A Guide to Getting Caught in an Online Romance

Le Jia had been a light sleeper since childhood.

When he was a college freshman, the school prohibited students below sophomore year from living off campus, so everyone had to stay in the dorms.

He slept lightly and woke at the slightest disturbance. Unfortunately, his roommates were all noisy troublemakers, and he got into plenty of conflicts with them.

His worst clashes were with Zou Rong, who slept in the bunk beside his.

Zou Rong was a gaming streamer. He livestreamed for two hours every day after class without fail, and was something of a celebrity in the gaming world. His roommates were all gamers too, and they flocked around him to play together every night. Le Jia never joined them, and after a while, nobody invited him.

One night, after an especially bad argument, Le Jia finally snapped. He climbed to the edge of his bed and threw something down.

"Are you guys insane?" Le Jia snapped, so irritated he wanted to curse at them. "Are you going to die if you don't play games? Do you even know what the word 'quiet' means?"

It was only nine that evening, and the area outside the dorm was still lively. Some departments held evening study sessions, and classes had just let out. You could hear the commotion from far away.

One of the roommates started to argue back, but Zou Rong, wearing headphones, raised a hand to stop him.

"All right," Zou Rong said from below. His tall figure stood there like a rock, his gaze clear. "I'll stop playing. Everyone, quiet down."

After that, Zou Rong stopped streaming, going live only during school breaks. Whenever Le Jia came across news about Zou Rong, he saw a crowd of fans cursing out his roommate beneath the posts. Zou Rong had even replied to a few people with feigned innocence, making the flame war even worse. It dragged on for nearly half a month.

Le Jia couldn't let it go. He thought Zou Rong was a hypocrite, a shameless fake innocent, and decided to get revenge. Using his family's connections, he got his academic advisor to help him switch dorms.

His new roommate was a graduate student who was always away doing experiments and hardly ever came back. Le Jia bought a set of equipment, planning to expose Zou Rong for who he really was.

*

As soon as Zou Rong got the friend request, he knew who it was.

Le Jia had deliberately chosen a cute girl's voice, but still spoke with that same haughty air. Zou Rong didn't call him out. He just asked, "Want to voice chat?"

"Sure." Le Jia was surprised at first, then pleased. He hesitated, struggling to get the words out. "Big... big brother."

At first, Le Jia had dared to call him that. But later, when Zou Rong held him by the waist and kissed him, he couldn't bring himself to say it anymore.

Zou Rong x Le Jia

Theme: Maintaining a harmonious and friendly social environment