Volume One, Chapter 44: Brave Timi

After ending her livestream, Yu Yansui pondered for a moment before deciding to make a video call to Li Suzhi.

She hadn't managed to seize the initiative during her last video call with Yan Huaifeng, so since Brother Jiuli was so flirtatious, she definitely had to take control this time around.

Yu Yansui placed the call, and the other person answered almost instantly.

In the video, the man was dressed in a burgundy silk bathrobe. His sharp, astute fox-like eyes slanted upwards, adorned with a faintly reddish small mole at the corner of one eye. The subtle, uptight smile at the corners of his lips gave him an air that was three parts wicked and seven parts alluring.

*Ah, ah, ah! Such a monstrous enchanture, he’s seducing me!*

Seeing that Yu Yansui remained silent, Li Suzhi wasn't in a hurry either. He picked up his red wine glass, swirled the contents, and took a sip.

Yu Yansui felt a blush gradually creep up her face under his gaze, and she hastily pretended to be calm by switching the camera to the rear view.

"Brother Suzhi, why aren't you saying anything?"

Li Suzhi chuckled softly. "Because Brother is looking at you, and our little sweetheart is truly gorgeous. However..."

"However what?"

"However, the person Brother wants to see won't let Brother look at her."

Yu Yansui’s face flushed even redder, and she stammered, "That's because I... I wanted to show you the layout of my house."

Li Suzhi: "Is that so? Then why not show Brother around?"

*What on earth is this useless mouth of mine saying? Didn't I say I was going to seize the initiative? How did I end up being led by the nose by him instead?*

She genuinely wanted to slap herself a few times right now, but she managed to restrain herself. She wasn't crazy enough to hit herself. "Well... I suppose I can reluctantly show you around."

Yu Yansui picked up her phone and began walking around the estate, introducing the various parts of the house to Li Suzhi. After walking for a while, she grew tired and sat down on a swing in the small garden, switching the camera back to chat with Li Suzhi.

***

A girl with neck-length short hair, wearing a black leather jacket, a thigh-skimming miniskirt that generously revealed a pair of straight, fair legs, towering stiletto heels, and sunglasses, walked into the estate while chewing on bubble gum and occasionally blowing a bubble.

Felix and a group of staff members bowed ninety degrees to the girl. "Welcome, Miss Zong."

Zong Qiaoqiao slid her sunglasses down to the bridge of her nose and smiled. "Hello, Felix. Where's your young lady?"

Zong Qiaoqiao casually reached out and hooked her arm around Felix’s shoulder. Due to the height difference, Felix slightly bent his knees to make it easier for her.

"Miss Zong, our young lady is in the small garden. I shall lead you there right now."

As they walked into the foyer, Zong Qiaoqiao happened to spot some cupcakes placed on the dining table, grabbed a few on a whim, and released Felix from her arm. "No need. Head Butler, go attend to other matters; I'll go find her myself."

With that, she turned around and waved, a cupcake clamped between her teeth and another in her hand, walking away without looking back.

***

By the time Zong Qiaoqiao reached the small garden, she saw her best friend smiling with a completely lovestruck expression, though she had no idea who she was on the phone with.

Zong Qiaoqiao teased: "Oh nothing~ Little sweetheart~ You're so cute~"

The sudden appearance of a female voice startled Yu Yansui so much she almost dropped her phone. Turning around and seeing it was Zong Qiaoqiao, she quickly covered the phone's microphone and whispered, "What are you doing? I'm on a call."

"Let me see which little siren you're talking to, to the point that you didn't even come out to welcome your little ancestor."

Upon hearing this, Li—the Little Siren—Suzhi curved his lips into a smile. "Hello? Are you Xianyun Nongqiao, who joined our dungeon run the other day?"

Zong Qiaoqiao’s Divine Realm ID was "Xianyun Nongqiao".

Hearing the familiar voice, the teasing smile on Zong Qiaoqiao's face froze. "Ha, ha. It's you. Hello, God Li. You two go ahead and chat, keep chatting."

*Stupid mouth, curse your own cheap mouth, spit, spit!*

Watching Zong Qiaoqiao's reaction, Yu Yansui struggled mightily to hold back her laughter. "Alright, then it's settled. When the gathering in Country C happens, Brother Suzhi will decide the location."

"Okay, I'll hang up first. Otherwise, your little best friend is going to get impatient waiting."

"Waving my paw~"

"Wave, wave."

Once Yu Yansui hung up the phone, Zong Qiaoqiao leaned in close. "You guys are having a gathering? When is it? Do you mind if Xiao Wan and I tag along for a free meal? I want to see handsome guys too, heehee."

"Not sure yet. I'll ask later if I can bring you along."

"You're the best, sis! But I'm just kidding, I probably won't go to that kind of gathering. Just make sure you take lots of pictures and post them in our group chat."

"Will do. By the way, Qiaoqiao, what did you come looking for me for?"

Zong Qiaoqiao snapped her fingers. "Your brother has loosened his grip on you lately. There's a gathering tonight, so your best friend is taking you out to play."

Yu Yansui was somewhat curious and asked, "What kind of gathering?"

Zong Qiaoqiao smiled. "Keeping it a secret for now, but I guarantee it's fun. It's still early, want to play a couple of rounds of Honor of Kings? The organizers of Divine Realm, the Ji Group, teamed up with Hunsheng's veteran chairman Pei Henian to launch the holographic version of Divine Realm, and now they've announced a month-long server shutdown for a complete rework."

Seemingly recalling something, Zong Qiaoqiao added, "Those two tyrant-level brothers of yours were involved in it too. When the time comes to raid hidden dungeons, you'll have to pull strings and get us a few more epic weapons."

Her brother and Brother Henian were both involved in the production of the holographic Divine Realm, and she had no idea?

"Fine, since you didn't know, pretend I said nothing. Come on, let's drop the subject, launch Honor of Kings."

Afterwards, the two of them retreated to the pavilion in the small garden and queued up for ranked matches in Honor of Kings.

Yu Yansui picked Daji, her nine huge tails swishing wildly behind her, while Zong Qiaoqiao played Sangqi, darting around like a little green housefly.

***

After all, both of them were playing heroes with gold proficiency badges, and both were using their mains—could they possibly get steamrolled? That would be a joke.

They started several matches in a row, determined to make the enemy taste their might.

As soon as the loading screen popped up, the two of them saw that someone on the enemy team had locked in Lan. Naturally, they felt obliged to vent some frustration for all the female players who played mid lane and got slaughtered by Lan out of love.

Lan's ID was "one".

Three minutes in, Yu Yansui sent a message to the gold lane: heading to clash lane to assist. After Lan cleared the jungle and ganked the gold lane to pick up first blood against Hou Yi, Yu Yansui crossed paths with Lan just as she returned from supporting the top lane, scaring her so badly she frantically mashed the flash button to get under the tower.

Seeing that the gank failed, Lan proceeded to farm the jungle. In less than six minutes, Lan was being fed so hard by his teammates that he was now at the stage where anyone he targeted died.

They were now trailing the enemy by nearly five thousand in net worth.

*Genius Qiaoqiao Has Descended*: [Seriously fed up with you lot of delivery drivers, what's the point of playing?! If I scattered a handful of rice across my screen, a chicken would have better positioning than you, you NPC marksman.]

*Genius Qiaoqiao Has Descended*: [And you, useless jungler, did you rot down in the jungle or what? What kind of lobby is this, can't even secure a single gank?]

*Genius Qiaoqiao Has Descended*: [You trash Guan Yu, if you can't win, why don't you hug the tower and defend it? All you know is trying to solo. Do you even know your mother is flying right now?]

Zong Qiaoqiao was getting increasingly heated, her sharp tongue unleashing a stream of colorful curses at her teammates without reservation.

*Snatch My Main And I'll Throw*: [You as a support have the nerve to talk? Why don't you go up and tank the damage?]

*Genius Qiaoqiao Has Descended*: [You want me to blindly march up and hand over kills to Sun Shangxiang just so you can tag along? We're already losing and you're still playing that aggressively, you pig!]

*Heartbroken Little Shark*: [Just surrender, enemy NPCs. Our Lan is a national-ranked player.]

*Genius Qiaoqiao Has Descended*: [Take a look at your own shit-tier stats. Playing Diaochan against a Daji and going 0-4, fix your KDA before you open your mouth.]

*Genius Qiaoqiao Has Descended*: [Whose mentality are you trying to ruin, you orphan? He claims Lan is national-ranked, anyone would think *you* were national-ranked. You're a pig too!]

"I'm so pissed, they're all pigs! Suisui, play it safe, let's try our best not to die."

"Okay."

She would definitely play TIMI with absolute seriousness, not running around blindly, face-checking bushes only when completely necessary, and never giving the enemy a single opening to catch her.

"Brother Guiyi, that little Daji on the enemy team actually has some skills. That positioning is insane."