Chapter 11

The Joy of Helping Others

Officer Xiao Lin finished watching the security footage from the village entrance, then sat with his notes and puzzled over it for a solid half hour without arriving at any explanation for why anyone would beat each other half to death over two ugly resin figurines.

"Nothing strange about it, really." The village Party secretary came over to soothe his rattled nerves. "A while back, five thieves spent five whole days hiding in the village — all for the sake of stealing ancestral tablets out of someone's family shrine."

"You're young, you haven't seen enough yet." The veteran officer filed the last entry in his notebook with practiced efficiency. "A few more years on the job and none of this will faze you."

A few more years and you'd understand: the world contains an inexhaustible variety of strange people.

Xiao Lin couldn't argue with his mentor. He bowed his head and silently copied the security footage for evidence.

The veteran officer glanced at the four thieves handcuffed in the activity center, then looked at Chao Musheng. "You found the first one?"

When they'd dragged the intruder out of Chao Musheng's house, the man had been completely uninjured — and weeping harder than any of the others.

"Yes." Chao Musheng held out a plastic bag. "The knife inside was in his hand. The other things — those are what he threw at me after I subdued him."

"This thief is nasty-minded." Xiao Lin opened the bag and looked at the rust-eaten blade. "Wanted you to get tetanus. Breaking and entering with a weapon — that's an aggravated charge."

"Alright, that's enough out of you." The veteran officer dealt Xiao Lin a light smack on the shoulder and told him to get the thieves loaded into the police vehicle.

"Good thing Musheng spotted them and let us know in time." The village Party secretary looked at Chao Musheng the way someone might look at a priceless national treasure. "Otherwise this village would have been in serious trouble."

The veteran officer had an uncomfortable, nagging sense that something was off. The security footage showed the thieves had visited multiple households — and apparently stolen nothing from any of them. Only at the village entrance, at the very end, had they suddenly erupted into an all-out brawl over a shrine statue.

And their behavior throughout the whole thing — from start to finish — had an inexplicable quality he couldn't quite put into words.

Unless these people were...

"I'll put in a request to have them drug-tested." He closed his notebook and turned to the village Party secretary. "Are you certain there are only four of them? No accomplices?"

"The cameras only show these four." The village Party secretary asked Uncle Ming: "Daming — they all came into the village in your van. Any chance there were others?"

"I didn't notice." Uncle Ming wasn't entirely sure. "Probably not — if there were more, they'd have shown up tonight too. Right, Musheng?"

Chao Musheng was fighting off a wave of exhaustion. Hearing his name, he nodded on reflex. "Right."

"You've done a great service for this village — go get some sleep, son." The veteran officer, noticing Chao Musheng's eyes losing the battle against his eyelids, chuckled warmly. "Please rest assured, folks — we'll take these individuals back and look into them thoroughly. We'll notify you as soon as we have anything."

"Thank you for making the trip out here at this hour." The village Party secretary saw the officers to their vehicle, then turned back to the assembled villagers. "Everyone go home and sleep."

*

Xiao You stood on her balcony and watched the police car thread through the village and gradually disappear. Only when the last faint trace of it was gone did she look away.

She sat on the balcony and waited for the villagers to come for her.

Time passed in an indeterminate blur. The horizon began to pale. The sun was almost up.

[Ding! Players Chubby, Little Jia, and the other two have been identified as suspicious by instance NPCs. Quest failed. Ten minutes remain until the instance closes. Remaining players, find the hidden treasure and clear the instance as soon as possible.]

Ten minutes...

Xiao You tore open a packet of biscuits she'd bought in the village and started eating, mechanically and quickly.

[Ding! Player health +1]

She laughed and cried at the same time, kept stuffing biscuits into her mouth, and watched the sun finish rising.

[Ding! Players have failed to clear the instance. Commencing coun— zzzt— down—]

[Zzzt... zzzt...]

Sunlight fell across Xiao You's shoulders. The flat, emotionless mechanical voice in her head went silent mid-sentence.

No task panel. No inventory. No countdown.

She was free.

And she could never go home.

She drifted downstairs in a daze, followed the road to the village entrance. People were already out working in the fields.

Green hills, clear water, brilliant sunshine.

She walked to the old banyan tree and crouched in front of the roadside shrine.

The deity statue inside wore a serene smile, its expression one of boundless welcome for every soul that passed.

"Please, I'm begging you — help me get home."

"I want to go home."

The statue didn't move. Xiao You wrapped her arms around her knees, sank to the ground, and wept aloud.

She just wanted to go home. Even if she could just see her parents one more time. Even once would be enough.

"Are you crying, big sister?"

Xiao You lifted her face from the crook of her arm. A cluster of small children had gathered in front of her, watching. She scrambled to wipe her face — but no matter how she wiped, the tears wouldn't stop.

"Don't cry, don't cry." A little girl named Lulu produced a packet of printed paper tissues from her pocket and patted Xiao You's shoulder with the solemnity of a very small adult. "You can tell me what's wrong. I'll go ask Brother Shengsheng — he's amazing, he can do anything."

"I want to go home." The other person was just a child. But Xiao You had lost all grip on her composure. She pressed the tissues over her face and sobbed openly. "I want to go home so badly."

"She's really, really sad."

"Did she lose her money and now she can't afford the ticket?"

"No, no — maybe she lost her phone."

"She looks so pitiful. Let's help her."

The children clustered around Xiao You in a warm, chaotic circle, everyone talking at once. One small boy turned out all his pockets and donated his entire collection of lollipops.

"Older girls are really hard to cheer up." He shook his head with a sigh of resignation, as Xiao You declined a lollipop.

"Brother Shengsheng's here!"

"It's Brother Shengsheng! Big sister is saved!"

Chao Musheng was making his way toward the village entrance with a heavy suitcase when he heard the village children shrieking his name from a distance.

He stopped. The children were clustered around the shrine, bouncing on their toes and waving at him.

"What's going on?" He walked over, gave each small head an affectionate ruffle, and let his gaze settle on Xiao You, who was crying quietly into her hands.

"Brother Shengsheng, Sister Xiao You wants to go home." Lulu took hold of his hand with both of hers. "Can you help her?"

"I'm sorry — I didn't mean to frighten you all." Xiao You sniffled and got to her feet.

"We weren't frightened." The children swarmed around Chao Musheng, chattering all at once. Noticing the suitcase, they asked when he was coming back.

Chao Musheng crouched down and worked his way through the group, giving each child a proper hug until they were all laughing. "I'll be back for the next holiday. I'll bring you presents."

Xiao You hovered at the edges, not sure where to put herself. As a player, she had never paid genuine attention to the feelings of NPCs — never thought there was anything worth attending to.

"The bus is here." Chao Musheng gave each small head one final ruffle. "Go on back — don't play at the village entrance, there's too much traffic out here."

The children obeyed Chao Musheng without question, scattering back toward the village in a happy, noisy flock, their short legs pumping.

"Musheng, hurry up!" The old bus had stopped under the banyan tree. Uncle Ming leaned out of the door and waved at him. "Can't be late back to school."

"Thanks, Uncle Ming." Chao Musheng hauled his suitcase aboard, then turned to Xiao You. "Do you want to go home right now?"

Xiao You nodded, dazed.

"Do you want to come with us?" Chao Musheng stowed his case. "Uncle Ming's bus goes directly to the train station — much easier than the local bus. If you want to leave today, go grab your things. We'll wait for you."

Xiao You went back to the guesthouse in a fog, picked up the travel bag she'd arrived with, and walked downstairs in a dream.

Dahuang wagged his tail at her from the courtyard. She looked toward the village entrance, and then she ran.

She knew it was probably pointless. But she ran anyway — toward something that had the shape of going home.

The old bus lurched and swayed, just as it had on the day she arrived. Passengers climbed on at stop after stop.

But this time, Xiao You was not afraid of any of them.

The bus rolled through village after village, then through junction after junction of traffic lights.

"End of the line — the station."

Xiao You rose and followed Chao Musheng off the bus in silence.

"Musheng, next time you come back, call me and I'll pick you up." Uncle Ming stood in the doorway and pressed a bag of snacks into Chao Musheng's hands. "For the journey."

"Will do." Chao Musheng took the bag. "Uncle Ming — try to smoke a little less. Drink a little less too."

"I know, I know." Uncle Ming waved him off. "Can't keep the bus stopped here too long — I'll head off."

Chao Musheng waited until the bus had pulled away, then looked back at Xiao You. "Shall we go in?"

The station was busy. Departure information scrolled across the large screens in an endless cycle. Xiao You read through it once, twice, then again — and the light in her eyes slowly went out.

What was she thinking. There was no train in an instance world that could take her back to reality.

"Where are you headed?" Chao Musheng could see from Xiao You's expression that something was wrong, and guessed at a shortage of funds without pressing the point.

"I'm going to—" Xiao You looked down. Her eyes reddened. "My home is in Guizhou."

"Guizhou — as in the province?"

Xiao You shook her head with a small, sad movement. "Gui Zhou. As in 'the return.' Two different characters."

"Wait here." Seeing her head drop with the unmistakable posture of someone about to cry, Chao Musheng walked his long stride over to the ticketing window.

"Hello — one ticket to Guizhou, please."

The ticket agent frowned. Guizhou — written that way? She'd never heard of it.

She looked up to register the face of the person making the request, and suppressed her impatience with some effort. She entered it into the system.

There was actually a place with that name?

She printed the ticket. "This service arrives in fifteen minutes. Please proceed to the gate as soon as possible."

"Here."

A paper ticket appeared in front of Xiao You.

"A ticket to Guizhou." Seeing Xiao You stare at him in disbelief, Chao Musheng smiled. "The ticket's cheap — take it, quick."

Xiao You's hands were trembling as she accepted it. She read the two characters on the face of the ticket, and her tears fell again.

Even if this Guizhou wasn't her Guizhou — even if it was only the name, that one familiar word was enough to overwhelm her completely.

"Thank you, Chao Musheng. Thank you so much." Xiao You scrubbed at her face. "Please be careful — this world—"

"What was that?"

He hadn't caught it.

Xiao You opened her mouth and found, to her own bewilderment, that she was incapable of saying anything connected to the Infinite Main God. The words simply wouldn't come.

"Never mind." She unclipped something from her bag — a keychain no bigger than her thumb. "Thank you. Please take this."

Her items had disappeared along with her inventory. The only thing of any worth she had left was this: the S-rank Lucky Charm she'd carried with her everywhere.

"Then I'll gratefully accept." Not wanting to make things awkward, Chao Musheng took the keychain without ceremony. "Your ticket says Gate 0 — I'll take you there."

He found Gate 0 tucked in a corner of the station. There was no staff member, only an automated reader.

"Off you go." The gate swung open. Chao Musheng raised a hand. "Goodbye."

"Goodbye." Xiao You stepped through the barrier, looked back at him once, and walked onto the platform without hesitation.

"All passengers, please board promptly. The train to Guizhou is now departing."

The platform was empty except for a battered old green train sitting on the tracks.

Xiao You boarded. Her foot caught on something and she stumbled — and all at once the world around her erupted into noise and motion. The train's intercom repeated on a loop: "Now arriving at Guizhou Station. Passengers, please queue for disembarkation. Now arriving at Guizhou Station—"

This—

Xiao You stared through the window at the landscape outside. She lurched off the train.

This was her Guizhou.

She spun around to look at the train behind her. The old green carriages had vanished. In their place sat a brand-new high-speed rail set.

She pressed both hands to her face and sobbed loudly, without restraint.

The children hadn't been wrong. Chao Musheng really could do anything.

*

Chao Musheng, in excellent spirits, settled back into his seat on the train and took out the keychain Xiao You had given him. He photographed it and posted it to his feed.

[ChaoChaoMuMu: Today's good deed: helped someone find their way home. Feeling very virtuous. 〔photo of keychain〕]

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