After delivering what amounted to a confession of love, Yun Ruifeng stared unblinkingly at Shen Zhiwei, waiting for his reply.

Dr. Shen was silent awhile, then said, “If your cooking is a match in quality for the imperial kitchens, we can affix our stamp of approval to your request.”

To be the captain of Shen Zhiwei’s bodyguards, naturally the first thing he needed was Shen Zhiwei’s consent.

Yun Ruifeng couldn’t help laughing. He pulled Shen Zhiwei into his arms. Smiling, he said, “It seems my first task as captain of your guard will be to help you change your speech habits. But when we’re together, you can still talk like this. Your subject wife will always be Your Majesty’s empress.”

Yun Ruifeng’s words soothed the restiveness that had plagued Shen Zhiwei for days. He had been unable to tie the two worlds together and had kept feeling that he didn’t belong to this one. Before, he had forced the discomfort down with work. Now that Yun Ruifeng, who knew both worlds, was here, his unease was at last slowly settling.

The world is only real when you’re here.

After they had held each other for a while, Yun Ruifeng frowned and said, “I feel like we both smell of nutritional paste. Have you not showered since you woke up?”

Shen Zhiwei was silent.

Smiling, Yun Ruifeng said, “I know that you were working every second of the day in order to write a program to rescue me. I’m the same. As soon as I woke up, I wanted to be near you as soon as possible, not delay a single second. I want to be with you every minute, every second. I don’t even want to miss out on the time it takes to take a shower. Let’s shower together!”

Shen Zhiwei was again silent.

He felt that the empress’s sweet-talking skills had improved considerably.

Helpless in the face of Yun Ruifeng’s cajoling, he agreed that the two of them could shower together. Unlike Emperor Jingren, Shen Zhiwei’s body was real flesh and blood, and it had had no sexual experience. They couldn’t just go right ahead. So while they showered, Yun Ruifeng could only touch and kiss. The two of them helped each other get off but didn’t go further.

Yun Ruifeng treasured this hard-won reunion, and he could tell that Shen Zhiwei was still bewildered by his two sets of memories. He was planning, after some time had passed, to choose a good day for it, ideally after they had obtained a marriage license and could have a proper wedding night. Then he would show the young doctor some love.

Yes, Yun Ruifeng had just furtively had the computer calculate an auspicious date according to the old lunar calendar and made plans to register their marriage.

Though they hadn’t taken the last step, for two inexperienced bodies accustomed to nothing but work, with few opportunities for relief, what they’d done was already quite stimulating. Shen Zhiwei wasn’t as strong as Yun Ruifeng; he became a little dizzy in the shower and was carried back to bed, where further liberties were taken.

With Yun Ruifeng’s help, Shen Zhiwei adjusted to this world more rapidly. When he left his room again, he was once again the cold, severe Dr. Shen he had been before.

The working group, which had become the doctor’s superfans, said among themselves that it was a pity. They presented Shen Zhiwei with the materials they had arranged over the past few days for review, concerning bugs in the game, the players’ testing data, their personal evaluations, and their difficulty adjusting to modern society on their return.

The testing had shown them all that the game required improvements. Their original plan of a completely realistic society was impracticable, because it left the players incapable of distinguishing the game from reality and disordered their thoughts. In the current phase, they had to make the perfect game less realistic; though no one really wanted to do this, they all knew that it was for the good of the players.

But the truth was that the game based on the Jinjiang novel To Forsake the World was as close to perfect as possible. It had become a world unto itself.

After perusing the materials, Dr. Shen said, “Improvements are indeed necessary, but we must do our best not to alter this game. The perfection of To Forsake the World increases its value beyond what a simple game can provide. Having experienced it for myself, my feeling is that the company can develop tourism and fine dining lines of business based on this game, expanding the game to allow people to have experiences in it. My recommendation, therefore, is to choose a script that will make a better background for a holographic game instead of changing To Forsake the World.”

“Doctor, that will require approval by the board of directors,” Dr. Shen’s assistant said uneasily.

“I’ll talk them around. I’ll tell them that the value of this game is greater than they ever imagined and may allow us to enter all new fields.”

This was all he could do for that world. He would do his best to preserve this game and control the rules under which players entered the holographic world, so they couldn’t harm the NPCs there and the two sides could coexist peacefully.

After signing off with his views on the question of making changes to the game, Shen Zhiwei read the materials concerning the players. The players’ evaluations were also very important to the working group. Dr. Shen would change some of the game’s data according to the players’ experiences.

When he came to the materials of a certain player, Shen Zhiwei’s finger gently tapped twice on the player's in-game name.

Player 9
Game Name: Yan Xu
Game Occupation: Commander of Imperial Guard
Game Progress: Attempted Rape, Seduction Failed
Game Evaluation: Absolutely terrifying
Status of Recovery after Return: Still undergoing psychological treatment
Statement from Player: In the future, in addition to blocking pain, can the game also censor vision and sensation? Do you know what it feels like to be dropped into a snake pit and bitten? Even if you can’t feel pain, when you watch a snake bite your little willy, when you feel ants crawling all over you, it’s still very scary! It’s scary enough to see it in a horror movie, but now they’re all over me, biting me!
PS: But the scenery and food in the game are awesome. If you could fix the problem I mentioned earlier, I would happily play for a hundred years.

Shen Zhiwei absorbed this silently.

During the planning stage it had been decided that, in order to protect the players’ privacy, some scenes not suitable for wider viewing would be censored even in the data. Therefore, not even the game’s managers had the authority to review a player’s actions in the game until they returned to the real world.

However, Emperor Jingren was the players’ seduction target, and after hitting his head, Emperor Jingren had become Dr. Shen. Probably everyone in the working group knew that Player 9’s attempted rape had been aimed at Dr. Shen.

Seeing Dr. Shen reading Player’s 9’s materials carefully, his assistant’s heart stuttered. He was Dr. Shen’s diehard fan; during the days Dr. Shen was resting, he had reviewed the players’ materials. All the members of the working group had been furious when they’d read that Player 9 had actually planned to use force when his attempts to get close to Dr. Shen had failed. Some excitable people had even wanted to go beat him up. It was lucky that the psychology group didn’t have the authority to see the players’ materials, and that they didn’t know that Dr. Shen was Emperor Jingren, or else they might not have been able to resist hitting him either…

“We have been thinking,” said Shen Zhiwei, deep in thought, with an expression of profound concern. “Can the people in the game be mistreated as one likes? During the era of online keyboard games, players could kill without thinking about it. But in a realistic holograph like this, should the players also be allowed to vent their desires? Abusing NPCs, raping NPCs—is that really right? In modern society, there are penalties even for damaging objects in public spaces. Maltreating an NPC or forcing an NPC to kill themself destroys a portion of the data all our subjects worked so hard on. Doesn’t that require compensation?”

The assistant heartily approved of this, but the “we” and “our subjects” really wasn’t in the spirit of things!

“Then there’s violence between players,” said Shen Zhiwei. “Before the players die in the game, their sensations will be blocked, but despite that, the experience will still be unpleasant. If they kill each other in the game and have difficulty telling reality from the game when they wake up, won’t there be instances of aggression?”

“But, Doctor, the goal of the game was to let the players vent their dissatisfaction with real life.” The assistant understood Dr. Shen’s misgivings, but he was also worried.

“We understand.” Shen Zhiwei nodded and continued. “Therefore, in a hyperrealistic tourism game like To Forsake the World, I propose that everything be treated according to modern standards and that limits be placed on the NPCs and players to keep the players from harming NPCs or other players. Naturally, NPCs can still harm each other. And if the players wish to experience the pleasures of battle, we can all design a game where the experience isn’t so realistic and the NPCs aren’t so intelligent.”

“Right.” The assistant nodded firmly. “That makes sense. This can satisfy the needs of different players, and it can protect them from moral decay caused by the hyperrealism of the game.”

“Yes.” Shen Zhiwei attached his views to the players’ feedback and gave all the materials to his assistant. “Tidy this up, and when I’ve looked at it, I’ll present my views to the board.”

“All right.”

“Make arrangements for this afternoon. We wish to see Yan Xu.”

“All…huh?” The assistant stared blankly at Dr. Shen.

“Didn’t you hear?” Shen Zhiwei’s gaze swept toward his assistant, full of boundless dignity. After that single look, the assistant felt himself going weak at the knees; he was ready to kneel before Dr. Shen.

“I heard!” The assistant nodded energetically. “I will arrange an interview between you and Player 9. Doctor, he’s still undergoing psychological treatment. In order to ensure he doesn’t attempt to harm you because he can’t tell reality from the game, should I request a straightjacket?”

“No need,” said Dr. Shen. “Have Major General Yun accompany us.”

“All right!”

As soon as the assistant was out the door, he opened his personal terminal, logged into WeChat, and posted in a recently created group chat called “Dr. Shen Emperor Jingren Fan Club”: The past few days the doctor was adorably confused, now he’s radiating command. Before, Dr. Shen was only a consummate professional and a genius. Now he’s added elements like “high emotional intelligence,” “sound reasoning,” “foresight,” and "powerful aura.” I was just giving an account of the work and couldn’t handle how cool he was. Even if the doctor stops using the imperial “we,” he’ll still be cool enough to knock people off their feet.

Once he sent the message, a string of yes yes yes and cute cute cute comments appeared below it, just as if these people had seen it with their own eyes.

Satisfied, the assistant added: Another little piece of news, this afternoon the doctor wants to see Player 9. Yes, that’s right, the Player 9 you’re all thinking of!

The Doctor’s Diehard Fan: what! i’m going to give the doctor my taser!

Dr. Shen Is A Total Cutie: quietly handing over a metal pipe

The Doctor Calls Himself We: handcuffs, field gun, and antique cleaver at the ready

The Empress: the young emperor wants to see who? can we break player 9’s third leg as a punishment for rape?

Everyone: …who’s that?

The Empress: never mind. assistant, is the doctor going to see him alone?

The assistant also didn’t know when this “Empress” had shown up, but it seemed that they were also very concerned about the doctor, so he responded: No, the doctor’s so smart, how could he be alone with that person? He’s going with Major General Yun.

The Empress: understood.

Everyone silently processed this.