Chapter 44

Chen Chun wasn’t in the mood to browse the supermarket, but he still picked out some of Lin Linya’s favorite things to bring over.

Ever since that time he got drunk and had a classmate accidentally drop him off at Lin Linya’s apartment, Lin Linya, finding it troublesome, had just given him a spare key. Chen Chun had been carrying it with him ever since.

When he opened the door, the living room was empty, but the beanbag chair was a mess, like someone had been rolling around on it. The air conditioning in the whole apartment was set extremely low, and the sudden chill made Chen Chun shiver as he stepped inside.

He quietly put the groceries away in the kitchen, then neatly folded the small blanket its owner had carelessly tossed aside on the beanbag chair, which was almost trailing onto the floor, before pushing open the bedroom door and walking in.

On the bed, an unidentified object was curled up under the covers, forming a small, arched lump.

He pulled the blanket back to find Lin Linya’s red-rimmed eyes and damp gaze staring back at him. He had been ready to scold him for turning the AC down so low again, but his heart softened the instant he saw him.

Chen Chun touched his forehead. “I saw your takeout on the table. Have you not eaten since you got back this morning?”

“I forgot,” Lin Linya said, his chin tucked under the blanket, only his eyes visible.

He had been fuming all afternoon and completely forgotten about the takeout sitting on the table.

“Bro Chen, how can people be so mean? I haven’t provoked anyone. Why are they spreading rumors about me?”

He was like a little kitten, basking cheerfully in the sunlight. Everyone loved his beautiful fur and gentle nature, but suddenly a bad person had appeared and kicked him in his soft belly.

The kitten was utterly baffled. He hadn’t done a thing, yet he had been hurt.

This was the little cabbage Chen Chun had watched over for three years, bullied by some unknown villain. He was both angry and heartbroken, so all he could do was comfort him.

“Some people just have miserable lives, so they look for validation online. They’re envious of your life and want to drag you down to their level of misery.”

Chen Chun stroked his cool little face, his voice surprisingly gentle. “I threw your takeout away, it’s not edible anymore. I bought your favorite rice noodles to make you some minced pork rice noodles. Go take a hot shower, then sit at the table and wait for me, okay?”

“Don’t you still have to stream tonight? Just go live. Let those people who want to see you fail see that you aren’t affected at all. That’ll drive them crazy.”

Chen Chun’s palm was especially large, even bigger than Lin Linya’s face, and it was warm. Although the calluses on his hand were a bit rough, they made Lin Linya feel very secure.

He nodded obediently. “Put extra chili sauce in it.”

After Chen Chun left, Lin Linya crawled out of bed. He instinctively reached for his phone, but his fingers recoiled as if shocked the moment they touched it.

Afraid he’d go on Weibo and see more comments cursing him, he timidly lowered his eyes and, with the mentality of an ostrich, turned and went to the bathroom.

A hot shower slowly warmed his body. He sat down at the dining table, where a large bowl of rice noodles was placed in front of him. The enticing aroma of the food made him belatedly realize how hungry he was.

He picked up his chopsticks and slowly started eating.

After a moment, he was gasping from the spiciness. “Are you out of your mind? Why did you put so much chili sauce in it?”

Chen Chun, “…”

He was the one who asked for it, couldn’t handle it, and then turned around and blamed him. Chen Chun was so exasperated he laughed. “Because I wanted to poison you. You bottle everything up inside. Why didn’t you say anything when I messaged you to ask what was wrong?”

“Usually your mouth can out-talk anyone, and now you’re mute?”

Do you know how worried I was about you?

He didn’t say the last sentence aloud because he found it awkward.

He chalked it up to Lin Linya’s bad temper. The moment he sensed someone was indulging him, he’d stomp all over their bottom line just to act cute and beg for favor. It was absolutely terrible.

Lin Linya said listlessly, “You were playing with your friends, I didn’t want to spoil the fun.”

This time he wasn’t being sarcastic; he meant it. Things were already bad enough, and since Chen Chun wasn’t really someone who browsed online much, he felt embarrassed to bother him with this.

After finishing his noodles, Lin Linya lay against the glass kitchen door, watching Chen Chun wash the dishes.

Chen Chun found him to be in the way and shooed him off. “Go play on your phone.”

“I don’t want to play on my phone. I’m scared I’ll see people cursing me,” Lin Linya said pitifully, clutching the doorframe and looking at him longingly. “I’m so fragile, I’m just a little piece of seaweed.”

“No one’s cursing you, I already checked. Just relax,” Chen Chun said. Normally, he would’ve retorted with a couple of sharp comments.

He had never seen Lin Linya like this before. Usually so carefree, this was the first time something had gotten to him this much.

So he couldn’t bring himself to say anything harsh.

He even patiently explained, “Everyone knows that stuff is fake.”

“Really?” Lin Linya lifted his eyes. Seeing Chen Chun’s patience was about to run out, he hesitantly shuffled away bit by bit. “Okay, I’m going to go change.”

He quickly muttered under his breath, “Thank you.”

It was so soft Chen Chun barely caught it before Lin Linya had already fled, embarrassed.

The viewership for the livestream that night was higher than usual, with many IDs Lin Linya didn’t recognize. They hadn’t even bought badges but weren’t commenting either.

Lin Linya just ignored them.

On the surface, the rumors on Weibo didn’t seem to affect his stream at all. Everyone tacitly avoided mentioning the matter, joking around as usual.

As he opened Glory, he asked, “Good evening, everyone. I haven’t streamed in a few days, did you miss me?”

[Wuwu, I can’t even eat when I can’t see Yaya every day.]

[Yaya: If you’ve been away from home a long time, you miss your mom’s cooking. So if you haven’t watched the stream for days, will you miss my cooking?]

[You guy fans, stop being so stubborn. You’re always calling the baby bad or noob, but when he’s gone, you’re all lonely and restless.]

[Yesterday I played Mid Laner in a game and went 1/6. I said I learned my mechanics from this little streamer named Yaya. After my teammates watched his stream, they said it was understandable.]

Lin Linya snorted, amused by them. “Can you guys please stop ruining my reputation out there?”

“I have my own name, it’s not ‘that noob gamer guy’.”

But his mood really had improved a lot. He pushed the annoying thoughts to the back of his mind, logged into the game, and opened the Ranked Mode. “Alright, fam, let’s keep climbing in ranked tonight! Let’s charge hard for 40 Stars.”

[Don’t believe it, unless you’re talking about nose-diving that hard.]

[Introducing tonight’s unlucky male guest.]

[You think you can handle 40 Stars? Better hurry and find a bro to carry you.]

Lin Linya didn’t have the guts to Solo Queue. He opened his friend list and saw Chu Fengyi online. “Let me invite Bro Chu, he just happens to be on.”

He quickly sent a party invite to Chu Fengyi, and Chu Fengyi joined almost instantly, as if he’d been waiting.

As soon as he joined, he was sarcastic. “Had fun these past few days? Finally remembered me, huh?”

Lin Linya replied smoothly, “Not at all, I missed you so much, Bro Chu. I was wondering why you didn’t come to the Offline Fan Meeting. It was so boring without you.”

After a pause, he added, “Bro, did you miss me?”

Chu Fengyi knew perfectly well that not a single word from his mouth could be trusted, but he was still taken aback by his shameless attitude. He raised an eyebrow, having to admit he was quite susceptible to this sort of thing.

With an air of nonchalance, he said, “Wasn’t worth going. Besides, there were annoying people there.”

“Why would I miss you?” Chu Fengyi laughed. “You have so many ‘good big bros,’ you don’t lack me as one.”

Lin Linya wisely didn’t ask who the annoying people were. His voice dripped with sweetness. “It’s okay, Bro, I can miss you enough for both of us.”

“So, can you carry me to 40 Stars tonight? Bro, I’ve played so many matches, win one, lose one, it’s so annoying.”

Chu Fengyi had been listening half-heartedly, but at this, he clicked to check and found that Lin Linya’s current Rank Tier was actually higher than his own.

Instantly, “…”

After a few seconds of silence, he drawled, “Gotta say, you’re surprisingly ambitious about ranking up.”

[You call him noob, but his rank is high. You call him good, but his hero pool is a puddle.]

[So many stars, all thanks to his various bros carrying him.]

[I used to dream of running into Yazi by chance, but now his rank is too high for me, wuwu. It’s okay, my boyfriend will handle it. I dream every day that my boyfriend will randomly match against Yaya.]

[I actually find the tryhard baby really cute, haha, racking his brains every day to climb ranks.]

Suddenly, there were other voices on Chu Fengyi’s headset, sounding noisy. Chu Fengyi pulled the headset away and spoke to the person, the two seemingly arguing.

Then, Chu Fengyi threw out a “Wait a sec” and muted his mic.

As soon as Chu Fengyi had entered the room on his end, Sprite sauntered over behind him, hovering like a ghost. “Yo, having a sweet Duo Queue with the little streamer again?”

“Ah, pity us old-timers, truly unwanted now, huh.”

Chu Fengyi felt a chill down his spine. A vein bulged on his forehead as he muted his mic, tossed his headset down, and turned with a sidelong glare. “What do you want?”

“Nothing,” Sprite said, holding a glass of Sprite. He affectedly blew on non-existent tea leaves, noisily slurped a sip, and let out a long sigh.

“We have three over here, you have two over there. Isn’t that perfect for a 5-Man Squad?”

Chu Fengyi flatly refused. “No way.”

Sprite, “Tsk tsk tsk, what are you afraid of? That we’ll be third wheels?”

Chu Fengyi, “You want to keep talking nonsense?”

Lin Linya waited a while before Chu Fengyi came back and asked, somewhat resigned, “Can we wait a bit? A few of my friends want to join.”

“Ah?” Since they were Chu Fengyi’s friends, Lin Linya couldn’t really object, but he didn’t want to lose a star either. He asked slowly, “So… are they good?”

All his little schemes were practically written on his face.

Something about that hit Chu Fengyi’s funny bone, and he laughed again. “Relax, I guarantee they won’t drag you down.”

Soon after, three more people joined the party, all invited by Chu Fengyi. One of them had the loudest voice and greeted Lin Linya as soon as he entered. “Hellooo! Thanks to Boss Chu for saving us a spot.”

“Boss Chu secretly climbing without us, what a traitor.”

Another voice, pitching up, “Yeah, yeah, bro, carry us too~”

Lin Linya noticed their built-in pro player badges and was a bit stunned, not quite processing what was going on. The danmaku, however, exploded.

[Holy crap, D.K’s starting roster reuniting with Bro Chu after half a year? Am I dreaming? Someone slap me twice.]

[Our Yaya really has some clout. Did Fanta just bring his entire family with him?]

[All four are here, only one missing is Needy on the Clash Lane. Basically confirmed D.K is ostracizing the new player.]

As if seeing what the danmaku was saying, Sprite quickly explained, “Young Master… Needy said he had something tonight and couldn’t make it. The five of us can queue together perfectly, and let Cola, the Support, fill in on Clash Lane. Easy.”

Cola immediately volunteered. “Right, right, I’ve had my eye on that Marksman for a while, ready to go solo.”

The Shooter slowly typed a question mark. “That’s not what you were saying last night when you were begging me.”

Lin Linya looked utterly bewildered. “…”

Begging for what? What ‘me’? Who was begging who?

[Who’s speeding on the highway here? The wheels are practically running over my face.]

[Aaaah, you old dogs, don’t talk about this stuff in front of our pure, innocent baby Yaya, dammit!]

Cola calmly explained, “You still didn’t give me red in the end.”

Shooter, “Why does a Support need Red Buff?”

Oh, it was about the Red Buff. Lin Linya blushed furiously, feeling utterly ashamed of his own dirty mind.

Chu Fengyi found it embarrassing. He told them to shut up, then explained to Lin Linya, “They insisted on coming. What do you think about the 5-Man Squad? If not, you can kick the three of them.”

Sprite immediately wailed over the mic, the loudest of all. “Nooo! We can be your workhorses, your little lovebirds, don’t kick me!”

Lin Linya was playing with so many Professional Players for the first time, and he felt a bit overwhelmed by the honor.

He asked weakly, “But I’m live streaming, is that really okay with you guys?”

Chu Fengyi was about to answer when the overly enthusiastic Sprite cut him off. “No problem, no problem! It’s summer break, the Coach can’t control us.”

He then laughed at Chu Fengyi. “Bro, how is your rank lower than the little streamer’s? Don’t tell me you were shamelessly begging him to carry you.”

Chu Fengyi snapped coldly, “…Get lost, now.”

Sprite was scared into silence, muttering awkwardly, “Just a joke. Start the queue, start the queue.”

Lin Linya clicked to start the match. Because Chu Fengyi was using his Smurf Account, the rank disparity was large, so matching took a while.

[Good news: Matched against the streamer. Bad news: The streamer is Yaya Can’t Win. Good news: Yaya’s on the other team. Bad news: His teammates are pros.]

[Hahaha, can’t believe there’s a sequel to this?]

[Just thought of something. If we lose this, wouldn’t our Yaya be known as the streamer even four pros couldn’t carry? (Hesitantly)]

[I’m dying of laughter. Low-key looking forward to this.]