I’m extra busy this week, so there’ll only be 1 chapter per update for this series!
In the end, LittleBear8765 apologized to Jiang Shi three times during the conference call, their voice loud and constrained.
Even after the meeting ended, Jiang Shi’s smile never faded.
Yuan Yang also sighed in relief, glad that things were finally settled. “They said they’ll calculate your losses within three days and transfer the money to your account. Let me know once you receive it.”
Jiang Shi nodded repeatedly. “Sure.”
After confirming all the details, Jiang Shi signed the contract.
Yuan Yang put the contract away. “Cheng Lei will handle you from now on. You can be assured there won’t be any more of those twists and turns. If you have any issues, you can tell me directly, and I’ll negotiate with them.”
Jiang Shi obediently nodded.
“As for 8765, they will definitely be fired, and won’t be able to continue in this industry,” Yuan Yang added.
Cutting the wages of contracted streamers and using outdated contracts were clear violations of professional ethics. No sane company would want to tarnish its reputation by keeping someone like that.
Moreover, the person he deceived wasn’t just anyone – it was TLG’s new popular professional player.
No one would want to offend TLG.
Yuan Yang patted Jiang Shi on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, no one will dare bully you from now on.”
Jiang Shi sniffled. “Thank you, Captain. Thank you, Yang-ge.”
He had never expected such an outcome.
Little Bear TV was the largest streaming platform in the country and had deep cooperation with [God Making] game. Unless he stopped playing the game or streaming, he couldn’t avoid Little Bear TV.
If he hadn’t joined TLG, even if he knew about the issues with the contract and caused a fuss, he probably wouldn’t have gotten any compensation.
Yuan Yang and the others had helped him recover everything.
When Xie Xu had demanded an apology from 8765 and emphasized that it was for TLG’s bottom lane player, Time, Jiang Shi felt an odd sensation.
At that moment, he felt like he had truly become part of this big family. He fought for TLG on the field, and TLG was his most reliable support.
The group stood up and left the training room. Yuan Yang suddenly asked Xie Xu, “By the way, why didn’t you mention the video of 8765 threatening Time?”
Today’s conference call with Little Bear TV had been planned in advance. Jiang Shi had worked for so long with the old contract, and they had to get that back. However, the abuse of power issue hadn’t been brought up by Xie Xu before.
Yuan Yang’s question made Jiang Shi’s nerves tense up. He had almost forgotten such an important matter.
When did Xie Xu find out about his alternate account? Was it really during the account verification?
He recalled that everyone had been shocked at that time, while Xie Xu had remained calm. He had thought that Xie Xu was just better at controlling his emotions and hadn’t shown any signs. Now he wondered if Xie Xu had already figured out his alternate account.
Under the curious gazes of the two, Xie Xu replied in a slow, natural tone, “There was no video. I lied to them.”
After all, those people didn’t dare to ask him for it.
Yuan Yang: “?”
Jiang Shi: “!”
Xie Xu actually lied!
Compared to Jiang Shi’s surprise, Yuan Yang quickly accepted it, laughing as he patted Xie Xu on the shoulder. “You’re really a fox with a lot of tricks.”
“Alright, you guys get ready for training. I have to handle some things.”
With the Spring Split approaching, Yuan Yang had a lot of publicity preparation work to do.
After Yuan Yang left, Jiang Shi was still anxious and restless.
When exactly did Xie Xu find out about his alternate account!
The two walked to the break room near the training room. Xie Xu paused his steps and turned in, with Jiang Shi following him without hesitation.
When the sweet scent of orange juice filled the break room, Jiang Shi suddenly came to his senses.
He looked at the glass of bright orange juice in front of him and blinked. “Is this for me?”
He hadn’t asked Xie Xu for it!
Seeing Jiang Shi still a bit dazed, Xie Xu pulled the orange juice back a bit. “You don’t want it? Then I’ll ask Lele.”
He pretended to take out his phone from his pocket, but Jiang Shi quickly reached out for the glass. “Captain, don’t, don’t! I’ll drink it!”
As if to prove he really wanted it, Jiang Shi gulped down the orange juice and showed Xie Xu the bottom of the cup, indicating he had finished.
Xie Xu smiled. “Do you want more?”
Jiang Shi was about to hand over the disposable cup but suddenly remembered something and quickly pulled it back. “Captain, wait a moment.”
He took out his new pink thermos cup, intending to have Xie Xu fill it up so he could have it for the evening training!
Looking at the large-capacity thermos cup, Xie Xu couldn’t help but smile wryly, adding extra oranges.
In the room filled with the citrus fragrance, Jiang Shi couldn’t help but glance at Xie Xu.
Was the scent on Xie Xu from here? He had previously thought it was from body wash or something.
Perhaps Jiang Shi’s gaze was too obvious. Xie Xu, while operating the machine, asked casually, “What are you thinking about?”
Xie Xu’s question was so natural that Jiang Shi answered without hesitation, “I was thinking about the smell on you.”
The break room suddenly fell silent. Xie Xu, who had been about to place the cup at the juice outlet, nearly dropped it. He straightened the cup and then looked back at Jiang Shi, with a faint smile, “What kind of smell?”
Jiang Shi quickly realized his comment sounded a bit creepy and hurried to explain, “I didn’t sniff you. It’s just that I smelled it on the team uniform you lent me!”
But then he realized something was off.
As Lele had mentioned, Xie Xu hadn’t worn that team uniform much. If he hadn’t deliberately lifted the shirt to sniff it, he wouldn’t have smelled it.
It seemed that no matter how he explained, he couldn’t shake off the “pervert” label.
Jiang Shi felt awkward and decided to stop talking.
Xie Xu handed him the full thermos of orange juice. “You probably mean the body wash I use. It’s also a fruity scent, somewhat similar to this one.”
Jiang Shi nodded vigorously. “I just thought it smelled nice. I didn’t mean anything else!”
If Xie Xu invited him to use it, he wouldn’t mind.
Xie Xu was puzzled by Jiang Shi’s sudden happiness. While drinking the orange juice, Jiang Shi’s smile revealed a cute dimple on his right cheek.
“But I wanted to ask you something else,” Xie Xu said, turning to pour himself a cup of coffee. “You seemed like you had something you wanted to ask me when you left the meeting room.”
The aroma of coffee mixed with the sweet scent of oranges, creating a unique and pleasant fragrance in the break room.
Jiang Shi screwed the lid back onto the thermos and mustered up the courage to ask, “Captain, how did you find out about 8765 threatening me?”
Logically speaking, Xie Xu shouldn’t have been in his streaming room at that time.
Jiang Shi wouldn’t be able to sleep well until he cleared this up!
Xie Xu took a sip of his coffee and said slowly, “I also have an alternate streaming account.”
Jiang Shi quickly understood.
So, Xie Xu might have been in his streaming room all along, listening to him spouting nonsense and making provocative remarks, and he didn’t even know?
Jiang Shi was so embarrassed, his toes dug into the ground.
No way, no way?
He couldn’t even accept Jiang Lele being in his streaming room, let alone Xie Xu!
If he hadn’t been holding that old paper cup, he might have crushed it into a crumpled mess by now.
Jiang Shi wanted to see Xie Xu’s expression, but the steam from the coffee obscured Xie Xu’s face, making it impossible to see clearly.
He gritted his teeth and decided to go all out, “Captain, when did you realize I was Time?”
Xie Xu set down his coffee. “Do you really want to know?”
This made Jiang Shi feel a pang of despair. “It wasn’t on the day of my trial, was it?”
At that time, Xie Xu had even asked him which Jiang he was.
Xie Xu noticed Jiang Shi’s fingertips gripping the thermos cup turning white and paused. “It wasn’t that early.”
Jiang Shi’s almost collapsing mood eased slightly. He cautiously asked, “Then when was it?”
“It was really confirmed when you weighed yourself downstairs for the second time and mentioned you had gained five jin,” Xie Xu said. “The night before the weigh-in, you were streaming on Time’s account and mentioned that you had gained five jin.”
This precise data confirmed Xie Xu’s suspicions.
Jiang Shi: “……”
He felt like dying again.
It was that early?!
Moreover, his exact words weren’t just that he gained five pounds but that Xu had fed him five pounds.
Not to mention…
[I always just lie down and let him press on me.]
[Why aren’t you coming on to me?]
[Xu-gege~]
[Gege, Gege, Gege…….]
[Do you like to sleep naked after taking a shower?]
Those do not include that stream that he thought would be his last, when he spoke nonsense in front of Xie Xu, asking for attention and even downright tried to seduce him all night.
Jiang Shi closed his eyes and, in the end, thumped his head with the thermos cup.
So embarrassing, so embarrassing! How did Xie Xu see him back then?
He couldn’t guess Xie Xu’s reaction. He only knew that if it were Jiang Lele, he would have definitely been laughing his head off on the other side of the screen.
Jiang Shi was already considering whether he should pack up and go home.
Yuan Yang treated him well, maybe he could speak nicely to him and see if he could reduce the penalty fee.
TLG no longer had a place for him.
Jiang Shi leaned against the wall, deeply bowing his head. If the situation allowed, he felt like he could curl up in a corner and hide himself.
After thinking for a moment, Xie Xu said, “At that time, I was just watching on my phone while playing a game. I didn’t catch many of the things you said.”
Jiang Shi immediately came back to life. “Really?”
Xie Xu hummed. “Really.”
Jiang Shi felt like he might still be able to stay with TLG and sighed in relief. At least he didn’t hear it all.
“But—” Jiang Shi hesitated. “Captain, I’m really curious about one thing.”
Xie Xu took a sip of his coffee and said casually, “Go ahead.”
“Do you sleep naked?”
“Cough, cough…” Xie Xu suddenly started coughing.
Jiang Shi quickly patted his back and asked cautiously, “Was my question a bit too much?”
But the atmosphere was just right, and he felt if he didn’t ask now, he might not get the chance to know the answer!
Even though Jiang Shi had a lot of inappropriate thoughts, he still maintained an innocent demeanor, even thoughtfully offering his thermos cup to Xie Xu, asking if he wanted to use some orange juice to settle his throat.
Xie Xu only coughed a few times before stopping and didn’t take the orange juice. “No need.”
He really didn’t expect Jiang Shi to ask him such a question in person.
Jiang Shi looked quite youthful, and he wore a cute outfit. Ignoring his eye-catching hair color, he wouldn’t be out of place within a group of high schoolers.
Yet Jiang Shi used that innocent and youthful face, looking expectantly, to ask him if he slept naked.
Xie Xu was momentarily at a loss for words.
Whether the answer was yes or no, it wasn’t appropriate.
“Why are you curious about this?”
Jiang Shi blinked. “Every time you finish a shower, you have a slight citrus scent on you, and you always come to training wearing very little.”
He pointed to the beauty mark on Xie Xu’s eye. “The color of this mole also lightens.”
Xie Xu saw the admiration in Jiang Shi’s eyes.
Xie Xu suddenly understood why Jiang Shi treated him so specially – not because of skills and gameplay, and being his fan was just a pretext.
All these special treatments stemmed from this face?
Was this the reason Jiang Shi often stole glances at him?
Xie Xu’s gaze flickered for a moment but soon lowered, slightly bending down to let Jiang Shi’s pointing finger touch the beauty mark on his eye. “It does change color after being in water, and it will also change if you press on it.”
As their eyes met, Jiang Shi could even feel Xie Xu’s breath lightly brushing against his face, his nose tip warm and slightly ticklish.
Jiang Shi stared at Xie Xu’s slightly raised eye corner, as if enchanted, and gently pressed his finger on the long-desired beauty spot.
A small raised area, soft to the touch, and after pressing, Xie Xu squinted slightly, but quickly relaxed, as if he was just letting Jiang Shi experiment.
The color of the beauty spot did indeed lighten.
Would external forces also affect its color?
Jiang Shi suddenly thought of something, and his ears turned red. He quickly pulled his hand back.
The distance between them widened, and Xie Xu slowly straightened up. “I wear less after a shower because I don’t want to dry my hair. Wearing thick clothes while my hair is wet makes me uncomfortable.”
The topic seemed to have returned to whether he slept naked, but Jiang Shi had lost interest in digging further and simply murmured an acknowledgment.
His thoughts were in disarray.
He actually thought, ‘If I kiss that mole, will the color also become lighter? Will the color change faster compared to when he took a shower?’
And Xie Xu’s eyes were really beautiful, with deep, calm black pupils, and the corners of his eyes held a faint smile, carrying a silent indulgence.
At that moment, Jiang Shi almost couldn’t resist kissing him.
As netizens said, his resistance to Xie Xu was indeed zero.
Jiang Shi reminded himself to consider the occasion. In the public break room, Xie Xu was clearly just satisfying his curiosity. He couldn’t be so shameless as to take advantage of the situation.
At this moment, Jiang Shi had completely forgotten about the question of sleeping naked. His fingertips lightly scratched the surface of the thermos, remaining silent for a long time.
Xie Xu picked up his coffee again and drank it casually.
The atmosphere in the narrow break room was strange yet harmonious, with a hint of subtle intimacy.
When Jiang Shi heard Xie Xu set down his cup, he started to recover from his nervous mood.
He felt a bit elated, with a subtle excitement spreading from where he had touched Xie Xu’s fingertips, making his heartbeat irregular.
After being touched on the canine tooth before, he had now upgraded to touching Xie Xu’s face.
This treatment was more than double what he had before.
Coming to TLG had truly been a wise choice.
Jiang Shi happily shook the orange juice in his cup and glanced at Xie Xu’s open cup with the corner of his eye. He tentatively asked, “Captain, do you want to use the thermos I gave you?”
If Xie Xu used it, then they would have a couple items!
Keeping up the progress of getting close to Xie Xu was crucial, and clearing up other peach blossoms was even more important.
Jiang Shi earnestly suggested to Xie Xu, “Training at night is very tiring. You can pour the coffee into the thermos. It has great insulation, so you won’t need to come out to the break room again.”
Perhaps Jiang Shi’s expression was too eager, but Xie Xu actually nodded.
In the end, Xie Xu filled the thermos with high-quality coffee and went into the training room with Jiang Shi.
The similar thermoses in their hands quickly caught everyone’s attention.
Zhao Jiu glanced over and teased with a smile, “As expected of the bottom lane duo, even their thermoses are the same.”
“But Captain, why did you suddenly stop using your previous one?”
Jiang Shi was about to sit down after pulling out his chair but swayed and nearly fell. Fortunately, Xie Xu grabbed his collar and pulled him back.
Jiang Shi quickly sat down and pretended to be very busy, acting like he didn’t hear anything.
He really didn’t want to hear about how he washed the thermos so hard, the print was scrubbed off.
Fortunately, Xie Xu wasn’t one to kick someone when they were down and casually gave an excuse. “The previous one didn’t look good. Jiang Shi said this one was buy one get one free, so I changed it.”
Jiang Lele was surprised and asked, “Buy one get one free?”
Jiang Shi nodded. “What’s the problem?”
Jiang Lele looked at the thermoses next to Jiang Shi and Xie Xu and curiously touched them. The texture was nice. “There’s no problem, but the quality looks pretty good! The color is also high-end.”
He became more interested as he looked. “Buy one get one free is such a great deal. Send me the link, I’ll get one for Back too.”
“There’s no link. It was taken off the shelves not long after I bought it,” Jiang Shi said without changing his expression. “It’s out of print now.”
Zhao Jiu didn’t think much of it and laughed. “It might have been sold at a loss. Xiao Shi is lucky.”
But Jiang Lele felt something was off. Jiang Shi had only picked up the package today, so how could it be out of print so coincidentally?
He took out his phone and took a photo of the thermos on the table, then did a search.
Seeing Jiang Lele using that photo on a shopping website, Jiang Shi’s heart skipped a beat and he immediately reached out to grab it.
But he underestimated TLG’s excellent internet speed, and the search results came out quickly.
Jiang Lele looked at the page with pink heart bubbles and blurted out, “Couple edition?”
Jiang Shi’s hand, reaching to grab, froze in mid-air.
Zhao Jiu said casually, “You must be mistaken. How could Jiang Shi and the Captain use couple editions?”
Jiang Lele frowned. “But this is exactly the same!”
He looked at it several times, checking the logo, design details, and color, and found no differences.
Seeing Jiang Lele was still unconvinced, Jiang Shi’s mind went blank. He stood up and tried to stop Jiang Lele from continuing to view. “That’s a knockoff!”
Jiang Lele saw his reaction and understood immediately. He got up and ran away, with the two of them playing a game of cat and mouse, running around the training room.
Jiang Shi couldn’t keep up with him for a moment.
Jiang Lele ran and laughed while looking at his phone, chanting non-stop—
“Give them a warm thermos to accompany every cup of warmth with your sweet presence.”
“Our red and blue color scheme is a timeless classic, guaranteeing your secret love comes true, and you will be together, day and night.”
Jiang Shi: “.”
It’s so over.
He stopped chasing and quietly returned to his seat, zipping up his team uniform to the top, putting on his headphones, and calmly starting a game.
The training room quieted down, and everyone’s attention was focused on the pair of thermoses on the table, with various expressions.
Zhao Jiu: “Is it really a couple edition?”
Yu Hui: “Secret love?”
Jiang Lele: “Hahaha, Little White White is sneaking in a private agenda! He has ulterior motives!”
Even with headphones on, Jiang Shi could hear Jiang Lele’s raucous laughter. “……”
Fuck!!
