Su Ze tilted his head while answering Shen Qingsheng's phone call, casually saying his usual catchphrase, "Moshi moshi."
"Moshi?" For some reason, Uesugi Akizuki, who was seriously playing a game, turned around and responded, her eyes filled with confusion.
Su Ze was also taken aback.
Uesugi Akizuki gave Su Ze a puzzled look, then turned back to continue struggling with her game.
"Are you home?" Shen Qingsheng asked.
"Yeah."
Although Shen Qingsheng had lost an arm, another ability user had already helped him regenerate it at the hospital.
It wasn't a difficult matter, and he could probably move it by now.
"You value romance over friendship!"
Su Ze was stunned, "Who?"
"You!"
"(O_o)?? ... What did I do?"
"You value romance over friendship!"
Su Ze was bewildered, "I value romance?"
"Yes!"
"And neglect friendship?"
"Exactly!"
"Where did that come from?"
"We were in the same hospital room, but you went straight home to find Uesugi instead of taking care of me."
Su Ze paused, "I didn't take care of you?"
"I've been lying here all this time, and you haven't checked on me at all!"
Su Ze suddenly realized, "Ah, why should I take care of you? I needed to go home for dinner."
"I wanted to go home with you for dinner too! I can't cook for myself."
Su Ze was speechless, "If you want food, just come over. I'll heat up some leftovers for you."
"Get lost... *beep beep beep*"
The phone went dead, leaving Su Ze confused.
He suddenly realized - wait, if we can make calls, does that mean we have internet!?
Ding dong.
Shen Qingsheng, who had just hung up, sent a message, "LOL?"
Su Ze: "Let's play."
He patted Uesugi Akizuki's head, "Why don't you go to sleep? I'll play for a while, and tomorrow I'll play with you."
Uesugi Akizuki was so angry she almost threw the controller. Hearing this, she turned and walked away, jumping onto the bed and burying her face in the blanket to sulk.
The game would be fun if only her teammates were human.
Su Ze's real-life gentleness couldn't be experienced in the game.
After a few minutes of tossing and turning, Uesugi Akizuki grew tired from her anger. She wanted to sleep but couldn't. Watching Su Ze's fingers flying over the keyboard, she got up barefoot and nudged him.
Su Ze understood immediately, "Can't sleep?"
Uesugi Akizuki nodded. She wanted Su Ze to sing, anything except "Grandma's Bridge" from last night.
Grandma's Bridge had been sung so much she was sick of it - even the bridge would collapse.
Su Ze was helpless, as he was in the middle of a game. "How about I tell you a story?"
Hearing there would be a story, Uesugi Akizuki immediately nodded and flopped onto the bed like a fish, her red hair spread across the bed. She closed her eyes, waiting for the story.
Su Ze narrated stories while battling in the Rift. After telling several fragmented fairy tales, Uesugi Akizuki was quite satisfied with the Grimm's fairy tales. Combined with Su Ze's gentle, magnetic voice, a beautiful fairy tale world was grandly constructed in her mind, until:
"Little Red Riding Hood quietly approached the bush, and the Big Bad Wolf went Auto-attack into W! Then outer Q! Then Auto! Then E! Then Noxian Guillotine... damn, I lagged just now, without that lag I would've gotten a pentakill, damn it."
Uesugi Akizuki: ??????
The innocent girl was jolted from her half-asleep state of listening to stories, having hazily dreamed of Little Red Riding Hood being beheaded on her way to grandmother's house.
Looking at his exploded crystal, Su Ze apologetically showed his usual gentle smile and said, "Got carried away, got carried away."
The little innocent had fallen asleep, so Su Ze closed the glass door between the rest room and the game room to avoid disturbing the little shrine maiden.
Su Ze and Shen Qingsheng switched to another game.
"CSGO."
They were playing on international servers.
As soon as they entered the game, crackling mic sounds came through their headphones. Su Ze and Shen Qingsheng immediately realized they had been matched with players from the industrially developed Russian nation.
A very masculine voice greeted them in Russian, "Hello, hello."
"Hello," Su Ze replied.
As geniuses who could enter Huaxia University, Shen Qingsheng and Su Ze spoke eight languages, so communication wasn't an issue. They played on international servers to strengthen their foreign language communication skills.
"Where are you from?" the Russian asked.
"We're from Huaxia," Su Ze said.
"Baka!" Shen Qingsheng said.
Within the first few rounds, Su Ze conquered the Russian player with his precise sniping. In the fifth round's 1v3 clutch, after Su Ze took out three CT players guarding the bomb with precise flick shots, everyone cheered excitedly.
Suddenly, the Russian shouted in Chinese: "Papa, hit me!"
Su Ze: ????
Shen Qingsheng: ????
Teammates: ????
"Who taught him Chinese? That's so mischievous," Shen Qingsheng remarked.
The sides switched.
11:4
This time Su Ze and his partner were CTs. After the Russian's shocking statement earlier, the conversation between Su Ze, Shen Qingsheng, and the Russian became even more animated.
"We Russians really like Huaxia people, why do so few Huaxia tourists come to Russia?"
*Poof*
"They're rushing A," Shen Qingsheng casually mentioned as his screen went dark, then continued the conversation, "Huaxia people probably don't travel to Russia mainly because of the language barrier. Not everyone knows eight languages like we do."
The Russian pondered, "But we've made Chinese a subject in our college entrance exams, so communication shouldn't be a big problem."
Su Ze said quietly, "You've seen how we include English in our college entrance exams, but how many people actually master it?"
Everyone: "..."
Su Ze had a point. English is taught from elementary school, and while many people know English - they can read it and barely speak it - if you ask them to understand native speakers talking at normal speed and engage in conversation, it would stump many who've studied English for five or six years.
After studying English for several years, without experience talking to foreigners, those who claim they know English mostly know broken English and can't speak fluently. Most of these people are also timid, afraid of making mistakes.
After all, studying something doesn't mean mastering it.
When foreigners ask for directions, they respond in broken English, "Sorry, I don't know English."
The situation in Russia is even worse. If you ask for directions in Chinese in Russia, maybe one in dozens of Russians might know Chinese, and it's likely to be broken Chinese.
At this point, instead of racking their brains for vocabulary, they open their phone's translation app.
A girl's urgent voice speaking English broke the silence, "They're rushing B! Terrorists in B tunnel!"
Shen Qingsheng was stunned, "In whose tunnel?"
Su Ze: ??
They enjoyed playing until three in the morning.
Su Ze's tall figure rose from the gaming chair in the dim, blue-purple neon ambiance. Tired, he covered his neck, opened the rest room's glass door, and lay down beside Uesugi Akizuki.
Suddenly his hand was held. Su Ze turned his head to find the little shrine maiden hadn't been sleeping, but was staring at the iridescent ceiling with her amber eyes.
"What are you thinking about?" Su Ze asked.
The little shrine maiden looked over and stared at Su Ze's black eyes for a long time. Su Ze noticed growing confusion in the girl's eyes.
The girl reached out and touched Su Ze's head, and just as Su Ze was wondering what she was doing, snap! The girl plucked out one of his hairs.
"Are you asking for trouble?" Su Ze's face darkened. Being young and having such black hair despite staying up late every night wasn't easy. How dare you silently pluck out one of my hairs? Are you itching for punishment?
Uesugi Akizuki didn't respond, but placed Su Ze's hair between them.
They saw that the hair was actually white. Su Ze was stunned - premature graying? Had the pressure of fighting against the blood moon recently been too much?