Listening to the footsteps outside the door gradually fade away, Xia Yanran leaned against the door and slowly crouched down, her face as red as a steaming engine.
She buried her flushing cheeks into her knees. It was so hot…
Regardless of how proactive she had seemed just moments ago, she was actually so shy that she could barely stand.
Her heart was still thumping wildly, as if a restless little rabbit was trapped inside her chest.
Lin Mowei’s remarks about “romance” had certainly made a significant impact on her.
It had directly shifted her goal from simply wanting to be Lin Yu’s girlfriend to the more specific—and courage-demanding—desire to become his wife.
In her eyes, there was a massive difference between the two.
A wife… meant a longer future, a deeper understanding, and a more practical life together.
She and Lin Yu had grown up as childhood friends, so they truly knew each other’s personalities, tempers, and preferences inside and out.
Naturally, the next things she needed him to understand extended to other areas.
Just as Lin Yu had asked earlier, “I don’t even know what size you are.”
Xia Yanran’s goal this time was to make sure he knew.
She would make him accompany her to buy underwear and make him notice her changes.
But an idea was just an idea. Actually doing it was still…
“Ah… how annoying, that bastard,” she muttered into her arms, her voice muffled. “Saying things like you’ve never measured… I-I’ll let you measure them yourself if you dare, you know? Hmph… you little virgin…”
Even though she was in the same boat, it didn’t stop her from using that to mock Lin Yu, as if it would help her win a psychological victory.
After crouching for a while, she felt the heat on her face slowly dissipate and her heartbeat steady.
She used the door for support to stand up, rubbed her slightly numb calves, and turned to walk back into the room.
As soon as she entered, she saw the messy, unmade bed.
Xia Yanran’s heart skipped a beat, and she instantly panicked.
She rushed to the side of the bed and nervously checked the state of the quilt, deathly afraid that Lin Yu had lifted it while tidying up and seen the unsightly marks on the sheets.
If he saw them, would he think she was a… a certain kind of girl? Would it leave a bad impression?
After repeatedly confirming that it looked roughly the same as when she left and didn’t seem to have been touched, she breathed a long sigh of relief. The weight on her heart was lifted.
However, once that breath was out, a hint of disappointment quietly surfaced in her heart.
Maybe… if he had seen them, would he have developed some other thoughts instead?
Perhaps… he would be a bit more interested in her? Aren’t boys all like that…
Young people were always like this—full of contradictions, wild imaginations, and a restless energy that had nowhere to go.
She shook her head as if to shake out those messy thoughts.
Then, she threw herself forward, collapsing onto the soft bed.
She buried her face in the pillow, which still carried a faint trace of her scent. Closing her eyes, those pink, bubbling fantasies she had forcibly suppressed began to uncontrollably resurface bit by bit.
Her fingers unconsciously tightened and then slowly relaxed. Her fingertips lightly brushed across the sheets as her body curled up slightly.
—
Lin Yu didn’t take Xia Yanran’s earlier actions too seriously.
It was just accompanying her for some shopping; it wasn’t a big deal.
Buying underwear? It wasn’t like he hadn’t gone with her before in the past.
To him, this fell under the category of normal assistance; he had long since grown used to it.
When he arrived home, his older sister, Lin Mowei, was sitting on the sofa flipping through a magazine.
Hearing the door open, she immediately looked up, a refined and gentle smile blossoming on her face.
“Xiao Yu, you’re back.” Her voice was soft. “What do you want for dinner? I’ll make it for you.”
Lin Yu didn’t dislike this kind of mundane daily life. He even felt a long-lost sense of peace and stability in these days.
“Anything is fine,” he replied casually. “I love everything you make, Sis.”
To him, it was just a very ordinary sentence expressing his lack of pickiness and his trust in her.
But in Lin Mowei’s ears, it was processed through several layers of filters.
Does Xiao Yu mean… whatever I make, he likes?
Is… is this a confession to his sister?
Although it might not be that direct, the underlying meaning…
Oh, stop it. It’s so sudden, I wasn’t prepared at all…
A person with a “love-brain” simply functioned on a different wavelength than others. Lin Yu naturally had no idea about his sister’s complex psychological activity and walked back to his room as a matter of course.
“Sis, call me when dinner is ready.”
“Okay~”
Lin Mowei responded, the sweetness in her voice clearly exceeding the standard limit.
However, Lin Yu, who had no ulterior thoughts, naturally didn’t pick up on it.
He sat at his desk and casually turned on his computer.
Speaking of which, Lin Yu was responsible for at least half the reason why Xia Yanran had transformed from a standard active, athletic girl into an internet-addicted girl who frequently stayed home to play games.
Otherwise, as a normie athlete, she basically wouldn’t have touched such things.
As it turned out, Lin Yu’s own interest in games eventually faded a bit and he didn’t play as frequently, but Xia Yanran began to pester him to play with her instead.
She would even say misleading things like, “You’re the one who got me addicted, so you have to take responsibility!”
He logged into the game.
This was a Large-Scale Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game that he had been playing since the open beta; he was considered a veteran player.
After the character loading screen passed, the familiar image of the game’s main city unfolded.
He noticed the mailbox icon flashing, indicating new mail.
When he clicked it, it was a system-issued party invitation sent this morning.
[Come to the party! Your big sis got a promotion!]
The sender’s game ID was: “Lush Green Grassland.”
He had met this “Lush Green Grassland” in a high-difficulty dungeon. At the time, they were randomly matched into the same team. Seeing that his skills and awareness were excellent, she sent a friend request after the run.
Later, they occasionally ran dungeons or did daily quests together. They chatted quite well and had been online friends for several years.
“Accept Invitation.”
The screen transitioned, and he was teleported into a quite luxuriously decorated private player home.
Many player characters were already gathered inside. Many of the IDs above their heads looked familiar, belonging to the people in their small circle who often played together.
Seeing him enter, several female characters quickly came over to greet him warmly, using various cute emotes and gestures.
Lin Yu was now able to handle such interactions with great composure.
After greeting them, he went to a corner where there weren’t many people.
On the stage, “Lush Green Grassland” was wildly tossing out red envelopes. The characters surrounding her, many with customized “Old God” faces, were dancing like demons in a frenzy of celebration.
He also snatched a few, but his luck wasn’t great and he didn’t get much.
At that moment, he noticed someone else standing nearby. He knew this person as well, though they hadn’t spoken much. They only occasionally ran dungeons together because of their mutual connection to “Lush Green Grassland.”
[How much did you grab?] He sent a nearby chat message to the character with the ID “Glazed Sea.”
The other character turned toward him and, after a moment, replied, [Five thousand.]
[Wow, I only got five hundred. You got ten times as much as me?]
It wasn’t actually that much. The exchange rate for the currency was one to a thousand, so it was only about five dollars.
[It was alright.]
It was a very cold response, but Lin Yu knew this person was just like that.
[By the way, Big Sis Green got a promotion? What happened?] he asked casually.
The other party just didn’t speak much, but normal communication was still possible. From her, Lin Yu learned the story.
It turned out that the top boss and the second-in-command at “Lush Green Grassland’s” company had both been suspended at the same time. Since they couldn’t find a suitable replacement immediately, they had her temporarily fill the vacancy.
Her salary and benefits had also been significantly increased. In her excitement, she decided to throw a party to make everyone jealous.
That “make everyone jealous” part was her own original phrasing.
Goofy internet friends were like that—they would give you advice if something went wrong, and they absolutely had to show off if they struck it rich. After all, everyone was an outsider anyway.
[Big Sis Green finally made it,] Lin Yu commented.
[Mhm.]
The two of them chatted idly for a bit, and then Lin Mowei called him for dinner.
[That’s it for now. I’m heading offline. I’ll play tonight.]
[Okay.]
Mu Liuli looked at the content popping up in the dialogue box: [Your friend, Feather Weaver, has left this channel.]
“Yu…”
That was what everyone in the game called this person. It was quite a coincidence that *that* person was also named Yu.
She picked up her water glass and took a sip, then snatched another red envelope.
This time it wasn’t much, only five hundred.
She looked out the window.
The afterglow of the setting sun was gradually sinking into the city’s skyline, plating the room in a layer of warm golden-red.
Beneath her chair, a pair of fair, slender legs were unconsciously swaying gently.