His uncle's rental wasn't actually very big—one bedroom, one living room, one kitchen, one bathroom. The four rooms plus a balcony looked to be at most forty square meters. In the cramped space, Lin Nan felt a bit claustrophobic.
But the apartment's decoration was quite nice, looking nothing like the rental apartments in Lin Nan's memory, but rather like a cozy little home.
The kitchen seemed barely used, with a layer of dust on the countertops. The bathroom was fairly clean and tidy, but the issue was that the whole apartment was permeated with a faint smell of cigarettes, making Lin Nan wrinkle his nose.
Lin Nan curiously explored the rental, then sat on the sofa, turned on the TV, and muttered to himself, "When I graduate, I'll rent a place like this too."
He lay sideways on the sofa with nothing to do, connected to the WiFi on his phone, and turned up the TV volume to create a livelier atmosphere.
Playing on his phone until noon, there was finally movement from the bedroom.
Wu Guodong walked out, yawning continuously. He glanced at Lin Nan, who was dozing off on the sofa, and took out his phone to order takeout.
"What do you want for lunch?" he walked over and plopped down on the sofa to ask.
He turned to look at Lin Nan, who had been startled awake beside him and was now rolling over, stretching with his body straightened.
When Lin Nan's body stretched out, his clothes clung closer to his skin, and his chest, which hadn't been very noticeable before, now showed some prominence.
Since when did his nephew have breasts? These changes seemed a bit too dramatic.
"Have you gained weight?" Wu Guodong asked with furrowed brows.
"I don't think so?" Lin Nan sat up, not noticing where his uncle's gaze had landed, just looking up at Wu Guodong with confusion. "What's for lunch?"
"What do you want to eat?" Wu Guodong handed his phone to Lin Nan. "Order whatever you like."
Lin Nan took the phone to check nearby takeout options, but found that delivery in the city center was indeed much more expensive than at school. A basic meal set was usually over twenty yuan, and even the cheaper options had minimum order amounts over twenty. At his school, fifteen yuan could usually get you a good meal.
While he was looking conflicted, Wu Guodong beside him continued observing Lin Nan, watching his furrowed brows and troubled expression, then looking down at his tightly pressed-together thighs.
Thinking back to Lin Nan from half a year ago compared to now, there wasn't much difference, but how had his nephew become so feminine in just half a year?
Wu Guodong sighed helplessly in his mind.
He didn't think too much about it, just suspecting that Lin Nan might have been influenced by some Korean pop stars recently to end up like this.
"How about we order burgers? Wallace is the cheapest," Lin Nan looked up, handing the phone back to Wu Guodong.
Although he had a good relationship with this young uncle when he was little, that was childhood after all. In recent years, Lin Nan had barely had any contact with him, so now he felt very reserved and naturally didn't dare order anything too expensive.
"If you want burgers, let's get McDonald's or KFC. Wallace isn't healthy," Wu Guodong took the phone, looked at it, then looked up saying, "Don't try to save money for my sake."
Wu Guodong was also a bit uncomfortable, not knowing how to communicate with his suddenly feminine nephew.
Could his nephew be gay? The thought came to him naturally.
"Do you have a girlfriend?" he probed.
"No, my dad only gives me a thousand a month, barely enough for food—what's there to look for?"
Hmm, very suspicious.
Just as this thought crossed his mind, he heard Lin Nan ask in return: "Uncle, don't you have a girlfriend? You finally get time off and you're hanging out with me instead of your girlfriend?"
"....."
"Uncle, you're already twenty-eight... you, you don't like men, do you?" Lin Nan asked with a suspicious expression. "I heard you've never dated a girl before?"
This...
Wu Guodong hadn't expected to be suddenly counterattacked, took a deep breath, and tried to explain: "Had to study during school, and now it's constant overtime at work. When do you think I have time to date?"
Lin Nan pressed on intensely: "Even though I haven't dated, at least I've had a girl chase after me. Uncle, don't tell me at your age you haven't even had anyone confess to you? Uncle, don't your parents pressure you about this?"
The "girl" he mentioned was actually Lina, and although he felt nothing for her, she had pursued him for quite a while, thinking he was Lilith.
Wu Guodong couldn't speak for a long while, dryly changing the subject: "Let's not talk about this—don't you like playing games? I have three consoles over there, what do you want to play?"
So his uncle really had been single since birth until now?
Lin Nan was speechless. Wu Guodong's appearance wasn't bad—properly dressed up he'd be above average, and although he sat a lot his figure hadn't gotten fat. Plus with his high salary, how could he not even have a girlfriend?
Wasn't his uncle quite outgoing in his memories?
"Um... I'm not very familiar with console games," Lin Nan showed little interest in games, instead saying, "I'll sleep on the floor tonight? Or the sofa."
"For sleeping on the floor, I don't have extra blankets or mattresses," Wu Guodong seemed a bit surprised. "Didn't you used to cry and beg to sleep with me when visiting your grandparents?"
"How old do you think I am?" Lin Nan didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Besides, back then I just wanted to play with your phone."
"It's a double bed, and the blanket's big enough. This living room doesn't even have AC—are you sure about sleeping on the sofa?" Wu Guodong knew their relationship had become distant due to lack of contact, but two guys sleeping together shouldn't be a big deal, right?
Lin Nan kept nodding: "Just give me a throw blanket."
With his magic, he wouldn't catch cold now anyway—using a blanket was mainly just habit.
Wu Guodong frowned deeply. If people found out he had his nephew over but couldn't even provide bedding for the floor... when he went home for New Year's, relatives would surely criticize him.
He just didn't understand why Lin Nan was so against sleeping together.
"Then I'll sleep on the sofa and you take the bedroom," Wu Guodong said in a forceful tone. "How can I let my nephew sleep on the sofa?"
"That works too."
After chatting for a while, Lin Nan finally lost his initial reservedness and gradually relaxed. Wu Guodong stood up, went to the TV cabinet to fiddle with the game console, inserted a game, then returned to the sofa with two controllers.
"Want to play together?" Wu Guodong asked.
With nothing else to do and some interest in the console, Lin Nan took the controller without hesitation.
The last time he'd played a console game was probably in kindergarten, playing Nintendo with Wu Guodong on the second floor of his grandparents' house. His strongest impression was of a ninja game about rescuing a princess.
Used to keyboard and mouse, the controller felt very unfamiliar to Lin Nan. After playing with it for a moment, he noticed music coming from the TV and looked up to see the recently famous mini-game "Overcooked" on the screen.
"Isn't this available on PC too?"
"Playing on console gives you a bigger screen and better feel," Although Wu Guodong was nearly thirty, his enthusiasm for games hadn't diminished at all. "Use this to get used to the controller, then I'll show you more complex games."
"Alright then..."