Chapter 4 Sarcastic Comfort

“What’s up?”

Liang Hao, who was sitting next to him, scooted over after hearing Lin ShouJie’s nonchalant chuckle.

Lin ShouJie moved a little and showed him.

“She sent me a message in game.”

“Damn, she actually caught you. How did she know you would get on? Is she this smart?” Liang Hao said, incredulous.

A moment later, he seemed to have figured something out as his expression turned serious.

“Maybe…there’s a traitor, put the transaction on hold?”

“…How do you know?” Lin ShouJie stared at him with dead eyes.

Liang Hao scratched his head. “Oh, the traitor was me? Then, nothing happened.”

“You…” Lin ShouJie began casting his dragon claw ability.

“Jie Bro, please no!” Liang Hao pleaded. “I was just joking! Let’s get back on track.”

Lin ShouJie brought his hand back. In reality, he knew that Liang Hao wasn’t that kind of person. Plus, those two had never exchanged contact information.

Xu MengMeng’s contact list, with the exception of her parents and Lin ShouJie, was only filled with women.

In her eyes, there are four types of people in this world: women, disgusting men, Lin ShouJie, and her parents.

Of course, it was all thanks to Lin ShouJie letting her win every fight they had. Or else, he would be recognized as a disgusting man as well.

But now Lin ShouJie felt quite regretful. If he had been labeled as a disgusting man, maybe they could have gone their own separate ways earlier.

However, there was no going back now. He didn’t want to have any further conflict with Xu MengMeng, no matter how large or small.

He would treat her the best, better than everyone else in the world.

But he would not be with her again.

And he would stay away from her, distance from her, ignore her… then become a man she could never obtain.

For Lin ShouJie, that was enough.

He could belong to the world…

Or belong to anyone…

But, never again will he belong to Xu MengMeng!

Another message from Xu MengMeng popped up on the client:

[I know you see my message! Hurry up and reply! I got it! You just want to play games, right? Is it because your urge to play games was bottled up too much since I never let you play?

I’ll let you play today, so please come home! I don’t want to be alone! I’m begging you, please come back!

*Sob sob* ShouJie, I miss you a lot… I just wanted to shower, but there was no hot water… and I slipped and hit my head… It’s swollen now… come back please, I beg you.

Please, please, please…]

Seeing the emotion-packed message on the screen, both Lin ShouJie and Liang Hao both fell silent.

A moment later, Liang Hao patted Lin ShouJie on the shoulder, and sat back in front of his computer.

“I’ll go play a Draft match. Just call me after you take care of this.”

“…Alright.”

Lin ShouJie rubbed his temple and internally sighed.

Seeing that Xu MengMeng was still spamming messaging, Lin ShouJie thought a little, then placed his hand on his keyboard and typed, [Don’t spam. Stop.]

[You finally replied! What is going on!? Where are you? You’re not making sense today!]

Not making sense?

Goddammit… I shouldn’t have replied…

From just one message, Lin ShouJie’s blood pressure rose.

He took a deep breath, unconsciously showed a thin smile, then typed again:

[Sorry, I’m not normal today, so I won’t go home. The hot water button is next to the light switch in the bathroom.

The first aid box is in the second drawer in the storage room. The medical paste you want to use is the brown bottle, remember to apply it gently. If you think that washing your hand is a pain, then just use a cotton swab.

Oh yeah, I probably won’t be normal tomorrow either, the day after as well, and also the day after that, and from now on, so… I won’t affect your mood anymore. You should take a good rest. Sleep early.

Also, you can take your time to pack up, as long as you leave.

Since we already broke up, it’s not really appropriate for you to keep staying at my house, right?]

After typing all this, Lin ShouJie’s mood improved drastically.

And then, Xu MengMeng’s message came through.

[I really don’t get it, why can’t you just tell me? If we talk it out, it would be fine, so please stop being like this! Don’t say anything about breaking up anymore!!!

I never agreed to it!!!]

Talk it out!?

Are you properly “talking it out” with me right now?

Lin ShouJie felt an indescribable anger growing inside his chest, making his breathing rather ragged.

Feeling lunatic, he typed,

[Again with your tone, again with your mood, you’re blaming me again, and you think I’m not normal.

Fine, I’m not normal now. But you’re using your condescending way of thinking to persuade me, since it’s turning out like this. I remember you once said, “Don’t ask what problem you have, figure it out yourself.”

Fine with me! Come guess now! Come guess what happened to me!? You can’t guess!? How are you this stupid!? Are you an idiot?]

As he typed the last character, he suddenly snapped back, his eyes widened. Then he closed it again and lowered his head.

I’m the idiot…

A while passed, Lin ShouJie lifted his head again at the message box, then deleted everything he had typed.

Then, he showed his smile again, and typed slowly,

[Sorry MengMeng, I’m suggesting we break up one-sidedly.

After a lot of thought, I think I don’t deserve you. I feel guilty, almost to the point of killing myself. I stopped you from meeting a better man than me.

So I selfishly ran. If you can’t accept this, then you can treat me as a coward, and that’s that.]

With the message sent, Lin ShouJie was in a daze for a little while. He moved his mouse onto Xu MengMeng’s account and deleted her off of his friend list.

The next moment, his world was peaceful.

The sounds of the keys, the air conditioning; everything was so crisp.

“Hao Bro, I finished.”

“That fast?”

“Yeah… I deleted her off the friends list.”

“Damn. You’re a role model.”

Liang Hao laughed and turned his attention from the game to look at Lin ShouJie.

But he saw that Lin ShouJie’s arm was on the table, holding his head in his hands. He couldn’t tell what ShouJie was thinking.

Liang Hao fell silent. After a while, he turned back to his computer without another word.

The only thing that changed was that he was pressing the keys on the keyboard a little gentler.

The August night was still a little hot, and so the internet cafe’s air conditioning was turned to the max, so was the booth’s.

After a while, Lin ShouJie’s voice swam through his fingers.

“Hao Bro, can you turn the air conditioning down a little? It’s a little cold.”

“Let’s just turn it off.”

“…Okay.”