Back Then, I Adored You

After he got into the car, Lu Bancheng spaced out for some time before starting the engine and slowly driving off. As he was about to pass the front of his apartment building, he abruptly slammed on his brakes when he recalled how Xu Wennuan had waited in front of his house for two consecutive nights.

I don’t know how to face her…

Lu Bancheng gripped tightly onto the steering wheel and sat silently in his car for some time before driving away from his apartment building. Having himself not rested for two nights, he was already extremely exhausted. He couldn’t return home, but neither did he want to look for a hotel to rest for the night. Thus, he aimlessly drove his car around the streets of Beijing.

After passing by the entrance of the Majestic Clubhouse for the nth time, Lu Bancheng glanced at his gas gauge and noticed its warning light was on, indicating that he was almost out of gas. He slammed on his brakes again and proceeded to sit in the car and stare out the window into a dark night. After some time, he fished out his cell phone to check the time.

Midnight! Already? Would she still be waiting in front of my house despite being sick the night before?

Lu Bancheng subconsciously keyed in Xu Wennuan’s phone number into his cell phone but, just before he pressed Call, he suddenly realized what he was doing and hurriedly stopped himself. After staring at the 11 familiar digits for some time, he backed out. As he was about to put his phone in his pocket, he glimpsed an app on the screen.

It was the game that he had played with her for many years, the one in which he was in the same battle squad as her. He had not logged into the game since she had aborted their child.

Lu Bancheng was unsure whether or not Xu Wennuan played the game anymore; however, because she was unaware that his username was “Zero,” he logged in after a moment’s hesitation. The game software updated more than 100 days’ worth of updates. Three minutes later, Lu Bancheng entered the game.

He had numerous reminders pop up, most of which were notifications about game giveaways, and some of which were gold coins that his friends had sent him. Ignoring these, he clicked the Friends column. He didn’t have many close friends in the game, and he had even fewer close friends on the server. With a mere glance, he knew that she was not on the game server.

Not surprising… With her father so gravely ill, how could she be in any mood to play games?

As Lu Bancheng prepared to exit the game, however, before he could tap the Home button, he saw her profile picture light up. Without hesitation, he clicked the chatroom she was in and sent her a message as “Zero.”

“It’s already so late! You’re still awake?”

The status below her profile picture did not indicate that she was in a game, so Lu Bancheng knew that she wasn’t playing; however, she didn’t reply to his message, so he assumed she was reading through her notifications. After 10 minutes, she finally messaged him back.

“Yeah,” responded “BB Is Scared Pls Protect Me.”

“I’ve been rather busy lately, so I haven’t logged in for a while,””Zero” replied.

After Lu Bancheng successfully sent out this message, he thought for a moment before he began to type out another message.

“How about you? Do you still play the game every day?”

“No, I’ve been rather busy lately, as well, so I hardly game anymore. I merely came online to check things out because I’m bored right now.”

“Oh.” Lu Bancheng thought for a moment and then typed, “How’ve you been lately? Is everything well?”

Back then, she had traveled for three months after she had caught Wu Hao cheating and, during those three months, I spent a lot of time chatting with her every day in this game.

Back then, she had told me, “Zero,” about a lot of things that had happened to her in her actual life.

A minute after Lu Bancheng had sent his message, she replied.