The village where he lives is a low-lying area surrounded by mountains, surrounded by bamboo forests and covered with black tiles. The sound of summer cicadas hangs from the eaves, low and muffled, as if it came from forty years ago, not new at all.
There is Internet in the village, but it is intermittent. Only at a certain time in the afternoon, when the sun shines obliquely on the stone steps behind the house and the window lattice shakes out light and shadow, can his mobile phone connect to the signal for a while. So he knew there was a game outside called “Ming Chao”.
He was fifteen years old, studying in the county middle school, and returned to the village during the summer vacation. There was no cinema, no shopping mall, and no piano lessons in this village. His playmates were frogs by the ditch and corn dried by his grandmother. The days passed slowly, and he would climb to the top of the mountain at noon every day, where the signal was the most stable and he could play “Ming Chao” for a while.
He liked a character called Xia Kong. Xia Kong can glide in the sky, wearing light blue and light, not like a woman in the world, but like a cloud falling from the sky.
He couldn’t tell why he liked her, maybe because she had a quiet power, not ostentatious, but firm. Like the old lady drying grains at the head of the village, she was still nimble at her age; like when he was a child flying a kite, the kite still flew up at the moment when he couldn’t hold the string.
Xia Kong had to grow up and become stronger in the game. The boy checked the information and brushed the materials day by day with that pitiful signal.
Xia Kong needed a lot of things, such as:
Burning Phosphorus Bone × 46,
Golden Fleece × 60,
Full Frequency Tidal Erosion Sail Core × 61,
Contains Miscellaneous Crystallized Phlogiston × 25,
Rough Crystallized Phlogiston × 28…
Behind every material is a copy, a battle, a wait and a bit of luck. He was not afraid at all. He said, “She’s working hard, and I want to work hard, too.”
Sometimes the network is stuck, and he waits for a whole minute just to kill a monster; sometimes the phone is so hot that it’s like a small stove, and he puts it on the stone slab beside the well to cool it down. His grandmother asked him, “What’s so fun about this?”
He couldn’t say. But he knew that these virtual materials were not just numbers. They were some possibilities he wanted to get closer to. Like the transfer student from the town’s junior high school that winter, he saw a blue schoolbag, with light in his eyes and neatly combed hair, different from the children in the village.
Material is a good word. In the village, soil is the material for seeds, and firewood is the material for cooking. If a person wants to become better, he also needs materials. And this game just let him learn to understand the word “accumulation”.
One day, he found out that the “Phosphorus Burning Bone” would drop from the Sighing Ancient Dragon. He saved up his energy and challenged again and again. He couldn’t beat it. He checked the lineup and changed weapons. Finally, he won once. He took a video, saved it, and showed it to his uncle at night.
His uncle was working outside and said, “What’s the use of this thing of yours?”
He just smiled. The moonlight shone on the eaves, and the night insects chirped. He lay on the mat, listening to the sound of the wind blowing the bamboo leaves outside, as light as the skirt of Xia Kong. Suddenly, he missed the game world a little. He said, “I’ll play a few more times tomorrow to see if I can get gold.”
The next day, he squatted at the top of the mountain where the signal was the strongest for a whole morning. The villagers thought that the kid was crazy. But he knew better than anyone: he found a reason to persist behind that small screen.
By the end of August, he finally gathered all the breakthrough materials for Xia Kong. When he saw the character reach level 90, a light seemed to light up in his heart. At that moment, he didn’t share it with anyone, but just wrote in his diary: “I did it.”
After school started, he returned to the county. The school’s network was faster and the dormitory was noisy. He didn’t have much time to play games anymore. Xia Kong stopped at level 90 and did not continue to break through the circuit.
But he was not in a hurry. He felt that life was the same. He would take it step by step, and one day he would become like Xia Kong, firm, light, quiet, and powerful.
At night, there was the sound of wind in the concrete building outside the window. He curled up in the quilt, with only 3% battery left on his phone. He whispered, “Xia Kong, let’s fly together.”
She did not answer. There was only a beam of light that flashed on the screen and then went out. But he knew that it was not the end, but just a new beginning.