Morning sunlight slipped through a gap in the curtains, forming a narrow strip of light on the floor.
Xie Lin sat on the bed with his hair sticking up like a bird's nest, staring blankly at his relentlessly vibrating phone.
"Wait, what's going on?"
The WeChat notifications had been going off nonstop since before six.
He squinted as he unlocked the screen and discovered that the group blowing up was actually the one created during the collaboration with Star Rush Rush Rush-
Battle-Damaged Brothers.
The group was usually dead silent. Aside from Mi Ziqi tagging everyone on the day they joined and everyone exchanging greetings, nobody had said anything since.
Xie Lin had given the member list a cursory glance at the time, then muted the notifications.
If it hadn't kept dinging away today, he would almost have forgotten he had ever joined such a group.
He scrolled up through the chat history and finally found the source of the commotion.
[Mi Ziqi: (recalled a message)]
[Xiao Lie: ??? Screenshotted.]
[Mi Ziqi: Fuck, just look at it yourselves. Don't share it around (spare me, Your Majesty.jpg)]
[Song Yunshen: I took a screenshot too. I'm telling Mr. Xie you **** him.]
[Mi Ziqi: ?? You little shit, you pull this on me after reading it? Then have the guts not to read it.]
[Huang Jingrui: What's going on? Why has this group suddenly come back from the dead? What are you talking about?]
[Yu Zhiwei: I'm just quietly watching without saying anything.]
[Mi Ziqi: (rubs hands like a fly) Have mercy, everyone. Please don't tell Tao Miaomiao, sob sob sob.]
[Xie Lin: ???]
The instant his message went through, the entire group fell silent.
[Xie Lin: ??? What are you talking about?]
A full five seconds passed before Mi Ziqi called