Back Then, I Adored You

Initially, Xu Wennuan would think about Zero Degrees all the time and find herself unable to curb her desire to contact him. After that, she would be reminded of Lu Bancheng, and her heart would get thrown into confusion like on the night they had eaten dinner together.

Xu Wennuan, who was unsure of what the true feelings at the bottom of her heart were, was being driven insane by such conflicting emotions. In the end, she started forcing herself to not think about anything related to Zero Degrees.

After some time, forcing herself started to work. The number of times she thought about Zero Degrees decreased, going from many times a day, to several times, to once a day. Finally, it was as if Zero Degrees had been wiped out of her life completely.

Apart from no longer playing the game, Xu Wennuan’s daily routine remained pretty much the same as before. She woke up at 7:30 a.m. every morning, left her house an hour later, and arrived at the clubhouse around 9:00 a.m. to begin another busy day. After work, she would sometimes go shopping with her colleagues or go watch a movie alone. There were times when she would return home earlier to do her laundry, watch television, or go grocery shopping. Such peaceful days passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye two weeks had passed.

Having watched a television drama late into the night, the sleep-deprived Xu Wennuan rejected her colleague’s invitation to dinner after work. She returned home early and was asleep before 9:00 p.m.

In her dream, she was chatting with someone. They talked for a very long time, until that person handed her a bowl of chicken soup. She hadn’t had the capacity to pay attention to what that person said after passing her the soup when his face became clear—until Lu Bancheng’s face was vividly reflected before her eyes. Xu Wennuan quickly opened her eyes and woke up from her dream.

It’s been a few days since I’ve thought about Lu Bancheng and Zero Degrees, but he just came to me in my dream…

Xu Wennuan inhaled and then looked at the clock on the wall and saw that it was three in the morning. She pulled the blanket aside and went to the bathroom. When she emerged, she saw snowflakes fluttering outside the window.

Now that she was no longer drowsy, Xu Wennuan walked to the window and gazed at the city that was drenched in silver. She stared at it silently for a while before returning to bed and reaching for her phone on the nightstand. She sat down on the side of the bed, picked up the phone, and after a long struggle entered the game.

Apart from the daily gift packages from the game itself, most of her notifications were from Zero Degrees. He still sent her jokes at three every morning. Perhaps it was because she had been offline for such a long time that he had left her more messages than usual over the past few days.

“Have you been busy lately? Why haven’t you been online at all?”

“Remember to rest. Don’t tire yourself out.”

“If you come online and see these messages, drop me a reply.”

“It’s snowing tonight. Turn on the heater, and don’t get cold.” The last message had been sent 30 minutes ago.

Xu Wennuan stared at these messages for a long time and read them repeatedly until she involuntarily raised her fingers to the screen and typed two words. Just when she was about to type the third one, her movement halted. She pursed her lips, and eventually deleted those words slowly before exiting the game.