Although they were promoting couple keyboards, they didn’t actually have to be all that intimate in the photos.

After all, one was a female celebrity, while the other was a little rookie male god from the esports circle. No matter what, they couldn’t make the photos seem too ambiguous.

The theme of the photoshoot centered around the two of them gaming together. The closest they got to each other was when they were sitting shoulder to shoulder in front of the computers, and they put their hands in the same bag of chips.

Jian Rong sat in the gaming chair that the staff had prepared for him. Not too far away, Lu Boyuan was surrounded by a few staff members, both guys and girls, who were done setting up and wanted autographs from him. Lu Boyuan’s head was lowered as he talked to them, and the brim of his hat covered up his face so that his expression couldn’t be seen clearly.

Qiuqiu returned from touching up her makeup. She turned her head and asked, “Do you not have any matches today?”

Jian Rong said indifferently, “No.”

The photoshoot hadn’t started yet. The photographer was still instructing a few stagehands to move around props.

“I started watching your streams a very long time ago.” Qiuqiu said, “It’s probably been about two years now? Back when I was filming Songless.”

Jian Rong was still spacing out. He replied, quite half-heartedly, “Thanks.”

Qiuqiu looked at him before chuckling. “Did you know who I was before this?”

Jian Rong said, “I didn’t.”

The staff member who was arranging Qiuqiu’s hair paused for a moment and shot Jian Rong a look of astonishment.

Even though Qiuqiu’s filmography wasn’t very extensive, her only movie had won her the biggest domestic best actress award, so her popularity was extremely high.

The staff: “Last year, Qiuqiu went to your team’s match and played a game there.”

“I only joined the LPL this year.” Jian Rong contemplated briefly before adding, “I don’t really watch dramas either.”

The staff: “…”

Even if you hadn’t joined the LPL yet, you should’ve still watched the match’s live broadcast, right?

Even if you don’t really watch dramas, you should’ve still seen the Weibo hot search, right?

Are you a game otaku or a caveman living at the top of a mountain?

Qiuqiu didn’t act awkward about it at all. On the contrary, her smile deepened. “I see… how come you keep looking at Road? Do you need to tell him something?”

Jian Rong rapidly averted his gaze. He lowered his eyes and pressed a few buttons on the keyboard in front of him. Because he was caught in the act, his tone of voice grew rigid. “No.”

After Lu Boyuan finished signing autographs for the staff members, he just happened to spot Jian Rong chatting with that female celebrity upon lifting his head.

Jian Rong’s eyelids drooped as he talked, and he didn’t seem to be very energetic. As they chatted, he reached up and pinched his ear.

A girl passed by in front of him. She had her hand cupped around her phone, and she was whispering to someone on a call. Her eyes were fixed on the photoshoot area. “Soft is taking pictures in the studio next to me! I snuck my way in! How’s my side doing? They’re already almost done with the shoot… I’m just a makeup assistant, it doesn’t matter if I’m there or not, in any case it’s not like I’ll be the one doing their makeup. Savior? He’s pretty cute.

“Hey, Soft’s partner is actually Qiuqiu.

“Really, it’s Qiuqiu… what do you mean, tarnishing your goddess? Soft is also very handsome, okay? Haven’t heard of him before… he just joined the LPL, you’ve been too busy chasing stars these days, of course you haven’t heard of him before. Tsk, if you don’t believe me, I’ll turn on the video and show you.”

The girl turned on WeChat video. “Look for yourself, you don’t believe me even though I already told you, he really is handsome. Speaking of which, Soft and Qiuqiu actually look quite good together. They’re also around the same age, do you think they’ll…”

Halfway through her sentence, someone patted her shoulder.

The girl looked back, puzzled, and made eye contact with the person who was on her computer wallpaper.

The girl was stunned, and she gripped her phone and stopped talking, despite her friend calling “hello hello hello” on the other end of the call.

Lu Boyuan was standing next to the door. He lifted his hand and pointed at the sign next to his head—[Authorized personnel only! No photography allowed!].

The girl’s heart thumped wildly, and it took her quite some time to put down her phone. “……………my apologies!!”

She was quickly discovered by a staff member and was then “asked” to leave.

As the photoshoot was wrapping up, Ding-ge sent a text over asking when they would be heading back. He said that he had scheduled a last-minute practice match for that night.

Lu Boyuan lowered his head and replied. A hand suddenly landed on his shoulder.

A familiar voice sounded. “Wasn’t Soft the one taking pictures? How come you’re also here?”

Lu Boyuan didn’t even look up; he just pointed at that sign again.

The newcomer said, “Hey, I already greeted the staff. We were just taking pictures in the studio next door.”

Lu Boyuan only raised his head once he was done replying to Ding-ge’s text. He glanced at XIU, whose hair was coated with gel, and he furrowed his brows in disdain. “Was the hair gel in your studio free?”

XIU hadn’t removed his makeup either, as he felt like he looked more handsome this way. Savior was also standing next to him. Savior had round cheeks, but his body wasn’t fat. He was currently wearing a pair of black-framed glasses; he looked more like a top student roaming the streets right after school was dismissed, rather than a professional gamer.

“I look too handsome, so I decided to only wash it off after I go back.” XIU looked at Jian Rong, who wasn’t too far away. “No way, you have to go with him even when he’s just filming an ?”

Lu Boyuan didn’t feel like bothering with him. “Not going back after your shoot, why are you still hanging around here?”

“We were originally planning to go eat dinner, but Savior wanted to come take a look after he heard Jian Rong was here.” XIU shook his head and clicked his tongue. “You know, Jian Rong really does have the energy of a little esports male god, no wonder you…”

Remembering that there was still someone else next to him, XIU coughed and amended, “No wonder he has a lot of female fans.”

Lu Boyuan swept a glance at PUD’s new mid laner before he looked at XIU. “His livestream room is full of male fans.”

“BS.” XIU said, “You think that just because they call themselves Dad, they’re male? Have you ever seen the water friends’ profiles? Those female fans of his also call themselves Dad.”

Lu Boyuan shifted his gaze away. He had no interest in checking the water friends’ profiles.

On the other side. The photographer lifted his camera. “Smile for me, that’s right Qiuqiu, excellent! Soft, you smile too—”

Jian Rong saw the crowd of people in the back of the studio. Lu Boyuan was standing next to PUD’s members, and XIU had his arm hooked around Lu Boyuan’s shoulders in an intimate pose.

Actually, it was just the very commonly seen arms-around-shoulder pose between normal bros.

“Smile for me, Soft.” The photographer lowered his camera. “Soft?”

Jian Rong snapped out of it and lifted the corners of his mouth.

The photographer: “…smile a bit more sincerely.”

The corners of Jian Rong’s mouth hiked up some more.

The photographer: “Eh… your smile is a little fierce, you can decrease the intensity.”

With one photoshoot, Jian Rong’s mouth felt stiff from smiling so much.

By the time it ended, XIU and the rest were still there, but he didn’t have his arm hooked around Lu Boyuan’s shoulder anymore.

“Done shooting? You’ve worked hard, you’ve worked hard.” XIU beamed as he said that, before he saw Jian Rong’s expression. “What? You’re not happy, even though you filmed an ad with a female celebrity?”

There was one part of XIU that was extremely similar to Yuan Qian: they always acted very familiarly.

Jian Rong: “Mn.”

It wasn’t clear whether he was happy or unhappy.

“You’re done?” Lu Boyuan straightened up. “Tired?”

Jian Rong licked his lips. “Tired of smiling.”

“Let’s go back then.” Lu Boyuan called over the makeup artist and said evenly, “Hello, if it’s not too much trouble, could you help remove his makeup.”

The makeup artist came to a halt. “Ah, well, I can, but do you want to take it off? You’re so handsome, why don’t you just wear it back? I didn’t make it too heavy either, you can definitely go out wearing it.”

“Take it off.” Jian Rong didn’t even think twice. “Take it off right now.”

Jian Rong went with the makeup artist. XIU took a sip of his bottled water. “Stop looking, he already went into the room.”

Lu Boyuan retracted his gaze. “How come you’re still here? No practice?”

“We came out after our practice match. Tonight is a free period, so there’s no rush.” XIU said, “Wanna eat dinner together?”

“Not today.” Lu Boyuan declined. “We have a practice match tonight.”

“Nice. There goes your WeChat again,” XIU said to his team’s mid laner, only to realize upon turning his head that the person in question was gone. “…where’d he go??”

In the makeup room. Jian Rong closed his eyes, allowing the makeup artist to mess around with his face.

The sound of footsteps came from behind him. Before Jian Rong could open his eyes and see who it was, he heard the person ask, “Why yuh dun play on Koo-rean suh-vuh?”

Jian Rong furrowed his brows. It took him quite a while before he understood what was being said.

Jian Rong didn’t bother opening his eyes. “Why do I have to play on the Korean server?”

In the higher tiers of the Korean server, it was easy for professional players to crash cars.

But Jian Rong kept playing on the domestic server, so Savior couldn’t encounter Jian Rong in the game.

“They awl play on Koo-rean suh-vuh.” Savior said, “Domestic suh-vuh, no good, many trolls.”

Jian Rong gave a lazy “en” in reply. He mimicked his accent: “Aye am one of them.”

Savior: “…”

Savior said something in Korean, but then he remembered that he didn’t have an interpreter with him, so he had no choice but to express what he wanted to say with difficulty. “Aye want to hit¹ yuh.”

The makeup artist: “…”

When Jian Rong opened his eyes, Lu Boyuan and XIU just happened to walk into the makeup room.

Jian Rong looked at XIU. “Do you know Korean? I was talking to him for so long, but he couldn’t understand a damn thing.”

Savior also looked at XIU while frowning and wearing a bemused expression.

XIU said, “I don’t. But you can just tell me directly whatever you want to say to him, I’ll get the interpreter to relay it to him after we go back.”

“Two years ago didn’t I only solo kill you two times and take 48 points from you do you really have to remember it so deeply? Recently I’ve been too busy cleaning up the domestic server’s atmosphere, I don’t have time to go to your Korean server to bully noobs. There’s no rush either if you really want to get beaten up, next Saturday even if you want to run away you won’t be able to. Long live the China-Korea friendship.” After Jian Rong said all that, he double-checked, “Our match against your team is next Saturday, right? Okay, I’m done, remember to translate it. Translate the first half as accurately as you can, the second part doesn’t really matter.”

XIU: “…”

XIU wanted to say, Why don’t you just ask your team’s captain to help you translate something like this? Your captain is pretty fluent in Korean.

But Lu Boyuan clearly didn’t intend to help translate.

Nobody else came with TTC’s mid laner and jungler on this trip over. Jian Rong picked up his bag, and Lu Boyuan tossed out an indifferent “leaving now, see you on Saturday,” before the two of them left the photography studio without looking back.

On the car ride back, Jian Rong braced his elbow against the window and watched the dimming sky outside. He was still thinking about what happened before the photoshoot, to the point that his head was nearly in the clouds.

What was the meaning of Lu Boyuan asking him whether he liked Qiuqiu or not…

And he had asked Jian Rong if he thought Qiuqiu was pretty.

Jian Rong remembered that those water friends once said that Qiuqiu was a gaming goddess. A lot of professional players all liked her.

Qiuqiu was indeed pretty. She had a nice voice, and she was accomplished in her field; she was young, and she also seemed to have a good personality.

If Lu Boyuan liked her as well, that was very normal.

Lu Boyuan was twenty-three. Wanting to date at this age… also seemed to be very normal.

Jian Rong’s eyelids drooped, and he crushed through the hard candy that the makeup artist had given him earlier, creating crunching noises as he chewed.

Right as they returned to the base, they ran into Xiao Bai walking out of the break room.

“You’re back! How come neither of you replied to my WeChat messages ah? Did you help me get Qiuqiu’s WeChat?” When Xiao Bai saw the expression on Jian Rong’s face, he stopped on the spot.

“Forgot.” Jian Rong took off his jacket. “What time is the practice match?”

Xiao Bai: “…there’s still half an hour.”

Jian Rong walked upstairs without giving him a second look. “Then I’m going to take a shower.”

Holding his coffee, Xiao Bai waited until Jian Rong was gone before he couldn’t help but ask Lu Boyuan, “Ge, what’s up with him?”

Lu Boyuan: “?”

“Didn’t he go take marketing photos with the esport circle’s number one beauty?” Xiao Bai questioned. “His expression makes him look like he got in a fight with someone outside, and on top of that, he lost.”

“We ran into PUD.” Lu Boyuan spoke concisely and headed into the break room.

After he finished making himself a cup of coffee, he tilted his head. “Something else on your mind?”

Xiao Bai wrapped both hands around his mug. He glanced back and confirmed that Jian Rong wasn’t back yet before he whispered, “Ge, I discovered someone.”

Lu Boyuan quietly waited for him to continue.

“A streamer, also on StarTV.” Xiao Bai said, “That streamer… keeps copying Jian Rong. He even started fighting with Jian Rong’s water friends this afternoon. I don’t dare to tell Jian Rong about this…”

Jian Rong dunked his head under the water for quite a while, but for some reason, he still felt irritated.

Jian Rong wasn’t in the habit of blow-drying his hair. After exiting the bathroom, he casually rubbed his hair a few times with a towel and considered it dry enough.

Even as he finished putting on his clothes and left his room, he kept thinking in his head—

It’s very normal to date, Qian-ge is also dating, and it doesn’t affect practice at all. That female streamer is pretty good too, she’s always sending us midnight snacks to eat.

Besides, Lu Boyuan wasn’t going to retire for the time being even if he started dating. They could still keep competing together.

They would still be teammates.

And if one day Lu Boyuan did retire, they could still occasionally duo queue together too.

Since he was thirteen, he had been dreaming of sitting on stage and playing competitively with Lu Boyuan.

Now, not only had he joined the team, he was also the one that Lu Boyuan thought highly of, the one who Lu Boyuan had personally vouched for to get him signed onto the team.

Lu Boyuan even watched his streams. Did Xiao Bai receive this kind of treatment? Did Qian-ge and Pine receive this kind of treatment?

No! Only he did!

Jian Rong’s thoughts veered wildly, and he didn’t notice at all that the part he was conflicted over had truly deviated somewhat.

After he was mostly done explaining things to himself, Jian Rong pushed open the practice room door and instantly spotted Lu Boyuan’s lit-up monitor. Lu Boyuan wasn’t there, but there was a stream playing on the screen.

Although Jian Rong sat in front of a computer all year round, his vision was still extremely good.

On the stream that Lu Boyuan was playing, he saw an unfamiliar male streamer with dyed blue hair, wearing a sailor outfit, playing LoL.

At that moment, Jian Rong was this close to smashing his phone onto the ground.

Yan: Thank you for everyone’s kind comments on the last chapter ;-; will do my best at work!! Hehe happy new year to everyone~

Wei: Happy New Year everyone!! Hopefully 2021 goes better than 2020 T^T

Here’s some more ICDI fanart from Weibo as a new year’s gift! (LBYxJR, JR ft. lollipop, bunny!JRxLBY, TTC)