“Ugh… my throat… it hurts…”
Yi Mo tossed his new phone aside.
He thought to himself, ‘I must still have this cold. I’m hallucinating. I should sleep more.’
But just as he lay down, he sat right back up.
“Ha… fine… let’s face… reality…”
“I guess… cough cough… it’s not that easy to get rid of…”
He mocked himself and went to the bathroom to retrieve his old phone.
Compared to the new one, it was just more convenient to use the old one directly.
However, when Yi Mo reached the bathroom, he froze.
He looked at the old phone sitting on the washing machine, then at the empty trash can.
A chill instantly ran down his spine.
He subconsciously looked back at the room, feeling as if a ghost were staring at him.
He closed his eyes and tried to remember.
Even though he had just survived a Death Game and then live-streamed for twelve hours until he made himself sick, his mind shouldn’t be malfunctioning.
He was certain — absolutely certain — that he had thrown the phone into a trash bag that didn’t even have any garbage in it yet.
It definitely hadn’t been placed on top of the washing machine!
Even if he had misremembered, shouldn’t the SIM card have been snapped?
He had thrown them away together!
And now?
Aside from the phone on the washing machine, there was no sign of the SIM card at all!
At this thought, Yi Mo hurriedly grabbed the phone, returned to the room to find a SIM tool, and opened the tray.
Sure enough, there was no SIM card.
His heart skipped a beat.
‘Was this… that APP’s doing?’
‘This is meddling way too much!’
Yi Mo felt it was completely irrational.
He was genuinely a bit scared.
He went back to the bathroom to search thoroughly for the SIM card, but after failing to find it anywhere, he finally gave up.
He sat back on the bed and stared blankly at the leftovers from yesterday’s instant noodles.
‘Is it haunted… or did someone come into the house?’
Yi Mo was dazed.
He couldn’t figure it out no matter how hard he thought.
He picked up the old phone, intending to open that APP first.
Once inside, the most prominent thing was a red notification for forty-four unread messages in his friends list.
“Even the number of messages is that kind of number… You’re good!”
With a dark expression, Yi Mo couldn’t help but click on the Girlfriend Group.
Unsurprisingly, there was a long string of messages, all sent by Twilight herself.
At first, they came every few dozen seconds, then every few minutes.
The last one was from 11:00 AM yesterday.
Qin Muse: “You can’t escape, liar!”
Qin Muse: “I’m coming to find you 🔪 ❤️❤️.”
To be honest, during the Death Game, Yi Mo’s impression of Twilight was that she was a cold, high-and-mighty girl — aside from being a psycho.
He hadn’t expected her to be so talkative online, even using the built-in emojis on her phone.
How should he put it?
It felt like… like someone who never chatted with anyone suddenly had a conversation partner and got incredibly excited.
‘Hah…’
Yi Mo wasn’t scared; instead, he felt a strange sense of “gap moe” and cuteness.
“No, no, no. She’s a psycho. I can’t be fooled by my own imagination,” Yi Mo quickly dismissed his absurd thoughts and muttered, “Hah, I don’t believe you can actually follow the internet cables to find me… cough cough cough!”
In his excitement, he choked and coughed a few times.
Then he quickly shut his mouth and stopped talking.
After that, Yi Mo originally wanted to post a thread on kaki, but he suddenly remembered something and his hand stopped.
Wait… the SIM card.
Where did it go?
He had been so focused on Twilight’s messages that he completely forgot about the SIM card!
Thinking about it now, and looking at Twilight’s messages in the Girlfriend Group, he felt increasingly flustered and uneasy.
It was as if she really could follow the internet cables to find him.
It felt like someone was watching him.
His body felt heavy.
He mechanically raised his head and looked toward his front door.
Thump!
His heart thrashed violently.
Cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and his hands felt numb.
The peephole of the security door…
In the moment he looked over, it turned from black to a transparent white!!!
Huff… puff…
Yi Mo rubbed his eyes and took two deep breaths, wondering if he had seen it wrong.
After all, even though his vision was good, he shouldn’t be able to see the tiny hole of the peephole so clearly from several meters away.
But he still felt uneasy in his heart.
He climbed off the bed and walked over cautiously.
Of course, he purposefully stayed low, crouching as he moved.
Thump… thump…
Yi Mo was so nervous that he could even hear the sound of his own heartbeat.
Half-crouching, he waited for the right moment and suddenly looked up through the peephole.
Because he still had a low-grade fever, getting up too quickly made his head spin, but he endured the discomfort and peered outside.
Then… he saw…
Well, there was nothing in the hallway!
“Did I… really see it wrong?”
Yi Mo was confused.
He looked up and down; there truly was nothing.
He lived in an old residential area.
It only had five floors.
The cement stairs were very old.
The metal railings were not only peeling but also rusted.
Whether the hallway light on his fifth floor turned on or not depended entirely on its mood.
At this moment, looking through the peephole, there was no one — only the few square meters of empty hallway and the closed doors of two other units.
Yi Mo thought about it and rubbed the space between his brows.
His hand instinctively reached for the doorknob, intending to open the door and check.
But when he had turned it halfway, his hand stopped.
“Hah… forget it.”
“I’m just scaring myself!”
“Maybe it really is that APP playing tricks!”
“How could that crazy woman… find this place! … cough cough!”
Because he spoke too much at once, Yi Mo’s throat hurt, and he coughed a few more times.
He rubbed his throat as he walked back into the room.
As for why he didn’t open the door to confirm, it was simply because he suddenly remembered movies he had seen before.
The kind of movie where the door opens, a group of burly men suddenly barge in, and the owner is pinned to the bed and tormented.
He was a little bit afraid.
So, he didn’t open it.
He relaxed his mind and returned to the bed to study that APP.
Outside the door of Unit 502, in the blind spot of the peephole.
A young girl in a light blue dress with ash-brown, shoulder-length hair was crouching against the door.
She was holding something wrapped in a floral-patterned cloth in her arms.
Her arms shielded her slightly lowered face, making it impossible to see her features clearly.
But through the gaps between her arms, one could see a gloom-filled expression and the slight downward curve of her lips.
***
After Yi Mo returned to bed, he put the matter of the SIM card out of his mind for the time being.
Regardless of whether it was true or not, he would just treat it as if the crappy APP had made it disappear.
A beautiful girl wouldn’t suddenly raid his house and do something to him while he was sick and sleeping, right?
Right?
Right?
Yi Mo believed it was absolutely impossible!
He had always been alone — a long-time lone wolf.
Although he had tens of millions of fans online, to put it bluntly, it was just selling a persona.
It was impossible to actually share his heart.
He posted a thread on kaki.
Mizua Akahoshi: “Suddenly attacked by creatures from another galaxy! Unfortunately, I got hit. I have a fever, a cold, and severe pharyngitis. I might not be able to live-stream for a while~”
“But don’t worry, Shui-fans, I haven’t been kidnapped!!!”
“Mizua Akahoshi will be resurrected soon to continue fighting with everyone! Heh!”
He interspersed a few Mizua Akahoshi emojis and, once he posted it, Yi Mo stopped worrying about it.
In any case, most people would be worried about Mizua Akahoshi, while a small portion of anti-fans would mock him with schadenfreude.
Yi Mo actually had very thick skin.
After being flamed by Mizua Akahoshi’s anti-fans for a few years, he could basically look at their words with a blank face.
His heart remained as calm as an old monk’s in meditation.
He even wanted to reply and tell them to work harder and come up with some new material.
‘Just this? I’m tired of seeing it!’
Closing kaki, Yi Mo opened QQ.
He looked at his younger sister’s avatar; as always, it was gray with no sign of activity.
He intended to close it immediately.
But just then, his QQ, which usually remained undisturbed and invisible for ages, suddenly received a message.
Beep beep beep beep — beep beep beep beep —
The jumping avatar was a beautiful picture of Mizua Akahoshi in a summer bikini.
The name was “I Will Always Love Shuichixing.”
I Will Always Love Shuichixing: “Shui-shui, how is your illness?”
“Is it serious? I’m so worried!”
“Where do you live? I’ll have my driver bring you medicine and take a doctor to see you!”
“Oh, right, I shouldn’t ask where you live!”
“By the way, I was too busy the day before yesterday to watch the stream, but I’ve watched the replay two times already! I’m watching it for the third time now!”
“Shui-shui, you’re really handsome and cute!”
“It’s a pity I didn’t get to hit Rank 1!”
“Anyway, is your illness serious?”
“I’m very concerned about you!!!”
This person was the only fan Yi Mo had added on his own QQ.
Years ago, when he first debuted, he was still a bit naive.
The first time he encountered a 100,000 RMB donation, the other party asked to add him on QQ.
Yi Mo hadn’t created a sub-account yet, so he just added them directly.
For a while, they chatted every day, but later Yi Mo really wasn’t good at chatting, so it turned into one-sided harassment from the other party.
Even so, the other person continued to follow him and would donate crazily during most live streams.
They had already spent no less than 10,000,000 RMB on him.
It was terrifying.
Yi Mo believed the other party was a wealthy businessman at retirement age, likely with a beer belly and possibly bald.
Otherwise, how could someone have so much spare cash to donate to a virtual YouTuber?
By the way, the other person’s QQ was a sub-account; that was easy to tell.
Yi Mo thought for a moment and decided to reply.