Chapter 54

The atmosphere at this table suddenly became subtle.

Ruan Nianchu glanced at the box of condoms, and Lain’s gaze shifted downward, also looking at the box of condoms. The corners of the former’s mouth twitched for a moment, while the latter’s eyes turned slightly cold, but they quickly returned to normal.

Li Teng didn’t look anywhere. He played with the lighter, smoked his cigarette, and pale smoke escaped from his lips.

In just a few seconds, Ruan Nianchu came back to her senses. The next moment, she blushed and quickly grabbed the box of condoms, opened her bag, put them in, and hid them at the bottom. Her movements were quite fast.

Both men noticed this action but remained calm.

After hiding the condoms, Ruan Nianchu raised her head, glaring at Li Teng with embarrassment and anger—how could he blatantly throw such a thing on the table, especially in front of a young boy? Is he crazy? Doesn’t he fear corrupting the child?

Li Teng just stared at her, his lips slowly curling into a smile.

Thick-skinned. Ruan Nianchu couldn’t understand some of this man’s strange thoughts, she pouted, snorted lightly, and turned her head away, ignoring him.

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Ruan Nianchu: “How old are you this year?”

Lain replied, “Twenty.”

“Okay.” Ruan Nianchu had a gentle big sisterly expression on her face, nodding in understanding, “I understand you guys. Because when I was twenty, I also had a false sense of maturity.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Li Teng, who was beside her, unexpectedly spoke up, his tone casual, “Which university are you exchanging at?”

Ruan Nianchu heard that he was speaking too fast, so she lowered her voice, “He just learned Chinese not long ago. Could you speak a little slower, or he might not understand.”

Li Teng remained silent, sitting casually, his expressionless face fixed on Lain.

Lain replied, “D University.”

“Wow.” Ruan Nianchu exaggeratedly exclaimed, giving face to the youngster, “Being able to exchange at D University, such a good school, you’re amazing.”

Lain’s face turned slightly red, and he smiled shyly, “Not really. I just happened to get a spot that was available for application.”

The more Ruan Nianchu looked at this big boy, the more she felt he resembled his childhood self. She encouraged him with a pat on the shoulder. In just a fraction of a second, she felt the firm muscles beneath his clothes.

She felt surprised, but when she turned her head, she saw Lain’s gaze behind his glasses, clear and handsome, still with that scholarly demeanor.

It was probably just a misconception, she thought.

At this moment, the waiter came over with utensils and the menu, and brought some dishes as well.

Ruan Nianchu unwrapped the sealed bowl and handed it to Lain, saying enthusiastically, “Today Brother Li is treating, eat whatever you want, don’t be polite with him.”

Lain smiled and said, “Then thanks to Brother Li.”

The next moment, Li Teng responded indifferently, “When did I say I would treat you to dinner?”

“…,” Ruan Nianchu’s eyebrows twitched. In Lain’s slightly embarrassed gaze, she forced out an extremely awkward smile and said, “Just kidding. Brother Li was joking with you. Come on, let’s eat.”

After saying that, she grabbed Li Teng’s hand under the table and pinched it hard, afraid he would say something she couldn’t cover up.

Fortunately, Li Teng didn’t say anything else after that.

He remained silent until the supper was over.

Ruan Nianchu and Lain, on the other hand, chatted lively, alternating between Chinese and English, enjoying bilingual communication.

Despite his young age and recent arrival in China, Lain quickly adapted to new things, proficiently using WeChat, Weibo, and various chat apps. Ruan Nianchu was excited, chatting with him about real-time hot topics on Weibo one moment and sharing her collection of emojis with him the next. They laughed and talked, bridging the generation gap effortlessly.

Li Teng sat beside them, listening. The more he listened, the colder his expression became.

What “King’s Glory,” what “Jump Jump,” what “great luck,” eating chicken at night—listening to this mishmash.

In the end, Ruan Nianchu and Lain followed each other on Weibo and added each other on WeChat. She even jokingly said she wanted him to take her out for chicken next time, and Lain agreed with a smile.

Li Teng stood up directly to settle the bill.

After finishing their meal, Lain said goodbye to them and left in a taxi. Ruan Nianchu and Li Teng then went home together.

In the car, she was fully focused on playing “Jump Jump,” oblivious to the frostiness on his face. She didn’t even glance up, cheerfully saying, “Little Tori always liked to talk, lively and active. Now that he’s grown up, he’s pretty much the same.”

In times of adversity, one can most easily discern goodwill. When Ruan Nianchu was imprisoned in the Cambodian jungle years ago, lonely and helpless, Li Teng was the hero who saved her life, while Tori and Aunt Xin were her only friends.

Just that alone was enough for her to be grateful to them for a lifetime.

So, being able to meet little Tori again, Ruan Nianchu was genuinely happy. Little Tori had a new name, a new identity, a fresh start, and she was genuinely happy for him.

But Li Teng only replied with, “Twenty years old, not a kid anymore.”

This sentence echoed Lain’s response to her.

Ruan Nianchu glanced at him, expressing her opinion seriously: “No matter how old he is. In front of us, he used to be a child, he is now, and he will be in the future.” The image of the short, weak, trembling boy hiding in her arms remained fresh in Ruan Nianchu’s memory to this day.

“Too many things can change in seven years,” Li Teng’s tone was very cold, and his gaze darkened dangerously. “I don’t care about anything else. But Ruan Nianchu, listen to me, don’t get too close to that kid.”

“Haha,” she couldn’t help but laugh outright, “Chief Li, you’re so old, Tori grew up under your eyes. How can you be jealous of a child?”

Li Teng pursed his lips into a straight line, staring straight ahead without saying a word.

“You know?” Ruan Nianchu leaned closer, adding another blow, “Your behavior, it’s called ‘immature.'”

“Yeah,” the other party responded calmly, “I’m just that immature.”

“…,” it seemed that not only was he being unreasonable today, but there were also signs of him acting like an old man pretending to be young. Ruan Nianchu rolled her eyes, ignoring him, and continued to focus on playing her “Jump Jump.”

Coincidentally, Qiao Yufei invited her to a team relay game. When she entered the game room, she saw Jiang Hao and Tori were already there.

She ended up at the bottom for two consecutive rounds.

Feeling frustrated, she furrowed her brows, adjusted the volume to the maximum. For a moment, the silence was broken, and cheerful game music filled the entire compartment.

This time, she performed exceptionally well and achieved first place.

After exiting the game interface, she saw new content in her message interface. Opening it, she found a private message from Tori, saying: “Nianchu sister is really amazing.”

It’s the first year of my life, not the fifteenth: Oh, no, no 【Bow】

Lain: I’m going to play a few games later, want to join?

It’s the first year of my life, not the fifteenth: Sure, but I’m not home yet.

Lain: Let me know when you get home.

It’s the first year of my life, not the fifteenth: Okay.

After replying, she exited the chat interface and went to check her Moments.

Ruan Nianchu had a lazy personality, not proactive, she didn’t touch the skills of interpersonal communication, calculation, or hidden intentions. Thus, from childhood to adulthood, she didn’t have many friends around her.

But she did have quite a few WeChat friends. Classmates, colleagues, and even some micro-businesses she added through QR codes. The content in her Moments, apart from those selling things, was either showing off their children or selfies.

Her fingers moved unconsciously, and she saw a post that was quite different: “The day you came, it was like the darkness saw light on its path. You woke me from my stupor, redeemed my innocence, and made me realize that the sky is high and the grass is green.”

The sender was Lain, with a profile picture of a deep blue sky.

A strong scholarly atmosphere.

Ruan Nianchu blinked and left a comment: “Not clear, but impressive 【Thumbs up】.”

Within a few seconds, the response came: “I’m currently reading a collection of poems by the Chinese poet Xu Zhimo, and I just happened to read this poem ‘A Night in Feilengcui.’ I excerpted it for study.”

Ruan Nianchu lowered her head, looking at her phone with a smile, casually sighing, “Oh my. Boys really change a lot when they grow up.” Who would have thought that the dark-skinned, toothy-grinned little Tori from back then, polished by seven years of time, would grow into a literary youth.

Li Teng didn’t respond to her words.

His expression remained unchanged, but there was a chilling coldness in his eyes, frozen solid.

That night, a quarter of the newly bought condoms were used up. After playing a few rounds of games, Ruan Nianchu went to bed, nearly losing half of her life.

She cried loudly during the process, mixing tears with angry rebukes, “Are you crazy? You’re so unattractive when you eat, and there’s no one competing with you. Can’t you be a bit gentler!”

Li Teng always claimed he was not indulgent in this matter, and Ruan Nianchu never believed him. But after this night, she believed—before, he wasn’t indulgent, even if he was aggressive, he was just a refined man shaped by Teddy’s spirit; but when he did indulge, he was simply a beast that devoured without spitting out bones.

He was suitable for seductive vixens seasoned by countless battles, while she, a naive little cabbage, couldn’t resist.

As Ruan Nianchu cried and protested, Li Teng pressed her down, with force and speed, unrelenting.

Who said no one was competing with him?

This girl was so silly and clueless, she didn’t even know how enticing she was.

Afterward, Ruan Nianchu was truly drained, curled up in bed, barely able to move a toe. She closed her eyes, soft, and began to carefully consider whether to sleep in a separate room from him.

Before long, she fell asleep.

Li Teng looked at Ruan Nianchu’s sleeping face, leaned in, and planted a kiss on her forehead, his eyes dark and deep. Then he hugged her tightly, staring at the night outside until dawn.

---

Being tossed around so harshly, the next day, Ruan Nianchu was yawning constantly even during the singing rehearsal. Her colleagues from the performance troupe were concerned about her exhaustion and asked if she wasn’t feeling well and needed to go home to rest.

Ruan Nianchu could only laugh it off and politely decline everyone’s kindness.

She wasn’t feeling unwell, just tired, very tired, extremely tired. But she could only tough it out even if she was tired. Taking sick leave because of overly intense intimate activities would be too embarrassing. Ruan Nianchu couldn’t get past that hurdle in her heart.

Lain’s appearance didn’t bring much upheaval to her life.

But there were changes.

Under Lain’s guidance, the almost twenty-six-year-old Ruan Nianchu finally completely abandoned her previous little game of keeping a man and plunged into two competitive mobile games. After playing for a while, under Lain’s guidance again, she extended her claws to a popular large-scale tower-pushing online game.

With this, Ruan Nianchu’s interests and hobbies underwent a qualitative leap.

Although Lain was literary, he was also very good at games, both in operation and awareness, reaching an advanced level. Often, after a game, teammates and opponents would send Lain friend requests, beg for his guidance, and chant praises of his godlike skills.

Having such a god leading her to dominate, Ruan Nianchu was very happy.

Every day when she returned home, her first action was to turn on the computer, call Lain and Jiao Yufei, and play “Four Black” with them. Pushing towers, team fights, killing opponents, although low-level games lacked technical spectacles, they were fun. They were perfect for Ruan Nianchu, a beginner.

Lately, Li Teng was busy with work, she played games, and he sat beside her looking at documents. Occasionally, he glanced at her computer screen.

This girl’s skills were extremely poor. As soon as the enemy appeared, she would run away in fear. If she couldn’t escape, she would smash the keyboard, casting skills without any strategy.

He saw her wide-eyed and focused on the game, so he let her be.

When it was time, he carried her to bed again.

This kind of life continued for over a week.

On this Friday afternoon, Ruan Nianchu returned home as usual and sat in front of the computer to play. Their game squad had relatively fixed roles: Jiang Hao played the mid-lane APC, Qiao Yufei was the jungler, Ruan Nianchu and Lain went to the bottom lane, one as ADC and the other as support. The top lane was left to random players.

“Place a ward in the bush,” came Lain’s voice in her earphones, speaking in English.

“Oh,” in the game, the girl playing with a small bear doll skipped around and placed a ward in the bush.

As soon as it lit up, the enemy jungler, who had been lying in ambush, jumped out along with the enemy bot lane and killed her. Lain failed to save her but managed to get a kill in return before retreating with just a few points of health left, then went back to base to buy items.

The screen turned grey. Ruan Nianchu rubbed her forehead, silently waiting to respawn.

At this moment, a careless word came from beside her, “Noob.”

“Hmph,” feeling annoyed, Ruan Nianchu narrowed her eyes, covered the microphone of her earphones, and lowered her voice, “I haven’t laughed at you for being a noob even though you’re so bad at everything, and you have the nerve to laugh at me for being a noob.” Even someone without a Weibo account seemed to be living in the last century.

Li Teng lazily curled his lips and withdrew his gaze.

After being killed two more times, Ruan Nianchu frowned, took off her headphones in a hurry, and stood up. Before leaving, she glanced at her stats, 0-3-4, then emphasized to Li Teng, “I’m going to the bathroom. Remember, you’re not allowed to touch my computer.”

Then she left.

When she came back, she was dumbfounded.

In the upper right corner of the screen, her stats had changed to 3-3-5. Her kills had gone from 0 to 3, deaths remained the same, and assists had increased to 5.

Her mind was blank.

“…” Ruan Nianchu’s first reaction was that she must have read it wrong. She rubbed her eyes and looked again, confirming that the stats were indeed 3-3-5. Looking at her skill bar, her ultimate ability had been used, and the other skills were on cooldown.

Ruan Nianchu was truly astonished.

At this time, Qiao Yufei in the voice chat room was still shouting, “Ruan Nianchu, were you possessed just now? Suddenly you’re so good! Playing a support hero as an APC?”

“I don’t know…” Ruan Nianchu furrowed her brows, puzzled for a few seconds, then turned her head, staring in astonishment at Li Teng, “Was it you who helped me just now?”

Li Teng glanced at her. “Is there anyone else in this room besides you and me?”

“…You actually play this?” Ruan Nianchu’s jaw almost dropped to the ground. She couldn’t believe he could learn the difficulty of this game in just a few days.

Li Teng frowned impatiently. “It’s just League of Legends.”

Hearing this, Ruan Nianchu’s eyes widened even more. “Even the People’s Liberation Army plays games?”

He replied coldly, “Who the hell told you the People’s Liberation Army can’t play games?”

“…Learn something new every day.” After a brief moment of surprise, Ruan Nianchu grabbed his arm curiously and asked, “Are you good at it?”

“Passable,” Li Teng replied, glancing at the time, then took her headphones off her head.

A few seconds later, the people in the voice chat room heard a deep voice coming through the headset, toneless, “She’s asleep.” Ruan Nianchu’s account then exited the game.

Everyone: “…”

On the other side, Ruan Nianchu looked at Li Teng with shining eyes, surprised, “I always thought you didn’t play games.”

Li Teng laid her on the bed, bent down, and kissed her cheek, “Not much.” When he was in his twenties, the internet wasn’t as developed, and there were fewer game options. After thirty, he didn’t have the inclination to touch those things.

Ruan Nianchu looked at him and casually asked, “What about games like PUBG?”

“I don’t play them,” he kissed her lips, “But I can learn.”

“Uh… it’s okay if you don’t know, there’s no need to learn specifically.” Ruan Nianchu smiled awkwardly. Although she often teased him for being outdated, it was just joking. He was perfect enough.

“It’s necessary,” Li Teng whispered in her ear, coaxing her gently with a hint of seduction, “As long as you like it, I’ll do anything.”

“…Really?”

“Yeah,” he nuzzled her nose, “Are there any wild men outside better than me?”

Without hesitation, Ruan Nianchu replied, “None.”

“Good to know.”

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