My organs are too abstract.

Chapter 87 Brother Yuan, are you playing cards?

"Mom, it's not what you think, let me explain—"

Xu Yuan was so embarrassed he wanted to roll on the spot. Just as he was about to speak up, a loud female voice suddenly came from next door, which could be heard clearly even through a wall.

Xu Yuan: "————"

Seeing this, the woman at the door said nothing, silently left the room, and gently closed the door behind her.

"What a tragedy!"

Xu Yuan was left alone in the bedroom. He stared blankly at the door and finally sighed helplessly.

At this moment, a line of small, jumping, pale yellow characters appeared in the void.

[Your right ear has picked up classified information and you have officially awakened.]

The small print seemed to dance slightly in mid-air, its font even more ornate than the others, as if it were particularly excited.

"Hehe————" Xu Yuan looked at the prompt and his eyelids twitched. He was not happy at all. He had a feeling that this person was no pushover either.

Despite feeling helpless, Xu Yuan clearly sensed the dramatic change in his hearing.

The whispers across the wall, the unpleasant piano playing from the downstairs neighbor, and even the faint rumble of cars on the distant road—all sorts of subtle sounds flooded into my ears like never before, crystal clear.

"No matter what, becoming stronger is always a good thing."

Feeling the changes in his body, Xu Yuan finally smiled a little, but the next second, the noise from next door became clearer in his ears, and his smile gradually disappeared.

He was too ashamed to face his mother, so he picked up his phone, which he had just left on the bedside table, put on his Bluetooth earphones, and planned to play a couple of games to have some peace and quiet.

As soon as I opened the game, an invitation pop-up appeared; it was from Zhao Ze.

Upon entering the team room, Zhao Ze, whose avatar was Ultraman, immediately turned on his microphone: "Brother Yuan, what were you doing just now? I tried to reach you for ages and you didn't respond."

Xu Yuan was too embarrassed to talk about what had just happened, so he could only vaguely say, "I had something to take care of just now."

Zhao Ze didn't press the matter, and changed the subject: "By the way, Brother Yuan, Tang Xinxin also contacted you earlier, wanting you to hang out with her."

"Really?" Xu Yuan glanced at the messages and saw Tang Xinxin's comment from a few minutes ago.

"Perfect timing, we can go together. Wait for me to call her—she's here!" As soon as Zhao Ze finished speaking, a player with a cute anime girl avatar and the ID "Xin Xin" entered the room.

"Hello everyone, good evening!" Tang Xinxin's energetic voice rang out, then she seemed to notice something and burst out laughing, "Xu Yuan, your profile picture—hahaha! And this ID, Zuo Tang Wang, stop showing off!" What does that mean?

Xu Yuan's game avatar is a cartoon left hand making a "thumbs up" gesture, but the thumb is replaced with Patrick Star's head, drooling and grinning foolishly, looking incredibly stupid.

This profile picture and ID were Xu Yuan's silent accusation against his mentally challenged left hand. It's a painful memory, and Xu Yuan didn't know how to explain it, so he casually said, "It's nothing, I just made it up."

"Hmph, so mysterious. If you don't want to talk about it, fine." Tang Xinxin sensed the familiar perfunctory tone and didn't press further. Instead, she excitedly added, "Yue Yao happens to be free too. I'll invite her along, let's play a five-player game!"

"No problem!" Zhao Ze responded readily, but after a moment his tone became somewhat hesitant, "But we're still missing one person."

"Why don't you ask your roommates to join in?"

"No, they don't play this game."

"Oh, what should I do? I don't have many friends who play this game."

Just then, Xu Yuan suddenly saw a familiar ID in his friends list and turned to Zhao Ze, asking, "Isn't 'Half-Moon Cold' your friend? I remember he was pretty good at it before, should we invite him?"

"You mean Shi Hao? Forget about it." Zhao Ze's tone was full of disdain. "He used to be really good, but lately I don't know what's gotten into him, he's terrible at games, like a completely different person. When I ask him to play games, he always makes excuses. He's so boring."

Jiang Yueyao had just entered the room when she heard this and said softly, "Could it be that he has important things to do and doesn't have time to play?"

"What's the big deal? We all know each other, don't we?" Zhao Ze said, sounding annoyed. "I think he just doesn't want to hang out with us."

"Let's just grab a random passerby," Xu Yuan decided.

"OK."

The group quickly formed a mid-lane match with random players, and the five of them began their five-player ranked game. Xu Yuan played the side lane, Tang Xinxin played the jungle, and Zhao Ze and Jiang Yueyao partnered as marksman and support.

A female player who was passing by was surprised when she saw the team composition and typed: "A girl playing jungle? That's quite rare."

"Hmph—" Tang Xinxin said confidently, "Don't worry, I'm super awesome!"

Because Xu Yuan had been ill, Zhao Ze hadn't fought alongside him for a long time, and he was quite excited at this moment: "Brother Yuan, watch me carry you this round!"

"I don't play much, so please bear with me if I don't play well." Jiang Yueyao's calm voice carried a hint of trepidation.

Zhao Ze readily agreed, saying, "It's alright, just pick support and stick with me, I'll carry you!"

With heroes selected, the game officially began. Xu Yuan's chosen hero was weak in the early game, and he was hiding under the tower, farming cautiously, when Tang Xinxin shouted, "Xu Yuan, don't be afraid, I'm here to help you!"

Xu Yuan understood immediately and stepped forward to lure him in. The opposing Bian Ye fell for it and charged out, giving him a thorough beating.

With her health bar almost depleted, Tang Xinxin controlled her character to unleash a divine weapon, easily securing a double kill with a smooth combo.

"How was it?" Tang Xinxin asked with a hint of smugness in her voice.

Xu Yuan said with genuine admiration, "Impressive."

Seeing this, Zhao Ze in the bottom lane instantly became more determined to fight: "Yue Yao, charge with me, they can't beat us!"

"Okay, okay." Jiang Yueyao quickly controlled her character to keep up.

But the next second, the phone played a voice announcement that the enemy marksman had gotten a double kill.

Jiang Yueyao stared at the blacked-out game screen, pursing her lips without saying a word. Zhao Ze coughed twice, awkwardly trying to smooth things over: "My phone lagged just now, otherwise he would definitely be gone. We'll definitely take him down in the next wave!"

The two returned to their lanes, and Zhao Ze, seeing that the opposing marksman was in poor condition and positioned too far forward, immediately had a bright idea: "Great opportunity!"

He immediately moved his character to dash out, only to be caught by a mage lurking in the bushes and instantly melted.

Jiang Yueyao, who went forward to help him recover health, was unable to retreat in time and was chased all the way to the tower by the enemy and sent back to the fountain.

Jiang Yueyao:

'

"Damn! They're not even going to farm the mage lane, are they? They're just going to stay in the bottom lane, huh?" Zhao Ze muttered, then said seriously, "I'm getting serious."

Two minutes later, Jiang Yueyao fell silent as she stared at the game screen, which had gone black again.

"No problem," Zhao Zeqiang laughed. "Don't worry, Yueyao, I'll develop my strength and then we can easily win in the late game."

As he spoke, he opened the team message and sent a taunting text to the opposing team: "Let you be arrogant for a while longer, and see how I teach you a lesson in the late game."

Eight minutes later, the random girl, looking at Zhao Ze's 0-7 score and then at the sarcastic "?" message from the opposing team, finally couldn't hold back and spoke up: "Marksman, can you please stop feeding with the support?"

"Okay, okay, I'll play it safe." Zhao Ze agreed sheepishly, then turned to reassure Jiang Yueyao, "It's alright, it's alright, we'll just farm safely under the tower—"

He cowered under the tower, getting angrier and angrier, and typed to the other side: "I'm AFK under the tower, come and keep tower diving to gank me if you dare!"

""

Twenty seconds later, the five opposing players activated their speed boosts and dove the tower, sending him and Jiang Yueyao back to their fountain.

Zhao Ze: "————"

"Ahem, it's alright, Yueyao, we—" Zhao Ze tried to ease the awkward atmosphere, but found that Jiang Yueyao had already muted her microphone.

On the other side, Tang Xinxin, in coordination with Xu Yuan, killed all the opponents who came to tower dive.

"Haha, Zhao Ze, take it easy. You've made Yue Yao withdrawn." Tang Xinxin couldn't help but laugh and remind him.

Zhao Ze finally behaved himself.

Just as she said, Tang Xinxin was very good at playing games. Even though Zhao Ze gave away a lot of kills in the early game, she still led the team to a steady victory.

The group played several more rounds, and Zhao Ze's gameplay became less abstract than before. In the last round, he even successfully carried the entire team.

Zhao Ze, who had been silent all along, suddenly revived his barking mode: "Haha, I told you that last round was just an accident, this is my true strength!"

At this moment, Xu Yuan realized that his headphones were almost out of power, and the noise from next door had subsided, so he said, "Let's call it a day, we'll play again next time."

Jiang Yueyao softly echoed, "Yes, I'm going to bed too."

"Alright then, let's play again next time." Although Tang Xinxin was still a little reluctant to leave, she readily said goodbye, "Bye-bye!"

""

Just as Xu Yuan was about to respond, he paused for a moment when he caught a glimpse of the bedroom door out of the corner of his eye.

Suddenly, the bedroom door was pushed open a crack.

A blurry figure stood silently in the shadows of the corridor outside the door, staring at him through the crack in the door.

The bedroom lights were off, with only the faint light from the phone screen falling on Xu Yuan's face. The hallway was even darker, making his figure blurry and his expression completely unreadable.

"mom?"

Xu Yuan was slightly taken aback and subconsciously called out.

The figure did not respond at all, neither entering nor leaving, nor even making the slightest movement, but simply stood there silently, watching him without moving.

Several seconds later, the figure slowly closed the door and completely disappeared from his sight.

"What's going on?" Xu Yuan was full of questions when Zhao Ze's voice suddenly came through his earphones.

"Brother Yuan—" Zhao Ze's voice sounded as if he wanted to say something but hesitated.

"What's wrong?"

"I just wanted to ask—do you make tiles?"

"?"

Xu Yuan was bewildered by this seemingly random question: "We're not fighting, why are you asking this?"

Zhao Ze chuckled and teased, "If you're not going to hit the tiles, then why are you suddenly calling Xin Xin 'Mom'?"

"What nonsense is this?" Xu Yuan was speechless. "I called for my mom, not Xin Xin."

There was a brief silence on the other end of the earphone.

A few seconds later, Zhao Ze's voice came again.

"But Brother Yuan—"

Zhao Ze's voice was low, tinged with surprise and a barely perceptible hint of horror: "You're an orphan, where did you get your—mother?"