Chapter 47: Xie Buchan Secretly Thinks of Her

Xie Buchun clicked in to spectate the match.

He fell silent as he looked at the utterly cowardly Sun Shangxiang paired with the aggressively fierce Cheng咬金 [Cheng Yinjin].

Just who was the older brother, and who was the younger sister?

The only reason he recognized Sun Shangxiang as Lin Zhou at a glance was because of this guy’s ID: ❀Midsummer Rainstorm.･ﾟﾟ･.

It fit his personality to a T.

Extremely flamboyant.

Xie Buchun sent Lin Shu a message: Add me to the lobby?

Lin Shu: What role?

Xie Buchun: Marksman.

Lin Shu: My brother is already taking that.

Xie Buchun: Carrying such a cowardly marksman is going to cost you at least three stars tonight.

Lin Shu: Don't you dare talk trash about my brother!

Xie Buchun: Oh.

Lin Shu: Go play jungle instead.

Xie Buchun: My jungle skills are strictly limited to the jungle.

Lin Shu: ......

Xie Buchun: Support?

Lin Shu: That works.

……

Twenty minutes later.

Looking at the new arrival in the team lobby, Lin Zhou pointed at the other person’s profile picture (a curly-haired Bichon Frise) and tilted his chin at his sister, "Who is this dog... uh, who is this person with the puppy avatar?"

Lin Shu replied, "Xie Buchun."

Lin Zhou typed in the team chat: The dog has arrived.

Xie Buchun: Good evening, big brother.

Lin Zhou: Who's your big brother?

Xie Buchun: Good evening, uncle.

Lin Zhou (ten minutes later): ......Call me Brother Zhou.

As usual, Lin Shu played Cheng Yinjin, Lin Zhou played the noble lady Sun Shangxiang, and Xie Buchun selected the support character, Yao.

A cursed Yao sat on the shoulders of the jungler and the marksman, while a proper Yao sat on the shoulders of the mega-tank Cheng Yinjin.

Impenetrable. Absolutely impossible to break through.

By the end of the match.

The opponents had only one sentence they wanted to say: Damn it, pure torture!

Cheng Yinjin finished with zero deaths.

And the noble lady Sun Shangxiang had died a mere seventeen times.

……

[Team Chat]

Lin Zhou: Yao, follow me.

Xie Buchun: Lin Shu, say something.

Lin Shu: Big brother, don't try to poach my support.

Lin Zhou: ************

Xie Buchun: Brother Zhou, speak Earth language.

Lin Shu: Big brother, speak Earth language.

……

That night, Lin Zhou's mobile phone microphone was cursed out thoroughly.

:)

……

Before their parents returned, the Lin siblings cooped up at home playing video games.

Auntie Zhu kept inventing new ways to cook delicious food, especially pig trotters, which appeared at every single meal.

You are what you eat.

Lin Shu remarked that Lin Zhou ought to be fed pig brains.

Lin Zhou countered that Lin Shu should be fed pig hearts.

With the siblings together, the house was never particularly quiet.

Aside from Xie Buchun, the gaming roster would randomly refresh with Zhang Bing, Zhao Minghui, Lao Xu, Jin Junsheng... even the "rare monster" Zhou Ya made appearances.

However, her father was currently away on a business trip, and her mother was in Beijing taking care of the elderly, which was why she finally had a little personal time.

Lin Shiheng and Wang Yan hurried back just in time for New Year's Eve.

The family had a lively meal, handed out red envelopes to Auntie Zhu and the driver, and then gave them time off.

There were still six days left until the New Year.

Even Lin Zhou, with his inconvenient leg, had to pitch in: staying home to receive visiting relatives and friends, helping the old man clean out his phone's storage space, and supervising the housekeeping staff...

As for Lin Shu, she was running around delivering and fetching things everywhere.

Ah, a few boxes of dried abalones given to them by someone else, which her mother now asked her to deliver to her great-aunt.

When she returned, the great-aunt gave her bird's nest brought back from Malaysia.

In the past, running errands like this was always her brother's job since he could drive. When her turn came, she could only bitterly ride buses and subways.

Lin Shu was so busy she didn't even have time to play video games.

It wasn't until the whole family set off for her grandmother's house that she finally had a moment to open the game on the way.

Xie Buchun had been online the whole time.

He had even stayed up late playing...

He had left her messages—not many, just two.

One was "Are you there?" and the other was also "Are you there?"

She couldn't venture to guess what the two jujube trees in Mr. Lu Xun's courtyard were meant to signify, but Xie Buchun's two "Are you there?" messages clearly signaled loneliness.

Normally, he would never ask such a thing.

He was terrified she might think he liked her.

How pitiful.

She really wanted to drag both him and Zhou Ya over to her grandmother's place to celebrate the New Year.

Lin Shu typed back to him: We're going to my grandparents' place for the New Year. I've been constantly packing and organizing things, so I didn't see your messages. We're on the road right now.

Xie Buchun: Where is your grandmother's house? Is it far?

Lin Shu: Haikou Village.

Xie Buchun: The water outlet of Bihu Lake?

Lin Shu: Yes.

Bihu was Tong City's largest lake, even larger than the administrative area of Tong City itself. Haikou Village was located on the western shore of the lake, more than fifty kilometers away from the Tong City urban area on the eastern shore.

It was quite remote.

Lin Shu: Where are you?

Xie Buchun: Same as you.

So he really had gone to his grandparents' place... Poor freeloader brother.

Lin Shu kept sighing.

Curious, Lin Zhou tilted his head to peek at his sister's phone.

Lin Shu locked the screen and asked him if he knew what privacy meant.

Lin Zhou let out a humph.

He muttered that she was acting all mysterious at such a young age, hiding her phone like it was unspeakable, yet she wasn't any more obedient than he was.

Their father was driving, with the music turned up very loud—it was the song "Seeking the Buddha."

The father and daughter shared the exact same musical aesthetic.

Wang Yan wanted to listen to the radio instead.

Lin Zhou pulled out his phone and played his Sodagao music...

This truly was as chaotic as a bowl of porridge in northwest Shanxi.

Lin Shu rolled down the window for some fresh air, and the cold wind rushed in, making her clothes snap loudly.

Oh my goodness.

The air was thick with the gunpowder scent of firecrackers.

The New Year was truly upon them.

……

Upon arriving at her grandparents' house, it was another round of utter chaos.

The eldest cousin's daughter had drawn pictures on Lin Zhou's plaster cast, got scolded by her mother, and was now sitting on the floor bawling.

The dog was far too enthusiastic and scratched a hole in Lin Shu's woolen socks; she could feel a draft right where the chill was biting.

Grandmother called out to the eldest uncle to catch a chicken. Failing to catch it, the uncle clutched his old lower back and hollered for his nephews and nieces to join forces, sending chicken feathers flying everywhere.

……

Terrifying, truly terrifying.

Days like this would likely persist at least until the third day of the New Year.

Fortunately, once the mahjong table was set up, the adults quieted down, and the children went off to play amongst themselves.

Lin Shu sat on a long, root-carved bench, with a cat growing out of her left leg and a chubby toddler growing out of her right leg.

Her little cousin had just learned to walk; while his mother was busy preparing New Year's Eve dinner and his father was running errands everywhere, he would sit on one person's lap for a while, then wobble over to sit on someone else's.

Lin Shu caught a whiff of foul feces.

She raised her voice and yelled, "Third Aunt, little younger brother made a mess."

Third Aunt came in wiping her hands, fished out a diaper, and then hurriedly bolted away because smoke was billowing from the kitchen.

Lin Shu found herself in a dilemma.

There was no one else around.

Because her older brother had called their cousins to go buy fireworks—and Lin Shu had no interest in setting off firecrackers—she hadn't gone along.

Oh god, if she had known, she would have gone.

The old orange cat teased the little cousin with its tail.

Lin Shu said, "Suntide Orange, do you know how to change a diaper?"

Suntide Orange meowed and squinted its eyes.

Lin Shu patted its head, "Stupid, stupid, stupid. For a cat, not even knowing how to change a diaper, what use are you!"

……

"Shu'er, someone is here to see you—"

Grandmother's lingering voice drifted in from the courtyard.

Lin Shu carried the little cousin outside.

The bone-chilling, dry cold.

The wind swept past in fierce gusts.

She saw the boy's glistening hair, damp with sweat.

Xie Buchun was wearing a dark grey windbreaker, standing beside a dust-covered mountain bike. Tucking his helmet in the crook of his elbow, he raised his head and looked at her.

Later on, Grandmother remarked that Lin Shu's eyes had lit up all at once at that exact moment.

Grandmother said she and Xie Buchun shared a bond from a past life, and that fate had tied them together.

……

"Why are you here?"

Lin Shu carried the little cousin into the courtyard, staring dazedly at the boy who was still catching his breath.

The little cousin brandished the diaper in his hand, his speech still slurred as he babbled simple vocabulary, "Stinky... stinky..."

Grandmother had gone over to the next house after calling Lin Shu, deliberately leaving them some private space.

However...

He needed his diaper changed!

Holding the little cousin, Lin Shu glanced at Xie Buchun, preparing to head next door to find someone.

Xie Buchun hung up his helmet, reached out to take the little cousin, and placed him onto the cushioned rattan chair.

The boy bent down and expertly unfastened the diaper. Unlike Lin Shu, who would pull back her chin in disgust upon smelling the odor, he finished changing it seamlessly, then lifted the little cousin up into the air. The chubby toddler, who had been on the verge of crying, stopped fussing and burst out into a smile.

"Hold me..."

Lin Shu hurriedly said, "Little brother, he isn't your daddy. Your daddy went to buy a sheep."

Xie Buchun hoisted the child onto his shoulder and gently patted his back.

"It's just a cuddle, not a father. Why are you helping your cousin randomly assign papas?"

……

Oh.

Heh heh.