The atmosphere at the club felt a bit heavy today.
Li Shu came to that conclusion in his heart.
While playing ranked, sipping milk tea, and glancing around, his gaze eventually landed on Shen Kuangye's desk at the far edge of the hall.
Shen Kuangye was currently playing ranked with his head down, his expression colder than usual. Normally, when he got annoyed, he'd click his tongue a couple of times—but today, it was like he'd been muted.
"You pissed him off?"
Li Shu quietly leaned over and asked Cheng Rang.
Cheng Rang looked speechless. "Do I look like I've got nothing better to do?"
"Then what's up? He doesn't look too happy." Li Shu craned his neck, curiously observing.
"Didn't you notice someone's missing today?" Pei Xunan said while kiting.
That one sentence completely enlightened Li Shu. He let out a meaningful "oh."
He sucked up a pearl, chewing thoughtfully. "I get it. But SUN just went out to have fun for a bit—why does he look like he just got dumped?"
A faint smile tugged at Cheng Rang's lips, but before he could speak, Pei Xunan said, "Don't talk nonsense."
Li Shu quickly apologized, "Sorry, forgot you're homophobic."
Everyone in the club knew that when Pei Xunan first joined the team, he had been harassed by a male fan, his DMs and all his contact methods were flooded with obscene photos. The fan had even deliberately kissed his cheek when taking a photo together in public, disgustingly so. Pei Xunan hadn't been able to eat for three days after that. Since then, he had been very resistant toward homosexuality.
Pei Xunan didn't say anything more, and the faint smile on Cheng Rang's lips slowly disappeared.
Shen Kuangye had already lost five ranked matches in a row today, getting further and further from his goal of ranking first on the leaderboard.
His brows were full of irritation, his mind filled with regret—regret for saying too much last night.
If he hadn't stubbornly held on, Lu Xiangyang might have been by his side today, keeping him company, instead of going to meet that "Little Sheep."
He still had a chance to keep him last night—but when facing Lu Xiangyang, he just couldn't say it.
After all, he had promised that Lu Xiangyang was free to like whoever he wanted and that he wouldn't interfere. Now, because of his own selfish desires, he wanted to keep him by his side—that kind of thought felt too selfish.
He could clearly feel that Shen Luoyu approached Lu Xiangyang with the same hidden intentions.
Shen Kuangye didn't want to admit it, but after seeing Shen Luoyu's financial status and that face of his, he had developed a sense of fear.
He understood that if Lu Xiangyang chose Shen Luoyu, his future life would be much easier.
Shen Luoyu could give him money, status, and love—while Shen Kuangye had far too little to offer.
Even if he gave everything he had, it might not compare to even a fraction of what Shen Luoyu could provide.
He knew clearly that Lu Xiangyang wasn't materialistic, but he still had the thought that being with him might not be the wisest choice.
His gaze darkened, and he queued for another match.
From noon until night, Shen Kuangye never stopped streaming ranked matches. Even when it was time for dinner at the club, he had no appetite and chose to stay in the training room to keep playing.
[The streamer is so quiet today.]
[Isn't he always this quiet? What's different?]
[It's obvious...he's clearly unhappy today.]
[But they won against Ella yesterday, didn't they?]
[Maybe it's because of SUN? Haven't you noticed he didn't stream today?]
[I just noticed! Did they fight?]
[Go check Weibo! Someone spotted SUN at an arcade in City A! There's a super handsome guy next to him!!]
Shen Kuangye had just barely won a match. When he looked up at the chat, he saw that message.
He quickly grabbed his phone, intending to download Weibo to check—but that's when he noticed Lu Xiangyang had sent him a lot of messages.
Baby: [Brother, I've arrived!]
Baby: [[Image]]
Baby: [Brother, we're going to watch a movie!]
Baby: [[Image]]
Baby: [Brother, do you want this wrist guard? I'll buy it for you.]
Baby: [[Image]]
Baby: [Brother, I just ate a super delicious mochi—look!]
Baby: [[Image]]
The last message was from 15 minutes ago.
Baby: [Brother, have you eaten dinner?]
Shen Kuangye didn't even realize he was smiling while reading Lu Xiangyang's messages. He replied:
[Yeah.]
Lu Xiangyang replied quickly: [Really? I thought you'd miss me so much you wouldn't be able to eat.]
He even added a blushing cat emoji.
Shen Kuangye paused for a few seconds: [No.]
As soon as he sent it, he regretted it. He suddenly felt annoyed at his own mouth.
Lu Xiangyang sent a sulking cat emoji.
[Okay then.]
Shen Kuangye's fingers hovered over the keyboard. He typed "When are you coming back?" several times, but never sent it.
To avoid letting the viewers notice anything unusual, he used the training machine to keep playing ranked while downloading Weibo on his phone, determined to see that photo.
As soon as he opened Weibo, the algorithm seemed to understand everything and directly pushed that post to him.
[Ahhh I ran into SUN!! He looks 100x better in real life than in photos or streams!! His skin is super fair and he looks so obedient.]
[[Photo]]
Shen Kuangye tapped on the photo. Lu Xiangyang was holding game tokens while playing the claw machine, and beside him stood a handsome young man watching him.
He pressed his lips together and couldn't help scrolling through the comments.
Almost all the comments were saying how well they matched.
Shen Kuangye didn't know how he felt. Soon, a different comment appeared:
"Did Xiangye duo today?": [The sky is falling—why isn't our baby with WILD? This is heresy, do NOT ship this!]
Her comment section was lively too:
[The Xiangye banner will never fall!]
[Our twin stars must not be separated!]
[OMG WILD, your wife is running off with someone else and you're still streaming ranked all night! you're killing me!]
Shen Kuangye was a bit stunned by the comment section.
He blinked and clicked into that person's profile. It was filled with photos of him and Lu Xiangyang from all angles.
In those photos, even he hadn't noticed how obvious his gaze was.
Not only that, she had even annotated each photo with "shipping points." He had originally wanted to tap the images to look more closely—but accidentally hit "like."
His hand trembled, and he quickly unliked it.
He had never really been good with social media like Weibo.
In the past and even now—he basically woke up every day just to play Identity V. Even his "casual" games were just its entertainment modes. He didn't understand the functions of these apps at all.
But he instinctively felt that this might cause trouble, so he exited Weibo without looking further.
Unbeknownst to him, that single like had already stirred a small commotion.
"You're really not eating anything?" Li Shu asked after dinner, walking over.
Shen Kuangye shook his head. "No."
"..."
Li Shu exchanged a glance with Jiang Chixin, then said, "Jiang Chixin doesn't feel well tonight. How about you duo with me?"
As soon as he said that, Jiang Chixin started coughing violently, rubbing his temples. "Ah, my head feels so dizzy."
Shen Kuangye thought for a moment and declined, "I'm not in good shape tonight."
That wasn't an excuse—he really wasn't playing well. Including the last match, he had already lost six in a row.
But more than that, he just wasn't in the mood.
Li Shu signaled to Jiang Chixin that he had failed.
Jiang Chixin stopped coughing, looking helpless.
"Our club is still the best," Yishui said after finishing his meal.
"Why suddenly say that?" Pei Xunan asked.
"Today's the 14th, it's Valentine's Day. The coach from the club next door complained to me that their players all ran off to be with their girlfriends," Yishui said. "Unlike us, barely anyone's missing."
Since EAR was established, the whole team had been single—very worry-free.
Shen Kuangye's Perfumer suddenly got broken.
He pressed his lips tightly and started kiting toward the second floor of the hospital.
So today is Valentine's Day?
No wonder that guy invited Lu Xiangyang out to watch a movie today.
What are they doing now?
Shen Kuangye couldn't stop the cruel thoughts from running wild—maybe they had already confessed to each other by now.
Would Lu Xiangyang reject him?
If he did reject him, he should come back early, right?
That single thought supported his remaining sanity. But Shen Kuangye played until 11 PM—and Lu Xiangyang still hadn't returned. No more messages either.
His heart gradually grew colder.
For the first time, he found gaming this irritating.
In the hall, Li Shu had just finished streaming. Rubbing his eyes, he muttered softly, "Why isn't Lu Xiangyang back yet? Don't tell me someone kidnapped him."
That one sentence made Shen Kuangye even more restless.
He picked up his phone, opened the chat with Lu Xiangyang, and typed "When are you coming back?" over and over—but never sent it.
Because he didn't know—after tonight, would his "baby" become someone else's boyfriend?
If that were the case, would his message just trouble him?
Shen Kuangye knew this was unlikely, but he still tortured himself with the thought.
After all, he wasn't good enough. He always made Lu Xiangyang angry… and even made him cry.
It was very late.
Shen Kuangye turned off the stream and kept staring at the chat window with Lu Xiangyang, lost in thought.
One by one, the others in the hall yawned and went to sleep. Only Shen Kuangye remained, sitting quietly in his chair, waiting. From time to time, he scrolled through their chat history.
Only now did he realize how little contact they had.
He didn't even have a single photo of Lu Xiangyang.
He had lost track of how long he had been sitting there... maybe just a few minutes, or maybe an hour.
Just as he was about to lose all hope, faint footsteps came from outside the door—so soft they were almost inaudible.
But Shen Kuangye recognized them instantly.
He shot up from his chair, excitement and nervousness he hadn't even noticed in himself surging up. He quickly walked to the door and opened it.
"Ta-da! Brother, look!"
Lu Xiangyang suddenly popped up in front of him, smiling brightly, about to show him what he was holding—
But unexpectedly, before he could react, Shen Kuangye pulled him into a tight embrace.
It was a hug filled with anxiety.
Lu Xiangyang froze for a moment. Then he gently patted Shen Kuangye's back with his free hand and asked softly:
"Brother… what's wrong?"
Shen Kuangye didn't answer.
He just held him tighter.