Chapter 15
Su Yi followed the group to the villa’s entrance in a daze, waiting for Xu Ruiqi to bring the car around from the parking lot. During this time, she cast furtive glances at Han Lingfeng beside her—at least five times.
Soon, the handsome young man being scrutinized noticed the repeated stares from his left and couldn’t help but call out, “Su Yi.”
“Huh?” Being addressed by name by Han Lingfeng for the first time, Su Yi froze for a solid two seconds.
Han Lingfeng took a deep breath and turned to look into her brown eyes. “Is there something on my face?”
“No no no!” Su Yi shook her head vigorously like a rattle drum.
Amid their idle chatter, Xu Ruiqi pulled up in Han Lingfeng’s car. Coffee, being the largest among them, dutifully walked toward the passenger seat. He opened the door and had one leg halfway inside when Xu Ruiqi spoke up. “Coffee, what are you doing?”
Coffee looked utterly confused. “What do you mean, what am I doing?”
Xu Ruiqi pointed at Su Yi, who was standing behind the car. “You’re sitting upfront? Do you really want my cousin squeezed in the back between two grown men?”
Coffee: “…………”
Ah, now Coffee was absolutely certain—Xu Ruiqi was definitely a massive sister-con!
Hearing that Xu Ruiqi wanted him to sit in the back with Coffee and Han Lingfeng, Lightning immediately rushed forward to protest. “No way, Riki! Coffee’s so fat; Wind God and I will be crushed back there!”
Coffee: “………… Lightning, saying that about me leaves me speechless.”
Lightning: “…………”
Xu Ruiqi paused upon hearing this. “Fine then. Wind God drives, Coffee rides shotgun, and I’ll sit in the back with my cousin and Lightning.”
Upon hearing their captain’s proposal, Lightning and Coffee fell into a mysterious silence. After all, their Wind God was directionally challenged beyond the salvation of any navigation app, while neither Lightning nor Coffee had driver’s licenses.
Su Yi thought about it. “That works too.”
Lightning gave her a ‘you clearly don’t understand’ look. “It’ll ‘work’… until you realize Wind God is hopelessly lost, then you won’t think it works anymore.”
Su Yi: “…Di-directionally challenged?”
Han Lingfeng immediately chopped Lightning lightly on the head. “You talk too much. Feel free to order your own ride.”
Clutching his head, Lightning wailed, “Don’t do this! Please don’t abandon me, organization!”
*Huh,* Su Yi thought. *So even someone as perfect as Han Lingfeng has flaws like this.*
She chuckled involuntarily, but Han Lingfeng caught the sound and asked, “What’s funny?”
Su Yi stuck out her tongue playfully. “Nothing. Just thinking that being directionally challenged is actually… kind of cute.”
Han Lingfeng: “…………”
Being called “cute” by a girl for the first time, Han Lingfeng found his emotions rather complicated.
After much back-and-forth debate, Xu Ruiqi finally conceded. Coffee would ride shotgun, Su Yi would take the window seat in the back, and Han Lingfeng would sit in the middle.
The drive from SNM’s residential complex to their destination took about twenty minutes. Taking advantage of the downtime, Su Yi pulled out her phone in the car, planning to scroll through Weibo—which she hadn’t opened in days—to pass the time.
But scrolling led straight to disaster—
[Big artist, have you been following Wind God’s ranked games?! Looks like SNM is adding a new support to their harem!]
[Holy crap, wifey, I just realized your Weibo alt account syncs perfectly with that suspected new SNM support. WTF.]
[Thank goodness our big artist is an adorable girl, otherwise I’d seriously think you were going pro.]
[Big artist, it’s been forever since your last post! Camille looks so cool—wanna draw her?]
[Seriously though, wifey, forget the Wind God x Zeus fanbook. Once the new support debuts, draw Wind God x Brother Email instead! ADC x Support—just thinking about it gets me excited!]
[ADC x Support +1]
[ADC x Support +10086]
…
Su Yi: “…………”
Right. She hadn’t forgotten that aside from being an internet-addicted gamer, she was also an artist. It had been a month since her last Weibo post; between grinding ranked and keeping up with coursework, she hadn’t produced any new art in ages.
But…
Her alt account syncing with SNM’s new support? Hello, that WAS her! And somehow nobody had connected the dots.
And drawing a Wind God x Brother Email fanbook? Holy crap—that would literally be her and Wind God!
Imagining those masterfully drawn fanworks pairing her with Han Lingfeng… she absolutely COULD NOT handle it! The mere thought made her entire being malfunction. Startled, she accidentally dropped her phone right next to Han Lingfeng.
Han Lingfeng turned toward the visibly flustered Su Yi and picked up her phone. “What’s wrong?”
For some inexplicable reason, Su Yi felt incredibly guilty. Glancing down, she saw the screen was still lit up and facing Han Lingfeng. Panicked, she immediately reached out with both hands and snatched the phone back from him.
Han Lingfeng: “???”
Su Yi stammered out a stiff explanation, “Just browsing makeup blogs. The blogger was applying a mask… volcanic mud type… um… didn’t want to scare you.”
Han Lingfeng gave her a skeptical look. “So you got scared instead.”
“…” Su Yi hesitated for two seconds, then nodded cooperatively. “Yeah. Scared.”
Han Lingfeng didn’t seem to dwell on it further. Breathing a slight sigh of relief, Su Yi began scrolling through her older Weibo posts. During last year’s winter break, she had posted two artworks: one was a chibi Jinx illustration, and the other was fan art depicting SNM’s championship skins.
Riot Games, the parent company of League of Legends, had a rule: every member of the winning team at the S-Series World Championship received a custom skin. These championship skins shared design elements with the team’s uniforms and represented the ultimate honor for any roster.
Additionally, these skins were sold on the server for a limited time as a gift to fans.
Typically, all five members’ skins appeared together in a single splash art.
Back then, because Xu Ruiqi had joined SNM, Su Yi followed the team closely out of familial loyalty. Perhaps to make up for SNM failing to win the championship that year, Su Yi pulled several all-nighters and painstakingly created a fan-made championship skin illustration for SNM.
Coincidentally, the official League of Legends Weibo account reposted it with the caption: [Such a thoughtful fan! This championship artwork for SNM is absolutely amazing. Hope SNM takes the title next season!]
After the official account reshared her original post, Su Yi gained tens of thousands of followers overnight and even received a follow-back from the official account. At the time, her emotions had soared and plummeted wildly with excitement.
Since then, most fans knew that the blogger named “Yi Mei Is Not E-MAIL” was a die-hard SNM fan. Nobody suspected she was actually Xu Ruiqi’s cousin; they simply assumed she was another devoted fangirl.
As for the chibi Jinx piece, she drew it purely because she loved the champion. And her love for Jinx stemmed largely from Han Lingfeng.
During that year’s S-Series group stage, Jinx was the strongest ADC in the meta, and Han Lingfeng happened to pick her. She vividly remembered the match against a Taiwanese team where Han Lingfeng’s Jinx scored a pentakill on the international stage.
Instantly captivated by the champion, she drew that chibi illustration shortly afterward.
Her original post read:
[Yi Mei Is Not E-MAIL: I genuinely adore Jinx, so I drew a chibi version! The attached image is watermark-free—feel free to use it if you like!]
In other words, that artwork was copyright-free.
So… did Han Lingfeng buy that keychain at some boutique? Or did he have it custom-made using her art…? If it was custom-made, that meant he’d seen her Weibo and knew she was an artist.
Lost in thought, Su Yi barely noticed the car arriving at their destination. Everyone filed out. Su Yi was the last to exit. Xu Ruiqi unbuckled the key fob and called out, “Sis, hand the keys to Wind God for me. Gotta hit the restroom.”
“Okay.” Su Yi took the keys from her cousin.
She examined the charm closely from every angle, confirming beyond doubt that it was indeed her artwork. But Wind God…
“Su Yi, what are you spacing out about?”
“—!!” Startled by the voice behind her, Su Yi spun around to find Han Lingfeng looking down at her. Slightly nervous, she raised her hand and offered him the car keys. “My brother said to give these to you. He went to the bathroom.”
Su Yi stood only 160 cm tall, while Han Lingfeng’s official height was listed as 183 cm. The height difference alone was significant, and being looked at by him like that made her feel… somewhat unaccustomed.
Han Lingfeng stared at the keys for a moment before accepting them. “Thanks. Let’s go.”
“Um… Wind God,” Su Yi quickened her pace to catch up with the group. “You must really love Jinx. Even your keychain features her.”
Han Lingfeng glanced at her, lips curling slightly upward. “I just like this particular Jinx.”
“Huh?” Su Yi’s heart skipped a beat at his words.
He shot her a sidelong glance, then added meaningfully, “Because she looks adorably dumb.”
“…………..”
*Bastard! Give me back my fluttering maiden heart right now!*