Chen Yao felt something wasn’t quite right.
Normally, Lin Nan was someone who would wake up at the slightest sound while sleeping. His sleep quality had always been poor. Since they slept on the same bunk bed, Chen Yao would wake Lin Nan every time he got up to use the bathroom at night.
But today...
No matter how abruptly the bus stopped, how much the cabin shook, or how loudly people around them talked, Lin Nan didn’t stir at all. His eyes remained tightly shut, and he had even deliberately grabbed Chen Yao’s wrist, placing his hand on his waist.
Could the sun have affected his brain?
Chen Yao was completely puzzled. Lin Nan wasn’t usually the type who liked being touched, or rather, nobody should like being touched by others.
Lin Nan also felt something wasn’t quite right.
His elbow seemed to have accidentally pressed against a strange place, but he didn’t dare move, could only keep his eyes tightly shut, trying to keep his breathing even as his body swayed slightly with the bus’s movements. Fortunately, Chen Yao wasn’t too embarrassing and had caught him promptly when he almost fell.
And due to the constant rocking of the bus, Chen Yao had no choice but to keep holding Lin Nan’s waist, his other hand supporting his head to prevent any accidents.
By the time the two got off the bus, it was only half past six.
Lin Nan’s cheeks were flushed red in the darkness. He kept his head down, afraid Chen Yao might notice his expression. Meanwhile, Chen Yao remained confused, silently thinking to himself:
Even among girls, probably only Lin Nan would be this soft, right?
With this thought, recalling what had happened on the bus, he also couldn’t look at Lin Nan. He walked with a slight stoop, afraid his unusual state might be noticed.
The two walked “in sync” from the bus stop into the school. As the evening breeze blew, evaporating the sweat that hadn’t yet dried on their bodies and taking away body heat, Chen Yao shivered and quickly turned to look at Lin Nan. He saw that Lin Nan seemed oblivious, showing no awareness of the cold.
Lin Nan’s sweat must have dried completely.
Seeing this, Chen Yao changed the subject: “Want to stop by the cafeteria for dinner? I’m hungry.”
“Sure, why not.” Lin Nan quickly forgot about what had happened on the bus, pulling out the red banknotes from his pocket with pride. “Today I’m going to treat myself to something nice!”
“Not going to pay back your debt?”
Lin Nan’s enthusiasm instantly deflated, and he muttered, “Then I’ll just have one meat and one vegetable dish.”
“Forget it, let me treat you,” Chen Yao was unusually generous this time. “Let’s have something good, and I’ll use the rest to buy games! Is there any skin you want? I’ll buy it for you too!”
His daily allowance was enough, with plenty left over to invest in games. Now that he’d earned some extra money, his first thought was to show off his rare “rich guy” generosity in front of Lin Nan.
After all, he’d often spent money on games without restraint before, ending up mooching off Lin Nan for meals at the end of each month.
“DJ Sona?” Lin Nan answered without hesitation.
“Get lost!”
Entering the cafeteria, Chen Yao finally felt warmer. He generously led Lin Nan to the western restaurant on the second floor of the cafeteria, planning to treat him to steak.
For students, steak was already considered a high-end dinner. For Lin Nan, any meal over fifteen yuan was equivalent to luxury.
Of course, cafeteria steak wasn’t like chain restaurants where steak came with a buffet, but the steak set meal was also considerably cheaper than chain restaurants. In fact, if you didn’t mind whether the steak was pieced together, you could buy portions online for just over ten yuan each, and some steak restaurants used this kind of steak.
Lin Nan was very interested in steak. Apart from one time when his parents took him during elementary school, he rarely even saw his parents, let alone had anyone take him out to eat.
The magic had clearly taken effect. Despite wearing a sweat-soaked short-sleeved shirt, he couldn’t feel the cold in the wind at all. Even under the air conditioning in the steak restaurant, he could only detect some air flow, but his body didn’t perceive any temperature difference from outside.
It seemed the plan on the bus had worked.
Lin Nan held back his joyful smile, maintaining a poker face as he sat down across from Chen Yao.
He noticed Chen Yao seemed a bit constrained, but wasn’t sure if he was still dwelling on what happened on the bus or treating their meal together as a date.
A date?
Lin Nan was stunned, unsure how he’d come to think on this level—it was just two men having a meal together.
“What do you want to eat?”
“Anything is fine, you choose,” Lin Nan took out his phone and transferred 150 yuan to Tu Junhui.
He truly detested being in debt, his mind focused solely on repaying it as quickly as possible.
“By the way, are you planning to go home for the National Day holiday?” Chen Yao asked after ordering, his expression more natural now. With his hands on the table, he casually asked, “I have to go back for my cousin’s wedding.”
“I’ll just stay at the dorm. Going home wastes money, and there’s nobody there anyway,” Lin Nan replied.
“Actually, you could come home with me and get free meals,” Chen Yao’s face twisted into an odd smile. “Just dress up as a woman, tell my relatives you’re my girlfriend, and you might even get red envelopes.”
“You’re crazy.”
Lin Nan had absolutely no interest in pretending to be someone’s girlfriend, especially since making the trip just for a few meals would be a huge loss.
Chen Yao was only joking. Although his parents and relatives often asked about his relationship status, they hadn’t reached the point of pressuring him to get married, so there was no need for Lin Nan to make such a sacrifice.
He opened his phone’s camera, pointed it at himself, and propped the phone against the wall.
Lin Nan noticed his action and asked curiously, “What are you doing?”
“Filming some daily life content to maintain my followers. You know I haven’t posted videos recently.”
“I didn’t know... I don’t follow you.” Lin Nan had zero interest in gaming videos and mainly watched food videos. He found Chen Yao’s videos particularly awkward.
Chen Yao was stunned, then pointed the phone directly at Lin Nan, teasing with a smile, “Let’s show everyone who the crossdresser from the last video was! That’ll teach you not to follow me!”
“Wouldn’t that expose that it wasn’t you crossdressing?” Lin Nan replied smugly. “Be careful, I might start making videos too, specifically to expose how you deceive your fans!”
“Fine, you win,” Chen Yao had no intention of including this footage in his video anyway. He yawned and continued pointing the camera at himself, also turning on the beauty filter.
Although the internet was full of handsome men and beautiful women, most of them benefitted from powerful beauty filters. Chen Yao’s skin wasn’t bad, but it certainly couldn’t compare to those people, so he naturally needed a beauty filter.
Normally, he’d feel embarrassed doing voiceovers in the dorm, but this steak restaurant had few customers, which allowed him to be a bit more relaxed. Imitating the opening lines of a famous food content creator, he said to the camera, “Today I did a part-time job, earned 150 yuan, and decided to have a good meal at the school cafeteria.”
Having never filmed daily life content before, he appeared extremely nervous while speaking. After finishing, he looked up to see Lin Nan’s face red from holding back laughter: “Do you want a couple of garlic bulbs with that?”
“I don’t eat that stuff.”