Xie Zhuzhou had no idea Wen Ruohuai had taken a sarcastic jab at him. He had already gotten on his bicycle, planning to head back to campus.
He had no classes that morning.
Xie Zhuzhou didn't know where to take his viewers. After circling campus once, he went to an internet café to use a computer, worried about revealing his home address.
The viewers were utterly shocked.
[Stop playing me. This is literally my gaming-addict boyfriend.]
[My hopelessly addicted gamer boyfriend actually brought me to an internet café...]
[Sure enough, you're the most genuine, and the most heartless!]
[Bro, bro, you've gone too far!]
Xie Zhuzhou wasn't planning to play games all day. He would pad his streaming hours all morning, then take them fishing in the afternoon.
Perfect!
Xie Zhuzhou thought he was an absolute genius!
For all his careful planning, Xie Zhuzhou had never expected the original owner's secret identity as a major TNT Team fan to be exposed on the spot.
He also saw a message from TNT-koyu asking what he had been up to lately.
Relieved that the pop-up message contained nothing sensitive, Xie Zhuzhou let out a breath.
The original owner didn't have an alt account either, so he could only make do with this one.
[Bro, what am I looking at?]
[Wait, wait, huh? You're TNT-koyu's big-name fan, "Ride the Wind"??]
[Oh crap, what did I just see?]
[Bro, do you know you just exposed your alt? So you're the big spender who keeps clinging to koyu! Daddy!]
[Sugar daddy, I'm not calling you bro anymore!]
Once Xie Zhuzhou logged in, the livestream viewers saw everything except his password.
The account on the screen had every hero, every skin, the maximum level, and dazzling badges. The fans in the livestream who played this game clutched their stomachs in sour envy, feeling like jealous chickens.
"What hero do you want to play?"
Xie Zhuzhou still made a halfhearted effort to interact with the viewers, but it was only a token gesture. He didn't actually let them choose, leaving them beating their chests and stamping their feet in frustration. How could anyone be this infuriating!
The original owner's skills were pretty good, and his hands retained their muscle memory. Worried about exposing other problems, he declined invitations from the other TNT Team members.
After four games, he finally snapped out of it, rubbed between his brows, and logged off.
Those who had once questioned whether "Ride the Wind" used a booster were abruptly slapped hard in the face.
He had those skills, yet he neither joined a team nor streamed. He simply played.
Even when koyu's fans attacked him, he hadn't tried to prove his innocence. What a strong mentality.
Xie Zhuzhou had no idea he had inadvertently cleared the original owner's name. He finally made it to noon, said a few words to the viewers, and ended the stream.
With a screen between them, he had even forgotten what embarrassment was.
Zhang Yin, who was working from home at the dating show villa, had watched gaming streams all morning.
In a dorm room at University A, An Xinian sat without a word, his head filled with Xie Zhuzhou's past claims that he didn't know how to play video games.
He had wondered how there could be so many coincidences.
He liked fencing, and so did Xie Zhuzhou.
He liked going to plays, and so did Xie Zhuzhou.
He had said he hated video games, and Xie Zhuzhou had said he hated them too...
Fuck. He had been fooled.
Xie Zhuzhou really was something.
"Xinian, you don't look so good. What's wrong?"
"Nothing."
After koyu had waited for days, Ride the Wind finally came online. Not seeing him online all this time had kept leaving him with a strange feeling.
The guy had finally logged on, and he wasn't even inviting him!
He wasn't streaming now, so what was there to be afraid of?
He waited through one of Ride the Wind's games after another, spectating match after match. Only after confirming that Ride the Wind wasn't playing with anyone else did he breathe a sigh of relief.
But then his chest felt tight. He kept feeling that Ride the Wind's attitude toward him had changed. He wasn't answering his WeChat messages either.
Before, whenever Ride the Wind came across an interesting video while scrolling, he would share it with him. Now their chat had been quiet for a long time.
He shut down his computer and turned over his phone, only to discover more than a dozen missed calls.
He frowned slightly and called back.
"Hey! Qin Fang, why didn't you answer my calls just now? Do you know what happened?"
"What?"
"You... forget it. I'm downstairs. Open the door. We'll talk in person."
Qin Fang went downstairs to open the door and saw his manager storm inside, looking as though he really wanted to punch him.
"Ride the Wind streamed, using the Love 5 livestream channel. However long you spent eagerly spectating him, the whole country saw it."
Qin Fang: ...
"Tell me, was he seducing you just to set up today's reversal?"
At that, Qin Fang said irritably, "What do you mean, seducing? Other people say it, and now you're saying it too. Is there something wrong with all of you? We're two men. How could..."
Qin Fang slowly recalled the things Ride the Wind had said on a few nights, confessing to him as though joking. What had he said back then... that it was disgusting, that he should get lost.
If Ride the Wind really liked him, if his thoughtless words had been taken to heart, had he hurt his feelings?
But he was certain he wasn't gay, and he wasn't interested in Ride the Wind either. They were just friends who played together.
"You're overthinking it."
"Overthinking it? Haven't you seen Weibo? It's full of rumors about you two, saying he wasn't clinging to you, and now you're the one latching onto a sugar daddy! They're also asking why you acted so high and mighty before, refusing to clear his name even after your sugar daddy sent you so many gifts!"
Hearing this, Qin Fang's face went cold with speechless frustration. "Why didn't I clear things up? Weren't you the one who kept telling me to leave it alone? Besides, Ride the Wind himself said it was fine."
"He said it was fine, so you thought it was fine?"
The two fell silent, each thinking it was the other's fault.
In short, the online discourse that day was very bad for Qin Fang's reputation.
His manager also seemed to realize that Ride the Wind genuinely didn't want to bother with Qin Fang anymore. After all, the guy had even gone on a dating show!
"I don't even know what he looks like."
Qin Fang wasn't anxious at all now. Instead, he took out his phone and searched for the Love 5 livestream. "Looks like the stream doesn't start again until three this afternoon."
His manager: ...
Xie Zhuzhou left the internet café and rode his bicycle, his head filled with what to have for lunch.
Ever since coming to this world, he had agonized over this every day. Sure enough, taking care of himself wasn't easy either.
He used his phone to randomly pick his lunch and went to have a lamb soup set meal.
Life could be incredibly pleasant sometimes.
After cycling across a bridge and through a small patch of woods, Xie Zhuzhou took a different route home for an afternoon nap and spotted a blind man by the road, veering off course as he walked.
He was about to wander straight into his path!
Xie Zhuzhou saw that someone had ridden over the man's white cane and bent it. Looking utterly forlorn, the man had no idea where he was and was anxiously turning in circles.
Xie Zhuzhou: ...
Xie Zhuzhou, who had never been a good Samaritan, glanced up at the sky.
If I don't help someone in trouble, I probably... won't get struck by lightning, right?
He turned his handlebars and was just about to go around when a rumble of thunder rang out.
It was just like the thunder he had heard that day when the vicious supporting male character cried, only even louder!
The young man gripping the white cane stopped in his tracks, his face turning deathly pale at the thunder.
"..."
He was a full-grown guy and looked much taller than him. Was he really that scared?
Xie Zhuzhou thought about it. It was probably because the other man's world was pitch-black and he felt unsafe?
"Are you okay?"
The young man froze, then turned toward the sound of his voice. His eyes were unfocused, as though covered by a layer of mist.
A trace of embarrassment appeared on that deathly pale, handsome face.
"I'm fine. Am I blocking your way? Sorry, I didn't mean to. I can't see."