Raising You This Small Stuff

Chapter 31.1 The teenage Du Du!

Kan Ming’s eyes lit up. Yes, this was a very good breakthrough. If Long Bow was inextricably linked to the game, now that the game was malfunctioning, they might be able to find useful clues if they found him.

Mo Yi Cheng walked towards the elevator quickly, with Chen Sheng following behind uneasily.

Four people and two cars, sped to Green Park District.

The car had just moved a short distance when a familiar sound suddenly came from Mo Yi Cheng’s phone.

Ding!

Mo Yi Cheng’s hands shook as he unlocked it quickly with his fingerprints. It really was the sound of successfully logging in to the game! But then he discovered that something was wrong!

Yuan Suo’s apartment was very dark, and there was no light coming in from the windows. Only one emergency light was on in the living room, barely allowing one to see the furnishings inside due to the darkness.

Usually, when Mo Yi Cheng appeared, when he wasn’t using the stealth mode, Yuan Suo would greet him immediately, but now the room was full of silence, too quiet, making him tremble.

He yelled anxiously, “Du Du?”

There was no response.

“Du Du, are you there?” He tried his best to calm down and lower his voice.

When Kan Ming, who was driving in the front row heard Mo Yi Cheng’s words, he remained unmoved, still driving the car hurriedly.

Mo Yi Cheng yelled twice again, one call more urgent than the other.

Suddenly, there was a rustling sound from inside the house.

It came… from the gap between the sofa and the coffee table! Because the area around sofa and coffee table was dark and away from the light, he hadn’t noticed that Yuan Suo was hiding there.

Mo Yi Cheng’s heart that was hanging heart finally fell slightly.

“Du Du.”

Yuan Suo moved twice before he was able to get up from the small gap, but because he had been curled up for too long, his arms and legs had became stiff. As he moved, he felt a burst of numbness and stinging pain, so he had to sit back down again.

“Ugh…..” A small voice sounded, like an abandoned kitten. He had been sitting here the whole night, but Mo Yi Cheng still hadn’t returned. His pair of big eyes were bright in the dark, the tear tracks on his face that hadn’t been wiped away showing.

Mo Yi Cheng gradually realized that Du Du seemed… to be unable to hear his voice, nor see him, so he began to try to send text messages into the game. However, although the game showed that it had been sent, there was still no response from Yuan Suo. It was obvious that the message hadn’t been delivered at all.

At this moment, Mo Yi Cheng saw Yuan Suo struggling to stand up from in between the gap of the sofa again, his two hands wiping his eyes. He should… have cried, Mo Yi Cheng’s breath stopped.

Yuan Suo stood in place for a while, waiting until his feet were no longer numb before he walked step by step from the living room towards the study. Because the room was too dark, there were several times where he almost hit the corners of the walls around him, tripping over the debris. During that short walk from the living room to the study, Mo Yi Cheng’s heart nearly stopped in shock several times as he broke out in cold sweat.

Yuan Suo entered the study. The emergency light in the study was slightly brighter than the one in the living room, making it so that he was able to see Yuan Suo’s crying face clearly.

Yuan Suo thought for a while, then crouched down and opened a small drawer under the bookcase.

Mo Yi Cheng knew what was inside. All of Yuan Suo’s other drawings were kept in the large cabinet above. This relatively hidden small place, was where he secretly stored his personal drawings of Mo Yi Cheng.

This little thing this was…

Yuan Suo took out all the drawings from inside, hugged them, held them in his hands for a while, then looked around blankly, sniffling twice, his eyes becoming red again.

“Mo Yi Cheng.” As soon as he opened his mouth, his voice that had become hoarse sounded.

Mo Yi Cheng’s heart ached, almost unable to continue watching.

“Du Du doesn’t want to be an elf without a player, and he doesn’t want to be another player’s elf.”

“Mo Yi Cheng, I will never get into trouble again.”

“Mo Yi Cheng, I will never go and do a part-time job again…”

“Mo Yi Cheng, I’ll be obedient in the future, can you please not leave me…..”

In the darkness, Du Du leaned against the bookcase and sat down, curling up again as he called out to Mo Yi Cheng, his voice hoarse and pitiful.

Mo Yi Cheng felt as if several bloody holes had been poked his heart, no matter what he did they wouldn’t stop bleeding.

“Kan Ming, drive faster!” He forced himself to calm down, he had to be calm. What he needed to do right now was to find that person called Long Bow as soon as possible. If he really came from the game, then he could contact the game’s producer through Long Bow’s player’s cell phone. No matter what price he had to pay, the normal operation of the game had to be restored as soon as possible

“Yes.” Kan Ming increased the speed.

He put on his bluetooth headset, every word that Yuan Suo said in a crying voice hitting him like a sharp edge.

“Faster.” Mo Yi Cheng ordered.

Chen Sheng and Chen Jiao were inside another car, Chen Sheng couldn’t drive after drinking.

“Mo Yi Cheng has gone crazy, a person who is usually so cautious, look at how the car has exceeded the speed limit.” Chen Sheng looked at the gap that was increasing in front of him.

Chen Jiao didn’t say a word, his foot stepping on the accelerator, immediately following from behind.

As Chen Sheng wasn’t prepared, his body slammed backwards due to the inertia, “F*ck, comrade assistant, have you guys from the Mo family gone crazy…”

Chen Jiao apologized sheepishly, “Sorry, President Chen, but sit tight, I have to follow Mo Ge.”

The two cars raced through the streets, late in the night.

Soon they arrived at the place where Mo Yi Cheng and Kan Ming had visited during the day. Unlike the bustling downtown area, there were at most two rows of street lights on both sides of the street, plus some new buildings with sparse neon signs hanging on them. On the other side where the tube like building was, the whole place was dark.

They drove the cars to the outside of the tube like building. Mo Yi Cheng got out of the car first while Kan Ming followed with a flashlight on.

Because they were afraid that too many people would cause unnecessary trouble, Chen Sheng and Chen Jiao waited below.

The two quickly went up to the third floor. Mo Yi Cheng didn’t wait for Kan Ming to make a move, knocking on the door of room 303.

There was no response from the inside.

“Old Uncle!” He knocked on the door with increasing intensity.

The door of the Fu family didn’t open, but a young man across from them pushed his door open with an unkempt appearance, a feather duster in his hand.

Seeing Mo Yi Cheng and Kan Ming, he recognized Kan Ming as the person who had come during the day. He put the feather duster in his hand down and complained, “This two big brothers, this late at night, why are you causing such a racket!”

Kan Ming said hurriedly: “Sorry, we are looking for someone from this family because of a very urgent situation. I’m really sorry for disturbing you.”

The young man scratched his head vigorously, “But, two big brothers, there is no one at home, so it’s useless even if you knock! The uncle doesn’t return until after eleven o’clock every night, and it’s still half an hour away.”

Mo Yi Cheng asked quickly, “How could an old man come back so late? Where do we have to go to find him?”

The young man said, “At the wonton stall downstairs just at the mouth of the alley, you…” Halfway through his words, he seemed to recognize Mo Yi Cheng under the dim lights of the corridor, “You… you… you are… Mo Yi Cheng!”

Not waiting for him to finish speaking, Mo Yi Cheng had already rushed downstairs.

Kan Ming turned to the young man, “You have the wrong person.” With that, he also followed, going down the stairs.

The young man rubbed his eyes that were a little sore from playing games for a long time, a big question mark in his heart as he closed the door with a puzzled look on his face.

Mo Yi Cheng ran down the stairs and jumped into the driver’s seat. When Kan Ming saw this, he hurried to the passenger seat. Chen Sheng and Chen Jiao who were originally waiting inside the car, started their car when they saw the two of them come out.

Mo Yi Cheng backed out of the area sharply, knocking over the half-high metal trash can next to it, leaving a scratch on its body. After turning the car around, he stepped on the accelerator, driving the car towards the alley they had passed by on the way in. He’d had an impression of the little wonton stall when the lights had flashed by!

Everyone who lived on this street knew that there was a wonton stall at the entrance of the alley.

And those who had lived on this street for many years knew that the wonton stall at the entrance of the alley had been open for decades.

The stall owners had first gone from the two middle-aged couple to an old man. Rain or shine, summer or winter, the wonton stall would still be lit up with a small light at night, and people who came home late would go there to buy a bowl of hot, thin-skinned wontons, which warmed their hungry stomachs as well as the unbearable coldness that they had gotten from the road of life.

At this time, the old man at the wonton stall was ready to close. He wrapped the last bowl of wonton he had cook in a bag.

On a bench beside the wonton stall lay a Chinese field dog with golden fur, eyes closed halfway lazily. When he saw the old man closing the stall, he jumped down from the bench, stretched his waist, then followed the old man as he went about busily.

Two strong rays of light suddenly shone from the mouth of the alley.

The big yellow dog’s eyes were dazzled for a moment, then it dodged, then looked again and found that it was the two luxury cars that had driven in earlier. Two luxury cars in this kind of place late at night was really surprising, but now it just wanted to help the old man pack the things quickly and then return home.

Unexpectedly, the car stopped sharply in front of the stall.

The doors opened, and two men came down from inside.

The leader had a death grip on the cell phone in his hand, but when the big yellow dog saw his face, he froze…

“Old man!” Mo Yi Cheng didn’t notice the big yellow dog on the ground looking up at him in shock, going straight to the old man who was closing the stall.

“Hello, old man, we met during the day, do you still remember me?” Mo Yi Cheng tried to calm himself down.

“The old man looked up, “Ah, I remember. Why are you here again, do you want to eat wonton? There’s none left today, you’ll have to come back tomorrow if you want to eat some.”

Mo Yi Cheng said: “Old man, we came to disturb you this late at night because we have encountered a very serious problem. Please, you have to tell me where Fu Changgong is.”

The old man’s hand that was packing the things paused, “Didn’t I tell you during the day…”

“Old Uncle!” Kan Ming stepped forward, “Old Uncle, we really have a very important matter that’s why we want to see your grandson Fu Changgong, we don’t have any bad intentions.”

“….. Ai, why are you young people so difficult nowadays? There were also some young people who I don’t know where they got the information from that came here looking for Long Bow, saying that they wanted his autograph. He is a kid, but you want him to sign, what are you going to use it for?”

“Old uncle.” Mo Yi Cheng grabbed the old man’s wrist, unable to control his strength, trembling slightly as he said, “Old man, something happened to my elf, please, I need Long Bow’s help.”

The old man’s originally calm expression finally moved when he heard the word ‘elf’.

“You… what did you just say… this old man didn’t hear it well.”

Mo Yi Cheng had already gotten the answer from the old man’s reaction, he clutched the old man’s wrist, saying sincerely again, “Old man, I beg you, I can agree to any conditions. My elf is your grandson’s friend, his name is Du Du.”

As soon as his words fell, the big yellow dog which hadn’t made a sound before suddenly barked twice, both anxious and shocked.

When the old man heard the big yellow dog barking, he hesitated then said surprisingly to the big yellow dog, “Is what they are saying true?”

The big yellow dog nodded immediately.

The old man asked again: “His name is Du Du?”

The big yellow dog nodded again, barking.

Mo Yi Cheng glanced at the big yellow dog, seeming to understand something, but after being shocked, his thoughts went back to restoring the game first.

“Old man, please help me.” After saying that, he looked down at the big yellow dog and said, “Please help Du Du.”

“Woof woof!” The big yellow dog barked twice.

The old man sighed then patted Mo Yi Cheng’s hand, “Alright, young man, let’s talk about it slowly, my old bones really can’t stand your grasp.”

Mo Yi Cheng let go quickly, then said, “Then please get in the car, and… your dog.”

Chapter 31.2 The teenage Du Du!

The old man said: “It’s useless even if we get in the car. This dog can’t talk when he’s outside, you won’t be able to ask anything. We have to go home, he’ll be able to communicate once he enters the game.”

Mo Yi Cheng said hurriedly, “Alright, we’ll go back to your house immediately.” He signaled Kan Ming to invite the old man to get into the car then added, “My other two friends here will help you close the stall.”

Only then did the old man feel relieved to take his apron off and follow Mo Yi Cheng to the car.

Chen Sheng who was left behind to clean up the wonton stall jumped up resentfully, then rolled up his sleeves, “This is this young master’s first time serving someone else.” Then together with Chen Jiao started to close the stall.

Mo Yi Cheng and Kan Ming took one person and one dog back to the tube like building. The old man wasn’t walking fast, causing Mo Yi Cheng who was walking on the side to clench his fists, hating that he couldn’t carry him up the stairs. But this also gave him time to turn on the phone to check on Du Du’s current situation.

The room was still dim. Yuan Suo had been sitting on the floor of the study and probably very tired, had drifted off to sleep as he leaned against the bookshelf, but he was very restless, as if he was dreaming of something, his brows furrowed tightly.

Normally, Mo Yi Cheng didn’t even want him to take two steps on the ground with his bare feet, feeling distressed when he did so. Later, he simply placed thick carpets in the bedroom and living room, but now this little thing was sitting on the cold floor at night and had surprisingly fallen asleep. Mo Yi Cheng felt his heart break but he couldn’t do anything about it. He could only temporarily turn off the screen first, then say to the big yellow dog that was following the old man: “Are you Long Bow?”

The yellow dog gave a soft woof.

Sure enough, an elf could come out of the game whether it was through upgrading to a certain level or reaching a time limit. This also confirmed his previous guess about the ‘milk’ incident, but now wasn’t the time to talk about it.

They finally made their way up to the third floor with difficulty.

The old man took out the key to open the door.

The door had only opened by a crack but the big yellow dog went in through it first.

By the time Mo Yi Cheng and the others entered, the big yellow dog had already opened an old-fashioned computer in the room with his paws. Next to it was a highly configurated, very cool new computer by the looks of it, with various configurations on it that were extremely sophisticated.

After the computer was booted up successfully, the big yellow dog moved the mouse nimbly with its paws, then double-clicked a game icon on the desktop. It was the same ‘Elf Rebirth Program’ game that was on Mo Yi Cheng’s cell phone. The only difference was that this icon was based on Long Bow’s image, which was a Chinese field dog.

After the game started successfully, Long Bow jumped to the screen and then a burst of light flashed….The yellow dog disappeared out of thin air, replaced by a young Long Bow in the computer game interface.

The teenager in the game was none other than the game anchor who had many fans online – Fu Changgong.

Quickly accepting the fact that the yellow dog = elf = Long Bow, Mo Yi Cheng also made sure that at least this game was still running, because from Long Bow’s current situation, the game wasn’t malfunctioning. This meant that he could get in touch with the system again through Long Bow!

He explained the current situation of the game quickly, then turned on the screen, aiming it at Long Bow’s position to show him what was happening currently in the game.

When Long Bow saw Yuan Suo curled up in the darkness, sleeping in a ball on the floor as he also choked up from time to time, his heart immediately twisted with distress.

“I’m contacting the system now.” He had already reached level 60 and his understanding and mastery of the game was much more proficient than Yuan Suo. After a simple exchange by text message, he frowned and said, “Yuan Suo’s current condition should be from a malfunctioning in the system. Has your phone… ever had a glitch before?”

Mo Yi Cheng thought about it for a while then nodded. The last time the milk was boiling, the system had sent a message that the system had malfunctioned, but that it had been automatically repaired.

Long Bow said again: “After the system fails, it would automatically upgrade to repair the fault, but the vulnerabilities would need to be handled manually by the elf. It must be that Du Du doesn’t understand this aspect, so your game has always had this hidden danger.

According to my system, there was an earthquake in the real world associated with the game earlier and the source of the earthquake rippled through here, causing a small tremor. But I wasn’t inside the game at the time, so I didn’t know. If I’m not wrong, the existence of vulnerabilities inside Du Du’s system must have been caught up with the strong and extreme natural force associated with the earthquake, that was why today’s situation happened.

After Mo Yi Cheng finished listening to him, he asked, “So what should we do now, what should be done to fix the game?”

Long Bow thought about it, “The repairing of the system has to be done from the inside. Just restart the game inside the apartment, upgrade it again and it should be fine.”

“From the inside?” But with Du Du’s condition now, it was impossible for him to think of upgrading the system. In his small head, even in his sleep he was still saying that Mo Yi Cheng shouldn’t not want him. It seems he had already determined that Mo Yi Cheng didn’t want him because of the trouble he had caused, that was why the current situation had occured.

Long Bow nodded, “Repairing it from the inside is the quickest way, but in cases like this, even if it is left unattended, within three days the game’s only administrator would notice the abnormality and then repair it.”

Three days? For Mo Yi Cheng, three seconds now was like a kind of extreme torture. He simply couldn’t imagine what it would be like for the little thing to stay in such darkness for three days

“Three days is too long, is there any other way?”

“Yes, going to Du Du’s apartment to help him upgrade, but I’ll have to wait until it is dawn. My free time in the game is from 6am to 4pm and beyond that interval my activities are limited to certain areas. If I am to go to Du Du, we’ll have to wait until after 6 o’clock.”

Mo Yi Cheng glanced at the time. It was now eleven o’clock in the night. That was to say, it would take seven more hours!

“Is there a faster way?” Mo Yi Cheng asked.

Long Bow shook his head, “This is the fastest way I can think of.”

The next seven hours, were quite difficult for Mo Yi Cheng.

TL: Chapter 31.3 is just right here (it was a little too long).

Chapter 31.3 The teenage Du Du!

Inside the game, Yuan Suo woke up in the early hours of the morning and probably freezing, sneezed twice, dazed for a while. Then he fumbled back to the living room, picked up the tablet that had been placed on the sofa and found that the network was still down. The light from the tablet shone on his face. His small face was pale and miserable, his eyes were swollen and the corners of his eyes were red.

“If there’s no signal, I can’t leave a message for Mo Yi Cheng.” Yuan Suo murmured in a low voice then clicked on Weibo, but the interface kept spinning in circles. This was the last way he could think of to contact Mo Yi Cheng.

After a while, he suddenly opened his mouth to comfort himself, “That, it’s okay, actually… it’s very already good.” His tears fell down again, but he wiped them away quickly, even though no one could see, “It’s okay, it’s okay, you’re already very happy! Mo Yi Cheng was so good to Du Du. Although time seems to have passed by quickly, happy times always go by faster. Moreover, Mo Yi Cheng is so busy with work, if he has to take care of Du Du, it would be too troublesome, Du Du has to understand…”

But even after he persuaded himself, there was still no sound, then a low sob sounded.

Mo Yi Cheng sent messages to the game through the system over and over again. Even though he knew that the current Du Du simply couldn’t see them, it seemed that this was the only way to relieve the soreness he felt in his chest.

He asked Chen Jiao to send Chen Sheng back, but Chen Sheng refused. However he was too sleepy, so he could only ask Chen Jiao to send him to a nearby hotel for one night. Grandpa Fu went to bed first and Kan Ming closed his eyes, resting on the single sofa by the doorway.

Mo Yi Cheng guarded the phone and the computer, the expression on his face serious as he waited. Long Bow who was being looked at directly panicked, “I say… Mo Ge, can we relax a bit? The look in your eyes is making my back tingle.”

“Sorry.” Mo Yi Cheng moved, rubbing his astringent eyes. Yuan Suo who was in the phone was already lying with his back on the sofa, holding the tablet. His big eyes would close for a while, then open again. Mo Yi Cheng didn’t know what he was thinking, but at least he was no longer lying on the floor, tears falling from his eyes. He was a little relieved. As long as he could hold on until six o’clock tomorrow morning, everything would be okay.

After one o’clock in the morning, Long Bow really couldn’t continue. He usually played games all night, but just sitting like this, he couldn’t control the wave of sleepiness that came over him.

“You rest, don’t mind me.” Mo Yi Cheng said to him.

Long Bow thought about it for a while and without saying anything more, slept on the bed in his apartment in the game with his clothes on.

Although Kan Ming had closed his eyes, his the whole body was in a complete state of readiness, his eyes opening at the slightest movement. Mo Yi Cheng had just walked to the door when he saw that Kan Ming was about to get up. He waved his hand, motioning for him not to move, whispering: “I’m going out for a while, but I’ll be back soon. You stay here and watch the computer.”

Kan Ming considered it, “Okay, then take care.”

“Hmm.” Mo Yi Cheng opened the door and went out.

It was already 2:10 in the morning.

Mo Yi Cheng only felt that the time was passing by like years, and the air in the old crowded room was so thin that he couldn’t breathe.

Going downstairs, the temperature in S city was low in the early morning, the slightly humid cold wind that blew on one’s face waking them up instantly.

Holding his phone in one hand, he looked up at the moonlight in the sky, then walked towards the entrance of the alley.

The moonlight slanted downwards, stretching his tall and upright shadow. The wind rattled the branches of the old trees at the entrance of the alley, issuing a rustling sound.

Ding!

Ding!

Ding!

Short and harsh sounds suddenly came from the phone that Mo Yi Cheng was holding tightly in his hand, while the game interface that he hadn’t exited also glowed with a red light! A red warning bell that covered almost half of the screen kept rotating even as it emitted an ear-piercing sound.

Mo Yi Cheng was shocked.

Yuan Suo who was inside the game seemed to have heard the sound, waking up from his shallow dream as he looked around in a dazed and confused manner.

The alarm bells came from all directions, and Yuan Suo was so scared that he didn’t know where to hide. Grabbing a pillow, he curled up on top of the sofa, not daring to come out.

“Du Du! Don’t be afraid!” Mo Yi Cheng broke into a run, heading back. Long Bow might know what was going on!

Du Du who was inside the game felt an inexplicable sucking force in the air. He seemed to have lost control over his arms, body and legs. He watched as the panda pillow he had been holding floated slowly in the air.

“Ahh!” He screamed out in horror.

Mo Yi Cheng’s heart missed by half a beat. He looked at the screen, only to find… that the power supply in the apartment had been restored and the room was brightly lit, but… the apartment was empty, where was Du Du?

System emergency alert: Due to system failure, connection to the elf Du Du has been lost in the game space and the system is unable to find and locate him.

Mo Yi Cheng’s whole body froze in place, as if he had been struck by lightning, his brain blanking for a few seconds.

And at this moment, a soft and sticky voice came from behind, filled with trembling, “Mo… Mo Yi Cheng.”

Mo Yi Cheng could hardly believe his ears as he turned around slowly.

Behind him, stood a barefooted teenager.

The teenager was slender and very thin, wearing a pajamas and probably because of the shock, you could barely see any blood on his already fair skin. His light brown hair was slightly disheveled, his upturned nose and fleshy lips exuding a unique youthful aura.

The teenager’s two hands clutched the hem of his shirt, his pair of large eyes seeming to be filled with stars, the corners of his eyes slightly red…

“Mo… Mo Yi Cheng.” The teenager opened his mouth, calling out.