The first day of preliminaries went fairly smoothly, except for Dong An's mid lane getting absolutely demolished by the opposing jungler, top laner, and support, who targeted him relentlessly until he ended up with a 0-7 record.
Tu Junhui's top lane and Chen Yao's ADC really showed their prowess in these preliminaries. The two of them chased down all five opponents, ultimately ending the fight in twenty-five minutes.
Lin Nan realized he hadn't even gotten serious yet, but the opposing team had already fallen apart completely.
"Fighting a bunch of gold-rank players and our mid laner still got killed this badly—how embarrassing," Lin Nan seized the opportunity to attack Dong An, mocking him. "And here someone claims to be diamond rank."
"What's your problem? I was so cramped I couldn't even extend my arms properly. How about I squeeze in with you next time?" Dong An fired back without hesitation. "You're short and small—if I shared a table with you for gaming, I'd definitely have room to stretch."
Comments about being short and small couldn't hurt Lin Nan's self-esteem anymore. After all, during this period he'd been constantly subjected to Tu Junhui's teasing about looking like a girl, so this was nothing in comparison.
"Yeah right, reeking of cigarettes—it's disgusting." Lin Nan turned his head away in disdain to look at his own screen. After seeing the referee confirm their victory, he directly closed the game and got up to search through his wardrobe for tomorrow's outfit.
The sun protection jacket was definitely necessary—otherwise, walking around meant constantly being stared at... in the chest area.
Lin Nan quickly glanced down at the bulge on his chest and the two points. Previously, he could still explain it away with excuses like the air conditioning being too cold or gaining weight from eating too much, but lately he'd noticed his chest development seemed to be getting more and more pronounced, to the point where even walking with slightly larger movements would cause some bouncing.
Living in the dorm, he couldn't wear women's underwear, and he couldn't use chest binding like in certain novels, so he could only rely on the sun protection jacket.
So he pulled out the sun protection jacket his uncle had bought him that he'd never worn before and tossed it on his chair, then poked his head around looking at his roommates' desks, trying to find scissors to cut off the clothing tags.
He'd previously felt that sun protection jackets were too rare among students and would attract too much attention if worn, but now it had reached the point where he had no choice but to wear one.
Dong An was smoking while packing up his computer. Although he'd been gaming with these four roommates frequently during this period, he was still only really familiar with Chen Yao, so he actually felt a bit restrained when in this dorm room.
Lin Nan finally found a pair of scissors on Xiong Da's bookshelf and hurried over to grab them, incidentally glancing at Xiong Da's phone.
"Oh ho! Xiong Da is chatting with a young lady?" Lin Nan exclaimed in surprise. "Your girlfriend?"
Xiong Da looked up bewildered, casually locked his phone screen, and stared at Lin Nan in silence.
"Really? Holy crap! You betrayed the cause this quickly?!" Tu Junhui reacted even more dramatically, jumping up from his seat directly. He didn't even care that his chair fell to the ground—his 200-pound frame charged over with gusting wind. "Photos? Where are the photos?"
Chen Yao was still chatting with Dong An who was packing up his computer. He glanced over here once but wasn't particularly interested.
Having Lin Nan around the dorm day and night had somehow mysteriously raised everyone's standards for girls, okay?
"Nothing worth looking at," Xiong Da turned his head away, his face rarely showing some redness. "It's just online dating—nothing's been confirmed yet."
"When are you two meeting up?" Lin Nan leaned forward eagerly, pressing for details. "Let us see! We roommates will help you evaluate her! What's wrong with looking at our future sister-in-law!"
"If I remember correctly, you just turned eighteen..."
"Are you planning to meet during winter break?" Tu Junhui asked even more nosily. "Where's her family? Is it far? After meeting, are you planning for first base or second base? Or just go straight for home plate??"
Xiong Da's face darkened as he slapped a book from his desk toward Tu Junhui's face, while Lin Nan looked between the two of them in confusion, completely not understanding what Tu Junhui was talking about.
"What's first base, second base, home plate?"
Just as he was asking, he suddenly heard the room door close. Looking up, he saw that Dong An had already left. At that moment, he felt someone grab the back of his shirt collar, and Lin Nan, who had been leaning forward slightly, was forcibly straightened up. He turned around to find Chen Yao pulling him toward the distance.
"What are you doing!"
"The upcoming topic isn't suitable for minors, and you were getting way too close to Xiong Da—didn't you notice he was blushing?"
Xiong Da immediately retorted: "I was not!"
"I'm eighteen! I even took you to watch porn in middle school! How is this unsuitable for minors!" Lin Nan struggled, but ultimately couldn't match Chen Yao's height and build, so he could only give up resistance and let himself be dragged to his own seat.
Chen Yao had almost forgotten about that incident. He pressed Lin Nan back into his seat and even glared at him: "You still have the nerve to bring that up—what kind of crap did you make me watch!" (TN: Cup moment.)
That incident had practically become his nightmare.
"I hadn't seen it either, that's why I called you to watch together. Who knew..."
Lin Nan sat obediently, feeling guilty, and pulled out the sun protection jacket from under his butt to cut off the tags. Then he suddenly said: "I saw online recommendations for something called 'The World's First Love'—apparently that anime is pretty good too, very sweet."
"That's a gay series," Chen Yao gave him another look. "I watched one episode and couldn't continue."
"You sure know a lot~" Lin Nan said with fake admiration.
After all the commotion, he felt a bit tired too, his mind focused only on taking a hot shower and getting a good night's sleep.
Too many things had been happening lately, keeping Lin Nan's nerves almost constantly tense. A day or two, or even a week or two would have been fine, but it had been going on for over a month now.
This had led to his lack of energy—it felt like doing anything required his full effort, and just casually playing a game left him exhausted.
Stretching lazily, Lin Nan grabbed his clothes and prepared to go to the bathroom for a shower.
Previously, he would only bring boxers and a t-shirt when showering, but now he could only bring a complete set of clothes. Although the clothes would get wet from water in the bathroom, it was still better than coming out with bare legs and tempting his roommates.
However, just as he was about to push open the back door, the front door suddenly showed signs of activity.
Lin Yuan walked into the room expressionlessly, looked around left and right, then asked Chen Yao: "Are you guys done with preliminaries?"
"Just finished not long ago. The opponents were weak—we solved it in twenty minutes." Chen Yao leaned against the bed frame, laughing cheerfully. "If you'd joined when we invited you back then, our team would definitely be championship level."
"I don't really play this game. Congratulations on advancing to the next round." After saying the polite words, he pulled out a can of cat food from his pocket, crouched down, and called to Cola who was curled up in the corner yawning: "Kitty, come here, time for something delicious."
Mm... what happened to the aloof persona?
This wasn't Lin Nan's first time seeing Lin Yuan like this, but no matter how many times he witnessed it, the scene always felt incredibly jarring compared to his usual cold demeanor.