Chapter 7

As class drew to a close, Pei Ran shut his textbook and took a mask from his pocket to put on.

"Leaving early again?" his roommate asked.

Pei Ran nodded.

His roommate said, "You've been leaving early for days. Anyone who didn't know better would think someone was waiting to corner you after class..."

Pei Ran smiled without answering. The instant the teacher turned around, he gathered his books and slipped out the back door.

Only after he had put some distance between himself and the teaching building did Pei Ran relax.

He let out a very soft breath and took out his phone for a look. Sure enough, there were several messages, all from Luo Qingshan.

Pei Ran quickly scrolled through their chat history from the past few days. For a moment, he felt as though he were back in high school.

[Luo Qingshan: Pei Ran, want to have lunch together?]

[Pei Ran: No, I ordered delivery.]

[Luo Qingshan: Okay, where from? I'll order the same thing.]

[Luo Qingshan: [Video call, unanswered]]

[Luo Qingshan: Baby, I miss you.]

[Luo Qingshan: I haven't been able to focus in class all day.]

[Luo Qingshan: I deleted Su Nian. You can check whenever you want.]

[Luo Qingshan: Dinner together? I'll come find you in your classroom.]

This was how Luo Qingshan had pursued Pei Ran in high school, too. He had gone to the teacher himself and asked to sit beside Pei Ran, switched dorm beds to take the bunk above Pei Ran's, and insisted on sticking to Pei Ran even at lunch and dinner... Things like that. Nothing Pei Ran said could get rid of him.

Pei Ran closed the chat and also unpinned it, undoing the setting Luo Qingshan had previously made on his phone.

That evening, when Luo Qingshan pushed open the dorm room door, Yan Zhun was watching a replay of the PUBG International Championship.

He had only one earbud in and sat with his legs loosely spread. He seemed a little distracted, and the sound of the door opening did not affect him at all.

With a smack, Luo Qingshan set a dozen beers on his desk and asked, "Want a drink?"

The beer cans were wet, as though they had just come out of the fridge. Yan Zhun looked at the damp desktop, frowned very slightly, then shook his head. "No."

So Luo Qingshan could only drink himself drunk alone.

Partway through, he picked up his phone and instinctively called someone to keep him company. Only after dialing did he realize something was wrong, and he hurriedly hung up.

At two in the morning, Yan Zhun was woken by his roommate.

He slowly opened his eyes, his dark gaze full of sleepiness and irritation.

Luo Qingshan said, "Pei Ran, are you really this heartless..."

Yan Zhun was instantly wide awake.

The dorm lights had long since gone out, leaving Luo Qingshan's phone screen as the only source of light.

Luo Qingshan sounded dejected. "Three years... We've been together for three years. You have to let me make mistakes, Pei Ran."

Luo Qingshan muttered to himself for several minutes. Yan Zhun had finally had enough and pulled his earplugs out from under his pillow. Just as he was about to put them in, he heard a couple of rustling sounds.

"Luo Qingshan, it's really late."

Luo Qingshan actually had the call on speaker.

Pei Ran's voice was hoarse and heavy with exhaustion. "Whatever it is, can we talk tomorrow?"

"You won't talk to me tomorrow," Luo Qingshan said.

Pei Ran rubbed his hair. It took him quite a while to finally wake up properly.

Luo Qingshan spoke in fits and starts, stumbling over his words a little. He had probably been drinking again.

His throat felt dry and hoarse, so Pei Ran took a sip of water before continuing. "Luo Qingshan, my breaking up with you... wasn't entirely because of this."

The other end of the line was silent. There was no response.

Pei Ran said, "We agreed back then that we'd give it a try."

At the time, Luo Qingshan had been lying in a hospital bed, his hands and arms wrapped in bandages. They had both been only seventeen or eighteen, their eyes full of turmoil.

Luo Qingshan had grimaced in pain but still smiled as he coaxed and teased him, asking whether he was touched and whether he wanted to give himself to him in return.

Pei Ran had stayed silent for a long time before saying, "Then let's give it a try, Luo Qingshan."

It had taken Pei Ran three years to understand that love did not grow over time for everyone.

At least, his current feelings for Luo Qingshan were not yet so great that he could forgive everything.

Luo Qingshan still said nothing. Pei Ran lowered his eyes. "I'm sorry..."

"He's asleep." A low voice came from the other end.

Pei Ran froze. "Oh."

Yan Zhun tossed the empty beer cans on the desk into the trash. "He had some beer. He's asleep now. This is Yan Zhun."

Pei Ran: "..."

Did that mean Yan Zhun had heard everything he had just said, and everything Luo Qingshan had said to him?

An inexplicable embarrassment crept up from the soles of his feet. Pei Ran swallowed, only speaking after a long while. "Did we wake you up?"

"No." Yan Zhun's expression did not change. "I'm staying up late."

Pei Ran gave a very quiet "Oh."

A brief silence settled between them.

"Go to sleep," Yan Zhun said. "Next time, remember to put your phone on silent before bed."

Pei Ran said, "...Okay."

A second before Pei Ran hung up, Yan Zhun hurriedly added, "Good night."

After the WeChat call ended, Yan Zhun lowered his eyes and happened to see Luo Qingshan's chat list.

The first conversation was with Pei Ran. The second was with Su Nian.

[Su Nian: Did you call me? Is now a good time? I'll call you back...]

He could not see the rest.

Yan Zhun remembered that among Luo Qingshan's earlier ramblings had been the words, "I already blocked him. What else do you want me to do?"

Just then, Luo Qingshan turned his face over on the desk and mumbled, "Baby..."

Yan Zhun grabbed one of Luo Qingshan's jackets at random and draped it over him. "Don't call him that."

With his eyes closed, Luo Qingshan instinctively mumbled, "Huh?"

"You broke up." With rare patience, Yan Zhun reminded him, "He's not your baby anymore."

Pei Ran sat in bed, staring at his phone screen.

Had he hung up too quickly? It seemed Yan Zhun hadn't finished speaking.

After all that, Pei Ran was no longer sleepy at all. Fortunately, his roommates had all been staying elsewhere these past few days, leaving him alone in the dorm. Otherwise, he would have had to go out onto the balcony to take the call.

He sat down at his computer and looked at the half-finished drawing in front of him, debating whether to finish it.

In the end, laziness won. Pei Ran took his phone and climbed back into bed.

Lying on his side and playing on his phone, Pei Ran idly refreshed his feed and came across a Moments post from a minute earlier.

[Yan Zhun: Available as a gaming companion. Can play any game, online anytime.]

Pei Ran tapped through to Yan Zhun's Moments, only to discover that the post had been deleted almost instantly.

More precisely, Yan Zhun had posted it again-

[Yan Zhun: Available as a gaming companion. Can play any game, online anytime, good at cheering people up, can do anything. Interested clients, message me privately. Almost out of money for food. [Web link]]

Pei Ran spent ten minutes looking through his friends' posts for the day. In the end, he could not resist tapping that web link.

It was a perfectly legitimate gaming companion website. Yan Zhun's account looked new, with zero orders completed. His rate was twenty yuan an hour, the lowest price on the site.

Pei Ran looked it over several times before finally placing an order for ten hours. Once he paid, he closed the page immediately.

He was just about to put his phone on silent and go to sleep when a WeChat message popped up.

[Yan Zhun: Boss.]

[Yan Zhun: When do you want to play?]

Pei Ran's eyes widened. It took him several seconds to process it before he typed.

[Pei Ran: What are you talking about]

[Yan Zhun: You booked me as a gaming companion. Ten hours.]

[Pei Ran: ...How did you know it was me?]

[Yan Zhun: It has your WeChat profile picture.]

Pei Ran covered his eyes for a moment. He had forgotten about that.

Which raised the question: if he admitted he had only wanted to help Yan Zhun out with some food money, would that be a little disrespectful?

[Yan Zhun: ?]

[Pei Ran: Oh, it's really late today, so let's not play tonight.]

[Yan Zhun: Tomorrow, then?]

[Pei Ran: These next few days... I have a part-time job to do.]

[Yan Zhun: Next week, then. We get seven days off from school. I'll play with you then.]

[Yan Zhun: I don't like owing people.]

There was little else to say after that.

[Pei Ran: Okay.]

[Pei Ran: I hung up too quickly just now and didn't catch what you said at the end. Sorry.]

[Yan Zhun: It's fine. It was nothing.]

[Pei Ran: Okay. By the way, could I trouble you to pour a glass of water and leave it beside Luo Qingshan?]

[Yan Zhun: You're my boss now.]

[Pei Ran: ?]

[Yan Zhun: You could even tell me to pry his mouth open and pour water down it.]

[Pei Ran: ...]