When Zhen Ning stepped out of the internet café, he noticed that the snow was falling harder.
He tilted his face upward slightly, gazing at the snowflakes drifting slowly through the air for a moment. Only when the cold wind seeped uncontrollably through his collar did he lower his head and step into the wintry storm outside.
Behind him, the sound of footsteps rustling through the snow reached his ears.
Zhen Ning paused briefly, then took two more steps forward without acknowledging it.
The source of the rustling, however, didn’t stop. Instead, it followed him, drawing closer and closer.
Finally, unable to endure it any longer, Zhen Ning stopped in his tracks and turned around. “Why are you following me?”
The boy behind him stood in the snow, holding an umbrella, looking at him with an innocent expression.
“Because you said not to talk or bother you when we were inside the internet café.”
He met Zhen Ning’s eyes candidly and said, “Now that we’re no longer in the café, I came to talk to you.”
Zhen Ning: “…”
The match earlier had ended quickly, with their team breaking the opponent’s crystal in just about twenty minutes.
It had been a standard Master-tier game. At this level, players generally didn’t make major mechanical mistakes, though their game sense still had gaps. After a brief adjustment period to get comfortable with the hero, Zhen Ning found the rest of the match smooth sailing.
The moment they destroyed the enemy crystal, the boy beside him turned to Zhen Ning, his eyes sparkling brightly. “You—”
Zhen Ning shook his head and made a silencing gesture.
“Since we won, I hope you remember the promise you made to me.”
The boy froze for a moment before recalling their agreement: if they won, he and his friends would shut up.
His mouth was brimming with things he wanted to say, but since he couldn’t, he pressed his lips together in frustration and could only continue staring helplessly at Zhen Ning’s profile.
Zhen Ning ignored both the boy’s small gestures and the intensity of his stare.
He returned to his original seat and started a solo ranked game.
It was finally quiet. Yet, as Zhen Ning watched the loading bar on the screen, he found himself unusually distracted.
Even though the match had been just a typical one-sided game, he couldn’t deny that the boy beside him had played exceptionally well.
His engagements were bold and precise, his awareness of the opposing support and jungler’s movements during the laning phase was sharp, and his reflexes and game sense were excellent. Being supported by someone like that was undeniably a pleasant experience.
Thinking back to what the boy’s friend had said about him being at “youth training” level, Zhen Ning, though not deeply familiar with professional esports, was willing to admit that the boy’s skills were indeed top-tier.
Even so, at the end of the day, gaming was nothing more than a form of relaxation, and the boy beside him was, in the end, just an irrelevant passerby.
What left Zhen Ning feeling a bit helpless, however, was that ever since the match ended, although it had gotten much quieter around him, the boy had been staring eagerly at his screen the whole time.
Zhen Ning had managed to silence the boy, but there was no way to stop his persistent gaze.
Feeling deeply uncomfortable under such intense scrutiny, Zhen Ning decided to leave the internet café as soon as he finished his match.
—But he hadn’t expected the boy to shamelessly follow him.
Zhen Ning’s chest heaved slightly. He had no interest in entertaining this unreasonable person. Turning his back, he continued walking forward.
The streetlights cast a cold, dim glow over the narrow alleyway. Their shadows stretched long and slanted across the snow as they walked—one ahead, one behind.
From behind, the boy spoke up. “My name’s Yan Chengfeng. What’s yours?”
“I feel like we’re about the same age. I just turned sixteen, and I’ll differentiate as an alpha. What about you?”
“Oh, by the way, if that was your first time playing Mooncard earlier, you’re really talented!”
Talking about his favorite game, the boy’s tone grew immediately excited. “And you said you hadn’t played with Sunflower before, but in that mid-lane dive, you went for the seed so confidently. If you’d been a second slower, you wouldn’t have killed their Vine Witch. Not many people can match my pace, but I think our playstyles really click…”
Zhen Ning said nothing.
“Do you always practice at this internet café? Let’s be friends. We could lane together, maybe figure out some new strategies.” The boy quickly caught up to Zhen Ning, asking eagerly, “Oh, and tomorrow’s Saturday. Are you coming back? If you do, can I find you again—”
He watched Zhen Ning’s expression for a while before finally saying sullenly, “Why are you… so quiet?”
Zhen Ning turned around, meeting his gaze calmly.
“My name and age have nothing to do with you,” Zhen Ning said, exhaling. “I only stood in for your friend to play one game. That doesn’t mean we’re familiar with each other.”
“I like solo queuing. I don’t enjoy playing with others, and I’m not interested in making friends with strangers.”
He continued coolly, “I’ve already done you the favor you asked for, and now we’re even. Please stop following me. Can you do that?”
Zhen Ning saw the boy freeze for a moment.
Passionate and flamboyant, confident and proud—such striking looks and personality were undoubtedly the kind that would make him popular in school, Zhen Ning thought.
Maybe he’d used the same approach and words to gather countless willing friends who revolved around him.
But Zhen Ning didn’t need that.
To him, the word “friend” carried a heavy weight, yet its meaning could also be superficial.
Zhen Ning was used to solitude. He wasn’t comfortable with people getting too close, nor did he need so-called friends to prove he wasn’t lonely.
He knew all too well what kind of detached expression to wear, what sort of distant words to say, to push others out of his world. And truthfully, he’d been doing it for years.
As expected, the moment Zhen Ning finished speaking, the boy named Yan Chengfeng looked visibly embarrassed.
He clearly seemed displeased, scratching his head before finally muttering, “…Alright, I get it.”
Zhen Ning nodded and turned to leave again.
But after a brief silence, the sound of shuffling footsteps resumed behind him.
Zhen Ning turned around, fixing Yan Chengfeng with a cold stare.
Yan Chengfeng froze mid-step and cleared his throat awkwardly. “Don’t overthink it—I’m not trying to keep following you.”
He stood there stiffly for a moment before clicking his tongue in apparent frustration.
The next second, Yan Chengfeng took a few steps forward, grabbed Zhen Ning’s hand, and forcefully shoved the umbrella into it.
“It’s just that… the wind and snow are really strong right now. Watching you walk from behind, it felt like you were about to get blown apart.”
He averted his gaze and grumbled, “My friends have a bunch of umbrellas anyway, so take this one. Use it or don’t—whatever.”
As if afraid Zhen Ning might try to return the umbrella, Yan Chengfeng retreated several steps while speaking.
The snow was so slippery that he almost lost his footing. Flailing slightly to steady himself, he couldn’t help but steal a quick glance at Zhen Ning’s face.
Teenage boys care about their pride. To hide his embarrassment, he spun around and waved a hand with an air of nonchalance. “Well, I’m off! If fate allows, we’ll meet again.”
Zhen Ning: “You—”
The boy’s figure quickly disappeared at the end of the alley.
Zhen Ning stood there, staring at the umbrella in his hand for a moment, his eyelashes fluttering slightly.
In the end, he opened the umbrella and slowly continued forward.
The wind remained strong, and in such bitter cold and heavy snow, a single umbrella did little to change how frigid it felt.
But somehow… it didn’t seem quite as cold as before.
If fate allows? Zhen Ning thought. No, we won’t meet again.
–
Zhen Ning purposely waited five or six days, giving the boy’s enthusiasm time to fade. Confident that Yan Chengfeng would have forgotten about him by now, he returned to the internet café.
However, the moment he stepped inside, he saw the boy sitting in his usual spot with his legs crossed, humming a cheerful tune.
Yan Chengfeng glanced up casually, and the moment he noticed Zhen Ning standing before him, his eyes lit up.
The person sitting next to Yan Chengfeng was the same chubby guy who had run off with diarrhea last time.
Completely oblivious to Zhen Ning’s presence behind him, the chubby guy continued to complain with a gloomy expression. “Yan-ge, how long are we going to keep waiting? It’s been five days! Just to camp out for that ‘AD you played one game with and made you unable to sleep for three days.’ Every day after school, we skip dinner and rush here—”
Zhen Ning stared at Yan Chengfeng, expression blank.
He saw Yan Chengfeng’s eye twitch before the boy turned around and shot the chubby guy a deadly glare.
“Oh wow, what a surprise to run into you again here.” After a brief pause, Yan Chengfeng cleared his throat awkwardly, met Zhen Ning’s gaze again, and said with a casual air, “Looks like we’re… really fated to meet.”
Author’s note:
“Chance Encounter”
“Fate”
