At that moment, Yan Ting was sitting in a booth at the bar, long legs crossed and propped up on the coffee table. He shook a cigarette out of the pack and held it between his lips, unlit.
It was the first day of summer break, and he’d already gotten into a fight with his family. He’d come to his friend’s bar to get away from it all.
The bar was nearly empty in the afternoon. His friend Shen Xing plopped down across from him, pushing a freshly poured drink over: “Have a drink?”
“Scram.”
Shen Xing laughed from the side: “Don’t bother me, I’ll say the rest for you.”
Yan Ting lifted his eyelids to glance at him. Shen Xing’s smile faded, but his mouth kept going: “Didn’t you call us out? You called us here and now you’re just sitting here by yourself. How boring is that?”
Yan Ting ignored him, cigarette dangling from his lips as he looked down at his phone. Xu Shen’s message was still there. He couldn’t be bothered to reply.
Shen Xing jerked his chin toward the bar counter: “There are some pretty girls over there. They’ve been checking you out for a while.”
Yan Ting didn’t even lift his head.
Shen Xing took the hint and carried his drink over to the bar.
Yan Ting took the cigarette out, tilted his head back against the sofa, and closed his eyes for a moment, the cigarette spinning between his fingers.
A few people settled into the booth next to his, laughing and chatting as they ordered drinks, clinked glasses, and talked about this and that.
Yan Ting paid them no mind—until a voice drifted over from the next booth: “I’m telling you, you really can’t put off dealing with that hairline. Keep going like this and when other people part their hair down the middle, they’ve got a part line—you’ve got a river, with deserts on both sides.”
The whole table burst out laughing.
“Seriously, let me share a family secret for preventing hair loss. Boil ginger in water and wash your hair with it, then wrap your head in plastic wrap and let it sit for half an hour. Guaranteed your hair volume will explode in three months. You’ll even save the money for a hair transplant.”
Yan Ting raised an eyebrow.
That phrasing… a secret for preventing hair loss?
He suddenly thought of that lunatic.
He remembered one of the messages was “I have a hair-loss prevention secret. Add me, add me and I’ll tell you.”
After that lunatic had passed the friend request, she’d never sent him another message.
Not a single word.
He opened his eyes, picked up his phone, switched to WeChat, and scrolled down his friends list.
He didn’t have many friends. It took only a couple of swipes to spot that orange cat avatar.
Paired with the username “Praying to Gods Is Worse Than Wishing on Xu Yuan.”
He tapped in. The chat window was completely clean—only the system-generated message: “You’ve added XX. Say hi!”
For some reason, he tapped into her Moments again.
A single line.
Nothing at all.
Three-day visibility? Six-month visibility? Or had she blocked him? Or maybe she’d just never posted anything?
He stared at that line for a moment, then suddenly put the cigarette back between his lips and replied to Xu Shen: [Invite me.]
He opened the game, and a party invite popped up immediately.
He hit accept and heard a girl’s voice come through the voice chat—crisp and bright: “Is he reliable? Don’t tell me he’s another one of those who feeds first blood right off the bat.”
Yan Ting’s fingers paused.
A girl?
Since when did Xu Shen duo queue with a girl?
Xu Shen: “Just don’t talk. Lie back and enjoy the carry.”
“Why can’t I talk? My shot-calling has always been solid, okay?”
“Your shot-calling? Your shot-calling is egging me on to 1v5 while you cheer from the back.”
“That’s because I believe in you!”
Only then did Yan Ting realize—it was Xu Shen’s sister.
Listening to the siblings bicker in voice chat, he didn’t jump in, nor did he mute his mic.
He picked a jungler, adjusted his build, and tapped the skill buttons a couple of times to test the feel.
The game started.
The enemy jungler was a so-called “jungle king” with a 52% win rate. Right at the start, he said: “Game over in ten minutes.”
Arrogant as hell.
Yan Ting glanced at the enemy ID, ignored it, and steered his champion toward the enemy jungle.
At 1 minute 20 seconds, the enemy jungler had just finished red buff with full health and was clearing the chickens.
Yan Ting emerged from the bush. A smooth, fluid combo—he stole the chickens and took down the enemy jungler in one go.
“First Blood.”
The moment the announcement rang out, voice chat exploded.
Xu Shen: “Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit!”
Xu Yuan thought to herself: That fast? It’s only been a minute, hasn’t it? Did he even finish clearing his own jungle?
Yan Ting said nothing. He went back to his own jungle, cleared the remaining camps, hit level four, and headed to bottom lane.
The enemy marksman was pushing hard, shoving the wave under tower, completely unaware of the danger creeping closer.
Yan Ting pinged a signal. Xu Shen understood and charged in to bait.
The enemy marksman chased for two steps, and Yan Ting circled around from the river bush. Another clean combo secured the kill.
“Unstoppable.”
“He killed again!” Xu Yuan was stunned. “He’s that good?”
Xu Shen snorted: “You should see who I brought in.”
“It’s not like you got the kill. What are you so proud of?”
“The person I brought got the kill, so his kill is my kill. That’s called indirect damage.”
“Your shamelessness is also indirect damage.”
Yan Ting listened to the two of them trading barbs, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
He had no intention of joining the sibling banter, but he didn’t turn off the voice chat either. His fingers never stopped gliding across the screen.
The enemy jungler was so thoroughly countered by Yan Ting that he couldn’t function anymore and started spamming insults in the public chat.
Yan Ting didn’t reply with a single word—he just kept showing up in the enemy jungler’s territory, toying with him before taking each kill.
By the eighth minute of the game, Yan Ting pulled off a beautiful team fight in mid lane, secured a pentakill, and pushed straight to the inhibitor.
“Victory.”
Xu Yuan watched the victory screen pop up and bounced off the couch: “We won! In only eight minutes! That was amazing!”
Xu Shen was also getting into the game when a voice suddenly came through the voice chat.
Low and indifferent: “Your sister?”
Xu Shen answered instinctively: “Yeah, my sister, Xu Yuan.”
Only after speaking did he remember that he’d hired his sister to seduce his best friend.
“Ah, that—” he quickly tried to cover, feeling a bit guilty, “This is my sister. My biological sister. She’s on break at home with nothing to do, so we’re just playing a couple rounds together.”
Yan Ting: “Oh.”
Xu Shen breathed a sigh of relief and was about to change the subject when Yan Ting’s voice came through again: “I’m getting off.”
The party interface showed 【Yan has left the party】.
Xu Yuan noticed her brother sitting cross-legged on the carpet with a weird expression and kicked him: “What’s wrong with you? You look like you’re constipated.”
Xu Shen: “Do you think he might have figured it out?”
“Figured out what?”
Then it clicked. “Are you talking about the alt account thing? Don’t worry, I used a burner account—no photos, no social posts, didn’t even fill in my gender. How would he ever guess?”
Xu Shen thought about it and figured that made sense.
“Besides, all he knows is that I’m your sister. What could he possibly guess from that?”
Xu Shen thought again and figured that made even more sense.
“Don’t worry.” Xu Yuan patted his shoulder, speaking with gravity. “Your sister here might talk a lot, but I’ve still got my brain. Alt account is alt account, main account is main account. Those two lines will never cross.”
Xu Shen nodded, but his brow remained furrowed.
He felt like something was off, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
“Oh, right,” he suddenly remembered the important matter. “Speaking of which, how’s it been going with your chats these past few days?”
Xu Yuan was fishing the last few crumbs out of the chip bag without looking up: “Chats about what?”
Xu Shen pointed at his phone: “Didn’t you add him as a friend? Have you talked at all? Does he seem interested in you?”
Xu Yuan tipped the chip crumbs into her mouth and chewed a couple times: “Oh, right.”
She’d completely forgotten about that.
She put down the chip bag and picked up her phone: “I forgot to log into my alt.”
Xu Shen’s eyelid twitched: “You haven’t talked to him?”
“Haven’t I been busy packing up to come home these past few days? Besides, he was so hard to add—I sent so many requests and got rejected every time, so eventually I just…”
“You just?”
“I just stopped bothering.”
Xu Shen was speechless: “Let me tell you, you’ve only got these two months of summer break. If you don’t complete the mission, don’t even think about me transferring you any money.”
Xu Yuan pouted, then glanced at WeChat and gasped: “He added me! He actually accepted?!”
Time added: three days ago.
Xu Yuan couldn’t believe it: “He accepted?!”
“He accepted! When did he accept?!”
She shoved the phone in Xu Shen’s face: “Look! He accepted three days ago!”
Xu Shen: …
He was starting to regret having his airheaded sister try to seduce his grumpy best friend.
With Yan Ting’s intelligence, if he ever figured it out…
Just like how he played the game—he wouldn’t kill you outright. He’d toy with you until you had no way to fight back, then take everything in one final sweep.