Yun Qi approached Lang Xian, who lifted his head and leisurely sized him up. Yun Qi had never examined Lang Xian so closely before. All this time, it had been Lang Xian relentlessly pursuing him.
Now the moment he had been waiting for had finally arrived—the time when he needed a favor from Lang Xian and had to humble himself.
That look in Lang Xian’s eyes right now made it seem like he had long anticipated this day, and perhaps for him, it had come too late.
“Can I sit?” Yun Qi asked softly. Between teammates, such a polite question made them sound strangely distant. It was deliberate, and Lang Xian knew it.
“Please, have a seat.” Lang Xian tilted his head. The cigarette between his fingers was burning. Not many people at the SK Base smoked—only him and Yueqiu. They occasionally shared the pleasure of tobacco together. Yun Qi never touched the stuff himself, but he didn’t mind the scent.
“Captain Lang, have you been waiting for this day for a long time?” Yun Qi cut straight to the chase, gripping the back of the sofa as he questioned his Team Captain. Lang Xian had quite the striking face—no wonder the others were willing to go through hell and back for him. With looks like that, if he weren’t in esports, Yun Qi might have taken the time to properly admire him.
“What?” Lang Xian feigned confusion, his hand resting on his knee. “Which day?”
Yun Qi was endlessly patient; it was his greatest strength. “I want to meet someone above the manager. Brother Qiu said you’d be the one to talk to.”
Lang Xian flicked ash from his cigarette but denied it. “I’m not some miracle worker. I can’t just snap my fingers and get you in to see whoever you want.”
Yun Qi laid his cards on the table. “You managed to bring your little fans into the base, so you must be even more connected than I thought.”
Lang Xian didn’t respond.
If Yun Qi wanted this favor, he had to take the lead. He endured the predatory gaze Lang Xian raked over him. “I was clueless before and didn’t realize Captain Lang had these kinds of connections. Now I need to see the person in charge. I hope you’ll lend me a hand.”
Lang Xian wasn’t swayed, dropping hints in his words. “That depends on what kind of relationship you and I have. I’ve got no reason to stir up headquarters over something trivial.”
People had always said Lang Xian came from a powerful background, but Yun Qi had never known the details. These words confirmed he had pull at headquarters. He wasn’t much older than the rest of them, yet he’d risen this far. In that moment, Yun Qi found himself intensely curious about Lang Xian in a way he’d never been before. How had he pulled this off? They were both players, but in the esports team, Lang Xian wielded influence like a king.
Two possibilities came to mind. First, he was a smooth talker who knew how to charm people—a skill evident in how he interacted with everyone except Yun Qi. He got along great with Jiu Shuang and the others, playing the friendly, witty captain to perfection. That was why, even knowing Lang Xian had a thing for Yun Qi, they still sided against him.
The second option: he had been born into privilege, handed power on a silver platter without needing to schmooze anyone. There was no way to tell which it was right now.
Yun Qi knew exactly what Lang Xian wanted. Both of them did. It was just a question of who would crack first.
Looks like it was going to be him. When you needed a favor, you had to act like it. Yun Qi said bluntly, “Captain Lang, what do you want?”
Lang Xian toyed with his cigarette, exuding a steadiness beyond his years. “What I want—you’ve known that since the day you joined SK, haven’t you?”
On Yun Qi’s very first day, Lang Xian had lost no time singling him out for special attention. Even the coach back then had asked what was going on between them. Before long, the incident with Zhang Zan blew up, and the captain’s true ambitions were laid bare.
“Me?” Yun Qi asked.
The two sat facing each other in the living room. People passed through now and then, but their serious expressions kept everyone at bay. Besides, everyone on the team knew about the tension between Lang Xian and Yun Qi—no one wanted to get dragged into the drama.
“At first, yeah, it was just about getting you into bed. But you shut me down hard, kept me at arm’s length. Now my patience is gone. Your problems? Not my business.”
He adopted a sudden air of detachment.
Yun Qi shot him a deep look. Lang Xian had never brushed him off like this before. All Yun Qi had ever wanted was for Lang Xian to leave him alone—and now he finally had, but at the worst possible time. What a manipulator. Lang Xian was the one who’d brought him into the team, and now he needed him to get out.
What a twisted fate.
“Captain Lang, we’ve known each other a while now. I’ve been on the team for some time too. Even without any big contributions, can’t you help a teammate out?” Yun Qi tried to reason amiably.
He wasn’t much of a negotiator, and Lang Xian wasn’t exactly a pro either. In the end, that pitiful look in Yun Qi’s eyes wore him down, and he chuckled. “Teammates don’t get an audience with my uncle. But a lover? That might be different.”
The living room fell utterly silent, Lang Xian’s words ringing clear.
“Isn’t everyone convinced we’re a couple already? Yun Qi, if you really want my help, then stop denying it. The fans are desperate for our fake romance to turn real—so why not make their dream come true? Let’s play the part of a loving couple properly.”
“That goes against what the manager wants.”
“You don’t need to worry about Brother Li. To be honest, at today’s meeting, he actually wanted to keep you around. It was me who said no. The money’s already been spent, so a new team member has to get some playtime, right?”
So he really had been pulling strings behind the scenes.
He wasn’t even bothering to hide it.
“Now, I’m easing up on my demands for you. I don’t need anything else from you—just for the sake of our team camaraderie, how about we date?” Lang Xian said with an amused grin. “In front of the cameras, we can keep it superficial and fake. As long as the fans are happy, that’s fine. You know those videos make me look like I’m head over heels for you, but you never react, which just makes me seem pathetic. Sure, everyone guesses it’s one-sided on my part, but I don’t want to come off as that desperate in the eyes of all those netizens.”
Yun Qi stared at the corner of the table and asked cautiously, “And after that, you’ll let me go?”
“I’ll introduce you to my uncle. Talking to him will be way more effective than chatting with Brother Li—he’s the one who makes the final call,” Lang Xian said. “If you want to leave SK, you can’t avoid him.”
Date? With Lang Xian? A real relationship was out of the question, but maybe something harmless like a screen couple could be tolerable. Before sitting down here, Yun Qi had braced himself for far worse demands.
Seeing his hesitation, Lang Xian pressed, “You’ve dated before, right? With that ex-boyfriend you can’t forget—what haven’t you two done? Why pretend to be so innocent now?”
The thought made Lang Xian especially irritated. Yun Qi’s attitude toward that ex was completely different from how he treated Lang Xian.
Lang Xian had been confessing his feelings for so long, trying every soft and hard tactic in the book, but Yun Qi never budged. Given his precarious spot on the team, Yun Qi should have been the one trying to please him. Instead, everything was flipped around.
Fine then. Lang Xian wouldn’t hold back anymore. He’d thought Yun Qi was so high and mighty. Hah.
With the conversation at this point, Yun Qi dropped any pretense and agreed outright. “Sure.”
Now it was Lang Xian’s turn to be stunned. “Sure?”
Yun Qi replied, “Dating? Yeah, I know how it’s done.”
Lang Xian had expected a drawn-out battle of wills, but it never materialized. Yun Qi’s attitude was as if he’d agree to anything, no matter how outrageous, because he’d set his mind on leaving SK and was all in.
“Apart from not denying our relationship online, is there anything else I need to do?” Yun Qi’s demeanor was impeccably proper—proper to the point that Lang Xian couldn’t read his true intentions.
Lang Xian watched him for a moment, then flicked some ash from his cigarette. “If you want to act a little more intimate, I won’t object.”
“Then that’s all,” Yun Qi said as he stood up and extended his hand. He flashed Lang Xian an enigmatic smile. “Pleasant working together, Captain.”
