You were supposed to have a fake marriage with the diva, so how did you become her father?

Chapter 75 Plants vs. Zombies

When Lu Ran got home that evening, he started typing on his keyboard in his room.

Recently, Lu Ran has finished writing his monthly tasks for both the script and the novel. In addition, with Shen Yuege not at home, he feels a bit bored in the evenings.

So he went back to his old profession and planned to write a new game.

There's a severe lack of games available right now, and he's getting a little tired of the "Sheep is Sheep" game.

After all, the gameplay is too monotonous. It's fine for a short time, but if you keep playing it, you'll get tired of it.

So this time, Lu Ran plans to write a relatively complex game.

Although he currently has tens of millions of points in his system, there is no option to redeem them for games, so he still has to write the games out himself.

However, while he was writing the program, he was also on the phone with Shen Yuege.

"We finished work early today and are already back at the hotel." Shen Yuege seemed quite happy about finishing work early. "By the way, Lu Ran, I ran into Xu Manlin backstage today."

Lu Ran was somewhat surprised: "And then?"

"That was it, we just said hello," Shen Yuege said. "But she seemed to be in good spirits and even asked me how the album was selling. I was just wondering, didn't she always seem to dislike me before?"

"Maybe she's figured it out." Lu Ran recalled Xu Manlin's comment encouraging Shen Yuege on Weibo. "People change."

Shen Yuege hummed in agreement, then suddenly said, "Lu Ran, I'm a little homesick."

The "home" here refers to the home where Lu Ran lives.

Lu Ran's heart skipped a beat: "There are still three months left on the contract."

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone.

"I know." Shen Yuege's voice was as soft as a sigh. "So it's just... I suddenly feel a bit sentimental."

Neither of them spoke again, and the phone remained connected.

However, they could hear each other breathing through the microphone.

After a while, Shen Yuege said, "By the way, I'm going to Shanghai next week to record a show for two days. If I have some free time in between, I'd like to stay at home for one night?"

"Okay." Lu Ran agreed quickly. "Tell me the exact time, and I'll come pick you up."

"Mm." There was finally a hint of laughter in Shen Yuege's voice. "Then I won't bother you anymore. Go to sleep early. Good night."

Goodnight, you too.

After hanging up the phone, Lu Ran stared blankly at the computer screen for a while.

He suddenly remembered Tan Yu and Xu Manxue, whom he had seen during training that day.

Tan Yu, that kid, is usually loud and boisterous, but he becomes adorably clumsy in front of the person he likes.

Xu Manxue was also very willing to patiently teach Tan Yu.

What about himself?

Lu Ran shook his head.

Let's focus on the present today. He remembered that Shen Yuege seemed to really like these kinds of casual games. Last time she got a sheep, Lu Ran saw her play it many times.

In that case, let's make a game that's richer and more strategic than "Sheep and the Sheep".

The images of classic games flashed through his mind, and finally, he thought of a suitable game—Plants vs. Zombies.

This game was incredibly popular in its previous life, enjoyed by people of all ages and genders.

Lu Ran still remembers his college roommate who stayed up for two nights in a row to beat Plants vs. Zombies.

However, this game is not particularly difficult; it is a very easy game to pick up and play.

He first established the basic framework of the game: a zombie wearing a helmet staggered out from the right side of the screen and moved to the left along the lawn; on the left was a sunflower, with sunlight streaming from its flower head.

"Sunflowers produce sunlight, and sunlight is currency used to buy other plants..." Lu Ran muttered to himself as he quickly wrote the code.

Thanks to his experience from his previous life, he avoided all known bugs and design flaws and directly provided an optimized version.

Interface layout, character animation, sound effect triggering, collision detection... I handled each module with great ease.

At 1 a.m., the basic framework had been completed.

Lu Ran wiggled his fingers and began filling in the game content.

"First level, daytime lawn, ordinary zombies," he muttered softly. The first few levels were designed to familiarize beginners with the process, so they were very simple: "Plant sunflowers, collect sunlight, plant pea shooters. OK!"

He specifically added some minor optimizations not present in the original version of that world: an option for automatic sun collection, an adjustable game speed multiplier, and a helpful hint system that provides strategic suggestions when players experience consecutive failures.

"Be gentle the first time."

"After all, people in this world have never played tower defense games before."

Although Lu Ran had the ideas and logic for game design in mind, the game code for Plants vs. Zombies was still somewhat complicated compared to Sheep vs. Zombies.

He also needs to design the shapes of these plants and zombies, which will indeed be difficult to finish writing in a short period of time.

"Alright, that's enough for today." Lu Ran typed the last line of code, saved it, and shut down the computer.

After all, I've already stayed up until 2 a.m. for the first time ever, which is really inappropriate.

The training base was quiet at night.

Tan Yu lay in bed, tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep.

Although the training today was tiring, he felt very fulfilled.

I especially feel that my relationship with Xu Manxue has gotten closer today; we should be considered friends now.

He opened WeChat, looked at Xu Manxue's profile picture, wanted to send something, but didn't know what to send.

After hesitating for a long time, I finally typed only one line: "Thank you for teaching me today."

Click send.

Almost immediately after he sent the message, Xu Manxue replied: "You're welcome. Let's learn from each other! You did a great job today too! Get some rest, we have to get up early for training tomorrow."

Tan Yu stared at Xu Manxue's text message, and the corners of his mouth unconsciously turned up.

She just praised me for doing well today; she's been paying attention to me.

After staring at the message for a while, Tan Yu replied, "Okay, goodnight!"

After sending the message, he stared at the screen until the other person replied with "Goodnight" before putting down his phone.

He replied with "Goodnight," then stared at the screen until Xu Manxue also replied with "Goodnight," before finally putting down his phone with satisfaction.

Lying in bed, Tan Yu looked at the moonlight outside the window, which shone through the gap in the curtains.

In Tan Yu's mind, however, was the image of Man Xue running, practicing, and her bright and beautiful eyes.

Maybe this is what it feels like to like someone.

Then strive to become a better person, someone worthy of her, so she can see your efforts.

As Tan Yu pondered these thoughts, he slowly drifted off to sleep.

In his dream, he was still Yang Kang, and she was still Mu Nianci.

On the fighting stage, he won the duel, but he didn't ask her to marry him. He simply said:

Tell me your name.

She said, "My name is Xu Manxue."

He said, "My name is Tan Yu. It's not a character's name in the play, it's my real name."

Then they both laughed.

That smile didn't seem like acting; it felt more genuine.

...