Chapter 29: Invite a Friend

When Ji Xu woke up again, the light leaking through the gaps in the curtains was already bright and white.

He flipped over and reached out to feel the other side of the bed.

It was empty, the blanket neatly folded, and the side where Rong Du had slept was completely cold—he had clearly been gone for quite a while.

He grabbed his phone to check the time: 9:40.

Rong Du had sent a message at 8:15: “There is porridge and fried dumplings in the fridge, heat them up to eat,” followed by a routine report of “I’m off to work.”

Ji Xu put his phone down and lazed in bed for another ten minutes before pulling himself up.

After washing up, he heated the porridge and fried dumplings, sitting down at the dining table to eat slowly.

The bottom of the fried dumplings was still crispy, and the porridge had preserved egg and lean pork added to it.

Drinking a hot bowl of it down, yesterday’s bloated sensation completely vanished.

After finishing and tidying up, Ji Xu nestled into the sofa, taking out his phone to open his game out of habit.

He felt like his gaming addiction was getting heavier and heavier.

Whenever he had nothing to do, he thought about playing a match, his fingers tapping the icon, entering the interface, and matching completely beyond his control.

While condemning himself, he started a match.

After picking support, he began to think with absolute confidence again—it wasn’t entirely to blame on his weak willpower; playing games with Chu Siran was honestly just too satisfying.

The speed of ranking up was like speeding on a highway—once a winning streak started, it couldn’t even be stopped.

Even if they lost, someone was there to carry the load.

Either way, Chu Siran never yelled at anyone or passed the blame, quietly starting the next match whenever they lost.

However, luck was clearly not on his side today.

The first match was a loss, the second match was also a loss, the third match the jungler got lost in the jungle and fed first blood, the fourth match the marksman went AFK halfway through, the fifth match the enemy mid and jungler teamed up to tear their bottom lane apart, the sixth match was a loss, and the seventh match was a loss.

Ji Xu watched his stars drop one by one, the aggrieved frustration in his heart piling up thicker and thicker.

By the end of the eighth match, looking at the big word “DEFEAT” on the screen, he slammed his phone onto the sofa cushion in anger, then picked it up distressedly to inspect the screen, letting out a sigh of relief only after confirming it wasn’t cracked.

“Brother, we lost again,” Ji Xu turned on the voice chat, his voice carrying an aggrieved tone that couldn’t be hidden no matter what.

He had played like this and still lost continuously—where was the justice in that?

Chu Siran’s side was quiet for a moment, and then his voice came through the headphones, slightly warmer than usual: “It’s fine, let me call a friend.”

Ji Xu actually didn’t really want to play anymore.

Having lost so many matches, the enthusiasm in his heart was pretty much worn away, and his fingers didn’t really want to move either.

Yet looking at the stars he had lost, he felt too aggrieved—the stars he had worked so hard to save up were gone just like that.

If he didn’t win them back, he wouldn’t even be able to sleep peacefully tonight.

What if?

What if they won the next one?

He thought about it and nodded: “Alright then.”

A moment later, a third person entered the room.

His ID was “Han Yi,” and his avatar was a blurry silhouette of a side profile.

After entering the room, he typed a line of text in the public chat: “Yo, how rare. Chu Siran, you actually took the initiative to call me to play games.”

Chu Siran didn’t reply with anything, starting the matchmaking directly.

“This is my friend, Han Yi,” Chu Siran gave a brief introduction, his voice flat as if reading a manual.

When Han Yi’s voice came through the headphones, it was much livelier than Chu Siran’s.

His voice was clear and bright, carrying a natural, cheerful energy: “Ji Xu, right? Heard Chu Siran mention you. Playing support, right? Got it, I’ll jungle for you and Siran, guaranteed to carry your rhythm to victory.”

After finishing speaking, he laughed to himself, that kind of laughter making people feel that this person was probably of a lively nature in everyday life.

Once inside the game, Han Yi and Ji Xu were the ones talking most of the time.

Han Yi talked a lot, chatting about this and that—praising Ji Xu’s vision placement, teasing the enemy jungler for coming to practice a new hero, and howling “was that play cool or what” after getting a double kill himself.

Driven by him, Ji Xu also began talking more, the two of them chatting back and forth.

Chu Siran occasionally chimed in with a couple of sentences, mostly short operational commands and brief agreements.

However, Ji Xu’s support never left Chu Siran’s bottom lane from start to finish.

Whether Han Yi was making waves in the jungle or the enemy jungler ganked several times, Ji Xu was always firmly stuck behind Chu Siran.

Handing shields to him, keeping crowd control for the enemy, and always activating heal right on time whenever Chu Siran was low on health.

Toward the mid-to-late game, after a team fight finished, Chu Siran’s marksman was focused down by the enemy team and sent back to the fountain to await respawn.

Han Yi’s jungler was at full health roaming the jungle clearing minion waves.

Glancing at the mini-map, he saw Ji Xu’s support wandering idly under the tower, so he turned on his mic and called out: “Ji Xu, come follow me quickly. I don’t have anyone helping me right now, nobody even cares when my jungle gets invaded.”

His tone carried a playful act of spoiled coyness, intentionally dragging out the tail end of his words.

Ji Xu hesitated under the tower for about two seconds, and then controlled his support character to trot off toward the bottom lane—Chu Siran had respawned and was running out from the fountain.

Without turning back, Ji Xu’s support abandoned Han Yi who was still waiting for him, trotting all the way to Chu Siran’s side.

Applying shields, setting up vision, and obediently following behind him toward the lane.

Han Yi was alone in the jungle clearing the blue buff, and watching the receding back of Ji Xu’s golden-haired little support trotting away, he couldn’t help laughing out loud: “Ji Xu, I’m really good at playing games too. How about following me instead?”

The teasing flavor in his tone grew even stronger: “Look at me, an eighteen-game win streak in the jungle, a team fight harvester—not any worse than that marksman brother of yours.”

Ji Xu was currently blocking an enemy ranged skill for Chu Siran, and upon hearing this, he didn’t even turn back: “No, I want to follow Brother.”

His voice was straight and firm, without hesitation or second thought.

Han Yi’s side was quiet for about a second, and then let out an exaggerated, long-drawn-out “Yo—Brother—”

He mimicked the tone of those two words with endless twists and turns, the “oh, I get it” meaning behind his tone palpable even through the microphone.

“So that’s how it is. I was wondering why calling me to play games normally never worked, yet today you actually took the initiative to pull me in—turns out it was to carry the little support up the ranks.”

He was still rambling to himself over there, “Chu Siran, you guy, I really couldn’t tell…”

“Han Yi,” Chu Siran’s voice finally came through the headphones, slightly lower than before, carrying a hint of warning, “be serious.”

Han Yi immediately switched to an innocent tone over there: “Where am I not being serious? My jungling is very serious.”

But right after finishing his words, he couldn’t help letting out a low “tch,” clearly not having completely swallowed that breath down yet.

Ji Xu couldn’t quite understand what riddles they were playing at, nor was he bothered to dig deeper.

He focused intently on his screen.

Chu Siran’s marksman encountered the enemy in the middle lane river, and he dashed over with a displacement skill to keep up, throwing out a sequence of shields, slows, and heals.

Chu Siran followed up with output to take down the enemy head, and when the kill prompt popped up on the screen, Ji Xu couldn’t help shouting, “Brother is so cool!”

Hearing this sound in the jungle, Han Yi clicked his tongue once more.

The three of them played several matches in a row.

Han Yi’s jungling was indeed effective, driving the tempo high.

Chu Siran’s marksman was forever as steady as an output machine.

Ji Xu’s support executed everything he could do to the absolute limit.

The win streak icon never broke starting from the first match, lighting up one after another.

Watching his lost stars grow back one by one, Ji Xu felt that aggrieved feeling washed completely clean.

When the crystal was pushed down in the final match, he checked his rank—not only had he recovered all the stars lost in the morning, but he had also gained an extra small star.

“Wow,” Ji Xu flipped through the data on the settlement screen, his support having gotten MVP twice and a gold medal support once, placing him in an exceptionally good mood, “we are honestly so awesome!”

Han Yi let out a yawn over there: “Alright, I should head out, I have stuff to do this afternoon.”

Before leaving the room, he added one more sentence: “Ji Xu, next time if this brother of yours makes you lose again, you can come find me. I’ll carry you to win it back.”

After saying that, he left, leaving only Ji Xu and Chu Siran in the room.

Looking at the empty spot left by Han Yi, Ji Xu thought that although this guy had a bit of a snappy mouth, he was indeed very good at playing games.

Still, he was more willing to follow Chu Siran.

After all, Chu Siran not only played well, but could also drop gold coins.

The moment he thought of this reason, he felt it was entirely valid and sufficient, naturally attributing all his motivation for choosing to “follow Brother” to that.

He opened the chat box with Chu Siran, sent a message saying “Brother is honestly so awesome” followed by a row of bouncing little figures, and then set his phone down.

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