You Boys Play Games Very Well

43-46: Is it love that blinds you or is he the light source himself?

try to contain yourself as you read this sweet sweet fluff

Chapter 43

The mysterious Apple turned out to be the protagonist of today’s gossip, Mango Lao-Ge? After a moment, the place boiled over in excitement.

— Is it true? I don’t believe it! Why are handsome guys so good at playing games? Please tell the non-handsome and non-fierce me how to live!

— From today’s match, we can see that Little Mango Lao-Ge’s and Mang God’s skills are very similar. No wonder that Lemon Dad said it’s tough to say who’s better.

— I really want to see these two PK.

— Requesting for Mangosteen to fight Apple! A tie-breaker match between impressive husbands!

— Is the prize a lemon? Don’t do such a thing 2333

His phone shook on the table, Shan Zhu had sent a grieving expression on WeChat.

Shan Zhu: MengMeng, you betrayed me again [aggrieved]

Ling Meng saw the notification and the corner of his mouth rose uncontrollably.

Ling Meng: Who told you to act schizo and furthermore to make me shoulder the blame ~lueluelue~

Shan Zhu: I deliberately created the illusion of too many love rivals, so that people wanting to pursue you would realize the difficulty and give up.

Ling Meng curled his legs up in his chair and chatted with Shan Zhu, forgetting the situation completely.

Ling Meng: I feel like if I don’t expose you, next time you’ll change to a kiwi fruit?

Ling Meng: Now the demands of the masses are strong. Would you like to send out a Weibo challenge for a Mango derby in Grinder (mobile game)?

Ling Meng: Have you become a pufferfish? Show me.

Ling Meng had totally forgotten his current situation, but the hundreds of thousands of viewers on the scene could see it clearly. The anchor had slipped away and the audience chatted with spontaneous fervor.

— Lemon Dad smiles so sweetly.

— Lemon Daddy has wine in his dimples.

— You have dimples, do you still have a story?

(t/n: there’s a legend about dimples that they are marks left after refusing to forget past lovers during reincarnation, so the story is the love story)

— Lemon Daddy is emanating lemon-flavored hormones from all over his body.

— This smile produces the impulse to brush a cat courtyard.

— Lemon Dad dropping the fifty thousand people in the audience to hold only one person within his sight, I bet ten mangoes that person is Mango Lao-Ge!

As soon as Ling Meng remembered that he was still streaming, he looked up and found that the person in the live broadcast had really smiled too much.

He immediately patted his face and forced it into a serious expression, but this seriousness only lasted for three seconds before his face returned to its original state, just as if the corners of his mouth were iron and the corners of his eyes were magnets, smirking uncontrollably.

— Don’t smile, I’m going to get drunk if you smile again.

“Who is foolishly carrying the rhythm, I’m smiling because I’m happy to beat the pro team, okay?

“Second housekeeper? Second housekeeper, control this rhythm.”

Housekeeper LittleFlyingTeddy: Replying to Lemon Dad, the second housekeeper is already drunk and unconscious, cannot control.

— I just love such a rhythm-leading housekeeper.

— According to scientific research, only people in love can smile so sweetly.

Shan Zhu: Are you beginning to miss the days when the big housekeeper was in charge?

How could he forget that this guy was also peeping at the live broadcast. Ling Meng immediately raised his middle finger.

Ling Meng: 凸

— Oh my god! The clear stream anchor showed the middle finger!

— Oh my god! The clear stream anchor pointed the middle finger at “you know”! Damn!

— Seriously advising the anchor that the live broadcast is used for streaming, not for flirting across the screen!

“Daddy really wants to ban you,” Ling Meng made an effort at a serious expression. “Don’t think that no one can control you if the big housekeeper isn’t here.”

— Wow, Lemon Dad actually sounds like the big housekeeper right now.

— The big housekeeper is already angry at you.

— Originally only famous newcomers smiled, who listened to the old man weep.

“And I bet a cartful of mangoes that your big housekeeper won’t set up a match with Apple.”

— How’s that? My talented Mang God isn’t afraid of anyone.

[Room] Guava: Apple

If Guava hadn’t spoken suddenly, Ling Meng would have forgotten that the three of them were still in the small black room.

[Room] Apple:?

[Room] Guava: Come PK.

Ling Meng:???

— Meow meow meow???

— This is… a new round of foul wind and a rain of blood?

— Guava: I will fight in place of Mang God!

— I haven’t seen such a lively scene of bloody slaughter in a long time. My Lemon Dad’s charisma is astonishing.

“Classmate Guava, what are you going to do?” Ling Meng asked.

[Room]Guava: He played well.

[Room] Apple: …Thank you for the compliment.

Ling Meng understood; the passionate Guava was a game-idiot, he got an itch whenever he saw a game master. The end of the match was played just too beautifully. It’s no wonder Guava wanted to issue a battle challenge.

[Room] Apple: But I can’t play right now.

Ling Meng thought it over and was quick to speak up to help: “Yes, Guava, his hand isn’t good, he can’t play games for a long time.”

— Lemon Dad knew about it!

— Did I imagine hearing a hint of reputation-saving?

— I only heard the fact that two people are very familiar.

[Room]Guava: Okay.

[Room]Guava: Do you want to go pro?

[Room] Apple: …

More than just Shan Zhu thinking “…”, even Ling Meng wanted to “…”, was it Guava’s hobby to recruit people?

[Room] Apple: No, my hand isn’t good.

This was actually working well in concert together on the reasoning from beginning to end.

“Guava, I’m curious, is your team short of people right now?”

[Room] Guava: No shortage.

“Then why do you always ask people if they want to go pro?”

[Room] Guava: Can be substituted.

[Room] Guava: And I don’t always ask.

“Alright…” He had asked twice and asked the same person both times.

[Room] Guava: However, you can come if you want.

Ling Meng wanted to laugh: “What can I do in a pro team at my level?”

[Room] Guava: Mascot.

Ling Meng: …

Isn’t such a fierce mascot not okay?!

Please read at tailor31415.wordpress.com. Otherwise, you’re reading stolen material.

Chapter 44

His phone vibrated again.

Huo LongGuo: MengMeng, quickly close the broadcast. The counselor is raiding the dormitory and went into Liu Lian’s room.

“I have an unexpected urgent situation here, shutting down the broadcast now, see you tomorrow,” Ling Meng, who received that update from his roommate, hurriedly finished the live broadcast and rushed to cram the desktop clutter into the drawer before the counselor arrived. He dumped the garbage into the trash can and even stacked the bed quilt. The sanitary conditions of the boys’ rooms were about all the same, so this was enough to pass the inspection.

The counselor came and didn’t find any problems during the tour.

“Ling Meng, when you’re not doing self-study, what do you do in your room, play games?”

“No, no,” Ling Meng quickly denied, “I recite English words.”

The leader nodded and approved: “If you want to take the CET-4, you need to memorize the words well.”

The counselor talked about dormitory safety according to his normal script and was about to leave, but then noticed something suspicious at the edge of the drawer.

“What’s that?”

Ling Meng turned his head and sucked in a breath. When he had just stuffed things into the drawer, he hadn’t noticed that a condom was peeking out, but not much, just a corner.

“That… that’s…” Ling Meng didn’t know how to explain in his panic.

The counselor jerked his chin: “Open it.”

Ling Meng drooped and was forced to open the drawer, this time he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to explain it clearly.

“What’s going on?” the counselor pointed at the contents of the drawer and asked politely.

“Counselor, it’s not what you think. I’m still a single dog, how can I use this kind of thing… Believe it or not, you can count, the box of twelve is all here and none of them have been of any use to me.”

“What are you hiding from me?”

“This is from a bet with someone last time that I lost and the other party asked me to buy it as the penalty. I’m telling the truth, you can ask Huo LongGuo and he can help me prove it.”

The counselor reluctantly believed him because of his sincere attitude and his normally good behavior.

“You guys don’t know the proper limits of play, is this kind of thing suitable for appearing in the dormitory?”

“Not suitable, not suitable.”

“Deal with them as quickly as possible.”

“Dealing with them, dealing with them.”

“That’s all for now.”

“Thank you, counselor. I have been made deeply aware of my mistakes and will never make them again,” Ling Meng admitted the mistake and whipped the culprit a hundred times in his heart.

While the two people were talking, Ling Meng’s phone had been vibrating. Of course, Ling Meng didn’t have time to pay attention to it. A moment later, the phone stopped and a Penguin notification popped up on the screen.

Porn Anchor sends you a window jitter.

Counselor: …

Ling Meng: [Face palm]

What can I do? I’m also giving up all hope, ah!

Chapter 45

Shan Zhu delivered breakfast as usual but Ling Meng’s bed was empty. He was a little surprised because Ling Meng didn’t have classes this morning. It didn’t make sense that Ling Meng would get up so early.

“MengMeng? Go to the sports ground and look for him. He’s running,” Huo LongGuo directed him in the right direction.

“Running?” It was raining really hard and the otaku was actually running in the morning?

“Isn’t the school sports meet coming up soon? He has to train.”

“I didn’t think that MengMeng would participate in the sports meet, what event?”

“Five kilometer long-distance race.”

Shan Zhu: (O_O)

Seeing the incredulous expression on Shan Zhu’s face, the roommate laughed loudly: “When we were freshmen, all of us who heard about it had the same reaction as you. Go and find him. Maybe he’s finished by now.”

There weren’t many people on the sports ground in this morning so Ling Meng wearing a goose-yellow tracksuit was very eye-catching. From a distance, Shan Zhu spotted his figure, which looked small against the broad track. It was hard to imagine that Ling Meng would actually participate in the long-distance race, which many people respected the most out of all the sports meet events.

The jogging Ling Meng turned around the bend and Shan Zhu subconsciously stepped back and stood in the shadow of a tree.

Ling Meng didn’t catch sight of Shan Zhu and ran straight past him. Shan Zhu watched from a distance until he finished after three more laps.

“Oh? When did you come?” Ling Meng looked in surprise at Shan Zhu as he walked up to him.

“When you started to the third-to-last lap.”

“Oh… I ran eight laps in total.” Ling Meng’s breathing was still not stable, but he became interested in the breakfast in his hand. “What’s for breakfast this morning, an omelet? Wonderful, I like to eat omelets.”

Ling Meng’s passion for food was also one of Shan Zhu’s motivations for insisting on bringing him breakfast. No matter what he bought, Ling Meng would sincerely say that I like XXX the most. It felt very worthwhile to treat him.

“You just finished running, cool down and then eat.” Shan Zhu didn’t give it to him; he carried it with him instead and joined Ling Meng on the sports ground to do stretching.

“By the way, how did you get here?” Ling Meng asked while stretching his leg.

“Your roommate said that you were preparing for the sports meet.”

“He told you that?” Ling Meng shifted his gaze and remembered something. He punched Shan Zhu’s chest. “It’s all your fault.”

“Blaming me again, why?”

“When would I take the initiative to practice? Obviously our counselor asked me to start running every morning from today until the start of the sports meet. I was originally planning to run starting about three days before the sports meet.”

“Your counselor also supervises the sports meet?”

“He made a surprise nighttime room check last night and happened to find the twelve condoms in my drawer. His old-fashioned mindset; even college students should be able to manage falling in love, how can this be tolerated?”

Shan Zhu imagined the scene and inexplicably wanted to laugh.

“You still think it’s funny? I was dealing with it, but who knew that you would suddenly message me on Penguin and it was immediately caught by him.”

“What’s the problem with my Penguin jitter?” Shan Zhu suddenly thought that this counselor was too harsh. “On the broadcast, you suddenly said that there was an urgent situation. Since you weren’t answering back in WeChat, I tried jittering the window.”

This time Ling Meng was a bit guilty: “No, it’s because… I changed your nickname to Porn Anchor…”

“…hahahaha.”

“Don’t laugh!” Ling Meng grumbled at him. “Because of this, I was taken to the office by the counselor for a long lecture. I was told about the dangers of young people’s addiction to online porn. Wouldn’t you say that I’m unlucky every time I run into you, first in the case of the live broadcast and now again.”

“It’s really a bit pitiful. In order to compensate, starting tomorrow I’ll run with you.”

Ling Meng swept his gaze to the slippers on his feet and declined to comment.

“Rest assured, I definitely won’t wear these when running.”

Chapter 46

??As Shan Zhu said, every morning at 6 o’clock he waited for Ling Meng downstairs. The two people would go for a morning run together, then eat breakfast in the second canteen, and then each go to class or back to the dormitory.

His roommate was even teasing him daily:

“Going on the daily date with Mang God?”

Ling Meng: ←_←

“Coming back from the daily date with Mang God?”

Ling Meng: →_→

On the day of the sports meet, Shan Zhu witnessed the reality of Ling Meng’s popularity. The men’s five kilometer race was the heavyweight event of the sports meet. The people who could participate in this event were often treated as stars by their classmates.

“Take it easy, MengMeng, Gege will rub your legs so you can relax,” this was Ling Meng’s roommate, Huo LongGuo.

“To maintain muscle tone before the race, what else can you do to help me relax?”

“MengMeng, running jiayou; take first place and Daddy will treat you to dinner,” this was Classmate Liu Lian, who was infected with Ling Meng’s Daddy disease.

“Get out.”

“Ling Meng, I bought this chocolate for you, be sure to jiayou, oh!”

“Tha-thank you…”

Undoubtedly, this was flower of the department, Cao Mei.

As the only outside help among the cheerleaders, Shan Zhu watched from a distance. Seeing Ling Meng surrounded by everyone and receiving all sorts of concern and care, he felt that he really couldn’t enter that circle.

Ling Meng’s gaze caught Shan Zhu accidentally through a crack in the crowd and the two exchanged a look.

Ling Meng smiled and waved at him.

The little feeling of loss was instantly dispersed by the smile and Shan Zhu raised his fist and made a ‘jiayou’ gesture towards him.

A cool breeze, clouds covering the sun, the heavens provided: this was the most suitable weather for long-distance running.

At the gunshot, Ling Meng left the starting line with the big troop of people. The closely-gathered crowd gradually spread out as the distance grew, slowly turning from a group into a line. Ling Meng fell into the group’s back ranks and ran unhurriedly.

“Unexpectedly, someone with a small body like MengMeng can still run long distances,” Huo LongGuo chatted with Shan Zhu during the race.

“The thought really never occurred to me.”

“When we were freshmen, no one knew each other well and registration for the sports meet was all on a voluntary basis. When Ling Meng took the initiative to sign up for the 5K, the whole department was moved, thinking he was sacrificing himself to save everyone. But guess what?”

“What?”

“The boy finished first! Doesn’t look it, but ‘men cannot be judged by their looks alone’.”

Shan Zhu’s gaze was locked on the distant slim figure. Even though there were people all around him, he could still find him at a glance.

The distance between the runners was growing more and more. The first in the pack was nearly half a lap ahead of the last person. Shan Zhu was a little worried about Ling Meng, it was hard to believe Huo LongGuo’s word that he was the previous champion.

Huo LongGuo was full of confidence and every time Ling Meng passed, he shouted to cheer for him.

“MengMeng! Water!” Halfway through the race, Huo LongGuo took the opportunity to hand him an opened bottle of mineral water. Ling Meng’s feet didn’t stop as he grabbed it, filling his mouth full with a gulp and pouring the rest over his head. He threw it as he jogged and it fell directly into Shan Zhu’s hands.

“MengMeng, jiayou!” Shan Zhu held the bottle and shouted at his back, despite his splashed clothes.

On the 400-meter track, five kilometers was twelve and a half laps. In the second half of the race, a small number of contestants would obviously lose their physical strength, including the students who ran in lead from the beginning and gradually fell behind. Ling Meng however ran steadily, rising from the back of the group to the center.

On the third-to-last lap, Ling Meng accelerated at a speed visible to the naked eye. Huo LongGuo uncontrollably chanted: “MengMeng, jiayou! Overtake the person in front of you! Overtake him!”

Ling Meng kept moving at a steady pace, passing one runner after another. There were some not resigned to giving up who also tried to accelerate, but due to their physical limits, they were quickly left behind by Ling Meng

“Lap up! Lap up!” The students in the distance shouted as the lead runner lapped the person in last position, while Ling Meng also successfully lapped him, with only three people in front of him.

“Jiayou, jiayou! MengMeng, jiayou! If you overtake him, I’ll call you Daddy!”

Shan Zhu’s ears were filled with all the jiayou cheers, among which Huo LongGuo’s strong voice was the most prominent.

Perhaps the message reached him because Ling Meng quickened his pace and he passed the runner in third place. If he kept up this momentum, the worst he could do was win the bronze medal. However, Ling Meng was clearly not satisfied and he still sped up, passing the second-place runner with astonishing stamina.

Shan Zhu was suddenly very excited, his heart beating incredibly fast. Even when he was watching his own classmates’ events, he had never felt this kind of empathy for the participant; it felt like this wasn’t Ling Meng’s race, but his own.

He ran to the finish line, desperately shouting Ling Meng’s name from behind the line. Although it was submerged in the sea of “jiayous”, he hoped Ling Meng would still hear his voice.

Ling Meng began to sprint. He was 10 meters away from the lead runner, five meters, three meters, one meter…

“MengMeng, jiayou!” Now, even Shan Zhu couldn’t hear his own voice.

Ling Meng didn’t have a tall and lofty body, but it seemed to contain limitless power, all of which broke out at this moment. The clouds split open, the sunlight squeezed through the gap, and the earth warmed up. Apart from the sunshine, the sports field was also full of passion.

Ling Meng had caught up with first place and the lead runner kept this position for most of the distance. Of course, he wouldn’t give up and let the championship be so easily won. The two people sprinted side by side, the speed almost comparable to a 100-meter dash.

“Jiayou! Jiayou!” Shan Zhu screamed hoarsely, ecstatically watching Ling Meng’s not-slow-but-fast speed. The runner with him was obviously unable to maintain such a crazy sprint speed for a long time. He fell half a body behind, then a full body position, finally one step away from the finish line, there was no chance for the other runner to win.

Ling Meng steadily ran in the front, leading second place by a gap of nearly 10 meters, crossing the finish line without any suspense. Shan Zhu started running side by side with him the moment he crossed the line, steadying the other’s staggering pace due to his too-fast speed and helping him cushion off the inertia of the sprint.

“Great! You’re amazing!” Shan Zhu was in a moment of rare emotional agitation. I wish I could hold this person up and rotate 360 ??degrees to express my mood at this moment. He now completely understood Ling Meng’s passionate screen-kiss display. If there were only two of them on the track right now, he wouldn’t be able to control the urge to kiss the other’s reddened dimples.

Ling Meng was panting quickly, exuding the enthusiasm of youth after exercise. Shan Zhu pulled his arm over his own shoulder, helping Ling Meng slowly walk on the track.

“MengMeng, you killed it last lap!” A huge body sprang up from behind and almost knocked the weak-legged Ling Meng to the ground.

Huo LongGuo excitedly hooked his arm around Ling Meng’s neck, scruffing his messy hair with his other hand: “How are you so good! You’re too powerful!”

More of Ling Meng’s classmates came up, squeezing between their embrace so Ling Meng’s arm was gradually forced off of Shan Zhu’s shoulder. Soon, Shan Zhu was also pushed out of the group, further and further, into the distance. This meritorious classmate who had brought glory to their department was surrounded by the excited students and there was no space for Shan Zhu among them.

Standing outside the crowd, Shan Zhu watched the classmates, full of joy, clinging to Ling Meng and leading him away. Sunshine spilled down, making the golden Ling Meng give off golden light.

Suddenly, the golden Ling Meng turned his head and looked in the direction of Shan Zhu, raising his tired hand, laughing and waving.

Joy welled up from the bottom of Shan Zhu’s heart and he mimicked Ling Meng’s action, smiling and waving back at him.

That evening, on Mang God’s Weibo, which had always contained discussions of only gaming and broadcasting, there was a rare post of a very different painting style, like a ‘chicken soup for the soul’ message.

@Mangosteen: When you lose your heart to someone who can shine, you won’t be able to tell whether it’s love that blinds you or whether he is the light source himself.

—

Footnotes:

1. acting schizo (精分): internet slang for someone showing multiple personalities or being surprised by someone’s fickle nature (jokingly)

2. lueluelue (略略略): cutesy slang from Weibo, mimics the sound of sticking out your tongue at someone like nananana~ in English, very flirty

3. has wine (有酒): a specific type of dimple that looks like an ancient wine pit; that’s why they joke about being drunk from seeing his smile

4. window jitter (窗口抖动): messaging feature where the screen shakes, often used when a friend is playing a game full screen to make them notice your messages

5. old-fashioned mindset: feudal way of thinking, following Confucian ritual mentality, with three feminine obediences and five constants

6. Lap up (套圈): cheer to shout when the fastest person laps the slowest person in a race

—

the light from MangNing is what blinds me~~