Shoutout to Kari for the commission!
Le Cheng was so ticklish from being pinched that he broke down and laughed out loud. “Hahahaha, stop pinching me, stop!”
Zhou Shirui withdrew his hand. “From now on, don’t say things carelessly just because you feel like it.”
“Mhm, mhm, I know.” Le Cheng touched the Bluetooth earbud in his left ear. “I’m going to listen to some ASMR for a while and go to sleep. Good night.”
Zhou Shirui’s voice sounded in the darkness. “Good night.”
Le Cheng got into character and was dissatisfied. “There’s no emotion in it. Say it again!”
Zhou Shirui paused for two seconds, then said seriously, “Le Cheng, good night.”
Only then did Le Cheng smile and turn around.
They spent two and a half days playing at the hot springs, and on the final day, they headed home.
After Le Cheng returned, he began focusing on his revision. His final exams were in two weeks. He hadn’t been paying much attention in class lately and had been constantly grinding away at his drafts, but he didn’t want to fail his very first semester after coming here. Fortunately, the Visual Communication Design major covered a fairly broad and miscellaneous range of subjects, so completing his final assignments and reviewing for the exams was relatively easy.
Le Cheng wasn’t very familiar with his classmates. After all, he lived in a mixed dormitory, and at university, unless someone was his roommate, he could barely remember the faces of the people he took classes with. Because of this, Le Cheng lurked in various teachers’ group chats to pick out the important points, and he also added his class monitor’s contact information.
[Class Monitor: I’ve given you all the material our teachers said would be covered. It should be about this much.]
[Orange: Okay, thank you, Class Monitor!]
[Orange: Puppy bowing.jpg]
After thanking him, Le Cheng opened the document and carefully looked through it.
Because of their final exams, he and Zhou Shirui weren’t going out as frequently as before.
Zhou Shirui was one year ahead of him and in a different major. His exams were two days earlier, so by the time Le Cheng started taking his first exam, Zhou Shirui only had two easy, non-major courses left.
After finishing his Marxism exam, Le Cheng took out his phone and saw that Zhou Shirui had sent him a message saying that he was waiting for him in the cafeteria and asking what he wanted to eat.
Le Cheng thought for a moment before replying: [I want braised chicken and rice!]
Le Cheng slung his bag over his shoulder and came to the first floor of the cafeteria. From quite a distance away, he saw someone waving at him.
He was confused for a moment. Looking carefully, he saw that the person was wearing a puffy down jacket. The face looked familiar, it should be Zhou Shirui’s roommate. Sitting beside his roommate, with his long legs slightly bent, was Zhou Shirui.
He jogged over and discovered that there was food on his table. Cheng Yufei said with a smile, “Le Cheng’s here. Hurry up and eat, hurry, or the food will get cold.”
“Mm, okay.” Seeing him like this, Le Cheng instinctively thanked him. “Did you get the food for me? Thank you.”
Zhou Shirui raised his eyes from the side. Cheng Yufei immediately felt an invisible pressure and hurriedly shook his head. “It wasn’t me, it wasn’t me. It was Brother Rui. Brother Rui got the food for you.”
Le Cheng’s eyebrows curved into a smile. “Then thank you.”
Zhou Shirui’s tone was even. “You’re welcome. Eat.”
Le Cheng lowered his head and quickly shoveled food into his mouth. Cheng Yufei was a chatterbox, and even eating couldn’t shut him up. Beside them, he kept enthusiastically talking about his plans for the vacation.
“Haha, tomorrow afternoon we’ll finally be on vacation and can go home.” Cheng Yufei rubbed his chin. “I miss my bed at home so much!”
“And my top-of-the-line computer, my game console, my huge bathroom… Brother Rui, when we go home this time, I’m still going to duo queue with you.”
Zhou Shirui said indifferently, “No time.”
“How could you not have time?” Cheng Yufei was dissatisfied. “You’ll be at home and still have no time? Don’t tell me you just don’t want to play with me?”
Zhou Shirui tugged at the corner of his lips. “You’re getting smarter today.”
“F*ck! I’m hurt.” Cheng Yufei made a gesture of clutching his chest. “That was so blunt!”
Watching the two of them bicker, Le Cheng ate his food and casually asked, “What game do you play?”
“PUBG. You should know it, right?” Cheng Yufei answered immediately.
“Oh, oh, I know!” Le Cheng had played a couple of rounds. He was a little better at this than at Honor of Kings because he was good at hiding and surviving.
Cheng Yufei said, “Le Cheng plays too, right? I’m really good! I can carry you when the time comes?”
Zhou Shirui frowned. “You?”
“Hey, hey, hey.” Cheng Yufei was unhappy. “Looking down on me?”
Zhou Shirui: “No.”
Le Cheng was amused by Cheng Yufei and quickly tried to smooth things over. “No, no. Besides, when you guys go home, I won’t be on vacation yet.”
“What?” Cheng Yufei was somewhat shocked. “You guys aren’t on vacation yet?”
“Yeah, our exams are later.”
Speaking of which, Le Cheng still didn’t know where Zhou Shirui stayed during vacation.
In the original novel’s plot, Zhou Shirui’s parents were divorced. Although his family was well-off, his mother was abroad, and his father apparently didn’t go home very often either.
Coincidentally, Cheng Yufei asked him at that moment, “Le Cheng, where do you live?”
“My family lives in the neighboring city,” Le Cheng said.
“Huh? Then your home should be pretty close to Brother Rui’s. He lives in this city now.”
“This city?” Le Cheng’s eyes widened slightly. “Do you live alone?”
“Yes.” Zhou Shirui nodded.
“Living alone is pretty nice.” Le Cheng thought for a moment, his eyes curving into a smile. He said casually, “We live so close to each other, so it’s really convenient. If I want to come find you, I can just take the high-speed rail. It takes less than half an hour to get there!”
The words “come find you” fell into Zhou Shirui’s ears. His Adam’s apple moved unnaturally. After a pause, he said, “…Mm.”
“That’s great.” Cheng Yufei said, “I’m in D City, which is actually pretty close too. We can all come out and hang out together when the time comes.”
Le Cheng nodded, quickly finished his meal, said bye to Zhou Shirui, and went to take his next exam.
By the following afternoon, when Zhou Shirui was about to leave, Le Cheng was still taking his exam.
After he walked out of the exam room, he saw that Zhou Shirui had sent him a message.
[Zhou Shirui: I’m leaving.]
Le Cheng sent him a sticker.
Le Cheng took exams for three and a half days before finally finishing. He boarded the high-speed train and went home.
As soon as he got off at the high-speed railway station, he received a message from his mother.
[Mom: Chengcheng, have you arrived? Let Mom know when you get off.]
[Orange: I’m here, Mom. I’ll take a taxi home in a bit.]
He walked outside the station, hailed a taxi, and returned home based on his memories.
It was a fairly ordinary-looking residential complex. Le Cheng pulled his luggage inside, went upstairs, took a deep breath, and mentally prepared himself for a while before taking out his key and opening the door.
The first person he saw was a slender woman.
Le Cheng immediately recognized her. This was his mother. He pulled his luggage over, hesitated, and called out, “Mom.”
“Hey.” Cao Fanqin smiled brightly and quickly stood up to greet him. “Are you tired? Hurry and put your luggage down. Old Le, come out quickly. Your son is here!”
“Okay.” Le Cheng nodded, letting Cao Fanqin take his suitcase. He looked up and began taking in the decor of the home.
The furnishings were very simple, but the place was clean.
A man’s face appeared from the bedroom. “Le Cheng! My precious son, come, come, come, sit down. You must be exhausted. It’s been several months since we last saw you. Why do you look thinner?”
“Dad.” Le Cheng obediently greeted him. “…I haven’t lost weight. Not at all.”
“It’s fine.” Le Shuhai chuckled. “Dad is making a whole table full of dishes for you today. Eat for a few days and you’ll put the weight back on.”
Le Cheng didn’t want to grow into some huge chubby guy yet, so he shook his head like a rattle. “Dad, you don’t need to go to all that trouble. I can just eat whatever.”
“Chengcheng, come over here. Stop talking to your dad. Come look at the flowers Mom has been growing. They’re insanely pretty.” Cao Fanqin called out to him.
“Oh, okay!” Le Cheng ran over in his slippers, pattering across the floor.
……
After dinner, Le Cheng went into his room and began drawing.
Cao Fanqin and Le Shuhai didn’t say anything. The couple watched television in the living room.
Le Cheng was actually quite surprised.
Unlike what he had imagined, the atmosphere in this family was unexpectedly good, unexpectedly normal, and it made him feel very comfortable.
Shaking his head, Le Cheng pulled his thoughts back and began doing the math.
He had almost finished clearing out the commissions he had taken previously. After working himself to the bone for two months, Le Cheng had paid back more than forty thousand yuan.
He had almost cleared all the BaiTiao bills that were about to become overdue. The larger debts that remained gave him a little more time.
Of course, it wasn’t that much more time. The original owner had used all sorts of strange apps online to take out BaiTiao credit, so it had taken Le Cheng a long time to figure out the repayment deadlines for each one.
After drawing for a while, Le Cheng turned on the computer at home and casually downloaded several large games, including LOL, PUBG, and others.
He was so bored that he logged into PUBG and played absentmindedly for a while. On a sudden impulse, he picked up his phone and poked Zhou Shirui.
[Orange: What are you doing?]
[Orange: Surprise inspection!]
[Orange: Hurry up and make a 2 with your fingers, then take a picture and send it over.]
[Orange: Line-drawing puppy woof woof woof.jpg]
Zhou Shirui replied pretty quickly.
“Ding-dong, ”
[Zhou Shirui: Picture.jpg]
Le Cheng tapped into it and enlarged the image. Zhou Shirui seemed to be sitting in front of a computer, with half of a mechanical keyboard visible. On the computer screen was the game they had tested before.
A solitary “Yeah” was displayed on the screen. His fingers were very long, and his nails were trimmed neatly. Le Cheng felt a little like laughing. He poked at the screen and typed.
[Orange: Your reaction this time was pretty good. I’m very satisfied!]
[Orange: Are you playing a game? I want to play too.]
On Zhou Shirui’s side, the status changed to [Typing……]
Le Cheng suddenly remembered that before vacation, Cheng Yufei had mentioned playing together, but Zhou Shirui had said he didn’t have time.
Being considerate, he typed:
[Orange: If you don’t have time, then forget it.]
[Zhou Shirui: I do.]
Zhou Shirui simply sent him the game package. Le Cheng installed it and began playing with Zhou Shirui over voice chat.
He hadn’t really noticed it when they were face-to-face before, but once Le Cheng put on his headphones, he realized that Zhou Shirui’s voice was very low and deep. Hearing it in his ears made them tingle slightly.
Le Cheng logged into the game developed by Zhou Shirui’s studio. The game hadn’t officially been released yet, but it could be played online. After they clicked Start, Le Cheng and Zhou Shirui instantly became two points of light. The points landed on the ground, one character was wearing the most basic black outfit, while the other was dressed in an incredibly trendy outfit.
You could be bad at the game, but your clothes had to be flashy.
Because the game was still in the testing stage, none of the cosmetics had unlock requirements. Le Cheng spent ages choosing an outfit for “himself,” putting more thought into it than he usually did when choosing what to wear when going out.
Le Cheng moved the mouse and made his character spin around. He happily asked, “How is it? Doesn’t it fit the game’s theme perfectly?”
“Mm.” Zhou Shirui glanced at the screen and pressed his lips together. “Cute.”
Cute? Le Cheng made his little character spin around again and gave an order. “Charge!”
The two of them played together. After killing small monsters, equipment would drop. Zhou Shirui said in a low voice through the headphones, “Take off the armor and weapon and use this set.”
“This set has higher stats.”
“Take the fully upgraded musket.”
“Wear the highest-level outer armor.”
Le Cheng gradually put on all the good equipment that dropped. On the computer, his little character was wrapped up from head to toe, while Zhou Shirui’s little character remained simply dressed.
With the overwhelming advantage of his weapons, Le Cheng charged straight to the front. As he played, he discussed the game’s visuals with Zhou Shirui.
Zhou Shirui listened to him quietly. He discovered that Le Cheng had a genius-level grasp of color and was incredibly imaginative.
Le Cheng unknowingly rambled on about a whole bunch of things before suddenly having an idea. “Why can’t there be a pet system? I want to raise a pet in the game!”
Zhou Shirui asked, “What kind of pet?”
Le Cheng suddenly felt that his idea was a little unrealistic. The game was almost finished, and adding a pet system now would be rather strange. So he casually said, “Um… a flying kitten. It has wings and a halo above its head. The wings should preferably be rainbow-colored.”
“Okay.” Zhou Shirui answered.
Le Cheng wasn’t paying attention and got half his health knocked off. He cried out in surprise. Someone knocked on the door, so he pulled one side of his headphones off and asked, “Who is it?”
“Me,” Cao Fanqin said.
“Mom? Come in.” Le Cheng didn’t look up.
“Mom brought you a fruit platter. They’re all good fruits. Your dad cut them for you,” Cao Fanqin said.
“Thank you, Mom!” Le Cheng picked up a piece of orange with a small fork and ate it.
Cao Fanqin glanced at the screen and asked, “Are you playing a game?”
“Mm…” Le Cheng was eating fruit, so his words were a little muffled. “I’m playing a game.”
“Looks like there are two little people.” Cao Fanqin smiled and then said something shocking. “Are you playing with your boyfriend?”
??
Le Cheng choked in shock, and his cheeks quickly grew hot. He felt an inexplicable sense of embarrassment, as if he had just been exposed in front of an elder.
“No.” He was still connected to Zhou Shirui on voice chat! Le Cheng instinctively felt that Cao Fanqin was about to say something bad, so he immediately denied it, trying to avoid the topic. “I’m… playing with a friend!”
“Oh, oh, Mom guessed wrong.” Cao Fanqin didn’t care and said with a smile, “I thought you’d be playing with Little Zhou. After all, he’s the first boyfriend you ever announced. Mom thought you really liked him. Last time, when I asked you to bring him home so I could meet him, didn’t Chengcheng say you’d think about it…”
The first?
On the other end of the headphones, Zhou Shirui clearly heard those words, and something subtle stirred in his heart.
Meanwhile, Le Cheng was about to faint. How could his mother say everything?! How he normally treated Zhou Shirui was one thing, but carrying out his plan was another. And now his mother was saying all of this in public, especially with Zhou Shirui listening on the other end. Le Cheng’s toes were practically curling into the floor.
He felt like their family could move into a new house immediately. He had already dug out a Barbie Dreamhouse for everyone with his toes.
“Mom, don’t say that.” Le Cheng’s cheeks were as red as little tomatoes. It wasn’t shyness, just pure embarrassment. “Don’t say anything…”
“Aiya.” Cao Fanqin teased him. “Why do you blush so easily now? Okay, okay, Mom won’t say anything.”
With a soft “click,” the bedroom door closed. Le Cheng ate two pieces of pear and gulped down some water before finally managing to calm himself down enough to put his headphones back on. He coughed lightly, with a strong sense of trying to cover up what had just happened. “Um, the game isn’t finished yet… My mom just brought me some fruit.”
“Mm.” Zhou Shirui said, “I know.”
“The equipment you’re wearing is really good.” Le Cheng tried to change the subject. “Take it off and give it to me to wear.”
Zhou Shirui was silent for two seconds. “I’m wearing C-grade armor. You’re wearing S-grade.”
Le Cheng’s scalp tingled with embarrassment again. At this point, he could only pretend to be an unreasonable, spoiled brat who refused to listen.
“…I don’t care. I want yours.”
“Okay.” As soon as Zhou Shirui finished speaking, there was a “ding,” and the equipment was thrown at the feet of Le Cheng’s little character.
Le Cheng quickly put it on. “Are we going to fight the next-level Boss?”
“Fight it.” Zhou Shirui’s voice was calm. A moment later, as if he were asking casually, he said, “Just now, what your mom said about the first…”
“Ahem, I think it’s too late now!” The moment Le Cheng thought about it, he felt like digging his toes into the floor. He practically shouted, “I need to go wash up first! We can play again later! Bye-bye!”
There was no response from the other end of the headphones. Le Cheng didn’t care either. He took off his headphones, exited the voice chat, and awkwardly rubbed his own cheeks.
As if that wasn’t enough, he silently performed an entire set of military-style exercises in the air.
After finishing the routine, Le Cheng felt much calmer. Sure enough, going crazy really did make a person calm down.
Le Cheng slowly finished washing up and drying his hair before returning to the computer. His little character had been set by Zhou Shirui to “passively follow,” while Zhou Shirui himself was currently in the dungeon getting equipment for him. His own little character was glowing with golden light, while Zhou Shirui’s was pitch-black, as if he were Le Cheng’s personal miner.
Le Cheng was amused by his own bizarre analogy and laughed.
After taking so long to calm down, Le Cheng finally got over that wave of embarrassment. Sitting in his computer chair, he put on his headphones and said, “I’m back.”
The sound of the keyboard on the other end stopped for a moment. Le Cheng asked, “Were you playing the whole time?”
“No.” Zhou Shirui’s tone was calm. “I just went to wash up.”
“Oh.” Le Cheng joined the team as well. QQ was logged in at the bottom of his computer screen, and a notification popped up.
[You have three friends whose birthdays are coming up. Click to take a look~]
Le Cheng glanced at the screen and suddenly remembered that Zhou Shirui’s birthday seemed to be coming up too.
It seemed to be January 21.
Controlling his character, he casually asked, “Is your birthday coming up soon?”
Zhou Shirui was silent for a moment on the other end. “…Mm.”
Le Cheng recalled the plot of the original novel in his mind.
According to the setting, Zhou Shirui’s parents had married for business and had no feelings for each other, so they had lived separately in different places from an early age. Zhou Shirui had been raised by different nannies and had a miserable, lonely childhood. When Zhou Shirui turned eighteen, his parents divorced, completely severing their relationship.
Le Cheng fell into thought.
A trashy dad, an absent mother, an unloved childhood, a broken him.
How classic!
Le Cheng was instantly speechless.
Although he hadn’t thought much of it while reading the novel, now that he had actually come to this world and had a relationship with Zhou Shirui, he couldn’t help but feel a little moved.
Le Cheng blinked. “So how are you planning to spend your birthday?”
Zhou Shirui didn’t seem to care much. “Why are you asking?”
“I’m just asking,” Le Cheng said.
Zhou Shirui: “Are you coming?”
Le Cheng had already given it some thought. He was a pretty loyal and sentimental person. Before transmigrating, there had even been a time when a classmate came to visit him, got sick halfway there, and he had traveled across provincial borders to go pick them up.
Le Cheng answered vaguely, “Mm… We’ll see.”
Zhou Shirui fell silent.
The second half of the game lasted all the way until ten-thirty. Le Cheng was completely drained of energy and said he didn’t want to play anymore before pulling off his headphones.
Zhou Shirui said, “It’s getting late. Go to sleep.”
Le Cheng exited the voice chat and lay in bed, playing with his phone for a while. He was a little bored.
When he was bored, naturally, he had to go bother Zhou Shirui.
[Orange: I’m so bored ＞o＜]
[Orange: Rolling around.jpg]
In the darkness, Le Cheng stared at the screen. Zhou Shirui’s message quickly popped up.
[Zhou Shirui: Hmm?]
Le Cheng replied.
[Orange: Zhou Shirui, can you tell bedtime stories?]
After sending the message, Le Cheng casually switched out of the chat and opened Douyin, wanting to check the statistics on his account.
“Ring-ring-ring!”
The sharp sound quickly pierced through the night. Le Cheng jumped in surprise and hurriedly answered.
Because it was so late, he plugged in his wired earphones and asked in a small voice, “Hello? Why are you calling me?”
Zhou Shirui’s voice came clearly from the other end. “Mm. Didn’t you want to hear one?”
Hear what? A bedtime story?
He was actually going to tell one!!
Le Cheng had only asked casually, but if someone was actually willing to tell him one, of course he was going to listen. He immediately said, “I do, I do! I love listening to them. Wait a second…”
Le Cheng cleared his phone’s background apps, then turned off the screen, adjusted his pillow, and lay down comfortably before announcing, “Okay, I’m ready! Tell me.”
“What do you want to hear?”
“Mm… I don’t know.” Le Cheng said, “Just make something up. I want to hear whatever you want to tell.”
“Okay.”
Zhou Shirui paused for a moment. The night lent his voice a gentleness and tranquility different from usual. “…Once upon a time, there was a beautiful forest.”
Le Cheng blinked. “One Thousand and One Nights?”
“…I guess.”
“Okay, I love it.” Le Cheng laughed. “Go on.”
“Deep in the forest, there lived a… little squirrel with a fluffy tail.”
Le Cheng pondered. “Why did we suddenly switch to the Andersen channel?”
Zhou Shirui fell silent. “You don’t like it?”
Le Cheng tugged at his blanket and said obediently, “I like it. Keep going.”
“The little squirrel was cute, clever, and kind. Its favorite thing to do was hide all its nuts in carefully chosen tree hollows before winter arrived. It would also help everyone get through the winter together.”
“Therefore,” Zhou Shirui said in an even tone, “all the little animals in the forest wanted to be friends with the little squirrel.”
“Wow.” Le Cheng said, “The little squirrel is so popular.”
Zhou Shirui hummed in acknowledgment and continued, “Because too many little animals wanted to come, the little squirrel set a standard. Whoever was the best, he would become friends with them first.”
“So, a few little animals showed up at the little squirrel’s doorstep.”
“Animal Number One was a chatty, somewhat frivolous parrot.”
“Animal Number Two was a flashy, cunning, and fickle fox.”
“Animal Number Three was a taciturn wolf.”
Le Cheng closed his eyes, his long lashes resting on his eyelids, and listened quietly. For some reason, he felt that this description seemed somewhat familiar.
“The parrot said, ‘If you’re the first to be my friend, I’ll give you the feathers I’ve collected. In winter, I’ll sing with you, and I have lots of friends we can play with together.’”
“The fox said, ‘If you’re the first to be my friend, I’ll give you my softest fur so you won’t be cold in winter. We can swing together, and I don’t mind if you make other friends, too.’”
The deep, husky voice was so hypnotic that Le Cheng grew drowsy as he listened, his eyelids growing heavy: “Um… then what?”
“The wolf said…” Zhou Shirui’s voice was very soft, “If you become friends with him… then you can only be friends with him. He doesn’t like others around. He’ll keep you warm in winter and cool in summer; he’ll make you a swing, help you pick pinecones, and take you to the stream to play in the water.”
Zhou Shirui paused, and Le Cheng’s interest was piqued: “So who did the little squirrel choose?”
Zhou Shirui didn’t answer, but asked him instead, “Who do you think it chose?”
Le Cheng put himself in the little squirrel’s shoes. He thought for a moment, then buried his face in the pillow and rubbed it against it. “I guess… the big gray wolf, I suppose.”
On the other end of the headphones, Zhou Shirui asked, “Why?”
Le Cheng said, “Because he’s the best… so who did the little squirrel choose?”
Zhou Shirui seemed to chuckle softly: “The same one you did.”
“Hmm… good taste…” Le Cheng yawned sleepily.
Zhou Shirui continued: “So, the little squirrel and the big bad wolf became friends. Word got out, and right after that, more little animals signed up, all vying to be ‘first’, the first to go out and play, the first to swing on the swing, the first to fall in love…”
The sound in Le Cheng’s ears grew a bit fuzzy. He thought he heard Zhou Shirui ask softly, “…Le Cheng?” Le Cheng was so sleepy he could barely keep his eyes open; the words landed in his head, but he couldn’t think straight. He scratched his cheek, rolled over, and muttered unconsciously, “Falling in love… the first one… of course, of course it’s with you…”
Zhou Shirui paused for a few seconds.
It was just drowsy sleep-talking, yet it felt as if it had tugged at his heart, stirring up a subtle, vague, and secret sense of elation.
Zhou Shirui closed his eyes for a moment and heard Le Cheng seem to wake up briefly, mumbling, “…Zhou… Zhou Shirui…”
Zhou Shirui froze for a moment, realizing that Le Cheng had called his name.
He was so clingy even in his dreams.
It felt as if something had squeezed his heart, making it soft and hollow.
“Mm, I’m here,” Zhou Shirui said softly. “Go back to sleep… Chengcheng. Good night.”
