Ever since Yan Shu’s very first live stream, he had earned enough money to cover the second team’s streaming revenue for an entire week. Now, whenever the second team’s captain looked at Yan Shu, he felt as though he were looking at a walking money tree, completely wrapped in solid gold bars from top to bottom.
Yan Shu’s routine shifted from training and running errands to training and live-streaming.
As Yan Shu’s streams gradually stabilized, the initial hype seemed to slowly fade compared to the first day.
After training concluded one day, the captain pulled Yan Shu aside toward the pantry to discuss the issues with his streaming performance.
The captain pulled out a pack of cigarettes, extracted one, and offered it to Yan Shu.
Yan Shu waved his hand. “I don’t smoke.”
“No way, brother. Didn’t you learn back when you were in school?” The captain lit the cigarette he had intended to give away, popped it between his lips, and took a puff. “You really won’t try? Sometimes when the pressure gets high, taking a couple of puffs is a great way to relieve it.”
Relieve pressure? Upon hearing those four words, Yan Shu felt a flicker of interest in the cigarette. Back when he was in school, he always had drivers picking him up and dropping him off, so how could he possibly have had the opportunity to learn how to smoke?
Noticing that Yan Shu kept staring at the cigarette in his hand, the captain pinched it between two fingers, removed it from his lips, and exhaled a ring of smoke. “Want to try?”
“Can I?” Yan Shu stared at the lit cigarette, his Adam’s apple bobbing slightly.
In the warm orange lighting, Yan Shu’s lips shimmered with a hint of moisture, nearly causing the captain to freeze in a daze.
Driven by a sudden impulse, the captain reversed the cigarette he had just smoked from and held it right in front of Yan Shu’s lips. “If you don’t mind, just give it a try. We’re both guys anyway.”
Right as Yan Shu was hesitating over whether to take a puff, the door to the adjoining lounge inside the pantry suddenly swung open.
Zhuoyue walked out wearing his signature expression of being in a terrible mood and telling everyone not to test him. His eyes were narrowed with lingering sleepiness, as if he had just woken up from a nap in the lounge.
Realizing the person who had emerged was Zhuoyue, the captain quickly adopted a deferential tone. “Captain Zhuo, did we disturb your rest?”
Zhuoyue rubbed his hair, his brow still heavily furrowed. Acting as though he hadn’t heard the captain speak at all, he shoved his way right past the two of them through the narrow gap.
Just as he reached the pantry doorway, Zhuoyue abruptly stopped, his voice raspy and low as he delivered a warning: “Smoking is not allowed in here.”
The captain gave a start and quickly raised his hand to stub out the cigarette. “Yes, I won’t smoke anymore.”
Zhuoyue did not linger, leaving without a single backward glance.
Not long after Zhuoyue left, the lounge door suddenly swung open once more.
A bewildered Lin Qi stepped out, holding a freshly extinguished cigarette butt in his hand. Complaining and muttering under his breath, he located the designated trash can for cigarette butts in the pantry and walked out while grumbling about when smoking was suddenly banned in there, noting that nobody said anything when he went in earlier to wake him up.
Since this new rule about the pantry being a smoke-free zone was now in place, the captain made a point of mentioning it as soon as he returned to the training room.
The second team had several heavy smokers, and upon hearing the news, they broke into exaggerated wails.
“Alright, if Captain Zhuo hears you, you are going to be in big trouble, so watch out for extra morning running laps,” the captain warned, pressing a finger to his lips in a hush gesture.
The second team instantly quieted down, though the entire atmosphere remained remarkably gloomy.
“Tch, don’t be like that. Keep your spirits up. Get back to extra training for those who need it, and get back to streaming for those who are scheduled,” the captain said.
The jungler, an old smoker, let out a long sigh, clutched his chest, and grumbled plaintively that making him run all the way outside the base just to smoke was no different from sending him on a long journey to retrieve ancient scriptures.
“Well, there’s nothing we can do about it. When Captain Zhuo says something, you have to listen.” The captain turned around and pointed at Yan Shu. “Look at Yan Shu. After streaming for just one week, he is already earning more than some of you do in a full month. Hurry up and get to work. The GPL league is starting soon, and the team needs money for plenty of things.”
Hearing the captain talk about him, Yan Shu glanced up briefly before returning to his practice.
Once his individual training session ended, Yan Shu figured it was still early enough to squeeze in an hour of streaming, so he grabbed his phone and headed to the adjacent streaming room.
Lately, Yan Shu treated streaming as a daily task to check off. Since playing solo in Peak Tournament matches was no different whether he was streaming or not, it made little practical difference.
Aside from turning on his mic to call out enemy locations and signal his teammates, Yan Shu rarely spoke while streaming, which could admittedly be quite dull. Even so, a dedicated group of audio-fixated fans consistently remained in his stream, occasionally spamming the chat with requests for him to show his face.
Past ten o’clock at night was the peak time for high-level Peak Tournament matches.
Yan Shu’s personal account had already climbed past twenty-two hundred points, ranking eleventh nationwide.
As the game entered the loading screen, Yan Shu noticed his teammate’s jungler displaying a grandmaster badge for Luna.
“Luna…” Yan Shu was extremely fond of Luna. In his view, Luna was the hero in the entire Canyon that demanded the absolute highest level of skill execution, possessing a skill ceiling with no upper limit.
Noticing him talking to himself, the fans in the chat couldn’t help getting curious.
[What’s wrong with Luna? Wifey, do you like Luna?]
[Moon Baby, is your username related to Luna’s crescent moon?]
Breaking his usual habit, Yan Shu actually replied to the chat. “My ID has nothing to do with Luna.”
Just as the chat was expressing disappointment that his ID wasn’t connected to Luna, Yan Shu added that he simply liked Luna.
[Show off a match next time! Want to watch!]
[Sisters, I’m still watching the stream next door. That jungler is Wind!]
[Wind? Is that Wind?]
[Are they matched in the same game? A powerhouse collaboration!]
[My husband and my wifey are in the same frame.]
[It’s starting! Want to see Captain Zhuo and the newcomer interact, it must be so wholesome!]
Once inside the game, Yan Shu underwent a complete behavioral reversal. Not only did he keep his mic off, but he even turned off his audio receiver entirely.
The live chat flooded instantly with rows of question marks.
Yan Shu not only stopped talking, but he didn’t even dare to breathe too heavily.
Both sides in this Peak Tournament match consisted of top-tier players. Aside from Yan Shu and Zhuoyue who were professional players, the opposing team included two more pros. According to the omniscient perspective of the fans in chat, one opponent belonged to the veteran powerhouse Yunding team, while another came from the Snakes. The rest of the players were equally formidable, consisting either of national-leaderboard specialists or ultra-high-score peak ladder veterans.
The chat, which had just been filled with question marks, instantly shifted its focus entirely to the gameplay.
Right from the opening laning phase, this match felt completely different from previous ones, carrying the tense atmosphere of an official professional tournament.
Both teams’ players exercised extreme caution before reaching level four. Even Yan Shu, who usually secured first blood regularly, had found no opening to lay a hand on his opponent yet.
This avoidance phase finally broke at the five-minute mark. When Zhuoyue’s Luna invaded the enemy jungle, not only did he secure the blue buff, but he also successfully took down the enemy jungler.
[God, so strong.]
[Sisters, the stream next door just turned on his webcam, and Hubby looks ridiculously handsome. Wifey, I’m sorry, I’m heading over first.]
[I also love watching handsome streamer webcams, going over first.]
[I only wanted to watch the Wind God’s plays, I’ll be back later.]
Seeing the viewer count drop by more than half, Yan Shu remained unfazed, knowing his Guan Yu was built entirely for team fights.
By the tenth minute, Luna reached her peak powerhouse phase. Yan Shu knew full well that both sides were gearing up for explosive team fights.
Zhuoyue was currently taking down the objective dragon while Yan Shu established vision control from the nearby bushes. Seeing a small skirmish in the mid-lane shifting toward the dragon pit, Yan Shu tapped the ping button.
“Requesting jungle backup!”
The moment the ping went out, Yan Shu realized he had tapped the wrong signal.
The ping he had actually intended to issue was to gather for a team fight, but a slip of his finger caused him to send a request for jungle backup instead.
Accidental misclicks of this nature constituted supreme humiliation for a professional player. Maintaining a completely deadpan expression, Yan Shu immediately re-issued the correct gather ping.
[Hahahah sisters, I was just watching the stream next door, and when that jungle backup ping popped up, Wind literally paused for a second.]
[Oh my god, why does it feel like the newcomer and Captain Zhuo have a close relationship?]
[If you ask me, given our little Moon God’s skill level, getting special attention from Captain Zhuo is completely normal.]
[Totally agree, maybe our Moon will be promoted to the first team in a few days!]
[Help, this ship dynamic between the versatile newcomer and the jungle king captain, I am starting to ship it.]
[Ah, stop getting carried away, sisters!]
The chaotic avalanche of chat comments was quickly interrupted by a brilliant team fight.
An epic flank by Guan Yu combined with Luna’s terrain-slicing mobility resulted in an immediate wipe of the enemy team.
Driven by this powerful top-jungle synergy, the Peak Tournament match ended in victory before the Storm Tyrant even spawned.
Just as the fans were getting fully invested, Yan Shu abruptly shut down his stream and ended his practice session early.
Peak Tournament matches frequently resulted in accidental matchups, and Yan Shu wanted to avoid crossing paths with Zhuoyue again. Whether as teammates or opponents, neither scenario felt desirable.
The moment Yan Shu ended his stream, the captain burst through the door.
“Yan Shu, the viewer traffic is peaking right now, why did you end the stream?” the captain asked in bewilderment.
Yan Shu lowered his gaze, casually offering an excuse about being tired and wanting to rest early.
“Didn’t you see that wealthy fan throwing gifts at you just now? They dropped tens of thousands on you, demanding a face reveal!” the captain urged.
Yan Shu had zero intention of showing his face. With so many people online, someone might easily recognize him.
“Look, I have a great idea. We can keep the wealthy fan happy without anyone ever recognizing you.” The captain motioned for Yan Shu to lean in closer so he could explain.
Yan Shu leaned in, listened to the captain’s pitch, and immediately shook his head in rejection.
The next day, at the exact same streaming time.
Yan Shu sat in the streaming room dressed in women’s clothing, with the camera pointed directly at his breathtakingly pretty face.
The captain had made a trip home the previous day; his mother ran a women’s apparel business, so he had conveniently brought back a body-hugging wine-red midi dress.
Yan Shu was now wearing that very dress. Combined with a long, wavy blonde wig left over from a previous team promotional shoot and a touch of makeup applied by the front desk receptionist, the result was a flawless feminine disguise.
“Just start streaming, don’t be scared. Today, only our second team and the youth squad are left in the building. The first team and upper management are all out, apparently attending meetings regarding the qualification matches.” The captain patted his chest reassuringly. “Don’t worry. I have arranged extra practice for the youth team, and I will keep an eye on the rest of the second team. The moment you finish streaming, go take off the outfit, and nobody will ever see.”
Yan Shu was caught between a rock and a hard place, leaving him with no other choice but to agree.
Once all preparations were complete, Yan Shu launched the stream, though he barely dared to face the camera. That trace of shyness, combined with his striking, rosy-cheeked beauty, caused his stream to explode in popularity the moment it went live that evening.