045. Has My Nephew Changed Too Much?
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The rental apartment of Uncle Wu wasn’t exactly spacious—a one-bedroom, one-living room, one-kitchen, one-bathroom setup that barely hit forty square meters. Stuck in this tiny place, Lin Nan felt a bit stifled.
But the decor was surprisingly nice; it didn’t resemble any rental apartment Lin Nan remembered. Instead, it looked like a cozy little home.
The kitchen didn’t seem to have been used much; a layer of dust lay on the countertop. The bathroom was reasonably clean, but the whole place was permeated by a faint smell of smoke that made Lin Nan wrinkle his nose.
Curious, Lin Nan explored the apartment, then plopped himself on the couch, turned on the TV, and said to himself, “I’ll rent a place like this once I graduate.”
He lay sideways on the couch, with nothing to do, connecting his phone to the wifi and cranking up the TV volume to create a lively ambiance.
As the clock approached noon, finally, there was some movement from the bedroom.
Wu Guodong yawned endlessly as he emerged, glancing at the slouched Lin Nan, who was already on the verge of dozing off. He pulled out his phone to order takeout.
“What do you want for lunch?” he asked, plopping down on the couch.
Lin Nan, startled awake, rolled over and stretched, his body arching in a way that made his clothes cling a bit more tightly to his frame, accentuating his—wait a minute—are those…?
When did my nephew get some b*obs? This transformation is a bit much!
“Have you put on weight?” Wu Guodong frowned.
“Not really, right?” Lin Nan sat up, blissfully unaware of the scrutinizing gaze, confusedly looking up at Wu Guodong. “What’s for lunch?”
“What do you want?” Wu Guodong handed Lin Nan his phone. “Order whatever you like.”
Lin Nan took the phone to browse local takeout options, but he quickly noticed that prices in the city center were significantly higher than at school. A simple combo meal was going for over twenty bucks, and even the cheap options insisted on a twenty-dollar minimum. Back at school, he could get by with a meal for fifteen.
While he was stuck in a dilemma, Wu Guodong continued to observe Lin Nan, watching his frowning face full of conflict and then glancing down at the nephew’s tightly pressed thighs.
Honestly, half a year ago, Lin Nan looked pretty much the same. But how did my nephew go from that to… whatever this is?
Wu Guodong sighed internally without a clue why Lin Nan seemed to have become so delicate within just six months.
“Why not get a burger? The cheapest place is Wallace,” Lin Nan suggested, lifting his head and handing the phone back to Wu Guodong.
Though they had been quite close as kids, that was a long time ago. Their relationship had grown tense over the past few years, and now Lin Nan felt a bit shy about ordering anything too pricey.
“If you want a burger, go for McDonald’s or KFC. Wallace isn’t healthy,” Wu Guodong replied, taking a quick glance at the phone before looking up. “And don’t hold back on my account.”
Wu Guodong felt a bit awkward himself; he wasn’t sure how to communicate with his suddenly delicate nephew.
Could he actually be gay? That thought crept into Wu Guodong’s mind.
“Have you found a girlfriend?” he cautiously asked.
“Nope. My dad only gives me a thousand a month. Not even enough for my meals, let alone dating.”
Hmm, high suspicion here.
Just as that thought crossed Wu Guodong’s mind, Lin Nan countered him with, “Uncle, don’t you have a girlfriend? You come all the way here during your vacation instead of being with her?”
“…”
“Uncle, you’re twenty-eight… you don’t, um, like guys, do you?” Lin Nan asked, eyebrows raised in skepticism. “I heard you’ve never even dated a girl!”
Well, didn’t see that coming! Wu Guodong thought, taking a deep breath to explain, “Back in school, I had to study, and now that I’m working, I’m always stuck with overtime. When do I have time to date?”
Lin Nan stayed relentless, “I might not have dated, but at least I have a girl chasing me. You can’t possibly be single and haven’t even had anyone confess to you, can you? Don’t the grandparents pester you?”
The girl Lin Nan referred to was Li Na, and though he had zero feelings for her, she had been bugging him for a while, mistaking him for Lilith.
Wu Guodong fell silent, then awkwardly diverted the topic. “Let’s not dwell on that. Don’t you like gaming? I’ve got three consoles; what do you want to play?”
So it seems Uncle is still single as a Pringle?
Lin Nan felt dumbfounded. Wu Guodong didn’t look bad—dress him up, and he’d easily score middle to upper tier on the attractiveness scale. Despite spending too much time sitting, he wasn’t fat, and with a good salary, how did he not have a girlfriend?
Wasn’t Uncle once an extrovert?
“Uh… I’m not too familiar with console games,” Lin Nan admitted, switching gears. “Can I just sleep on the floor tonight? Or on the couch?”
“If you sleep on the floor, I don’t have any extra blankets or mattresses,” Wu Guodong said, a bit stunned. “Didn’t you used to beg to sleep with me at Grandpa’s?”
“How old am I now?” Lin Nan chuckled. “Back then, I just wanted to play your phone!”
“That was a double bed, and there was plenty of blanket! This living room doesn’t even have air conditioning. Are you sure you want to sleep on the couch tonight?” Wu Guodong grappled with the awkwardness that the two male relatives sleeping together felt increasingly outdated, but who cares?
Lin Nan kept nodding. “Just give me a blanket, that’s fine.”
Anyway, with magic on his side, he wouldn’t catch a chill. The blanket was more about habit than need.
Wu Guodong frowned. If word got out that he couldn’t even provide a decent sleeping arrangement for his nephew, his relatives would tear him apart during the New Year celebrations.
Yet he still wondered why Lin Nan was so averse to sleeping together.
“Then I’ll sleep on the couch, and you take the bedroom,” Wu Guodong said firmly. “Aren’t nephews supposed to be treated better?”
“Sure thing.”
After that chat, Lin Nan finally relaxed, shedding the initial awkwardness. Wu Guodong got up, walked over to the TV cabinet, fiddled with the game console, popped in a game, and returned to the couch with two controllers.
“Want to play a game together?” Wu Guodong asked.
With nothing else to do, Lin Nan found himself slightly interested in the game console and eagerly took a controller.
The last time he played a console, he was in kindergarten, messing around with Wu Guodong at Grandpa’s house, and the most memorable game was a ninja-saving-the-princess one.
After getting used to a keyboard and mouse, Lin Nan found the controller a bit awkward at first, but once he got into the groove, he noticed the music from the TV and looked up to see the screen displayed the well-known mini-game “Overcooked.”
“Isn’t this on the computer too?”
“Playing it on the console has a bigger screen and better feel,” Wu Guodong said, showing no signs of slowing down with his gaming enthusiasm. “Get used to the controller; we’ll tackle something more complex later.”
“Well, okay then…”
