Chapter 14

Pei Ran wanted to argue, but when he looked, compared to Yan Zhun's, his really were a tiny bit.

He said nothing and quietly drew his feet back.

Yan Zhun smiled and stopped teasing him, taking out his phone to check his messages.

[Lin Xuhuan: Waaaah, bro, wait for me. I'll head out as soon as I change! Fuck, I'm way behind on my streaming hours. Coach just dragged me back and lectured me forever... Dinner's on me today!]

[Yan Zhun: Wait, don't change yet.]

[Lin Xuhuan: ?]

[Yan Zhun: How much is a rocket on your streaming platform?]

[Lin Xuhuan: 2,000. Why?]

[Yan Zhun: Transferred 2,000 yuan to the recipient.]

[Lin Xuhuan: ?]

[Yan Zhun: Something came up. Go have fun on your own.]

Lin Kang soon returned. He couldn't eat quietly, opening his mouth to talk every couple of bites.

"It rained all through the seven-day break. I didn't go anywhere. I was practically growing mold at home." Lin Kang wiped his mouth. "Where did you go over the break?"

He was asking Yan Zhun. Pei Ran looked so focused on eating that he felt bad interrupting him.

"Nowhere," Yan Zhun said. "I was busy making money."

"Making money?" Lin Kang asked. "You got a part-time job?"

"You could say that." Yan Zhun sounded casual. "Worked as a gaming companion for a few days."

Lin Kang was too busy being shocked to notice the other person beside him pause, then even start chewing much more slowly.

"You... worked as a gaming companion?" Lin Kang said. "Like on Bixin?"

"Something like that," Yan Zhun said. "On another platform."

Lin Kang's expression was complicated. He and his friends hired gaming companions every time they played together, so he could be said to know the business inside out. You could be bad at the game, you could hide your way through it, but you had to have a nice voice and know how to sweet-talk people.

After all, it was just gaming. The point was to have fun. If they really wanted to climb the ranks, they might as well hire someone to play on their accounts. It saved time and effort.

But Yan Zhun... never mind sweet-talking anyone, there was no guarantee he would even respond.

So Lin Kang chose his words carefully. "Then, did it go well?"

"Not bad." Whether intentionally or not, Yan Zhun glanced at Pei Ran. "I only take orders from one person."

Pei Ran: "..."

He had already decided that if Lin Kang asked him, he would honestly say he had spent the whole break gaming-two guys playing games together was perfectly normal.

But with those few words from Yan Zhun, it somehow didn't sound quite so aboveboard anymore.

Sure enough, Lin Kang froze for a few seconds before asking, "Just one client? Then how many hours did she buy?"

"Sixty," Yan Zhun said.

Lin Kang drew a deep breath and started calculating. "Sixty hours... you'd charge at least a hundred an hour, right? That's six thousand yuan. A break of just seven days, and she was willing to book sixty hours with you... Your client's keeping you!"

Pei Ran choked and couldn't help coughing a few times. Both people beside him looked over at once.

Under their gazes, Pei Ran forced out, expressionless, "It's just a transaction... I don't think that counts as keeping someone."

Yan Zhun leaned back in his chair and gave a lazy smile.

Lin Kang didn't notice the subtle atmosphere between them. He earnestly explained to Pei Ran, "You've never hired a gaming companion. You don't understand. When we hire one, we usually pay as we play. But the big spenders are different. They leave money with their gaming companions, who deduct the fees themselves. Sometimes, even if they deduct too much, the clients won't say anything."

Then he asked Yan Zhun, "Have you played all sixty hours yet?"

"No. My client was worried I wouldn't get paid, so he settled up in advance." Yan Zhun asked with interest, "What do you think he was thinking? Wasn't he afraid I'd run off?"

"That means she's become your regular client, and she'll definitely keep booking you." Lin Kang answered with complete confidence, "She's into you!"

The table fell silent.

After a long while, Yan Zhun gave a short laugh. "Really? But my client's a guy."

Lin Kang: "..."

Yan Zhun's "regular client" picked up his coffee and calmly took a sip, finishing his meal.

When it was time to pay, Yan Zhun opened his payment code first, his tone natural. "I made a little money from my part-time job. My treat."

After dinner, the three of them left the restaurant together. A little way down the road, Lin Kang turned into a supermarket to buy cigarettes.

Pei Ran hesitated for a long time before saying, "I didn't mean to keep you. I was just worried I wouldn't have time to play once classes started, and it would affect you getting paid. If I offended you... I'm sorry."

Yan Zhun had wanted to say, Go ahead and offend me some more, but on second thought, he decided not to tease him. "It's fine."

Pei Ran let out a relieved breath and took out his phone. "How much was dinner? I'll transfer it to you."

That Western restaurant was quite expensive. A set meal alone cost two or three hundred.

Yan Zhun kept both hands in his pockets. "No need."

"You didn't make any money, though," Pei Ran insisted. "Can I send it to you on WeChat?"

Pei Ran had only just opened WeChat when his roommate called, saying he was about to move out and rent a place with his girlfriend. He was leaving that evening and wanted to discuss the money for the appliances they had bought together, so he asked Pei Ran to come back to their room.

Just then, Lin Kang came out of the supermarket. Seeing him on the phone, he didn't interrupt, only pointed toward their campus and said, "Yan Zhun and I will head back first, then. Take this little path back. It's shorter."

Although they attended the same university, they were on different campuses, separated by a street. It took ten minutes to walk between them.

Pei Ran wanted to call them back, but his roommate kept asking over the phone, "Can you hear me? Can you come back now?"

Pei Ran could only answer, "Yes, I'll be right back..."

Yan Zhun suddenly stepped closer, took something out of his pocket, and gently slipped it into Pei Ran's hoodie pocket.

Only after Yan Zhun's retreating figure had blended into the night did his roommate finally hang up.

Pei Ran put his phone away, turned, and walked a few steps before reaching into his pocket.

He took out a few pieces of candy.

At noon on the day of the sports meet, Yan Zhun was woken by a call from the class president, reminding him not to forget the thousand-meter race that afternoon.

Yan Zhun gave a couple of perfunctory replies and hung up. He lay under the covers a little longer before lazily sitting up.

Luo Qingshan was putting on his running shoes. "I was just about to wake you. Want to go for a run together and warm up?"

Yan Zhun said no. After a while, he asked, "What event did you sign up for?"

"Three thousand meters." Luo Qingshan sounded a little excited. "I asked around. Pei Ran signed up for the three thousand too. Wish me luck, bro."

Yan Zhun frowned, then quickly relaxed his brow. He took his phone from under his pillow without answering.

Ever since he had stood Lin Xuhuan up that day, Lin Xuhuan seemed to have gotten a taste for it and messaged him every day to ask him out for a meal.

[Lin Xuhuan: Bro, dinner tonight? My treat. If you're busy, you can stand me up too.]

Yan Zhun snorted.

Instead of scamming gifts out of his fans, he was scamming his friends. What a bastard.

As he was thinking this, another message popped up.

It was a long message, obviously one of those silly texts sent out in bulk.

Yan Zhun skimmed it and was just about to close it when something occurred to him. His lips curled as he pressed and held the message, then tapped forward.

Pei Ran was sitting in the cafeteria, with only two vegetable dishes on the tray in front of him.

He had a long-distance race that afternoon. Eating too much would upset his stomach.

His phone chimed softly.

[Yan Zhun: Onii-chan, the season's almost over, and I still haven't reached 6,000 points qaq I'm not very good, but I'll always stick close to you, big brother o(〃'▽'〃)o Taking gunfights and rushing buildings www is too scawy. I don't wanna kill anyone. I just wanna carry first aid kits and med kits and follow you!]

Pei Ran: "...?"

His eyes widened slightly as he checked the sender's saved name over and over.

[Pei Ran: Did you send this to the wrong person?]

[Pei Ran: This is Pei Ran.]

[Yan Zhun: Yeah, wrong person.]

[Yan Zhun: When's the three thousand?]

[Pei Ran: Three this afternoon.]

[Yan Zhun: Stop if you can't finish. Your Arts Department isn't that particular about the sports meet.]

[Pei Ran: ...]

[Pei Ran: I'll finish.]

That afternoon, Pei Ran went to the track with his roommate.

His roommate had signed up for the thousand meters and just wanted to coast through it. It wasn't time for the race yet, so they sat in the stands waiting to check in.

His roommate was chatting on his phone when he suddenly laughed. "My girlfriend's running the relay later. I'm going to cheer her on."

Pei Ran nodded. "That's nice."

"What about you?" his roommate asked casually. "Isn't Luo Qingshan coming to cheer you on?"

"We broke up," Pei Ran said.

"Huh?" His roommate stopped typing and turned to him in surprise. "When did that happen? But I ran into him the day break started, and he said you two didn't have any plans and were just staying home..."

Pei Ran hadn't known about that. He tugged at the corner of his mouth. "We'd already broken up before that."

His roommate wasn't as nosy as Lin Kang. After a couple of surprised remarks, he dropped the subject and patted Pei Ran's shoulder. "Let's not talk about that. It's time for my race. Come on, go wait at the finish line and cheer me on."

Pei Ran froze for a moment when he saw Yan Zhun at the starting line.

Yan Zhun was very tall, and his starting stance was just as textbook as those of the two sports students beside him. Though the sports students had athletic builds, Yan Zhun's broad shoulders and long legs easily drew the spectators' attention.

Pei Ran even heard two girls beside him discussing giving Yan Zhun water afterward.

The moment the starting gun fired, Yan Zhun shot off the line like an arrow from a bow.

A thousand meters wasn't difficult for guys. The two sports students ran incredibly fast, with Yan Zhun behind them, while his roommate... was bringing up the rear in a battle of the weak with someone from the Computer Science Department.

Pei Ran watched Yan Zhun get closer and closer, until he crossed the finish line in third place, then-came straight toward him.

After a sprint, runners needed to jog a little to slow down. Pei Ran even suspected Yan Zhun would run into him and instinctively wanted to step back.

Yan Zhun came to a steady stop.

His chest rose and fell. He caught his breath for a moment, then said, "Don't worry. I won't hit you."

Pei Ran blinked quickly and said stiffly, "Congratulations. Third place."

"What's there to congratulate about third place?" Yan Zhun lowered his eyes to the two bottles of water in his hands. "For me?"

Pei Ran thought for a moment, then instinctively raised the bottle in his right hand. "This one..."

He had barely spoken when Yan Zhun took it, unscrewed the cap, and gulped down a mouthful.

The icy water rolled down his throat, cool and refreshing.

He drank more than half the bottle in one go. When he finished, he saw the person before him staring at him, shocked and at a loss.

What Pei Ran had wanted to say was, I've already drunk from this one. The other one's for my roommate.

Yan Zhun raised an eyebrow and was about to ask when someone came over to remind him to register his result.

"I'm going to register." He was so close to Pei Ran that Pei Ran could even feel his breath. He said, "Don't be stingy. If it's that big a deal, I'll get you another bottle later."