Jiang Shi hadn’t expected his fans to recognize him immediately.
There was nothing wrong with what he had said, right?
But his fans, being the night owls they were, flocked to the comment section in droves, throwing insults like “little idiot” and “stupid white hair,” which infuriated Jiang Shi so much that he almost used Xie Xu’s account to retaliate.
Thankfully, the sound of the door opening brought him back to his senses.
Jiang Shi swiftly exited Weibo and locked the screen in a fluid motion that took less than two seconds.
“Captain, you’re back?” he asked, trying to sound normal as he handed the phone back to Xie Xu.
Xie Xu took his phone and handed Jiang Shi a glass of milk. “Finished chatting with your fans?”
Holding the glass, Jiang Shi took a small, restrained sip of milk. “I just posted a message. When they saw it was from you, they all chimed in.”
He smiled up at Xie Xu, his eyes curving in thanks. “Thank you, Captain! I don’t feel angry at all anymore.”
His explanation was logical, and Xie Xu didn’t seem inclined to check, casually slipping his phone into his pocket.
Jiang Shi breathed a sigh of relief.
It didn’t matter if the fans recognized him using Xie Xu’s account; without concrete evidence, they wouldn’t dare pester Xie Xu about it. But if Xie Xu found out he was recognized so easily, that would be utterly embarrassing!
Feeling relieved, Jiang Shi downed the rest of his milk in one gulp. “Captain, I’m going to bed now.”
“Take the medicine with you,” Xie Xu said, handing him a bottle of Yunnan Baiyao spray. “Remember to apply it before sleeping.”
Jiang Shi took the medicine with a bit of reluctance.
Xie Xu used to bring it directly to his room!
It was the middle of the night, two guys alone—couldn’t Xie Xu at least come in for some tea?
Wait, where would he even get tea in his room?
Jiang Shi’s expression must have been quite obvious, as Xie Xu chuckled lightly. “Get some rest.”
Jiang Shi quickly reined in his wandering thoughts, nodding obediently. “Okay, Captain.”
“I have a mouth ulcer, so I’ll definitely cut back on the late nights.”
He intended to just read a few online jokes before bed.
Last time, he had read an uniform play fanfic and still hadn’t finished it.
But just as he was about to say goodnight and head to their respective rooms, he noticed Xie Xu looking at him intently.
Jiang Shi’s heart skipped a beat. No way—could Xie Xu really tell he was thinking something dirty?
The more nervous he got, the more innocent Jiang Shi tried to appear. He tilted his head and blinked up at Xie Xu with wide, confused eyes, doing his best to project the image of a pure, innocent Jiang Shi with no naughty thoughts whatsoever.
They stared at each other in silence for a few seconds before Xie Xu raised a hand and gently wiped the corner of Jiang Shi’s mouth.
“You had some milk there.”
…
Back in his room, Jiang Shi rolled around on his bed in embarrassment.
How humiliating! How embarrassing!
How could a grown man spill milk while drinking? Next time, if he drinks so quickly again, he might as well bash his head against the milk glass!
But why did Xie Xu still look so handsome when wiping his mouth!
Those slightly lowered dark eyes were like a deep pool—one glance could pull him in completely. And that raised index finger was simply too much to handle. If he wasn’t mistaken, there was a tiny black mole on the lower side of Xie Xu’s left index finger, right in the middle.
And it hit his weak spot dead on.1og: XP/xingpi. It roughly means “aesthetic preference” or something in that sense. If I want to get more literal, it would be: “And it hit his aesthetic preference dead on.”
Oh my god, Xie Xu really is his heavenly dish!
The excitement of the night came with consequences. The next morning, Jiang Shi woke up to find his mouth ulcer had worsened. At least the bruises on his leg and waist had improved somewhat, which was some small comfort.
But before Jiang Shi could properly start his day, a few unexpected WeChat messages caught his eye.
[LittleBear8765: Congratulations on becoming TLG’s bot lane player. I’ll be watching your stream closely today to ensure no one tries to stir up trouble.]
[LittleBear8765: After this stream, we can discuss your contract further. Your compensation will increase, and I’m sure you’ll find it appealing.]
Jiang Shi’s good mood was instantly ruined.
The condescending tone of the messages made it seem like Jiang Shi owed this person something.
They had always communicated via the Little Bear TV platform before, never through WeChat.
Clearly, the person realized that since TLG had taken over Jiang Shi’s streaming account, they couldn’t get what they wanted from the platform, so they decided to come after him directly, thinking he was a soft persimmon2easy target, easy to pinch.
Jiang Shi scoffed and, out of consideration for the 10,000 yuan payment, refrained from snapping back. With a few taps, he blocked the sender and deleted the conversation.
Stupid LittleBear8765.
His rising anger only made the ulcer in his mouth more painful.
He poked at it lightly with his tongue, wincing, but decided it was still manageable and got up to prepare for the day’s stream with Yuan Yang.
Yuan Yang temporarily gave him back access to his Weibo account to draft an announcement, saying he would also post a similar streaming preview on Little Bear TV.
Jiang Shi was used to this kind of task and finished writing it in under thirty seconds before handing it over.
[Come on, let me see who was yapping in my comment section a few days ago. Come to confront your father at 8 PM tonight. (smile.jpg)]
Yuan Yang’s temple throbbed as he read Jiang Shi’s draft. “Jiang Shi, rewrite it!”
After Jiang Shi’s draft was rejected by Yuan Yang nearly ten times, the final version finally got approved:
[Family members, I’m going live at 8 PM tonight! I’ll be duo-queuing with Xu, plus there will be a red envelope rain and fan giveaways. Don’t miss out~]
He even added a cute blushing face emoji.
Under Yuan Yang’s stern gaze, Jiang Shi had to compromise. After all, he’d never given out free fan benefits or red envelopes before.
But since he had just been fined 10,000 yuan, he’d make sure the red envelopes were small this time.
The announcement was posted at 7 PM, and before Jiang Shi even started streaming, a flood of people had already entered his channel.
The drama from before, when his alternate account got exposed, had spread widely — so much so that not just fans, but even casual viewers had heard about it and were tuning in for the show.
And with TLG’s name bringing in traffic, the number of viewers in Jiang Shi’s stream quickly surged to 50,000.
The sudden spike in popularity left Jiang Shi a little stunned.
But when he secretly logged into his own stream using an alt account, the barrage of comments left him speechless.
[Did you see the livestream announcement? The little idiot chickened out, hahaha…]
[Knowing how stingy he is, the red envelopes probably won’t even exceed a hundred. I’d rather spend time insulting him than trying to grab one.]
[I really want to see what this arrogant Time looks like in real life.]
[He’s always bragging about being so handsome. No matter how much he uses beauty filters, I can still imagine how ugly he really is.]
[This sister is waiting for someone to send her the original pictures. I’m going to turn them into memes.]
[Sister upstairs, DM me after the stream!]
[Let’s see if he still has the guts to flirt with Xu after this!]
Jiang Shi was numb with shock.
What kind of demons were his fans?
At that moment, Yuan Yang happened to walk by, and Jiang Shi called out to him, hesitantly asking, “Yang-ge, when is the makeup artist coming?”
Yuan Yang looked puzzled. “What makeup artist?”
He scrutinized Jiang Shi’s face for a moment. “There’s no makeup artist. If you’re bored, start a game, but stop lurking around your own stream.”
Jiang Shi muted his mic, feeling both embarrassed and disappointed.
Not only did he not get a makeup artist, but he also got scolded.
Normally, Jiang Shi didn’t care much about his appearance, but after reading those comments—especially in comparison to Xu—he suddenly felt insecure.
Frustrated, Jiang Shi ruffled his hair.
Maybe he should at least wash his face. Did he even comb his hair this morning?
He realized that his fans had PUA3Pick-up artist. But it’s just a slang for “scamming”’d him into developing appearance anxiety.
Left with no choice, Jiang Shi sought help from Xie Xu. “Captain.”
Xie Xu was duo-queuing with Zhao Jiu, but upon hearing Jiang Shi, he unmuted and said, “Nine, hold on a sec.”
He then took off his headphones and looked at Jiang Shi. “What’s up?”
“Um, do I look good on camera?” Jiang Shi asked, trying to be subtle. “Some people say they look really bad on camera.”
Xie Xu hadn’t expected Jiang Shi to be worried about this and answered without hesitation, “You look fine.”
Jiang Shi had delicate features, fair skin, and big eyes. His face was not only striking in real life but would also look good on camera.
“Really?” Jiang Shi’s face brightened immediately. “Am I as handsome as the captain?”
Xie Xu’s voice held a hint of amusement. “Yeah.”
Jiang Shi was satisfied.
Who says he can’t flirt with Xu? They’re a match made in heaven!
A few minutes before the stream started, Yuan Yang was already standing off-camera, holding a notebook with a serious expression.
“Xiao Shi, is the mic and camera working fine? How about the screen projection? Is it stable?”
Jiang Shi nodded, confirming everything was fine.
He hadn’t been that nervous initially, but Yuan Yang’s battle-ready attitude made him a bit stiff.
Xie Xu had also finished his duo with Zhao Jiu and was waiting for Jiang Shi’s stream to start.
With just a few minutes left before going live, Jiang Shi nervously swallowed and thought about getting some water, only to find the table empty.
He had a habit of not keeping water near his equipment after accidentally spilling it and damaging his microphone early in his streaming career. At that time, he couldn’t afford to replace it, and it had hurt him deeply.
But recently, Xie Xu had been bringing him water occasionally, so he hadn’t felt thirsty.
As if on cue, a thermos cup was handed over to him. The black cup made Xie Xu’s hand look long and graceful.
“It’s warm water. Drink it if you get thirsty during the stream,” Xie Xu said.
Jiang Shi didn’t refuse and took the cup. Streaming is thirsty work, after all.
At 8 PM sharp, Jiang Shi started his stream. The sudden influx of viewers caused a brief lag, but TLG’s equipment quickly smoothed things out.
As soon as the stream began, the screen was flooded with comments like [Congrats on your debut stream, Time!], giving Jiang Shi enough face.
But Jiang Shi’s sharp eyes noticed a lot of weird accounts had squeezed out his fan’s comments, replacing them with others.
Only then did Jiang Shi realize Yuan Yang’s strategy. He had hired water armies4people (accounts) hired to sway public opinions online. Real fans are “water friends”, while organic/real popularity is “tap water”. It’s all about water~!
Jiang Shi was quite pleased with how things were going.
Next time, he might just hire some water armies too.
Not only did those weird accounts fill his stream, but many professional players also started showing up in his channel. The quickest to arrive were people from TLG.
Jiang Shi delivered his prepared lines, “Thanks to Nine, Back, and Lele for the starships! I’m really happy to be a part of the TLG family!”
“Thank you, Lion-Juzi, for the starship. You didn’t have to,” Jiang Shi said with a fake smile, insincerely adding, “We should team up sometime.”
“Thank you, Sun, for the starship,” Jiang Shi ignored the question about why Xu wasn’t showing his face and moved on to the next gift.
“Thanks to Bamboo for the starship. Much appreciated, Bro.”
“Thank you, [Dumbass, Stop Smiling, It’s So Fake]…” Jiang Shi’s voice faltered for a second, and there was a faint sound of teeth grinding in the mic.
But in the next moment, Jiang Shi’s smile grew even brighter. “Finally, I see some old fans here! Thanks for your support, I’ll keep working hard~” He dragged out the last syllable, deliberately trying to provoke the other side.
[Damn, a week away and that sarcastic tone is still here!]
[But his voice sounds so sweet without the static! (This blackened older jiejie fans is starting to waver)]
[I just got here, does this streamer have any dirt on him? He’s really good-looking!]
[I started following Time because of his duo with Xu, and I was only here for Xu this time. But now that I see this face, I can’t leave!]
[Yeah, when I found out Time and him were the same person, I thought he was some kind of punk! Turns out he’s just an adorable, handsome little didi! I’m in love.]
Seeing these comments, Jiang Shi’s smile naturally became sweeter. “Thank you, sisters, for your support. There’ll be red envelope rains and fan giveaways today, so don’t miss out!”
As soon as he said that, the stream was flooded with gift effects.
Yuan Yang, who had been noting down data, was stunned. Jiang Shi’s mental resilience was stronger than he’d imagined, and he was pretty good at sweet-talking people.
But Yuan Yang noticed that it was all new fans sending the gifts; Jiang Shi’s old, seasoned fans remained unmoved.
Besides the gift effects, the chat was also lit up with comments from professional players from other teams.
[ST-Baiyun: Congrats! Looking forward to facing you on the battlefield.]
[ST-Huaxu: Let’s spar sometime! I’ve heard your Senna is really strong.]
[MR-yaowan5All three IDs are in Hanzi. But ISTG yaowan was in the Latin alphabet before… for consistency’s sake (ID must be in alphabet – I’m pretty sure either Yu Hui or Zhao Jiu said this before when Jiang Shi is picking his pro player ID), I’ll make them all in alphabet. Baiyun is 白云, White Cloud. Huaxu is 花絮, Highlights.: Congrats! I hope TLG doesn’t hold our scrims against MR.]
[Wind-An6“Wind-An” is in latin alphabet, so this must be his official ID. An signed up with 飓风 , which means Hurricane. Maybe it’s the official shortened term?: ?]
Except for the teams with a good relationship with TLG who sent starships, the other teams just showed up to put on a polite front, dropping a fan badge as a formality.
Normally, they’d leave after saying their piece, but surprisingly, none of them did. Even those who sent starships stuck around for the fun.
As a result, the list of viewers in Jiang Shi’s stream was filled with the shiny badges of professional players.
Sun was baffled by the sight.
[Lion-Sun: Do I need to prepare a few sets of mahjong tiles?]
Yuan Yang also noticed the odd phenomenon and frowned, “What’s going on?”
He was about to call one of the teams when Jiang Lele raised her hand, “I know.”
Jiang Lele, who was also hanging out in Jiang Shi’s stream, pointed to the players who had sent fan badges. “Look at their prefixes.”
Yuan Yang and the others leaned in and saw that in front of the fancy IDs of the professional players was a small tag—
Time’s Cheap Son [Lv1]
Realizing what had happened, Yuan Yang nearly spat out blood.
He never expected Jiang Shi to set up such titles in his fan levels!
Zhao Jiu and Yu Hui, seeing their own “Little Uncle” tags, quietly thanked their stars. The saying that spending money can solve problems was absolutely true.
Facing Yuan Yang’s fury, Jiang Shi looked innocent. He had no idea these guys would be so stingy as to only send fan badges!
Yuan Yang gritted his teeth but kept quiet. At this point, it was better to pretend he hadn’t seen anything.
Seeing that Yuan Yang didn’t scold him, Jiang Shi grew bolder.
He had been watching those professional players for a while now, and none of them had said anything, so he kindly offered, “Here’s the deal, if you send one rocket, you’ll upgrade to Time’s Little Brother. Fireworks make you a Big Brother, and a starship makes you a Little Uncle. Your choice?7Little Brother here is 小弟, Big Brother here is 哥们, and Little Uncle here is 小叔”
After a minute of silence, fireworks exploded in Jiang Shi’s live stream.
Jiang Shi was satisfied.
A single firework costs 100 yuan!
With so much money rolling in, he thought he might as well treat everyone to a late-night snack later. He could even sneakily buy Captain Xie Xu the most expensive Americano~
[Help, how can he say something like that so shamelessly!]
[Time, you’ve got TLG’s name on your back. Could you at least try not to be so embarrassing, begging for money like that?]
[Even though I’ve decided to distance myself from him, I still feel humiliated by my level 54 badge!]
[What’s the matter, did that 10,000-yuan fine leave you so broke?]
Seeing these comments, Jiang Shi covered his mouth and coughed lightly, feigning ignorance. “Begging for money? It’s just everyone showing their support for me! Just a little token of appreciation!”
Despite his words, his mouse hovered over the viewer list, clearly checking which badges hadn’t changed.
This action prompted the chat to fill with ellipses.
“Thank you, MR-yaowan, for the fireworks.” Seeing that even the last one had sent a gift, Jiang Shi’s eyes curved into crescents as he smiled, “I’ll remember you this time, Pink Tie. Looking forward to our next match~”
[This little idiot, selling out to the enemy for money.]
[Shame on you!]
[Did you forget there’s still one person who hasn’t sent anything? Why aren’t you clicking on him?]
[Backing down when it comes to Xu, huh?]
[I knew it. After his alt was exposed, Xu wouldn’t give him the time of day. All the other teammates sent starships, and Xu didn’t even drop a fan badge. His attitude is crystal clear.]
[Why don’t you just go back to being a regular streamer! TLG is Xu’s playground, you’re probably getting bullied to the point of tears in there.]
[If you call me Dad a few more times and let me insult you, I might consider forgiving you for your previous idiocy.]
Jiang Shi ignored them completely.
These people were just trying to stir up trouble between him and Xu!
It was a good thing Xu didn’t send any gifts!
A starship costs 1000 yuan, and the platform takes half of it. Just thinking about it made Jiang Shi’s heart ache.
However, those professional players who had sent gifts had their levels boosted, pushing Xu’s badge down in the list, which was annoying to look at.
Jiang Shi thought about using his privileges to pin Xu to the top, but after fiddling around for a while and not finding the option, he gave up and just closed the viewer list altogether. Getting back to business, he announced, “Alright, let’s get started with the game. Today, I’ll be playing with Xu—”
But before he could finish, Jiang Lele suddenly shouted, “Fuck—!”
Jiang Shi looked up, only to see his entire live stream flooded with starships falling from the sky, overwhelming all the comments and effects.
[TLG-Xu has gifted the streamer Time 100 starships, triggering a rare starship rain for 30 seconds. Join the livestream room to grab large gift lucky bags! Come and participate!]
If you can, please support me by donating on my ko-fi~ For every 2 ko-fis, I’ll release an additional chapter ^^
![Dissatisfied [e-sports]](https://www.freenovels.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/4997572.jpg "Dissatisfied [e-sports]")
