Dreadful Radio Game

“What? Can’t eat? Tsk! Why bother with that! We can enjoy the food while he can feel relieved and leave. That’s all he wants.”

The fat guy went on eating without troubling about it at all.

Su Bai shook his head. He still couldn’t eat it. He was not being sentimental or old-fashioned, but it was not a story world with extremely cruel environment; since it was the real world, he would rather not force himself unless it was really necessary.

“Hey, you…” The fat laughed. “Never mind. I’ll have it all without sharing.”

The fat guy was eating and drinking gluttonously. Su Bai even suspected if the fat guy made that up just to stop him from eating anything. But on second thought, the fat guy shouldn’t be so miserly.

Just then, the fat guy took out a piece of spell paper, soaked it in a glass of water without burning it, and then handed it over to Su Bai.

“Come on, wipe your eyes with it.”

Su Bai took over the spell paper and wiped his eyes gently. He felt some moisture in his eyes, then he was a little surprised to find something.

An old man in chef uniform was walking among the customers with smile. But Su Bai was pretty sure that this old man wasn’t here until he wiped his eyes with that spell paper.

The old man walked to Su Bai’s table.

The fat guy dropped his chopsticks, raised his drink to the old man and said softly:

“Usually, only dying people can have their last special meal; now with you, it has totally turned the other way. Well, fine. We’re enjoying the food here, and you can feel relieved to leave. Anyway, we’re sort of destined to meet each other. You’d better leave; don’t worry about whether your son can bring this restaurant into a new prosperity. It’s your son’s fate, not yours. You’ll destroy the fortune of this place if you keep haunting here.”

The old man was quite surprised that the fat guy could see him. Then he put his palms together and bowed devoutly.

Next, the old man walked out, took one last look at the restaurant with deep love and eventually vanished.

The fat guy felt his stomach. Almost all the rabbit head hotpot had been gulped down his throat; of course he was full. However, he was not very mean after all; he offered Su Bai a small box from his pocket.

“Take it. To your friend. Non-audience can’t take the medicine from the e-shop. This is the pill I made by myself. Nothing special but it can help him recover his energy.”

Su Bai put that box away.

“Thanks.”

“Don’t be so shy. By the way, are you in touch with any other audiences other than me?”

Su Bai thought of Litchi, but he denied. “No.”

“Hey, actually, it is necessary to make more friends. In case we’re brought into the same story world, we can stab each other in the back if we know each other.” The fat guy said in a tone as if he was well experienced.

That reminded Su Bai of Director Zhou and those people who knew each other in reality. He agreed with the fat guy. Actually, that was why Su Bai didn’t try to reach out for other audiences on the internet, even though it would be easy if he had posted something with “hints”. But it wouldn’t be useful; once you got in a story world, you would be making choices according to your own benefits, whether you knew each other or not.

“Alright. I’ve been helping a big fish with something these days. An errand for some quick cash. Now I’m heading back to report to her. Thank you for the meal. We’re definitely destined to meet each other!”

The fat guy stood up and suddenly remembered something.

“By the way, what’s your name? Let’s exchange our cell phone number.”

“So we can stab each other in the back?” Su Bai joked while taking out his cell phone, exchanging contact numbers and friending on WeChat.

The fat guy was named “Zhang Bayi”. An old-fashion name. People of Su Bai’s father’s age were often named “Jianshe”, “Jian’guo”, “Bayi”[1] and so on.

“Su Bai, right? Well… okay… By the way, can you call a cab for me? I’ve got a new cell phone, I don’t want to download that app right now.”

Su Bai nodded. It wasn’t much, just a matter of a little money. Su Bai opened the app and asked:

“Where to?”

“Wuhou District, Millennium A zone.”

Su Bai suddenly paused and then asked with puzzled look, “Come again?”

“Wuhou District, Millennium A zone.” The fat guy repeated.

“I live in the neighborhood. Can I get a lift?” Su Bai asked.

The fat guy put on a look of “I got it” and put his arm around Su Bai’s shoulders.

“Bro, I know what you’re thinking about. Actually, if you’re trying to ride someone’s coattails, I can be your man.”

He even winked at Su Bai.

Su Bai shrugged, “I’m not making it up. I do live in the Wuhou District, Millennium A zone.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll buy it. Let’s go there together. But I won’t guarantee that you will meet that big fish or that nothing will happen to you.”

“Just stay with me until I get something from my house. Then I’ll go back to the sanatorium, and you go to see your big fish.”

Just then, the driver called. Su Bai told him to wait in front of the restaurant door. Soon, they got in the car, the fat guy in the passenger’s seat and Su Bai in the rear.

Su Bai didn’t talk much all the way, but the fat guy talked a lot, mostly about Dreadful Radio Game. He didn’t care about the driver at all. Of course, Su Bai knew that he was sort of kind; after he had learned that Su Bai had just finished his experience tasks, he was just trying to introduce more details about that Dreadful Radio.

For example, normally, the more audiences there were in a story world, the higher death rate it would have.

Su Bai thought of his last story world. There were more than ten people in total, including experiencers and audiences, but in the end, there were only three survivors.

The fat guy also said that, generally, players with completeness less than five were “newbies”, those with completeness between five and twenty were “average audiences”, then if their completeness were above twenty, they would become “senior”. The higher level they got, the lesser people there would be. The “big fish” they were going to meet, according to the fat guy’s speculation, must have been even higher than senior. Indeed, a big fish among Dreadful Radio Game players lived in the southwest.

Of course, this big fish didn’t belong to the common society, but only among the audiences of Dreadful Radio.

Su Bai had asked about the fat guy’s completeness, but he didn’t answer and just said that he was not a newbie. Actually, the fat guy was being cautious. He might look rude and careless, but he was scrupulous.

After they arrived, the driver completed the order while Su Bai and the fat guy got off.

A key card was required to enter the housing area. After the fat guy saw Su Bai take out a key card and get in, he eventually stopped suspecting.

But then, as if he was taking pleasure in Su Bai’s misfortune, the fat guy said, “I don’t know if it’s your good luck or bad luck. It is extremely difficult to ride this one’s coattails, but before that, hem, even though I would really love to ride her coattails, whether she’s a big fish or not, but… well… what can I say, if I’m living so close to her, in the same housing area, I’d be scared! It’s like having a nuclear warhead in the area!”

Su Bai took a deep breath. Suddenly, he didn’t know what he could say about this topic. His parents had bought this house long ago.

“I need to fetch something. Then I’ll just leave.”

“Fine, where do you live?”

“In that villa area.”

The housing area was densely filled with apartment buildings, but there was a block for villas, thus satisfying different kind of people.

The fat guy followed Su Bai. The reason Su Bai took this fat guy with him was that he was not sure if his house was safe; since the fat guy happened to be heading here, it would be safer if he could be around for help, just in case anything happened. It was reality, not a story world; they were not competing against each other.

However, when Su Bai walked to the door, the fat guy stopped there.

Su Bai turned around and looked at the fat guy with surprise.

“What?”

The fat guy swallowed and managed to ask:

“You… really live here?”

“Yeah, why?”

“No way! … What’s the relationship between you and that big fish?” Suddenly, the fat guy frowned and crossed his fingers, “Oh, bro, you got her? Good for you!”

Su Bai frowned. Then something suddenly came into his mind. He immediately walked to his door, took out his key card and swiped it. The door opened, but there was someone standing behind the door…

A woman…

… that Su Bai knew.

Litchi.

Right now, Litchi was wearing a cheongsam, showing her perfect shape with elegance. She was so young, and yet she could make anyone who saw her unable to breath. That was Litchi.

But…

… This was Su Bai’s house.

Su Bai felt as if he was going to laugh and cry at the same time. He pointed to Litchi and asked:

“So that was what you meant when you told me not to go home that night?”

Litchi nodded seriously, and her answer was still simple:

“My place is dirty. I’ll live here for now.”

“…”

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] Jianshe, Jian’guo and Bayi: All traditional names for people born after 1949, when People’s Republic of China was founded. “Jianshe” means “construction”, “Jian’guo” means “the establishment of the country”, and “Bayi” was the date that Chinese Libertion army was founded.