Although the cat caused some mischief, its presence briefly boosted thepetition''s poprity, and the event concluded quite smoothly.
Senior Brother Sun secured sixth ce, breaking through the ranks of professional yers with his rich experience and talent, earning a medal and prize money for cing between fourth and tenth.
He seemed quite pleased, and so did Sanwuwu.
The tortoiseshell cat perched on Chu Tingwu''s shoulder, exuding an air of aloofness, like a miniature long-haired dragon guarding its treasure. No one could tell that she was the mastermind behind thepetition''s viral animal track segment.
Chu Tingwu and herpanions packed up, ready to return to the ranch—
But a small hup urred.
The contestants didn’t want to leave.
The fans who had followed the international contestants were also captivated by the hotel''s VR experience pods and were equally enticed by the AR games everyone was ying. They, too, didn’t want to leave.
However, the game was still in its testing phase and region-locked. Even if they stayed in the country, there were no avable slots for new users. The neers could only indulge in VR live streams and wander through various video tforms.
Recently, Fangyuan''s live-streaming ount received a surge in donations. The VR pods had updated to include simted olfactory effects, and thepany''s streamers were the first to experience it. Viewers could see and smell but couldn’t taste, leaving them drooling and even asking if the streamers could arrange cross-province food deliveries.
Chu Tingwu handed over the contestants'' follow-up arrangements to the staff and boarded the boat with her cat.
She was worried that if they stayed any longer, Sanwuwu might establish a feline faction at Qingshan Temple on Zhangshan Mountain, pushing Taoist Zhuge out of his room and taking over the premises.
Though Sanwuwu was leaving, her pre-departure scheming with Yanzi suggested that Taoist Zhuge wouldn’t have an easy time.
Chu Tingwu: "..."
She silently prayed for him.
Back on the boat, everyone stepped onto the deck, feeling a slight but steady sway, which evoked a sense of nostalgia.
"Shall we y a round?"
"No brain teasers allowed."
"Got it, got it."
"And no inte ng or puns either..."
But such a game would drag on and be too mentally taxing. After exchanging nces, they opened a mini-game app and started ying AR mahjong.
-
The mahjong game was intense.
Chu Tingwu rubbed her temples, wishing Sanwuwu could take over for her. But as she turned her head, she noticed flickering lights outside the window.
The others saw it too. As the boat moved forward, the clusters of lights grew brighter. Shao Lingwu stood by the window: "Are those rivernterns?"
Countlessnterns floated on the water, outshining the stars. Chu Xiao recalled that it was indeed the season for the Qihe Cityntern festival, where people traditionally releasednterns on the river at night.
Stars ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????began to appear in the sky, and in the distance, the song of a boatman on a pleasure boat could be heard.
"The sun has set—"
"Listen to the crows—"
As the boat passed by, the song fragmented in the air, its melody rising and falling. Chu Xiao and Zhou Qiang only caught a few lines, but Shao Lingwu looked contemtive.
Chu Tingwu, however, heard more.
Her ears actively picked up the sounds—the flow of the water beneath, the flicker of thenterns'' mes, the hum of the sightseeing boat''s machinery, and the faint footsteps and murmurs of people on the shore. A symphony of sounds yed in her ears. With a thought, the white noise-like sounds softened, and the distant, hoarse boatman''s song became crystal clear.
It was like a private concert, with Chu Tingwu as the sole audience. Neither the "singer" nor the "musicians" cared.
On this ordinary night, she had stumbled upon a passing melody.
Chu Tingwu: "The VR equipment..."
Shao Lingwu: "Hmm?"
Chu Tingwu: "The VR live-streaming gear is impressive, but it can''t fully convey the streamer''s true experience to the audience."
She could only share a fraction of what she felt, leaving her with a mix of regret and contentment.
-
Meanwhile, the ranch was far from as rxed.
The coboration with "Yuan Tang" was set for mid-August, and the promotional campaign had already begun. However, the ranch''s setup was still iplete.
With the boss away, the staff had rushed in to work overtime.
In truth, "Yuan Tang" wasn’t interested in the rtively unknown ranch but in the game "Cats Can''t Learn." Though both were games, they weren’t directpetitors, making coboration mutually beneficial—and mid-August coincided with the third betaunch of "Cats Can''t Learn."n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om
This had been agreed upon during contract negotiations.
After all, a coboration between a billion-user national game and a new ranch in a second-tier city, with a daily visitor cap of 20,000, would raise eyebrows.
But an online coboration with a rising star in the gaming world, paired with offline activities at the ranch, made perfect sense.
As part of the coboration, "Cats Can''t Learn" would introduce a special "Yuan Tang" knowledge quiz, covering background lore, popr memes created by yers, and game skills and strategies.
Points earned from these quizzes could be spent in the event-exclusive shop for limited-edition skins and titles—standard fare. But as an AR game with strong interactivity, "Cats Can''t Learn" had an added twist: using data provided by "Yuan Tang," there was a chance to encounter feline versions of Tang Dynasty heroes in areas with high game activity.
...But why does Cheng Yaojin look like Cheng Yao-pig?
Naturally, any modifications or designs to the virtual AR characters had to be discussed and approved by the coborating parties. If the client misunderstood the character designs, it could lead to a PR disaster.
The "Cats Can''t Learn" team noticed that the partner seemed to favor chubby, rounded designs. While it made sense for the imperial family, why were the ministers also depicted as so stout? They were NPCs, not fighters in an arena.
Oh well... it’s a Tang Dynasty theme, and if the client likes it that way, so be it!
"Cats Can''t Learn" worked efficiently, quickly finalizing the event''sunch date. Now it was their turn to act as "Yuan Tang''s" client.
As apetitive MOBA game, "Yuan Tang" had a well-established coboration strategy. For deep coborations, they’d introduce a new hero; for lighter ones, a limited-time skin; and for offline coborations, branded merchandise like milk tea cups, blind boxes, trading cards, and stickers.
Given "Cats Can''t Learn''" enthusiasm, "Yuan Tang" reciprocated:
"How about releasing both a new hero and a coboration skin? Does your ranch sell milk tea?"
Cats Can''t Learn: "=="
They vetoed the suggestion.
The "new hero" would have a fixed design, likely a cat, a furry bipedal cat, or a humanoid cat-eared character. But "Cats Can''t Learn" was a nurturing game where yers'' cats had unique appearances. Introducing a mascot-like cat at this stage wouldn’t sit well with yers.
...And no, a horse wouldn’t work either! Seriously, no!
Still, "Yuan Tang''s" idea wasn’t entirely off the mark. A new hero, even if underpowered, could serve as a long-term IP representative within the game, ensuring sustained visibility.
But "Cats Can''t Learn" wasn’t willing to provide a specific character design... so how could they coborate?
Chu Tingwu: "Why not make it a nurturing feature?"
Isn’t "Cats Can''t Learn" a nurturing game?
Thepany’s nner murmured, "I’ve got it!"
Chu Tingwu: "?"
The designer exined: "In MOBA games, heroes are loved or hated based on their effectiveness, which creates expectations. That’s partly why I didn’t want ''Cats Can''t Learn'' to have a fixed character or skills—but if it has no function, there are no expectations, and thus no disappointment. It returns to the essence of cats: love for them grows simply because they exist."
Chu Tingwu: "?"
System: "Oh, our nner has a degree in philosophy."
Is it hard to find a job that matches your major with a philosophy degree?
The nner went off to work, while Chu Tingwu opened the game.
After all, there was going to be a coboration soon, but she had never yed *Yuan Tang* before. In fact, she rarely yed games—
She found it hard to stare at her phone for hours, and she didn’t care much about winning or losing in games, so she never got too invested.
After fiddling around for a while, she gradually figured out that MOBA games were fast-pacedpetitive games with a strong social element. Strangers matched as teammates had tomunicate intensively, discuss tactics, master skills, and even trash-talk in the public chat.
Strategic nning, technique, reaction speed, and an experiencedmander could all influence the oue of the match.
The more interesting part of the game was the character backgrounds and skill designs. The more you delved into it, the more fun it became. By giving beginners more AI opponents to practice against, letting them get familiar with the atmosphere and skills, and boosting their confidence, then adding some friends through matchmaking, and finally hooking yers with recharge options and rare skins… it didn’t take long to turn clueless beginners into struggling but reluctant-to-quit novices.
Afterpleting the tutorial and ying a few matches, Chu Tingwu finally encountered a match where both sides were purely human yers—no AI.
Well, except for the AI on her side: the system was spectating.
The system watching Chu Tingwu y was like Chu Tingwu watching a kitten y with a yarn ball—
The yarn ball hits the cat, the yarn ball is bad, but the cat isn’t hurt, so it’s fine to just watch.
But why is this yarn ball talking?
"Hey, Cheng Yaojin, are you an idiot? Do you even know how to y? Are you a total newbie? This isn’t the time to fight the dragon,e join the team fight!"
Chu Tingwu: "Sorry, Li Bai."
"Li Bai": "...Just call me by my ID. Sorry, I got a bit heated."
Chu Tingwu: "But why is Li Bai in a game set in the early Tang dynasty?"
"Li Bai": "...?"
Imperial Consort Yang, passing by, calmly said, "Because they need to release a new hero every month, and they’ve run out of early Tang figures. It’s fine, the game’s title has the word ''Yuan'' in it—they can just drag in heroes from the Song and Yuan dynasties if they need to."
To make the coboration less jarring and fit the game’s setting, if *Cats Can’t Learn* and *Yuan Tang* went ahead with their original n, the cats might have been portrayed as Imperial Consort Yang’s pets, with added plotlines about the cats saving their owner and the Imperial Consort faking her death.
"Li Bai": "..." How did you two start chatting?
Chu Tingwu: "I just started ying today, so I’m not very familiar with the game."
"Li Bai": "Your mechanics are actually decent, but your game sense needs work. Want to add me as a fri—"
Chu Tingwu: "By the way, ''Mist of Lingering,'' the soup you left boiling in the kitchen started bubbling at the beginning of this match. If you don’t go check it soon, it’s going to burn dry."
She heard it.
"Li Bai," whose ID had just been enunciated clearly: "..."
Maybe just call me by my character name… Wait, what’s going to burn dry?
His dumpling soup!!