After walking the red carpet, most players finally felt relieved and returned to the audience seats.
Nan Zhiyi and the two streamers accompanying him were led by staff to a backstage lounge to prepare for the upcoming exhibition match.
The players who’d walked the red carpet earlier were already waiting inside.
There were three sofas in the lounge. yux, wind, and milk, roeCN’s three most popular, highest-traffic star players, each occupied one, forming a three-way standoff.
With these three gathered together, the underlying logic of audience and fan voting became very clear: looks.
Nan Zhiyi had once carefully compared the three’s appearances. wind had delicate, more androgynous features, and a correspondingly “small” build.
milk, on the other hand, had a more handsome, mature look. He’d once had a wildly viral endorsement photo, black suit and white shirt, collar slightly open, black-framed glasses, looking pensive.
His fans often posted that photo under threads like “Are there actually good-looking players in esports?” But Nan Zhiyi always felt milk only looked serious, his personality had nothing to do with serious, and was in fact a bit careless and unreliable.
As for yux, no need to say much, he’d been in the scene over two years and left behind thousands of match photos, and you couldn’t pick out a single bad one.
So people often said the All-Star popularity vote was basically a beauty contest. After seeing that comment, Nan Zhiyi felt yux taking first place had even more solid justification than the other two.
Nan Zhiyi had wanted to sit next to yux, but the two streamers who’d come with him stood awkwardly at the door, seemingly not familiar with any of the three star players inside, so he had no choice but to stand at the entrance with them.
wind, who’d been on his phone, looked up at them.
“Oh, AngelYi,” he greeted Nan Zhiyi, “first time meeting you.”
It was obvious wind didn’t recognize the person he’d met backstage on finals day.
Out of politeness, Nan Zhiyi could only walk over. “Hello.”
“I once streamed with your friend. I heard from him that you watch our team’s matches a lot?” wind smiled at him. His makeup was very refined, but for some reason it looked strangely artificial.
“I used to watch your videos a lot. That one where you set a fire-train in a dungeon for the spiders was especially funny, if you’ve got any future segments, bring me along too.”
At this point Nan Zhiyi finally realized: wind had some kind of misunderstanding about him.
The source of it was probably that CG × Stars joint stream, where Tangyuan claimed he really hated yux.
And wind was probably very busy today, too busy to watch the clips or commentary of Nan Zhiyi’s newly-released video.
—wind seemed to think he was a CG fan?
Having seriously followed CG matches for several years, Nan Zhiyi actually understood the fandom dynamics within the CG team very well.
The most incompatible group in the team had to be the fans of yux and wind.
wind debuted earlier than yux. In the second year after old CG won its championship, he joined the first team as a CG youth trainee. Now he was a genuine team veteran, and in many fans’ eyes, the rightful “heir of old CG.”
On top of that, he was fairly good-looking himself, with a huge fandom following, and his fans would often pile pressure on teammates whenever the team lost a match.
But unfortunately, this “heir” had only won his first and second league titles last year.
And the MVP of both was his teammate yux.
yux’s fans were not to be underestimated either, often saying wind was nothing more than yux’s “accessory,” and that without yux, wind would struggle even to win a league title (Nan Zhiyi felt they had a point). Over time, this had escalated into conflict between the two fanbases.
But he’d always thought the conflict existed only among fans.
After all, they were colleagues. Everyone should have a clear idea of who did how much work and what their own abilities were, right?
He couldn’t help recalling what Qiu Cheng had said a few days ago during their argument: “wind said his personality’s really bad and everyone on the team dislikes him.”
“If there’s a chance, definitely.”
In the end, Nan Zhiyi gave a relatively polite answer.
But wind didn’t seem satisfied with it.
He glanced at yux sitting across from him and went on, “So, what do you think, can yux carry you to a win today?”
There was a hidden edge to the question.
The other two streamers who’d come today were both technical players who’d long stayed in the ranked top 100. Nan Zhiyi was the only one labeled an “entertainment streamer.”
Nan Zhiyi answered without thinking. “Probably.”
“I don’t think so,” wind teased, stirring the pot. “Our little yux hasn’t trained in three months. Maybe he hasn’t even touched the game at home.”
Nan Zhiyi let out an “ah.” “Really? He should still be able to carry me, though.”
“I think yux is pretty strong,” he smiled. “Even dragging a dog along, he should still win.”
wind: “…………”
His expression suddenly turned very ugly.
Nan Zhiyi didn’t continue the conversation. He walked to the snack shelf and took a bag of chips from the box.
The lounge instantly went unusually quiet, leaving only the sound of Nan Zhiyi tearing open the packaging and crunching chips.
After a long while—
yux, sitting on the other side playing with his phone, couldn’t hold it in and let out a “pfft” of laughter.
Nan Zhiyi secretly typed with the hand not covered in chip crumbs.
【Xiao Yi Xiao Yi: What are you laughing at?】
After sending it, he glanced at yux to find the man’s head lowered, shoulders slightly shaking.
A moment later, Nan Zhiyi got a reply.
【yux: You said I could win even dragging a dog along】
【yux: But we lost the finals last year】
【yux: = Are you saying he’s worse than a dog?】
Nan Zhiyi: “………………”
He’d completely forgotten about that.
Nan Zhiyi had originally just wanted to treat this 2v2v2 as a normal exhibition match. But wind’s earlier remarks challenging yux suddenly gave him a reason he absolutely could not lose.
From that point on, the air in the lounge grew taut as a drawn bowstring.
To make it worse, for some unfathomable bad reason, someone deliberately played a replay of the CG vs OTG finals on the lounge’s big screen.
Everyone was forced to watch wind and beer get chased all over the map by OTG’s main carry again: “…………”
wind’s expression by now had become indistinguishable from the CG manager who’d stormed out earlier.
Once the stage prep was done, staff came in to call everyone out.
Nan Zhiyi deliberately hung back and walked at the very end. He noticed yux slowed down to wait for him too, and took the chance, while no one was watching, to lean in and ask, “Do we need to prep any tactics?”
They hadn’t discussed anything earlier, since he’d originally treated this as just entertainment.
“No need,” yux said.
“That Little Bell is actually pretty strong,” Nan Zhiyi said quietly. “Little Bell” was wind’s teammate today, a very all-round streamer who played everything except support.
“No need,” yux repeated. His tone was lazy, like he hadn’t fully woken up.
The lounge had been too crowded earlier, but now under the bright stage lights it was obvious his condition wasn’t great, he looked a little sleepy.
Nan Zhiyi remembered he’d only landed at the airport at dawn today.
“Didn’t sleep well?” he asked.
“Mm.” yux gave a barely perceptible nod. “Too noisy on the plane. Couldn’t fall asleep.”
Nan Zhiyi: “Alright then. I’ll try to take it 2–0 so you can rest sooner.”
The exhibition match used a three-team free-for-all format, the first team to win two rounds won overall.
yux glanced at him with what looked like a faintly amused expression.
Nan Zhiyi: “?”
“How are you like this,” yux said. “You look all soft and harmless, but you talk even cockier than I do.”
It was a very ordinary sentence, but somehow it made Nan Zhiyi feel a little embarrassed. “Not really…”
He sat down in his seat, casually ruffling his hair to cover his reaction, then glanced down at the stage.
And then he was stunned by the endless sea of lights stretching across the venue.
【AngelYi 41 Support】
【First Bard AngelYi】
【Fly, Xiao Yi, Mom will always be with you】
“Oh my god,” Nan Zhiyi exclaimed. “In my stream chat they usually just laugh at me and call me a Platinum scrub, so why are they cheering me on now?”
His gaze drifted across the various light signs.
Suddenly, Nan Zhiyi spotted something strange.
Someone was holding a big, colorful LED sign that read: 【Have You and Yi met today?】
The person next to them held another: 【Already met, wishing you a long life together (99)】 [1] “99” = 久久, “for a long, long time”, a couple/wedding blessing, “You and Yi” = the YouYi ship of You Xin + Nan Zhiyi jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2670398_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2670398_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
He instinctively turned his head, and realized yux was looking in the same direction. “…………”
Nan Zhiyi wasn’t unaware that people shipped him and yux.
He’d already done his best to block keywords about himself on every major platform, but the algorithms still stubbornly pushed related content onto his homepage.
…Later, he had to admit the reason was that every time he saw it, he couldn’t resist clicking in to look, which had led to things becoming what they were.
But seeing it privately by himself, and being confronted with it head-on right in front of the other party involved… were obviously completely different experiences.
Nan Zhiyi quickly turned his head back, pretending he hadn’t seen anything just now.
After a while, he couldn’t help sneaking another glance at yux.
To his surprise, yux was looking at him too, and he got caught right in the act.
“…………” Nan Zhiyi had no choice but to pretend he had something to say. “It’s my first time playing a game in such a crowded place. I’m… a little nervous.”
yux didn’t seem to react much, no anger, no delight. He probably genuinely hadn’t seen those two support signs.
“No need to be nervous,” yux said after a brief pause. “Remember? Back when we played 2v2, we never lost to anyone.”
References[+]