Chapter 16

Luo Qingshan only found out Pei Ran had fallen after he finished his run.

Luo Qingshan was athletic and had left Pei Ran far behind during the race. By the time he crossed the finish line and looked back, Pei Ran was already gone.

After asking the students watching what had happened, he ran over without even registering his result.

Pei Ran hadn't expected him to come. He paused, then the sudden cold against his ankle snapped him back to his senses.

Yan Zhun glanced at Luo Qingshan and gave a noncommittal hum, then placed the ice pack on Pei Ran's sprained ankle. "Here?"

Pei Ran answered instinctively, "More or less."

Catching his breath, Luo Qingshan strode into the lounge. "Pei Ran, Pei Ran, where are you hurt? Do your bones hurt?"

Seeing the injuries on Pei Ran's leg, he drew a sharp breath and took out his phone. "I'll call a cab and take you to the hospital."

"No need," Pei Ran said. "It's not that serious. It just needs disinfecting."

"No, you still need an X-ray. What if you've hurt a bone?" Luo Qingshan insisted.

"I haven't. It's just a sprain." Seeing that he had actually opened a ride-hailing app, Pei Ran had to say, "Even if you call one, I won't get in."

"..." Luo Qingshan's finger paused, and he sheepishly closed the app.

He gave Yan Zhun an awkward glance. Yan Zhun was holding the ice pack against Pei Ran's ankle and didn't even look up.

"Yan Zhun, what are you doing here?" He changed the subject, tugging up the corner of his mouth. "Finished the thousand meters?"

"Yeah," Yan Zhun said.

"How'd you do?"

"Just took it easy."

"It's fine. Placing doesn't matter. We weren't counting on a prize anyway," Luo Qingshan said casually. "You gamers hardly ever exercise."

Pei Ran was silent for two seconds. Seeing Yan Zhun say nothing, as though agreeing, he couldn't help speaking before Luo Qingshan could continue. "He came third. The first two were both sports students."

Yan Zhun's expression shifted slightly. He tugged up the corner of his mouth, lifted the ice pack, wiped the water off Pei Ran's ankle with his palm, then put it back.

Pei Ran felt as though his palm had burned him.

Luo Qingshan blinked. "Huh? Oh... congratulations."

He still had plenty of questions, all reflected in his tightly knitted brows. He picked up a tissue to wipe his sweat, then held a hand out to Yan Zhun. "Thanks for bringing Pei Ran here. Give me the ice pack. I'll take over."

Yan Zhun finally looked up, but made no other move. He looked at Luo Qingshan, his tone surprised. "Didn't you two break up?"

At those words, the atmosphere chilled again.

A whole range of expressions crossed Luo Qingshan's face. After a long moment, he smiled, feigning ease. "That's why I need a chance to prove myself."

Yan Zhun countered, "Why should I give you that chance?"

Luo Qingshan: "?"

Pei Ran couldn't listen anymore. He pulled his foot back. "Don't trouble yourselves. It's just a minor injury. I can handle it myself."

Luo Qingshan was still looking at Yan Zhun, his gaze a little complicated. He was about to ask when his phone suddenly rang.

It was their class monitor, telling him to hurry back to the field and sign his name. Without his signature, the run wouldn't count, and his result would be canceled.

Luo Qingshan asked a few more questions before leaving, repeatedly looking back as he went, his face full of concern.

The ice pack was freezing his hand. Pei Ran held it against his ankle briefly as a token effort, then sincerely told the person beside him, "Thank you for today."

Yan Zhun hummed, then suddenly said, "You stepped on my feet several times on the way here."

Walking on one foot was difficult, especially right after the fall, when both of Pei Ran's legs had hurt and he could barely walk.

Pei Ran met his eyes for two seconds, then looked down at Yan Zhun's shoes.

There were footprints on the white limited-edition shoes. Irrefutable evidence.

"Sorry," Pei Ran said. "I'll get them cleaned for you."

For once, Yan Zhun froze. He raised an eyebrow. "You'll clean them for me?"

Pei Ran added, "I'll take them to the dry cleaner's. They clean shoes too."

Yan Zhun's interest faded. "No."

He looked at Pei Ran's hands. They were a beautiful pair of hands, suited to drawing, suited to playing the piano, suited to Pei Ran.

Yan Zhun thought that even if Pei Ran really wanted to wash his shoes himself, he couldn't bear to put those hands through that.

Pei Ran said, "Then should I wipe them with a wet wipe?"

"Forget it." Yan Zhun withdrew his gaze. "Just owe me a favor."

Pei Ran frowned very slightly and said firmly, "I'll buy you a replacement pair. What model are they?"

Sensing the subtle change in Pei Ran's attitude, Yan Zhun held his gaze for a long time, then sighed softly.

He turned and took a tissue from the table beside them, grasped Pei Ran's wrist, rubbed the tissue against the ice pack, then gave his shoe a cursory wipe.

"Clean. You don't owe me anymore."

As soon as he finished speaking, the phone in Yan Zhun's pocket chimed several times in succession.

Seeing the messages, Yan Zhun finally remembered that he had promised Lin Xuhuan he would go to the team house today and play a few scrims with them.

Yan Zhun stood up. "Let's go."

Pei Ran looked up at him. "Where?"

"I'm taking you back." Without waiting for Pei Ran to agree, Yan Zhun grabbed his hand and draped his arm around his neck. "Hold on tight."

Pei Ran's dorm room was very clean. After his roommate moved out, he had given it a thorough cleaning, and a faint fruity scent still lingered in the air.

Yan Zhun left as soon as he put him down, without even closing the door.

Pei Ran wasn't in a hurry either. He opened the black bag on his desk, thinking he should have asked Yan Zhun if he wanted some fruit.

Pei Ran made his way laboriously to the sink and carefully peeled a peach. Just as he was about to take his first bite, he heard movement at the door again.

Yan Zhun had returned, carrying a black bag. "Here."

Pei Ran asked, "What is it?"

"Ice cream," Yan Zhun said. "Use it on your ankle."

Pei Ran laughed.

Yan Zhun had no idea what he had said that was so funny. He stared at Pei Ran for a long moment. "What are you laughing at?"

Still smiling, Pei Ran shook his head and took the bag. "Thanks. Want some fruit?"

"Yes." Yan Zhun glanced at his hand. "A peach?"

Pei Ran hummed in agreement. After a moment's hesitation, he offered him the peach. "I washed my hands. They're clean."

Pei Ran had barely finished speaking when Yan Zhun suddenly leaned in, lowering his head to take the peach with his teeth.

Under Pei Ran's shocked gaze, he swallowed a large mouthful of fruit. "Sweet."

After a few scrims, TZG's coach had his WeChat flooded with messages.

"They're all asking if I tricked you into joining the team. Calling me sneaky for keeping it from them." The coach sneered. "Hilarious. If I'd actually landed you, wouldn't I take a megaphone to their team houses and announce it eight or ten times?"

Yan Zhun leaned back in his gaming chair, dueling someone with sniper rifles. Three seconds later, he killed his opponent with a headshot.

"Beautiful!" The coach leaned against the back of his gaming chair. "So, what do you think? Will you give me that chance to make an announcement?"

Yan Zhun snorted. Why was everyone asking him for a chance today?

"No," Yan Zhun said. "Keep nagging and I'm leaving."

"Don't. We've already got a room ready for you. Stay here tonight." The coach had long since gotten used to him. "Then can you come over more often to give them some practice?"

Lin Xuhuan wailed, "Please don't! You'll crush my spirit."

"That's the point. Once he crushes your spirit, you won't be so cocky. Running your mouth on stream every day. I think you're getting paid too much."

"What does it matter..." Lin Xuhuan muttered. "Bro, how many people in that building?"

After the scrims, everyone else had gone out for skewers. Lin Xuhuan was suffering from excess internal heat and couldn't eat them, so he could only stay behind and beg Yan Zhun to play duo-versus-squads with him.

"Four. Full squad. I knocked three." Yan Zhun switched to an assault rifle. "Push the building."

By the end of the match, they had been sniped by a hacker and finished second.

Yan Zhun found it boring. There were more and more hackers in this game. He was just about to close it when he caught sight of a certain online friend.

He immediately clicked invite.

"Are we done? Bro?" Seeing that he hadn't readied up, Lin Xuhuan asked.

"Don't know," Yan Zhun said.

Lin Xuhuan asked, "...What do you mean, you don't know?"

Yan Zhun lit a cigarette. "Depends whether he responds."

Lin Xuhuan was about to ask more when another person suddenly appeared in the game lobby. He was wearing the default white outfit, clearly a newbie.

"Who's this?" The coach leaned in warily. "Someone from another team?"

He couldn't think of anyone who could make Yan Zhun say something like that.

Those words reached Pei Ran through Lin Xuhuan's perpetually open microphone. From the sound of it, Yan Zhun wasn't in his dorm.

He didn't know why he had logged on so late at night either. When he saw Yan Zhun's invitation, he had accepted instinctively.

Pei Ran glanced at the unfamiliar ID beside him, dressed in a riot of colors. "Did you invite the wrong person?"

"No, no, we've got the right person," Lin Xuhuan hurriedly said.

He had seen this person in a replay of 197's stream. Ranbaobei, Yan Zhun's client.

"Ready up, Ran Baby. We're starting in a second. We'll carry you."

Once they entered the waiting area, Lin Xuhuan muted his mic. "Bro, this is your client, right?"

Yan Zhun hummed in agreement, stubbing out his cigarette after barely two puffs.

Lin Xuhuan walked over to Pei Ran's character. "But he... doesn't look all that rich. He doesn't even have any skins equipped."

Yan Zhun couldn't be bothered to answer him. He switched on his mic and asked, "Does your ankle still hurt?"

"Not anymore," Pei Ran said.

"Good. Don't walk too much. Skip any useless classes."

Lin Xuhuan said, "Bro, you're being a bad influence on your client!"

"You think everyone's like you?" Pei Ran heard Yan Zhun lazily answer the person beside him. "My client's a good boy. I couldn't corrupt him."

The glow from the monitor shone on Pei Ran's face, clearly illuminating even the faint pink at the base of his ears.

Pei Ran pressed his lips together and couldn't help taking a sip of water.

When Lin Xuhuan and the others first learned that Yan Zhun was working as a gaming companion, they had all been shocked.

They had even discussed Yan Zhun's rates in private. Their entry fragger had said that strong as Yan Zhun was, his personality left something to be desired. Not that he had a bad temper, just that he was quiet and cold. A hundred an hour, tops.

Lin Xuhuan had made the highest guess: two hundred-though afterward, the client might report and block him in one go.

Two matches later, Lin Xuhuan had completely overturned his earlier opinion.

He watched with his own eyes as Yan Zhun dropped a fully kitted gun in front of ranbaobei. "Pei Ran, give it a buff."

Gunfire on the mountain crackled like firecrackers. The person who usually raced toward gunshots faster than anyone was now following ranbaobei around, looting remote areas. "We'll go once he's finished looking around this house."

The most fucking unbelievable part was this.

After ranbeobei died, Yan Zhun wiped out the squad that had killed him, then took out a grenade.

He blew himself up.

He blew himself up.

He blew himself up...

Lin Xuhuan stared, dumbfounded, at the two loot crates lying side by side.

After a long moment, he turned his head and asked hollowly, "Bro, just... how much money did you scam out of him?"