Chapter 6

Though she thought so, Pei Jiyin still felt too embarrassed to ask—after all, they weren’t that close yet.  

She pulled out her calendar and noted her upcoming schedule. Wednesdays and Saturdays were for soccer practice, while Monday and Friday evenings were reserved for the Chinese Dance Club. Official training would start next week, which meant she had three more days before seeing the senior again.  

The next day was packed with classes. When Pei Jiyin woke up in the morning, her mind felt foggy—she had inexplicably suffered from insomnia the night before and barely slept.  

“Even though you talked to the senior yesterday, it shouldn’t have affected you this much, right?” Cheng Yu stared at Pei Jiyin’s dark circles for a while.  

Pei Jiyin shot her a glance. “I just didn’t sleep well, that’s all.”  

Propping her chin on her hand, she took a seat at the back. Normally, she would fight for a spot in the front row, but in her current state, falling asleep in the first row would be way too embarrassing.  

Pei Jiyin let out a long yawn and accidentally locked eyes with the professor at the lectern. She quickly shut her mouth.  

A few seconds later, the professor called on her to answer a question.  

Today’s dose of social humiliation.  

After class, Pei Jiyin went to the convenience store to buy a coffee and happened to run into Song Zhen. She had been about to yawn again but forcefully held it back—she didn’t want the senior to see her mouth gaping wide. The half-suppressed yawn left her feeling uncomfortable.  

“Senior, what a coincidence.”  

“Mn.” Song Zhen nodded. “Hello.”  

Pei Jiyin wanted to say more, but she couldn’t think of a topic, and with class about to start, she had no choice but to leave.  

She usually considered herself quite skilled at making friends, so why did she always freeze up in front of Song Zhen?  

“What’s wrong?” Cheng Yu was chatting with her boyfriend but glanced over at Pei Jiyin’s expression.  

“Nothing.”  

“Oh.”  

Pei Jiyin rested her chin on her hand and stared at Cheng Yu. “You’re so cold. Why don’t you ask more?”  

“Busy.”  

“Prioritizing romance over friendship,” Pei Jiyin commented.  

“Heh.”  

Pei Jiyin opened Weibo for a quick scroll. Whenever she was bored, she’d search her own name.  

Her number of anti-fans had been high from the start—accusations ranged from hiring stand-ins for her games, to match-fixing, to now being called an ugly, uncultured freak. The rumors were all over the place.  

At first, they had made her angry, but now she just treated them as jokes. After all… she opened her backend stats—who would turn down money?  

Her supertopic was flooded with clips of her sarcastic remarks from yesterday. She had been snarky to others, and now they were being snarky about her in the comments.  

[EightHundredElites: This is the so-called high-class streamer? Such class.]  

[TooSleepyToSpeak: Why do people still think YinSong is a girl? I’ve always thought it was a guy using a voice changer.]  

[DrinkMoreHotWater: If she wasn’t ugly, why wouldn’t she show her face? Not showing face = definitely ugly, no question. Maybe only her hands are presentable.]  

…  

“You’re such an interesting person,” Cheng Yu said, putting away her phone and glancing at Pei Jiyin’s screen. Seeing it was Weibo, she immediately knew what Pei Jiyin was looking at. “Why torture yourself? Shouldn’t your supertopic mods be doing their job? Why not just ban these people?”  

“Tch.” Pei Jiyin rubbed her neck. “I’m not mad. Let them talk.”  

“Take me for a game tonight? I can’t rank up in Kings of Glory.”  

“No. Go duo with your boyfriend.”

“It’s precisely because of duo queue that I can’t rank up. He’s too terrible—even when playing Yao riding on my head, he can’t even manage to leech properly.” Cheng Yu made a disgusted expression.

“Let’s talk about it next month. I’m going back tonight to play Peak Match—I need to get my badge.”

“If you’re in such a hurry, why are you still carrying a girl in casual matches?”

“That’s called streaming content. What kind of streaming content would playing with you provide? Plus, it might reveal my real-life location.” Pei Jiyin retorted irritably.

“Hmph.” Cheng Yu snorted.

Speaking of that girl, Pei Jiyin recalled how the other person had immediately logged off upon seeing her come online.

After returning home that night, Pei Jiyin logged into her Smurf Account again. The girl happened to be in a game, so she sent a reservation request.

When Song Zhen saw the reservation message, she paused—it was from an unfamiliar name.

[Don’t Run, Little Cutie: Don’t log off, I’m not bad.]

Song Zhen: “…”

Now she remembered who it was. And they’d even changed their name!

[Mengmeng Little Cutie: …]

[Don’t Run, Little Cutie: I’ll wait for you.]

Song Zhen sighed. Her teammates had already initiated surrender three times. She didn’t want to surrender, but the two who hadn’t voted before now did, making it four—there was no turning the tide.

After exiting, Song Zhen still invited Pei Jiyin into the room.

“Little Cutie, why did you run away as soon as you saw me yesterday?”

“I didn’t run away when I saw you. I just happened to have something to do,” Song Zhen said. “Also, don’t call me Little Cutie.”

“Then should I call you Mengmeng?” Pei Jiyin laughed.

Song Zhen: “…”

She wanted to buy a name-change card immediately.

“How are you already Diamond?”

Song Zhen sighed. “How much did you pay for your Gaming Partner last time? I want to hire one too.”

“Little Cutie, you have to believe in our skills,” Pei Jiyin said earnestly.

Song Zhen: “…”

“It’s not that I don’t believe in my own skills—I don’t believe in my teammates’ skills,” Song Zhen said seriously.

Pei Jiyin chuckled. “It’s fine, let’s queue up.”

Song Zhen clicked to start matchmaking.

After entering the game, Song Zhen was relieved to see the third player’s preferred roles were all junglers. They even posted their MVP status from the last match.

[I Defy the World: Pick Yao, we’ll slaughter them.]

Song Zhen’s eyes lit up and preselected Yao.

[Mengmeng Little Cutie: Really? Big bro.]

[I Defy the World: Really. If you turn on voice chat, I’ll definitely play even better.]

Pei Jiyin cleared her throat and turned on her mic. “Hello, big bro. I’m first pick.”

Hearing this voice, Song Zhen shuddered.

Damn, is this how people climb ranks?

Song Zhen also turned on her mic. “Then do your best, big bro.”

[I Defy the World: Wow, two girls.]

[I Defy the World: First pick, go mid. Don’t play ADC.]

“But I’ve already locked in,” Pei Jiyin said. She had picked Sun Shangxiang—truthfully, she didn’t really trust this so-called “Jungle Carry.”

[I Defy the World: …]

[I Defy the World: Fine, whatever.]

The second pick chose Cheng Yaojin, the third pick (the self-proclaimed carry jungler) picked Yun Zhongjun, and the fifth pick chose Xiao Qiao.

At the start of the game, Yun Zhongjun took Song Zhen to invade the enemy’s Blue Buff. Unfortunately, they not only failed to steal it but also gave up two kills.

“Xiao Qiao, do you even know how to play? The enemy mid is here—why aren’t you coming?” Yun Zhongjun turned on his mic, sounding furious. His voice was flat and hoarse, with some regional accent—his Mandarin wasn’t very standard.

Xiao Qiao ignored him.

The opposing marksman was Baili Shouyue. Three minutes into the game, he hadn’t landed a single shot. Pei Jiyin secured the river crab and was farming comfortably, then proceeded to take down his own team’s Raptor.  

“Who took my Raptor?”