(2/2)
Li Yan immediately followed up with a few screenshots.
The screenshots were mainly from group chats and forums.
[Are they going to fight again?]
[Wait a minute, Team 608, why are those two on the same team?]
[Holy crap, they each led their own teams in high school. I never thought I’d see the day when these two would team up for a competition… This world is so surreal.]
Then someone in the group chat speculated: [Just a weak guess, could the fact that they are in the same dorm and on the same team mean that their relationship is not bad? Maybe they’ve reconciled? Realized how immature they were in the past?]
But this guess was quickly shot down collectively: [Go back to sleep if you’re not awake yet. In this world, I’m more willing to believe that the relationship between fries and ketchup can be smoothed out than that these two could improve their relationship.]
[They’re definitely in the same team but fighting internally!]
[In the same team, they’re probably competing over who gets more kills, defeating each other as “teammates”. If they lose, it’s more frustrating than losing with their own teams.]
[……]
[You’ve convinced me.]
[They’re in a very new kind of competition.]
Yun Ci was almost convinced by their angle of reasoning.
If he wasn’t involved, he might have believed it.
The competition was approaching, and Yun Ci didn’t bother with these outside discussions. He typed with one hand and replied to Li Yan: [Received.]
“Did those people outside all come because you two called them?”
Luo Sifang was in awe. He hadn’t expected the internal situation of their team to attract this much attention—mainly because these two central figures, after living and eating together, had daily trivial matters that were close-knit, often making people forget their combat prowess in this area.
Peng Yiyuan, sitting next to him, remained calm due to his experience. He said calmly, “Back then, yes, in the alleys of the East Gate, it was just these two groups of people—”
“……”
Yun Ci didn’t respond. After sending the message to Li Yan, he glanced at the black avatar again. The person hadn’t arrived yet.
Just before he put away his phone, a message from “Dad” suddenly popped up.
Yan Yue: [I heard from Pingyang that you’re participating in some game competition?]
Yan Yue: [You didn’t used to play games much.]
Yan Yue: [Do you play games often now?]
Yun Ci stared at these messages, his fingers hovering over the screen. In the end, he didn’t reply and put his phone away.
The moment he put away his phone, there was a commotion in the hallway.
Ignoring everyone else’s messages, the person who had only answered his call arrived right on time. He probably hadn’t had time to check his phone, including his curly-haired brother’s, so he had no idea what his curly-haired brother had done.
Wearing a mask, Yu Xun appeared in the hallway. Liu Zi immediately unfurled a banner, and over a dozen people stretched it from the front to the last person. The team formed a horizontal line.
A quick glance at the banner revealed words like “Go Team 608, Yu-ge is the strongest MVP in the team.”
Yu Xun walked by nonchalantly.
When he reached the front of the line, he stopped in front of Liu Zi: “Quite creative.”
Liu Zi: “It’ll do.”
Liu Zi added, “Although their banner is slightly longer, ours has exactly twenty-five characters, while theirs, including punctuation, only has twenty.”
Li Yan, standing nearby: “How the hell do you know we have twenty characters???”
Liu Zi retorted across the distance: “You think you’re the only one who can place an insider???”
“……”
Yu Xun casually asked him, “Is the process over, or is there any other step we need to take? Hurry up, the match is about to start.”
Liu Zi: “There’s one more step—cheering and chanting.”
Yu Xun, entering the computer room and taking off his mask: “Too late for that.”
Yun Ci: “……”
There’s a reason he could spar with this person for over three years.
If Yu Xun claimed his psychological resilience was second, no one would dare claim first.
The seating in the computer room was randomly assigned by the school, with Yu Xun’s name tag stuck on the computer next to Yun Ci’s. Under everyone’s gaze, Yu Xun pulled out the chair beside him.
“Are you logged in yet?” Yu Xun asked after sitting down, “Your game account.”
Yun Ci glanced at him.
Before he could respond, Yu Xun continued, “If you forgot, I sent it before. You can check the chat history. I wanted to mention it on the phone earlier, but I didn’t have time.”
He carried a trace of coldness, bringing in the outside chill as he entered.
Although Yun Ci had closed WeChat due to Yan Yue’s messages, he kept his phone in his hand the entire time. Smelling the cold wind, he released his grip, placed the phone on the table, and said, “Logged in.”
Yu Xun asked, “Did you log in by checking the chat history?”
…
What does he mean by checking the chat history?
It made it sound like he often went through their past conversations.
“No,” Yun Ci said, gripping the mouse to get a feel for it. “Who checks chat history for no reason?”
“I logged in a few times and memorized it.”
Because of the “checking chat history” comment, he felt a bit uneasy and habitually added, “—Just because your memory is good?”
Yu Xun shamelessly acknowledged it: “Slightly better, perhaps.”
“……”
Yun Ci said nothing.
“Yu-ge,” Luo Sifang called softly from a few seats away, “Good luck, it’s all about participating.”
Yu Xun glanced at him, noticing the three chains of different lengths around his neck: “…Your look today.”
Luo Sifang: “Zhuang-ge styled me. How is it?”
Yu Xun lightly raised his hand and clapped: “Not bad, very imposing.”
The computer room had a teacher assigned as the “game referee.” This teacher wandered around the room. Although he also played this game, he clearly lacked refereeing experience and relied more on his many years of invigilation experience: “Contestants… no, participants, the entry period is now closed. There are ten minutes left before the official start of the match. Please put away anything unrelated to the competition. No talking, no copying answers… no, I mean, no looking at other people’s screens.”
When this person sat next to him, the feeling of former opponents now unexpectedly becoming teammates became even stronger as the competition was about to start.
“Remember the old days,” Yu Xun suddenly reminisced, “you used to sit across from me with your team.”
Yun Ci didn’t want to admit that they were thinking the same thing: “I still want to sit across.”
Yu Xun: “Across is the dorm room 405 from the next building. You can’t sit there.”
“……”
After a moment of silence.
Yun Ci thought of something else but didn’t know how to bring it up. So he chose an opening that fit their relationship: “Wanna bet?”
Yu Xun: “?”
“If I get more kills in this match,” Yun Ci paused and said, “you stop bringing breakfast starting tomorrow.”
Yu Xun seemed surprised that he brought this up suddenly.
“Alright,” he clicked the mouse and said, “and if I win?”
Yun Ci was about to say “your call,” expecting Yu Xun to suggest something like “then you bring it for me.” He had made such demands during their basketball games before.
He had made him watch matches, carry clothes.
He even made him buy water for him.
He and Yu Xun had so many random bets in high school, betting on everything fiercely.
But Yu Xun said, “If I win, you let me bring breakfast for a whole month.”
“?”
What kind of bet is this? Insisting on bringing breakfast.
Yu Xun, holding the mouse, opened a poker game, seemingly explaining casually, “I don’t want to break a promise about what I said before.”
But this game competition, which only Luo Sifang cared about, didn’t go as planned. Unexpected things happened. When Luo Sifang asked, “Is everyone ready? We’re about to start. One match to determine the winner,” Wang Zhuang noticed something about his roommate: “Why isn’t Liu Sheng talking? He’s seemed off since we got here.”
At this moment, Liu Sheng, who had been silent all along, said, “…I don’t want to compete.”
“?”
*
Two hours later. Restaurant outside the school.
Although Liu Sheng said he didn’t want to compete, he still played a match, but his performance was erratic. Their team quickly lost five members, and then Wang Zhuang and Peng Yiyuan had bad luck and got ambushed by another team.
They were eating Western food, with Liu Sheng treating them. The few of them gathered around the large table, munching on the pre-meal bread.
Luo Sifang said, “At that moment, I felt this match was doomed. Although the remaining three were my strong teammates, a 3v6 was still hard to manage. Getting to the top two was all thanks to those two who went on a killing spree.”
He meant Yun Ci and Yu Xun.
Luo Sifang finally said, “But then we ran into a full team, and we couldn’t handle the numbers. What a pity.” As he spoke, he turned the topic back to Liu Sheng, “What’s up with you?”
Yun Ci tore a piece of bread, thinking about the number of kills between him and Yu Xun. In the end, before Yu Xun quit the game, he told him, “It’s a tie,” referring to the two of them, not the opponents.
Back in the computer room, he had asked, “How do we count a tie?”
Yu Xun: “It doesn’t count for anything. Breakfast as usual.”
……
Yun Ci was still thinking about this when he heard Luo Sifang’s question and looked towards Liu Sheng.
Usually, in the dorm, Liu Sheng didn’t have a strong presence. Even now, Yun Ci’s impression of this roommate remained superficial: delicate appearance and practicing singing on the balcony every morning.
He loved music. Unlike Young Master Peng a rich second generation who casually chose an art major regardless of job prospects, Liu Sheng had always had a music dream. It was said that he wrote his own songs in high school. Luo Sifang had originally wanted to rally everyone to support him on a music platform, but Liu Sheng said his songs didn’t have many plays and was too embarrassed to share them, so they didn’t.
His personality was a bit sensitive, the type to easily tear up at some online news.
These thoughts flashed through Yun Ci’s mind.
Although they didn’t interact much, having been class president for so long, he easily noticed these things.
“What’s wrong,” he also asked, “not feeling well?”
Liu Sheng shook his head, not wanting to say much: “No.”
After saying this, he felt bad for delaying the competition and not explaining himself clearly, so he added, “Because there was someone at the venue… someone I didn’t want to see.”
Luo Sifang was shocked: “Damn, you also have a high school rival you fought with for three years?!”
“……”
Liu Sheng was silent for a moment, half-jokingly and half-explaining, “Not everyone you don’t want to see is like those two, Luo-ge.”
This time, it was Yu Xun who spoke up. Seeing Liu Sheng was feeling off, he tried to lighten the mood: “Me and him, what about us? We get along great.”
Yun Ci disagreed: “Not really.”
Yu Xun leaned in closer while speaking: “We’re even bunkmates.”
Yun Ci responded: “That’s why every night I dream of kicking you out.”
“…Alright, you two, that’s enough,” Luo Sifang said. “Liu Sheng, go on. If it’s not a rival, what is it that you don’t want to see?”
Liu Sheng was silent for a long time.
Over time, everyone in dorm 608 had taken good care of him, so he mustered some courage: “It’s my… ex-boyfriend.”
Luo Sifang: “Oh, ex… ex what?”
He blinked in shock: “Ex-boyfriend???”
Wang Zhuang and Peng Yiyuan also stared: “Boyfriend? Boy…friend? A guy?”
Yun Ci was holding a piece of toasted bread. It was very dry and crumbled with a light squeeze. His hand paused, not expecting this answer.
Before he could think of what to say, he looked up and met Yu Xun’s gaze, which hadn’t been retracted in time.
The lighting in the restaurant wasn’t strong, casting a hazy glow.
In the center of the hall, a waiter was playing the piano, a piece called “Moonlight.”
Yu Xun had taken off his coat, leaving only a sweater underneath. His hair had grown longer, and when he slightly lowered his head, some strands would cover one eye.
The light sprinkled delicately in his eyes.
Everyone was looking at Liu Sheng, but Yu Xun’s first instinctive reaction was to look at him.
“Yu Xun’s first instinctive reaction was to look at him” the butterflies I’m getting from these twoooo!
I’m just loving this so much! Thank you for translating!!!