Chapter 7 Star If there really is any project, there’s a hotel next door.
Seeing the situation was wrong, Li Qingming immediately spoke up, reaching out a hand in a blocking posture. “Classmate, don’t go! Let me say a word!”
The hand Si Yan used to carry his bag indeed paused. He raised his eyes leisurely, his gaze falling onto his face, ready to hear what words he had to say.
“I wonder if you’re interested… in the Wuxian Weidu Gaoxiao Bei!”
Before Li Qingming could even finish his sentence, the person immediately picked up his bag to leave. Afraid he wouldn’t hear, Li Qingming practically shouted the last half of the sentence.
He wasn’t interested, and his actions should have already expressed that very clearly. Yet Li Qingming acted as if he couldn’t read the room, continuing to chase after Si Yan and recommending himself: “Classmate, just take a look, our team has great prospects, classmate take a look, classmate take a look, classmate take a look…”
Annoyed beyond endurance, Si Yan frowned and walked to the sweet and sour fish window. “Auntie, is my food made yet? Can I change it to takeout?”
The cafeteria auntie looked a bit troubled, pushing the already plated sweet and sour fish forward. “Ah, this classmate, your food is already ready.”
“Alright, thank you.” Si Yan turned his head and shot Li Qingming a cold glare. He picked up his food and casually found a seat to sit down.
Because he knew that no matter where he was, Li Qingming would definitely follow, rather than continue to be pestered by him, it was better to finish eating early and leave early.
Having been glared at by him, Li Qingming wasn’t afraid either, just giving a cheeky laugh.
He had also found out that in order to eat the sweet and sour fish with the best texture, Si Yan always dined in.
Carrying his own portion of sweet and sour fish, he sat down opposite Si Yan. He placed the printed team members’ resumes in front of Si Yan, and regardless of whether he looked or listened, unleashed a torrent of explanations: “Classmate, three players on our team have reached the top of the leaderboards, one… and another… myself included… and the last one is my roommate Mu Jiu. Although he hasn’t reached the top of the leaderboards, his strength is truly exceptionally high, really, you’ll know once you play a match with him.”
Si Yan originally turned a deaf ear to the clamor of the person opposite him. Anyway, no matter how beautifully he spun it, he had no interest in playing in the Gaoxiao Bei. He merely felt that choosing to come eat sweet and sour fish today was a mistake.
Until he heard Mu Jiu’s name, the speed at which his chopsticks picked up fish meat noticeably paused, and he slowly raised his head.
Li Qingming had been talking for so long, talking until his mouth was dry and his tongue was parched, and he finally caught his direct gaze.
“Mu Jiu?” Si Yan put down his chopsticks and repeated the question.
Li Qingming froze, not understanding the reason, but still confirmed: “Yeah, Mu Jiu.”
Then he saw the person opposite him, who had been expressionless the whole time, pull out the page of documents with Mu Jiu’s information. Skimming ten lines at a glance, he let out a cold laugh.
It scared Li Qingming into shivering all over. So there really were people whose smiles looked like murder.
Returning the documents to Li Qingming, he continued to say with a cold smile: “Want to invite me? Sure, have Mu Jiu come invite me personally.”
Si Yan put down his chopsticks, pulled out a sticky note from his bag, wrote something down, and directly slapped it onto Li Qingming’s chest. Then he picked up his tray, put it at the clearing station, grabbed his bag, and left the cafeteria. Leaving Li Qingming completely baffled, he looked down, picked off the sticky note, and glanced at it. Written on it was a dorm room number. He scratched his head in confusion.
Wait, why did he suddenly relent?
After thinking for a while, he suddenly realized—it must be his silver tongue that moved a cold and unfeeling Great Demon King.
Li Qingming sprinted back to report the good news, along the way recounting his tragic experience of eating sweet and sour fish for a week straight. Hearing this, Mu Jiu silently put down the pen in his hand, looking innocent but genuinely confused as he asked: “So… why didn’t you eat dishes from the other windows in San Shitang?”
Even if he absolutely had to keep an eye on the sweet and sour fish window, there were so many other dishes in San Shitang. It was bound to be much easier than eating sweet and sour fish for a week straight.
The originally excited Li Qingming seemed to suddenly crack apart because of Mu Jiu’s words.
Right! Why didn’t he think of that! He was only thinking about not letting that Si Yan slip away.
Subsequently, laughter erupted in the dorm room. It was simply asking for trouble; eating bitterness when there was no bitterness to eat.
Li Qingming stiffened his neck and explained: “That was to let him see my sincerity, and didn’t he agree because of it?”
“To be accurate, he hasn’t agreed yet,” his roommate replied.
Li Qingming also remembered that Si Yan said Mu Jiu had to personally go invite him. He cast a pitiful look over, and Mu Jiu didn’t even hold out for a second before agreeing.
Anyway, it was just making a trip himself, which was better than Li Qingming eating sweet and sour fish for a week straight.
Early the next morning, Mu Jiu took the sticky note Li Qingming gave him. He still wasn’t too familiar with the campus, so he used the navigation on his phone to find the dorm building written on it. Going up, he double-checked the room number.
“Building 3, 305…”
After confirming it was correct, he knocked gently on the door. There was no response from inside.
Mu Jiu waited for a while and knocked on the door again.
On an early weekend morning, the crisp knocking sound was extremely abrupt. Mu Jiu pondered if he had come too early and the person wasn’t up yet. He figured he’d knock one last time, and if no one opened, he’d wait until the afternoon to come back again.
Just as he raised his hand and before it even landed on the door, the door opened from the inside.
The person who opened the door had messy, bedhead hair piled on top of his head, his brows furrowed tightly, and his eyes couldn’t even fully open. One could feel the heavy resentment radiating from his body; he wanted to kill someone.
Seeing clearly that the person who came was Mu Jiu, Si Yan’s complexion didn’t improve much. He pulled the door open, signaled Mu Jiu to come in, and then turned his head to dive into the bathroom to wash up.
Listening to the clattering sounds coming from the bathroom, as if he was using things to vent his anger, Mu Jiu realized he had huge morning rage. Guessing that he had indeed come too early, and since they were the ones asking a favor, he waited outside as quiet as a chicken.
“No way, there are actually internet-addicted youths who go to bed early and wake up early? Are you sick in the head!” Si Yan could feel that he had come early, but he didn’t expect that when he clicked open his phone, he found it was only 8 AM. Disbelieving, he roared outwards while squeezing toothpaste.
He hadn’t woken up this early since he graduated from high school.
Even if it was indeed him who told Mu Jiu to come, and indeed him who didn’t set a time, and Mu Jiu indeed had no other way to contact him, none of these were excuses for disturbing his sweet dreams.
Mu Jiu laughed awkwardly. He wasn’t exactly sleeping early and waking early, but being sick in the head was true.
Ever since that incident three years ago, he found it very difficult to fall asleep, and his sleep was very light. Last night, the few of them had been four-queueing until past 3 AM, yet he woke up with a start from a dream at 7 AM, and couldn’t fall back asleep with his eyes wide open afterwards.
He wasn’t someone who liked to force himself. If he couldn’t sleep, he just wouldn’t. After getting up and eating breakfast, since he was idle anyway, he followed the address Si Yan gave and came looking for him.
After getting dressed neatly, Si Yan came out of the bathroom with a towel draped over his head, water still dripping down his strands of hair. He casually pulled out his roommate’s chair and sat opposite Mu Jiu.
Their major was assigned to double rooms. His roommate had gone out for an internship, leaving only him living there.
As Si Yan dried his hair, his undisguised gaze of disgust sized Mu Jiu up and down. The corners of his mouth curled into a malicious smile. “Nine is this washed up now? Reduced to playing matches of this level?”
He was a major streamer for Wuxian Weidu, and had previously been invited over for match commentary, so he was considered half an insider. Not only had he met Mu Jiu and knew what he looked like, but he also coincidentally remembered his real name.
But it wasn’t exactly a coincidence either; at that time, such a dazzling, star-like figure didn’t require any special attention to leave a deep impression.
Mu Jiu froze for a moment, not expecting Si Yan to recognize him, but thinking about it, it felt reasonable.
It was just that among those who knew his previous identity, he was the first who didn’t bring up the past matter of his forfeit.
Having grown accustomed to being scolded from one direction, a new approach suddenly arriving made Mu Jiu feel somewhat intrigued. He blinked twice, showing completely no signs of anger, and gave an “Mm.”
Si Yan wanted to enrage him, but he was still too well-mannered.
“What’s ‘mm’ supposed to mean? I called you here to humiliate you, I never intended to play any house-playing games with you. If you get it, hurry up and roll away,” Seeing Mu Jiu’s tepid reaction, like a punch landing on cotton, Si Yan’s brows furrowed even tighter.
Mu Jiu simply didn’t care about anything. Watching his roommates and teammates running around working hard for him, he probably felt very complacent.
That was why he didn’t reject Li Qingming directly, but instead chose to call Mu Jiu over.
“It’s not playing around. I haven’t played a tournament in three years. I want to return to being a pro, I want to return to the arena. I need this Gaoxiao Bei championship. Inviting you is serious, I hope you’ll reconsider,” Mu Jiu looked up at him, his gaze extremely sincere. Coupled with his appearance, he was naturally very deceptive.
“If you had just slammed the door and left, I might have respected you for having some backbone,” Si Yan laughed coldly, leaning lazily against the back of his chair. “You already said you haven’t played a tournament in three years—oh wait, maybe you haven’t even played the game itself. What makes you think I’d believe you guys can win the championship, instead of just tossing and turning in vain with you all?”
The streaming clips from the day he duo-queued with Bleach were already spreading everywhere on the internet. A player who couldn’t even fully recognize all the characters saying he wanted to win the championship… he didn’t know whether he should call him courageously commendable or thick-skinned and shameless.
He had looked at the teams that invited him last year; their lineups weren’t built for the championship at all, so he couldn’t be bothered to entertain them.
He never did things that weren’t worth it.
As for their team… Si Yan quietly waited to see what kind of explanation Mu Jiu could give him.
Mu Jiu lightly pursed his lips and said, “How about this. There are three days until the registration deadline. In these three days, I will grind the ‘juice’ account into the top 100 on the leaderboards. Will that prove I won’t be the team’s weak link?”
Hearing this, Si Yan raised an eyebrow.
He remembered the documents Li Qingming showed him yesterday. Mu Jiu’s ‘juice’ account was currently sitting around the top 5% of the entire server. To break into the top 100, he would have to play without sleep or rest for three days, and what kind of terrifying scoring rate would he need to maintain? Even if he looked for a booster, no one would take such a life-risking order.
If he insisted on setting an impossible goal for himself as an explanation to his other three teammates, then he would grant his wish.
Si Yan nodded, his smile tinged with mockery, “Sure. As long as you can hit it, I’ll fill out the registration form immediately.”
At the same time, he walked to the dorm door and opened it, seeing the guest out.
Having received his affirmative answer, Mu Jiu didn’t speak any further nonsense and left cleanly.
After exiting the dorm building, he went straight to the internet cafe at the school gate, slapping his money and ID card together onto the front desk counter. “Boss, open a private room. Three days.”
The internet cafe boss took his ID card and looked at it carefully. After confirming it was correct, he asked again: “Three days?”
“Yes.”
Seeing that he didn’t look like he was joking, the boss handed him a card with the machine’s account number and password written on it, emphasizing earnestly: “Our private rooms all have security cameras, you know. If there really is any project, there’s a hotel next door.” There were always some little couples who liked seeking thrills.
“…”
Mu Jiu stiffened as he took the card. His complexion changed again and again, and finally, he answered weakly: “Don’t worry, Boss.”
Translator’s Notes:
- Wangba (網吧): Internet Cafe.
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