WAYCAV Chapter 39

Raine: Double update birthday bonus <3 ☆: .｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:☆

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“Two more plates of pork belly, perfect! Oh yeah!” Wen Bei clicked to place the order.

“You can order more,” Su Zhiyan touched his stomach, which had completely flattened. “I’ve been busy all morning, I’m starving.”

This week he had two courses ending, and he’d spent the whole morning in his dorm writing final papers, which drained too much of his mental energy.

Wen Bei nodded in agreement and reopened the order page. “Makes sense, you finished all your final assignments in one go, you should definitely replenish your brain.”

After a moment, he looked up. “Do you eat grilled pig brain?”

“Save it for yourself.”

Wen Bei chuckled and gracefully ordered two servings. “Why didn’t you bring Shen Nianjing today? Didn’t you two make up?”

Su Zhiyan’s heart skipped a beat. “We never fought in the first place, he was the one who went crazy and pulled his ‘disappearing act.'”

“Didn’t he say he was sick and didn’t check his phone?”

You actually believe that? That guy is as healthy as a wild dog, where does he look like a patient? He could eat dumplings for three days straight and still enjoy every bite.

“You don’t still think we are just friends, do you?”

Wen Bei immediately put down his phone and smiled like a bootlicker. “I absolutely believe you!”

Su Zhiyan’s lips twitched. “Whatever, I’m too lazy to argue with you.”

These past few days, he and Shen Nianjing had been coordinating their daily meetups online, making sure to guarantee his good sleep quality every day. They also stopped sticking together all the time like they used to.

Su Zhiyan felt very relaxed. Having one less hidden danger in his life also saved him a lot of time.

But the only downside was…

“You two aren’t deliberately avoiding suspicion, are you?” Wen Bei’s eyes widened like copper bells.

Su Zhiyan: “…”

“Why does everything have to be about our relationship? Whether we eat together or not doesn’t matter. Our class schedules don’t overlap anyway.”

Wen Bei nodded with a mysterious smile. “Did your schedules suddenly stop overlapping?”

Su Zhiyan: “…”

What was he supposed to say?! Tell him he had a dream where Shen Nianjing pinned him down?!

How vulgar.

“Just eat your food!” Su Zhiyan snapped.

Wen Bei made a face, then suddenly remembered something. “My friend told me that anonymous website they made is going online on Double Eleven[mfn]November 11, also known as Singles’ Day, originally a day of activities for single people, but now also the world’s biggest annual retail sales day[/mfn].”

Anonymous dating website.

Su Zhiyan felt it sounded familiar and thought about it carefully.

“Oh, I once got a flyer on the campus commercial street. Is it a practical course project from the Computer Science department?” he said.

“Probably a club thing. Whatever!”

Wen Bei was excited. “You can register an account, it’s random matchmaking like message in a bottle anyway.”

“If you meet someone compatible, you can chat together.”

“I don’t have any plans to date, why would I register for that?”

“Don’t you want to avoid suspicion?” Wen Bei gave him a meaningful look. “My friend said this website requires real-name verification with college, class, name, and student ID for registration.”

“Don’t you think this site will trend on the forum? If you register, my friends can see the backend data. Then no one will speculate about you and Shen Nianjing, since you’d be showing interest in meeting others.”

Su Zhiyan fell silent.

This whole thing sounded completely unreliable.

“You just need to avoid picking up others’ bottles to prevent actual dating.”

“Do I look that bored?” Su Zhiyan kept a straight face, his eyes drifting to the side. “Besides, like I said, we’re not avoiding suspicion.”

“Fine, fine, then I’m the one who’s bored!” Wen Bei snorted and ate his meat in silence.

After returning to his dorm, Su Zhiyan logged into the school’s study forum.

Sure enough, many people on the forum were discussing the dating website that would open at midnight tonight.

This kind of campus dating platform always had strong appeal for single college students, especially since this one was anonymous mode, which was pretty novel.

Su Zhiyan rarely made friends and had no thoughts about dating whatsoever.

If it weren’t for that damn dream, he and Shen Nianjing probably wouldn’t have had any connection at all. At most they might have met later at summer camp or during graduate studies.

As for being mistaken for lovers, that was even more ridiculous.

His phone buzzed with an incoming message.

It was Shen Nianjing asking what time they should meet tomorrow.

The tone was formal, carrying a sense of distance.

Su Zhiyan replied with one hand.

[S: Noon, I have class in the morning.]

[Dreamcatcher: OK]

Then there was nothing more.

The chat window fell quiet again, silent like a lake after rain, calm and heavy.

Su Zhiyan slumped onto his desk, listlessly staring at Shen Nianjing’s dog head avatar.

His heart felt a bit stuffy and sour.

Ever since they cleared up that misunderstanding last time, their relationship had suddenly become much more distant. When other people cleared up misunderstandings, they evolved from classmates to friends, but they had regressed from decent friends back to ordinary classmates.

And he said he wasn’t mad at me.

Su Zhiyan snorted and flipped off that dog head viciously.

That evening, both Wen Bei and he chose to stay up late.

Wen Bei was playing games on his side, while he quietly clicked into the dating website that had just opened.

Let me register an account, it’s just for show anyway.

That bastard Shen Nianjing was being distant with him now, so couldn’t he find new friends?

When you’re out in the world, you can never have too many friends!

Su Zhiyan’s eyes sparkled as he excitedly tapped the keyboard, quickly entering his personal information in one smooth, flowing motion!

Then he sat back, silently scrolling his phone.

He still didn’t really want to make friends.

Most people registering on this website were looking for dates, so he’d better… not participate. Su Zhiyan thought somewhat timidly.

There was a thread on the campus forum specifically discussing this website, so Su Zhiyan clicked in.

23L: There are two dating sections! One for matchmaking and one specifically for expanding your social circle

62L: I found that in the social section, message bottles can be reused. After you click in and reply, other people can still pick them up.

63L: This seems like something you can set yourself, there’s also a 1v1 setting

74L: Babies, I discovered you can customize your own bottle design, it’s in “My Profile”!! You can choose local images {share link}

So many features. Su Zhiyan raised an eyebrow, turned back to his computer and casually clicked into the social section.

A message bottle covered in pink hearts caught his eye.

What… bizarre taste.

He clicked on that message bottle as if possessed.

It was marked as a 1v1 chat box.

Su Zhiyan quickly clicked to close the page, afraid he’d entered the bottle and taken someone’s 1v1 spot.

However, no matter how fast he was, he had already clicked in.

[Hello~]

The other person sent a message first.

Su Zhiyan’s hand hovered over the keyboard, hesitating to press down.

Someone please teach him how to chat with strangers online!

He should have never registered.

Out of politeness, Su Zhiyan also replied with “Hello.”

Before the other person could respond, he typed out a whole paragraph explaining that he had only clicked by mistake, wasn’t here with the purpose of making friends, and apologized for wasting the other person’s time.

[It’s fine, I’m just here because I thought it was interesting]

The other person’s explanation made Su Zhiyan breathe a sigh of relief.

[Me: That’s good then, we didn’t bother anyone else and still increased the participation count]

[Me: You, me, the website, triple win]

[Uh]

[Me: ? What’s wrong]

[Nothing (smile) it’s just that your way of talking is very similar to someone I know]

[Me: Oh]

Su Zhiyan felt this website wasn’t very interesting, the only difference from other online dating platforms was that it was exclusive to the campus.

Plus this person’s conversation starter was pretty cliche, and so was their excuse.

He wanted to go offline and write his paper draft.

His cursor had just moved to the top right corner when the other person sent a new message.

[If you have time now, could you help me analyze something between me and him? I’m a bit confused]

Confused?

Him?

Su Zhiyan looked up at the other person’s profile information. The gender field was actually marked as unknown.

Su Zhiyan: …

Wouldn’t not clearly stating key information on a dating forum mislead users?

Gender unknown… what a weirdo.

But now it seemed he had misunderstood the other person’s intentions. Out of a bit of guilt, Su Zhiyan politely replied “Sure.”

After replying, he switched out of the page and opened a document to start writing his paper draft.

This topic was something he had carefully considered and planned to submit to a journal under Professor Yang’s guidance, so he couldn’t be careless at all.

About half an hour later, Su Zhiyan had roughly finished his draft and stretched his neck, planning to take a break.

He picked up his cup and took a sip of water. The cold water went down his throat and choked him directly, making Su Zhiyan cough uncontrollably.

“Cough, cough!”

A familiar scene suddenly flashed through his mind. Su Zhiyan saw himself “washing” Shen Nianjing’s hair with the faucet before. Because his technique was too simple and rough, it seemed the other person had choked on several mouthfuls of tap water at the time.

Su Zhiyan: … A little guilty but not much.

After all, drastic measures worked best with lunatics.

Oh right, it seemed there was another lunatic who wanted to ask him something.

Since he had already agreed, he might as well go take a look.

Su Zhiyan switched back to the website page and immediately widened his eyes, stunned.

The other person had actually written three long paragraphs!

“Damn, that’s probably more than my paper draft.” Su Zhiyan muttered.

He immediately felt like backing out. Someone like him who wasn’t skilled with interpersonal relationships would have trouble giving the other person effective help, and reading through these three paragraphs would also take time.

“…But I already agreed.”

Su Zhiyan expressionlessly moved his mouse.

Fifteen minutes later.

“?” He frowned.

This way of arguing and writing style seemed a bit familiar.

But the content was so dramatic that it overshadowed this small doubt in his mind.

Although Su Zhiyan had never been in a relationship, the emotional turmoil revealed between the lines could be seen by anyone as the writer’s intense emotions while creating this.

Su Zhiyan habitually quickly separated the article’s core and his brain performed a progressive summary of the content.

Oh, so it turned out the other person seemed to initially think that person liked him, which made the other person pay a lot of attention to that person. But later they found out all the liking was just a misunderstanding, and now the other person didn’t know how to face that person anymore. Whenever they thought of him, they felt awkward and uncomfortable.

After analyzing this core meaning, Su Zhiyan felt very confident.

This was the first time he had understood someone else’s emotional problems so quickly!

Reading and writing papers really was useful. Basic principles could be applied to many things around him!

[Due to some reasons, I don’t dare to get along with that friend. I initially thought I was destined to be hurt because of him.]

Su Zhiyan felt confident and searched his mind: So the other person was rather afraid of that friend, and thus rejected him.

[After knowing the truth, I now have trouble controlling myself from thinking about him, but whenever I think of him I feel uncomfortable and awkward, like I want to twist into a maggot on my bed.]

Su Zhiyan: “…” You…

You crazy people’s mental world is really too powerful.

[Me: Maybe you two just aren’t compatible. After all, everyone has different personalities, and if neither side is willing to make changes, you’ll both likely get hurt in this relationship.]

The other person replied instantly, probably waiting for a response the whole time.

[You’re right, but he’s really good. Our initial difficulties getting along were because of my own problems.]

[I’m trying to change.]

Then aren’t you pretty clear-headed? What are you confused about? Su Zhiyan couldn’t understand.

[Me: Then just communicate with him, tell him about your emotions and struggles.]

The other person didn’t reply.

A guess floated up in Su Zhiyan’s mind, and he thought this guess was very logical.

Yeah, he was definitely going to become an emotional expert. This was practically a qualitative leap in his interpersonal relationships.

He typed confidently.

—[mfn]There’s a change of perspective so I’m adding a dividing line[/mfn]

[Do you hate him?]

[Me: Huh?]

[Do you hate that “friend”?]

Hate.

Shen Nianjing pressed his lips together.

That word had absolutely nothing to do with his feelings.

He leaned against his bed, looking out the window.

All the streetlights outside had gone out. The pitch darkness made the entire solitary space feel more real, as if he was the only person left in the world.

And when alone, some thoughts that were rather muddled during the day would gradually become clear and bright.

The faint light from his computer screen dimly illuminated his thoughtful profile.

Su Zhiyan was completely different from what he had first imagined.

He no longer feared him because of some shallow dream like before.

Did he hate him?

No… not at all.

The second hand on the wall clock leisurely passed round after round, making no sound just like the desolation of early winter.

The silence and darkness gave Shen Nianjing an illusion.

As if all time and space had stopped, and he could keep thinking like this forever.

—

Seeing that the other person wasn’t replying, Su Zhiyan closed his computer, washed up and got into bed, preparing to sleep.

“Are you going to sleep?” Wen Bei saw him get into bed and immediately stopped his motion to start another game.

“Yeah.”

“Alright then, I thought you were going to play around on that dating website. I didn’t expect you to spend the whole evening writing your paper.”

Su Zhiyan’s heart skipped a beat, his eyes panicked. “Yeah, I didn’t look at that website.”

He thought to himself, what am I feeling guilty about?

Just because Shen Nianjing was being distant with him, was it wrong for him to make friends?

And he hadn’t even made friends with any normal people.

He burrowed into his blanket and opened his phone to check the messages his senior classmates had sent in the group chat. After confirming he hadn’t missed any important information, he exited WeChat.

By accident, he clicked into the mobile version of the website.

The moment he saw the mobile page, Su Zhiyan fell silent.

…Did he really want to make friends that badly?

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a small “1” on the message icon.

Su Zhiyan chuckled softly. That person’s internet sure was lagging.

He opened the inbox.

His phone slipped from his hands again, but fortunately he was alert and dodged the “attack” in time.

Su Zhiyan looked at the ceiling in surprise, feeling like his understanding of interpersonal relationships had completely collapsed.

The message contained only four simple words: “No, I like him.”

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