Giving gifts
Chen Yuchuan sat back in the car, stared at the question mark on the sunken river for a few seconds, sighed to himself, and then moved his finger.
"From a metaphysical point of view, the ID Styx is not very auspicious. It's too unlucky to be associated with the underworld all the time."
"Why don't you choose someone else who fits the persona and has substance, like..."
He stared at his phone screen, but the image of Shen He leaning back on the sofa, his eyes sweeping over him without any emotion, flashed through his mind. Composing himself, he continued typing: "Icevein, sounds cold, like Styx, with a touch of oppression, quite like you."
Just seconds after the message was sent, Shenhe replied with a voice message: "What's wrong with you now?"
His tone was clearly disdainful, with a hint of helplessness, as if he genuinely couldn't understand what had gotten into him again.
Chen Yuchuan listened to it once, and then listened to it a second time.
He suddenly remembered that just last week, Shen He was too lazy to pay attention to him, replying to messages with either a period or a question mark, or avoiding replying altogether, and only managing to get a "hmm" after sending ten messages.
And now?
Not only did she reply to him, she also sent a voice message, and she didn't say he was annoying, even though Shen He's tone indicated that he couldn't even be bothered by it.
Chen Yuchuan stared at the voice message for a few seconds, as if he had discovered some valuable evidence, and muttered, "The progress is rapid."
He laughed as soon as he finished speaking, then, as if suddenly realizing something, he muttered under his breath, "I'm fucking crazy."
After taking a shower, Shen He's hair was half-dry. He casually dried it with a towel, while his phone screen kept lighting up. Chen Yuchuan's profile picture kept flashing in the message box, and messages kept popping up like a barrage of comments.
When I cut it open, it was all a jumble of random things.
He stared silently for a few seconds, and finally replied to Chen Yuchuan with a crisp and concise "..."
He really couldn't understand what this older brother was trying to do; they hadn't always gotten along like this before.
Before he could think it through, the phone rang.
Shen He wanted to hang up immediately, but after thinking about it, he answered the call and asked, "What do you want?"
Chen Yuchuan chuckled softly on the other end: "I just wanted to ask you what you think of the suggestion to change your ID."
Shen He felt that his fans were right to criticize him, so he didn't hesitate to tell him, "Spit out your phlegm before you speak."
Chen Yuchuan wasn't annoyed at all. He laughed and said, "Why are you being so gentle today? You didn't even tell me to get lost."
Shen He asked, "What exactly do you want? If it's not something important, you can really get lost."
Chen Yuchuan: "Isn't choosing an auspicious ID for my brother the most important thing?"
Shen He clicked his tongue and prepared to hang up the phone.
Chen Yuchuan suddenly said, "I'm actually bothering you this time because I have something important to discuss."
Shen He leaned against the headboard with his eyes closed and said calmly, "What else do you have that can be considered a serious matter?"
"Don't be like that, buddy, I do do something serious sometimes," Chen Yuchuan said. "There's a new game launching next week, it's multiplayer, it's an action-adventure game, and I'm planning to stream myself playing it."
Shenhe asked him, "Are you very free?"
“A relative of mine invested some money in this project a few years ago and asked me to help promote it.”
Shen He had no idea when he had gotten along well with his relatives, so he just hummed in agreement and said, "Good luck."
Chen Yuchuan paused for a moment and asked, "Interested in playing together?"
Shen He replied lazily, "Not interested."
"Don't turn on the camera." Chen Yuchuan immediately added, "Your microphone is up to you, it doesn't matter whether it's on or off."
Chen He: "Can't you play by yourself?"
"Playing alone is too boring." He paused, then shamelessly pressed on, "You're my only brother, who else would I play this game with if not you?"
Shen He didn't even open his eyes: "Let your teammates play with you, and you can even create a CP (couple pairing)."
Chen Yuchuan retorted confidently, "How can they be the same? I have no feelings for them whatsoever."
His tone suddenly sounded a little serious: "You are my only brother, one of a kind. I really can't do without you."
Shen He, who had been leaning against the headboard, twitched his eyelids slightly. He didn't reply immediately, but just stared at the ceiling, his fingertips tracing the edge of his phone, as if he was considering something.
The air was silent for a few seconds before he spoke calmly, "...Alright."
The voice was slow, with a rare pause.
"Then I'll play with my only brother too."
Chen Yuchuan was laughing for some unknown reason. Shen He didn't say anything more, telling him that he was going to sleep. He felt a mix of emotions; Chen Yuchuan was indeed his "only brother."
He lay on the mattress that Chen Yuchuan had brought him, the mattress fitting his back perfectly, the firmness just right. He knew in his heart that this man was truly good to him, so good that it was beyond words, and had always been so.
At that time, the two were practically inseparable. He could treat Chen Yuchuan to a lavish meal or casually buy him a pair of shoes, as if it were just a whim.
Chen Yuchuan never lacked anything, but when Shen He gave him some random little junk, he would be happy for half a day.
Shen He looked up at the ceiling again. Chen Yuchuan had even replaced the light bulb. There used to be a slightly peeling patch on the ceiling, but now it was so neat that you couldn't tell the difference. It seemed that Chen Yuchuan had thought of everything and done everything, but Shen He had less and less to offer.
It is not matter.
He suddenly realized that he was no longer the Chenhe who was willing to respond to other people's passionate emotions.
Although Chen Yuchuan never needed his response, back then he could at least treat this friendship, which others considered somewhat strange, with sincerity. But now, he's not even sure if he can still invest any emotion in it.
Shen He closed his eyes, a sudden sense of bewilderment washing over him. Sometimes, he truly didn't know what else he could offer Chen Yuchuan besides the title of "brother."
ASG's third match is the first one on Saturday afternoon, held in City B. The team will take a bus to the hotel on Friday to allow ample time to adjust. VLG's match is on Sunday, held in Yuncheng, so Chen Yuchuan will have to fly there on Saturday.
As evening fell, Shen He saw Chen Yuchuan standing outside the lobby as soon as his car stopped in front of the hotel. The man was dressed casually, with his hands in his pockets, leaning against the glass wall, as if he had been waiting for a while.
As expected, Chen He got off the bus with his bag on his back and walked towards him.
"Will you fly to Flying Cloud City first thing tomorrow morning?" Shen He asked.
"Hmm." Chen Yuchuan glanced at him, his tone tinged with helplessness, "You finally come all the way to B City, and you can't even watch your competition."
The two returned to their room. Shen He threw his backpack on the sofa, pulled out a cleanly packaged square box from it, and tossed it to Chen Yuchuan.
"Catch it."
Chen Yuchuan caught it with one hand, looked down at it, and was clearly stunned for a moment.
"Why did you suddenly give me a gift?" he said, his face beaming with undisguised joy.
Shen He took off his coat, his movements unhurried: "I just bought it when I saw it on the screen."
Chen Yuchuan couldn't help but laugh: "You also buy things for people on the side?"
Shen He adjusted the air conditioner and asked in a flat tone, "Aren't you human?"
His indifferent tone sounded like a perfunctory reply, but Chen Yuchuan couldn't hide the amusement in his voice: "Should I say thank you?"
Shen He said, "Indeed, you're lucky."
After washing his face and leaning back on the sofa to look at his phone for a while, the fatigue in Shen He's eyes dissipated considerably.
Chen Yuchuan sat beside him without saying a word, glancing at him every now and then, as if trying to find something to say. Shen He locked his phone and asked, "Want to eat?"
"I've been waiting for you to say that," Chen Yuchuan said lazily, leaning back on the sofa. "Would you like to try some local specialties? I'll arrange it."
Shen He glanced at him and said, "Don't bother making any arrangements. The weather's bad. Let's just find a hot pot restaurant nearby."
“Look at you,” Chen Yuchuan readily agreed, then slowly added, “How about we eat at my place? It’s warm there, and it’s only a ten-minute drive.”
He added with a smile, "They even have a specially hired chef whose skills are quite good, much better than those in other restaurants."
Chen Yuchuan's home is not far from the hotel in the city center. He had been to Chen Yuchuan's house in City A before. When he entered, he saw that the decoration style here was almost exactly the same: cool colors, neat and grand, with many abstract and interesting small designs in the details. It was just that the area was much larger, as if the original layout had been enlarged several times. Shen He was once again impressed by Chen Yuchuan's aesthetic sense, which was completely in line with his own.
The chef's skills were indeed superb. The broth was freshly prepared, the ingredients were carefully selected, and even the dipping sauces came with four or five different flavors. You could imagine that Chen Yuchuan was living a very comfortable life. Shen He had been on a bus for three or four hours and initially had little appetite, but by the end of the meal he was quite full.
He had originally planned to rest for a while before leaving, but Chen Yuchuan stopped him, saying, "Stay here, there are guest rooms, no one has stayed here before, you can sleep peacefully."
Shen He glanced at him, said nothing, and threw his coat back onto the sofa.
He had just finished showering and hung up his towel before going to bed when there was a knock on the door.
"Hey." Chen Yuchuan didn't wait for his reply, but pushed the door open and threw a box at him.
"Returning the gift so quickly?" Shen He picked it up and glanced at it. "Are you being too formal?"
"It's an old story," Chen Yuchuan leaned against the doorframe. "It was something you bought before you left. I snatched a table right after the press conference ended, ready to deliver it to you, but then you disappeared without a trace." Since they had talked about it last time, bringing up this topic now felt like a casual remark.
Shen He opened it; it was a handheld console from a few years ago. Although it had the old packaging, it was clearly well-preserved and looked almost new. He looked down and touched the casing, saying, "This model is indeed a bit old." But it was the one he wanted most back then but couldn't get his hands on, and it was a limited edition of only 50 units worldwide, a special release edition. The back had the gilded number NO.12 and his name, Shen He, on it.
"You're disgusted?" Chen Yuchuan asked with a smile. "It's still a token of my appreciation, so it's not bad to take it back as a keepsake."
"Not really." Shen He closed the box. "It's fine. I'll take it with me later."
After closing the guest room door, Chen Yuchuan didn't go far. He leaned against the wall at the other end of the corridor, lit a cigarette, and took a deep drag.
In the past, when Shen He talked about games and handheld consoles, his eyes would light up. He had collected many strange and obscure models and cartridges, including a few limited and niche ones, which Chen Yuchuan helped him find.
Chen Yuchuan was speechless and asked him why he collected so much junk. Shen He replied in a very profound tone, "Sigh, you don't like playing games, so you have no idea."
But what about now?
After Shen He finished unpacking the box, his expression remained unchanged, and he simply said, "It's fine."
He genuinely didn't mind, but he didn't like her as much as he used to.
Although they had only been separated for three years, which wasn't a long time, the changes were so great that they made Chen Yuchuan furious. He had tried to find out what had happened back then, sending people to ask and inquire, but he only received some perfunctory answers, such as "people grow up," "rebellious phase," and "small family conflicts will be resolved after going out and making a living."
That's all.
But Shenhe's eyes turned cold, his speech became more lazy and indifferent than before, and even his habits changed a lot. This did not seem to be the so-called "rebellious period" of young people.
The cigarette butt burned out between his fingers. He stared at the ashtray until the last ember went out, as if snapping out of a reverie. He turned and went to the balcony to air out the cigarette, then went around to the room next to the bedroom.
This is a room he has prepared specifically for all these years.
The room wasn't small; one side had a full wall of storage shelves, with various items neatly arranged.
Some were gifts he habitually bought for Shenhe's birthday every year, some were small items he bought on a whim, thinking "he might like this", and many were things he always felt Shenhe could use or find convenient.
He walked over and casually flipped through the items. Models, game cartridges, headphones, collaboration merchandise, figurines, watches—all sorts of random things were there.
There were also several pairs of collectible sneakers on the shelf. Shen He had clearly said that he wasn't particularly interested in basketball, but whenever he came across a colorway that suited his taste, he couldn't resist buying it.
These things have remained here, untouched, with the hope that one day they could be given away. And now, that "one day" has actually come to pass.
Besides these, there was a small row of storage boxes containing the things that Shen He had given him.
The items were also a jumbled mess: limited-time collaborations with autographed athletes, lottery figurines, a character blind box that Shenhe casually tossed to him on the day a certain game was released, oddly shaped controllers, and a pair of basketball shoes with an ugly, purplish color.
That was the first time Shen He gave him shoes, saying he picked them out because he liked playing basketball. When he opened them, he was shocked by how ugly they were; he really couldn't understand how Shen He's taste could be so disastrous. But anyway, since it was a gift from Shen He, he still felt a strange sense of satisfaction. Until one time later, when he wore them out, Shen He couldn't stop laughing: "I have to say, purple really does have a lot of charm."
He then realized that Shen He had done it on purpose.
Chen Yuchuan touched the shoes. There was a note in the shoebox, torn from some notebook, that read in a mess: "Happy birthday. I bought these for you with my New Year's money. They're quite valuable. Just keep them as a keepsake, and don't wear them."
The note was stuffed into the wrapping paper by Shen He, clearly not intended for him to see it immediately. However, he always kept the outer packaging of the things Shen He gave him. Later, after Shen He left, he searched through them again and again before it finally fell out.
He looked at it for several seconds, then gently folded it back along the grain, put it back into the box, and closed the lid.
Over the years, he has carefully preserved everything, not as a memento, but simply because he is afraid that one day he will have nothing left.
Thankfully, the person is back now.
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