Chapter 4
“Oh, have you two met already? You probably don’t know each other. Let me introduce you,” said the Gu family’s aunt as she approached with two fruit platters, breaking the awkward standoff between the two. She didn’t sense any tension between them and was keen to introduce them warmly. “This is the young master of our Gu family, Gu Yang. You can call him Yangyang.”
After introducing Gu Yang, she took Lin Xiaoran by the hand and continued, “Yangyang, this is Lin Auntie’s son, Lin Xiaoran. His academic performance is outstanding; he’s always the top student in every exam. Now that you’ll be living together, you should learn from him.”
The aunt was an elderly member of the Gu family, and she treated Gu Yang as if he were her own child. In this situation, she couldn’t help but offer some words of advice.
After introducing them, she inquired, “Which one of you is older? Guang is 17 years old with a birthday on January 20th. What about you, Xiaoran?”
Both of them, still in shock, had managed to regain their composure. Lin Xiaoran suppressed his displeasure and softly replied, “I’m also 17, with a birthday on January 19.”
The aunt chuckled, “What a coincidence, just one day apart. Yangyang, you should call Xiaoran ‘big brother.'”
Gu Yang didn’t want to continue this topic. His mouth moved as if he were about to change the subject, but Lin Xiaoran’s cool voice cut in, “I think it’s necessary. Come on, call me ‘big brother.'”
Gu Yang: “…”
He couldn’t help but raise his head and look at Lin Xiaoran’s face again.
At this moment, Lin Xiaoran wasn’t wearing glasses, and his freshly showered appearance made his dark, glistening eyes appear bright and clear. He was staring at Gu Yang, blinking slowly.
His expression was serious and focused, as if he genuinely believed Gu Yang should call him ‘big brother.’
Gu Yang chuckled awkwardly, “It’s not necessary, really. It’s just one day.”
“I think it’s necessary. Be a good boy and call me ‘big brother,” Lin Xiaoran insisted.
Hmph! You deliberately agreed to sit with me during the day just to go against me, right?
Well, now you can try.
Lin Xiaoran, of course, didn’t care if Gu Yang called him ‘big brother. He simply found it amusing. He lowered his head and continued to pet the cat in his hands.
The little creature clearly enjoyed Lin Xiaoran’s attention, sitting in his palm, licking his paws, and occasionally extending its soft, pink tongue to lick Lin Xiaoran’s fingers. This made Lin Xiaoran smile softly, his eyes curved.
Gu Yang was spinning his brain, trying to figure out how to steer clear of this topic, but his gaze couldn’t help but land on Lin Xiaoran’s smiling eyes. He suddenly froze.
In a matter of minutes, he had already seen Lin Xiaoran smile for the second time.
When Lin Xiaoran smiled, the difference between his smiling and non-smiling appearances was huge. This left Gu Yang perplexed. Were they really the same person?
Moreover, this guy was not expressionless all the time? Then why did he constantly wear a cold expression on his face? What a waste!
“Is Mr. back?” Auntie’s voice once again interrupted the bizarre atmosphere between the two.
Both of them raised their heads to see that Gu Xiuyuan had returned from the airport and was slowly walking upstairs.
Seeing Gu Yang, Gu Xiuyuan’s lips visibly twitched. After all, this was an important occasion tonight, and Gu Yang had ditched him.
But before he could say anything, Gu Yang had already spoken, “I’m tired. You guys talk.” He took a fruit platter from Auntie’s hand and turned back to his room.
Suddenly, he thought of something and turned back to Lin Xiaoran. He gave him a slight smile and pointed to the small creature in Lin Xiaoran’s hands. “Its name is White Sugar. My cat.”
After saying that, Gu Yang handed the little creature to Lin Xiaoran, turned around, went back to his room, closed the door, all in one go.
Lin Xiaoran looked at the closed door, then lowered his head to look at his empty palm. He couldn’t help but mutter, “White Sugar? What a random name.”
“This child,” Gu Xiuyuan shook his head helplessly. He addressed Lin Xiaoran, “Xiaoran, please don’t mind him. He’s just in a bad mood because of me.”
Lin Xiaoran shrugged. “I don’t mind.”
“That’s good. Consider this place your home. If you need anything, feel free to talk to me. It’s getting late; you should get some rest,” Gu Xiuyuan said. He had been driving for several hours, so he was a bit tired. After that, he turned and went upstairs.
Lin Xiaoran watched him leave, then took the fruit platter from Auntie, thanked her, and went back to his room.
The private messages on his computer game were overflowing, but he quickly found a message from Jiduqiu: “Arena, are you up for it?”
Lin Xiaoran immediately created a room and sent the room number.
A few seconds later, Jiduqiu appeared on the other side.
Without a word, they went into battle.
Five minutes later, Lin Xiaoran lost.
He started another round, and again, five minutes later, he lost.
The third round ended the same way.
After the third round, Lin Xiaoran opened the chat box and typed “I’m done.” However, before he could send it, Jiduqiu sent another battle invitation.
He hesitated for a moment, then accepted and entered the room. But instead of starting the battle, he sent a message to Jiduqiu: “Are you feeling down?”
Lin Xiaoran and Jiduqiu had known each other for several years. They first met in the game when they were in middle school and teamed up to clear dungeons. Even though they didn’t team up anymore, they frequently dueled in the arena.
Over the years, they had learned a bit about each other. For instance, Jiduqiu, the top-ranked player on the server, was actually a bit lazy. Whenever he agreed to duel with Lin Xiaoran, it never went beyond three rounds. Regardless of the outcome, after three rounds, he’d always send a message saying, “I’m done, I’m done, I’m exhausted. Let’s go watch the moon at the Starfall Lake; it’s more fun than the arena.”
Today, Jiduqiu had initiated a fourth round, which was unusual.
A while later, Jiduqiu responded, “Why do you ask?”
Lin Xiaoran knew this had happened once before, in the second half of their freshman year of high school. That night, after three rounds, Jiduqiu sent an invitation, and they ended up playing all night long, continuing until sunrise. Lin Xiaoran, who had never stayed up all night, watched the sun rise outside the window and felt like he was going insane. He hurriedly logged off the game, and just as he was about to exit, Jiduqiu sent a message: “Thanks for staying up with me all night; I’m feeling much better now.”
Lin Xiaoran’s eyes blinked, and he quickly typed a response: “Why were you feeling down?”
Before he could send the message, Jiduqiu messaged him back: “My mom passed away.”
A heavy weight suddenly dropped on Lin Xiaoran’s mind, and he couldn’t react to the words on the screen. By the time he snapped out of it and wanted to comfort Jiduqiu with a few words, he had already gone offline.
This event had happened more than two years ago, and Jiduqiu hadn’t acted unusually since. Lin Xiaoran didn’t expect the same thing to happen again tonight.
Could it be…?
Lin Xiaoran’s thoughts were interrupted by a message notification.
Jiduqiu: “Don’t want to play anymore? How about we go to Starfall Lake after this round and watch the moon?”
Starfall Lake was a scenic location in the game.
Lin Xiaoran had always wondered why Jiduqiu was so fixated on Starfall Lake, talking about it all the time. He thought, why not go to his own rooftop to watch the moon if he had so much free time?
He couldn’t figure it out and didn’t want to waste more mental energy on it. Seeing that Jiduqiu was still insistent on mentioning Starfall Lake, he felt he might have been overthinking it.
With quick fingers, he typed, “I’m going. I’m going to bed.”
After sending the message, he forcefully exited the arena, shut down his computer, and went to bed.
In the room across the hall, Gu Yang was looking at his computer. His eyes had a natural charm, and when he smiled while looking at something, it gave off an inexplicable depth of tenderness and concentration.
After a while, he stopped smiling, turned off the computer, and found that his frustration from the night had somehow dissipated.
He turned to pick up White Sugar, who had been quietly sitting on the bed, and gave the little creature a few strokes. In response, White Sugar started meowing and trying to bite his thumb with its tiny milk teeth, looking quite fierce.
But just moments ago, it had been so well-behaved in front of Lin Xiaoran!
Gu Yang felt a little annoyed and poked its little head, seriously giving it some instructions. “White Sugar, listen up. I picked you up, so you have to stay by my side. The person across the hall is the enemy. You can’t compromise just because he looks good. No matter how good-looking he is, he’s still a bookworm, and that’s incredibly dull. In the future, ignore him. Got it?”
“Meow.” The little creature seemed to understand, looking up at him with wide eyes and softly meowing.
Gu Yang felt a sense of satisfaction. It was like his son was finally showing some spirit.
However, this feeling only lasted one night. The next morning, when he came downstairs, he immediately saw Lin Xiaoran sitting on the couch, lowering his head to feed White Sugar with one hand while holding a carton of milk in the other.
White Sugar was obediently lapping up the milk, occasionally glancing at Lin Xiaoran and giving soft, affectionate meows as if it were being coquettish.
Lin Xiaoran was wearing glasses, hiding his eyes, but there was a faint curve at the corners of his lips, and his whole demeanor seemed gentler.
Gu Yang: “…”
