Pandora’s Box

Luo suddenly shouted, “Above!”

Then, he fell down and slapped the keyboard depressingly, cursing, “Fxxx!”

I immediately dodged and adjusted my position.

I opened my camera to fix upon my target.
As a perfected sniper, I shot the opposing head before quickly racing to save Ke Luo who was kneeling on the ground.

“Damn it, can 98K shoot a sniper?” Ke Luo looked to the side and said, “That’s awesome.
You’re too good.”

Ke Luo played pretty well.
The main reason was that he was good at cooperating with me.
I was resilient and he ambushed; we were teammates that had tacit understanding straight from the beginning.

“You are good, too, ” I praised, “Lethal enough.”

Ke Luo laughed, “Necessary since I’m not that good with guns.”

We grinned and ransacked the backpacks of the players who had been wiped out.

Zhuo Wenyang did not speak, “…..”

I caught a glimpse of him sitting across the table.
He turned on his laptop with a neutral expression and was busy with work again.

Towards the end of the game, Ke Luo asked, “Wenyang, do you want to play with us?”

Zhuo Wenyang shook his head, “I do not have it installed.”

“Come on, downloading it is fast.
It’s exciting with many people here.”

Zhuo Wenyang didn’t reply.
I hurriedly said, “If he doesn’t want to play, don’t force him.”

If anything, I didn’t think he was the type to waste time on such pastimes.

Zhuo Wenyang didn’t respond and Ke Luo didn’t insist anymore.
We continued to queue up.

He suddenly asked, “Hey, why is your character’s name MeJump? That’s weird.
What do you want to express? That you’re a professional skydiver?”

“It doesn’t mean to jump.
Otherwise, it should be ‘I Jump,’” I clarified, “Although it is true that you’ll die when you hit the ground at the beginning of the game, so it’s not an exaggeration to say that you are here to jump.
But the actual meaning is more than ‘I Jump.’ There are more connotations.”

“What is that?”

“Guess what,” I said, “it’s something we have at home.”

Ke Luo made a bunch of guesses but none of them made sense.
So I raised the rice milk I was drinking and said, “This is it.”

Ke Luo laughed so hard and exclaimed, “What kind of stupid English is this?”

Then he quickly changed his name to DouJump.

I almost died laughing at home, “Yes, yes, your soy milk is also very good.” (play on words)

When parachuting down from the plane, Ke Luo mischievously yelled out, “Yo hoo~~ we are the jumping team!”

“You jump, me jump, everyone duo jump!”

Ke Luo smiled and said, “Your English is quite advanced.”

Zhuo Wenyang stayed silent at that, “…..”

We played games rambunctiously but Zhuo Wenyang didn’t say anything to that and was focused on his laptop.
Later, he took out his bluetooth earbuds silently.

The moment he plugged his earbuds into his ears, my heart trembled.

I knew how busy he was and I was using his cherished time like gold while being disruptive.
It was as if we were two people from separate worlds.

After that, I played a little absentmindedly but whenever I peaked at Zhuo Wenyang, he was staring at the screen solemnly.
It was as if he could not hear anything from outside his laptop screen.
I could only assume he was preoccupied with some big business deal or some brilliant new thesis.

Regardless, it was a world I could not touch or understand.

Ke Luo and I stopped gaming and removed the laptops away from the dining table when Cheng Yichen invited us to dinner.
Zhuo Wenyang also removed his earphones and closed his laptop.

Dinner was very lavicious today.
Cheng Yichen even made king crab, and he cooked it in my favorite way of steaming garlic vermicelli.
However, I did not have much of an appetite tonight so I gnawed on a crab leg for a long time.

I really wanted to find a subject to chat with Zhuo Wenyang, but he was looking at his mobile phone attentively, highly focused and not interested in chatting with others.

It was the first time for Zhuo Wenyang to be on his mobile phone while eating.
It was very abnormal and that made it more difficult for me to disturb him.

Additionally, Ke Luo was very interactive.
At the dinner table, he continued talking about strange things he witnessed, creating a cheerful atmosphere and causing everyone to laugh.
Zhuo Wenyang’s quietness was easily overlooked by others as a byproduct.

The table remained lively but I was a little depressed.

Of course, Ke Luo was very interesting.
I was very happy to have him as a friend.

But without Zhuo Wenyang’s smile, other people’s smiles would be meaningless.