Chapter Fifty-Five [The End]
The hustle and bustle of Paris on New Year's Eve still seems to echo in our ears, but Jinshi has already welcomed the first morning of the new year.
As the plane landed, a sense of familiarity washed over me.
It's been almost a month since I last went back to Jinzhou.
Now, many things are different.
The impenetrable barrier between her and Huo Yuzheng has now dissipated.
The car smoothly drove into the garage of the suburban villa.
After the engine was turned off, the car fell into a brief silence.
Mo Wansheng was about to push open the door and get out of the car when she noticed that Huo Yuzheng beside her hadn't moved.
He still gripped the steering wheel, his knuckles slightly tightened, as if he were considering something.
Mo Wansheng turned to look at him in confusion, "Aren't you getting off the bus?"
He turned his head, looked at her calmly, and slowly said, "I want to be honest with you about something."
Mo Wansheng's heart tightened immediately; his expression was far too serious.
He was so serious that she felt something big was about to happen.
All sorts of melodramatic possibilities flashed through my mind in an instant.
She almost blurted out, "Huo Yuzheng! You wouldn't be cheating on me, would you?"
Huo Yuzheng was clearly taken aback by her comment and paused for a moment.
Immediately, the corners of his tightly pressed lips couldn't help but turn up slightly.
He reached out and gently pinched her cheek, his touch tender.
"What nonsense are you thinking?" he scolded in a low voice, but there was no hint of reproach in his tone.
“It’s not that outrageous. Besides, Mrs. Huo is the best choice for me.”
Mo Wansheng's cheeks flushed slightly, and the inexplicable unease in her heart dissipated considerably.
Her curiosity was piqued. "So tell me, what do you want to confess? Why are you making such a serious face?"
"It feels like you don't even have such a serious expression when you're working normally."
Huo Yuzheng suppressed his smile, his gaze becoming deep and focused.
He unbuckled his seatbelt and turned to face her.
They were very close together in the enclosed space.
"You'll find out when you get home."
His eyes were honest, and carried a sense of determination.
Huo Yuzheng extended his hand to her, palm up.
She looked at his hands, which were suspended in mid-air.
She hesitated for only a moment before gently placing her hand in his palm.
His fingers immediately closed, tightly enveloping her slightly cool hand.
That warm force soothed the anxiety in her heart.
Huo Yuzheng led her up to the second floor of the villa, finally stopping at the door of the room at the very end of the corridor.
Mo Wansheng teased lightly, "What, are you taking me to see your secret stash of gold, or is there some stunning beauty hidden there?"
She shook their clasped hands. "Could it be some kind of secret cabin?"
Huo Yuzheng did not answer directly, but simply squeezed her hand tighter.
Then, he raised his other hand and pressed the fingerprint lock on the door.
A soft "beep" sounded.
The sound of the mechanical lock cylinder sliding open was particularly clear in the quiet corridor.
He gently pushed open the door.
As the crack in the door widened, the scene inside the room gradually came into Mo Wansheng's view.
There was no luxurious decoration as she had imagined, nor any erotic scenes.
This is a fully equipped e-sports room.
The curved screen covering the entire wall emitted a deep blue halo, next to which stood a top-of-the-line gaming PC, its mechanical keyboard backlit like a shimmering river of stars.
All the equipment was arranged meticulously, yet it showed signs of frequent use.
Mo Wansheng looked around, her eyes flashing with amazement, but more so with sudden realization.
"So Mr. Huo was trying to admit that he's a veteran gamer?"
She tilted her head to look at him, a sly smile curving her lips. "This little hobby is perfectly normal."
Then she poked his arm with her finger, "Now I realize that apart from pretending to be bad at games with me, there's nothing else to it. You really were playing dumb to fool me! Pretty good acting, huh?"
Mo Wansheng walked naturally to the gaming chair and plopped down in it.
It even spun around once.
"That's great, I'll come to your room to play games next time."
"No wonder. When we first moved in, we were looking everywhere for the place with the fastest internet speed, and we ended up hiding it in our gaming room."
Mo Wansheng walked naturally to the expensive ergonomic gaming chair and plopped down in it.
She even took the opportunity to spin around comfortably, enjoying the smoothness of the seat.
“That’s great,” she patted the armrest, looked up at him, her eyes sparkling.
"I'll come to your room to play games next time! The equipment here is way better than mine."
She suddenly remembered something and exclaimed, "No wonder! When I first moved in, I wanted to find the fastest internet connection in the villa to set up a gaming room. I tested everywhere, and found that the signal was strongest and most stable around here. So you hid your gaming room here!"
She initially thought it was due to the building structure or the router's location.
I never imagined that this guy optimized the game specifically for his own enjoyment.
Huo Yuzheng walked to her side, rested one hand on the back of the chair, leaned slightly forward, and encircled her in the seat between his breath and her.
"Mrs. Huo, don't worry." His deep voice carried a hint of amusement as he pressed the power button with his other hand.
The computer then lit up with a pale blue light.
Amidst the soft hum of the main unit running, the curved display screen slowly lit up.
Mo Wansheng's gaze casually swept across the screen, but stopped abruptly the moment she saw the wallpaper.
That's not an ordinary game screenshot.
That was an extremely secluded observation deck in Starry Sky, which required completing a series of complex tasks to reach.
In the screenshot, two game characters sit side by side on the edge of a cliff, gazing at a distant nebula.
It's the scene when she and her gaming partner "Blueberry Cake" first discovered this place.
She looked at Huo Yuzheng with disbelief, countless thoughts flashing through her mind.
She believes that this is very likely a screenshot taken while he was playing a game with someone else.
After all, the "blueberry cake" in her memory has always been that cute and adorable girl.
Huo Yuzheng didn't explain, but instead directly opened his game account.
When the ID "Blueberry Cake" appeared clearly on the screen, Mo Wansheng felt her breath catch in her throat.
The gaming partner who had been with her since college, the one who always silently accompanied her through dungeons, never complained when she made mistakes, and accompanied her to see every scenic spot in the game, was actually Huo Yuzheng.
Countless images surged through her mind.
The seamless teamwork during late-night online games, the chats where we shared everyday moments...
Every little detail overlaps with the image of him before my eyes at this moment.
After the initial shock came a sense of grievance and anger at being deceived for so long by the person I trusted most.
Mo Wansheng reached out and punched Huo Yuzheng hard in the chest. "Since you knew, why didn't you tell me?"
Her eyes were slightly red as she stared straight at him.
I want an answer.
Huo Yuzheng groaned as she punched him, but he didn't dodge. Instead, he grabbed her wrist as she was about to bring it down again.
His palms were burning hot as they enveloped her slightly cool skin.
Looking at her shocked and angry expression, a hint of helplessness once again surfaced in his usually calm and composed eyes because of her.
"I didn't mean to hide it from you."
He led her to the comfortable little sofa in the corner of the e-sports room, and pressed her shoulder to make her sit down.
He half-squatted in front of her, looking up at her from an almost upward angle.
Huo Yuzheng took a deep breath. "I just don't know how to tell you."
"You don't know?" Mo Wansheng was almost laughing in exasperation.
“You had plenty of opportunities, Mr. Huo. I remember ‘Blueberry Cake’ insisted on being my ‘emotional strategist,’ didn’t she? Didn’t you already know that back then?”
Why did it take so long?
"Yes, I don't know." Huo Yuzheng raised his head and quietly gazed at Mo Wansheng.
"I have never been in a relationship."
"Before marrying you, I was mostly thinking about how to be a qualified heir. Feelings were never part of my plans, and no one ever taught me how to handle them."
He turned his head slightly, his gaze falling on the cold equipment.
There was a hint of self-deprecation in his voice, “'Blueberry Cake' is a corner where I can occasionally take a break. In the game, I am not Huo Yuzheng, and I don’t need to bear those expectations and responsibilities. I can just be an ordinary person who likes to play games and has pretty good skills.”
He paused for a moment, then said, "I've almost never told anyone about this hobby. In everyone's eyes, the heir to the Huo family should be perfect, and his time should be spent creating value, not indulging in the virtual world."
Therefore, Huo Yuzheng naturally buried it and hid it in this room where no one was allowed to enter.
"In my initial understanding, marrying you was also a task."
He looked at her again, his eyes filled with complex emotions.
“I need a suitable wife, and the Huo family needs a stable marriage. I thought we could be like many business marriages, respecting each other and living peacefully. But I never expected it to be you.”
"The old man insisted that I meet you."
Huo Yuzheng continued, "I don't really understand why, out of all the choices that are suitable for marriage, he chose you, a Mo family that seems to have no direct benefit to the Huo family's business empire."
"Later, after I saw your photo, I saw the Phantom Thieves poster behind you, and I guessed that you also liked playing games, and even the games you played overlapped with mine. At that time, I vaguely guessed that the old man probably wanted to find me a partner who could at least share some common ground and hobbies. He hoped that my life would not be completely filled with responsibilities, but could have some color of my own, something less boring."
This realization was a subtle shock to him at the time.
He always thought that his grandfather, as the pioneer of the family, only cared about the family's interests and whether the successor was qualified.
Unexpectedly, when choosing a life partner for him, the stern old man would also consider his private hobbies, which were not allowed to be spoken of, as an important factor.
"Later, I gradually discovered that you were also very different from what I had imagined."
“I started to get confused. I didn’t know how I really felt about you. You asked me bluntly, ‘Do I like you?’ But I thought, we had only known each other for less than three months at that time. How could I judge and quantify what I liked?”
Huo Yuzheng is used to being in control of everything, and to breaking things down, analyzing, and quantifying them.
In matters of the heart, however, he is a rookie suddenly thrown into an unfamiliar battlefield, wielding the wrong weapon, looking around in bewilderment.
“I’m afraid that if I rashly admit that I ‘like’ you, I won’t be able to reach the depth you expect, and that would hurt you.”
“You are far more passionate about life than I am. Therefore, I chose to remain silent, to continue observing, and to maintain that simpler connection in the game as ‘Blueberry Cake’.”
"I started to test things out like a child, making decisions that were not appropriate for my age, and became a two-faced strategist."
Huo Yuzheng looked at Mo Wansheng, who was listening quietly in front of him, and his eyes became clear and firm.
"Now I know that feelings cannot be quantified, nor do they need to be quantified."
"because I love you."
These three words are heavy and burning.
It is no longer a vague "like", but the only definite answer that has been reached after confusion, struggle, testing and self-examination.
It transcends the boundaries between virtual and reality, casting aside all calculations and considerations, and purely points to her, Mo Wansheng.
Mo Wansheng looked at the cautious honesty in his eyes.
It turns out that the "blueberry cake" that had always been with her in the game also carried such heavy shackles in reality, walking alone on its predetermined path.
She reached out and, instead of hitting him again, gently touched the spot where she had hit him, feeling the warm heartbeat beneath his shirt with her fingertips.
"Idiot," she muttered under her breath, but her voice softened.
"'Blueberry Cake' is you, and Huo Yuzheng is also you. I'm happy to play games with 'Blueberry Cake', and I'm also happy to marry Mr. Huo."
Mo Wansheng gently cupped his face, "You should have told me sooner. You were secretly playing games here all by yourself without even calling me!"
"We clearly have such good equipment!"
Huo Yuzheng chuckled; her deliberately complaining and coquettish manner was truly endearing.
He reached out and pulled her into a tight embrace.
"It won't happen again..."
"Blueberry cake will always be your perfect accompaniment."
Before he finished speaking, Huo Yuzheng took out his phone and tapped the screen a few times with his fingertips.
Soon, a familiar voice rang out in the quiet e-sports room. It was Mo Wansheng's own voice, each word clear and distinct.
"I, Mo Wansheng, will unconditionally grant Huo Yuzheng one request in the future, and this will serve as proof."
Huo Yuzheng leaned close to her earlobe and whispered, "So, Wansheng, never get angry, okay?"
Mo Wansheng chuckled and gently tapped his chest with her index finger.
With a sarcastic tone, he said, "Mr. Huo, that's such a waste! You used up such a precious opportunity just to keep me from getting angry?"
She tilted her head, like a cunning little fox, "Are you sure you only want me to agree to this? Won't you reconsider?"
Huo Yuzheng leaned closer, almost touching her lips.
"Then, Mrs. Huo, may you call me 'husband'?"
This affectionate nickname made Mo Wansheng's ears burn slightly.
Just as she was about to speak, she suddenly felt a cold touch on her neck.
Looking down, I saw a warm, emerald-green color lying quietly between my collarbones.
This is a jade necklace with an extremely unique design, not a traditional round bead necklace.
Instead, the jade is cut into tiny star-shaped pieces, with a deep blue gemstone set in the center, shimmering with a dazzling yet gentle radiance under the light.
"What?" Mo Wansheng lightly touched the cool jade with her fingertips, looked up at him, "Mr. Huo, you still want to bribe me?"
Huo Yuzheng shook his head, put his arms under her knees and back, and with a gentle effort, lifted her off the ground.
He sat in his gaming chair and gently placed her in his lap.
His long, slender fingers gently stroked the jade pendant around her neck, his gaze tender.
"When I first met Mrs. Huo, you were wearing a bright green cheongsam. I didn't know you were 'Sheng Zhuzi'."
"I've always wanted to give you a piece of jewelry that I designed myself, after all..."
Huo Yuzheng smiled awkwardly, "After all, I know that Mrs. Huo didn't like the things we bought at the beginning."
"I had someone search for the materials for a long time, and each piece was polished and shaped."
“Back in college, I remember you told me that you wanted to find someone who could watch the starry sky in the game with you, and also someone who could watch the real starry sky with you.”
"The starlight on this necklace is the starry sky I want to see with you. And the jade is the green I first met you."
Mo Wansheng reached out and wrapped her arms around Huo Yuzheng's neck, moving closer to him.
"husband."
Huo Yuzheng tightened his arms around her, pulling her even deeper into his embrace.
At this moment, the virtual and the real completely overlap.
Unexpectedly, she got what she wanted.
They transitioned from virtual to real life and formed a lifelong "gaming buddy".
Outside the window, real stars began to twinkle in the sky.
And this private galaxy around their necks speaks of a love more enduring than the night sky.
Mo Wansheng smiled in his arms, her eyes glistening with tears of happiness.
All of this is not something you deliberately seek out, but rather something you discover over a long period of time, finally recognizing the soul that has always been by your side.
From keyboard to heartbeat, from pixel to eternity.
In this game called life, they found the option to a happy ending.
-The End-
2025.11.7
Cloud Flowing Wood Sound
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