Chapter 10 – “I can agree to any condition.”
Qi Qiao took the ointment and went into his room. He had just applied one layer when his phone started ringing.
As expected, the caller was Wink.
“Hello? Xiao GG?”
Qi Qiao blew lightly on his index finger, feeling a slight coolness.
“Talk properly, or I’m hanging up.”
Wink immediately responded, “Hey, wait, wait, wait—Ghost, don’t hang up. I’m calling because I wanted to ask you something…”
Qi Qiao tightened the cap of the ointment.
“You’ve got five minutes.”
Getting permission, the person on the other end quickly spoke up.
“So… what’s going on between you and Wang Xiang from our team?”
Qi Qiao raised an eyebrow in confusion.
“Wang Xiang?”
“Our jungler. The one you completely destroyed today.”
“Oh.” Qi Qiao lowered his gaze. “There’s nothing going on between me and him.”
“No, seriously—if there’s nothing going on, why were you targeting him so hard today?” Wink continued. “Anyone who didn’t know better would think you two had some blood feud or something.”
Qi Qiao fell back onto the bed and absentmindedly raised his hand toward the light, watching the glow spill through the gaps between his fingers.
“No blood feud. I just don’t like him.”
A couple of clicking sounds came from the other end of the line.
“You don’t like him, huh? Then why’d you send that to him on WeChat?”
Qi Qiao’s fingers suddenly stiffened.
“What WeChat message?”
Wink replied, “That screenshot of the match record, and…”
Wink didn’t continue after and, but the meaningful tone at the end of his sentence was already enough to make Qi Qiao want to hang up and run.
Qi Qiao turned over and sat up, silent for a few seconds.
“How did you see it?”
“Wasn’t I sitting next to him? I stood up and saw it,” Wink explained.
Qi Qiao pressed his lips together.
“Then… the surveillance cameras could’ve seen it too?”
Wink thought for a moment.
“Probably, yeah. If the footage is high-definition.”
Qi Qiao stopped talking.
Noticing the silence on the other end, Wink laughed.
“Come on, don’t worry. No one’s probably going to check the surveillance footage. At least our captain won’t.”
The moment he heard the words our captain, Qi Qiao’s hand holding the phone subconsciously stiffened again.
Wink kept talking.
“But honestly, I’m curious. Aren’t you supposed to be our captain’s anti-fan? So why were you defending him? Could this be the legendary the deeper the love, the deeper the hate—”
“That’s enough.” Qi Qiao cut him off, unable to listen anymore. “First of all, I’m not his anti-fan. Second, I wasn’t defending him. I was just stating an objective fact.”
Wink’s tone turned teasing.
“Oh… just stating an objective fact again, huh?”
“What else would it be?” Qi Qiao said helplessly.
“Fair point. I guess you really had no reason to defend Devil.” At this point, Wink sounded confused. “Wait, that’s weird… Did Wang Xiang say something about our captain?”
Qi Qiao fell silent for a moment.
There was absolutely no way he could tell Wink about running into Wang Xiang in the restroom.
Otherwise…
Just think about it—what kind of normal person sees injustice, adds the other person on WeChat, spends two entire matches targeting them to death, and then sends a mocking message right to their face afterward?
And he says it was for the sake of “objective facts.”
Not even a dog would believe that.
Qi Qiao spoke calmly.
“It’s nothing. He barked a few times before, so I taught him a lesson.”
“Huh? You knew each other before?” Wink raised an eyebrow.
Qi Qiao lied without changing expression.
“Well, we’ve added each other on WeChat, so obviously we know each other.”
…
“I don’t know him.” Wang Xiang kept shaking his head. “I seriously didn’t know him before this…”
Jiang Jiang raised an eyebrow.
“You don’t know him? Then how do you have Ghost’s WeChat?”
Snow had just started falling outside, and the heating in the living room had been turned up a little too high.
Ink opened a bottle of honeysuckle herbal drink and handed it to Jiang Jiang.
“Drink some before you keep talking. You stayed up so late yesterday and ordered barbecue. Be careful, or your tonsils are going to get inflamed.”
The moment Jiang Jiang saw the honeysuckle drink, his brows immediately furrowed, but he still took a symbolic sip before continuing the interrogation.
“Don’t try to dodge the question. I saw it myself—Ghost sent you a WeChat message. You’d better confess honestly.”
Jiang Jiang had originally been sitting fairly close to Faith’s side. After the match ended, he had been watching Wang Xiang and saw him pull out his phone. There was a green notification bubble on the screen.
Jiang Jiang hadn’t seen exactly what the message said, but judging from Wang Xiang’s furious expression, it definitely had something to do with Ghost.
“I…” Wang Xiang hesitated. “Well… he added me in the restroom today.”
Pei Ming was half-reclined on the sofa. He lazily lifted his eyelids.
“The restroom?”
Jiang Jiang had just taken another sip of honeysuckle drink and nearly choked.
Rest.
Room.
He really could not handle hearing those three words right now.
“Wait, why is this somehow connected to the restroom again?” Jiang Jiang said seriously, trying very hard to erase the image of Ghost running out with red eyes from his mind.
Wang Xiang looked uncomfortable.
“Uh… when I went to the restroom today, I said a couple of things…”
Jiang Jiang stared at him.
“Said what exactly?”
Wang Xiang stared at his own feet and stammered,
“I said a couple things about Monster.”
Although Ink hadn’t gone with them that afternoon, Jiang Jiang had talked nonstop after coming back, so he already knew roughly what had happened.
Hearing that, Ink said, “Looks like Ghost is pretty deeply attached to Monster.”
Jiang Jiang looked puzzled.
“No way. I’ve watched every single one of Little Green Hair’s streams, and I’m pretty sure he barely ever mentioned Monster.”
Wang Xiang hesitated.
“Maybe… he just doesn’t say it out loud.”
“So basically, because you trash-talked Monster, Ghost started targeting you?” Jiang Jiang nodded thoughtfully. “I guess that makes sense… but for him to get that angry—”
“The food delivery’s here. Go grab it.”
Pei Ming suddenly spoke.
“Huh… delivery?” Jiang Jiang looked confused. “We didn’t order delivery. Isn’t Auntie cooking at the base today?”
Pei Ming said, “I’m treating you guys to some milk tea.”
Ink crossed his arms and gave Pei Ming a thoughtful look.
“Alright. Then I’ll go downstairs with him to pick it up.”
“Hey, wait, I’m not done asking questions yet.” Jiang Jiang was about to continue, but Ink had already dragged him downstairs.
“What are you doing? I still haven’t figured out some suspicious details…” Jiang Jiang complained unhappily as they headed down.
Walking beside him, Ink chuckled.
“Didn’t you notice? Captain has something he wants to ask that youth training team jungler in private.”
“Huh?” Jiang Jiang looked confused. “What could Captain possibly need to ask privately? Can’t he just say it in front of us?”
Ink narrowed his eyes.
“Hmm… probably something personal.”
…
While Jiang Jiang and Ink had been there earlier, Wang Xiang had still felt like he could handle the situation.
But now, being alone in the same room with Pei Ming…
“Uh… Captain, if there’s nothing else, I’ll get going too,” Wang Xiang said hesitantly.
Pei Ming glanced at him, pushed himself up from the back of the sofa, and pointed toward the armchair in front of him.
“Sit.”
“Ah… ah?” Wang Xiang’s face turned pale, but he didn’t dare disobey Pei Ming. He obediently sat down where indicated.
“Is… is there something else, Captain?”
Pei Ming poured a glass of water and placed it in front of him.
“Th-thank you, Captain.” Wang Xiang accepted it, stammering slightly.
Pei Ming looked at him, his gaze calm.
“It’s just the two of us now. You can tell the truth.”
Wang Xiang’s hand trembled, and water spilled over the rim of the glass.
Even though Pei Ming was only looking at him, without saying anything else—
That overwhelming pressure made Wang Xiang feel as if, if he didn’t start telling the truth right now, he might suffocate in the next second.
“What we talk about today will stay between the two of us,” Pei Ming added. “No matter what you say.”
Wang Xiang tightened his grip around the glass and fell silent for two seconds.
There was no benefit in lying to Devil.
And if he still refused to tell the truth today, he might as well forget about staying with Faith in the future.
“He… he wasn’t targeting me because of Monster.”
Pei Ming nodded.
“Then what was it because of?”
Wang Xiang looked up at Pei Ming, gritted his teeth, and finally said,
“Actually… what I talked about in the restroom today wasn’t Monster.”
“It was… it was you, Captain.”
To Wang Xiang’s surprise, Pei Ming didn’t look shocked at all.
His expression remained unchanged as he simply asked,
“Then what did he send you afterward?”
Seeing that Pei Ming didn’t seem especially angry, Wang Xiang decided he might as well come clean all the way.
He pulled out his phone, opened the chat history with Ghost, and handed it over.
“Captain… this is all he sent me.”
The message read:
[Ghost] : With skills like yours…
[Ghost] : You think you’re worthy of comparing yourself to Devil?
Seeing Pei Ming’s gaze linger on those two messages, Wang Xiang cautiously said,
“Captain… even though people online all say Ghost is your anti-fan, I feel like he actually… kind of…”
Pei Ming withdrew his gaze and nodded.
“I understand.”
Wang Xiang continued,
“Then, Captain… about what happened today—”
“It stays between the two of us. You can leave now,” Pei Ming said.
Feeling as though he had been granted a pardon, Wang Xiang was just about to make a quick escape when Pei Ming spoke again from behind him.
“Wait.”
Wang Xiang turned around.
“What is it, Captain?”
Pei Ming said, “Go back and send me Ghost’s WeChat ID.”
Wang Xiang froze for a moment, then nodded.
“Ah, okay. I’ll do it right away.”
And by right away, he really meant right away.
He had barely made it downstairs when Pei Ming’s phone buzzed with a new message.
Opening WeChat, he saw a string of characters: ggdsr206
Pei Ming stared at the ID, and a faint smile curved at the corner of his lips.
Even though he had run away from home…
he had still left behind plenty of clues.
It was just that Pei Ming had never thought to look at it from that angle before.
Pei Ming copied the WeChat ID into the search bar. He stared at the Add Friend button in silence for a moment, but in the end, he didn’t send the request.
Forget it.
He was the one who had driven the little wolf cub away.
If he wanted him to come back, he’d have to coax him first.
…
The Monster main roster had the same break schedule as Faith, with training set to resume in the next day or two.
So after finishing today’s scrim against the academy team, they still had time to head back and rest.
The moment Bang returned to his room, he immediately called Pei Ming.
The phone rang several times before the other side finally picked up.
Bang spoke first.
“Hey? Man, I delivered the stuff for you.”
From the other end came Pei Ming’s simple reply.
“Thanks.”
“But I’ve got a question.” Bang got straight to the point. “How did you notice Ghost got burned? I’m his captain, and even I didn’t notice something like that.”
Pei Ming’s calm voice came through the phone.
“Then next time, pay closer attention and you’ll notice.”
Bang clicked his tongue.
“Don’t dodge the question. Besides, the mark wasn’t even that obvious. I was standing right in front of him, and I only noticed after staring for a while. You weren’t even in close contact with him.”
Pei Ming replied lazily,
“Your eyesight’s bad. Practice more.”
Bang was so irritated he nearly hung up on the spot.
But remembering the most important thing still hadn’t been asked, he forced himself to endure it.
“Right, the important question.” Bang said directly. “You’re taking such good care of Ghost… are you trying to follow through on that exchange agreement?”
As two of the oldest powerhouse teams in the industry, Faith and Monster were constantly competing for the title of number one in China’s competitive scene.
However, the owners of both organizations had been close friends for years.
So despite the fierce rivalry between the two teams, it had never damaged their relationship.
They were, in every sense of the word, truly brother teams.
The youth training player exchange agreement was established between the two teams two years ago.
The reason was simple: Each batch of youth training players had their own strengths., but the main roster teams didn’t always need talent for certain positions. As a result, it was common for newly signed players to spend an entire season sitting on the bench, doing nothing more than watching over the water cooler.
But honestly—
How many professional esports players would willingly waste the most valuable golden years of their career sitting on the substitute bench, only to watch their future go up in flames?
So, considering both human nature and mutual benefit, the two organizations came up with this agreement.
Seeing that Pei Ming wasn’t saying anything, Bang spoke again.
“So… what do you think?”
The other end of the line remained silent.
Just when Bang thought Pei Ming was about to decisively hang up and end the call—
A calm voice finally came through.
“If he’s willing to come over…”
Pei Ming spoke lightly.
“I can agree to any condition.”
Author’s Note:
Anyone want to try decoding ggdsr206? hhh (lol)