It's not like you've never seen it before.

Lin Yu glanced briefly at the messages Gu Yue had sent.

There wasn’t anything urgent inside.

Mostly, Gu Yue was asking what he’d been up to these past few days, wondering why there was no word from him at all.

Occasionally, she’d thrown in a few emoji, slyly cursing him out.

Stuff like, “If you don’t reply, you’ll shrink an inch.”

Looking at the mountain of messages Gu Yue had sent over the past few days,

Lin Yu did the math and figured it wasn’t really a big deal.

What?

She wasn’t talking about height?

Still no big deal!

Lin Yu’s fingers quickly tapped the screen.

He summed up the events of the past few days as a simple, unlucky car accident.

He left out all the messy stuff—Qing Mo, wolves, and whatever else.

No need to stir up trouble and have to explain things back and forth.

But what Lin Yu didn’t expect was that Gu Yue seemed even more worried. After firing off three question marks in a row, she straight-up called him with a video.

Holding his phone in one hand, Lin Yu looked at the video call notification on the screen and clicked his tongue a couple of times.

Thinking about it now, it made sense.

Who wouldn’t get anxious hearing about a friend getting in a car accident?

He rejected Gu Yue’s video call.

Then he reassured her over and over that he only had a minor leg injury—no fractures, no disability. He was fine!

The only thing now was that walking hurt a bit, and because of the pain, he limped slightly, but there was no other discomfort.

While chatting with Gu Yue, Lin Yu kept an eye on the road.

Spotting a taxi with its “Available” sign lit up, he raised his hand and hailed it.

He got in the car.

Told the driver his destination.

In that short amount of time, Lin Yu noticed Gu Yue had sent more messages.

Three-Good-Student: So your leg is hurt now.

Three-Good-Student: Is it still convenient for you to live alone?

Long-Aotian: ???

Long-Aotian: Why wouldn’t it be?

Long-Aotian: Just one leg’s a bit injured, and I’m careful not to put too much weight on it—not like I’m crippled!

Three-Good-Student: Oh

Looking at that dry, bare “Oh” Gu Yue had sent on the screen,

he had no idea why,

but Lin Yu somehow sensed a hint of disappointment in that “Oh”!

Three-Good-Student: Brother Long.

Three-Good-Student: Can you still come to my place to tutor me while you’re recovering?

Three-Good-Student: (crying emoji)

Lin Yu raised a hand and rubbed his stiff shoulders from lying down so much over the past few days, then replied one-handed.

Long-Aotian: Forget it.

Long-Aotian: It’s the New Year; I’ll take a few days off. I’ll go again once I’m a bit better.

Three-Good-Student: Oh, okay.

Three-Good-Student: Alright.

Finishing his chat with Gu Yue, Lin Yu took the taxi all the way back to his little rented room.

He hadn’t even been inside for half an hour before he couldn’t stand it anymore.

The New Year plus a quiet, empty home was the worst combination in the world.

Especially when the place was all cleaned up.

There wasn’t a trace of life—it felt like his soul could barely breathe.

He threw on some clothes and headed back downstairs.

Lin Yu didn’t really know where he wanted to go.

But anyway, he didn’t want to stay in that cold, cramped little room anymore.

Standing outside his apartment building, Lin Yu thought about where to kill time.

It was the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, and the whole city was still asleep. Very few entertainment spots were open.

Still, he wasn’t too bothered.

He had one place where he could waste time all 365 days of the year, no matter the season, no matter day or night.

That’s right—the internet café!

Let’s go!

Time to play a few rounds!

He trotted off to a nearby internet café and dove right in.

He played from daylight to dark, then from dark late into the night—he’d lost count of how long he’d been at it.

He only remembered the oath he’d sworn at nine in the evening:

Win one round, then go home and sleep!

At 3 a.m., after dominating with his best hero and barely dragging four teammates who only knew how to blunder through to victory,

Lin Yu leaned back into the sofa-like chair in relief.

He looked completely drained.

Staring at the big “Victory” word on the screen,

he couldn’t help his eyes from getting a bit teary.

I…

Finally…

Made it!

Letting out a deep breath, Lin Yu opened his eyes—faintly bloodshot—and clicked to log off with trembling fingers. He pushed himself up from the desk and left the café in relief.

To celebrate that last, thrillingly satisfying victory,

Lin Yu treated himself to a luxury midnight snack…

Wait.

At this hour, it should be breakfast.

But does 3 a.m. breakfast even exist in this world?

A question mark slowly popped up over Lin Yu’s head.

Anyway.

He got himself a serving of fried rice, paired it with over thirty yuan’s worth of grilled skewers, and a bottle of iced sugary carbonated drink.

This spread—it totally deserved the word “luxury”!

Carrying his fried rice and skewers home, Lin Yu, who could barely keep his eyes open from exhaustion, didn’t linger.

He found some random video to watch while eating on his phone, wolfed down the late-night meal, and couldn’t be bothered to clean up the desk that doubled as his dining table.

He just left the leftovers carelessly on top.

Then, he crawled straight back into bed.

Closed his eyes and went to sleep…

…

Ten in the morning.

Lin Yu slowly opened his eyes to a knocking sound—not loud, but stubbornly persistent.

First thing in the morning.

Who the hell is this?

Can’t they let a person sleep?

Listening to the nonstop knocking from outside his door, Lin Yu furrowed his brows, annoyed and groggy from having his sleep interrupted.

But there wasn’t much he could do about it.

Hearing that relentless knocking that seemed like it would go on forever unless he answered, Lin Yu could only force himself to crawl out of his warm blanket and go open the door.

Since he was only wearing a pair of boxers,

Lin Yu was considerate enough to peek through the peephole before opening the door—just in case the person outside was a woman, to avoid being rude.

Looking through the peephole,

he saw that the person outside was indeed a woman.

And then…

…

Lin Yu twisted the handle and pulled the door wide open.

“What’s up?”

He asked with a grumpy tone, looking at Gu Yue, who was momentarily stunned on the other side.

“You—why aren’t you wearing any clothes!”

Instead of answering his question, Gu Yue, seeing Lin Yu’s tall, lean, solid build, snapped back to reality and quickly raised her hand to cover her eyes—

but sneakily parted her middle and ring fingers, leaving a sizeable gap.

Faced with Gu Yue acting all shy and girly like that,

Lin Yu rolled his eyes dismissively and said:

“What’s there to wear?”

“It’s not like you haven’t seen it before.”