my first boyfriend’s face, and posted all those tea-flavored lines she’d sent Zhu Yue.

Thanks to Zhu Yue’s dad for his support. He was the one who supplied their chat records.

I also posted records of her harassing Gu Lan in the game and on WeChat…

Finally, I wrote a little essay several thousand characters long.

Starting with those two bowls of noodles fifteen years ago…

All the way through to my design being plagiarized.

I didn’t name the girl in the essay, but I directly described the dark-blue scorpion-shaped birthmark at the outer corner of her eye.

Netizens who’d followed the whole affair immediately identified the dark-blue scorpion in the comments.

A huge uproar swept the internet. Netizens were even angrier than the previous two times—

[Some rotten seeds really are rotten from childhood to adulthood!]

[Poor Grandpa. In the end, he didn’t even get to go back and look at his hometown once.]

[So young and already so vicious. One sentence drove a grandfather and granddaughter away from home for fifteen years! I can’t stand it! Yao Lan, why doesn’t she just die?!]

[Serial homewrecker, thief! Shit! Filthy lowlife dog! Anyone who knows how to curse, hurry up and be my mouthpiece. I’m so fucking angry my hands are shaking. I can’t even type!]

…

16

The next day, I got a call from Yao Lan. She screamed into the phone, “Fu Wei, how can you be so vicious? Are you trying to drive me to death?! Aaaaah—help!”

I didn’t know exactly what was happening to her.

But what I wanted to tell her was—was I the vicious one? Compared with her, what did the little bit I’d done even amount to?

She deserved all of this.

Later, I asked her two bros and learned that the school had expelled her for plagiarizing someone else’s work, messy relations with men, and repeatedly failing exams.

Someone who disliked her smeared red paint outside the place she rented. Someone followed her in the middle of the night. Others threw rotten vegetable leaves at her whenever they saw her.

More terrifying still, one evening she and her father came home after dark and felt they’d stepped on something. Only when they turned on the light did they discover the floor was densely covered in live scorpions!

Yao Lan was like a rat crossing the street, fair game for everyone to strike.

Later, on a pitch-black night, Gu Lan and I ran into her while walking down the street.

She’d already gone mad.

Her hair was tangled, her clothes barely covered her body, and she was bruised all over.

She stared blankly ahead. “I won’t dare again. Never again… I won’t pretend to be a man. Won’t pretend to be a man.”

A group of young thugs walked past her. The one in front spat out his toothpick. “Oh? Isn’t this the bro-style green tea who likes stealing other people’s men? Come on, Yao-ge. Us geges are men too…”

They grabbed Yao Lan’s arms and dragged her toward a quiet, dark spot.

Gu Lan and I silently watched it all. The thug rolled his eyes at me. “Get lost! Keep staring and you want a beating?”

I tugged Gu Lan’s sleeve and turned away.

Gu Lan turned his hand and gripped mine tightly.

I struggled a little but couldn’t pull free.

“Can I apply to stand up for you for free?” he asked. “The lifelong kind.”

This…

I was about to answer when a Maserati slowly pulled up beside us. A middle-aged man in a suit and polished shoes got out. “Young Master, the master asks when exactly you’ll be bringing Miss Fu home.”

Surprised, I looked at Gu Lan. He glared at the middle-aged man, then looked guiltily at me and smiled awkwardly. “I was afraid you’d hire someone else, so I didn’t dare tell you.”

17

Yao Lan and her father returned to their hometown, unaware that accounts of what she’d done had already been printed as big-character posters and pasted on every public noticeboard in town.

Just like fifteen years ago, people pointed and whispered about them. Some even spat into their noodle shop, cursed, and threw rotten eggs.

Business hadn’t been good to begin with. Within a few days, the noodle shop closed for good.

Because Yao Lan kept running around in her madness, her father sent her to a psychiatric hospital.

Two years later, Zhu Yue was released from prison. I heard he was searching everywhere for Yao Lan.

Later, his bro told me he’d found her. He’d even put considerable effort into learning caregiving. Finally, as he’d wished, he got a job as a janitor on the support staff of the psychiatric hospital where Yao Lan was staying…

What would happen between them next, there was no knowing.

Another year passed. At my wedding banquet with Gu Lan, the person smiling most happily was my white-haired old professor from the game design program.

“Finally lured you into the family…” He lifted the glass I’d offered him. “Took all these years to make you my granddaughter-in-law. That boy Gu Lan is no good!”

“Grandpa, you can’t say a man’s no good!” Gu Lan hurriedly protested.

“Good lad, so you are capable? Then prove it properly. Next spring, Grandpa wants to hold a great-grandchild!” Grandpa laughed loudly.

The tips of Gu Lan’s ears reddened. He glanced at me, actually looking a little innocent.

“Weiwei, if he bullies you in the future, tell Grandpa. Grandpa will deal with him for you!”

I nodded. In that moment, my grandpa and his grandpa seemed to overlap for an instant.

I seemed to see a scene from many years ago, Grandpa telling me, “Weiwei, if anyone bullies you, tell Grandpa…”

“Mm!” I nodded hard. “Thank you, Grandpa…”

When I raised my head, I seemed to see Grandpa standing by the door, smiling faintly at me before turning away, completely at ease…