Bonus Chapter: CP Warning!! Lee Hwan-bin x Shen Xiao (2)
2.
After accepting Li Huanbin's friend request, Shen Xiao sat upright, staring intently at the screen, looking ready for anything.
Bai Chen sat next to him. After getting on the bus, he glanced at Shen Xiao, who was looking at his phone with a serious expression: "...What are you looking at?"
Shen Xiao didn't even spare him a glance, still looking at his phone: "Waiting for a thoroughly enjoyable verbal battle."
"..."
Bai Chen found another seat and went to sit somewhere else.
Unfortunately, after waiting for so long, I didn't get to hear any insults, but instead received a cute cat emoji.
Shen Xiao stared blankly at the kitten rolling around on the screen for a while with a complicated expression before realizing that Li Huanbin's words and tone when he sent the friend request were so polite that he obviously wasn't here to confront him about the previous blocking incident.
...He was judging others by his own petty standards.
Since Li Huanbin didn't provoke him, Shen Xiao naturally couldn't respond with harsh words. He had been holding back his anger, but his punch landed on nothing. He leaned back in his chair and typed in a very unpleasant tone, "What do you want from me?"
It was common knowledge that he disliked Li Huanbin, and Shen Xiao didn't bother to hide it; if he disliked someone, he would just be open about it.
Li Huanbin seemed to be fine at the moment. Almost as soon as the message was sent, the message "The other party is typing" appeared above the message bar.
[Li Huanbin: It's nothing important, I just wanted to chat with you.]
A big question mark appeared on Shen Xiao's forehead.
chat?
What could Li Huanbin possibly have to talk about with him?
He carefully recalled how he and Li Huanbin interacted before the teddy bear cotton candy incident.
Although he didn't show any obvious aversion, Shen Xiao still took the approach of avoiding the situation if possible; if you can't afford to offend someone, you can always avoid them.
So almost every time the two of them had any interaction, it was Li Huanbin who took the initiative to approach him.
At first, they asked him to duo queue, but Shen Xiao naturally declined.
Later, seeing that he was really determined, Li Huanbin also gave up duo queueing and would occasionally share some interesting stories and gossip with him.
To avoid these trivial matters, Shen Xiao would still reply as a matter of politeness, but he subtly weaved his rejection and indifference into his words. Unfortunately, Li Huanbin was oblivious to subtle cues; once Shen Xiao replied, he would inevitably send another message.
...until that day, I blocked him.
A wave of guilt washed over Shen Xiao, but it was quickly replaced by shame and indignation.
He picked up his phone and started typing rapidly.
Seamy: We don't have much to talk about, do we?
[Li Huanbin: Actually, I wanted to ask you to duo queue together.]
These two sentences were uttered almost simultaneously.
Shen Xiao was taken aback.
...Double row?
The only time he and Li Huanbin played duo queue was during the Little Bear Cotton Candy game.
Depend on!
Shen Xiao ground his back teeth. He was now certain that it wasn't just him being cynical; Li Huanbin had come to rub salt in his wounds!
He angrily typed: "No need, my skill level is not good enough to team up with Captain Li."
This time, the "typing" message on Li Huanbin's end remained displayed for a long time, and no next sentence appeared in the dialog box.
Just when Shen Xiao thought he was going to send him a long essay, a new message popped up.
There were no words, only a meme of a kitten looking at the camera with teary eyes, looking extremely aggrieved.
Shen Xiao's lips twitched.
A top-tier Alpha, a giant man taller than myself, yet all his emojis are so adorable.
He moved his fingers, but ultimately didn't reply. Putting down his phone, he looked up and saw Qu Qingyue and the coach getting into the car together.
Qu Qingyue happened to look over as well, and their eyes met, causing them both to feel somewhat awkward.
But to Shen Xiao's surprise, the frustration he had felt from unrequited love had dissipated considerably. Even now, all he felt was the resentment of being kept in the dark, and nothing more than a sense of calm.
Oh, and there's also dissatisfaction with Lee Hwan-bin.
Shen Xiao licked his left canine tooth, then looked away from the car window, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the volume buttons on his phone.
He tried hard to distract himself from the brief conversation so as not to appear as if Li Huanbin had a significant influence on him.
But in the end, as the car started, Shen Xiao couldn't help but wonder: Li Huanbin had been gone for so long... what exactly did he want to say to him?
--
Qu Qingyue eventually left TWG, and Ice took her place as the first-team healer for TWG.
Although naive, Shen Xiao once thought that their TWG was different from other teams, and that the four of them would play until they retired without any replacements.
Perhaps that was true when they were young, but as they grew older, Shen Xiao, the youngest member of the team, unknowingly became an "older player" in the industry.
For a team to continue, it inevitably needs the addition of fresh blood.
Moreover, the newly joined Ice is strong enough, and his personal style is sharp and aggressive. Even if Shen Xiao wanted to find fault, he couldn't find anything wrong with him.
TWG ultimately qualified for the playoffs as the top team in the standings.
The preseason points season ends, and then it's the new year.
Shen Xiao left home to join the army at a very young age and was away from home most of the year. He could hardly go home except for the Chinese New Year, so he didn't miss home much. When packing his luggage, he just felt that he was finally able to rest for a while, which was really hard-won.
However, he had too many random things to bring, and his home was in T City, which was thousands of miles away, so moving back and forth was always a hassle.
After finally checking in his luggage and confirming his ticket, Shen Xiao habitually picked up his phone and saw a new message from Li Huanbin.
He opened the chat window and found that Li Huanbin had sent him a photo today.
In the photo, under the dim streetlights, a tabby kitten lies on the roadside, showing its belly to the person taking the picture. The pink and round paw pads on its four paws are plump and cute.
Shen Xiao's heart skipped a beat.
Recently, since the two became friends again, Li Huanbin has been sending interesting pictures or daily updates almost every day, just like before. Shen Xiao sees them but never replies, waiting for Li Huanbin to get bored and back off first.
But this time, he couldn't hold back any longer.
From childhood, Shen Xiao's favorite animal has always been a cat. Unfortunately, both of his parents are allergic to cat fur, and he didn't have the energy to raise cats while at the shelter. So he could only occasionally raise cats virtually on video websites with other netizens.
Previously, when Li Huanbin posted cat emojis, Shen Xiao could barely ignore them, but this time, with the real cat obviously right next to him in the photo, it was hard for Shen Xiao to pretend not to see it.
He tried to hold back, but couldn't resist and typed, "Is this a stray cat?"
[Li Huanbin: Yes, it's downstairs in our base.]
[Seamy: Are you this close to people?]
[Li Huanbin: I often feed him, so he's affectionate with me.]
[Li Huanbin: You like cats?]
He painstakingly sent so many messages, all of which went unanswered. Unexpectedly, a casually taken photo of a stray cat brought people out of the woods.
Li Huanbin held his phone, glanced at the tabby kitten not far away that had its entire head buried in a can of food, squinted his eyes, and then chuckled.
How could I compare myself to a cat?
Shen Xiao is quite particular about his public image. When he is interviewed and asked about his favorite animals, he always answers with birds of prey like "lions" or "tigers".
When he was suddenly asked if he liked soft, cute kittens, he felt a little embarrassed, as it went against the tough guy persona he had cultivated. But at this moment, trying to hide it would only make things worse.
So he deliberately said fiercely, "Yeah, is that not allowed?"
Li Huanbin smiled when he saw the reply.
[Li Huanbin: I'll take more pictures of you in the future.]
The gentle and tolerant attitude on the other end clearly pleased Shen Xiao. He turned over and, unlike usual, stopped being indifferent. Even when Li Huanbin asked him about his specific time of returning home, he answered generously.
The two chatted on and off, circling around trivial topics until late into the night. Finally, Shen Xiao was too sleepy to continue and called for a break.
Having been ignored for so long, Li Huanbin was already content and tactfully said, "Good night, sweet dreams."
Shen Xiao mumbled a "Goodnight" in his sleep.
The next morning, he stared at his bird's nest-like hair and the two words he had sent the night before, and remained in a daze for a long time.
Looking back at the chat history, I felt so angry I wanted to kill myself.
Was I bewitched last night? I actually talked so much nonsense with Li Huanbin.
Looking back, at least half of the conversation was spoken by me, half-coaxed and half-guided by Li Huanbin. It was exactly like the day Li Huanbin disguised himself as a little bear and cotton candy to tease me, and I was like a fool, being pointed around by Li Huanbin.
Oh shit!
Shen Xiao clicked on Li Huanbin's profile picture, his finger hovering over the option to block him, but he hesitated for a moment and did not click it immediately.
After a while, he angrily withdrew his finger.
...It's not that he didn't want to block Li Huanbin.
I was just curious about the tabby kitten.
Shen Xiao convinced himself, put down his phone, and got up to wash up.
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