Chapter 18

Lin Xuhuan braced both hands on the table and leaned forward at that. "What happened to your leg?"

Pei Ran shook his head. "Nothing. I fell during the sports meet."

Although the injury on his leg was almost healed, Pei Ran had been wearing loose calf-length pants these past few days to avoid infection.

Yan Zhun lowered his eyes and stared at the scab on Pei Ran's leg. A few seconds later, Pei Ran awkwardly lowered his pant leg.

"It's scabbed over," Yan Zhun said.

"Mm," Pei Ran said. "That always happens. It'll be fine in a while."

Yan Zhun said nothing, but even after looking away, he could still see that scar before his eyes.

Lin Xuhuan was something of a public figure. He had more Weibo followers than quite a few minor celebrities, and he went out fully equipped with a mask and cap. Before he left, his coach had even taken a jab at him, telling him not to worry-standing next to Yan Zhun, he looked like some lousy little assistant.

Still, to be safe, his coach had booked him a private room. Although there was a no-smoking sign outside the restaurant, no one enforced it in the private rooms. Lin Xuhuan took out his cigarettes and casually offered one to Pei Ran. "Ran Baby, have one."

"Thanks, I don't smoke," Pei Ran said.

"Right, cigarettes are so vulgar. They're beneath you." Flattery rolled right off Lin Xuhuan's tongue. He turned and offered it to Yan Zhun instead. "Bro, here."

Yan Zhun deftly took the cigarette between his fingers, then held his palm out to Lin Xuhuan.

Lin Xuhuan paused, then handed him the whole pack. "Seriously, bro? Has your smoking habit gotten worse again? A whole pack right off the bat?"

Yan Zhun took it, slipped the cigarette back inside, closed the pack, and tossed it aside.

"Your coach told me to keep an eye on you." Yan Zhun didn't even lift his eyelids. "No smoking. It's bad for your health."

A whole range of expressions crossed Lin Xuhuan's face. Their base had a rule: anyone caught smoking had to pay a fine. He hadn't expected that even after finally slipping out for once, he still wouldn't get a cigarette.

And besides-

"Come on, bro. I'd take it from anyone else, but not you," Lin Xuhuan said. "I was the one emptying your ashtrays back in high school. Now you know it's bad for your health?"

"Why do you talk so much?" Yan Zhun said. "Pay the fine and you can have one."

"..." Lin Xuhuan folded his arms in a huff. "Fine, I won't smoke. I won't."

A server knocked and came in, handing them a menu.

Yan Zhun's phone rang just then. He glanced at the caller ID and stood. "I'm going outside to take this. You two order."

"What do you want? We'll order for you," Lin Xuhuan asked.

"Anything." Yan Zhun glanced at Pei Ran's leg. "No seafood."

Once the door closed, Lin Xuhuan opened the menu. "Ran Baby, what do you want to eat?"

They had been gaming together for several nights in a row, and Pei Ran was already used to being called that.

"Anything's fine." Pei Ran unwrapped Yan Zhun's bowl and chopsticks and put them in hot water to scald them.

"Our chicken with green peppers is a signature dish," the server said.

Lin Xuhuan shook his head. "No, he's injured. He can't have spicy food..."

"I'm fine. I can eat the other dishes. You don't need to worry about me," Pei Ran hurriedly said.

"No, that's not it." Lin Xuhuan looked up with a smile. "My bro can't handle spicy food either. Not even a little. He has a bad stomach."

After they ordered, the server left.

Pei Ran pressed his lips together several times. After chatting with Lin Xuhuan for a bit, he turned his head and asked, "Does Yan Zhun have a stomach condition?"

Lin Xuhuan wiped his hands with a hot towel. "Yeah, an old problem. He used to go to the hospital all the time."

"Why? Wasn't he eating properly?" Pei Ran asked.

For some reason, Lin Xuhuan found that question funny. When he turned and saw Pei Ran's serious expression, he wanted to laugh even more.

It wasn't some unspeakable secret. Most people at the base knew.

Besides, his gut told him his bro treated Pei Ran differently. They had been gaming together for days, and he had never seen Yan Zhun look after anyone like that.

Lin Xuhuan thought for a moment, then threw out that question again. "How much did my bro charge you to play with you?"

"Twenty," Pei Ran answered honestly.

Lin Xuhuan: "..."

Pei Ran blinked. "Was that too little?"

Lin Xuhuan took a sip of tea to compose himself.

How was he supposed to tell Pei Ran that last year, his coach had offered Yan Zhun an eight-figure annual salary? After tax. Not including shares from tournaments, events, endorsements, and so on.

Now Lin Xuhuan had a clearer idea. He set down his cup. "He wasn't eating properly. My bro actually spent some time in youth training before. It was summer break, and we joined the team together."

"Back then, he often only ate one meal a day. He said eating too much made him sleepy and affected his gameplay... Obviously that wasn't going to work. Less than a month in, he started having problems. He couldn't keep food down and threw up whenever he ate. None of us thought much of it at the time. In our line of work, our days and nights are reversed, and we're always staying up all night, so minor health problems are normal. He wouldn't go to the hospital when we told him to, and just took some stomach medicine."

"Then one day, he was in too much pain to walk, and the ambulance crew ended up carrying him out. His parents came after that, and there was a whole fuss... Anyway, they wouldn't let him play esports anymore."

Lin Xuhuan exhaled, then smiled to lighten the mood. "I still remember what his dad said to him."

Reason told Pei Ran not to pry into other people's private affairs.

He held back and held back, then said, "...What did he say?"

"He said-'What future is there in an industry like this? Even our garden at home is bigger than your tournament venue.'" Lin Xuhuan cracked himself up. "Fuck."

Pei Ran: "..."

Yan Zhun returned from his family's call and heard that sentence as soon as he pushed the door open.

"What are you gossiping about?" As he passed behind Lin Xuhuan, he tapped him lightly on the head with the cigarette pack.

"I wasn't!" Lin Xuhuan immediately made a show of clutching his head. "Ran Baby asked me how you ruined your stomach."

Yan Zhun paused, then pulled out his chair and sat down.

This was the second time Pei Ran had been caught talking about someone behind his back.

And it was the same person both times.

"It's not as bad as he made it sound," Yan Zhun said.

Pei Ran instinctively looked at him. "Hm?"

"It's just a stomach condition. It won't kill me. And the garden wasn't bigger than the venue." Yan Zhun's face was expressionless as he asked, "Done washing?"

Pei Ran froze for a moment. "What?"

"My chopsticks," Yan Zhun reminded him. "You've soaked them three times."

Pei Ran handed him the chopsticks and explained with a composed expression, "Restaurant chopsticks are pretty dirty."

"Mm." Yan Zhun glanced at his scarlet ears and casually went along with him. "Germaphobe. I get it."

After dinner, Lin Xuhuan walked out of the restaurant carrying Pei Ran's computer.

"I'll take it back and have our repair guy replace the keyboard. I'll return it once it's fixed."

Pei Ran paused. "You don't have to. I can try another repair shop."

"Could another repair shop be better than ours?" Lin Xuhuan said. "Don't worry. We'll get you a good replacement."

Pei Ran hesitated. "Thanks. Then could you send me the repair cost on WeChat?"

Lin Xuhuan waved a hand. "It's pocket change. We have sponsors."

"No." Pei Ran insisted, "I still have to pay."

Lin Xuhuan was about to argue some more when Yan Zhun took over. "Yeah, we'll send you the price then."

"Okay," Pei Ran said.

Yan Zhun put on his cap, leaving his eyes visible. "Going back to your dorm?"

"Yes." Pei Ran remembered something. "My computer password is feiyi."

Lin Xuhuan put it in his notes. "What does that password mean? Your girlfriend's name?"

"No, I don't have a girlfriend." Pei Ran checked his watch. "Then I'll head back? I still have homework to finish tonight."

"Sure. We can chat on WeChat when you're free." Lin Xuhuan beamed.

Pei Ran had just turned around when someone tugged at his clothes.

"Wait." Yan Zhun glanced around, then told him, "Wait here for me."

A few minutes later, Yan Zhun came out of the pharmacy carrying a bag.

He pushed it into Pei Ran's arms. "Three times a day. Don't scratch even if it itches."

Pei Ran opened the bag. Inside were five whole tubes of the same brand of ointment.

Pei Ran froze, looked at the ointment, then looked up at Yan Zhun.

There was something oddly dazed about his expression. Yan Zhun looked back at him, saying nothing for a long time. Finally, he said, "Scars don't look good on boys."

Only after returning to his dorm did Pei Ran feel that something was a little off about that.

Wasn't it normal for men to have a few scars? Weren't girls the ones who should worry about that?

Frowning as he thought, he slowly changed his clothes, washed an apple for his after-dinner fruit, then sat in his chair with his leg drawn up and applied the ointment Yan Zhun had just bought him.

Yan Zhun hadn't returned to the base with Lin Xuhuan. He had a few things to pick up from his dorm, and it was so late that he couldn't be bothered to head back out, so he simply stayed at school for the night.

When the dorm door opened, Yan Zhun had just disconnected his keyboard from his computer. He wasn't comfortable with the equipment at the base. There was a tournament next month, and Yan Zhun had agreed to help them with practice matches over the next few days, so naturally, he needed to be at his best.

Luo Qingshan paused when he saw him there, then quickly recovered and casually tossed his basketball into a corner.

Neither of them spoke. The dorm was as silent as ever. Yan Zhun was a man of few words, and Luo Qingshan hadn't gone out of his way to chat with him much before either. This kind of quiet was normal.

But today, something felt faintly different.

"Yan Zhun." After an unknown stretch of time, his roommate's voice came from behind him. "Do you know if there's a laundry near campus? I want to get my shoes cleaned. I've been practicing running lately, and the uppers have gone black."

Yan Zhun didn't turn around. "No."

"Tsk, they're pretty dirty." Luo Qingshan crossed his legs, glanced at Yan Zhun, then looked down at his shoes again. "If Pei Ran saw them, he'd think I didn't treasure his gift. That'd be bad."

Yan Zhun deftly wound the cable around his keyboard and put it in his bag before finally looking back.

The shoes were black and white, with a simple, clean design and no complicated patterns-the sort Pei Ran would pick.

"There's one if you turn right out of the back gate," Yan Zhun said.

"Okay, thanks." Luo Qingshan smiled. "These were a limited edition from two years ago. Pei Ran happened to be abroad then, and he lined up outside the store all night to buy them for me."

Yan Zhun lowered his eyes and zipped up his backpack with a crisp sound.

"He even caught a cold out there afterward. He was sick for two days after he came back," Luo Qingshan said. "Oh, I think these shoes were his first-anniversary gift to me."

Yan Zhun hung his cap in the wardrobe and took out a black one instead.

"Do you think all these artists are especially big on marking occasions? He always prepared my gift ahead of every anniversary."

Yan Zhun stuffed the cap into one side of his backpack.

Just then, the phone on the desk vibrated.

[Pei Ran: You can have a glass of milk in the morning. It's good for your stomach.]

[Pei Ran: Thanks for the ointment.]

The taut line of Yan Zhun's mouth instantly relaxed.

He picked up his phone, pulled down his towel, and headed toward the bathroom. Only after two steps did he stop to look at the person beside him, as though he had only just realized the other man was speaking.

He asked, "If I remember right, Pei Ran paid you back in cash for everything you'd given him?"

He had overheard that once when Luo Qingshan was drunk and rambling.

Suddenly interrupted, Luo Qingshan was left with his mouth open and no words coming out.

Although Yan Zhun's face was clearly expressionless, Luo Qingshan somehow detected a hint of mockery. He blinked rapidly twice and was just about to speak-

"In that case, returning what he gave you would be the decent thing to do." Yan Zhun lifted the corner of his mouth, giving him a smile with little feeling in it. "Of course, that's just my suggestion."