National Day arrived quickly.
Lin Nan sat at his desk playing on his computer, occasionally glancing at Chen Yao packing his suitcase beside him, then turning to look at Tu Junhui's now empty seat, feeling somewhat dejected.
For the next week, he would be living alone.
Tomorrow, he still had to go interview for the part-time milk tea shop job, not knowing if the shop had already found new staff in these two days.
Lin Nan was distracted, naturally losing his games quickly.
"With no one in the dorm during this time, remember to double-lock the door at night," Chen Yao stuffed his clothes and computer that needed to be taken home into his suitcase, stretched lazily as he stood up and continued, "I just paid two hundred for electricity at noon yesterday, so you probably won't have any power outages this week. Transfer me fifty when you can."
"Mm."
Xiong Da had only packed a backpack worth of luggage and was about to leave when he turned back and said, "I'm heading out first."
"Wait up, I'll go with you," Chen Yao hurriedly zipped up his suitcase and lifted it, worriedly continuing to instruct Lin Nan, "Remember to lock the door when you go out, scoop the cat litter every day, one scoop of cat food per feeding is enough, oh right, if your family hasn't sent you money yet you can borrow from me first..."
"Alright, alright, just go," Lin Nan impatiently interrupted him, "I'm not a kid, is there any need to say so much?"
"So I'm going?"
Chen Yao kept looking back as he left with Xiong Da, carefully closing the door behind them.
The dorm suddenly fell into silence. Lin Nan, who had wanted to continue gaming, suddenly lost interest, dejectedly propping his chin with one hand and staring blankly at the computer screen.
"Meow~" The black cat named Cola had grown quite a bit now and was weaned, at its most playful age. At this moment, it crouched by Lin Nan's feet, looking up at him.
This cat hadn't been bathed since they took it in, so Lin Nan rarely had close contact with it and wouldn't allow it on the desk or bed. He would even wash his hands after petting it.
"Should we get you vaccinated?" Lin Nan suddenly remembered this matter, "Haven't had a checkup either, right?"
"Meow~" Cola just lay down, resting its head on Lin Nan's foot.
The door was suddenly pushed open, startling Lin Nan. He quickly looked up to see it was Lin Yuan from next door.
"Are you going home for National Day?" He put his suitcase in the corridor and walked in to ask, "Have you arranged for Cola?"
"Not going home, don't worry," Lin Nan glanced at him and answered, "Isn't someone staying in your dorm too? If anything happens, your dormmate can help take care of it for a couple days."
Lin Yuan felt relieved at this, smiled at Cola who was lying on Lin Nan's foot, then turned to close the door and leave.
The dorm corridor was quieter than ever before. Lin Nan sat in his chair, faintly hearing birds chirping outside the balcony and Cola's purring, but gradually losing all sounds of human voices.
As night fell, Lin Nan had the illusion that he was the only person left in the entire dormitory building, the entire school.
His stomach was getting hungry. He added a scoop of cat food and some warm water for the cat, then left the dorm.
A meat dish and a vegetable dish at the cafeteria usually cost less than ten yuan, but ordering takeout would cost at least fifteen. Although the price difference wasn't much, Lin Nan still preferred going to the cafeteria.
After all, he was poor.
He had thought there wouldn't be many people left in the dorm building, but walking through the corridor, he found that quite a few rooms still had one or two people. These people might be planning to travel during National Day, might be planning to work part-time like Lin Nan, or might be planning to spend the seven-day holiday staying in their dorms.
Passing by the dorm management office by the entrance, the dorm uncle inside immediately noticed Lin Nan. He still had doubts about Lin Nan's gender, especially since after not seeing him for a while, he felt Lin Nan had become even more feminine.
Lin Nan previously had a good impression of this uncle, but now seeing him made him nervous, afraid of being mistaken again for a girl staying in the boys' dorm.
He hurriedly walked out the door, looked back to see the uncle had no reaction, and finally breathed a sigh of relief. However, when he looked up, he saw Dong An standing in front of him, not knowing when he had arrived.
"Need something?"
"Asking you to eat," Dong An looked somewhat thin, hands carelessly stuffed in his pockets, slightly hunched over.
Lin Nan didn't like his posture, thinking he looked like a street thug. Adding to that their unpleasant online interactions, his impression of Dong An was naturally quite poor.
"Asking me to eat?" Lin Nan was a bit incredulous, thinking this guy was just passing by to say hello and throw some insults at him.
"Didn't Chen Yao tell you? He said you'd be alone in the dorm during National Day, worried you'd be bored, he asked me to look after you a bit." Dong An couldn't be bothered to explain more, turning around to say, "Come on, let's go eat."
Although Chen Yao had indeed mentioned this, Lin Nan hadn't expected Dong An to actually come.
His impression of Dong An improved slightly, and he followed slowly behind him toward the cafeteria.
Lin Nan was usually quite open with his real-life friends, but with online friends like Dong An whom he'd only met once or twice, he became extremely reserved, staying two or three meters behind Dong An, occasionally looking up at him.
It had to be said that Dong An was very different from Chen Yao. When Lin Nan was with Chen Yao, he mostly felt completely safe, this was trust built over many years. But Dong An was not only unfamiliar, his whole person seemed weak and lackadaisical... Lin Nan was afraid that this guy might suddenly start arguing with him.
Although it was already past seven, the cafeteria still served dinner, just with fewer choices than during peak hours.
Lin Nan glanced at Dong An, who had taken three meat dishes, no vegetables, plus a clay pot soup, enviously ordering a seven-yuan fried noodles for himself.
This guy could spend nearly thirty on one meal in the cafeteria...
Carrying his fried noodles back to where Dong An had claimed a spot, Lin Nan was about to start eating when he saw Dong An had actually gotten two bowls of rice for one meal.
"You can eat that much?" he couldn't help asking in surprise.
After all, Dong An didn't look like someone with a big appetite at all.
Dong An looked up confused, glanced at the fried noodles in front of Lin Nan, and paused: "Aren't I treating?"
"When did you say you were treating?"
"When a guy goes out with a girl, doesn't the guy always pay?" Dong An said matter-of-factly.
This guy must be an idiot, deliberately trying to tease him.
By now he didn't have much extreme reaction to being called feminine or a girl anymore, just let out a long sigh and casually picked up a piece of braised pork from Dong An's plate.
Since being diagnosed by the hospital as having truly become a girl, Lin Nan had felt an urge to give up resisting.
Being a girl wasn't so bad... right?
But Dong An looked up at him with concern: "What's up? Now you don't even react to being called a girl? Are you feeling down lately? Come play with me, crushing a couple Silver rank games will cheer you up.
"Can't get angry every time someone says something, right? Where's that aggressive attitude from the internet cafe last time? Where's that typing speed when you were arguing with me online?"