CH 21

That day, Cheng Yichen told me, “Xiao Luo will come back tomorrow…”

“Ah?” My first reaction was, “So, there will be delicious food again tomorrow night?”

Cheng Yichen smiled and replied, “Yes, what do you want to eat?”

In the past, whenever there was anything that need to be cleared up, I would venture out to find a famous restaurant to indulge. Now, I was less interested in going out to eat and preferred to indulge at the dining table, waiting for Cheng Yichen to feed me.

Living at this household made me more of a homebody.

“There will be more people in this family so it will be more lively. Xiao Luo has a generous personality. I think you two will get along very well,” he said, “But there may inevitably be some friction between young people. If there is anything you are not used to, please tell me. Do not hold back your thoughts. Don’t treat yourself as an outsider, alright?”

I nodded, “Yes.”

He was very observant. He already took account of how I personally perceived about reliance on others.

The “Xiao Luo” arrived the next morning. Lu Feng went to personally pick him up, and when he led him in, my eyes immediately lit up.

Although he wore an image of exhaustion and appeared a tad haggard, it still did little to hide his bright and compelling handsomeness. In addition to his tall figure, he had a high nose and deep set of eyes. His facial features were three-dimensional, but he was not rugged. There was balance in his beauty and delicateness between his brows and eyes, in which perfectly neutralized the deep outlines brought out by his sharp features.

If Zhuo Wenyang was like the moon and stars upon a snowy night, then he was like the scorching sun on a summer day.

When he saw me, he held out his hand and graciously said, “Hi, I’m Ke Luo. Ke from Nanke Yimen (of a dream), and Luo from Luoshen.”

I was startled and immediately introduced myself, “My name is Lin Jing. Lin Jin’s Lin, Jin Lin’s Jin.

He laughed instantly.

Such laughter helped me made up my mind. I was sure that he would be my friend!

Ke Luo put down his luggage and went to the bathroom to wash his face hastily. He came out with water droplets residue left on his face that were not properly wiped off, and sat down to eat snacks Cheng Yichen prepared.

I was observing him sitting at the table with a hairband, eating preserved eggs and lean meat porridge. I thought he was very interesting since this guy did not act pretentious at all.

However, he did seem to be tired. After eating, he hurriedly left to take a shower and greeted us off. Then, he returned back to his room and fell asleep due to jet lag.

So, I sent a message to gossip with Zhuo Wenyang. I asked, “By the way, have you met Ke Luo?”

“I’ve met him, we know each other.”

“He is so handsome!”

“…..”

“How can someone be so handsome while wearing a headband? And it doesn’t come off as girly at all, he’s super masculine with those shoulder lines and muscles, wow…..”

How could I practice to be like that?

I was obviously fulfilling the role as the sunshine boy here, but when he was compared to me, I fizzled out as a weak candlelight. Why were people so far apart from each other?

Zhuo Wenyang replied, “Help me tell my father that I’ll be coming over for dinner this evening.”

Overjoyed, I answered, “Okay, okay.”

Ke Luo didn’t wake up until evening. When he came out, he held a laptop and sat in the living room dazedly, appeared quite bored and was thinking about something absentmindedly.

Seeing me, he smiled friendly.

“I heard you’re also from T University.”

“Yes,” I was still enrolled there.

“Then, we are alumni,” he laughed. “Do you play games? I think your computer is pretty good.”

“Play.” I was one of the masters.

He asked again, “Do you want to play PUBG? Let’s game together.”

“Okay.”

I moved my laptop to the living room to make communicating easier.

After teaming up with him and playing casually, he was surprised, “Brother, you play a good game.”

I modestly said, “I’m okay.”

Ke Luo energetically rolled up his sleeves and said, “Come on, let’s keep at it.”

When Zhuo Wenyang arrived, we were sitting side by side, gaming fiercely. The battle was so intense that I could only take a brief moment to greet him, “You’re here.”

Before he could respond, Ke Luo suddenly shouted, “Above!”

Then, he fell down and slapped the keyboard depressingly, cursing, “Fxxx!”

I immediately dodged and adjusted my position.

I opened my camera to fix upon my target. As a perfected sniper, I shot the opposing head before quickly racing to save Ke Luo who was kneeling on the ground.

“Damn it, can 98K shoot a sniper?” Ke Luo looked to the side and said, “That’s awesome. You’re too good.”

Ke Luo played pretty well. The main reason was that he was good at cooperating with me. I was resilient and he ambushed; we were teammates that had tacit understanding straight from the beginning.

“You are good, too, ” I praised, “Lethal enough.”

Ke Luo laughed, “Necessary since I’m not that good with guns.”

We grinned and ransacked the backpacks of the players who had been wiped out.

Zhuo Wenyang did not speak, “…..”

I caught a glimpse of him sitting across the table. He turned on his laptop with a neutral expression and was busy with work again.

Towards the end of the game, Ke Luo asked, “Wenyang, do you want to play with us?”

Zhuo Wenyang shook his head, “I do not have it installed.”

“Come on, downloading it is fast. It’s exciting with many people here.”

Zhuo Wenyang didn’t reply. I hurriedly said, “If he doesn’t want to play, don’t force him.”

If anything, I didn’t think he was the type to waste time on such pastimes.

Zhuo Wenyang didn’t respond and Ke Luo didn’t insist anymore. We continued to queue up.

He suddenly asked, “Hey, why is your character’s name MeJump? That’s weird. What do you want to express? That you’re a professional skydiver?”

“It doesn’t mean to jump. Otherwise, it should be ‘I Jump,’” I clarified, “Although it is true that you’ll die when you hit the ground at the beginning of the game, so it’s not an exaggeration to say that you are here to jump. But the actual meaning is more than ‘I Jump.’ There are more connotations.”

“What is that?”

“Guess what,” I said, “it’s something we have at home.”

Ke Luo made a bunch of guesses but none of them made sense. So I raised the rice milk I was drinking and said, “This is it.”

Ke Luo laughed so hard and exclaimed, “What kind of stupid English is this?”

Then he quickly changed his name to DouJump.

I almost died laughing at home, “Yes, yes, your soy milk is also very good.” (play on words)

When parachuting down from the plane, Ke Luo mischievously yelled out, “Yo hoo~~ we are the jumping team!”

“You jump, me jump, everyone duo jump!”

Ke Luo smiled and said, “Your English is quite advanced.”

Zhuo Wenyang stayed silent at that, “…..”

We played games rambunctiously but Zhuo Wenyang didn’t say anything to that and was focused on his laptop. Later, he took out his bluetooth earbuds silently.

The moment he plugged his earbuds into his ears, my heart trembled.

I knew how busy he was and I was using his cherished time like gold while being disruptive. It was as if we were two people from separate worlds.

After that, I played a little absentmindedly but whenever I peaked at Zhuo Wenyang, he was staring at the screen solemnly. It was as if he could not hear anything from outside his laptop screen. I could only assume he was preoccupied with some big business deal or some brilliant new thesis.

Regardless, it was a world I could not touch or understand.

Ke Luo and I stopped gaming and removed the laptops away from the dining table when Cheng Yichen invited us to dinner. Zhuo Wenyang also removed his earphones and closed his laptop.

Dinner was very lavicious today. Cheng Yichen even made king crab, and he cooked it in my favorite way of steaming garlic vermicelli. However, I did not have much of an appetite tonight so I gnawed on a crab leg for a long time.

I really wanted to find a subject to chat with Zhuo Wenyang, but he was looking at his mobile phone attentively, highly focused and not interested in chatting with others.

It was the first time for Zhuo Wenyang to be on his mobile phone while eating. It was very abnormal and that made it more difficult for me to disturb him.

Additionally, Ke Luo was very interactive. At the dinner table, he continued talking about strange things he witnessed, creating a cheerful atmosphere and causing everyone to laugh. Zhuo Wenyang’s quietness was easily overlooked by others as a byproduct.

The table remained lively but I was a little depressed.

Of course, Ke Luo was very interesting. I was very happy to have him as a friend.

But without Zhuo Wenyang’s smile, other people’s smiles would be meaningless.