Accidentally Caught The Eye Of A Yandere - Chapter 2

Jiang Shi had a deep clean-freak streak when it came to socializing and possessed an exceptionally strong sense of personal boundaries. This manifested primarily in an intense aversion to any physical contact with others, leading him to always keep to himself.

That evening, there was only one period of evening self-study, so Jiang Shi notified his family’s driver in advance that he wouldn’t need a ride home.

After class ended, he set off alone on foot along a short route back home.

The path home required passing through the main thoroughfare of Sycamore Avenue. As he passed a long row of parked bicycles, acting on pure bodily reflex, he casually reached out to catch a bike that was about to be bumped into and knocked over.

The moment the back of his hand was forcefully covered by another unfamiliar, warm palm, an intense surge of disgust and aversion welled up instantly inside him. Yet before that emotion could erupt, the face of the hand’s owner barged forcefully into his line of sight. The uncontrollable feelings of disgust and resistance vanished to zero at an astonishing speed, leaving behind only a chest full of stunned bewilderment and novelty.

Standing before his eyes was a young boy. He wore a school uniform from a different school than his own. His neat, crisp black hair looked as though it had been trimmed recently. Paired with the simple, plain blue-and-white uniform, it made his entire demeanor look exceptionally clean and refreshing. His eyes were clear and bright, his lips red and teeth white. When he smiled, a faint, subtle dimple appeared on his left cheek, yet it was extraordinarily eye-catching.

From childhood to adulthood, there were many pleasing things Jiang Shi had laid his eyes on.

Except for people.

On normal days, whatever object caught his fancy could be bought and possessed through monetary transactions without exception, obtained effortlessly.

Yet the person standing in front of him today was entirely different from those non-human and inanimate objects. The young man before him was, just like himself, a living, breathing human being.

After seventeen years of indulging his material desires as he pleased, this was the first time Jiang Shi felt distinctly helpless because he had taken a liking to something.

After all, he understood clearly that human trafficking was illegal.

After zoning out for a brief moment, upon hearing the pleasing, clean-smiling boy in front of him say he was leaving, an inexplicable sense of intense anxiety and uneasiness welled up inside Jiang Shi.

His gaze followed the boy’s retreating back. The evening breeze suddenly picked up and swept past his side, as if pushing him forward. Unable to help himself, he lifted his feet and followed behind.

Jiang Shi had never set foot in a public place like an internet cafe before. The moment he stepped inside, his first instinct was naturally to observe the interior environment. He discovered that the air here reeked of stale cigarette smoke, the sanitation management was terrible—it was filthy, chaotic, and deafeningly noisy.

He was somewhat puzzled as to why this clean boy would be willing to enter a place like this.

After requesting the only remaining empty computer next to the handsome boy from the front desk, Jiang Shi forcefully suppressed the psychological discomfort caused by the chaotic environment and slowly walked inside.

Before he sat down, the clean boy sitting diagonally across had quickly noticed him. The boy didn’t hesitate to linger his gaze on him for a long moment, nor did he hold back that dazzling, handsome smile of his. And once again, Jiang Shi caught sight of that subtle dimple.

In an instant, the invisible, chaotic magnetic field around him that clashed so harshly with his presence was magically purified and cleansed by the boy.

Only then did Jiang Shi feel a bit better.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before the person next to the boy leaned in and babbled incessantly into his ear. The gaze lingering on him was withdrawn, leaving Jiang Shi feeling irritable and restless.

Jiang Shi meticulously wiped down the keyboard and mouse in front of him with wet wipes while observing every single movement of the boy diagonally across from him.

The boy wore the internet cafe’s provided headphones. Unlike the crude, agitated, and rising shouts and curses around them, his speech was calm, a smile frequently gracing the corners of his mouth as his attractive lips opened and closed to speak.

Throughout this entire time, the boy didn’t cast another glance at him.

Inside the internet cafe, the clatter of keyboards and the clicking of mice continued ceaselessly, intermingled with loud, tumultuous voices rising and falling from different directions.

Shen Ying wore the hanging headphones provided by the internet cafe, skillfully operating his champion character while calmly speaking into the mic:

“Sister Yan, come over and take this jungle creep first. Those two on the opposing team are playing a bit too timidly. I reckon their jungler is probably heading over to help.”

“Support, throw a control skill. Sister Yan, follow up directly. Nice, one… two.”

“Three. Sister Yan, keep following me. I see the walking fourth kill offering himself right up to our door.”

First blood! Double kill! Triple kill! Quadra kill!

“Ahhhh! That felt so amazing, so satisfying!” Sister Yan’s excited voice rang through the headphones. “Those three bastards actually tried to ambush me just now! With the God of Gaming backing me up, how dare they act so brazen!”

Shen Ying was playing the jungler role in this match. After leading Sister Yan, who played the marksman role, to secure four kills, he retired gracefully into the enemy’s jungle area to clear out their creeps. Hearing his client’s happy voice, he let out a light chuckle. “Don’t worry, Sister Yan. I’ll definitely guarantee a win this round. If we lose, I’ll eat my words.”

“Haha, Little God of Gaming, you sound like you’re in an exceptionally good mood today! Those words don’t sound like something that would normally come out of your mouth,” Sister Yan spoke up in surprise while clearing the minion waves, but then immediately sighed. “Little God of Gaming, you’ll still be taking orders in the future, right? Aside from you, where else am I going to find a versatile gaming companion who has a nice voice, insane skills, and constantly yields kills to me!”

Shen Ying’s in-game ID was ‘Mind My Own Eating Business’. Old clients who were familiar with him usually called him the ‘God of Gaming’ because of his impressive skills, and they also knew the origin of this ID.

In fact, at the very beginning, Shen Ying’s game ID wasn’t this. The reason he changed it to this name traced back to his rookie period when he had just started out as a hired gaming companion. Once, while he was carrying a client, the client made an operational error that caused the match to plunge from an advantageous position straight into a disadvantageous one. Their teammate then relentlessly berated the client. Even though Shen Ying managed to turn the tide and pull the game back in the late phase, that teammate still held on tight, making passive-aggressive remarks and launching continuous verbal attacks.

The client was an honest person; feeling that it truly was their fault, they simply took the ridicule lying down. But Shen Ying couldn’t swallow that anger. He turned on his mic and confronted the cursing teammate directly. The two of them argued back and forth for a full five minutes. Seeing that he couldn’t win the argument nor outplay him in skill, the teammate flared up in anger and said it wasn’t even about him, so what did it have to do with his damn business?

Shen Ying coldly shot back four words that left the opponent utterly baffled: “Mind my own eating business.”

The client was the paying customer who provided him money to eat—so it was quite literally his eating business.

As for why Sister Yan added “Little” before “God of Gaming,” it was because as an office worker, she knew that Shen Ying was a high school student—still quite young.

“Not necessarily, but I probably won’t be coming online much over the next two years,” Shen Ying replied to Sister Yan with the truth.

Sister Yan reacted quickly: “Got it, you’re going to start preparing hard for the college entrance exams, right? Makes sense, at your age, studying should still be the top priority.”

Shen Ying merely smiled upon hearing that. After clearing out the creeps in the opponent’s jungle area, he operated his game character to rush to the top lane, helping a random teammate smoothly secure a kill.

This game took only fifteen minutes, ending in a victory just as Shen Ying had confidently predicted.

“Little God of Gaming, I’ll need about twenty minutes before the next match. I have an important phone call to take. Can you wait for me for a bit?” Sister Yan entered the party lobby and explained the situation to Shen Ying. “If you can wait, you can start a solo match first. If not, let’s call it a day here—you don’t need to make up the remaining match to me in the future either.”

Shen Ying: “No problem, Sister Yan. Just let me know when you’re done, and I’ll invite you again.”

After wrapping up his brief discussion with Sister Yan, Shen Ying took off the over-ear headphones and hung them around his neck. Seeing that Peng Sheng was still carrying his client, he didn’t disturb him.

Like Peng Sheng, he was a casual gaming companion, but the orders they primarily took were not for the same game. Compared to the 5v5 competitive game Shen Ying was playing with Sister Yan, Peng Sheng was better at and preferred playing another shooting game.

Leaning against the back of his chair, Shen Ying pulled out his phone. Opening QQ, he noticed that the class group chat had accumulated a high tower of messages, so he tapped in to take a look. Seeing that it was just classmates casually chatting without any particularly important news, he exited the app again.

The peripheral vision was clear. Shen Ying naturally raised his eyes and looked toward the diagonal direction.

He had played two rounds of games with Sister Yan, taking roughly 40 minutes. When the first round ended, he had seen the boy sitting diagonally across wearing headphones, crossing his arms, and staring intently at the screen. Now that this round had ended, the other party remained in the exact same state, as if he had never changed his posture at all.

He was completely certain now: this guy definitely hadn’t come here to play games.

Looking around the surroundings, everyone without exception was playing games; it was as if an invisible barrier separated that boy from the rest of them.

Shen Ying also noticed that the big guy to his right seemed to have suffered a losing streak over several matches, as a thick wave of rage had yet to dissipate from around him.

Sure enough, looking at the game-over screen of another lost match, the big guy next door fiercely grabbed the drink on the table, chugged it down in one gulp, stood up, grabbed his personal belongings, and left in a huff.

“You finished playing?” At this moment, Peng Sheng’s voice came from the side.

“Still short one match with Sister Yan. She’s taking a call, so I have to wait a bit,” Shen Ying turned to look at him.

“Then ask Sister Yan in a bit if I can join you guys! My orders for today are all done.” Peng Sheng picked up the bottle of mineral water on his table and took a couple of gulps. “Tell Sister Yan that with me on the field, a win is guaranteed!”

Peng Sheng had collaborated with Sister Yan on another shooting game before and had also carried her to rank up together with Shen Ying, so the three of them could be considered old acquaintances.

Shen Ying was just about to smile and say he’d ask in a moment when his ears caught a movement from the diagonal direction. He quickly looked over, only to see the boy who had been sitting with crossed arms staring at the computer screen had taken off his headphones at some point, stood up, and walked toward the doorway.

“It hasn’t even been an hour yet, right? He’s leaving already?” Peng Sheng placed his gaze on the boy once more. “I didn’t pay much attention earlier, so was he actually here to play games or what?”

“Why are you so curious about him?” Shen Ying looked at him.

“Isn’t it because we usually don’t get the chance to come across students of this type? What’s wrong with being a little curious?” Peng Sheng admitted directly. “If I hadn’t known you since we were kids, I’d be curious about you too! But rest assured, in my book, you’re definitely still better. That guy who just walked away looks completely ungrounded and out of touch!”

Shen Ying let out a speechless, scoffing laugh: “I say, how great would it be if you used that mouth of yours to memorize English vocabulary instead of wasting a perfectly good bill?”

“I—”

Peng Sheng suddenly froze and shut his mouth, because he saw the boy who had just left actually turning back around.

Peng Sheng and Shen Ying exchanged a glance, tacitly dropping the banter. In unison, they observed the boy who had returned; he stood in front of the computer, clicked the mouse a few times, and picked up his backpack in passing.

Just as Shen Ying thought this acquaintance of a single glance was about to leave, he saw the other party carrying his backpack, walking around to their row, and placing the backpack onto the chair right next to him that had just been vacated.