CH 41

Chapter 41: Social Life Crisis

Song Yu’s struggle was actually very short.

Because the one who truly didn’t want Yue Zhishi to leave was him. 

Yue Zhishi was happily satisfied and content when Song Yu nodded in assent. He released his hands and went back to sit in Song Yu’s seat with his schoolbag, his face full of joy. He asked Song Yu if he had anything he needed to do that afternoon, and if he would be bothering him. 

Song Yu shook his head. “Have you finished your homework?”

“Finished it ages ago.” Yue Zhishi said to him, “I’ve even memorised all my texts already, I prepared before I came. I’ve even brought my review work over so I can look through them tonight.” 

Having learned yesterday that Lin Rong needed him to help bring things over, he started finishing his homework early and was even working on it earlier that day during class before the monthly break started. He was someone with a very high efficiency rate once he focused on something, and just by thinking he was coming to see Song Yu, the strength of his concentration pretty much doubled. 

Song Yu nodded. He kept hearing Yue Zhishi’s phone vibrating, so he prompted him before saying he need to go downstairs to buy some things.

Thunder crashed once again outside, and Yue Zhishi’s shoulders unconsciously shook. He checked the messages on his phone, and then he lifted his head to Song Yu, saying, “Can I go down with you?”

“It’s raining too hard outside.”

“Then…” Yue Zhishi waved his phone at him. “Can I play games for a bit? A classmate’s asking me to join him, and I’ll be able to distract myself.”

Fair enough, thunder was still ringing outside. Song Yu nodded, but he couldn’t help but advise, “Don’t play games so often.”

“I play very rarely,” Yue Zhishi explained. “I’m a terrible gamer, so I don’t even like playing games all that much.”

Song Yu had already changed his shoes. He said, “Mm,” and then grabbed the dorm’s communal umbrella, heading out.

Outside was even worse than he’d imagined — the water had already flooded past the steps and was about to reach the access door for the dormitory’s first floor. He waded out, very people left outside in the heavy wind and rain, but there were quite a few people pushing about in the university’s supermarket. The storm season in this city was always very dramatic, so everyone had accumulated a lot of experience and knew to stock up their groceries. 

Song Yu usually tried to stay far away from crowded places like these, but he went straight in this time without thinking about it. He very quickly bought the snacks Yue Zhishi liked and could eat, a completely new set of towel, soft bristled toothbrush and slippers, and went to line up to pay.

He was about to reach the front after a long time of waiting, but then he saw a girl walk past holding an ice cream Yue Zhishi had once said he liked. He left the line.

When he finally returned back to the check out lines, he felt like he’d added at least twenty minutes to the time he needed to spend in this supermarket. Song Yu would usually be very impatient in these types of situations, but right now, he was in a pretty good mood.

His phone lit up with an unread message: a push notification from QQ. Song Yu rarely used social media apps, and especially after entering university, most of his work communications and messages had been transferred over to WeChat. He’d pretty much stopped using QQ, and he’d even muted all of his previous group chats.

This time, he opened it because it was a push notification sent from Yue Zhishi. 

Song Yu had nothing to do now that he was waiting in line, so he opened up the notification — a photo. Yue Zhishi had taken a photo of his desk, and laying on top of his desk was the well-packed takeaway containers of food and the pork ribs and lotus root soup.

[Yue Zhishi: Delicious! Another reason to aim for Wuhan U!] 

The amount of comments he received completely showed how popular Yue Zhishi was, and it was easy to see he was everyone’s favourite just by how many people called him Le Le. The comments were mostly related to Wuhan U. Many of his good friends also teased him, calling him an older brother con who went straight to find his brother as soon as he had a break. As he kept scrolling, Song Yu’s finger paused, one particular comment drawing his attention.

[I am the god of the new world: You foodie, you went so far even in this heavy rain. Aren’t you afraid of getting kidnapped halfway there? I know how to cook that fish too. I guarantee mine is better than the cafeteria’s by 100 times, come to my home if you don’t believe me!] 

Yue Zhishi replied: [Are you serious, you even know how to make steamed fish?]

[I am the god of the new world: Of course, I can even plate it up to look like a peacock. So cool, right? Why don’t I bring some next week for you to try?]

Yue Zhishi innocently agreed, even saying he really liked to eat fish.

The conversation back and forth between these two became a long chain of comments, and the topic was already no longer about Yue Zhishi’s photo. The other person seemed to be very chatty, quickly jumping past what they’d do after going back to school to talk about a homemade mango-flavoured yoghurt drink he’d found quite decent. He said he could bring it for Yue Zhishi to try, if Yue Zhishi exchanged it with the homemade cinnamon rolls he’d brought last time. Yue Zhishi agreed, and from the amount of time it took for him to reply, it didn’t look like he hesitated much before agreeing.

After one minute, that person suggested playing games together. Yue Zhishi refused, saying he wasn’t good at games at all, but the other person acted like he was very familiar with Yue Zhishi.

[I am the god of the new world: I know, don’t worry, big bro here will carry you up a rank, I guarantee you’ll win this round of PUBG.]

Thunder was rumbling outside, the dark stormy clouds bearing low onto the ground, and the entire campus was trapped into such a gloomy and depressing environment. Song Yu returned his phone back into his pocket, glancing at the line that had barely moved, and started to get irritated. 

One minute later, two girls came up together to Song Yu and took up the narrow aisle. One of them was holding her phone, and she bravely greeted Song Yu before asking, “Can we add each other on WeChat?” 

Song Yu looked particularly annoyed. He didn’t want to deal with this at all, so he directly found an excuse to send them away. “Sorry, I don’t use WeChat.”

The girl seemed to have guessed it wouldn’t be so easy and wasn’t too discouraged so quickly. She tried again. “Then… how about QQ?”

Song Yu frowned and then said, his tone even more irritated, “I hate that social media app the most.”

At the end, he ended up wasting half an hour more than he’d expected before he managed to return back to his dorm. He heard Yue Zhishi’s very intense gaming reactions from inside the room as he was opening the door, saying things like damn it damn it, I just gave them a free life.

It appeared the sound in his earphones was turned up very high. His elbows rested on top of the table, and he looked like he was completely separated from the rest of the world. Song Yu put the umbrella back on the rack near the door, changed his shoes and heard Yue Zhishi say to his gaming partner, “Who’s the little baby? Don’t talk so carelessly.”

His eyes were still focused on the screen, but his hands started to look a bit flustered as they moved, looking as if he was amused by his teammate. “That’s disgusting.” 

Song Yu didn’t immediately place down his things, standing in place for a bit, and watched as Yue Zhishi seemed to completely give up. Yue Zhishi relaxed his upheld hands, complaining that his teammate had affected his play, and then after a little while, he very seriously said, “Don’t give people nicknames so casually, look, I just died.” 

The other person seemed to still be talking, so Yue Zhishi placed down his phone with a bit of spite and said, “Let’s see how you can win with just yourself.” With his game finished, he reached up and stretched, but his gaze still rested on his phone screen as he chose to continue observing the game as a ghost.

Song Yu’s patience completely disappeared. He no longer wanted to wait for Yue Zhishi to notice him and went to set down the snacks and ice cream he’d purchased onto the table. Without saying a single word, he grabbed out the daily personal items and headed into the bathroom.

“You’re back?” Yue Zhishi pulled out his earphones very quickly and immediately stood up to follow behind Song Yu without noticing the ice cream. “What’d you buy? Did you buy those for me?”

“Toothbrush, towel.” Song Yu arranged the toiletries, reminded him not to use the wrong ones and then turned around, walking out. He opened up the slippers, placing them next to Yue Zhishi’s feet, but he didn’t speak.

He didn’t know if he was imagining it, but Yue Zhishi felt like gege’s mood seemed to be worse after going out for a bit. He didn’t like it when Song Yu was in a bad mood, so to cheer him up, Yue Zhishi took the initiative to share his embarrassing story in the game just now. “Just then, I thought the grenade was a smoke bomb and almost blew up my teammate. Good thing he ran away quickly.”

Yue Zhishi actually didn’t like losing, and he also didn’t like being laughed at by other people. But if the other person was Song Yu, then he could accept his laughter completely — as long as Song Yu laughed.

But it looked like it was useless this time.

Song Yu took out a cold bottle of coke and said, his voice not having warmed up very much, “Really.” He leaned his head back and took a sip before he frowned. He closed the bottle and put it back on the desk.

Seeing him like this, Yue Zhishi felt a bit helpless. His phone kept vibrating, messages nonstop, but he didn’t have any interest in replying to them. He grabbed the ice cream Song Yu bought for him. “I really like this one.” After unfolding the little spoon, he scooped a bit and placed it at Song Yu’s mouth. “Try it.”

Song Yu naturally didn’t eat it, just like usual. But unlike usual, he glanced at Yue Zhishi’s phone before turning to look at Yue Zhishi. “You’re not going to see who it is?”

Yue Zhishi took back his hand, eating that scoop of ice cream himself, and lifted up his phone to quickly reply before he placed it back down. “My teammate, he asked if I wanted to play anymore.” He then added, “I’m not playing anymore. I kept losing, so it’s not fun at all.”

Song Yu didn’t respond to his words, taking the laptop on his table and putting it onto his roommate’s desk across from them before he turned it on.

“Are you going to study?” Yue Zhishi also turned over, staring at Song Yu’s back. The thunder outside seemed to have paused. 

“Mn.” In reality, there wasn’t much left for Song Yu to do; everything that needed to be finished soon had already been completed. He originally hadn’t needed to go to the research lab, but after Yue Zhishi had said he was coming over, Song Yu had showered and also gone out, wanting to use the time wisely and quickly finish his group’s remaining data analysis work.

He checked his email and saw a document sent by his professor. Song Yu had just started his third year of university, but because of his exceptional grades, he’d been taken in early by a famous scientific researcher to foster his talent. He’d entered the research lab very early and was nicknamed ‘Master Degree Year 0 new student’ by his senior brothers and sisters.

After replying to his professor’s email, Song Yu organised once again all the data documents he’d placed on the desk and then opened the document pdf he just finished downloading.

Yue Zhishi felt like he really was very busy, so he finished the ice cream by himself. He leaned on the back of Song Yu’s chair, his chest to its back, and rested his chin on his arms. He stared at Song Yu’s back like that without uttering a single sound, just like a little dog who was silently accompanying its owner after eating well. 

In the downpour, all the sun was rushed away by the storm clouds. It was clearly only 4:30pm, and yet the light was already very dim.

He didn’t know how much time had passed. Yue Zhishi felt like he was about to fall asleep when he abruptly heard Song Yu’s voice.

“Who was that person gaming with you?” 

He sounded very casual. He didn’t turn his head over either, looking like he was merely asking a random question. Yue Zhishi was also clueless — he lifted his head, sat up straight and rubbed his eyes. “My classmate.” 

“In your particular class?”

Yue Zhishi nodded and then, realising Song Yu might not be able to see him, said, “He sits behind me.” 

Song Yu fell back into silence. Yue Zhishi got up from his chair and went to search through his schoolbag for his thick notebook. He pulled the chair close to Song Yu’s side. “Can I sit next to you while I review?”

“You can play games if you want. Don’t mind me.” Song Yu was quite indifferent. Yue Zhishi realised Song Yu was still bothered by his game playing, as if he was someone addicted to games in Song Yu’s eyes.

He frowned for a brief moment, and then he leaned in very closely to Song Yu, looking a bit like he wanted to cutely whine. “I honestly don’t like playing games that often. It’s just that you weren’t here. Someone asked if I wanted to play, and I only agreed to play two rounds with him because I was afraid of the thunder. If you were here, I wouldn’t have wanted to play at all.” 

To Song Yu, these words seemed to be useful — he finally turned and looked at Yue Zhishi, except his gaze still carried some doubt.

“It’s true.” Yue Zhishi gave his phone to Song Yu and even opened up the game for him to examine. “You can look at my rank if you don’t believe me. It’s super low, I’ve only played a few times.” 

The game returned back to the home screen, and out of the two people on the opening display, one was the teammate Yue Zhishi was talking about with the ID of ‘god of the new world’. It was the person Song Yu was thinking about. 

Song Yu turned his face away, acting as if he wasn’t interested in Yue Zhishi’s game. His finger lightly slid across the touchpad on his laptop. “The most important thing for you to do right now is to study.” 

“I know.” Yue Zhishi lowered his head and flipped open his notebook. “I’m studying hard every day.”

“Don’t hang out so much with students who like to play games,” Song Yu lectured him, very unnaturally. 

“You mean the one just now?” Yue Zhishi was looking at his notes. He turned a page and then casually said, “His grades are pretty decent, he can sometimes get higher grades than me when he’s doing really well. He’s especially good at math, but his English isn’t as good as mine. In the last monthly exam, he…”

“I’m not interested in your classmate.”

Lifting his head, Yue Zhishi looked at him and said, “Oh.” He actually didn’t want to talk about other people — he just wanted to prove his own grades were quite good by comparing them to someone else’s. 

He saw Song Yu put in his earphones and open up the bottle of coke again. Song Yu took a large sip before placing it back on his desk.

Song Yu usually didn’t drink coke very often, so his intake of carbonated drinks today was slightly strange. Yue Zhishi wondered about it for a while, and then he saw the packaging of this coke bottle was different. It looked like it was cherry-flavoured. He felt this flavour was usually listed as a ‘dark cuisine’. He wanted to ask Song Yu how he felt after drinking it, but he was worried Song Yu might roll his eyes at him — so instead, he continued to study his notes.

When Song Yu was about to finish the coke, Yue Zhishi couldn’t help but lift up his head and pass over a post it note with his handwriting on it. His strokes were very beautiful.

[I don’t like holding people back when I’m playing a game with someone. Can you take me to play?]

Song Yu turned his face away, holding that empty bottle of coke. Yue Zhishi pulled off one of his earphones.

“That game showed me which of my QQ friends also played it, and you were listed in there. I saw your ranking — it was really high, and your statistics were also really amazing. I’ve sent you some messages before, but you never replied.”

Song Yu put down the bottle and logged into the game with his QQ username, opening his in-game inbox.

“I’ve been really busy this semester. I haven’t been online, so I didn’t receive your messages.” He occasionally played a few times, but once he started getting busy, he might not be able to play at all during the semester. He had many, many messages in his inbox, and as he kept scrolling down, he saw a friend request from a QQ friend with the ID of Cheese1010. There were also many messages from him, almost all of them emoji expressions — the earliest was from three months ago, and the message contained a love heart.

“I know.” Yue Zhishi lifted up his hand to put Song Yu’s earphone back in. “You wouldn’t ignore me otherwise.”

There was pretty much nothing left in the coke bottle. Yue Zhishi felt the cherry flavour must be very delicious if Song Yu drank so much, so when Song Yu wasn’t paying attention, he took the bottle and finished the last drop.

It was terrible. Yue Zhishi stuck out his tongue in disgust and threw the bottle into the bin.

The author has something to say:

Gege wasn’t drinking iced coke, he was drinking iced mature vinegar.

QQ: You said you hated me, but didn’t you still scuttle and log in with me as soon as your younger brother wanted to play games with you (-。-)

The ‘god of the new world’ reference is from Death Note [tears of a generation]