“……”
Lin Jing felt something was off about Sheng Kuang, but she couldn't quite pinpoint it.
"Perhaps I'm just being too sensitive," she thought, looking at him through the game.
She made a sound of acknowledgment and was about to exit the room when Sheng Kuang's voice came through the game's voice chat again: "Lin Jing."
His tone sounded rather serious, and Lin Jing paused. "...Ah?"
"If you need anything, you can call me," Sheng Kuang said, his voice light, giving off a casual impression. "If you're bored alone, you can ask me to play games. If you don't feel like playing, you can also come over to our club and hang out."
Lin Jing opened her mouth, and after a few seconds, she finally managed to say, "Oh."
Sheng Kuang responded with a soft hum and said nothing further.
Lin Jing didn't exit the room, and Chen Jing and the others didn't rush her to leave.
A brief silence fell over the game. Just then, Lan Tingting patted Lin Jing on the shoulder. "Xiao Jing Jiang, let's go."
Lin Jing snapped back to attention. "Um, I'm leaving, bye-bye."
With that, she quit the room. Putting down her phone, she asked Lan Tingting and the others to wait for her for a moment and went to the restroom.
After using the toilet and standing in front of the sink, Lin Jing looked at her reflection in the mirror, her eyes feeling a little teary.
She wasn't sure if it was because she was too starved for affection, but Sheng Kuang's words had actually moved her.
In that moment, she had a fleeting illusion that she wasn't alone in this world.
She had someone with her, someone who thought of her.
...
After Lin Jing left, the game room felt a person lighter.
Chen Jing glanced at Sheng Kuang, who was standing beside him. "Weren't you going to log in? Come on."
Sheng Kuang shot him a look. "Not coming."
With that, he intended to go upstairs and change out of his outdoor clothes. As he reached the entrance of the training room, he bumped squarely into Lan Bowen, who had just entered.
"Oh, you're back. Perfect timing, I have something for you," Lan Bowen said, pulling out a USB drive and handing it to him.
Sheng Kuang looked down, not taking it. "What is it?"
"You'll know when you check it upstairs. I saved it for you specifically." Seeing that Sheng Kuang still had no intention of taking it, Lan Bowen shoved the USB drive into his pocket and entered the training room.
Back in his room, Sheng Kuang took a shower. He walked out of the bathroom, towel in hand, drying his still-dripping hair. As he passed the laundry hamper, he paused, then bent down to retrieve the USB drive from his pocket.
He opened his computer, plugged in the USB drive, and found a video file inside. He clicked on it casually.
It was Lin Jing.
To be precise, it was footage of Lin Jing recording their daily life a while ago.
It was likely that Jiang Xin, who was filming with Lin Jing, had accidentally captured her.
She was holding her phone, running around after him.
When they were filming, he hadn't felt anything particular, but now, watching from a third-person perspective, he realized the girl had quite a few little habits. She would try desperately to tiptoe, or bend down, and at several points, she even stood on chairs.
There was also one clip where she had switched her phone to the front-facing camera and was filming herself.
Sheng Kuang let out a soft chuckle, amused by her.
How did the filming turn into her filming herself?
He casually tossed the towel onto the table nearby, pulled out a chair, and sat down. Then, he saw himself in the video.
He froze for a moment and paused the video.
Since Jiang Xin was recording, her phone screen wasn't very clear, but he could still see himself on her screen.
In her selfie footage, there were only the two of them. She was smiling sweetly at the camera, while he, sitting not far behind her, was slightly turned, talking to someone.
Sheng Kuang stared at the screen for a while, then played the short clip again.
So, she wasn't taking a selfie.
She was secretly taking a picture.
A secret picture of him and her... a photo together.
...
For the first two days of school, Lin Jing actually found it a little hard to adjust to campus life, especially after a long holiday.
However, that only lasted for those two days. After that, she fell back into her usual routine: dormitory, cafeteria, classroom, library, on repeat.
There was indeed a lot to be busy with at the start of the semester. By the time she could finally relax a little, it was almost a week after school had started.
It was a Tuesday, and she had no classes in the afternoon. Lin Jing took a nap, and when she woke up, she logged into Weibo. On her homepage, she saw the schedule for the first round of the KPL Autumn Season regular season.
The league was divided into three groups: S, A, and B.
The YLS team, newly promoted from the qualifiers, was placed in Group B.
The match rules were straightforward: S group teams played against each other, A group against A group, and B group against B group. The final rankings would be determined by total points. The top two teams from Group B would advance to Group A, and the top two from Group A would advance to Group S. Simultaneously, the bottom two teams from Group S would drop to Group A, and the bottom two from Group A would drop to Group B.
At the end of the first round of the regular season, the teams in Group B would be eliminated.
This meant that the YLS team only needed to compete against the other six teams in Group B in the first round. They had to finish within the top two of these six teams to advance to the second round of the KPL Autumn Season regular season.
After the schedule was released, fans from various teams started showing their support.
The top comment was from Sheng Kuang's fans.
"YLS, fighting! Sheng Kuang, fighting! Go for the Autumn Season championship!"
The replies to this comment were the most numerous. Lin Jing's intuition told her that not all of these replies would be fans cheering them on; arguments were sure to break out.
As expected, a fan from the GDT team replied: "Someone from second to last in Group S dares to aim for the championship?"
Without thinking, Lin Jing clicked to reply.
Before she could retort to the GDT fan, her phone suddenly rang.
It was a call from the charity organization. They said the charity certificates for the children in the mountains had been processed, and they needed her to collect the addresses for mailing.
The list was sent to her email. Lin Jing got out of bed, opened her laptop, and after downloading the list, she spotted Sheng Kuang's phone number.
Lin Jing then realized that in the week since school started, she hadn't contacted Sheng Kuang at all.
Although she and Sheng Kuang were quite familiar, they had only communicated through WeChat since adding each other. She hadn't asked for his phone number, and he hadn't asked for hers. To this day, he still didn't know that the person he had been communicating with all along was her.
Before, they didn't know each other. Now that they did, she wondered if he would recognize her voice if she called him.
Lin Jing paused for a moment, then picked up her phone and dialed Sheng Kuang. She used the same business-like tone: "Hello, sorry to bother you..."
After she explained the situation, Sheng Kuang gave her an address.
It was different from the previous address; this time, he gave his home address.
His tone sounded normal, as if he hadn't recognized her voice.
Lin Jing knew his address, but she pretended to take notes and politely said, "Thank you for your cooperation. I wish you a pleasant day. Goodbye."
As usual, Sheng Kuang would have hung up immediately.
However, this time, Sheng Kuang didn't hang up. After a two-second pause, he asked, "Is there anything else you need to tell me?"
Lin Jing blinked. "No, sir."
Silence fell on the other end of the line.
Seeing that Sheng Kuang wasn't hanging up and wasn't speaking, Lin Jing blinked again. "Sir, do you need anything else?"
Sheng Kuang chuckled. "Got addicted to pretending, did we?"
Lin Jing: "..."
After a full ten seconds, Lin Jing asked expressionlessly, "You recognized me."
Sheng Kuang replied with a hum.
Lin Jing thought about how she had been pretending to be formal and calling him "sir" for so long. She paused, her expression becoming even more blank. "When did you realize?"
Sheng Kuang let out a soft sound. "About... two months ago?"
Lin Jing: "?"
Two months ago?
She had only been living at his place for a few days then. If he had said he just realized, she might have believed him.
Two months ago, who was he trying to fool?
Lin Jing genuinely felt that, in Sheng Kuang's words, her cover had been blown rather unconvincingly. "You're bluffing."
"...Not bluffing." Sheng Kuang sounded as if he were playing a game, his words coming out intermittently. "I recognized more than just that."
Lin Jing's heart skipped a beat. "For example?"
"For example?" Sheng Kuang paused for a few seconds. He must have finished his game. Through the phone, Lin Jing heard him put down his phone, and then Sheng Kuang's voice came through again: "When are you going to give me my prize?"
Lin Jing slowly blinked her eyes.
Prize?
What prize?
Could it be...
Before this terrifying thought could fully form in her mind, Sheng Kuang on the phone spoke again: "What was the prize again?"
He paused deliberately. "I think it was ten thousand yuan in cash and the latest model of a mobile phone."
PS: Catching up on the updates. This chapter is really long~