Yu Nuo: “……”
She felt guilty and held back for a long time, unable to say a word.
Just then, the car she called arrived. Chen Yuzheng straightened up, “Forget it, I was just teasing you.”
Yu Nuo gripped the handle of her suitcase: “Then, I’m going?”
Chen Yuzheng: “Go ahead.”
The driver got out to help her load the luggage.
Yu Nuo sat in the passenger seat, taking a moment to calm her emotions. She turned her head to look outside.
Chen Yuzheng was no longer there.
—
Ultraman woke up after a nap.
Outside was completely dark, he didn’t know what time it was. He got up groggily and saw Chen Yuzheng wearing headphones playing with his phone beside him.
Ultraman yawned as he walked over, “What are you looking at?”
Chen Yuzheng didn’t even look up: “Brush your teeth before talking to me.”
“……”
Ultraman was left speechless by his harshness.
After grudgingly going to brush his teeth and coming back, Ultraman plopped down next to Chen Yuzheng, “Ah, so tired, what are you doing, didn’t you sleep?”
“Looking at photos.”
“What photos?”
Ultraman leaned in, “Oh, the ones from the official Weibo?”
He watched as Chen Yuzheng picked out his own photo and saved it to his phone. Ultraman laughed, “You’re so narcissistic, why save your own photo?”
After saving the photo, Chen Yuzheng turned off his phone and tossed it aside: “To admire later.”
—
After the Spring Finals, every TG player got a half-month break.
OG, having won the finals, was about to go abroad for MSI. After resting for two or three days, they resumed training.
Yu Ge made time to have a meal with Yu Nuo.
After eating, Yu Ge checked the time, “Should I take you back to school?”
Yu Nuo: “Do you have training tonight?”
“Today’s a rest day.”
“Then let’s go walk in the park.” Yu Nuo pulled him along, “You sit in front of the computer all day and don’t exercise, it’s not healthy.”
At this time many elderly people were walking in the park, the evening breeze felt nice. They chatted casually.
Yu Ge didn’t talk much, mostly it was Yu Nuo speaking.
“By the way.” Yu Ge asked, “How’s work at TG going?”
“Ah…” Yu Nuo hadn’t expected him to bring this up, thought for a bit, and gave a simple answer, “Pretty good, they’re all… very cheerful.”
“Cheerful?” The disdain in Yu Ge’s eyes couldn’t be hidden, “That Conquer, what was his name again, Chen Yuzheng?”
“Um…?” Yu Nuo’s heart skipped a beat, “What about him?”
Yu Ge’s expression was flat, “He seems quite unlikeable.”
Yu Nuo: “……”
After walking for a while, Yu Ge was recognized by passersby. Several guys came over with their phones, asking if they could take some photos.
Yu Nuo was pushed to the side.
The people asking for autographs were very enthusiastic, chatting with Yu Ge.
Yu Nuo found a nearby bench to sit down.
One of them noticed her and asked: “Fish God, out with your girlfriend?”
Yu Ge finished signing and answered: “My sister.”
“Oh oh.” The person looked at her more carefully, “She’s pretty, looks a lot like you.”
…
…
Yu Nuo was scrolling through Weibo, habitually opening the LPL players’ Call Rankings.
Every active professional player was on this ranking list, ordered by the number of trophies sent by fans.
Yu Ge was far ahead, ranking first.
Each Weibo account could send five free trophies daily. Yu Nuo clicked the send trophy button next to Yu Ge’s avatar.
After sending three, she paused.
Going back to the trophy sending interface, she scrolled down to the middle section before finding TG.Conquer.
The player’s small avatar frame showed his Spring Split profile photo.
Chen Yuzheng had his hands in his pockets, chin lifted looking at the camera. A natural air of arrogance.
Thinking of Yu Ge’s evaluation, Yu Nuo couldn’t help but smile, clicking twice next to his avatar to send him the remaining trophies.
Just then, a WeChat message popped up from Fu Yidong:
Fu Yidong: “Holy crap!!!”
Yu Nuo: “? What’s wrong”
Fu Yidong threw over a Weibo link: “Hahahahahahaha I found an absolutely toxic CP1 super topic, you must share this joy with me, it’s too toxic, I’ve never seen anything this toxic in my life!!!”
Yu Nuo’s curiosity was piqued, she clicked the link and Weibo jumped directly to a place called “Zheng Yu Super Topic.”
The latest top post was:
@LLL: [What the hell is this? There are people shipping Chen Yuzheng X Yu Ge CP, aren’t they famously sworn enemies?]
The comments below replied: [It’s exactly because they’re sworn enemies that it’s exciting, understand the love-hate relationship? I thought about it for a long time and couldn’t figure out why Conquer was so excited after beating Fish? And then he even cockily flashed his mastery, is this something a normal person would do? One night after pondering for ages, I slapped my thigh – isn’t this just trying to get attention from the person you love!!!! We’re too far apart, can only get your attention this way!!!! Chen Yuzheng’s love is hidden so deep, who wouldn’t find it touching?]
Yu Nuo’s mouth fell open in shock.
This was a CP super topic for Chen Yuzheng and her brother….
Looking at the member count, there were actually over three thousand people.
Yu Nuo continued scrolling.
@XXX: Why is Conquer the top? Fish doesn’t look like a bottom either.
[You just don’t understand, isn’t a younger top amazing? The untamed young wolf X ice prince, this is just too perfect. (Though switch is fine too)]
[No, I still say Fish is top, his aura is very top!!!]
[I say Conquer is top, a bad boy top is the ultimate treasure!!!]
Besides these, in the super topic’s featured posts, there were all kinds of fan art of them. Each more shameless than the last, each more scandalous than the last.
Apart from fan art, there was a real photo of Yu Ge and Chen Yuzheng shaking hands after OG won the match at Chengdu Sports Center.
Neither of them was looking at the other.
Below was captioned with a line:
[That year, I defeated everyone to finally stand before you. Just to make you look at me one more time.]
…
…
“What are you looking at?” Yu Ge’s voice came from above, startling Yu Nuo. She quickly turned off her phone and hid it behind her back.
Yu Ge: “?”
Yu Nuo quickly stood up: “Brother, did your fans leave?”
Yu Ge looked at her guilty expression, “What were you just looking at?”
Yu Nuo: “Nothing, just some jokes Dong Dong sent me… I was just browsing.”
“What jokes? Let me see.”
Yu Nuo: “They’re, not very funny.”
Yu Ge: “……”
Fortunately he didn’t ask further.
Yu Ge drove Yu Nuo back to school.
On the way, Yu Nuo kept stealing glances at Yu Ge every now and then. After browsing the super topic, she couldn’t get the images out of her head.
She felt like she could no longer look at Yu Ge and Chen Yuzheng the same way…
—
Half a month later, under repeated urging from fans, TG finally posted on Weibo about players signing with streaming platforms.
Soon after, Fish Streaming reposted this Weibo,
@Fish Gaming Live V:
Tada, TG team has officially joined Fish!! See you at 7pm on May 15th!!
They also opened Weibo accounts for all five TG members.
Yu Nuo was curious and went to take a look.
Except for Killer and Ultraman who posted a few interactions with fans, the others only reposted the upcoming streaming announcement.
Yu Nuo followed their Weibo accounts with her alt account.
On the evening of the 15th, all TG members streamed on Fish for the first time. Fish’s homepage gave them featured spots, and their viewer counts weren’t low when they first started.
Killer and Van turned on their cameras.
Ultraman and Thomas hadn’t turned theirs on at first, but under strong demand from stream viewers, they eventually turned on their cameras too.
The young guys only knew how to play games, and for their first stream, they were a bit stiff in front of the camera, not talking much.
Yu Ge also streamed on this platform. Yu Nuo had topped up before and still had some gifts left in her bag, so she sent each of them a plane.
In Chen Yuzheng’s stream, there was only a computer desktop.
He hadn’t turned on his camera.
Yu Nuo lurked for a while, surprised by the fans’ enthusiasm.
The viewer count wasn’t too high, but the barrage of comments scrolled very fast, reaching 99+ every few dozen seconds, with gifts big and small coming constantly.
There were many questions in the comments. The game was still on the login screen as Chen Yuzheng randomly picked a few to answer.
The comments kept demanding him to turn on his camera.
Chen Yuzheng opened the game, waiting in queue, casually replied: “Didn’t wash my hair today, won’t turn it on.”
Stream viewers started spamming:
#Chen Yuzheng you unfilial son#
#Filial piety comes first, Chen Yuzheng turn on the camera for mama!!!#
#Conquer makes people very sad#
#If you don’t turn on the camera, fans can’t live on smiling#
After continuous spamming for a while, Chen Yuzheng finally turned on the camera. However, the small window only showed his hands and keyboard.
Chen Yuzheng: “Just watch the gameplay, I sell skills not looks.”
Yu Nuo was also lurking in his stream, couldn’t help but laugh.
He could be quite annoying sometimes.
Just then, fans noticed his keyboard – pure black, beaten up, with the QWER keycaps even having paint peeled off.
Lurking haters immediately seized the opportunity:
[Is there a pro player poorer than Chen Yuzheng? Can’t even afford a keyboard? Using this broken thing?]
[Brothers, spam ‘poor’ in the chat]
[poorpoorpoorpoorpoorpoorpoorpoorpoorpoorpoor]
After just a couple minutes, suddenly someone with the ID [Zheng is Great] started sending Supreme Rockets2.
One, two, three……
The gifts were divided into tiers, the most expensive being the 2000RMB3 Supreme Rocket, followed by the 1314RMB Yacht, then the 500RMB regular Rocket, 100RMB Plane, and various small gifts worth a few yuan etc.
Each Supreme Rocket had a site-wide announcement.
This mysterious big spender who appeared out of nowhere kept sending dozens continuously, making the stream’s viewer count instantly shoot up to ten million.
Many curious onlookers came to watch.
The comments went crazy:
[Zheng, you’ve made it.]
[Chen Yuzheng are you about to get famous?]
[Which rich lady has taken a fancy to Conquer????]
[Damn, still sending, hasn’t stopped, that must be hundreds of thousands of RMB by now…..]
[Zheng, promise mama, take tonight’s earnings and buy a keyboard. Mama feels sorry for you.]
Chen Yuzheng took out his phone and sent his cousin a WeChat message: “If you have money just send me red packets.”
Cousin: “Don’t mind me”
Chen Yuzheng: “?”
Cousin: “First stream, gotta make sure my little brother looks impressive right?”
[Zheng is Great] only stopped after sending two hundred Supreme Rockets.
By now Chen Yuzheng’s stream was ranked first in the LOL section.
The game officially started, and the mods banned several spamming haters.
Once Chen Yuzheng started playing, he stopped interacting with comments, barely even acknowledging gifts.
A famous female dancer streamer from the same platform came by and sent two Supreme Rockets. She also confessed her feelings.
Chen Yuzheng kept playing, his stream quiet as a mouse except for game sounds and keyboard clicks.
The female streamer stayed for a while then left.
This sparked a lot of drama afterwards.
Even after one game ended, comments were still spamming:
Did you see the female streamer who sent you Supreme Rockets just now?
Chen Yuzheng casually said: “Saw her.”
[You’re quite arrogant, do you know how many followers that female streamer has?]
[Zheng, you’re not even famous yet but already acting like a big shot?]
[Do fans need to teach you about social graces? You’re like a block of wood! Even if you saw her you should know to say thank you!]
Chen Yuzheng queued for another game, took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth, “Forgot.”
There was a click sound, from a lighter.
[Ahhhhhhhhh, are you secretly smoking?? Let us see, want to see you smoke]
Chen Yuzheng’s voice was a bit flippant: “Yeah, smoking, can’t show it on stream, not suitable for minors, don’t watch.”
—
Yu Nuo finished showering, ate something, put on her headphones, and with nothing else to do, opened Chen Yuzheng’s stream again.
She watched him play for a while.
Remembering she forgot to send gifts earlier, she opened her bag and found one last plane left. She casually sent it out.
Fans were still endlessly spamming asking Chen Yuzheng to show his face.
How were they still spamming after so long?
Yu Nuo joined in with a comment: [Why won’t you show your face?]
Liang Xi called her from behind.
Yu Nuo turned around to talk to her for a bit.
After a while, Chen Yuzheng’s voice suddenly came through her headphones:
“Love eating… thank you Love Eating Fish for the plane.” He seemed to laugh, “Thank you boss.”
Comments were confused:
[??????]
[Chen Yuzheng, you’re acting weird.]
[You thank for a plane but not for Supreme Rockets?]
[Who is Love Eating Fish??? With so many ‘bosses’, why did you only thank her???]
Yu Nuo didn’t know what had just happened.
How could him casually thanking for a gift cause such a big reaction in the stream.
She was a bit confused, then heard Chen Yuzheng say, “Send another one and I’ll show my face.”
Hearing he planned to show his face, comments instantly exploded, enthusiastically spamming, but as they spammed, a small white text appeared at the bottom:
[User Love Eating Fish has left the stream]
- In Chinese culture, CP is an internet slang abbreviated from the English word “coupling” or “pairing”. It’s basically a type of fan culture where fans imagine romantic relationships between fictional or real-life characters. Think ‘shipping’ in idol culture. ↩︎
- Part of livestreaming culture e.g., on Douyin or Bilibili, where viewers can support livestreamers by sending virtual gifts; the most valuable of which is the ‘Supreme Rocket’ (a large flashy digital item that costs the most amount of money). ↩︎
- About $270 USD. ↩︎
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