Chapter 2 – Support the streamer’s take—hit the triple combo and follow!
“Huh… huh?”
Jiang Jiang blinked, completely caught off guard.
“Wait, Captain… did you take the wrong medicine or something? You seriously think that little green-haired guy looks better than your brother?”
Pei Ming shot him a calm glance.
“Take out the your brother part. Don’t say our.”
The corner of Jiang Jiang’s mouth twitched.
Internally, he had already cursed this damn brother-con at least ten times.
Pei Ming picked up his phone.
“Forward me the video.”
Jiang Jiang clicked his tongue a couple of times. He had been just about to defend the honor of this never-before-met little brother— But then Pei Ming looked at him, unblinking. Jiang Jiang struggled internally for two seconds. In the end, he obediently forwarded the clip over.
Pei Ming opened WeChat. The clip on screen was the trending snippet from Azure TV from earlier. He watched it once more.
Then he opened Azure TV and searched for: Ghost.
From the back seat, Jiang Jiang watched as Pei Ming browsed through the green-haired streamer’s profile page while continuing to ramble.
“I’m telling you, Captain, sure, this little green-haired guy has a pretty face, but his personality seriously sucks. He’s just some trash-talking streamer. Anyway, there’s no way he’s better than your brother.”
“Mm.”
Without even looking up, Pei Ming clicked on the pinned gameplay videos.
“The green-haired guy only started streaming three months ago. He’s obviously an ACR gaming streamer, but for some reason he insists on streaming in the Emotional Support Chat category.”
Jiang Jiang slapped the back of Pei Ming’s seat dramatically.
“And the title he puts on his streams is—”
Pei Ming glanced at him. As he spoke, Jiang Jiang exaggeratedly made a gagging face.
“Ugh… I’m embarrassed just saying it.”
Pei Ming opened Ghost’s livestream. There, at the top of the page, was the stream title:
<Sweet Puppy Boy Offering Shelter to Heartbroken Daddies.>
Jiang Jiang noticed Pei Ming’s expression grow noticeably colder.
“And then?”
“And then this guy used that kind of borderline clickbait title to trick a bunch of girls into joining the stream.”
Jiang Jiang paused dramatically.
“But guess what happened next?”
Pei Ming lowered his gaze slightly.
Jiang Jiang continued.
“The moment anyone in chat started calling Ghost things like baby or cutie…”
“Instant mute.”
“One-way ticket straight out of the stream.”
“Every single one kicked immediately.”
“The survivors all said that during that stream, Ghost got matched with a bunch of trolling deadweight players.”
“Didn’t matter if they were teammates or enemies—his mouth never stopped roasting people the entire match.”
Jiang Jiang slapped the seat again in frustration.
“So seriously, I don’t get it. He puts up that kind of suggestive stream title, obviously trying to attract female fans…”
“But then he kicks every single one of them out!”
“And those girls came in wanting comfort, okay? Instead he absolutely roasted them to death.”
“Their poor hearts shattered all over the floor!”
From the back seat, Ink, who had been resting with his eyes closed, slowly opened them and lazily commented—
“You could always start a stream and help piece their hearts back together.”
Jiang Jiang immediately smacked him.
“Get lost, this has nothing to do with you.”
Pei Ming said nothing more. He noticed that Ghost was still streaming. So he switched to an alternate account and entered the stream.
Because of the earlier “trash-talking Devil” incident, the stream had already climbed onto the platform’s trending page. Yet Qi Qiao was still streaming like nothing had happened.
The awards ceremony had just ended. So he had gone to make himself a bowl of instant noodles. Now he sat there eating while casually reading chat.
Ignoring the endless arguments flooding the screen— Qi Qiao noticed a few surprisingly normal questions mixed in.
“Will you have a chance to play in Season 14?”
Qi Qiao took a bite of noodles.
“First, I need to make it through the Youth Team selection.”
“After that… depends on the transfer window.”’
“So if I pass the Youth Team selection, does that mean I have to stay with Monster?”
Qi Qiao thought about it for a moment.
“Hard to say for other teams, but for Monster, it only becomes official after you pass the Youth Team selection and sign the contract.”
“Whether you stay or not is completely your own choice.”
…
After answering a few more questions, Qi Qiao suddenly noticed one comment in chat—
[“Faith’s mid-laner got poached by Europe this year, didn’t he? Ghost, have you thought about going there?”]
The movement of Qi Qiao’s chopsticks paused slightly.
His thoughts suddenly became a little chaotic.
Faith…
If not for that accident—
He might already have been one of their starting players.
[“Does the person above have no brain cells? Didn’t you see him trash-talking Devil earlier?”]
[“Exactly. And this is Faith we’re talking about—the sacred land of esports, three-time consecutive ACR World Champions. A trainee like him isn’t worthy.”]
[“Faith fans, stop stepping on people. What, are you saying Monster just recruits anyone now?”]
[“Devil hubby is ACR’s eternal god, okay? Trash-talkers can get lost!”]
Qi Qiao slowly finished the last bite of noodles. After wiping his mouth, he said calmly—
“I wasn’t trash-talking Devil. I was just stating objective facts.”
He paused briefly.
“Though… the part about him paying too much attention to the mid-laner might just be a special case.”
After saying that, Qi Qiao tossed the tissue into the instant noodle cup. As he went to throw the trash away, he casually ended the stream.
The chat was still filled with people arguing over what he had just said.
Following the principle of out of sight, out of mind—
Qi Qiao pressed the power button and shut down the computer as well.
The screen went dark.
And finally—
The world became quiet again.
This year, Qi Qiao had signed a contract with Azure TV. Originally, he was required to stream 120 hours per month.
But near the end of the year, after joining Monster’s Youth Team, he negotiated with the platform and pushed the remaining three months of required streaming hours forward.
Still—
To avoid having too many hours to make up later, he continued streaming during his days off.
After all—
Back when he had impulsively run away from home— He had genuinely been broke.
At first, Qi Qiao had never planned on showing his face on stream.
One reason he turned on the camera was because if he passed the Youth Team selection, he would eventually have to compete on stage anyway.
It was better to get used to being seen early.
But the biggest reason…
Was because— He wanted him to see it.
Qi Qiao picked up his cup and took a sip of water. Then rubbed his eyes. There was a faint, sour ache there. But it had already been so long. For some reason, irritation suddenly welled up inside him. After packing away his equipment, he headed back to sleep.
The moment he pushed open the training room door— He ran straight into an obviously furious Bang.
Bang was holding his phone.
The screen displayed the Calling… interface.
And the contact name was unmistakably— Ghost.
A chill immediately ran down Qi Qiao’s spine.
“Well, well, you little brat—looks like you’ve really gotten gutsy.”
The second Bang saw him, his mouth instantly turned into rapid-fire machine gun mode.
“Usually I let it slide when you stream and roast a few troll players…”
“But today you actually went and started trash-talking Devil? Seriously?!”
“Do you have any idea how many times the team manager has been trying to call you?”
“What, did your phone fall into the toilet and get flushed away or something?!”
Bang was Monster Team’s starting jungler and captain.
He was easygoing, outgoing, and the kind of person who liked wandering over to the Youth Team camp whenever he had free time. Because of that, everyone in the training camp got along pretty well with him. This was the first time Qi Qiao had ever seen Bang this furious.
“I… was streaming just now. I had Do Not Disturb turned on.”
As he spoke, Qi Qiao opened his phone settings and held the screen out in front of Bang.
Seeing the Do Not Disturb notification setting, Bang was momentarily at a loss for words.
Today was supposed to be a pleasant Saturday.
After finishing watching the All-Star Awards Ceremony, he had been planning to enjoy a nice nap.
But not even two seconds after putting down his phone— It started ringing nonstop.
The moment he answered, the team manager hit him with an urgent emergency call.
That was when he found out what kind of disaster their star Youth Team mid-laner had just caused.
Since it was a holiday, the team manager wasn’t at the base.
He had tried calling Qi Qiao multiple times, but none of the calls went through.
So Bang had no choice but to come directly to the Youth Team facility.
After searching around—
He finally found him in the training room.
“Alright… fine. This isn’t really about Do Not Disturb.”
Bang had been about to lose his temper.
But the moment he met the beautiful, inexperienced-looking eyes of the green-haired boy standing in front of him—
He suddenly found himself speechless again.
Ghost was only seventeen this year.
When he first arrived at the offline training camp, his entire suitcase had contained nothing except basic necessities and a few changes of clothes.
Thin.
Pale.
He had looked exactly like some kid who had run away from home. Back then, Bang had immediately felt sorry for him. He had even personally helped negotiate a higher base salary for him.
…Forget it.
No point getting angry at a pitiful kid.
After thinking it over, Bang finally softened his tone.
“Ghost… that clip of you trash-talking Devil on stream earlier made it onto Weibo’s trending page. You know that, right?”
Qi Qiao’s eyes flickered slightly.
Seeing him stay silent, Bang continued earnestly.
“Normally, I let it slide when you roast random people on stream.”
“But Devil… you know exactly what kind of status he has in the league.”
“The second words like that leave your mouth, who knows how many media accounts will jump on it and start blowing things out of proportion.”
“I wasn’t trash-talking him.”
Qi Qiao frowned slightly.
“I was only stating objective facts.”
The smile Bang had barely managed to force onto his face instantly stiffened.
Inside, he was screaming.
The hell do you mean objective facts? If this counts as objective facts, are you even leaving any room for other junglers to exist?!
But what came out of his mouth instead was—
“Fine, fine, objective facts, sure.”
“But the second you say something like that publicly, all those media accounts out there will twist your words, add fuel to the fire…”
“And before you know it, even something white can get painted black.”
Now that he had calmed down, Qi Qiao understood it himself. He knew he had handled today’s situation badly.
But back then—
Seeing so many comments flooding the chat—
He had acted on impulse.
He simply couldn’t stay rational whenever that ID was involved.
Just like— One year ago.
Bang had been about to say a few more words.
His original plan had been to calm down this little genius mid-laner first, then play the bad cop afterward.
But before he could—
Qi Qiao spoke first.
“I know I handled this badly.”
“I’ll deal with it myself.”
Originally, if media accounts started blowing this incident out of proportion, the issue would inevitably escalate into a conflict between the two teams.
The team manager had made his intentions very clear when he called Bang earlier— He wanted Ghost to apologize. But Ghost was only a Youth Team trainee on Monster’s side. He hadn’t signed an official contract yet.
Technically, what he said counted as personal behavior, which meant the team had no authority to force him to do anything.
So in the end— Whether he apologized or not depended entirely on him.
Earlier, Bang had been carefully thinking about how to phrase it tactfully.
After all, judging from Ghost’s performance throughout the Youth Team scrims—
And from watching his streams—
The kid was obviously a troublemaker.
But unexpectedly—
He agreed so quickly.
“Alright then, I won’t lecture you anymore.”
Bang quietly let out a sigh of relief inside.
“It’d be best if you apologize as soon as possible.”
“Tomorrow, maybe. Think it through first and prepare what you want to say.”
Qi Qiao didn’t say anything else. He simply nodded.
…
The next morning.
Qi Qiao had gotten up early and was now sitting blankly in front of his computer.
Last night, he had spent hours tossing and turning in bed thinking about this whole mess.
No matter how he thought about it— This situation was difficult.
If it came to trash-talking people?
No problem.
But apologizing…
Qi Qiao thought carefully about it.
Looking back on the first seventeen years of his life— That word had basically never existed for him.
So it wasn’t that he didn’t want to apologize.
He genuinely didn’t know how. But this matter no longer concerned only himself. Right now, he was part of Monster Youth Team. Every move he made could affect Monster as a whole.
And besides—
If that person saw it…
Would he really think Qi Qiao had been attacking him?
Qi Qiao irritably ran a hand through his hair.
He had just been about to open Baidu and search [How to apologize sincerely]—
When his phone suddenly rang.
The caller ID displayed: Wink.
Qi Qiao hesitated for two seconds.
Then finally answered.
“Hello? I sent you a bunch of messages last night. Why didn’t you reply?”
The person on the other end immediately started talking the second the call connected.
“Don’t tell me Monster actually punished you?”
“Wait, seriously? What kind of punishment?”
“One month salary deduction? Two months? Did they wipe out three months of pay?!”
Qi Qiao sighed helplessly.
“No.”
Wink suddenly sounded enlightened.
“Ohhh… I get it now.”
“So the punishment was forcing you to stay awake all night?”
“Your voice sounds exhausted as hell.”
Qi Qiao was already beginning to regret answering this call.
He had met Wink two months ago. Wink was also a gaming streamer on Azure TV. One year older than him, his streaming style revolved mostly around comedy.
The reason the two of them had met in the first place…
Was because when Qi Qiao first started streaming— He accidentally chose the wrong category.
For over a month, he had been streaming under the Emotional Support Chat section.
Wink had been the one who privately messaged him to point out the mistake.
And that was also when Qi Qiao finally understood—
Why the vibe in his chat had been so unbelievably weird at the beginning.
Later, the two had planned to apply together for ACR’s official Youth Training Camp.
But plans never survive reality.
That year, the league’s two biggest organizations happened to be recruiting Youth Team players at the same time. So in the end— Qi Qiao joined Monster Youth Team as a mid-laner. While Wink went to Faith Youth Team as an ADC.
Wink was the type who got familiar with people quickly, and he had plenty of friends in the esports scene. But for some reason, he especially liked pestering Qi Qiao.
And Qi Qiao, meanwhile, was famously known in the community for having a terrible temper. So Qi Qiao had always believed that, aside from being a chatterbox— Wink probably had some masochistic tendencies too.
“Why’d you suddenly stop talking? They really punished you that badly?!”
Hearing no response, Wink’s voice immediately got louder.
“Seriously, though? That’s too much, isn’t it? You only said like three sentences. That doesn’t even count as trash-talking, right? You didn’t even swear!”
“No, this kind of punishment makes zero sense. You can totally report Monster for abusive treatment. I’m telling you, you absolutely cannot just let this—”
“Enough, I said they didn’t punish me!”
Qi Qiao quickly cut him off.
“They just told me to apologize.”
Wink paused.
“Oh… so that’s what happened. You had me worried there.”
“Alright then, how are you planning to apologize?”
Qi Qiao rubbed his forehead.
After thinking for a moment—
He realized his mind was still completely blank.
“What do you think… is the right way to apologize?”
Qi Qiao asked cautiously.
The person on the other end fell silent for a few seconds.
“Hmm…”
“Well now, based on my many years of experience apologizing…”
“Sincerity. Those two words are absolutely the most important part.”
“In other words, don’t do that boring official statement nonsense.”
“Whatever you think can best express your genuine apology—just go with that.”
“Something special would be better.”
“Honestly, I don’t think plain text is very convincing. Why not record a video or something? Say a few words directly…”
Something special.
Record a video.
Qi Qiao suddenly felt like he had an idea.
…
Jiang Jiang pulled open all the curtains in the second-floor dining area of the team base.
Afternoon sunlight immediately poured across the marble floor, bringing a warm feeling to anyone who saw it.
Because of the La Niña weather phenomenon, Shanghai had entered winter unusually early this year. It had snowed for several consecutive days, and only now had the sky finally cleared.
This morning, A Kai had taken an early train back to his hometown in Zhejiang.
Rong Qing had gone out to spend time with his girlfriend.
That left only Jiang Jiang, Ink, and Pei Ming at the base.0
The housekeeper had the day off.
So the three of them had ordered takeout for lunch.
By the time Jiang Jiang reached the table—
Ink had already peeled back the plastic wrap covering the golden broth lemon pickled-pepper frog legs.
He was currently holding a bowl, picking out all the thigh meat.
“STOP!!! I’m not even at the table yet!”
Jiang Jiang shouted indignantly.
Without hesitation, he snatched away the bowl that Ink had already filled halfway.
“Fine then, I’m taking this bowl!”
Ink laughed softly. He made no attempt to stop him.
Only then did Jiang Jiang notice— There was already another full bowl sitting beside Ink.
Suspicious, he grabbed his chopsticks and stirred through the bowl he had just stolen.
The top layer was covered with frog meat.
But underneath?
Nothing but potatoes, radish slices, and enoki mushrooms.
“Greed gets you nowhere.”
Ink shook one finger at him smugly. Jiang Jiang glared at him irritably. Then he turned toward Pei Ming with a pitiful expression.
“Brother… look, Ink’s bullying me again.”
Pei Ming was busy looking at his phone.
Without lifting his head, he responded with a simple—“Mm.”
Then added casually— “Probably better if you eat less anyway. At this rate, your last two abs will disappear by tomorrow.”
Jiang Jiang nearly jumped in outrage.
“Brother, what are you talking about?!”
He instinctively felt his physique had been deeply insulted.
“It’s three abs, okay?! THREE!!!”
As he spoke, Jiang Jiang reached for the hem of his shirt, clearly about to lift it and proudly show Pei Ming the latest results of his workout routine.
Sighing helplessly, Ink pressed down on the shirt before he could. Then he tilted his chin toward Pei Ming.
“If you ate the same things Captain does, sooner or later you’d get eight-pack abs too.”
Jiang Jiang looked at the century egg and lean pork congee with lotus root fritters sitting in front of Pei Ming.
Then he looked down at his own bowl of bright yellow sour-and-spicy frog legs.
For a moment— He fell completely silent.
…Yeah.
At this rate, there was no way he’d ever get eight-pack abs in this lifetime.
Depressed, Jiang Jiang gnawed on a frog leg while opening Azure TV.
He was just about to scroll through a few videos when he suddenly noticed a new notification in his feed.
The moment he clicked it— He instantly sat upright.
“Brother!”
Excited, Jiang Jiang hurried over and sat beside Pei Ming, bowl still in hand. Pei Ming looked up at him. His fingers paused slightly in the middle of typing a message.
“What is it?”
“That little green-haired brat caved!”
Jiang Jiang pointed excitedly at his screen.
“And he even posted an apology video!”
He burst into laughter.
“Hahaha, after he roasted me before, I’d been wondering when he’d finally screw up.”
“Heh… I’ve finally lived long enough to see it happen!”
Pei Ming lowered his gaze.
On the video thumbnail was a title:
<Regarding the inappropriate remarks I made last night, I would like to apologize to pro player Devil @Faith-Devil>
He tilted his chin slightly, signaling Jiang Jiang to play it.
The video opened on Ghost’s personal Azure TV profile page.
There were a few seconds of silence.
Then the boy cleared his throat.
“On December 21st, I made inappropriate remarks during my personal livestream that may have caused trouble for pro player Devil.”
“So I’d like to offer my apology here.”
“I honestly couldn’t think of any way to make it up to Devil…”
“So I can only apologize like this.”
“I also hope my fans can help support this effort.”
As soon as he finished speaking—
The mouse cursor on screen began moving.
In the video, Ghost typed [Faith-Devil] into the search bar.
He entered the profile page.
First—
He clicked Follow.
Then he opened all three available videos one by one.
With practiced familiarity, he pressed and held the thumbs-up button beneath each video.
The screen displayed:
[Triple Support Action Successful]
(Like + Favorite + Share completed)
Ink leaned over to watch too. Seeing this, he couldn’t help frowning. Jiang Jiang was even more dumbfounded.
“He… he… he seriously…?”
Pei Ming slowly raised one finger. A silent gesture telling him to keep quiet.
Inside the video— The boy continued speaking.
“Just like this—one-click triple support and follow.”
After saying that, there were another few seconds of silence.
It seemed Ghost had suddenly remembered something.
The mouse moved again— This time hovering over the “Support Creator” button next to Following.
“Everyone…”
“If you’re able to…”
“You can also send support contributions.”
After saying that, the boy fell silent for a moment.
Then added awkwardly—
“I… don’t really have the financial means for that right now.”
“But once I have money in the future, I’ll make up for it.”
Author’s Note:
P.S. The Youth Team transfer/switching system here is entirely fictionalized by the author.
The streaming hour requirements were partially based on real references.