Qi Xiao was lying in bed playing on his phone when he caught sight of the WeChat group notification at almost the exact same moment:
Lu Xingliang poked my face and said: What a cutie.
This was a poke suffix Qi Xiao and his friends had set for fun a few days ago, and he had forgotten to change it back since. He hadn’t expected Lu Xingliang to tap it out of nowhere.
Operating on the principle of “as long as I’m not embarrassed, the embarrassment belongs to someone else,” Qi Xiao tapped the screen twice as well:
I poked Lu Xingliang.
On the other end, Lu Xingliang had initially intended to recall the action, but he hadn’t expected Qi Xiao to catch it within those few seconds. He had no choice but to let it be.
He explained in the group: “Just wanted to see your avatar.”
Qi Xiao quickly sent over the original image: “Isn’t it super cute!”
Lu Xingliang’s gaze lingered on the word “cute.” After a few seconds, he replied: “Very cute.”
Likely because their exchange livened up the group chat, the other guests who were online stopped lurking and popped up one after another.
Lin Zhiyao: “Is this your cat? @QiXiao”
Qi Xiao: “It belongs to a friend, but I visit and play with it all the time.”
Lin Zhiyao: “So envious.”
Shen Ye: “I thought everyone was busy. Turns out you were all lurking.”
Lin Zhiyao: “Don’t you have a stream tonight?”
Shen Ye: “Just finished a match and came to take a look. Anyone want to play together?”
Lin Zhiyao: “Sure thing.”
Qi Xiao: “I want to try too! [Raises hand]”
Shen Ye: “Can I stream while playing with the others? @Director”
Director: “Sure, treat it as building hype for the show. Just don’t leak any show content.”
Shen Ye: “Rest assured, Director.”
Lu Xingliang stared at his phone screen. Even as new messages kept popping up in the group chat, he didn’t speak again.
Just then, his phone gave a light chime:
Qi Xiao requested to add you as a friend.
For some reason, Lu Xingliang felt as if he had suddenly let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.
He tapped accept.
Qi Xiao sent a message right away: “Good evening, Senior.”
It was accompanied by an adorable cat emoji.
Lu Xingliang: “Why aren’t you chatting with them anymore?”
Qi Xiao: “We agreed to play a game together in a bit. I’m still downloading it.”
“Senior, do you want to play together?”
Lu Xingliang: “I don’t play games.”
Qi Xiao: “I’ve never played either, but I heard Shen Ye is super good and can carry three people at once!”
Lu Xingliang: “Are you very busy today?”
“Not busy at all. No work today, so I’ve been staying home the whole time.”
Lu Xingliang didn’t reply further.
The conversation came to an abrupt halt. Although Qi Xiao thought it was a bit strange, he didn’t dwell on it much, assuming the man had stepped away to attend to something.
In truth, right after the group was created, several people had sent requests to add his WeChat, and Qi Xiao had accepted them one by one upon seeing them. He hadn’t noticed who was missing until he saw Lu Xingliang speaking in the group chat just now, which made him realize he hadn’t added the man yet.
Reasoning that he was at least Lu Xingliang’s fan now, Qi Xiao hurriedly sent a friend request to try and make amends. Judging by Lu Xingliang’s attitude, however, he didn’t seem to care much about it anyway.
Once the game finished downloading, Qi Xiao dropped a message in the group, and Shen Ye promptly pulled him into the lobby team.
Shen Ye was a major streamer on a popular platform, drawing hundreds of thousands of viewers almost daily. Following the show’s official announcement today, many people had flooded in to check things out. When he announced that Qi Xiao and Lin Zhiyao were joining him for a game, the stream’s popularity skyrocketed instantly, swiftly breaking the one-million mark.
Most of the newly arrived viewers came for Qi Xiao—some were his fans, some were just there to watch the chaos, and a portion were anti-fans.
It was a mystery what kind of magnetic physique Qi Xiao possessed, but ever since his debut, he had been a total anti-fan magnet. And they were genuine, passionate anti-fans who would swarm in whenever there was news about him, no matter where it was.
Since PC games had hardware requirements and presented a higher learning curve for people who didn’t play games regularly, Shen Ye chose the more accessible PUBG Mobile for the stream to accommodate Qi Xiao and Lin Zhiyao.
Even so, for a complete beginner like Qi Xiao, it was still somewhat challenging.
Although Shen Ye gave him a quick rundown of the basic controls, theory was one thing and actual gameplay was another. As a result, Qi Xiao made a fool of himself right as the match started.
The stream chat quickly erupted with sarcastic comments:
“Sucking this bad at a simple game? Guess he really is just a pretty face.”
“If I were his teammate, I would’ve started flaming him long ago.”
“No way, no way, no way, is there actually someone nowadays who can’t even learn a mobile game?”
Fortunately, before long, those users were silenced by the stream moderators.
When Lu Xingliang tapped into the stream, he happened to catch this exact scene.
He didn’t have much interest in video games and hadn’t intended to watch it in the first place. It was purely because of boredom.
Or at least, that was how Lu Xingliang rationalized it to himself.
Seeing those passive-aggressive comments, he couldn’t help frowning slightly.
While he knew Qi Xiao’s public reputation had never been great, targeting a beginner in a game with this much malice felt excessively hostile.
Because Shen Ye’s party only had three people and the game required a four-person squad, they were matched with a random teammate. That person likely didn’t know Shen Ye was a streamer. After playing for a bit and realizing Qi Xiao’s gameplay was atrocious, he couldn’t hold back and started flaming him directly over voice chat:
“Player Three, what on earth are you doing? I thought you were a bot! If you don’t know how to play, then don’t play, ok?”
Player Three was none other than Qi Xiao.
Hearing his voice, the stream chat that had just calmed down instantly flared up again.
“I feel embarrassed for Qi Xiao even through the screen.”
“Hot-tempered bro, I’m here for it!”
“Qi Xiao should just stop coming out to embarrass himself and quietly be a pretty face.”
“Why isn’t Qi Xiao turning on his mic to talk? Is he afraid of getting flamed to death by his teammate?”
Hearing the random teammate’s words, Shen Ye felt quite awkward as well. After all, he was the one who had invited Qi Xiao in the first place, only for his guest to end up taking the heat.
He was just about to turn on his mic to step in when Qi Xiao suddenly sent a text message in the team chat:
[XiaoXiaoIsNotTalking]: I’m sorry, Brother, it’s my first time playing.
Seeing this message, the hot-tempered teammate suddenly fell completely silent.
About half a minute passed.
“It’s fine.”
Another dozen seconds ticked by.
“If you don’t know how to play, just follow behind me.”
[XiaoXiaoIsNotTalking]: Okay, thank you, Brother!
The stream chat went absolutely wild:
“????????????”
“HOLY CRAP, WHAT KIND OF CRAZY PLOT TWIST IS THIS?!”
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHA Qi Xiao is way too good at this!”
“Why does Qi Xiao call people ‘Brother’ with such practiced ease HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
“So THIS is the reason why I can never get carried by a pro in games? Tough girl shedding tears right now.”
Meanwhile, Lu Xingliang—who had been quietly lurking the entire time—stared at the glaringly obvious word “Brother” on the screen, his mind involuntarily drifting back to a certain memory from not long ago.
His face turned instantly black.