The sudden sound of the computer fan’s cooling system interrupted the subtle tension in the room.

After a long while, Dou Sheng finally spoke. “So you played violin.”

“Mm.”

Xie Lan touched the violin’s neck, muttering in a somewhat dazed voice, “I just somehow started playing.”

The screen was still completely covered in bullet comments. Dou Sheng walked over to adjust the comment display area before revealing their faces somewhat.

His gaze fell on the live stream assistant’s statistics and froze.

“1.7 million???”

“Only 1.7?” Xie Lan frowned. “Why did 100,000 people leave so quickly after I finished playing?”

Dou Sheng: “?”

The bullet comments scrolled past with gloating laughter.

• People left as soon as Douzi arrived
• Poor Douzi
• Wait, this is the actual streamer?
• Same question, isn’t this a music section stream?
• Little handsome guy, won’t you play one more? 555
• Music section veteran here, truly amazed tonight
• My streamer even stopped streaming to come listen!

Xie Lan sat by the computer desk, looking at those statistics and comments.

In his peripheral vision, he felt like Dou Sheng was secretly glancing at him, but when he looked back, it seemed like he wasn’t.

Dou Sheng’s expression was normal, saying lightly, “Gained followers. Thanks.”

“Ah?” Xie Lan was confused, then immediately said after reacting, “No, I was just playing casually.”

• 《Played Casually》
• Redefining “casually”
• Casually gaining you some followers
• Casually crushing the competition next door
• Casually attracting a million people
• Life is just that casual
• Casually play one more

Xie Lan sighed, somewhat helpless yet amused. “Not playing anymore. Playing violin takes stamina; I’m a bit tired.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Dou Sheng pulled over the keyboard and typed a line of text to hang at the top of the stream—

【Gaming streamer, violin performance is a random blessing from heaven, come and go as you please, good night everyone】

• Why are you chasing people away? I’m speechless
• Douzi, you have 1.08M followers now, gained nearly 70K, my god!
• So you’ve been hiding a violinist at home!
• Dang, isn’t this more fragrant¹ than a cousin?
• Lan cub is too cute!
• I want to rub Lan Cub’s soft, fluffy hair 555
• I also want to rub

Xie Lan was pondering in his mind how the bullet comments could smell his “fragrance” through the internet connection when Dou Sheng suddenly reached toward his head. Before he could react, that force dominated his upper body, making him sway back and forth several times in the chair.

Dizzy and disoriented.

Dou Sheng withdrew his hand and said lightly, “Rubbed it for you all.”

Xie Lan: “?”

Bullet comments: ????

• Be a human being
• The dog is dead
• I actually… shipped it
• Damn, I also…
• Shipped it +1

Xie Lan’s cold was really draining, too lazy to quibble with a certain someone. He pursed his lips, looking at the overwhelming screen-filling words in the comments, couldn’t help asking, “What does ‘ke dao²‘ mean?”

“Ke means kowtow, like bowing with your head.” Dou Sheng answered extremely smoothly. “They were so shocked seeing me rub your head for them that they headbutted the ground.”

“I see…” Xie Lan nodded. “Then I also ke dao’d.”

Dou Sheng’s hand holding the mouse involuntarily trembled.

• ???
• Enterprise-level understanding
• Douzi’s Dou-speak³
• Lan cub is a level 10 Dou-language apprentice

“Alright now.” Dou Sheng laughed at the comments for a while. “He can’t understand these internet terms, don’t corrupt the child.”

• Child? Fuck
• kswlkswl tonight I’m dying in this stream
• Quick, kill me to celebrate for these two
• So will he always be at your house?
• Same question, how long at your house?
• Can we see him next stream?

These questions floated out, and Xie Lan paused.

Actually, this stay had far exceeded his plans. He originally planned to rent his own place to live, but didn’t expect that once he moved into Dou Sheng’s house, half a month passed, and now he didn’t even have much motivation to leave.

Dou Sheng turned back somewhat uncertainly to look at him. “Should be staying long-term, right?”

Xie Lan hesitated before saying, “At least for this period. We’ve both registered for boarding school, only coming back on weekends.”

Hearing this, Dou Sheng immediately curved his lips, smiling at the camera. “I think he’ll stay at my house at least until college entrance exams. Rounding up, he’s my family’s second cat. I’m the boss.”

• Douzi, I also want to live at your house
• Open the door, I’m pressing the doorbell
• Open the door, I’m picking at the door crack
• Open the door, my leg is caught in the door

The formation continued scrolling below. Dou Sheng laughed and cursed, “Dream on, get lost.”

Behind Xie Lan suddenly came a few shallow smacking sounds—it was the four little milk kittens who had fallen asleep at some point, one using another’s belly as a pillow, reliving nursing in their dreams. Hearing those smacking sounds, he also yawned.

Dou Sheng clicked the mouse. “Alright, that’s it for today. Thanks everyone for your support. See you in the next video.”

• ??
• ??
• Gained followers and running away?
• Are you even human? It’s not even midnight yet
• Look at other streamers, who’s offline?

“Ah, my heart is a bit turbulent today. Maybe I’m shocked by gaining so many followers. I need to find a quiet corner to soothe my soul.” Dou Sheng said expressionlessly and perfunctorily, getting up to first close the horror game on the left, then the mouse stopped on the button to close the stream. Pause.

“Any last words for me? Counting down five.”

The entire screen filled with question marks.

Dou Sheng smiled, watching those question marks. Five seconds up, the mouse clicked, and the screen went black.

Xie Lan slowly raised his head to look up, squeezing out a sentence. “Is there something wrong with you?”

Dou Sheng also turned off the computer, saying righteously, “I’m tired. Sleeping when tired is natural law.”

Xie Lan was speechless. He packed up the violin and bow, carefully fastened the case locks, stood up and slung it over his shoulder.

After playing a piece, he felt somewhat physically exhausted. Carrying the violin, it actually felt as heavy as carrying a mountain, so heavy he was a bit out of breath.

Xie Lan walked out of the room when he suddenly heard Dou Sheng say softly behind him, “This violin’s shape is very special.”

“Ah?” Xie Lan stopped and turned around.

“The violin’s shape is memorable.” Dou Sheng said lowly, then withdrew his gaze from the violin. “That OP arrangement just now was also excellent. The ultimate passion and sorrow—that’s what I love most about this OP, and you played it all out.”

Xie Lan was caught off guard by the praise, standing at the door with confusion written on his face.

Of course he knew he played well, but being seriously praised face-to-face by Dou Sheng still made his ears feel a bit hot in that uncomfortable way.

Dou Sheng had been a bit off since he took that phone call tonight. In Che Ziming’s words, it was like some nerve had been miswired.

Xie Lan returned to his room and first took a hot shower, wrapped himself in a thicker robe, and went downstairs to find food.

Zhao Wenying often traveled for business. Dou Sheng’s fridge was stuffed with all kinds of food—some he stocked, some Xiao Ma stuffed in when coming daily to pick them up for school.

Xie Lan was very hungry. He swept through the fridge and took everything that could be eaten immediately and had some sweetness—two boxes of cream puffs, a box of cantaloupe, a box of egg tarts, a box of red bean spring rolls. He stacked the large and small boxes, propped them with his chin, freed one hand to take a bottle of cocoa milk.

The fridge was full of cocoa milk, making one feel like not drinking even one would be letting down this fridge.

He somewhat struggled to close the fridge door with his elbow while holding everything. Just as he turned around, he saw Dou Sheng standing at the doorway, half his body in the kitchen light, half in the living room shadow, looking at him eerily.

“!”

Xie Lan nearly dropped the entire stack of boxes.

The hand holding the milk urgently steadied the tilting “architecture” in the air. He said in shock, “What are you doing?”

“Passing by, just looking around.” Dou Sheng walked over and naturally reached out to help him take down the top three boxes. “You’re hungry.”

Isn’t that obvious?

Xie Lan asked, “Are you also looking for food? Want to share?”

“No, I ate very full at the small dining table tonight.” Dou Sheng followed him upstairs.

Xie Lan raised an eyebrow. “Then why did you come down?”

Dou Sheng thought about it. “Taking a walk.”

“…?”

Reaching the stairway, Xie Lan instinctively slowed his pace, wanting to let Dou Sheng go ahead. However, he subtly noticed Dou Sheng also slowed down with him, seemingly also wanting him to go first.

Yet when Xie Lan lifted his leg to step up a stair, Dou Sheng immediately followed, basically walking shoulder to shoulder with him.

Xie Lan inexplicably felt a bit creeped out.

He went up one step, Dou Sheng went up one step.

His pace slowed slightly, Dou Sheng also slowed accordingly, even yawning.

In his peripheral vision, Dou Sheng kept looking at him eerily, always half a step behind.

Confusion gradually appeared on Xie Lan’s face.

He couldn’t help turning back to ask, “What are you doing?”

“Going upstairs.” Dou Sheng casually withdrew his gaze. “What’s wrong?”

“…” Xie Lan said incredulously, “Is this simply going upstairs??”

“Otherwise? Going downstairs?” Dou Sheng said while quickening his steps up, placing what he was holding on Xie Lan’s nightstand. “I suddenly remembered something. We’ve lived together so many days, but I never asked you.”

Xie Lan stood at the door in a daze holding his things, completely confused by him.

“Huh?”

Dou Sheng said, “Does the house need anything added? I ordered a coffee machine a few days ago. Anything else needed?”

Xie Lan was startled. “You bought a coffee machine?”

“Mm.” Dou Sheng lowered his eyes to think for a while. “Do you think it’s necessary to buy a projector?”

Xie Lan showed an even more confused expression.

“There’s no place at home to watch TV together. Ms. Zhao Wenying is always on business trips so doesn’t need it, but now that you’re here, it seems necessary.” Dou Sheng muttered to himself a few sentences. “Forget it, it’s useless discussing this with a sick patient.”

Xie Lan didn’t know what wind he was riding, but still told the truth. “I prefer watching things on my own phone. Projector screens are too big and tiring to watch.”

This was true. The projector at his UK home had one and only one use—creating shadows of him playing violin for recording videos.

“Oh.”

Dou Sheng seemed a bit disappointed. He sighed. “Then I’ll look into it more.”

He put down the things and went back to his own room, negotiating a few sentences with the cats inside who had just settled down to sleep before getting up to do parkour.

Xie Lan also returned to his room, sitting at the desk eating his midnight snack while fiddling with his phone.

The effect of attracting random viewers just now was still slowly being released. In the time it took to talk, Dou Sheng’s Bilibili followers broke through 1.1M. Yesterday’s “Douzi’s Thousand-Layer Routine of Love” made it to the front page again, this time renamed “Big Cat Abducting Second Cat’s Thousand-Layer Routine.” The opening was full of orange bullet comments—

“Douzi & Lan Cub YYDS!⁴“

Couldn’t understand it, but it had grand momentum and seemed very impressive.

Xie Lan sucked the cream from the puff and went to check Weibo. Dou Sheng’s super topic was circulating various screen recordings and screenshots of him playing violin tonight. Fans were all active now, and the super topic refreshed with new discussions each time.

Xie Lan mainly wanted to see if anyone discussed SilentWaves. Actually, he was a bit afraid of being recognized and didn’t want to invite unnecessary trouble.

Fortunately, maybe he wasn’t famous enough domestically yet, or maybe tonight’s piece was arranged quite differently—no one was discussing it for now.

Xie Lan ate while scrolling. Eating to the last cream puff, his fingertip suddenly paused.

【Next door so pissed off tonight】

Hundreds of comments below.

• Next door streamed until midnight’s last moment, ranked 17, didn’t make either popularity or donation charts
• Said barely a few words when signing off
• Stop discussing next door… told you not to give them attention
• But tonight was really comfortable
• Too comfortable
• He’s been demanding captains and admirals for more than a day or two, thick-faced for a month, ended up with nothing

Xie Lan scrolled through the comments feeling full. He drank the last of the cocoa milk, got up to throw away the trash.

Turning around, Dou Sheng was outside the door casually withdrawing his gaze, holding an opened beer can, pinching it to take a swig.

“?”

Xie Lan frowned. “Why do I feel like you’ve been secretly watching me?”

“No.” Dou Sheng said calmly. “Just suddenly noticed your room’s window view seems better than mine.”

Xie Lan was shocked. “But my curtains are closed!”

Dou Sheng paused. “Mm, I relied on imagination to look at the scenery outside.”

“???”

Xie Lan simply suspected Dou Sheng was holding back some bad intentions to mess with him.

He took the trash out to throw away, passing by Dou Sheng, carefully circling around him like a minesweeper circling a danger zone full of warning flags.

Dou Sheng suddenly said behind him as if casually, “You play violin so well, why don’t you touch it much now?”

“It’s not that I don’t touch it, just less frequently.” Xie Lan glanced back at him, his tone dropping. “The reason… my mom passed away.”

Dou Sheng was startled, his eyes showing some fluctuation. After a long time, he lowered his eyes and oh-ed.

“It’s not that serious.” Xie Lan paused and added. “Maybe I just don’t have much mood. Also, playing violin requires deep immersion. Each time coming out of that state, there needs to be someone beside me, otherwise I’ll feel a bit empty.”

Mom was gone, that person beside him was gone. The emptiness after playing violin would be infinitely magnified.

He just felt it wasn’t necessary. He wasn’t planning to take the artistic path anyway.

“Rest early.” Dou Sheng said. “Still have class tomorrow.”

“Mm, you too.”

Whether the cold medicine took effect or what, after filling his stomach, Xie Lan felt he’d recovered quite a bit. He brushed his teeth and lay in bed, casually opening Twitter.

Still felt a bit inexplicably guilty. After all, his fans had watched him so long without seeing him in person, yet within days of returning to China, he went live on Bilibili.

Xie Lan clicked open the list—more unread private messages. QZFXR had sent him two more this week, probably daily greetings.

He was about to click out when that dialogue box suddenly popped up, bouncing to the very top of the list.

The red 2 became 3. At this moment, QZFXR sent him another message.

• Before you said changing environment, did you return to China?

Xie Lan’s heart tightened.

His first reaction was he might have been discovered. This QZFXR was Chinese and quite a senior fan. If they happened to see tonight’s stream, the possibility of recognition was fairly high.

But not necessarily. When he played violin, he was only fourteen or fifteen. Now he’d matured somewhat from then, and tonight’s score he’d also modified.

He hesitated, then honestly answered.

• Mm, came back to change my mood. How did you know?

The other side was silent for a while.

• Just guessed, felt your typing in Chinese seemed more natural than before.

Xie Lan instantly relaxed, then excitedly sat up, sending three messages in succession.

• Really?
• I also think my Chinese is improving quickly, language environment is very important.
• After returning, I switched my phone system to Chinese, usually only speak Chinese, making maximum effort.

After a while, the other side sent an mm character.

• So are you living happily domestically?

Xie Lan replied: Pretty happy, met some friends with good relationships.

• I see. /smile
• Then about what you said before about possibly returning to play violin, do you have concrete plans?

Xie Lan felt a bit hesitant.

He wasn’t sure how to answer. That dawn on the street, he casually said there was a possibility of going back. He thought enough time had passed, maybe he could, but after finishing that piece just now, he still felt empty inside. If it weren’t for Dou Sheng wandering around nearby and those flashy bullet comments, he’d probably feel uncomfortable for a while.

After hesitating for quite a while, he typed hesitantly: Maybe need to wait a bit more.

The other party instantly replied with no problem.

• Don’t have too much pressure, actually just be happy.

Xie Lan sent back a smiley face.

His phone was almost out of battery. Xie Lan got up to find the charger and plugged it in at the bedside.

The cord wasn’t quite long enough. After plugging it in, he could only look at his phone pressed against the bed edge.

The other side sent another message.

• In China, you can browse domestic video sites, recommend Little Broken Station⁵, there are also many interesting UP masters there.

Xie Lan unconsciously curved his lips: Watched it, followed some.

• Who did you follow?
• Dou the Supremely Handsome Human, heard of them?

The other side fell into silence.

Xie Lan figured they probably hadn’t heard of them.

• Just an UP who makes all kinds of videos, somewhat interesting, can check it out.

This time the other side instantly replied.

• What does “somewhat interesting” mean? Just so-so? What’s not good?

Hiss, why did those words sound a bit strange?

Xie Lan frowned at the screen for a long time, but couldn’t say what was strange about it.

But it felt like QZFXR had some interest in Dou Sheng.

Xie Lan thought about it and seriously typed a paragraph: Nothing bad, quite varied video types, also quite thoughtful. I think creators who can keep trying new content are rare, he’s good. Oh right, if you like watching gaming, you can watch him. He’s as timid as a bean⁶. Playing horror games is very funny, makes people happy.

This time the other side didn’t make a sound for a long time.

Xie Lan sent another message: Did you log off?

• No. You seem to have learned strange idioms after returning. I’ll go check it out, thanks for the recommendation.

Xie Lan sent back an emoji, planning to log off and sleep. But he forgot about the cord behind him. When he turned over and pulled, snap—the charging head fell off.

He instinctively grabbed for his phone. As a result, the charging head got stuck in the nightstand. Not only did it not come out, it also pulled off the cord connected to the phone, falling into the crack together.

“…”

Xie Lan speechlessly got up.

In pitch darkness, he squatted in front of the nightstand, reaching his hand between the nightstand and wall, struggling to feel around.

The nightstand wasn’t big. Logically, sweeping his hand underneath should definitely feel it, but no matter how he reached, he just couldn’t reach it.

After several attempts, Xie Lan broke down. He turned on his phone’s flashlight to probe into that gap.

The charging head had fallen in a position more forward than he imagined. It would be easier to reach from the front of the nightstand.

He was about to get up when suddenly his back stiffened.

A trace of ice-cold bone-chilling feeling spread along his spine, all the way to the back of his head.

Xie Lan froze there, his whole body numb.

A short centipede-like bug was lying next to the charging head, touching his charging head with its antennae.

Then slowly crawling in his direction.

“Oh my!!!”

He bounced up on the spot. His hand swung and hit the door handle behind him. In severe pain, he hissed sharply. When he looked down again, he saw that bug had actually crawled out from under the nightstand.

“Ahhh!!!!” Xie Lan shouted with a trembling voice.

Next door, a loud crash. The four cats meowed in dissatisfaction. The house instantly exploded into chaos.

Dou Sheng ran over barefoot, pushing open the door. “What happened?”

Xie Lan’s heart pounded wildly. He grabbed his sleeve and pulled him forward, hiding himself behind the door.

“Your house has bugs!” He heard his own voice trembling. “Even Jin Wu has bugs?!”

Dou Sheng in his fluffy pajamas froze in place.

After a long time, he slowly squatted down, looking at the bug in front of him that was only about a centimeter long, moving sluggishly, silently raising his head to look up at Xie Lan.

Using his eyes to slowly issue a question mark.

“Not afraid of ghosts, but afraid of this?” Dou Sheng casually picked up that bug. “This is called a money string, an auspicious bug, proves you’re about to get rich⁷.”

This statement could simply be listed in the top ten most absurd things Xie Lan had ever heard.

He immediately said, “I’ll give you this opportunity to get rich!”

“Tch.” Dou Sheng took a tissue to pinch the bug away, then laughed out loud. “I think you’re the one who’s timid as a bean.”

Xie Lan swallowed and didn’t forget to retort, “Indeed, as a bean (Dou).”

Dou Sheng glared at him, smiling as he got up to move the nightstand, carefully checking behind it, conveniently picking up Xie Lan’s charger too.

His gaze swept over Xie Lan’s phone thrown on the bed. The Twitter page wasn’t closed yet. QZFXR’s dialogue box was right there, the ID bright and clear.

But Dou Sheng’s expression didn’t change much. He just calmly glanced over.

“Such a grown person still afraid of bugs, truly amazing.” Dou Sheng tsk-ed. “This season has lots of bugs. Wangjiang Lijing is also near the river, air humidity is relatively high, very hard to avoid. If there are bugs, call me. Doesn’t matter how late, I usually don’t know what time I’ll sleep anyway.”

“Mm.”

Dou Sheng shuffled in slippers to throw away the bug. Xie Lan checked behind the nightstand again, breathed a sigh of relief and lay back on the bed.

The room was quiet. The violin was in its old place in the corner. His gaze swept to the familiar case, suddenly feeling a bit emotional.

Alone in a strange environment, with a cold, and having played violin—it was indeed a bit empty.

Xie Lan turned over, his hand unconsciously reaching under the pillow, touching that sycamore leaf whose atmosphere was as lonely as his situation.

The door suddenly knocked twice.

Before he could speak, the door was pushed open. Then the pillow suddenly sank behind him, and a purring sound rang in his ear.

Xie Lan jolted, turned his head, and met a pair of coffee-colored round eyes.

The little orange cat meowed once.

From the markings, this was the boss among the four kittens.

Called the boss because it licked fur for the other three every day, and when Dou Sheng served food, it always ate first.

Xie Lan picked up little orange, a bit dazed.

“To treat tonight’s lonely child’s insect phobia and psychological fragility, I’ve decided to dispatch Boss Cat to keep watch in your room.” Dou Sheng leaned against his doorway. “Am I good or what?”

__

NOTES:

1. Slang for more appealing. ↩︎
2. “磕到了” (kē dào le) is shipping slang meaning “I ship this pairing” or “I’m into this couple.” It comes from “磕CP” (kē CP – to ship a couple).
   Ke means kowtow, like bowing with your head to the ground.
   Dou Sheng tells Xie Lan that viewers were so shocked they headbutted the ground (磕頭 kē tóu = kowtow), but the viewers were actually saying they “ship” Dou Sheng and Xie Lan as a couple ↩︎
3. “胡言乱语” (hú yán luàn yǔ) – “nonsense talk”
   Replacing “胡” (hú – reckless/wild) with “豆” (Dòu – Dou Sheng’s name), creating “Dou-speak” – the language/lies that Dou Sheng creates to deceive Xie Lan about Chinese internet slang. ↩︎
4. The GOAT (Greatest Of All Time)
   ↩︎
5. Nickname for Bilibili (哔哩哔哩) ↩︎
6. The standard idiom is “膽小如鼠” (dǎn xiǎo rú shǔ) – “timid as a mouse”
   Xie Lan said Dou Sheng is “timid as a bean” (膽小如豆) when describing him to QZFXR, replacing “mouse” (鼠 shǔ) with “bean” (豆 dòu) because Dou Sheng’s nickname is “Douzi” (豆子 – bean) ↩︎
7. The name “錢串子” (money string) does contain the character for money. Xie Lan immediately says he’ll “give this opportunity to get rich” to Dou Sheng (meaning: you take the bug!) ↩︎