Facing an Ancient God for a Year

“Open up! Time to get up!”

Without waiting for Fu Qian to respond, the visitor was already shouting outside the door—it was Qin Mingze’s voice.

Fu Qian reluctantly glanced at his noodles before getting up to open the door.

Outside, in addition to Young Master Qin who had visited yesterday, there was a new, seemingly harmless young man in his twenties.

Looking at Fu Qian, who had opened the door, the two silently exchanged glances.

“Has Young Master Qin been so free lately, unemployed?”

Fu Qian looked expressionlessly at Qin Mingze.

...“Unemployed, my ass, it’s Saturday! Xiao Yu and I came to hang out at your place.”

Qin Mingze nearly spat all over Fu Qian as he spoke and pushed his way into the room.

Xiao Yu, the student in question, smiled helplessly, greeted Fu Qian, and followed him into the house.

Xiao Yu’s full name was Wu Qingyu, a familiar face to Fu Qian, and a mutual friend with Qin Mingze.

The twenty-four-year-old Wu Qingyu was a student at a prestigious medical college, currently doing his internship and rumored to be so overworked that he couldn’t tell up from down. Fu Qian hadn’t seen him in a month or two.

Uh!

Young Master Qin dashed into the living room and plopped down on the couch, letting out a comfortable groan.

“There’s nothing like these fabric couches, my neck pain was about to flare up these past few days.”

Next to him, Wu Qingyu was even more dramatic, lying motionless on the couch as soon as he touched it.

“Out with it—what’s up? You guys didn’t come over just to mooch off my couch.”

Fu Qian glanced at his meal on the table.

“Hurry it up, I haven’t eaten yet.”

“You’re just going to eat this?”

Young Master Qin looked at the table, his face a picture of horror.

“Forget it, Xiao Yu and I brought some stuff over; you can make do with that.”

Lying down, Wu Qingyu weakly handed over a bag upon hearing this.

“No real reason, Xiao Yu and I just happened to have the day off, and he mentioned we haven’t seen you in a while, so we decided to drop by. Our weekend get-togethers have been on hold for quite some time.”

Young Master Qin explained with a straight face.

Qin Mingze and Wu Qingyu were among the few guests that would come over to Fu Qian’s place.

Once upon a time, Fu Qian too was a bright young man, an excellent student.

With his extraordinary intelligence, for a long time, he was the child everyone else’s parents talked about, the nightmare of countless classmates.

However, after his parents died in an accident when he was ten, Fu Qian underwent a major personality shift—by his own account, it was a profound realization.

After months of contemplating the meaning of life, he decisively kicked words like studies, social life, future, love, and career out of his vocabulary, morphing into his current self.

Naturally, very few friends remained. Nowadays, with Qin Mingze and Wu Qingyu included, that was basically his entire social circle.

“You off today?”

Fu Qian asked, looking at Wu Qingyu lying down in a sprawled pose, who hummed in affirmation.

“Didn’t you say before that you were too busy to die, with absolutely no time to rest?”

“Busy, for sure!”

Wu Qingyu covered his face with a pillow, his voice dreamy.

“Running errands, working night shifts, sticking labels, and whenever I get some rest, I freaking have to write papers. Now when I sleep, my head is filled with nothing but papers… So I came here to relax a bit.”

“Right, bring out your console, let’s play. I haven’t touched it in ages and my hands are itching.”

Qin Mingze patted Fu Qian.

It must be mentioned here that, although Fu Qian often struggled between meals, his home was indeed equipped with a full set of gaming gear, with regular updates. For instance, he went broke recently because he had just bought the latest gaming console.

As for why, as a member of the ‘lie-flat’ tribe, Fu Qian really had lots of free time, and gaming was a great way to get a dopamine fix.

Moreover, writing copy for some indie games was one of his sources of income. As Fu Qian would say, creativity demands understanding the application context, so it was important to draw appropriate material when necessary.

“What do we play today?”

Young Master Qin rubbed his hands in excitement, the most thrilled among the three.

In this day and age, gaming is an essential part of conversation for single young adults.

The games they had played together were countless, and Wu Qingyu, with his finger agility earned through his profession, was usually the dominant force.

However, Fu Qian had long since changed. His physical control had reached an unimaginable level.

Watching Fu Qian’s expressionless face as he soundly thrashed both of them, Young Master Qin eventually grew so frustrated that he kicked him off the console.

“How’s the progress on your latest career planning?”

While teasing the half-asleep Wu Qingyu, Young Master Qin asked casually.

“It’s only been one day, right?”

Fu Qian thought to himself, finally it has come.

He had already noticed that the two of them had been observing him with utmost caution, and upon hearing this, he immediately pressed the power button on his console.

“Spill it, why did you two come over today, exactly?”

…

Qin and Wu looked at each other, and finally, Wu Qingyu started speaking hesitantly.

“Yesterday, Brother Qin rushed to find me, saying you seemed a bit off and was worried about your health. He insisted on dragging me here to check on you.”

“Xiao Qian.”

Qin Mingze was also very serious.

“I understand your urgent feeling, but fitness is something that should be approached step by step. Some quick-fix methods can be very harmful to the body.”

After finishing, he turned his head back.

“Is he really okay?”

“I still have that much confidence.”

Wu Qingyu yawned.

“Although I don’t know how Xiao Qian trains, he looks very healthy, and I bet he could take me down no problem.”

“But isn’t this progress too fast, I can’t understand!”

Young Master Qin looked at Wu Qingyu with a sense of life’s futility, and the latter just spread his hands.

“Well, actually I hid some details yesterday.”

Touched by the two friends taking time out of their busy schedules to check on his health, Fu Qian decided to come clean with some information.

There really was a hidden story!

Qin and Wu both sat up straight, their eyes shining attentively.

“Actually, I’ve recently taken on a part-time job that pays quite well, and working out just comes with it.”

“Pays quite well? Is it physical labor?”

Qin and Wu were both surprised.

“Mostly, but it also occasionally requires some brainpower, and mastery of certain skills is very important.”

Qin and Wu’s eyes were wide.

“Must be a lot of exercise required, right?”

“Not always, but sometimes you have to repeat things many times, which can be annoying.”

“You need to take care of your body.”

They had run out of things to say.

“Wait a minute.”

After a moment of silence, Qin Mingze’s expression changed dramatically as he suddenly stood up and started taking off his clothes.

“Damn!”

This action completely dumbfounded Wu Qingyu, who rubbed his face subconsciously.

“I’m not awake yet, I’m not awake yet; I’m in a ‘nightmare’, I’m in a ‘nightmare’!”

After rubbing for a while, he suddenly let out a wail.

“Why is my thesis still not finished in my ‘nightmare’!”

“Take off your clothes and put on mine.”

Qin Mingze tossed his clothes to Fu Qian.

“What for?”

“Just put them on.”

After Fu Qian was dressed, Qin Mingze took out his phone and took several photos from different angles, then snapped his fingers after he was done.

“It’s such a waste not to use those muscles of yours. We are nearly the same height, so later I’ll photoshop your head away and replace it with mine. I’ll be invincible when it comes to picking up girls.”

Fu Qian turned to look at Wu Qingyu.

“If you had put this much shameless effort into your thesis, it would have already been done.”

“…better not.”