Final Check

It was as if there was nothing left to say, or perhaps this had simply been a little bit of idle harassment on her part.

Qing Mo quieted down and stopped sending messages.

Lin Yu put his earphones back on and turned his attention to the game once more.

He played nonstop from dawn until nightfall.

On Summoner’s Rift, Lin Yu was thoroughly and gloriously slaughtered.

The friend who had been duo-queuing with him also went from being Skinny alone to the entire dormitory forming a five-man team.

There was no helping it. One person simply couldn’t carry Lin Yu, who was deadweight weighing a thousand pounds!

“Knock, knock, knock.”

The sound of knocking came from the door. Having just finished a game, Lin Yu stood up from his chair and stretched before going to answer it for the delivery driver.

Naturally, Lin Yu assumed the person outside was the delivery driver.

After all, he had ordered another meal half an hour ago.

Judging by the time, it should have arrived by now...

The hotel room door swung open. When he saw Tang Manman standing outside with a faint smile and a gloomy look in her eyes, an inexplicable sense that something was terribly wrong welled up in Lin Yu’s heart.

“Manman, what brings you here?”

“Didn’t you say you’d be helping out at home these next few days?”

Ever since returning to H City three days ago, Lin Yu and Tang Manman had barely seen each other. They had only kept in touch through their phones.

That was why the bored Lin Yu had so much time to play games, meet up with friends, and eat out.

“I missed you.”

Tang Manman’s voice was soft, and her eyes were filled with warmth. Yet it didn’t make anyone feel warm in the slightest. Instead, it was like the warmth had frozen into shards of ice, sending chills down one’s spine.

“Come in first.”

Not knowing what was wrong with Tang Manman, Lin Yu could only nervously let her into the room first.

“Maka-baka...”

After closing the door, his phone suddenly rang. Lin Yu pulled it out and saw that it was Little Fatty and the others calling.

“Come on, Lao Yu!”

“What’s taking you so long?”

“We’re all waiting for you!”

The moment he answered, Little Fatty’s duck-like voice came pouring out in a rapid-fire stream.

“You guys go ahead and play.”

“I’ve got something to take care of.”

Tang Manman’s current state was clearly off. How could Lin Yu dare to keep playing on the computer?

His life was more important!

“It’s fine.”

“You can play.”

“I just came by to see you.”

Tang Manman, who had been surveying everything in the room, turned around. Her lovely peach-blossom eyes narrowed gently, and she said considerately, “Huh?”

“Really? Nothing’s wrong?”

Lin Yu wasn’t entirely convinced. No matter how he looked at her, Tang Manman didn’t seem like she was fine...

“Really. Go ahead and play.”

After receiving Tang Manman’s assurance once again, Lin Yu hesitantly sat back down at the computer.

“I’m really going to keep playing.”

Lin Yu asked for confirmation yet again.

“Sure. Go ahead.”

Tang Manman spoke in a gentle voice.

Only after confirming that Tang Manman wasn’t speaking sarcastically did Lin Yu hurriedly type to tell the others to leave the queue and invite him into their five-man game.

During the champion-select screen and the wait for the game to begin, Lin Yu kept secretly observing Tang Manman’s every move through the faint reflection on his computer screen.

She really did seem to have come only to see whether her gaming-addicted boyfriend had played himself to death from hunger.

She wandered aimlessly around the small room, looking at one thing and then another.

After five or six minutes of waiting, the game began. Lin Yu had already let down more than half of his guard and finally relaxed completely, shifting most of his attention back to the game.

Tang Manman, who had been standing behind him, also stopped at that moment. Her black pupils tilted almost imperceptibly toward Lin Yu. After realizing that he had fully entered the game, she finally began the true purpose of this surprise inspection.

First, she walked over to the clothes hooks attached to the wall and smelled, one by one, the jackets and shirts Lin Yu had hung there.

Then she went to the trash cans beside the bathroom and the bed. With the tip of her shoe, she gently nudged one of them aside and carefully examined the garbage inside.

Finally...

She sat down on the only large bed in the room. Lifting the covers, she expressionlessly inspected the bedding for any trace of another woman.

Sitting in his computer chair, Lin Yu watched Tang Manman’s every move through the reflection on the screen. He was so frightened that cold sweat nearly poured down his face.

Normally, once a game began, Lin Yu couldn’t spare any attention for anything outside the game.

But the opposing bot lane this match was terrifyingly strong.

Within five minutes, he and Skinny’s ADC had died six times each. For more than half the game, their computer screen had been dark—the color signifying that their champions were dead.

With the screen dimmed, its smooth surface reflected people even more clearly.

Looking at Tang Manman’s now completely undisguised cold expression, Lin Yu felt as if ten thousand elephants were trampling wildly through his heart.

It was true that he hadn’t actually done anything.

But who could say for sure whether, while fighting those girls for a place in their waistbands, he hadn’t accidentally picked up some trace of them?

After inspecting the entire room from top to bottom, Tang Manman silently came up behind Lin Yu and asked in a low voice, “Where did you go this afternoon?”

“To eat with some friends.”

Lin Yu discreetly muted the team voice chat. Family scandals should never be aired in public!

“Where did you eat?”

“And where did you go after that?”

“Where else did you go?”

One question after another came flying at Lin Yu, putting him under immense pressure.

“We ate at a hot pot restaurant.”

“After that...”

“We, uh...”

“What happened after that?”

Tang Manman’s fingers, resting on the back of his gaming chair, slowly tightened as she pressed him for an answer.

“Ah, it was nothing.”

“There really wasn’t much.”

With the hope that, despite his somewhat questionable behavior, Tang Manman might not be able to see through him, Lin Yu answered bluntly, “That guy Zhao Dahu took me to a club.”

“There was something shady going on inside.”

“I ran out as soon as I realized.”

“Then I came back to the hotel and played on the computer until now.”

“That’s it?”

Tang Manman’s completely emotionless voice came from behind him, making it impossible to tell whether she was happy or angry.

“Yeah.”

Lin Yu nodded. That was exactly what had happened. His conscience was clear.

“Did you shower today?”

After a long silence, Tang Manman suddenly asked this completely unrelated question.

Lin Yu thought for a moment before answering honestly, “No.”

“I played games until the early hours of this morning.”

“I felt like my hair was getting greasy, so I took a shower before going to bed.”

“I’d just woken up around noon when I went to eat with Zhao Dahu.”

“After that, I came back and played on the computer until now.”

“Oh.”

Tang Manman gave a faint “oh” and, without asking for his permission, began the final inspection of the day...

...

“Fuck!!!”

Watching the enemy ADC wiggle his little butt as he disappeared into the shadows behind the turret, Skinny was genuinely losing it.

They had finally waited for their jungler and mid laner to come down for a four-on-two fight.

He had thought they could kill the enemy support and ADC, claim a big bounty, and finally make life a little easier in bot lane.

But he never expected Lin Yu, that useless noob, to miss his hook again at the crucial moment!

The jungler and mid laner came down, but all they managed to kill was the worthless enemy support—and they still let the enemy ADC with a 1,000-gold bounty get away!

There was no way he could keep playing this game!

Seething with rage, Skinny recalled to base and bought two components, clicking his mouse so furiously that it went ka-chak, ka-chak.

After returning to lane and getting tower-dived and killed by the enemy bot duo, Skinny couldn’t help feeling that something was off, as if something were missing.

He took a closer look and realized that Lin Yu, that bastard, was still sitting in the fountain.

“Why are you still AFK?”

“Are you even going to play or not?!”