“Dong Yin.”
The elevator reached the first floor. Zou Yuxi suddenly stopped walking and looked at her very seriously.
That look was all too familiar to Dong Yin.
Men—once they start staring at a woman like that, it means they’re about to launch into some “deep, heartfelt confession,” convinced that if they just act serious enough, the woman will believe them and then go through fire and water for them.
Disgusting. Dong Yin actually felt like throwing up.
Zou Yuxi said, “I actually like you quite a lot.”
“I’ve just… gotten used to being with Xie Mingjun. We’ve been tangled up for three or four years now. A lot of things are tied together—career, future—so sometimes it’s hard.”
Then he smiled and praised her.
“You’ve got a good temperament. Way better than hers.”
Women love comparisons. Especially when they’re being compared to a beauty. Just hearing it is enough to make you want to jump with joy.
Dong Yin was pretty happy too. If she was better than Xie Mingjun, didn’t that mean her chances of winning Xie Mingjun over had gone up a little?
Dong Yin said, “Xie Mingjun’s pretty great too.”
Zou Yuxi said, “Mm, she’s good in some ways.”
Right. Two good women ought to end up together.
And Xie Mingjun ought to belong to her.
He asked, “Dong Yin, be honest. What kind of person do you think she is?”
“What kind of ‘honest’ do you want to hear?”
“The stuff deep inside.”
Deep inside… Dong Yin actually took a moment to think. In her heart, Xie Mingjun was arrogant, did whatever she wanted, and had a wicked personality.
Dong Yin put extra emphasis on it.
“Her temper is really bad. She does whatever she wants when she’s happy, and if she’s not happy, she just doesn’t. She’s always bullying me, like she looks down on me. Sometimes I really want to bully her back, but I don’t dare.”
Suddenly, Dong Yin got curious and asked Zou Yuxi, “So how did you get Xie Mingjun to go out with you?” She clutched her backpack and looked at him, a hint of envy in her eyes. How *did* he manage to chase down Xie Mingjun? She wanted to learn.
Zou Yuxi laughed. “Back then she was really hard to chase. She was the campus goddess. I chased her for two years. She only nodded in our third year of high school. I really suffered for it…”
Dong Yin said, “Can you be more specific? How’d you chase her?”
Zou Yuxi said, “Back then she liked yogurt. I brought her yogurt for an entire term…”
He paused, then added, “Her family had some trouble, and people kept going to harass her. I got into fights for her…”
As he said that, he pressed a finger lightly to his lips and shushed.
Dong Yin stared at him, baffled.
He said, “My friend’s calling.”
Dong Yin had just gotten to the good part; she wanted to hear the rest. Half-finished stories were the worst.
“Zou Yuxi, call them back later,” she shouted. “Can you keep going? I’m really curious.”
“Shh, don’t make trouble.”
Zou Yuxi answered the call. The voice on the other end was sugary sweet, opening with, “Hey, handsome, what are you busy with? Why couldn’t I reach you?”
Something about the voice felt familiar, but Dong Yin couldn’t place it.
Since he’d told her not to make trouble, she might as well make a little trouble.
Dong Yin pulled out her phone, turned on the recorder, walked over to his side, and held the phone up to capture him flirting on the call.
Once they got downstairs, Dong Yin tipped her head back to look up. Xie Mingjun lived on the twelfth floor; from down here she couldn’t see anything. She had no idea if Xie was standing up there. Dong Yin was a little narcissistic—she felt like maybe Xie was looking down at her.
Zou Yuxi talked on the phone the whole way. Dong Yin said nothing, recording the entire time. When the car pulled up to the dorm gate, she got out.
She’d only spent one night at Xie Mingjun’s, but going back to the dorm suddenly felt strange. Dong Yin sat in her chair, feeling oddly hollow.
What was Xie Mingjun doing right now?
She took out her phone and opened that group chat. It was utterly quiet. No one was saying anything. If it got any colder, the group would be dead.
Dong Yin opened a game and sent an invite to the group. Very quickly, everyone in the group joined.
When they played, Dong Yin still didn’t turn on her mic and didn’t speak.
This time she was using a skin that Xie Mingjun had gifted her—a newly released pink autumn set. As usual, whenever Xie Mingjun was about to die, Dong Yin would charge in, throw herself in front of her, and block the bullets.
See? What good was fighting? She was literally taking bullets for Xie Mingjun.
Chu Ningan really wanted to say, Just let her die, let her die, it’s really not necessary. If our carry dies, we’re all done for, okay?
During the game, Xie Mingjun barely spoke. She was very quiet. Enemies she normally could one-shot were taking three or four bullets, and sometimes she even kept spraying at corpses.
Chu Ningan moved her character to stand beside her and asked, “Blowing off steam?”
Lu Hanqiu said, “She must be really pissed then.”
“Pissed at Dong Yin?” Chu Ningan didn’t get it. “Honestly, after a few times hanging out, I think Dong Yin’s pretty decent. She’s just timid. And seriously, who said she looks plain?”
Lu Hanqiu said, “I didn’t really look. *You* looked that closely?”
“I just noticed, okay? Didn’t you see her that day at the hospital? She was wearing Xie Mingjun’s coat—the Christmas red one she just bought—and sitting next to her like some unboxed present. She was actually really pretty, just not made up much…”
Boom!
A landmine went off, and Chu Ningan’s character dropped.
Over voice, Xie Mingjun’s lazy voice rang out. “Chu Ningan, what are you doing? Can you pay attention to your surroundings? Lu Hanqiu, go pick her up.”
Lu Hanqiu ran over but didn’t revive her right away. She just stood there and said coolly, “You sure talk a lot.”
In the end, it was still Dong Yin who went over to help. She typed in the chat: [xiexie]
Chu Ningan got back up and snapped, “Thanks? You hear that? The boss is already chewing you out. Can you read the room a little?”
While Xie Mingjun drew her gun and mowed people down one by one, she said, “Yeah, that’s something I actually can’t really do.”
They played several rounds without a single win. Today they were playing all reckless and no strategy.
When they were about to log off, Chu Ningan finally couldn’t hold it in and asked, “Xie Mingjun, did Dong Yin go back?”
Xie Mingjun didn’t answer.
Lu Hanqiu spoke instead. “If you have to ask, obviously she did.”
They finished a few more games. The results were miserable. The voice channel was full of tsking sounds.
Chu Ningan said, “Thanks—for carrying us anyway. How about we go out for dinner tonight, and hit somewhere fun tomorrow? Bungee jump? We’ll talk more in the group later, my roommate needs to study.”
Back in the group chat, the few of them were waiting for Xie Mingjun to reply.
Xie Mingjun said:
[Not going. Got something on.]
[But you guys can come over tomorrow.]
Chu Ningan:
[I know!]
Dong Yin:
[Huh?]
The next morning.
The weather wasn’t as brutally cold as the past few days, but compared to before it was still chilly. Time to swap from short sleeves to long sleeves in the morning.
Chu Ningan and Lu Hanqiu went together to find Xie Mingjun. The two of them had bought a bunch of groceries. They put the bags down in the entryway, peeked into the living room, and saw only Xie Mingjun sitting on the sofa watching TV.
“Dong Yin’s not here yet?” Chu Ningan asked.
“Mhm.” Xie Mingjun replied, “She doesn’t have a car. She probably has to take the bus.”
It was still early. Chu Ningan changed into house slippers and flopped down onto the sofa. She was very familiar with Xie Mingjun and didn’t bother with proper posture, just sat cross-legged.
Xie Mingjun glanced at her. “Ugly.”
“Yeah, yeah, only you’re the great beauty here. I’m too lazy to argue. Hurry up and call the pro to queue.”
The four of them queued up again. The three girls were in the same room, so when they turned on mics it was a mess of background noise. Luckily, the god-tier player never used voice chat, so they just muted their mics and talked in person instead.
Midway through, the pro went to eat lunch, so they paused for forty minutes. After that, they kept playing and somehow sat there gaming from morning all the way till dusk.
Chu Ningan couldn’t take it anymore. She’d only had a single piece of bread for breakfast, and if she waited any longer she’d starve to death.
“Xie-Xie, did you and Dong Yin agree on lunch or dinner?” she asked. “Call her and hurry her up?”
“I don’t have her contact info.” Xie Mingjun toyed with her phone, her expression not looking great.
“What, you don’t even have her WeChat?”
Xie Mingjun frowned. “I never gave her mine.”
“…”
Chu Ningan was speechless. “You don’t have her WeChat, so how do you know she’s coming? You even said she *definitely* would. Did she appear in your dreams to tell you?”
They finished a round. In the group chat, the pro asked if they were still playing; if not, he was going to go buy dinner.
Xie Mingjun pressed her lips together, tossed her phone aside, and turned her head toward the window where a few pieces of laundry were still hanging. The wind blew, making two plain black tops sway back and forth.
Those were two shirts of Dong Yin’s that she’d “accidentally” left behind on purpose. Her little schemes were obvious as day. Yesterday, before she left, she’d been full of attitude.
And yet she hadn’t come.
“I mean, I’m done. You based your entire prediction on *that*?” Chu Ningan said. “Even people waiting under a tree for a rabbit aren’t this delusional.”
She glanced at Xie Mingjun, then at Lu Hanqiu. “So… what now?”
Lu Hanqiu said, “…I’m also stuck.”
A few minutes later, Zou Yuxi received a call from Xie Mingjun.
“Mingjun, what’s up?” Zou Yuxi sounded pretty happy. It was the first time Xie had ever called him on her own. He’d waited a long time to hear this, and then finally heard her say:
“Tell Dong Yin to come over.”
“Huh? Come where?”
“Tell Dong Yin to come to my place.” Xie Mingjun’s tone wasn’t very pleasant; there was a faint bite to her words. “To eat hot pot.”
