Since you’ve been caught red-handed, you should just be honest…

Yue Qianling had known Lin Xun for a long time but had never shown any interest in getting to know each other’s real lives.

In her eyes, online gaming friends were very distant figures with no connection to her real life.

So when she suddenly saw him ask this question, she had a sudden feeling that the barrier between the online and real world was instantly shattered. In an instant, many thoughts flashed through Yue Qianling’s mind.

How did he know??

Could he also be in Jiangcheng??

Did he know who she was??

Not only was she surprised, but there was also a hint of inexplicable nervousness. Yue Qianling, who was standing at the subway exit, quickly typed a reply.

【Glutinous Rice Twist】: How did you know???

During the time she waited for a reply, she nervously scanned the people around her, as if Lin Xun might be among them.

After several minutes, the other side finally replied.

【School Grass】: Jiangcheng is trending because of the snow.

So that was it.

Yue Qianling unexpectedly felt a sense of relief.

【Glutinous Rice Twist】: You scared me for a moment.

【School Grass】: ?

【School Grass】: What are you scared of?

The falling snow danced freely, and the chill in the air intensified. The traffic light at the intersection turned green just in time, and Yue Qianling was swept forward by the crowd, so she didn’t reply.

Once she crossed the road, walked through the school gate, and reached the safe sidewalk, she took out her phone again.

What was she scared of?

Actually, she didn’t know either. She just felt that this feeling was quite strange.

【Glutinous Rice Twist】: I thought you were in the same city as me.

【School Grass】: Shouldn’t that be your honor?

【Glutinous Rice Twist】: I’ll give you a chance to take that back.

He didn’t respond.

Yue Qianling exhaled into her palm and continued typing.

【Glutinous Rice Twist】: What have you been busy with these days?

【School Grass】: Work.

【Glutinous Rice Twist】: Oh.

The chat seemed to come to a halt at this point.

Yue Qianling stared at the screen for a few seconds, feeling that he would not reply again, so she prepared to put her phone back in her bag.

However, at this time, the chat window popped up with one more word.

【School Grass】: You?

【Glutinous Rice Twist】: I’m working too.

She thought for a moment, then added a few more words.

【Glutinous Rice Twist】: I found a new job.

【School Grass】: I see. I thought you were busy dating.

Yue Qianling rolled her eyes.

This guy just couldn’t resist poking at her sore spot.

【Glutinous Rice Twist】: How is that possible? Didn’t I tell you it’s a secret crush?

【School Grass】: That’s true.

Yue Qianling: “…”

Why did she feel a sense of schadenfreude in those two words?

【School Grass】: So

【School Grass】: Do you want to go to the rainforest and get beaten up?

It’s quite late…

Yue Qianling looked up at the snowflakes dancing in the sky and sighed.

She still hadn’t become a big shot with both fame and fortune, probably because she lacked self-discipline.

【Glutinous Rice Twist】: Then

【Glutinous Rice Twist】: Just for a while.

After putting her phone in her bag, Yue Qianling hurried back to her dormitory. The cold wind was isolated outside, and warm air greeted her as she entered.

She took off her coat, put on her headphones, and sat down at her desk.

Yin Xue happened to just walk out of the bathroom and looked at her in disbelief. “It’s snowing! And you’re here playing games? Why don’t you go outside and take some photos?”

“Why take pictures in the dark?” Yue Qianling was in the middle of logging into the game and didn’t even turn her head. “People are freezing out there.”

Yin Xue walked away in disgust, muttering to herself. “With your attitude, no wonder you’re still single.”

At that moment, Yue Qianling was pulled into the team by Lin Xun, and Yin Xue’s words were transmitted verbatim into the voice chat.

But Yue Qianling was completely unaware and turned around, retorting to Yin Xue.

“It is enough for me to rely on my face, you know.”

Yin Xue said, “Then you should go and show off your face. I’m worried for you!”

“What’s the rush,” Yue Qianling said with a smile, “We’re colleagues now, so we’ll have the chance to show off our faces when we go to and from work every day, right? Maybe we’ll even have dinner or team building together.”

“That’s true. If you still can’t get him that way, then he might really not be into women.”

After Yin Xue finished speaking, she climbed onto her bed and burrowed into her blanket.

Only then did Yue Qianling turn her head to look at the game interface and notice the duo queue icon in the upper left corner.

“Just the two of us? Aren’t Xiao Mai and Luo Tuo coming?” she asked.

“They’re so busy, not everyone can play games with you anytime,” Lin Xun replied.

Yue Qianling furrowed her brow and muttered, “You’re making it sound like I’m begging you to play. It’s been a long time since you asked me to play, right?”

“Hmm,” he said, “So, if I don’t ask you, you won’t ask me?”

“……”

Yue Qianling couldn’t understand how this person could be unreasonable and stubborn!

She didn’t want to talk, and it wasn’t until they jumped out of the plane that she spoke again.

“There’s a team on the left, be careful.”

Without Xiao Mai and Luo Tuo, the two “dead weight” players, their matchmaking opponents were all high-level players. They landed at the training base, so Yue Qianling had to be more cautious than usual. She couldn’t afford to be reckless, and she started looking for equipment as soon as she landed.

However, she could hear footsteps approaching from all directions. It sounded like more than one team had landed in the same area.

“Is there anyone else here?” Yue Qianling had only a helmet and an SMG. She cautiously moved to a corner to hide. “Why do I feel like I heard at least two or three teams nearby?”

Lin Xun responded with a perfunctory “Hmm,” and said, “Maybe.”

Yue Qianling found a vantage point from the window and peeked out, and sure enough, she saw two people jumping around in the house across from her.

She was nervous and was considering finding an opportunity to sneak out for an ambush. However, at that moment, Lin Xun jumped in through the window and appeared in front of her.

“So, did you change jobs to pursue someone?”

Yue Qianling was not in the mood to discuss this with him right now. She carried her gun and tried to move away, but as soon as she stepped outside, she ran into another team.

They immediately took out their guns and opened fire, and amidst the rapid exchange of gunshots, Yue Qianling screamed, “Ahhhhh Help me!!!”

Despite such a close range, her SMG was no match for the opponents’ rifles, and she was knocked down in a matter of seconds.

Just when she thought she was destined for the lobby, Lin Xun, who knows when he jumped down from the roof, landed in front of her.

Before Yue Qianling could even get a clear view of his figure, one of the enemies fell in front of her. The other one, realizing that the situation was not good, attempted to escape by circling around the wall.

Unexpectedly, Lin Xun chased after him with a gun, and in two steps, he blew the head of the person who was running away.

The immediate danger had passed, and Yue Qianling let out a sigh of relief. She was about to say something when she heard the voice of the player they had just defeated in the public voice chat, “Damn, you didn’t even help your teammate and instead came to attack me, you’re so awesome!”

Yue Qianling vigorously nodded in agreement, “Exactly! What if another team shows up right now to take advantage of us? I’d be dead with a single shot!”

“What’s there to be afraid of?”

Lin Xun crouched down to assist Yue Qianling and said slowly, “You can always trust me.”

“F*ck.” Upon hearing this, the player in the public voice chat said before quitting the game, “Count me unlucky to run into someone carrying a little sister!”

Lin Xun didn’t open the voice chat, so he didn’t hear anything.

However, Yue Qianling, who was quite unhappy about this, did open the voice chat. In her esports career, she hated it the most when others said she was the one being “carried” as a “little sister”!

So, she immediately activated the voice chat and, feeling indignant, said, “Who are you calling a little sister?! Leave your game ID, and let’s compare KD!”

Unfortunately, the other player had already left and didn’t hear her words.

She could only hide to the side to apply a bandage and change her perspective to look around, all while muttering to herself, “Carrying a rifle and getting sprayed down by me with only half health left, and he still has the nerve to salvage his pride. He probably can’t solo, or else I’d make him cry for his mommy. And where’s that other team? They’re not ambushing us, right?”

Afterward, she stood up, looted the boxes of the two players they had defeated, and then jumped down to another location.

Meanwhile, Lin Xun was in a house about a hundred meters away. Suddenly, he said, “You still haven’t answered my question earlier.”

Yue Qianling took a moment before she could remember what he had asked her – did she change jobs to pursue someone?

“Otherwise, what would it be for? Pursuing a dream?” she replied sarcastically.

Lin Xun chuckled, “Does your crush know that you can be so fierce when playing games?”

“……?”

Yue Qianling was bewildered for a moment before gritting her teeth and saying, “Who are you calling fierce?”

Just as Lin Xun was about to respond, they heard a sudden series of gunshots through their headphones. Immediately after, Yue Qianling’s screams were heard, mixed with the rapid gunfire.

“Ahhh!!! Someone’s here again! Ahhh! Why are there three of them?! Help!!! I’m going to die! Ahhh!!”

A few seconds later, the gunfire abruptly stopped, and Yue Qianling put away her gun and sighed, “They’re dead. There was a bot.”

In her headphones, Lin Xun chuckled but didn’t say anything.

Yue Qianling stared at the three loot boxes in front of her and suddenly realized something.

Silence.

Neither of them spoke again.

It wasn’t until she left the training base that Yue Qianling hesitantly asked, “Do guys not like it when girls play games aggressively?”

“I don’t know about other guys, but I, for one—”

Yue Qianling furrowed her brows, feeling nervous as she waited for his response.

However, Lin Xun paused suddenly as if he were contemplating how to phrase his answer.

A moment later.

His casual voice finally chimed in, “I don’t like it.”

“……”

Sure enough.

Yue Qianling said dejectedly. “I knew it.”

She jumped out of the window and headed straight for the wilderness on the opposite side.

Lin Xun didn’t run in the same direction as her. After a while, he looked at the map and said, “Can you maintain a distance from me?”

“Don’t mind me.”

Yue Qianling didn’t turn back. She ran to the seaside and jumped into the water, swimming as she said, “I have my own world.”

“Come over here.”

“No.”

“Alright.”

A few seconds later, gunshots rang out from Lin Xun’s side.

Reluctantly, Yue Qianling climbed out of the water and carried her gun to assist her teammate.

Along the way, she even rode a motorcycle, but her driving skills were not very good. When she passed through a residential area, she got stuck in a corner.

Hearing the gunshots grew more intense on the other side, Yue Qianling panicked and decided to abandon the motorcycle and run on foot.

However, as soon as she jumped off the bike, she saw that her teammate’s icon had turned gray.

Yue Qianling: “…”

She scratched her ear, feeling a bit embarrassed to say anything.

The gunshots ceased, and the sound of footsteps disappeared, leaving silence in her headphones.

“Let me see how far my teammate is from me,” Lin Xun said in a cool tone. “Hmm, over 200 meters.”

“Turns out I’m solo in a duo game.”

“Hey, esports is about winning and losing. You have to take it easy…”

After riding the motorcycle back, Yue Qianling opened Lin Xun’s loot box and checked his equipment. She couldn’t believe it, “No, what kind of gun did the other party have? You couldn’t beat them in close combat with a fully equipped assault rifle?!”

The M762 was Lin Xun’s favorite gun. On a map like Rainforest, he usually carried two M762s, one for close combat and one for single-shot sniping.

Therefore, Yue Qianling couldn’t understand how he could be killed in just two or three hits.

There was silence in the headphones for a couple of seconds, and then Lin Xun’s somewhat nonchalant and a little justified voice came through.

“I didn’t have a teammate.”

“……”

Yue Qianling picked up her powerful gun and started running. “Stop complaining. Your teammate is coming to avenge you, okay?”

The dormitory was quiet, with only the faint sound of water flowing from the radiator.

His roommates had gone on a trip after their postgraduate exams, so only Gu Xun was staying in the dormitory.

He switched to spectator mode, with both hands idle, leaning back on the chair, and staring at the phone screen.

At this moment, Xiao Mai suddenly sent a message.

​【Xiao Mai】: Why are you playing games?

【Xiao Mai】: Earlier, I asked you to play, and you said you were busy???

Gu Xun typed a few words casually.

​【Is it illegal to be bad at something, sir】: Aren’t you supposed to be preparing for your exams?

​【Xiao Mai】: Don’t give me those excuses!

​【Xiao Mai】: Why did you go duo with Xiao Mahua???

​【Xiao Mai】: Since you’ve been caught red-handed, you should just be honest!

Gu Xun sat up straight without realizing it, no longer in the lazy posture he had before.

He stared at the phone screen, the tip of his tongue unconsciously pressed against his teeth.

As he was contemplating how to respond—

​【Xiao Mai】: Do you think I’m bad at the game?!

Gu Xun leaned back again.

​【Is it illegal to be bad at something, sir】: Yes.

​【Xiao Mai】: ?

​【Xiao Mai】: Fine, fine, forget it.

Xiao Mai couldn’t believe that their twenty-year friendship had come to this.

He immediately went to complain to Luo Tuo.

​【Xiao Mai】: Lin Xun refused to play with me and went to duo with Little Twist.

​【Luo Tuo】: ?

​【Xiao Mai】: He actually started to think I’m bad!!! He wasn’t like this before!!

After a while…

Luo Tuo​: …

​【Luo Tuo】: He didn’t think you were bad.

​【Luo Tuo】: He just thinks your skill level is too high.

​【Xiao Mai】: ?

The dormitory remained quiet.

Occasionally, the voice of a girl came through the headphones, adding a bit of liveliness to the room, and the corners of Gu Xun’s mouth would raise from time to time.

It wasn’t until the game ended and returned to the matchmaking interface that Gu Xun turned his head to look at the snow outside the window.

He gazed for a moment, then turned back to the CG character with pink hair on his phone screen. Slowly, he said, “Christmas is coming.”

The girl responded with “Huh?”

In the game, the Christmas event was already underway, with prominent reindeer symbols on the map and Santa’s sleigh flying through the sky, accompanied by the ringing of bells.

Gu Xun couldn’t help but think of how in Jiangcheng, young girls seemed to enjoy going to the central park every year for the Christmas fireworks.

He lowered his gaze, propping up his temple with one hand, and stared at the screen of his phone as he asked, “How do you plan to spend it?”

“How should I celebrate for Jesus’ birthday?” Thinking about the atmosphere in the lake park every year, she sneered, “Well, how about I go sell Christmas hats on the street?”

“……”

“Red ones for ten yuan, green ones are free. How does that sound?”

“…”