Chapter 21 – Reflection
Translator: Xena
The day after the exam ended happened to be a weekend. Upon returning to his rented apartment, Cheng Yinian received a message from Chen Xiangsui: [I got the gift, thanks. I really like it.]
Cheng Yinian: [As long as Gege likes it~]
[QUQ I kinda want to see Gege playing basketball]
Chen Xiangsui: [Next time I can try recording a video for you.]
Cheng Yinian: [Sure! I’ll record some videos for Gege too!]
Chen Xiangsui: [No need. I’ll just send it to you.]
Cheng Yinian: [QAQ? Why, Gege, don’t you like looking at me anymore?]
Chen Xiangsui: [Not at all. I just didn’t want to bother you.]
Cheng Yinian: [But Gege has never been a bother to me before. I always felt happy fulfilling my boyfriend’s requests. QAQ What happened?]
Chen Xiangsui: [……]
[…I just feel like looking at your photos all the time isn’t quite right. It gives me this strange feeling.]
Chen Xiangsui pondered this reply for quite some time, but felt that no matter how he tried to fabricate it, he just couldn’t make it sound particularly reasonable.
Cheng Yinian: [Hmm… What exactly do you mean by that feeling?]
Chen Xiangsui: [I feel feverish and have an increased heart rate.]
Cheng Yinian: [O///O Well, Gege and I are lovers. I get like this when I look at Gege’s photos too and it’s all because I like Gege.]
[Does this mean Gege likes me too ya~]
Chen Xiangsui’s fingers paused mid-typing. Though he desperately wanted to ask if this kind of liking could exist between friends, it was clearly not something he could voice to Nian Gao. [Yeah, I like you.]
Cheng Yinian: [Shy O///O]
[Gege, wanna hang out this weekend? That adventure game we picked for Valentine’s Day just added a competitive mode!]
Chen Xiangsui: [Alright.]
……
This game update also included a small amount of story content, though such elements were hardly noticeable in the action-packed gameplay. Still, Cheng Yinian patiently clicked to read through it.
This map features two little animals as rivals in love, each racing to deliver their love letter to their beloved on the opposite side of the map.
[Lovers turned rivals?]
[LOL, have Nian Gao and big boss already accepted this as the default setup?]
The game character has two types of projectiles available: a standard projectile that could only attack monsters and was ineffective against opponents. The other was a heart-shaped projectile that attracted monsters when fired and froze opponents when it hit them.
Cheng Yinian wasted no time in unleashing a barrage of ordinary shells at the surrounding monsters. Chen Xiangsui wasn’t about to be outdone either. After clearing a wave of enemies, he switched to heart-shaped shells and kept firing at Cheng Yinian.
In an instant, both sides unleashed a barrage of hearts, filling the screen with a hail of bullets. It looked almost identical to the Valentine’s Day special map from before.
[Hahaha, this scene is so weird. Is this how all you love rivals act?]
[They pretend to fight, but secretly show affection]
[Stop pretending! Drop your weapons! I know you two are a couple! Stop pretending! Give up the struggle!]
“No, Nian Gao takes gaming very seriously.” Chen Xiangsui spoke up, “We can’t put down the guns. He’ll get angry.”
[Mn Mn, hope you guys take other games seriously too!]
[? What exactly is the previous commenter trying to say?]
[If they’re not real, then I’m fake. Thank you. Age is so afraid of making his wife angry.]
Cheng Yinian shook off Chen Xiangsui’s heart-shaped tracking. Meanwhile, Chen Xiangsui’s character seemed frozen on the screen, motionless, still sending hearts from the very spot where Cheng Yinian had just been standing.
[Big Boss, what are you doing? Your love isn’t getting through!]
[What are you standing there for? Nian Gao’s about to give someone a love letter. Age, hurry up and catch up!]
[Quickly! Big Boss! Defend the color on your head1There is a chinese saying that when a partner is cheated on, they’re wearing a green hat (戴绿帽子), because the phrase sounds similar to the world for cuckold.!]
“Sorry, my keyboard seems to be malfunctioning.” Chen Xiangsui couldn’t help but frown. “I’ll just watch you play.”
“It’ll feel a little less fun without you in my way, but it’s okay. Let’s hang out again sometime.” Cheng Yinian spoke as he cleared the monsters in the map at lightning speed, demonstrating mastery of both obstacle avoidance and double/triple jumps which was clearly the result of extensive practice. When Cheng Yinian finally reached the finish line, his character handed the love letter to the little animal waiting there.
Reading the description of a shy little animal blushing and averting its gaze while delivering a love letter, Chen Xiangsui couldn’t help but fall into deep thought. Just days ago, he’d reacted the same way toward Cheng Yinian. Could it be that he’d unconsciously cast the real-life Cheng Yinian into the role of his lover?
Chen Xiangsui silently shook his head to himself. Cheng Yinian had been his roommate for over a year. He had agreed to let Nian Gao refer to them as lovers only because he feared the latter might encounter unscrupulous people online. How could he possibly harbor such thoughts about his own iron-clad brother?
Seems like it would be better to distinguish between the online and real-life versions of Cheng Yinian. Chen Xiang thought to himself.
[It’s clearly a movie about three people…]
[LOL, who the hell would be jealous of a virtual character, right @Age?]
After going offline, Cheng Yinian sent Chen Xiangsui a private message: [QAQ I’ll buy Gege a new keyboard]
Chen Xiangsui: [No need. I was just using my old keyboard. The one you gave me in the giveaway still works fine, no need to spend extra money.]
Cheng Yinian: [How could there ever be too much of this kind of thing?～It’s fine～]
Chen Xiangsui: [Alright. I’ll return the favor.]
Cheng Yinian: [O3O～]
……
Chen Xiangsui stared at Cheng Yinian, who was sitting at his seat and eating the meal he had bought. Yet the thoughts in Chen Xiangsui’s mind, which seemed to have grasped at the answers, still hovered halfway in the air. It was like a math problem with several crucial steps missing. Everything appeared correct, yet something seemed missing.
“Chen Xiangsui?” Xu Zitang had returned to the dormitory at some point and called out to Chen Xiangsui.
Chen Xiangsui was called several times before he finally came to his senses. “Yeah, I’m here.”
“What are you thinking about?” Xu Zitang slid onto the barstool beside Chen Xiangsui and lowered his voice deliberately. “Is it related to Yinian?”
“…Hmm, but it’s no big deal. It should be resolved soon.” Chen Xiangsui’s lips twitched a few times, as if he wanted to say something but swallowed it back. He wasn’t sure if Xu Zitang was the right person to confide in, and he also had no idea how to begin.
“That’s good.” Xu Zitang handed several books to Chen Xiangsui, saying that Cheng Yinian had asked him to borrow them from the library and requested Chen Xiangsui to deliver them to him. He didn’t understand why Xu Zitang, who was only a few steps away from Cheng Yinian, couldn’t just have gone directly to him but chose instead to let him pass it in between.
“Yinian.” Chen Xiangsui intended to place the book directly on the corner of the table, trying not to disturb the other person’s meal. Yet the other reached out first to take it. Their fingers brushed against each other for a moment so fleeting it was almost imperceptible, yet it sent ripples through Chen Xiangsui’s heart.
Cheng Yinian, who had even held hands with him before, seemed rather unfazed by this. Noticing Chen Xiangsui’s subtle change in expression, he couldn’t help but ask, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Chen Xiangsui hastily avoided the question. “Take your time.”
Chen Xiangsui sat back down at his desk, flipping through his accounting textbook with inexplicable nervousness, yet unable to take in a single word.
He simply closed the book and opened an online shopping app to browse for a return gift to buy for Cheng Yinian. He knew Cheng Yinian had always struggled academically, and accounting was a field that required constant study and certification. That was why he decided to pick out two books he had used himself and found easy to understand.
Thus, he specifically messaged Nian Gao to ask about his major. Cheng Yinian honestly replied that he was studying accounting, and only then did he place the order. He switched back to his phone’s home screen, where a small memo displayed several tips he’d seen in a push notification about becoming a qualified boyfriend.
His gaze inadvertently fell on the requirement to frequently prepare surprises for his girlfriend. He had gone live with Cheng Yinian last weekend and expressed his affection, so this was the only thing left.
Chen Xiangsui recalled the live broadcast of their game, and it occurred to him to write and send a love letter to Nian Gao. After school that afternoon, he made a point of saying goodbye to Cheng Yinian before heading to the gift shop to buy envelopes and stationery.
He had just lifted his pen when he found he couldn’t write a single word. Come to think of it, no one would write a love letter to his iron-clad brother. It would be weird to say sweet words.
So he added a few more layers of solidity to the answer in his mind.
After much deliberation, Chen Xiangsui decided to search online for templates. The ones directly found on Baidu were too tacky, so he planned to look within social media platforms instead.
The homepage’s algorithm pushed him to content related to Nian Gao. When he clicked to view it, the images were upside down for some reason. He flipped his phone over and swiped through it, only to discover it was a fanfic written with Nian Gao in it. Nian Gao’s gender had been deliberately obscured, but that didn’t stop the author from including some blush-inducing content later on.
They also succeeded in making Chen Xiangsui blush fiercely.
Chen Xiangsui couldn’t fathom how he’d managed to read the entire article all the way through. How could he possibly do such a thing to his own sworn brother?
“What are you looking at? What’s that look on your face?” As soon as Lu Yang entered the dormitory, he noticed that Chen Xiangsui’s face looked somewhat unnatural.
“…Fan fiction.” Chen Xiangsui pondered for a moment. “If you saw fanfiction featuring yourself and another person, what would you think?”
Lu Yan almost burst out laughing. “Fan fiction? With who? Me and you? Xu Zitang? Yinian? Just the thought of being with either one of you would have me laughing myself to death in the dorm.”
“In the event that it is…” Before Chen Xiangsui could finish, Lu Yan burst out laughing. “I know what you’re getting at, and that just makes it funnier. The more you go down that path, the more absurd it gets. And the more absurd it gets, the funnier it is.”
Chen Xiangsui hesitated for a moment before asking, “Is that all?”
“Or what, drag the author out and beat them up? That’s just too vicious.” Lu Yan casually snatched a few potato chips from the bag Chen Xiangsui had opened. “Unless there’s actually something going on, how else would you react? So, whose fanfiction are you reading? Who at our school has that kind of free time?”
“……”
There really is something going on.
Lu Yan’s words crashed over his mind like a tidal wave, instantly eroding the answers he had just reinforced.
He raised his hand to touch his earlobe, confirming that it was still burning hot. Then he rewrote the answer in his mind.
Perhaps I found it too distasteful. Anyone who saw such content would feel embarrassed. He thought.
But he didn’t dare hand in his exam paper. 2He was finding answers to his feelings like answering an exam paper, and he still hasn’t finalized his answers so he can’t hand it in yet.
