Chapter 25

Chapter 25

[Principal Qi: Fine, I actually like you being all puffed up! Speaking of which, he’s gotten quite a bit more handsome compared to two years ago. Not that I’m complimenting him or anything.]

Su Yi rolled her eyes at her phone screen. Xu Ruiqi, who was standing next to her in the cafeteria line getting food, glanced over. “Sis, what’s wrong?”

“My eyes are uncomfortable. Just stretching them.”

“…………”

[SUEE: Total boy energy.]

After sending the message, Su Yi finished getting her food. By the time she sat down to eat, her WeChat screen was flooded with a barrage of messages from Xia Qiqi—

[Principal Qi: Huh? Baby’s English is bad.]

[Principal Qi: Just translated it. Warm guy? Don’t tell me you still have feelings for him?]

[Principal Qi: High-energy warning ahead! You better keep your distance! What kind of warm guy? Pfft! When you play well he duo queues with you, but the second your hand gets hurt he goes off playing with other girls!]

[Principal Qi: If you dare catch feelings for him again, we are DONE!!!]

[Principal Qi: Reply! I’m so mad I could eat three bowls of rice tonight!]

Su Yi nearly spat out her mouthful of white rice. Everyone around her cast confused glances her way. She gave an awkward smile and quickly typed back: [SUEE: When did I ever say I still have feelings for him? Boy, short for: SB!]

A moment later, the other party replied with a string of “Hahahaha” and “666666666”.

Su Yi didn’t reply after that. But just as she finished dinner and was preparing to head back to the base to continue grinding ranked, Xia Qiqi sent her a string of exclamation marks like she’d seen a ghost.

Yes, only exclamation marks. No words.

[SUEE: What are you doing? Seen a ghost?]

[Xia Qiqi: Literally saw a ghost, holy crap! I knew streaming on the same platform would lead to a collision eventually. That Zhang Hao guy somehow found his way from my stream to my Weibo, and then sent me a DM!]

[SUEE: ………… What did he say?]

Xia Qiqi immediately sent over a phone screenshot. The screenshot showed the DM interface of Xia Qiqi’s Weibo—a user with an Overwatch Genji profile picture had sent the following message:

‘Do you have Su Yi’s contact info?’

“No! Tell him to get lost!”

Sitting on the sofa, Su Yi roared at her phone before decisively locking the screen and tossing it aside. Then she grabbed the remote and started frantically flipping through TV channels.

At some point, Han Lingfeng had wandered behind her. Leaning over the back of the sofa, he reached out and lightly tapped her head. “What’s wrong?”

Su Yi didn’t turn to look at him, continuing to mash the remote. “Nothing. Just a minor thing.”

“Really?” Han Lingfeng fell silent for two seconds, glanced at her profile, and finally reached out to snatch the remote from her hand. “You’re going to break the remote pressing it like that.”

Su Yi: “…”

Su Yi: “I’m going to my room to rest.”

With that, she stood up and headed toward the stairs.

A palpable low-pressure aura surrounded her entire being; anyone with eyes could tell something was off. Lightning sat at his computer and checked the time—it wasn’t even ten o’clock yet. He tugged at Xu Ruiqi’s sleeve beside him. “Riki, what’s up with your sister? She was glued to her phone during dinner tonight. What, was there treasure in there or something?”

Xu Ruiqi scratched his head, looking quite troubled. Judging from Su Yi’s reaction just now, this more or less had something to do with a certain rookie from the neighboring division. Ever since learning that Zhang Hao had joined SNM’s Overwatch division, Su Yi had barely stepped outside, terrified of accidentally running into someone from the adjacent complex.

So he offered a dry explanation: “Maybe women just have those thirty days every month…”

Coffee munched on his snacks and chimed in: “…Oh, that makes sense then.”

Lightning frowned and turned to Han Lingfeng. “Wind God, you and Yi Mei are glued together every day. Don’t you know when something’s bothering her?”

Han Lingfeng’s gaze lingered on the door near the staircase on the second floor. “I’m not omnipotent.”

No sooner had he spoken than the phone, which had been lying face-down on the sofa with a black screen, suddenly lit up. The lock screen displayed a new WeChat notification—

[Principal Qi: He knows you went pro! And he says he’s coming to find you!]

Han Lingfeng: “…………”

*He?*

Han Lingfeng frowned, quickly piecing things together. After thinking silently for a moment, he picked up the phone and headed toward the second floor. Coffee, logging into the game, shouted after him: “Wind God, where are you going?”

“To return her phone.”

“I don’t think Yi Mei is in any state to play games tonight. How about you come play ranked with me on the Korean server later?”

By then, Han Lingfeng had already reached the second floor. He glanced down at the starry-eyed person below and said, “No. Playing ranked with you will only end in a loss.”

Coffee: “…”

*Oh, so basically, you just look down on him!*

Su Yi’s door was ajar. Han Lingfeng paused at the entrance, then gently knocked.

A moment later, someone inside replied in a muffled voice, “Bro, I’m fine.”

“…” Han Lingfeng was slightly taken aback. Then he sighed and said, “It’s me.”

“Huh?? Wind God?” Su Yi’s voice immediately tensed up, and it sounded like she was scrambling around inside. After a series of shuffling footsteps, Su Yi slowly opened the door and poked her head out. “What’s up?”

Han Lingfeng held up her phone and waved it in front of her eyes. “Your phone. You left it on the sofa.”

Only then did Su Yi realize. She hurriedly thanked him, “Thank you, Wind God.” Unlocking her phone, she saw that message and nearly spat out blood from sheer anger.

Han Lingfeng looked at her with a faint smile. “Don’t worry.”

Su Yi was still replying to Xia Qiqi’s messages when she suddenly let out an “Ah.”

“When I picked up your phone earlier, I accidentally saw the WeChat notification.”

“…” Su Yi’s fingers froze over the keyboard, hovering awkwardly above the screen. “How much did you see?”

Han Lingfeng: “Just that someone knows you’ve gone pro and wants to come to the base to find you.”

Su Yi lowered her head without saying a word. Han Lingfeng sighed softly. “Don’t overthink it.”

After three seconds of silence, Su Yi nodded. “I don’t want to see him.”

Han Lingfeng: “Rest assured. I’m here.”

Su Yi: “…”

“You haven’t looked like yourself these past few days,” Han Lingfeng’s calm, indifferent voice drifted down from above. “Get some rest early tonight.”

Su Yi looked up, meeting his gaze perfectly. Although Han Lingfeng’s face remained completely expressionless, she could still detect a trace of concern in his tone.

Sure enough, when someone that handsome says something like this, it inexplicably sounds incredibly charming.

Despite the fluttering in her chest, Su Yi maintained a remarkably composed expression. “Mm, well then, Wind God, I guess you’ll have to solo queue tonight. Hehe.”

She gave a silly little smile. Han Lingfeng looked at her and instinctively placed his palm on top of her head.

Su Yi: “…Wind God?”

Han Lingfeng paused to collect himself, his explanation coming out somewhat stiffly before he smoothed it over: “Mm. Your hair is sticking up again.”

“Huh?” Su Yi reached up to feel her hair, muttering to herself, “Is my hair sticking up again? Logically, it shouldn’t do that at night…”

Han Lingfeng suppressed a smile, then turned around. “Well then, goodnight.”

“Oh, oh… Goodnight,” Su Yi replied dazedly, slowly closing her door with a thoughtful expression. Immediately after, she dashed into the bathroom, checking herself left and right in the mirror.

*Hair sticking up?*

But clearly… it wasn’t.

Just then, another WeChat notification popped up on her phone screen—

[Principal Qi: Zhang Hao wouldn’t be making a comeback at a time like this, would he? Now that you have Wind God, isn’t it overreaching for him to come looking for you?]

Su Yi was utterly embarrassed and replied: [SUEE: What do you mean ‘now that I have Wind God’? We’re just partners!]

[Principal Qi: Tsk tsk, give me a break! I’ve been lurking in Wind God’s stream these past few days, and he takes such good care of you. He was never this gentle when duo queuing with Xiao C!]

Su Yi recalled the bullet comments from a while ago asking Han Lingfeng if he was dating her, claiming she only joined SNM to get close to Wind God. They spouted nonsense about how an artist should stay home drawing instead of meddling in the LPL. Although there were plenty of people stirring up drama those few days, they were quickly proven wrong by her artwork and in-game performance.

It wasn’t until Xia Qiqi sent several follow-up messages that Su Yi’s wandering soul was pulled back to reality.

[Principal Qi: I’m starting to think he might actually like you?]

[Principal Qi: Did you really think I was joking when I talked about sparks flying from accidental friction?]

[Principal Qi: There’s no such thing as a purely platonic partnership between men and women! Especially when you two are glued together every single day!]

[Principal Qi: Seriously, Yi Yi, have you really not considered Wind God?]

Su Yi: “…………”

She flopped onto her bed, staring at the blank white ceiling, then picked up her phone to type: [SUEE: A professional player’s career is short. At least until we win a championship, I won’t consider dating.]

…

When Han Lingfeng came downstairs from the second floor, everyone else had already silently started grinding ranked on the Korean server. Figuring his own Korean account hadn’t been played in ages and would lose rank if he didn’t log in soon, he simply queued up for a few ranked matches on the Korean server.

The next day was a rest day; technically, it was already the weekend once midnight passed.

After finishing a ranked match, Han Lingfeng closed the game client entirely and opened a web browser—navigating directly to the ‘Overwatch’ streaming category.

The first thing he saw was the legendary, highly skilled player from SNM’s Overwatch division, ‘SNM_Hao’, currently playing his signature assassin hero.

Team Manager Tai Yi, having finished organizing data, walked past behind Han Lingfeng and patted his shoulder. “My dear Wind God, I seem to recall the team rules stating very clearly that watching streams of other games during training hours is prohibited.”

Han Lingfeng pointed to the clock in the bottom-right corner of his screen. “Today is a rest day.”

Tai Yi: “…”

Leaning in to check the streamer’s name in the bottom-right corner, Tai Yi remarked, “Yo, you’re even watching our own club’s Overwatch division. Wait, isn’t this their rookie, Ah Hao? When did you take an interest in this game? Let me tell you right now, until SNM wins an S-series championship, I absolutely forbid you from switching divisions.”

Han Lingfeng rested his hands behind his head, leaning back in his chair as he spoke slowly, “Don’t worry. I have zero interest in this game.”

“Then why are you watching the stream?” Tai Yi pondered for a moment before his expression shifted to one of disdain. “Don’t tell me you’re interested in Ah Hao?”

Han Lingfeng: “…”

Tai Yi clicked his tongue twice. “I thought all this time you and Su Yi were building synergy, and that it was turning into romance. Well, looks like esports really is all about bromance and zero actual dating.”