In four years a lot can change.
Lifelong friendships can be ruined.
Brother-like bonds can be erased.
Legends can be erased from the world, canceled, ostracized by the Internet, and still be in everyone's mind four years later.
Alas, within those four years, some people's sense of shame hadn't changed one bit.
Xiao Yi stared at the screen with various thoughts and feelings running through his body, yet unlike his brother who was visibly turning red while scrambling to end the stream, his face was still expressionless. Aside from the one, slightly raised eyebrow.
'When did I become someone else's son?'
'Hah, I should have gone back to sleep or stayed out with V longer.'
'What a bastard.'
Xiao Qiu leaned back into the couch after quickly turning off the stream just moments after the big 'announcement' with the reasoning he gave his fans. "Well, there's nothing left for me to commentate on! See you guys tomorrow."
The brothers sat in silence for a long moment. Neither of them knew what the other was thinking, struggling with their own thoughts.
Xiao Qiu was angry, but he was also scared. What would happen if they really found his cute little brother? Why were they looking for him? Wouldn't this affect Xiao Yi more?
Frost had a horrible reputation within the gaming community but it was normally kept within a smaller circle of old Chinese fans or the industry. First, the amateur announcers had the balls to mention him, and now it was Mu Yichen.
No matter what the previous members of Team X wanted with his brother, it could never turn out well for him. Doing this would only dig up the past even more than it had been and since the esports scene has grown tremendously in the previous four years - his little brother could find himself in a literal witch hunt.
Who knew what the fans of the remaining members were like now, let alone the rest of the netizens?
Actually, he was scared that his brother would be targeted by people with ill intentions, those who cared too deeply about the lives of their favorite teams and individual esports players. If Xiao Yi was found by someone malicious…
Xiao Qiu bounced up from the couch with eyes seeing red and cursed. "That bastard! Stay there, I'm calling Lee."
Xiao Yi hummed and closed his eyes as his thoughts progressed. He understood why his brother was angry. If anyone knew the waves of the internet and industry, it would be the captain of the previous Team X.
He wasn't too bothered by that, though. He was more curious - why now?
It wasn't that hard to find him. He still used the same account and character that he used before joining Team X. The famous character was named X-Frost, while the one he'd used previously was just Frost, and only his teammates, brother, and V were added to that character.
Furthermore - he'd never changed his phone number.
Were these guys so stupid?
Xiao Yi knew the answer to that question - they weren't stupid. They knew his phone number, they knew the account, so why did they look for him publicly?
Simply put… Xiao Yi would never willingly reach out to them. If they had tried to reach out to him previously, he would have disappeared again.
They were forcing him into a hole by using the public to do so.
Xiao Yi examined the information gained by V and nodded with a small hum. They wanted to force him out of hiding and get him to be their assassin again, or they wanted to get revenge - it was one of the two options and he wasn't keen on finding out what their goal was.
Frost was the best assassin in Valley of Light, but Xiao Yi was also great at hiding.
Meanwhile, Xiao Qiu was in the stairway of the apartment complex ranting to Lee, his captain. "Four years! It's been four years and they haven't reached out once, they didn't help clear any rumors or mention him at all… Why now?"
Lee's deep voice came through the phone. "I'm not sure but it's unlikely that they haven't seen clips from your streams before so they should have reached out to us to find either of you, but we haven't received inquiries."
Xiao Qiu sat down and put his head in his arms while he held his phone out with one hand, his muffled voice sounding. "I didn't think of that… He's been on my stream daily for years, they should know where he is. What if those fans harm Xiao Yi?"
"I'll give two options. Move into the team building until the fans forget about this, or continue staying there - it's secure enough and I'll add some security. You forgot that the fans don't know what 'Frost' looks like, have there been connections to him on your stream?"
"If we move to the team building wouldn't that just give them more access to him?"
"… We have a side building."
"You want to put my brother in the annex?"
"Didn't I give you two options? We don't have extra rooms here anyway unless he wants to bunk with me. Why not ask him?"
Xiao Yi of course agreed to move to the team building for a little bit. Not for his safety, but he thought about Xiao Qiu - how is he supposed to bond with his teammates when he hardly goes to the building? Isn't it better for his career and training to stay in the same space and get taught by Lee directly?
A little scolding wouldn't hurt his brother.