Secret Crush 22: With me, Jin Zhuo

Those photos posted in the comment section didn’t gain much attention, getting buried under hundreds of thousands of comments.

Qin Yingxia had specifically checked the IPs of those comments, all of them were from Di City.

She furrowed her brows slightly, holding her phone, lost in thought.

Until Jin Zhuo’s message came through, asking her if she wanted to play games.

[Summer: Yeah yeah.]

[Jin: Log in, I’ll pull you in.]

After logging in, Qin Yingxia was quickly pulled into a four-person squad by Jin Zhuo.

Jin Zhuo spoke into the mic, “Number three and four are Pei Lanhe and Jiang Yinghuai.”

A sudden male voice came through, Qin Yingxia hurriedly covered the receiver, she hadn’t had time to put on her headphones.

Xu Siwan came over, “Oh my～Our little Xia is playing games with who?”

Qin Yingxia’s ears burned with embarrassment, but it was Jin Zhuo who explained, “With me, Jin Zhuo.”

Xu Siwan automatically zipped her mouth shut and quietly retreated to her seat, but her eyes were filled with the happiness of a shipper.

Qin Yingxia put on her headphones, Jin Zhuo’s voice came through as if whispering in her ear.

“Seniors, I’m a total newbie.”

She decided to give everyone a heads-up.

Jiang Yinghuai said cheerfully, “No problem, it’s just a game! Let me tell you, Zhuo ge and He er are super good at games!”

Pei Lanhe modestly replied, “It’s alright.”

Jin Zhuo chuckled, “It’s not that exaggerated, He er and I, we’re only good at sniping.”

Jiang Yinghuai glanced at the two, secretly scoffing.

These two are even being modest.

Usually when the four of them play in the dorm, they brag about how amazing they are.

“Then I… I’ll be in charge of charging forward.” Qin Yingxia was good at highlighting her own value.

“OK, Qin Xuemei, we’ll just charge forward, there’s cover from the back.”

Qin Yingxia was still nervous, quietly going back to WeChat to send a message to Jin Zhuo, [Jin Zhuo, don’t let me die right away.]

She didn’t want to be too embarrassing.

[Jin: Don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen to you.]

This sentence gave her a sense of security.

So in the following game, Jin Zhuo spoke almost the entire time.

“I have a level three bag here, come over.”

Qin Yingxia, carrying her level one bag, trotted over.

“Level three helmet and armor, come get it.”

She rode the bicycle she had found, dinging and donging as she went to get supplies.

By the end, Qin Yingxia was like a walking, talking, fully equipped supply station, making Jiang Yinghuai envious.

“Bro, bro, save some for me!”

Jin Zhuo suppressed a laugh, “I saved you two bottles of medicine to resist damage.”

Jiang Yinghuai: “Every little bit helps.”

The only one who really charged forward was Jiang Yinghuai, Qin Yingxia became the rear supply station.

Just a supply station for Jin Zhuo alone.

Jin Zhuo would shoot enemies until they were down, then let Qin Yingxia finish them off.

Thanks to him, she gained a lot of experience points.

…

“Why isn’t the chairman here to play?” Qin Yingxia was curious.

Pei Lanhe glanced at Xie Chi’s empty seat and replied, “The chairman is a busy man.”

Jin Zhuo let out two chuckles, exchanging a look with Pei Lanhe, their expressions mischievous.

Xie Chi’s current busyness was also thanks to the two of them.

“My conscience suddenly hurts.” Jin Zhuo tilted his head, nonchalantly saying.

Pei Lanhe agreed, “Me too, why don’t we treat A Chi to something good?”

“How about we get together for a meal sometime?” Jiang Yinghuai suggested.

“Alright.”

Jin Zhuo took a few sips of ice water to moisten his throat, “Little Qin Xuemei, do you want to come?”

Qin Yingxia: “… I don’t have time.”

Jin Zhuo chuckled, “I haven’t said what day yet.”

Qin Yingxia: OrZ

She was afraid of awkwardness, and also afraid of causing trouble for Jin Zhuo.

Even though this was a good opportunity to spend time with him up close.

“Okay,” Jin Zhuo didn’t force her, knowing she was easily shy, “Let’s play another round?”

Qin Yingxia breathed a sigh of relief, “Okay!”

Speaking of gatherings, she remembered that when they first started school, Yu Zhizhi also mentioned that the four of them in the dorm should go out for dinner.

However, it was dropped due to the subtle relationship between her and Yang Dai.

After playing two more rounds with Jin Zhuo and the others, Qin Yingxia glanced at the time, it was almost 10:30 pm.

Yu Zhizhi hadn’t come back yet.

“Let’s call it a night, we have military training tomorrow, your dorm better not be late this time.”

Jiang Yinghuai was practically terrified of push-ups, “We promise we won’t be late again!”

Qin Yingxia quit the game and reminded Jin Zhuo again on WeChat, [Don’t oversleep ヅ]

Jin Zhuo wanted to say he wouldn’t, but before he could send the message, he changed his mind, [Xie Chi will probably bring back materials to analyze and stay up late, maybe he’ll oversleep tomorrow.]

[Summer: No, he has an alarm clock.]

[Jin: It won’t wake us up…]

Qin Yingxia thought for a moment, a smile in her eyes, [Then I’ll call you, I’ll wake you up, okay?]

[Jin: Okay.]

It was so good.

After saying goodnight to Jin Zhuo, she hurriedly called Yu Zhizhi.

She was afraid Yu Zhizhi would miss curfew and be marked for an overnight stay.

But there was no answer.

Qin Yingxia couldn’t sit still, she grabbed her phone and went to find her.

As soon as she reached the lobby downstairs, she bumped into Yu Zhizhi, “Zhizhi, you’re back! Curfew is almost here, I was so worried you’d be marked for…”

She noticed Yu Zhizhi’s red-rimmed eyes, “Zhizhi, what’s wrong?”

Yu Zhizhi rubbed her eyes, then sniffled sadly.

Her adjusted emotions broke down again instantly due to Qin Yingxia’s concern, she hugged her and burst into tears.

Qin Yingxia took her to the chairs by the laundry room door at the end of the corridor, gently patting her shoulder to comfort her.

“My damn ex-boyfriend came back.” She said in a hoarse voice.

Qin Yingxia wiped her tears, “They say a qualified ex should be as quiet as if they were dead, your ex was unqualified as a boyfriend, and even more unqualified as an ex, he’s been a bad man from start to finish.”

“So Zhizhi…” she comforted her softly, “It’s not worth crying for a bad man like that, don’t you think?”

Yu Zhizhi’s crying stopped abruptly, and she burst into laughter through her tears, “You’re right!”

After her emotions stabilized, she started telling Qin Yingxia what happened, “His name is Lin Shen, we met in middle school, he chased me for four years before I agreed to be with him, he was really good at the beginning, very gentle…”

“It’s only been less than half a year, and he’s already bored.”

“Lin Shen started pursuing what he called ‘freshness’ behind my back, when I found out, he said it gave him excitement and a different experience, we broke up in our senior year, it was ugly.”

At this point, Qin Yingxia finally understood why Yu Zhizhi had said that “once a person gets what they want, they forget how they felt when they tiptoed through the window to see her.”

She had once been cherished passionately, only to be discarded like trash.

Yu Zhizhi looked at Qin Yingxia beside her and sincerely asked, “So Yingying, when you told me you secretly liked Jin Zhuo for seven years, I felt incredible from the bottom of my heart…”

“You said people can really like someone for so many years?”

“Without getting the response you want, wouldn’t you get tired?”