Chapter 15: Adding a Friend
Perhaps it was due to the cold medicine, Xie Yang had been out of sorts the whole time.
He felt so cold, so tired, nearly dozing off several times.
Qi Xu was originally at the level of King, dominating in these low-level matches.
So, Xie Yang often played support, lazily following behind him. In this game, with Qi Xu almost wiping out the opponents single-handedly, Xie Yang could relax and even doze off.
Sometimes, he would just stand still until Qi Xu softly called his name, waking him up.
Qi Xu: “Are you sleepy?”
[Team] Caramel Pudding: I’m sorry, Brother, I didn’t mean to AFK.
[Team] Caramel Pudding: It’s probably the cold medicine kicking in, making me drowsy.
Hearing this, Qi Xu furrowed his brows.
The temperature had dropped significantly since last night, making it easy to catch a cold from the sudden changes in temperature.
Seeing what the little support said, Qi Xu felt somewhat inexplicably anxious.
He remembered the little support had said earlier that he had only eaten a small piece of bread for dinner because he was so hungry, and then went to eat instant noodles.
His first thought was concern.
Qi Xu: “After this game, go offline and get some rest.”
He didn’t give the opponents any more chances, just pushed straight through the bottom lane to the high ground.
[All] CX330: Push mid, I’m done playing.
With Qi Xu’s record at 7/0, if his teammates cooperated just a bit, they could easily win this game.
He knew Xie Yang didn’t want to AFK and lose points and stars in the system, so the best option was to push quickly to finish the game and let him rest.
Struggling against sleepiness, Xie Yang followed the team to the mid lane and joined in the team fights with his teammates.
As the crystal shattered, Xie Yang let out a sigh of relief.
After the game ended, Xie Yang opened a private chat with CX330: Good night, Brother.
Before CX330 could reply, he logged off directly.
Watching the little support’s avatar turn gray, Qi Xu silently took off his headphones and replied with a “Good night.”
Originally, he wanted to ask the little support for his contact information, but after staring at the screen for a while, he didn’t say anything.
…
Xie Yang slept deeply and woke up again at noon, twelve o’clock.
Seeing the time displayed on his phone, Xie Yang was startled. Several alarms hadn’t managed to wake him up.
When he sat up suddenly, his head throbbed painfully, and he felt like he was falling, feverish and hot all over.
From past experience, he knew he must be running a fever.
Xie Yang called the shop manager to explain the situation. Luckily, the manager didn’t blame him, just advised him to rest well.
This was the first time he had slept so long.
He felt weak and achy all over, unable to muster any strength.
When he got up from the bed, he almost stumbled and fell.
Xie Yang felt lingering fear, so he sat down on the chair for a while, holding onto it.
He didn’t have any fever-reducing medicine at home, so he had to go to the school’s infirmary.
Perhaps due to the sudden drop in temperature, many students had caught colds and were coming to the infirmary to get medicine.
Xie Yang obediently held a cup of hot water and sat in the corner waiting for his turn to get his temperature checked.
39 degrees.
The school doctor gave him a drip and prescribed medicine for two days.
His skin was very pale, and the veins on the back of his hand were clearly visible.
Xie Yang frowned slightly when the needle pierced his skin.
It had been many years since he had last had a drip.
He held the IV bag high as he returned to his quiet corner.
Because he was alone here, Xie Yang dared not fall asleep even if he was bored and sleepy.
He could only occasionally glance at the IV drip.
Time passed unusually slowly, and with only 40% battery left on his phone, he felt insecure.
He dared not randomly browse short videos or play battery-draining games.
Remembering he hadn’t updated his Moments today, he simply took a photo of the IV drip.
Accompanied by the caption: “So tired, so hungry.”
He sat in the school infirmary for nearly two hours. By the time he came out, it was almost three o’clock.
Xie Yang, looking weary, headed to the cafeteria.
Being sick didn’t give him much of an appetite. Despite feeling very hungry, Xie Yang packed a bowl of lean meat congee to take back to his dorm.
With the sleeping aid in his cold medicine, Xie Yang quickly fell deeply asleep again.
It wasn’t until after six in the evening that his roommates began to return, one by one.
The dorm room was dark with no lights on, and Su Huai thought it was empty when he returned.
Seeing Xie Yang lying on the bed, he originally wanted to call out to him, but upon noticing the medicine on his desk, he realized Xie Yang was sick.
The dorm room was unusually quiet, each person engrossed in their own little games.
Xie Yang set an alarm for 7:30 in the evening. When he woke up, the dorm was pitch black.
Su Huai: “Xiao Xie, are you awake?”
Xie Yang’s voice was nasal and soft, “Why didn’t you turn on the light?”
Su Huai didn’t say anything, just turned on the light. “Do you want some congee? I just had Xia Heng bring it to me. It’s raining outside, too much trouble to go out for food.”
Xie Yang tried to transfer money to Su Huai, but it was returned.
Su Huai: It’s on the house, courtesy of a fool who paid for it. No need to spend money^^
After finishing the congee, Xie Yang quickly washed up and lay back down.
He logged into the game, waiting for CX330 to come online as usual.
The medicine from the school infirmary was strong, and its effects soon overwhelmed him with sleepiness again.
With his phone beside his pillow, Xie Yang quickly fell asleep.
When Qi Xu logged in and saw Xie Yang online, he sent him a message.
The “ding” of the system notification made Xie Yang frown.
So noisy.
Half-asleep, he took off his Bluetooth headphones and fell back asleep.
A few minutes later, Qi Xu sent another message, but still received no response.
Online but not replying to messages.
Previously, Xie Yang would always respond immediately to whatever he sent.
Was he AFK?
Qi Xu waited another half hour and sent another message, still with no response.
By around nine o’clock, Caramel Pudding’s avatar dimmed and turned gray.
Offline.
It was probably because his phone ran out of battery and shut off.
Otherwise, the little support would have replied.
Remembering that the little support had mentioned a cold yesterday, Qi Xu could only guess that might be the reason.
Maybe he waited for a long time, got too tired, and fell asleep.
Qi Xu felt unusually frustrated for the first time.
…
The next morning.
Xie Yang felt like he had slept for a very long time.
When he opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling, he still felt a bit drowsy and disoriented.
The daylight outside was bright, and the dormitory was quiet, with only the sound of soft snores.
He groggily reached for his phone to check the time, only to find it had shut off due to a dead battery.
Suddenly, he remembered that he had intended to log into the game to wait for CX330, but he had fallen asleep within minutes.
He wondered if CX330 saw him online without responding and thought he was ignoring him.
Feeling anxious, Xie Yang quickly started charging his phone.
Every second felt like an eternity to him.
As soon as his phone had a bit of charge, he hurriedly logged into the game.
It was 7 AM, and his roommates were still asleep.
CX330 was online!
Could he have been waiting for me all this time?
Caramel Pudding: Brother, I’m sorry, I fell asleep last night qaq.
Caramel Pudding: Did you wait long?
Caramel Pudding: My bad.jpg
Xie Yang put his phone down, assuming CX330 was just AFK.
To his surprise, two minutes later, CX330 replied.
CX330: Give me your contact information.
Seeing this, Xie Yang was stunned.
CX330: We’ve known each other for so long. Can’t we at least add each other on WeChat?
Xie Yang felt like CX330 might be angry.
That’s why he froze, not knowing what to say to make him happy.
His instinct was to apologize.
The Bluetooth headset that had fallen on the pillow transmitted CX330’s voice, and Xie Yang quickly put the headphones back on, listening quietly.
Qi Xu: “Little support, can’t you give me your WeChat ID?”
His voice was low and deep, with a raspy, just-woken-up tone and a hint of coaxing.
Xie Yang blushed as he listened. He gave Qi Xu the WeChat account he was currently using for the game, thinking it made sense to use the same account for both.
Besides, he had been using this WeChat account all the time lately; his original WeChat account was only for contacting his roommates.
Qi Xu: “I sent a friend request, little support. Can you accept it?”
Xie Yang felt a tingling in his ears every time Qi Xu called him “little support.” His head felt fuzzy as he buried his face in the blanket.
Ding—
The WeChat notification sound rang out.
A new red dot appeared in his contacts.
[New Friend: CX330.]
[Friend request accepted.]
[System: You have added CX330. You can now start chatting.]
Qi Xu: “Okay, I’m logging out of the game. Let’s chat on WeChat.”
Caramel Pudding: Okay.
The next second, CX330 sent a WeChat message.
CX330: Little support, are you feeling better?
Seeing this message, Xie Yang realized he had forgotten to disable his Moments.
CX330 must have seen the IV drip post he shared.
Xie Yang quickly opened his Moments to see if there was anything he needed to delete, worrying if anything was too embarrassing and needed to be removed immediately.
After browsing through a few posts, he thought his silly and goofy nature might have already made a deep impression.
Is it too late to delete them now?
Xie Yang wondered if setting his Moments to be visible for only three days would make him look guilty, like he had something to hide.
Maybe because he hadn’t replied for a while, CX330 sent another message with a question mark.
Xie Yang quickly switched back to the chat interface.
Caramel Pudding: Feeling much better.
Caramel Pudding: I took some medicine last night and fell asleep, forgot to leave a message for you, brother, QAQ.
Caramel Pudding: My phone also ran out of battery and shut off.
Caramel Pudding: Pitiful soy bean.jpg
Caramel Pudding: Brother, don’t be mad.
CX330: Not mad, don’t overthink it.
CX330: It’s still early, get some more sleep.
Caramel Pudding: Okay.
CX330’s avatar was a cute little cat. Xie Yang clicked on his profile and opened his Moments.
CX330’s Moments were simple, with no privacy settings, but there was only one post from a few days ago.
It was quite sweet.
The picture was of a caramel pudding.
Seeing those words, Xie Yang’s heart rippled. From the moment he logged into the game and sent a private message to CX330, he had a strange feeling that kept lingering.
Does CX330 have a bit of a crush on him?