Fang Yu wasn't always online when Fang Dongqiang was there. Fang Yu would browse websites and listen to music by herself. Gradually, Fang Yu started chatting with "Thor" more often.

Their conversations were always like this, neither too casual nor too casual, yet there was a strange tacit understanding between them.

But she knew in her heart that what she longed for most was for that familiar profile picture to light up. Whenever Fang Dongqiang's message popped up, she would reply to his message first.

When Fang Huahua wasn't working, she would wait for Fang Yu to get off work in the evening so she could come to her mother's shop to find her.

"Huahua, how's work lately?"

"At first, I thought it was okay, it was quite novel. But now I do the same work every day, serving dishes, washing dishes, and greeting customers, and it feels a bit... boring. Sometimes I have to put up with unreasonable customers."

Fang Yu nodded. "It's inevitable, we're the same. It's common for kids to bump and bruise themselves. If you encounter a difficult parent, explaining won't help. That's just how work is; it can't always be smooth sailing. But I often go online, and I find it quite relaxing. How about I take you there?"

"Well, let's just do it like this for now. If others can do it, so can I. If I don't do this, I'll just go to the factory. I can't do anything else. Where were you referring to earlier?"

"Internet cafe!" Fang Yu's eyes lit up.

"Play computer games? No way, I don't know how." Fang Huahua waved her hand.

"It's simple, someone inside will teach you," Fang Yu advised.

"Okay, I'll go take a look."

Fang Yu took Fang Huahua to her usual internet cafe, where they sat side by side.

Fang Yu skillfully turned on two computers, had the network administrator register an account for Fang Huahua, and even added herself as a friend. "Look, now we can chat on it. This 'Fish Baby' is me. You should also choose a nice username."

"What should I name myself? Flower Baby?" Fang Huahua said, laughing at herself. "Why did my dad give me such a corny name?"

"Hmm—" Fang Yu was thinking for Hua Hua, "How about calling her Hua'er? The sun shines brightly, and the flower smiles at me."

"Okay, pick anything. My name is always unfashionable no matter what you choose."

Fang Huahua stared at the small penguin icon on the screen, moving it clumsily.

After finally opening the chat window, I wanted to type "hello," but my fingers searched the keyboard for ages before finally typing it out letter by letter.

By the time she sent it, Fang Yu had already exchanged several messages with her.

Fang Huahua wasn't playing well, and besides Fang Yu, there was no one else on her friend list.

"Fang Yu, we can chat face-to-face, why do we have to spend money to find the pinyin on this screen? It's pointless, I don't want to play anymore."

Fang Huahua turned off her computer, then, feeling utterly bored, moved behind Fang Yu and stared at her screen.

"Who are you talking to?" she asked curiously, pointing to the chat box popping up on the screen. "Who are these people? Dongqiang studies this, you must be talking to him."

On the screen, Thor was sending a grinning emoji. Fang Yu subconsciously wanted to minimize the window, but then felt it was a bit deliberate.

Feeling uncomfortable being watched so closely while chatting, she turned her head away and said, "It's an online friend, I don't know who it is."

"I wonder who's still chatting with him?"

"Hmm." Fang Yu nodded, but felt increasingly uneasy. Seeing that Fang Huahua was still staring at the screen, she simply turned it off as well. "If you're not going to play, then I won't either. Let's go for a walk."

"Fine, I don't want to stay here either, it smells like smoke."

They stepped out of the internet cafe, enjoying the fresh breeze outside. The air inside was indeed uncomfortable, but Fang Yu and Fang Dongqiang no longer wrote letters, so the only way to chat with him was at the internet cafe. Besides, there were indeed many fun things to do online.

"Fang Yu, how are things between you and Dong Qiang now?"

"Nothing much, just a casual chat between ordinary friends."

“You’ve all been ordinary for so many years.”

Fang Yu pursed her lips. "We haven't seen him since he came back for summer vacation."

Fang Huahua linked arms with Fang Yu and asked, "Is there any possibility between you two?"

Fang Yu turned her face to the side. If Fang Dongqiang really had feelings for her, he had visited his aunt's place during the summer vacation. Why wouldn't he have looked for her? Or was it really because he was still in school and hadn't yet developed romantic feelings? "I don't know, probably not!" Fang Yu herself felt a little uncomfortable saying this.

This semester, a fellow villager who is a junior in college, on a whim, created a public chat room for students from their county studying at universities in the provincial capital.

This was a novelty at the time, because before that, people could only communicate by writing letters or occasionally by phone, which was very inconvenient.

The group admin had been calling for participants for half a month and finally gathered more than a dozen people, deciding to organize their first offline gathering on the weekend. He specifically messaged Fang Dongqiang privately.

"Dongqiang, you're a computer science student, you absolutely have to come! There are so many junior students here, and even students from other majors, who are completely lost when their computers malfunction. Your presence will be a great help to everyone, and it'll be good for mutual support in the future."

Fang Dongqiang looked at the screen, hesitated for a moment. He didn't really like crowds, but the group admin was right. They were all from the same hometown, so he should help them out if he could. He replied, "Okay, I'll go."

On Saturday, Fang Dongqiang arrived at the park entrance ten minutes early. He stood under a sycamore tree, watching his fellow villagers arrive one after another, most of whom were unfamiliar faces.

A girl wearing a khaki trench coat and ankle boots walked over; she was the same girl who had taken the same bus with her father on the first day of school.

Fang Dongqiang wasn't sure if she saw him that day, so he didn't greet her.

A few acquaintances were chatting with each other, and some boys took the initiative to strike up conversations with a few pretty girls.

Soon, the group admin clapped his hands to signal everyone to be quiet. "Alright, everyone's here! Let's start by introducing ourselves. Which school we're from, what our major is, so we can help each other out if anyone has any academic problems in the future."

"When you get back, everyone should change their usernames in the chat room to 'school major + name,' so it will be easier to find each other later," someone suggested.

"Yes, we changed them all after we got back."

During the self-introduction, Fang Dongqiang learned that the girl's name was He Xiaolei and that she was studying law at another university.

After the hometown reunion, everyone met in person, and the chat room became even more lively than before.

In the second half of the year, internet cafes gradually increased in the county town. Sometime later, even street thugs started squeezing in with crumpled change.

Some people don't know much about computers, but they know how to double-click oIcq with the little penguin icon. They can register random usernames like "Handsome Guy" or " Casanova" and then chat with girls.

Fang Yu would still go to the internet cafe often to play games, and return home before her mother closed the door.

As soon as she left, a group of thugs with dyed yellow hair gathered around the computer she had used. The leader, a blond-haired guy, said, "Let's see if we can find that girl's account."

A thin boy sat down and restarted the computer. "It's recorded! The last login account is here!" In the drop-down menu of the login box, a string of numbers lay quietly—it was Fang Yu's account.

"Hurry up and search!" the blond-haired boy urged, leaning closer. The skinny boy clicked on "Search Users" and entered the string of numbers.

A few seconds later, the search results popped up: "Wow, they're pretty good at naming things, Baby Fish."

The blond-haired guy chuckled and tapped the screen. "Add her! Just say you're looking for someone from your hometown, let's see if this brat will even respond."

A boy who was surfing the internet at an internet cafe suddenly stood up, ran out of the cafe, and looked at the intersection. "Fish Baby!" he shouted.

Fang Yu had already reached the intersection when she suddenly stopped, completely stunned.

That's her online name, why would someone call it out in real life?

She slowly turned around and saw a boy who looked to be in his early twenties and was rather tall running towards her. He had the trendy choppy haircut of the time, short black hair with a natural fluffy texture, and wispy strands hanging down in front of his forehead.

He has thick, dark, sword-like eyebrows, long, narrow phoenix eyes, a high, straight nose with narrow nostrils, and naturally upturned corners of his mouth, making him look like he's smiling.

"Who?" Fang Yu clenched her fists and asked warily.

“I am Thor,” the man gasped.