Jian Rong’s mind went blank. He only knew how to mechanically ban a champion, pick his champion, change his runes.

Fortunately, those actions were practically muscle memory by now, or else he might’ve done something god-tier like ban LeBlanc, pick Teemo, take Clarity as a summoner spell.

Lu Boyuan was still conversing with the barrage in Jian Rong’s stream.

“Why aren’t I streaming… too much work. Also, Soft is already streaming, so it’s the same whether I do it or not.”

[Yes yes yes you two are a duo husband package deal!!!]

[What’s going on, I’m a R fan, but I also feel like something is a teensy bit weird?]

[Little dumbass, what’s the matter? Only your hands are moving, even your eyes are motionless… are you frozen? Your soul left your body??]

[Dumbass your face is so red]

[His secret love has been discovered! Scream!! I’m embarrassed on behalf of my son!!!]

[It’s not the same, I’d rather watch you stream by yourself! Is the team’s management requiring you to help boost Soft’s popularity? They’re using their veteran members??]

[When will I be able to see Road and Tang Qin duo Q together QAQ]

“Nobody is requiring me to do anything, I was the one who asked him to queue together. Soft is extremely busy, so it’s very hard for him to have time to carry me… Tang Qin? We won’t queue together. It’s not that I dislike her, it’s…” Lu Boyuan chose his champion. “There isn’t really a need.”

Queueing with teammates was for the sake of practicing together. Queueing with pro players from other teams was for the sake of sounding out their strength. Queueing with female hosts… there truly wasn’t a need for it.

“Enough, this is Soft’s stream, so I won’t be interacting anymore.” Lu Boyuan minimized the stream window and glanced at the win rates of their other three teammates. They hadn’t crashed cars with any pro players this time, but their teammates’ win and play rates were all quite high. He controlled his champion and walked forward, saying, “Come with me, let’s go and invade.”

Jian Rong nodded and followed behind him. A moment passed before he remembered that they were sitting with their backs facing each other, so Lu Boyuan couldn’t see him nodding. “…coming.”

The barrage kept spamming “blushing blushing blushing,” throwing Jian Rong’s thoughts into turmoil. As he was recalling to base, he switched windows and turned off his camera while saying, “You all are too annoying.”

In a twenty-three minute game, Jian Rong drank an entire cup of cold water.

Right as the game finished, the phone chimed on the dot. Jian Rong glanced down at it before he canceled their queue.

Lu Boyuan said, “What’s up.”

Jian Rong muted his stream mic before answering, “Ding-ge said that your hand is tired, he told you to go rest for a while.”

Ding-ge’s messages had been coming through from back then all the way until now. Lu Boyuan was already only reading it and not responding.

Lu Boyuan had always felt that “practicing less for the purpose of preventing a hand injury” was a paradox.

As a professional player, his only goal was to win. If he wanted to win, then he had to practice; the more proficient he became with practice, the stronger he would become. Wanting to achieve good scores without practicing: that was simply a preposterous fantasy.

What’s more, which pro player from the older generation didn’t have an injury? XIU and Da Niu’s injuries weren’t any less severe than his, but were they resting? Weren’t they still practicing for more than ten hours a day as usual?

Lu Boyuan didn’t think that his hands were any more precious than someone else’s. If he practiced for a long time, then of course they would hurt, but it would be better after a night of sleep. He was well aware of the situation, he could endure it.

Lu Boyuan gave an “en.” “Two more games.”

Jian Rong didn’t start queueing.

Jian Rong’s LoL summoner icon was from the earliest batch of icons. The ship captain wore an adorable, astonished expression, and it was both somewhat outdated and oddly endearing at the same time.

Lu Boyuan stared at that icon for a few seconds, and his mood improved again. He asked, “Do you listen to him or do you listen to me?”

“You.” Jian Rong didn’t even think about it.

A beat later, he recalled Lu Boyuan’s hand, and he added, “But I’m tired… I want to rest for a bit.”

Lu Boyuan laughed upon hearing that.

The person who practiced the most every day, saying that he was tired after only logging onto his computer for less than three hours…

“Just teasing you.” Lu Boyuan left the party lobby. “Go ahead and keep playing.”

After exiting the game, Lu Boyuan took off his headphones and left the room, his team jacket draped over his shoulders.

“Stop looking, he’s already gone…”

Xiao Bai’s voice dragged Jian Rong back. He wrenched his head around, his expression unhappy.

“I was just reading your barrage out loud.” Xiao Bai immediately averted his gaze.

Jian Rong didn’t say anything. He switched back to the stream and emphasized, “I didn’t blush, the heating is turned up in the base, so it’s a little hot—if you don’t believe me, then forget it. Is Dad begging you all to believe me?”

Xiao Bai, who was sitting next to him, couldn’t help but glance down at his own jacket.

These days, the temperature outside hovered at around 17 degrees Celsius¹. Didn’t their team’s base turn off the heating a long time ago?

[Enough, don’t say anything else, your sexual orientation became very clear the moment you rejected Qiuqiu’s request to add each other on WeChat.]

Jian Rong: “I don’t want to add strangers, this has nothing to do with my sexual orientation. Stop making stuff up… It doesn’t matter if I like guys or girls, it’s not as if I like you all.”

[This is the kind of attitude you have towards your dad?]

[OK, unfollowing you for a day.]

[We know you like Road already, stop emphasizing it.]

“I’m stopping the stream—like hell I’m feeling guilty, the practice match is about to begin, I don’t have time to stream. Turning it off now.”

Once Jian Rong turned off the stream, Xiao Bai asked, “…isn’t our practice match at 6 PM?”

Jian Rong said, “Mn.”

Xiao Bai: “It’s only 3:30 right now.”

Jian Rong turned to look at him. “So?”

Xiao Bai really wanted to tell Jian Rong that his fierce expression truly made him seem like he was shamed into feeling angry, but he was also afraid that he would be beaten up. As a result, he smiled. “So how about we mid laner and support play some ranked together, and build up our bridge of friendship?”

“No thanks, you can go build a bridge with Pine.” Jian Rong opened sandbox mode. “I’m practicing last hitting today.”

—

A few days later, it was the day of a competitive match again.

Lu Boyuan resumed his position as a starter today. He was sitting next to Ding-ge, discussing the pick/ban phase that was going to happen soon.

Perhaps the previous incident had created a shadow over the others, because right as they arrived at the competition stadium, Yuan Qian and Xiao Bai both pressed up against the windows to see what was going on at the back entrance.

Xiao Bai said, “Reporting—there’s a short and skinny man wearing a green hat, standing furtively at the very front of the crowd!”

Ding-ge said, “That’s a security guard, his outfit is just obstructed by the other people.”

Yuan Qian’s gaze roamed around. “That tall and burly person doesn’t seem like someone particularly decent either.”

Ding-ge was helpless. “That’s a fan, don’t you see that he’s holding up a support banner for Pine?”

Once the car came to a halt, Jian Rong disembarked with his bag slung over one shoulder and walked towards the arena, head lowered.

He had just taken a single step when he felt someone stand next to him.

This time, the LPL staff had set up a crowd control barrier for them. The car was parked next to the entrance; the stadium wall was to their left, and the fans were to their right.

Lu Boyuan ducked his head and walked next to Jian Rong, silently separating him from the crowd.

They played three rounds total today. The first game they won effortlessly, but in the second game Yuan Qian was senselessly targeted, as the other team’s mid laner, jungler, and support went to the top lane over and over to mess around. Xiao Bai was playing a soft support, so it wasn’t easy for him to roam and help out. This led to the top lane collapsing and Yuan Qian’s tanky champion being extremely weak in the late game, causing him to get killed the moment he engaged a team fight. Very unfortunately, they lost the second game.

In the third game, Jian Rong completely carried with LeBlanc, and TTC won yet another spring season match.

“Six consecutive wins!” After they returned to the base, Ding-ge said, beaming, “Keep it up, let’s aim to advance into the playoffs undefeated!”

“I didn’t play well in the second game today, or else we would’ve ended much earlier.” Yuan Qian sighed. “My fault.”

Lu Boyuan was sitting on the sofa. “Don’t get ahead of yourself, we can divide the blame when we lose.”

“Pei pei pei, don’t say something ominous like that.” Ding-ge put the sliced fruit onto the table.

They had just finished eating dinner, and Jian Rong was scrolling through Weibo on his iPad. In the past two days, his Weibo was packed full of mentions and private messages linked to some strange posts. There were photos, written posts, and even some videos. The only similarity between them was that their contents all included him and Lu Boyuan.

The post at the very top was: [SB Scum-na², if you have the balls then censor me again? [gif]]

Jian Rong casually clicked on the gif.

The first few seconds consisted of a landscape picture. Jian Rong frowned and waited for two seconds, but then his patience ran out. He was about to exit the page when he saw the gif suddenly change into a drawing.

Jian Rong stared at it and instantly froze.

Even Jian Rong, who had never once watched a single porn video in his eighteen years of life, could tell that this was an erotic drawing.

Judging from the IDs on the back of the team uniforms and the hair colors, the main characters were freaking him and Lu Boyuan too.

When Lu Boyuan reached over, Jian Rong reacted exactly as if he had been caught watching porn, and he subconsciously covered his iPad by bringing it close to his body.

Lu Boyuan: “…”

Lu Boyuan glanced at his iPad. “Do you want a strawberry?”

Jian Rong nodded stiffly.

Lu Boyuan pinched the little green leaves at the top of the strawberry and raised it up.

Maybe he had been given a scare by the exaggerated position depicted in the drawing. Either way, for a few seconds, Jian Rong’s mind went blank.

As a result, by the time he snapped out of it again, he had already leaned forward and bitten down on the strawberry that Lu Boyuan was holding. Meanwhile, everyone else around them had stopped talking, and they were all looking at the two of them with strange expressions.

Lu Boyuan also paused for half a second. His gaze shifted ever so slightly before he said mildly, “Finish it.”

Let me die.

That was the only thought left in Jian Rong’s head as he leaned in and finished off the remaining half of the strawberry.

“You feeding him?” Ding-ge was the first to look away. “Oh right, Jian Rong, the team accepted a brand endorsement for you. It’s for that mechanical keyboard I was telling you about before, I’ll forward you the contract tonight. The legal department has been checking over the clauses in the contract for many days now, so you can relax. Some time from now, you’ll probably have to film an and take some marketing photos.”

“Amazing.” Xiao Bai took a bite out of a strawberry. “You’ve only been in the team for a few months and haven’t even finished the regular season yet, but you already have a solo brand endorsement.”

Yuan Qian said, “I only got my first solo brand endorsement after playing for three years… never mind. Once you get your endorsement fee, you should treat us to a meal, right?”

“Sure.” Jian Rong hugged his iPad like he was hugging his keyboard. He hesitated briefly. “If the product doesn’t sell well, I won’t have to take responsibility, will I?”

Ding-ge laughed when he heard that. “You won’t, but you don’t have to worry. This manufacturer has been collaborating with us for a long time, you’re just being the ambassador for a new product series coming out. Xiao Lu is the ambassador for the headphones from this series. Also, you’re not the only ambassador this time, there’s also a female celebrity…”

Xiao Bai instantly remembered something. “Qiuqiu?!”

Ding-ge nodded. “Correct. Since it’s a couple edition, Jian Rong is endorsing the blue and white model, while she’s endorsing the pink and white one.”

Before Jian Rong could say anything, Xiao Bai grabbed onto his shoulder. “Jian Rong! Help me get Qiuqiu’s WeChat!”

Jian Rong swallowed a strawberry. “You like her?”

“Ah.” Xiao Bai paused. “Not really, I just want to add a beauty’s WeChat.”

Jian Rong was too lazy to bother with him anymore.

“Speaking of which, Qiuqiu actually seems to like Xiao Rong quite a bit.” Ding-ge suddenly said, “I heard that originally, she was hesitating over whether to accept this or not, but after she found out the other partner invited was Soft, she agreed the very next day.”

Lu Boyuan threw the leftover leaves that Jian Rong hadn’t eaten into the trash. Upon hearing that, he froze briefly and rubbed his fingers together before he sat back in his seat again.

Yuan Qian was amused. “Is that real or fake??”

“Rumors, rumors.” Ding-ge said, “Why does everyone look so shocked? In any case, Xiao Rong is still a little rookie male god in the esports circle, it’s very normal for him to have fans.”

Jian Rong had no interest in being a male god. If he could earn money by accepting these endorsements, then he would take them.

After eating and drinking their fill, the five of them prepared to go upstairs for their practice match. They were playing against the second team tonight, and it could be considered as helping train the second team.

Just as Jian Rong stood up from the sofa, someone tugged on his clothing.

Lu Boyuan’s eyes swept downwards toward the object he was holding in his arms. “Going to practice while holding that?”

Hearing that, not only did Jian Rong’s grip not loosen, he ended up hugging it even tighter instead. Even though the screen was locked, he still wanted to hold it; he still felt guilty.

He didn’t know what he was feeling guilty over. It wasn’t like he was the one who freaking drew that erotic art!

“I’m… going to put it in my room.” Jian Rong said, “You guys create the party lobby first, I’ll be there soon.”

Lu Boyuan looked at him like he wanted to say something. A moment later, he still ended up releasing Jian Rong. “Mn, hurry up.”

Yan: All the comments for this chapter in the raws were basically saying “so… where the drawing at?” lmao. Also a note about the chapter title – you might have noticed it’s just a “.” this time! The author ended up getting hit by censorship :’) they even had to change the Chinese title of ICDI from 我行让我上 to 我行让我来 (basically same meaning, but the 上 is often used euphemistically in Chinese to imply ‘doing’ someone, though it wasn’t used with that intention in this case at all).

A lot of chapter descriptions ended up being deleted if they were too suggestive as well, so going forward there’ll be a fair number of “./!/?” titles. Some of the titles I’ve already translated were also edited, but I won’t be going back and changing those. A few of the future chapters even got locked for censorship, but don’t worry, I’ll be using non-censored raws for those chapters ahaha