Chapter 1: Took the bait
Translator: Xena
Editor: Wint8
Cheng Yinian stared at the contact icons on his social media app—he was waiting for a little red dot to appear.
……
The incident started a few days ago when he was planning to use his laptop to perform practical operations of accounting computerization, but for some reason, he couldn’t get the software to open no matter how many times he clicked on it. With the deadline fast approaching, he could only turn to his roommate for help.
Cheng Yinian lived in a four-person dormitory, and coincidentally, the other two were not there, so the only other person in the dormitory besides him was Chen Xiangsui.
His gaze lingered on Chen Xiangsui for a moment, but soon he silently withdrew it.
……
For Cheng Yinian, Chen Xiangsui was not just an ordinary roommate, but someone he dared not express his feelings for. He still remembered how not long after he moved into this dormitory, he had already become close with his other two roommates while Chen Xiangsui was still like a huge iceberg that couldn’t be broken through. He rarely spoke, whether in the dormitory or in the WeChat chat group.
Cheng Yinian had tried to put aside his shyness in front of the person he liked and mustered up the courage to strike up a conversation with him. “Let’s get to know each other… Excuse me, is it okay if I just call you by your first name?”
“I’m not really used to it. It’s better to call me by my full name,” Chen Xiangsui seemed to pause for a moment before replying solemnly.
Cheng Yinian sighed silently to himself. He recalled receiving a notice from the college to change dormitories. Just as he was dragging his suitcase to the door of the dormitory, he saw Chen Xiangsui grabbing a boy by the collar, forcing the boy’s back to slam against the wall.
At that moment, Chen Xiangsui’s gaze towards the boy was as sharp as needles, making him appear overly unapproachable.
At that time, Cheng Yinian had already considered that it might be difficult to become close with Chen Xiangsui, but he never imagined it would be so challenging that even after more than a year, the two of them were still not on familiar terms.
……
Nevertheless, no matter how unfamiliar he and Chen Xiangsui were, they had been living together in the same room for such a long time that they wouldn’t be so timid as to hesitate to borrow something from each other. The reason he didn’t speak was because he noticed that Chen Xiangsui was using his laptop.
“What is it?” Chen Xiangsui noticed Cheng Yinian’s gaze and asked, “Is something wrong?”
“Xiang… Chen Xiangsui, when you’re done using it, can I borrow your laptop to do my practical assignment? There’s something wrong with mine.”
“Okay,” Chen Xiangsui replied briefly with one word. Soon, his hands stopped moving on the keyboard, and the laptop was handed to Cheng Yinian, as well as the startup password.
Cheng Yinian was just about to open the accounting software, but because he was so used to his own laptop, he double-clicked the icon in the upper right corner—on Cheng Yinian’s computer, it was where the accounting software was, but on Chen Xiangsui’s computer, what he opened was an account in Mouzhan.
He was very familiar with Mouzhan because he was a small streamer there. Cheng Yinian enjoyed posting videos of himself speedrunning single-player games and high-difficulty FC1Screenrecording app -FastStone Capture screen recordings of music games. He also occasionally streamed himself completing games live. However, because he was not confident in his own voice which sounded too feminine, he was using a voice changer to produce an electronic, mechanical sound that was obviously not his own when he was live-streaming—he didn’t like to use a fake voice to deceive people.
He thought he would just quietly work hard for something he loved, but never expected that his amazing moves would attract so many fans.
When the page loads, the first thing one would see was the home page recommendations, which were videos recommended based on what someone has watched before. Cheng Yinian couldn’t resist his curiosity and carefully scanned the videos:
[My Sweet Little Sister’s Dress Wardrobe~ Which One Should I Wear Today?]
[Click to watch this cute little sister in white stockings’ dance! Wouldn’t you be tempted by a schoolgirl like this?]
[A Day in the Life of a Cat Maid! I didn’t cause any trouble for my owner today!]
Cheng Yinian hesitated for a moment, clicked on the history, and found that it was full of similar videos. The other party had watched dozens of them in one night.
So Chen Xiangsui liked this type of girl. Cheng Yinian sighed silently. Having observed Chen Xiangsui for a long time, he knew that he was a straight man.
Once, he accidentally overheard Chen Xiangsui talking to someone. Although he couldn’t see the other person’s face because of an obstruction, Cheng Yinian had seen the person hand Chen Xiangsui a small wrapped gift.
Chen Xiangsui returned the gift without hesitation. His tone was as cold as ice as he replied, “I don’t like homosexuals like you.”
Cheng Yinian sometimes felt like he was walking on thin ice. He wanted to get closer to Chen Xiangsui, but he was also afraid that his feelings would be exposed from that hidden corner.
After hesitating for a moment, he casually clicked on random videos to watch, and put on his earphones without Chen Xiangsui noticing. The girls in the video all have a cute style. He also selected a replay of a live stream that Chen Xiangsui watched last night, where the female streamer kept saying Gege in a sweet voice.
Cheng Yinian continued scrolling down and finally found a gaming livestream among a bunch of livestreams featuring beautiful women. The name was also very familiar: N Nian Gao’s2Niangao means New Year Cake. Also I don’t know what the N before Nian Gao means, but maybe it’s like niu meaning awesome? Silent Speedrun Guide.
Huh?
Isn’t this his live stream?
He immediately glanced at Chen Xiangsui’s ID.
He was very familiar with this ID. Wasn’t this the first room moderator he had ever had since he started live streaming? Moreover, he was a big spender who always sent the most expensive gifts during every live stream. Not only did he not bother to say anything to Cheng Yinian during the live stream, he didn’t even bother sending comments in the chat. He was the typical type of person who had a lot of money but didn’t say much.
“Cheng Yinian.”
“What’s wrong?” While responding, Cheng Yinian hurriedly closed Mouzhan and opened the accounting software.
“Nothing, I’m going to bed. Put the laptop on my desk when you’re done.”
Cheng Yinian casually agreed, hurriedly finished his accounting assignment, then returned to his own laptop and stared blankly at Mouzhan. In an instant, he had received too much information. He thought that the plot twist of a roommate being a big fan would only happen in novels and he never expected it to happen to him.
He took a deep breath, opened the chat interface between himself and Chen Xiangsui on Mouzhan, typed and deleted, deleted and typed again, but didn’t send anything in the end. Faced with a big boss who quietly spent money without seeking interaction, he really didn’t know what to send to pique the other’s interest.
After thinking for a moment, he informed Chen Xiangsui of the time for the next live broadcast. The other party replied that he would be available and would log in on time.
The content of this live stream was a speedrun of a newly released horror game. Before doing a speedrun, Cheng Yinian would always spend a significant amount of time practicing controls and exploring shortcuts to ensure there would be no mistakes before going live.
As usual, the comments were full of praise for his skills. Even Chen Xiangsui, the usually silent big boss, posted a comment asking how he had discovered such a secret passage that allowed him to reach the mission location so quickly.
“Explore, treat the game as an open world, and discover the paths as you go.” Cheng Yinian replied in a cold, mechanical voice.
Cheng Yinian suddenly realized that this big boss wasn’t really interested in him, but rather in his skills. Could it be that Chen Xiangsui was secretly a gaming enthusiast?
Isn’t that only natural? Cheng Yinian thought. If someone wasn’t interested in games, they wouldn’t watch his live stream.
So after the live broadcast today, Cheng Yinian tried sending Chen Xiangsui a private message, asking him if he was curious about how he managed to speedrun the game without any mistakes. He also sent him a WeChat account that he usually uses to chat with netizens, saying that he could add him on WeChat and they could talk about the game later.
[No need, let’s just chat here.] Chen Xiangsui replied.
Cheng Yinian couldn’t help but frown. [I rarely log in to Mouzhan, so I don’t reply in a timely manner. You should add me.]
[Alright.]
Successfully took the bait.
……
Chen Xiangsui opened WeChat, searched for Nian Gao’s WeChat ID, and sent a friend request. He didn’t like having too many unfamiliar people on his friend list, so he specifically switched to an idle account and added the other.
Just as he was about to exit, his mouse accidentally moved to the history in the upper right corner. Chen Xiangsui frowned as he looked at all the video content. Because his friend’s account was banned, he lent his own to the other. As a result, this was what he saw after logging in today.
He then took a beautifully packaged box from the bedside table. It was a gift from a raffle that Nian Gao had organized before. He happened to be the lucky winner, so he had received this gift.
The reason why he paid attention to Nian Gao was because he thought of Nian Gao as one of the few streamers who took gaming seriously, and he was indeed very skilled. He himself has played countless games of all kinds, but had never become as familiar with the patterns of similar type games as Nian Gao was.
The gift was a well-known brand of gaming keyboard, renowned for its excellent usability. In addition to it, there was a page of notebook paper with mostly words of gratitude for support. Originally, Chen Xiangsui didn’t pay much attention to those few lines, but when he put down the gift and turned to flip through the notebook on the table, he noticed something unusual.
This notebook was borrowed from Cheng Yinian by his roommate, who had to take a leave from classes due to personal reasons and needed to catch up on some lessons. He casually flipped through the pages and happened to come across a blank page, which not only had traces of being torn, but also had scratches left by the pen tip from writing too hard.
The style of the notepad was exactly the same as the paper in the gift. Chen Xiangsui couldn’t resist using a pencil to blacken the scratches until the original content became visible.
He carefully compared them and they were exactly the same.
Chen Xiangsui never would’ve thought that Cheng Yinian was Nian Gao. After all, such a coincidence was unlikely to happen in real life. Still, this was not too surprising. Although he did not interact much with Cheng Yinian, he would often catch glimpses of the games on his laptop screen.
He also wanted to talk to Cheng Yinian about games, but every time he opened his mouth, he would remember the look of shock on the other’s face when he had just moved in and saw him forcefully push a boy onto a wall.
I scared him, didn’t I? Chen Xiangsui thought.
Plus, every time he accidentally made eye contact with Cheng Yinian, the other person would quietly look away, so Chen Xiangsui felt that Cheng Yinian was really afraid of him.
He didn’t want the little rabbit to be frightened by him anymore, so he tried his best to keep a low profile in the dormitory and minimize contact with Cheng Yinian. However, every time he passed by Cheng Yinian’s laptop screen, he couldn’t help but sneak a peek.
Chen Xiangsui’s gaze lingered on the page, waiting for his friend request to be accepted. This is a good opportunity to get closer to Cheng Yinian, he thought.
Before long, the page showed that Chen Xiangsui had successfully added the other person as a friend. Just as he was considering whether he should start a discussion about the content of his live broadcast, the other party sent him a message first:
[QUQ Finally added you. First of all, thank you so much for Gege’s support all this time~]
Huh? Gege?
Chen Xiangsui subconsciously glanced at Cheng Yinian who was sitting in his seat and tightly clutching his phone.
