He noticed a wrist support wrapped around Chu Xingxiao’s arm.
“You’re not fat,” Chi Zhan said, surprised. “You can’t even drink juice?”
“It makes you look puffy on camera,” Chu Xingxiao replied with a smile, tugging lightly at the wristband. “So I have to work out regularly. This is just to prevent injury.” Then, with a light chuckle, he added, “But you, gege, are the perfect build. My manager wants me to train to look like you. Got any secrets?”
Secrets?
Coke, fried chicken, and a mountain of carbs.
Saying that out loud would sound like humblebragging. But truthfully, every time Chi Zhan hit the gym, his body fat percentage was well within the healthy range. He was just one of those people who couldn’t gain weight no matter what he ate.
Chi Zhan thought for a moment.
“Guys shouldn’t be too skinny. Doesn’t look good.”
Chu Xingxiao nodded earnestly.
“Got it!”
…Got what, exactly?
Chu Xingxiao was good at steering a conversation. The moment he sensed Chi Zhan didn’t want to dwell on a topic, he effortlessly pivoted to something else.
“This complex is huge,” he said casually. “I nearly got lost earlier and ended up in the wrong building.”
He wasn’t exaggerating. The place had earned the nickname “the maze complex” for a reason. The deeper in you went, the more winding the paths became. It spanned a huge area, with a hospital and a school inside. First-timers almost always got lost.
“You don’t have to call me gege,” Chi Zhan said, feeling slightly off about the term. Then he realized what had been bothering him—it was how Chu Xingxiao addressed him. “I’m probably not much older than you.”
Every time Chu Xingxiao said gege, he softened his tone, lacing it with an oddly tender warmth.
“Is it weird?” Chu Xingxiao looked genuinely surprised. “In our group, we always call each other gege or didi. It’s just habit. I’m twenty-two—what about you, gege?”
…He hadn’t expected Chu Xingxiao to be that close in age.
Chi Zhan hesitated, then said vaguely, “…A bit older.”
“Then I’ll keep calling you gege. It just rolls off the tongue,” Chu Xingxiao said with a grin.
Chi Zhan had no choice but to respect his linguistic habits.
“Oh right,” Chu Xingxiao added offhandedly, “gege seems really curious about my mole. Do you like it?”
He blinked at him playfully.
It was true—Chi Zhan had looked more than a few times at the tear-shaped mole beneath his eye, unable to resist comparing it to Seven’s.
But tear moles varied from person to person. Not everyone wore them the same way; some added a touch of charm, others mystique. It was hard to pick a favorite.
Still, he hadn’t expected Chu Xingxiao, who came off as carefree, to be this perceptive.
Chi Zhan nodded.
“It’s quite unique. Is it real?”
Rumor had it that some idols would ask their makeup artists to draw on a mole just to stand out.
Chu Xingxiao blinked, then broke into a smile.
“Then why don’t you see for yourself, gege? You’ll know if it’s real.”
He leaned in slightly, closing the distance between them—but not so much as to make it uncomfortable—then shut his eyes.
“Go ahead, gege. You can touch it.”
The youthful energy radiating from the boy was impossible to ignore. Up close, his handsome face was flawless, glowing with a sunny kind of brightness.
Chi Zhan had never met someone so forward.
Hard to turn him down, so he reached out and lightly tapped beneath Chu Xingxiao’s eye, barely grazing it.
His skin was smooth and warm under his fingertip.
Chu Xingxiao opened his eyes, locking eyes with him.
His irises weren’t pure black. Instead, they held a trace of deep blue, like a hidden sapphire adrift in the cosmos—mysterious and mesmerizing.
He curved his lips into a smile.
“Confirmed, gege?”
The upward lilt in his voice wasn’t a question. It was a tease.
Chi Zhan withdrew his hand.
“…Yeah.”
Just then, Chu Xingxiao’s phone rang, breaking the oddly charged atmosphere. He stepped aside to answer, while Chi Zhan took the chance to collect himself.
Only when he really looked did he realize—Chu Xingxiao did have what it took to be an idol. Even a simple glance felt loaded with emotion. It was like getting hit with a beauty filter in real life.
“It’s gotten so late,” Chu Xingxiao said apologetically after hanging up. “Sorry, I was having so much fun chatting with you, I lost track of time. The movers just arrived—I’ve got to go deal with that. Next time we meet, I’ll bring you a gift, gege.”
He dashed to the entryway, fumbling with his shoes, then suddenly paused as if remembering something.
“Oh! Let’s exchange contacts.”
They added each other, and Chu Xingxiao waved with a smile.
“See you next time, gege!”
The guy was pure sunshine, all energy and charm. Only after the door closed did Chi Zhan suddenly realize how oppressively quiet the room had become.
…Why did he feel so inexplicably lonely?
Frustrated, he decided to hop online and play a game. But the moment he opened it, it began updating—quite a hefty one too. After more than ten minutes, it finally loaded. As soon as he logged in, a game invite from Song Guang popped up.
Song Guang rarely came online.
Chi Zhan entered the room and was surprised to see only two slots. Odd.
Song Guang: New event.
Chi Zhan: confused cat emoji.jpg
Ever since the cat meme pack was released, everything could be expressed with cat faces—no need to type at all.
He hadn’t read the update notes carefully, so he went back and skimmed them. Turns out, it was a new co-op cooking mini-game for in-game couples.
Each level earned you couple activity points. As you leveled up, you could unlock higher-tier relationship tags like “Seven-Year Flame,” “Sweet as Honey,” or “Forever Bound.” There were even matching chat bubbles and flashy entrance effects.
…Clearly, they’d taken a page straight out of Penguin’s book.
Chi Zhan always felt a bit guilty toward Song Guang. Even though he was only using him, Song Guang had never once gotten angry. He simply went along with it, no questions asked—even when Chi Zhan had proposed the ludicrous idea of pretending to be in a relationship.
Because of that, whatever Song Guang wanted to do—so long as it was within reason—Chi Zhan always said yes. Every time.
They selected their characters and entered the game, matching against another couple. The two sides stood on opposite ends of a large kitchen. Just as Chi Zhan was still trying to figure out what was going on, the opposing couple suddenly launched a surprise attack.
