To make his presence felt, Jiang Qi became somewhat displeased and said, "Xu Che, we haven't seen each other for so long, and the first thing you do when you come to my house is talk to someone else?"
Thinking about this, Jiang Qi felt increasingly irritated. It was one thing for this girl to be indifferent to him, but why was Xu Che ignoring him too?
Hearing Jiang Qi's words, Xu Che finally looked up and countered, "Wasn't I the one who picked you up at the airport yesterday?"
After a moment of silence, Jiang Qi still asked, "How do you two know each other?"
Xu Che thought for a moment before answering, "She's from Saint Slee Academy, a friend of Murong Huan and Shen Yujing."
"Saint Slee?" Jiang Qi was stunned, then looked at Song Yi with surprise. "How did you get in?"
His father had become a famous wealthy businessman in this area after making his fortune, but even with his family background, they couldn't meet Saint Slee Academy's admission requirements back then. He had to settle for Saint Yu Academy, an all-boys school, and left for abroad after just a year.
Song Yi said, "They invited me."
Jiang Qi: "?"
Jiang Qi sneered, "How is that possible? Doesn't Saint Slee require at least a building donation just to get in?"
The other two boys also laughed, naturally assuming Song Yi was bragging.
But Xu Che said, "She's the top student in her grade at Saint Slee."
The smiles froze on all three faces simultaneously.
Jiang Qi put away his phone and looked Song Yi up and down.
Xu Che wasn't the type to joke around with them, so this must be true.
Suddenly, one of the boys said, "Wait, she looks kind of familiar."
Familiar?
Song Yi narrowed her eyes, thinking about why they might find her familiar, and immediately felt exasperated.
Sure enough, another boy said, "Che-bro, wasn't she in that Snow White play during your school anniversary?"
"Oh right, I remember now. Shen Yujing and Murong Huan were in that too."
"But it's strange, Che-bro, weren't you not on good terms with Shen Yujing? How come you're hanging out with his friends now? Is it because they performed well in the play?"
Song Yi: "..."
No, please, nobody mention that incident again!
Xu Che seemed to notice Song Yi's aversion to the topic and changed the subject, "Anyway, weren't we going to play games?"
At the mention of "playing games," Jiang Qi's attention was immediately caught. He opened the game and said, "Why are we still one person short? Where's Wang Chan?"
One of them answered, "He's got stomach problems, still in the bathroom."
Jiang Qi's face darkened again. He just wanted to play a game, why were they always short on people?
Xu Che looked at Song Yi and asked, "Want to join us in the game?"
Song Yi looked at his phone screen - it was a game she occasionally played to pass time - and said, "Sure."
Jiang Qi wasn't happy about this and said, "Xu Che, I can't control your friendship with her, but how can we bring a girl into our game?"
In Jiang Qi's view, gaming was serious business, not to be taken lightly, regardless of how pretty Song Yi might be. It was a matter of principle.
Xu Che frowned and said, "I'll carry her. We won't lose."
Another boy tried to persuade Jiang Qi, "With Che-bro carrying, what's there to worry about?"
Jiang Qi glared at that boy. Was he afraid?
Fine, let's play then. He was just two matches away from reaching Glory King rank, which was already difficult enough. He wanted to see how Xu Che could possibly win with someone dragging them down.
When Song Yi opened the game, her Diamond rank prompted more mockery from Jiang Qi.
Jiang Qi said, "Just try not to feed too much. Better yet, just stay at the fountain - that would be the biggest help you could give us."
If she stayed out of the battlefield, they'd be fighting four versus five, but if she joined, it would be like four versus six.
Xu Che switched to a Star rank account and created a five-player room, inviting them all in. He asked Song Yi, "Which hero do you want to play?"
Song Yi was easy-going, "Anything works. You guys pick first, I'll fill."
In real life, she often played games to relieve boredom and had even won places in national college e-sports tournaments. She just didn't have much time now and only played occasionally to relax.
Jiang Qi was in first position, so he immediately picked a marksman, as marksmen were crucial this season.
Xu Che naturally took the jungle position, and of the other two boys, one picked a warrior, while the other asked Song Yi, "Mage or support, which do you want?"
Song Yi long-pressed that boy's ID, saw that his specialty was mage, and said, "I'll take support then."
Xu Che clearly wanted to look after Song Yi and said, "Take Yao or Ming Shying, just follow me."
Jiang Qi glanced at Song Yi again, any goodwill he had felt due to her pretty face now completely gone.
In Jiang Qi's view, he hated playing games with girls the most, as they were impossible to carry.
So Jiang Qi said, "What a great hero choice. Take all the kills when we're winning, and when we lose, it's not your fault anyway."
Not only did Song Yi pick support, but she was going to use this kind of passive hero?
Jiang Qi was thoroughly contemptuous, but Song Yi completely ignored him and picked Zhu Bajie, then asked Xu Che, "Do you like the pig? We could switch to the bull if you prefer."
Xu Che: "...I like it."
Since Xu Che said he liked it, Song Yi locked in the hero.
Jiang Qi frowned but didn't say anything this time.
This was even worse than picking a passive hero. At least those heroes wouldn't drag them down too much. He wanted to see how many deaths Song Yi would rack up with Zhu Bajie.
The game started quickly.
Song Yi took Smite as her spell and immediately went to hide in the enemy's bush, constantly harassing their jungler as they tried to take the blue buff.
Xu Che, showing great coordination, took advantage of this time to steal the enemy's red buff, and thanks to Song Yi's delay tactics, he managed to take their blue buff as well.
The start was very smooth, making the enemy jungler so angry they started cursing in all chat.
In the time that followed, Song Yi's performance remained stable. She rotated between all three lanes, helping wherever needed.
Of course, she rarely visited Jiang Qi's marksman lane, only helping when he was at a disadvantage.
Even so, she still managed to save his life twice in critical moments.
Especially during a late-game team fight, when the enemy Zhuge Liang's ultimate was aimed at Jiang Qi who had only a sliver of health left. Just when he thought he was surely dead, Song Yi's Zhu Bajie jumped out from the bush and took the damage for him.
At that moment, Song Yi was also left with just a tick of health and naturally died from the damage.
Although in the game, it was normal for supports to protect marksmen, Jiang Qi remembered how he had mocked Song Yi earlier. It felt like... she was being very magnanimous, helping him without holding a grudge, making him feel somewhat indebted to her.
As Jiang Qi thought about this, he hadn't even noticed that his eyes kept darting to the minimap, unable to help but track the movements of that Zhu Bajie.
At this moment, Song Yi was controlling her Zhu Bajie, circling around the dragon pit continuously, occasionally hitting the dragon to make it attack the enemy's two fragile heroes.
When Jiang Qi saw Song Yi being chased and attacked by the enemy marksman and support at the dragon pit, he immediately rushed up from the bottom lane where he had been clearing minions, wanting to help Song Yi without a second thought.
However, just as Jiang Qi was about to arrive, he saw Xu Che take down the enemy marksman first, and then quickly attack the support...
Oh no, he didn't kill it.
Xu Che had beaten the support until its health bar was empty, then left it for Song Yi.
Jiang Qi looked up at Xu Che in confusion, leaving his hero standing still.
Xu Che's voice came calmly, "Song Yi, my internet's lagging a bit, can you chase them down?"
"Sure." Song Yi controlled her Zhu Bajie to move forward, chased the enemy support and landed a basic attack, easily securing the kill.
Jiang Qi wondered how Xu Che could be lagging when his fingers hadn't even touched the screen. Was this just a sophisticated way of giving away kills?
Just as Jiang Qi was feeling contemptuous, his screen suddenly went black.
Jiang Qi: "..."
Damn, who ambushed him?
Jiang Qi was furious. No longer paying attention to Song Yi and Xu Che, he chased after his ambusher relentlessly after respawning.
Naturally, they won this round without any surprise, and they won quickly. While Wang Chan was still in the bathroom, they started a second round.
Song Yi smiled at Jiang Qi and asked, "How was that?"
Jiang Qi kept a cold face and said, "It was just support, nothing special."
Just support, nothing special.
This time, following the order, only Song Yi and Xu Che were left, with jungle and support positions remaining.
Song Yi was in fourth position, and this time she directly chose the jungle role.
Everyone looked at her in astonishment, especially Jiang Qi, who became anxious.
Jiang Qi said, "This is my promotion match, what are you trying to do?"
Song Yi replied without hesitation, "Playing jungle, of course."
Jiang Qi stood up immediately, barely containing his anger.
Did Song Yi deliberately go against him because she knew this was his promotion match?
Jiang Qi said, "If you don't want to play seriously..."
"Jiang Qi." Xu Che interrupted him and said, "We won't lose."
Jiang Qi was furious at this point and asked, "How can you guarantee that? How can I trust a Diamond rank player to jungle in my promotion match?"
Xu Che replied without looking up, "If she doesn't play well, I'll switch with her. Is that acceptable?"
Hearing Xu Che's words, Jiang Qi reluctantly sat down, though his expression remained unpleasant.
In Jiang Qi's mind, it was one thing for Song Yi to coast by playing a support mage, but jungle was such a crucial role for controlling the game's pace. How could a girl possibly play...
The game sound effect rang out: "First Blood!"
Jiang Qi: "?"
"Double Kill!"
Jiang Qi: "??"
What was happening? How long had the game been going? Who had already secured two kills?
Jiang Qi couldn't even focus on farming minions anymore. He clicked on the map to zoom in, bewildered, and saw Song Yi controlling her jungle champion standing in their blue buff area, having successfully killed both enemy champions who had tried to steal her buff.
Song Yi let out a sigh of relief and muttered, "That was close, so close, really scared me there."
Jiang Qi stared at the champion on the screen, noticed Song Yi's remaining half bar of health, and fell into deep thought.
What the hell... where was that "close"?
Wasn't that complete domination???
Damn, she might actually be something else.
