Chapter 147: The One Who’s Failing Is You

Zhao Qian swore from the other end. “Had I really underestimated her just now?”

He pressed his lips together, thinking that it was time to get serious.

But it was not long before the opponent began provoking him.

After dying once and missing several minions, Zhao Qian’s A Li was far poorer than the opponent’s. Even so, he could not help himself. He could have retreated, but instead insisted on showing off—and was promptly killed.

Zhao Qian’s feelings at that moment were difficult to describe.

He typed a line: “Are you really the person playing?”

The reply came almost immediately: “If you can’t afford to lose, don’t play.”

Zhao Qian swallowed. His urge to win grew even stronger. Yet perhaps things had gone too far, or perhaps he had simply become anxious. In any case, the match ended in a completely unsurprising defeat.

As he watched his team’s crystal explode before his eyes, Zhao Qian still could not believe that he had lost a solo match to a novice.

Just as he was about to start another game, he noticed that a high-ranked expert was there too. He thought that he might as well accept the loss. She was only a young girl, after all; there was no need to take it too seriously.

So he invited He Zhen to play ranked, and, of course, did not forget to invite Luo Yixia, who had just defeated him.

Song Chengyi saw the invitation and joined. Immediately, shouting came through the headset.

“Turn on your mic! Turn on your mic!”

Luo Yixia activated her microphone, feeling that she had to prove she was really the person playing.

“What do you want with your daddy?” she said, opening with a thoroughly infuriating remark.

Song Chengyi could not resist glancing at her. She was usually as soft and sweet as a milk candy, yet here she was shamelessly demanding that people call her “Dad.”

A low laugh came from the other end. “Zhao Qian, did you lose your solo match?”

Zhao Qian coughed awkwardly. Since his opponent was a girl, he decided not to take it too seriously.

“Yes, yes, I lost. Hello, Dad.” He admitted defeat without hesitation. A true man knew when to bend and when to stand tall.

“Don’t be so polite, son.” Luo Yixia replied with cheerful bluntness.

“Enough nonsense. We’ve got an expert with us tonight. Let him carry us to victory,” Zhao Qian shouted.

“Wait. I have a friend here, and I need to play with him,” Luo Yixia said thoughtfully.

“Fine. Invite your friend. We’ll play as five.”

Luo Yixia muted her microphone, then blinked her watery eyes at Song Chengyi.

Song Chengyi closed his eyes and drew a deep breath. Why did she have to make him go through all this?

Luo Yixia quickly got out of bed, fetched his phone, and very considerately logged him into the game.

Then she placed it in his hand and beamed at him foolishly.

Song Chengyi said nothing, which counted as tacit agreement.

In the spirit of sharing both hardship and joy with her best friend, she promptly called Gan Yanyan. Whenever an expert was willing to carry them, she could not possibly leave her friend behind.

The moment she heard about it, Gan Yanyan logged in. Obviously, she could not miss such a wonderful opportunity.

But when she entered the lobby, she paused. The team was already full, and there was someone she did not recognize.

“Luo Yixia, your friend is a girl?” Zhao Qian asked excitedly.

“Huh? Why would you think she’s a girl?” Luo Yixia was startled as well.

“What guy would choose a name like that? Glucose? Why isn’t she turning on her mic?”

Luo Yixia glanced at Song Chengyi’s username, which was the chemical formula for glucose. Perhaps this was simply how the world of top students worked.

Then she looked at the top student being mistaken for a girl. His expression remained completely unchanged.

“He doesn’t like using the mic. Just talk among yourselves.”

“Shall I start?” He Zhen interrupted.

The game began. After banning several “disgusting” heroes, they started choosing their characters.

He Zhen was first in line, Zhao Qian second, Gan Yanyan third, and Luo Yixia and Song Chengyi fourth and fifth.

“What are you two playing?” He Zhen asked.

No one answered, so He Zhen took the jungle position as usual.

Zhao Qian chose the side lane, while Gan Yanyan chose a mage.

Then Luo Yixia leaned toward Song Chengyi.

“What are you going to play?”

“I’ll choose a marksman. Will you follow me?”

Luo Yixia nodded vigorously.

In the end, she chose the ultimate freeloader among all freeloaders—Yao.

“Xiaxia, you can’t freeload quite that shamelessly, can you?” Gan Yanyan could not help commenting.

Luo Yixia unmuted herself and shot back, “I’m freeloading because I want to.”

Normally, a support would head to the middle lane at the beginning to provide vision. But Luo Yixia only wanted to follow Song Chengyi.

When Song Chengyi cleared the wave, she stood beside him and watched. Whenever he engaged the enemy marksman, she pressed her skills whenever they were available, though most of the time she was simply staring blankly at his character on the screen.

She did not know whether it was merely psychological, but she felt that the marksman he played was different from the one she usually played herself. Somehow, he seemed exceptionally skilled.

Eventually, Luo Yixia stopped bothering to support anyone else and simply followed him around, freeloading until level four. Once she unlocked her ultimate, she attached herself to him, delighted beyond words.

For the rest of the match, Luo Yixia had almost nothing to do with it. It became a game played by the other four.

Song Chengyi was constantly dodging the enemy’s skills and making sure that Yao would not be knocked off his head.

Sometimes she inevitably fell down, but it was no great matter.

“Can’t you ride me for a while? The marksman has such a huge economic lead now. Can’t you protect me for once?” the warrior, whose mental state had collapsed after being repeatedly caught by the enemy, wailed.

Luo Yixia turned on her mic. “If we protect the marksman, we’ll win. You piece of trash can fend for yourself.”

The others burst out laughing.

But she was right.

The match was won with almost no suspense. He Zhen’s jungling was excellent, and he maintained the pace of the game from beginning to end. Song Chengyi’s marksman also grew stronger as the match progressed.

At one point, He Zhen even secured a quadra kill, prompting the two girls to shriek as if they had gone mad.

The one beside Song Chengyi was especially enthusiastic. She even turned on her mic and showered He Zhen with praise.

Song Chengyi clicked his tongue unhappily.

At the start of the second match, Song Chengyi was first in line. Without the slightest hesitation, he chose the jungler He Zhen had played before.

“Is this girl a little too aggressive?” Zhao Qian joked, though he was genuinely somewhat uneasy.

After all, whenever He Zhen jungled, he controlled the pace of the game beautifully. Although the marksman had developed well in the previous match, that had been entirely because He Zhen had established the rhythm—and because Luo Yixia had protected the marksman without ever leaving his side.

“What’s wrong with that? My friend can play any position.” Luo Yixia immediately unmuted herself to argue.

When she saw that the enemy had not banned Yao, she decisively picked Yao again.

The lineup was the same as before, except that the jungler and marksman had switched players.

But at the beginning of the match, He Zhen, who had rarely spoken until then, suddenly said, “If you can’t handle it, we can switch. Do you want to play marksman instead?”

The corners of Song Chengyi’s lips curled into a mocking smile. He did not bother responding.

The match began soon afterward.

Luo Yixia continued following Song Chengyi.

This game was somewhat different from the previous one. For example, the enemy kept targeting the marksman.

As a result, He Zhen was constantly forced beneath his tower and found himself at a disadvantage.

Even Zhao Qian could not stand it anymore. “Support, go help the marksman. The enemy is keeping him pinned down.”

Luo Yixia immediately turned on her mic. “I’m following the jungler so he can develop.”

She did not give him even the slightest bit of consideration.

He Zhen fell silent.

So did Zhao Qian.

Song Chengyi, however, was in an excellent mood.

After clearing the jungle, he began looking for targets. As luck would have it, the enemy jungler arrived at the same time to gank the marksman.

He Zhen’s health was already low. Then, whether Song Chengyi had done it intentionally or not, he clearly had full health and could have taken the hit for his teammate, but he did not. Instead, he smoothly allowed the enemy jungler to take He Zhen’s life.

Still, Song Chengyi did avenge him. He killed both the enemy marksman and jungler.

Looking at his corpse beneath the tower, He Zhen had something to say, though he was not sure whether he ought to say it.

For heaven’s sake...

Luo Yixia, however, was in a wonderful mood. Song Chengyi had secured the kills, and she had freeloaded her way into the assists.

During the team fights that followed, He Zhen’s fragile marksman repeatedly ended up being used as bait to draw out enemy skills, as though he were the support.

He Zhen fell into deep thought. How had a grandmaster with more than a hundred stars become such a useless novice?

Then the person who had deliberately sold out his teammate typed a line on the screen:

“Looks like you’re the one who can’t handle it.”

Luo Yixia immediately remembered how He Zhen had asked at the beginning whether he could handle the position, offering to switch if he could not. So her beloved idol really was petty. But what was she supposed to do when she liked him even more because of it?

She soon heard He Zhen laugh. “Is this girl really that vindictive?”

But he quickly added, “Though her skills are pretty good.”

The person being praised was clearly not pleased.

For the rest of the match, she showed them exactly what “pretty good” meant.

She slaughtered the enemy team from beginning to end.

Even after the opponents begged for mercy and eventually surrendered, Song Chengyi still seemed to have gone completely berserk. He charged into the enemy fountain, took another kill, and, at that very moment, the enemy crystal exploded.

“This girl is kind of incredible,” Zhao Qian praised.

“Call her Big Sis,” He Zhen said with a laugh.

But Song Chengyi had no interest in continuing. He not only left the team himself but also snatched Luo Yixia’s phone and exited the game.

“We’re not playing anymore?” Luo Yixia asked regretfully. She had been planning to rely on the others to carry her all the way to the highest rank that night.

“Next time, I’ll take you up through solo queue.” Song Chengyi handed the phone back to her.

“Okay,” Luo Yixia replied excitedly at once.

Then messages arrived from the other three.

Zhao Qian: “You’re not playing anymore? Neither of you?”

She replied: “No. I’m sleepy. Going to bed early and getting up early is good for your health.”

He Zhen: “?”

She replied: “Next time. I’m going to sleep.”

Gan Yanyan: “Xiaxia, that was your expert, wasn’t it?”

She replied: “?”

How had she figured it out? Had Luo Yixia forgotten to mute her microphone while speaking?

Gan Yanyan: “I knew it! That’s why you were willing to play with other guys tonight. Your expert must have been watching, but I never expected him to join in too. And he’s so good! An expert really is an expert.”

Luo Yixia turned off her phone.

Song Chengyi lay on the bed with his arms behind his head, one leg casually bent.

He was wearing loose pajamas. The collar had fallen slightly open in a rumpled fashion, revealing his beautiful collarbone.

Perhaps because his arms were beneath his head, a sliver of his lean waist was visible as well.

Luo Yixia felt that she was beginning to lose control of herself.

Song Chengyi looked at her from the corner of his eye.

From Luo Yixia’s angle, his eyes were half-lidded, and the contours of his face were sharply defined.

Watching the beautiful curve of his raised chin, Luo Yixia could not help wanting to bite it.

She edged closer and spoke cautiously. “Can I ask you for a favor?”

“Hmm?” Song Chengyi looked at her in confusion, waiting for her to continue.

“Can I kiss you?”

Luo Yixia had said it with shameless boldness.

Song Chengyi fell silent.

Of course, without waiting to find out whether he agreed, she leaned down and moved toward him.