╔═══ Author's note ════╗
Edited by Psycho S
Proofreaded by P.D Webb.
╚═════════════════╝
From that day onwards, they began to understand each other more by asking all kinds of questions about each other.
(Bing Shi): What does it feel like when you overdose on sleeping pills?
She was curious, but it was an innocent (morbid) kind of curiosity. She wasn't curious enough to know of the answer by trying to overdose herself.
(Xuan Mu): I never did drugs before. But I think I felt high? After feeling high, I started to have hallucinations. I didn't know what was going on around me.
Xuan Mu typed what he remembered with a croon. He was happy to answer her questions because, for some reason, it felt freeing to talk about such things to her.
(Bing Shi): Oh, that's cool. Why did you drop out of school?
All her life, Bing Shi was taught that school was the top priority. Or, maybe less taught and more like she superimposed that thought onto herself as a way to cope with her well-meaning and loving parents.
(Xuan Mu): My parents thought I was a genius and forced me into a school composed entirely of genius children. I never really cared about school. Actually, I never cared about anything, so I dropped out. They couldn't understand me and sent me to all kinds of psychiatrists.
She had so much to ask.
(Bing Shi): Did those psychiatrists help you?
(Xuan Mu): No, they didn't help me at all. It's easy to get past them. They couldn't find anything wrong with me.
(Bing Shi): So interesting...!
(Xuan Mu): Are you not going to persuade me to go back to school?
(Bing Shi): Why should I? It's your choice, they shouldn't force you. My parents never forced me to do anything.
Indeed, her parents didn't force her to do anything at all. They only ever praised her far too much— it was to the point where she felt pressured to perform her best, at all times.
(Xuan Mu): You're more mature than my parents. My parents, on the other hand, always force me.
He chuckled.
(Bing Shi): You have a little sister, right? I remember when you had to take a break to change her diapers or to clean her teeth, and make milk for her. I would never change diapers for my brothers. I hate children.
That was the reason why Bing Shi was so surprised when Xuan Mu told her that he dropped out of school. Similar to her, she imagined him as a nice boy, who took care of his sibling.
(Xuan Mu): You still remember that? She's a spoiled girl now. She doesn't listen to me at all!
Xuan Mu looked at his tiny sister, who was watching cartoons in his room.
(Bing Shi): My brothers listen to me more than my parents, haha!
She bragged about herself, unaware that such a thing shouldn't be bragged about if one considered the methods she used to make her brothers obedient brats.
(Xuan Mu): Oh, how did you do it? And why do you hate children?
He looked from his sister back to his monitor. The only thing they didn't know about each other was their personal information such as their home address, and their faces.
Somehow, both of them started to hate the world a little less. Thinking about it from a certain perspective, it was thanks to those bad things that happened, that they got a chance to meet each other.... in a strange way.
One time, Xuan Mu found an opportunity to hear her voice. They were doing a complicated and time-consuming dungeon, which could be shortened with lots of tricks. Knowing Bing Shi, she wouldn't understand from his typing.
She agreed to his request of joining the team voice chat that had only the two of them.
He nervously waited for his voice call to connect. When she picked up, his nervousness increased.
"Bing Shi?" he asked quietly.
The girl on the other side was silent. Her face had turned red.
Silence...
"Bing Shi... Are you here?" Xuan Mu grew worried, raising his voice a bit in response to her silence.
"Y-yeah..." Bing Shi started to fan her hot face.
"That's good," he chuckled, ignoring his violent heartbeat.
Silence...
The girl on the other side almost fainted from his chuckle.
"You are usually very talkative, aren't you? Now, you are so silent," Xuan Mu was thinking up how to make her talk.
"Oh god, what's wrong with your voice? It sounds so nice! Like aaah... I can't describe it," the girl increased the speed of her flapping hands in an attempt to cool her face.
"You like it?" he laughed.
"Oh my god! Don't laugh!" she demanded. If his voice didnt finish her, his laughter definitely did: K.O.
"... Now, let's go to the dungeon. I'll explain what you have to do," he chuckled at her reaction. 'So cute.'
Then, Xuan Mu noticed something was wrong with her voice. It was low and monotonous. There wasn't a hint of joy or sadness. Often, he would get mad at how unresponsive she could be due to her laughter, which, to him, sounded emotionless.
"Bing Shi, am I boring you? Your voice sounds pretty bored," he asked for the tenth time. Inwardly, he was worried. Would she leave him if she didn't find him funny?
"That's strange," she giggled at his needless worry, "I'm having fun. You don't have to make me laugh all the time."
'Why is he so afraid of me getting bored of him? I wish I knew what boredom was.'
"Oh, that's good to know," Xuan Mu noted it down. Only when he got a chance to hear Bing Shi speaking to others, did he notice a difference.
Whenever Bing Shi talked with Xuan Mu, there was always a tint of sweetness in her voice. It was like she was being coquettish without quite realizing that yet.
Inside the dungeon, Bing Shi followed Xuan Mu's commands obediently. After they finished the dungeon, they went back to the city.
"Why are you playing as a girl character?" she asked when she noticed Xuan Mu playing as females. It didn't bother her that he did so anyways, he didn't hide the fact that he was male. She liked his demure honesty.
"Girls are better to look at," he said truthfully.
"Well, that makes sense," Bing Shi switched her gender into a man and started to chase girls around, "No wonder men like to chase after girls online, it's so fun!"
Xuan Mu shook his head helplessly, chuckling to himself. She always complained about how she couldn't keep up with his pace but at the same time, she also laughed at people who gave up playing with them because as a pair, they were far too fast for others to keep up.
"So I wasn't slow, it's you who is too fast!" she laughed delightfully.
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They tried all kinds of games that were always picked by Xuan Mu. Along the way, somehow, Bing Shi had started to like survival games.
Currently, they were on a wooden raft that drifted along in the middle of the ocean. They had to keep themselves alive by catching all sorts of things from the ocean. She was having so much fun catching everything with a hook. It was kind of relaxing, actually, considering how easy that stuff was.
While she was hooking in a lot of materials, he was always happy to build — expanding their raft, crafting, and killing of the sharks — everything to survive.
But they had to stop playing because Bing Shi got seasick from a game! Xuan Mu laughed so hard when he found out. On the other hand, she had started crying.
"Noooo, I just started to like it. My happineeeesss! I see it waving! Nooooo, don't go byeeeee - byeeeee!" Bing Shi waved her imaginary white napkin with fake tears in her mind, "Ugh, I think I'm going to puke."
He didn't see her green face, but he could hear how dizzy she was with the way she was speaking. For having such a bland voice, he was well versed in picking up her emotions. He considered it a skill. Finally, he could read her voice, "Usually, you are so smart. So why is it that when you're with me, you become so silly?"
"I love being brain dead. Didn't you say you like to use your mind in games? Now it's your turn to be my sugar daddy."
A joyous sparkle flickered in his eyes, the corner of his mouth raised up, "Aren't those things boring? Oh, let me be your sugar daddy then. I'll take care of you well."
Bing Shi grinned sheepishly, "This sugar mommy likes boring stuff too."
"Oh, Ok," Xuan Mu chuckled dotingly. He just found out that Bing Shi liked role-playing. Not that he minded. On the contrary, he found her combos hilarious, "I never saw a sugar daddy that takes care of a sugar mommy."
"Me too, that's why I wanted to try that out, hehe," Bing Shi took in a few deep breaths, "I think, I'm better. Let's sail, I'm not giving up until I catch all the animals for our garden!"
Resuming playing the game, Xuan Mu turned off the ocean's waves function. Much to his amusement, it didn't take long for Bing Shi to get motion sickness again.
"The waves aren't even moving," Xuan Mu cracked a laugh at her despaired groans.
Faintly, in his ears, he heard her cry out a loud, "I knoooow!"