Chapter 43 Part 4

After arriving at the agreed spot, Yun Qi paid the cab fare with his phone. The driver asked him to leave a good review, and Yun Qi promised he would.

He walked into the coffee shop, and soon Ziwu showed up too. Yun Qi turned to look at him. “Why are you following me?”

“Are you that afraid of me being around?”

“Stay if you want.” Yun Qi didn’t care if Ziwu overheard their conversation—it wasn’t anything that couldn’t be known to others.

After spotting Li Meng, Yun Qi hadn’t even had time to react when he noticed another uninvited guest—Lang Xian had actually come along too.

Ziwu noticed Yun Qi’s footsteps pause and found the drama amusing. He strode forward first and said in a low voice, “No wonder you didn’t want me tagging along. When enemies meet, their eyes burn with rage. Are you scared he’ll tear you apart?”

Ziwu got there first. Before Yun Qi could say anything, he had already sat down across from Li Meng. Li Meng was very surprised and looked up to see Yun Qi standing there frozen. He immediately understood what was holding him back and said, “Yun Qi.”

Yun Qi walked over. It had been nearly two months since his acrimonious split from his old team. After joining the new esports team, he hadn’t kept in much contact with his former teammates, and he had zero interaction with Lang Xian anymore. Seeing him now, Yun Qi couldn’t exactly say he hated him or anything—he just didn’t want to see him.

It just made him uncomfortable.

“Ziwu came too,” Li Meng said with an appreciative look. “Looks like you’re doing pretty well at your new place.”

“He’s a member of our Starting Roster now,” Ziwu said after sitting down. “A fierce Top Laner, no less.”

No one knew why he was suddenly hyping Yun Qi up like this.

Li Meng said, “Really? That’s true—it’s been so long, I almost forgot Yun Qi used to play Top Laner back in the day, and he was pretty good at it. It’s been a while, but he’s still made it onto your Starting Roster. That surprises me.”

Yun Qi sat down.

Lang Xian looked at him and said, “Long time no see.”

Yun Qi didn’t even need to look to know what expression he had on his face, so he deliberately ignored Lang Xian and said to Li Meng, “What do you want with me?”

Li Meng glanced at Ziwu. Ziwu caught on immediately. “Our Captain isn’t here today, so he sent me instead. He’s worried the newbie might not handle things well and told me to report back on anything I hear or see.”

Li Meng said, “No need for that, then. What I want to talk to him about is a personal matter—it won’t affect your team’s harmony.”

Ziwu said, “Then I’ll just listen in for now.”

Li Meng saw that Ziwu had no intention of leaving—and since he was Xu Muzhe’s guy, Li Meng couldn’t afford to offend him—so he let him stay.

Li Meng called the server over for coffee, then exchanged some small talk, asking Yun Qi, “Are you adapting well to the new team?”

Yun Qi didn’t play along with his pleasantries and showed no patience. “Brother Li, just get to the point. We’re all busy.”

Having switched to a new team had given him more confidence, so he spoke bluntly now. Yun Qi had always had a bit of a temper back in the old team, but contract issues had forced him to swallow it down. Unlike now, where he could be so unrestrained. Li Meng decided to stop beating around the bush.

“Xue Yan should have told you about the account a couple of days ago,” Li Meng said. “What I mean is, Qiluo’s account goes to you now. We talked it over, and with the guy gone, clinging to the account doesn’t make much sense. We’ll hand it over for free—no starting from scratch to build followers. Sure, you’ve got traffic, but most of it’s from marketing hype. Your real fans probably aren’t that many, and they might not bother following a new account. So keep running Qiluo’s, but on one condition: delete the pinned video.”

Yun Qi shot back, “What kind of ‘free’ is that?”

The pinned video had exposed Lang Xian, and it was still up. No matter how SK’s higher-ups tried to manage the fallout, anyone who remembered could repost it, dragging Lang Xian through the mud all over again. They couldn’t erase it completely without wiping every trace—and as long as that video lingered, the storm over SK would never fully die down.

“You’re with your new team now, and like you said, you’ve climbed into the starting roster and things are going great. It’s been a while—do you really have to burn every bridge with your old team, Yun Qi?” Li Meng asked.

Yun Qi replied evenly, “I don’t want to go that far, but how do you make up for what I lost over those two years at SK? You schemed against me without a second thought, but the second I push back a little, you complain? On what grounds?”

“Haven’t you caused us enough trouble already?”

“Was that trouble mine?” Yun Qi’s gaze sharpened. “Brother Li, I wouldn’t dare claim it.”

Lang Xian finally spoke up from the side. “Don’t push your luck.”

Yun Qi flicked a dismissive glance his way. “You think you have a say here?”

Lang Xian slammed the table, but Li Meng clamped a hand on his arm. Leaning forward with his elbow on the coffee table, Li Meng cut straight to the chase like the old hand he was. “Name your price.”

The coffee arrived just then. Ziwu sat back like none of it concerned him, sipping his drink while gazing out the window at the gathering clouds. Sure enough, rain was coming.

His convertible’s top was still down.

Damn it.

“Thirty million,” Yun Qi said.

A heavy silence settled over the table.

Li Meng listened as if it were a punchline. “Say that again.”

Yun Qi traced the rim of his coffee cup. “Thirty million. Not a cent less. And it’s not coming out of the team’s pocket.”

He shot a pointed look at Lang Xian.

Lang Xian’s eyes bulged. “Have you lost your mind?”

Yun Qi leaned back against the sofa. “Brother Li’s right—SK’s my old team. No need to burn bridges there. And this whole mess is just between you and me. That video doesn’t drag anyone else into it, does it? So why should SK foot the bill? You’re the one who suffered the backlash, and SK only got flak because of the splash damage. As captain of SK’s First Team—and the one who kicked this off—you can handle scrubbing it yourself. Thirty million shouldn’t break you, Captain Lang.”

“You’re asking for a king’s ransom?”

“Not at all,” Yun Qi said. “That’s just compensation for two years of mental torment. Thirty million’s a steal.”

“You’ve gone money-mad, haven’t you?” Lang Xian’s glare turned venomous. “Playing the pure and chaste martyr in front of me when no amount would do, and now it’s thirty million on the tip of your tongue? I didn’t have you pegged wrong—you’re as ambitious as they come.”

“What’s wrong with a little ambition?” Yun Qi replied. “If I’d rolled over for the pocket change you tossed at fans, I’d be scraping by right now.”

Li Meng took a sip from his cup and shared a knowing smile with Ziwu. Suddenly, the two of them seemed like total outsiders.

“If that’s how you want it, fine,” Lang Xian snarled. “Fish die, net breaks. You think I don’t have dirt on you?”

Yun Qi went quiet.

Lang Xian doubled down. “With that attitude, there’s nothing left to talk about. Let’s just tear each other apart, then. In SK those two years, you thought you could just walk away scot-free? Public opinion? I’ll see you there.”

With that, Lang Xian shoved back his chair and stormed out.

Li Meng, mid-sip, glanced at Lang Xian’s furious retreating back and sighed in exasperation. “Well, that lasted even shorter than I figured.”

Yun Qi watched him.

“I figured after all that online hate, he’d have mellowed out a bit,” Li Meng said. “Nope—still sets off like a firecracker. You’ve really shaken things up, Yun Qi.”

“He’s got nothing I haven’t seen,” Yun Qi said. “Why should I be scared?”

Li Meng chuckled. “New team, new attitude—straightened your spine right up. Got to be Eidis’s doing, huh?”

Yun Qi said nothing.

Li Meng took that as confirmation. “All the same, thanks for this. Getting him to pay up actually solves a headache for me. You’ve still got a heart.”

“It’s not that I have a conscience,” Yun Qi said, glancing over. “Brother Li, you brought him here so I could settle this privately with him, right? If SK really wanted to smooth things over, you could’ve come alone.”

Li Meng scratched his head. “It’s been so long since we last met. I’d forgotten just how sharp you are.”

Li Meng pushed his coffee aside and muttered as if talking to himself, “Alright, this is just going through the motions to show the higher-ups I’ve done everything I can. The Big Boss caught wind of this recently and knows there’s trouble brewing below. Lang Xian’s uncle got investigated and took the fall for it. A new director’s stepping in right away, and they told me I know you guys best, so I should handle it. What the hell can a manager like me actually do? In the end, I had no choice but to roll the dice—betting on your ability to separate personal grudges from professional matters.”

It sounded like praise, but it left Yun Qi feeling anything but pleased. He managed a perfunctory smile.

“I’m not going to disturb you two any longer,” Li Meng said as he stood and stepped away from the table. When he reached Yun Qi, he patted his shoulder with a slight bow of his head. “I know you’ve got resentment built up. Brother Li really hasn’t looked out for you these past two years. For the sake of our old friendship, let me give you some advice: vent your anger and grudges all you want, but once that’s done, it’s time to move on. That video has to come down—no two ways about it. Time it right yourself, and don’t make things too awkward for me, alright?”

Yun Qi didn’t respond, and Li Meng clearly hadn’t expected him to. Turning to Ziwu, he said, “Ziwu, I’m heading out first. When you get back, give my regards to your captain.”

Ziwu smiled. “Of course.”

With that, Li Meng left.

The coffee on the table grinned up at Yun Qi, its foamy smile a mocking sight.

He stirred it with his spoon until the grin dissolved completely. Only then did Yun Qi feel a measure of relief.

Ziwu had overheard the entire exchange. Propping his head on one hand, he watched Yun Qi and remarked, “Undercurrents everywhere, just as messy as I figured.”

Yun Qi hadn’t touched his coffee. He dangled the spoon idly in his hand, his mind elsewhere. “You’ve heard everything you wanted. Why aren’t you leaving?”

“Kicking me out?” Ziwu replied. “In that case, I’ll stick around even longer.”