Chapter 21
The moment the bullet comments started scrolling, Su Yi noticed her subscriber count growing at a breakneck speed. Then… the official operations team at White Shark TV毫不犹豫地 pinned her stream to the homepage.
They even added a caption on the promotional banner: “The LPL’s First Female Player.”
This move seemed to have stirred up the neighboring esports circles, like Hearthstone and Overwatch… She really should have anticipated what it meant for a girl to go pro in the LPL.
Just then, she saw a row of highly conspicuous colored bullet comments float across her screen:
[Yi Mei, do you and Qi Shen have some kind of grudge from before?]
Su Yi: “…”
The stream was quickly hijacked by this viewer’s pacing, with everyone asking if she and CNZ’s Qi Shen shared some sort of unspeakable secret relationship.
Carrying a hint of negativity, Su Yi said, “Qi Shen? Well, he…”
“He just changed careers to targeting supports, that’s all.”
“…”
“Otherwise, every jungler in the world would know his tricks by now.”
Su Yi glanced at Han Lingfeng sitting next to her, only to find him lurking in her stream while still broadcasting his own… His screen was flooded with comments like:
[Wind God, that’s enough! Yi Mei is sitting right next to you and you’re still raiding her channel!]
[Hurry up and play the game together!]
[I heard Yi Mei was bullied by Qi Shen a while ago, and then you forcibly carried her. Is that true?]
[Does SNM not forbid internal dating?]
[Waaaah, hubby, please don’t duo queue with Yi Mei…]
The last comment seemed to remind someone that they were streaming to play games, not just chat with fans. Soon, Han Lingfeng logged into the game and said to Su Yi beside him, “Get in the game.”
Su Yi immediately nodded and clicked the game icon.
During the queue time, she sneaked another peek at the bullet comments:
[Wind God, why do I feel like you’re spoiling your new support rotten?]
Su Yi: “…………”
Instantly, the tips of her ears turned red.
After a brief moment of silence, Su Yi finally changed the subject: “…I’ll be streaming for the next few days. If you like me, please hit the follow button.”
She felt this transition was inexplicably stiff.
…
Two minutes later, she and Han Lingfeng successfully queued into a match, still playing their familiar bot lane duo.
After reaching level four, both bot lanes engaged in a fierce skirmish. Because the plays were extremely close, Su Yi didn’t hold back to let him take the kills; they each secured one kill, which was perfectly satisfying. Just as a minion wave with a cannon minion arrived, Han Lingfeng spoke up, “Help me push the wave under their tower.”
“Okay,” Su Yi agreed, using her abilities to help him shove the wave.
Cannon minions had relatively high health. Su Yi had already used her burst of abilities, and just as the cannon minion was left with a sliver of health for Han Lingfeng to last-hit, he suddenly stopped attacking.
Then… Su Yi watched as a ‘+39’ gold notification floated above her champion’s head.
Su Yi: “…………”
She had actually last-hit the cannon minion with a basic attack?
She turned her head to Han Lingfeng beside her and said, “…I didn’t mean to.”
Han Lingfeng hummed in acknowledgment, retreating under the tower to recall and buy items. “Because I intentionally let you have it.”
“…”
“You were just a bit short on gold for your Sightstone,” Han Lingfeng said lightly.
Su Yi glanced at the gold counter below her inventory in the bottom right corner—812 gold, exactly enough to recall and complete her Sightstone. After buying her items in the fountain and heading back to lane, Su Yi tabbed out to check the bullet comments:
[Holy crap! Is Wind God actually this gentle?]
[He let the support take the cannon minion!!! There’s no justice in the world!]
[Streaming together and duo queueing together? I wouldn’t believe it if someone told me nothing is going on between these two.]
[Yi Mei, are you and Wind God dating?]
*Are you and Wind God dating?*
*Dating?*
“…”
Su Yi was choked speechless by this bullet comment for a good while. By the time she snapped out of it, she realized she had tabbed out for too long. Her champion had already walked into lane and was promptly burst down by the enemy bot lane.
Staring at the black-and-white screen, Su Yi instantly felt the urge to scratch the wall in frustration.
Han Lingfeng glanced at her. “Don’t lose focus.”
“S-sorry.”
“It’s fine. It’s not a big deal if the support gets the kill,” Han Lingfeng said. “Follow me into the enemy jungle once you’re back in lane.”
“Got it. Next time I play, I absolutely won’t tab out to read the chat.”
At this moment, her stream was filled with comments like ‘Wind God, your vibe is off,’ ‘Holy crap, Wind God, have you reformed? You weren’t like this when streaming with Xiao C,’ and ‘Hubby, are you going to become someone else’s hubby?’
Although she couldn’t see the bullet comments in-game without a streaming overlay tool, Su Yi’s mind was still dwelling on what she had just read. Throughout the entire game, she only played at about half her capacity, whiffing several flashy ultimates, which left her feeling quite stifled.
Fortunately, Han Lingfeng was fed enough, and their top, mid, and jungle players performed ideally, allowing them to secure the win.
After exiting the game, Su Yi saw that her stream chat had turned into a chaotic mess.
Some were saying her mechanics were trash and telling her to get out of the esports circle; others were comforting her, telling her not to be nervous and to just focus on playing; and then there was a massive crowd of onlookers stirring the pot. For the first time, Su Yi experienced how tough it was to be a professional player… But right now, she was just mentally exhausted.
She simply closed her stream and threw herself entirely into grinding ranked matches.
She duo queued with Han Lingfeng for a few more games. As they played on, she finally found her groove, and her mechanics weren’t as ugly anymore. In the final match, several exceptionally brilliant plays firmly restored her dignity as an excellent support.
When the game ended, Su Yi glanced at the time in the bottom right corner. It was almost six o’clock—time for dinner.
“That’s it for today’s stream. See you all tomorrow at the same time,” Su Yi said, taking off her headset and glancing at Han Lingfeng, who had already ended his broadcast.
He slowly stood up from his chair and walked around behind her. Su Yi looked up and asked, “Wind God, are you going to eat?”
Han Lingfeng nodded. “Yeah. The cafeteria auntie is cooking today. I’m going upstairs to wake up those lazy pigs.”
“…Oh,” Su Yi replied.
She had heard that her cousin and Tai Yi went out to handle some business yesterday. It seemed SNM had been invited to participate in an entertainment show called “League Interrogation”—a trivia and quiz-style program.
As the captain, Xu Ruiqi naturally had to follow the team manager around and busy himself with all the preparations. Just thinking about it made her feel sorry for her brother.
While Han Lingfeng was upstairs waking up their teammates, Su Yi figured Xia Qiqi should be streaming by now. She immediately navigated to her best friend’s channel and, sure enough, Xia Qiqi was already fully made up with her mic set up, ready to sing.
[What song is Principal Qi singing today?]
[Principal Qi, do you know your bestie is streaming in the next room? And with Wind God too!]
[If it weren’t for Yi Mei and Wind God exchanging flirtatious glances while coordinating bot lane, I would’ve thought you and Yi Mei were dating!]
*Holy crap! Is “exchanging flirtatious glances” really how you describe it?!*
Then, the tone of the bullet comments suddenly shifted:
[Yi Mei’s army is air-dropping in—]
[Yi Mei’s army is air-dropping in—]
[Principal Qi! Yi Mei is raiding your channel hahahahaha!]
[Principal Qi! I’m here on behalf of your Yi Mei to see you, mwah!]
Xia Qiqi was initially fiddling with her microphone, but she must have seen the chat because she suddenly pointed at the screen and said, “Yo, babe, you actually have time to raid my channel? Aren’t you going to keep cozying up in bot lane with your Brother Wind God?”
Su Yi: “…………”
She quickly typed on her keyboard, and before hitting send, she specifically paid for a red font:
Thus, a bullet comment floated across Xia Qiqi’s stream: [SNM_EMail: Friend, if you keep talking like that, the fragile ship of our friendship is going to capsize.]
The chat was full of people teasing Su Yi and Han Lingfeng’s relationship. Half of them thought something was going on between the two, while the other half thought an ADC and support naturally spent a long time coordinating together, and turning every little breeze into a massive scandal was just boring.
Looking at the chat, Xia Qiqi laughed out loud. “The ship of our friendship won’t capsize.” As she spoke, she navigated to Su Yi’s channel and directly smashed a [Luxury Cruise Ship] (the most expensive gift on the platform) onto Su Yi’s stream.
Instantly, a banner scrolled across the top of every stream on the entire platform: [‘Principal Qi’ gifted a ‘Luxury Cruise Ship’ to ‘SNM_EMail’. Hurry up and grab the little boats~]
Gifting the most expensive item triggered a platform-wide broadcast, and fans had a high chance of looting ‘little boats’ from the treasure chest, which were the cheapest gifts on the platform.
Su Yi was stunned. Speaking into her microphone, she said, “Did the sun rise from the west today? Qiqi, you finally did something decent. I feel like I can happily go out for dinner now~”
Xia Qiqi seemed used to it and laughed even more cheerfully. “It’s just returning the favor. Remember what I told you.”
What she told her?
—*Sparks of romance from accidental friction…*
Su Yi blinked and didn’t reply. Her stream chat was full of curious babies: ‘Waaah, Principal Qi, what did you say to Yi Mei?’ ‘Are you two going to get your marriage certificate?’ ‘Go get married already, Wind God is mine!’.
How were these people so good at hijacking the narrative? They had dragged the topic all the way to Pluto.
Su Yi’s mouth twitched. She figured it was safer to end the stream quickly.
So she waved at the camera. “I’m going to eat now. That’s it for today’s stream. Tomorrow…” But right as she said this, she saw a broadcast banner scroll across the top of her stream:
[‘CNZ_Qi’ gifted a ‘Luxury Cruise Ship’ to ‘SNM_EMail’. Hurry up and grab the little boats~]