When Xie Lianzhi arrived, the vibe at 419 instantly shifted from a male college slice-of-life comedy to a pink-bubble-filled shoujo romance. He wore a black long coat, simple with only two pockets, layered over a plain white shirt with the top two buttons undone, holding a travel bag casually.
Straight guy, closeted guy, and pure gay trio all thought silently: D*mn, he’s handsome.
“Oh, I was looking for little love letter.” Lu Rulu threw an arm over Qin Shu’s shoulders, teasingly lifted his chin: “Look at that handsome face and floral skirt—the flirtatious widow, that’s him.”
Qin Shu protested: “It’s shorts, not a skirt!” Though loose, they were still shorts!
Lu Rulu ran a hand over his face. “Doesn’t matter, you look good in anything.”
Xie Lianzhi’s tone was slightly cold: “You guys own a gas station?”
“Why?”
“Greasy, over the top.” Xie Lianzhi looked at the greasy roommate’s arm on Qin Shu’s shoulder. “Let go.”
For guys who aren’t thinking anything or aren’t at that level of hotness, Qin Shu’s reaction to casual contact is like any straight guy. Even if Lu Rulu hugged his waist, he’d stay calm, like a daoist maiden holding a lotus.
But since Xie Lianzhi said to let go… Qin Shu smiled and removed Lu Rulu’s arm. “Senior, what are you doing here?”
“Staying in the dorm for a few days.”
Lu Rulu was so surprised he muttered two foreign words in a row: “Nani? Why?!”
“Busy with a project; the dorm is close to the lab.”
Lu Rulu looked even more confused. “Your home isn’t far either. The project’s been going on for a while—why didn’t you move earlier?”
Xie Lianzhi ignored him. “Have you eaten?”
Chu Cheng said, “Not yet, Brother Lan. Let’s go eat together.”
“I won’t,” Qin Shu sulked. “I can’t wear pants, and I don’t want to streak.”
Lu Rulu raised an age-old philosophical question: “If I give you fifty million, would you streak?”
Qin Shu said with a perfectly straight face, “Do I look like someone who’s short of fifty million? I just naturally like streaking.”
Xie Lanzhi said, “Then go streak right now.”
Qin Shu could only call out helplessly, “Senior.”
Xie Lanzhi chuckled, then made the decision: “Let’s order takeout.”
Since Chu Cheng and Qin Shu couldn’t eat spicy or greasy food, Xie Lanzhi ordered from a Cantonese restaurant near the school: six dishes and a soup. Not only was there no chili, even dark soy sauce was barely used. The packaging was refined to the extreme, and it was all the flavor of the ingredients themselves—probably the so-called high-end ingredients of legend.
A plate of steamed perch became Chu Cheng’s favorite. Picking up a piece of tender white fish, dipping it in the soy sauce at the bottom, it was so delicious his face contorted.
Chu Cheng usually disliked eating fish because of the trouble of picking out bones. Now it was as if he’d discovered a new continent: “What kind of fish is this? Not a single bone.”
Qin Shu educated the baby: “Not fish sauce, it’s perch~”
Meeting his eyes, Lu Rulu realized he’d found a kindred spirit: “Little Love Letter plays Animal Crossing too? How much are your turnips selling for?”
The four of them ate around the table, with Chu Cheng once again eating the fiercest. Soon he got impatient. This time Qin Shu didn’t fight him for food, even giving him the chicken butt from the white-cut chicken. “Eat more. Look how skinny you are. Xu Ning’s about to catch up to you.”
Chu Cheng was not the least bit grateful. “The door’s over there. Please leave.”
Lu Rulu asked, “Brother Lan, how long are you planning to stay in the dorm?”
“We’ll see.”
“Then what about Snowball?”
“She’s in the hospital,” Xie Lanzhi said.
All three put down their chopsticks at once. “Huh?”
“Sterilization surgery,” Xie Lanzhi explained. “The doctor said it’s best to keep her under observation for three days. She still needs anti-inflammatory injections.”
Lu Rulu’s expression grew complicated. “My Snowball is so cute, why does she have to suffer this pain—got any photos?”
Xie Lanzhi pulled out some photos. In the first, Snowball’s four legs were tied on the operating table, mouth wide open, tongue lolling to the side—pitiful yet ridiculous. The second showed two long unknown objects taken out from her body, sprayed with a silver coating, not bloody at all.
Three heads crowded together. Qin Shu asked, “Wow, will she still be able to become a catgirl in the future?”
Xie Lanzhi raised an eyebrow. “Oh? You’re still thinking about catgirl?”
“I used to play a catgirl game, where all the cats could transform into cute girls.”
Lu Rulu: “D*mn, there’s a game like that? Send me the link, thanks.”
Chu Cheng shattered Qin Shu’s beautiful fantasy. “Even if she wasn’t spayed, she still wouldn’t turn into a catgirl. You shut-in otakus can give up already.”
By the end, only Chu Cheng was still fighting. Once he confirmed the others weren’t eating anymore, he dumped the leftover rice into the fish plate and mixed it with the sauce.
When the battle ended, Chu Cheng lay back in his chair, satisfied, rubbing his round stomach and groaning.
Qin Shu said, “There are still a few pieces of chicken.”
Chu Cheng waved him off. “The last bite of rice is stuck in my throat. I’ve reached my limit.”
Just then, both Chu Cheng’s and Qin Shu’s phones buzzed at once. Xu Ning had pulled them into a group chat and said: 【Had dinner yet? Let’s go out to eat.】
【Uncle Qin: Just finished (table-banging.gif)】
【Overlord Chu: I’m not full, I can still eat another meal.】
【Uncle Qin: (subway grandpa looking at phone.jpg)】
Getting a dose of sugar naturally made Qin Shu happy, but still… he glanced at the baby’s belly. “If you can’t eat, then don’t force it.”
When he saw Chu Cheng putting on his coat and grabbing his keys, Lu Rulu asked, “You’re going out?”
Qin Shu laughed and cried at once. “He’s going to eat.”
“No way, sir,” Lu Rulu exclaimed, “you can still eat?”
Chu Cheng clenched his fists as if cheering himself on. “Humans—hic—you know nothing of the stomach’s power.” His back as he walked out was tragically heroic, as if carrying his own BGM, making the old father shed tears.
After Chu Cheng left, Lu Rulu still sprawled around. Xie Lanzhi asked, “You still have business here?”
“Nope.”
“Nope and you’re not leaving?”
“Oh, I’ll go.” Lu Rulu shuffled out slowly. Only when Xie Lanzhi shut the door right in front of him did he realize something seemed wrong.
Wasn’t Xie Lanzhi his roommate? Staring at the tightly closed door, an inexplicable sorrow welled up in his chest—clearly it was a three-person movie, yet he would never have a name in the credits.
Qin Shu was tidying up the leftovers. Seeing Xie Lanzhi hadn’t left, he asked in puzzlement, “Senior?”
Xie Lanzhi lowered his gaze slightly. Lu Rulu wasn’t wrong—Qin Shu looked like he was wearing a skirt above the knees. From just the lower half, anyone would think they were a girl’s legs: long and straight, shapely and fair, with only a patch of reddened skin near the hem of the shorts.
“How’s the wound?” Xie Lanzhi asked.
“It still hurts a little.” Qin Shu raised his hand, thumb and forefinger almost touching. “About this tiny bit.”
Xie Lanzhi smiled. “And before?”
“Before?”
“When you were tearing up and saying it hurt a lot.”
Qin Shu spread his arms wide. “This much!”
Xie Lanzhi recalled Qin Shu’s expression back then, pained to the extreme, and felt another tightness in his chest. “I’ll clean up. You sit.”
“No need—”
Xie Lanzhi took off his coat, casually hung it on the chair, and took the plates from Qin Shu’s hands. “Come here.”
“Hm?”
“Shirt sleeves. Roll them up for me.”
“Got it.” Qin Shu walked over, unbuttoned his cuff, rolled it up twice, like a wife fixing her husband’s shirt. “Is this OK?”
Xie Lanzhi’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “Mm.”
After tidying up the dishes, seeing Xie Lanzhi still hadn’t left, Qin Shu asked, “Senior, want to play games?”
“Okay.”
The two of them duo queued in King Canyon ranked. In the first match, the first pick instantly locked jungle, Xie Lanzhi filled top lane, Qin Shu chose a marksman. Five minutes in, Qin Shu’s mentality collapsed, having been cut down three or four times by the enemy jungler. He spammed “requesting support,” but not a single teammate cared whether he lived or died. The support stuck with the jungler, while Xie Lanzhi was far away top lane 1v2, powerless to help. Qin Shu couldn’t scale at all, and to make things worse, his team was behind in gold yet still kept forcing fights. On the third wipe, the allied jungler started flaming: [Marksman are you Meituan delivery? Can you stop feeding?]
Qin Shu was too busy with his mechanics to type back, suffocating with frustration.
When everyone is tilted, someone has to be the scapegoat. Qin Shu was first in line: after the jungler flamed him, the support did, then the mid laner too, until Qin Shu was burning with anger. As soon as their crystal fell, he turned to Xie Lanzhi to complain: “Was I not passive enough? I stayed under tower the whole time and never went out! Their Luna tower-dived me for a kill, what the h*ll could I do?! Our jungler is an idiot. I could throw some rice on my phone and a chicken’s pathing would be better than his. Yet he has the nerve to dump the blame on me?”
Xie Lanzhi was calm: “Complaining is useless.”
Qin Shu exploded: “Then what is useful?!”
“Hug me.”
Qin Shu’s rage instantly died down by half. He stared blankly: “Hug you?” … your thigh?
Xie Lanzhi: “Come on, continue.”
They played a few more games, and except for the first one, they didn’t lose again.
Chu Cheng didn’t come back until night. At that time, Xie Lanzhi was tutoring Qin Shu. When Xie Lanzhi realized that no matter how he explained, Qin Shu only half-understood, he couldn’t help asking a soul-crushing question: “Are you an undercover agent?”
“Huh?”
Xie Lanzhi phrased it more gently: “At your level right now, I start to suspect you didn’t go to university to study. Being a college student is just your cover.”
Qin Shu deadpanned: “Thanks, that was hilarious.”
Chu Cheng, overhearing, let out a laugh but quickly covered his mouth, looking like he was about to throw up.
Qin Shu said: “Senior bought a lot of fruit this afternoon, do you want some?”
At the word “eat,” Chu Cheng dry heaved again, clutching the wall as he dashed to the bathroom.
Xie Lanzhi: “On purpose?”
Qin Shu grinned and hushed him. For Ning Ning, Baby was even willing to abandon his stomach. If this wasn’t love, then what was!
Xie Lanzhi lightly tapped Qin Shu’s head with the book. “I’m going back to shower.”
Qin Shu asked: “Senior, my exams are coming up soon. Do you think I should prepare anything else?”
“Prepare money for the retake fee.”
“???”
“Cramming last minute won’t help.”
Qin Shu got the hint: “So I should just hug you instead?”
Xie Lanzhi chuckled low. “You can try.”
Chu Cheng staggered weakly out of the bathroom, collapsed onto a chair, cheek pressed against the desk. He zoned out for a while, then suddenly asked: “How do you know if you like someone?”
Xie Lanzhi’s hand froze on the doorknob.
Qin Shu nearly fell out of his chair, his voice trembling: “W-what did you just say?”
Chu Cheng let out a burp, his mind foggy: “What does liking someone feel like? How can I tell if I really like him?”
Every cell in Qin Shu’s body screamed. Other people spill truths when drunk—Baby actually spills truths after eating too much? If he had known feeding Baby until stuffed would make him enlightened, what was the point of all his scheming before? He should have just force-fed him from the start, d*mn it!
Chu Cheng painfully turned his head to another angle. “Brother Lan, do you know?”
Xie Lanzhi hesitated. “I…”
“I know I know, I can answer this one!” Qin Shu’s eyes lit up with excitement. “Liking someone means, you always want to know what he’s doing, want to be with him all the time. Not seeing him makes your mood bad, seeing him with others makes your mood worse. Your eyes follow him uncontrollably. You want only to be by his side when he’s hurt, and want everyone else to get as far away as possible. When you score a basket, the first thing you do is look for him—you want him to like you back.”
Chu Cheng: “…”
Xie Lanzhi: “…”
Author’s note:
Baby: It’s over, I bent!
Senior: It’s over, I fell for a playboy.
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