“Your debut? At a tournament?” Qiuyun lowered her phone to check the time. “Don’t you have your college entrance exams in about twenty days?”
“It won’t get in the way.” Pei Cizhou rubbed his knuckles. “Aren’t you curious why I’m taking part in a tournament?”
Qiuyun was speechless. “How would I know? What, is it an esports tournament?”
“...?” Pei Cizhou looked puzzled. “Have you been checking out RG’s official Weibo account?”
“Of course not.”
It was just that from the very first time she’d met him, she’d felt that this cool boy didn’t look like someone who could wield a calligraphy brush. He looked much more like someone who played esports.
“All right, that’s not important either.” Pei Cizhou emphasized, “What matters is that I’m entering this esports tournament to become famous. Don’t you want to come and join in the excitement, Miss Qiuyun?”
“Become famous?” Qiuyun’s thoughts turned. “Kill two birds with one stone?”
Pei Cizhou made a sound that clearly meant, You really do understand me. “Exactly.”
He wanted to promote the game launching in August, but also to cut off the path his parents had laid out for him to enroll at Beizheng.
Last time, he had secretly transferred high schools behind his family’s back. This time, he wanted to pull the same trick with his university application, but it wouldn’t be so easy.
Qiuyun clicked her tongue. “That should indeed make it pretty easy for you to become famous. With a face like yours, even if your skills are terrible, you’ll still have fans who like you.”
“Who says I’m relying only on my looks? My skills are top-notch too, okay?”
“Ahem. Doesn’t President Pei know that a handsome man’s highest state is being unaware of his own handsomeness?”
The game began. There wasn’t much to do in the early stages, and Pei Cizhou manipulated the mouse and keyboard with ease. “Sorry, but there are no handsome men in this world who are unaware of their own looks. If there are, they’re just pretending.”
What a show-off.
Qiuyun sighed. Fine, she admitted he had a point.
After all, she was equally aware of the advantage her looks gave her when dealing with people.
Seeing that she had fallen silent, Pei Cizhou straightened slightly. “Could it be that Miss Qiuyun prefers handsome men who don’t know they’re handsome? I can—”
“I don’t.” Qiuyun rubbed her temples. “You can stop right there. The way you are now is fine.”
The corners of Pei Cizhou’s lips curved up, secretly pleased. “Thanks for the compliment.”
What?
What was it this time?
“After all that, are you coming to watch my debut on Saturday afternoon?” Pei Cizhou asked.
“I’m busy.”
He let out two fake sobs. “That hurts. So direct, too. You could at least have been a little more tactful.”
“...” Qiuyun gave him what he wanted. “I’m so sorry. I have an unexpected meeting that afternoon and really can’t get away. I won’t be able to come cheer you on in person, President Pei, but I’ll support you remotely online. Good luck!”
“All right, it’s a promise.” Pei Cizhou’s fingers sped up on the keyboard, and he couldn’t help but feel secretly delighted. “Miss Qiuyun, you have to keep your word. Remember to support me online.”
?
Qiuyun froze, phone in hand.
Could that have been his real objective from the start?
How had this little devil become so much more powerful during the time they hadn’t seen each other? He could already set traps for her in advance!
Qiuyun sighed. “President Pei, are you very free right now?”
“Not at all.”
His long, beautiful fingers rapidly entered commands and made decisions on the keyboard. On the monitor beside him, his hand speed was climbing toward 580!
Pei Cizhou narrowed his eyes slightly and chose the flashiest move available. A grenade launcher blasted the opposing base, and the words GAME OVER appeared on the screen.
Below them was a row of English letters displaying the game’s various performance statistics.
Pei Cizhou chuckled and said pitifully, “Although Miss Qiuyun has already agreed, it’s fine if you want to change your mind. I was only saying it casually, and you can just listen casually. I won’t be sad or upset, and I definitely won’t let it affect my performance, or—”
“Stop.”
Qiuyun was completely defeated by him. “Fine, fine, I’ll watch. Is that enough?”
Pei Cizhou immediately brightened. “Then give me your account number. I’ll upgrade your membership.”
The call ended.
Only then did the assistant beside him come over to record the data from Pei Cizhou’s game.
“QY, you’re incredible! Your hand speed still hit 578 even while flirting with a girl on the phone!”
Pei Cizhou’s expression immediately turned cold. “Watch how you refer to my friend. And I don’t need your evaluation.”
The assistant hurriedly apologized. “I was just talking nonsense. Don’t take it to heart.”
After recording the data, the assistant quickly slipped away. The coach came over and restored the game interface.
“Five minutes and forty-two seconds. You were just one minute away from setting a new record for the tournament server!”
“The opponents were simply too weak.” Pei Cizhou unscrewed a bottle of mineral water. “By the way, replace the person from just now. I don’t like him.”
“All right, all right.” When it came to a genius player, the coach was perfectly willing to accommodate such a small request. “Do you know what Blitz’s highest hand speed was?”
“621.”
“That’s right! It was when he was nineteen, at the peak of his form!” The coach looked excitedly at his new eighteen-year-old player. “If we train properly, we might be able to break that record!”
Pei Cizhou set down the bottle without replying. “Start another round. I’ll try to take my time finishing this one.”
“All right. I’ll also go over the play styles of the contestants in the second stage with you.”
Saturday arrived.
It was a lively day.
The finale of a wildly popular audition show was taking place. A singer who had left the industry six years ago was holding her comeback concert. An S-plus-budget historical drama was beginning production. And the veteran online game Legend was launching the second stage of its tournament.
No matter which entertainment circle or fandom you followed, something major was happening today.
There was delicious gossip everywhere.
Qiuyun’s alarm went off. She had the game livestream playing beside her while she busily whipped egg whites by hand.
After eating so many desserts for so long, she’d finally developed an interest in trying to make some herself.
Viewers had arrived in the chat early:
— I’m here to see whether he really looks as good as his photos.
— I have to admit, he’s seriously handsome in the promotional shots. Like, genuinely handsome.
— Just looking at the photos, there isn’t a single thing wrong with his eyes, nose, or mouth. I’m kind of looking forward to this.
— The people above are all girls, right? So superficial. If he plays badly, I’ll still flame him!
— Same. In esports, being bad is the original sin.
Qiuyun took out the flour and weighed it.
Pei Cizhou had invited her to watch his debut with such confidence that he probably wasn’t terrible, right?
After the host finished making small talk, the camera shifted to the commentators. Their first topic was also QY, whose popularity had been soaring in the scene lately.
QY?
Qiuyun was puzzled. Wasn’t that her own name’s initials?
One commentator asked, “You went backstage to see him earlier, didn’t you? What do you think? Give our viewers a little preview.”
The other commentator replied, “I won’t reveal too much. I can only say that he’s the most handsome person I’ve ever seen in my entire life. No exceptions.”
Comments floated across the screen:
— For Old K to praise him this much? Old K is already one of the handsome guys in the scene himself. This guy must have something going for him.
— Could Old K just be hyping him up for publicity? Deliberately raising everyone’s expectations?
— They’re about to come onstage anyway. We can just see for ourselves!
Before long, the image switched to the competition venue.
Legend was a strategy fighting game. Matches could be played with seven players, five players, or three players, followed by a 1v1 final.
Since it was the beginning of the season, the current event was a seven-player free-for-all. The top three would advance to the winners’ bracket for the five-player competition, while the remaining four would enter the losers’ bracket.
The host’s voice rang out as he introduced the contestants one by one. Then he reached the sixth player.
“Let’s welcome some fresh blood—the RG team’s QY!”
Qiuyun stared at the familiar face on the screen.
It really was him—Pei Cizhou!
