Yun Ci’s memory also returned to the holiday when they played their most intense one-on-one game.
One day back then, Li Yan poked him: [Ci-ge, do you know? I heard Yu Xun has been staying overnight at the internet café for several days.]
yc: [?]
Li Yan: [He must be secretly practicing his gaming skills behind our backs. When school starts and our class runs into their class at the internet café again, he wants to crush us.]
Li Yan: [How vicious.]
Li Yan: [This cunning, scheming guy.]
yc: [Your use of idioms is not bad.]
Li Yan: [Thanks, all thanks to your dad pulling me into the office during lunch break and making me copy perfect score essays.]
Yun Ci didn’t reply, but his guess was a bit different from Li Yan’s.
As for why it was different, maybe it was intuition. From what he knew about Yu Xun, the possibility of him secretly practicing his skills was very low. If he really wanted to practice, he would probably let Liu Zi annoyingly say directly, “‘My Yu-ge said he’s going to the internet café tonight, dare to come?’”
But he still couldn’t sit still.
He couldn’t logically explain why he had to go to the internet café, maybe it was because he was used to confronting Yu Xun for a year.
It was his first time sneaking out behind Yan Yue’s back.
At twelve o’clock at night, he casually put on some clothes. Afraid of being caught on the security camera at the community gate, he specially took the back door and climbed over the wall—there was a strong wind that night, and he jumped off the wall with the wind.
He did this for the entire holiday.
Making him so sleepy during class from staying up all night at the internet café.
……
“What do you mean by ‘yes and no’? Speak plainly.” Yun Ci came back to his senses and said.
Yu Xun’s fingers touched the keyboard, thought for a moment, and said seemingly casually: “Actually, I had no place to stay during that time, so I could only eat instant noodles at the internet café. I didn’t expect you to come out to stay up all night with me.”
The tone of his words sounded like a joke, but his jokes always made it hard to tell if they were real or not.
Just when Yun Ci was pondering, Yu Xun pulled the conversation back: “—Did you think I was going to say that?”
“Of course, it’s because you killed me ten times in one game,” Yu Xun said, “Getting killed ten times, I remember that.”
“……”
He shouldn’t have asked.
It’s better to not speak seriously with Yu Xun.
–
The temperature dropped sharply.
Autumn passed briefly, followed by a cold wave.
Yun Ci hid on the balcony, wearing a thick coat, and reported his study progress to Yan Yue on the phone.
“The recent study report was well-written, keep it up.”
“You can also start planning the next phase of your studies.”
“How’s your life been recently? Is the cafeteria food to your taste?”
“……”
After saying “hmm” to all these, just before Yan Yue was about to hang up, Yun Ci suddenly stopped him: “Dad.”
Yan Yue: “What’s wrong.”
Yun Ci didn’t know why he kept remembering this, but he paused and asked: “Did our school have a Lei Feng Award before?”
Yan Yue: “It only lasted three years. You guys weren’t enthusiastic about voting, so it was discontinued.”
Yun Ci responded with another “hmm” and said, “Do you still have the list? I’d like to see it.”
Maybe the person Yu Xun likes is on the Lei Feng Award list. Anyway, compared to the possibility of that person being him, the latter seemed more unlikely.
Yan Yue found it odd: “What do you need that for?”
Yun Ci: “I.”
He paused, “To cultivate some Lei Feng spirit.”
……
Five minutes later, Yan Yue sent over a document.
The three Lei Feng Award winners were: the fire-fighting champion Su Mei from class five, the class fund guard Jiang Hongyuan from class seven, and from class one… Yun Ci looked closely, seeing the name Li Yan, with the award reason being copying Lei Feng’s diary by hand.
“……”
He took a photo and sent it to Li Yan.
yc: [/image]
yc: [Why did you copy Lei Feng’s diary for no reason.]
Li Yan replied instantly: [Damn, the Lei Feng Award list. Where did you get it from.]
Li Yan: [Guess why the Lei Feng Award couldn’t continue.]
Li Yan: [During the third award, no one signed up at all. Your dad, Director Yan, told me to stop copying perfect score essays and to copy Lei Feng’s diary to fill the gap.]
yc: [……]
That’s something his dad would do.
Li Yan: [But you’re really weird, why are you digging up this list.]
Because if he didn’t find something.
He would think that the person Yu Xun likes is him.
……
But he couldn’t say that.
Looking at this list, Yun Ci also felt that his behavior was really too strange.
Finally, he leaned against the balcony railing, pulled down his coat a bit, hoping the cold wind would clear his mind.
–
After the freshman had adapted to university life, various campus activities started to unfold.
Luo Sifang closely followed the gaming trends: “There is an Endless Glory Campus Cup tournament, open to forty universities in the city. The first round starts early next month, and our school has also opened registrations.”
He spoke passionately in the dormitory, but his roommates were indifferent.
Especially Yun Ci, who turned another page in his book.
“Aren’t you excited?” Luo Sifang tried to rally them, “A team from our dormitory, to make up for the regrets of high school, fighting for honor.”
Wang Zhuang: “…Not really; I’m not that good at the game.”
Peng Yiyuan: “I even pay people to play my account; what do you think? Can I pay someone to play for me in the tournament?”
Liu Sheng: “Shut up, you rich guy.”
“……”
Luo Sifang looked at Yun Ci: “What about you, Ci-ge?”
Yun Ci also glanced at him calmly and asked a crucial question: “Do you remember my account?”
Luo Sifang began to feel hopeless: “…Besides Yu-ge, who would remember that?”
And Yu Xun wasn’t in the dormitory.
Luo Sifang was unwilling to give up: “Create a new one, a brand new account, a brand new journey.”
In the end, all the members of dormitory 608 couldn’t resist Luo Sifang’s persuasion and were forced to sit six in a row at the internet café by the dormitory leader’s authority: “Just give it a try. If it doesn’t work out, we won’t sign up.”
[608 Brothers Group Chat]
Luo Sifang: Six machines are already set up @yx
Luo Sifang: Internet café 5=1
Luo Sifang: Hurry up @yx
Coincidentally, they sat in the same seats as last time.
To avoid sitting next to a certain someone, Yun Ci took the initiative to sit at the outermost seat, near the aisle this time.
In the dormitory group chat, the black avatar did not appear.
Luo Sifang asked him: “Did Yu-ge reply to you?”
Yun Ci: “?”
Luo Sifang: “He never replies to the group chat, only messages you directly.”
He was about to say, “What does that have to do with me,” when the next second, the black avatar appeared on the phone screen.
This time it wasn’t a private message.
Instead, it forcefully occupied the entire screen, the phone vibrating constantly.
Damn.
It wasn’t a private message, it was a voice call.
Yun Ci hadn’t expected Yu Xun to call him directly, his hand shook, and he immediately pressed hang up.
After a couple of seconds, the voice call persisted and came through again.
[“yx” invites you to a voice call.]
……
Were they close enough to casually call each other?
Yun Ci stared at the words as if he didn’t recognize them, until Luo Sifang nudged him: “Answer! Ask him where he is!”
Yun Ci completely forgot that there was already an underlying rivalry between him and Yu Xun, which was a good enough reason to say he didn’t want to answer. To hide another emotion, trying to prove he didn’t mind taking the call, he pressed “Accept.”
The moment the call connected, his reluctant “Hello” and Yu Xun’s voices almost overlapped.
“Hello.” That was him.
“Xiao Ci.” That was Yu Xun.
“……”
Yun Ci wanted to hang up the call from the first sentence.
Yu Xun didn’t seem to mind and continued: “I’ll be there in five minutes.”
It was hard to describe the feeling of hearing Yu Xun talk over the phone. It was his first time calling Yu Xun.
In the internet café, the surrounding environment was noisy.
But with the phone against his ear, all those sounds were blocked out, leaving only the voice from the phone.
Leaving only Yu Xun’s usual slightly teasing and laid-back voice.
Yun Ci said stiffly: “It’s okay if you don’t come.”
The response was a soft laugh.
“You don’t want to see me that much,” Yu Xun said as usual, “—Well, now I just have to come.”
Yun Ci gripped his mouse tightly at his laugh.
Laugh at what.
He was very uncomfortable with this voice call.
Usually, the black avatar sent him messages, the text had no voice or context; it was just a string of words. But calls were different; all the details were revealed even more clearly than in face-to-face conversations, and there was even a certain sense of intimacy.
For instance, it seemed like Yu Xun was about to get off work; besides the talking, there were chaotic sounds of tidying up, someone was calling him to check out; and he lazily responded: “Coming.”
Listening to these everyday details, Yun Ci felt like escaping: “Then I’ll hang up…”
“Wait.”
Yu Xun said, “Do you like strawberry or chocolate?”
“?”
“A small cake,” Yu Xun said, “Which piece do you want, I’ll bring it for you.”
Yun Ci: “……”
Was he a child? Bringing cake.
And why bring it for him?
Yun Ci secretly glanced around and found Luo Sifang eavesdropping, not knowing how much he heard.
He suddenly stood up, saying, “It’s a bit noisy, I can’t hear clearly,” then walked out, avoiding Luo Sifang.
Pushing open the glass door of the internet café led to a narrow corridor.
Three or four Nanyang University students were sneaking a smoke here.
He walked to the window and stood by a slightly open window, putting the phone back to his ear.
Yun Ci took another breath, feeling frustrated, as if everything that had happened recently had accumulated and exploded through this unexpected call. He straightforwardly brought up the issue that had been bothering him for days, testingly saying: “That day, I was just passing by.”
“Do you understand passing by?”
“It wasn’t really an act of bravery, I just happened to report it.”
“I think true bravery should be like the Lei Feng Award established by West High,” Yun Ci said, feeling that bringing up that lousy award was a bit pathetic, “The kind of bravery like putting out a lab fire.” He added, “What do you think?”
The other end of the line was silent for a few seconds.
It seemed like he could hear Yu Xun’s breathing on the other end, but maybe it was just the wind coming through the crack in the window next to his ear.
The duration of the voice call increased silently, second by second.
Yun Ci regretted speaking as soon as he finished.
This was a situation with a very low probability of being true, so why did he need to probe, making it awkward for both sides?
What would Yu Xun think? Would he think Yun Ci was being self-indulgent, assigning himself a role in the story?
“The signal wasn’t too good just now.” After a while, Yu Xun’s voice finally sounded, “What did you say? Chocolate, right?”
“……”
All of Yun Ci’s outbursts, like a balloon pricked by a needle, deflated instantly and couldn’t be rebuilt.
He didn’t know what he was thinking, maybe he felt embarrassed after the outburst, but he actually responded: “……Yes.”
