In the girls' dormitory.
After returning, Su Qianyi sat down in a gloomy mood, switching back and forth between WeChat and QQ, but no one messaged her.
She didn't click on anyone's chat box to look, but her eyes always drifted towards Xie Shu's name.
After waiting for a while, she started to feel restless.
Now, she didn't feel like doing anything, so she decided to play a game.
Out of the four people in the dorm, only she and An Tian had returned, and the other two roommates were not there.
At this moment, An Tian was watching short videos and showed no interest in playing games, so Su Qianyi couldn't find anyone to play with.
She looked at her game friend list, and the people online were all in the middle of a game. Even if she wanted to team up with them, she had to wait for them to finish.
As she was contemplating whether to play alone or wait for other friends, she suddenly saw Xie Shu come online.
In just a few seconds, she also saw Xie Shu's roommates come online.
They were all in the same class, so it was normal for them to be friends with each other.
Seeing them come online one after another, Su Qianyi suddenly felt that Xie Shu was about to invite her.
When she used to play games, most of the time Xie Shu would lead her and their friends in a team. As long as she didn't want to play alone with her close friends, they were all considered regular teammates.
Hmph!
But she wouldn't agree!
Xie Shu hadn't even apologized to her yet!
He's still with that annoying Ruan Nianxi!
And he's deliberately ignoring her!
She won't agree!
She'll go find other friends to play with!
Although she thought so, Su Qianyi's gaze was still fixed on Xie Shu's name, waiting for him to send her a team invitation.
Then, she watched helplessly as Xie Shu's name changed from "in a team" to "4/5 in a team," and finally to "in a game."
He… didn't invite her.
Su Qianyi felt her vision blur for a moment. Even though she was sitting still, she felt dizzy, making it hard for her to breathe for a few seconds.
After returning to normal, she carefully looked at Xie Shu's name again, and indeed, it showed "in a game."
Su Qianyi tightly pursed her red lips, feeling a panic in her chest. She couldn't catch her breath, she felt uncomfortable…
She had originally entered the game to distract herself and relax, but now, she felt even more uncomfortable than before.
In the end, Su Qianyi didn't even start the game.
She just stood outside, watching.
Watching as Xie Shu's name changed from "in a game" to "4/5 in a team," and then back to "in a game," repeatedly, she forgot how many times he had started the game.
In any case, he never invited her once.
Clearly, there was still a spot available, but he just wouldn't invite her.
Later, she saw Xie Shu's "4/5 in a team" stay on the screen for a long time without starting the game again. She was full of hope, hoping that Xie Shu would invite her.
One minute passed.
Five minutes passed.
More than ten minutes passed…
She still quietly waited, waiting for Xie Shu to make a decision.
If Xie Shu invited her this time, she could reluctantly agree.
But in the end, she saw his name change from "4/5 in a team" to "5/5 in a team," and then back to "in a game." Finally, she couldn't hold back anymore.
She quit the game, threw her phone aside, and lay on the bed, hiding behind the curtain, covering her face with the blanket, and burst into tears.
***
At the same time.
In another girls' dormitory.
After returning to the dormitory, Ruan Nianxi took out her phone and immediately opened the chat box with Xie Shu on WeChat.
She stared blankly at their chat history for a long time before she clicked on the keyboard to send a message to Xie Shu.
Although she didn't know what to chat with Xie Shu about, she just wanted to send him a message.
It should be fine.
Xie Shu had been quite nice to her today, not as serious as her parents had said. It shouldn't be a big deal to just send a message.
After thinking for a long time, she didn't know what to send. She thought she should look up some topics to chat about online to seem normal. As she hesitated to leave, her pinky accidentally clicked on an emoji.
The next second, it was sent successfully.
Ruan Nianxi panicked and wanted to retract the message, but she saw "the other party is typing" at the top of the chat box.
The other party had already seen it, so retracting it was useless.
Fortunately, the emojis she had saved were all quite normal, so even if she accidentally sent them and they were seen, it wouldn't be too embarrassing.
Xie Shu: [Are you done with your tasks?]
Ruan Nianxi: [Yes, just got back to the dorm.]
Xie Shu: [Do you have anything else to do?]
Ruan Nianxi: [I don't think so.]
Xie Shu: [How about playing a game?]
Ruan Nianxi: [A game? I haven't played much… I'm not very good at it. Will I drag you down?]
Ruan Nianxi is usually very busy. In addition to schoolwork, she also has things arranged for her by her parents.
She is an only child, and since she is about to graduate, her parents often arrange things for her in advance to help her gain experience.
In addition, she also has to go to the hospital on time.
She has very little free time of her own, and when she occasionally stays in the dorm, she hears her roommates cursing each other while playing games. She often hears them say, "If you don't know how to play, then don't play."
Although she didn't ask Xie Shu what game he was talking about, it was probably the MOBA game that her roommates often played.
They often played this game in a team, and sometimes they would invite her, but she never played.
She had never played it, didn't know how, was afraid of dragging Xie Shu down, and even more afraid of him scolding her. She wouldn't be able to take it.
Ruan Nianxi was very conflicted at the moment, and Xie Shu's message came again: [It's okay, I'll teach you.]
After struggling in her heart, Ruan Nianxi chose to play with him.After all, it wasn't often that Xie Shu would take the initiative to invite her, and at most, she would just get a couple of remarks.
Having made up her mind, Ruan Nianxi began to download the game on the spot.
On Xie Shu's end, he was idling in the game waiting for Ruan Nianxi.
He also informed his three sons that Ruan Nianxi would be joining them later.
The game needed to update after downloading, and the waiting time was actually long enough for them to start another round, but Xie Shu just idled, waiting all the while. He kept chatting with Ruan Nianxi to keep her from getting bored.
"Xie Shu, it seems like you're quite attentive to Ruan Nianxi. You said you've known each other since childhood, but how come you've never mentioned her before?"
Zhao Lin decided to stay on the team formation page as well, setting his phone aside to start inquiring about Ruan Nianxi.
The other two also perked up with interest and bombarded him with questions.
"Yeah, you never mentioned having such a pretty childhood friend before. You two seem to have a good relationship, but why didn't you know she was at the same university as you?"
"I'm curious too. Weren't you also at the same high school? How come you didn't tell each other when you were applying for universities?"
Since they were waiting anyway, Xie Shu chatted with Ruan Nianxi in a small window while he began to share the story between him and Ruan Nianxi with them.