Chapter 22 – Two Super Topics
Although he had gone to sleep at 1 a.m. the night before, Lin Ran woke up at six in the morning.
After exercising for an hour, he remembered the plan his agent, Li Xin’an, had suggested yesterday.
Although he didn’t think Li Xin’an was very reliable, he didn’t have a better idea for how to pursue someone, so he decided to follow the advice and personally buy breakfast to bring to Shi Cha.
After changing into a fresh outfit and picking up the assorted breakfast he’d bought, Lin Ran walked over to knock on the door across the hall.
Just then, the elevator chimed with a ding.
A man stepped out of the elevator, holding an insulated food container in his left hand while tapping on his phone with his right.
When the man looked up, he saw Lin Ran standing at the door.
“Huh? When did you move in here? I forgot to tell you—my little brother is living in my place now.”
The newcomer was none other than Shi Cha’s older brother, Shi Jian.
Seeing Lin Ran at the door, Shi Jian casually walked over to the door next to it and started knocking, explaining as he did:
“My brother changed the lock, so now even I can’t get in. He has to open the door for me. Oh, right, it’s been a while since you saw Shi Cha, hasn’t it? Let’s all have breakfast together.”
However, after knocking, there was no response from inside.
He frowned—he’d just messaged Shi Cha to say he was here.
Shi Jian habitually took a step back and glanced up at the apartment number.
2001.
Huh? 2001?
Shi Jian turned to Lin Ran with a suspicious look. “Why are you standing in front of my door? Did you get the wrong apartment?”
Lin Ran really wanted to say, Nope, I didn’t. I’m here to visit your place.
If it were just an old friend, he would’ve joked about it casually. But now that this person was his potential future brother-in-law, he suddenly didn’t know how to explain.
Lin Ran paused, then said abruptly, “I have something to talk to you about.”
Without giving Shi Jian a chance to respond, he grabbed him by the arm and steered him into his own apartment.
He then placed both the food he’d bought and Shi Jian’s insulated container onto the table.
Shi Jian, now seated on the sofa, picked up a bottle of water from the table, unscrewed it, took a sip, and looked confused.
“What are you doing? Why all the mystery?”
Lin Ran gently rubbed his thumb and index finger together. “There’s something I need to tell you. Prepare yourself mentally.”
Shi Jian looked puzzled. “What could you possibly say that I need to mentally prepare for?”
“It’s a bit sudden, but I think I still need to let you know first.”
Shi Jian grew impatient. “Just spit it out, will you? If you’ve got something to say, say it. If not, I’m leaving. That insulated container has porridge my mom made especially for Shi Cha. If it gets cold, it won’t taste good anymore.”
“I’m planning to pursue Shi Cha!”
Shi Jian choked on a breath and immediately spat it out. He couldn’t believe his ears and his voice shot up. “What?!”
Lin Ran repeated sincerely, “I’m planning to pursue Shi Cha.”
Then, as if afraid it hadn’t sunk in—or perhaps on purpose—he added again for emphasis:
“That’s your biological little brother. Shi Cha.”
Shi Jian picked up the tissue box from the table and threw it at Lin Ran. “Are you out of your mind? I treat you like a brother, and you… you want to become my… whatever. Forget it. Let me tell you—don’t try your entertainment industry tricks on my little brother. He’s not like those people.”
When the tissue box hit him, Lin Ran didn’t dodge. Luckily, it was a soft box and didn’t break his head.
That at least showed that Shi Jian had held back.
“I’m serious,” Lin Ran said. “And I know exactly what I’m doing.”
Shi Jian took a few deep gulps of water.
The two had been friends since middle school—over ten years now. He knew Lin Ran’s character well. And all these years, he had never seen Lin Ran with a girlfriend—not even a boyfriend, for that matter.
It had never crossed his mind that Lin Ran would fall for his younger brother.
He didn’t want to ask when Lin Ran started having these feelings. Since Lin Ran was telling him now, that meant he’d seriously thought it through.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Lin Ran waited, wondering whether Shi Jian would challenge him or set any conditions.
Shi Jian held the water bottle for a long while, tightened his grip, cleared his throat, and finally spoke.
“There’s something I need to make clear too. What was said yesterday on the variety show—about Shi Cha having social anxiety —he’s actually never been cured. And with current medical technology, there’s no way to completely cure it.”
Lin Ran lowered his head. Based on how Shi Cha had behaved yesterday, he had already started to suspect something. After all, Shi Cha’s demeanor at the end had been very different from how he first appeared.
“I remember you told me a long time ago that Shi Cha had gotten a lot better.”
Shi Jian nodded.
“At that time, our whole family thought he was getting better. During middle and high school, he even asked to skip grades himself. He eventually got into A University and started actively studying things he hadn’t cared much about before.”
“Although Shi Cha has social anxiety, he showed an exceptional memory and talent in art and music—he’s what people usually call a ‘genius.’ But that kind of gift also made him different from other kids.”
As he spoke, Shi Jian let out a self-deprecating laugh. For others, “genius” might be a compliment, but for their family, it was synonymous with pain.
Shi Cha had once suffered from severe insomnia and nervous exhaustion because of his overwhelming memory.
Shi Jian continued:
“Later on, when Shi Cha wanted to enter the acting department, none of us opposed him. At the time, we thought he had improved a lot. We believed it was a good sign that he was willing to engage with the outside world.”
“But in his junior year, he suddenly spiraled into self-destructive behavior. He completely shut himself off, refusing to be around people—not even me or our parents.”
“The only person he would talk to was a friend from school.”
“I think it was because that person didn’t know about his social anxiety, so they became a kind of bridge—a way for him to stay connected to the outside world.”
Lin Ran didn’t know what had happened to Shi Cha back then, but just hearing this made his chest tighten painfully.
“And after that?” he asked.
“Later, just before he graduated, he suddenly came home one day and told us that he liked men, that he wanted to live alone from now on, and asked us not to bother him unless necessary.”
“So, I gave him this apartment to live in and occasionally drop by to check if he needs anything. I’m not sure what he’s been doing these past three months, but I can clearly feel that his emotions have become much more stable.”
“But during the end of yesterday’s program, his behavior wasn’t right. I think he had completely immersed himself in a role—not as himself.”
“That’s why I wanted to come over today to check on him.”
After saying all this, Shi Jian let out a deep sigh and looked at Lin Ran, who had been sitting quietly with his head down.
“Even knowing all this, would you still be willing to be with someone like Shi Cha?”
Upon hearing that, Lin Ran suddenly looked up—his eyes were already red, full of deep sorrow and compassion for Shi Cha.
Without hesitation, he said firmly, “I’m willing!”
“But Shi Cha may not accept you…” Shi Jian still hesitated.
Lin Ran suddenly smiled, “I think I still have a chance. Giving up without even trying—that’s not how I do things.”
Seeing he couldn’t stop him, Shi Jian gave up trying to talk him out of it. If Lin Ran could truly be with Shi Cha, maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all.
“Alright then.”
…
While Shi Jian was talking with Lin Ran, Shi Cha was lying on his bed scrolling through Weibo.
What Shi Jian said wasn’t wrong—his social anxiety hadn’t been cured, but it had improved quite a bit recently.
Using the internet to communicate while wearing a kind of “mask” had genuinely helped ease his symptoms.
Shi Cha wasn’t someone who used Weibo to document his daily life. His account served only one purpose: to follow Lin Ran and stay updated on everything related to him.
He only followed one person.
But today, he suddenly discovered a “Super Topic” called ‘LinShi CP’, and to his surprise, it was about Lin Ran and himself.
Shi Cha blushed but resisted the urge to click immediately—then quietly tapped in.
Then he was surprised to discover that the entire topic was filled with posts about him and Lin Ran.
He clicked through them one by one—many were clips from variety shows featuring him and Lin Ran, and there were even fanfics about the two of them.
Shi Cha: “???”
They can really go this far?
It was like a whole new world had opened up for him. He watched with great interest and even gave a thumbs-up to the particularly well-written fanfics.
When he finally exited the topic, he quietly followed the “LinShi CP” super topic.
But just as he left the “LinShi CP” thread, the algorithm recommended another one: the “LinYao CP” super topic.
At first, he hadn’t intended to click on it, but while scrolling, he accidentally tapped into it.
To his surprise, the posts were all about Lin Ran and the streamer Cun Yao.
All the video edits were from the games he and Lin Ran had played together. After seeing the compilations, Shi Cha realized for the first time just how well the two of them had worked together.
Delighted, he rolled around his bed a couple of times.
Suddenly, a post titled “Brother Lin Ran” got bumped to the top again.
Curious, Shi Cha clicked it, thinking it was just some fan sharing photos of Lin Ran. But to his surprise, it was an edited video.
The moment it started playing, he realized it was from the very first game he had ever played with Lin Ran. This version, however, had cut out all his voice lines and overlaid them with expressive subtitles and effects.
“Brother, come here~”
“Brother, let’s gank top together~”
“Brother, we can gank bot lane too~”
“Brother, take this blue buff. A mage’s mana is like a man’s kidney—you can’t go into battle without bullets~”
By that point, Shi Cha fumbled to shut the video off in a panic.
The comment section was full of things like:
[Hahahahahaha]
[Green-tea baby wife x silent boss—this CP is too good to not ship!]
Shi Cha buried his face in the pillow like an ostrich.
But the downside of having an excellent memory quickly made itself known—even though he’d turned the video off, every line he had said replayed vividly in his mind.
Aaaahhh!! Why did I have to be such a flirt back then?!
And now it was immortalized online, playing over and over again for people to laugh at.
And those fans… how could they even ship this CP?
So cursed!
…That said, after being an ostrich for a while, Shi Cha’s face still burning, he reopened his phone and quietly followed the “LinYao CP” super topic too.
Why has the description changed from social anxiety (which is accurate for these symptoms), to autistic? it’s jarring and and inaccurate to ascribe his condition to autism while the social anxiety used prior was reasonable…
I don’t think it changes the autistic is just something that lu guy said to drag shi down he know about his anxiety and tried to used it to drag him down with the autistic and self harm comment