RBNR Ch8: I haven’t liked anyone

Feng Chengyu had already left without a trace.

Sitting in the audience, Qin Bao was still a bit dazed.

How did he end up meeting him while having a hypoglycemic episode in public?

Sweating profusely, kneeling on the ground, still trembling—it couldn’t have been more embarrassing. Just thinking about that scene was unbearable, he regretted it so much he wished he had superpowers to travel back in time and eat his fill before leaving.

Shan Yiming escorted Qin Bao to the venue and then went outside to buy him a cup of milk tea, trying to wash away the taste of the takoyaki.

Oddly, this time Qin Bao didn’t complain or say it was bad, he silently finished the whole box.

Their seats weren’t together, but the seat next to Qin Bao remained empty, so Shan Yiming stayed by his side to take care of him. Someone recognized Qin Bao and tapped his shoulder from behind for an autograph.

“Sorry, he’s not feeling well.”

Shan Yiming declined for him.

Looking back, he saw Qin Bao focusing on biting his straw, revealing a slender neck, with shoulder blades sticking out, and a black T-shirt hanging on him like a standard clothes hanger.

Straight and tall, without a bit of excess flesh.

Shan Yiming couldn’t help but ask: “How long has it been since you ate properly?”

Qin Bao thought for a moment: “I’ve been eating less for the past two weeks, but they’re all nutritious meals. Occasionally getting hypoglycemia is quite normal.”

Shan Yiming: “Normal?!”

Qin Bao was startled by him and said grumpily: “It’s very normal. My former roommate used to eat and then make herself throw up. Don’t make a big fuss.”

Shan Yiming was speechless: “You haven’t made yourself throw up, have you?”

Qin Bao waved his hand: “How could I, that’s so gross.”

Actually, Qin Bao used to have baby fat as a child, his face round and chubby, delicate like a doll. Everyone liked to play with him.

Back then, Shan Yike wasn’t born yet. Shan Yiming wanted to take Qin Bao back as his little brother. The two kids secretly stayed in the unused attic of the Shan family for a night. Qin Bao cried out of hunger, and Shan Yiming was so anxious that he only had the cookies he brought up, not even giving him a sip of water.

Afterward, Shan Yiming was hung up and beaten by his family. He refused to admit his mistake and swore he would give Qin Bao plenty of good food in the future. Because of that incident, Shan Yiming’s parents had Shan Yike.

But Shan Yiming did remember all of Qin Bao’s favorite foods and brought him many treats.

As Qin Bao’s glands differentiated and he became a true Omega, the baby fat gradually disappeared.

He grew taller than most Omegas, with long limbs, not as delicate as most Omegas. The only sense of fragility came from his innate pride. Sometimes, when his childhood friends were together, it was easy to forget his gender.

The older he got, the thinner he became.

“Let’s not talk about this.”

Qin Bao grew impatient, then looked at the field and said, “Tu Yisen.”

Shan Yiming followed his gaze.

It was completely dark, the stadium lights flickering, and Tu Yisen was waving his arms vigorously at them.

Qin Bao had taken off his hat and lazily raised his hand to greet Tu Yisen.

Despite having little strength, even this casual action looked like a scene from a youth commercial, attracting many secret glances.

Some people seem to be born in the spotlight.

Unaware, he suddenly turned his head and solemnly said to Shan Yiming: “Shan Yiming, I warn you, don’t try to talk me out of this like they do. I’m not playing around. I’ll stick to it and make a name for myself.”

His sudden seriousness startled Shan Yiming, who shook his head: “I won’t try to stop you.”

Qin Bao was a bit surprised by this answer, looking at him appreciatively: “Not bad, you’ve got vision, you’ve got potential.”

Shan Yiming: “Cut it out. Just don’t starve yourself, and you can do whatever you want.”

Qin Bao said, “Starving to death is impossible,” then awkwardly apologized, “Sorry about your car.”

“Why apologize?”

“It’s my fault your car got confiscated by your family.” Qin Bao scratched the ridged sleeve of his cup. “Don’t worry, I’ve got a lot of work coming up. I’ll try to get you a new one soon. It might not be as fancy as the Wraith, but it’ll do for now.”

Shan Yiming laughed and reached out to ruffle his hair: “No need.”

Qin Bao dodged his hand, his face a bit hot: “Suit yourself. Anyway, I was just saying. If you really don’t want it, I can save some money.”

“It’s not that I don’t want it.” Shan Yiming said, “I can’t say right now, but you’ll understand in a few days.”

Qin Bao wasn’t interested in digging further. Still thinking about his hypoglycemia encounter with Feng Chengyu, he felt a bit annoyed: “We’ll see then.”

*

The game was full of twists and turns, peaks and valleys, and even Qin Bao found himself interested.

The two of them shouted along with the audience until their throats almost gave out, but fortunately, the result did not disappoint. In the end, their school won the championship.

The school team went to celebrate, and Tu Yisen invited Qin Bao to join, but Qin Bao declined.

Someone joked to Tu Yisen, “Hey, are you trying to chase after him?”

“Get lost! He’s my brother!”

Tu Yisen then chased the person who joked around, even Feng Chu joined in, helping him tie the person up: “Explain clearly! Who’s chasing who?”

Qin Bao didn’t have time to watch them mess around and carpooled home with Shan Yiming. When they got home, Mr. Qin was playing chess with the old man in the garden. Maybe Mr. Qin was playing too poorly, as the old man was giving him an on-the-spot lesson.

“Flaws, flaws everywhere. I knew what you were trying to do before you even made a move! You have no patience!”

The old man was exasperated, his voice booming.

As Qin Bao passed by, Mr. Qin’s gaze lingered on his face, making him feel guilty. He went upstairs, looked in the mirror, and felt relieved. He looked full of energy, eyes bright, no signs of any issues.

“Has your mother contacted you in the past few days?”

Not long after, Mr. Qin came upstairs to Qin Bao’s room.

Qin Bao had just taken a shower and was reviewing notes sent by his classmates. Without looking up, he said, “No. Do you miss her? Why don’t you call her yourself?”

Mr. Qin was stumped: “It’s not that I miss her. It’s just that we agreed you two should meet once a week. She should fulfill her duties, but it seems she hasn’t come recently.”

“We met last week, just not at home.” Qin Bao mumbled while chewing on his pen, “She’s traveling with my grandparents, not in the capital right now. I was working there last week, so we met on the spot.”

Mr. Qin stood there for a few seconds, then left without saying anything else.

He didn’t ask how Qin Bao had been recently or why he had just come home.

Qin Bao threw down his pen, suddenly feeling very tired and not wanting to study.

Logging into the game, he saw that Xu Tangzhou was actually online. This guy had said a few days ago that he would quit gaming to study hard and wouldn’t come online until he passed his exams. So much for that flag.

After watching one match, he waited for Xu Tangzhou to finish and then asked: [How did you do on your exam?]

Xu Tangzhou was caught off guard: […What do you mean ‘how did I do’? How could I score only a few points?! Can we talk about something happy?]

Qin Bao continued to hit him hard: [Did you finish your homework?]

Xu Tangzhou: [If you keep this up, I won’t help you win.]

Seeing that Xu Tangzhou was indeed on a winning streak, Qin Bao stopped provoking him and said deliberately: [Hmph, I can win on my own.]

Xu Tangzhou: [Don’t go, don’t go! Let’s play together!]

[Happy puppy emoji]

[My brother is here too. I want you to play with us. Do you mind? He’s really good.]

Qin Bao had noticed that Xu Tangzhou was always following a teammate in the game who was indeed playing well, so he replied: [Better than me? Let’s play a match and see.]

Entering the game, Xu Tangzhou opened the voice chat and excitedly introduced, “Brother, this is the friend I told you about, he once ranked in the top fifty in the national server.”

Qin Bao: “…”

He had dropped out of the top fifty by the next day.

Blowing your friend’s achievements like this can easily backfire, Xu Tangzhou.

From the other end of the headset came a pleasant male voice, quite polite: “Hmm, hello.”

Qin Bao had heard from Xu Tangzhou that his brother was also a college student, but he sounded much more mature than Shan Yiming.

Qin Bao: “…Hi.”

Xu Tangzhou continued, “Xiao Bao, this is the brother I told you about. He’s not only good at games, but he also plays guitar, piano, drums, and writes songs—”

“Zai Zai,” the guy’s tone was calm, calling Xu Tangzhou by his nickname, “it’s your turn to pick a character.”

“Okay!” Xu Tangzhou replied obediently, “Brother, what do you want me to pick this round?”

Qin Bao suddenly got goosebumps.

Xu Tangzhou usually spoke politely, but not this obediently. Qin Bao felt something was off but couldn’t pinpoint what. His brain only sent one signal: run.

Unfortunately, Qin Bao didn’t know how severe the consequences would be.

They only played one match.

During those thirty minutes, the guy called Xu Tangzhou “Zai Zai” eleven times, while Xu Tangzhou called him “Brother” countless times.

“Zai Zai, enemies incoming.”

“Okay, Brother! I see them, move in closer, Brother, I have a shield.”

“Don’t detour, go straight, Zai Zai, you don’t have shoes.”

“Got it, Brother! I’ll have enough money to buy them soon!”

“Zai Zai, watch your mana.”

“Brother, you too, you’re almost out of health! Let’s go home.”

Qin Bao: “…”

After the match, Qin Bao left decisively.

Xu Tangzhou sent a message asking if he had disconnected, and Qin Bao made up an excuse. After a while, Xu Tangzhou logged off too and even called him directly.

Was he going to invite him again?

Qin Bao, full of frustration: “I’d better not disturb you.”

Xu Tangzhou said they were done playing too.

“It’s already eleven o’clock, time for my brother to go to bed. I don’t want him to see me online at this hour tomorrow.” Xu Tangzhou said, “How did it go today?”

Xu Tangzhou knew it was Qin Bao’s first time on stage at Marcos Malory, very excited and envious.

“It went okay, I guess.” Qin Bao said, “Just didn’t dare to eat much since yesterday, got hypoglycemia today.”

Xu Tangzhou: “I know, eating makes the stomach bulge. Do you feel better now?”

“Much better.”

Xu Tangzhou was very concerned: “I know a friend who has a set of diaphragmatic breathing exercises. Eating a little something won’t show much. You should try it out so you won’t have to worry next time. Besides, other than Marcos Malory, no one else has such crazy demands, and even if your stomach does bulge, they won’t notice.”

Qin Bao walked to the small balcony and saw that the old man was no longer in the garden, so he secretly lit a cigarette: “What video? Send it to me.”

Xu Tangzhou: “Oh, I’ll ask him for it right away.”

During this time, Xu Tangzhou didn’t hang up the phone. While looking for the video, he said to Qin Bao, “Actually, there’s something I want to tell you, but I wanted to wait until you were done with everything.”

Qin Bao: “What’s the matter?”

The taste of mint burst in his mouth, and his mind wandered to the candy he had today.

…And the fingers pressed against his lips.

On the other end of the phone, Xu Tangzhou said, “I think I like someone.”

Qin Bao forgot about the candy and even forgot to smoke: “What? Are you in a relationship?”

“No! It’s not even close!” Xu Tangzhou explained nervously, “Actually, I’m not really sure. We’ve only met a few times, but every time he talks to me, my heart races. At night, when I lie in bed, I can’t stop replaying moments we spent together. His words, his voice, his smile, they all keep replaying in my head automatically.”

“Does this… count as liking someone?”

Qin Bao was at a loss.

His heartbeat quickened along with Xu Tangzhou’s words, and even his thoughts began to paint a picture, a blurry figure under the evening sunlight.

Compared to Xu Tangzhou’s “only met a few times,” it was even more absurd.

No wonder the fragrance smelled familiar—it was him.

Not properly managing his pheromones, attracting people everywhere.

“I don’t know.” Qin Bao replied, “I’ve never liked anyone.”

Xu Tangzhou was disappointed: “Okay.”

After a few seconds, he couldn’t help but ask: “Aren’t you curious who I’m talking about?”

Qin Bao: “Who?”

“You’re so slow, you couldn’t figure it out.” Xu Tangzhou revealed the answer like it was a secret, “It’s the guy who played games with us just now.”

Qin Bao was suddenly enlightened.

That was really unexpected!

______

Author’s Note:

Qin Bao smiled: So I was part of your play from the start.