Chapter 26

Pei Ran looked away first, unconsciously drawing the fingers of his right hand together. He wasn't sure if he was imagining it, but his palm felt a little hot.

Yan Zhun's phone rang several times in succession on the desk, as if demanding his life.

"I'll get down and take a look," Yan Zhun said.

Pei Ran nodded, not understanding why Yan Zhun had to tell him even when he was just getting out of bed.

He soon found out.

Yan Zhun threw back the covers, braced himself, and climbed over him.

The school's shabby little bed creaked. Yan Zhun's arm was planted beside his face, so close it nearly touched him. He could even feel the heat radiating from it.

Pei Ran softened his breathing, now completely awake.

While washing up, Pei Ran noticed unread messages on his phone.

[Lin Kang: Pei Ran, who exactly did you call over last night?]

[Lin Kang: ...Su Nian took Luo Qingshan away.]

[Pei Ran: That's good.]

[Lin Kang: ???]

Yan Zhun had already gotten ready. He sat in Pei Ran's chair, using his phone one-handed, weariness still on his face.

A call came in. Seeing the caller, Yan Zhun couldn't help glancing up at the time.

"Bro!" Lin Xuhuan sounded particularly energetic.

"Didn't sleep?" Yan Zhun asked lazily.

Many professional players had their days and nights reversed, and Lin Xuhuan was one of them. He usually got up at two or three in the afternoon and didn't sleep until dawn.

There was a pause on the other end before he drawled, "Two straight days of matches wore me out, so I went to bed early yesterday. I've been up for over an hour... Bro, what happened to your voice? You sound like a cracked gong."

Lin Xuhuan was exaggerating a little, but Yan Zhun's voice really was hoarse. It was immediately obvious.

"A cold." Yan Zhun asked, "Need something?"

"Yep," Lin Xuhuan said. "I'm the only one awake at the base, and the housekeeper took today off. Eating breakfast alone is pretty boring. How about I come find you, bro? Have breakfast together?"

Footsteps sounded in front of him. Yan Zhun's gaze followed Pei Ran as he reopened last night's medicine kit and rummaged around for a while before finding a bag of throat lozenges.

Yan Zhun moved the phone away, then gave the hem of Pei Ran's shirt a very gentle tug. "Go out for breakfast?"

Pei Ran paused. "Okay."

After hanging up, Lin Xuhuan soon sent over the restaurant's address. It was a famous Cantonese dim sum place nearby.

Pei Ran tore open the lozenge wrapper and squeezed one out for Yan Zhun. "Do you feel bad?"

Yan Zhun leaned over and caught it between his teeth, taking it into his mouth. It was cool.

"No." He rose from Pei Ran's chair and reached up to smooth down his sticking-up hair. "I'll go outside to make a call. Come out when you're ready."

Yan Zhun's palm was large and warm. Pei Ran recalled the warmth against his forehead last night and stood dazed for a long time before coming back to himself. With his eyes lowered, he slowly folded the wrapper and put it in his pocket.

Yan Zhun had no call to make. Leaning against the dormitory corridor's railing, he opened WeChat to read the messages he had received last night.

They were all from Luo Qingshan, over twenty of them, some questioning him and others insulting him. Several weren't even coherent.

There were also a few voice messages over ten seconds long. Yan Zhun wasn't even interested in converting them to text.

The earliest one had been sent half an hour ago.

[Luo Qingshan: Where did you sleep last night]

Yan Zhun moved his fingers and blocked him.

When the two appeared in the private dining room together, Lin Xuhuan froze, chopsticks in hand.

"You two slept together last night?"

Pei Ran nearly choked on his tea.

Lin Xuhuan had faintly heard someone else's voice over the phone earlier. He had originally assumed it was his bro's roommate.

Lin Xuhuan leaned toward Yan Zhun and sniffed. "You smell all over like Ran Baby. Didn't go back to your dorm last night?"

Pei Ran took off his mask and silently brought the back of his hand to his nose for a sniff.

What did he smell like? He didn't even know himself.

"Got a dog's nose?" Yan Zhun kept it brief. "Got drunk. Stayed over."

"Drunk? You drank? My god... Want another two-week hospital vacation? And you drank yourself into a cold?" After saying that, Lin Xuhuan glanced at Pei Ran, who was also wearing a mask. "You stayed over with a cold? You've infected Ran Baby."

"He caught it from me," Pei Ran said honestly.

Lin Xuhuan fell silent for a moment. "Then should I keep my distance from you two?"

As he spoke, he even made a show of leaning back.

Yan Zhun poured Pei Ran some tea without looking up. "Can't catch it from that far away."

Pei Ran: "..."

Lin "Straight as Steel" Xuhuan automatically ignored the strange atmosphere at the table and picked up a shumai. "You call this far? You're practically in his face."

After breakfast, Lin Xuhuan casually wiped his mouth. He looked up, about to say something, only to see Pei Ran take a box of medicine from his pocket.

Pei Ran pressed out a pill and said quietly, "Your hand."

Sitting lazily, Yan Zhun opened his palm toward him and received a cold pill.

Pei Ran pressed out one for himself too, and they took them together with warm water.

Lin Xuhuan's open mouth slowly closed.

Taking medicine when sick was perfectly normal, but why did he feel...

Well, it was weird.

"When's your next match?" Yan Zhun glanced at him and asked mildly.

"Not until next week." Lin Xuhuan came back to himself. "We were supposed to play the day after tomorrow, but something suddenly came up... A team accused the organizers of rigging things. Both sides are gathering evidence."

Yan Zhun raised an eyebrow. "Rigging?"

"Weird, right?" Lin Xuhuan said. "One team landed on good guns and got favorable circles several games in a row, so someone reported them. Hahaha."

The conversation quickly moved on. Lin Xuhuan got animated whenever he talked about amusing things from competitions.

After listening to him brag for a while, Yan Zhun finally couldn't take any more and raised his hand. "Excuse me, the check."

Before leaving the restaurant, Yan Zhun and Pei Ran put on their masks together. Lin Xuhuan frowned in puzzlement, somehow feeling distinctly superfluous.

Lin Xuhuan had no plans to return to the base this early. Those lazy pigs wouldn't wake up until the afternoon, and training alone was boring. Passing an arcade, he couldn't help stopping.

"Bro, let's go play for a while?"

Yan Zhun ignored him. His exposed eyes lowered as he looked questioningly at Pei Ran.

"I'll buy tokens," Pei Ran said.

Pei Ran had rarely been to places like this since childhood. His parents loved art and preferred taking him to exhibitions when they had time.

He looked around. Only the basketball machines and claw machines seemed within his abilities.

Lin Xuhuan was different. Having run wild since childhood, he dragged Yan Zhun off to race cars and play two-player competitive games as soon as they entered.

Pei Ran stood behind Yan Zhun, watching quietly.

He thought Yan Zhun was incredibly gifted at games. Lin Xuhuan hadn't won a single round against him.

"Bro, fucking go easy on me!" Lin Xuhuan yelled.

"You're too bad. I can't gauge how much to hold back," Yan Zhun said.

"Fuck, you seemed pretty practiced at it when you carried Ran Baby in Chicken Dinner," Lin Xuhuan said. "Just give me the same treatment you give Ran Baby!"

Holding the racing game's steering wheel loosely with both hands, Yan Zhun said blandly, "Not happening."

Behind his mask, Pei Ran pressed his lips together. His gaze was calm, but his heart was pounding erratically.

When the round ended, Lin Xuhuan looked at the defeat displayed on the screen. "Let's stop playing this, bro. Let's race motorcycles."

"Play by yourself." Yan Zhun stood up.

Lin Xuhuan asked blankly, "Where are you going?"

"The boss bought all the tokens." Yan Zhun took Pei Ran's wrist and pulled him along. "I'll play with the boss for a while."

Pei Ran was pulled in front of a large machine, with black curtains surrounding it to enclose a small space for them. Zombies roared and charged across the screen.

Pei Ran came out of his daze. "I don't know how to play."

Yan Zhun put a gun in his hand, held his hand, and lifted it to point at the screen, instructing him, "Shoot anything you see. If it gets close, run toward me."

Two minutes into the game, Pei Ran marveled at how even arcade games emphasized immersion these days. The zombies seemed about to charge straight into his face.

Startled by a zombie springing out from the side, Pei Ran instinctively dodged sideways. Only when he bumped into the person beside him did he realize what he was doing.

Yan Zhun stood firm. After finishing off the zombies before him, he turned and cleared the entire path in front of Pei Ran.

The game ended with Pei Ran scoring 112 and Yan Zhun 1,419, breaking the machine's solo kill record.

If Pei Ran had scored over 800, they could have broken the two-player record too.

Pei Ran took off his headphones, his palms warm from playing. "I'm not very good. Why don't you go find Lin Xuhuan?"

"I want to play with you," Yan Zhun said.

Pei Ran: "..."

Pei Ran suddenly felt that their conversation sounded like a pair of elementary schoolers.

He was taken to a motorcycle machine. Only after sitting down did he realize it was the only unoccupied machine around.

Pei Ran didn't want to play alone. Just as he was about to get up, the person beside him said, "Lean forward. I'll teach you."

How could he teach this?

Pei Ran was just about to ask when the game began.

He accelerated off the starting line and crashed clumsily into an NPC. Just as he was about to veer off the track, something warm suddenly settled against his back.

It was Yan Zhun's palm.

Yan Zhun kept his hand on his back, pushing him through turn after turn on the track.

By the end of the game, Pei Ran felt as if his back was about to break into a sweat.

"Why are you playing this?" Lin Xuhuan came over carrying three cold drinks. "Is it hot? Ran Baby's face is all red from playing. Here, have some watermelon juice and take a break."

Pei Ran accepted it with thanks and took a big gulp.

"I just broke a Star Wars record and even left a selfie on the machine," Lin Xuhuan said smugly.

Yan Zhun hummed. "I'll take a picture for your coach later."

Lin Xuhuan: "?"

A phone on the table chimed. All three had the same model, so they couldn't tell whose it was and all looked over at the sound.

[Mom: Luo just sent me a text. Did you two break up?]

It was Pei Ran's phone.

Pei Ran paused, then picked it up and typed a reply.

Having read the message, Lin Xuhuan felt a little awkward. He looked at Yan Zhun, wanting his bro to share his awkwardness, only to find him drinking with lowered eyes, without so much as a glance over.

Lin Xuhuan cleared his throat and said with forced casualness, "Ran Baby, you even took that guy to meet your parents?"

"They've met," Pei Ran said.

Lin Xuhuan, a little virgin, wore an expression of worldly experience. "You youngsters are so impulsive. Once you've met the parents, you have to explain to them when you break up. Isn't that a hassle?"

Pei Ran paused. "It's not."

Yan Zhun held his cold drink the whole time, the icy condensation chilling his hand.

On the way back, Yan Zhun didn't speak again. Pei Ran kept his head down, replying to his mother's messages. Only Lin Xuhuan talked to himself.

At the fork in the road, Yan Zhun stopped. "Let me know when you get to your dorm."

Pei Ran's lips moved. Only after a long moment did he say, "Okay."

He could sense that Yan Zhun wasn't very happy, but couldn't think of a way to fix it.

After seeing Lin Xuhuan into a taxi, Yan Zhun tugged at his mask and turned to leave, only for someone to catch his arm gently.

Pei Ran had walked very fast, and with his mask on, he couldn't help sounding a little breathless when he spoke.

Once his breathing settled, he looked up and met Yan Zhun's eyes.

"My parents have a lot of gay friends, so they're fairly sensitive to that sort of thing. They figured it out when Luo Qingshan was hospitalized." Pei Ran paused. "...I never took him home."

Yan Zhun froze for a moment. After a long while, he asked, "Are you trying to make me feel better?"

Pei Ran didn't know the first thing about comforting someone.

He had simply wanted to catch up and explain, so that was what he had done.

After hesitating for a while, he took out a milk candy and put it in Yan Zhun's pocket, just as Yan Zhun had done when he stopped him outside the café. "Thank you for teaching me to play."

An itch stirred in Yan Zhun's heart. He rather regretted having focused entirely on teaching him to play behind those black curtains earlier.

A moment later, he reached out to ruffle Pei Ran's hair. A faint trace of a smile slowly seeped into his eyes. He said, "Pei Ran, I think you're starting to like me a little."