Chapter 44

044. Running in the Middle of the Night

After taking off the helmet, He Jin sat still for a while to let his mind return slowly to reality.

“You’ve come back!” Upon hearing movement behind him, Hou Dongyan hurriedly turned around and laughed,”Five hours have passed. I’ve been checking on you several times, I was afraid you wouldn’t come back!”

He Jin: “You watch too many sci-fi movies...”

Hou Dongyan: “Big Head came over just now. When he saw you sitting there motionless while wearing a helmet, he asked me curiously if you were blowing your hair with hot air.” Big Head was their nickname for one of their roommates, he was a learning madman who always had his head buried in a book, “I told him that you were playing a game. Then he asked me, ‘Playing games like this? Don’t lie to me,’ I told him a bunch of things about holographic helmets before concluding, ‘Haven’t you seen Avatar? It’s the same as that’, and he was dumbfounded at the time, hahaha!”

He Jin also laughed and asked: “He was looking for me?”

Hou Dongyan: “Yes, he came to ask you to borrow class notes, I helped him find them, but also told him not to touch you, because it could cause your soul to become stuck in the game. You should have seen his face at that time, it made me laugh to death!”

“Pfft, you are so exaggerating...” He Jin then remembered Leisure Cloud telling them that he was being tickled by Wild Crane in reality, which meant he could feel it even when he was online. He told Hou Dongyan about this and said that it didn’t matter if he was disturbed while playing.

Hou Dongyan: “I told him I was joking. That Big Head, he would even believe something like this.”

He Jin smiled and shook his head. When he got up to wash his face, he caught a glimpse of the red flash on his smart bracelet. There was one unread message sent by Qin Yu- “Jogging tonight?” – from two hours ago.

When Qin Yu taught He Jin to play tennis two weeks ago, he casually said that he would accompany He Jin to run, and He Jin could call him whenever he was free.

Seeing him so enthusiastic to help him, He Jin felt especially grateful. So, he hurriedly replied once he saw the SMS, no matter how late it was: “Sorry ah, I didn’t see your message. Are you asleep already?”

Unexpectedly, Qin Yu’s reply came really fast: “I’m not, were you busy?”

He Jin: “No, I was playing a game, so I didn’t see your SMS.”

Qin Yu: “Are you going to sleep now? ”

He Jin: “I’m getting ready to wash my face. But I’m still feeling very excited, so I probably won’t be sleeping anytime soon.”

Qin Yu: “Do you want to go run two laps now?”

He Jin was surprised, running when it’s already past midnight? But then he thought about it, jogging two laps would most likely take 10 minutes, and he might be able to sleep more easily once he became tired from running. Not to mention, he replied to Qin Yu’s message so late tonight, so refusing his offer didn’t seem nice.

“OK, I’ll change my clothes and meet you downstairs in about five minutes.”

Qin Yu did not wait downstairs, but went directly to the third floor instead. After waiting for two minutes, he saw He Jin coming out from room 306. The other man was wearing a slightly thick sportswear. When he saw Qin Yu, he quickly walked over to him.

“Why are you here?” He Jin seemed to be in a pretty good mood.

“It’s cold downstairs.” Qin Yu answered, before walking together with He Jin to the staircase. There was no time-restriction policy in Hua University’s dormitory building. Using the electronic door card, the students could go out with no problem any time, even in the middle of the night.

Since it was winter solstice in December, the temperature at midnight would normally reach near zero. No one was on campus, even half the rooms in the dormitory building had turned off their lights already.

He Jin took a sigh of relief and started to jog around the campus with Qin Yu. After about 500 meters, they began to sweat, and after running two laps, the two of them finally slowed down. As they were walking back leisurely, Qin Yu opened his mouth to ask: “What game were you playing?”

He Jin: “Demon God, a domestic online game. It has a holographic version now.”

“Oh?” Qin Yu raised his eyebrow and asked: “Isn’t it the game that one of the girls mentioned while we were at the lake? And she said there was a big God in there who sounds like me?”

“......Well, yes.” He Jin felt nervous in his heart, he had almost forgotten about this matter.

“So you also play this game,” Qin Yu pretended to be interested, “is it fun?”

“Yeah, it’s okay, but I haven’t played it for long.” He Jin actually thought the game was very fun. However, because of his and Fire’s relationship which “couldn’t see the light”[1], he prefered not to mention this matter to his real friends; even though it always made him feel a little guilty.

“There was a lottery in the game some time ago, and I was lucky to win a holographic helmet. It feels new and refreshing, so I want to try it out a bit.”

Qin Yu’s eyes turned wide: “Woah! What does the holographic feel like?”

He Jin: “Cough, quite real.”

Qin Yu: “How real?”

“It’s like crossing into the game...” He Jin remembered Qin Yu once said that he did not play games, so he coughed once again and explained, “You have seen ‘Avatar’, right? It feels just like that. In the holographic game, once you wear the helmet, you will go into the game world. “–Monkey, lend me the example you used on Big Head!

Qin Yu: (⊙o⊙) ...

He Jin: (=_=) ...n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Until now, this junior brother seemed more and more curious. If he suddenly says he wants to play in the game, and starts asking me about what race I’m playing as or which server I’m in... What am I going to do?

“Well, what were you doing until so late?” He Jin hurriedly changed the topic!

Qin Yu: “I was watching a foreign tennis game live on the Internet. ”

He Jin: “Oh...”

He Jin: ....Awkward silence! T_T

After a moment of silent, He Jin remembered something and hurriedly asked: “You had a test for level six grammar yesterday, right? How was it?”

Qin Yu: “It doesn’t seem good.”

He Jin: “...”

He Jin clenched his fist and said: “If you scored more than 600, I will invite you to eat!”

Qin Yu finally reacted: “600?”

The Level 6 test had been implemented since 1984 and had not changed for decades– the total score was 710, with 420 as the passing minimum, so 600 points was actually quite high. However, for students of Hua University 600 points was considered quite common.

He Jin: “Too high?”

Qin Yu: “How much did you score last year?”

He Jin: “More than 680...”

Qin Yu: “...”

Qin Yu’s raised his eyebrow: “So why did you expect so low from me?”

He Jin felt ashamed. In fact, he just said that sentence to change the atmosphere, but what he said had made Qin Yu feel bad. The other man wanted to set a high bar for himself, it wasn’t an embarrassing thing.

Qin Yu looked at him with a smile, “Then if I passed the test, should I invite you to eat? Se ~ ni~ or~”

This was the first time Qin Yu called He Jin “senior”. The term that should have been used as a matter of course, was now said to him in a teasing manner. Hearing this made He Jin’s heart jump tightly. Obviously, he was the older one between them, his qualifications and achievements should also be better than the other man, but Qin Yu’s tone made it seem like he was the younger one. Like he was the one who needed to be taken care of.

Proofreader: EileenKH123

T/N:

[1] Couldn’t see the light = have to be kept a secret