Xu Qing turned around, confirming that the remark Pei Shiyu made behind him was indeed directed at him.
Xu Qing lifted his eyes to look at the “big cool guy” blocking his path. His first reaction was: Oh, we meet again. His second reaction was: Is he looking for a fight?
Xu Qing flashed a smile, revealing a small dimple, looking obedient yet provocative: “And so?”
Pei Shiyu’s gaze turned cold. He was just about to speak when he heard Boss Cai’s enthusiastic voice from behind him: “Eating? How many?”
Xu Qing waved the job posting in his hand: “Not eating. I’m here for the job.”
Wan Yi and Wan Li, who had followed Pei Shiyu downstairs like two little tails the moment he went down to eat, watched as he spoke to Xu Qing.
Seeing Xu Qing holding the job advertisement, Wan Yi remarked: “I didn’t expect someone to get hired this quickly. This recruitment poster hasn’t even been up longer than it took to print it.”
Wan Li looked puzzled: “How could someone wearing limited-edition designer clothes from head to toe come to a small eatery to apply for a job?”
Wan Yi nodded: “He really does look like a young master from a wealthy family. He looks quite obedient, too. Maybe he is just out here experiencing real life.”
Obedient? Where is he obedient?
Pei Shiyu lifted his eyes, scanning the young man currently chatting with Boss Cai. If Boss Cai had not walked over just now, Xu Qing’s expression was clearly one of provocation.
Yesterday, he had treated Pei Shiyu like a monkey in a zoo, and he had even touched his precious car. It was the one he cherished so much, the one he meticulously maintained, carefully selected every component for, and assembled by hand himself. He cared for and pampered that car more than he would a wife, though he did not have one.
But yesterday, just like that, without even a greeting, Xu Qing had touched it.
At the thought of this, Pei Shiyu’s grip on his chopsticks tightened.
About ten minutes later, Boss Cai finished talking with Xu Qing.
Pei Shiyu saw, out of the corner of his eye, that the Wan brothers, who had been droning on in his ears about some limited-edition water-blue jeans, had stopped beside him. He regretted choosing the seat at the very edge.
Pei Shiyu lifted his head, expressionless.
Xu Qing stood in front of him against the light, smiling brilliantly, exposing a pair of small canine teeth. He was so radiant that Pei Shiyu felt inexplicably irritated.
Pei Shiyu frowned imperceptibly and was about to speak when he heard Xu Qing say:
“That is 79 in total. Cash or Alipay?”
“That guy really got hired. I bet this little young master will not last even a month before he quits voluntarily.” Back upstairs, having finished a match, Wan Yi was still rambling on.
Pei Shiyu set his phone down, the sound a bit loud.
Wan Yi looked over: “Captain, what is wrong?”
Pei Shiyu: “If you are that envious, I can go tell Boss Cai.”
Wan Yi did not catch on and replied instinctively: “Tell him what?”
Pei Shiyu said with a cold face: “You go be Boss Cai’s assistant, and let him come up here to play games.”
Realizing what Pei Shiyu meant, Wan Yi let out a howl and began to fake cry.
“Captain! You cannot abandon me! Without me, who will shield you from the wind and rain in the game, and who will let you have the Red Buff?”
Unable to bear watching his own brother make such a fool of himself, Wan Li could not help but retort: “If you, a marksman, dared to shield the jungler, would you not just be hiding in the back for remote observation every single time?”
Wan Yi stiffened his neck, stubborn: “What do you know? I do it for the team!”
Wan Li: “Then next time you play Ahri, do not let me see you recall your orb right into the enemy’s face.”
Wan Yi looked at Wan Li’s face, which looked remarkably like his own, and roared in grief: “How can a mouth that is 36 degrees Celsius say such cold words to your own brother?”
Pei Shiyu let out a breath and interrupted the brothers’ dispute; otherwise, they could argue until the end of time.
“Get ready. Prepare for the semi-finals. After the semi-finals, the schedule will move to offline events.”
Wan Li stopped arguing with Wan Yi and instead thought about the situation of their “Dawn” team: “Captain, should we not look for a substitute?”
Pei Shiyu nodded, indicating he understood. It was indeed time to find a substitute. The idea of truly leading the team into professional gaming was something he should tell the other two online teammates after the city semi-finals. It would make arranging future plans easier.
Normal clubs usually had two or three substitutes sitting on the sidelines to handle emergencies during matches. Although they were not professional players yet, as it was just a city tournament, they should at least have one substitute.
“This person ideally should be able to play the Top Lane and the Support role,” Wan Yi counted on his fingers: “If he could play Mid, Jungle, and Marksman, that would be the best.”
Wan Li was speechless: “Why do you not just dream of a top-tier pro player coming to be your substitute?”
If there really were someone who could play all five roles so well that they could replace a professional, why would they not go to a big club instead of coming here, and why would they willingly be a substitute?
Pei Shiyu began letting Wan Yi’s words go in one ear and Wan Li’s out the other.
As Pei Shiyu pondered, his slender fingers subconsciously rested on his phone, scrolling through the screen aimlessly. His finger suddenly touched an interface. It was the last match he played before the server merge.
It was during the time of climbing the top-tier rankings. The players “Deep Affection Never Betrays” and “Willing to be the Green Leaf” were all grinding ranks at the start. Only the opposing jungler, “Red Hair,” had an offline avatar.
Pei Shiyu’s thoughts drifted. This “Red Hair” had played every role except Support. Among the current top ten on the leaderboard, he was the only player who had played all four positions and ranked in all of them.
This was why all the big clubs wanted to fight over “Red Hair.” A person like this, let alone a casual player, was a rare find even among the major clubs; someone who could master all four positions was impossible to come by.
To a certain extent, “Red Hair” was even more sought after than Pei Shiyu, the player known as “Jingzhe.” He was also more mysterious. At least “Jingzhe” now had a team tag attached to his profile. As long as he kept playing, the city tournament, the national tournament, and the professional league would follow, and “Jingzhe’s” identity would be revealed sooner or later.
But “Red Hair” was different. This guy really seemed like a solo queue master. His online time was far less than theirs, and every time he was online, it seemed like he was just finishing some mission.
Seeing Pei Shiyu staring at “Red Hair’s” profile in a daze, Wan Yi leaned in cheekily: “Captain, no way?”
Pei Shiyu looked at Wan Yi, deliberating, and did not speak. He did not understand the meaning behind Wan Yi’s cheeky expression, which made his fists itch.
Seeing that Pei Shiyu seemed to be in a decent mood, Wan Yi continued, impishly: “Captain, are you serious? Did you actually fall in love?”
A look of confusion and bewilderment, rarely seen on Pei Shiyu’s perpetually cold face, appeared.
“What?”
Wan Yi used the same speed he used to frantically escape when caught by five enemies in-game to flick a post with thousands of replies over to Pei Shiyu.
Pei Shiyu’s slender fingers clicked on the post before his brain could react. What caught his eyes was a title with an exclamation mark:
“The Affairs of Red Hair & Jingzhe, the Kings Who Never Meet! Fated Love!!!”
Pei Shiyu paused for a few seconds when he saw the title, thinking he had played games for too long and his language skills had declined, as if he could not recognize these words.
After confirming he had not misread it, Pei Shiyu continued reading the post.
In the post, it counted the “secret love” history between “Red Hair” and “Jingzhe,” a history even Pei Shiyu himself did not know about.
In the post, even though “Red Hair” and “Jingzhe” were not even in the same server area and had not played a single match together, the author called it a “sympathetic resonance between kings who never meet.”
Otherwise, how could one log into the game at 15:21 on May 1st, and the other log into WeChat at 18:22 on the same day? See that? This is love!
Pei Shiyu’s eyebrows furrowed: Huh?
Did that have any necessary connection?
The post also pointed out: “Jingzhe” used “LAN” to get 11 kills the day before, and Red Hair used “LAN” to get 12 kills the next day.
What is this called? What you have, I must have too! Even though we are in different times and spaces, we feel the same bloody frequency on the same hero.
Pei Shiyu could not help but subconsciously tap the screen with his fingertip repeatedly. Did they not both play “LAN” at that time simply because the game developers had buffed “LAN’s” stats, making it easier to win?
After reading for a while, Pei Shiyu felt like his brain had been flattened by this post.
He felt the bizarre magic of various subjects in this thread—math, literature, physics, chemistry. Every angle you could and could not imagine was being used to ship their pairing.
Where did all these overachievers come from?
“Finished reading?”
Watching Pei Shiyu put his phone down, Wan Yi could not help but ask: “How do you feel?”
Pei Shiyu took a breath, his hand rose and fell, his mouth opened and closed, finally pressing into a straight line without saying a word.
He had no words. He was deeply traumatized.
A few days later, the foot traffic at the restaurant downstairs increased significantly.
Wan Li listened to the sounds coming from below: “How did 50-year-old Boss Cai’s culinary skills suddenly improve? Or did he join some platform to do a coupon promotion?”
Otherwise, why were there suddenly so many more people?
Downstairs, Boss Cai wiped his dark-red, sweaty forehead with his sleeve, looking at Xu Qing, who was busy working in the shop. His smile was exceptionally enthusiastic: “Hiring him was my greatest skill.”
Before this, while his shop had a good reputation in Benthung City, business was just “okay.” Most customers were older.
But in the last few days, there were clearly many more young people; it was becoming a small influencer hotspot.
Naturally, he had not done any promotional activities. The only variable was his new employee, Xu Qing.
Xu Qing had a smiling face. It seemed like every time you saw him, he had a smile on his face. He was handsome and smiled obediently. Every time someone came to eat, from a six-year-old girl to a sixty-year-old auntie, they all blushed uncontrollably when talking to him.
Just then, a 5 or 6-year-old boy was howling, making everyone nervous, and his mother was at a loss.
Xu Qing walked over and crouched down: “Little brother, how about I show you a magic trick?”
Xu Qing formed his hand into a fist, placed it in front of the boy’s face, then opened it. A cute candy with a cartoon pattern sat on his palm.
The boy’s crying stopped, attracted by the candy.
Xu Qing, like a magician, waved the candy in front of the child.
“How about we trade the candy for a smile?”
“Okay…” The boy hiccuped, tears still on his face, but he forced a smile, showing a row of neat little teeth, and reached out to grab the candy.
Xu Qing put the candy in the boy’s hand and wiped the tears from his face with a tissue.
The boy’s mother thanked Xu Qing gratefully.
Just then, the restaurant’s landline rang. Xu Qing went to the counter to answer: “Hello…”
Before Xu Qing could finish, the person on the other end spoke with intense familiarity: “Boss Cai, the usual, one order.”
Then came the beeping of the line going dead.
Xu Qing looked at Boss Cai, who was tossing a giant iron wok in the kitchen: “What is ‘the usual’?”
Boss Cai tossed the wok passionately and replied familiarly: “Those kids upstairs. When I am done, just take it up to them.”
Xu Qing carried several bags of hot food and headed upstairs.
In the days he had been working at the restaurant, he could always hear the noise from upstairs. It was noisy even down in the eatery; you just could not hear specifically what they were arguing about.
Well, it was good that the first floor was a restaurant and the building was only two stories high. Do not let the big brother criticize the second brother for being noisy.
Xu Qing recalled the “big cool guy” and his two henchmen assistants. He did not know why, but the first time they saw him downstairs, they were already full of fire.
Could it be that they are still holding a grudge because I touched his car yesterday?
Xu Qing counted the steps one by one. Although he knew it was impossible, he could not help but fantasize: if those guys were filming some crime thriller, they would make pretty good villains.
Especially that big cool guy; playing a mastermind murderer or some villainous boss would actually be quite fitting.
Xu Qing amused himself with his own daydreams. Just then, the door in front of him suddenly opened.
Xu Qing looked up at the person standing in front of him, backlit by the light.
The smile that Xu Qing had not managed to retract yet stayed on his face: Good guy, is the villainous boss right in front of me?