Chapter 41
In the room, the only window was covered by a curtain, and only a faint light could slip in through the gap, with the blue light at the bottom right corner of the monitor on the table flickering particularly brightly.
Clothes and indescribable little objects were scattered all over the floor, and some of the clothes seemed to be covered in a strange, unidentifiable liquid.
A hand slowly reached out from beneath the slightly raised quilt on the bed and reached for the mobile phone at the foot of the bed in a somewhat feeble movement.
The screen showed that it was past eight in the morning. Gu Xiyu kept the same position for a long time, and then feebly turned off the screen. The other ‘thing’ beside him struggled a bit, accidentally pulling off the quilt wrapped around him and revealing his smooth neck and shoulders that were littered with several story-filled marks on them. He blinked a few times, trying to clear up his still slightly dazed vision.
After half a day, the risk value on the panel had dropped to 20, and the dawn of victory seemed close at hand.
But at this moment, Gu Xiyu only felt exhausted.
His hand holding the phone was still trembling, and even in his dream world, he kept hearing Lu Ziqing’s voice calling out ‘little mom’ and ‘brother’ interchangeably.
“…… Brother.” The deep voice once again came from behind him.
He kicked the other party with a small temper: “Shut up.”
The voice was a little hoarse.
All precautions were still useless against a full-blooded adolescent, especially now that there were the only ones left in the house. Lu Ziqing had eaten him up under half persuasion and half coercion. He couldn’t even remember how many times they had done it from yesterday afternoon to now, excluding the rest time.
Lu Ziqing stopped talking and hugged him with a soft smile, seemingly very happy.
Gu Xiyu was going to punch someone if he was not satisfied after eating too much.
He still had a doubt: “How did you find out the marriage between me and your father was dissolved.”
Lu Ziqing was silent for a few seconds, then he lazily replied, “Guess.”
“……?”
“Look, didn’t you just admit it yourself earlier?”
“……”
Not surprisingly, Lu Ziqing was kicked out of Gu Xiyu’s room again.
One week was enough for the rebellious teenager to “bond” with his nominal guardian, and Gu Xiyu simply gave up resisting afterward. He originally expected the risk value to have dropped a lot more by the time the rest of the family came back, but it remained stuck at 15.
When Lu Mingren came back, he didn’t notice anything wrong with their atmosphere, Lu Ziqing was still doing whatever he needed to do, and only when he played games for too long would Lu Mingren voice a reminder: “Ziqing, don’t forget to rest your eyes.”
Gu Xiyu was about to go to the kitchen to get water when he heard this, and he said smoothly, “Ziqing is quite good at games.”
Lu Mingren shook his head, a rare smile on his lips: “He only knows how to play games all day.”
“No.” He glanced into the room in time to meet Lu Ziqing’s eyes as he turned back, “Work harder on your schoolwork, you might be able to get in the top ten next year.”
Lu Ziqing averted his gaze, and he didn’t say anything back.
Gu Xiyu’s final results came out only a little later than Lu Ziqing’s, and at the same time they came out, he also received an email from the head professor, containing a letter of recommendation and a document he needed to fill out with personal data.
The old professor said he had provided his study information to the company, and they were happy with his grades and the research submitted, and if there were no surprises, they would arrange for him to enroll in the opening spring intake.
He was a little hesitant.
This meant that he wouldn’t be able to oversee Lu Ziqing’s entire senior year.
In fact, there had been situations in the previous world where Ji Chen had to travel and be separated from him for a while, so they’d keep in touch through video communications, but he wasn’t sure if Lu Ziqing would be satisfied with that.
He asked the professor if there was any possibility of an extension, and the professor’s reply came quickly.
It could not be postponed.
“…… And the school hopes you can represent it as an exchange student. I know your family’s situation; this is a very rare opportunity for you.”
Gu Xiyu sighed softly.
For the next six months, his and Lu Ziqing’s lives did not change much. His monthly income was enough to take care of Xie Chunhua, who had successfully ended her marriage with Gu Sichuang, and he even had spare money to remit living expenses to Gu Sichuang regularly, which are calculated according to his standards, to ensure that he is able to live and not starve to death. If Gu Sichuang decided to take the money to gamble, then he (Gu Sichuang) would have to bear the responsibility himself, and he will not give him additional money.
He still insisted on not turning on the camera during the live broadcast. During the games, he would carefully explain the skills of the heroes to the netizens in the live room, as well as his awareness as he played, while also slowly mastering the heroes of other positions other than the mid-laner mage.
Unless he was teaming up with Lu Ziqing, he now preferred to play the more daring and rhythmical side laners and junglers.
[Does the little brother only play junglers?] As he and Lu Ziqing platooned more often, the latter’s gaming ability began to be questioned.
[Number 1 in my zone? I heard that the ATB team is interested in recruiting him. But if he really wants to play professionally, I don’t think he can do it if he’s only good in one area, right?]
[You must be a black fan. The first hero that he brought to a national standard was a shooter, okay?]
[I remember that he also did that for a mage.]
The Great Demon’s style was never to argue with others verbally. When faced with doubts, he preferred to slap others directly with actions. For example, the moment these sun spots came up, he used different heroes in each of the five consecutive ranking games they played. In the last game, he used a functional support, because his teammates were not that impressive, and he was able to bring full play to the support hero, leading the tempo, managing the line of troops, and leading the team to capture the opponent’s crystal, successfully taking the MVP.
After five games, there was no need for the room manager to take action, and all the barrages questioning him disappeared of their own accord.
When Gu Xiyu got off the air, he purposely picked up his phone and sent a message to Lu Ziqing in the other room: [Did ATB really send you an olive branch?]
ATB-AllTheBest was one of the top e-sports teams in China, with outstanding achievements in the field of e-sports every year. Those recruited by them were qualified to be called elite players. If Lu Ziqing really wanted to take this path while he could, Gu Xiyu certainly hoped that he would take the best one.
There was no reply from “Rebellious teenager”, only for him to hear the sound of the door being opened without permission.
He turned in his chair only to see the tall youth enter with a raised eyebrow. He held up his phone to him, saying, “What can’t you ask in person that you have to send a message? It makes it look like we’re in a long-distance relationship.”
Ever since they became intimate, Lu Ziqing seemed to have acquiesced that they were lovers. Although he didn’t say it outright, Gu Xiyu found that he had secretly deleted the ‘single’ status from his personal space, and his black and white style avatar, which hadn’t been changed in years, had turned into a cool and handsome looking anime, a style that could be found under “love” when you do a quick search online.
Terms like ‘little mom’ only appeared when they were doing the indescribable and he wanted to tease him.
Then he would gently call him ‘brother’ in that increasingly aggressive voice.
Gu Xiyu looked at the date that was gradually approaching the winter holidays, raised his hand against his mouth, and coughed a few times before asking casually, “Long distance love also has a special flavor, right?”
Lu Ziqing habitually locked the door and pounced on him like a large dog, holding him in his arms before expertly swapping places with him.
The person leaning against the back of the chair became Lu Ziqing, while he was sitting on his lap and looking down at him.
The youth beneath him frowned unhappily and said, “It’s not good at all; I want to see you every day.” With that, Lu Ziqing caught him off guard and dropped a light kiss on the edge of his mouth.
The rebellious boy had the disease of finding every opportunity to come over and kiss him.
The most ridiculous thing was that once, at 2 am, he had just managed to fall asleep and failed to hear Lu Ziqing’s series of calls since his phone was in silence, and the latter ran straight to his room and knocked on the door. He thought something had happened and opened the door hastily with his not-so-lucid thoughts, only to receive a low kiss from the person outside the door.
The person at the door said to him, “I couldn’t sleep and thought long and hard about it before I remembered it was because I hadn’t kissed you yet today.”
“……” He almost slammed the door in the other party’s face, but when he met his aggrieved gaze, he couldn’t help but go softhearted.
Gu Xiyu came back from the memory and was silent for a few seconds before getting up and leaving his arms, “If you go to play professionally in the future, you’ll have to stay in the dormitory, and we won’t be able to see each other every day.”
Lu Ziqing only said, “That’s why I haven’t promised them yet.”
He met Gu Xiyu’s gaze and held it for a long time before he took a step back and said, “I told them I wanted to finish my college entrance exams first.”
After the winter break, there was one last semester left to work on, and Lu Ziqing would only be 19 when he finishes his college entrance exams, so it’s not as if the team couldn’t wait.
The next semester was crucial for Lu Ziqing, and it just so happened that it was when Gu Xiyu needed to leave. He had made several indirect remarks, but Lu Ziqing didn’t like any, so he decided to wait until he finished his final exams before talking to him. He also had to let Lu Mingren know about it in advance.
He had just opened his mouth to speak when his throat felt itchy, and he could only cough violently.
Lu Ziqing instantly put away his casual expression and immediately got up from his chair to pat him on the back. He asked with a frown: “Why have you been coughing lately? Your complexion looks weak too.”
After saying that, he went over and closed the slightly open window in the room and drew the curtains tightly, saying, “The weather is getting cooler now, so you shouldn’t blow in the cold.”
“It’s fine, probably because of the change of season.” Gu Xiyu didn’t care too much about his health; as someone who fought and got injured all year round, this kind of minor illness was something that could pass with time.
Lu Ziqing joked, “It seems that the supplements the Lu family has given you all these days have been in vain, I haven’t seen any change in your body after so long.”
With that, he reached out to pinch his face again and said worriedly, “You’ve also lost weight, and your cheeks don’t feel as good as before.”
Gu Xiyu broke free of his hand with no expression: “Then don’t touch it.”
The smile in Lu Ziqing’s eyes increased rather than decreased, and after casually putting his phone on the desk, he began to climb into the bed of his own accord and patted the empty spot beside him, “It’s late, brother, let’s go to bed; I’ve finished all my homework for today.”
“…… You have classes tomorrow!” Gu Xiyu blinked rapidly and added, “I also have class tomorrow morning.”
The rebellious boy would not come all this way for nothing. He easily burrowed into his bed, so it was impossible not to get suspicious.
Lu Ziqing, who had gotten under his blanket, spoke in a coy tone, “I just want to be with Brother.”
Gu Xiyu didn’t believe him.
However, if the great demon didn’t want to leave, he couldn’t just carry him out and throw him away, so he let him occupy half of his bed while he went out to wash up.
Lu Ziqing didn’t lie to him, the boy was already asleep when he returned to his room.
The Great Demon was someone who was good at getting his way, and the fact that Gu Xiyu had permitted him for the first time was like giving him a pass to continue. From that time on, Lu Ziqing would run to his room just to sleep under the same quilt, or simply ask him(Gu Xiyu) to stay in his room whenever they revised questions until late in the night.
In his eyes, Lu Ziqing had once again upgraded from being a large dog to a big, clingy bear. He seemed to enjoy his time with him and was very satisfied with just cuddling with him to sleep.
But it was just too risky, after all, Lu Mingren was also at home.
One morning, he routinely woke up from Lu Ziqing’s room to go back to his own, only to run into Lu Mingren in the corridor.
Lu Mingren didn’t realize that something was wrong at first, and it was only when he finished greeting him that he suddenly wondered, “This …… you and Ziqing have changed rooms?”
“…… No.” Gu Xiyu answered honestly.
Lu Mingren became even more confused.
He was pondering how to explain when Lu Ziqing’s still somewhat hoarse sleepy voice came from behind him: “He helped me with my homework until late in the night and accidentally fell asleep. I was too embarrassed to wake him up, so I simply let him stay in my room and sleep with me.”
“My bed is so big anyway, it doesn’t hurt to have an extra person sleeping in it.”
“Ohhhh, so it’s like that; it’s really hard on Xiyu.” Lu Mingren’s straight thinking allowed him to accept this explanation easily. “Your grandfather just called, it’s his birthday today, and he wants us to take Xiyu to the old mansion to see him and have a meal together.”
Lu Ziqing swept his hair out of his face with disinterest. “Can’t you refuse?”
Lu Mingren glared at him and said, “Your grandfather just wants to see you!”
“Fine.” Lu Ziqing shrugged his shoulders.
The matter ended with Lu Mingren’s victory. Gu Xiyu walked back and forth between the toilet and his room a few times before coming downstairs, arriving in the living room just in time to hear Lu Ziqing instruct Auntie Zhang in the kitchen, “…… might have caught a cold, so cook ginger soup for him.”
He wasn’t sure if the strange feeling coming from his heart right now was the ‘warm’ feeling people often talk about. He just stood there in silence where he could just see the kitchen scene, quietly gazing at Lu Ziqing’s side profile.
In the past half a year, the rebellious boy seemed to have grown taller, and his features and angles had gradually become more mature and stable. He obviously looked very different from his target in the previous world, but at this moment, it was as if he saw them overlapping without any inconsistency.
The actions and feelings deep in their bones and souls were the same.
The man from the last world, in his later years, would also inadvertently show his gentle and caring side.
Thinking of this, he could not resist lamenting to the system in his heart, “In the past, if I was unwell with a cold or caught a wind chill, Ji Chen would also have someone boil ginger soup for me.”
Auntie Zhang in the kitchen had already gotten Lu Ziqing’s explanation and walked away, but the tall youth was still standing in the same place, his head slightly lowered and lost in thought.
Only after a long silence did the system emit a cold, mechanical tone.
[Who is Ji Chen?]