Shi Su

Cen Xia was still in a daze when he was brought to ward six.

He was even more bewildered when he met Shi Su's thoroughly embarrassed gaze.

The nurse said, "He needs to use the bathroom, but he's too embarrassed to let me help him. I saw the light on in your room, so I had to come find you."

She had put it so bluntly that a blush crept across Shi Su's fair face. He didn't know where to look and wished he could find a crack to crawl into.

He regretted it now. If he'd known, he wouldn't have drunk so much water.

Who could have known that only two female nurses would be on the night shift today?

After hearing the nurse's explanation, Cen Xia nodded. Helping someone to the bathroom was simple enough.

Shi Su hurt whenever he moved, but he was too embarrassed to trouble anyone too much, so he gritted his teeth and tried to sit up on his own. He braced an elbow against the bed, but the slightest effort tugged at the injury on his waist.

"Hiss-"

His strength gave out, and he fell heavily backward. Shi Su closed his eyes, one thought running through his mind: This is definitely going to hurt.

The pain he expected never came, because an arm caught his back.

Shi Su opened his eyes and saw the boy who had just come in with the nurse.

Keeping his arm there, Cen Xia gently helped him sit up.

"Can you walk?" Cen Xia asked him.

Shi Su used his support to stand and tried taking two steps on his own. The movement tugged at his wound, making him suck in a sharp breath.

Cen Xia simply put an arm around his waist and draped one of Shi Su's arms over his own shoulders.

Shi Su was about the same height as him, so the position didn't give Cen Xia much leverage. He could only walk slightly on tiptoe, letting Shi Su hang half his weight on him.

When they reached the bathroom, Cen Xia let go of him.

Once Shi Su was standing steadily, he thanked him.

Cen Xia went out and shut the door, deliberately walking a few steps farther away. It would be pretty awkward for him, too, if he heard sounds he wasn't supposed to.

A few minutes later, he heard Shi Su say, "I'm done."

He opened the door. Shi Su was standing in front of the sink, looking at him openly.

It was already done, so there was nothing to be embarrassed about anymore.

Using the same position as before, Cen Xia half dragged, half carried Shi Su back to bed. The movement still tugged painfully at Shi Su's injuries, but he could bear it.

"Thank you," Shi Su said, sitting on the bed and looking up as he thanked him again.

Shi Su wasn't as stunningly beautiful as Lin Jiandu, but the protagonist of a novel surely wouldn't be bad-looking. If he hadn't been good-looking, Shen Si wouldn't have seen him as an imaginary rival.

Cen Xia nodded, accepting his thanks.

But inwardly, he was mulling something over. This part hadn't been in the book, and the World Will had been as silent as if it were dead. So what if...

He cleared his throat and tentatively struck up a conversation with Shi Su. "How did you get hurt?"

Shi Su rubbed his nose. He didn't dare tell the truth and only gave a vague answer. "An accident."

The World Will made no response.

"What's your name?"

Shi Su was taken aback by the question and didn't speak for quite a while.

Cen Xia wondered if he had just asked some difficult question. Otherwise, why did the other boy seem to find it so hard to say his own name?

After a minute or two, Shi Su finally answered, "...My name is Shi Su."

Cen Xia, of course, already knew his name. He merely replied casually, "Oh, I'm Cen Xia."

Shi Su hadn't expected such a flat reaction. He looked up, somewhat stunned.

He knew his situation at this school all too well.

His classmates ostracized him, and other people at school also kept their distance once they found out who he was.

Zhou Zanli was right.

"Y-you don't know who I am?" he asked tentatively.

It took Cen Xia a moment to understand what he meant. Then he put on a look of sudden realization.

"Oh, so you're Shi Su."

His delivery was utterly insincere, like he was humoring a child. But Shi Su's heart, which had been bouncing between heaven and earth, suddenly settled back into place.

"I'm pretty famous, huh?" he joked with a smile.

Cen Xia didn't notice the change in his expression, because he was waiting for the World Will's reaction.

Nothing happened.

That was strange. As an NPC, he wasn't supposed to deliberately approach the protagonist. The World Will didn't allow it.

Could the World Will's hold on him be loosening bit by bit? But last time, it had clearly made him feel that death would be better than life.

To test something, he continued probing. "You and He..."

Rumble-

A peal of thunder suddenly exploded outside the window.

"You and He..."

Rumble-

Cen Xia stopped talking and raised his middle finger behind his back.

Sore loser!

"What did you say?" Shi Su hadn't heard him clearly.

"Nothing." Cen Xia shook his head. "Get some rest. I'm leaving."

Shi Su watched him walk to the door, then suddenly stop and come back, pulling his phone out of his pocket.

"Let's exchange contact information. You can call me if you need anything. I'll be here for the next two days."

"Oh, sure. Thank you."

Looking at the two profile pictures stacked one above the other in the new friends section, Cen Xia suddenly got what made collectors so happy.

It was like collecting cards in a game.

His imagination ran wild. He wondered if collecting all the protagonists would let him summon a little divine dragon.

Hmm, it should summon the World Will.

But... A faint smile quietly curled his lips. It turned out that as long as something had nothing to do with the original book's plot, the World Will couldn't do anything to him.

He had actually been fooled by it before, thinking it was all-powerful.

As if sensing his contempt, the sky sent down another bolt of lightning in a fit of embarrassed anger.

The rain continued until daybreak.

After two heavy downpours in a row, the sun shone brilliantly, as if all the water in the heavenly river had been poured out.

Cen Xia stayed at the infirmary for another day. Only when Shi Su could get out of bed and walk around freely did he say goodbye to Doctor Li, leave the infirmary, and return to class.

Cen Xia had been bored at the infirmary and played a couple of games with Ding Yiheng. After that, Ding Yiheng came running to the infirmary every day for the next two days.

He called him "Brother Cen" at every turn, afraid that Cen Xia would stop playing with him.

There was no other reason: Ding Yiheng was terrible at the game, yet loved playing it. His friends wanted to carry him, but though their hearts were willing, their strength fell short.

Just when he thought he was doomed to bob up and down alone in low-rank matches, Cen Xia had descended from the sky. Even with Ding Yiheng dragging him down, Cen Xia could still slaughter everyone, leaving Ding Yiheng prostrate with admiration.

Cen Xia even smashed through the rank bottleneck that had trapped him for years in just two games. From then on, Cen Xia stood as tall as a mountain in his heart.

Cen Xia had nothing else to do anyway, so he played with Ding Yiheng for two days, forcibly dragging him up three whole tiers.

Ding Yiheng wished he could offer himself in marriage, but Cen Xia politely declined.

At first, the two of them played together. Later, when Shi Su had recovered enough to move around, they pulled him in and played as a trio.

Ding Yiheng had no prejudice against Shi Su. On the contrary, he was full of respect for the way Shi Su had stood up to retaliation from the three boys' fanatical admirers.

When he later discovered that Shi Su's gaming skills were no worse than Cen Xia's, he shamelessly sent him a friend request.

He made a solemn declaration: "With two big shots carrying me, there's no way I won't reach King!"

Even after Cen Xia left the infirmary, their fate as a three-man team continued. Every evening, Ding Yiheng tagged the other two in their group chat right on time and told them to log in, firmly establishing the three of them as a regular team.

Later, because they kept getting matched with so many extraordinary teammates, Shi Su brought his roommate in too, turning their three-man team into a four-man team.

Lin Jiandu asked about Cen Xia's health once more afterward. Once Cen Xia replied that he was fine, their chat stopped at four messages.

On Friday evening, the four-man team set off right on schedule.

Even the muffled game mic couldn't contain Ding Yiheng's excited voice.

"Charge, charge, charge!"

Shi Su's mic lit up, and his muffled voice came through, tinged with apology.

"Sorry, I can only play one game today."

Cen Xia and Fang Sheng had no problem with that. Neither of them was as fanatical about the game as Ding Yiheng.

Ding Yiheng said, "It's fine, it's fine. We can play tomorrow instead. Tomorrow's Saturday, so we can play all day!"

Shi Su felt a little bad about dampening his enthusiasm. "I have something to do tomorrow too."

Ding Yiheng wailed, "Isn't Saturday a day off?"

Cen Xia cut in. "Who's like you, sleeping in the game every day? You don't have anything important to do, but we do."

Fang Sheng spoke up then too. "I have something to do tomorrow too, so I can't play."

"Fine, fine, fine, go do your own things. I'm going to practice hard while you're gone, and when you come back, I'll blind you with my skills!" Ding Yiheng proclaimed grandly.

Listening to their banter through his headphones, Shi Su felt the corners of his mouth rise involuntarily.

It had been a long time since he had felt such a warm, lively atmosphere among friends.

Friends...

Thinking of Zhou Zanli, he lowered his eyes sadly. They hadn't spoken a single word to each other since that day.

Shen Si hadn't troubled either of them again, but the gap that had opened between them could no longer be bridged.