Because Li Jianbing had guarded outside bitterly for nearly two hours, Lin Zong had to compensate him.
Having a meal plus going to karaoke, time flew by until ten o’clock at night.
Lin Zong’s house had a curfew. Ten-thirty was the rule set by his mom.
Everyone had to abide by it, including Li Jianbing, who frequently went over to his house to stay and had been freeloading for nearly ten years.
The two of them sneaked in right on the edge of the time limit, not daring to turn on the living room lights.
Who would have thought that the Border Collie, which should have been sleeping in the backyard, would let out a couple of barks, joyful and excited as it trotted through the hallway and living room, coming straight up to the two of them and circling around.
Its tail was wagging so fast it was almost a propeller, and it almost inflicted external injuries on Li Jianbing’s legs.
“Shh, shh, shh!” Li Jianbing was terror-stricken, bending down to restrain the energetic Border Collie. “Come on, don’t bark, don’t bark.”
The Border Collie was very obedient, sitting down on the ground, obediently raising its head with its eyes glowing in the dark environment.
For a split second, Huo You’s eyes flashed through Lin Zong’s mind.
To be precise, his left eye.
Gray-blue, but sometimes very bright, with an especially strong presence.
I have to admit, it was quite handsome.
Hey, why did I think of that?
Lin Zong reined in his thoughts, pricking up his ears to listen for a few seconds. There was no movement on the second floor.
His parents might have already gone to sleep.
He secretly breathed a sigh of relief, turning to gesture at Li Jianbing.
The two of them tiptoed across the living room, turned left at the end of the hallway, and entered the bedroom.
Lin Zong had specially chosen his bedroom on the first floor back then, and now it seemed like a truly wise move.
The Border Collie attempted to follow them in, but Lin Zong pushed it back out with his hand against its doggy head.
There was still a one-meter-wide aisle beside the bedroom bed, and going in from there was originally designed to be a walk-in closet.
However, students wore school uniforms all four seasons of the year, so the walk-in closet was equivalent to a discarded storage room for him.
On a whim once, Lin Zong had begged his dad to rebuild the inside into a media room.
He had claimed it was to watch more movies to cultivate his sentiment, but in reality, he didn’t have the patience to watch at all.
Now there were two more computer desks inside, with newly assembled computers placed on top of them.
“My hands were itching while waiting for you this afternoon,” Li Jianbing sat down squarely on the outer gaming chair and turned on the computer. “I found a new game that two people can play.”
Lin Zong went to the fridge to grab two bottles of water, came back in, and sat down.
On the game screen, there was only a standing foreign man, surrounded by winding and undulating mountain roads.
“The two of us each control one leg,” Li Jianbing said. “I take the left and you take the right, just walk forward and go to the finish line to collect the trophy.”
It sounded very simple.
Lin Zong pressed the keyboard twice as he instructed, and a few seconds later, the man on the screen dropped straight to his knees.
His body swayed a few times like a noodle.
“Hey, hey, hey, wait for me,” Li Jianbing hurriedly shouted. “You have to take turns stepping after me, you can’t step continuously.”
After multiple attempts, the man on the screen finally started walking, though it still looked a bit wrong.
“Such great flexibility,” Lin Zong couldn’t help marveling. “Every step is done doing the splits.”
As soon as his voice fell, the foreign man, who was doing just fine with his splits, suddenly pulled his groin.
His whole body collapsed onto the mountain road like a sheet of dough.
The ground was as slippery as if it were covered in egg whites, and the foreign man they were controlling slid back down the path he had just walked like he had no bones.
Throughout the sliding process, his posture was extremely distorted, with his legs propped up on his neck, and his neck almost pushed into a ninety-degree angle against a stone.
Amidst Li Jianbing’s exclamation, the foreign man stumbled and slid all the way back to the starting point with super slippery old feet, his originally gray-blue tight bodysuit even turning the color of dirt.
Lin Zong had originally thought such a brain-dead little game was meaningless, but this fall provoked his rebellious streak.
“Continue,” Lin Zong sat up straight, operating the character to climb back up and making a bold claim. “I don’t believe this. If we don’t clear the level tonight, we aren’t sleeping.”
One hour later.
“Hey!”
“Where did I step just now? I feel like I stepped pretty steadily.”
The foreign man’s whole body was already too dirty to look at, yet he was still sliding down recklessly without any sign of stopping.
“He probably stepped on his great-grandmother’s head,” Lin Zong said through gritted teeth. “Out here in the middle of nowhere, it’s normal to have unseen things around.”
The closer they got to the top of the mountain, the more frequent their sighs became.
I don’t know how much time passed.
The black-clothed foreign man in the screen finally picked up the dim and dull trophy.
Li Jianbing cried tears of joy.
Lin Zong leaned back into the gaming chair and let out a long sigh of relief.
Just now, he hadn’t even dared to breathe too heavily, afraid of blowing the foreign man they had climbed up with such difficulty back down.
“What time is it?” Lin Zong rubbed his stomach. “I’m hungry.”
Li Jianbing lit up his phone screen and glanced at it: “Five forty-three.”
Lin Zong’s motion of getting up paused. He pulled out his own phone and took a look.
It really was five forty-three.
Now it was forty-four.
The two of them looked at each other in dismay, Li Jianbing’s lips trembling: “We’re done for.”
They stayed up the entire night.
They still had to appear punctually in the dining room at eight o’clock in the morning to eat breakfast.
“Are we still sleeping?” Li Jianbing asked hesitatingly. “How about we play one more level? There are still twenty levels left unbeaten.”
Lin Zong hesitated for a fraction of a second and sat back down.
At seven-fifty, the two of them went to the bathroom to wash up briefly, and at eight o’clock sharp, they appeared beside the dining table.
Several takeout boxes were placed on the table, clearly brought back by his dad after his morning jog.
Today was Sunday, and his dad had a routine arrangement that never changed, which was going out to play Go. By now, he should have already arrived at the Go dojo.
“Holy crap, Uncle knows the two of us came back late,” Li Jianbing picked out a box of wontons. “He bought all my favorite things.”
Lin Zong glanced at him: “Is there anything you don’t like?”
“Yes,” Li Jianbing raised his head and said earnestly. “I don’t like eating shit.”
Lin Zong let out a hiss, holding his steamed bun and quietly sitting a bit farther away.
Just as he swallowed his first bite, his mom came down from upstairs, still wearing outdoor clothes.
“Where are you going?” Lin Zong poked his head out.
Ms. Shen seemed startled, almost casually throwing her car keys over a distance of more than ten meters.
“Preparing a surprise for you.” Ms. Shen arched her brows very mysteriously.
Right after that, without giving Lin Zong a chance to pursue the question, she bolted out the door.
Strange, it was truly too strange.
Lin Zong snatched the chopsticks right out of Li Jianbing’s hand.
“Let’s go.”
Li Jianbing, who had just bitten into thin air, wore a blank expression: “Go where? To heaven? I really feel a bit dizzy, I’m never staying up late again.”
Lin Zong glanced at his dark circles.
Never mind, I’ll just go myself.
“Remember to clean up after you finish eating,” Lin Zong instructed as he stood up and walked toward the door. “If you’re sleepy, go sleep in my room. I’m heading out for a bit.”
Li Jianbing hadn’t slept all night, and his brain was already sluggish.
It was only when the sound of the door closing reached him that he reacted.
“Huh? What are you going to do?”
However, the only thing that answered him was the empty living room.
As soon as Lin Zong stepped outside, he saw his mom’s Audi pulling away from the garage.
He hurriedly fished out his phone and hailed a taxi.
If he guessed correctly, his mom was still heading to the same residential complex as yesterday.
For some unknown reason, his mom had been driving quite slowly lately, and the taxi Lin Zong took caught up to her before long.
It even executed a lane change and overtook her.
Never had he expected that he would arrive earlier than his mom. After getting out of the taxi, Lin Zong ran into the residential complex, terrified of being spotted by her.
Running all the way to the tree from yesterday, he looked left and right, confirmed there was no one around, and hid inside it once more.