When Bamboo saw a sudden surge of viewers pouring into his channel, he understood immediately. “Bro, next time, I’ll treat you to dinner.”
During the queue, Bamboo frequently roamed to the bottom lane to support Jiang Shi, letting him farm mid freely and feeding Jiang Shi until he was a powerhouse.
Finally, Jiang Shi’s frustration over his losing streak began to dissipate. He glanced at the chat while snagging Bamboo’s minions in the mid-lane
“Why are you livestreamming now?” Jiang Shi read a question out loud. “That’s because I’ve been busy with training.”
[Bullsht, Lele often livestreams!]
[This brat promised to stream right after the first game, and we waited for days but was greeted with now news. Just as I thought he had forgotten us, he quietly started without any announcement.]
[Little idiot, is your livestream preview just for show? Do you know how heartbroken I would be if I missed this?]
[He’s just afraid we’ll expose his affairs with Xu. If he wasn’t, he’d be milking us for donations by now.]
[Upstrairs is so true. This stream is also with Bamboo. If he was queueing with Xu, there’s no way he’d stream it.]
Jiang Shi looked at the chat with an innocent look. “How could it be? You are all my dearest fans!”
“I finally got a chance to stream, so let’s get some support badges, and follow Bamboo too. He’s a top mid-laner in the national server.”
The whole thing came out smooth as butter. Clearly, he’d said it many times before.
[You act all sweet when you want something but call yourself our ‘Dad’ when you’re dissing us. Can you be any more shameless!]
[Fine, I’m impressed. Call us some more. (I’ve clicked the follow button)]
[Followed too. But who’s the son here? I’m clearly your aunt!]
Jiang Shi quickly adapted and changed his words. “Good evening, aunts and uncles~”
“Why don’t I duo-queue with the captain?” As Jiang Shi interacted with his fans, he didn’t forget to kill the opponent’s AD with Bamboo’s assist. “The captain is queuing with Jiu-ge, so I’m just playing with a friend.”
[Tsk, so you got abandoned by your husband and found someone else, right?]
[I recently watched other TLG players’ livestream channel and found that the bottom lane duo had a falling out. They hadn’t played together in a while, only straining separately with others.]
[What, is there a conflict? Or is it that Xu is too difficult to seduce, so you gave up?]
[No way? Didn’t they kiss in front of the audience in the stadium?]
[I also saw that GIF and picture. T Bao’s progress is faster than I thought!]
[I regret not watching that match…]
[That picture is fake, right? Don’t be fooled by T Bao’s excited look in the stream, he’s actually a coward in front of Xu, right?]
Jiang Shi looked at the remark that the bottom lane duo had a falling out, pursed his lips, but said nothing about that. Instead, he denied the following rumor with a simple, “That picture was fake. Don’t spread it.”
Bamboo followed Jiang Shi as a half-support, and asked, “What picture?”
Jiang Shi: “Nothing, come here to get blue.”
He was about to invade the opponent’s jungle area, when a hand suddenly stretched out from the left-back and knocked on his desk.
Jiang Shi took off his headset. “Captain, what’s up?”
Xie Xu looked at the screen, where Jiang Shi and Bamboo’s avatars nearly overlapped. His eyes flashed. “Queueing with someone?”
“Yeah.” Jiang Shi nodded. “It’s Bamboo, I mentioned him before.”
Over the headset, Bamboo asked, “Still want the blue buff?”
Jiang Shi refocused, “Go, or else your blue will be gone.”
Xie Xu watched as Jiang Shi eagerly let Bamboo take the blue buff. After a pause, he said, “Add me later, Zhao Jiu is going to train solo.”
Jiang Shi was discovered when he was invading the jungle area. He and Bamboo was chased by three players. He quickly escaped while using his skill to counterattack in return. He replied with a short, “Hmm.”
Xie Xu didn’t say anything else.
[The atmosphere was weird.]
[Judging from his posture, Xu should be watching Time’s operation from the side. Usually the little white hair would definitely take the opportunity to talk to Xu more, or show off some cool moves secretly. But now he was only discussing how to play with Bamboo.]
{I think that’s because his teammates are too poor. If T Bao doesn’t take it seriously, he will lose again.]
[Am I the only one who noticed that T Bao gave up the blue buff? In my impression, he only gave the blue buff to Xu.]
[This little white hair is very smart at times, but sometimes he’s very slow…]
[Guess what Xu is thinking now?]
[Xu: My little AD ran away with others after I left him alone for a short moment.]
[It’s time to make Xu jealous, so that my stupid son won’t always be rejected.]
[Xu didn’t do anything, right? Isn’t he very good to Time?]
The comments slowly degenerated into a pointless fight, but Jiang Shi was too focused to notice.
Just as he was trying to destroy a tower, Xie Xu’s voice came from his side.
“My AD didn’t run away with others.” Xie Xu’s tone was casual and light. “If he runs away, I’ll just catch him back.”
Jiang Shi paused and looked at Xie Xu in confusion. Before he could say anything, Bamboo shouted, “Time, stop destroying the tower, they’re chasing us!”
He immediately came to his senses and retreated.
Ten minutes later, the opponent’s crystal was broken. They won.
After the game, Xie Xu joined Jiang Shi’s lobby. Jiang Shi didn’t forget to introduce him to Bamboo. “This is TLG’s support and captain Xu.”
Bamboo greeted him in return, “Hello, Boss, I’m Bamboo.”
Xie Xu hummed and responded, “Hello.”
Jiang Shi saw that both sides finished greeting, and tentatively asked, “Should I start a new queue?”
“Wait,” Xie Xu stopped him, “Go back to the previous game, let me take a look at the post-game stats.”
Jiang Shi didn’t understand why but opened it anyway. The loss streak glared back in red, with only his game with Bamboo in green.
He coughed, quickly switching tabs on his post-game details, and asked Xie Xu, “Is there any problem with my operations just now?”
Recently, not only Yuan Yang, but Xie Xu also have been more critical of his mistakes.
Although Xie Xu is always very gentle when speaking, he was still very strict when it comes to competition. He suggested extra training for repeated errors until Jiang Shi corrected them.
This made Jiang Shi feel a deep sense of crisis, and his tone was a little nervous when he asked Xie Xu.
[Wait, the little white hair is too cowardly in front of Xu, right?]
[Xu, are you being mean to him?]
[Didn’t you hear that Xu’s very tyrannical in TLG? Time must have been tossed around a lot. He probably got bullied countless times. Plus, I heard that Xu’s relationship with the young trainees is also unclear. Truly, it made me speechless.]
[?]
[?]
[What’s the identity of upstairs? Coming in with a level 1 fan badge and already starting to criticize Xu? Do you even know the rules of this stream?]
[What rules?]
[Xu is number one in the world, Time is number two. Anyone who attacks either of them shall face the consequences and die.]
[When T Bao’s in a good mood, you can say something about him, and he’ll laugh it off with a few sarcastic comments. But if you criticize Xu—]
[I’ll light up a candle for you…]
Sure enough, the next second, Jiang Shi opened his mic and said, “Me? Getting constantly bullied? The way you say it with such certainty, did you crawl around on the ground and count them for me?”
He snorted and added, “Don’t think you can fish in troubled waters because you are my level 1 ‘son’. I don’t have a son like you.”
After that, he promptly blocked and kicked the person out of the stream without giving them a chance to respond.
As he finished, Jiang Shi turned to Xie Xu with a complete change in expression, the coldness in his eyes gone as he obediently said, “Captain, go ahead.”
He had a look that said, “I’m all ears when you’re the one talking, no one else has a say.”
[…]
[Son, you really are a simp! How many benefits has Xu given you in private to make you so obedient?]
[Have you two done it yet? At the very least, you’ve kissed, right? You were feeding us sugar1giving ship materials in front of everyone before. You must’ve gotten somewhere by now.]
[You all have too high expectations of him. I bet this little idiot has never even hold Xu’s hands.]
[If it’s not working, just wash yourself up and send yourself to his bed already! You’re strong, just pin him down and do it.]
[T Bao, are you even capable? Didn’t I even send you some guides? Can’t you learn it by following them? (I even toned it down and sent you a new version. I saw you received the file.)]
The comments got more and more explicit, and Jiang Shi couldn’t bear to look at them.
This was exactly why he was reluctant to stream—these people had no bottom line!
When he saw the last comment, his eyelid twitched, but luckily, other comments quickly covered it up.
Just as he was debating whether to turn off the chat, Xie Xu suddenly spoke up, “In the last game, when you were pushing the crystal, you switched your resistance boots for attack speed boots and even sold your equipment to buy an electrocuting dagger.”
The conversation turned, and the chat’s direction shifted as well.
[Whoa, I didn’t even notice until Xu pointed it out.]
[Was T-Bao too scared to lose? Boosted his attack speed that much just to take down towers.]
[That’s not like Time’s usual style. When has he ever prioritized pushing towers? Usually, he’s all about fighting, and if he could, he’d probably even show off his invulnerability in the enemy’s fountain.]
[Now that you mention it, something felt off about that game. Ever since Xu showed up, the little fool stopped fighting and just ran around all three lanes pushing towers while Bamboo watched his back.]
[By the time he was done with those towers, his guns must have been blazing, right?]
[Son, you should know, your guns are meant for the enemy, not the towers! Look at you now!]
Seeing these mocking comments, Jiang Shi kept a wooden face as he muted everyone.
But he forgot about Bamboo.
Bamboo’s voice came through the mic, laughing uncontrollably. “Time, all your fans are over here asking if I was holding a whip behind you, forcing you to end it quickly.”
“They’re even asking if you’re holding it in to go to the bathroom, hahaha… Doesn’t seem like you’re in a hurry, though!”
Bamboo added with a knowing tone, “Rushing to finish quickly so you can do something?”
They had been friends for years, and Bamboo clearly saw through his thoughts, speaking with hidden meaning.
Jiang Shi: “…”
He moved his mouse around the screen, trying to find a way to mute his teammate.
Xie Xu watched his every move, chuckling. “I’m curious too.”
Jiang Shi’s mouse suddenly stopped, and after a long pause, he mumbled, “I thought you knew.”
He clicked on Xie Xu’s avatar in the team, his voice dropping to a soft murmur, “If I finish sooner, I can play with you.”
