In the boundless darkness, only a screen on the wall emitted flickering light, stretching the shadows of the two people on the sofa very long.

Xie Ci gripped the game controller, his fingers dancing nimbly on the buttons. White light flashed on the screen as the protagonist he controlled held up a lighter, slowly illuminating the end of a dark corridor. There, a white silhouette gradually emerged...

"Ahh!"

Ye Li suddenly shrank toward him, the top of her head bumping against Xie Ci's chin. Her whole body almost burrowed into his arms as she tremblingly gripped her controller like a startled little cat, yet still trying to act tough.

"Haha, look at that NPC walking with mismatched steps. So funny."

Xie Ci helplessly hummed in acknowledgment, his gaze not leaving the screen, only shifting slightly to the left to make room for her.

Xie Ci prepared to have his character meet up with Ye Li's to activate a mechanism together. He maneuvered his protagonist around that white-clothed figure, picked up a nearby badge, and inserted it into a groove on the wall. With a click, the mechanism activated, revealing a control lever.

However, Ye Li's character was still struggling with a monster. Xie Ci sighed lightly and took the controller from pitiful Ye Li's hands. She obediently curled up beside Xie Ci, almost burrowing into his arms.

The controller suddenly vibrated violently as a hulking monster burst onto the screen. Ye Li's already tense little face instantly crumpled. She screamed and dove directly into his arms, her pair of slender white legs curling up on the sofa as she buried her face in his neck.

Xie Ci's controls nearly went haywire. The protagonist crashed head-first into a wall while Ye Li crashed into his arms. With fragrant softness filling his embrace, her body's sweet scent flooded his nostrils, and her warm breath hit his neck.

"Let go first, we're almost done."

"Never," Ye Li nuzzled in his arms, her voice carrying a nasal tone and a hint of cunning. "I-I'm scared. You can clear it by yourself anyway..."

Xie Ci had no choice but to pick up Ye Li's controller and operate both simultaneously. He had recorded videos before of clearing co-op games while controlling both controllers alone.

But back then, there wasn't a little cat in his arms!

Finally, the game's ending credits appeared in large letters. He breathed a sigh of relief and pressed the shortcut key to stop recording.

In the darkness, Ye Li secretly lifted her eyelids to peek at his profile. Seeing he wasn't angry, she burrowed further into his chest and poked his hand.

"Little Ci is so amazing. Not like me. I only drag Little Ci down~ But there's no helping it, this game is really too scary, though the difficulty level is manageable..."

Xie Ci helplessly looked down, meeting her cunning eyes that twinkled like two stars in the darkness.

"Then why did you insist on playing with the lights off..."

"I-I was just trying to create better gaming atmosphere..."

Xie Ci suddenly laughed. He closed the game and tossed the controllers onto the coffee table.

Ye Li suddenly realized something, turned over, and lay in his arms, asking somewhat sheepishly, "Between me and that Ling Xi, whose skills are better..."

Ye Li thought to herself: Oh no, I was only thinking about how turning off the lights would be more convenient... I forgot about this part.

Xie Ci was quite straightforward in his response: "Of course Ling Xi's skills are better."

Ye Li became competitive: "If-if it wasn't so scary, I definitely would have performed better! And I didn't finish reading the guide..."

Xie Ci glanced at the guilty-looking Ye Li, lifted her out of his arms, and turned on the lights.

Leaving only Ye Li there in confusion.

"Actually, you don't need to worry about these things. When it comes to gaming, even I can't compare to Ling Xi."

"Eh?! She's that amazing? Then, then why don't you get her to help you record videos?"

Only you have such good entertainment value, Xie Ci thought.

Current audiences love sweet voices plus cute, clumsy gameplay.

He took two bottles of drinks from the refrigerator and placed them on the coffee table, glancing at Ye Li who held her bottle with both hands, taking small sips.

How is she becoming more and more like a little girl?

After thinking for a moment, he spoke: "Actually, she's probably the most skilled gamer I've ever met. No exceptions."

Xie Ci sat on the sofa and took a sip of his drink. "We originally met through a comment on one of my gaming guide videos.

"There was an error in the video I made, and she pointed it out in the comments," Xie Ci shrugged. "Of course, her tone wasn't very kind. It wouldn't be wrong to say she seemed to be looking for trouble."

"Ah? Why would she do that? So in the comments section..."

"Unsurprisingly, she got attacked by my fans. Her comment got pushed to the top, and about half the comments on that video were people arguing with her."

Ye Li thought back. She seemed to have watched that video...

"I remember you ended up..."

"Right, I deleted that comment." Xie Ci smiled as he spoke. "Then she came to my private messages to argue with me."

"Actually, what she said was indeed correct, but there was a problem with how she said it. My original intention was just to stop the quarrel. This kind of argument on the internet is meaningless. It starts as unfriendly discussion, then someone uses a curse word, and finally it devolves into complete verbal abuse."

Xie Ci looked toward the night sky outside the window. The rain had stopped, leaving only scattered stars.

"Actually, many people on the internet, as long as you speak civilly from the start and present your viewpoints objectively and fairly, no matter how hot-tempered they are, they won't argue with you.

"Later, I made a special video to correct the error and apologized to the viewers. I originally planned to mention that she had pointed it out, but she said 'you knowing is enough, no need to specifically mention me. Actually, many people noticed it in the previous video, but only I spoke up in the comments.'"

"Then you gradually became familiar with each other, but why would she send you leg photos..." Ye Li couldn't help but ask the question she cared about most.

"Later, we often chatted about games. She also helped me make videos, analyzing new updates for me first thing, helping me test data. At first it was just these things, until later she gradually began confiding in me about trivial matters in her life."

Xie Ci gazed at the bright crescent moon outside the window, seemingly contemplating his next words, while Ye Li sat quietly beside him, listening.

"Actually, that area originally had a black birthmark. Her family is quite large, seems to be due to hereditary family business, and they place great importance on appearance and looks. Because of that birthmark, she was neglected by her parents and left alone in Country M for over ten years."

"Think about it—a person without parental companionship, without anyone to confide in, living alone in a foreign country. It's actually very difficult to integrate into the local community. Although she never said it directly, thinking about it now, I'm probably the person who communicates with her most, even more than her parents do.

"She's always been very self-conscious about that birthmark and faced considerable discrimination at school because of it. But in my view, that birthmark actually has quite a unique character. I casually mentioned that she could get it tattooed over. Your leg shape is beautiful, and adding a tattoo would make it even more stunning."

Xie Ci had long understood why her tone always carried such thorns.

"A person who hasn't had examples or opportunities to build healthy attachment relationships simply doesn't know how to naturally and safely build relationships with others."

Deep in her heart, she had accumulated countless grievances, loneliness, and pain.

Campus discrimination, bullying...

Perhaps he was the first person she dared to confide in normally.

Honestly, at first he just didn't want to argue with people. When two complete strangers start cursing at each other over trivial matters, he always found such situations...

Very sad.

When all it takes is one party speaking calmly.

"So I said she's so clumsy that she can only use aggression as her defense, avoiding harm from exposing vulnerability. She's also very afraid of being abandoned. Perhaps I'm the only person left she can confide in.

"Online connections between people are both enduring and fragile. You never know which sentence you exchange with the person behind the screen will be the last one. Many people just gradually disappear into the depths of memory."

Actually, we all have to accept one fact: many wounds in life will never heal. They only leave increasingly deep scars as we age, continuing to cause hidden pain for the rest of our lives. Perhaps we'll never find people or things that can redeem us in our entire lifetime.

But if it's just a message, playing a game together, softly saying "I know you're here"—when these small fragments gather together, they can help us walk more steadily through our remaining days.

Then Xie Ci was willing to slowly accumulate these glimmers of light.

"So this is her... huh?!" Xie Ci turned his head and was dumbfounded.

"Wuu~ She's so pitiful..." Ye Li said with teary eyes. "I-I want to play games with her too."

Xie Ci: ?(O_o)??

Ye Li: (T ^ T)

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