A Little Later, and Wu Jin Would Have Respawned

Shi Mu stood up when he heard footsteps and saw that Wu Jin had changed clothes. He still had a smile on his face.

The bandage on her hand was still in place.

"You can sit next to me. Is that okay, little drowned rat?"

Wu Jin nodded, then looked at Shi Mu earnestly. "I'll return the clothes once I've washed and dried them."

Seeing how serious Wu Jin looked, Shi Mu couldn't help finding it funny and agreed.

Wantonly poked his head out from the side, grinning.

"Little A Jin, let's play ranked together~ What do you say, what do you say~?"

"Okay."

That was the first thing anyone there besides Shi Mu had heard Wu Jin say. She had only given a faint nod when they greeted her.

The girl's cool, clear voice matched her appearance perfectly.

Wu Jin was willing to talk to them! This was a giant leap in human history!

"I'm joining too."

Qin Zhou spoke up.

"Do you have to butt in on everything?"

"Yeah, so what?"

The two were about to start bickering again when they heard Shi Mu say they would play as a five-stack. They each huffed at the other and looked away, finally settling down.

The four logged into their personal accounts. Shi Mu searched for Boosting Services and sent her a friend request when her account came up. After Wu Jin accepted, he invited her into the team.

Wantonly: "Miss, that's quite a memorable name you've got."

Clear: "Damn, it's got even more personality than my ID."

Clear's ID was: Big Cockroach Kept by a Rich Woman.

Wu Jin: "It makes earning money easier."

Bin gave a quiet snort, as if mocking her.

Wantonly opened Wu Jin's profile and looked at the page full of national server titles and the glaringly obvious number of days she had played: only sixty-six. Shocked, he let out a curse.

"What are you making a fuss about now?"

"Holy shit, holy shit! Little A Jin is insane! She got this many national server titles in two months!"

Clear gave Wantonly a puzzled look and opened Wu Jin's profile. When he saw it, he couldn't help being shocked too.

With skills like that, was she even human?

Bin took a look and dismissed it. What was so impressive about that? How good could a woman be anyway? Besides, which of them didn't have a pile of national server titles?

They entered the match and reached the ban-pick phase. Half the ban slots were occupied by supports. Seeing that Yamei, whom he wanted to play, had been banned, Wantonly cursed again in frustration.

"Boo-hoo-hoo! I wanted to play Yamei and stick to Little A Jin like a conjoined twin! Boo-hoo-hoo!"

"Are you treating Brother Mu like he's invisible?"

"Brother Mu wouldn't mind. Right?"

Wantonly threw Shi Mu a flirtatious glance, and Shi Mu threw one right back.

"What do you think?"

Yikes~ Wantonly shuddered.

Their captain really was a male fox spirit. He was not to be messed with.

Wu Jin was in the first pick slot. Shi Mu glanced at the girl beside him. Ever since he had first met her, Wu Jin had been cool and indifferent, with hardly any change in her expression.

"Pick whoever you're best at. Carry me, little top laner."

Wu Jin nodded and locked in Mulan the next second.

Once the game began, Wu Jin steered Mulan toward the top lane. She pushed the wave first, cleared the minions, then entered the enemy jungle and killed a small jungle monster. After returning to her own side, she cleared another small monster, steadily increasing her gold.

Wantonly helped Shi Mu push the wave, then went into the enemy jungle to harass them. He also stole a small jungle monster from the enemy marksman before returning to the bottom lane, satisfied, to provide vision.

At four minutes, Shi Mu called out that the enemy jungler was approaching the top lane.

"Wait for me. I'll be right there."

"Okay."

Wu Jin crouched in the brush, holding her second skill ready. She panned the camera and saw that Shi Mu was already close. The enemy jungler showed himself, and Wu Jin predicted his movement, throwing out her second skill followed by a basic attack to lock him down. Shi Mu immediately followed up with a full combo.

First Blood!

Wu Jin claimed first blood.

"Nice."

Shi Mu smiled.

"Wow, wow! Miss, you've got us off to a great start!"

With things underway in the top lane, Shi Mu went to help gank the bottom lane. Working with bin's Vivian, he stuck to the two enemies and secured a double kill.

"Oh, right, Little A Jin, what are you planning to use for your ID?"

"What?"

Shi Mu glanced at the girl beside him, who was concentrating on the game, and explained, "I mean a handle. For example, my ID is GOD.Time."

"I haven't decided yet."

Wantonly's eyes darted around. "How about Godness? It would go so well with our team name."

Clear rolled his eyes. "Could you be any cheesier?"

At ten minutes, Shi Mu finished taking a buff and prepared to take the first dragon.

Wu Jin cleared her wave and headed toward the dragon pit. "Bo'er is on his way over."

"Got it!"

Wantonly panned the camera. "The jungler hasn't shown himself. Be careful over there."

It was two against two, so there was nothing to fear. The enemy jungler jumped into the dragon pit with his ultimate, and Shi Mu quickly pulled away. Wu Jin attacked with her first skill followed by her second. Bo'er dashed into the fight and caught Mulan with the crowd control from his second skill. Clear went in with a combo, latched onto Bo'er and pushed him back some distance.

The two enemy heroes were almost out of health when a skill appeared beneath Mulan's feet and froze her instantly. The enemy jungler countered with an ultimate, claiming Wu Jin's life.

Shi Mu wasn't having an easy time either. Ice King's ultimate slowed him down, and despite his last-ditch maneuvers to escape, Bo'er caught him with a first-skill-and-Flash combo followed by his ultimate, finishing him off.

"Bin, are you sleepwalking?"

Bin blinked, his tone innocent. "I didn't notice. Sorry about that."

He had deliberately withheld the signal. So what? He just couldn't stand how Wu Jin was clearly pleased with herself yet pretended not to care. What was she putting on an act for? She had died anyway.

Wantonly glanced at him, somewhat speechless. Had this guy always been so careless?

Over the next few exchanges, bin appeared to go top to help, but intentionally or otherwise, he revealed his position. The enemy top laner, mid laner and jungler then coordinated their attacks, and bin deliberately abandoned Wu Jin, causing her to keep getting killed.

Even Clear, who was in the middle lane, could tell something was wrong and laid into bin.

"What the hell is wrong with you? You faked her out to make Wu Jin go in, then ran away yourself. Are you going to play or not?"

Bin kept up the act. "I didn't. She was too reckless. Didn't I ping retreat?"

"If you'd pinged retreat any later, Wu Jin would have respawned already."

Shi Mu sounded like he was joking, but when bin looked up and met his icy gaze, he immediately lowered his head again.

Sure enough, once bin behaved himself, the games went smoothly. They won several matches as they got used to playing together, and Wu Jin's aggressive style sped up the pace.

"I haven't had this much fun in ages."

"If Brother Jiang heard you say that, he'd be heartbroken~"

"Heh, quit trying to stir things up."

Shi Mu checked the time. It was quite late. He glanced at Wu Jin beside him; there was a trace of fatigue in the girl's expression, her skin was so pale it looked almost sickly, and the corners of her eyes were red.

"That's it for today. You can get some rest."

"Yay, yay! Back to scroll through Douyin and look at pretty girls!"

Wantonly stretched mightily and let out a contented sigh.

Wu Jin arrived at her door and found a bag hanging from the handle with a little note attached:

I was worried you might not have everything you needed, so I had Auntie Lin, who takes care of the living arrangements, buy you a few things. -Handsome Brother Qian

Wu Jin peeled off the note, took the bag and opened her door. She was about to go in when Shi Mu called out to her.

Shi Mu held out a transparent bag and some warm water. "You might catch a cold after getting caught in the rain. It'll delay training."

Wu Jin lowered her eyes, accepted his kindness and thanked him before going into her room and closing the door.

Sitting in a chair, Wu Jin saw her vacant gaze reflected in the glass. The girl stared blankly at the bandage in the bag. In the light of the room that night, Wu Jin seemed to soften a little, like a melting block of ice.

She took the medicine, rebandaged her hand and sent her grandmother a message to let her know she was safe. She lay down on the bed and fell asleep before long.

Perhaps she was simply exhausted today, or perhaps she had gone for too many days to count without being able to lie down and fall asleep with her mind at ease as she did now.

In any case, Wu Jin could finally sleep well tonight.