Two years and eleven months after that peace-offering text had sunk like a stone into the sea, Nan Zhiyi made an optimistic discovery: maybe there was still a chance for them to go back to being friends.
At least for now, You Xin didn’t seem to dislike him.
You Xin had made three dishes and a soup: scrambled eggs with tomato, cola chicken wings, stir-fried pork, plus a three-delicacy soup. Simple, but worthy of “looks, smell, and taste all in order.”
And who would go to the trouble of making three dishes and a soup for someone they disliked?
Although he still didn’t know why, if the man didn’t dislike him, he hadn’t been willing to send back so much as a single reply all these years.
Nan Zhiyi had once scrolled past a thread asking whether people would still be willing to be friends with an ex. His answer was one hundred percent “yes”, though he had exactly one ex to go on. It was just a breakup, not some sky-can’t-cover-us mortal feud [1] a hatred so deep that two people can’t live under the same sky jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2670427_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2670427_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, couldn’t they just go back to how things were before?
But clearly, You Xin’s answer to that question was “no.”
So sometimes Nan Zhiyi would think: maybe he shouldn’t have started this relationship in the first place.
That way, at least they’d still be friends.
The tomato-and-egg was on the sweet side, very sweet, heavy on the sugar, exactly to Nan Zhiyi’s taste.
Once a person gets hungry enough, awkwardness stops mattering. He spooned several helpings into his bowl and polished off half a bowl of rice in one go, then looked up to find the person across from him had barely touched his chopsticks, his gaze resting on Nan Zhiyi the whole time.
Being watched like that gave Nan Zhiyi a slightly creeping feeling. He stubbornly ate a few more bites before finally giving in. “Aren’t you going to eat?”
“You eat.” You Xin said, looking away and casually scooping a few cucumber slices into his bowl. “I’m not that hungry.”
“…Oh.”
Nan Zhiyi made a small sound of acknowledgment. A thought suddenly surfaced: You Xin had never much liked sweets, even as a kid.
He ate a few more bites of the tomato-and-egg, then suddenly spoke up. “Um.”
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have suddenly snapped at you earlier.” Nan Zhiyi said quietly. “I think I was maybe a little too worked up…”
To be honest, thinking it over, he had no right at all to fault You Xin for his choices. Never mind that he didn’t even know what had actually happened between You Xin and CG, take himself: when an avalanche of abuse and blame had come down on him, hadn’t he chosen to run too, first thing?
The public-opinion pressure a pro player has to bear is far greater than a streamer’s. One badly played match and your parents could be dragged through the mud on every platform, let alone for the starting core of a powerhouse team like CG.
You Xin was two years younger than him. Demanding that someone barely 20 face all of it with maturity was perhaps a bit too harsh.
You Xin listened, said nothing, and instead asked, “Still to your taste?”
Nan Zhiyi nodded hard.
“Eat first. We’ll talk about everything after.”
You Xin lightly brushed the topic aside. The meal was finished in an atmosphere of “no talking while eating.”
After dinner, Nan Zhiyi insisted on helping clear the table, You Xin insisted he not, saying there was a dishwasher, and shooed him off to sit in the living room.
There was genuinely nothing for Nan Zhiyi to do. Just as he was wondering whether to seriously study up on the gibberish in that book, someone knocked at the door.
You Xin was busy in the kitchen and didn’t seem to hear. Nan Zhiyi hesitated, then got up and went to the peephole, finding a young local woman outside, a dog leash in her hand.
Nan Zhiyi opened the door.
And immediately something pounced onto his feet.
He looked down to find a little white dog, its fluffy ears looking oddly familiar.
A Samoyed that looked no more than three months old.
Seeing that the one who’d answered wasn’t the homeowner, the woman looked surprised, but quickly took on a knowing expression and rattled off a string of words to Nan Zhiyi. He listened in total confusion, roughly guessing she was the person who usually walked You Xin’s dog, and nodded his thanks, took the leash, and led the bouncing little dog back inside.
By coincidence, You Xin came out of the kitchen just then. Seeing Nan Zhiyi holding the dog, he raised an eyebrow. “…Forgot to tell you earlier. It’s a dog I just got.”
Nan Zhiyi had already crouched down to play with it. Friendly to strangers right away, the pup leaped up to happily lick his hand.
His tense mood dissolved a great deal. He smiled and asked, “What’s its name?”
“Kenken.” You Xin said. “Bundle of energy, one day without a walk and it tears the house apart. So I sent it to daycare. That just now was a teacher from the school dropping it off.”
These days even dogs go to school, Nan Zhiyi thought to himself.
He played with the dog for a bit, then naturally brought up, “This is a Samoyed, right? I love this breed! When my fans draw fanart, they always make my chibi a Samoyed, I even use it as my avatar.”
As he spoke, he cupped the puppy’s face and praised it with a grin. “Aiya, how is our little Kenken so cute?”
You Xin was quiet for a moment, then said softly, “So are you.”
Nan Zhiyi didn’t catch it. “What did you just say?”
“Nothing.” You Xin said quickly. “You play with it for now.”
He handed Nan Zhiyi one of Kenken’s favorite chew toys, then stepped aside to make a phone call.
After a while, Nan Zhiyi heard him set the phone down and ask, “Did you lose your bag before getting in the car?”
“Yeah.” Nan Zhiyi answered reflexively. “Probably stolen after I left the airport.”
“All your documents were in it? Passport, ID?”
Nan Zhiyi: “Yes…” The thief had scooped up his entire identity in one go.
You Xin said “Got it” and turned back to keep talking on the phone.
His train of thought now hijacked, Nan Zhiyi absently kept playing with the puppy. Catching out of the corner of his eye that You Xin had put his phone down, he couldn’t help asking, “What was that about?”
“Calling the police.” You Xin said.
Something suddenly occurred to Nan Zhiyi. He’d actually forgotten about such a huge thing.
“Brother Meng!” He shot to his feet.
You Xin: “?”
“…Um, Meng, do you remember him? The secondary carry who used to be on your team.” Nan Zhiyi rubbed his nose. “We’d arranged for him to pick me up, but his car broke down on the way, so he told me to cab over and wait, and then my phone got snatched too… Could you help me get in touch with him, let him know I’m safe? You’ve got his contact info, don’t you?”
“…” You Xin looked at him like he was looking at an idiot. “Of course I do. Because he’s the one who told me to come pick you up.”
Nan Zhiyi: “???”
“Or did you think I just happened to run into you on the road?”
Nan Zhiyi: “…”
That was genuinely what he’d thought…
You Xin could tell, but didn’t point it out. “I already contacted him. He can’t make it over for now, so he’s having you stay at my place.” He said. “You can’t go anywhere without your documents anyway.”
He held out a phone too. “Spare phone, no SIM in it, use it for now. See if you can log into WeChat and let your family know you’re okay.”
In the car earlier, Nan Zhiyi had only managed to WeChat his mom that he was safe, a few close friends and Sister Li still hadn’t heard from him.
He took You Xin’s spare phone, fiddled with it on the sofa, then made the very sad discovery that he couldn’t remember his WeChat password and couldn’t log in at all without a verification code.
You Xin watched him stare blankly at the WeChat login screen. “Can’t get in?”
“Yeah…” Nan Zhiyi said dejectedly. “Forgot my password. Tried a few, none worked.”
You Xin searched something on his own phone, then opened his WeChat friend list.
“Here.” He held the phone out. “See if there’s anyone you know.”
Nan Zhiyi: “?”
“WeChat friends.” You Xin said concisely. “Find someone to do assisted verification for you.”
Nan Zhiyi slapped his thigh. “Right!”
He took the phone, momentarily grateful that they were, after all, in the same circle, so they probably had quite a few mutual WeChat friends.
Sure enough, he soon saw a long row of familiar names.
The vast majority of You Xin’s WeChat friends were pro players, plus a few casters and hosts from the scene.
Nan Zhiyi didn’t know all that many pros, but he had at least a dozen-odd.
“Hey, Xiao Peng, Manman… so many people.” He read off the IDs he recognized, a little troubled. “Who’s the best to ask?”
You Xin: “…”
Somehow, his tone took on a subtly different quality. “Just find one more. I already asked Brother Meng earlier.”
“Oh, oh, okay.”
Nan Zhiyi quickly settled on a candidate. Out of politeness, he handed the phone back to You Xin. “Could you message them for me?”
You Xin took the phone and saw the contact on screen was 【WD.Pigeon】.
He thought for a moment, then typed: 【Nan Zhiyi lost his phone and can’t log into WeChat. Help him with assisted verification.】
The other side was probably scrolling away on his phone, because a reply came at light speed a few seconds later: 【???????】
【WD.Pigeon: Holy crap, Xiao You God’s risen from the grave!!! [2] 詐屍, lit. a corpse springing back to life: said when someone long-silent suddenly resurfaces jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2670427_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2670427_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });】
【WD.Pigeon: This isn’t a phone scam, is it? Is this really you??】
【WD.Pigeon: Wait, who’d you say lost their phone?】
You Xin: “…”
Not one of those lines was on point. Talking to this man was genuinely exhausting.
He held the phone out to Nan Zhiyi again. “Send him a voice message.”
With that, he pressed the voice key.
For a second Nan Zhiyi didn’t know what to say. “…Ahaha, Baiyu, it’s me, I lost my phone, help me with assisted verification in a bit, okay.”
The tone made it sound no different from a hostage situation.
He then watched 【WD.Pigeon】 turn into 【typing…】, change back to 【WD.Pigeon】 after a while, then turn back into 【typing…】.
After flickering back and forth several times, the other side finally sent a long string of 【。。。。。。。。。。】
Nan Zhiyi prayed desperately in his heart that he wouldn’t blurt out anything reckless.
Fortunately, at the critical moment, faced with You Xin’s WeChat chat box, this “great Leaky Ladle” held his line and ultimately replied perfectly normally: 【Okay, tell me the code in a bit and I’ll click it for you.】
Nan Zhiyi mentally gave him a giant thumbs-up, thinking he’d definitely treat him to a meal once he got back.
With the assisted verification done, he glanced at the time, already nine at night.
A wave of drowsiness washed over Nan Zhiyi. To adjust to the time difference, he’d forced himself to stay up the whole flight without sleeping, and now couldn’t help yawning.
You Xin noticed at once. “Tired?”
Nan Zhiyi blinked. “A little…”
“Get some rest. No point waiting around now.” You Xin said.
As if remembering something, he paused. “There are only two beds in the house, so you’ll probably have to sleep in my room. I’ll go change the bedding in a bit.”
Nan Zhiyi’s heart jumped, and he declined at once. “I can just sleep in the guest room…”
“There’s no guest room, that bed is in Kenken’s room. It likes sleeping in people’s beds.” You Xin’s tone brooked no refusal. “You take my room, I’ll sleep with Kenken.”
Nan Zhiyi blanked for a moment. There was indeed no logic in a host letting a guest sleep in the dog’s room. But he remembered You Xin’s sleep had always been terrible, the slightest noise in the night would jolt him awake.
He looked back down at the three-month-old puppy circling both their legs, and felt deeply guilty. “It’ll be noisy at night, won’t it? Will you sleep okay with it?”
You Xin glanced down at the dog and said expressionlessly, “Sleeping with you, I’d sleep even worse.”
Nan Zhiyi: “……………………”
Very tactfully, he shut his mouth.
Author’s note:
Pigeon: Let me eat melon! Let me eat melon! Let me!! EAT MELON!!!!! [3] 吃瓜, “eating melon,” internet slang for gawking at juicy gossip as a bystander jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2670427_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2670427_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
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