On Chen Chong’s side, he was still waiting for Chi Tong’s reply while the livestream chat had already exploded.
Chen Chong’s stream viewership usually stayed at a relatively stable number at this time, but today it was climbing rapidly because of the circulation among Chi Tong’s fans. Gifts from those fans were flooding in like a storm, piling up without pause.
Even though Chen Chong wasn’t short on money, he still couldn’t help being stunned at the sheer volume of gift effects scrolling across the screen.
A phrase popped into his mind: fan behavior mirrors the creator?
“Ahhhhhhh! Is it really Chi Tong!?”
“Does this count as Chi Tong’s first livestream appearance?”
“Count it! Count it!”
Some of Chen Chong’s regular viewers didn’t even know Chi Tong. At first, they were unhappy that the stream’s focus had suddenly shifted, but once they saw the gift barrage from Chi Tong’s fans, their dissatisfaction immediately turned into praise and “boss energy” spam.
Chen Chong did ask Chi Tong, but he didn’t actually expect him to respond. When he previously played with Jiang Chengyi, Chi Tong at most used voice listening without speaking. He clearly wasn’t someone inclined toward social interaction.
Also, Chen Chong subconsciously felt that Chi Tong’s friends wouldn’t use IDs like “Xingxing the Noob.” That sounded more like a fan-made nickname.
“Bro Chi, this should be my viewer, I accidentally pulled him into the room,” Chen Chong already assumed Chi Tong wouldn’t respond and casually explained, preparing to kick “Xingxing the Noob” out.
But then a male voice suddenly came through his headset.
“He’s with me.”
That voice, transmitted through Chen Chong’s headset and into the livestream, was so clean and pleasant it sounded almost unreal. Just those few words were enough to push the already boiling chat into another frenzy.
“It’s Chi Tong, it’s really him!!”
“So it really is Chi Tong, it feels like the barrier between worlds just broke.”
Chen Chong’s hand, which had already moved to remove Xingxing the Noob, immediately stopped.
“I’ll go call the boss again,” Chen Chong said.
He glanced at the chat and noticed viewers teasing him again.
“Hehe, Chen Chong’s true love is still the boss.”
“Boss’s dream of a sweet duo queue got crushed lol.”
Chen Chong felt increasingly awkward, but he also started to suspect whether Jiang Chengyi’s earlier answer had really been honest. Either way, letting him and Chi Tong play alone felt even more uncomfortable, so he was determined to bring his boss in no matter what.
Jiang Chengyi was already online, before Chen Chong even finished sending a message, he had already applied to join the team himself.
The moment he entered, Jiang Chengyi froze for a second, then immediately started mocking through voice chat.
“Damn, didn’t you tell me you already deleted the game? Your internet speed must be insane.”
He had just been repeatedly urging Chi Tong to play, and Chi Tong had used “already deleted the game” as an excuse, yet the person who supposedly deleted it had joined the room even faster than him.
His voice cut straight over Chen Chong’s greeting and immediately drew the attention of the livestream audience, who began speculating who he was talking to.
Although Jiang Chengyi didn’t name anyone, it wasn’t hard to guess. It clearly wasn’t Chen Chong, and it also didn’t fit “Xingxing the Noob.” That left only one possibility: he was talking to Chi Tong.
“The boss is tragic lol.”
“LMAO what is this, a drama scene?”
“Boss is rage-muttering into the void!”
Chi Tong replied evenly, “Yeah. Want me to recommend you a new package?”
Chen Chong quickly stepped in to defuse the situation: “Boss, I’ll call Xiao Fei to fill the slot.”
Xiao Fei, also from their pro team, was a versatile mid-laner. As soon as he heard it was playing with the boss, he immediately stopped his ranked match and came over. The five-man team was now full, voices overlapping in voice chat.
Lin Xing stayed quietly in the squad, feeling dazed and slightly unreal. Only belatedly did he remember Chen Chong might be streaming, when he checked, it was indeed the case. At this point, he might as well be on television.
He was nervous and excited at the same time, his cheeks warm, kicking slightly under the blanket.
Although Chi Tong and Jiang Chengyi weren’t professional players, they were high-ranked players with strong mechanics and game understanding.
Two pros and two high-level players carrying one casual grinder, was that even fair?
Lin Xing decided it was extremely fair. Everyone had their fate, and his was clearly a lucky one.
Chen Chong and Xiao Fei mainly played ranked on alternate accounts, so they weren’t using their main streaming accounts often. Lin Xing’s account was only a few stars away from the highest rank, so the opponents they matched with weren’t expected to be particularly strong.
Because of that, when it came time to pick heroes, Lin Xing’s full row of soft-support preselects didn’t cause any issues.
Chen Chong and Xiao Fei didn’t know who Lin Xing was exactly, and even Jiang Chengyi was still unclear, but because he was brought in through Chi Tong’s connection, everyone treated him politely.
“You can take Da Qiao,” Chen Chong said.
“Sun Bin, Sun Bin,” Jiang Chengyi said. “I’ll go Ma Chao.”
“Enchanter supports are annoying too. If she stacks control on me with bounce effects, she can burst me instantly,” Xiao Fei added.
As a soft-support player who was usually looked down upon in solo queue, Lin Xing now felt like he had been lifted straight into the clouds. But because these were instructions from high-level players, he had no idea who he should actually listen to.
“Just play whatever you want. Don’t mind them,” Chi Tong said to Lin Xing.
Those words immediately steadied Lin Xing’s wavering thoughts. There was an obvious sense of indulgence in them as well. Lin Xing quietly selected a hero from one of the rows and tapped “request priority pick.”
At the last two seconds, Chen Chong locked in Lin Xing’s intended hero for him—Yao. It was a pick Lin Xing usually didn’t dare to take in solo queue, but now, with some courage gathered, he selected it.
“I can play marksman,” Jiang Chengyi said after looking at everyone’s remaining hero options. Chen Chong was jungle, Xiao Fei mid, and the remaining slot was solo lane/farm lane.
All three of Chi Tong’s backup heroes were top-lane characters, whenever they formed a team in the past, he always played top lane.
Jiang Chengyi felt he was being considerate and accommodating.
But the moment he finished speaking, when it came to Chi Tong’s turn to pick, he instantly locked in Marco Polo.
“Holy—” The rest of Jiang Chengyi’s words were abruptly cut off through the voice chat. He swallowed them back down. Fine, fine, he was streaming, he had to keep his image.
At the start of the match, the opposing team even used all-chat.
Chen Chong’s streaming account was well known, and Xiao Fei’s alt account was also streaming. A quick glance at their channels made it easy to identify them. Everyone was just grinding ranked at season end, hoping to reach the highest rank, but no one expected to queue into a match full of pro players with a pocket full of national-ranked heroes.
Because the outcome of the match felt decided from the start, both sides were surprisingly relaxed.
【Zhen Ji】: Xiao Fei, go easy on me, I’m your fan.
【Sun Shangxiang】: Maybe I can stand up?
Sun Shangxiang actually had a favorable matchup against Marco Polo, so when Lin Xing saw that message, he immediately said, “I’m coming, I’m coming.”
He helped Chen Chong take the river crab and immediately headed to the bot lane. Before he even arrived, the kill announcement popped up.
Sun Shangxiang has been killed.
【Sun Shangxiang】: Sorry, I’m down.
The game progressed without suspense. After level four, Lin Xing essentially sat comfortably on top of the marksman, occasionally stepping off to refresh shields before returning to sit again.
Chi Tong didn’t main marksman, but his Marco Polo was still extremely strong. As the opposing team gradually lost tempo, their jungle was quickly taken over.
Yao sat on Marco Polo’s head, following him as they cleared the enemy red buff area all the way to the blue buff side.
Chi Tong brought the blue buff down to a sliver of HP, then suddenly stopped.
“For you.”
Lin Xing said, “Oh, how embarrassing,” while immediately jumping down and using his skill on the buff, happily securing it.
The enemy Zhang Fei merely came over to take a look, and was instantly shredded down by a burst of bullets.
Lin Xing, now “sitting” on a blue buff, felt his morale skyrocket. “Push forward, push forward!”
After dying, Zhang Fei was unwilling to accept it and switched to all-chat.
【Zhang Fei】: I just came to look and saw you helping Yao take blue, isn’t that a bit excessive?
【Zhang Fei】: This is too much, I’m getting destroyed here.
Chi Tong’s fanbase in the livestream had already taken over the “high ground,” and gifts had boosted Chen Chong’s stream onto the platform’s front page. The chat was flooding with demands for Chen Chong to keep switching the camera view to Marco Polo.
But Marco Polo, together with Yao, was split-pushing in the bot lane and didn’t participate in several team fights, so Chen Chong couldn’t easily pan the view over that far. Most of the time, Chi Tong’s plays were outside the audience’s direct view.
At best, they could only see kill announcements and “legendary streak” notifications.
Zhang Fei’s all-chat message, however, could be seen without switching the camera.
Marco Polo gave Yao blue buff?
The audience collectively spammed “???” in an instant.
Fans paying attention to Marco Polo’s movements could only see him rotating through the jungle on the minimap and briefly stopping in the enemy blue buff area, but no one expected he was actually giving Yao the buff.
It wasn’t that it was unheard of for a marksman to give blue to a mana-reliant support, the real issue was that this was Chi Tong.
And someone in the chat had already noticed another key point.
“Isn’t the ‘Xingxing’ in ‘Xingxing the Noob’ the same ‘Xingxing’ from that earlier rumor incident?”
“Why are there so many ‘Xingxing’s?”
Even the enemy players, after dying, were now watching Chen Chong’s livestream and casually asked in-game chat as well.
【Zhen Ji】: Is Yao that “Seasonal Little Xingxing”?
【Zhen Ji】: Your IDs are kind of similar.
Lin Xing had originally been enjoying the smooth rank-pushing experience of being surrounded by high-level players, but when he suddenly saw Zhen Ji’s message, he almost flipped off the top bunk.
Jiang Chengyi hadn’t realized that Lin Xing was actually “Seasonal Little Xingxing.” He knew Chi Tong’s personality well, there was no way he was the type to play along with some “love that can’t be returned” drama. If it were true, he wouldn’t have made that clarification earlier either.
Still, seeing the incident resurface after some time, and even being mentioned mid-game, made Jiang Chengyi find it a bit amusing. Combined with the slight displeasure from being verbally shut down by Chi Tong before the match, he teasingly said, “Yeah, Yao kid, do you know about that Chi Tong rumor thing? Your IDs really are kind of fated together. If I had to say, it’s probably because Chi Tong himself doesn’t behave properly in his personal life, otherwise how could he run into such a weird person.”
Lin Xing, being directly called out by Jiang Chengyi, couldn’t even pretend to be dead silent.
At this moment, if he didn’t want to socially die and restart his life, he had to distance himself from “Seasonal Little Xingxing.”
“That ‘Little Xingxing’ is kind of weird,” Lin Xing said, the most he could manage. Criticizing himself felt awkward and unnatural for him, and his mood dropped as a result.
No one likes being teased like that, especially not on a livestream where countless eyes and ears might hear it. But what Lin Xing was truly worried about was whether Chi Tong would join in and say something negative about “Seasonal Little Xingxing.” That would make him miserable.
Chen Chong and Xiao Fei laughed it off to flatter their boss, not noticing Lin Xing’s mood shift at all. In their eyes, Lin Xing and “Seasonal Little Xingxing” had nothing to do with each other anyway.
“He’s not weird,” Chi Tong finally spoke after sensing Lin Xing’s unease. His voice passed through the microphone, “He’s very cute.”