Chapter 21 – Can you let me scan your WeChat too?
In the restaurant, Xu Shaoqiu saw Da Shu piling his plate high with fruit again.
“Cheng Su, are you crazy? Do you think this is a self-service condiment station?”
Da Shu slowly added another piece of watermelon to his plate. “Oh, practice ahead. I’ll be able to take more next time. I’ve realized I can’t handle round fruits like cherry tomatoes. I need to find fruits with edges. Hey, Unique, you’re here? Want some from my plate?”
“Thank you, but no.” Ji Wei suppressed a smile. “I probably couldn’t finish it.”
Xu Shaoqiu, trying to stop Da Shu from wasting food, sat down beside him. When it was Ji Wei’s turn, the only empty seat left was next to Yin Sijue.
Ji Wei glanced at the man nibbling on an apple slice, pursed his lips nervously, and quickly walked over to sit down.
Xu Shaoqiu forked away half the fruit on Da Shu’s plate and looked at Ji Wei. “Unique, I’ve noticed you like saying thank you a lot. Are you a little reserved? Relax a bit from now on. Our team is very easygoing.”
Das Shu hurriedly pulled his plate away. “By easygoing, do you mean stealing food from a teammate’s plate without permission? How’s that polite?”
“Didn’t you just want to share with Unique? What’s the difference if you share it with me?”
“At least he says thank you!”
The two of them bickered noisily, but Ji Wei’s right ear still picked up the faint rustling nearby.
The scraping sound of the apple’s flesh grew louder in his mind.
Yin Sijue ate slowly while playing with his phone. Ji Wei could practically imagine him slipping the sliced apple into his mouth and slowly chewing it down.
“Why is your face so red?”
“Huh?” Ji Wei looked up at Xu Shaoqiu blankly, like a thief caught in the act. “No? Maybe it’s too hot…”
Fortunately, the other didn’t press and changed the subject.
“The summer season draw is out. We’re in Group B, and UGC’s in Group A. We’ll face them in the regular season. How were your scrims with them tonight?”
This year, all PCL teams were divided into three groups—A, B, and C—with eight teams each. The groups would play five round-robins, each consisting of three match days and six games per day.
As they ate, Mi Li said, “Two chickens each.”
Xu Shaoqiu: “Not bad for last year’s PCL champions. I’m going to watch Unique’s stream tonight. I’ll review it for you tomorrow.”
Lao Ma perked up. “Unique, how was your first day back on the air?”
Ji Wei smiled and nodded slightly. “Pretty good. It went smoothly.”
Lao Ma: “That’s good. The new studio wasn’t for nothing.”
Da Shu reminded Ji Wei, “Remember to reset your beauty filters. I’ll need to adjust them later.”
Xu Shaoqiu snapped, “I didn’t even use beauty filters! That’s enough. You’re about to play an offline competition, and you still want to cheat with photos?”
Da Shu: “It’s all because of that cameraman from PCL last year! He pointed the camera at my face and made me look ten pounds heavier. Haters are still taking screenshots of those ugly pictures and mocking me. I need to redeem myself on livestream!”
Mi Li: “Why don’t you just skip the midnight snacks, then?”
Da Shu: “No way! I can’t let my mouth suffer.”
“You two, that’s enough,” Lao Ma cut in, pulling out his phone and glancing at Ji Wei.
“Unique, add me on WeChat? We can queue together later.”
The boy, still eavesdropping, was caught off guard. He looked up, bewildered.
“Oh, then I’ll scan you?”
Da Shu took a long sip of his yogurt. “Show me your friend code. I want to add you too. And remember to introduce me to any pretty streamers.”
Ji Wei watched Mi Li pull out her phone, his eyes shifting uncontrollably to the side.
He wanted to add Yin Sijue as a friend…
But how to start? What had Da Shu just called him?
“So, so, brother, your WeChat…”
“Brother So?”
Da Shu burst into laughter. “Who taught you to say that? Hahaha!”
“No…” Ji Wei closed his eyes in agony. He had wanted to call him Solve, but he also wanted to just call him brother. In his nervousness, the two words got tangled together!
“Just call me Solve.” Yin Sijue was still playing connect-the-dots, his tone carrying a hint of amusement. He didn’t sound angry.
“Okay, Solve.”
Seeing that he was busy, Ji Wei felt a little discouraged. He didn’t dare bring up adding him as a friend, so he turned instead to add Dashu and the others.
Lao Ma scanned him and paused, frowning at Ji Wei’s WeChat profile picture. It looked oddly familiar.
After a long moment, he finally remembered: “Unique, why is your avatar the same as our captain’s? Do you like this anime character too?”
Da Shu noticed as well. “What’s it called? So silly! The other day, the captain used this avatar and the comments roasted him for ages.”
Mi Li recognized it right away. “You don’t know that? It’s Psyduck. Pretty popular, right?”
Lao Ma: “I think I’ve seen it before, but I didn’t expect two of us on the same team would use the same avatar.”
Ji Wei turned to look at Yin Sijue, who showed no reaction, still tapping away on his phone.
It was hard to say what he felt—a mix of disappointment and relief.
In his past interactions with Yin Sijue, the man had never shown much enthusiasm; they weren’t even friends.
Ji Wei had wanted to come clean several times, to tell him that he was WEI from three years ago. But cowardice and fear always held him back.
He worried that Yin Sijue might still harbor resentment from back then, but he was even more afraid that he had long since forgotten his existence.
After all, the [WEI] ID had left no trace in Yin Sijue’s otherwise brilliant life.
Ji Wei now wanted nothing more than to get to know Yin Sijue all over again—properly—and enter his life as himself, as a unique individual.
…
The table of late-night snacks was quickly cleared, and everyone prepared to return to training.
With the summer season approaching, the tension within the team grew even heavier, especially for Team One. Their free time was shrinking, leaving them with barely enough time to eat.
Ji Wei headed to the live studio to pack up his equipment. As he walked downstairs, he felt his pockets—empty. His phone was missing.
Maybe it had slipped out along the way.
He retraced his steps to the dining room and spotted his phone lying on a chair.
But it wasn’t just his phone in the room.
Yin Sijue was still there, sitting where he had been earlier, his head resting on one hand in apparent boredom, lost in thought.
Ji Wei didn’t dare look too closely. He picked up the phone, his own mind racing.
Would it be rude not to say hello?
But saying hello to someone he had only spoken to five minutes ago felt absurd.
“Solve, why haven’t you left yet?” he finally managed after a long pause.
Yin Sijue lifted his head, his dark eyes locking onto him.
“Because I was waiting for you.”
Ji Wei held his breath, pupils widening. Before he could process the words, that cold voice sounded again:
“I was just playing games and didn’t have time to tell you.”
“Can you scan your WeChat too?”
…
Boom, boom, boom! Ji Wei’s heartbeat thundered like a drum.
He instinctively took half a step back, afraid Yin Sijue might hear it.
The man regarded him with faint amusement. “Don’t want to? Didn’t you just add Da Shu and the others?”
Ji Wei glanced at the man’s slightly arched brow and wished he could print out his friend code and hand it over instead.
“No! If you’re willing, I’ll scan it for you.”