CHAPTER 10: PLAYING GAMES TOGETHER

Zhou Dang locked in with Caitlyn.

Shu Jia hesitated for a long time before finally lowering her voice to ask for his opinion,
“Zhou Dang… which champion do you think I should pick?”

“Pick whatever you like.” Zhou Dang’s tone was calm and indifferent.

“Little sis,” GGbond cut in, “as long as Wan locks Caitlyn, he’s literally the King of Summoner’s Rift. 1v5 is nothing to him. You can play whatever you want.”

Shu Jia was speechless. Looking at their team comp, she silently studied for a bit before deciding to pick Tahm Kench.

After all, this was her first time playing with him. She really didn’t want to drag him down…

When everyone saw Shu Jia pick Tahm, they were a little shocked.

In most people’s minds, girls usually liked playing pretty champions like Sona, Lulu, or Nami.

Aaron was puzzled, “Jia Jia, why’d you pick Tahm Kench? I rarely see girls play that champ. I thought you’d go for someone like Sona… big chest, looks good, you know.”

Shu Jia: “…”

Jiang Yuyu laughed at her too, “Hahaha, Little Tahm Sis!”

Shu Jia couldn’t win against them, so she didn’t bother explaining.

Just then, Zhou Dang spoke impatiently,
“What my support plays… does it have anything to do with you?”

“Nope, nope, no problem at all.” Aaron instantly surrendered, “Your support, yours, you can play whatever you like.”

He deliberately emphasized “your.”

Shu Jia could only keep pretending to be clueless.

Thankfully, the game loaded in at that moment, so she didn’t have to talk and risk making things awkward.

Only when you actually played with this man would you realize just how insanely strong he was.

Laning with him, Shu Jia felt zero pressure at all.

Zhou Dang’s playstyle was aggressive. He dominated in CS, hit level two first, and secured first blood, sending the enemy bot laner back home.

Shu Jia’s chubby Tahm Kench waddled lazily around Zhou Dang’s nimble Caitlyn, occasionally licking a few minions, completely chill.

“Shu Jia.” Zhou Dang called her name.

Shu Jia instantly replied, “What’s up?”

“Take the cannon minion, then go back and buy items.”

Before she could answer, Aaron yelled,
“Holy sh*t! Zhou Dang, are you even human?! Giving the cannon to the girl? Bro, are you flirting or what?”

GGbond sighed dramatically,
“Back in the day, this dog Zhou Dang would roam half the map just to steal XP from me in mid. But now? Tsk, tsk, tsk… some brother you are.”

Zhou Dang ignored their teasing and calmly instructed Shu Jia,
“Push the wave, then we recall.”

“Okay.”

Meanwhile, Jiang Yuyu was stuck alone top lane, muttering enviously,
“Next game, I’m going bot with Wan God. I wanna experience what it feels like to be protected by the No.1 ADC.”

“I swear to fcking god, Little Pig! Why are you stealing my blue buff?!” Aaron suddenly screamed, “Fck your mom, I’m tilted!”

GGbond said lazily, “Then just go AFK.”

Aaron gritted his teeth, “Fine. Next tournament, I’m stealing your damn blue buff.”

Shu Jia couldn’t help but laugh.

After a while, GGbond suddenly remembered something and asked,
“Hey, Shu Jia, what rank are you?”

“Diamond II.”

“For real? You climbed yourself?” GGbond sounded doubtful.

Shu Jia blinked, confused. “Yeah… why?”

“Nothing, nothing. Just saying… the ladder’s so competitive these days, you barely see girls climb on their own.”

“What do you mean?” Shu Jia tilted her head.

“You don’t know?” GGbond lowered his voice conspiratorially, “There’s this saying nowadays: First blood moans, double kill gives it up, triple kill goes down, quadra kill… you know, and penta kill? Full service. One round to King rank.”

Aaron corrected him, “Nah, bro, one round ain’t enough to hit King these days.”

Shu Jia was shocked. “What the hell are you even talking about?!”

But GGbond wasn’t done gossiping.
“You know there’s this chick at 700 King points on the national server, right? That’s how she climbed.”

“Oh, right, right!” Aaron remembered too. “Didn’t she even hit up Wan God before? Seriously…”

While they were chatting about gossip, Zhou Dang clearly had zero interest. Shu Jia just quietly stayed bot with him, occasionally warding the river.

Watching Zhou Dang’s Caitlyn stylishly outplay the enemy, she suddenly remembered something one of his fans had said.

Whenever he streamed, Zhou Dang never turned on his webcam, and he barely talked. The most fans ever got was occasionally catching a glimpse of him through his teammates’ cameras, and they were already over the moon about that. Usually, all they could hear was the sound of his fingers flying across the keyboard.

But even so, tons of female fans still thought…

Zhou Dang’s keyboard typing sounded sexy…?

Good-looking people really could get away with anything.

His ADC playstyle was insanely violent. The second his Flash came back up, he was ready to dive under turret for a kill.

Shu Jia watched his half-health bar nervously, rushing forward to tank the turret for him.

“Zhou Dang, fall back! Enemy jungler’s coming bot!” Shu Jia warned anxiously.

“It’s fine,” Zhou Dang replied calmly, reassuring her, “You go first.”

From his tone, it sounded like he fully intended to 1v2 the enemy with just a sliver of HP.

GGbond and Aaron listened in awe at how Zhou Dang and the bot lane girl were basically flirting mid-game.

They knew from experience that when Beast supported Wan, the things Zhou Dang said most often were:

“Get lost.”
“Stop bothering me.”
“Roam mid.”
“Trade lanes.”
“One more CS and I’m AFKing.”

That was some blatant gender bias right there…

The two of them wisely stayed quiet, stifling their laughter.

Suddenly, Shu Jia spotted the enemy Lee Sin circling behind them, ready to kick Zhou Dang’s Caitlyn into oblivion. Without thinking, she swallowed Caitlyn into Tahm’s mouth and turned to run.

Sweat dripped down her back as she spammed her mouse, until she heard Zhou Dang’s low voice:

“Why do you like eating me so much?”

“I—I was scared you’d die!” Shu Jia stammered nervously.

His voice stayed calm, with a hint of helpless amusement.
“My Flash is still up. What are you afraid of?”

“Pffft—hahahahaha!”

GGbond and Aaron completely lost it.

“Zhou Dang! Dude, what the hell was that line? ‘Why do you like eating me’?”

“Eating where, huh?”

Their laughter was downright evil.

The worst part was… it sounded like Zhou Dang was also holding back a laugh.

Shu Jia’s entire face went bright red.

Thankfully, Jiang Yuyu jumped in to save her,
“Ugh, what’s wrong with you guys? Why are all you men so dirty-minded? Learn a thing or two from Dang God, okay? Cold and abstinent types are what girls like nowadays.”

“Pfft, no way,” GGbond immediately refuted, “Bad boys are what girls really like. And come on, you really think Zhou Dang’s all proper and serious?”

Aaron was still laughing as he added,
“Your Dang God is literally grinning so hard right now his cigarette’s about to fall out of his mouth.”

Shu Jia wanted to explode on the spot from embarrassment, but could only keep pretending she didn’t understand a thing.

She had always thought he was the kind of person who was serious, spoke little, didn’t like to joke, and didn’t like to smile…

But as Shu Jia kept playing, her mind was filled with one thing—
Zhou Dang with a cigarette dangling from his lips, smiling…
It played in her head like surround sound.

Ai…

She sighed inwardly, finally agreeing with something she had once seen on Weibo:

—Wan smokes, and he can drink. But with that face of his, all of it can be forgiven.

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Author’s Note: We’re done with the game, now let’s start talking about love hahaha.

In the last chapter I said I’d continue in winter break—meaning after finals. I only said it casually, but I didn’t expect to flush out so many little angels T T.

I’m really touched…

So I decided to give you guys a surprise! Happy or not!! Heehee!!!