Chapter 5 – But He’s Not Just a Devil
The next morning, Qi Qiao got up early.
Because of that single glance from the video last night, even the 4-7-8 sleep method hadn’t worked. He had tossed and turned until the second half of the night before finally losing consciousness, though he still ended up dreaming.
As soon as he got up, Qi Qiao made himself a cup of coffee. Then he headed to the training room, grinded ranked matches until reaching Oracle II, and spent another two hours practicing last-hitting.
There were a few people in the training room.
Yesterday, Bang had informed everyone in the group chat that there would be a scrimmage with the youth training team this afternoon, so everyone was free to do whatever they wanted in the morning. Those who still hadn’t recovered from partying too hard over the weekend were still asleep, while those hoping to officially join the team were pushing themselves relentlessly.
Today was a workday, so he didn’t start a livestream. After finishing his last-hit practice, he lowered his head to check the time on his computer and realized it was exactly one in the afternoon.
He hadn’t slept well, and after staring at a computer screen all morning, his mind now felt foggy and sluggish.
Qi Qiao shut down the server, stood up, and headed downstairs toward the pantry, planning to make himself another packet of instant coffee.
He pressed the switch.
Coffee poured into the cup, steam slowly spreading through the air, and in his daze, it stirred up a blurred memory.
Late winter. Rain and snow drifted through the air.
“Pfft… this is so bitter!” He frowned, forcing himself to swallow the mouthful of coffee despite the urge to spit it out. “Ge, you tricked me!”
The young man sitting on the sofa crossed his long legs and raised his eyes at the complaint.
“Espresso. Double shot. Didn’t you say you wanted to try it?”
Qi Qiao set the coffee down. “That’s not the point. At the very least, you should’ve—”
“At the very least what?” The young man smiled faintly and stood up, walking over.
Qi Qiao had still been annoyed, but when the young man approached and looked down at him through lowered, narrow eyes, his anger instantly disappeared.
Qi Qiao’s voice softened. “At the very least… give me a piece of candy.”
The young man let out a quiet chuckle, reached out to ruffle his hair, then opened his palm.
Qi Qiao saw a Want Want Milk Candy lying across those long, elegant fingers, the little mascot on the wrapper grinning at him.
His heart started pounding rapidly.
Coffee overflowed past the rim of the cup.
“Tsk—!”
The burn finally jolted Qi Qiao awake. He hurriedly jerked his hand away and slammed the stop button, but the index finger on his right hand had already been scalded, leaving behind a red mark.
Nothing ever goes right.
That sentence suddenly popped into Qi Qiao’s mind. He grabbed the box of napkins nearby, pulled out a few sheets, and wiped up the spilled coffee on the table.
After cleaning the table, he was just about to take his coffee and leave when the doorbell suddenly rang.
Qi Qiao froze.
When he had come downstairs to make coffee earlier, it had already been one o’clock.
While he was still standing there blankly, the doorbell rang again.
So it really was happening.
Qi Qiao’s heart turned ice-cold. He really didn’t want to answer the door, but if someone else came downstairs later and opened it, then saw him walking out of the pantry closest to the entrance…
After weighing which option would be more socially disastrous, Qi Qiao finally stepped over, took a deep breath, and turned the doorknob.
The door opened.
Outside stood five people, a dark crowd blocking the entrance. Every one of them wore training uniforms marked with the black word [Faith.]
The moment the door opened, all of their gazes shifted in perfect unison toward Qi Qiao.
Not far away, a Bugatti Veyron was parked in the private parking space of their youth training base, its engine having just been shut off.
The driver’s side door opened, and a pair of long legs stepped out.
The young man wore sunglasses. Even though the team uniform — plain white with black lettering — had no special design, it still perfectly outlined his tall 1.9-meter frame.
The five noisy people immediately split to either side like well-trained greeters and shouted in unison,
“Hello, Captain!”
Although he had mentally prepared himself, Qi Qiao still froze where he stood.
Jiang Jiang opened the backseat door and hurried after Pei Ming as he got out.
“I’m serious, Captain. We’re just dropping by next door — it’s only a few steps away — and you still had to drive a Bugatti Veyron. Are you seriously making sure Brother Bang notices this shiny 43-million-yuan car? Wait, no, no, no — that’s not right, you’ve also got another 10 million on your wrist…”
The bases of Faith and Monster were both located in the same villa district near Lujiazui, so the two teams often visited each other.
Although Rong Qing hadn’t objected to scheduling a scrimmage last night, he absolutely refused to come himself, so it really ended up being Pei Ming leading the team.
“No, seriously — weren’t we supposed to come test Little Green Hair’s skills? Why does it feel like you and Brother Bang have some blood feud or something?” Jiang Jiang kept rambling on. “So what exactly happened between you and Brother Bang? Can we talk it out already? Stop bullying poor people, wuwuwu…”
Pei Ming shot him a glance.
“The Mercedes-Maybach I ordered for you two months ago—”
“No, no, no, I’m shutting up!” Jiang Jiang cut himself off instantly and immediately put a full meter of safety distance between himself and his captain.
He could live without his dignity.
But not without the Maybach.
Jiang Jiang looked up and spotted Qi Qiao standing motionless in the doorway.
“Oh? What a coincidence. We were just talking about Little Green Hair, and here he is.”
That one sentence landed perfectly in Qi Qiao’s ears.
Qi Qiao knew this guy. He was the idiot from Faith who, during last season’s semifinals, had used Lionhead Eagle as support and flashed straight into the enemy formation just to feed kills. Back then, Qi Qiao had even made an entire video dedicated to mocking the idiot.
If this were one of his usual livestreams, Qi Qiao would’ve definitely fought this nonstop-talking support from Faith for at least three hundred rounds.
But at this very moment, he had absolutely no desire to talk back.
Even taking a single step backward felt difficult.
Qi Qiao could only stand there helplessly, watching that person walk closer.
Ever since getting out of the car, Pei Ming’s gaze had remained fixed on Qi Qiao.
He’d lost quite a bit of weight. The dark circles under his eyes were bad too — it was obvious he hadn’t slept well last night.
Pei Ming stopped in front of Qi Qiao, raised a hand to hook off his sunglasses and casually hang them on his collar, then extended his other hand forward.
On his wrist, he was still wearing that Patek Philippe astronomical tourbillon watch.
“Devil.”
Hearing that, Qi Qiao looked momentarily dazed.
He lifted his head and crashed straight into those dark, profound eyes. For a moment, even his breathing seemed to stop.
Pei Ming’s hand remained suspended in midair, showing no sign of lowering.
No one around them spoke.
The silence felt strangely eerie.
Everyone was staring at the two of them.
Gritting his teeth, Qi Qiao placed his hand in his and forced himself to nod.
“Ghost.”
Their palms touched for only a brief moment before separating.
The instant their skin met, the taut string that had been stretched tight in Qi Qiao’s mind for over a year snapped with a crack.
All the grievance and heartbreak he had suppressed for more than a year surged to the surface in an instant. Qi Qiao only felt a faint warmth gather around his eyes as he struggled to hold back the overwhelming emotions rising inside him.
Pei Ming lowered his gaze, watching the evasive look in Qi Qiao’s eyes, but said nothing.
“Damn, why are you here so early?” Bang came downstairs from the spiral staircase with four teenage boys wearing wrinkled youth training uniforms. Two of them still had messy, bedhead hair.
Pei Ming brushed past him and walked inside.
“Wasn’t it supposed to start at one-thirty?”
“I thought you meant arrive at one-thirty, okay?!” Bang stepped aside, then glanced past the open door and spotted the Bugatti Veyron outside. “Tsk. Since you drove it here, don’t bother taking it back, alright?”
Pei Ming replied, “If Monster wins the Global League championship this season, I’ll order one for you too.”
Bang walked over and bumped fists with him.
“Deal. Don’t go back on your word, brother.”
Jiang Jiang had just walked up in time to hear that sentence and immediately looked wronged.
“What the hell, Captain? The cars you promised us were only Mercedes-Maybachs!”
Pei Ming glanced at him and smiled.
“There were no conditions attached to yours. As for Bang—”
Bang suddenly slapped Pei Ming hard on the shoulder.
“Hold on, what the hell do you mean by that? Looking down on our Monster, huh?”
…
Qi Qiao was still standing by the doorway, watching the three of them joking and laughing together before quietly looking away.
He has his own circle.
Qi Qiao rubbed his face and turned back toward the pantry to grab his coffee.
“Captain, when you put it that way, I guess it kinda makes sense, but you’re bullying poor peo—Brother Bang!”
Jiang Jiang had been about to tease Bang a little more, but when he looked up, he noticed his captain’s smile seemed strangely distracted.
Just then, Jiang Jiang caught sight of Pei Ming lifting his gaze. He followed the line of sight toward the corner by the villa entrance.
There was no one there now.
Weird.
Bang had originally wanted to fire back with a few more remarks, but seeing the five curious little heads peeking out from behind Devil, he decided to invite everyone inside first. After giving a few simple instructions, he led the Faith members toward the lounge.
The bases of Faith and Monster were located close to each other, and since the two organizations had signed an exchange agreement for youth trainees, they had long become well-known within the esports scene as powerhouse sister teams with a brotherly relationship. Last season, Faith had been eliminated regretfully in the semifinals, and in the end, it was Monster that advanced to the grand finals, at least securing a Top 3 finish for the Chinese region.
Since the two were effectively brother teams, there was no strict separation between their rest areas, so everyone gathered in the same room.
The moment Wink saw Qi Qiao, he immediately leaned over with a grin.
“Been a few months since I last saw you. I missed you to death, little brother!”
Wink was two years older than Qi Qiao. Ever since finding out his age, he had always liked calling him little brother, though for some reason, Qi Qiao seemed especially resistant to that form of address.
Qi Qiao shot him a glance.
“Who’s your little brother? Don’t go claiming relationships that don’t exist.”
Wink grinned.
“Then how about Brother Ghost?”
Holding his coffee, Qi Qiao casually waved the cup in front of him and said coldly,
“If this spills on you, I guarantee you won’t be touching a keyboard for half a month.”
“Alright, alright, I’ll shut up!” Wink immediately raised his hands in surrender.
Though of course, he didn’t actually shut up and simply changed the subject instead.
“Tsk tsk, you have no idea. Today’s the first time I’ve seen Devil since joining the team three months ago.”
Hearing that ID, Qi Qiao’s hand froze for a split second in the middle of drinking his coffee, though he quickly returned to normal.
“The first time?”
Wink nodded.
“Yeah. My idol has never stepped foot in the youth training base before. We were all shocked when the announcement suddenly dropped last night. Out of nowhere, he schedules a scrimmage with the youth trainees.”
“Hey, speaking of which, didn’t he send you that ‘face-to-face’ message last night…” Wink nudged Qi Qiao with his shoulder, his face full of teasing amusement. “Don’t tell me he came here to get revenge on you?”
The mouthful of coffee immediately went down the wrong pipe.
Qi Qiao suddenly broke into violent coughing. Seeing this, Wink hurriedly reached out to pat him on the back, but Qi Qiao sidestepped instantly and avoided the touch.
Wink’s hand froze awkwardly in midair. Only then did he remember that Qi Qiao disliked being touched by other people, and he quickly apologized.
“Ah, sorry. If I’d known you were drinking coffee, I wouldn’t have joked around like that.”
After finally stopping his coughing and catching his breath, Qi Qiao shot Wink a glare.
“Did the enemy ADC split your eyes in half with an arrow, or is your brain so damaged from getting Smited that, despite being an ADC player, your idol somehow ended up being a jungler?”
After enduring Qi Qiao’s verbal barrage, Wink stared at him with his mouth hanging open in disbelief.
“What do you mean my idol can’t be a jungler just because I play ADC? What does that have to do with position? That’s Devil we’re talking about — the esports god of the entire Chinese ACR region! The faith of who knows how many ACR players!”
Faith—
Something struck Qi Qiao’s heart lightly.
After the long-silent Chinese region had finally claimed glory in one decisive victory, countless young people, burning with passion, had thrown themselves into the esports world because of him.
It was true. In the Chinese ACR scene — and even globally — the ID [Devil] existed like a symbol of faith itself.
Qi Qiao lowered his eyes.
But he wasn’t just Devil.
Author’s Note:
“He’s my brother.”