This is also a part of the bonus updates~ I’m just late because I went to a con just now!
Jiang Shi looked at the animated kiss GIF that was still playing and quickly retracted it.
Then, he saw the chat window with Xie Xu showing: [The other person is typing…]
But after a full minute, Xie Xu said nothing.
Frustrated, Jiang Shi scratched his head—maybe Xie Xu didn’t see it? He cautiously sent a message.
[Obedient Jiangjiang: ?]
[Xu: .]
[Xu: I saw it.]
[Xu: That kissing husband GIF]
Jiang Shi’s eyes widened as he flung his phone away in horror.
He had just finished a match with TLG, feeling all confident and pumped—could this lead to him getting kicked out for daring to make moves on the team captain?
The phone, still on the bed, glowed faintly in the distance. Jiang Shi glanced at it, only to be greeted again by the words “Husband” on the GIF.
He leaned his head against the wall, even banging it a few times.
He’d rather be kicked out…
The screen eventually went dark from inactivity, but moments later, it lit up again with a message from Bamboo.
[Bamboo: Watching something good?]
Jiang Shi: “…”
If this guy had replied earlier, none of this social death would’ve happened!
Jiang Shi closed his eyes, finally reaching out to pick up his phone, and after replying “nothing” to Bamboo, he reopened the chat with Xie Xu, hoping to cover it up.
[Obedient Jiangjiang: Captain, you haven’t sleep yet? That GIF was actually sent by Bamboo. We were going to criticize how ridiculous netizens are, and I accidentally sent it to you.]
[Obedient Jiangjiang: I mean, we played so well today, with all those amazing plays. But they didn’t take screenshots of those highlights, only shared nonsense like that. Shameless!]
Jiang Shi’s tone was full of righteous indignation, with a hint of embarrassment.
[Xu: Hmm. Send it to me again. I didn’t get a clear look.]
[Xu: We can criticize it together.]
Jiang Shi looked at the last line and felt Xie Xu was teasing him. He rubbed his face, his ears red with embarrassment.
[Obedient Jiangjiang: Huh? I didn’t save it. I deleted it right after accidentally sending it to you. If you want to see it, should I ask Bamboo for it?]
[Xu: Who’s Bamboo?]
[Sweet Jiangjiang: A friend of mine.]
[Xu: Never mind. Go to sleep.]
[Xu: And stop banging your head on the wall.]
Jiang Shi lifted his head off the wall bit by bit and sent a quick “okay” back.
—
The next TLG match was five days away, and during this period, their training schedule was more intense, with daily scrims, reviews, and practice focusing on weak points.
Recently, Jiang Shi had been practically glued to Jiang Lele, as Yuan Yang had ordered them to improve their synergy, with playback reviews as a check.
In the past few days, Jiang Shi’s dreams were haunted by images of Jiang Lele being chased by five players, running toward him, yelling for help, and Jiang Shi couldn’t escape.
He’d also been practicing with Yu Hui and Zhao Jiu, but because of all these training sessions, he hadn’t played with Xie Xu in a long time.
Yuan Yang said his synergy with Xie Xu was decent, but they needed to focus on the other lanes for now.
Thus, Jiang Shi only had support when facing other teams in scrims.
That afternoon, after three rounds of scrimmages with Lion, they’d won two and lost one.
Afterward, Yuan Yang patted Jiang Shi on the shoulder, “Your coordination with Lele has improved a lot. Good job today.”
At least Jiang Lele wasn’t throwing enemy DPS right into Jiang Shi’s face anymore.
Zhao Jiu laughed, “Yang-ge, isn’t it easier for us to face Lion than before?”
When Jiang Shi had just joined the team, TLG would lose more than win in scrims against Lion, but now it was about even.
Yuan Yang nodded, “Time has improved a lot. They can’t dominate us on the bottom lane anymore.”
“But Lion is clearly holding back, so don’t let your guard down.”
They all nodded in understanding.
When the review ended, Yuan Yang was about to leave but saw Jiang Shi and Jiang Lele staring at him.
He raised an eyebrow, “Right, you two did well today. Free training for a while, no need to practice together.”
With that, he walked off with his notebook.
Jiang Lele immediately turned around and gave Yu Hui a big hug, “Sniff, Back, your little mid-laner is finally free from this sea of suffering!”
He continued to complain with snot and tears dripping. “You have no idea what hell I’ve been through recently. Not only do I have to share minion waves with that little white hair, but when I go bottom line to help him and take one cannon minion, he was being petty and retaliated against me, leaving me in the enemy pile and running away.”
Jiang Shi gave the two of them – who were huddling together – a disdainful glance, “When you were surrounded by four people, should I have stayed and died with you? Are you still sleeping?”
Jiang Lele huffed, “Hmph, Back would never abandon me!”
Yu Hui peeled him off, “I would too.”
Watching the two of them banter, Jiang Shi noted how Jiang Lele monopolized all of Yu Hui’s free time, making him duo-queue together.
Jiang Shi pursed his lips, glancing over at Xie Xu.
He was still reviewing the last game with Zhao Jiu. Their synergy had been off by a beat in the scrim.
It’s very likely they’re going to practice together tonight.
Jiang Shi looked away, feeling a bit down.
Jiang Lele squinted and moved closer, “Why don’t you join us for duo-queue?”
‘T Bao looked so pitiful alone.’
Besides, if he joined, Jiang Lele and Back could totally show him up.
Ignoring him, Jiang Shi grabbed his notebook and left the room.
Entering his solo-queue grind, he encountered all kinds of “special” teammates at the end of the season, and his frustration only grew.
Even worse, when his team’s crystal was destroyed, his jungle and support were in the jungle making heart gestures at each other.
Their hearts filled the jungle with pink bubbles, and Jiang Shi wanted to crawl through his screen to suffocate these heart-spamming fools to death.
When the crystal shattered and the big red [Defeat] appeared, he froze.
Right then, a pop-up for a new heart emote appeared, costing six yuan.
No wonder there were so many lovebirds in the rift.
Only an idiot would buy that.
He glanced over at Jiang Lele, thinking maybe he could join their trio queue. But as he took off his headphones, he heard Jiang Lele whining in a sickeningly sweet voice, “Back, let me have this blue! Ple~ase~”
He even made a heart gesture at Back’s hero, who was taking blue.
Jiang Shi: “?”
What’s the difference between these two and those stinky couples?
He put his headphones back on, tuning out Jiang Lele’s nonsense, and went back to solo queue.
After three straight losses, he couldn’t hold back anymore and went online to find reinforcements.
[Obedient Jiangjiang: Are you free? Let’s play a game together.]
He saw that Bamboo had been online for nearly thirty minutes and would likely finish soon.
Sure enough, as soon as Bamboo’s game ended, he invited Jiang Shi.
Bamboo didn’t start the queue right away, saying, “I’m streaming, so if you’re not comfortable, I can—”
Jiang Shi cut him off. “No worries, I’m streaming too.”
Before joining TLG, Jiang Shi and Bamboo often streamed together, with Bamboo encouraging his fans to follow Jiang Shi.
But after joining the team, Jiang Shi had little time to play with Bamboo, let alone stream together.
Jiang Shi pinned Bamboo’s room number to the top of the chat, saying, “Alright, let’s go.”
