After being moved to tears by the sworn enemy's pheromones - Chapter 10

To be precise, Shen Jin also once owned this card called “High Priest” in his childhood.

It was probably ten years ago in June. The summer in City C was as hot as usual. Little Shen Jin ran excitedly to the school gate after school—because his father promised to pick him up today and would buy him ten sets of “Light Energy Game King” cards.

This hefty sum of 50 yuan would never have been agreed upon by his father if it weren’t for his upcoming tenth birthday.

“Xiao Xiao, over here.” Outside the school gate, his father called out his nickname and waved to him early. He immediately rushed over, almost bouncing: “Dad, my cards, my cards, I want to open them myself!”

His father ruffled his hair, took out a stack of prepared birthday gifts, and said, “Take them, let’s open them at home, okay?”

“Mm-hmm!” Shen Jin quickly grabbed them and hugged them to his chest, happily holding his father’s hand as they walked, saying, “Dad, will I have a birthday cake this year too?”

In the past, on his birthday, the adults would give him a bowl of supposedly extraordinary longevity noodles, but compared to that, he still preferred cake.

His father nodded affirmatively, and Shen Jin became even more excited, unable to help but continue to ask, “Then, will the cake have the same blue toy cars as my brothers?”

The strong sense of anticipation made his cheeks flush, and his father held his hand tightly, saying, “No, but there will be yellow little flowers.”

Shen Jin’s cute little nose and eyes immediately wrinkled up slightly, a bit disappointed: “But Xiao Xiao likes the blue toy cars…”

“Xiao Xiao, be good.” His father bent down and lifted him onto his shoulders, saying, “We, Xiao Xiao, are the older brothers, we need to learn to take care of our younger siblings, okay? Besides, didn’t Dad buy ‘Light Energy Game King’ for Xiao Xiao?”

Shen Jin looked at the packaging bag of cards in his hand and couldn’t help but feel happy again: “Okay, then Xiao Xiao doesn’t want the blue toy cars anymore!”

This night was very special for ten-year-old Shen Jin. He waited for the first time for his dad to pick him up, ate his own birthday cake for the first time, had so many game cards for the first time, and even found the extremely rare High Priest card inside, which excited him so much that he paced around the house for several hours.

Before this, his meager deck only had a few scattered low-level cards, and his friends didn’t want to play with him. So whenever they played this game, he could only awkwardly watch from the side. Occasionally, when he couldn’t help but point out that someone’s deck tactics were wrong, his friends would push him away and tell him to stop bothering.

But now it’s different, he has the High Priest that everyone dreams of. From now on, they’ll all have to beg him to take a look.

That night, Dad still gave the strawberries on the cake to the youngest brother, but ten-year-old Shen Jin was still extremely satisfied, laying the couch as his bed, happily staying awake for

The next day when he went to school, he dashed out, eager to show off his hard-earned High Priest card to his friends.

Enduring through a whole day of classes, after school, his desk mate finally suggested going to the ping pong table area to play games. Shen Jin, as usual, shamelessly followed along, mysteriously saying that he had something to show them.

His friends originally didn’t want to let him play this game with them, but suddenly hearing him say that he pulled the High Priest card, the surrounding area erupted in excitement, and everyone crowded around calling out.

The image of the High Priest summoning storms and controlling lightning undoubtedly attracted all the envious gazes. The child in the class with the best family background even said to Shen Jin, “I, I have two Holy Sword cards that can only be equipped by the High Priest, I’ll give you one, and you can play with me in the future!”

The June evening glow shone on a group of children’s innocent and excited faces, appearing extremely brilliant. Little Shen Jin accepted the Holy Sword card that would be useless without the High Priest, and his whole being seemed ethereal, almost convinced that this was the happiest and most glorious day of his life.

However, before the group could discuss for long, his desk mate suddenly said, “Wait, isn’t this card a counterfeit?”

Everyone was stunned. This couldn’t be taken lightly, so one student in glasses immediately picked up the card to examine it—everyone knew that Xiao Yanjing was an expert in discerning cards, so they held their breath, waiting for his verdict.

The once scorching sunset began to cool down, as if even ten years later, Shen Jin could still recall that evening, how he went from arguing logically, to stuttering, to not being able to say a word, even snatching the card and running away with tears streaming down his cheeks. He could still hear his friends’ mocking voices behind him—”Shen Jin is a liar, Shen Jin is a liar! Shen Jin wants to scam Dongdong’s Holy Sword card! Shen Jin is a liar!”

That day when he got home, he cried and asked his dad where he bought the card and how much he spent.

He had known since he was little that his younger brothers weren’t in good health, so he had always been sensible and didn’t want to cause more trouble for the family. This was the first time he had gathered the courage to ask his dad for something so valuable.

Father furrowed his brow lightly and answered, “You said you wanted this ‘Light Energy Game King’ for your birthday, so Dad went to buy it for you after work. It’s 1 yuan per pack, bought more than ten packs, don’t you like it?”

Tears welled up on Shen Jin’s rosy cheeks, his voice choked up long ago: “But, but I told Dad earlier… it’s the kind that costs 5 yuan per pack…”

“What’s the difference?” Father’s brow furrowed even tighter, rebuking, “They’re all printed pieces of paper, what difference does it make whether it’s 5 yuan or 1 yuan?”

Shen Jin sobbed, not knowing how to explain to his father, and could only try to organize his words: “But… Dongdong and the others said I’m a liar…”

“No crying, what’s the use of crying?” Father sharply interrupted him, “Who is Dongdong? You’re not only spending money recklessly, but you’re also learning to compare yourself with others?”

As he spoke, Father dragged him to the corner of the wall, saying, “Your younger brother’s hospitalization this month has cost quite a bit, but on your tenth birthday, Dad still bought you gifts and a cake, satisfying all your wishes. How can you still be so disobedient? Do you know how hard Mom works on the night shift today? I’ll call her later and tell her!”

Young Shen Jin was dragged until his shoulders turned red, forced to stand against the wall as punishment. He choked up and couldn’t argue anything. It wasn’t until long after dinner time passed that he finally stopped crying and couldn’t help but apologize to his father as he passed by, “Dad, I know I was wrong… please don’t call Mom…”

He didn’t want his mother to worry about him, and he was also afraid of his mother’s severity, but his father just glanced at him lightly, without giving any response or “forgiveness,” and turned to take care of his younger siblings to sleep. He then closed the door and didn’t pay him any attention for the whole night.

The moonlight was bright that night, and Shen Jin rubbed his swollen and sore eyes with his soft little hands, standing so exhausted that he collapsed onto the couch to sleep.

In the following weeks, there were often people gathered around his desk teasing him as a liar. Later, he had to use the money he had saved up for a long time, stubbornly chasing Dongdong and treating the other to a popsicle, to temporarily ease the conflict between him and his friends, in exchange for them to continue playing with him.

These trivial matters of childhood, which were hardly worth mentioning, had actually passed almost ten years—Shen Jin took quite a while to come to his senses, couldn’t help but laugh at himself: it seemed that his thick skin was a talent he had long possessed.

The card game had long since become obsolete, but he never expected that, after so many years, he would still be able to see this true High Priest card. So he couldn’t help but want to pick it up and take a look.

But at this moment, Gu Yu’s voice sounded behind him: “What are you doing?”

Shen Jin snapped back to reality, guiltily replied: “I… saw that there was a bit of a mess next to your computer, which could affect mouse operation, so—”

Before he could finish, Gu Yu quickly walked over and hastily covered the box, asking, “Why are you messing with my stuff?”

The other’s ears turned slightly red, seeming genuinely angry, Shen Jin couldn’t help but feel awkward, only scratching his face, trying to explain: “Because it… was left open next to the computer, you asked me to come over, so I didn’t think much about it, just thought it wouldn’t hurt to take a look… my bad, my bad.”

He knew it wasn’t right to mess with other people’s things, so he didn’t feel wronged, but at some moment, he felt as if he was still standing under the moonlight from over a decade ago.

The little him, clutching his beloved High Priest card, crouched in the corner and silently cried for a long time. He almost climbed onto the windowsill to “jump off and commit suicide”, but thinking that falling on the ground would hurt, he huffed and puffed, kicking his little short legs to come down from the window, obediently lifted his hand to wipe away the tears.

The tide of the past ten years surged inexplicably, making Shen Jin’s chest feel as heavy as drowning. He could clearly feel the annoying tendency of his eyes to heat up, so he quickly lowered his head, praying for Gu Yu to forgive him, so that this matter could pass quickly.

There was only the sound of the air conditioner around, as Gu Yu hurriedly put away the box and tried to stuff it into the highest shelf: “I’ll tidy up by myself, you don’t—”

But suddenly seeing the glistening tears in Shen Jin’s eyes, he couldn’t help but pause in shock, then instinctively grabbed Shen Jin’s arm, his whole person was stunned: “Why are you crying…?”

After saying this nonsense, he regretted it—Shen Jin was particularly prone to tears, this was something he had long known.

Shen Jin shook his head, and Gu Yu already knew the answer: “Was I too harsh just now?”

In principle, even if there were old grievances, being unreasonably harsh wasn’t something a gentleman should do.

Shen Jin still had red eyes, but he cried without making any noise. He said, “No, don’t overthink it, your principles don’t need to be applied to me…”

But how could Gu Yu not overthink it?—he pressed on, “Then why are you crying?”

“At least give me a reasonable reason, senior.”

“My eyes hurt doesn’t count.”

Frustrated, Shen Jin could only vaguely answer, “There really isn’t… just remembered something from my childhood.”

Gu Yu was puzzled, “Childhood…?”

Shen Jin refused to answer, and Gu Yu refused to let him go: “What happened?”

Gu Yu thought about the cards in the box and reasonably inferred, “Is it because of bad luck… that you couldn’t draw the High Priest no matter what?”

For someone like Shen Jin, who would cry over such matters, it seemed reasonable.

“You…” Shen Jin was angered and asked, “Do you think I would cry over such a trivial matter in your eyes?”

Gu Yu hesitated for half a second, then actually nodded seriously.

This made Shen Jin so angry that he didn’t even wipe his eyes, and instead said angrily, “It’s because on my birthday, I wanted that game card, but Shen Yuecheng bought a pirated one to trick me, making me happy for nothing, understand?”

But he knew that this wasn’t as reasonable a reason to cry as not being able to draw the High Priest, so he grabbed Gu Yu and said, “Alright, without a tragic childhood, I can’t become the protagonist of ‘Senior, Don’t Try to Escape’~ Let’s look at the game first, the patch is almost downloaded.”

As he spoke, he skillfully clicked the mouse to prepare to install the game, as if he was more concerned about whether Gu Yu could progress from 0-6 to 0-5.