Chapter 119: When we’re dating, we definitely can’t be outdone by the other person
Jian Rong was currently in the middle of a team fight. Because of a positioning mistake, he ate the other side’s CC, and soon afterwards his screen went gray.
He sucked in a deep breath of air and typed in the chat: [My fault.]
His team’s support immediately replied: [No no no, it was my fault. I went to comment in God Lu’s stream just now, so I didn’t have time to use Mikael’s1 on you.]
Jian Rong: […]
Since it was the mid-late game, the death timer was several dozen seconds long. Jian Rong stared at the thousands and thousands of identical comments that had been spamming the barrage for almost an entire minute. Finally, he couldn’t help but pull out his phone and send two comments himself:
[Guest849248: Looking forward to it, can God Lu start the game quickly?]
As soon as he hit enter, it was drowned out amidst the boundless sea of comments.
Jian Rong gritted his teeth and started typing again—
[Guest849248: Can’t you all comment something with more substance? What are the people who want to properly watch the stream supposed to look at with you all acting like this?]
This time, someone paid attention to him, and they even responded to him through a private message.
[Soft’s Dear Dad whispered to you: Don’t be up in your dad’s business about the comments being sent, and don’t try to control what kind of content my son-in-law is streaming. If you wanna watch, then watch. If not, get lost.]
Jian Rong: “?”
Jian Rong clicked on the water friend’s profile, wanting to ban them. It was only when he couldn’t find the option to do so that he remembered this wasn’t his stream, and that he also wasn’t on his main account, which had moderator privileges in Lu Boyuan’s livestream room.
He warned himself that he couldn’t get on his main account, that he couldn’t let them provoke him, as he messaged Lu Boyuan on WeChat.
[R-ong: You can silence the entire chat in the stream. If you right click on the comment section, it’s the option at the very bottom. You can also set the ban time on your end.]
[R-ong: If you feel bothered… just ban them directly]
Lu Boyuan hadn’t expected these people to be so capable of spamming either. He picked up his phone and checked the texts before he answered with an “okay.” Then he put his phone back down and said mildly, “If you all keep spamming, the entire chat will have to be silenced for today’s stream.”
The barrage thought that Lu Boyuan was worried about his stream being banned, so it really did calm down a bit.
[How come we can’t even say the words ‘washing underwear’ anymore? Is this a forbidden phrase in the stream? Who established that? Does that person not wash their underwear?]
[I’m begging you please turn on your video!]
[God Lu knows how to silence the chat? As far as I can remember, God Lu hasn’t ever even banned someone before.]
Lu Boyuan said, “I just learned how.”
[Dammit, which mod corrupted God Lu?!]
[You’re overthinking things, the mods can’t talk to God Lu. I bet that person did it.]
[Which person?]
[That person. I don’t dare to go into detail, you can use your intuition. I can only help you out with two reminders: short, dyed hair]
[The one who doesn’t know how to wash his own underwear.]
Lu Boyuan heard the sound of a water cup being slammed down heavily against the computer desk behind him, and he held back his laughter. “Let’s play on the domestic server today.”
The game finished updating. As soon as Lu Boyuan logged into the server, Ding-ge sent him a text telling him to turn on his video. After all, this was the first time someone on their team was streaming since they won the spring championship. The platform had invested a lot of money into marketing it, so it was hardly justifiable if he didn’t turn on his camera.
Lu Boyuan didn’t actually care either way. His cursor shifted over to the webcam software icon, but right as he was about to click on it, he suddenly moved the cursor away again.
Lu Boyuan looked behind him and called out evenly, “God Jian.”
Jian Rong had just entered a new game and couldn’t see what Lu Boyuan was doing. Because of the “God” title, it took him a few seconds to react. “…what is it?”
“Ding-ge told me to turn on my video.” Lu Boyuan’s tone of voice was the same as usual. “I don’t really know how, come help me figure it out?”
The game was still on the champion select screen, so it wasn’t really a big deal if he left; the departing player would only lose three LP.
Jian Rong unhesitatingly quit the game and got up to help Lu Boyuan adjust his video.
When Jian Rong walked over to the computer, he saw that Lu Boyuan’s barrage was filled with question marks.
He didn’t think much of it. He opened up the webcam software for Lu Boyuan, and they both appeared simultaneously on camera.
Jian Rong had bent forward to make it easier to operate the software. Lu Boyuan hadn’t moved away from him either, and at that moment, if he turned his head and leaned in a little more, he would bump against Jian Rong’s face.
They were frequently in close contact with each other these days, so they didn’t think that this distance meant much. But the spectating masses were already about to explode in a frenzy—
[Good good good!! Congrats on your marriage, may you give birth to a son soon!!!]
[The one with the dyed, short hair, do you mind leaning a bit closer to your husband? Or else there’s no way to take this marriage photo.]
[Fffff am I the only person seeing the hickeys on God Lu’s neck?!]
[I also saw it!!!]
[Son, isn’t this a little excessive? The other person washed your underwear for you, and you bit him into this state? Are you a dog?]
Jian Rong was startled for a second. Then, he immediately lowered his head and glanced at Lu Boyuan’s neck.
There were two ambiguous marks on the left side of Lu Boyuan’s neck. Never mind his neck, there were even some on his collarbones, but it was blocked by his shirt. Jian Rong could only make out a faint trace of it because of his current angle.
Yesterday night, he wasn’t able to control himself while they were kissing… and left those marks behind.
Xiao Bai, who was spying on them the entire time from the side, instantly stood up and moseyed over. “Let me see too, it isn’t very clear in the video. How come I didn’t notice it earlier…”
Before he could finish his sentence, he was nailed back into his seat by a chilly look from Jian Rong.
Jian Rong abruptly remembered something, and he frantically reached up to yank his own shirt collar up. He forcefully tugged a large part of his shirt backwards so that its wide, rounded collar concealed most of his neck.
Then, he said expressionlessly, “What the hell are you all talking about? They’re mosquito bites.”
For the sake of not hindering Jian Rong’s movements, Lu Boyuan was sprawled back leisurely in his chair. Upon hearing that, he couldn’t help but cover his mouth with his hand.
If he smiled now, he would be sabotaging his boyfriend a bit.
Actually, Jian Rong didn’t really need to hide anything. These water friends had all come to the stream today equipped with magnifying glasses, so if something truly did exist, they would’ve spotted it a long time ago already.
Lu Boyuan had anticipated this problem well in advance. From the start, he hadn’t left marks in places where other people could see them.
[WTF are you covering up for? Lift up your shirt fearlessly and let your daddies see!!]
[You didn’t freaking stream after your penta kill or the championship win, what’s the meaning of that? Did your kidneys grow weak2 after resting for two days, so you can’t stream anymore?]
[Right now, I’m rationally speculating that this dumbass went to the temple last time to seek a fated marriage.]
[Which temple was it again? I wanna pay my respects too!!]
[Dumbass darling, I PM’d you on Weibo. It’s a quality good from Taobao that Dad considered and picked out for you with the utmost care. If you put them in your shoes, you and Road will be about the same height. Remember, when we’re dating, we definitely can’t be outdone by the other person, or else you’ll be losing out!]
[How thoughtful. I watched a video of their team leaving the stage after winning the spring season. In terms of height, he is indeed aiming a bit out of his league.]
[Don’t say that, the little dumbass has his own outstanding qualities too. For example… for example… never mind, God Lu, look out for yourself. You mustn’t endure it if you become a victim of domestic violence one day, you can come tell us in SoftBar, we’ll definitely be on your side.]
Each word stabbed him in the core.
Jian Rong still ended up being provoked.
“The camera’s adjusted.” Jian Rong held up his collar like a fool as he straightened up and asked, “…can I come AFK in your stream?”
Lu Boyuan lifted an eyebrow. “It’s up to you.”
Jian Rong returned to his seat and boldly entered Lu Boyuan’s stream on his main account.
[You have time to AFK in a livestream room, but you don’t have time to actually stream? Even if you just streamed without talking, that would freaking be okay too.]
[How come I have a bad feeling about this?]
[Dumbass, it’s all Daddy’s fault that you ended up like this. I don’t have time to look after you because I’m usually so busy outside. I sent a tutorial to your Weibo that shows you how to wash your underwear, study it when you get a chance so you don’t have to trouble God Lu in the future anymore.]
[Shit—this dumbass has mod privileges! He came in to ban people! There goes my main again!!]
[…I just knew that this power-crazed dog didn’t have any good intentions!]
[Fuck everyone run away!!]
Lu Boyuan watched as his boyfriend went on a killing spree. Then, he shifted his mouse and promoted Jian Rong’s account to the highest moderator tier.
In reality, the only difference between a senior moderator and a normal moderator was that the former had the right to change the stream name. The process to do so was a bit annoying since they had to switch over to the back-end first, so there was only one senior mod per livestream room.
Lu Boyuan’s intentions were very clear: Jian Rong could ban as he pleased.
Although Jian Rong banned a lot of accounts, he was mostly going for the ones that had “Soft” in their username or were sporting badges from Jian Rong’s stream.
Jian Rong was a veteran power-crazed dog. To him and his water friends, banning and kicking were just another form of interaction; the water friends were already used to it, so they didn’t create any other disturbances because of his actions. The barrage gradually returned to normal in Lu Boyuan’s stream.
Lu Boyuan went to solo queue. As he was waiting to be matched, he continued to watch Jian Rong ban people with great intrigue and occasionally answered a few of the water friends’ questions.
“When are you going to Korea… if there aren’t any issues with the visas, it should be next week.
“Have you broken ties with XIU? I haven’t for now. He reached out to me yesterday because he wanted me to buy something for him, but I ignored it.
“Did you really sub in…” After Lu Boyuan read that question out loud, he gave a lazy laugh. “It wasn’t convenient for him to play, so I helped finish the game for him, and I didn’t accept any money for it… that doesn’t count as being a booster, right?”
The water friends realized something—even though Lu Boyuan didn’t directly acknowledge their relationship, he had never once denied it either.
Understanding instantly dawned on everyone. From the get-go, Lu Boyuan hadn’t planned on hiding anything. Perhaps he just wasn’t admitting to it fully for the sake of his team or the LPL’s management.
As a result, they deliberately made their own questions more vague and started digging even deeper—
“Did you spend your birthday with your partner yesterday… I did.
“What gift did he give you… you want to know this too? A belt.”
The mere mention of that belt was enough to make Jian Rong close his eyes. He took a gulp of his water and did his best to focus his attention back on the game.
Luckily, he was filling in as support this time, so there wasn’t too much pressure on him.
Right as Jian Rong was contemplating whether or not he should turn down the volume of Lu Boyuan’s stream a little, he heard Lu Boyuan read out quietly, “Would you help wash your partner’s underwear…”
With a thunk, he accidentally ate one of the ADC’s siege minions.
The Korean ADC player immediately stopped in place and pinged countless “?” over Jian Rong’s game character.
Lu Boyuan: “I would.”
Thunk—Jian Rong accidentally killed another one of the minions that the ADC was about to eat.
Jian Rong was too well-known in the higher tiers for his recent antics of screwing over Korean trolls. The ADC thought that Jian Rong was purposefully messing with him, so he promptly used his flash and heal before he fed and went back to the base to AFK.
Then, he angrily started chatting from the fountain: [sbLPL! sbSoft3!!!]
As luck would have it, the top laner, mid laner, and support were all Chinese players this round.
The top laner: [Did this dumbass Soft troll you? No worries, just let us know how you want to deal with him this game.]
The mid laner: [sbLCK! fwADC4!]
Jian Rong: “…”
At that moment, Ding-ge was in the office deciding what staff to take with them on their trip to Korea. He suddenly received a call from the assistant manager, who said that their mid laner and jungler were acting extremely unrestrained; the only thing left for them to do was get married in the stream.
Ding-ge shut his eyes serenely as he said lightly and slowly, “Mn, they haven’t gotten married yet, right? …that’s fine then. You don’t have to keep an eye on them anymore, I turned off the stream a long time ago.”
You two can do whatever you want. In any case, I don’t want to be alive anymore either.
- Mikael’s Crucible: an item for supports that can remove crowd control ^
- In traditional Chinese medicine, kidneys are associated with determination/willpower ^
- Sb = abbreviation for 傻逼 (sha bi) = dumbass ^
- Fw = abbreviation for 废物 (fei wu) = trash ^