The Whole World Thinks I’m a Woman Disguised as a Man - Ch 5.1

Reset accepted his friend request.

Reset also invited him to play together!!!

It was clear Xue Lan was thrilled as he jumped from the gaming chair, but his face betrayed no expression as he slowly moved the mouse to the party invite, calmly clicking the accept button.

He wanted to say hello to Pang Zi and Lao Qi placidly…but noticed it was only Duan Wenzheng and himself on the team.

Xue Lan’s breathing stilled.

BabyCandy: Where are your friends?

It was past midnight. Duan Wenzheng did not turn off his mic, he was in the lounge room; Xue Lan could vaguely hear the distant and faint sounds of the keyboard and chitter-chatter. Very faint, even quieter than the occasional light breathing of Duan Wenzheng or the rustling of clothes.

It was quiet. Because of such silence, Xue Lan unconsciously lulled his breathing.

“Not here.” Duan Wenzheng didn’t type and directly said, “Anyone else?”

Xue Lan then just remembered. At this time, Duan Wenzheng left home and lodged in the internet cafe until he entered the youth academy because of Wen Yan’s words. The novel did not describe much of this time frame; it only skated over today’s ranked match and shifted to the plot of LGW’s manager’s unsuccessful recruit of Duan Wenzheng before Wen Yan found him and took him away.

So during this time…

Duan Wenzheng was in the internet cafe like this every day?

Xue Lan felt an inexplicable sadness. A person like Duan Wenzheng—he always stood at a place that everyone looked up to, but now he was staying at such a place until the start of the youth academy?

Xue Lan didn’t say a word. Duan Wenzheng thought he didn’t hear him, so he typed and asked:

Reset: Anyone else?

Xue Lan returned to his senses.

Baby Candy: Nope.

Duan Wenzheng clicked queue.

His rank now was higher. Queueing this late at night seemed to be especially long and dreary.

BabyCandy: I don’t play well as a medic, will I burden you?

“En,” Duan Wenzheng answered unflatteringly, “but your awareness, controls, and speculation are good, so you won’t be a burden.”

His words were both praising and disparaging, but Xue Lan’s mind only echoed with Duan Wenzheng’s “awareness, controls, and speculation are good”.

He had never been praised like this before. And it was the person he worshipped most to boot.

The tip of his ears flushed red. Even though his expression appeared calm, the sliding movement of his fingertips on the mouse unconsciously revealed his thoughts at the present moment.

“Your calculation of the grenade at both times was accurate. If the first one was a coincidence, the second time you were able to kill the enemy by zeroing the grenade…You can discern the exact range of the grenade?”

Xue Lan’s expression was solemn. Like a good student being praised by a teacher, Xue Lan properly typed a reply.

BabyCandy: Not very accurate, it was just an estimate.

Duan Wenzheng’s eyebrows slightly raised. “Estimate.”

The low murmur that came through the headset made Xue Lan’s face slightly heat up. Luckily at this moment, they were finally at the end of the queue and entered the game. Only then Xue Lan relaxed and earnestly played the ranked match.

The medic position had limits. More often than not, the outcome of the battle could only be entrusted to the teammates, so he had never had any expectations for this position.

But his teammate was Duan Wenzheng…

He suddenly thought this position wasn’t completely hapless.

Like this, the two played game after game after game. Although Xue Lan was already sleepy, he couldn’t bear to say he wanted to get some shut-eye.

He followed along to queue in a daze. Following the beep of having entered the map, he saw the comment box in the lower left corner of the screen flooding with red characters—

Yeran001: BabyCandy?? Reset? You people who targeted wind yesterday?? This Reset is a cheater right? Reported!!

This comment was copied and pasted seven eight times, it was difficult to dismiss. Xue Lan initially paid no mind about these, but when he read the last half, his drowsiness was nearly dispelled, and, slowly, his eyebrows furrowed.

BabyCandy: You know you suck at playing yourself and made excuses to look for a defeat ahead of time?

Xue Lan did not want to argue with these fans of Wen Yan at first, and he couldn’t care less about what these people were saying. After all, the person who chased after Wen Yan was the original owner and not him; he could turn a deaf ear. But what was all this about Duan Wenzheng?

Yeran001: Yo, you hug a cheater’s thigh and became muddled? You guys play well and don’t cheat, then why don’t you play professionally?

Xue Lan’s drowsiness vanished. Before, his opportunity to interact with others was very little, let alone an argument. Yet, he choked with resentment as he loudly tapped on the keyboard. He used the words he learned from the live stream before to counter.

BabyCandy: What if we play professionally then? Are you going to eat your keyboard in the live stream?

Xue Lan was currently on the original owner’s main account, and Duan Wenzheng normally played with Pang Zi and Lao Qi. Xue Lan’s ranking in the national server’s ranks had also entered the top 30. The two had played for a whole night, and now his account had entered the whole server’s top 100; this opponent’s rank was also very high. After Xue Lan said that, he saw a teammate say in the group chat that that opponent was live streaming.

Xue Lan had just sent this line of text when another shallow, low laugh came through the group voice chat. The hand he used to type stiffened. Only then did he realize this immature1 quarrel was being witnessed by the person whom he worshipped most.

Footnote:

1 The author here uses 小学鸡 – literally “elementary chicken”, it’s an internet buzzword referring to when adults behave like children.