Dual-wielding! 100x proficiency, I'll grind my way to godhood!

After the plane landed, Chen Mo turned on his phone.

Messages flooded in like a tidal wave: Lin Yue had over a dozen missed calls and dozens of WeChat messages.

Before he could even look at it, Lin Yue called.

"Brother Mo! You've finally turned on!"

Lin Yue's voice came crashing down on me.

"Something big has happened! Someone was spreading rumors online and you were being attacked by the entire internet! Your ex-girlfriend came forward to cyberbully you using your real name, and I couldn't stand it anymore, so I posted the video from the plane. Now the situation has reversed, and the whole internet is on your side!"

The person who spread the rumors has been exposed; she's the short-haired woman who licked foreigners on the plane. She tested positive for HIV and was dumped by her foreign boyfriend, so she took her anger out on you. Now she's completely out of the picture and has deleted her TikTok account!

Chen Mo dragged his suitcase out, saying, "Take your time."

"And there's more!"

Lin Yue spoke very quickly.

"All your ex-girlfriends, come out here! They're posting online, saying how hard you had it back then, how much you struggled to support Su Yao's education, how you ate instant noodles to save money, and so on. You've stolen all the attention, and Su Yao is getting a lot of flak right now!"

Chen Mo walked out of the arrival hall, and the night breeze blew by, carrying the heat of the city.

"How did they know?" he asked.

"Are you popular?"

Lin Yue said,

"When you were being attacked online, people started digging into your background. Later, when the video was reversed, everyone dug into it again. All the things you did back then—wearing old clothes, eating instant noodles, and supporting Su Yao's education—were brought up."

Seeing that you're famous, all your ex-girlfriends are jumping out to ride your coattails, saying how good you were to them back then, and that they didn't appreciate it.

As a result, Su Yao's past was also exposed: you supported her through three years of graduate school, and she dumped you after passing the civil service exam, seamlessly moving on to someone else working in the system. Now the entire internet is criticizing her.

Chen Mo hailed a taxi, opened the door, got in, and gave his address.

"Anything else?" He leaned back in his chair.

"And another thing! Her new boyfriend comes from a very wealthy family. She was almost going to marry him, but now the internet is full of people digging into her past, saying she's a liar and ungrateful."

Her apology post was deleted immediately after being posted, met with a barrage of criticism. The comments section was filled with accusations of "ungrateful wretch," "the first swordsman to get ashore," and "Does someone like this deserve to work in the system?"

Lin Yue paused, then lowered his voice.

"Brother Mo, some of your ex-girlfriends have written long articles saying how good and considerate you were when you were together, and that they didn't cherish it."

Someone below asked her, "So what do you want to do now?" She responded with a shy emoji. Isn't that a blatant way of saying she wants to get back together?

Chen Mo did not respond.

The reasons those girls gave for breaking up were varied.

They complained that he was poor, that he didn't have time to spend with them, and that he had a heavy family burden.

One person bluntly said, "Your conditions are too poor, I don't want to suffer with you."

Now that he's a viral sensation and rich, they've resurfaced, wanting to get back together.

"Let them be."

Chen Mo said calmly.

"What about Su Yao? She's in a terrible situation right now; the whole internet is criticizing her. Do you want to respond?"

"Need not."

Chen Mo closed his eyes. "Hang up."

Su Yao huddled in the corner of the sofa, her face pale and her lips trembling.

His name appeared on the trending topics list with the word "Explosive" following it.

She clicked on it, and saw one long post after another from her ex-girlfriends.

She scrolled down, her fingers trembling, and a popular comment was pushed to the top, garnering over 100,000 likes.

"His father has uremia, his mother farms, his younger sister is in high school, and the family has over 200,000 yuan in debt from medical treatment. Every month, after paying off the debt and sending money home, he still had to support you through three years of graduate school. You passed the civil service exam and then dumped him. Do you have any conscience?"

She stared at the words, and the image of Chen Mo wearing an old hoodie, squatting in his rented room eating instant noodles flashed through her mind.

She recalled how, every month when he transferred money to her card, the bank account balance was only a three-digit number.

My phone vibrated.

The screen lit up, and the words "Auntie" appeared.

She is Guo Hao's mother.

Staring at those two words, my finger hovered over the answer button.

Su Yao knew what Guo Hao's mother was going to say, but she couldn't admit it, because admitting it would mean nothing would come of it.

She answered the phone.

"Xiao Su, are those things circulating online true?"

His voice was cold, like he was interrogating a criminal.

Su Yao clenched her fingers, her nails digging into her palms.

She took a deep breath, her voice as steady as if she had rehearsed:

"Auntie, those are all rumors. My ex-boyfriend... he has psychological problems. He kept harassing me after we broke up, and now that he sees I'm doing well, he's getting people to write these things to get revenge on me. Please don't believe them."

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone.

"So, it's also a lie that your ex-boyfriend supported you through three years of graduate school?"

Su Yao bit her tongue, and the pain made her eyes sting.

She couldn't let this flaw be exposed, she couldn't let this hard-won class slip through her fingers.

"Auntie, I took the entrance exams for graduate school on my own, paid for the tuition with student loans, and earned my living expenses by working part-time. He... he only treated me to a few meals when he was pursuing me. With his family's financial situation, how could he afford to support me?"

She spoke fluently, every word flowing smoothly.

"You said before that your family runs a small business..."

"My family runs a small business."

Su Yao smiled, her voice tinged with grievance.

"Auntie, those are all rumors, you have to believe me. You see how I treat Guo Hao. You see how I treat you too."

What am I after?

I just want to find someone who truly cares for me. If you doubt me because of these online rumors, then... I really don't know what to say.

She heard her own voice trembling, not from grievance, but from fear.

There was silence on the other end of the phone, a very long silence, so long that Su Yao thought Guo Hao's mother believed her.

"I see."

The phone hangs up.

The beeping sound echoed in my ears, like a hammer blow to my heart.

Su Yao stared at the screen, her fingers icy cold.

My phone vibrated again; it was a message from Guo Hao.

"My mom is furious! Don't contact me yet!"

She stared at the line of text, reading it word by word.

None of the words she fabricated, the rehearsed and eloquent explanations, were ever used.

He didn't even ask, and his mother didn't believe him at all; she didn't even have a chance to lie.

The marriage fell through, and her dream of marrying into a wealthy family was shattered.

She grabbed her phone, opened WeChat, and found Chen Mo's chat window. "Chen Mo, I'm sorry, I know I was wrong, please give me another chance, okay?"

Click send.

A red exclamation mark indicates that the other party has enabled friend verification.

Su Yao curled up into a ball and buried her face in her knees.

She remembered what she had said on the day they broke up.

"Chen Mo, you need to be more realistic."

Now, reality has slapped her hard in the face, and she doesn't even have the right to cry out in pain.

The short-haired woman also returned to China and locked herself in her rented room with the curtains drawn tightly.

Only one sentence kept replaying in her mind.

"Did he dare to go out and about after being diagnosed with HIV?"

When Chen Mo got home, he threw his backpack on the sofa.

The phone rang again; it was Lin Yue calling.

"Brother Mo, your ex-girlfriend from college contacted me."

His voice carried a hint of gossip.

"She said she wanted to invite you to dinner and asked when you were free. Another one added me on WeChat, saying that you were the best to her back then and she can't forget you. Are they trying to get back together?"

Chen Mo leaned back on the sofa, staring at the ceiling.

"Please reply to them for me."

"Return to what?"

"Just say I'm very busy."

"and then?"

"That's all."

He hung up the phone and tossed it onto the coffee table.

The screen lit up again, friend requests kept coming in, but he didn't even look at them, flipped it over and put it face down on the table.

The person who left back then is coming back now, not because of love, but because he's famous and rich.

This kind of regret is worthless.

Besides, he doesn't believe in love at all; being single is much more carefree.

Will a bird that has already flown out of its cage fly back?

Su Wan poked her head out from the kitchen: "You're back? Have you eaten?"

"not yet."

She brought out a bowl of soup and placed it in front of him: "Have some soup, it's freshly made."

Chen Mo took it and drank a sip.

The soup was hot, warming me from my throat all the way down to my stomach.

He placed the Thai specialties and the skincare products on the table.

"Please send it home for me. I'll send you the address. Here, take this."

Su Wan paused for a moment, took the item, and looked at it. Her eyes were a little red. "You still remember to bring me something?"

Chen Mo smiled and said, "I bought it on a whim."

That night, Su Wan nestled in his arms, drawing circles on his chest with her fingers.

"How long will you be gone this time?"

"Not necessarily. I can come back anytime."

She didn't ask any more questions, buried her face in his chest, and the two continued exercising until late at night before finally falling asleep.

The next morning, while Su Wan was still fast asleep, Chen Mo made a phone call home.

Her mother answered, her voice filled with surprise: "Xiao Mo? When are you coming home? Have you eaten?"

"I've eaten. Mom, I'll have someone send some things back home, please accept them."

"You're spending money again. Don't spend it recklessly outside, save some."

Chen Mo smiled and said, "I've been saving them up. How's Dad's health?"

"Much better. Your sister is doing great too; she was in the top ten in her class in the last monthly exam."

The mother paused for a moment, then asked, "Xiao Mo, have you lost weight again?"

"No, the food was quite good."

"That's good."

Her mother's voice was a little choked up, "Take good care of yourself out there, don't overwork yourself."

"Okay, Mom."

I hung up the phone, got dressed, and quickly washed up.

Chen Mo closed his eyes and touched the portal with his consciousness.