Chapter 27

After picking heroes and entering the game, the few of them stood in the Fountain and, in a bizarrely synchronous moment, all stopped moving.

Little Yang could guess with his butt what they were thinking. He knew deep down that a support had to be fought for, so he quickly spoke first. “Support, follow me. My hero has a rough time getting through the early game. If I don’t develop, there won’t be a late game.”

He stressed the last few words heavily, “You guys don’t want to lose, right?”

Lin Linya, the one who least wanted to lose, eagerly chimed in, “I’ll go to Farm Lane!”

The others, “…”

Qiao Yu smiled, but it was through gritted teeth. “So that’s how you play the game, huh? Fine, fine, I’ll go to the kitchen and get you a knife.”

Lin Linya followed Little Yang to Farm Lane. The enemy, having analyzed their team comp, also knew they’d play as a pocket duo from level one. So, the enemy support didn’t help contest the mid lane wave but went straight to the Dead Lane for a 2v2.

The advantage of a 2v1 was gone. A normal marksman might think about safely clearing the wave to hit level two, but tonight, Little Yang was in godlike form. At level one, he directly cleared the wave and the enemy marksman together, securing First Blood on their Kiki with Rapidfire speed.

After doing it, his health bar was practically invisible. Lin Linya was awed by his mechanics. He quickly praised him, “That was amazing!”

Little Yang still wanted to play it cool. “Routine mechanics.”

Picky, “Anyone can do that.”

Qiao Yu, “Nothing special.”

Lin Linya, “…”

Little Yang rolled his eyes furiously. “You two are sick in the head, right? Piss off, quick.”

By the three-minute mark, he was calling out affectionately to Lin Linya again. “Yaya Baby, come here. I’ll kill a Scuttle Crab for you, this one’s worth a lot.”

He was halfway through killing the Scuttle Crab when the Translocator, in the middle of a jungle camp nearby, suddenly used an Ultimate to steal the crab, completely ignoring that his own camp had been pulled too far and reset.

Picky’s voice was utterly insincere, his dead fish eyes showing no emotion. “Sorry, misclick.”

Little Yang, “…Yaya Baby, look at him.”

His voice sounded nice, just his tone was a bit plaintive.

[Here I have to mention that time Picky liked Yaya Baby’s selfie post on Weibo. Saying it was a misclick? I doubt it. He probably just stared dumbfounded at baby in private.]

[Too bad the wife doesn’t really want to deal with him. Who told him to run his mouth at the start? My baby holds grudges.]

[Poor red-haired high schooler. Next match, he’s definitely going to steal Little Yang’s marksman position. I saw him come to Farm Lane three times in three minutes.]

During the team fight, skills were thrown everywhere in utter chaos. Lin Linya had no idea whose body he fell off of, and when his passive popped, restoring his original form, he didn’t know who he jumped onto next. All he remembered was that after one team fight ended, his own marksman was lying dead on the ground.

Qiao Yu, the Spirit Cat sitting on him, did a Recall Taunt over the corpse. “Just a big baby marksman. Did you even survive three seconds in that last fight?”

Little Yang, with the support attached, became the target everyone wanted to focus. One match played out, and Lin Linya was more exhausting to fight for than pushing towers, busier than the endless waves of minions dying and coming back.

He watched the poor kitten being called here and there, so furious that when they were destroying the Nexus, he sold all his Support Items and bought a full set of Attack Speed Items.

Really, trying to climb ranks these days was hard. After a few hours, he ended the stream like he was fleeing for his life.

Luckily, the moment he opened his WeChat messages, there was wholesome cat content waiting.

[Found a stray cat in the flower bed downstairs at the company. Probably ran out from a nearby residential area. The mother cat was hit by a car and died, so pitiful. Luckily the kitten is okay.]

[(Picture of kitten)]

Lin Linya opened the full-size image. A tiny kitten, not even the size of a palm, was wrapped in a fluffy fleece blanket. Skin and bones, its fur thin and sparse, eyes still unopen, it was licking goat’s milk from a syringe with its little tongue.

The hand holding the syringe was only partially in the frame—fingers well-defined, a bit pale.

It perfectly matched Lin Linya’s stereotype of Sound Slowly: an elite handsome guy who works in an office, wears gold-rimmed glasses, and signs documents with a fountain pen.

This was a message Sound Slowly had sent at seven in the evening. Lin Linya had been streaming all night; it was now nearly midnight when he first saw it. He quickly replied, [How’s the kitten! (Crying loudly)]

[Taken to the hospital for a checkup. Nothing serious besides malnutrition. It’s been officially hired by the company (smiley face). It’ll be the company mascot from now on. Once it’s a bit bigger, we can give it canned food as a salary for bringing in business.]

The chat status changed to “Typing…”

A few seconds later, [Off stream now? Did you have a pleasant day?]

Lin Linya scrolled up a few pages in the chat logs. The two of them had been chatting on and off ever since Sound Slowly retired. At first, he’d worried he wouldn’t understand if Sound Slowly talked about work after starting his job.

But Sound Slowly never once mentioned his work. What he shared were fragments of very normal daily life. Only once did he complain that the company’s overtime system was too insane; even the boss had to stay behind.

Lin Linya was amused by him. [But you’re already the boss. The employees are probably roasting you behind your back, right?]

Sound Slowly also replied very seriously, [I suspect they’ve already made a WeChat group without me just to roast me together. (Crying loudly) (Crying loudly)]

[And they get overtime pay when they work overtime. I don’t get any overtime pay. (Crying loudly)]

Clearly the boss of a company, but sounding like one of those tragic Corporate Slaves in Japanese dramas who come home late from work and microwave instant food.

Back when they played games together, Lin Linya had never heard him say a single curse word. Now, from the daily life he shared, you could also tell he was an emotionally stable, very gentle, very optimistic adult male.

Lin Linya always responded to him too. He had just finished replying that today was very happy when he got a reply a second later. [That’s good.]

Sound Slowly sent over a poster. [Did you receive this invitation? Yaya.]

[Received it.]

It was an invite to the Offline Fan Meeting for Wolf Fang’s 7th anniversary. Many Wolf Fang streamers had gotten the invite in their Backstage. The venue was right in Sea City. Lin Linya could get there by subway, and it was happening on a weekend, so he wanted to go check it out.

Wait… considering how Sound Slowly had just asked…

He typed excitedly, [Brother Slow! Are you coming to the event too?]

Sound Slowly, [Mm, so could you pick me up from the airport then?]

Lin Linya quickly replied, [Of course! I’ll treat you to a meal! Welcome to Sea City for a visit.]

Sound Slowly’s reply showed his helplessness just from the words. [I’ve been working for so long, how could I let a student pay? That would be taking way too much advantage of you.]

[See you then. Looking forward to meeting you, Yaya.]

Lin Linya was about to reply “Me too,” when someone knocked on the door of his apartment—a door that no one except delivery drivers had visited in ten thousand years. He threw down his phone, leaped off the bed, dragged on his slippers, and ran to the living room. He warily peered through the peephole.

Only when he saw it was someone he knew did he open the door. The classmate helping support Chen Chun’s body was already at his limit. The moment he looked up and met Lin Linya’s delicate, pretty face, he was suddenly speechless.

After a long while, he blushed and stammered, “S-Sorry for bothering you so late. Bro Chen drank too much. I asked him where to take him, and he gave this address.”

He hadn’t expected that the person living here was their major’s “department flower.” But then thinking about it, the two were close friends, so it suddenly seemed perfectly reasonable.

Lin Linya was wearing a white cotton pajama set with short sleeves and shorts. His soft, messy black hair clung obediently to his cheeks, and his exposed calves were slender and pale.

“How did he drink so much?”

The moment he opened the door, Lin Linya smelled the alcohol on both of them. Muttering to himself, he said to the classmate he wasn’t very familiar with, “Could you please just dump him on the sofa?”

After the classmate left, Lin Linya came back, looking at the tall man sprawled out on his not-even-two-meter-long single sofa, nursing a headache.

He crouched down next to Chen Chun’s face and patted his cheek. “Wake up. Can you still take care of yourself?”

The man lifted his eyelids, meeting Lin Linya’s enlarged, exquisite little face. He hissed, pressing on his own temple, his voice extremely hoarse. “Feel like throwing up.”

Lin Linya’s little face immediately went pale, looking even more pitiful than him. He quickly clamped his hands over Chen Chun’s mouth. “Don’t you dare throw up. If you do, you’re cleaning it up yourself tomorrow morning.”

Chen Chun laughed, his entire chest vibrating. The smell of alcohol from his nose dissipated a lot, replaced by the pleasant, comforting scent of Lin Linya’s body wash, and his mind cleared a bit.

He pulled Lin Linya’s hands away. “You’ll suffocate me. Go get your Hard Carry a glass of water, lazy dog.”

Lin Linya left worriedly, glancing back at every step, terrified Chen Chun would puke on his sofa. This apartment was rented. If anything got dirty, he’d have to pay the landlord a few hundred bucks for cleaning fees.

His place didn’t have any other cups. He had to wash his own cup and pour a glass of Hot Water for him.

Only after Chen Chun sat up on his own and drank some water did Lin Linya shrink into the corner of the sofa, hugging a cushion.

Watching Chen Chun supporting his head with one hand on his knee and holding the cup with the other, a moment later, Lin Linya nudged Chen Chun’s arm with his foot. “What’s wrong with you? Drinking so much tonight. Heartbroken from a breakup?”

The foot resting on Chen Chun’s forearm was small, pretty, and very pale. The creamy skin showed no color difference at all, the toes plump and rounded. Looking at just the foot, you’d never associate it with a guy.

Right now, because he was too tired, it simply slid down and stopped on Chen Chun’s thigh, with the pressure of a kitten kneading.

Chen Chun just felt the alcohol had numbed his brain. Otherwise, why would he be staring, completely dazed, only reacting when he heard Lin Linya speak? He flatly denied it.

“Nah, got carried away in a drinking contest.”

“Seeing you in this dejected state, I thought Junior Sister Xiaoxue had rejected your confession.”

Lin Linya complained, noticing the Silver Necklace he was wearing. He looked at it curiously, crooking his finger at him. “Come here, let me see.”

Chen Chun glanced at him, pushed himself up, and stumbled over. One knee hit the sofa, his body tilting—he nearly collapsed right onto Lin Linya. His veined hand shot out and pressed against the back of the sofa to barely steady himself.

Lin Linya was startled, instinctively pushing his hands against Chen Chun’s chest. “Bro Chen, don’t scare me. If you fall on me, you’ll crush me to death.”

Chen Chun didn’t speak. He fell into silence.

Lin Linya was completely enveloped by him underneath. Because he trusted him so much, he didn’t even register a problem. He was no different from a small animal pinned beneath an overly trusted large predator. Even with drool almost dripping onto his face, he’d only complain about the beast messing up its own fur.

“You reek of alcohol. If you don’t shower, don’t even think about sleeping tonight.”

His gaze level was right at Chen Chun’s chest. He tugged on his new necklace. After getting a clear look, he seemed a bit disdainful. “Looks like a dog chain. Not good-looking at all, too plain.”

Chen Chun wasn’t angry at all when he said this. He just lowered his gaze, his line of sight falling on Lin Linya’s slender, pale fingers.

“So it’s a dog chain. Now that you’re pulling it in your hand, what does that make me?”

He reached out, unceremoniously pinching Lin Linya’s soft cheek and tugging. His sluggish brain made his language system more direct and crude. “Am I your dog?”