018. The Strange Girl
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The benefits of a quicker reaction time are hard to notice in everyday life.
I mean, it probably means my phone doesn’t hit the ground as often and I don’t get smashed in the head by basketballs when passing by the basketball court…
But all of this relies on the brain having time to issue commands. For instance, if a basketball suddenly flies at you and leaves you dazed, your hands won’t just jump in to block it.
For Lin Nan, the biggest perk was finally being able to regain that old gaming feeling.
For several days straight, he breezed through ranked games, winning ten matches in a row. At first, he used some not-so-reaction-heavy support heroes, but after that perfect ten, he started throwing in flashy characters like Yasuo and Riven—which, of course, led to catastrophic losses.
Sure, his hand-eye coordination was faster than before, but the problem was, he had no clue how to play those kinds of heroes. He hadn’t touched them in years!
Another game came to an end, and Chen Yao couldn’t help but exclaim, “Lin Nan, you finally stopped dragging me down!”
“Eh, not bad, not bad,” Lin Nan humbly replied, “I’m just the best support in the whole school, you know?”
Tu Junhui stretched and logged off, immediately diving into the search for some online games, while Xiong Da put his head down to play mobile games. With Dong An from their dorm joining, this was the first five-man ranked match since the start of the semester, a test to see if this team had any chance of winning.
Excitingly, they easily defeated a team composed of diamond-ranked players.
Now it was the first weekend after school started.
To be honest, Lin Nan hadn’t learned a thing during the week… He just zoned out in class and played games after school. His life resembled that of a typical slack-off college student, just coasting along until the end of term where he’d scramble for a passing grade.
In the dorm, Xiong Da was the studying type. He often held his phone during class, but somehow managed to take notes while playing mobile games. Everyone relied on his multitasking skills to get through their final exams last semester, although Tu Junhui’s grades never got registered—rumor had it he forgot to put his name down and would need to sign up for a make-up exam in a couple of weeks.
For that, they mocked Tu Junhui all through summer, and his score was forever immortalized in the group chat as one of the “Martyr Wall” entries.
“Are you done? I’m going back to the computer,” Lin Nan lamented as he saw that Xiong Da and the others had already dove into their own things.
“Didn’t you used to be less addicted to gaming?” Chen Yao looked up at him, “You’ve been gaming all morning today. Aren’t you hungry?”
“Feeling the rhythm of the game?” Lin Nan reluctantly closed his laptop and returned it to the next dorm.
After coming back, Lin Nan sat there aimlessly for a bit, his mind wandering back to a scene from a few days ago outside the private room door.
He never expected he could be such a bold person.
Embarrassment, shame, and a little excitement—a whirlwind of mixed emotions rolled over him, overwhelming his brain like boiling water, and he could feel his face flush, spreading all the way down to his ears and neck.
But soon enough he managed to shove those feelings down. From the initial discomfort around Chen Yao to now being able to control his emotions swiftly, Lin Nan felt he had made significant progress.
Oddly enough, even though Chen Yao had gotten a kiss on the cheek, afterward he didn’t show any strange behavior—obviously, drunken antics didn’t weigh heavily on his mind.
“By the way, Nan Nan, didn’t you say a few days ago you wanted to go for a run?” Tu Junhui suddenly turned around and asked Lin Nan, “But I haven’t seen you go out these past few nights.”
“Isn’t it because I’m too busy?” Lin Nan was just being lazy about it.
After thinking for a moment, Tu Junhui sighed heavily, looking conflicted, “How about we start going together tonight?”
“Why? Didn’t you say you were done with diets?”
He glanced down at his own belly and denied it vehemently, “No way, silly talk! What I love most in life is sports. Exercise makes me happy!”
“Alright then, let’s go around seven or eight for thirty minutes?” Lin Nan looked skeptically at Tu Junhui’s pudgy frame and asked, “Can you even run for thirty minutes?”
“I can probably manage.”
Just then, the dorm door suddenly got knocked on, and a cute girl’s voice called from outside, “Is anyone home? I’m here to collect books.”
Xiong Da, sitting at the door, looked up and stood to open it, only to have Tu Junhui—who was just in a pair of shorts—turn pale and hurriedly stop him.
“Wait! Let me throw on a shirt!”
Once Tu Junhui hurriedly threw on a shirt, Xiong Da opened the door to reveal a pretty girl.
“What’s up?” he asked, still sporting his usual icy demeanor.
“Do you have any books you don’t want anymore?”
Well, they did!
Xiong Da scratched his head and turned to the stacks of books piled in the corner—leftovers from the previous semesters. He was currently wondering how to deal with them.
While books could be sold, the school doesn’t allow people to junk stuff, and it’s not like you can drag it outside to sell books either, right?
“Come on in.”
Lin Nan curiously watched the door as Xiong Da stepped aside, letting the girl in. His heart began to race uncontrollably—the familiar thrill surged again.
That face…
The girl happened to look at Lin Nan, and as their eyes met, he suddenly felt a strong wave of resentment welling up inside him for no reason at all.
Taking a deep breath, Lin Nan quickly shoved that strange feeling down—which he had gotten accustomed to by now—but his hands still trembled uncontrollably.
“Looks like you guys don’t need these books anymore, right? They’re just piling up, I’ll take them for you.”
Everyone agreed with a nod, and the girl thanked them with a bright smile, then headed to the dusty corner, seemingly undeterred by the mess as she started dragging stacks of books outside.
Chen Yao hadn’t really paid much attention to the girl, just thought she looked familiar from some big lecture, but when he casually glanced over at Lin Nan, he realized Lin Nan’s face was actually flushed.
He leaned in closer, propping himself against Lin Nan’s wardrobe, and asked curiously, “This wouldn’t be the girl you fell head over heels for on the playground, would it?”
“Definitely not love at first sight, alright?” The distraction helped Lin Nan ease up a little; the pressure from the girl was intense!
Last time, he almost got fooled by Chen Yao, and this time, Lin Nan was certain that was impossible.
“What is it then?”
“This…” But Lin Nan didn’t know how to explain, especially since he wasn’t sure why he felt this way seeing her.
By now, she had moved all the unwanted books outside, but instead of leaving, the girl curiously turned her gaze to Lin Nan and plainly said, “I’ll be waiting for you at the playground tonight.”
“???”
What on earth?
