The morning began for Lin with the piercing trill of her smartphone. She rolled over, one leg pinning her thin blanket, fingers scrabbling blindly across the nightstand until she finally managed to grip the device.
"Hullo..."
"Lin, surely you aren't still asleep?"
(Wait.) The Protagonist!
Lin's eyes snapped open, and she bolted upright. "Jiang? Uh-er, Mr. Jiang? Why are you calling so early?"
Jiang could hear the frantic, hasty shift in her address on the other end of the line. Their relationship was definitely at the point where they could use first names, but using them outright... that felt a little too dull.
"Ms. Lin, it is already 9:37." He had already been for his hour-long run and finished a swim session.
"But it is only 9:30... It is summer break, and besides, we were working out for so long last night—can I not sleep in a bit?"
Lin stifled a yawn. Even though the1 Main God's Game did not affect her physical body in reality, the mental exhaustion was very real.
There was a long silence on the other end, followed by a defeated sigh. "Fine... what do you want to eat? I will bring it over."
Lin initially wanted the little cake in her fridge, but then she remembered she had already spoken to the Male Protagonist last night. Would it not be a bit stingy not to share?
"I want shrimp dumplings and rice noodle rolls! And maybe a bowl of seaweed egg drop soup if you can!"
By the time Jiang arrived with the food, Lin was ready, dressed in a mid-length white house T-shirt that occasionally teased the black shorts she wore underneath as she moved.
Jiang was dressed just as casually as he had been the first time they met—a tracksuit, sneakers, not looking like a working professional at all.
"You eating?" Lin asked, mostly out of politeness before diving in.
Jiang replied, "You eat first. If there is any left, we will see."
(Right then.) Guess there is none for you~
Lin liked watching variety shows while she ate, laughing and munching away for over half an hour.
Jiang did not mind. He sat beside her, watching along, occasionally asking who a certain celebrity was or joining in on a laugh when something funny happened. But most of the time, his eyes were just fixed on Lin.
He watched her bare feet pressing against the crossbar under the table, her toes curling in from the cold, before she quickly slipped her slippers back on.
"You are going back to school soon, right?"
Lin nodded. "Yeah, in about... seven or eight days."
Today was August 16th. Their junior year was supposed to start on the 24th, but Lin did not need to prepare much; she had bought an apartment right by the university, only a ten-minute cab ride away.
"Any plans? Want to work on your fitness?"
(Ah, this.) Lin felt like a water plant suddenly transplanted into a desert; she withered immediately.
"Working out... I was thinking when I go back to school, I would run there, or maybe buy a treadmill for the apartment."
"Just running will not cut it."
"But my constitution is terrible right now! Rome was not built in a day, you know. If I tried to train like you from the start, I would just die."
Lin still remembered the time she had gotten the urge to lose weight, jumped rope two thousand times, and nearly had her heart jump out of her chest. The next day, she felt like she had been run over by a semi-truck.
"I know," Jiang said, soothing her. "But we can add some combat training to a moderate amount of base exercise. When do you want to start?"
"Uh... tomorrow? Since I woke up too late today."
How could Jiang not see right through her? (Tomorrow and tomorrow, how many tomorrows are there?) It was exactly that kind of thinking that gave people chronic procrastination.
"This afternoon." Jiang patted her head, a faint smile on his lips. "We are going for a run this afternoon."
"..." Lin muttered, "Do you not usually run at night?"
Jiang, being a master of the "straight-man" logic, replied, "I will not be able to log many miles while pacing you, so it will not affect my night run."
"..."
"What is that supposed to mean? You look down on me that much, and you still want to take me to pick out an engagement ring?" Once she was in the passenger seat, Lin shouted righteously, though she sat perfectly still, not moving to leave. Obviously, she was quite happy about the prospect of ring shopping.
Jiang hopped into the driver's seat, buckled his own belt, and looked at Lin.
Lin, still caught up in her huff, had predictably forgotten her seatbelt again. She crossed her arms, striking a pose of wilful, arrogant defiance.
Jiang had said before that he would not nag more than three times. This time, he did not offer a reminder; he simply leaned toward her.
Lin, who had been busy defending her dignity by muttering something about how "a few miles is still miles, don't write off a small effort," immediately held her breath and went limp the moment he leaned in.
Jiang did not pull any romantic maneuvers; he quickly grabbed the seatbelt, clicked it into place, and returned his hands to the wheel. As he stepped on the gas, he calmly corrected her.
"It is 'do not write off a2 bean bun as a small effort,' not 'steamed bun'."
Lin stared, "Huh?"
(Infuriating!) She had wanted to bask in a moment of romantic tension, to feel those little pink bubbles of excitement!
That awful male lead—he really was a master at killing the mood. Other guys had built-in BGM and slow-motion filters when they reached for a seatbelt! Only he was here correcting her on bean buns and steamed buns!
"Hmph! You know what I meant!" Lin turned her nose up and stared out the window at the passing scenery in protest.
That was such a perfect idol-drama moment, and it had been ruined by Jiang's efficiency, leaving her no time to even admire the view.
Jiang glanced at her while waiting for a red light. Maybe he realized he had messed up, because he tapped his fingers on the wheel and asked, clearing his throat, "Want to listen to some music?"
Lin thought about it. She had decided she was not going to talk to Jiang for the rest of the drive, so some music would be a good way to break the oppressive silence. If he happened to play a love song, she might just grudgingly forgive him.
"Sure, play whatever."
Jiang turned on the car stereo. Suddenly, a weird, chilling melody filled the cabin, followed by the deep, raspy voice of an old man: "Welcome, listeners. The story I am telling today is about the woman in the dark..."
"Ugh—I usually like listening to a bit of horror... little ghost stories."
Jiang quickly skipped to the next track, but as soon as it loaded, a blood-curdling female scream tore through the speakers: "I curse you... you will not get a good..."
The stereo was shut off completely. Only the sweet voice of the GPS remained.
"In 370 meters, keep right at the second fork. Continue straight at the current intersection..."
Summary:
Lin is woken by a phone call from Jiang, leading to a breakfast date where their dynamic of romantic tension and pragmatic misunderstanding unfolds. Jiang's "straight-man" tendencies consistently deflate Lin's attempts at creating cinematic romantic moments, culminating in a car ride ruined by an accidentally played horror radio segment. The pair remain in an unresolved state of awkward, bickering, yet growing intimacy.
Trivia:
Jiang has already finished his morning run and swim session before 9:37 AM.
Lin lives in an apartment purchased specifically for its proximity to the university.
Jiang had previously established a rule that he would only remind Lin about safety (like seatbelts) three times, which he is now enforcing by silence.
The horror radio station segment is a deliberate comedic trope subversion to break romantic tension.
Translation Notes:
1 ↩ A reference to the infinite flow/stream survival game system that exists outside of their mundane reality.
2 ↩ Derived from the idiom '别拿豆包不当干粮', meaning 'do not treat steamed bean buns as mere staple food', used here to mean 'do not underestimate small, seemingly insignificant efforts'.
Notes:
• Lin - A university junior and Jiang Mo’s fiancée, she is a resilient survival game player who masks her trauma and vulnerability with a facade of bravado. Lean and striking in a black blazer and pencil skirt, she swaps a formerly sedentary life for tactical combat with a Tang dao. Though judged by others for her appearance, she skillfully navigates the brutal game while forging vital alliances to survive.
• Jiang - Ranked first in the Main God Space, 'Jiang' is a stoic, cynical, and highly skilled survivalist. A working-class young man with a lean, fit build, he appears in-game as a weary construction worker in a white vest and camo pants. Armed with a Tang sword and chainsaw, this reluctant, protective solo-ranker masks his growing attachment to his rookie partner, Lin Shuang, with a teasing demeanor.