Chapter 25 – Mala Xiang Guo
[“Huh? Did I hear that right? Was that D-God talking in voice chat just now?”]
[“Damn… if D-God is really the one playing Little Grass God, then yeah, probably. I mean, besides support, no one else could really be, uh… Ghost’s accessory, right?”]
[“This is insane. First we had the matchmaking of the century, then D-God playing support, and now “I’ll be your accessory.”“]
[““Accessory.”“]
“I’ll be your accessory.”
Those words still seemed to linger in his ears.
The tips of Qi Qiao’s ears slowly grew warm.
Qi Qiao was sitting near the front entrance.
After finishing his phone call, Jiang Jiang stopped by the break room to grab a drink, then deliberately took a detour and headed through the door on the right.
As he passed Pei Ming’s station, Jiang Jiang tilted his head for a look.
On the screen—
A little girl wearing a green fairy dress, hopping cheerfully as she moved around, suddenly came into view.
“Holy shit!”
Jiang Jiang jumped in fright, and his hand slipped, sending the drink bottle rolling across the floor.
From two seats away, Ink turned around at the noise.
“What happened?”
Jiang Jiang stared in disbelief.
“Captain… he… he, he, he—!”
“He what?”
A-Kai was drawn over too. After helping Jiang Jiang pick up the drink, he glanced at Pei Ming’s screen.
The moment he saw it, he nearly jumped as well.
“Holy crap, Captain, you’re playing Little Grass God?!”
Pei Ming didn’t even look at them.
He simply nodded.
“Mm.”
Jiang Jiang hurriedly pulled out his phone to take a picture.
“No way. Did the sun rise in the west today? Captain, did you get role-conflicted so badly you were forced to play support?”
A-Kai added, “Uh… but shouldn’t a lot of people recognize Captain’s account? Even if he had to fill support, there’s no way he’d actually…”
Pei Ming calmly placed a ward in the bush, completely unhurried.
“Support takes skill too. Don’t discriminate.”
Jiang Jiang: “…6.”
Ink watched for a moment and seemed to figure out what was happening.
He opened Azure TV and searched for Qi Qiao’s stream.
“Case solved.”
Ink waved Jiang Jiang and A-Kai over.
The two immediately leaned in.
Displayed on screen was Qi Qiao’s livestream.
Little Grass God was bouncing along right behind the ADC Qi Qiao was playing, constantly healing him.
Jiang Jiang: “……”
A-Kai: “……”
Qi Qiao could vaguely hear some noise coming from outside his headset.
But he didn’t dare lose focus.
Right now, he was fully concentrated on trading auto-attacks with the enemy ADC.
This game, he had brought Berserk and Flash.
The enemy ADC was running Berserk and Stun.
Just moments ago, Qi Qiao had perfectly maneuvered and managed to finish off the enemy support.
But because he had been crowd-controlled by that support before dying, his own HP bar was now nearly empty.
Pei Ming, playing Little Grass God, wasn’t in good condition either.
If they mishandled this exchange—
The enemy ADC would kill Qi Qiao.
And Pei Ming would probably be taken down too.
That would mean losing the early-game advantage.
Qi Qiao started kiting backward.
At this moment, both ADCs had activated Berserk.
But Qi Qiao had used his slightly earlier.
So his buff was just about to expire.
The enemy ADC seized the opportunity and immediately threw a Stun onto Qi Qiao.
Qi Qiao had flashed at almost the exact same moment, but he was still caught by the stun. He retreated a short distance, barely avoiding fatal damage.
Originally, he had planned to fall back under tower, grab a healing pack, and then return.
But in the next instant—
He saw Little Grass God, whose health bar was practically empty, suddenly Flash forward.
With a W skill, she instantly knocked the enemy ADC airborne.
Qi Qiao froze for a split second.
But his hands reacted faster than his brain, and he immediately followed up with damage.
By the time the two of them secured the enemy ADC kill—
Both of them had exactly 1% HP remaining.
“Nice.”
The moment Qi Qiao pressed Recall, a voice came through his headset.
Qi Qiao’s hand twitched.
He accidentally canceled Recall.
At the exact same time, the game suddenly played the sound effect for Flash.
[Team] D-God’s Sweet Little Girl: Uh… don’t mind me, I’m just lowering the difficulty for the enemy team.
[“Pfft hahaha, “lowering the difficulty for the enemy team” — I’m dead.”]
[“Alright, Sweet Little Girl’s move there had the exact same energy as our son’s Flash in the last match, hahaha.”]
[“Wait, did nobody notice Little Brat canceling Recall? Look at that shaky hand!”]
[“Saw it. Good thing Little Brat already used Flash earlier, otherwise he’d probably have…”]
[“Honestly though, I think it’s understandable. I was wearing headphones just now, and hearing D-God say “Nice” nearly killed me.”]
[“Wuwuwu, this is exactly why I have to bring up that time Little Brat went to D-God’s stream and entered the friend-slot giveaway. If he hadn’t gotten picked, maybe it would’ve been my turn instead!”]
Qi Qiao pretended nothing had happened and pressed Recall again.
But his mind had already drifted back to the past.
He remembered when he had first moved into Pei Ming’s house.
Back then, when Pei Ming taught him how to play Odin, he used to say things like that to him all the time.
But later…
He stopped saying them.
Because Qi Qiao had told him—
He was grown up now.
Not a child anymore.
He didn’t need to hear those things.
At the time, Pei Ming had simply reached over and gently patted his head, letting out a quiet laugh.
And then Pei Ming had said—
“With me, you don’t need to grow up.”
Qi Qiao remembered those words for a very long time.
And he really had done exactly as Pei Ming said.
But now…
Qi Qiao took a deep breath.
His thoughts felt restless and tangled.
Pei Ming had said he’d be his accessory—
And he had truly followed through.
He had built full support items and stayed by Qi Qiao’s side the entire game.
Several times during major team fights, when Qi Qiao got engaged on—
Pei Ming stepped in front of him every single time, taking lethal damage in his place.
So when the match ended at the twelve-minute mark—
Qi Qiao still hadn’t died even once.
And he secured MVP of the entire match.
After the game ended—
Qi Qiao received a party invitation from D-God’s Sweet Little Girl.
Because he guessed Pei Ming was in the party too, Qi Qiao didn’t decline the invitation and accepted it.
Sure enough, the moment he joined, he saw that familiar profile picture.
“Ghost, finally decided to come?” D-God’s Sweet Little Girl said with a laugh.
[“Did you hear that, Little Brat? You sure know how to make an entrance!”]
[“Hahaha, son, I told you that you shouldn’t have rejected her last time, didn’t I?”]
Qi Qiao typed: I wasn’t avoiding anyone. I just don’t normally queue with people I don’t know.
“Oh…”
“So does this mean we know each other now?”
Qi Qiao replied with a simple: We do.
Pei Ming had his voice chat turned off and showed no reaction at all.
Then D-God’s Sweet Little Girl spoke again.
“So… do you want to queue with us now?”
Queue with them?
Qi Qiao stared at the team chat window.
Pei Ming still hadn’t said anything.
Could it be that they had already been duo-queuing together just now?
But then Qi Qiao remembered how surprised D-God’s Sweet Little Girl had looked earlier when she unexpectedly ran into Pei Ming.
So no—they hadn’t been duoing.
Still…
Even if they weren’t queueing together before, Pei Ming wasn’t objecting now.
Which meant the two of them were still close enough to rank together.
Qi Qiao lowered his gaze.
For some reason, his chest suddenly felt tight.
But he didn’t understand why.
It felt exactly the same as that time a year ago.
“No thanks. You guys go ahead.”
Qi Qiao typed the message as if nothing was wrong.
Then quickly left the party.
[“What’s with you, weird son? Why’d you leave again?”]
[“Wait, weren’t you guys playing really well together just now? If you queued together, that’d be an insane rank-climbing squad!”]
[“Hahaha, I’m calling it — the moment D-God’s there, Little Brat refuses to go.”]
[“Okay wait, that actually makes sense… but I don’t get why. Are their relationship still bad?”]
[“That can’t be it, right? I mean, doesn’t Devil treat our son pretty well? He even sent all those Galaxy gifts earlier.”]
Seeing the direction the chat was taking again, Qi Qiao finally spoke up.
“Alright, enough. We’ve got overlapping roles.”
“If I joined them, someone would have to fill another position.”
“And that wouldn’t be fun.”
Qi Qiao exited solo queue and switched back to duo queue instead, then invited Jiang Jiang.
Jiang Jiang had just returned to his seat.
He gave Qi Qiao a strange look.
He started typing something into the chat box, hesitated for a while…
Then deleted everything he had written.
Forget it.
Ranking up comes first.
Over the next few games, Qi Qiao played three more matches with Jiang Jiang.
After carrying Jiang Jiang all the way into Oracle II, the two said goodbye to everyone in the livestream—
Then ended the stream.
Since New Year’s Day was approaching, the housekeeper at the team base had something to do and had left early that afternoon.
So tonight, they would have to order takeout themselves again.
Because Qi Qiao had only recently joined the team, and because he had helped carry Jiang Jiang into Oracle II that afternoon—
Jiang Jiang had already promised on stream that he would treat Qi Qiao to dinner.
Now, feeling especially happy, he decided to cover dinner for everyone else too.
After finishing training, everyone went off to rest for a bit.
Only when Jiang Jiang and Ink finally came back upstairs carrying bags of takeout did everyone gather around the table to eat.
“Here you go. I’m in a great mood tonight, so dinner’s on me!”
Jiang Jiang dropped the plastic bags onto the table with a flourish.
“Ooh, what smells this good?”
A-Kai stopped scrolling through videos on his phone.
Ink clicked his tongue and started unwrapping the bags.
“What else could it be? Mala Xiang Guo.”
Qi Qiao had been watching the replay of their last match of the day on an alt account.
As the sharp, spicy aroma drifted toward him, he instinctively frowned.
Pei Ming had just finished a round of Tetris and paused, glancing over at Qi Qiao.
A-Kai rubbed his hands together impatiently.
“Mala Xiang Guo, nice. It’s from Xu Ji, right? That place makes it properly spicy.”
Xu Ji Mala Xiang Guo…
Qi Qiao vaguely remembered that place.
Once, one of his classmates had celebrated a birthday there.
Every dish had been unbearably spicy.
But because he didn’t want to make things awkward, he forced himself to eat some anyway.
After coming home—
His stomach had hurt the entire night.
He remembered that he had ended up sleeping in Pei Ming’s bed that night.
Qi Qiao looked up at Pei Ming.
Unexpectedly, Pei Ming was already looking at him too, his gaze carrying a hint of scrutiny.
Qi Qiao suddenly felt guilty and awkwardly looked away.
When he glanced back again—
Pei Ming had already picked up his phone again.
For no reason at all, Qi Qiao felt a flicker of disappointment.
By now, Jiang Jiang had already unpacked everything.
He took out five containers of Mala Xiang Guo, then pushed the largest and most generously portioned one right in front of Qi Qiao.
“Qi Qiao, thanks for carrying me to Oracle II today.”
Jiang Jiang peeled back the plastic wrap on the container.
“I specially ordered double portions for you. Smells amazing, right?”
Double portions…
Qi Qiao stared helplessly at the steaming bowl sitting in front of him, its surface glistening with a thick layer of bright red chili oil.
He wanted to move it away.
But he forced himself not to.
His voice came out a little stiff.
“Thanks.”
Jiang Jiang laughed.
“No need to thank me. Just make sure you finish all of it.”
Qi Qiao: “……”
If I finish all of this, somebody’s going to die.
Jiang Jiang didn’t notice anything strange about Qi Qiao’s expression.
He turned around happily and started digging into his own Mala Xiang Guo, even reaching over to steal several slices of fatty beef from Ink’s bowl.
After everyone had been eating for a while, Jiang Jiang finally noticed that Qi Qiao was only poking around inside his container with his chopsticks.
He hadn’t actually eaten anything yet.
“What’s wrong, Qi Qiao? Don’t like this?”
Jiang Jiang stuffed a mouthful of fatty beef into his mouth and asked through half-chewed food.
Qi Qiao bit his lower lip.
But in the end, he still answered,
“No… I’m just looking for something I feel like eating first.”
“Oh, got it. Then let me see what kinds of things you like, so next time I can order extra for you!”
Jiang Jiang grinned.
Qi Qiao: “……”
There cannot be a next time.
Next time, someone really might die.
Seeing Jiang Jiang genuinely staring at him expectantly, Qi Qiao had no choice.
Carefully, he picked up a slice of radish with his chopsticks and brought it to his mouth.
The moment it touched his tongue—
An intense wave of numbing, sour, spicy heat exploded in his mouth.
Qi Qiao forced himself to swallow it down.
Then, pretending everything was perfectly normal, he casually took a sip of soup.
Meeting Jiang Jiang’s eager expression, he could only raise a thumbs-up.
“Tastes great.”
Only then did Jiang Jiang nod in satisfaction before going right back to fighting Ink over slices of fatty beef.
Meanwhile, Qi Qiao could already feel the sour burn rising uncomfortably in his stomach.
Subconsciously, he looked up toward Pei Ming—
Only to realize that the seat was empty.
Strange… where did he go?
Just as he was wondering, someone lightly tapped him on the back.
Qi Qiao turned around.
Pei Ming was standing behind him, holding a carton of Telunsu milk.
“Drink this first.”
Pei Ming handed the milk to him.
Still a little dazed, Qi Qiao took it.
Then his eyes landed on the plastic bag in Pei Ming’s other hand.
Printed on it were the words—
Xu Ji Mala Xiang Guo.
Pei Ming set the bag down on the table and said calmly,
“Eat this instead.”
He opened the plastic bag.
Inside—
Was a container of lightly stir-fried vegetables.
Author’s Note:
Jiang Jiang: WTF
The update is here, everyone — thanks for waiting!