Which way to go is the road?

The turmoil caused by Xiang Fei finally came to an end with Qian Luomei's mediation. However, when a mirror develops a crack, no matter how much it is glued and repaired, a crack will always remain.

In terms of specific behavior, Bai Xue and Dong Lu talked less. They still went to class and to the internet cafe together, but they no longer chatted endlessly. Except for a few things that had to be said, they didn't say another word. Both of them were holding back their anger.

However, this momentum didn't last long, because Xiang Fei got into trouble, or more accurately, his game character got into trouble, and it was a big one.

Just a few days after Bai Xue and Dong Lu had their argument, on Wednesday, the weather was still cold, but it was a nice day because of the bright sunshine, and there were no signs of what was to come.

What's meant to happen can't be stopped even by the bright sunshine.

Xiang Fei arrived at the internet cafe as usual, arranged his work, turned on a computer and entered the game. Then he closed and reopened the game repeatedly until he was certain that his account had been hacked!

All of Xiang Fei's divine weapons, divine beast pets, and game currency disappeared without a trace. In other words, all 14,000 yuan that Xiang Fei had invested was wasted, not to mention the super guardian pet Yan Ruyu, which he received as a reward for completing the task, and was worth about 20,000 yuan in total.

Xiang Fei swallowed hard, slapped himself twice to make sure he wasn't dreaming, lowered his head and closed his eyes. When he opened them again and saw the empty game interface, he slapped himself repeatedly until his face turned red!

"Brother, what's wrong with you? Why are you hitting yourself? Are you possessed?" Zhang Chu saw this and immediately ran over and hugged Xiang Fei's hand.

"My account was hacked! Everything's gone! Everything's gone!"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Chu quickly glanced at the game. Indeed, as Xiang Fei had said, his entire character had been wiped clean, and he only had 500 game coins left, barely enough for the carriage fare when changing scenes, and that was only for one way.

Seeing Xiang Fei's pained and dejected appearance, Zhang Chu was at a loss and quickly called Qian Luomei.

Upon receiving the call, Qian Luomei rushed to the first floor and, without saying a word, checked Xiang Fei's game character, just like Zhang Chu.

"The account was hacked, and it was spotless, not a single valuable item was left! Absolutely ruthless!" Qian Luomei sighed, her mind racing. "Zhang Chu, go upstairs and call Wang Haoming and Xiangzi down. I'll send a text message to Lao You and the others, asking them to come over at noon too!"

"Okay, I'll be right there!" Zhang Chu replied quickly, and then ran upstairs to the second floor!

Qian Luomei sent a text message, then turned to Xiang Fei: "Xiang Fei, are you alright?"

"It's nothing!" came the wooden, blank reply.

"It's been stolen, so it's been stolen. There's nothing you can change by acting like this. What we should be doing right now is thinking about how to recover it, how to fix it, and how to get it back!"

Xiang Fei had never experienced or even paid attention to such a thing before. It was like being punched in the face. He was stunned. When he heard Qian Luomei say "make amends", "remedy", and "find the things back", his hope was rekindled.

"Is it possible to find it?"

"I don't know! But we have to try! These items are virtual; once they're traded, the game's official transaction records should be able to find them!"

"Okay, let's give it a try. Where should we start?" Xiang Fei's enthusiasm was rekindled.

"I don't know either!" Qian Luomei had only heard of it, but knew nothing about the actual process. "But don't worry, Wang Haoming and Xiangzi both know how, they'll be down in a bit! Besides, Lao You and the others will be here at noon, the problem will be solved!"

As they were talking, Xiangzi and Wang Haoming came over and, without exception, checked the account information first.

"Xiang Fei, have you told anyone your account, password, or item lock password recently?" Xiangzi frowned, diligently performing his duties.

"No, only the eleven people I play with know my account information, password, etc. I haven't told anyone else!"

"When you're on QQ recently, has anyone sent you a file or a link?" Wang Haoming continued.

"I think that happened before!"

Did you answer it?

"I forgot, but I usually don't answer them! I only click to read them if a friend sends them to me in real life!"

Wang Haoming and Xiangzi exchanged a glance and nodded, already having made up their minds!

"It's probably a Trojan program stealing your account. Modern Trojans are very sophisticated; they can even record keystrokes and automatically transmit them over the network to the hacker who implanted the virus, thus deducing your account, password, and item lock password. Our computers have system restore software, so the Trojan automatically disappeared after a restart!"

Listening to Xiangzi's professional and meticulous analysis and reasoning, Qian Luomei was glad that she had found a competent network administrator, but seeing Xiang Fei's dejected appearance, she felt very sad.

"Is there any way to find out who installed the Trojan virus?" Xiang Fei asked anxiously.

"There's nothing we can do. Even if the Trojan virus was sent from your friend's QQ account, it has nothing to do with your friend. His account was hacked, and most people don't have the technology to track Trojan programs, so we can't investigate it!"

"If we can't find the person who installed the Trojan virus, does that mean I can't get back any of my items in the game?!"

"You can't say that. If you contact the company that developed and manages the game, they can use some technical means to recreate your items! But there's one disadvantage for you!"

"I'm the victim, so why are there still factors detrimental to me? What are you referring to as that point?"

"These items were all obtained through offline transactions, which the game's official channels do not recognize or support!"

"I bought those with my own money, why won't they admit it?" Xiang Fei became more and more angry as he spoke, and even yelled at Xiangzi.

"That's the game's official rule. I'm just telling you, don't yell at me! I didn't take the stuff!" Xiangzi explained with a smile, appearing magnanimous.

Wang Haoming, unable to contain himself any longer, retorted, "Exactly! Who told you to invest so much money? Maybe they've been eyeing you for a while now, you big tycoon! You're happy now, so why are you showing off like that?"

"I'm investing money, it's my choice, it's none of your business!"

"Then you deserved to have your account hacked. You were trying to impress others by pretending to be something you're not. You didn't have the financial means to be a gaming pro. Look at you! You should have gone back to the countryside to farm long ago."

Qian Luomei originally asked Wang Haoming to come down and help, but who knew that this guy's eccentric personality would lead him to start cursing Xiang Fei. It seems that this resentment has been accumulating for more than just a day or two.

Wang Haoming's words acted as a fuse, igniting the pent-up resentment within Xiang Fei. He charged at Wang Haoming, but was stopped by Xiangzi and Qian Luomei.

"Shut up, Wang Haoming, you're coming upstairs with me. We don't need you on the first floor! Why can't you learn to speak properly? You just spout nonsense all the time! Come on, come upstairs with me, hurry up!"

Wang Haoming gave Xiang Fei a disdainful look, then turned and walked towards the stairs.

With no one left to vent his frustrations on, Xiang Fei slumped back onto the stool, staring dejectedly at the game interface on his computer.

The computer next to him wasn't turned on yet, its black screen reflecting Xiang Fei's listless face. He turned his head and saw his reflection in the computer screen, remembering Dong Lu's words: "Playing games is fine, but don't let the game play you!"