Chapter 21
Pei Huai didn't have a private account; he'd naturally used his work WeChat account when he signed up. So, whenever he logged into the game, he'd be approached by anywhere from a few to over a dozen people chatting privately with him.
The overall message is: Damn, the sun is rising from the west, Brother Pei, are you playing too? Want to join a group?
Unaware of the technical jargon, Pei Huai didn't reply. At the time, Xiang Mingqi was still sitting cross-legged on the carpet, phone in hand, completely unaware of the situation. Furthermore, Pei Huai hadn't allowed him to get on the bed, saying he was afraid of wrinkling the sheets. Despite his internal complaints, Xiang Mingqi still obeyed.
"Brother, why do you always ignore me? You're so quiet." After mumbling for a long time, Xiang Mingqi finally realized that he had asked a stupid question: Pei Huai only lowered his head to look at his phone, not even looking up. "If all your colleagues dislike you because of this, you won't be bullied in the future, right?"
He wiped his nasolabial folds with pride, his chest almost reaching the sky: "Look, only I, only I will put aside past grudges and play with you."
"Airdrop, Northeast 60."
"Oh oh, I'm coming, I'm coming."
After switching to the mirrored M16, Pei Huai fired a few shots at random, and two kill records popped up. Judging from the icons, they were all headshots.
Xiang Mingqi flinched in shock, glancing towards the bed. From registration until now, Pei Huai had only taught him the basics. At least in his imagination, the situation wouldn't unfold like this: within a few minutes of the start, every shot from the senior would land squarely on the player's head, only occasionally hitting a limb.
Whether it was luck or natural good accuracy, Xiang Mingqi was a little confused.
However, the question was soon answered.
The circle shrank, and Xiang Mingqi had just made a move to crouch in the bushes when two or three kill records suddenly popped up on the screen. He turned around in shock, and out of the corner of his eye, he caught the figure of Pei Huai, setting up his sniper and scanning the scope across blind spots like windows, water tanks, and rooftops.
Looking back at the bed, in the dim light of his cell phone, the gunman was tucking his hair behind his ear, revealing a striking hairline and forehead. His features were handsome and straight, his eyelashes drooping quietly, and his clothes were well-dressed, with impeccable features from the sleeves down. Xiang Mingqi felt his heartbeat quicken again.
"You haven't answered my previous question yet." He swallowed hurriedly. "You don't like to talk or use social media. Are you bored? Are you overwhelmed by information?"
"…I'm not playing. I'm not stupid."
"Oh, I'm just curious why you avoid others like you're avoiding allergens."
“Because I don’t like it.”
"I think you don't understand at all." Xiang Mingqi said in a strange tone, stretching his lips into an oval shape, "A handsome guy like you who is handsome, has a cold personality, and has a strong aura is the easiest to be entangled with."
Pei Huai ignored him and raised his hand to deal with another person.
"Then why do you hate interacting with others so much?" Before he could finish his words, Xiang Mingqi was shot from nowhere, paralyzed. He hid in a corner, waiting for Pei Huai to help him up. "Emotional injury? Heartache? Or do you think the world is dirty? Oh single bet."
He snapped his fingers with pride, but was met with a speechless look from his senior.
"Actually, I was like that when I was in elementary and middle school." Seeing the latter remain silent, he opened up first. "When I was little, my family didn't pay much attention to me. I'd just watch anime when I was bored. When I had chuunibyou, my symptoms were similar to yours now. But you shouldn't watch anime. What's that called... sealing your heart and locking up your love? Severing your own roots of love?"
"Shut up."
Xiang Mingqi was so angry at him that he didn't dare to argue. He sat back down sadly and kicked the numb and painful soles of his feet desperately: "--Then let me tell you something else. I have several older cousins, all of whom are more capable than me. Plus, my dad is a coward and doesn't dare to compete with them for the family property. So he told me to keep a low profile at school and be more sensible in front of my brothers and not take myself too seriously."
The topic spanned a wide range, like splitting his legs. Pei Huai actually didn't want to know about the past he was talking about, but he just didn't say it out loud.
"He always taught me this, and it made those years incredibly miserable for me. Not only did my classmates ignore me, but my bunny doll was ripped into pieces by my cousin, and my dad even beat me, saying it was just a toy. My gay friend gave me a video game console for my birthday that could play Tetris, but he took it as a favor. If I made a scene, he'd blame me for not living up to my expectations."
"—Wow, the more I think about it, the more infuriating I get. Luckily, I applied for boarding school in high school and decided to turn over a new leaf, so I made a lot of friends right away. Hehe, now I won't give in to my cousin." He crouched in the grass, avoiding the poison while keeping a vigilant eye on his surroundings. "By the way, brother, how were you doing back then?"
Pei Huai remained silent.
"I remember you said before that you'll have too many people to hate in your life. Why?" He stepped into the finals circle before he was blasted to the ceiling by a grenade thrown from nowhere. He poked the screen several times, his face terrified, "Brother, save me! Brother, please save me!"
"What does it feel like to be friends with everyone?" Pei Huai was unable to free his hands for a moment, so he aimed his scope and sniped the opponent to death.
"Feeling that?" Xiang Mingqi leaned back, raised his phone, and breathed a sigh of relief as he looked at the pop-up checkout screen. He thought the other party was finally opening up, and blinked quickly. "Well, sometimes the jokes are boring. Sometimes they'll mock someone's appearance, personality, and family over and over again. But as you get to know them, you'll find that the person they mocked is completely different from what they described, and you might even become friends with them privately. However, if you want to join a small group, you still have to be willing to make some sacrifices."
"Then, so do I."
"ah?"
"I don't know what's the point of getting along with everyone, nor am I interested. If you want to be liked by everyone around you, then there's no need to mess with me." He looked at me sternly, his eyes calm, "I don't like people like you."
This was the most explicit rejection yet. Xiang Mingqi listened without uttering a word, but tactfully made the gesture of zipping his mouth.
He hadn't expected things to develop like this. Even if he had refused, he hadn't expected Pei Huai to break it off so decisively.
It seemed like he had done something that he hated very much.
-
They only played a few rounds in the second half of the night, but they won every time. As soon as the seventh round ended, Pei Huai started to kick everyone out.
Xiang Mingqi had already been treated coldly, and now he looked like a dispirited dog, with his chin resting on the edge of the bed, rolling his eyes and sighing to act pitiful.
Seeing that his senior was still determined, he pretended to sob, but unnoticed, he took a pillow from Pei Huai's room. After he left, Pei Huai fell sideways onto the bed as if all his strength had been drained away, unlocked the album with his fingerprint, and scrolled all the way to the bottom of the thumbnails.
There is only one group photo at the bottom.
No matter how many times he changes phones, this photo will always be at the top of his album. In the center of the picture, two boys in school uniforms stand side by side. The younger one, with a shy face, is affectionately hugging his older brother's waist and making a scissors sign against his chest.
Pei Huai remembered it clearly. When the photo was taken, Yu Mingrui had just grown teeth, and his upper and lower teeth didn't even fit together in a row. He also loved to smile, and his smile would make his teeth show through.
He liked to drag me along with him in everything he did. Whether it was when they went to the woods to play, or when they stayed overnight at the secret base. He would always hug me passionately, calling me brother over and over again.
——Yu Mingrui, why. Why did you end your life like this?
He didn't know who else could answer that question.
The next morning, Pei Huai finished checking out at the front desk. As a colleague, he knocked on Xiang Mingqi's door.
"Who is it?" A low, hoarse, and somewhat impatient voice came from the inner room through a door. "Don't come to 'room service' if you don't have anything to do. Didn't I make it clear to you this morning?"
“…It’s me.”
The noises began to grow louder: it sounded like someone falling out of bed, or stumbling, fumbling for slippers and sprinting towards the hallway. Within five seconds, the door was hastily opened from the inside.
"Wow, brother, did you come specially to wake me up? How romantic. You really love me the most." It was the first time that Pei Huai saw that he looked more haggard, with dark circles under his eyes, but the moment he saw himself, his eyes lit up with joy.
Pei Huai pretended not to notice and told him that he still had an hour and a half to get ready for work. Xiang Mingqi happily followed him downstairs, went through the deposit refund process, and didn't forget to talk about the nightmare he had last night.
Pei Huaili didn't even bother to pay attention to him.
The sensor door slid open to both sides. When we exited the lobby, we saw a Bentley that had been parked at the intersection with half of its rear window lowered.
Shan Li leaned elegantly against the sofa, interlocking his fingers and twirling his thumbs on his knees. He asked, "Mr. Pei, did you enjoy your rest last night?"
Pei Huai nodded and tried to leave. The former had anticipated his attitude and gently stopped him, offering to take him back to the company.
As expected, the inviter was rejected, so he had to send his secretary to slip over an envelope that looked like an invitation. Pei Huai cut it with a knife and found tickets for a piano performance inside.
It was a laser-cut ticket, its security features looking complex. Shan Li told him he would send a special car to pick him up two hours early the next afternoon, and they could arrange a meeting place later.
Pei Huai thanked him casually and crossed the two streets slowly.
"Brother, don't you feel annoyed when he talks to you?" Xiang Mingqi asked him from behind.
"bother."
"Then why are you so nice to him?"
"Think for yourself."
"Oh, I just couldn't think of it, so I asked you."
Pei Huai ignored him again.
Arriving at the Bangkok Hotel branch as usual, he clocked in at the office building entrance and took the elevator to the top floor. Pei Huai reported the details of last night's mission to Zhu Zhiyang.
The temporary replacement of the client wasn't good news for the company, but thankfully, the follow-up was handled well, and they could receive an additional year-end bonus. Even at this point, Pei Huai's face remained expressionless. Zhu Zhiyang sensibly let him return to his desk.
As the shift neared its end, Xiang Mingqi was asked to stay behind for new employee training. Ignoring his pitiful requests for a pick-up from his parents, Pei Huai went home alone.
It was around 8pm when I returned to my rental apartment. I reached the third floor, and the voice-activated light flickered briefly before finally lighting up with great difficulty. It must have been fixed during the three days I was away.
When he reached the door and tried to insert the key, he suddenly felt something strange—the door was not closed, but half-open, and it opened easily with a push. He frowned slightly.
I haven't been home these days. If I really have any negligence, Xiang Mingqi will be held accountable.
The strange thing is.
No flowers today.
Pei Huai pushed the crack tentatively. The room was pitch black, with no light coming in.
He put half a foot in and was about to feel along the wall for the switch when his wrist was suddenly grabbed by a pale hand, which pulled so hard that he stumbled into the entrance before he could react.
The door slammed shut.
The surroundings suddenly became still, and a wisp of air brushed across the back of my neck.
Very close, very close, the sound of human breathing becomes clearer in the darkness.
But that is definitely not your own frequency.
It was heavy and hoarse, like a lizard crawling rapidly along his back. Pei Huai's eyes only caught sight of a mirror in the living room, which reflected the scene behind him.
The clothes hangers were tilted and tumbled, the wallpaper was mostly torn off, and the entire wall was covered with a line of large words in blood-red paint.
You brought another man home.
A figure lurking behind the door raised a dagger high and pointed it at his back.
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