Jian Rong's original intention was to go back to sleep.
But after being blown by the wind for a bit in the entryway, he felt as energetic as an ox by the time he got back to his room. He couldn't muster up any sleepiness after lying in vain on his bed for a few minutes. He wasn't in the habit of gaming at eight in the morning, so he decided to simply prop himself up and play on his phone.
Then he saw that his main account on Weibo had received over a thousand private messages.
A portion of the messages were from Squid's fans; they couldn't out-flame those water friends, so they came to flame him. A miniscule portion were from his stream's normal water friends, and they asked him how to do combos on Zed or what items to buy for LeBlanc when she was at an advantage or disadvantage.
Just from a glance, the remaining majority either consisted of "Dad misses you" or "I've been wanting to insult you, dumbass." Jian Rong was too lazy to open them.
With one leg propped high over the other, Jian Rong looked through his messages for a long time before he posted that Weibo.
The day before Lunar New Year, most people were on break and at home, but there weren't that many people surfing Weibo at eight a.m., so he was still able to somewhat read the comments. Jian Rong scrolled down the screen and replied randomly.
[You've retrieved your conscience from the trash can?]
[TTC ་ Soft: No, I'm about to resume streaming. I'm afraid that nobody will watch that day, so I've emerged to satisfy you all.]
[Are you even speaking a human language???]
[Dumbass, you should probably log out of Weibo, I bet that the LPL's investigator employees have a special follow on your account. How unlucky would it be to get fined on Lunar New Year, don't spread your bad luck to your dad.]
[Should be fine, didn't he not get fined even with the way he shaded Squid before? A lot of pro players say "dumbass" "your mom" "I'm your dad" in streams without getting penalized for it. The reason he got fined last time was because he insulted that dumbass too fiercely.]
[Speaking of Squid, I kept refreshing Weibo throughout this dumbass' entire debut night because I wanted to see if there would be news about TTC and Squid getting in a fight backstage. Later, I fell asleep full of disappointment.]
[It's whatever if they fight, but with his physique, just who can he beat up? Dumbass darling, have you received the heightening insoles that Daddy shipped over yet? They're not obvious if you wear them, I don't even take it this seriously when I'm picking out underwear for my girlfriend.]
Jian Rong took a deep breath before he pulled up his bank account to check its balance. In his mind, he continuously told himself that he had to endure it no matter what.
One sentence was ten thousand yuan; insulting them equalled suffering a loss, insulting them equalled being fooled.
[TTC ་ Soft: Thank you. Send me your address, I'll drop by to wish you a happy new year.]
[Dumbass, Dad went to the stadium for your debut and held up a banner, are you touched?]
[TTC ་ Soft: Let me transfer you some money to celebrate the new year, don't come to future competitions anymore.]
[When the coach sees your Weibo post, he'll probably be so mad that he'll have a stroke.]
[TTC ་ Soft: Already asked, he's sleeping in the car. I'll delete these after we're done chatting, he won't see it.]
When Ding-ge got to that comment, he really did feel like he was about to have a stroke.
He said furiously, "Who told Jian Rong that I was sleeping in the car!!!"
Everyone else was startled, and Lu Boyuan, who was sleeping next to him, lazily opened his eyes.
"…I did." Xiao Bai looked stupefied. "He said that he sent you a message but you didn't answer, so he asked me what you were doing… am – am I not allowed to say that?"
Damn, this little troll was quite the schemer. Just when did he receive a message from him?!
Seeing Ding-ge wildly tousle his hair in anger, Lu Boyuan slanted a look over. "What's wrong."
"What else could be going wrong…" Ding-ge laughed out of fury. "Here I am, worrying about him like I'm his actual dad, while he's at the base causing trouble for me and also acting like his dad's gone out on a faraway trip. Just a few minutes after we departed, he instantly posted on Weibo provoking those water friends from his livestream room… this won't do, I have to contact someone and tell them to change his Weibo password first."
Lu Boyuan wasn't all that surprised. He only asked, "Did he insult someone?"
Ding-ge paused briefly. "Well, no, his replies just have a really ambiguous energy. But when the comments stack up later, a few trolls will inevitably show up. I'm afraid he'll have a hard time tolerating them with his temper."
Lu Boyuan's voice was slightly raspy. "You want to change his password when he hasn't even insulted anyone, what kind of reasoning is that?"
Ding-ge was stumped. "You're saying that…. I should just let him do whatever?"
Lu Boyuan didn't answer. Instead, he asked in reply, "In a few days, when he starts streaming, are you going to sit right next to him during every game and monitor him? Or are you going to give him a manual that clearly states what he can and can't say?"
Ding-ge was dumbfounded. To tell the truth, the idea of finding someone to keep an eye on Jian Rong's stream really did cross his mind at one point.
"It won't be interesting anymore if everything he says and does is according to the rules." Lu Boyuan swept a glance over him and reminded mildly, "He's a professional player. He's not here to be packaged up and debuted."
Ding-ge opened and closed his mouth. After being rendered speechless for quite a while, he finally said, "…aren't I just being concerned that he'll be fined again?"
"I don't think it's a big deal." Yuan Qian straightened up. "I read over Xiao Rong's replies, they're all okay, it's not at the point where he'll be penalized for them. He himself definitely doesn't want to be fined either, so he should be thinking before answering."
Ding-ge was silent for a few seconds, and he was somewhat persuaded.
"…then I'll keep observing, and I'll act if there are any signs that they're going to start fighting." A long moment later, Ding-ge muttered in bewilderment, "You know, instead of going back to sleep this early in the morning, why does he insist on seeking out unhappiness with those dumbass water friends?"
Lu Boyuan didn't say anything else. He took out his phone while maintaining his resting posture.
Jian Rong was still answering the water friends' comments, one reply after another. The total number of comments had already reached two thousand.
Neither side was speaking in a friendly manner, but when they were put together, there was a sort of inexplicable harmony.
[Last Lunar New Year's Eve, the little dumbass also posted a chatting Weibo. So is this going to become tradition?]
When Jian Rong came across this comment, he had one hand braced behind his head, and he was slightly startled.
Only when he went back and searched through his posts did he realize that he had indeed posted a chatting Weibo last Lunar New Year's Eve.
[Next time, can't you pick a different time to post a chat building? Bright and early on Lunar New Year's Eve, I was forced into helping out. Right now I'm holding a couplet in one hand and using my phone with the other.]
[Me too, I'm about to go wrap dumplings, I'll post a photo of the filling later for everyone to see. The club is on break now, right? Little dumbass, if you're slacking off and not helping out at home, are you not afraid of being beaten up by your parents?]
[That's not right, before he said that he's alone at the base ah. Is TTC still not on break yet for Lunar New Year's Eve?]
[They should be on break… an hour ago Xiao Bai just posted a picture of his suitcases, he said he's going home to celebrate the new year.]
[So you mean that I can also camp out for the little dumbass on next year's Lunar New Year's Eve? Dumbass son, take a look at the room that Mommy just finished cleaning. [photo]]
All the pictures that the fans posted more or less contained some festive ambiance. When Jian Rong saw them, he stared at the photographs blankly for a few minutes before finally typing an answer.
[TTC ་ Soft: There is no next year, don't wait.]
Jian Rong got up and poured himself a cup of water before he refreshed the comments again. The newest comment's style was somewhat different from the others—
[Beauty Kitty: I heard that you're gay?? Dumbass homo, can you quickly leave TTC? What in the world is wrong with TTC's coaches, bringing a homo into the base to live with Road? If he harasses my husband, are you guys going to take responsibility for it?]
Jian Rong just knew that he wouldn't be able to escape from what happened that day. There were quite a few inquiries earlier too, but he had ignored them all because he hadn't figured out how to explain this kind of thing yet. He had also deleted all the ones that had randomly tagged Lu Boyuan.
A message preview popped up at the top of his phone screen. [Ding-ge: Replying is allowed, but moderately.]
Jian Rong raised his eyes and deleted "did homos dig up your ancestral tomb has modern science become too developed how come even a dumbass like you who discriminates against other people's sexual orientations knows how to use Weibo?", before he typed out a new comment—
[TTC ་ Soft: Other people's sexual orientations are none of your business, I didn't try to get with your dad.]
In the short interval of time before his response, many comments had already appeared below.
[Brainless trash start dreaming before it's even nighttime. Go ahead and call Road husband, see if he takes a single look your way?]
[Everyone step aside, step aside, as a Chengdu fierce top, let me flame first]
[If you want to chase my son out so badly, why don't you buy out TTC? Also, upstairs is a liar, there are no tops in Chengdu.]
[Above, reported for suspected regional discrimination.]
As the conversation progressed, Beauty Kitty had already been forgotten. A few minutes later, they couldn't help but materialize again.
[Beauty Kitty: Hehe, you dare to say that you don't like Road? Before joining the team, you wore a hat with Road's name on it, and you also stalked Road's streams. Now neither the master nor the fans are admitting it?]
Everyone's attention finally shifted back once more.
Beauty Kitty had long since heard that Soft's fans had mouths that were each dirtier than the last, and they had already prepared themselves to have a duel of words when—
[What are you talking about? We do admit it, my son joined precisely because he was aiming for Road.]
[Beauty Kitty: ?]
[TTC ་ Soft: ???]
[@Beauty Kitty you missed some things. He also sent Road gifts worth 100k, the first person he followed on Weibo was @TTC ་ Road, his Weibo likes are also all of @TTC ་ Road.]
[He also pretended to be drunk and stuck to @TTC ་ Road, refusing to let go, hanging onto his neck like an apeman hanging onto a tree.]
[Apparently the two of them also came out together from the bathroom. If the little dumbass really was drunk back then, then it's likely that Road also helped hold my son's bird.]
[If that isn't gay, then it would be really hard to accept.]
Helped...… hold...… bird...…
When he saw those three words, Jian Rong felt thunderstruck, and the image of Lu Boyuan's hand reaching over to the front of his pants flashed across his mind.
Half a minute later, the style of Jian Rong's comment section below suddenly changed—
[Shit bros run for it! This dumbass is starting to delete his replies and blacklist people!!!]
[No way? Jian Rong you're not blacklisting that damn Kitty, but you're blacklisting your dad??]
[There goes another one of laozi's side accounts, this unfilial son…]
These people's side accounts were neverending, and there was no way Jian Rong could delete them all. As things dragged on, he decided to just turn off commenting completely; what the eye didn't see, the heart didn't grieve over. After dealing with all of that, it was already almost noon.
Jian Rong shut his eyes and thought, I'm a dumbass for wasting three hours on Weibo…
After getting out of bed and washing up, Jian Rong made a casual bowl of noodles for himself and paired it with a rare poached egg. Once he was done eating, he beelined towards the second floor to practice.
He played all the way until two in the afternoon. When Jian Rong exited a game, he saw a friend appear online in the "TTC" game group.
When he saw who the online friend was, he paused before instantly sending a message over.
[Just Watch My Gameplay: Are you at home?]
[TTC ་ Road: Just arrived.]
[Just Watch My Gameplay: Then want to play?]
A few seconds later, Lu Boyuan invited him into the party.
Lu Boyuan was fixing the keybindings for his computer at home. "I can only play one game, we're going to be eating soon."
"Okay." Jian Rong said, "I'll pick an early game champion then."
"No need." Lu Boyuan glanced at his little teacup pig, which kept rubbing against his feet. "Pick whatever you want to play."
After entering the game, Jian Rong lifted his head to check his role. He hadn't managed to snatch mid laner and had ended up being slotted into top laner.
Without a second thought, he started typing.
[Just Watch My Gameplay: #4 mid laner can we swap roles? Jungler and I are duo Q'ing, I'll carry.]
[Xiao Tang Also Wants To Carry: Not swapping~]
[Xiao Tang Also Wants To Carry: Didn't you say you didn't have time to play!]
[Xiao Tang Also Wants To Carry: Is the little piggy doing well?]
At first, Jian Rong thought that she was talking to someone else.
[TTC ་ Road: Mn.]
Jian Rong was startled.
[Xiao Tang Also Wants To Carry: Take a picture of it so I can see~]
[TTC ་ Road: No time right now.]
[Xiao Tang Also Wants To Carry: Alrighty. In a bit, come gank mid a lot for me pls, I'm afraid I won't be able to beat the other side.]
[TTC ་ Road: Depending on the situation]
[Xiao Tang Also Wants To Carry: ok~]
When they entered the loading screen and Jian Rong saw that Xiao Tang Also Wants To Carry's Twisted Fate and Lu Boyuan's Evelynn were part of a couple skin, he couldn't help but ask, "Do you two know each other?"
"Mn, you do as well." Lu Boyuan shifted his mouse and walked out of the base. "She's Tang Qin."