Normally, Xiao Bai wasn’t so bored and idle that he would head over to the front door to check out what was going on. The reason he came down this time… was because he thought he saw a ghost.

In the dead of the night, there were very few pedestrians. With the two of them standing there, it truly was quite frightening, which was why he ended up coming out, dragging Pine with him. At that moment, Pine was standing right behind him.

Their two late-to-return teammates passed through the large iron gate. Xiao Bai walked next to Jian Rong, and upon seeing his preoccupied expression, Xiao Bai asked in a whisper, “What were you and my ge talking about just now?”

Jian Rong tried his best to control his emotions. “For both of our sakes, don’t talk to me right now.”

Xiao Bai was bewildered. “Why?”

Jian Rong enunciated coldly, “Fighting is a violation of the rules, murder is breaking the law.”

Xiao Bai: “…………???”

Hearing noise come from the front door, Ding-ge looked back as he harped, “You two really are something, huh? I haven’t even waited this long for my wife before.”

Lu Boyuan said, “Then you’re not treating sister-in-law very sincerely.”

“Bullshit, it’s more like your sister-in-law has never made me wait this long for her…” Ding-ge paused. “Did you drink too much? Your ears are so red?”

Jian Rong couldn’t help but look over.

Lu Boyuan’s complexion was the same as usual; only his ears were red, all the way to his earlobes.

When Lu Boyuan left the KTV, he hadn’t seemed drunk at all.

Lu Boyuan suddenly turned his head and glanced at him for less than two seconds before he swiftly looked away again. “A bit.”

Jian Rong’s fingers, which had just been held, started to tingle a little again.

“Then you guys must’ve gone pretty wild tonight. Before, when you mixed and drank red and white wine, your face didn’t even get red.” Ding-ge checked his watch. “Alright, hurry up, go shower and sleep… never mind, can you even shower after drinking? Just take one tomorrow. Sit here, I’ll make some honey water for you.”

Jian Rong instantly said, “I’ll do it.”

“You don’t need to, you should go and sleep.” Ding-ge refused without hesitating. “Wake up earlier tomorrow so you can practice after eating breakfast.”

Jian Rong was driven upstairs.

After entering his room, Jian Rong stood in front of his door for quite a while without moving. Currently, his body felt somewhat light, and his mind was completely empty. The only thing remaining in it was Lu Boyuan’s “I like you.”

Wait a moment—did Lu Boyuan actually say “I like you”?

Now that over ten minutes had passed, Jian Rong began to feel a bit unsure again. The destructive power of XIU’s life-stealing rap was too great, and his head was still ringing.

Jian Rong rapidly showered before he laid down on his bed to send a text.

More precisely, he was typing something out.

This wasn’t Jian Rong’s first time being confessed to. Too many people were always confessing to him; if he opened any random private message, it would probably be asking for his WeChat account. Some of them also sent pictures of themselves over, and what’s more, they were all very good-looking. Whenever this happened, Jian Rong would directly clear out his private messages, and he had never wavered in the slightest when reading a message.

Right now…

After showering, brushing his teeth, washing his face, and lying down on his bed, his heart was still beating extremely fast.

Jian Rong had his chat with Lu Boyuan pulled up. He had typed out so much that it was nearly a 300-word mini essay, but he hadn’t sent out a single damn word.

Jian Rong wanted to ask if Lu Boyuan was drunk, but before he could send it, he ended up backing out and deleting it.

If Lu Boyuan were to reply with a “yes,” that would freaking be the rollercoaster of life.

After dawdling around for ten minutes, a message from Lu Boyuan popped up, ending Jian Rong’s essay-writing time.

[R: Asleep?]

Lu Boyuan sent the text and tossed his phone onto the bed before he took off his jacket, which was covered by the smell of smoke and alcohol.

As he opened his closet and took out a loose T-shirt, planning to take a shower, someone knocked on his door.

Jian Rong was standing outside, wearing a short-sleeved shirt. The milky scent of his shower gel made Lu Boyuan feel slightly dazed.

Lu Boyuan was somewhat surprised. He briefly raised an eyebrow and made to open the door wider so that Jian Rong could come inside.

“I won’t disturb your rest.” Jian Rong rubbed his nose. “I just came to say something…”

Lu Boyuan gripped the doorknob. “Mn?”

Jian Rong said, “Me too.”

It didn’t matter if Lu Boyuan had said those things while drunk or not.

Even if Lu Boyuan forgot everything tomorrow once he sobered up, Jian Rong still wanted to say it now.

He did too. He also liked Lu Boyuan.

Jian Rong always behaved quite simply, and he never paid much attention to detail. To this day, his livestream room’s personal bio was still the default one given by StarTV after first creating an account. Because of that, the water friends had even flamed him for being a loathsome straight guy.

But now he was bent, and he knew to be more delicate. A response should still be given in person; sending it over via text felt like it was lacking a bit of meaning and sincerity.

Lu Boyuan watched him quietly.

Jian Rong couldn’t bear his gaze, and he licked his lips. “That’s all, I’m done now. I’ll be going back…”

“Jian Rong.” Lu Boyuan called his name.

Jian Rong: “Ah.”

“I’m not drunk.”

Before Jian Rong could react, Lu Boyuan’s hand was already covering the nape of his neck. Following the force Lu Boyuan exerted, Jian Rong leaned forward.

If anyone walked out of their rooms at that moment, they would discover their mid laner standing in their jungler’s doorway, with half of his body hidden in the jungler’s room.

It was as if their fierce heartbeats were the only things remaining in the dim hallway.

Lu Boyuan bent down. The faint aroma of alcohol directly descended, and Jian Rong stared at Lu Boyuan’s jaw, his mind utterly blank.

Lu Boyuan tilted his head ever so slightly to the side, their lips the barest fraction of a centimeter apart, so that their breaths landed on each other’s faces.

Jian Rong felt like he most likely wouldn’t even react this strongly if he won the championships one day in the future.

His pulse infiltrated his every cell, and his entire body trembled.

Lu Boyuan was too good-looking. This close, he still couldn’t find a single flaw.

Lu Boyuan only halted in front of his lips for perhaps a second, but hundreds of thousands of barrage comments had already flown past in Jian Rong’s mind.

Casting his eyes downward, Lu Boyuan swept a look across Jian Rong’s lips before he shifted upwards and very gently kissed the mole set slightly on the right side of the tip of Jian Rong’s nose.

Jian Rong lifted his chin, his legs a little numb.

The scent of alcohol clung to Lu Boyuan, and he didn’t want any of it getting on Jian Rong. He caressed Jian Rong’s neck before releasing him.

“Go back and sleep.” Lu Boyuan gazed at him in a calm but restrained manner and said, “I can’t let you come inside tonight.”

Jian Rong returned to his room, locked the door, got in bed, and covered himself completely with his blanket.

He stared at the pattern on the blanket and thought—

Right now, how exactly am I any different from the wandering Little Fatty Orange, who defiled that grand and noble ragdoll cat.

—

The next day, Jian Rong inevitably woke up late.

By the time he finished eating breakfast and entered the practice room, everyone else was sitting in front of their computers, including Lu Boyuan.

Xiao Bai was in the middle of conversing with his stream. “I haven’t heard our mid laner’s freakishly persistent duo queue requests for an entire morning, my ears are feeling much more cleansed. I hope that he’ll wake up a bit later every day from here on out, so that everybody else will be able to have a leisurely, relaxed training environment…”

Hearing noise, Xiao Bai glanced behind him and proficiently switched his attitude. “You’re up, the days when you’re not asking me to duo queue really are super boring, ehe~”

Upon walking into the room, Jian Rong’s first instinct was to look at Lu Boyuan.

Lu Boyuan’s figure was nearly completely blocked by the gaming chair. Jian Rong retracted his gaze. “Stop acting.”

Right as Jian Rong turned on his computer, Xiao Bai turned his head and asked, “It’s almost the end of the month, let’s exchange our free gifts?”

Jian Rong’s stream account was highly ranked, so he had a lot of free gifts every month.

Jian Rong didn’t really care about that stuff. He logged into the game and gave a lazy “en” in reply before he opened up the streaming platform.

He instantly spotted the livestream room hanging on the home page’s most prominent advertising spot—[Road: Waiting for someone, streaming casually.]

Jian Rong immediately clicked on it. Lu Boyuan’s video wasn’t on, and he wasn’t playing LoL either. He was just idling on the game client as he chatted with XIU on WeChat, discussing the new jungle champion that was about to be released.

The barrage rushed by—

[Lillia: Another new jungler? Riot, do you think I’m dead?]

[XIU is here already, how come you’re still not Q’ing yet? Who are you waiting for ah.]

[Why not turn on the camera God Lu ahhh]

[I think I heard my dumbass son’s voice just now?]

[What do you mean ‘I think,’ he’s snuck into the stream already, he’s sitting there on the VIP list.]

Xiao Bai looked over. “Are you in my livestream room yet?”

Jian Rong gave all his free gifts to Lu Boyuan. “They’re all gone.”

Xiao Bai: “???”

“You’re going back on your word!” Xiao Bai promptly fired out, “You’re prioritizing love over friendship!!!”

Jian Rong choked. “…shut up, I’ll make up for it with Meteor Showers later.”

“Jian Rong.”

Jian Rong whipped his head around at once. “Here.”

Lu Boyuan pulled off one side of his headphones and asked mildly, “Let’s duo queue?”

Jian Rong quickly entered Lu Boyuan’s lobby, with Lu Boyuan’s stream window open in the upper right corner.

For once, Lu Boyuan was chatting with the barrage.

“Yes, I was waiting for him.

“Mn, I haven’t queued with him for a whole week now.

“He didn’t want to queue with me.”

Jian Rong: “…”

[???]

[In that case, my dumbass son is indeed being a bit unappreciative of your kindness hah.]

[Why – do I – feel like – something is weird.]

[What’s going on with these two? If one person is streaming, then the other person has to idle in their livestream room?]

They entered the pick/ban screen. Jian Rong was filling in as support.

“I was queueing with them to practice our teamwork.” He raised his hand and covered his ear briefly before he spoke again, “It’s not that I didn’t want to.”

Lu Boyuan let out an “en” before he checked his own role and started typing.

[TTC ་ Road: Is ADC there]

[PUDXIU: Here God Lu.]

[Just Watch My Gameplay: …………]

Lu Boyuan’s eyebrows unfurrowed; things were much more convenient with someone he knew.

[TTC ་ Road: Let’s switch roles, you be jungler, I’ll be ADC.]

[PUDXIU: …OK.]

Jian Rong was startled.

After finishing the negotiation, Lu Boyuan hardly hesitated at all before locking in Kalista, the Spear of Vengeance.

[What’s happening? God Lu gave the jungler position to someone else??]

[Why play ADC… there’s a quite frightening thought in my head, but I don’t have the guts to say it.]

[I’ll say it for you! It’s because Soft got support, and Road wants to be in bot lane with him!!]

[They’re real!!!]

[Can you all stop with your YY? There isn’t anything wrong with occasionally playing other roles if he’s tired of playing jungler, is there?]

[Damn, logically I understand that, but Road freaking pulled out the Spear of Online Dating, it really is hard for laozi not to overthink things!!!]

The champion Kalista had a passive called “Oathsworn Bond.” From the start of the game, she could bind herself to the support, and after level 6, her ult could directly retrieve the support and protect them from damage. After four seconds, the support would choose a target location for themselves and could knock up an enemy into the air if they landed on them.

This skill could be used to engage in team fights or to escape.

The instant this champion was released, it was widely adored by gaming couples. Many girls liked to play soft support champions, which weren’t very strong at surviving. At a critical moment, Kalista could protect her support extremely well.

Which was why everyone called this champion “the Spear of Online Dating.”

But Jian Rong didn’t like to play soft support. When he saw that champion, he didn’t even give it a second thought before he chose Annie instead.

[PUDXIU: Will you two be okay in the bot lane? If you can’t beat them, wait for me to come gank. My rank is gonna go up once I win one more game, you guys better not int¹ me.]

[Just Watch My Gameplay: We’re gonna go on a massacre.]

[PUDXIU: ……….alright then.]

If Jian Rong said massacre, then it would be a massacre.

Lu Boyuan was too good at positioning, and the enemy Ezreal couldn’t even touch him with his Q. Meanwhile, Jian Rong blasted down the enemy support’s health to the point that it was wailing out loud.

Level 6. Lu Boyuan recalled to base to replenish. After Jian Rong helped him block a wave of minions, he squatted in the bushes and started to go back to base with low health.

In the last three seconds, an eye popped up above Jian Rong’s head—it was the ult belonging to the enemy mid laner, Twisted Fate.

Simultaneously, as Twisted Fate flew to his side, the enemy top laner teleported to Jian Rong’s left.

Their intent to kill him was already solidified.

Jian Rong used the stun from his passive, wanting to try and trade Twisted Fate.

At that moment, the sound of a flash came from his headphones—controlling Kalista, Lu Boyuan flashed and hurried to the scene, saving him with Kalista’s ult at the very last second.

[If I were Soft, I’d marry myself off to him right now.]

[Damn, the Spear of Online Dating deserves her name!]

[Why is my son the one getting married off and not the one doing the marrying²?]

[Why do you think? You pull up the post-match replay and decide for yourself.]

Just as the water friends were debating the question of who was marrying and who was being married off, a very nooby scene happened.

Currently, Jian Rong only had 37 HP remaining—even a support could kill him with one hit.

But without the slightest bit of hesitation or uncertainty, he still smashed himself into the crowd of enemies. He then proceeded to toss out his ult, stunning the enemy top laner, mid laner, and support, before he followed up with a ferocious damage combo. After he finished beautifully and simply dishing out all his damage………… the enemies still had half their freaking health left.

With a single auto attack from the enemy support, Jian Rong died on the spot.

Jian Rong: “?”

Lu Boyuan: “.”

Jian Rong: “…my bad.”

[Hahahahaha I’ll really be damned]

[As a lousy soft support, you have quite the confidence in yourself hah.]

[You have a Spellthief’s Edge, but you’re playing like you have a Needlessly Large Rod]

[God Lu is thinking: laozi’s flash was fed to the dogs.]

[That’s it? That’s it?? Looks like my son is destined to have nothing to do with online dating for the rest of his life.]

[Well that’s not for sure, the little dumbass’ mechanics are quite amazing, and he seems very reserved and aloof when chatting. It could be said that he’s the most popular type of guy in the online dating world!]

[All jokes aside, the dumbass does often receive friend requests from young ladies.]

With a few hits, Lu Boyuan killed the Lulu that got Jian Rong before he cast a glance at the barrage. “He won’t date online.

“Why? …no particular reason, I won’t let him. Why won’t I let him… because I’m his captain.

“Restricting the team members’ ability to date?” When he saw that comment, Lu Boyuan inexplicably laughed. “I’m not. He can date whoever he wants in reality, in whatever way he wishes to.

“I won’t even object if he brings his romantic partner to the base.”

Jian Rong had just woken up, and he already couldn’t take it anymore.

He clicked his mouse loudly as he repeatedly pressed his lips together a few times.

Whether Lu Boyuan could be considered his romantic partner or not, Jian Rong didn’t know.

But in any case, the person who he wanted to bring into the base had already lived there for three freaking years.