23: Chapter 23 Waiting to graduate and get married? That guy's a burly, scruffy man!

Su Yun sighed.

This level of brainwashing was at least at the master level.

"Xiaobei, how much money did you transfer to her in total?"

Zhao Xiaobei fell silent for a moment.

He lowered his head and began counting on his fingers.

After a while, he looked up, his face filled with a sense of sacred pride.

"Over these three years, I've been working part-time while attending school, and combined with the allowance my family gave me, I've saved a total of three hundred thousand."

"I gave it all to her."

"I feel that this is proof of my love for her."

"Money is something you can't bring with you when you're born or take with you when you die. As long as it makes her happy, I feel it's worth it."

Three hundred thousand!

The livestream went quiet for a few seconds, and then the bullet chat exploded like a tsunami.

"Three hundred thousand! I haven't seen that much in savings in my entire life!"

"If you used that money to buy pork ribs, you could eat until you're huge!"

"Brother, wake up! The Jiangcheng University campus belle? Have you ever seen her in person?"

Zhao Xiaobei stiffened his neck.

"So what if I haven't seen her? We send voice messages every day, and she even sends me photos!"

"She said that once she graduates, she'll come find me to get married."

Su Yun shook his head.

He directly activated [Tianji Divine Calculation].

A stream of data invisible to outsiders flashed through his eyes.

[Name: Zhao Xiaobei]

[Age: 25]

[Occupation: University Student / Veteran Otaku]

[Recent Fortune: Extremely Ill-fated. Victim of a major 'pig-butchering' scam, deeply trapped in a fake emotional snare. Three years of hard-earned savings totaling three hundred thousand have been wiped out. Currently facing the dual blow of a mental breakdown and the collapse of his faith...]

[Past: Introverted and cowardly, a standard 'honest man.' Three years ago, he met a scammer posing as a campus belle named 'Mengmeng' on a forum, starting a three-year mode of humble provision. During this time, he lived frugally and even worked multiple part-time jobs to provide funds, all to satisfy the other party's endless excuses for money.]

[Future: ...]

[Sin Value: 0]

[Detailed Crimes: None. An extremely pure victim whose logic is entirely driven by emotion; though foolish, he harbors no subjective malice.]

Then, through Zhao Xiaobei's past and future, Su Yun found information on the so-called Mengmeng.

[Name: Wang Dazhuang (Mengmeng)]

[Age: 38]

[Occupation: Unemployed / Veteran Online Scammer]

[Recent Fortune: Extremely Auspicious. Just hooked a fool and is preparing to harvest the final wave before running away.]

[Detailed Crimes: Using voice changers and stolen internet photos to pose as a woman on multiple social platforms for scams. Currently has as many as twelve victims under his name, with the amount involved exceeding one million.]

Su Yun's expression became strange.

He looked at Zhao Xiaobei, his eyes full of sympathy.

"Xiaobei, do you want to see what she looks like right now?"

Zhao Xiaobei was stunned for a moment.

Then he nodded frantically.

"Yes! Of course! I dream of it!"

"Master, can you calculate where she is right now? She told me she's reviewing her lessons in a high-end apartment in Jiangcheng."

Su Yun sneered.

"High-end apartment? Reviewing lessons?"

"Then listen closely."

"Jiangcheng Urban Village, Hongxing Apartments, Room 302."

"She is currently wearing a pair of baggy boxers, sitting at a grease-covered table eating pickled cabbage instant noodles."

Zhao Xiaobei was completely frozen.

His mouth hung open, and he couldn't speak for a long time.

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

"Mengmeng is such a clean person, how could she live in an urban village?"

"And she said the place she lives in is fully renovated and has a big balcony!"

Su Yun pointed at the screen.

"Don't believe me? Give her a video call right now."

Zhao Xiaobei hesitated.

"But... Mengmeng said it's not convenient for her to take video calls while she's preparing for her exams, saying she's afraid it'll affect her mindset."

Su Yun scoffed.

"Call her now and do as I say. I guarantee you'll see a surprise."

"Just say you've prepared another fifty thousand for her and want to show her the check personally."

Zhao Xiaobei gritted his teeth.

He took out his phone and, in front of the tens of thousands of people in the livestream, dialed the video call for that pinned contact.

Ring! Ring! Ring!

The ringing lasted for a long time.

Everyone in the livestream held their breath.

Finally, the video call was declined.

Immediately after, a voice message was sent over.

"Babe, I'm taking a shower right now, so it's not convenient to take a video call!"

"You said you have fifty thousand for me? Is it true? Babe, you're so good to me, mwah!"

That voice was sickeningly sweet, giving Su Yun a layer of goosebumps.

But to Zhao Xiaobei, it was like heavenly music.

He turned his head and looked at Su Yun somewhat triumphantly.

"Master, you heard that, right? Mengmeng is in the shower."

"Her voice is so pleasant, how could it be like what you said?"

Su Yun snorted.

"Shower? She's in the middle of a team fight."

"And it's a crucial fight at the Dragon Pit."

"Listen to the background noise. Isn't there the sound of a keyboard clicking?"

Zhao Xiaobei listened carefully, and his expression shifted.

Indeed, in the background of the voice message, there were faint, extremely rapid keyboard clicks.

"That... that might be her looking up information."

Zhao Xiaobei was still trying to find excuses.

Su Yun didn't bother wasting words.

"Call her again."

Zhao Xiaobei took a deep breath and dialed the video call again.

Sure enough, this time the video connected in less than three seconds.

The screen was pitch black; clearly, the other party was covering the camera with their hand.

But sound came through.

Zhao Xiaobei was just about to call out "Mengmeng."

The result.

The voice from the other side came through first.

It was an extremely coarse, raspy male voice, with the heavy tone of a long-term smoker.

"Oh, crap! Don't bother me!"

"We're going to lose this team fight! Support, do you even know how to play? Why are you stealing kills!"

"Zhao Xiaobei, are you freaking sick? I'm taking the dragon! Transfer the money later, stop freaking popping up!"

Zhao Xiaobei froze on the spot.

He was still holding his phone, the light from the screen reflecting off his pale face, making him look exceptionally ridiculous.

In that instant, his mind was a complete blank.

The 'Mengmeng' who called him 'babe' every day, who said she wanted to have his children, who would act spoiled for half the day just to get a hair clip... how could she be a man?

And a foul-mouthed, irritable guy who was in the middle of a game?

After a brief pause, the bullet chat in the livestream completely boiled over.

The screen was so full of question marks it looked like it was being submerged.

“???????”

"Holy crap! Did I hear that right? That was a man's voice?"

"That 'crap' was shouted with such vigor, that's definitely a middle-aged slob!"

"Pfft, hahaha! I can't take it. This is the campus belle the Pure Love Warrior was talking about? That voice sounds like a butcher's!"

"It's over, it's over. The Pure Love Warrior has turned into a Pure Love Sucker. He's falling apart on the spot!"

"I told you, there aren't that many campus belles in online dating. Brother, you're too pitiful!"

Zhao Xiaobei's hands began to tremble violently, causing the phone's image to shake frantically.

Like a drowning man grasping at the last straw, he roared at the other end of the phone.

"Who... who are you?!"

"Why are you holding Mengmeng's phone? Where's Mengmeng? Where's my babe?!"

"Let Mengmeng answer the phone! Did you steal her phone?!"

Even at this moment, he was still lying to himself.

He didn't believe those three years of feelings were fake, he didn't believe those sweet voice messages were fake, and he certainly didn't believe the goddess he had lived frugally to support would be a foul-mouthed man.

The man on the other end of the phone seemed to have been snapped awake by that shout.

Whether the team fight in the game was won or lost didn't matter anymore. What mattered was that he had been so immersed that he forgot to turn on the voice changer.

The jig was up.