Yi Xingran received a photo of Yi Yueying’s medical examination report. There was nothing seriously wrong with his mother’s health. Aside from her blood sugar and blood lipids being somewhat elevated due to her age, the examination had not detected any signs suggesting the presence of a malignant tumor.
It was good news but it still wasn’t enough for him to let his guard down completely.
He lit a cigarette, thinking that they should shorten the interval between her medical checkups. At the very least, she should have one every six months, right? , Yi Yueying’s messages began popping up one after another, chattering away on his screen. Yi Xingran glanced through them, the faintest hint of a smile curling at the corners of his lips. Then, with a light tap of his fingertip, he sent her a transfer.
[Payment received: 10,000 yuan]
Yi Yueying hesitated for a moment before immediately sending over a voice call. “Bro, where did you suddenly make all this money?”
Yi Xingran bit down on his cigarette. Blue-violet smoke rose slowly into the air, transforming into a soft veil of haze that drifted before his eyes and blurred the world in front of him.
“You said all your classmates have tablets for attending online classes?”
Yi Yueying had only just gotten a new phone and hadn’t even had time to warm up to it when another ten thousand yuan landed in her account. The amount left her so stunned that she almost didn’t dare spend it. “But I don’t need this much! I could just buy a secondhand one for a thousand or so. Ten thousand yuan… that’s enough to cover our family’s living expenses for more than half a year.”
She said it but the happiness in her voice was impossible to fake. The little girl genuinely felt sorry about spending so much of her brother’s money but at the same time, she was genuinely thrilled to be holding such a huge sum. Her brother had just replaced her phone with the latest fruit-branded model and if this continued, she would soon have the entire fruit family in her hands.
Yi Xingran lowered his eyes slightly. “If you don’t want it, send it back to me.”
“Ah, no, no, no!”
Yi Yueying instinctively cried out, so anxious that she even stomped her feet in protest. “Bro!”
“Enough. Do you really think I don’t know you?”
Yi Xingran gave a soft laugh. “I already transferred your living expenses to Mom. I see that all the students your age have one of these, so don’t be so reluctant to spend the money.”
Yi Yueying vigorously wiped at her phone, the nice words she wanted to say lingering and turning over on the tip of her tongue for a long while. In the end, she still couldn’t bring herself to say them.
Yi Xingran had long since gotten used to her being like this. He joked, “Why don’t you take the money out and show off a little? Otherwise, what am I supposed to do with all this money?”
Yi Yueying’s lively, noisy voice immediately came through the phone. Yi Xingran held the cigarette between his fingertips, resting one hand against the railing as he looked out at the scattered points of light beneath the deep, dark night sky.
Yi Yueying was a good student. Her grades had never fallen outside the top ten in her year and all her subject teachers said she was the kind of student who had a real shot at getting into Tsinghua or Peking University. She had always been like that, ever since she was little, studying hard and doing well.
Unlike him. Whenever exam rankings were posted, his name had to be counted upward from the bottom. Even his homeroom teacher could only shake his head when looking at his results, scolding him, “At this rate, you won’t even be able to get into high school. You’ll have no choice but to go work in a factory.”
Yi Xingran almost wanted to laugh. What could he do? He simply couldn’t understand his studies. All those ridiculous questions about Little Ming’s grandmother traveling at 800 kilometers per hour, or writing a letter to Li Hua that said, “Hello, Han Meimei. I’m here on Earth. Would you like to come over for the weekend?”, none of it made any sense to him.
After he entered high school, even though he desperately didn’t want the rumors surrounding him to affect Yi Yueying’s studies, there was only so much he could do when words spread and gossip became impossible to block. Back then, Yi Yueying had been isolated by her entire class to the point where she had nearly been bullied.
Of course. She had a brother who had been accused of “match-fixing” and “betraying his country to join the enemy.” At sixteen or seventeen, an age when young people were filled with righteous indignation and had nowhere to vent all that sense of justice, wasn’t it only natural that they would use being on the “correct” side as a way to prove their own existence?
Children didn’t understand what pure malice was but that very innocent cruelty could become the sharpest blade of all, cutting Yi Yueying’s arms until they were streaked with blood.
Yi Xingran could see it all.
But there was nothing he could do.
What lay beneath that carefree ease he wore as a disguise was the helplessness he had buried in the deepest part of himself.
He couldn’t save his mother. He couldn’t help his younger sister. Even these very wounds and hurts had been brought upon them because of him.
An inexplicable restlessness rose within him. Yi Xingran had only just crushed out the cigarette butt when he casually fished another cigarette from his pocket.
With a soft “click,” the lighter’s flame sprang to life. Yi Xingran hung up the phone, completely failing to notice when the footsteps behind him had begun to sound.
“You’re not that old but you’ve already got quite the smoking habit?”
Yi Xingran frowned and turned his head. “You were eavesdropping on my phone call?”
“I was just passing by. I happened to see you here.”
Pei Du lifted his eyes and looked at him, then extended a stack of documents. “These are several lineup plans newly drawn up by the coaching staff and data analysts. Based on your performance in the training matches over the past few days, they’ve come up with a few new ideas they want you to try out.”
Yi Xingran’s head started to ache the moment he saw the densely packed numerical analyses. He casually flipped through the pages twice before closing his eyes and pressing a hand to his forehead. “Can’t you just tell me the result directly? Whoever you want me to play, I’ll play them. Isn’t that enough?”
Just as expected, he really was a lone wolf. He wore the appearance of someone who followed orders but in reality, he was so terrible at pretending that it was almost laughable.
Pei Du took the documents back and spoke concisely. “Starting tomorrow, the amount of training time you spend with the first team will be increased every day. The specific coordination will be arranged by the coach. We’ll try to develop and polish a new system before MSI arrives.”
Yi Xingran hadn’t really cared much about this in the first place. Whatever hero they gave him, he could play. At most, it was simply a matter of whether they wanted him to carry the team or play a more supportive role. Having played so many heroes in his previous life, his hero pool was deep enough that proficiency was never going to be a problem.
“Oh. Then I’ll just listen to the coach.”
Yi Xingran lifted his foot, intending to leave but Pei Du didn’t move. The pink-haired head in front of him swayed slightly from side to side before its owner raised his head in confusion.
Pei Du lowered his eyes and narrowed them slightly. “The base has a no-smoking rule. You know that, right?”
Yi Xingran instinctively retorted, “I already hid all the way out here on the outdoor terrace at the end of the corridor, I, ”
But when he looked up and caught Pei Du’s half-smiling, half-mocking expression, he suddenly remembered that violating the rules might come with some kind of disciplinary punishment. If they fined him another two thousand yuan, that would seriously hurt his wallet.
“I’ll put it out, okay? Why does everything have to be controlled…”
Muttering under his breath, Yi Xingran looked around for a trash can. He crushed out the cigarette, which still had two-thirds of its length left, feeling a little pained at the thought of wasting so much tobacco.
Pei Du followed leisurely behind him, carrying himself with the unhurried air of someone taking a casual stroll. “The way you smoke, aren’t you worried about your lungs?”
Yi Xingran touched his pocket. “It’s fine. I don’t really have much of an addiction. I just smoke for fun.”
Two cigarettes lit one after another and he called that not much of an addiction?
Pei Du didn’t expose him. Instead, he only asked in an indifferent voice, “When did you start?”
“After… after I left school, I guess. I can’t remember exactly.”
Yi Xingran was bored enough that he treated the question as nothing more than casual conversation. “Back then, everyone around me smoked. If you didn’t smoke, you didn’t fit in and it was easy to cause trouble.”
“Cause trouble?”
“You don’t understand, do you? We were all out there trying to make our way in society. If someone offered you a cigarette, were you really going to refuse it? What if it was the foreman or the team leader? Refusing would mean you weren’t giving them face.” Yi Xingran laughed, carrying himself with the air of a young man who had somehow already become an experienced big brother. “If you told them you didn’t smoke today, that foreman might not assign you any work tomorrow and if you happened to run into some difficult bastard who thought he was above everyone else and liked making things hard for people, they could turn around and corner you in some alley and mess with you. Who would you even go to for justice then?”
Pei Du lowered the corners of his eyes, thinking for a moment before he couldn’t help glancing sideways at him.
That pale-pink, round head was illuminated by the moonlight, a faint golden sheen settling over it and making his entire figure appear softer yet as he recounted those memories from the past, his face remained completely indifferent, as though the person he was talking about wasn’t himself at all but someone else.
“Can’t you quit?”
“What would I quit for?”
Yi Xingran lifted the corners of his lips, his expression filled with sympathy and pity. “Sometimes I really don’t understand people like you who don’t smoke or drink. How do you relieve stress normally? What do you do when you’re upset?”
Pei Du paused in his steps. “So you’re upset.”
Yi Xingran was inexplicably left speechless for a moment. “No, I’m just…”
Pei Du turned his eyes toward him. His face was still as cold and expressionless as ever yet at this moment, there seemed to be something slightly different about him.
Different in what way? Yi Xingran couldn’t quite figure it out.
He casually shoved the pack of cigarettes he had taken out back into his pocket. “My smoking habit just kicked in, that’s all.”
Pei Du lowered his eyes and glanced at it, taking in the red-and-white soft pack. It seemed to have the words “Hongtashan” printed across it.
“If you’re having me train with the first team starting tomorrow, won’t your original jungler make a huge fuss about it?”
Pei Du frowned slightly but Yi Xingran simply kept one hand in his pocket, leaving him with nothing but his back. He waved his hand casually, his manner as carefree as ever. “All right, I know you don’t like hearing people badmouth others behind their backs. I’m just kindly reminding you of something.”
“Don’t go around treating just anyone like some precious treasure. When MSI actually comes around, you might find yourself having to rely on someone else after all.”
Beneath the moonlight, the eighteen-year-old’s back still carried that same unrestrained, flamboyant confidence. The cold-white moonlight spilled across his shoulders, enveloping his figure in a hazy layer of snowy radiance.
Behind him, Pei Du stood there calmly, the fingers hanging at his side unconsciously rubbing against one another, as though he were savoring the final words Yi Xingran had left him with.
MSI…
Did he know something?
Coach Zheng sent him a message, asking whether he was really planning to free up two hours every day solely to work on lineup coordination with a new substitute.
【This will disrupt the normal training schedule. Besides, if nothing unexpected happens, Fire won’t have any opportunity to take the stage at all. Park Seokho has been performing steadily this whole time. Instead of wasting time on this, you might as well schedule a few more practice matches!】
Pei Du lowered his eyes slightly. He didn’t answer. Instead, he calmly replied:
【Better to be prepared for trouble before it happens.】
Coach Zheng didn’t understand.
What trouble?
The next day, Coach Zheng walked into the training room as promised. He called a halt to Cao Hanwei’s custom game and had him coordinate with the support player and take Yi Xingran along with them for a practice match.
“We’ve arranged a 3v3. Fire, you go with the two of them and get a feel for it.”
Su Letong was quite happy. Over the past few days, Yi Xingran had been helping him climb the ranks and not only had they been winning game after game, even a little support player like him had been carried all the way to a godlike, unstoppable performance. He had long since worshipped Yi Xingran as a god, clung tightly to his new big brother’s thigh and happily declared that he had found himself a new boss.
Chen Yi glanced sideways at him and saw how excited Su Letong was. “Are you really that excited?”
“Of course I am! Xixi-ge, you don’t understand, wu wu wu, Little Xing-ge is so amazing! Do you know what it means to have a winning streak in Diamond? Ahhh, he’s simply my god!”
Chen Yi pressed his lips into a straight line, his tone sounding faintly sour. “Then don’t call me the next time you need help climbing the ranks.”
“Hehehe, I won’t, Xixi-ge! I have Little Xing-ge now! You go ahead and stay busy with your own things~ I won’t bother you anymore~”
Cao Hanwei had already been listening to Su Letong praise his new big brother to the skies for three whole days. He simply hadn’t had an opportunity to play a match with him until now. Since this training match had finally come along, he was naturally rubbing his hands together in anticipation, eager to see just what level this new substitute who could maintain a winning streak in Diamond games was actually at.
“Sure! Let’s go!”
“Heh!”
Park Seokho shoved his peripherals aside and sat down at his station with a dark expression, his fingers hammering against the keyboard with sharp, rapid clacks.
“This time, we’ve arranged a match with JZX. I heard they’re planning to switch to a new playstyle and want to try coordinating the top, jungle and support positions together…”
With a loud “bang,” before Coach Zheng could even finish speaking, Park Seokho slammed his water cup onto the desk again. Staring at his computer screen, he made a strange “qie qie” sound, as if he were mocking someone in particular.
Seriously, what a mess.
Yi Xingran frowned and rolled his eyes disdainfully. He hadn’t even had time to turn around when his gaze collided directly with Pei Du’s.
Be good, keep quiet and don’t cause trouble!
Yi Xingran blinked his eyes twice. His pupils uncontrollably rolled upward, taking his long, curled lashes with them as they trembled faintly. He lifted his eyelids and followed the motion, looking toward the ceiling.
“Ow, what’s gotten into my eyes? How did something dirty get in there…”
His half-closed lips were moist and glossy and the nimble tip of his pink tongue could faintly be seen between them. Yi Xingran slumped back in his gaming chair, the back of his head resting against the headrest as he tilted his face upward and rolled his eyes toward the ceiling.
Only after Pei Du withdrew his gaze did Yi Xingran finally rein in his expression, letting out an unhappy scoff.
See? I told you. Some people are really about to make a huge mess of things.
Coach Zheng fell silent for a moment. He didn’t reprimand anyone, merely walking two steps forward and explaining the points they needed to pay attention to when choosing their heroes later.
“Kindred? Viego works too! Little Xing-ge plays both of them so amazingly!”
Su Letong took the opportunity to shower him with praise, his two dimples appearing as he grinned. Coach Zheng was just feeling rather pleased and preparing to have Su Letong try out an enchanter support when Park Seokho mimicked Su Letong’s accent and repeated his words in an exaggerated, sarcastic tone.
“Kindred~ Viego~ Sooo amazing~ #& (**@……!”
Coach Zheng’s expression looked somewhat unpleasant but his tone remained relatively gentle. “Hao, you go coordinate the mid-jungle with Cross first. Don’t interfere with the training.”
Park Seokho rattled off a long string of Korean mixed with Chinese. Coach Zheng’s expression grew increasingly stern and just as he was about to open his mouth to stop him, the usually indifferent Pei Du spoke first.
“Why are you targeting a substitute player like this? Are you afraid of something?”
Yi Xingran turned around at the words.
What the hell? He can speak Korean?
Then why the hell didn’t he translate for me and kept pretending he couldn’t understand?
Pei Du didn’t look at him. Instead, he simply met Park Seokho’s gaze, his expression calm as he delivered a single sentence that struck directly at the sorest point.
“In esports, whoever is stronger plays. TheX has never had a system where people get to rely on seniority and experience to decide who deserves to play.”
In the LCK, newcomers who had just joined a team were expected to respectfully address veteran players as their seniors. In some cases, it was hardly unusual for rookies to be expected to serve them tea, fetch things for them and behave with extreme deference.
Park Seokho had always been particularly displeased by the way Yi Xingran looked at him as though he didn’t think much of him at all. Hearing this, he immediately flew into a rage.
“What gives him the right?”
Pei Du’s expression remained unchanged. There was even a faint, almost amused curve at the corners of his lips. “Because he is someone I personally agreed to sign and if you continue to lose control of your emotions like this, it’s difficult for me not to suspect that you’re worried someone might take your position.”
“When you signed me back then, you never said I would have to participate in internal rotations!”
Pei Du lifted his eyes, the faintly mocking smile still lingering at the corners of his mouth. “If you can continue maintaining your normal level of performance, who could possibly rotate you out?”
What the hell are they babbling about? This is so damn annoying!
Yi Xingran’s head was starting to ache from listening. “If you’re not convinced, solo! Solo! Do you understand what solo means?”
Park Seokho gritted his teeth and glared at Yi Xingran with intense resentment. He couldn’t argue back against the team captain, nor could he openly defy the coach. Furious and unable to vent his anger anywhere else, he stormed out of the training room.
The training room fell silent for a moment.
Coach Zheng looked at Yi Xingran with an expression that seemed as though he wanted to say something but didn’t quite know how to begin.
Pei Du also cast him a calm, level gaze. Being watched like that made Yi Xingran feel distinctly uncomfortable all over.
“What are you looking at me for?”
Coach Zheng remained silent for a moment.
Pei Du parted his thin lips. “You are, after all, his substitute. Since you’re dissatisfied with the training arrangements and immediately challenged him to a solo, it’s difficult for anyone not to think that you were deliberately provoking him and issuing him a challenge.”
“Ah, no, that’s not what he meant! Little Xing-ge definitely didn’t mean it that way! He might just be a little too straightforward… Don’t misunderstand him. He’s actually a really good person!”
Once you have a little brother of your own, naturally someone will step forward to argue on your behalf.
Yi Xingran nodded perfunctorily, going “Mm, mm, mm” as though he were agreeing with everything Su Letong had said. In return, he caught Pei Du narrowing his eyes at him.
“You seem to have never worried about the possibility that you could practice the lineup and still have no opportunity to play.”
Yi Xingran was only halfway through a nod when he casually laughed. “Why would I worry about that?”
Pei Du was speechless.
He watched as Yi Xingran’s half-lowered eyelids suddenly lifted. Then, with his peach-blossom eyes wide open, Yi Xingran changed his answer without the slightest trace of embarrassment.
“I just think it’s better to be prepared for anything, that’s all. Yeah, that’s right. What if someone happens to eat something that upsets their stomach right before going on stage?”
This was the second time Coach Zheng had heard the word “trouble.”
He still couldn’t understand it.
Where exactly was this supposed trouble supposed to be?
He arranged for the three of them to begin the training match. Only Pei Du remained sitting off to the side, seemingly deep in thought as he watched Yi Xingran’s retreating back with a meaningful, contemplative gaze.
In his previous life, three years ago, during the MSI finals, their team had fought a grueling five-game series against the championship team from the previous season’s S tournament, only to suffer a narrow defeat. Park Seokho had used “eating something that upset his stomach and being in poor condition” as his reason, successfully avoiding the controversy and questioning that followed the match.
…………………Could it really have been such a coincidence?
✦ ✧ ✦
Fleurveil
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
This chapter was powered by questionable decisions. The next one may require coffee.
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
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ChaptersChapter 1 · Fire the hole!Chapter 2 · Dude, I’m here to save youChapter 3 · Plaster HeadChapter 4 · I’m well behaved, I don’t talk muchChapter 5 · It’s what Cross needsChapter 6 · What are you barking like a dog?Chapter 7 · “Ah! It’s so… so damn cold~”Chapter 8 · What are you looking at, you pervert!Chapter 9 · The cat I bought for free got dirty.Chapter 10 · Oh no! I forgot to switch to a smaller account!Chapter 11 · It’s my turn to performChapter 12 · Insults? That’s slander! This is slander!Chapter 13 · He’s a very nice personChapter 14 · Hunting TimeChapter 15 · A straight man sells himselfChapter 16 · The number one person who doesn’t eat stressChapter 17 · He is so vividChapter 18 · War! War! War! Kill! Kill!Chapter 19 Part 1 · What’s wrong with guys rubbing against each other?Chapter 19 Part 2 · What’s wrong with guys rubbing against each other?