Chapter 16 – “Can you forgive me, hmm?”
The yin-yang hotpot continued bubbling and boiling in the air, while the noise and chatter around them rose and fell nonstop.
Yet Qi Qiao sat there staring blankly at the spicy red broth on one side of the pot.
It wasn’t even in front of him, and somehow it still stung his eyes.
The voice message had been so shocking that Wink hadn’t noticed the change in Qi Qiao’s expression.
He sat there with his mouth slightly open, frozen for quite a while before finally snapping out of it.
Then he cautiously asked,
“Ahem… Ghost, you and Devil… did you two know each other before?”
Only then did Qi Qiao come back to himself and look away.
“No.”
Wink frowned in confusion.
“No, wait. If you two don’t know each other, then what exactly did he mean by sending that voice message?”
Qi Qiao fished a piece of fish out of the pot and said casually,
“Oh. Probably because of what happened yesterday.”
“Yesterday?” Wink thought for a moment. “You mean when you bullied our jungler yesterday?”
Qi Qiao nodded.
Wink sucked in a breath.
“When exactly did Devil even talk to you?”
“When I went to the restroom. Ran into him there.”
Qi Qiao paused, then looked up at him.
“He said he’d make me regret it.”
After saying that, Qi Qiao lowered his head again and continued eating from his bowl.
As Wink tried to process all that information, he studied Qi Qiao’s completely expressionless face.
Everything looked normal.
But somehow, because it looked too normal, it felt off.
No matter how he looked at it, something about it felt strange.
Still, since Qi Qiao clearly didn’t want to say more, Wink didn’t press further.
The conversation between them gradually returned to normal, drifting toward ordinary topics like training and daily life.
Qi Qiao drank two more sips of beer, and Wink insisted on personally driving him back.
Wink was also a local from Shanghai and had a car registered within the city, so driving was faster than calling a cab.
Because of that, they arrived back at the training base around nine that evening.
Bang had stayed behind at the youth training base to deal with a few things.
Just as he finished and walked outside, he happened to run into Qi Qiao and Wink.
“Oh? What a coincidence.”
Bang looked surprised, his gaze sweeping briefly toward Wink, who had come along with him.
He had never spoken to Wink before, but they followed each other on Azure TV, so they could be considered acquaintances.
Qi Qiao nodded.
“Hey, Brother Bang.”
Wink naturally followed.
“Hey, Brother Bang.”
Bang quickly responded,
“Ah, hey, hello to both of you.”
Then he asked, “So where are you two coming back from? Ghost, you don’t look too great.”
Wink glanced at Qi Qiao before answering for him.
“It’s nothing. We just had hotpot. Ghost drank a little beer, so he’s probably feeling a bit uncomfortable.”
Bang immediately understood.
“Oh, so you can’t handle alcohol…”
He chuckled.
“Well, it’s fine if you can’t drink right now, but you should learn a little more in the future. You know how it is for men, being out in the world and all.”
Qi Qiao nodded.
“Got it. Thanks, Brother Bang.”
Wink checked the time.
“Alright, it’s getting late, so I’ll head back first.”
The three of them said goodbye in front of the villa.
As Bang walked away, he pulled out his phone and opened his chat window with Pei Ming.
[Universe’s Most Handsome Bang] : Tsk, I just saw Ghost come back from hotpot with Wink, and he doesn’t look too good.
After sending the message, Bang stared at the screen for quite a while.
For some reason, whenever anything happened to Ghost lately, his first instinct had become telling Pei Ming about it.
Maybe because Pei Ming cared so much about Ghost, and he subconsciously wanted Pei Ming to owe him a favor?
Bang realized that aside from that, he really couldn’t come up with a better explanation.
A reply quickly came through.
[D] : ?
Bang thought for a moment before typing back—
[Universe’s Most Handsome Bang] : Wink said he drank a little beer and isn’t feeling well.
Then the other side went silent again.
Just as Bang assumed Pei Ming wasn’t going to reply anymore, his phone suddenly chimed.
[You’ve received a red packet — ]
Bang raised an eyebrow and tapped open the red packet Pei Ming had sent him.
Inside was 1,000 yuan.
Another message came immediately after.
[D] : Buy him some yogurt.
Bang felt like his brain had stopped functioning for a second.
He had just been about to ask, What the hell kind of yogurt costs a thousand yuan?
Then another message popped up.
[D] : Classy Kiss brand.
…
After returning, Qi Qiao took a shower and climbed into bed unusually early.
He turned off the lights.
But Pei Ming’s voice kept echoing in his ears.
“I always keep my word.”
“Nothing’s changed.”
What exactly had he said before?
Too many things.
His brother had made countless promises to him over the years.
And for the longest time…
He really had never changed.
Except for that one thing—
Qi Qiao believed he had failed to keep that promise.
That was why he was now here, in Monster Esports Club’s youth training camp.
But Pei Ming had said “Nothing’s changed.”
Could it be…
That things weren’t actually the way he had thought?
Qi Qiao tossed and turned in bed, restless until nearly two in the morning, before his consciousness finally began fading.
And amid half-formed murmurs, a dream quietly unfolded.
-Flashback-
Summer skies stretched endlessly clear, the heat blazing beneath the afternoon sun.
The moment school ended, Qi Qiao rushed straight to the internet café and sat at the front desk doing homework.
It was Monday.
Normally, he wasn’t scheduled to work, but one of the attendants had called in sick, so the café owner had no choice but to call him in at the last minute.
Final exams were coming up soon.
At first, Qi Qiao didn’t want to accept the shift.
But the owner promised him an extra day’s overtime pay.
Thinking about how that money could buy him two extra bowls of noodles this week, Qi Qiao eventually agreed.
The café door swung open, and a noisy group of people walked in together.
“Today we got matched against those guys from No. 3 High. Their skills suck, so just play normally.”
“Tsk, don’t talk so confidently. What if we lose? That’d be embarrassing.”
“How could we lose? Brother Pei’s here. He can literally solo the entire lobby by himself, alright?”
“Hahaha, well, that part’s true. The moment those guys from No. 3 High heard Brother Pei was coming, their hands were probably shaking already.”
Qi Qiao stared down at the problem written in his workbook.
Meanwhile, the group behind him kept talking nonstop.
After failing to focus on the question for the fifth time—
Snap.
Qi Qiao pressed down hard enough to break the tip of his pencil.
Then, without looking up, he said coldly—
“No loud noise is allowed inside the internet café.”
The group that had been fooling around noisily at the front desk immediately fell silent at the sound of his voice.
Qi Qiao stared back at them, and for a moment, both sides simply looked at each other.
“Oh? Why’s the one on duty today just some brat?” one of them asked in surprise.
Another guy gave him a once-over before shifting his gaze to the workbook lying on the desk.
Practice Exercises — Sixth Grade Mathematics, Second Semester.
“Sixth grade math? What, you’re only twelve?”
Without changing expression, Qi Qiao quietly pulled the workbook away.
His face darkened.
“Are you getting in or not? If not, get out.”
“At your age and you’ve already got such a nasty attitude? What, no adults at home to teach you manners?” The guy who had asked about his age let out a mocking whistle.
The others nearby burst into laughter as well.
Qi Qiao let out a cold laugh.
“I’ll say it one last time. If you’re not coming in, then get lost.”
Seeing the tension escalating, one of the others quickly stepped in to mediate.
“Alright, alright, just go inside already. Brother Pei will be here any minute.”
But after being interrupted like that, the guy who had been arguing felt embarrassed and immediately started cursing.
“Hey, you little bastard. I was being nice to you and now you’re pushing your luck? No wonder a kid with no mother raising him is already hanging around internet cafés at this age.”
The moment he heard the words “a kid with no mother raising him,” something inside Qi Qiao snapped tight.
In his entire life—
This was the thing he hated hearing the most.
Smack—
The workbook flew through the air.
It slammed directly into the man’s face.
Everyone present froze in shock.
The workbook slid down the man’s face and dropped onto his foot before he finally snapped back to his senses.
“You fucking looking for death?!”
His blood rushed straight to his head as he stormed forward furiously, reaching out to grab Qi Qiao by the collar.
Qi Qiao refused to back down and was just about to grab the man’s shoulder in return—
The door of the internet café swung open.
“What’s going on?”
A cool, indifferent male voice cut through the tension.
Everyone in the room stiffened.
“B-Brother Pei is here…”
“Brother Pei!”
“Brother Pei!”
The group immediately turned around to greet him.
Even the man who had been seconds away from grabbing Qi Qiao shot him one vicious glare before turning around to greet the newcomer.
Qi Qiao tugged his collar straight again and turned toward the door.
Standing there was a young man.
Tall, lean, with a straight and elegant build.
The plain white T-shirt he wore somehow only made his handsome features stand out even more, carrying an effortless air of laziness and quiet detachment.
The young man walked inside and glanced toward the man whose face had just been hit by the workbook.
“What happened?”
The man clutched his already swollen forehead, stammering awkwardly but unable to explain properly.
In the end, someone beside him spoke up first.
“It’s just… the kid at the front desk had a bad attitude, so Brother Chen scolded him a couple of times, and then…”
“Brother Chen,” standing to the side, nodded frantically.
“Yeah! I only said a few words to him, and he threw his workbook at me!”
The young man said nothing.
Instead, he shifted his gaze toward Qi Qiao.
Meeting those dark eyes tinged with quiet curiosity, Qi Qiao suddenly felt strangely flustered for reasons he couldn’t understand.
Almost instinctively, he lowered his head, avoiding the young man’s gaze.
As though he had stumbled upon something amusing—
The young man suddenly let out a soft laugh.
Then Qi Qiao saw a long, slender hand reaching out toward him.
Qi Qiao looked up in surprise and met the young man’s deep black eyes.
“If he said anything inappropriate, I’ll apologize on his behalf.”
As he spoke, the young man paused for a moment before smiling lightly.
“Can you forgive me?”
Qi Qiao didn’t say anything and lowered his head.
The young man’s hand was still suspended there in midair.
He stayed silent for a few seconds.
In the end, he slowly placed his own hand on top of it.
Long, well-defined fingers.
A warm palm.
Heat quietly crept up the tips of Qi Qiao’s ears.
The young man let out a low chuckle.
“Such a good boy.”
— End of Flashback —
Author’s Note:
I looked it up — apparently yogurt helps when you feel sick after drinking alcohol.
As for “Such a good boy”… well… I honestly have no idea how many times Little Pei has said that to Qiaoqiao.
Feel free to keep count online. 😌