Right after getting dumped, He suddenly learned that his best buddy was the legendary cold-as-ice school beauty. - Chapter 52

“Yibei, you back?”

In Dorm 404, Hao Pangzi looked up hurriedly, then immediately went back to staring at his phone.

“Back,” Lu Yibei nodded.

“Damn it, damn it, damn it—” Liu Jie cursed under his breath.

His PUBG run with Hao Zhangwen had been anything but smooth.

Lu Yibei glanced at him and asked,

“Where’s Sun?”

No sooner had he spoken than Zhao Sun came in from the balcony.

“Yibei, you’re back.” He looked outside at the steady rain. “This rain… it’s really damn heavy.”

“What’s wrong?”

Lu Yibei smiled. “Don’t tell me… you were worried the rain would trap me out there?”

Before he could feel touched, Zhao Sun shattered his illusion.

“Get outta here. I never thought you’d come back today,” he said. “I worked so hard to hang up a scarecrow for good weather, and yet the heavens still felt sorry for those poor trainees. Such heavy rain! Damn it, back when we had military training last year, we weren’t this lucky.”

Lu Yibei: “…Your indifferent face hurts my soul. September rain… is just as heartless as you—oh oh oh~~”

He hadn’t even sung two lines of his parody version of June Rain before Liu Jie slammed his phone onto the table.

“Damn!”

“What happened?” Zhao Sun asked. “Chen Dan found a boyfriend or something?”

He knew Liu Jie was just gaming, but he couldn’t resist teasing him.

“Get lost!” Liu Jie growled.

Lu Yibei guessed, “Let me see… landed, level two armor, level three helmet, four-wheel car fully equipped… and still got taken out by a six-times scope. Absolute joke.”

Judging by Liu Jie’s expression, Lu Yibei had hit the mark.

“Can you blame me?!” Liu Jie retorted.

“Then blame Pangzi?” Lu Yibei teased.

“Nope, not me either.”

Hao Pangzi explained: “It’s not even Jie’s fault this time. We were in a four-person squad, but there was one… special teammate. Ten drops, nine failures, eight shots missed, seven bullets wasted. Only three out of four actually contributing—just a freeloader.”

Zhao Sun looked at Hao Zhangwen in disbelief. “So precise.”

After quitting the game, Liu Jie was still restless. Seeing Hao Zhangwen linger on the PUBG screen, he said,

“Pangzi, click ‘report.’”

“Jie, I told you your nerves aren’t strong,” Zhao Sun said sternly.

“Exactly,” Lu Yibei chimed in.

“Got screwed a few times—it’s just a game!” Zhao Sun said.

“Just a game,” Lu Yibei echoed.

“You’ve been playing with Yibei for so long, and you still get tilted this easily?” Zhao Sun asked.

“Yep…”

Lu Yibei stayed silent for a moment, then pressed his knee against Zhao Sun’s butt: “Damn you! Teaching Jie a lesson is one thing, don’t drag me into it!”

Liu Jie threw his phone, trying to calm down. “Yibei, where did you go just now?”

“Out for dinner,” Lu Yibei said.

Liu Jie wasn’t surprised. “With the basketball team? Or someone else?”

Yibei had always been well-liked. Though not on the basketball team, he had a good relationship with the captain. The incident that ended the tension between him and Zhou Zhou started when he went to KTV with the basketball captain and a few others.

“Someone else,” Lu Yibei said.

“Male or female?” Hao Zhangwen asked casually.

Everyone guessed male—though not because Lu Yibei was bad with girls. Last time, due to Zhou Zhou, he had simply isolated all girls his age.

“Female,” Lu Yibei answered truthfully.

Liu Jie paused. “Li Zi? You missed the welcome dinner; she kept talking about it.”

“No.”

“Hmm? Then who? Met any new girls recently?”

Liu Jie perked up. “You mean I might have a daughter-in-law soon?”

“Ji Qingqian,” Lu Yibei said.

Liu Jie’s enthusiasm deflated. “Here we go again… already panting, huh?”

Previously, Lu Yibei had kept his relationship with Qingqian a secret. Liu Jie constantly urged him to ask for her WeChat, stay in touch, and maybe develop something. But once Lu Yibei admitted they had a bit of history, Liu Jie switched to a disbelieving “Yeah, right” attitude.

“Yibei, I admit, you’ve got some looks, but Ji Qingqian? She’s a campus beauty, competing alongside Lezi, and way colder than Lezi. You’ve only known her a short while, and you’re already taking her out to dinner?” Liu Jie scoffed. “Don’t mess with me using such ridiculous methods, okay?”

Lu Yibei mused: “Hmm… why not?”

Liu Jie sneered. “Ha, if you actually manage to get a dinner with Ji Qingqian today, I swear—” He gestured at the table in front of him. “—I’ll eat this entire table!”

Sigh.

Lu Yibei inwardly sighed. Even as an honest, trustworthy guy, he got doubted like this.

“Then your jaws must be strong, teeth solid,” he said, choosing not to explain further.

Some things are better left to play out. Sooner or later, the truth will blind their eyes.

“Going to shower,” Lu Yibei said.

Hao Zhangwen noticed Lu Yibei’s right wrist, then glanced at his hair.

“Sun,” he asked softly, looking at the only person in the room with braids. “Yibei’s hair isn’t long enough to tie up yet, right?”

“Yeah,” Zhao Sun nodded.

Lu Yibei’s hair was messy and uneven—hard to tie. Not attractive on its own; his face was still the main advantage.

“Why are you asking?” Liu Jie inquired.

Pangzi ignored him, tapping the table gently and observing carefully.

“What are you looking at?” Liu Jie asked again.

“Just figuring out whether this tastes better with cumin or sweet chili sauce,” Hao Pangzi said.

Liu Jie: ??

“Going crazy,” he muttered. After a short break, he felt ready again and picked up his phone: “While Yibei showers, Pangzi, Sun, let’s start another round.”

Lu Yibei’s voice came from the bathroom:

“Walls have ears. I can hear you—stop badmouthing me behind my back.”

Liu Jie laughed. “Yibei, chill. Once you call your big boss over, we’ll just kick Sun out.”

The “big boss” was Qingqian—the CS expert, the PUBG novice.

Last year, Lu Yibei had dragged her into a few matches. In a four-person squad, besides Lu Yibei and Qingqian, the other two spots were randomly filled from the dorm. Liu Jie had bad luck, only teaming with Qingqian once.

Still, he couldn’t forget her streak of thirteen consecutive kills.

—Big boss.

Her in-game ID wasn’t Qingqian, but “dsk3#%.” No one suspected she was the same person. Everyone, including Lu Yibei back then, thought she was a guy—a pure guy.

“The big boss doesn’t want to play with you,” Lu Yibei said.

“Why?” Liu Jie asked.

“Too weak,” Lu Yibei replied.

Liu Jie didn’t accept it. “Weaker than you? Impossible!”

“We’re different,” Lu Yibei said.

“What’s different?”

“She enjoys playing with me,” Lu Yibei said.

And indeed, she had said it herself.