Chapter 6

Lin Linya played games with Chu Fengyi for over four hours. During that time, Sound Slowly sent him several WeChat messages, which he saw but didn’t have a chance to reply to.

It wasn’t until eleven o’clock at night, when Lin Linya was almost ready to end his stream, that Chu Fengyi asked him, “Still playing?”

Only then did he reluctantly reply, “Let’s not. I still have to stream some other stuff for them later.”

This was a tradition Lin Linya had kept since he started streaming. When he first began, he’d sing and do chatting streams. Now, even when he streams games, he always saves some time at the end.

Chu Fengyi practically hung on his every word. “Okay, I’ll stop playing too.”

[Bro Chu, you’re acting like a total paid carry right now, you know that?]

[Help, how did I never know Bro Chu was such a love-struck fool? The kind so hopeless even zombies would find it bad luck to eat him.]

It was then that Lin Linya picked up his phone and saw the messages Sound Slowly had sent. Even though they hadn’t played games together these past few days, they still chatted often.

Sound Slowly would say good morning to him every day. It felt a little strange at first, but he’d gotten used to it. His messages were usually caring inquiries. The last one was: [I’m watching your stream. What time are you ending tonight?]

Lin Linya replied: [Just one more hour, then I’m off.]

He went to sleep at midnight. He had an 8 AM class the next morning. The place he rented wasn’t too far from school, but he still had to take the subway.

Sound Slowly’s mood was a bit complicated. Especially watching Lin Linya’s stream, seeing how well he and Chu Fengyi were getting along. Chu Fengyi even came to the Fountain to pick him up when he respawned.

But Chu Fengyi was the one Sound Slowly had introduced to Lin Linya. Now, he felt like he’d shot himself in the foot.

He asked, sourly: [Have you and Fanta been playing games together every day these past few days?]

Lin Linya didn’t find it strange at all and replied sincerely: [Yeah! Chu Fengyi is really amazing. Thanks to you, otherwise I probably would never have had the chance to play with a professional player in my lifetime.]

Ji Wensheng: “…”

The tight feeling in his chest grew worse.

He’d been busy taking over his family’s company these past few days, barely able to find any free time. Even sending a message required squeezing it in between tasks. He’d initially been worried Lin Linya might be bullied in the game. Seeing that someone was now accompanying Lin Linya put his mind at ease, so he could only say: [As long as you’re having fun.]

After saying that, he felt a pang of bitterness. This tone of his, why did it make him sound like such a simp.

In Lin Linya’s livestream room, the neglected fans saw him holding his phone, his slender fingers flying across the screen. A slight smile played on his lips. Each one of them was very disgruntled.

[Who is Wife chatting with, smiling so happily? Is that man really that good at sweet-talking you?]

[Don’t you guys know this streamer already had a scandal? Just yesterday his relationship was exposed. The ID was StrawberryMilkshake or something. As fans, we should wish them a happy forever together.]

[Confession time: Yaya is replying to my messages. Wife is discussing with me what positions to use tonight.]

Mixed in were some sour comments from male fans: [Chatting with the Top Donor Big Bro, right? Dare to let us see your chat logs?]

Lin Linya glanced at the danmaku, completely fed up with them. “The Top Donor is a Sister. I was just chatting with Sound Slowly. Not chatting with anyone else. Tonight I’ll stream some Fight the Landlord.”

[Joy.]

[It’s starting. The classic segment, Fight the Landlord. The meal is ready, let’s begin.]

Seeing Chu Fengyi still hadn’t left the voice channel, Lin Linya asked very enthusiastically, “Bro, Fight the Landlord?”

Chu Fengyi usually went to sleep late after gaming, a true night owl. Seeing it was only 11 PM and he could still kill some time, he lazily answered, “Invite me.”

Chu Fengyi wasn’t in the habit of reading danmaku during his own streams. After opening the Fight the Landlord app, he just waited for Lin Linya to invite him, completely missing his own chat room being flooded with [RUN!].

But he waited and waited and didn’t receive a team invite. When he asked what Lin Linya was doing, there was no response. Impatiently, he clicked into Lin Linya’s stream to take a look and almost laughed in exasperation.

He’d been waiting so long his tea had gone cold, yet Lin Linya was still calmly watching ads to collect Happy Beans.

After watching seven or eight ads and earning over five thousand beans, Lin Linya was utterly confident in his skills. “This many Happy Beans should be enough to last me until the end of the stream. Maybe I can even double it.”

[Baby, promise me you won’t raise any flags, okay?]

[Dummy streamer, loses it all in two or three rounds every time. Can’t even understand Fight the Landlord and has the nerve to say that.]

Chu Fengyi waited ages before Lin Linya finally logged on, brimming with confidence. Lin Linya looked at the several hundred thousand Happy Beans in Chu Fengyi’s account, his eyes wide with shock. “Bro, you actually spend money on Fight the Landlord?”

Chu Fengyi remembered his ad-watching antics from before and laughed. “Just messing around. Unlike some people who collect passive gold every day to play Fight the Landlord.”

Lin Linya felt a bit embarrassed by his words. He stiffened his neck and retorted quietly, “That’s just my bad luck. I always get terrible hands. This time, with you as my teammate, we’ll definitely be a strong team. We’ll beat them all to a pulp.”

Anyway, whenever the danmaku mocked him for losing other people’s Happy Beans, he just played dead.

Lin Linya and Chu Fengyi played the 2v2 mode, which used two decks of cards. Lin Linya was the lower player. Before the round started, he even nervously reminded Chu Fengyi, “Bro, you’re the upper player. Remember to feed me cards.”

Chu Fengyi saw he was even more serious than when playing games and raised an eyebrow. “Alright, I’ll feed them all to you.”

[If it’s Fanta, ‘everything coming in’ is also okay.]

[Get lost! Don’t make dirty jokes about our Baby! Are you even human?!]

[What, only you fans can say stuff, others can’t? I’m gonna say it, I’m gonna say it: Fanta fed Yaya Baby until he was full.]

Maybe because he was teamed up with Chu Fengyi, the cards he drew in Fight the Landlord actually turned lucky, much better than the hands he usually got playing alone.

Chu Fengyi was a man of his word. He said he’d feed him cards, and he did, breaking his own hand into messy pieces just to help him clear out. Towards the end, Lin Linya only had one bomb and a three left in his hand.

Watching his opponent throw a bomb, Lin Linya froze for a few seconds before throwing his own bomb out. “It’s fine. I’m betting they don’t have another bomb.”

A few seconds later, he was face-slapped. The opponent’s bomb was bigger. The little girl character playing the card even used the system voice to taunt him: “Be careful~ I’m down to my last card, hmm~”

After saying this, his teammate even sent him a rose.

Lin Linya stared at the single three left in his hand. He collapsed, slamming the table, and threw a few tomatoes at his teammate in frustration. “I’m not playing anymore!!!”

They lost over two thousand beans in that single hand. Since he had fewer beans to begin with, his deduction wasn’t too bad. Chu Fengyi, his teammate, lost ten thousand Happy Beans.

Chu Fengyi gave in. He clicked to switch positions. “You take the upper seat.”

Being left with a single three and losing was just too humiliating. Lin Linya was also panicked. He immediately agreed, then said, “Bro, don’t worry. I’ll block them completely. Won’t let them play a single card.”

The upper player led first, playing a pair of threes. Without any hesitation, Lin Linya blocked with a pair of kings, completely ignoring whether his teammate could follow or not.

Chu Fengyi’s patience snapped. “If you block them like that, how am I supposed to play anything?”

After that, due to Lin Linya’s various bizarre analyses and unconventional card plays, they didn’t win a single round. The beans Chu Fengyi had saved up playing solo were slashed by more than half in no time.

Losing points was one thing, but they also had to endure the frenzied mockery from players with old man or auntie profile pictures. “Hurry up! I’m waiting so long my flowers are wilting.”

Chu Fengyi, a National Server Jungle God, had never suffered such humiliation. He’d never felt this speechless even during a losing streak in Peak Matches. Eventually, he just stopped talking altogether.

When Lin Linya checked the Fight the Landlord match history, he was horrified. Instantly, he shut his mouth, quiet as a Little Sheep. Muting his mic, he whispered frantically to the danmaku, “What do I do? I lost the National Server tens of thousands of Happy Beans. He won’t refuse to play Glory with me anymore, will he?”

Having gambled away all his passive gold, Lin Linya weakly said to Chu Fengyi, “Uh… Bro, I’m done playing for today. I’m logging off.”

Chu Fengyi gave a cold laugh. “Hmph, don’t bother playing ever again.”

The Sisters in Chu Fengyi’s stream were absolutely dying of laughter. [How did he even manage to end up with a single three in his hand? I’ve seen bad players, never seen one this bad.]

[First time seeing Bro Chu with such a helpless expression. I’m dying of laughter. I’m laughing so loud the neighbors ten miles away will need hearing aids for the rest of their lives.]

[So it’s not just Glory he’s bad at. He’s this bad at Fight the Landlord too. Really does only have his looks going for him.]

[Hey now, actually, the Little Junior Schoolmate sings pretty well. And our Yaya Baby can also play guitar. Sisters, you can come to his stream and hang out a bit.]

“I really need to quit gambling, family. You’ve all seen the consequences of getting addicted to gambling. I am the best negative example,” Lin Linya said afterwards, still pained by the lesson, reviewing his KDA.

“I just got too carried away, so I lost my entire fortune.”

[Weren’t you just swearing confidently you could make it to the end of the stream? Look at the time now.]

[Totally expected, Baby. Classic you.]

[Good thing Fight the Landlord doesn’t have an Invincible mode, or you’d probably lose until tomorrow morning all by yourself.]

Lin Linya could only resort to playing the rogue. “I said I’d stream until the usual time. Since I’ve already lost everything, I can only log off in shame. Thirty minutes early today. Going to bed early is good for the skin.”

[? My night life is YOU.]

[Don’t scold Yaya Baby, guys. He’s only in a hurry because I’m waiting for him in bed.]

[You better actually be going to sleep.]

Amidst a stream of goodnights, Lin Linya ended his stream, perfectly calm. Not like it was his first time ending early. After closing the stream, he realized Chu Fengyi was still on the voice channel. He tentatively called out, “Bro? You still there?”

“Mhm?”

Chu Fengyi had already ended his own stream. Unlike Lin Linya, who had to coax his fans while signing off, he was now lighting a cigarette, watching a replay of Lin Linya playing guitar on a previous stream. “Still here.”

The replay’s quality wasn’t very clear, but Lin Linya’s beautiful face still seemed to glow. He was sitting cross-legged, holding a guitar. His fingers plucked the strings twice. His voice was that ‘youthful’ tone many girls liked now.

When he sang seriously, his eyes would lower. His long, thick eyelashes rested against his face, looking extra obedient.

Anyway, he looked smarter doing anything than when he was playing games.

He got so engrossed he didn’t notice when the cigarette burned his hand. He heard Lin Linya say over there, “Okay, Bro, I’m logging off then. Good night.”

He stubbed the cigarette out in the ashtray on his desk and responded calmly, “Good night.”

A video barely five minutes long, and he’d watched it for nearly half an hour, smoking three or four cigarettes in the process. Chu Fengyi still couldn’t figure it out. A guy who only played Soft Support and was a complete mess at cards—how had he managed to put up with it until now?

Could it really be, like his fans said, that he’d been put under some kind of spell?