She opened the notes app on her communicator.
“If there isn’t anyone you truly like, I have a few promising candidates. How about having a meal together?”
Under Ji Shifeng’s murderous stare, Su Ke gave a few stiff, awkward laughs.
“Auntie, there’s no need for now. Someone’s already pursuing me”
“Oh?”
Wen Qin’s curiosity flared.
“Whose family are they from? Do we know them? When someone’s courting you, eighty percent of how well they treat you is an act. You need to judge carefully”
Su Ke replied solemnly, “Auntie, nothing’s settled yet. Once it is, you’ll be the first to know”
Then he gave Ji Shifeng a pointed, haughty glance.
As though telling him: Hear that? Your own mother says eighty percent of how nicely people act during courtship is fake.
Ji Shileng muttered, “Mom, why didn’t you give me all these warnings?”
“Haven’t I already met Qin Si? He made quite a good impression”
Wen Qin patted Ji Jie.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen someone in military science and engineering that handsome”
Ji Shileng: “…”
No wonder Wen Qin kept taking Qin Si’s side!
His mother had already switched allegiances.
Meanwhile, Ji Shifeng, who also worked in military science and engineering: “…”
“Mom, have you forgotten about me?”
Wen Qin glanced at him.
“I’ve seen you every day since you were little. Your face has lost its mystique”
Su Ke struggled painfully to suppress his laughter.
Ji Jie sensed a threat.
“Darling, you’re a married woman”
She ought to exercise some restraint outside and stop looking around.
“Aren’t I helping Xiaoshi judge his prospects?”
Wen Qin waved a hand.
“I’ve met plenty of people. I know what sort of impression someone makes”
After lunch, Ji Shileng wandered upstairs again, with Su Ke following behind him.
“Shileng, don’t get me into trouble”
“What trouble have I gotten you into?”
They each claimed one end of the sofa, curling up and refusing to move.
“Your brother was sitting right beside me”
Ji Shileng lifted his eyelids and deliberately poked at the sore spot.
“So what? Besides, how does that compare to him catching your sexy dancing yesterday?”
Su Ke fell silent for a moment.
“Yesterday was yesterday. Today is today”
Ji Shileng gave a perfunctory acknowledgment, entirely unmoved.
Something occurred to Su Ke.
“Why did you cover the whole club’s tab?”
“If I was leaving early, shouldn’t I treat everyone?”
Ji Shileng picked up the tablet from the small table, shifted into a more comfortable position, and opened Journey to Stardom.
“Unlike someone who sneaked off”
Su Ke lunged over, pressed down on his shoulders, and protested loudly.
“I was taken against my will!”
The atmosphere had been perfect last night. Somewhere in the middle of dancing, people had rubbed an assortment of lipstick marks onto him.
Ji Shifeng had approached with barely contained anger, wrapped an arm around his waist, and steered him outside. Su Ke had cowered like a quail, scarcely daring to breathe.
Who would have dared say anything under those circumstances?
“My brother didn’t say anything to you?” Ji Shileng asked while waiting for the game to update.
With what Su Ke had been wearing yesterday, Ji Shifeng had really said nothing?
“He didn’t say much. He just threw out every similar outfit in my wardrobe after we got back”
Ji Shileng knew it. His brother was a man of action.
Su Ke grew animated.
“Want to go to the mall tonight? Your brother said he’d compensate me. He gave me a card and told me to buy some proper clothes”
Ji Shileng: “…”
How many cards had Ji Shifeng given Su Ke since he had returned?
“No”
Every time he went out, he somehow ran into Qin Si. He was tired. For now, he wanted to stay home.
“Why keep yourself cooped up?”
Seeing Ji Shileng open the arena for another ranked match, Su Ke said, “You spent all yesterday morning in the arena and ended up at the same rank. Why keep playing?”
Ji Shileng punched him in irritation, then replied sarcastically, “Not everyone has Ji Shifeng boosting their account. I’ve been his brother for all these years, and he’s never played for me”
Su Ke realized he had spoken too quickly. He had forgotten that Ji Shileng had overheard everything that night.
“Then ask him”
Ji Shileng snorted.
“I have my dignity”
“Oh,” Su Ke said. “Your dignity means getting stuck bouncing back and forth between Peerless and Unrivaled?”
In Journey to Stardom, the ranks above Grandmaster were Legend, Peerless, Unrivaled, and finally, the Lonely Invincible.
Yesterday, Ji Shileng had reached Unrivaled, only to be matched with an idiot teammate who fed the enemy kills in the very next game, sending him straight back down to Peerless.
That cycle had repeated all morning, leaving his rank exactly where it had started.
Ji Shileng smiled and tapped Ready.
“I’m starting a match. Watch me climb straight to Invincible”
The game had barely begun. Before Ji Shileng could even attempt a flanking maneuver, his squishy teammate charged straight ahead.
The swordsman had little health to begin with, and the opponents ganged up on him.
By the time Ji Shileng arrived, his fragile teammate had already collapsed.
Unsurprisingly, the match ended in defeat.
Speechless for a long moment, Ji Shileng quietly reported the squishy teammate for deliberately throwing the game.
Su Ke wanted to laugh, but for the sake of his friend’s dignity, he fought it down.
“Why not ask around in your guild and get some people to queue with you?”
Ji Shileng surrendered and opened his friends list.
“Let me look. I can’t take this anymore. What kind of miraculous teammates are these at the start of the season?”
They were even worse than Su Ke. How was he supposed to carry them alone?
“Beats me”
Seeing a string of names famous on the server rankings in Ji Shileng’s list, Su Ke was exasperated.
“You have all these experts on your friends list. Why not just invite a couple to play ranked with you?”
Why insist on fighting alone? What was wrong with him?
Even a masochist should have limits.
“We’re not close. If I drag them down, they’ll complain about me on the anonymous forums”
Ji Shileng understood the gaming community all too well.
After scrolling through the list, he stretched.
“Forget it. I’ll ask Xiao Zhao to boost me”
“Why?”
Having learned his lesson the hard way, Ji Shileng said, “They’ve been grinding like crazy. They’re all at Invincible already. I can’t queue with them”
Su Ke: “…”
It had been so long since he last played in the arena that he had almost forgotten Invincible players could not team up with Peerless players.
He continued offering dubious suggestions.
“Why not ask Qin Si to download the game? Ji Shifeng is so good at it. Qin Si probably wouldn’t be bad either”
“He’s busy”
“How do you know?”
The more Su Ke considered it, the better the idea seemed. He rubbed his chin.
“Think about it. Playing together would also make it easier to see whether he can keep his temper”
Ji Shileng swept through the shop, buying all the recently released outfits and weapon skins, while replying, “Someone like Qin Si could be at his most emotionally unstable and still be steadier than us”
“He’s just arrived in the Federation. He has plenty to deal with,” Ji Shileng said. “The day before yesterday, he was discussing business with a partner at Yongyi Court. Yesterday, he was meeting with Ji Shifeng and the others”
Su Ke’s attention veered elsewhere.
“So you two keep running into each other every other day. A bond written in the stars?”
Leave a Reply