Chapter 17

The university had held its sports meet over the past two days, with no classes, and come evening, the late-night food stalls were packed with students.

Luo Qingshan sat on a bench with one leg crossed high over the other, not joining in the conversation at the table.

The person beside him clinked his glass against Luo Qingshan's. "What are you spacing out for?"

Luo Qingshan lifted his chin and took a sip of his drink. "Nothing. Where were we?"

"Hasn't he been like this lately? He's heartbroken." His friend poured him a bottle. "Come on, drink. Get drunk a few times and you'll be fine."

"Stop pouring for him. Who's going to help him back if he gets drunk?"

"Su Nian."

Su Nian sat opposite Luo Qingshan. At that, he couldn't help glancing at him.

Luo Qingshan didn't even look at him, only shaking his head. "I don't need anyone to help me. It's just beer. I won't get drunk."

After a while, Luo Qingshan suddenly blurted out, "Yan Zhun didn't come?"

Everyone at the table was from the same department, and they all paused at his question.

"Have you drunk yourself stupid?" His friend looked at him in surprise. "When has Yan Zhun ever come? Only that one time on your birthday."

"I did invite him." Lin Kang poured himself a drink. "He said he had something to do and couldn't make it."

"Holy shit." Casually scrolling on his phone, his friend exclaimed when he saw a particular Weibo post. He turned his phone around to show everyone. "Isn't this Yan Zhun?"

It was a Weibo post by TZG's assaulter, captioned "Training's over, time for skewers." Someone had accidentally ended up on the right side of the photo. The young man lounged in a gaming chair, his profile exceptionally well-defined.

Someone in the top comments asked who he was.

The assaulter replied: My bro, not a youth trainee. Stop guessing.

TZG could be called the country's top esports team. In particular, over the past two years, they had flourished in both Chicken Dinner and League of Legends and generated enormous buzz. Almost every guy who played games followed them.

"It really is him..." Lin Kang looked away, shaking his head with a click of his tongue. "Getting people from TZG to call him bro. Yan Zhun's seriously something."

"Yeah. If I were like him, why would I still be studying? I'd have gone into esports and started raking in money ages ago. With that face, even if he played badly, he could still make money off girlfriend fans." Remembering something, his friend nudged Luo Qingshan's arm. "Hey, haven't you played with Yan Zhun? Is he good?"

For some reason, Luo Qingshan didn't really want to answer.

He stared at the photo for a few moments, took a sip, and smiled. "What's the point of being good at games?"

"Dude, it's 0202 already, and you're still saying stuff like that? Do you know how much those pros get in annual signing fees, how much prize money they get for a championship, or how much they earn from one endorsement?" Lin Kang laughed. "If Yan Zhun had gone pro back then, he definitely would've made something of himself."

"What, can you predict the future?" Luo Qingshan scoffed. "There are so many good players. Why would it be his turn?"

"You don't understand. TZG's coach even came to our university to corner him back then. I saw him several times..." Lin Kang thought for a moment. "What's with you today? You're talking weird."

Luo Qingshan lowered his head and fell silent for a moment, then shook his head. "Nothing."

Halfway through the gathering, Luo Qingshan found it boring and left early.

He found an excuse to turn down Su Nian's offer to go with him and returned to the dorm alone. On the way, he couldn't resist taking out his phone to message Pei Ran, only remembering after typing it out that Pei Ran had blocked him.

The dorm was dark and empty. Luo Qingshan turned on the light and glanced at Yan Zhun's bed.

There was nothing on the desk besides a computer and headphones, as dull and boring as their owner.

Returning to his own seat, Luo Qingshan switched on his computer.

He sat in a daze, the scene he had witnessed in the lounge flashing through his mind over and over-Pei Ran sitting on the bed, unconsciously clutching the sheets from the pain, while Yan Zhun supported the back of his knee with one hand and lowered his head to blow on it.

It had looked as though Yan Zhun was kissing Pei Ran's leg.

A notification interrupted Luo Qingshan's thoughts. A friend he had met gaming asked if he wanted to play Chicken Dinner. They had three and needed one more.

Since he couldn't sleep anyway, he logged into the game and opened his Steam friends list, immediately spotting ranbaobei in-game.

Luo Qingshan frowned.

Pei Ran didn't actually like this game much, because it ended too quickly and didn't offer much of a gaming experience. In the past, Luo Qingshan had always had to coax him for ages before he would log on once.

But lately, Pei Ran seemed to be playing often.

After considering it for a moment, Luo Qingshan ignored the team invitation that popped up on the right and backed out to check Pei Ran's match history.

Then he discovered that Pei Ran really had been playing often lately. During the seven-day holiday, he had even logged on every day.

And his results were impressive. Strangely impressive.

Pei Ran's kill count was often zero, occasionally one or two, and his total damage wasn't high either.

Yet looking down the list of results, there were actually quite a few "top ten" and "Chicken Dinner" markers.

Luo Qingshan's Adam's apple bobbed. He clicked into the detailed results and saw the IDs of Pei Ran's teammates.

Almost every match included "111GOD."

The only time 111GOD wasn't there was the match he had invited Pei Ran to a while ago-and after that game ended, 111GOD appeared again.

In disbelief, Luo Qingshan opened the results one match at a time to check.

Until he scrolled back to the squad match he had invited Yan Zhun and Su Nian to play.

Luo Qingshan had been clenching his teeth the whole time, only gradually relaxing when his cheeks began to ache.

He sat silently for a moment, then snatched his phone off the desk and found his roommate's chat in his WeChat contacts.

[Luo Qingshan: You're playing Chicken Dinner too? Who are you playing with? Let me join.]

He didn't know how long it took before the other side replied.

[Yan Zhun: No.]

[Luo Qingshan: Seriously? That heartless?]

Elsewhere, Lin Xuhuan's yelling rang through the base. "Ran Baby! Ran Baby, run! There are loads of people behind you! Jump while you run!! Quick, come to me, come to me! I'll protect you—hey, wait, why are you going to my brother?!"

Watching the person running toward him, Yan Zhun smiled faintly. Only after wiping out the squad did he pick up his phone and type.

[Yan Zhun: Yeah. No room for you.]

Yan Zhun stayed at the TZG base for several days straight.

The group had gotten hooked and insisted he stay a few more days to play scrims with them. Since the room they had arranged for him was spacious and quiet enough, Yan Zhun reluctantly agreed.

On their day off, Lin Xuhuan dragged him out to dinner.

TZG's base was very close to Yan Zhun's university, just across the road-the luxury houses in this area were cheap, and there weren't too many entertainment venues nearby to distract the players. It couldn't have been more suitable.

Passing a computer shop, Yan Zhun glanced casually inside, then stopped in his tracks.

"About how much will the repair cost?" Pei Ran asked, looking at his computer.

The owner rubbed his chin. "Not much. Just... three or four thousand."

Pei Ran nodded. He was about to pay a deposit when a voice came from behind him. "What happened to your computer?"

Pei Ran turned and saw Yan Zhun.

Yan Zhun wore a cap, his eyes lowered lazily beneath the brim. "Broken?"

Pei Ran hummed in agreement. "I accidentally dropped it on the floor. The keyboard broke."

"Ran Baby?!" The moment Pei Ran finished speaking, Lin Xuhuan's eyes widened.

The name made Pei Ran pause, and he looked at him blankly.

"It's me! Me! That... Your Daddy Huan!"

Lin Xuhuan's gaming ID was "nihuandie."

Pei Ran's voice was too easy to recognize, neither too soft nor too loud and pleasant to listen to. Lin Xuhuan knew it was him the instant he heard it.

Yan Zhun looked at the owner. "How much did you just say replacing the keyboard would cost? Four thousand?"

His face held no particular expression, yet his gaze made the man flinch inwardly.

"Four thousand?!" Before the owner could speak, Lin Xuhuan exploded. "What kind of keyboard are you putting in for him? Black switches? Custom keycaps? Or are you going to design a personalized ID on it?"

Pei Ran watched, dumbfounded, as Lin Xuhuan swore and snatched his computer from the owner, walking out while muttering about the rip-off shop.

"Don't come here again." Yan Zhun called his attention back. "They're ripping you off."

The owner standing in front of them: "..."

Pei Ran nodded very slightly. "Oh, okay."

"Come on," Yan Zhun said naturally. "Let's eat together."

Even after they reached the restaurant, Lin Xuhuan couldn't stop cursing the shopkeeper.

"It's because you look so easy to fool," Lin Xuhuan said. "You weren't about to pay just now, were you?"

Pei Ran said, "I don't really know the prices for this sort of thing."

Lin Xuhuan shook his head, clicking his tongue.

True enough. Someone who could afford to hire Yan Zhun as a gaming companion clearly wasn't the type to fuss over this little bit of money.

Still, Pei Ran's appearance surprised him greatly. He had assumed he was an ordinary homebody who threw money around, loved games, and had a nice voice.

But at his first glimpse of Pei Ran, he had felt that this person was particularly... particularly what?

Lin Xuhuan, who had dropped out in middle school to play esports, found himself short on words.

When he looked at Pei Ran, the other man had his head lowered, carefully dipping his bowl and chopsticks in hot water.

His slender, fair fingers looked out of place against the gaudy, old-fashioned pattern on the porcelain spoon.

It suddenly came to Lin Xuhuan. Pei Ran had an outstanding figure and a straight back, like a crane standing quietly there. His presence had made even that shabby, cluttered repair shop look much more upscale.

Lin Xuhuan had no one like this around him. Finding it novel, he couldn't help shifting his chair closer to Pei Ran.

"Ran Baby, what's your real name?"

Pei Ran gave him his name.

"Nice name!" Lin Xuhuan asked again, "You go to the same university as my bro? Since you're fellow students, did he give you a discount when he took your order?"

Pei Ran thought about it. "Yes."

He probably did.

"What discount? How much?" Lin Xuhuan asked.

"What's it to you?" Yan Zhun interrupted their conversation.

He had taken off his cap, and the hair on top of his head was a little messy. Paired with his aloof expression, it was oddly cute.

Pei Ran unconsciously stared at those few messy strands, then met Yan Zhun's eyes as he happened to look over.

"Has your leg healed?" Yan Zhun asked.

Pei Ran hummed. "It healed a few days ago."

Yan Zhun said, "Let me see."

Pei Ran: "..."

When he didn't speak, Yan Zhun raised an eyebrow.

Pei Ran first glanced at Lin Xuhuan, then instinctively looked toward Yan Zhun's thigh. Just as he was about to refuse, he saw the corners of Yan Zhun's mouth lift into a smile.

"I meant roll up your trouser leg and let me look," Yan Zhun said. "Not put your leg on me."