The Unveiling Gaze

His eyes widened slightly in alarm, causing him to take a reflexive step back.

The soft slap of his slippers against the floor echoed crisply in the quiet night.

Lu Xingyan suddenly turned, and their eyes met.

Xu Yi, feeling a surge of discomfort, tried to avert his gaze, but then he noticed Lu Xingyan was shirtless.

Under the silver moonlight, Lu Xingyan’s bare torso sculpted distinct planes of light and shadow.

The movement of his turn caused the lines of his waist and abdomen to ripple, making him look incredibly touchable.

Xu Yi was utterly engrossed, lost in his observation, when a chilling gaze suddenly made his scalp tingle.

He jolted awake, not daring to glance in Lu Xingyan’s direction, and quickly turned to slip back into bed, pretending nothing had happened.

Through the gap in his curtain, he could still see Lu Xingyan fumbling to hang the clothes back up.

Then, he started walking toward Xu Yi.

Xu Yi’s heart pounded. Now that he was recovering from the initial visual shock, he finally had a moment to wonder why Lu Xingyan had smelled his clothes.

Had something about his clothes revealed that he was the “Xiao Yi” from online?

Or perhaps, Lu Xingyan thought he smelled bad?

Lu Xingyan stopped just outside Xu Yi’s curtain.

The other man didn’t speak, but through the thin fabric, Xu Yi could almost hear both their breaths.

After about a minute, Lu Xingyan returned to his bed without a word.

Just then, Xu Yi’s phone lit up with a friend request.

Since his real-life account was in the dorm group chat, Lu Xingyan had added him through it.

Xu Yi accepted, and a message immediately came through.

[Starfall: I wanted to see if the clothes were dry, but I think I grabbed the wrong ones. Don’t misunderstand.]

[Xu Yi: Mm-hm.]

Another awkward silence ensued.

[Starfall: Well, good night.]

Xu Yi stared at the dry, three-word message, recalling how Lu Xingyan had also seemed aloof and cool online when they first met.

However, after a few suggestive messages, his true colors had been revealed.

He truly couldn’t maintain the act.

Still, judging by Lu Xingyan’s reaction, it didn’t seem like he suspected Xu Yi, or thought his clothes smelled.

Relieved, Xu Yi didn’t bother to reply and simply went to sleep.

****

Lu Xingyan, however, couldn’t sleep.

He had smelled Xu Yi’s clothes as if possessed.

It was very similar to the strawberry milk scent on Xu Yi himself, both carrying a faint strawberry aroma.

And to top it off, he had been caught red-handed by the owner.

But these weren’t the reasons he couldn’t sleep.

When Lu Xingyan had turned, the moonlight had perfectly illuminated Xu Yi from the waist down.

Xu Yi hadn’t been wearing pajama bottoms when he went to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

The skin below his shorts gleamed in the moonlight, and a beautiful small mole caught Lu Xingyan’s eye.

How could Lu Xingyan possibly forget?

He had stared at the mole in Xiao Yi’s photo, tracing it with his finger for a long time.

Lu Xingyan pulled up the photo saved on his phone. The mole on the beautiful girl’s thigh was in the exact same spot as Xu Yi’s.

Could there really be so many coincidences?

From the phone ringing at the start, to the internet cafe, and now this.

Lu Xingyan opened the chat windows for both Xu Yi and Xiao Yi several times, yet he couldn’t think of anything to say.

He stared at the dark ceiling of his curtained bed, knowing he wouldn’t get any sleep tonight.

****

Waking up the next day with dark circles under his eyes, Lu Xingyan couldn’t help but constantly glance at Xu Yi.

He tried to find more traces of Xiao Yi on him, or perhaps some evidence that he wasn’t Xiao Yi.

The shape of his collarbones was beautiful, very similar.

But the more he thought about it, the more everything seemed alike, as if a powerful psychological suggestion was at play.

They would meet on the weekend. Perhaps then…

****

All day, Xu Yi felt an elusive gaze following him.

When he turned to look, he would see Lu Xingyan casually avert his eyes.

‘It must be because of what happened last night.’

However, it was Lu Xingyan who was embarrassed, not him.

And the dark circles under Lu Xingyan’s eyes were obvious, likely from being too awkward to sleep after being caught with the wrong clothes.

Xu Yi found it amusing and no longer suspected that Lu Xingyan had discovered his identity.

Given the man’s personality, if he had found out, he would surely have confronted him immediately.

Life remained relatively calm. Apart from the first day when Huang Mao caused trouble, he spent the remaining days doing push-ups and didn’t dare to do anything else.

Lu Xingyan’s attitude towards him had improved significantly.

Even when Xu Yi sometimes spoke unintentionally harshly, Lu Xingyan would tolerate it.

He was no longer as confrontational as before, constantly challenging him for even a single expression.

By the end of military training on Friday, Xu Yi, under Li Yuan’s envious gaze, packed only a small bag and went home.

Xu Yi, however, felt a bit stressed.

They were meeting tomorrow. He absolutely couldn’t let any clues slip.

After they decided to meet that day, Lu Xingyan hadn’t messaged the Xiao Yi account much.

Xu Yi, while perfunctorily dealing with his other ‘boyfriends,’ felt somewhat troubled.

He decisively broke up with those few who were a bit greasy but had been kept around for their good physiques.

After all, with Lu Xingyan walking around the dorms daily, everyone else’s physiques seemed less than perfect in comparison.

‘Hmm, that younger guy was still alright, quite sweet-talker.’

Xu Yi was busy all night, finally getting his list mostly cleared.

Only Lu Xingyan, another national server player, and the ‘puppy’ remained.

After tidying up and taking a shower, Xu Yi called up the national server player to log on.

The national server player didn’t have as good a temper as Lu Xingyan; he tended to give up directly when his mentality collapsed, so climbing ranks wasn’t as fast as with Lu Xingyan.

But now, Xu Yi had no other choice.

The national server player invited Xu Yi but didn’t start immediately, instead asking in a high-pitched voice why Xu Yi hadn’t looked for him recently.

Xu Yi, of course, used the excuse of being busy with school.

Unexpectedly, a room invitation suddenly popped up on the interface.

Xu Yi, quick-fingered, immediately accepted it.

Starfall’s avatar instantly appeared in the room.

“Who’s this?” The national server player’s tone was clearly disdainful, acting very arrogant.

Xu Yi actually didn’t like this person much.

However, other national server players would want to ‘deepen their communication’ within two days, and only this one was foolish and easy to hook.

Xu Yi, having fished for many years, was experiencing two fish appearing simultaneously for the first time.

Fortunately, he and Lu Xingyan weren’t in a CP relationship, and with the national server player, it was just ambiguous.

Xu Yi adjusted his voice before saying, “My friend. Want to play together?”

He actually hoped the national server player would get jealous and leave on his own.

Xu Yi was too embarrassed to invite Lu Xingyan, but since Lu Xingyan came himself, he could shamelessly tag along for a night of ranking up.

Once he got the mark, both the national server player and Lu Xingyan would lose their usefulness.

“Sure, let’s play,” the national server player said first. “It makes no difference whether it’s one or two.”

He had probably checked Lu Xingyan’s account and, seeing no national server titles, spoke so brazenly.

Xu Yi was a bit worried that the national server player might lose his temper and ruin things later.

Fortunately, Lu Xingyan probably didn’t take such a person seriously at all, remaining completely silent.

This reminded Xu Yi of when they first met; Lu Xingyan didn’t talk much, only giving a cold taunt to the person who had insulted Xu Yi while slaughtering enemies.

He really liked to stand up for people.

In reality, he clearly didn’t like Xu Yi much, yet he still fought Huang Mao for him.

Indeed, when Lu Xingyan wasn’t physically present, his personality was quite appealing.

He wasn’t as arrogant as he was in real life.

Or perhaps, it was because he couldn’t see his expressions that he seemed aloof.

Once the game started, the national server player immediately snatched the jungle role, his signature hero.

When Xu Yi and the national server player duo-queued, the national server player never used his full strength.

He probably wanted to deliberately put Lu Xingyan in his place.

Lu Xingyan didn’t hesitate, quickly picking a marksman.

Xu Yi originally wanted to play a mage, but he was a bit worried that the national server player might deliberately not help Lu Xingyan, making things too ugly and potentially causing trouble.

He swapped positions with the person downstairs and picked a support.

The first few minutes of the game were normal. Xu Yi, who often played support, could tell that Lu Xingyan’s marksman seemed very skilled.

He repeatedly repositioned to steal damage, barely losing any health himself, while the opposing marksman was already at half health.

Lu Xingyan pinged an attack signal, and Xu Yi unhesitatingly threw out his slow skill. Lu Xingyan immediately followed up with damage, and the national server player seized the opportunity to come in and secure the kill.

“How about that? Brother is still the best, right?” The national server player sounded somewhat smug.

Xu Yi knew inwardly that it was their marksman-support synergy that had been effective in lane, but he didn’t say anything, merely finding such a person annoying.

He could just delete him after ranking up.

[Starfall: Princess’s slow was perfectly thrown.]

Xu Yi was momentarily stunned. When he played with Lu Xingyan before, the latter rarely spoke, but today he was even giving compliments.

‘Could the national server player be making him feel a sense of crisis?’

Xu Yi muted his microphone, intending not to speak further.

If they started arguing, this game would be lost.

This game itself relied on the jungler setting the pace early on, and later, a marksman could even carry a 1v5.

That’s why Lu Xingyan had always played jungler before; otherwise, the marksman might get shut down before they could scale.

The national server player’s early game rhythm was impeccable, and Lu Xingyan was excellent at last-hitting minions, quickly becoming the team’s richest player.

Xu Yi also stayed glued to Lu Xingyan’s side.

The conflict arose at this point.

The national server player saw the enemy marksman isolated, unhesitatingly pinged an attack, and went in to instantly kill them.

However, three other enemies were hiding in the bush, and the national server player couldn’t escape either.

The now-dead national server player watched as the marksman, accompanied by the cute little support, leisurely arrived at the battlefield after clearing his buff, then secured the kills on the skill-less enemies, earning a quadra kill.

The national server player was displeased.

“Just kill-stealing,” he scoffed.

Xu Yi saw Lu Xingyan’s character suddenly stop moving. ‘Were they going to argue?’

His mind raced, formulating words to mediate, when he saw a line of text appear in the bottom left corner.

[Starfall: There was no vision around. What made you think he was standing there alone?]

Everyone actually knew this point.

However, since he was ‘carrying a girl,’ he wasn’t as cautious as usual, always wanting to show off with solo kills.

The national server player, having his mistake exposed, was clearly annoyed. “Playing a marksman, you just hide at the back, casually click a few times to get kills, and you have the nerve to teach me how to play?”

Xu Yi frowned. It was one thing to curse at bad randoms, but Lu Xingyan played so well, and the national server player was still trying to pick a fight.

He suddenly unmuted his microphone, no longer bothering to act cute, and said in a displeased tone, “Can you just play properly?”

The national server player had probably never seen Xu Yi angry before and didn’t react for a moment.

Xu Yi thought he had intimidated him, and that they could end the game after securing the next Baron.

Unexpectedly, Lu Xingyan spoke at that moment.

[Starfall: Thank you, big sister, for speaking up for me.]

[Starfall: Whether he’s here or not, I’ll still carry you to victory, big sister.]