They walked onto the main road, and under the warm glow of the streetlights, Xue Rui reluctantly let go of the girl's hand.
Her hand was smooth and soft, very nice to the touch.
Those punks might have been scumbags, but they certainly had good taste. The girls they chose to harass were never ugly.
The girl had short hair and delicate features. Her large eyes sparkled, tiny teardrops still clinging to her long lashes. Combined with the slight redness at the tip of her nose from crying, she looked as cute as a porcelain doll.
"You're a day student, right? You should head home right after evening self-study. Don't go wandering around in small alleys like this," Xue Rui advised.
"Mm," the girl replied, looking up at the tall boy. A fondness for him began to bloom in her heart.
Her mother actually said things like this to her all the time, but she always found it annoying and naggy.
But for some reason, it sounded pleasant coming from this boy.
"I'm not Guoguo. My name is Chen Tingting," the girl said with a smile.
"Mm, got it, Guoguo." Xue Rui started to walk away without a second glance.
"It's Chen Tingting!"
"Alright, Guoguo." Xue Rui was teasing her, hoping to distract her and help her forget the unpleasant incident from earlier.
His original intention had been to let Qiu Mengze play the hero and hopefully score a girlfriend, but Qiu Mengze's performance had been terrible. Now, all of the girl's budding affection was aimed squarely at him.
While casting a wide net was a good thing, he was used to beauties on the level of Gu Muxue. Plus, with Lin Ruoxi also around for him to tease, Chen Tingting just didn't seem as appealing.
"Hey, what's your name? What year are you in?"
Seeing that Xue Rui had no intention of stopping, Chen Tingting hurriedly grabbed the hem of his shirt.
"A name is but a symbol. Why dwell on it?"
Xue Rui tilted his head up at a forty-five-degree angle, striking a melodramatic pose as he gently pushed her hand away.
"Xue Rui, you scared the hell out of me," Qiu Mengze said, still shaken and clutching a brick in his hand.
Xue Rui looked annoyed. A hero saves the damsel in distress and leaves without a name—but Qiu Mengze had just shattered his mystique.
"Alright, hurry up and throw that fucking brick away. It's probably covered in piss," Xue Rui said with a look of disgust.
Qiu Mengze's back was soaked with sweat. When he saw Xue Rui make his move, he had subconsciously grabbed a paving brick from nearby.
Only now did he remember that you weren't supposed to pick things up off the ground near an internet cafe. Lots of people pissed in the alley corners late at night.
"Didn't you pick up a beer bottle, too?" Qiu Mengze protested, feeling it was unfair.
"I got that bottle off the top of a trash can. What grown man can piss that high?"
Listening to their conversation, Chen Tingting couldn't help but let out a laugh. Her steps felt exceptionally light on the way home.
'Hedong Second Middle School, Xue Rui.'
Chen Tingting etched the name firmly into her heart.
For some reason, ever since Xue Rui had appeared, she no longer felt her usual fear when looking at those pitch-black alleys. Instead, she felt a strange sense of anticipation.
「New Century Internet Cafe.」
Xue Rui bought two all-night passes.
Prices were still very low back then. An all-nighter only cost ten yuan, and it even came with a free bottle of iced tea.
"So, is that girl, Chen Tingting, pretty?" Xue Rui asked.
Qiu Mengze nodded. "Very pretty."
"Do you have any idea what you just missed out on? If you had been the one to step up and gotten her number, she could have been your future wife," Xue Rui said with a look of pity.
'Girls this age aren't materialistic.'
'Singing well, getting good grades, being good at basketball, being tall...'
'These are all things that can attract a girl, to say nothing of a "hero saves the damsel" moment straight out of a movie—a rare opportunity you can't just hope to find.'
'At this tender age, creating such a beautiful and profound memory means that in the years to come, not even money could shake that bond.'
"I... there were so many of them..." Qiu Mengze said, trying to make an excuse for himself.
Sitting in the internet cafe chair, he felt like he was on pins and needles.
There were quite a few young guys with dyed-blond hair at the computers around them.
Normally, he wouldn't have been scared, but today of all days, he and Xue Rui had picked a fight with guys just like them. He was terrified they'd run into the same group again inside the cafe.
"What good are numbers? When I grabbed that beer bottle, why did all his so-called 'buddies' back away?" Xue Rui said with a laugh.
'Those kinds of fair-weather friends are all about showing loyalty on the surface. The moment real trouble starts, they're nowhere to be found.'
'In contrast, a quiet guy like Qiu Mengze might not say much, but he secretly grabbed a brick on the sly. Now that's a true friend.'
"Guys like that are like dogs," Xue Rui explained.
"How so?" Qiu Mengze asked, ready to be enlightened.
"A barking dog doesn't bite. But the moment you look away, it thinks you're an easy target and will chase you down, barking its head off."
"But if you act tough, it'll back off and keep its distance, pretending it never saw you."
Realization dawned on Qiu Mengze. "So they're just snobs who look down on the weak?" he muttered.
But knowing that was one thing.
Actually doing it when you're in the situation is another thing entirely.
Qiu Mengze really admired Xue Rui. Even as a guy, he had to admit that what Xue Rui did back there was cool as hell.
He would never say it out loud, though, because if you gave Xue Rui an inch, he'd take a mile.
With Xue Rui there, Qiu Mengze felt much more at ease. He turned on his computer, expertly navigated the cafe's login screen, logged into QQ, and started listening to the era's three pop superstars while pulling up the game menu.
Xue Rui, on the other hand, was just staring blankly at the QQ login page.
Because he had forgotten his QQ password.
'In 2024, people had to remember way too many passwords, and every account had different requirements.'
'Some required a mix of letters, numbers, and special symbols.'
'Others demanded the first character had to be a letter.'
'Some even fucking demanded that the first letter be capitalized.'
'All these different rules meant that basically no one was ever 100% sure of any of their passwords. Besides, you never logged out of the mobile QQ app anyway; you just used a QR code or a text verification to log in elsewhere.'
"Who the hell can remember this?" Xue Rui cursed. He tried every common password he could think of but came up blank.
He clicked "Forgot Password."
In 2012, you could recover your QQ password using security questions.
First question: What is your father's name?
Second question: What is your mother's name?
Those two questions were too easy.
Then came the third question: What is your dream?
Xue Rui froze. 'Dream? Make money? Become the richest man in the world? Get into college?'
None of them were right.
Xue Rui even tried outrageous answers like "a harem of wives and concubines" and "rule the Milky Way Galaxy," but he still couldn't get into the mind of his younger self.
Qiu Mengze waited in the game lobby for a long time. Seeing that Xue Rui still hadn't logged in, he was just about to hurry him along when he saw Xue Rui curse in frustration, "My damn QQ account got hacked!"
"Hacked? Who hacked it?" Qiu Mengze asked.
"Some filthy adult."
Qiu Mengze looked baffled. 'A hacker? Why "filthy"? What's that supposed to mean?'
"Let me try." Qiu Mengze leaned over, nearly yanking out his headphone cord, and smoothly typed a password onto Xue Rui's keyboard.
He often helped Xue Rui "level up" his QQ account by keeping it logged in, so he remembered the password even better than his own.
Along with the classic "AHEM AHEM" notification sound from his own headphones indicating a friend had come online, QQ successfully logged in on Xue Rui's screen. Qiu Mengze looked at Xue Rui, confused.
"What was my password again?"
"How could you forget that? It's gumuxue520..."
"What a fucking stupid password," Xue Rui cursed.
"Right, right, a totally stupid password."
"You little brat!"