Chapter 05: The Conscience That Ran Away From Home
The next day, Xie Jingchu woke up a little after eight.
He didn’t recall anyone force-feeding him hangover soup last night; he only knew that he felt much more comfortable after waking up.
He fumbled for his phone from the bedside table, unlocked it, and opened WeChat. There was a new discussion group pinned at the topâ[Coach, say something quick!]
It was NAVAâs general lifestyle group chat, currently sitting at over eighty unread messages. Xie Jingchu clicked in and saw several familiar avatars chatting.
He scrolled to the very top, and a terrifying photo instantly came into view.
The photo was a bit blurry, but one could vaguely make out two people. A boy with short black hair was hugging another boyâs calf, his chin tilted up slightly, rubbing against the leg with a foolish, drunken smile.
“?” Xie Jingchu’s hand froze in mid-air as he scrolled.
Who. The. Fuck.
Who is this idiot??
Summoning his courage, he scrolled down further, only to see another spectacular photo of him clinging to a door frame. That uninhibited posture, that enchanting figure.
Huh?
Ahhhhhh…
This was absolutely the messiest morning of Xie Jingchuâs life.
However, thanks to Zoe, who had drunkenly tried to pull someoneâs pants down, accompanying him in his humiliation, those few photos didn’t seem quite as conspicuous.
For the next few days, Xie Jingchuâthe leg-hugger and clothes-tuggerâsuffered from a guilty conscience. He avoided Shen Guanchao during both training and breaks, to the point where it became deliberate.
It wasn’t until after a training match ended that Shen Guanchao couldn’t hold back anymore. He took off his headphones and initiated a conversation: “Playing mute for a few daysâis it fun?”
“Uh…” With nowhere to hide, Xie Jingchu chose to purse his lips and remain silent. Shen Guanchao then played a spectacular video for him.
It was a short, abstract clip of Xie Jingchu after being fed hangover soup, rolling around on the bed like a madman, tumbling onto the floor, and smiling foolishly while letting himself go completely.
It was too tragic to look at.
Shen Guanchao showed him the whole thing, then raised an eyebrow. “Well? has your conscience that ran away from home decided to return yet?”
“You drank yourself into that deathly state. If I hadn’t brought you back, the restaurant owner would have grabbed you to wash dishes by now.”
“It’s fine if you don’t thank me for my great kindness, but you’re actually avoiding me?”
Xie Jingchu watched the video with a stiff face and admitted his fault at light speed: “I’m sorry…”
Was it useful?
No. After apologizing, this guy would definitely dare to do it again next time.
It was a dead loop.
“Can I even trust you?” Shen Guanchao mocked him to his face a couple of times before ignoring him. He bent down to adjust his equipment and opened a streaming site, preparing to tease his group of “high-quality” fans and clock in his streaming hours while he was at it.
Within two or three minutes of starting the stream, the popularity of Shen Guanchaoâs room exceeded six million, and bullet comments attacked like a magnificent army of thousands.
The platform had no strict requirement that pro players must stream gameplay. Since it was break time, Shen Guanchao turned on the camera to let them watch him slurp noodles while he chatted.
Some viewers teased deliberately: [The streamer looks so handsome slurping noodles, love it. (0.5 yuan per comment)]
Then there was the irritable faction: [Everyone crawled out of their warm blankets in the middle of the night to watch you show off your skills, and you give us a mukbang? I’m angry…!] [Is the streamer switching careers to become a competitive eater? (Facepalm)] [Passive streaming, reported.] [What are you eating, you stinky purple-hair?]
“River Snail Rice Noodles (Luo Si Fen),” Shen Guanchao said in a lazy tone. “Pei Zhi was next to me just now, but he got smoked out by the smell.”
“I don’t understand. Isn’t Luo Si Fen fragrant? How is it smelly? You guys don’t know quality goods. Let me tell you, this place makes the most authentic bowl I’ve ever had…”
Bullet comments: [Exactly! Luo Si Fen is so delicious. I want to plant Luo Si Fen on the head of everyone who doesn’t eat it!! The Snail Sect lives forever!] [Hahahaha, NAVA’s biggest victimâPei Zhi.] [Strongly suggest the NAVA boss give Coach Pei a raise. It’s too tragic.] [Eat more, I’m afraid you won’t have the energy to flame people later.] [How is Luo Si Fen tasty?] [Little Purple-hair, even if Coach Pei switched careers to become a Gold Miner, he wouldn’t be able to dig up a nugget of mental illness as high-purity as yours. (Sigh) (Lights a cigarette)] […]
Seeing these comments, Shen Guanchao sneered. “How about we hold a fan meet-up in the future? I’ll come carrying a knife and slaughter one for every one I see. You guys remember to carry a wooden sign on your back that says ‘Execution After Autumn,’ like in those TV dramas.”
That was popular in old TV dramas, which everyone had watched plenty of. Imagining that badass scene, a row of ellipses floated across the bullet comments.
[…] [Execution After Autumn isn’t impossible, but you play the actor, and we’ll do the executing.] [Daddy really gave you too many smiles.] [Really gave you too many smiles] x99 [Go to sleep early, you can have anything in your dreams.]
Shen Guanchao: “…Where are your manners?”
Did they run away from home along with Xie Jingchu’s conscience?
They couldn’t even satisfy this small wish? Fake fans.
After finishing the noodles, he threw away the takeout box, returned to his computer, logged into his medic alt account, and started playing. “Don’t want to carry today, playing a few rounds of medic to slack off.” He slacked off with righteous confidence.
Shen Guanchao’s main account had long held the crown of the National Server’s No. 1 Main Attacker, but his medic alt was also in the top 500 of the National Server.
He grouped up with Fox, and the two duo-queued with flawless synergy all night to push rank. Midway through, they even matched against Xie Jingchu once.
In the random matchmaking of each game, the system usually arranged for players with close rankings on the server to compete on the same stage. There were only so many players in the top tier of the National Server, so pro players bumping into each other was a common occurrence. Especially at the end of the month, every match could be a slaughterhouse.
Xie Jingchu had solo-queued into a team of randoms, while Shen Guanchao had a dual-pro combination on his side, plus a retired pro player assigned to their team. With the configuration advantage, they suppressed the opponents right from the start.
In a disadvantageous game, Xie Jingchu calculated carefully, maximizing the limited team resources and fighting steadily.
At the twenty-fifth minute of the game, just as his teammate was double-killed by Fox, Xie Jingchu quickly opened his scope and finished off the low-health medic nearby. The bullet pierced through the game character’s heart, and the bright red notification roseâ
[Siren killed “Perpetually Collapsing Player”]
Shen Guanchao was sniped, and the one thousand bounty on him, along with the Plague Blessing, went to Xie Jingchu.
“Beautifully done.” He pinged a signal in the team channel, opened the portable shop, and decisively swapped his healer-build equipment for the assassin-medic build’s Shadow Blade and Saber. He then sent two text messages to Fox.
[Private Message – Perpetually Collapsing Player]: You there? [Private Message – Perpetually Collapsing Player]: Come with me to Point A to find Xie Jingchu and exchange some team friendship. [Private Message – Perpetually Collapsing Player]: I want the bounty on him, understand?
Fox understood. The two of them crept near Xie Jingchu’s sniping point and set up a trap.
Shen Guanchao had put several layers of shields on himself early on. While Xie Jingchu opened his scope to snipe Fox, Shen Guanchao circled behind him and gave him two stabs.
The Saber was the highest damage weapon for medics. Attacks carried two layers of poison damage, though the attack speed was not as fast as the dagger.
The sneak attack was successful. By the time Xie Jingchu reacted, his health bar was already more than half gone. Shen Guanchao quickly threw a poison serum at his feet, stacked the poison damage to the max, switched to the dagger, and landed a finishing blow on his right shoulder.
[“Perpetually Collapsing Player” killed Siren] [Assist: NAVA¡Fox]
Shen Guanchao successfully claimed the two thousand bounty on Xie Jingchu, and the match was about to end.
Xie Jingchu looked at the kill notification and couldn’t help but smile.
Shen Guanchao hadn’t been this lively in front of him for a long time.
In the eyes of others, this might be a sign of pettinessâseeking revenge for every grievance and haggling over every ounce.
But in his eyes, it was quite… cute.
If the group of “quality” hardcore fans in Shen Guanchao’s stream knew about this thought, they would definitely think he was crazyâthe person who fought anti-fans for three days and three nights without sleep is cute?
The match ended, and the “Defeat” settlement page popped up. Xie Jingchu suddenly felt a bit thirsty. Just as he was reaching for his water cup, someone beat him to it.
Shen Guanchao naturally grabbed Xie Jingchu’s cup. He took two sips before realizing something was wrong and frowned. “…?”
This wasn’t the instant coffee he had brewed earlier; it was someone’s plain water, bland and tasteless.
A faint bad premonition rose in his heart. Shen Guanchao resolutely turned his face to the side.
The moment he saw Xie Jingchu’s bright red ear tips and his subconscious motion to block his face, he knew whose cup this was.
It was Xie Jingchu’s…
“…” He drank from the wrong bottle.
Damn it.
He didn’t do it on purpose!
Because the stream camera was on, Shen Guanchao, who had been glib just moments ago, felt both awkward and ashamed. Meeting Xie Jingchuâs eyes, he was temporarily unable to defend his rudeness. He could only pretend to be calm, getting up to go to the kitchen to brew another cup of coffee.
After the broadcast ended, he took a shower, lay on his bed, and opened a social media platform. He deleted and rewrote in the search bar, finally entering a questionâ “How to not be awkward with an ex-boyfriend?”
The top trending answer was this: [I think the best mode of getting along with an ex-boyfriend is to treat him like a friend. Try to let go of past emotional entanglements, show your generosity and tolerance as an ex, maintain calm and rationality. You two don’t have to be bound together.]
Shen Guanchao, who was firstly not generous, secondly not tolerant, and thirdly had no interest in being friends with his ex-boyfriend, swiped away with a cold face: “…”
He decisively gave up on this search term and turned to search for the second and third ones: “What to do if I accidentally drank from my ex-boyfriend’s cup,” “What to do if I accidentally had an indirect kiss with my ex-boyfriend.”
High-heat answer: [If itâs come to this, seize the opportunity to get back together, old iron (buddy). Although the saying goes ‘a good horse doesn’t turn back to eat old grass,’ we aren’t good horses, are we? Eat if you must; at worst, just enjoy it first and talk later.]
“…”
Contrasted with this braindead answer, the first suggestion of “being friends with your ex” actually seemed normal.
Barely being friends was still better than getting back together.
Pure friendship, pollution-free, good for everyone.
Shen Guanchao turned off his phone and shut his eyes tightly.
Sleep, good horse!
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