The room was quiet, empty, cold.
There was a boy in that room.
He sat, dozing in and out of sleep.
He must have been no more than seven years of age.
Still, right before he fell asleep, he managed to keep himself awake every time.
At that moment, a clicking noise echoed through the compact apartment, and the child brightened up.
He quickly ran over to the door with a wide, anticipatory grin on his face.
“Dad!” The boy exclaimed, hugging the leg of the tall man who opened the door.
The man smiled, picking his son up.
“How has my baby boy been,” He asked, “Were you good for your mom today?”
The child nodded, pleased with himself.
“I was really good!” He exclaimed, “I was so good that mommy even bought me ice cream- she looked sad when she left, though. Is she going to be okay?”
He looked at the old man’s face with big, innocent eyes.
His father took a deep breath before he spoke again.
“Hey kiddo, do you like going over to your mom’s house a lot?” He asked.
The apartment stayed quiet, only the sound of the fan spinning breaking the silence.
“…Mommy can’t see me anymore, can she?” The boy asked, “Why does- why does she keep doing bad things?”
Tears poured out of those bright innocent eyes, shining in the light from the desk lamp on the side table next to the door, the only light on at such a late hour.
“I don’t know,” his father said, hugging him tightly to comfort him, “I don’t know.”
Beep, beep, beep!
Wu Biaoqing’s watch alarm rang right as the ‘you win’ message showed up on his computer.
“Looks like it’s time to end,” Wu Biaoqing said, “those of you who are students remember to study for exams. Goodnight.”
[BaobaoBaobei: Nooo expressionless play one more game!!]
[onceamoon: starting late and ending early… what did we do?? :isolationsad:]
[misguided_apples: Maybe he’s fed up with you all. He’s a professional, not a live streamer.]
[WuDu990: shut up misguided_apples]
[LOWislife003: +1]
[burntshoes: +2]
[Topofthe.world: +3]
[neversurrender: +4]
Wu Biaoqing hesitated before he turned the live off, and during that moment of hesitation a notification popped up on his screen.
{RedCamellia donated 1 globe with the following message:
‘Have a good night.’}
“You know, your messages are easier for me to see- you don’t have to donate for something simple like that.” The user named Isolation blurted before he could stop himself.
In the next moment, he received a reply.
{RedCamellia donated 1 globe with the following message:
‘This is easier. It’s much more effective for something to show up directly on the screen, no?’}
“…yes,” Wu Biaoqing sighed, “but there has to be a cheaper way than that, right?”
[BaobaoBaobei: our expressionless god is finally understanding gifting lololol]
[WuDu990: After getting so many globes each stream, what kind of an idiot wouldn’t?]
[lovelypeaches: Looks like someone’s in a bad mood!]
Isolation leaned back in his chair, wondering if the gifter had gone offline, only to be caught off guard by another gift.
{RedCamellia donated 1 globe with the following message:
‘Yes, there is, you caught me. But if you don’t mind, can I keep using these?’}
“It’s rather, how do you say, extravagant for a simple conversation, don’t you think?”
[retreat2defend: Expressionless having such an innocent convo with such a big boss gifter…]
[L@dylu3k: LIFE.Isolation protection squad unite!]
{RedCamellia donated 1 globe with the following message:
‘You never said you disliked it, so don’t complain if I spoil you.’}
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
[WuDu990: motherfucker???]
[BaobaoBaobei: OH MY GOD THE SHIP IS SAILING, I REPEAT THE SHIP! IS! SAILING!]
[sevensenses: I came here to watch gaming, not be force-fed dog food!! :isolationdisgust:]
[Z.fx2207: holy fuck, is it just me or do his ears look red?]
[LOWislife003: AHHH THEY REALLY ARE!! MY CP IS RIO :isolationhappy:]
[burntshoes: time to make a new expression pack… *cracks knuckles*]
“Stop making things up,” said Wu Biaoqing, his hand subconsciously moving to cover his ears, “I’m going to get in trouble with my manager.”
When he touched them, he noticed they were abnormally hot.
Huh, maybe his hands were just cold or something?
The air conditioner was always set rather high in the training room.
[retreat2defend: oh yeah, “making things up”, sure]
[onceamoon: our dear isolation doesn’t want to admit he’s been bought lololol]
[L@dylu3k: oh poor innocent expressionless, don’t let this filthy chat get to you]
[BaobaoBaobei: Don’t worry, Laozi will keep him safe. LIFE.isolation protection squad now and forever!!!]
[L@dylu3k: +1]
[neversurrender: +2]
[WuDu990: +3]
[sevensenses: +4]
Yep, he should’ve just left instead of hesitating.
With that thought, Wu Biaoqing ended the livestream.
However, the damage had already been done.
Just later that night, he’d have another expression pack made, titled ‘embarrassed god Wu’, and a new swarm of face fans would come flocking into his next live.
Before any of that could happen, however, the LIFE team had a group dinner!
How did it go?
—
“Motherfucker.” Wu Biaoqing whispered, staring at the stain on his brand new shirt.
Yeah, spoiler alert, not very good.
“I’m so sorry Wu-ge!” Men Wu cried, wiping the contents of his spilled drink off of the table.
They were eating at a rather high end restaurant, courtesy of Wu Biaoqing’s sister, and the atmosphere had been lively up until that moment.
“It’s… fine,” Wu Biaoqing replied as he dutifully wiped the fruity smelling liquid off his hands with a paper towel.
“It’s not fine!” His sister exclaimed, “someone go help him clean up.”
“I’ll go,” said Chang Hui, getting up from the table, “I have an extra shirt in my bag, I think it’s the kind you can wear.”
With that, the two teammates walked together to the bathroom, with Chang Hui waiting by the sinks while Wu Biaoqing changed in a stall.
The supposedly ‘lethal’ player was looking at the mirror, trying to blink his contact back into place, when his friend spoke.
“Hey, Chang Hui,” his teammate called, “have you ever- well- wanted to get to know someone, but you weren’t sure how?”
The lethal player hit his head on the mirror with a loud bang.
“Shit…” he hissed, before what his friend said registered, “wait- no way, you’re actually interested in someone?”
“Why is that so hard to believe?” Wu Biaoqing huffed, “It’s not like I’m really a robot.”
“Well, you sure do act like one.” Chang Hui replied, “You basically ignore everyone not in the team unless you absolutely have to acknowledge their existence. It’s kind of surprising that you, of all people, would be trying to romance someone.”
“…’romance someone?’” His friend echoed.
“Yeah,” lethal replied, “seduce, romance, flirt with- they all have the same meaning. In any case, I’m glad you found someone. You’ve just got to talk to them, you know?”
Wu Biaoqing stood there blankly.
His friend clearly hadn’t understood what he meant, yet the response still resonated with him.
You’ve just got to talk to them, you know?
Well…
Maybe he would try that.
With a click, he opened the stall door.
“Ready?“ Chang Hui asked.
Wu Biaoqing flashed a small smile.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.”
—
The night stretched on, the moon looming high in the sky like a gentle whisper of the sun, casting a cold glow over the dark scenery outside of the restaurant.
A group of people stood— no, swarmed— outside of it, meandering their way in tipsy stupor.
Wu Biaoqing, the only one who hadn’t drunk thanks to the fateful spilling incident and some very cold, angry, no way in hell’s at his friends’ urging, stood off to the side watching them go.
Normally he would be walking with them, squeezed somewhere in the pile and leaned on, all sweaty and uncomfortable, but he’d stayed behind to send his sister off from the restaurant instead.
His lovely sister, who had abandoned him at the door to run to the bathroom right before they had to leave, like always.
…good timing just wasn’t in her vocabulary, he supposed.
A flicking noise echoed in the night, faint just as the sound of laughter that faded further and further away, and Wu Biaoqing took a drag of his cigarette with a sigh.
Bad habits were the easiest to fall back into, and no matter how prissy isolation was, he wasn’t immune to every temptation.
The restaurant’s light up sign illuminated the ground below it in a pinkish hue, soft and simple and boring, but it was really all he had to observe so late.
It was moments like those, standing in the chilly night air, the lively atmosphere replaced with nothing but a silence that was broken only by the occasional cars passing by, that he was reminded of the original reason for his username—
Wu Biaoqing was a person that could be said to have everything.
He had affectionate and supportive parents, older siblings who loved to dote on him, and would never have to worry about money for the rest of his life.
He was a prodigy in terms of gaming, and knew that he wanted to be a professional from a very young age.
He faced no challenges he couldn’t overcome with either his raw talent, determination, or financial wellbeing, except one glaringly obvious problem that was impossible to escape from.
Wu Biaoqing was…
Mentally ill.
In multiple ways, not just one, and the diagnoses weighed down on him from his teenage years on, hindering him from pursuing his passions or, well, much of anything.
The signs started showing up as he grew, but the breaking point was when he was twelve—
Wu Biaoqing had never been a particularly troublesome child, he was quite the opposite in fact.
He didn’t throw tantrums, he didn’t get jealous, he didn’t do anything reckless or get into any trouble.
He got good grades, read lots of books and played lots of games, but he was so incredibly introverted his parents didn’t know what to do with him.
They thought it was simply a matter of coming out of his shell, but when there wasn’t any change even during middle school, his parents worriedly took him to see a specialist and their fears were confirmed.
Wu Biaoqing had depression, anxiety, and he was on the autism spectrum.
At first, his father refused to accept it—
His only son, being autistic?
Societal views were hard to shake, and the general public’s impression of autism was nothing at all like the well-behaved, mature boy he’d raised.
But the thing about general impressions is that they are oftentimes misconceptions or generalizations, and they can’t be relied on.
And being autistic wasn’t a bad thing, not really.
People simply treated it as such, alienating Wu Biaoqing more because of his differences which only worsened his other mental conditions.
As Wu Biaoqing grew, listening to his parents hushed arguments over whether he could ever be normal, he realized that even his own parents couldn’t fully comprehend his situation.
They couldn’t understand that he was not different, and they were not normal—
They were all just people with different ways of seeing, processing, and understanding the world.
For twelve year old Wu Biaoqing, multiple diagnoses at once was a rather overwhelming thing.
Gradually, through therapy and some helpful explanations as to why they came to the conclusions they did, he realized that they were completely right.
It wasn’t all cookie cutter or cause and effect like a lot of people believed.
Wu Biaoqing had an incredibly high IQ, and a mental age well beyond his physical one.
However, he had a low EQ.
He struggled reading people’s emotions from their actions, tones, and facial expressions, and had a long, ever-changing list of what textures of clothes, foods, and items he didn’t like versus things he did.
It was a struggle, but by the time he was fourteen they had adjusted substantially compared to what he and his family had before, and fell into a bit of normalcy.
Other people don’t quite understand things like that, however, especially teenagers in the midst of going through a plethora of social and physical changes.
His username was isolation simply because other people isolated him, and that was just how he lived.
He became numb to the stares, the whispers, and the rumors that emerged, all sorts of wild stories and incredibly inaccurate information about his autistic traits.
He spent his entire teenage years like that, struggling through his depression and anxiety alone, made to be nothing more than someone to be pointed and stared at, someone laughed at and berated for no reason other than being considered different.
It got to the point where he decidedly dropped out of high school altogether, his parents hiding a private tutor, but being stuck in a large empty house all day didn’t do much to help his pre-existing conditions—
Eventually, though, he managed to meander his way into the gaming industry despite his difficulties, even if he still had high anxiety over competitions.
The struggles he’d gone through, and the poor choices he made in an attempt to fit in, were all in the past.
Now, he could feel the warmth radiating from inside the restaurant when the door opened, could still taste a hint of spice on his lips, could still remember the smiles and the laughters, all reminders that he wasn’t alone anymore.
He put out his cigarette as the door behind him shut, expecting to see his sister, only to meet the eyes of a stranger covered almost completely head to toe.
His almost white, bleach-blonde hair looked radiant even at night as it peaked out of a dark black baseball cap, and he was in a leather jacket and full black attire, giving off the vibes of I’m too cool for anyone and everyone.
If it wasn’t for the pink mask pulled down to his chin, Wu Biaoqing would seriously consider this guy to be a kind of sexy biker that walked straight out of some middle-aged woman’s fantasy.
Wu Biaoqing immediately averted his gaze, as if making eye contact would somehow end the world, blinking so aggressively it made his nose scrunch up like a kitten, and the attractive man started laughing.
“Am I that hard to look at?” He asked, voice deep and floaty and almost as perfect as the rest of him, and Wu Biaoqing wanted to dig a hole and bury himself in it until the next championship game.
“No, it’s not-“ he struggled to find the words, “I just… don’t like looking at people?”
This only made the man laugh again, light and airy and full of a pure joy that made it impossible to be fake, and if Wu Biaoqing’s ears felt hot then it was most likely just warming up outside for once and not for any other reason.
Totally.
“Mm,” he hummed, clearly amused, “I get it.”
The two stood in a silence that made Wu Biaoqing feel equal parts relieved and awkward, and he continued to stare at his feet and hope for the gorgeous man to leave sooner.
Of course, the universe refused to be so kind as to let him die of embarrassment in peace.
“Wait a minute,” the man seemed to think for a moment, “were you the guy sitting at the table that kept asking for more chopsticks?”
Wu Biaoqing frowned, “what?”
“I was sitting at a table near yours, I think,” he explained, “and practically every five minutes someone had either dropped or lost their chopsticks. My friend started making a tally.”
Wu Biaoqing’s ears burnt brighter, clearly embarrassed, “They don’t know how to keep things organized.”
The man simply chuckled, “I gathered that.”
The silence stretched on still, and isolation awkwardly messed with his fingers that were slightly numb from the cold.
A breeze passed by, colder still, and Wu Biaoqing shivered rather violently, never quite doing well in such temperatures.
“Are you alright?” Gorgeous guy asked, and Wu Biaoqing nodded, replying, “I’ll get used to it.”
Before he could, however, there was the sounds of rustling clothing, and then a jacket was being held up in front of him.
“You can take it,” he said, “I just bought a new one anyway.”
Wu Biaoqing looked up, confused, watching as the restaurant’s sign casted the pink glow on him in a way that looked particularly eye-catching, and matched with his mask rather cutely.
“Won’t you be cold?” He frowned.
“I’m resilient,” the other man shrugged, “besides, my ride is almost here.”
Wu Biaoqing still felt bad, “I can’t just accept it.”
“Then…” the man thought for a moment, “oh, I know! I overheard you talking about E-sports. You’re a professional player?”
He looked to the side awkwardly, “I’m just a rookie. We haven’t had any official matches yet, I only just started live streaming.”
“Then I’ll be the first one to get your autograph,” the other said triumphantly, “sounds like a fair deal to me.”
“What, you think you’ll be able to sell it?” Wu Biaoqing asked, completely serious.
Gorgeous guy laughed again, a few strands of hair falling forward to cover his face ever so slightly, “who knows, maybe you’ll become super famous.”
Wu Biaoqing nodded, “I don’t have a pen.”
“Me neither.”
“I don’t have anything to write on, either.”
“Uh, you could use my shirt?”
“What?”
“Okay, passed… wait! I have a napkin!”
He pulled out the crumpled, unused napkin from his pocket as Wu Biaoqing slipped on the jacket, unfolding it and handing it to him with a marker.
“It’s not a pen, but it should do the job right?” His smile dazzled the E-sports player for a moment, and he barely managed to reply a measly yes before hurriedly scribbling down his autograph.
For the first time in his life, Wu Biaoqing signed his name on a crumpled napkin outside of a restaurant, and beneath it wrote a single English word—
Isolation.
“Qingqing!” A warm female voice called, “Sorry to keep you waiting.”
“It’s fine.” Wu Biaoqing replied nonchalantly, “ready to go?”
The attractive man, who was distracted staring intently at the autograph, only snapped out of his daze then.
“Wait, are you—“ He called out, but Wu Biaoqing and Wu Chengxiao had already started walking away.
Wu Biaoqing, not really knowing what the stranger wanted, yelled so he could hear, “Thank you for the jacket!”
Zheng Shun stared at the retreating figure of the expressionless man, and realized that sick coincidences really were the universe’s specialty.
“Damn it,” he laughed, “what kind of luck is this, not recognizing him in the dark?”
AHHHHH THEY FINALLY MEET???????
Hehe their first meeting was so sweet!
I love how he was thinking about how he is named isolation and then bam zhengshun showed up to save him T.T. I see what you did there author
I’m glad someone noticed (/ω＼) Isolation might be a rather lonely username, but Wu Biaoqing isn’t going to be alone any longer. After all, red camellia’s can symbolize passion, love, romance, & desire, and just who was his first viewer? ╮(╯▽╰)╭
I love how you describe things ❤️
Thank you (ToT)/~~~
I’m glad that he now is in a better environment!!