There were only three people in the dorm room, and Shu Ziqin leaned close to his ear to say this, intending to tell him alone.

Yang Yue felt a bit strange for a moment.

Clearly, his roommate was the one who loved jokes, and he had just made it clear that he was helping him. Wasn’t this conversation directed at the wrong person?

Could it be that he didn’t want to share this little secret with others?

That would be even more unbelievable.

They had only met a few times in total, and although they got along relatively well so far, they were not familiar with each other at all. Shu Ziqin was actually closer to him than to his roommate, who he spent all his time with?

Although he didn’t understand the reason, gaining trust was always a good thing. After a brief moment of doubt, Yang Yue secretly felt happy.

He looked at Shu Ziqin, raised his eyebrows with a knowing smile, and made a gesture that said, “I know what you mean.”

Shu Ziqin hesitated for a moment but smiled back at him.

“What are you guys doing, exchanging glances like that?” the crew cut guy said, looking horrified. “You guys don’t really have anything going on, do you?”

Yang Yue patted his chest, saying, “We do, I’m his big brother. He confides in me, trusting me to have his back.”

“Ugh—” the crew cut guy shuddered, “I think you two are having a gay thing.”

Yang Yue laughed heartily, casually turning to glance at Shu Ziqin, then quickly froze.

Shu Ziqin lowered his head, avoiding eye contact, looking slightly nervous, with a hint of redness on his face.

Yang Yue felt a sense of discomfort for no reason.

He couldn’t understand the reason, but he felt a bit awkward. This feeling made him uncomfortable, and he subconsciously wanted to get rid of it, so he quickly changed the subject.

“Is there anywhere else to sit in this dorm room?” he looked around, “We can’t play games standing up, can we?”

Before Shu Ziqin could answer, the crew cut guy interjected, “What game? What game?”

In the end, the three of them formed a team.

The crew cut guy also played the game, although he was a veteran, he only played occasionally. He was in a higher rank than Shu Ziqin, who was a novice, being in the Platinum tier, an average level.

Yang Yue had overlooked something very important. There was a huge gap between him and Shu Ziqin, making it impossible for them to team up for ranked matches. They could only play the more casual quick match mode.

Shu Ziqin didn’t mind at all, happily holding his phone.

“It’s okay, I’ll teach you on the spot. It’s like I’m letting you peek at the martial arts secrets,” Yang Yue boasted, “Watch my gameplay carefully, and I guarantee that your skills will greatly improve after this afternoon!”

Shu Ziqin nodded earnestly, “Okay!”

After two matches, Yang Yue began to curse loudly.

Less than five minutes into the first match, he couldn’t control his emotions, getting angry at Shu Ziqin’s mistakes. He felt really annoyed. Out of face, he couldn’t express his frustration too directly, so he could only patiently remind him again and again.

As time went on, his patience wore thin, and he noticed that Shu Ziqin didn’t even attempt to resist, not fighting back or talking back, actively admitting his mistakes. He gradually let loose. Whenever he saw Shu Ziqin make a stupid move, he would unleash a barrage of curses.

The crew cut guy occasionally got caught in the crossfire, and he couldn’t stand it anymore. There was no punishment for losing in random matches, and he mostly played just for fun. He usually didn’t take games seriously, feeling uncomfortable being held to such high standards. After the third match, he announced that he was too mentally exhausted to continue the team.

Only then did Yang Yue realize that he had gone too far.

“…Are you okay?” he asked Shu Ziqin cautiously.

Shu Ziqin looked slightly dejected, sighing lightly, “I’m so bad, I thought I had improved a bit.”

Yang Yue quickly reassured him, “You did improve! Your progress is significant!”

Shu Ziqin nodded, but there was still no smile on his face, “Hmm, but it’s not enough. I always hold you back.”

Yang Yue’s gaze wandered, “Don’t say that. You…uh, you…your aiming ability is great, haven’t you noticed?”

“Really?” Shu Ziqin blinked.

“Yes, look at your weapon accuracy, how much is it… oh, fourteen percent…” Yang Yue lowered his head, embarrassedly clearing his throat, “For a beginner, that’s pretty good. What you lack now is just experience. Play more, get familiar with it, and you’ll naturally improve.”

“Is fourteen percent high?” Shu Ziqin asked.

Of course, it wasn’t, but it was clearly above the average level of the Silver tier.

“It’s very high, you’ll rank up sooner or later,” Yang Yue said, “Experience can be accumulated even by a fool. But aiming ability is a talent, very rare. This shows that your potential is high in the future!”

Shu Ziqin’s eyes lit up at his words, “Really?”

So naive, Yang Yue thought, easier to coax than a primary school student.

Cute.

“Yeah, why would I lie to you,” Yang Yue patted him twice, “Keep it up! Maybe you’ll be the one leading me in the future!”

Shu Ziqin pursed his lips but couldn’t hide his smile, looking at him with a serious expression.

“Yeah,” he nodded vigorously, “I will!”

There was a very disappointed cough from the side.

“For heaven’s sake, can you two not flirt in public,” the crew cut guy said, very annoyed, “Can you consider my feelings as a third wheel?”

Never did he expect that one day he, who was constantly troubled by being the third wheel in everyday situations, would receive such criticism himself.

Yang Yue found it funny in his heart, and his playful nature emerged again. He leaned softly against Shu Ziqin’s shoulder, saying, “Come on, it’s because we care about your feelings that we’re just playing games in-game. Otherwise, we would’ve been having a sword fight face to face on your bed by now.”

The crew cut guy couldn’t tell how much of what he said was true or false, so he chose someone easier to understand as his breakthrough point, “Ziqin, I didn’t expect you to have such a way with words?”

“Baby,” Yang Yue said, looking up at Shu Ziqin’s face, “Tell him, are you the one who loves me the most in the whole world?”

As soon as he finished speaking, he quickly froze.

Shu Ziqin’s face turned red, visibly stiffening, looking confused, blinking a few times before falling into a daze, motionless, with only his lips trembling slightly.

This look, so similar to when I teased him yesterday while dressed as a girl.

But now I’m completely dressed as a normal guy, and the tone of the conversation just now was clearly joking. This kind of dialogue between ordinary guys is not uncommon, and Shu Ziqin’s reaction was a bit exaggerated.

The crew cut guy also noticed something was off, “Are you guys serious?”

There was silence for three seconds.

“Just kidding,” Yang Yue sat up somewhat embarrassedly, and said loudly, “I’m straight, okay!”

No one responded.

He then pointed to Shu Ziqin and added, “He is too.”

After saying that, he looked at Shu Ziqin, hoping this stunned guy would nod.

But Shu Ziqin didn’t.

Instead, the crew cut guy finally breathed a sigh of relief and exclaimed loudly, “What a pity, it would have been great if it were true. I hope all the men in the world who are better looking than me would go be gay together.”

Time always flies when you’re playing games.

Shu Ziqin’s efforts during this period were not in vain. After getting used to this tag-along and lowering his expectations, Yang Yue gradually learned to control his emotions. Calming down and observing carefully, he found that the praise he casually made earlier actually had some truth to it.

Shu Ziqin’s on-the-spot judgment was completely lacking. He had no concept of when to retreat, when to engage in direct conflict, or when to lurk for opportunities. He acted purely on instinct and made constant mistakes.

But his reflexes were extremely quick. Even when he shouldn’t charge forward, he would run around wildly, but somehow always managed to aim accurately at the enemy’s head and shoot when he wasn’t supposed to. Even if he was killed by random gunfire, he could take one down before dying.

The reason his hit rate seemed low was because he would aimlessly shoot when he was just moving around.

Yang Yue suddenly looked at him with a bit more admiration and didn’t hesitate to praise him lavishly.

Receiving the praise, Shu Ziqin immediately blossomed with joy and felt a bit inflated.

“When I reach the highest rank, we can play together every day!” he said to Yang Yue.

Yang Yue thought, Dream on, I haven’t even reached that level yet.

“Let’s talk about it when the time comes,” he replied.

Shu Ziqin felt a little disappointed for a moment, but quickly regained his spirits.

“Senior, since you treated me to lunch today and played with me for so long, let me treat you to dinner?”

Yang Yue immediately nodded, “Sure!”

The crew cut guy popped up from somewhere, “Count me in!”

Since he wasn’t the one paying, Yang Yue didn’t object.

Shu Ziqin kept his head down, still staring at his phone, tapping away at the screen as if he completely ignored the crew cut guy’s words.

After a moment, the crew cut guy’s phone rang. He went to pick it up, took a quick look, then turned his gaze back to Shu Ziqin and Yang Yue.

Yang Yue didn’t understand, “What’s wrong?”

Shu Ziqin didn’t react, still keeping his head down, with a strangely nervous expression on his face.

“It’s nothing,” the crew cut guy said, “I just remembered something, so I won’t be coming with you.”

After speaking, he finally looked at Shu Ziqin and gestured towards him with his hand, shaking his head.

Yang Yue felt strange and asked again, “What’s going on?”

“It’s nothing!” Shu Ziqin said nervously, speaking very loudly, “Senior, what do you want to eat later?”

In the end, the two of them went to eat at a privately-run skewer restaurant on campus.

The taste was neither good nor bad, but the price was affordable. Since they weren’t very familiar, Yang Yue didn’t want Shu Ziqin to spend too much.

Shu Ziqin was very enthusiastic, helping him move chairs when they entered the restaurant, and then running back and forth to help order and pick up the food. The restaurant owner only provided napkins at the service counter to save money, and you could only get three at most. The skewers were a bit spicy, and after eating too many, your nose would run and your eyes would tear up. Every time Yang Yue wanted to get a napkin, Shu Ziqin would grab it first.

The feeling of discomfort gradually intensified. Thinking back to what had happened before, Yang Yue became more and more puzzled and began to have some unpleasant suspicions.

When he pursued his girlfriend back then, he was also so attentive.

“Why don’t we have toothpicks at our table…”

As he muttered to himself and looked around, before he could finish his sentence, Shu Ziqin had already stood up, leaned over the aisle with his long legs, and brought over a toothpick jar from another table.

He placed the toothpick jar on the table and pushed it towards Yang Yue, then smiled at him.

Yang Yue felt anxious as he took one and deliberately made an unpleasant noise while using it in front of him.

But Shu Ziqin didn’t show any discomfort at all, and kept smiling at him.

Yang Yue felt panicked.

On the way back to the dorm, he contemplated many details of his interactions with Shu Ziqin, and came to a troubling conclusion.

Shu Ziqin seems to like me.

This made him extremely anxious, and he even felt a bit guilty, wondering if he had gone too far before. Shu Ziqin was overly innocent, mistaking his increased heart rate when startled as romantic feelings.

He really wanted to confide in someone, and fortunately, there was a suitable person nearby.

Originally, he planned to go back to the dorm and immediately pour out his troubles to Jing Tian, but unexpectedly, he was bombarded with dog food on the spot.

To sort out his thoughts, he took a shower first.

Finally, after calming down a bit, he walked out of the bathroom, intending to quickly talk to Jing Tian. But he saw Jing Tian sitting on the bed, legs crossed, lost in thought.

“What are you looking at?” Yang Yue stretched his neck, trying to see what was on Jing Tian’s legs.

Jing Tian was startled, hastily closed the notebook on his lap, and shook his head.

Yang Yue stared at his face for a moment and noticed something was off.

“What’s wrong?” He furrowed his brow and walked over. “You suddenly look so pale, what happened?”