Xu Yuan handed the book over, her voice unconsciously turning sweet and soft. “Shuqing-ge, here’s your book back.”
Tang Shuqing took the book. “I told you, it’s yours to keep.”
“That won’t do. Borrowing and returning—that way I can borrow again next time.”
Tang Shuqing smiled and shook his head, not taking the bait. He handed her the milk tea instead. “Brought this for you. 70% sugar, extra pearls.”
See? An absolute gem of a man.
Xu Yuan liked him even more.
She took it with a smile, the chill of the cup seeping through her palm, but it couldn’t cool the heat rising to her cheeks.
“Thanks, Shuqing-ge.”
The two chatted casually by the school gate. The topics were light and ordinary, but every word Xu Yuan said was delivered with pure delight.
After about ten minutes or so, Xu Yuan worried that if she stood there any longer she’d start saying nonsense, so she took the initiative to say goodbye.
“I’ll head off then. Remember to come by the noodle shop during summer break—my treat.”
“Alright.”
Xu Yuan hugged the milk tea and started walking back. After two steps, she turned around for another look.
Tang Shuqing was still standing there, smiling at her.
She took a deep breath, thinking to herself—she had two months of summer break ahead, and she needed to put in the effort.
Only after Xu Yuan’s figure disappeared into the campus did Tang Shuqing turn and walk over to Yan Ting.
Yan Ting was still leaning against his motorcycle. Seeing him approach, he lifted his eyelids lazily. “Done chatting?”
“Yeah.”
Spotting the book in Tang Shuqing’s hand, he asked, “You need a special meeting just to return a book?”
Tang Shuqing smiled. “She said it was to return the book. We just chatted a bit while we were at it.”
Yan Ting pulled his keys from his pocket and spun them around his finger. “She likes you?”
Tang Shuqing paused, the smile still on his lips. “She’s Xu Shen’s sister.”
Yan Ting thought for a moment. Xu Shen did seem to have mentioned having a younger sister. Twenty this year, a sophomore, and her school was right across the street.
“Oh.” He nodded, then added flatly, “You’re a real piece of work, you know that? You’d even go after your brother’s sister?”
“What are you talking about?” Tang Shuqing said helplessly. “I see her as a little sister too.”
A rare hint of mockery flickered across Yan Ting’s cold face. “You see her as a sister, but she sure doesn’t see you as a brother.”
Tang Shuqing opened his mouth, momentarily at a loss for words.
Yan Ting continued. “Did you not just see that? The way she looked at you—that wasn’t innocent.”
Tang Shuqing gave a wry smile. “Don’t talk nonsense. She’s just a young girl. Very innocent. No other intentions.”
“Innocent?”
Yan Ting rolled the word around on his tongue, the corner of his mouth curving slightly. “Fine.”
He put away his phone, picked up his black helmet, and weighed it in his hand. “If that girl ever finds out you see her as a sister, she’s going to be heartbroken.”
He put on the helmet, and before lowering the visor, he revealed a pair of cold eyes. “I’m heading off.”
“You’re not waiting for me? Not eating together?” Tang Shuqing was caught off guard.
Yan Ting had already swung a leg over the motorcycle, long legs planted on the ground, posture lazy.
Before the visor came down, he tossed out one last line: “I was just killing time. If I go home too early, my old man will start nagging. Annoying!”
Before Tang Shuqing could say anything, the engine roared to life.
In the blink of an eye, the bike merged into traffic, its taillight dragging a streak of red through the dusk.
Tang Shuqing watched the bike disappear around the corner and let out a helpless sigh.
He looked down at the book in his hand, then glanced toward the campus, and turned to walk back into A University.
On the first day of summer break, the Xu Family Noodle Shop closed earlier than usual.
That afternoon, Xu Yuan took a shower and curled up on the living room sofa, legs propped up on the coffee table, phone turned sideways. The game loading screen spun a couple of times under her fingertips.
Xu Shen sat on the floor, back against the sofa, posture just as boneless as hers. Between them sat an open bag of chips.
“You’re going support.” Xu Shen didn’t even look up.
“Why do I have to play support?”
“With your positioning, playing damage dealer is just feeding the enemy team.”
Xu Yuan kicked him in the back. Xu Shen didn’t budge an inch, completely used to it.
The game started. She picked a support hero and reluctantly followed Xu Shen down to the bottom lane.
The opening went smoothly enough. Xu Shen scored first blood and let out a shriek loud enough to make the neighbors come knocking.
Xu Yuan was used to his nonsense.
But the good times didn’t last. The enemy jungler started targeting the bottom lane relentlessly—four ganks in three minutes.
Xu Shen’s score went from 1-0 to 1-4, and his shrieks went from cocky to cursing.
“Is this jungler mentally ill?”
Before Xu Yuan could respond, a teammate started flaming: “Support, are you here on vacation? No vision, no wards, skills thrown out randomly—what the hell are your eyes for?”
Xu Yuan froze, then checked her own score. 0-3-2. Not great, admittedly.
But here’s the thing about her—you could call her bad, but you couldn’t do it in that tone.
“You’re 1-3-3. What right do you have to talk?” She pressed the voice chat button.
The teammate got fired up: “Look at your own team fight participation. You’ve got the nerve to talk?”
“Team fight participation? Look at your own economy—you’re eating the highest gold on the team and putting out that damage? You might as well donate your gold to the super minions.”
Xu Shen’s mouth twitched as he listened from the side, but he didn’t stop her, because he was also busy trading insults with the enemy jungler—except he was typing his insults in text rather than using voice chat, afraid of getting muted by the system.
His teammate, flustered and furious at being roasted, fired back a string of nasty words.
Xu Yuan’s vocabulary had been honed to perfection through her daily verbal sparring with her roommate Li Meng, but the other player was clearly a seasoned trash-talker, and the angles of his insults were so viciously clever that she couldn’t find a comeback.
Clearly, she was being suppressed.
She turned to her brother for help: “Bro! He’s bullying me!”
Without a second word, Xu Shen turned on his voice chat and started cursing at the teammate.
Hearing that reinforcements had arrived, the other player got even more excited, and the three of them devolved into a chaotic shouting match over voice chat.
But the problem was, the enemy jungler took advantage of their bickering to gank two more times, and Xu Shen’s score dropped to 1-6. The enemy marksman was even adding fuel to the fire over voice chat.
Xu Shen lost the score, lost the verbal battle, and quickly lost the match.
Furious, he typed a threat on the results screen: “You better wait for me, don’t you dare run next round.”
He exited the game, opened WeChat, tapped on a chat with a black square avatar, and furiously typed a line: [Get on get on get on get on get on your account.]
Xu Yuan leaned over to take a look: “Why are you pulling him in?”
“To climb ranks!” Xu Shen said through gritted teeth. “Yan Ting is the national server’s jungle king. Dealing with small fry like that? So easy.”
Yan Ting’s reply came back, just two words: “No time.”
Xu Shen screenshotted his match stats and sent it over, adding: [Look at how badly I got bullied. If you’re a real bro, get on my account.]