Chapter 6

The next day, SNM’s manager Tai Yi printed several copies of the contract and prepared to fly from Shanghai to Su Yi’s city.

Professional esports players shared one common trait: none of them would wake up before two or three in the afternoon—a hallmark of internet-addicted youth. The sole exception was Han Lingfeng, whose schedule most closely resembled a normal person’s—three meals a day, with a late-night snack as a possible fourth.

He streamed on time, completed tasks on time, more organized and methodical than an elementary school student turning in homework.

Tai Yi got up at nine in the morning, packed his luggage, carried his bag downstairs, and found Han Lingfeng puttering around in the kitchen making breakfast.

“Early as always, my great Wind God,” Tai Yi teased. “With your zero sense of direction, you didn’t get lost last night and only find your way back this morning, did you?”

Han Lingfeng glanced at him, tossed a steamed bun in his direction, and ignored the jab. “Why are you up so early?”

The bun was still piping hot. Tai Yi nearly burned himself, tossing his bag down and juggling the bun between his palms. “Crap! So hot! Han Lingfeng, are you trying to kill me?”

“If I wanted to kill you, I’d find a faster method,” he replied, turning back to rinse the kitchen knife.

Tai Yi’s imagination ran wild, and he felt his entire being cringe. “I’m heading to Wuhan to sign a contract.”

“…………”

“Hm?” Tai Yi bit into the bun and thought for a while, as if remembering something. “You’re from Wuhan too, aren’t you?”

Han Lingfeng paused briefly, then turned to tidy up the kitchen. “Yeah.”

“Perfect, do you know this address?” Tai Yi pulled out his phone, scrolled through WeChat to find an address, and held it up for Han Lingfeng to see.

After reading the address, Han Lingfeng frowned, his lips twitching slightly. “I know it.”

“Great! Tell baby how to get there.”

“No.”

“…” Tai Yi stared at him with a mouthful of bun, completely bewildered.

Han Lingfeng answered matter-of-factly: “Because I’m directionally challenged.”

“…………….” So his great Wind God was, in a sense, quite the grudge-holder?

Tai Yi put on a pitiful expression, gazing at him with pleading eyes. “Who told you to go out so late last night anyway? What were you even doing?”

“Buying something.”

“What requires driving out at night to buy?”

Han Lingfeng pointed at the car keys on the table. “A keychain.”

“…………” Impressive, Wind God. You drove out in the dead of night just to buy a keychain? And it was still a Jinx charm. “Just how much do you love flat-chested loli characters?”

“Spit that bun back out.”

“Oh dear, I’m running late, gotta go.”

“Wait.” Han Lingfeng grabbed his arm. “I forgot to mention a few days ago because of streaming deadlines—my sister’s getting married this weekend. I’m taking two days off.”

“Sure, sure. Congrats! You might as well come to Wuhan with me now.”

“You think plane tickets fall out of the sky on demand?”

“…”

Tai Yi had a flight to catch. After wolfing down the steamed buns Han Lingfeng had made, he rushed out the door. The latter washed up the dishes, sat down at his computer, and booted it up.

He logged into the game client with practiced ease and queued for ranked.

It was already November; in just a few days, the S6 season would end. He was currently ranked third in the ‘Challenger’ tier on the Chinese server, with Qi Shen from Team CNZ in first.

That guy had been grinding LP hard lately.

Three games in, all carried entirely by him.

In the fourth match, he was assigned his most comfortable ADC position and got exactly what he wanted—his signature champion, Jinx.

While adjusting his talents and runes during the downtime, Han Lingfeng opened TGP, navigated through his own match history, and pulled up Su Yi’s recent stats.

‘Challenger Master, 250 LP.’ She’d been grinding until midnight last night and started again at nine this morning, playing straight through until now.

Glancing to the right side of the screen, her match history was almost entirely a sea of green victories.

Just how relentless was this woman?

Lost in thought, he noticed the game had entered the loading screen. To his surprise, he encountered the very person he’d just been thinking about—playing [Jungle], of all things. On the enemy side. [Rengar, the Pridestalker.]

Commonly known as: Rengar.

Han Lingfeng: “…………”

For some reason, he had a feeling he wouldn’t be getting any farming done this game.

…

In truth, it wasn’t just Han Lingfeng who was surprised. Su Yi herself couldn’t believe she ended up playing [Jungle]. If the teammate assigned to jungle hadn’t asked her, as first pick, to grab Rengar for him, she never would have selected this champion.

And if that Rengar player hadn’t lacked the champion she wanted to play, she wouldn’t have been stuck in the jungle either. (You can’t swap if neither player owns the other’s champion.)

Yeah, this was incredibly awkward. She hadn’t played this champion much, but she could manage. After all, Rengar was her cousin’s signature pick. Before Xu Ruiqi went pro, he was the one who taught her how to jungle.

But could someone please explain why she was facing that man again in ranked?

[Oh no, we got matched against Wind God!]

[Our bot lane is as good as exploded. All we’ve got is a rarely-played Rengar and a Nautilus support who clearly doesn’t know what he’s doing.]

[I can literally hear the LP draining away.]

Teammates lamented in team chat. Some had even started typing in [All] chat, begging Han Lingfeng to go easy on them and not to destroy them too badly.

But this match unfolded quite differently from what everyone expected.

In the early game, Su Yi’s Rengar caught the enemy jungler twice in the jungle, and her mid-laner was equally impressive, securing a solo kill. At the ten-minute mark, Su Yi coordinated a mid-jungle play with her mid-laner, catching and killing both Han Lingfeng and his support.

Over the next three minutes, Su Yi’s Rengar ambushed him three times from the brush in front of bot lane’s first turret. Each combo was executed flawlessly, fluid and seamless.

Rengar’s burst damage was extremely high, especially when he had access to brush.

[Wind God must be crying from all these ganks…]

[This Rengar is insane. Reminds me of Riki in his prime.]

[My heart aches for Wind God.]

Even the teammate who had asked Su Yi to pick Rengar for him—who was now playing support—typed: [Bro, you’re camping Wind God this hard. What’s the grudge about?]

Su Yi: “…”

If she said it was because Han Lingfeng had demolished her mid lane last night and she was getting revenge, would they call her petty?

After some thought, she typed back: [He’s better-looking than me. I refuse to accept it.]

Her teammates responded with a chorus of ‘666666.’

And that was that. Her team won this match with absurd ease.

After the game ended, teammates and opponents alike flooded public chat with messages like “My heart bleeds for Wind God getting camped into oblivion,” “That Rengar player is absolutely bloodthirsty,” and “Rengar, what did Wind God ever do to you?” Someone even typed, “Wind God got camped into the ground 2333333.”

That last one, your string of 2333s is truly the definition of schadenfreude.

Feeling hungry, Su Yi glanced at the clock in the corner of her screen—it was already noon. From outside her room, she could hear her mother calling her to come eat.

She left the lobby and was about to close the game…

[Player Coldwind has sent you a friend request.]

Su Yi: “…”

Huh?

What????!!!

A friend request?!

At first, Su Yi felt a surge of excitement. She’d heard Han Lingfeng rarely added people. She’d watched his streams—his friends list contained only SNM teammates, other pro players, a few retired veterans, and some streamers.

Generally speaking, he simply didn’t add random players.

So the question was: what was he adding her for?

Su Yi’s first reaction was unease. Was he adding her to yell at her? She’d only camped him three times in three minutes bot lane—that wasn’t even that extreme! Some high-elo junglers, when they decided to target someone, made even the victim terrified of themselves!

Su Yi considered that she’d be joining SNM soon; they’d be seeing each other every single day.

After some deliberation, she shook her head. Given Han Lingfeng’s personality, he wouldn’t hold such a petty grudge. Deciding to accept, Su Yi moved her mouse toward the confirm button.

But her hand twitched, and she accidentally clicked Decline.

Su Yi: “…………..”

Could she add him back now and explain that her hand had slipped? Would it still be okay? She immediately typed Han Lingfeng’s ID into the search bar, but before she’d finished entering it, another friend request notification popped up in the corner.

This time, Su Yi very carefully did NOT click Decline.

A message from him arrived almost immediately.

[Coldwind: Very good.]

Very good????

What did “very good” even mean? Was it “Very good, you’ve successfully caught my attention” or “Very good, I’ll remember this”? Uh… the two meanings didn’t seem that different anyway.

[E-MAIL: Wind God, what are you talking about?]

[Coldwind: You’re the first person who’s ever declined my friend request.]

Well, wasn’t that an honor…

[E-MAIL: That was a misclick. Um… an accident.]

[Coldwind: I hope your hand doesn’t slip next time.]

[E-MAIL: Huh? What?]

[Coldwind: Logging off.]

[E-MAIL: …………….Oh.]

Moments later, Han Lingfeng’s avatar disappeared from the chat, leaving only a row of grayed-out IDs in her friends list.

But what did he mean by what he said just now? Next time? What next time? And what was his actual reason for adding her in the first place?

Su Yi stared at the screen in a daze, then sighed innocently: This guy truly lived up to his name.