Lin Zhexia: “I’m doing alright.”
He Yang turned to look at Chi Yao.
His Yao-ge was holding a black pen, casually filling in answers on the test paper.
After finishing, he raised his other hand, placed his palm on top of Lin Zhexia’s head, and turned it back: “Calculate it yourself.”
Lin Zhexia: “Fine, I’ll calculate it myself. This problem is very simple anyway, it’s not like I don’t know how to do it.”
He Yang felt like an outsider.
There was no place for him here.
The holiday was boring.
After they finished their homework, He Yang enthusiastically asked: “Want to play a game?”
Lin Zhexia glanced at the screen of his phone and saw it was the game Chi Yao had been playing all summer.
She rarely played games, mainly because she wasn’t good at them, which made it hard to feel a sense of achievement. Instead of gaming, during breaks, she preferred to watch dramas or hang out with classmates.
“Sure,” since she didn’t know what else to do right now, she agreed, “but I’m not very good at playing.”
He Yang: “It doesn’t matter if you haven’t played before, me and Yao-ge will carry you.”
Lin Zhexia was skeptical: “Can you carry me?”
“…” He Yang said, “Even if you don’t believe in me, you should believe in Yao-ge.”
And so Lin Zhexia entered Summoner’s Rift.
When choosing a username, she thought for a moment and casually picked “Splash.”
After a while, the other two came online as well.
He Yang’s name was “Carry the Whole Field,” while Chi Yao’s name looked very cool—just a single period.
This game had been popular for a long time, and Lin Zhexia roughly understood the mechanics.
After the game started, she was like someone taking a stroll through the canyon, using whichever skill was available, and often missing her targets.
Even so, she was rarely caught by the enemy. Whenever she was surrounded and was about to cry out “Please spare me,” the previously silent jungle player with the period as his name would mysteriously appear beside her, swiftly eliminate those enemies, and then retreat to the jungle.
So she strolled very freely, and if she wanted to, she could even stroll into enemy territory.
He Yang was very supportive, lavishing praise on her terrible gameplay: “Xia-ge, that missed ultimate of yours must have been based on your unique thinking, right? I get it—you disdained using your ultimate to defeat him, you were humiliating him, trying to crush him mentally. That’s brilliant.”
“Xia-ge, that feint of yours, misleading them in one direction while striking from another, created an opportunity for me. I was able to secure that kill, but the main credit goes to you.”
“…”
“Thanks,” Lin Zhexia said, “but next time, think before you speak.”
Chi Yao didn’t talk much while playing.
Lin Zhexia secretly glanced at him as he nonchalantly controlled his game character.
Occasionally, he would direct a few brief words at her.
“Come here.”
“No need to run.”
“He’s dead.”
Being carried felt quite remarkable.
No matter when or where, Chi Yao would always appear instantly.
The feeling was very similar to that day near the alley when he suddenly pulled her into his arms.
Lin Zhexia shouted, “Awesome! 666!” but her thoughts uncontrollably wandered a bit. While controlling her character on her stroll, she asked: “Do you often carry… people to higher ranks? Otherwise, how are you so skilled at it?”
In her opinion, boys who were good at games probably carried many people.
So, had he carried many people too?
Chi Yao raised his eyelids, but before he could say anything, He Yang seized the topic and rushed to complain: “Him? Yeah right, with his temperament, carrying people?”
“Last time I was ranking up with him, we got a teammate who was a girl. That girl turned on her mic and called out to him, ‘Brother, save me,’ and this guy didn’t even bother to go back for the kill.”
“Then the girl asked, ‘Why didn’t you save me just now?’ You know what he said?”
“You know what he said? He said, ‘I’m not your brother, why should I care?'”
“Just listen to that! Is that something a human would say? How can he talk to a girl like that?!”
Lin Zhexia: “…Indeed, it’s already good that he wasn’t reported.”
And with that, the topic was brushed aside.
Her wandering thoughts also came to an abrupt halt after hearing He Yang’s words.
She continued to stare at her phone screen, unable to catch that fleeting emotion, only feeling that the game character she was controlling now strolled with even lighter steps—
Lin He and Wei Ping stayed in the neighboring city for a few more days, returning later than planned.
They arrived home in the evening.