Social Crisis

Song Yu's struggle was actually very brief.

Because the one who truly didn't want Yue Zhishi to leave was himself.

Having received his approval, Yue Zhishi was content. He let go of his hand, took his own schoolbag, and sat back down in Song Yu's chair, his face full of happiness. He asked Song Yu if he had anything else to do in the afternoon and if he would be disturbing him.

Song Yu shook his head, "Have you finished your homework?"

"Finished it long ago," Yue Zhishi told him. "I've also memorized the texts. I came fully prepared. And I brought review materials too, I can look at them tonight."

The day before, he had learned that Lin Rong needed his help to deliver something, and he'd finished his homework well in advance, even working on it on the morning of the day before the monthly break. He was the type of person whose efficiency skyrocketed once he focused, and especially when he thought about coming to see Song Yu, his concentration practically doubled.

Song Yu nodded. Hearing Yue Zhishi's phone vibrating continuously, he reminded him about it, then said he was going downstairs to buy some things.

Lightning flashed outside again. Yue Zhishi's shoulders trembled involuntarily. He checked the messages on his phone, then looked up at Song Yu and said, "Can I go down with you?"

"It's raining too hard outside."

"Then..." Yue Zhishi shook his phone at him. "Can I play a game for a bit? My classmate is asking me. It'll help distract me."

Indeed, it was still thundering outside. Song Yu nodded, but couldn't help but advise, "Don't play too many games."

"I rarely play," Yue Zhishi explained. "I'm terrible at games, so I don't particularly like them."

Song Yu had already changed his shoes. He grunted in acknowledgment, picked up the spare umbrella in the dorm, and left.

The situation outside was worse than he had imagined. The water had already submerged the steps and was nearly level with the first-floor entrance gate of the dormitory. He waded out into the strong wind and heavy rain. There were far fewer people outside, but the campus supermarket was crowded and bustling. The rainy season in this city was quite extreme, and everyone had accumulated a lot of experience, habitually stocking up whenever it rained.

Normally, Song Yu would steer clear of such crowded places, but this time he went in without hesitation. He quickly bought snacks that Yue Zhishi liked and could eat, a brand new towel, a soft-bristled toothbrush, and slippers, then headed for the checkout line.

Just as he was about to reach the front of the line, he saw a girl walk by holding the ice cream that Yue Zhishi had once praised. He left the line again.

Returning to the queue from the freezer, he felt like he had lost at least another twenty minutes. This kind of situation would normally make Song Yu very impatient, but his mood was surprisingly good right now.

His phone screen showed an unread notification; it was a push from QQ. Song Yu rarely used social media, especially after starting university. Most of his communication and work had moved to WeChat, and his QQ was almost dormant. He had also set all his old group chats to silent.

This time, he opened it. As expected, it was a notification that Yue Zhishi had posted a status.

Since he was just waiting in line anyway, Song Yu idly tapped it open. It was a photo Yue Zhishi had taken of his desk, with the packed meal and pork rib and lotus root soup on it.

[Yue Zhishi: Delicious! Another reason to get into W University!]

The number of comments below fully reflected Yue Zhishi's popularity. The screen full of "Lele" also showed his status as the darling of his social circle at school. Most of the replies were related to W University, and many of his friends teased him for being a "brother-con," going to find his brother as soon as the holiday started. As he continued to scroll, Song Yu's finger paused, caught by one particular comment.

[I am the God of the New World: Foodie, running so far in such heavy rain, aren't you afraid of being kidnapped and sold? I can make this fish too. I guarantee you I can make it a hundred times better than the cafeteria. Come to my place if you don't believe me!]

Yue Zhishi replied, [For real? You can make steamed fish?]

[I am the God of the New World: Of course. I can even arrange it on the plate like a peacock, cool right? How about I bring a packed lunch next week and let you try it?]

Yue Zhishi replied very naively with an "Okay," and added that he really liked fish.

The two had a long chat, the topic already straying from the picture Yue Zhishi had posted. The other person seemed to be a smooth talker, directly bringing up things about returning to school after the break. He said he had tried a really good handmade yogurt, mango-flavored, and that he could bring some for him, but he wanted to trade it for the homemade cinnamon rolls Yue Zhishi had mentioned last time. And Yue Zhishi had agreed, judging from the time of the reply, without much hesitation.

A minute later, that person invited him to play a game. Yue Zhishi refused, saying he wasn't good at it, but the other person seemed to know him well.

[I am the God of the New World: I know, don't worry, bro will carry you and raise your rank. I guarantee you'll get a chicken dinner this time.]

Thunder rumbled outside. The dark clouds pressed down, enveloping the entire campus in a deep, black, low-pressure atmosphere. Song Yu put his phone back in his pocket, glanced at the barely moving queue, and started to get irritated.

A minute later, two girls walking together approached Song Yu, occupying the already narrow aisle. One of them held her phone and boldly said to Song Yu, "Hi, fellow student," then asked, "Can I add you on WeChat?"

Song Yu's expression was exceptionally sour. Without even the slightest intention of being polite, he directly made an excuse to get rid of them, "Sorry, I don't use WeChat."

The other person seemed to have expected it wouldn't be that easy, so she wasn't easily discouraged. She tried again, "Then... what about QQ?"

Song Yu frowned, his tone becoming even worse.

"That is my most hated social media app."

In the end, it took him half an hour longer than expected to get back to the dorm. As he was opening the door, he could hear Yue Zhishi's intense reactions to the game inside, saying regretfully things like, "It's over, it's over, I just fed them a kill."

The volume on his headphones seemed to be turned up high. With both elbows propped on the desk, he looked completely cut off from the world. Song Yu folded the umbrella and hung it on the rack by the door, changed his shoes, and heard Yue Zhishi say to his gaming partner, "Who's a 'little darling'? Don't talk nonsense."

His eyes were still glued to the screen, his hands moving frantically as he seemed to be amused by his teammate. "That's so gross."

Song Yu didn't put his things down right away. He stood there for a moment and saw Yue Zhishi seemingly give up, lowering his raised hands and blaming his teammate for affecting his performance. A moment later, he said very seriously, "You shouldn't just give people nicknames. Great, now I'm dead."

The other person seemed to be still talking. Yue Zhishi put his phone down, a little peeved. "Let's see how you win by yourself." After the game ended, he stretched, but his gaze remained on the phone screen as he chose to continue spectating.

Song Yu's patience ran out. Not wanting to wait for Yue Zhishi to notice him, he walked over and placed the snacks and ice cream he'd bought on the desk without a word, then separated the daily necessities and took them to the bathroom.

"You're back?" Yue Zhishi quickly took off his headphones. Not even paying attention to the ice cream, he immediately stood up and followed Song Yu. "What did you buy? Is it for me?"

"Toothbrush, towel." Song Yu arranged the toiletries, reminding him not to use the wrong ones, then turned to come out. He unwrapped the new slippers and placed them by Yue Zhishi's feet, but said nothing.

He didn't know if it was just his imagination, but Yue Zhishi felt that his brother's mood seemed to have soured after going out. He didn't like it when Song Yu was in a bad mood, so to ease the tension, he took the initiative to share his recent gaming mishap with him. "I just mistook a grenade for a smoke bomb and almost blew up my teammate. Good thing he ran fast."

In truth, Yue Zhishi didn't like losing, nor did he like being laughed at, but if the other person was Song Yu, he could completely accept it. As long as Song Yu would laugh after hearing it.

But this time, it didn't seem to work.

Song Yu took out a bottle of ice-cold Coke, his tone not softening much. "Is that so." After speaking, he tilted his head back and took a sip, frowned, then screwed the cap back on and placed it on the desk.

Seeing him like this, Yue Zhishi felt a bit at a loss. His phone kept vibrating with a constant stream of messages, but he had no mind to reply. He picked up the ice cream Song Yu had given him. "I absolutely love this one." He snapped open the spoon, scooped some up, and held it to Song Yu's lips. "You have some."

Naturally, Song Yu didn't eat it, just like always. But what was different from usual was that he glanced at Yue Zhishi's phone, then shot a look at Yue Zhishi. "Not going to see who sent it?"

Yue Zhishi pulled his hand back, ate the spoonful of ice cream himself, then picked up his phone, replied quickly, and put it back down. "My teammate, asking if I'm still playing." After saying that, he added, "I'm not playing anymore. I keep losing, it's no fun."

Song Yu didn't respond to his words. He picked up the laptop from his desk, moved it to his roommate's desk opposite him, and turned it on.

"Are you going to study now?" Yue Zhishi also turned around, staring at Song Yu's back. The thunder outside seemed to have stopped for a while.

"Mhm." In fact, Song Yu had already finished everything he needed to work on; there was nothing left to do. When Yue Zhishi had said he was coming, Song Yu, who originally wasn't planning to go to the lab, had gone out after his shower just to seize the time and quickly wrap up the data analysis for his group project.

He checked his email and saw the research papers sent by his professor. Despite being only in his third year of university, Song Yu's outstanding grades had led him to be scouted early by a leading researcher in his department as a protégé. He had joined the lab early and was jokingly called a "Year 0 grad student" by his seniors.

After replying to the professor's email, Song Yu cleaned up some data files on his desktop and opened the newly downloaded PDF of the paper.

Yue Zhishi felt that he was really busy. He finished the ice cream by himself, then twisted around and leaned over the back of Song Yu's chair, resting his chin on his arm. He just stared at Song Yu's back without a sound, like a small puppy quietly keeping its owner company after a full meal.

On a stormy day, the sun was completely chased away by dark clouds. Even though it was only four-thirty in the afternoon, the light was already dim.

He didn't know how much time had passed. Yue Zhishi felt like he was about to fall asleep when he suddenly heard Song Yu's voice.

"Who was the person you were just playing with?"

His tone was casual, as if it was just an offhand question, and he didn't turn around. Yue Zhishi was still a bit drowsy. He lifted his head, sat up straight, and rubbed his eyes. "My classmate."

"From your class?"

Yue Zhishi nodded, then suddenly remembered Song Yu probably couldn't see him, so he hummed in affirmation. "He sits behind me."

Song Yu went quiet again. Yue Zhishi got up from his chair, pulled a thick notebook out of his schoolbag, and dragged his chair over to Song Yu's side. "Can I sit next to you and review?"

"You can play games if you want, don't mind me." Song Yu was somewhat indifferent. Yue Zhishi realized he was still hung up on the gaming thing, as if he saw him as some kind of gaming addict.

He frowned briefly and leaned close to Song Yu in a wheedling manner. "I don't actually like playing games that much. It's just that you weren't here, someone asked me, and I was scared of the thunder, so I agreed to play a couple of rounds with him. If you're here, I don't want to play at all."

This sentence seemed to placate Song Yu a little. He finally turned his head to glance at Yue Zhishi, though there was still a hint of suspicion in his eyes.

"Really." Yue Zhishi handed his phone to Song Yu, even opening the game interface for him to inspect. "If you don't believe me, look at my rank. It's super low. I've barely played."

The game returned to the lobby screen. There were two characters on the screen, one of whom was the teammate he mentioned. The ID was also "I am the God of the New World," just as Song Yu had imagined.

Song Yu turned his face away, feigning disinterest in the game. His finger slid lightly over the laptop's touchpad. "The most important thing for you right now is to study."

"I know." Yue Zhishi lowered his head and opened his notebook. "I study hard every day."

"Spend less time with students who like to play games," Song Yu lectured him unnaturally.

"Are you talking about that guy just now?" Yue Zhishi looked down at his notes, flipped a page, and said casually, "His grades are actually pretty good. Sometimes when he does exceptionally well, he even scores higher than me. His math is especially good, but his English isn't as good as mine. Last monthly exam he..."

"I'm not interested in your classmate's business."

Yue Zhishi looked up at him and said, "Oh." In fact, he hadn't meant to talk about someone else; he just wanted to use the other person's grades to indirectly prove that his own grades were also very good.

He saw Song Yu put on his headphones, then twist open the Coke bottle, chug a large mouthful, and put it back on the desk.

Song Yu usually didn't drink much Coke; his intake of carbonated drinks today was a bit strange. Yue Zhishi was puzzled for a moment. He saw that the Coke bottle's packaging was different, it seemed to be cherry-flavored. He thought this kind of flavor was usually a dark cuisine disaster and wanted to ask Song Yu for his review, but he was afraid of being scorned, so he lowered his head and silently memorized his notes instead.

Just as Song Yu was about to finish the Coke, Yue Zhishi couldn't help but look up and hand him a sticky note with writing on it. His handwriting was beautiful.

[I don't like dragging others down when we play games. Can you carry me?]

Song Yu, holding the now-empty Coke bottle, turned his face. Yue Zhishi took off one of his headphones.

"That game pushed a notification about my QQ friends, and you were in it. I saw your rank, it's really high, and your record is amazing too. I even sent you messages, but you never replied."

Song Yu put down the Coke bottle, logged into the game with his own QQ, and opened the message list.

"I've been busy this semester, I haven't been online, so I didn't get any messages." He only played occasionally; when he was busy, he might not even play a few rounds in an entire semester. A lot of messages had piled up. Scrolling down, he saw a QQ friend with the ID Cheese1010 who had sent him a friend request and a lot of messages, almost all of them emoji. The earliest was from three months ago, a heart emoji.

"I know." Yue Zhishi raised his hand and put the headphone back on for him. "Otherwise, you wouldn't ignore me."

There was almost no Coke left in the bottle. Song Yu had drunk so much of it that Yue Zhishi thought the cherry flavor must be delicious. So, when he wasn't looking, he took the bottle and drank the last sip.

It's so gross. Yue Zhishi stuck out his tongue and threw the bottle into the trash can.

The author has something to say:

Brother wasn't drinking ice-cold Coke, he was drinking chilled aged vinegar.

QQ: Didn't you say you hated me the most? The moment your little brother asked you to play a game, you still came running to log in with me (-.-)