In the early hours of December 25th, the highway was bustling with traffic.
Yan Sheng bobbed his head along with the car music, his white fingertips resting on the very textured solid wood steering wheel.
“Later on, you’ll send me home first, then you’ll make a detour to go back on your own, hard work Sheng’er.” Song Ming rested his arm next to the car window, his wrist resting on his chin, and lazily said.
Yan Sheng clicked his tongue lightly. “If you could drive yourself home, you wouldn’t have to trouble me with this detour. You know I don’t enjoy driving.”
“I know, but aren’t I slowly helping you overcome this odd habit?” Song Ming said. “But speaking of which, that Zu Jinming didn’t even bother to disguise his true colors after yesterday’s match. Once the game was over, he didn’t even return to the club; he went straight to the airport alone.”
“Won’t he just play Mahjong in the club if he didn’t go home? ” With the car’s heater on, feeling a bit drowsy, Yan Sheng cracked the window open a bit to let in the chilly night breeze, which tousled his hair and dispelled his drowsiness. “I’m too lazy to care about him.”
After dropping off Song Ming and driving back home, it was well past 2 a.m. when Yan Sheng arrived.
Parking the car in the garage, Yan Sheng twirled the car keys in his hand, walked through the garden, and entered the house.
The living room was dim. He reached up to turn on the lights, and as the keys spun off his fingertips, they arched gracefully and landed firmly on the coffee table with a crisp sound.
“Woof!” A large black-and-white dog dashed over from some corner, wagging its tail wildly as it circled Yan Sheng.
“Fu Gui, stop bothering me. Go find your sister to play,” Yan Sheng stepped back a couple of paces, took off his shoes, and shed his coat before heading upstairs to his room.
Unperturbed, Fugui continued to follow Yan Sheng upstairs and darted into his room. Yan Sheng turned on the light, and simultaneously, a faint scent of women’s perfume wafted into his nostrils.
He wrinkled his nose and walked over to the window, opening it wide to let in fresh air before sitting down at his desk to turn on his computer.
But…
“Wait, where’s my console?!” Yan Sheng stared at the disconnected wires on the table, unable to believe it.
Fu Gui obediently laid down at his feet and let out a “woof.”
Yan Sheng fell silent for a moment, pondering the scent of the woman’s perfume.
His mother favored a more textured wooden fragrance, but the room was filled with the scent of flowers and fruits.
Yan Sheng snorted coldly and walked out of his room straight to another closed door.
The light seeping out from under the door indicated that the person inside hadn’t gone to sleep yet.
Yan Sheng raised his hand and knocked on the door loudly.
“Coming, coming! Stop knocking!!” The sound of hurried footsteps came from the room. Shortly after, the door was pulled open, revealing Yan Man in her fuzzy pajamas. With just a glance at Yan Sheng, she hurried back to her gaming chair, placing the headphones around her neck. “Oh? You’re back?”
“Do I need your permission to come home? Do I need to sign in triplicate?” Yan Sheng followed her into her room, his gaze falling on the pyramid-shaped chassis on her desk. “What’s your problem? Don’t you have your own computer? Why move my chassis?”
“As if I’m willing to use yours! My chassis was kicked by Fugui yesterday, and the graphics card broke. I had no choice but to move yours.” Yan Man didn’t spare Yan Sheng a glance, her fingers still flying over the keyboard. “Like I’m so eager to use your crappy chassis.”
Fu Gui wagged his tail proudly at her feet.
“If you’re not eager, even better. Give me back my chassis,” Yan Sheng said, reaching to unplug the wires from the chassis.
“Hey hey hey, don’t touch it! I’m in the middle of a teamfight!!” Yan Man’s view was blocked by her arm. Without hesitation, she slapped Yan Sheng’s arm to move it away. “Get lost!”
“So you’re in a teamfight.” Yan Sheng withdrew his hand, snorted, and stood behind Yan Man’s gaming chair, watching her play.
As Yan Man’s hero carefully shielded her teammates from the backline…
Yan Sheng extended a finger from behind and pressed the D key on the keyboard. Yan Man’s hero suddenly flashed into the enemy’s embrace.
In an instant, a barrage of skills came from the enemy’s side.
The screen faded to gray.
“What are you doing?!” Yan Man took off her headphones and slammed them on the table, making quite a noise. She glared fiercely at Yan Sheng.
Yan Sheng leaned on the back of her gaming chair, arms folded. “Hmm.”
“You’re done for. I’m telling Mom first thing tomorrow morning,” Yan Man looked at his nonchalant demeanor, pouting, and turned her head away, waiting for her game character to respawn on the screen.
“Oh, okay.” Yan Sheng nodded indifferently, his tone begging for a beating. “Then I’ll tell Mom how I came home in the middle of the night, heard unstoppable laughter coming from the second floor, followed the sound, and ended up in my dear sister’s room. And then, I found out that my dear sister was playing games with a companion, and she even called him ‘darling’—”
Yan Man stood up abruptly and kicked Yan Sheng’s shin.
“Can’t win an argument, so you resort to violence? What about your upbringing?” Yan Sheng squatted down, frowning up at Yan Man.
Yan Man stretched out her index finger and pulled down her eyelid, making a face at him. “Got you.”
Before Yan Sheng could respond, a man’s voice came through the headphones that were conveniently close to his ears. “Boss, everything okay?”
“You hired a companion?” He paused, looking at Yan Man’s screen. “The one Mom mentioned before? Did I actually guess right?”
“What are you talking about?” Yan Man rolled her eyes, typing “I’m fine” into the chat box before muting her microphone. “The one I hired before was fun at first, but once he thought we were close, he got cocky and started charging a lot for mediocre play. He’d pick random champions like Midlane Joker or AD Praying Mantis instead of his mains. After losing several games in a row, I deleted him.”
“A companion player, huh? Which one did you hire this time? Can they carry you, this little noob?” Yan Sheng stood up, leaning on the edge of the desk to look at the screen.
“I’m playing a regular match, all four of these are companions,” Yan Man smirked. “Got them from Tieba, five yuan for a ‘War God.'”
As the name suggests, a “War God” accompanies you for just five yuan per game.
Yan Sheng glanced at Yan Man, then back at the screen.
“Yan Man, if you have any financial difficulties, tell your big bro, I’ll give you two hundred yuan.”
“…Talk is cheap. Not interested in dealing with you.” Yan Man rolled her eyes at him. “But speaking of which, this Midlaner I got is really strong. Feels even stronger than the Midlaner in your team.”
“I called for ‘Win for Pay’ (payment is made only if the match is won), double for MVP. I’ve been playing with him all night, and MVP has been in the mid lane the whole time.”
Yan Sheng shrugged. “Your account? Just a lowly gold rank, ridiculous.”
“Don’t believe me? Come give it a try.” Yan Man challenged. “If you get MVP, I’ll give you back your console. Worst case, I won’t play games for two days. But if you don’t get it, you owe me a new console tomorrow.”
“You’re not losing out either way, huh? Alright… I’m curious where you got all this confidence from.” Yan Sheng smirked, tapping the table twice. “I’m a professional gamer, after all.”
“A professional gamer who only won one game in the regular season before the New Year? I’m embarrassed to tell my friends that Splendor is my brother. So embarrassing.” Yan Man typed in the in-game chat box as she spoke.
Yan Sheng silently ground his molars.
[Lemon under the Lemon Tree (Fae Sorceress): Next game, my brother will play on my account, jungle position.]
[Lemon under the Lemon Tree (Fae Sorceress): Whoever steals MVP from my bro gets 500 yuan.]
[Lemon under the Lemon Tree (Fae Sorceress): It’s about my face, brothers, put in effort!]
“Five hundred?!” Wang Chenyu’s eyes widened. “This girl’s loaded?!”
“Maybe she’s betting with her family,” Shen Er shrugged, “Her brother seems pretty skilled from what I heard.”
“That’s five hundred yuan! Enough to upgrade from hard seat to soft sleeper for the Spring Festival trip!!” Wang Chenyu rubbed his hands together, “I won’t bother you, but make sure to win that five hundred yuan!”
Shen Er sighed and smiled helplessly, not saying anything.
The ongoing game in the internet cafe had reached its final moment. Shen Er, with his agile moves, killed four enemies, and within minutes, the opponents surrendered.
After settling the game, they queued up again.
The boss’s account in the team unhesitatingly picked the flexible and high-damage AP assassin jungle Evelynn.
Shen Er’s account had just reached level 30, with only a few blue essences. Apart from the fox given in the beginner tutorial, there was only one champion, the Deceiver LeBlanc.
Looking at Evelynn, Shen Er didn’t do what he was expected to; instead, he chose LeBlanc.
Not because of any special synergy, purely because LeBlanc’s burst damage was higher than the fox’s, making it easier to secure kills against Evelynn with built-in execute potential.
It wasn’t for the five hundred yuan, but because he had just started working as a companion. In his mind, the first rule of being a companion was to make the boss happy.
And his boss was the one who played support well and made a bet with her brother.
Making the girl who paid him happy was the most important thing.
Hero selection ended, the game was loading—
[Welcome to Summoner’s Rift]
Shen Er didn’t turn on his mic in the noisy internet cafe, and the “brother” also muted his mic after logging in.
The boss didn’t speak, the Midlaner didn’t move, the Toplaner played solo, and only the two players in the bottom lane occasionally exchanged a few words, making the atmosphere a bit awkward.
But soon, this awkwardness was broken.
When Evelynn was at level three and lurking in the river grass, Shen Er, with keen eyes, started selling flaws the moment he saw her, and leaned toward the grass where Evelynn was lurking. In the moment when the opponent was caught off guard, Shen Er turned around and threw a chain, locking down the enemy Midlaner, Clockwork, as they made a mistake. Evelynn dashed into the grass, hitting Clockwork with a combo, leaving him with just a sliver of health.
Soon after, as Evelynn’s three spikes skill cooldown just finished, and the skill hit, Clockwork was left with less than 20 health points, and one basic attack would secure the kill.
But to his surprise, before his melee basic attack landed, a dot emerged from LeBlanc’s scepter, “click,” accurately taking the kill.
“First blood!”
“Didn’t get the kill, what a pity.” Yan Man leaned back in her gaming chair, not hiding her schadenfreude.
“Just one kill, he was lucky to escape,” Yan Sheng didn’t pay much attention. He instinctively felt that calculating skill damage based on equipment wasn’t something a gold player could do. “What’s the rush?”
But come to think of it, this LeBlanc’s play was indeed much more impressive than Zu Jinming’s.
Soon, this game unexpectedly turned into a showtime between Mid and Jungle.
When Evelynn ganked the bot lane for a double kill, LeBlanc killed the enemy Clockwork in the mid lane and the jungler who came to gank.
LeBlanc supported the top lane and secured the Rift Herald, while Evelynn stole the dragon from the enemy jungle.
When team fights broke out, the two assassins independently flanked from behind, killing the enemy carries in seconds.
The two didn’t coordinate at all, but when it came to resource control, it was as if they had an innate understanding.
Yan Sheng’s expression, initially casual, now carried a hint of seriousness. While the Gold rank game might not hold much weight, the performance and awareness of this Midlaner… definitely exceeded Gold.
“He’s only charging five yuan?” Yan Sheng’s expression cracked slightly when LeBlanc once again stole a kill from the side despite the secured kill. “Is this for real?”
“I told you this Midlaner I hired is strong. Just because I play support well doesn’t mean I can’t judge other roles. I’m not dumb.” Yan Man shrugged, pressing the button on the keyboard to check the stats. “LeBlanc is 16/0, you’re 11/0. So unless something unexpected happens…” Yan Man leaned affectionately on Yan Sheng’s shoulder. “Gege, new console, I want it all pink.”
Yan Sheng looked at the stats but didn’t rush to close the window.
Unlike Yan Man, who only cared about kill counts, what surprised him was that while LeBlanc was roaming everywhere, she was also keeping up with farming.
The common problem in low-rank games of focusing on kills over farming was not evident in her play.
“Come out with me tomorrow, I’ll get you the new console.” Yan Sheng licked his lips, suddenly smiling. “But there’s a condition.”
“…You’re making demands even though you lost the bet??” Yan Man was speechless. ” “Fine, go ahead, I’ll see if I can agree.”
“Give me the WeChat of this companion.”
Thank you for reading! 
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