Chapter 9: Unrequited Crush
Qi Xu only played on his smurf account out of a fleeting whim, to kill some time out of boredom.
So he could abandon this account anytime.
He never enjoyed carrying girls in games and certainly never considered online dating.
This unexpected situation annoyed him.
After finishing the game, Qi Xu didn’t have time to leave the room before the system quickly queued up another match.
As the screen prompted for confirmation, Qi Xu waited until the last second to accept.
Oh well.
One more game.
After this, he’d delete her.
Entering the pick/ban phase, Qi Xu didn’t get the ADC role this time but was placed in the jungle position.
Caramel Pudding, who didn’t get a chance to ban anyone, sent a request to ban Thresh.
Qi Xu suddenly remembered the first game they played bot lane together, where Caramel Pudding hid under the tower to avoid Blitzcrank hooks, missing out on minion experience.
D*mb and clumsy.
It seemed like he was really a newbie.
Feeling unexpectedly charitable, Qi Xu banned Thresh for him.
He usually left his bans empty.
Caramel Pudding: Thank you ^^
Qi Xu raised an eyebrow slightly. He had already heard countless “thank yous” from this player in just three games.
Not only well-behaved but also very polite.
Thanking in a game—could this be a little kid?
It really seemed like a child playing the game.
Maybe a seventh-grader?
–
After entering the game, Xie Yang realized that the pro player was playing the jungle position, not ADC, so they wouldn’t be playing bot lane together this time.
He felt a bit disappointed.
It was his first time encountering such a good-natured ADC.
Although the pro seemed cool, he never scolded him!
Missed skills? No scolding. Getting caught by the enemy? No scolding.
Where could he find another ADC like that?
Even though his rank was low, it was rare to find teammates who didn’t yell at him.
Sometimes, Xie Yang would mute all chat as soon as the game started.
He was afraid of being scolded.
Who isn’t a bit sensitive, after all?
Unexpectedly, the pro didn’t scold him for his poor skills.
He even continued to play with him.
Xie Yang was very happy.
And the pro even helped him ban Thresh!
He picked Lulu again and, upon entering the game, habitually followed the pro.
Before he could reach the jungle, Kai’Sa pinged him several times.
[All] Kai’Sa: ?
[All] Kai’Sa: Lulu, who are you following?
Xie Yang, being called out, paused and quickly returned to the bot lane.
[All] Caramel Pudding: Sorry.
[All] Kai’Sa: Are you and the jungler a couple?
[All] Kai’Sa: If you’d told me earlier, I would have swapped lanes with the jungler.
Afraid of upsetting the pro, Xie Yang quickly clarified: No, I just went the wrong way. Sorry.
Kai’Sa stopped talking and focused on farming.
This game, the opposing team didn’t have a hook champion, but their combo was even more troublesome.
It was a Miss Fortune and Malphite combo.
They were playing an ultimate ability combo.
Once the enemy hit level six, if they caught him and the ADC, their squishy champions without mobility would be done for.
The ADC this game was a random player, so Xie Yang couldn’t just hide behind the minion wave. He had to occasionally use his skills to poke and harass the enemy.
At the five-minute mark, they had just cleared a wave and were about to recall when the enemy jungler suddenly jumped out of the river.
The freshly level six Malphite flashed in with his ultimate, knocking them up. Miss Fortune followed with her ultimate, and the enemy jungler Kha’Zix added some extra damage. He and the ADC were instantly killed.
The enemy’s damage was too high for their squishy champions to withstand.
Xie Yang was startled by Malphite’s flash-ultimate combo.
His reaction was too slow to even use his ultimate.
[All] Kai’Sa: Lulu, where was your ult?
[All] Kai’Sa: Why didn’t you ward the river?
[All] Kai’Sa: Why didn’t you polymorph Kha’Zix as soon as he jumped in?
[All] Kai’Sa: You had both summoner spells and your ultimate. Can’t you use any skills?
[All] Kai’Sa: Do you even know how to play?
Xie Yang stared at the ADC’s five consecutive questions, unsure of how to respond.
It seemed that any explanation would sound weak.
For example, not warding properly was his fault.
For example, Kha’Zix suddenly jumped out from the brush, followed by Malphite’s flash ultimate, and he panicked, reacting too slowly to flash away.
For example, because he was slow to react, he didn’t use his ultimate on the ADC in time.
As for polymorphing, he didn’t understand what that meant.
When the ADC accused him of not knowing how to play, Xie Yang had no defense. He indeed didn’t know how to play well; his hands were slow, and his reactions were slow.
He was just a novice player.
[All] Lulu: Sorry.
[All] Kai’Sa: Just ward properly. If we get ganked again, we’re done.
Xie Yang felt confused; he didn’t know how to ward properly.
He could only place a ward in the river brush.
Qi Xu noticed this and pinged mid lane.
[System: Enemy Lux missing.]
Xie Yang checked the map and quickly backed off.
Kai’Sa didn’t want to give up the minion wave and got engaged by Malphite.
Xie Yang immediately used his ultimate to protect Kai’Sa, but Lux’s initial crowd control and Malphite’s ultimate followed. Even with Lulu’s ultimate, they were too fragile to survive the enemy’s damage.
Xie Yang survived thanks to saving his flash and helped Qi Xu, who arrived just in time, to clean up and secure three kills in the bot lane.
[All] Kai’Sa: …
[All] Kai’Sa: I didn’t even get an assist.
[All] Kai’Sa: Support, stop hiding behind the ADC. Don’t be such a coward.
Xie Yang instinctively wanted to apologize.
[All] CX330: If you suck, don’t complain.
Seeing the 3/0 jungler, Kai’Sa started blaming the mid laner for not calling out the enemy mid’s movements or signaling.
The mid laner argued back.
Xie Yang didn’t send his apology, pausing as he saw the message in the chat. He was taken aback.
The expert rarely spoke, probably saying less than five sentences in three games.
He never responded to Xie Yang’s thank-yous but chose this moment to say something defensive and aggressive.
Xie Yang quietly deleted his “sorry.”
Seeing the argument between Kai’Sa and the mid laner in chat, Xie Yang felt nervous.
The ADC had a bad temper, and he was worried about being scolded again.
So Xie Yang went back, bought two control wards, and placed them in the river brush and their own tri-brush.
He kept an eye on the enemy mid to see if they roamed down.
During the dragon fight, Xie Yang closely watched the ADC, afraid he might make a careless mistake and get killed.
Kai’Sa’s ultimate allows her to reposition, and Xie Yang couldn’t keep up, so he flashed to follow her and used his ultimate.
Watching the Lulu who had been obediently following him now supporting someone else, Qi Xu felt a twinge of irritation.
The little support used to have eyes only for him.
Now, she was focusing on someone else.
Even though it was just a random encounter, just an ordinary game.
Qi Xu inexplicably felt a bit annoyed and clicked his tongue.
So, after the game ended, Qi Xu immediately left the room.
He opened his friends list and found his only friend.
He clicked on Caramel Pudding’s profile.
[System: Removing Caramel Pudding from your friends list will prevent them from sending you chat messages.]
[Confirm.]
[System: Are you sure you want to unfriend Caramel Pudding? Any existing intimacy or relationship will be cleared.]
[Cancel/Confirm.]
Looking at the ID, Qi Xu hesitated for a few seconds.
This little support, as Sheng Fei had said, was very obedient and was Qi Xu’s type.
He had seen many people pretend to be obedient in front of him, but few were genuinely so.
The system notification sounded, indicating that the little support had sent him a message.
Qi Xu’s fingers hovered over the screen, but he ultimately clicked cancel.
Forget it.
Qi Xu opened the friend’s message.
[Team] Caramel Pudding: Not playing anymore?
[Team] CX330: No.
[Team] Caramel Pudding: Thank you for helping me rank up!
[Team] Caramel Pudding: Please don’t delete me as a friend.
[Team] Caramel Pudding: Please, please. jpg
[Team] Caramel Pudding: I’m very obedient.
Qi Xu felt a bit strange reading “I’m very obedient” in the chat history.
The little support really did hit all his preferences.
[Team] CX330: Okay.
[Team] Caramel Pudding: Obedient. jpg
[Team] Caramel Pudding: I’ll wait for you to come online.
Qi Xu didn’t reply and closed the game.
His mood was quite good.
Seeing this, Sheng Fei teased, “What, not continuing your sweet duo queue with your little support?”
Qi Xu: “Which eye of yours saw it as a sweet duo queue?”
Sheng Fei snorted, “Both eyes saw it. So, what do you think of this girl?”
Qi Xu didn’t respond.
He remembered how he handed his phone to Sheng Fei, who then pretended to be him in front of the little support.
Suddenly, he felt the urge to act.
Sheng Fei, thinking of Qi Xu’s mischievous nature, said, “You didn’t delete the girl, did you?”
Qi Xu: “Deleted.”
Sheng Fei: “D*mn it, Qi Xu, you deleted her? I went through all that trouble to get her for you.”
Qi Xu chuckled; was it Sheng Fei who got her for him?
It was clearly his Kalista ultimate that reeled her in.
“Who? What girl?”
Song Xingyu’s voice came from his phone; they were in the game room with voice chat enabled.
Sheng Fei complained, “Qi Xu played three games with a girl and then deleted her.”
Xi Rui: “What?! Who are you talking about? Qi Xu? Playing with a girl?”
Sheng Fei cleared his throat, “Well, I added her, but I saw Qi Xu was having a great time playing with her.”
Song Xingyu: “Qi Xu, actually playing with a girl? Is the iron tree blooming?”
Qi Xu switched to his main account, joined the game room, and said, “Don’t listen to Sheng Fei. He never tells the truth.”
Sheng Fei protested, “Why isn’t it true? I added her because she was your type.”
Xi Rui: “Wait, wait, since when did Qi Xu have a type? How come I didn’t know?”
Song Xingyu: “I want to know too. Wasn’t Qi Xu going to become a monk? And he has a type?”
Qi Xu: “Who said I was becoming a monk?”
Laughter filled the voice chat.
Song Xingyu: “That post on the school forum, saying you’re asexual and it would be a pity if you didn’t become a monk.”
Xi Rui laughed so hard he could barely breathe: “Is it a case of ‘if I can’t have him, I’ll destroy him’?”
Sheng Fei chuckled: “Come on, the truth is that Qi Xu does have a type; he just hasn’t met the right person yet.”
Song Xingyu: “Really? With all the guys and girls who’ve confessed to him, every type imaginable, and he’s still this picky?”
Xi Rui: “Qi Xu, what exactly is your type? I’ll dig three feet deep to find someone for you.”
Qi Xu remained silent, ignoring them.
Sheng Fei: “I’ve been observing Qi Xu for over ten years. He likes the pure and obedient type. His taste hasn’t changed all these years. He prefers someone who looks easily bullied and deceived.”
Song Xingyu thought back to the countless confessions he’d seen directed at Qi Xu over the years and realized none quite fit the description.
“Qi Xu likes that type? I always thought he turned them down because he has high standards and thought they weren’t attractive enough.”
After all, Qi Xu had inherited his mother’s genes.
Sheng Fei: “That’s why I said the girl he met today was definitely his type. But Qi Xu was so ruthless, deleting her. He really doesn’t deserve to date.”
Song Xingyu: “Definitely doesn’t deserve it. He should stay single forever.”
Qi Xu: “Talking bad about me to my face, I’m not dead yet.”
A loud clang startled Xi Rui, who was gaming.
He glanced at Xie Yang, who was cleaning the balcony, and remembered his obedient personality. He couldn’t help but tease: “Maybe Qi Xu swings both ways, into both men and women?”
Sheng Fei: “I think so. Do you know anyone to introduce to him?”
Xi Rui: “Qi Xu, do you remember we have a dorm mate named Xie Yang?”
Qi Xu: “No.”
Xi Rui: “Hey, back when we were at City No. 1 High School, he was always the one who ranked second in exams. Short, small, wore glasses.”
Qi Xu: “No impression.”
Xi Rui clicked his tongue: “He fits your type perfectly—looks obedient and sweet.”
And very easy to bully and deceive.
He didn’t say this last part out loud.
Qi Xu: “Not interested. You guys can stop trying to matchmake me.”
Qi Xu: “Besides, who said I’m gay?”
Qi Xu: “Stop trying to match me with anyone. I don’t like either men or women.”
There was a moment of silence in the voice chat, and then everyone shifted the conversation back to the game.
Xie Yang leaned against the door, gripping the broom a little tighter.
Their voices weren’t loud, but because Qi Xu was part of the conversation, Xie Yang had been listening intently. He even made some noise to make Xi Rui and Song Xingyu think he couldn’t hear them.
When Xi Rui started talking about introducing him to Qi Xu, his heart pounded like a drum, and his whole body tensed up.
He had never felt so nervous before.
He was waiting, waiting for Qi Xu to deliver his judgment.
Hearing Qi Xu’s words, he felt sadness and disappointment, but more than anything, he felt a sense of relief.
It seemed his secret crush had come to an end.
Qi Xu didn’t know him, didn’t remember him, and didn’t like him.
Two years and six months.
His unspoken confession had received a clear answer at last.
The feeling of heartbreak and sadness grew in his heart.
Goodbye.
To his first love.
Baby, let him chase you longer 🥹
😭💔