Looking at this completely unfamiliar version of Good Day, Lin Cimian could hardly believe his eyes. At the same time, Good Day’s words left his heart feeling sore and swollen, as though some empty place inside him had suddenly been filled.
Yan Shiyue’s gentleness and maturity made Lin Cimian unconsciously lower his guard. Since he was not livestreaming right now, after hearing Yan Shiyue speak, Lin Cimian instinctively turned on his own microphone too.
“How did you become like this?”
Yan Shiyue replied in a low voice, “I told you before that I hired a power-leveler. This is all thanks to them.”
His attention successfully diverted, Lin Cimian could not help muttering, “Then your budget must’ve been very generous.”
His voice was quiet, but Yan Shiyue heard every word clearly. A deep, magnetic laugh came through the mediocre speakers, so close it seemed to sound directly beside Lin Cimian’s ear. For a moment, Lin Cimian almost imagined he could feel the warmth of the other man’s breath.
The tip of his ear inexplicably itched. Lin Cimian pinched it and only then realized it was burning hot.
A tingling sensation ran through him like a weak electric current, even making his chest feel numb. Guiltily, he coughed and comforted himself inwardly: this was merely the instinctive reaction of someone who loved beautiful voices. He would react the same way to anyone else.
Lin Cimian drove away those messy thoughts and quickly said, “I’m fine.”
Although Lin Cimian thought Good Day’s voice sounded extremely pleasant, the two of them were evenly matched in that respect. Both possessed the kind of voices that could make voice lovers lose their minds.
Lin Cimian’s was a clean youthful voice. His articulation was clear and his pitch fairly even, yet there was an inexplicable softness and sweetness to it that made people think of a cute, slightly dazed little animal and want to ruffle him.
Yan Shiyue, however, focused on the emotion in Lin Cimian’s voice.
Only after confirming that the little fox cub, despite having been hunted down and left covered in wounds, was not dejected or upset did Yan Shiyue relax. Then he turned to the matter at hand.
“Leave this to me. Go heal yourself first.”
Lin Cimian did not try to act tough. He obediently nodded, then realized Yan Shiyue could not see him and quietly answered, “Mm,” over voice chat.
Yan Shiyue turned around and calmly looked at the culprit without saying a word.
Chu Nanxuan had been extremely arrogant in front of Lin Cimian, chasing him relentlessly. But now, faced with a player whose level and equipment were both far above his own, he could not help losing his nerve.
Even with eight healers, the other player was fully capable of sending him back to the respawn point.
Being counter-killed while operating under a kill order carried a very high chance of losing levels and equipment. Merely imagining it made Chu Nanxuan’s heart ache.
For some reason, he could actually sense an imposing authority and cold killing intent from the game character in front of him, reminding him of the fear of being dominated by someone far above him.
His mouth went dry. His Adam’s apple rolled involuntarily. Chu Nanxuan had an inexplicably ominous feeling. He had just begun typing a message to plead for mercy when he saw the little Joyous Union player hide behind the man, practically one step away from tugging on the corner of his robe and tattling.
In fact, he really did tattle, with the swaggering confidence of a child announcing, My parent is here!
[Current] Sleepless Tonight: He’s the one who put the kill order on me.
Chu Nanxuan: “…” Could you not sound this much like an elementary-school student?
[Current] Nanxuan: Look, I wasn’t deliberately trying to make things difficult. This Joyous Union player bullied my wife. I had to help her get justice.
[Current] Sleepless Tonight: I already told you I don’t know who your wife is. There has to be a misunderstanding.
Chu Nanxuan had been completely unreasonable only moments ago, yet now he suddenly became remarkably sensible.
[Current] Nanxuan: I also think there’s probably been a misunderstanding. Why don’t we sit down and talk properly? That’s how problems should be solved.
[Current] Good Day: We do need to clarify everything.
Seeing that, Chu Nanxuan thought he had escaped disaster and had just begun to breathe out in relief when another message appeared.
[Current] Good Day: But you hurt him. We settle that account first. Then we can sit down and talk.
Yan Shiyue gave Chu Nanxuan no opportunity to plead. His game character transformed into a wisp of black smoke and drifted toward him at astonishing speed.
Chu Nanxuan also played Ghost Gate and knew perfectly well that this was the class’s special movement technique, but he himself could never control it with such eerie speed and precision.
The words “top player” had barely flashed through Chu Nanxuan’s mind before he suffered a devastating blow.
The advantage of a pay-to-win player became obvious at that moment. Yan Shiyue had used money to fill the gaps in time and experience, pushing every attribute directly to the maximum. His attack power was especially terrifying. A casual slash took away half of Chu Nanxuan’s health.
Chu Nanxuan’s heart jolted. He dodged frantically, but even with his fingers moving fast enough to burn, he remained just a little too slow.
Yan Shiyue’s mechanics were good, though he was not yet familiar with the class skills. He learned while operating. His accuracy steadily improved, and with effortless calm he drove Chu Nanxuan toward death.
Chu Nanxuan’s pupils contracted. Blood rushed to his head, sweat beading on the tip of his nose. He anxiously shouted in voice chat for the eight Mount Potalaka players to heal him.
But no healing came.
Chu Nanxuan scrambled desperately, using every trick he had to evade Yan Shiyue’s attacks while dividing his attention to see why the eight Mount Potalakas in his party were standing there like idiots.
It turned out Lin Cimian had not simply stood aside waiting for Yan Shiyue to avenge him. After using medicine to recover from his injuries, he had gone to tie up all eight Mount Potalaka players.
Lin Cimian knew they had only temporarily joined Chu Nanxuan’s party and had not intentionally targeted him. He did not want to hurt them. He merely threw out a few skills from time to time, forcing them to deal with him instead of healing Chu Nanxuan.
Although Lin Cimian’s health was low and even healers could kill him if they caught him, his mechanics allowed him to trade back and forth with all eight of them.
Lin Cimian did not look down on them because of that.
People who chose Mount Potalaka were generally not pursuing combat prowess or mechanical skill. Everyone had their own way of enjoying the game. There was no reason to feel superior over something like that.
The cat-and-mouse game had reversed roles. Chu Nanxuan fled miserably, experiencing the helplessness Lin Cimian had felt earlier when there had been no one to answer his calls for help. Unlike Lin Cimian, however, he did not know a wealthy expert who could appear at the critical moment and save him.
He lasted only five seconds before it was game over. Chu Nanxuan had to swallow a Resurrection Pill to revive on the spot.
Perhaps it was karma. Perhaps it was the bonus from Joyous Union’s luck attribute. Not only did Chu Nanxuan drop his belt, he also lost a level.
The higher the level, the more experience required. Even if Chu Nanxuan spent money and played without sleeping for a full month, he would not be able to recover this loss.
His heart hurt so much he could have shattered his teeth from grinding them. He glared viciously at Lin Cimian and Yan Shiyue, but he could do nothing to them and could only swallow his resentment.
He had been standing up for his wife. The other man was also standing up for his wife. Chu Nanxuan had lost because his skills were inferior. He accepted it.
[Current] Nanxuan: You killed me once. My losses are huge too. We’re even now, right?
[Current] Good Day: Ask him.
Chu Nanxuan inexplicably felt as though someone had shoved a mouthful of public affection down his throat. He was depressed, but could not complain, so he swallowed his anger and continued messaging.
[Current] Nanxuan: Little Joyous Union, your husband got revenge for you. Can we call it even now?
[Current] Sleepless Tonight: Oh, come on! You’re still talking nonsense. You’re obviously provoking me!
Chu Nanxuan: !! I’m innocent!
His eyes moved around. He suddenly realized the relationship between this Ghost Gate player and Joyous Union was more complicated than he had assumed. Maybe they were still in that ambiguous stage before a relationship, and he had recklessly torn through the thin paper separating them. No wonder the little Joyous Union player was embarrassed enough to become angry.
[Current] Nanxuan: I said the wrong thing. I apologize. Please don’t kill me again!
[Current] Sleepless Tonight: Fine. Your attitude is acceptable. Let’s stop wasting time and clear this up quickly.
[Current] Nanxuan: Okay. Thank you.
[Current] Nanxuan: My wife is Xie Niannian. He got some inside information before and kindly invited you to play with him, but you two abandoned him and stole all the attention from that dungeon. He cried to me about it for several days. I got carried away and wanted to teach you a small lesson.
[Current] Sleepless Tonight: You “got carried away,” so you posted a party notice in World chat in advance and recruited eight healers? You wanted to “teach me a small lesson,” so you absolutely had to send me back to the respawn point?
[Current] Nanxuan: …I’m sorry.
Lin Cimian snorted inwardly. At the same time, unease crept over him. He had realized something but did not want to admit it.
[Current] Sleepless Tonight: The hidden storyline required Good Day to choose one of us. We really were sorry that Xie Niannian wasn’t chosen. Afterward, I apologized to him. He said he didn’t mind, and I gave him all the dungeon rewards.
[Current] Nanxuan: Good thing you didn’t choose my wife. If you had, I would’ve fought you to the end!
Lin Cimian: “…”
Exactly. That was how a normal person was supposed to think.
[Current] Nanxuan: Is that really what happened? That’s not quite the way my wife described it.
[Current] Sleepless Tonight: It’s true. I can send you the screen recording and our chat history.
[Current] Nanxuan: All right.
He carefully reconsidered the whole situation and began noticing things that did not add up.
Xie Niannian had kept crying to him about being wronged. What he said had technically matched the facts, but he had blurred many of the details. Had he simply forgotten to mention them?
And if Chu Nanxuan put himself in the same situation, he would also choose his own wife without hesitation. Was something this minor really worth crying about for three days?
Yan Shiyue, who had been standing quietly to one side the entire time, suddenly sent a message.
[Current] Good Day: I have some chat records too. I’ll send them together later.
[Current] Nanxuan: Chat records?
[Current] Good Day: Xie Niannian added me as a game friend and sent some messages. My power-leveler was online at the time.
[Current] Nanxuan: ? Why did my wife add you? What did you two talk about?
Lin Cimian had the same question, purely out of curiosity and a desire for gossip. Yan Shiyue did not answer directly. He only sent one concise word:
[Current] Good Day: Email.
[Current] Nanxuan: Fine. Here’s my email. Send everything later.
After being brutally beaten moments earlier, Chu Nanxuan had developed a psychological shadow. Afraid Lin Cimian and Yan Shiyue might retaliate again, he logged off on the spot.
Lin Cimian knew Yan Shiyue spent very little time online and must be busy with work, so he proactively said, “Send the chat records to me. I’ll organize them and email everything to Chu Nanxuan.”
Yan Shiyue was silent for a full five seconds before replying, “All right. Sorry to trouble you.”
“It’s no trouble.” Lin Cimian smiled. “Thank you for coming to save me today.”
“You were always the one helping me before.” Yan Shiyue’s voice remained even, merely stating a fact without any deliberately intimate tone. “Now it’s my turn to protect you.”
Lin Cimian froze.
He had thought Yan Shiyue saw what people said in the livestream and, angered by it, was provoked into hiring a power-leveler. So this had been the real reason.
The corners of Lin Cimian’s mouth curved upward without him realizing it. There was no mirror in front of him, so he had no idea how foolishly he was smiling. “Okay. I’ll leave myself in your care from now on. I want to experience what it feels like to cling to an expert’s thigh for once.”
Yan Shiyue paused, then naturally opened Baidu and searched the meaning of “cling to an expert’s thigh.”
He rarely had free time, and when he did, he usually read books. He had little contact with internet slang and frequently had to search terms while playing the game.
Yan Shiyue pinched the bridge of his nose and could not help laughing softly.
Apparently he really was getting old. There was a serious generation gap between him and this little fox cub.
“All right. You can cling to mine.” Their age difference was substantial, and Yan Shiyue unconsciously used the tone he might use to humor a nephew.
Lin Cimian made no sound on the other end of voice chat, but his ears were bright red. He could not resist rubbing his face with both hands.
AAAAAA why did he have to laugh softly right beside his ear? Lin Cimian couldn’t handle it!
Lin Cimian had the strange feeling of being flirted with, but then decided he was imagining things and grew too embarrassed to continue talking.
Yan Shiyue had no idea the little fox cub was already bristling, his tail standing straight up like an antenna and too sensitive to be touched. He merely asked over voice, “Mm? Can you not hear me?”
When Yan Shiyue softly uttered a small sound like that, his voice became especially deep and magnetic. In the quiet night it flowed like the gentle pluck of a cello string.
As though scalded, Lin Cimian yanked off his headphones with a huge movement and threw them onto the desk. At the same time, he leaned backward, sending his computer chair rolling away. Only after opening some distance did he feel capable of breathing fresh air again.
No, no. A voice lover’s health bar was about to empty.
Lin Cimian patted his chest and drew a deep breath. Preserving the last shred of calm he possessed, he put on a stern face and replaced his headphones.
“I’m fine. I was just looking for the recording from earlier.”
Yan Shiyue’s attention was successfully redirected. “All right. I’ll send you the chat records now.”
Lin Cimian was not skilled at opening new topics, and Yan Shiyue still had work to handle. After finishing their business, they ended the voice call.
Lin Cimian opened the window and drank hot cocoa while letting the cold wind blow over him. After a while, the heat in his face finally faded.
Only then did he sit back down at the computer and open the chat records Yan Shiyue had sent. After reading through them once, his brows drew tightly together and his expression became very strange.
He was slow, not stupid. Xie Niannian’s messages were packed with implications, and he acted coy and spoiled from time to time. They were intimate enough to resemble messages between lovers. Yan Shiyue, however, had replied stiffly with a single “Busy,” and then never answered Xie Niannian again.
Could Xie Niannian actually like Good Day a little…? But he had a boyfriend. His boyfriend had even specifically come to avenge him, and their relationship seemed pretty good.
Then only one possibility remained.
Lin Cimian was socially anxious. He had never had many close friends growing up, was not good at chatting with strangers, and his interpersonal relationships were absurdly simple. After the initial shock, he actually became a little excited.
It was basically: I finally found a living scheming green tea! This is the first time I’ve ever been this close to real gossip!!
Only after that did Lin Cimian start feeling angry. He had been dragged into the situation for no reason and had nearly lost levels and equipment because of the kill order.
Expressionless, he composed the email. There was not a single comforting phrase in it. To make his feelings even clearer, he added an exclamation mark at the end.
He hit Send hard, closed his email with the satisfaction of having finished everything, paid no attention whatsoever to Chu Nanxuan’s reaction, shut down the computer, and went straight to sleep.
Lin Cimian had one excellent habit: he never carried yesterday’s emotions into the next day. When he woke the following morning and saw the bright sunlight, he was in a very good mood and did not even think about the matter again.
That afternoon, he had barely greeted the livestream viewers when someone suddenly began bombarding him with gifts.
Nanxuan sent Stars x100.
Nanxuan sent Sparklers x10.
Nanxuan sent Meteors x2.
Nanxuan sent Meteors x1.
Nanxuan sent Meteors x1.
…
Seeing the familiar name, Lin Cimian vaguely guessed what had happened and immediately opened the livestream platform’s private-message backend on his phone.
Nanxuan: I understand what happened now. I misunderstood you and put a kill order on you without distinguishing right from wrong. I apologize. The gifts in your livestream are a small token of my sincerity. I hope they can compensate for your losses, and I hope you can forgive me.
After just learning that he had been cheated on and still managing to type a message like this, Chu Nanxuan was not having an easy day. Lin Cimian felt deep sympathy for this brother who had “lost both his wife and his money.” He had no intention of pursuing the matter further and sent two stickers as a little consolation.
That should have brought the whole incident to a satisfactory end, but some of Xie Niannian’s fans recognized the ID.
[?? Isn’t Nanxuan Niannian’s boyfriend? Why is he sending you gifts?]
[You bullied Niannian and now you’re stealing his boyfriend too! You’ve gone too far!!]
[Tsk tsk. I always thought this streamer had fake-innocent homewrecker vibes. He kept insisting over and over that he wasn’t an online romance scammer. Isn’t that what guilty people do? Sure enough, he specializes in targeting other people’s boyfriends.]
[Nanxuan, are you an idiot? That’s shared couple property. What right do you have to give it to someone else?!]
The viewers who had merely wanted to enjoy the stream finally could not tolerate it and fired back.
[Are you people ever going to stop? Why does this Xie Niannian guy keep haunting us like a ghost?]
[Are you all sewage-spewing machines? Why do you talk this disgustingly?]
[Don’t scare me. Couples have jointly owned property now? I’m too afraid to get a boyfriend! Dog-head.jpg.]
Thanks to Xie Niannian’s fans, the atmosphere in the livestream became foul again. Lin Cimian frowned tightly, his desire to play ruined.
Recently, Unruly Subject had made a habit of dropping into Lin Cimian’s livestream whenever he was free to patrol the place. He saw the comments clearly and immediately messaged him.
Lin Cimian happened to want someone to vent to. He briefly explained what had happened, and Unruly Subject’s blood pressure immediately soared.
Unruly Subject: I give up. Do people have their brains surgically removed before dating? Why is every single one of them such an idiot?!
Unruly Subject: Sorry, I generalized. Xie Niannian himself is just brain-dead!
Unruly Subject: Who the hell knew the hidden storyline would make someone choose between two people on a city wall? He didn’t bring his own boyfriend, and then blames someone else because he wasn’t chosen? If it were me, I’d be praying not to get picked! They’re a pair, and I’d be stuck in the middle as part of their couple role-play. How uncomfortable would that be?!
Unruly Subject: Fuck, I just saw the messages Xie Niannian sent Good Day. The green-tea smell is overwhelming. Thank god Good Day remained completely unmoved. You’d better be careful from now on. What if someone steals Good Day away?
Lin Cimian found the wording strange and followed that line of thought for a moment.
Sleepless Tonight: That won’t happen. Good Day can tell what kind of person someone is.
Since transmigrating into the book, he had met every variety of bizarre person. Good Day was the most dependable adult he had encountered. Without realizing it, Lin Cimian had developed an almost blind admiration and trust in him.
Unruly Subject: I’m worried about you. If Good Day gets stolen away, what will you do?
Sleepless Tonight: What do you mean?
Unruly Subject: Then wouldn’t you be all alone?
Lin Cimian understood nothing about romantic feelings and completely missed the implication. Innocently and seriously, he replied:
Sleepless Tonight: It’s okay. I still have you.
Unruly Subject: “…”
He almost heard a bang in his ears and felt as though he had been struck directly in the heart.
He knew Lin Cimian only meant that they were game friends who could play together, yet his heart still melted uncontrollably.
Feelings of emotion, comfort, happiness, and other complicated things tangled together, eventually becoming a powerful protective instinct:
His good brother absolutely could not be allowed to suffer even the slightest grievance!
Unruly Subject: We can’t let this end here. Forward me the email. I’ll make an exposé post on the forum and let everyone judge for themselves.
Lin Cimian lacked experience with this kind of thing, so he entrusted the important task to Unruly Subject. It was a good opportunity to learn from him too.
Half an hour later, Lin Cimian received the forum link Unruly Subject sent.
Unruly Subject loved browsing forum gossip and had absorbed plenty of experience. The title he came up with was so sensational that the head of a clickbait media company might personally come recruit him.
The actual opening post, however, was restrained. It discussed the facts without deliberately provoking emotion, and when paired with indisputable evidence, it hammered the target straight into the bottom of a pit.
Lin Cimian and Xie Niannian were not major streamers, but Joyous Union naturally carried an aura of drama. The moment players smelled gossip, they flooded into the thread.
Floor 1: HAHAHA asked for proof and got hammered by it.
Floor 2: All I can say is karma.
Floor 3: Congratulations to Xie Niannian on successfully making it impossible for himself to stay in the community. Remember to thank your fans later. Dog-head.jpg.
Floor 4: Acts innocent, pitiful, and understanding in public; secretly encourages fans to curse people; then gets the boyfriend he cheated on to “seek justice” for him. And that boyfriend is something else too—he formed a team with eight healers! Tsk tsk tsk. So many ingredients. Every poison included.
…
Floor 125: Put myself in the streamer’s place. Kind of feel sorry for him.
Floor 186: What platform does this streamer use? I want to see the video he posted.
The video evidence could not be uploaded directly to the forum, so Lin Cimian put it on his profile page instead. It was completely unedited, restoring the events as they had happened.
The furious netizens watched the entire thing and, almost in unison, smacked their lips.
?? Why did this taste like public affection?
Thanks. We’re shipping it now.
[That heroic rescue was way too heart-fluttering. If it were me, I’d drag him to the God of Marriage Shrine the next day and become cultivation partners immediately.]
[Such a beautiful scene, and the two of them are just standing there stiffly.]
[What do you know? They’re private messaging. Side-eye-smile.jpg.]
[You never speak in the livestream, but you voice-chat privately with someone else. Wife, how can you treat me like this?!]
[This time, all of us are under the bed.]
Xie Niannian received the punishment he deserved. The fans who had always trusted and supported him were furious, yet Xie Niannian remained self-righteous and was even bold enough to invite people onto the microphone for a live voice conversation.
At first, Xie Niannian was still smiling. But as his fans’ words grew increasingly intense and they fired one lethal question after another at him, panic gradually overtook his expression. His lips trembled, and he stammered so badly that even after biting the tip of his tongue, he could not produce a complete sentence.
Plenty of gossip spectators joined just to watch the spectacle. Unable to withstand it, Xie Niannian had no choice but to temporarily disappear from the internet. Chu Nanxuan, meanwhile, joyfully acquired the nickname “Brother Green Hat,” and even his in-game signature became: Sorrow is a lonely river.
Alongside the gossip, everyone learned a great deal of background information. From then on, Lin Cimian acquired a whole collection of forum nicknames: “The Planner’s Eldest Cousin’s Nephew,” “The Battle-Damaged Beauty Who Listens to ‘Real Men Must Fight,’” “The Man Skilled at Using the Unruly Subject Card to Attract Traffic,” “The Wife with an Insanely Beautiful Voice,” and “The Expert Who Can Trigger Nine-Tailed Possession.”
In the entertainment industry, he had been an infamous celebrity discussed across the entire internet. Now that he was a game streamer, traffic followed him just as naturally. In only one month, the popularity he accumulated was already comparable to veteran streamers who had worked four or five years.
After learning about Lin Cimian’s exploits, many players also wanted in on the fun and waited in his livestream at the usual time. But the normally diligent and punctual Lin Cimian stood everyone up, with no explanation for his absence.
Yan Shiyue did not learn about it immediately.
His agreed gaming time with Lin Cimian was at night. But that afternoon, while riding back to the company, his temples suddenly throbbed twice for no apparent reason.
A vague sense of unease arose. Yan Shiyue instinctively took out his phone and opened Lin Cimian’s livestream.
Lin Cimian never showed his face and did not chat verbally with the viewers, yet his livestream always felt lively and infectious whenever Yan Shiyue watched it.
Yan Shiyue had possessed a steadiness and maturity beyond his peers since childhood and had always preferred quiet. Now that he was around thirty, his friends often teased him for being as old-fashioned and boring as an elderly man. Yan Shiyue had never considered changing, yet at some point he had developed an unexpectedly fashionable habit—
Watching livestreams.
Sometimes, even while concentrating on work, Yan Shiyue would open Lin Cimian’s livestream, mute his phone, and place it to one side. The brightly colored game interface on the screen looked completely out of place beside serious English-language contracts, yet it gave Yan Shiyue a feeling of companionship.
He did not dislike that feeling. In fact, the habit gradually intensified. Whenever he had a spare moment with nothing to do, he would open the livestream and take a look at the little fox cub he was raising.
This time, however, was different. What greeted him was a cold black screen.
[The streamer isn’t home. Please come back later.]
Yan Shiyue frowned deeply at the notice. Without thinking further, he immediately opened WeChat.
Yan: I saw that you didn’t start your stream. Did something happen?
Yan Shiyue had always been difficult to read and showed no obvious anxiety, but within five minutes he checked his phone twice. The special assistant sitting in front of him went silent in terror, assuming some enormous problem had arisen at the company. His heart sank halfway into the ground.
Yan: Please reply when you see this.
The messages sank without a trace. Lin Cimian, who usually replied almost instantly, gave no response this time.
Yan Shiyue knew Lin Cimian’s circumstances very well. His brows drew even tighter. The tapping of his fingers against his knee betrayed his emotions.
Lin Cimian was a minor living alone, without parental supervision. If he encountered trouble or danger, he could only face it by himself. There was no one there to help him.
Yan Shiyue did not want to imagine the worst, but life was unpredictable, and people could sometimes be painfully fragile.
The car happened to stop. The special assistant, heart in his throat, had just begun turning around to ask what was wrong when the only response was the heavy slam of the car door.
Yan Shiyue got out and strode forward. Ignoring everyone else’s looks, he immediately called Lin Cimian on WeChat.
One second before the call would have disconnected automatically, someone finally answered.
“What is it?” Lin Cimian’s voice was quiet and somewhat weak, but there was no obvious pain in it. Only then did Yan Shiyue breathe out in relief.
“Sorry to bother you. I saw that you weren’t streaming and you didn’t reply to my messages. I thought something had happened to you.”
“Ah—the stream!” Lin Cimian’s eyes suddenly widened. Only then did he remember the livestream. After several dazed seconds, he murmured quietly, “I forgot. I didn’t see your messages either. Sorry.”
Lin Cimian treated livestreaming as a job and had always been serious and diligent about it. What could possibly have happened to make him forget entirely?
Yan Shiyue sensed something and his tone became heavier. “Did you run into trouble?”
“N-no. Nothing.” Lin Cimian habitually reported good news and hid the bad, instinctively trying to avoid the subject. But the instant he finished speaking, an electronic notification sounded through the phone.
Yan Shiyue did not give him the chance to evade the matter. He asked directly, “You’re at a hospital. Are you sick?”
“I’m not sick.” Lin Cimian’s voice became softer and softer. He looked down and only then noticed his legs were still trembling uncontrollably. At some point, one of his slippers had fallen off, leaving one gray-stained sock exposed.
Embarrassed, Lin Cimian curled his toes. He drew a deep breath and pretended to be calm. “It-it was the elderly woman who lives upstairs. She suddenly fainted. I heard the noise and went upstairs to check. Her husband and I brought her to the hospital. I…”
Lin Cimian glanced at the tightly closed doors of the emergency room. It felt as though his heart were clenched in a fist, leaving him unable to breathe. “I don’t know if she’ll be okay. I don’t know first aid either. At the very beginning, I couldn’t do anything.”
“You already did very well. Everything will be all right.” Yan Shiyue’s voice remained even, without any obvious comforting inflection, but his calmness reached Lin Cimian. A crack opened in the stone lodged in his chest, and all the emotions trapped behind it poured out.
Around people he was not close to, Lin Cimian was always restrained and distant, instinctively resistant to confiding in anyone. But listening to Yan Shiyue breathe on the other end of the phone—even merely thinking about the fact that he was there—somehow made Lin Cimian as fragile as a small child. His nose stung immediately, his eyes shimmered with tears, and a sob entered his voice.
“I-I’m so scared—”
