Rise (Web Novel CN)

Liu Yue looked at the two women. Then he looked over at Ouyang, next to him and jumping on Lin Feng, shouting and pointing at the two girls. Liu Yue’s face turned red. He felt his heart pounding in his chest. A whole lot faster than normal. He looked down at the ground as chills ran up and down his body. He took a step back, shaking. He tried to look up, tried to look at the two gorgeous women. Are they looking at me? Gotta check. One quick glance. Quick like a cat! LET’S GO! He took a quick glance at them, just to make sure they didn’t notice him noticing them. Beads of sweat materialized on his forehead. The scent of his armpits suddenly arrived at his nose. He wanted to make sure it wasn’t too bad, but that would be too weird. W-what should I say? Do I say hi? Is that normal? Will they think I’m a creep? I should just say something, right? But what if they think I’m stupid? Maybe they’ll laugh at me. I should just say hi. I think? Maybe. What are the others… He glanced around. At Ouyang being his normal dude-bro self, right up in Lin Feng’s face. At Yang Fan standing off on the side, casually and analytically leering at the two women. He was especially interested in the redhead. At Chen Ze and Wei Dong who looked like identical twins. Staring and drooling and nearly falling over each other, excited to be in the presence of these two women.

Ren Rou glared at the boys. Disgusting pigs! They’re all the same! These guys saw new lands, unexplored horizons and lost their minds in the thrill of discovery! Even though they didn’t have a shot in seven hells at getting anywhere near these two ladies. They still lost their minds! Why are they always like this? Swines! She’d had enough of it and put her fist to her mouth, scraped her throat, and coughed, “Ahuh-hem!”

Rudely interrupted from his argument with Lin Feng, Ouyang turned to Ren Rou. There was true righteous anger and thundering fury blazing in his eyes. And then it died. Shit. He knew that look. He knew what was coming next if he didn’t stop. He nodded and looked around at his friends. They had round eyes and red faces, stammering and babbling random small talk.“A-ah, weather. Good. Yes.”“H-haha. Uh. Daydream. We're just daydreaming!”“Uhhh, yes! Daydreaming! Me too!”“W-what? I. Uhm.”

Zuo You walked up to Lin Feng and put her arm around his neck. She looked at his classmates and said to him, “Hahaha! Lin Feng, your classmates are funny! Aren’t you going to introduce us?”

“Oh, right! I forgot!” Lin Feng exclaimed. He turned to his classmates and said, “This is Zuo You and this is Su Xue. Su Xue is my roommate.” He then looked at Zuo You and started pointing at his classmates. “Ouyang. Yang Fan. Ren Rou. Chen Ze. Wei Dong. Liu Yue. Tang Bingyao.”

A simple introduction. It didn’t seem like much, but it broke the ice. The guys stopped staring and started talking. Su Xue was a streamer and they had a lot of questions for her. From how she was enjoying streaming to who her personal white knights were. Every stream had them, Ouyang argued. Then there was Zuo You. She had that same fiery temperament as Ren Rou. The two were drawn to each other and started chatting. The hostility and anger Ren Rou felt, mostly because of how the boys had reacted to the two women, dissipated. It helped that Zuo You was as much of a League fanatic as her, so they quickly forgot about everything else.

Su Xue was talking with the boys. She promised to add them as friends on her League account, and maybe even play a few games with them. These were her little brother’s friends and she was going to show her best self to them! It was a side of Su Xue that Lin Feng had never seen at home before. But her charm worked. The boys started to feel a lot more comfortable talking with her. They started thinking of her as their big sister and began talking more freely. Until Tang Bingyao walked forward. They went quiet and looked at her. She waved her hand and said to Su Xue, “Hello, nice to meet you.”

Su Xue looked over at Tang Bingyao. She looked her up and down. Left and right. Then she smiled and said, “You must be Tang Tang, right? Lin Feng talks about you all the time!”

Tang Bingyao tilted her head and asked, “Why would he talk about me?”

Zuo You was still chatting with Ren Rou when she heard the question. She hadn’t been listening in. Hadn’t heard anything of that conversation up until this point. But this question caught her attention so hard that she forgot about everything else and turned around to Tang Bingyao. She interjected, “Of course he talks about you all the time! He likes you! You’re his girlfriend, right? Mhm-hm, not bad. Not bad at all. So, are you two official yet?”

“Official? No. We aren’t dating,” Tang Bingyao denied.

Lin Feng put his hand on Tang Bingyao’s shoulder and nodded. “Yeah! We aren’t dating. We’re the best of bros!”

The physical contact didn’t bother Tang Bingyao. She nodded, agreeing with his words. Until it hit her. He called her a bro. That wasn’t quite right. She looked at him and said, “I’m a girl. We can’t be bros.”

“Oh, that’s fine! Girls can be bros too!” Lin Feng said.

Tang Bingyao scrunched up her nose. She looked at Lin Feng and shook her head. “I don’t like it. It sounds wrong.”

“Eh, who cares?” Lin Feng waved his hand. Then he scratched his chin and said, “Okay. I got it! How about we go with Master and Disciple?”

Tang Bingyao nodded. “Mhm. I’m fine with that.”

The others around the two had gone quiet. They looked at Tang Bingyao and Lin Feng having an honest argument. A stupid argument. It was simultaneously silly and cute. No one knew what to say. So they just stood there watching. Waiting. Hoping for it to end soon. Then Zuo You broke the silence. “Damn! I take back all my doubts. You two are made for each other! I’ve never seen a more perfect couple!”

✹

Lin Feng and the others didn’t stay at the venue where the Shanghai 16 School Tournament was held for much longer. It was already late and they had school the next morning. They could celebrate after winning the entire tournament. For tonight, they decided to cut it short and go back home. While saying their goodbyes, Su Xue and Zuo You promised the team that they’d come and cheer them on all the way to the Finals. They’d be there when High School 13 would lift the trophy! If they got that far. And if they did, Su Xue even promised them a dinner celebration.

The others from the esports team went back with the subway, while Lin Feng joined Su Xue and Zuo You. They took a cab back to their place. In the car, Zuo You asked, “You’re pretty close with those classmates of yours, huh? That Ren Rou girl is really nice. I really like her!” She paused for a moment, a wicked grin spreading on her face. She winked at him, a little over the top. “Hey, hey. Are you really not dating Tang Tang? I think you two would make such a cute couple!”

Su Xue nodded. “You two really did look great together. And she’s really cute and adorable and pretty. Are you sure you aren’t interested in her?”

Lin Feng shook his head and smiled. “Nah, nah! It’s like I said, I’m her master! The best of bros!”

“The best of bros my ass!” Zuo You said, rolling her eyes. Speaking of bros… She looked at Lin Feng. Scrutinized him. Then asked, “Right. That friend of yours. Ouyang or whatever. He said something about a pretty childhood friend? Was what he said true?”

“Haha, yeah! He was talking about Bunbun!” Lin Feng laughed.

Zuo You opened her eyes wide and nodded. “Ha. You’re insatiable. I should’ve known when I saw you eat. But wow! How many women do you want before you’re happy? Is Tang Tang not enough? Do you really need this Bunbun too? Oh! And don’t forget about Su Xue!”

“Hey! What the fuck!” Su Xue exclaimed. “Why would you include me there? I’m his big sister! Big. Sister! Nothing more!” She then turned to Lin Feng, ignoring her friend, and asked, “So you really have a cute childhood friend? Tell me about her!”

“Yeah! Bunbun is a really good friend! She was the one who introduced me to League of Legends and taught me how to play!” Lin Feng nodded. Then he grinned. “But now I’m way better than her! Hehe. I can easily kick her ass!”

Zuo You rolled her eyes and said, “No one cares about that.” She knew Lin Feng was good. They all knew Lin Feng was really good at the game. One of the best in all of China, most likely. If he wasn’t at the level of a professional player, he wouldn’t be far off. That was how highly they thought of his skills. So there wasn’t a doubt in their minds that he could beat some random player who happened to have introduced him to the game. But pressing him on the matter wouldn’t get her anything. She knew him better than that by now. So she turned to Su Xue and switched the topic. “Hey, remember the video thing I suggested the other day? Did you have a chance to think about it yet?”

Su Xue smiled and said, “I did! I did! I’m planning on giving it a shot! It’s just been a little difficult to figure out how to record the gameplay and find a good way of doing commentary. My own style. I’ve been studying other commentators for a few days now, but it looks really difficult. Anyways, I think it’s possible. As long as Lin Feng is down to make the gameplay for me to recor–”

“I don’t mind!” Lin Feng interrupted.

Zuo You nodded. “Sounds good. I think it’s a great idea. Just hurry up and get things rolling. I’ve got some spare time right now, but who knows how long that’ll last. Get that first video recorded and send it my way. I’ll do all the editing and post-processing!”

“No worries. We’ll have the video done in no time. Right, Lin Feng?” Su Xue said, turning to Lin Feng. Then she thought about it for a moment before asking, “That’s fine, right? Like, we can make a video in the next day or two? If you aren’t busy with anything...”

Lin Feng smiled and said, “Nope! I’m good! We can do it!”

However, not everything was good. Something terrible was happening! It was so bad that it didn’t just affect Su Xue and Lin Feng, but the entire Chinese League of Legends community! They were all caught off guard by the news. No one saw it coming. But when it did, it hit like a truck. It smashed into them and left them numb. Then the pain set in. They started screaming in righteous indignation. This wasn’t fair! This was the absolute worst!