Please, stop getting me into trouble!
Before he could save himself, he met Su Shangting's death glare. "Will you really starve to death if you don't eat five bowls of rice?"
If only I'd picked a more respectable ID. Wen Feiran's thoughts wandered for a moment before he came back to his senses a second later. "Actually, I..."
Zou Yuxing looked him up and down, blinking his bright eyes as he asked curiously, "Feiran, you eat that much?"
"..."
I'm begging you, focus on the point and stop making things worse!
He roared inwardly, but only managed to force an awkward smile. "I am, but I didn't know you were the nation's idol. I wasn't deliberately hiding it from you, haha. I picked the ID at random. I can't eat that much."
Su Shangting smiled sweetly. "Hahaha, what a coincidence."
The resentment and anger in Su Shangting's heart had almost taken physical form, piercing Wen Feiran's spine like needles. He shuddered twice despite himself, racking his brains for something to say to appease Su Shangting, but Zou Yuxing had nothing on his mind except gaming.
"This is great! Feiran's that expert friend of yours. Shangting, didn't you say he was super skilled and could carry the whole team? The three of us can duo queue together!"
Su Shangting: "I won't!"
Wen Feiran: "Let's do it another day."
Three minutes later, they entered a game together.
Wen Feiran played jungle and farmed normally. Zou Yuxing guarded the border, trading blows in his lane. Su Shangting played marksman, but as soon as he left base, he plunged straight into the jungle, not even bothering to farm his lane.
Wen Feiran felt nothing as he watched this provocation. He made himself at home in the enemy jungle, farmed to his heart's content, and picked up two kills along the way.
Seeing that his provocation had failed, Su Shangting finally reined himself in and focused on laning with the support in the bottom lane. Wen Feiran came to gank twice, helping him build an economic advantage and pin the enemy marksman under the tower.
While things were going smoothly for them and they were farming in peace, reports of victory kept coming from the top lane: Zou Yuxing died three times in a row.
"Feiran, come help me! I can't beat my opponent!" Zou Yuxing pleaded.
Su Shangting mocked him out of habit. "It's one-on-one, and you're both tanks bashing away at each other. Neither of you even loses health after several hits. How did you manage to die?"
Zou Yuxing was utterly sincere. "Obviously, it's because I suck."
The corners of Wen Feiran's lips curved slightly, but he felt it wouldn't be right to laugh, so he cleared his throat. "Hold out for another minute. I'll come help once I've cleared the jungle."
Men who acted cute had the best luck. Zou Yuxing kept sending out distress signals, and with Wen Feiran's help, he got those three kills back.
Once his stats looked good, it was easy to get carried away. Su Shangting sent the other side a message.
[A Handsome Guy: Convinced yet?]
[A Handsome Guy: Why don't you dare come looking for trouble anymore?]
The other side couldn't take it anymore.
[Handsome My Ass: The jungler's the one playing well. What's that got to do with you?]
[Handsome My Ass: You noob!]
The enemy top laner's ID and messages perfectly expressed Su Shangting's thoughts. Feeling refreshed, he looked over at Zou Yuxing's face, eager to gloat.
But Zou Yuxing was delighted and kept typing furiously.
[A Handsome Guy: This jungler is my friend.]
[A Handsome Guy: He even gives me kills of his own accord.]
[A Handsome Guy: I really am handsome, and I won't hear otherwise.]
[Handsome My Ass: ...]
[Handsome My Ass: Your skin's thick. I'll give you that.]
Having received affirmation, Zou Yuxing grew even more pleased with himself. In team fights, he stood at the front like a wall, happily dying three times in a row while lavishing them with encouragement.
"Feiran, you're so good! I'll play support next round and stay on top of you to protect you."
"Feiran, when do you usually play? Carry me!"
"Feiran, I'll send you skins too. Add me as a friend!"
In a game of three, one person was bound to be left out. Su Shangting watched the top laner and jungler getting along so affectionately, his heart sour, and couldn't help rolling his eyes.
Carrying his personal feelings into the game, he went down the bottom lane alone. No matter how Zou Yuxing asked him to group up, he refused to go help.
He had finally gotten what he wanted, but it felt lonely, and it made him think of himself.
Ever since he was little, everyone except his family had always liked Zou Yuxing a little more.
But he was Su Shangting. He would never humble himself and beg people to like him... In truth, he understood it all. Everyone only pretended to like him because of his family background. Compared with the sunny, outgoing Zou Yuxing, nobody liked someone with his personality.
Wen Feiran was just one of them, but Wen Feiran didn't even pretend. He deliberately gave Su Shangting the cold shoulder and grew close to Zou Yuxing.
All his emotions burst forth at once. Su Shangting felt aggrieved and miserable, biting his lip hard as he put on an arrogant, disdainful expression.
While he was distracted, the other side made a desperate bid, seizing on this one opening. All five of them came to ambush the marksman.
By the time Su Shangting came to his senses, it was too late. All five enemies were practically in his face, surrounding him.
Su Shangting's pupils contracted. He fumbled to use Flash and escape, tapping the screen so hard it was almost sparking, but it was only a dying struggle. He was crowd-controlled and knocked into the air, his health dropping rapidly. He could only watch as they ganged up and beat him to death.
At that critical moment, a beam of deep blue light cut in. It moved so fast that Su Shangting couldn't make out the hero's figure. He could only see eye marks appear over all five enemies' heads, and the deep blue light used them as stepping stones, darting rapidly between them. Blades flew, leaving wound after wound, while their health bars rapidly emptied.
Wen Feiran took on all five enemies by himself and managed to turn the tables and kill three of them. With one-fifth of his health remaining, he was still able to leave in style.
But Su Shangting was still crowd-controlled, with only a sliver of health left. The blue light that had already departed circled back and stopped in front of him, blocking the fatal attack for him.
The blue light turned into petals that scattered across the ground, and thanks to his life-risking rescue, Su Shangting finally escaped the jaws of death.
For some reason, Su Shangting's fingers felt a little sore. He controlled his hero to flee backward, holding out for two seconds before glancing at Wen Feiran, a complicated expression on his face.