Xie Yao really wanted to ask if Jiang Song was electrically leaking, otherwise why would he feel so tingly and numb, spreading all the way from their fingertips to his brain as they made contact.

Xie Yao felt like he was about to pass out.

“Th-then why don’t you stay?” He pulled his hand back and rubbed his fingertips, unable to help but hide his hand behind his back. “It’s raining outside and if you don’t have a hotel to stay in, there are two rooms here.”

Xie Yao’s face had been hot all night, but he tried hard to make himself look less nervous. After all, compared to Jiang Song’s noisy and tongue-tied reasons, his words seemed flawless.

Jiang Song reached out and pressed his hand on Xie Yao’s head, and a smile appeared on his usually cold and hard face in front of others.

“Thank you, Yao Yao.”

The hotel was a suite with two rooms.

Xie Yao saw Jiang Song casually make a phone call and ask his secretary to pack his things and move here.

He couldn’t help but suspect that when Jiang Song booked the hotel, the excuse of “single rooms are all occupied” was just a pretext for this moment.

If he had been wearing his idol filter before, he would not have thought so, but since he met Jiang Song today, the other’s occasional small movements revealed his thoughts, which were very calculated.

When it was time, Xie Yao sat in front of the computer and prepared to start the live broadcast. However, the only computer was in the room where Jiang Song was staying, so when he sat down to adjust the equipment, Jiang Song was browsing his phone beside him.

Although Jiang Song was not staring at Xie Yao the whole time, his gaze occasionally drifted over, and it was very noticeable.

Xie Yao twisted on the chair and tried to suppress his embarrassment, opening the downloaded app and plugin, and logging in. When he lowered his head to manipulate his phone to connect to the computer, the camera automatically started. When Xie Yao looked up, he was scared half to death by Jiang Song’s half-back in the frame!

Fortunately, he hadn’t started the live broadcast yet. Xie Yao covered the camera in panic and turned to Jiang Song. “Brother, can you sit a little to the side?”

He pointed to the camera when Jiang Song looked over. “You’re in the shot.”

Jiang Song raised an eyebrow and, seeing Xie Yao’s nervousness, deliberately twisted the facts. “After all, I’m the former captain of SUS. It’s just that I retired, isn’t that right? Isn’t that something to be seen?”

Xie Yao suddenly felt a headache: “That’s not what I meant.”

Jiang Song saw him frown and immediately laughed twice.

“Just kidding, I won’t tease you anymore.”

He shifted his noble buttocks to a place where the camera couldn’t see and raised his chin at Xie Yao.

“Can I sit here?”

Xie Yao nodded like a chick pecking at rice: “Yes!”

As soon as he turned his head, he breathed a sigh of relief and withdrew his hand. In the screen, there was not even a corner of Jiang Song’s clothes visible. Xie Yao then started the live broadcast.

Jiang Song watched Xie Yao’s cautious appearance from behind and felt amused.

Xie Yao’s account on Shark TV had been deactivated, and only his “Cat Claw” ID and live broadcast link were displayed on his homepage and Weibo.

His fans had a high stickiness. After a whole day of fermentation, the number of followers on Cat Claw had already exceeded 700,000, although it was still not comparable to his peak of over four million, and it was only the first day.

Xie Yao thought very optimistically. Cat Claw’s platform was operated very well, with high daily traffic. Moreover, his strength was here. After the news was spread, his popularity would only increase when his fans came over.

Not to mention that Jiang Song had secretly given him a cover recommendation.

In the live broadcast room, the fans were still waiting. As soon as Xie Yao started the broadcast, the chatty fans became lively.

: Yao Yao is live!

: Good evening, Yao Yao! How’s the new platform?

: Don’t worry, Yao Yao, Cat Claw treats you well. I just saw you on the homepage’s scrolling recommendation. You can see it at a glance!

: The background behind Yao Yao doesn’t look like he’s at home. Did he go to City A?

: Hmm? The competition doesn’t start for another four days, right? Why did Yao Yao go to City A so early?

: Need I say more? Hehehe… It’s because Praise is in City A!

: I’m not going to beat around the bush with this one. Did Yao Yao meet Praise? How was it?

…

The barrage of comments flew by rapidly, and the special effects of the gifts continued to flash. Xie Yao opened the game and looked at the comments from his fans.

At first it was fine, the barrage was mostly greetings and jokes with him, but suddenly the style of the comments changed and the most frequently appearing keyword became [Praise] instead of [Yao Yao].

Xie Yao: This is terrible.

: D*mn it, I see the fans of the rumor CP dancing wildly in the barrage, and my Jiang Yao CP has gradually become unpopular…Damn it! Why did my previously popular CP become the Arctic Circle? Brother Jiang, where did you go!/Angry

: Forget it, Brother Jiang hasn’t appeared in a month…

: If Brother Jiang doesn’t come out soon, I’m going to climb the wall to debunk the rumors!/Crying

…

Several comments floated by, and Xie Yao saw many fans crying about “missing Brother Jiang”. He immediately looked nervously at Jiang Song sitting next to him.

When Jiang Song followed his gaze and looked over sharply, Xie Yao immediately turned his head as if he had been scalded.

His series of actions made fans realize that something was wrong.

: What is Yao Yao looking at?

: Something’s not right, why are you looking to the side, are you keeping a wild man in the house!

: It’s three in the morning in a hotel, what do you want to do with a wild man!

: Oh my god, do you even remember that you’re live? Won’t such stimulating content be banned!

The comments became more and more outrageous, and Xie Yao was full of question marks.

: Can’t you stop thinking nonsense?” he raised his voice, but soon lowered it again.

: What wild man, there isn’t one! If you keep talking like this, I’ll block you by level, this isn’t Shark TV.

Xie Yao blatantly threatened and intimidated his fans.

The fans switched to Cat Claw TV, where all the records had been cleared, and Jiang Song’s company had not officially cancelled Shark TV, so the data on both sides had not been merged yet.

As a result, everyone had a blank level-zero account and would be banned at any moment.

But the fans didn’t care about his threats, each one feeling extremely arrogant.

: Humph, man, do you think I’m afraid of you?

: Humph, man, do you think I’m afraid of you?

: Humph, man, do you think I’m afraid of you?

…

Gift effects flew all over the place for a while, and the level of the VIP accounts in Xie Yao’s live broadcast room began to rise from level zero.

The maximum blocking level of Cat Claw TV can only be set to level three, and fans need to spend 100 yuan in the live room to reach level three.

Xie Yao’s original intention was not to urge them to spend money, so he immediately stopped them.

“Okay, okay, you win. Don’t send any more gifts. Keep the money for food.”

Seeing that the fans were completely ignoring him, Xie Yao immediately changed the topic and answered a few previous questions.

“Cat Claw has been pretty good to me. They even arranged a good exposure page for me. It’s a conscientious platform.”

“I’ve already arrived in City A. I came early this time to play a few rounds here, but it seems like it’s been raining a lot recently, which is pretty unlucky.”

“Praise…” Xie Yao paused for a moment, and Jiang Song, who was eavesdropping next to him, looked up.

Xie Yao pretended to be calm and continued, “I did indeed meet the big shot today, and he was very nice.”

Jiang Song immediately looked at him.

The fans in the barrage also stopped misbehaving, and each one became as excited as if they had taken a stimulant.

That was Praise! Yao Yao actually really met Praise! Wow!

: Oh my god, I actually saw Praise! How was it? Is Praise really as fierce as the rumors say?

: According to the insiders at SUS, every time a hundred little cuties see Praise, they can’t even breathe.

: I heard that when Praise was still at SUS, his catchphrase was ‘useless/dog head’.

: This is enough to make anyone who hears it cry.

: I just want to ask if Yao Yao said anything wrong when facing Praise. Did he hit you?

…

The style of the barrage quickly went off track in a very peculiar way, and Xie Yao looked at their comments, but his gaze couldn’t help but drift to Jiang Song’s head.

Crew cut, single eyelid, thin lips, over 1.8 meters tall…although he was indeed handsome enough to make people envious, he looked really fierce when he didn’t smile.

Noticing Xie Yao’s subtle scrutiny, Jiang Song looked up and smiled at him.

Xie Yao quickly turned his head!

“Stop it, I’m not fierce at all. I’m very friendly and kind, a really nice person. Besides, I have a great temperament and good looks. How could someone like me get beaten up? It’s absolutely impossible. Your hearts are so dirty, how could you slander a good person like this!”

The barrage was silent for two seconds, then someone spoke up.

: Have you been kidnapped?

Xie Yao: …heh.

“Don’t ask me that. This is a gaming live stream. I’m a gaming anchor. I came here to play games for you to watch, not just to chat with you.”

Xie Yao made a few sarcastic remarks, then glanced at Jiang Song before starting to play a match without looking away.

“Tonight’s entertainment, the sexy anchor is playing jungle live.”

Xie Yao played two matches as a jungle and was really bad at it. Although he wasn’t a terrible player, he was definitely mediocre. He was having fun, but his fans weren’t happy.

After two matches, he returned to his strong position.

During the break, Jiang Song’s secretary brought his luggage over. Xie Yao secretly glanced at it and noticed that the secretary was a stunning and elegant woman, with an amazing aura of capability.

Xie Yao felt a little uneasy and quickly looked away after a couple of glances.

The secretary handed over the luggage to Jiang Song and left. Jiang Song was tidying up his toiletries nearby, speaking softly and trying not to make any noise to avoid disturbing Xie Yao.

But things didn’t go as planned. The atmosphere in the room was shattered by the sound of a WeChat call.

The phone was placed by the bed. Jiang Song had grabbed the luggage while Xie Yao was blocking the camera. He didn’t have time to think and quickly walked over to silence the phone.

But it was obviously too late.

Xie Yao unconsciously glanced at the barrage.

: Oh my god, there’s a wild man flying behind Yao Yao!

---

“Good evening.”

Jiang Song stared at the closed door and laughed, finishing the words he didn’t have time to say.

During the day, he was busy communicating with the KPL event officials about the upcoming work. The competition was about to start, and he needed to go through the procedures.

After finishing his work, he didn’t even have time to eat dinner before rushing over to the hotel.

He really wanted to see the lively little anchor in person.

But he didn’t expect to come uninvited, and it seemed to have scared the other person.

Inside the room, Xie Yao’s heart was pounding non-stop. When he leaned against the door and calmed down a bit, he felt a sense of regret that he had been so impulsive.

Brother Jiang actually came, just outside the door!

D*mn, how could he have left Brother Jiang outside, how could he be so careless!

It’s over, it’s over, it’s over. He had just gotten up from the bed, with a messy hairstyle and possibly oily face…

Why did Brother Jiang come at this time!

Xie Yao’s heart was in turmoil. On the other side of the wall, Jiang Song estimated that Xie Yao had recovered, so he touched his nose and knocked on the door again.

“Sorry, I should have let you know before I came. Did I scare you?”

At the next moment, the door quickly opened. Xie Yao stood inside, lowering his head and focusing on his toes, his ears turning red and hard to ignore.

“No, no, it was just me being impolite earlier!”

Xie Yao quickly stepped aside, leaving a gap for Jiang Song to enter. “Brother Jiang, please come in.”

After speaking, he didn’t even look at Jiang Song and turned his head to walk inside.

If it were someone else, they might have thought that Xie Yao was disrespectful and looked down on others.

But Jiang Song watched the small anchor’s stiff back, as well as the clearly urgent but still disobedient hair sticking up at the back, and he suppressed a smile with pursed lips.

After entering the room, Xie Yao couldn’t help but sneak a peek at Jiang Song.

Jiang Song followed him into the room, put down the various bags in his hands, closed the door, and then came towards Xie Yao with his things and placed them aside.

Xie Yao bounced up from the bed and quickly brought a chair from the hotel to the small table. “Brother Jiang, have a seat!”

After Jiang Song sat down, the hot water pot boiled and the water was ready. Before Jiang Song could say anything, Xie Yao ran over and poured him a cup of hot water.

The steaming cup was slowly pushed in front of Jiang Song, and Xie Yao sat down in front of him, feeling as uncomfortable as if he had a thorn on his butt.

Jiang Song’s gaze fell on Xie Yao’s hands.

When he watched the livestream, Jiang Song already knew that the small anchor had nice hands with long fingers, distinct knuckles, proportionate flesh and bones, and well-trimmed nails. Due to their whiteness, there was a faint reddish color at the tips.

Where was the impact in the screen compared to reality?

Jiang Song’s gaze moved from Xie Yao’s hands to his face. The small anchor received his gaze and immediately lowered his head, the tips of his reddened ears emerging from his hair.

Jiang Song’s heart melted at the sight.

He restrained himself and lightly touched Xie Yao’s fingertips with his hand. Before the small anchor could react in surprise, he turned his hand and pushed the cup of water towards Xie Yao.

“Why are your hands still cold in the heated room? This water is still hot, hold it to keep warm.”

Xie Yao slowly reached for the water cup next to him, holding it loosely against the cup’s edge. He let out an “Oh” sound and obediently made people’s hearts warm.

Knowing that the child had social anxiety, after a deep understanding of the situation, Jiang Song patiently started a conversation.

“Manager Chen called me this afternoon and said you didn’t bring many clothes. The temperature in a city is easy to catch a cold recently. Before you came, I bought you a few pieces.”

After he finished speaking, he gave a detailed reminder: “Don’t waste your health just because you’re young. If you really get sick, you’ll regret it.”

Upon hearing that Jiang Song spent money on himself, Xie Yao suddenly looked up and said, “This is too much.”

There were more than a dozen bags of various sizes placed beside the bed. He was only going to stay in A city for a few days. He didn’t need so many things.

Jiang Song, who had ulterior motives, just smiled and changed the subject.

“Although I reminded you to bring long johns before boarding the plane, I guessed you wouldn’t listen…”

Hearing him say that, Xie Yao hurriedly retorted, “No way!”

Jiang Song raised his eyebrows and pointed to his chin, “Then lift up your pants and let me see if you’re wearing them.”

Xie Yao was guilty and shrank his head without saying a word.

“If you’re not wearing them this time, it’s okay, I bought you two pairs, remember to wear them.” Jiang Song gave an imperative order.

Jiang Song and Xie Yao had long understood each other through the internet. They knew each other’s personalities very well.

Although Xie Yao had social anxiety, with Jiang Song’s deliberate guidance, they chatted back and forth for a long time, and his shyness dissipated.

“Haven’t eaten yet?” Jiang Song hinted at Xie Yao, looking at the slightly messy bed.

Xie Yao immediately blushed and twisted, trying to cover Jiang Song’s line of sight.

Just now, he couldn’t even tidy himself up before opening the door, let alone the unmade bed. Being seen by Jiang Song at this time made him feel extremely embarrassed.

“Not yet…”

Jiang Song pointed at the electronic control panel on the table, “The food at this hotel is pretty good. If you want anything, I can have them deliver it to us.”

He turned the screen towards Xie Yao, which listed the hotel’s specialty dishes. At a glance, many of them seemed to be specialties of A city.

Xie Yao felt overwhelmed just looking at it, and quickly turned the screen back. “Anything is fine for me. Brother Jiang, order whatever you like.”

Jiang Song didn’t insist and quickly placed the order after making his selections.

After the food arrived, Jiang Song asked, “Are you going to livestream tonight?”

Xie Yao nodded, “Yes, there’s a computer over there. I checked the specifications and they’re pretty good. The camera and microphone are both available and can support the livestream.”

Jiang Song checked the time, “What time?”

“Nine o’clock.”

“There isn’t much time left.” Jiang Song put down his phone. “It’s already past 8 o’clock after we finish eating. Have you tried out the hotel’s equipment?”

“Not yet.”

“Well, since it’ll take some time for the food to arrive, you can try it out now.” Jiang Song got up and Xie Yao followed him.

Jiang Song booked a suite at the hotel, which had a living room and two bedrooms. Only one of the bedrooms had a computer.

There was only one chair in front of the computer, so Jiang Song asked Xie Yao to sit there and download the live streaming plugin.

The hotel’s computer was very advanced and much better than Xie Yao’s old computer. After tweaking it for a while, Xie Yao got stuck on the camera.

The camera was an external device, but it was fixed in place and could only be adjusted through software for angle and filters.

Xie Yao struggled to adjust it and ended up with his forehead in the frame and half of his head out of it.

As he was thinking about it, Jiang Song suddenly leaned over from behind, bent down, and reached out his arm from Xie Yao’s neck to the front.

Xie Yao was startled and immediately withdrew his hand. His face turned red in an instant.

Jiang Song’s hand was on the mouse that was still warm, and he had a slight smile on his lips as he adjusted a few screens on the computer, fixing the angle of the camera.

“All done,” Jiang Song said, withdrawing his hand and leaving Xie Yao’s back, which still had a residual warmth.

Xie Yao looked a bit dazed, his mind full of Jiang Song’s imaginary breath, which was like perfume but not too strong.

His face was hot.

The next moment, a cold temperature was on his face.

Xie Yao was startled again, jumping up from his chair and almost falling off it.

Jiang Song stopped him and lifted him up, “Why such a big reaction?” he said with a slight smile.

It was too exciting for Xie Yao…

Xie Yao came out of his trance, but immediately withdrew back into it, and said, “Why are your hands so cold?”

He appeared calm on the surface, but in reality, he was nervous to the point that his hands were getting cold. Jiang Song remained expressionless and said, “My hands and feet are naturally cold.”

Xie Yao clicked his tongue a couple of times before dryly responding.

Adjusting a computer device shouldn’t make someone blush and their heart race like this. Xie Yao swallowed his saliva.

He wanted to reach out and cover his racing heart to prevent it from jumping out of his chest, but under Jiang Song’s gaze, Xie Yao restrained himself.

The sound of knocking at the door came at the right time and dispersed the heated atmosphere.

Jiang Song pressed his big hand on top of Xie Yao’s head and said, “It should be the room service delivering food. I’ll go check.”

“Okay.”

As the footsteps went out of the room, Xie Yao covered his hot face with his hand and lowered his head, wishing to stuff his face into his chest.

“I’m done for, I’m done for, I’m done for…”

Just seeing each other once, how could Brother Jiang’s charm be so powerful that he couldn’t resist it?

In the living room, Jiang Song loudly called out for Xie Yao to come eat. Xie Yao took a deep breath, patted his face again, and with the determination of a soldier going into battle, walked out.

“Why do you look like that?”

Jiang Song turned his head and saw Xie Yao looking as if he was ready to meet his maker, which made him cry and laugh in response.

It started to rain outside during their meal, and in just a few minutes, it grew stronger and stronger. The sound of rain hitting the window glass came through the closed windows, clear and muffled at the same time.

Xie Yao stuck his head out to look outside.

“Why is it raining?”

Jiang Song tidied up his things and called a waiter to collect them. When Xie Yao turned around, he saw that the dining table was clean and felt a little embarrassed, smiling awkwardly.

“It’s raining, would you mind if I stay here tonight?” Xie Yao turned his head suddenly, almost breaking his neck.

“You’re not leaving tonight?” Xie Yao was very nervous.

Jiang Song looked at the rain outside. “I didn’t drive here, and the rain is too heavy. Besides, my secretary made a mistake in booking the hotel, so my room has already expired today. You know it’s hard to book a hotel room lately.”

Xie Yao was sure that his heart rate had skyrocketed to 180, because he was so nervous that he almost couldn’t breathe. “I…I…”

He stammered for a while and couldn’t say anything, so he took out his phone and opened the weather forecast.

It showed that there would be heavy rain for the next two days and even snow on the day after tomorrow.

Xie Yao trembled as he opened the hotel booking app. “Um, it should still be possible to book now, let me check…”

Before he could finish speaking, a large hand covered his phone and Jiang Song took it away and locked the screen. “The only available hotels now are small ones, Yao Yao.”

Just hearing his nickname “Yao Yao” made Xie Yao feel like he had been electrocuted all over, and he stood frozen in place.

“Would Yao Yao let me go to a small hotel?” Jiang Song hooked his finger and gently shook Xie Yao’s slightly sweaty hand. “I’m very delicate.”

---

The city of A and the city of C span across half of Huaguo, one in the north and one in the south. The temperature difference between the two cities in November is also significant.

This year, the weather turned cold quickly, even in the south. In November, it was as cold as December in previous years. Xie Yao had already put on a thick coat when he was in C city. This time, when he went to A city, he brought a thick cotton jacket.

However, he didn’t have much stuff in his luggage. Besides necessary items and two pieces of clothing, he only had the trophy he won in the live-streaming competition.

The flight from C city to A city took more than two hours. By the time Xie Yao arrived, it was already past noon.

He walked to the exit carrying his luggage and unlocked his phone while walking, wanting to let Jiang Song know that he had arrived safely.

As soon as he unlocked his phone, he saw a message that he hadn’t had time to read before.

Jiang Song: “By the way, the temperature in A city has dropped a lot recently. Did you bring your long johns?”

Xie Yao: …

He pretended not to have seen it and only sent a message to Jiang Song that he had arrived in A city, then turned off the screen.

Manager Chen had already told Xie Yao that he would pick him up at the airport. They even talked on the phone before boarding the plane.

Xie Yao walked out of the airport with his luggage and was immediately chilled by the cold air from the north.

He wore a hat on his head, which covered half of his face. He only wore a hoodie with thin cotton inside, and he didn’t wear long johns.

When he lowered his head, his collar was so low that he could see half of his clavicle. Compared to the people around him wearing cotton jackets, he didn’t look like he was in the same season.

Manager Chen sent Xie Yao his location via WeChat.

Xie Yao, who was taught to be patient by the cold air, exhaled a breath into his palm and walked to the destination with a straight face.

Manager Chen had been waiting in the car for a long time, and his patience had run out. He grabbed his coat from the passenger seat, wrapped it around himself, got out of the car, and went to look for the stupid kid who hadn’t come out yet.

As soon as he got out of the car, he saw a figure in a thin coat, covered in black, and with a hat on his head, looking like a contemporary non-mainstream person who was autistic. The person was looking down and not paying attention to the road, and only half of his chin could be seen.

Manager Chen cleared his throat for a long time and finally uttered two words, “Stupid idi*t?”

Occasionally, people around looked at Xie Yao. Manager Chen quickly walked up to him and gave him a knock on the head, making a cracking sound.

“Are you trying to die by wearing so little?”

After cursing at Xie Yao for a while, Manager Chen took off his down jacket and covered it on Xie Yao. He even wanted to kick him a few times.

“Hurry up and get in the car.”

After speaking, Manager Chen rubbed his hands together and ran back to the car, ignoring the two curses from Xie Yao.

Xie Yao pursed his lips and exhaled.

As soon as he got into the car, the air conditioning turned on and the temperature instantly warmed up.

Xie Yao looked at Manager Chen, who was driving in front of him with an angry face, hesitated for a moment, and couldn’t help but defend himself, “I didn’t expect it to be so cold, so I brought thick clothes in my luggage…”

Manager Chen replied with a “hmph,” and Xie Yao shut his mouth.

The hotel was booked by Jiang Song for Xie Yao, and it was very close to the KPL competition venue. It looked very high-end and expensive.

This hotel had good business and was usually difficult to book, but with the doubled flow of people during the KPL period, rooms needed to be booked a month in advance.

After dropping off Xie Yao at the hotel, Manager Chen took out Xie Yao’s luggage from the trunk without waiting for his refusal and handed it to him.

“Let’s go.”

So Xie Yao swallowed his “I can carry it myself” and followed Manager Chen to the hotel.

After showing his ID and completing the check-in process, Xie Yao took the room key and carried his luggage with Manager Chen following behind him to the elevator.

“Did you eat on the plane?”

Xie Yao obediently answered, “No.”

Manager Chen frowned, “Do you want to become an immortal by not eating?”

Xie Yao stuttered, “No.”

“Alright, after you finish unpacking, do you want me to take you to dinner or do you want to order room service?”

Manager Chen followed Xie Yao to the door of his room, opened the door, looked around and made a sour face, “He’s generous to you. This hotel costs more than 2,000 yuan per night and we can’t afford to stay here, but during the KPL period, the room rates double.”

“How long did Jiang Song book the room for you?”

Xie Yao’s hand trembled, “…seven days.”

The air was suffocating for a moment.

Xie Yao put his suitcase away and obediently walked up to Manager Chen.

Manager Chen looked at him with a bad temper and asked, “What do you want?”

Xie Yao replied, “I want to go eat with you.”

Manager Chen sneered, but his expression improved noticeably. He patted Xie Yao on the shoulder and said, “Change your clothes first, don’t freeze to death before we even get to dinner.”

Luckily, Xie Yao had brought thick clothes and didn’t feel cold at all when he put them on. When he came out of the bathroom, Manager Chen finally looked satisfied.

“Let’s go, I’ll take you to a private kitchen.”

The SUS headquarters had been in A city for a long time, and this time it was a home game for them.

When Xie Yao was still in the youth training team, he had also lived in A city for a while.

When he followed Manager Chen into the private kitchen, the owner came over to greet them.

The owner looked about fifty years old, with a kind face and a good temper.

She walked over and looked at Xie Yao for a moment. Xie Yao also looked up and was surprised.

“Hey, you’re Xiao Xie, right?”

The owner raised her hand as if she wanted to touch Xie Yao, but then she was afraid that she had mistaken him for someone else, so she put her hand down.

She smiled and explained, “Ah, our restaurant has been open for over ten years. There used to be a little kid who looked a lot like you and used to come to my house to eat. I guess he’s grown up now and looks just like this guest.”

“If I got the wrong person, I’ll apologize to you first.”

Xiao Yao was stunned for a moment, and he pursed his lips. “Liu…Aunt Liu, I am Xiao Xie, Xie Yao.”

He paused when he called out, afraid that he had called the wrong name, but the landlady immediately smiled and replied.

“Oh, I knew I didn’t get it wrong. You look so alike…It’s been so many years, and you’ve grown up so much even when you haven’t visited.”

The landlady felt close to Xie Yao, and he smiled back.

“Okay, okay, I’m here to eat today. I won’t delay your time. Since there are no customers right now, I’ll go to the back and urge your uncle.”

The landlady took the menu from Manager Chen’s hand, turned around, and walked into the kitchen.

After they left, Manager Chen turned his head and looked at Xie Yao. “This private kitchen was a small restaurant a few years ago. The chef’s cooking skills were excellent, but it was always unlucky and couldn’t take off. Later, he met a person with a lot of money who sponsored some money, and it became a famous private kitchen.”

Xie Yao nodded.

When he was still in the youth training camp, he was still a little young master. Although he had a falling out with his family and ran away from home, he was still spoiled and had a very picky taste.

During that time, he didn’t eat very comfortably and searched for a long time before he coincidentally found this small restaurant that suited his taste. Later, he became a regular here.

He didn’t expect that this place had changed so much over the years.

“Jiang Song is busy these days, but he should be able to make time to see you in the evening.”

Manager Chen finished eating and wiped his mouth, not noticing that Xie Yao became instantly nervous after he finished speaking.

“A city will cool down in the next few days, and you brought too few clothes. It’s best to stay in the hotel when there’s nothing to do. It might snow in a few days.”

Manager Chen looked at Xie Yao, who was wearing a down jacket, and rubbed his head.

“Let’s go, I’ll take you back to the hotel. Rest well this afternoon.”

“Okay.”

The hotel had the heating on full blast, and as soon as Xie Yao entered the room, he felt himself come back to life.

He fiddled with his luggage for a moment, staring pensively at the two cotton jackets inside. Although the jackets were not cold to wear, they could hardly be considered warm, and given that his pants were only a thin layer, as soon as he stepped outside, the cold wind would blow into his pants and chill him to the bone.

Xie Yao opened his phone and browsed Taobao for a while, but ultimately didn’t make any orders.

“Forget it, by the time the package arrives, I’ll probably be able to go home.”

Finally, he took a hot shower, climbed into the warm bed, and sent a message to Jiang Song only a few seconds before he fell asleep, just as the drowsiness was setting in.

On Weibo, there was a lively discussion about SharkTV for half a day, but the heat disappeared quickly and was soon replaced by news of the KPL finals flooding the screen.

SUS and YQ lived up to everyone’s expectations and made it to the finals. The two teams were very close, and the players often hung out and joked around with each other, so they were recognized as brother teams by the fans.

This time, as they competed for the championship, there wasn’t much tension between the fans, and even when they threw trash talk at each other, it was filled with friendliness.

Xie Yao won the championship of the live streaming competition, and after the game, he would participate in the championship team’s exhibition match, which was a good opportunity for him to ride the wave of popularity. Quite a few people came to check him out, and after seeing his photos on Weibo, they quietly followed him.

Oh my god, the last handsome guy who played King of Glory that they knew was SUS’s former captain Jiang Song, and this little broadcaster was also too good-looking!

Xie Yao had posted his recent schedule on Weibo, and the fans knew that he was in A City, but he hadn’t asked for leave from Cat Claw, and a group of people were waiting eagerly in the comments, asking if he would be streaming while in A City.

Meanwhile, the person they were discussing was sleeping soundly in his hotel bed.

The weather in A City had been particularly unstable lately due to the influence of cold air currents, and the weather forecast was not very accurate.

Xie Yao slept until after seven o’clock. When he woke up, it was already dark outside, and he had an unread message on his phone.

Xie Yao rubbed his bleary eyes and swiped open the screen, the light shining on his face. It was a message from Jiang Song over an hour ago.

Jiang Song: “Are you awake?”

Xie Yao woke up and put on his jacket, rubbing his eyes before going to the bathroom.

As he came out, someone knocked on the door. After 7 pm, the hotel would deliver dinner to his room, so Xie Yao thought it might be that and went to open the door.

As soon as he opened it, he saw a familiar figure.

Looking up, Xie Yao met a pair of smiling eyes. The owner of the eyes was incredibly good-looking. With just one glance at his face, one would think, “Wow, he’s so handsome!” He had a straight nose, thin lips, and a slightly longer crew cut on the top.

“Good evening…”

Bang!

Xie Yao’s pupils trembled. Before he could react, the door was closed with a bang, leaving only the shadow of his hair standing on end.

Thump, thump… his heart was beating wildly.

---

1.53 million, of which 1.1 million was contributed by several professional players. This is already the peak since Xie Yao started live streaming.

Xie Yao checked the balance of the platform and withdrew over 700,000 yuan, then turned to Jiang Song.

Gad: “Brother, did you invite YQ and SUS here?”

He sent over the details of today’s income.

“This is too much money.”

Jiang Song responded quickly, even though it was late at night.

Jiang Song: “Don’t worry, they have money.”

Jiang Song didn’t want to tell Xie Yao that he would reimburse those few people, but he didn’t expect the kid to take it so seriously.

“No, everyone’s goodwill is already known, but there’s no need to spend so much. Nobody’s money comes from nowhere. I’ll return that part to everyone tomorrow. Can you help me with that, brother?”

Jiang Song said no, but when he saw Xie Yao insisting, he had no choice but to say that the money was all from him.

Xie Yao was silent for a moment, feeling a sudden pain in his heart.

“1.1 million, the platform takes half, so they’ll get 550,000. It’s too much of a loss.”

“Too much of a loss!” Xie Yao repeated in pain.

Jiang Song hesitated for a moment, then threw a bombshell at him.

Jiang Song: “It’s okay, I’ve acquired Shark TV. The money is in our own pockets, so there’s no loss.”

Xie Yao: …

What the f*ck!

Gad: “Brother, you didn’t lie to me, did you?”

Jiang Song looked amused: “I didn’t lie to you. Their company was already in big trouble. The top management was no different from parasites, the new boss couldn’t run the company, and the lower-level managers persecuted employees and formed cliques. The company was already on the brink of collapse. Later, the Cat Claws appeared and they went through a wave of big anchor contract terminations, which further damaged their morale.”

Jiang Song had been working on this for a while, but only recently had he finalized the acquisition. In a few days, he would send someone to negotiate the contract and finalize everything.

Jiang Song explained everything, and his attitude and words didn’t seem fake at all. It took Xie Yao a long time to digest this difficult news.

In the end, he could only describe his feelings with one phrase: “Wow.”

However, Xie Yao only said this in his heart. He couldn’t say it out loud to Jiang Song.

Gad: “You’re really amazing.”

Although Xie Yao’s concerns were alleviated, he also had other worries.

Gad: “Brother, I was planning to terminate my contract with SharkTV and expose some of the company’s internal disgusting practices on Weibo to get revenge on their frequent small actions. But I didn’t expect you to acquire SharkTV.”

Although Xie Yao didn’t say it out loud, Jiang Song could still understand what he was thinking.

Jiang Song said confidently, “Don’t worry about it. Do whatever you want.”

Gad: “But won’t this have an impact on your company?”

Jiang Song replied, “Not really, but you can tell me in advance what you plan to expose, and I’ll have someone deal with these parasites in advance. The acquisition was only for some anchors and technology in SharkTV. I don’t plan to keep their app, so it won’t matter even if you expose them.”

Xie Yao breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Okay, thank you, brother.”

With only one week left until the finals, Xie Yao and SharkTV tore their faces apart, and things became increasingly intense.

Thanks to Jiang Song’s acquisition of SharkTV, they only managed to trip Xie Yao once before Jiang Song warned them.

At first, Langyue Xingshu had enough energy to be sarcastic in the live broadcast room and incite fans to go to Xie Yao’s live broadcast room or even Weibo to cause trouble. However, after receiving SharkTV’s notice of non-renewal, he became panicked.

SharkTV underwent major personnel changes, and the core team and some selected employees had already begun to hand over their work and prepare to move to the new headquarters.

Not only Langyue Xingshu, but other anchors also received notices that their contracts would be terminated at the end of their term, and some even received termination and lawyer letters.

Once Langyue Xingshu’s supporters fell from grace, they faced arbitration due to embezzlement and were too busy with their own affairs to help him.

As the competition progressed, the rules were corrected, and Langyue Xingshu, who had lost his backing, was no longer able to live up to his reputation.

Coupled with his mental breakdown and severe decline in skills, on the last day of the competition, he even unexpectedly failed to make it into the top seven when the points were settled.

Xie Yao won the championship of this thrilling competition.

The host announced…

: After winning the championship, can Yao Yao go to the live exhibition match in City A and meet Praise?

: Yes, KPL officially invited Praise today!

: Meeting the male god!!

Since this competition was held online, the trophy was not presented to the champions on-site. A staff member contacted Xie Yao privately to confirm his address.

Originally, Xie Yao planned to directly fill in Jiang Song’s contact information, but he thought it would be better to personally deliver such a meaningful item, and he just happened to see a fan’s message in the barrage.

After checking the official announcement on Weibo, Xie Yao changed back to his own address.

: But I recently heard that there seems to be some problems within the Shark TV network, will it affect Yao Yao? After all, the champion will sign a contract with Shark TV.

: Yes, my friend told me that several big anchors on Shark TV have been terminated!

: Did it go bankrupt? No way!

As soon as this topic was raised, the barrage began to discuss it.

After messaging Jiang Song for a while, Xie Yao put down his phone and announced to the fans in the live broadcast room, “Winning the championship only qualifies us to sign an A-level contract with the platform. It’s not mandatory to sign with Shark TV. In fact, our contract will expire in just over ten days, and I won’t be renewing with Shark TV.”

: Huh? You’re not renewing, so where is Yao Yao planning to go?

Xie Yao smiled, “Still observing, I’ll tell you later.”

Although he had already decided to sign with Cat Claw, he still had over ten days left on his contract, so he could wait until the time was right.

During the competition, after deducting the platform’s share, Xie Yao received a total of 2.87 million yuan in tips, plus the 1 million yuan championship prize money that was soon deposited into his account. He now had over 3 million yuan in his hands.

Xie Yao stared at this number, and his heart thumped. He immediately opened the banking app and transferred 2 million yuan to an account, then lay on the bed in a daze, staring at the balance.

The Xie family was wealthy in the past, but they were not ostentatious. Unlike most wealthy people who would choose affluent areas or villas, the Xie family lived in an old house in the suburbs with a sense of history.

After the Xie family went bankrupt, the house was sold for 4.5 million yuan. The one who bought it was Zhou Tian’s mother. Over the years, she had asked people to clean it up, and Xie Yao would pay her regularly every month to redeem the ancestral home from her.

Although Zhou Tian’s mother had said at the time of the purchase that Xie Yao did not need to repay her, he still insisted. This time, after the live broadcast competition, he finally had enough money to pay off all the debts and even had some leftover.

When Zhou’s mother received the money, she immediately called Xie Yao and asked about his well-being. She was pleased to hear that he was doing well and told him that the property certificate would be sent to him tomorrow.

It was only then that Xie Yao realized that the ancestral home had been in his name since the beginning.

“Yao Yao, it’s been so long since the incident. If your parents were still here, they would have wanted you to move on and live the life you want…”

“You can think that way, it’s good.”

After announcing the champion of the live streaming competition, the hype gradually died down. Xie Yao’s Weibo followers experienced a surge, reaching 700,000 before slowing down. This calm continued until one month before the KPL Finals.

First, Cat Claw TV officially announced the acquisition of SharkTV, listing a long list of anchors and executive staff who would no longer cooperate with them. They also announced that SharkTV’s data would be migrated to Cat Claw TV and that SharkTV would be permanently removed from the platform.

Before SharkTV’s users and the fans of the terminated anchors could react, Xie Yao immediately posted all the revelations on Weibo. He had collected evidence against some people during his time at SharkTV, and this evidence was clear and pointed, revealing the truth at a glance.

When Xie Yao posted on Weibo, he also mentioned several relevant entertainment industry influencers. After they reposted it, the situation escalated rapidly, even alarming the cyber police.

Some people immediately discovered that Xie Yao had hammered the same people on the list posted by Cat ClawTV. Before they could investigate, both sides posted on Weibo again.

[@Cat Claw TV: Welcome the famous anchor Yao Yao Prince @gad to join Cat Claw TV and become a member of our team~]

[@gad: Repost/ Let me introduce my new boss to everyone.]

: Yao Yao has signed with Cat Claw TV too. I’m so happy that my favorite anchors are all at Cat Claw TV!

: Cat ClawTV really is rich and powerful!

: Congratulations to Yao Yao for signing with a new platform. Let’s celebrate!”

…

Xie Yao became a hot topic online, even climbing onto the tail of the hot search rankings. His popularity was not much lower than that of some minor celebrities.

His fans were being playful and whiny on Weibo, while Xie Yao, wearing a black outfit and a duckbill cap, sat alone in a taxi on his way to the airport.

As WeChat refreshed, messages kept popping up, including friend requests, but Xie Yao ignored them all.

Jiang Song: “Have you left yet?”

Xie Yao buried his head, with the brim of his cap covering half of his face mask.

Gad: “I’m almost at the airport.”

Jiang Song: “Alright, be safe and remember to give me a call when you get there.”

Gad: “Okay.”

Jiang Song: “It’s a shame that I have something tonight and can’t come to pick you up. I’ll send Manager Chen instead.”

The corners of Xie Yao’s mouth curled up under his cap.

“There’s no hurry. We’ll see each other eventually.”

---

[SUS Yi Bai gives the anchor 10 spaceships for free!]

[SUS…10 spaceships!]

…

[YQ Ju Ye gives the anchor 10 spaceships for free!]

: YQ didn’t work…

…

The barrage of comments that were originally cursed by Xie Yao were all covered up by this series of spaceship special effects. However, compared to the dazzling special effects, the several IDs floating across the barrage were almost jaw-dropping.

SUS and YQ, the two most popular teams to win the KPL championship this season, actually appeared in this anchor’s live broadcast room??

D*mn!

The barrage went crazy again.

: 1234…D*mn, SUS and YQ are both here, plus a Praise, it’s only been two minutes since the broadcast started, and it’s already 1.1 million…I’m dizzy!

: Husband!!!

: Ju Ye! You actually used the money I gave you for your birthday to support a wild man!!!

: I bet one yuan that these masters were all called by Praise.

: Money, it’s all money, sob sob sob, my jealousy is about to overflow.

: Breaking news–Xie Yao’s tipping ranking has topped the list, directly surpassing the next-door dog with 590,000! Two minutes!!!

: Yao Yao, take a look at the barrage and see these big shots who are giving you money/heartbroken!

…

With one SUS plus one YQ, they formed a king bomb directly, and the number of online viewers in Xie Yao’s live broadcast room is rising at a terrifying speed, almost in tens of thousands.

But after Xie Yao entered the game, he didn’t pay attention to the live broadcast room anymore. He didn’t notice the crazy state of the barrage at all.

After the people from SUS and YQ smashed the gifts and sent Xie Yao’s tipping ranking to the top, they didn’t leave, but instead stayed in with their large accounts, and several IDs were hung high on the tipping list in the live broadcast room, very eye-catching.

: D*mn, are these big shots going to squat and watch the game?

: Oh my god, why did the pressure suddenly skyrocket…

: Yao Yao, come on!!!

: Do I feel like the only one who thinks that the experts can tell who’s bad without even watching the entire livestream?

: That’s the car crash scene of the experts’ gaze, hahaha.

Jiang Song was also a bit surprised. He called these people to bring some attention to Xie Yao, but he didn’t expect them to continue staying in the livestream.

Today, both teams rarely gave them a break, and Jiang Song wanted them to relax and have fun, not be stuck in the livestream.

River: “Just finish sending gifts, and don’t you guys want to go out and hang out?”

YQ Ju Ye: “Ah, I already hung out on my birthday. Everyone was planning to just stay in the base and be dead bodies, so watching Brother Jiang’s friend’s livestream is also considered relaxing.”

YQ Da Buliu: “Exactly!”

SUS silently watched without saying anything.

Jiang Song laughed and followed them.

River: “Okay, then if you have time, help me watch the livestream. If the second place overtakes my little streamer, then I’ll buy more gifts and reimburse you.”

YQ Ju Ye: “Alright, brother!”

He laid down some tough talk at the start. Xie Yao was now directly opposed to Langyue Xingshu and even Shark TV, but he wasn’t afraid. After all, his contract was about to expire, and he could go to Jiang ge holding the trophy.

But by doing so, they might become a hindrance for him in the following days. Xie Yao wanted to win this championship, which might not be easy now.

Sigh.

Xie Yao breathed a sigh of relief and stopped thinking about these things, focusing on the game.

Finally, they matched with Langyue Xingshu.

This guy, who took the back door like Xie Yao, was also a mid laner. He had a handsome face and strong skills, and had always been praised by fans as the number one mid laner on Shark TV, with multiple mage champions, and more than five times the number of platform fans as Xie Yao.

There were already many trolls and critics in Xie Yao’s livestream, but the two of them had never had any interaction before.

But now, they had a bone to pick.

In this match, Xie Yao and ten other main broadcasters were split into two teams, with him being on one side. Both sides were evenly matched in terms of skill.

No one on his team was fighting for the same lane as him, so he confidently picked Diao Chan and headed to the mid lane.

Diao Chan, as a mage, has a strong mechanism. Despite being nerfed before, as long as there is good control, she is very powerful in any version.

This hero’s passive requires stacking skills. The first skill can stack two layers, the second skill one layer, and the third skill one layer. Once three layers are stacked, she will explode and deal damage.

Therefore, team fights are her battlefield.

Xie Yao’s playing style was known for its flexibility during his time at the SUS youth training camp. He had great perception, fast reflexes, and was adept at using heroes of this type.

A female hero in a pink dress gracefully arrived at the middle lane. This time, Xie Yao did not adopt any flanking tactics and boldly stood in the center, using his skills to clear minions, completely fearless.

He didn’t read the barrage of messages, but his mouth curved upwards. “I’m afraid someone will say that your father only takes heads by being sneaky. This time, I’ll stand here and see if you dare to face me head-on.”

During the official competition stage, most anchors would watch game videos or live streams of other players and privately analyze and practice, much like the replay analysis of professional teams.

Langyue Xingshu knew Xie Yao’s strength, which was why he worked privately to create the previous “King without a King” situation.

If the two had encountered each other more often before, the so-called “King without a King” would naturally be broken. Whether or not someone can enter the top three now is still a question.

No matter how they operate, Xie Yao and Langyue Xingshu will eventually face each other. If it goes on for too long, fans are not stupid and will eventually notice the problem.

But Langyue Xingshu clearly feared Xie Yao.

Xie Yao’s live broadcast room was muted, and fans from different sides had nowhere to vent their anger and returned to their respective rooms with pent-up rage.

Langyue Xingshu’s fans exploded one by one after hearing Xie Yao’s words, clamoring for the anchor to strike back at the barrage on the other side, and the number of messages increased rapidly, flooding the entire live broadcast room.

Langyue Xingshu controlled his game character carefully, avoiding the opposing mage and using his skills to clear minions.

He took a quick glance at the barrage and his face turned unnatural.

“Early game economy is not good, and we can’t kill each other. It’s better not to start a fight.”

Xie Yao’s Diao Chan stood in the middle lane, clearing minions and fighting crabs when needed. Along the way, he also mediated a dispute on the top lane, and at level three, he and the top laner ganged up on the opposing top laner, causing them to die.

But at a critical moment, Xie Yao took a step back, didn’t use his skills, and the kill was taken by the opposing top laner.

Although he didn’t read the barrage, Xie Yao could guess what it was saying.

He explained with a smile, “Let’s make this game a clean sweep.”

The barrage didn’t understand, and they asked question marks one after another, but they didn’t wait for the anchor’s explanation.

It was rare for the few professional players who were on vacation to chat lively in a small group, and just from Xie Yao’s words, Jiang Song guessed more than a dozen things, the more he guessed, the more ridiculous it became.

Jiang Song opened the chat records and after reading for a while, he couldn’t stand it anymore.

Jiang Song: “He probably wants to take down the opponent’s mid laner this game.”

As soon as Jiang Song spoke, everyone fell silent.

In the game, even though Langyue Xingshu had been pretending not to deliberately engage with Xie Yao, after a while, both mid laners had reached level 6, each team had taken one kill, and they still hadn’t even touched each other, which was very strange.

Langyue Xingshu’s fans had been cursing Xie Yao in the live broadcast room for a long time, just as they were getting into it, a fight finally broke out in the middle lane.

Xie Yao didn’t expect the other side to be so timid, with no patience after level 6, and he couldn’t help but disdainfully “tsk” after clearing the wave.

Langyue Xingshu controlled Ignis, circled around from the grass to the tower, the wave was about to enter the tower, and he saw the other side’s Diaochan clearing the wave and turning directly down the lane without hesitation.

At this moment, the opponent’s ADC was being entangled by their jungle and support on the bottom lane, and his health bar suddenly dropped by a large chunk, and Diaochan rushed over to save him.

Ignis came out of the tower to clear the wave, hitting it with his fan, the artillery walked two steps away unsteadily, and Langyue Xingshu approached.

He hadn’t even used his skills yet when someone suddenly popped out of the grass.

The pink skill effect exploded on Ignis, and Langyue Xingshu quickly counterattacked, but his skills were all dodged by Diaochan.

The next second, the passive was stacked and exploded, and Ignis died.

[You have slain an enemy!]

Xie Yao put down his phone and rubbed his neck, “I can’t wait, let’s just take this kill first.”

On the other side, Langyue Xingshu looked at the gray game interface, and his face immediately turned black, but he still cared about the live broadcast and smiled at the barrage, “I was careless, didn’t expect the other side to ambush me in the grass.”

No matter how he tried to save face, being killed was something that had only happened zero times or countless times.

Langyue Xingshu was killed, and he was also holding a grudge in his heart, feeling embarrassed, and the rhythm behind him became chaotic as a result.

But Xie Yao’s rhythm was getting faster and faster.

Several team fights broke out in the game, and Diao Chan seemed to not consider herself as a squishy mage, always active in the crowd, hopping around with her skills, and even ignoring the opponent’s defensive towers.

In just fifteen minutes, the opponent’s defensive towers had lost four, accumulated thirteen kills, and Diao Chan had six kills and seven assists.

All six kills were given by Langyue Xingshu.

: F*ck, this is awesome, what the hell is this operation?

: Not picking Mai Shiranui and letting her teammates take the lead, as soon as they see Mai Shiranui, they immediately use their skills on her… I think I understand what a “flush” means now…

: I can only say one thing, this expert really knows how to play, orz!

: Okay, I’ll start a game with Diao Chan right away. See you in six minutes, friends/waves.

: Yao Yao is amazing, sending a meteor shower to the streamer Langyue Xingshu.

…

In this game, Xie Yao won without any suspense. The score was 19:3, and Langyue Xingshu alone gave up half of the points. His rating was 3.2, and everyone in the live broadcast room exclaimed that it was exciting.

The barrage of gifts and effects was dazzling. Xie Yao took a sip of water and turned to match the next game.

Xie Yao won all the way through the night. He matched with Langyue Xingshu twice in the middle, once as a teammate and once as an opponent.

Xie Yao brought Langyue Xingshu to increase his ranking, and both sets of fans were so angry that they were about to die. In the next game, Xie Yao took advantage of the situation and rubbed Langyue Xingshu on the ground, which was very exciting.

After the midnight match, Xie Yao ranked first in points for the day, and he was still at the top of the reward list. His comprehensive points were 34 points higher than the second place.

But Langyue Xingshu fell to third place, and the second place streamer had extremely good luck tonight. He was matched with Xie Yao almost every time and was so happy to be carried all the way to second place from fourth.

After the match, Xie Yao realized that several professional players from YQ and SUS were also in his live broadcast room. He immediately went to check the reward list and was shocked to find that he received 1.53 million in rewards tonight!

---

During non-competition periods, the operation of broadcasting for Langyue Xingshu may not be considered glamorous, but perhaps he is highly regarded by his small group of anchors, and subsequently, several other anchors in the finals follow suit.

The law does not blame the masses, as when many people do this, it is natural that they cannot be blamed.

During the day, Xie Yao ate and rested as usual and took a rare walk along the riverbank. However, his little cat, who was less active than him, was even more disappointing. It took only two steps before meowing and asking Xie Yao to carry it.

Xie Yao was annoyed and didn’t even reach the daily goal of 3,000 steps on WeChat. He carried the cat back to the neighborhood.

After returning home, the little cat, who had just acted like it had a broken leg in Xie Yao’s arms, immediately became lively and wandered around the house, finally burying its head and eating at its food bowl.

Xie Yao took a picture of the cat’s butt and turned it into an emoticon of the cat eating and sent it to Jiang Song. Without waiting for Jiang Song’s reply, he laughed and fell onto the bed.

Jiang Song was busy today, so much so that he could only occasionally reply to Xie Yao’s messages. But whenever he had time to reply, he always carefully read Xie Yao’s messages and replied to each one.

Looking back at their chat history, each of Xie Yao’s messages corresponded to Jiang Song’s responses.

Although they didn’t chat as frequently as they used to today, Xie Yao didn’t feel ignored.

Xie Yao also told Jiang Song about Langyue Xingshu and the other anchors.

Jiang Song reassured him not to worry and that he would handle it, although he didn’t give any details.

However, just looking at Jiang Song’s words made Xie Yao’s uneasiness disappear immediately.

Before the competition began in the evening, Xie Yao fed the little cat and dutifully cleaned the used litter, replacing it with fresh litter. Meanwhile, his phone kept ringing with WeChat notifications.

After finishing his tasks, he leisurely unlocked his phone and opened the unread messages. The WeChat list showed 37 unread messages, two of which were from a marketing account, and the other 35 were all from Zhou Tian’s angry messages.

Son: “Can you believe that Langyue Xingshu has been livestreaming all day today?”

Son: “I just can’t understand how someone can be so shameless.”

Son: “I mean, what about those other streamers who were also affected by the ‘glitch’ yesterday? Do they have PTSD now?”

Son: “Did Langyue Xingshu pay them off?”

Son: “Hey, what’s going on? I’m here defending you and you’re not even bringing back any news??”

Son: “Frustrated.jpg”

Xie Yao didn’t tell Zhou Tian that Jiang Song could solve the problem, which led to him spending the whole afternoon shopping, eating, and walking his cat around. Zhou Tian bombarded him with messages on WeChat.

Xie Yao had known Zhou Tian for a long time and knew that he was easily agitated. Whenever he bombarded him with messages like this, he couldn’t listen to reason. So Xie Yao decided to wait until he was done venting before replying.

Gad: “I don’t know if the platform gave them any benefits, but Langyue Xingshu has a powerful background. Even if those streamers knew that he was behind yesterday’s incident, they didn’t have the courage to confront him.”

Gad: “Since they can’t confront him, why not just go along with him? This way, they can gain favor with him, let fans donate gifts earlier, and it’s not like it has no benefits.”

Zhou Tian immediately replied, “F*ck!” It was clear that he was really angry.

After a day of cursing, Xie Yao chatted with him for a few minutes and then opened the livestream ten minutes early.

As usual, fans were waiting for Xie Yao to start the livestream. However, today was different. In the past, there were only a few thousand people in the livestream room, but today, the number of online viewers reached 60,000 when Xie Yao started the livestream.

“Good evening, I’m the streamer Yao Yao.”

Xie Yao waved his hand twice in front of the camera and greeted his fans.

Today’s barrage was a bit chaotic. When he looked at it, several messages interacting with him were quickly buried by other messages, and all he could see was a flood of insults.

Xie Yao frowned, didn’t speak immediately, and stared at the barrage for a while. After figuring out what was going on, he smiled.

: Ew, can all the BL streamers just die?

: Is the praise function useful? Please, streamer, don’t pollute the gaming community.

: I’m laughing so hard. Fans are hyping him up so much, but he’s only second place. I don’t know what this streamer is trying to prove every day.

: What second place? I’m laughing. He only managed to get high scores by playing with noobs who ranked in the top ten. Does he even deserve second place with such a huge skill gap?

: If he doesn’t sell BL, can he even survive?

: What’s wrong with these people? They just come here to spread hate for no reason?

: Wow, even the fans of a trash streamer have no manners. They come in here and just start insulting people.

…

Langyue Xingshu livestreamed for the whole day, and it wasn’t for nothing. Besides securing a top spot on the donation leaderboard before the competition, it also attracted a lot of hate towards Xie Yao.

Xie Yao did not expect that this anchor would take the “green tea” route. During the day, when he was live streaming, he seemed to be advising his fans not to say or do anything wrong. But when his fans mentioned Xie Yao, they made all kinds of insinuations and sarcastic comments, casually blaming Xie Yao for things he did not do.

Selling rotten goods, fixing fake matches, riding on popularity, and pretending to be someone else… anything that could be fabricated out of thin air was brought up. Fans are easily influenced by their idols, and even unintentional actions can cause an online uproar, let alone intentional ones. Xie Yao’s live streaming room was flooded because of this.

In fact, Xie Yao’s fans had already clashed with these haters before he went live, but the haters came back when Xie Yao started streaming. Zhou Tian, who had been watching Xie Yao’s live stream recently, also saw the haters in his live streaming room and screamed in anger on WeChat.

The barrage of comments made it hard to tell who was on Xie Yao’s side, but Xie Yao remained expressionless and simply enabled the [level blocking] function in his live streaming room, banning anyone with a VIP level below three.

Once the function was activated, the haters disappeared instantly. If it were any other time, these haters, who would rather smash gifts and level up by attacking the anchor, would keep on harassing him. But this was during a competition.

Every penny sent in Xie Yao’s live streaming room would be counted towards his total donations, and once the donation amount reached a certain level, he would receive bonus points.

The people causing trouble in Xie Yao’s live streaming room were mostly fans of other anchors who had heard about the “scandals” here and came to join in the attack. They would enter the room with their main accounts and start cursing at Xie Yao, and their fan badges with special effects could be seen on their home pages.

During the competition, Xie Yao’s opponents would definitely not send him any money.

Xie Yao’s live streaming room immediately became much more peaceful.

Five minutes before the start of the competition, Zhou Tian’s anger began to boil over again on WeChat, and even the fans’ words of comfort for Xie Yao in the barrage were full of anger from the previous fights.

Xie Yao rubbed his fingers against each other and smiled at the camera.

Before turning on the camera, Xie Yao’s facial expression wasn’t very vivid, even when he was joking and insulting people with a smile.

But after turning on the camera, he became even more poker-faced, and even started speaking less.

Fans haven’t seen Xie Yao laugh so much in a long time, and for a moment, the screen was filled with chicken noises, screen licking, and mom fans calling him their husband.

Xie Yao tapped the table in front of the camera, his index finger making a clear sound as it hit the surface.

“Did you come here to cause trouble with your fans just because they have more fans than me? Do you think I’ll just swallow my pride like other streamers and let this go?”

“Or do you think that if I really fight back, you’ll just use it as a handle to continue fabricating other dirt on me?” Xie Yao stared at the barrage, leaning lightly on the back of his chair, his eyebrows raised, and his face full of aggression.

The fans in the live stream were silent for half a second, then began to exclaim. “Help! We’ve been cursed!”

With only a few days left in his contract with SharkTV, Xie Yao was already a rebellious person. He had to swallow his pride for his livelihood, but when someone came to him looking for trouble at the last minute, why should he continue to swallow it?

“You’re angry that you’ve been banned from talking, aren’t you? Ha!” Xie Yao laughed again.

“Selling gay stuff? Your dad is openly gay, if you want to see that kind of stuff, go watch the top of your screen licker list.”

“Praise is happy to let your dad ride on his popularity. If you’re jealous, go to the hospital and wait in line for your red-eye disease.”

“As for the second──” Xie Yao looked up at the barrage, his gaze as if he were looking at someone through the screen.

“I pray that your main screen licker can match up with my dad tonight and see what it really means to be number one.” Xie Yao didn’t bother to hide his declaration of war, and the barrage went crazy.

: Oh my god, Yao Yao is killing me!

: Too cursed, I’m about to faint!

: Screw them, let’s just kill these idi*ts tonight and show them what it really means to be a big spender!

: I’ve never liked these streamers who climb to the top through dirty tricks. Finally, someone is standing up to them, let’s kill them!

: I don’t know if anyone else is enjoying this, but I definitely am!

…

The time jumped to 59 minutes, and Xie Yao sat up straight, picking up the phone he used for the competition next to him, and putting his index finger to his lips.

“Shh, the competition is starting.”

The live broadcast screen entered the countdown. In the next moment, the game interface changed and twenty streamers entered the competition.

Xie Yao clicked on the match button.

Jiang Song had been busy all day, but he compressed his work to free up his evening and opened Xie Yao’s live broadcast room on time.

As soon as he entered, he saw the small streamer smiling and announcing the start of the competition, causing Jiang Song’s heart to race.

Xie Yao entered the game, and Jiang Song took a glance.

Finally, in this match, he was matched with Langyue Xingshu.

The barrage was rolling by at an extremely fast speed, and fans were calling for Xie Yao to bloodily kill the opponents.

Xie Yao locked onto Diao Chan, and the dancing girl in a pink dress spun around on the screen, “Do you want to appreciate my dance?”

Xie Yao typed a message in the public chat.

“Don’t worry about the mid lane, the other side will die on their own.”

Jiang Song held the mouse in his hand, the cursor hovering over the gift interface, while his phone on the table displayed a group chat on WeChat.

A message notification sounded.

YQ Ju Ye: Brother Jiang, we’re ready!

YQ Bu Ling: Wuhu, the funds have arrived.

YQ Xiao Bu: Everyone is here.

YQ Da Bu Liu: Charge!

YQ Song Song: +1

The mouse moved, and Jiang Song’s index finger clicked.

[Praise gives the streamer a spaceship x10!]

---

Jiang Song was troubled by his unconventional father and rubbed his forehead when he answered the phone. “Sorry, I went out for something just now and forgot my phone.”

His voice came through the receiver and caught Xie Yao off guard, making his ears tingle.

He had thought nobody would answer the call this time and was about to hang up. Xie Yao opened his mouth slightly, then moved the phone away and pinched his hot ear.

…That voice was too powerful.

He thought expressionlessly, then turned his back to the camera and spoke to the phone, “It’s okay, I just didn’t see you in the live stream earlier and wanted to let you know… I won.”

The little boy tried to sound casual and nonchalant, every syllable like he was saying it was just a trivial matter. But when he said those words, there was already a hint of smugness that made people want to smirk.

Like a weaned kitten, stepping on the soft blanket while tilting its head, every whisker carrying the air of youthfulness.

Jiang Song felt his heart was now like that blanket that was stepped on.

He didn’t speak for a while, but his tightly furrowed brows had completely relaxed, as if all the fur was smoothed down.

Not hearing any response from the other end of the phone, Xie Yao became nervous with the shallow breaths he heard. Facing away from the live stream, he tightened his grip on the phone and if Jiang Song didn’t say anything, he would have lowered his eyes and tried to change the topic with a smile.

“Today is just the first day of the finals, and I’m not sitting too securely in first place. There’s nothing to show off about…” Xie Yao stopped halfway through his words and felt dejected, “If you’re busy, I can hang up the phone…”

“Sorry.”

Before he could even hang up, Jiang Song finally spoke.

As Xie Yao grew closer to him, Jiang Song felt both troubled by the young man’s tendency to overthink things, but also enjoyed it.

He’s just a kid who hasn’t even turned twenty yet, so he should spend more time coaxing him.

“Sorry for zoning out earlier.”

“Yao Yao got first place today, really amazing.”

Jiang Song said, feeling like it wasn’t enough, and continued to affirm him.

“Amazing, really amazing.”

In a place where no one could see, Xie Yao’s face suddenly exploded, he turned red and his neck thickened, and it seemed like smoke was coming out of his forehead.

Afraid that if he didn’t speak, Jiang Song would think he was unhappy, Xie Yao was both embarrassed and tried to act calm.

“I’ll win the championship.”

His gaze drifted to the trophy placed in the center of the living room.

“When the time comes, can I give you the trophy?”

Jiang Song laughed on the phone.

“I’d love that.”

The rules of the final differ from the previous stages of the competition, just like how the top-ranked streamer in the donation rankings can now earn an extra bonus of five points per day.

It was the next day when Xie Yao found out about this rule from the crazy spamming of Zhou Tian. The new rule was announced by Shark TV in the early hours of the morning, but the effective time was from the start of the competition yesterday.

Xie Yao found out immediately and opened the official ranking list of the live competition. As he expected, the favored individual who he had previously been leading by a margin of four points had now surpassed him.

At that moment, Xie Yao’s first thought was that he had just told Jiang Song yesterday that he was in first place, and now he had been slapped in the face just after waking up the next day.

Xie Yao was angrier and more upset than ever before. He subconsciously opened the dialogue box to look for Jiang Song, but then let go and calmly approached Zhou Tian instead.

Jiang Song knew about this situation even earlier than Xie Yao did. He was used to waking up early and had been busy with the affairs of Cat Claw recently. The company had just embarked on the right track, and there were still many areas that required Jiang Song’s personal attention.

He had known when Xie Yao lost first place. But he knew more than the angry fans did.

Outsiders may not be aware of it, but those in the industry have noticed something was amiss with Shark TV lately. Two months ago, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. But since the King of Glory live competition started, internal conflicts within Shark TV began to arise.

The corruption among the upper echelons of the company was too severe. They played favoritism, formed cliques and factions. Since the previous boss retired due to illness a few years ago, this company, which was almost invincible in China, began to crumble.

Before Cat Claw appeared, things were still relatively okay. Even though some streamers were suppressed due to favored individuals, most people chose to grit their teeth and bear it, including Xie Yao. However, after Cat Claw appeared, the situation changed.

Jiang Song had a sharp eye and outstanding ability. He was extremely precise in identifying those popular anchors who were willing to switch platforms. While it was not a problem for other platforms, Shark TV simply couldn’t handle small anchors like Xie Yao. Jiang Song had no reservations when dealing with them.

He poached people, resources, and even teams. Despite the fact that Shark TV appeared to be in harmony with Cat Claw on the surface, no one knew how many disagreements were happening behind closed doors.

Shark TV had been on a downward trend for the past few years, but the higher-ups did nothing about it. Even some of the key figures were unwilling to get involved in the shady dealings, and they were even suppressed by well-connected people. It was like a dike that was crumbling due to ant holes.

The appearance of Cat Claw was the final straw that broke the camel’s back.

Recently, there have been rumors about Shark TV’s financial problems. Although it was just a small piece of news, it had spread to the ears of bosses in various companies, which added to its credibility.

In addition to the shady operations during the live broadcast competition, it only strengthened Jiang Song’s affirmation of this situation.

Xie Yao didn’t contact him all day. This had happened before, usually because the kid had overslept.

Recently, Xie Yao had become more and more natural in his coquettish behavior, and Jiang Song used to have the heart to make him get up and eat, but now he would just let him be.

He greeted Xie Yao as usual and explained his whereabouts for the afternoon before turning to his computer to start working.

When Xie Yao received Jiang Song’s message, he didn’t even notice it. At this moment, he was watching some stupid things in the live broadcast room, looking expressionless.

The live broadcast room was categorized as a gaming area, but there was nothing related to games on the screen. Instead, there was a man who exposed half of his body, chatting with the barrage.

The broadcaster had a short haircut and was dressed in a very punk style of clothing. His features were somewhat handsome, but he always had a greasy smile, as if his face was saying, “I know I’m handsome.”

“Oh, I’m not here to play games. The competition doesn’t start until tonight, and I’m just bored, so I started the live broadcast to chat with you guys.”

“It’s just average, hahaha. I don’t think I’m handsome, but everyone says I am.”

“Clothes? They were gifts from fans. I don’t know the price.”

“What? Thirty-eight thousand? Are you kidding me? Just for one piece of clothing?”

“Don’t send gifts, I’m not even playing games…Oh, thank you to my boss Wang for sending me a spaceship. He’s so generous.”

…

Xie Yao was hanging out in the live broadcast room, but he turned to open the official notification released in the early morning. The newly revised rules were placed at the top, making them very clear.

Zhou Tian was still sending him messages non-stop on WeChat.

Son: “D*mn, this idiot probably knew about the new rules in advance yesterday, right?”

Son: “Sharing video link.”

Xie Yao opened the address that Zhou Tian shared, and the video started playing. Various gift effects were flying everywhere, but that wasn’t the most important thing. The IDs that were throwing the gifts were the real attention-grabbers – all of them were the pillars of SharkTV who are still there, including two professional players!

The influence of the anchors and professional players need not be mentioned. Xie Yao himself has received such benefits.

But what he cares about is the time when the gifts were thrown. All of them were thrown between eleven o’clock and twelve o’clock yesterday evening.

As we all know, the ranking of SharkTV’s rewards is settled at exactly twelve o’clock.

Son: “All of these gifts were thrown between eleven o’clock and twelve o’clock last night, and the amount is too large. They directly surpassed you.”

Son: “You were originally ranked first, d*mn it.”

According to the original rules, rewards are distributed weekly, and in the past few days, fans of various broadcasters have been holding back their spending, waiting until the last day to have enough funds to invest.

Fans like this one are rare, who start spending on gifts on the first day, especially at such a sensitive time approaching midnight.

Plus, those few broadcasters and professional players, no one believes they weren’t intentionally trying to gain an advantage.

Son: “That idi*t actually had the nerve to livestream outside of competition time, d*mn it!”

This time the SharkTV competition had a loophole in the reward ranking, which not only counted rewards during the competition period but also included those outside of the competition. In simple terms, rewards given in all 24 hours of a day were counted.

However, there was an unwritten agreement among the broadcasters that if it was a gaming competition, they had to play games during their live streams, so that rewards would be rightfully earned.

But during the critical period of the finals, their state of mind was very important, so almost no one streamed during the day, except for Langyue Xingshu, who was temporarily ranked first.

Not only did he stream during the day, but the content was completely unrelated to the game and just consisted of “chatting”.

Xie Yao shifted his gaze over, watching Langyue Xingshu smiling greasily as he begged his boss not to reward him, but still thanked him. Xie Yao sneered and made a disgusted gesture.

The broadcaster on the screen was still speaking.

: Yesterday was close, I almost fell to second place, but luckily I had everyone’s support.

: Hahaha, I’m just an ordinary friend with the bigwigs from the LKD team.

: Really just ordinary friends, I don’t know how they came to support me yesterday, but I’m really grateful.

: Yao Yao…Prince, who’s this? Oh, oh, oh, I remember now, that little broadcaster who sells rotten goods with the boss, sorry I haven’t paid much attention.

: He’s pretty strong, but he only played against those who ranked low yesterday. I didn’t compete with him, and almost let him take first place. I’m ashamed.

Xie Yao’s WeChat buzzed.

Son: “I can’t stand this idi*t anymore, d*mn.”

“I’m a straight guy, how could I sell rotten stuff? Don’t gross me out! But that anchor seems to be?”

“Look at him, fair-skinned, who… Thank you, thank you, ‘My Dad’ boss for the spaceship.”

“Boss Xie likes it, but you don’t need to give gifts at this time haha.”

Langyue Xingshu interrupted his speech, turned his head to read the list of thanks, and his smile never faded from his face.

The barrage was all filled with rainbow fawning, but suddenly, a very abrupt message appeared.

My Dad: Oh, I see. I sent it to the wrong person. Can you return the money to me?

Langyue Xingshu was stunned for a moment, but he quickly reacted.

“The gift has already been sent out, um…I can’t return it to the boss.”

My Dad: So, you asked not to send it, but you still received the gift. Are you trying to fool a fool?

My Dad: What a stupid thing, and it’s actually number one.

The barrage exploded.

Xie Yao glanced at Langyue Xingshu, whose expression was obviously strained, smiled, took a screenshot, closed the live broadcast, and sent a message to Zhou Tian.

Gad: “Is this you in the picture?”

Son: “Of course it’s me! It felt so good to curse him out.”

Gad: “Just curse him out, why did you still give him money?”

Son: “Do you think I’m stupid? My nephew’s ID registered the account, he’s a minor, I just need to apply for a refund through the backstage!”

Xie Yao’s mouth curled up.

---

The system crashing is a big deal, not to mention it’s not insignificant. The anchors who didn’t participate in the competition naturally don’t care, and the only ones affected are the few in the finals.

There were quite a few people who encountered system crashes, with half of the twenty people in the finals being affected. However, this number was too coincidental, and anyone with a delicate mind would notice something was off.

Some of Xie Yao’s fans felt that something was amiss, but because he didn’t show any abnormalities, they obediently kept quiet.

Jiang Song understood that the small anchor had his own thoughts, so he didn’t rashly intervene. However, he couldn’t help but furrow his brows as he watched Xie Yao’s expressionless face.

In Praise’s live broadcast room, fans could see that the man in the frame had a very serious expression. After hanging up the phone, he directly turned off his microphone and stood up, walking to the back and dialing another number.

Jiang Song stood by the half-open curtain, and after the call was connected, he heard Manager Chen’s voice.

“What’s up?” If it were before, Jiang Song would have retorted without any hesitation, but now he obviously didn’t have the mind to waste time with Manager Chen.

He went straight to the point. “Is Yi Bai still training with the team?”

“No,” Manager Chen asked curiously, “What are you asking them to do?” It couldn’t be that the former team captain suddenly had a change of heart and wanted to show love to the old teammates.

Thinking of this, Manager Chen felt goosebumps all over his body and quickly stopped his delusions.

“The practice match ended not long ago, and they happened to have a small jungle player’s birthday in the adjacent team. You know how much they treasure this little kid who just got promoted from the youth training program, so they called us to come over and show support.”

Manager Chen laughed. “Maybe if you check Weibo, you might be able to see the latest update they just posted.”

“They’re all together?” Jiang Song’s furrowed brow loosened a bit.

Originally, he only planned to find SUS and the others, but he didn’t expect to get it for free.

“Okay, got it.”

After getting the information he wanted, Jiang Song hung up the phone and immediately called Yi Bai.

Manager Chen listened to the sound of the phone being hung up and felt like a trapped pigeon with a blackened face.

On the other side, Yi Bai and a few others were celebrating the birthday of their team’s jungler in a private room, having a good time, when they received a call from Jiang Song.

Meanwhile, Xie Yao calmly started to match.

In the top twenty of the finals, ten people were delayed from entering the live broadcast room due to a system malfunction. The match could only begin once the live broadcast room was open.

In a game of King of Glory, there are ten players per match. The other ten streamers who were unaffected by the glitch had already finished their first match and started their second.

This means that if the player Xie Yao was competing against performs normally this match, Xie Yao will have a harder time catching up to the seventeen-point lead within the limited time.

The bullet comments were obviously anxious, but Xie Yao’s expression was as steady as an old dog, showing no signs of panic.

When he clicked the match button, he entered the game instantly. The game default is to open team voice chat, but Xie Yao was unusually silent when he entered the game.

As expected, everyone in the game had just experienced a system crash.

“I’ll take the Mage,” Xie Yao said on the first floor. He didn’t pay attention to the quiet in-game voice chat and immediately locked in Ignis, a powerful mage.

Ignis is a powerful mage in King of Glory, with mechanics that are almost at the t0 level. He has high burst damage, strong flexibility, and even has up to eight dashes. As long as the player’s skills can keep up, taking down an opponent in an instant is no problem.

This is the kind of hero that Xie Yao is most skilled at.

Most streamers are still inferior to professional players, even the young players in the youth training camps.

Xie Yao may have fallen from grace, but he is still a genius. There is no reason why he can’t excel in his best position.

“I won’t talk much after the match starts, please understand.”

Xie Yao said something seriously to the camera before the game began.

Based on the recent system crash, it appeared that the victims were all streamers who were around ten places away from Xie Yao in ranking.

Due to the time difference in fixing the system, the other ten had already started the second round while Xie Yao’s opponents were relatively weaker in skill level.

He found this round relatively easy to win.

During the finals week, the competition time was limited each day. In order to maintain a top three ranking, players like Xie Yao needed to ensure they didn’t miss a single round. Moreover, Xie Yao wanted more than just a top three ranking; he aimed to be the first.

Now, he was one round behind, and even if he won, his opponent would still be winning. So despite Xie Yao’s nonchalant words, his fans could tell from his increasingly serious attitude that it was not easy. They all remained sensible and didn’t say anything.

After five rounds, the pressure on Xie Yao suddenly relaxed because the streamer who had been leading since the beginning of the finals lost this round. Xie Yao was so happy that he smiled into the camera.

He knew it would turn out this way.

Even if the platform delayed him one round with the system bug, it didn’t stop him from succeeding.

The bug this time was obviously targeting him. After all, in such a big live-streaming event, wouldn’t the technical staff check the system beforehand? They only found the bug when the competition started and even delayed the event for half an hour.

Moreover, this was a competition jointly organized by three platforms.

All of them are outside of the top ten, why? Because the top ten are all cash cows for the platform. Maybe there are big shots behind them, and it’s not easy to offend them. If they want to target Xie Yao, they need to have some cover, so they can only involve those who are comparatively weaker.

They are all unlucky scapegoats.

As a result, there is a time difference between the matching of the top ten and the bottom ten. Those who finish the game first will always seamlessly start a new game to avoid wasting time, so the two sides always match with the same group of people.

The difference is that Xie Yao’s opponent couldn’t beat him, while the opponent of the first place was equally skilled.

Xie Yao didn’t react at first, he was waiting for the moment when he would stumble. After all, even Xie Yao couldn’t guarantee that he would keep winning when facing opponents of equal strength.

Besides, the so-called first place was not worthy of the title.

So Xie Yao won five games in a row, and his teammates also gained points along the way. The top ten players won and lost, and the first place player had a sudden reversal. The score rankings on the field changed instantly.

Some people fell out of the top five, while some people relied on incredible luck to become Xie Yao’s teammate and enter the top five. Xie Yao climbed to the top with the MVP bonus points, only one point ahead of the second place.

The game officially ended at 9:30 pm. The beginning and the end of tonight’s game were both dramatic, and Xie Yao’s comeback, along with the topic of <Shark TV system crash> climbed to the tail of the hot search.

Xie Yao’s fans cheered, finally able to hold their heads up high!

With the match temporarily suspended, the official event page was filled with curses, and discussions about the rankings were in full swing. The changes in scores were paused, and Xie Yao’s name was displayed prominently at the top, with his photo above it, very eye-catching.

Putting aside the rankings and the somewhat mocking one-point difference, Xie Yao’s face was simply stunning in comparison to the photos of the other top streamers. His face was extremely eye-catching.

Although the previous first place was not ugly, and his live streams showed him to be a handsome and clean-cut guy, he looked a bit inadequate compared to Xie Yao.

The former first place had been criticized by trolls and haters before, but now that the top photo had changed, the comment section was miraculously much cleaner.

In theory, Xie Yao had accumulated quite a few haters over the past two months, but tonight, he seemed to be lucky. The comment section was terrifyingly harmonious.

After winning the first place today, Xie Yao’s first thought was of the call he received from Jiang Song before the game.

The live stream hasn’t ended yet. After the semi-finals, Xie Yao didn’t livestream for as long as he used to. According to his recent habits, he should have ended the stream and gone to eat supper, but he didn’t.

The fans in the chatroom thought their favorite streamer was about to leave and began leaving messages like “Good night” and “Rest early, see you tomorrow.” But after saying “Good night” for at least three minutes, Xie Yao, who would normally end the stream immediately, didn’t move.

On camera, he looked handsome with every strand of his hair glowing from the overhead light. He tried calling someone twice, but no one picked up, and he started dialing for the third time.

: Yao Yao, did you forget to end the stream?

: First place, Yao Yao is awesome!

: I had so much fun watching tonight. This garbage platform is obviously targeting you. At first, I thought you were being bullied and had to swallow your pride. It made me so angry, but I realized later that it was your absolute confidence and calmness. You’re amazing!

: This is the third call, why haven’t they answered yet? The way you look while calling is so cute. I command them to pick up the phone!

Xie Yao didn’t read the messages in the chatroom. His phone was next to his ear, and he could hear the ringing tone of the person he was calling.

Jiang Song had just received a call from his father, who sounded anxious and told him that his mother had been hit by a car.

Jiang Song was very close to his family, and his concern was evident when he frowned upon hearing about his mother’s accident.

After a few instructions on the phone, Jiang Song hung up and immediately booked a flight to F country. He was so flustered that he didn’t even have time to grab his coat or phone before leaving for the airport.

Little did he know, it was all a prank.

When Jiang Song arrived at the airport, a deliveryman showed him a photo, compared it to his face, and handed him something. Then, the deliveryman gave him a phone that turned out to be his father’s.

Even though he knew that his father and mother liked to tease him, Jiang Song’s temples were still throbbing when his father told him it was all a joke and wished him a happy birthday.

The usually calm Jiang Song gritted his teeth and said, “Dad, my birthday is next month.”

His talkative father was silent for a moment.

The phone beeped once and the other person hung up.

Jiang Song was no longer surprised. He returned the phone to the delivery guy and took a taxi back home, no longer angry with his father.

As soon as he got home, he received a call from Xie Yao.

Jiang Song answered just one second before the third call ended

---

The finals of the live competition still spanned half a month, with the semi-finals eliminating twenty broadcasters in the first week, and the last week being the real competition.

At this stage, the organizers didn’t need to rely on broadcasters to increase their broadcast time to generate popularity. In order to make the competition more fair for the remaining fourteen players, the finals adopted a round-robin system, with a fixed competition time and number of games each day. The final ranking was still determined by points.

Winning a game added points, while losing a game deducted points. The entire competition system widened the gap between the rankings of the broadcasters, and ultimately highlighted the top few with the best skills.

Xie Yao had firmly held the top three since the semi-finals, and his amazing technical skills during the competition had amazed countless onlookers.

It’s not that there were no privileged candidates after the change in the competition format, but Xie Yao was like a star shining particularly brightly among them.

Since its recent high-profile recruitment, Cat Claw TV had entered the public’s view with a very strong posture.

Many people looked at Cat Claw TV’s sudden emergence with a mentality of watching a show, thinking that even though this new platform was rich and powerful, it lacked experience and might be suppressed by other established platforms and ultimately exit the market in a sorry state.

But it didn’t happen.

Surprisingly, even after recruiting so many popular broadcasters, including SUS, Cat Claw TV still seemed to be at ease. From the initial promotion to the later normal operation, everything demonstrated the great strategic planning behind Cat Claw, making them an existence that was born to make people jealous.

Jiang Song and his father, who occasionally gave guidance from behind the scenes, were the ones hiding their talents and biding their time.

Cat Claw had just been officially launched, and many things still required Jiang Song’s personal involvement. He was so busy that he hardly had time to rest, but fortunately, although his father had become a figurehead, he still paid attention to everything and left behind several secretaries and managers who were industry leaders.

During the day, Jiang Song worked seriously and occasionally chatted with his children about things that were not nutritious, testing the waters through a layer of window paper. In the evening, he left on time and handed over everything to his secretaries, then worked hard with Xie Yao.

But fortunately, although Jiang’s father became a hands-off manager, he didn’t completely ignore everything. The secretaries and managers he left in the company were all outstanding in the industry.

Cat Claw TV was home to many top-tier gamers and the kings of the King of cf fGlory section, who had been unbeatable for years, along with a god-like player named Praise.

After Jiang Song retired, his contract with Shark TV expired not long after. Although he didn’t renew his contract, he still had his position, and Shark TV naturally didn’t actively push him out. They kept his live streaming account in storage.

However, after Cat Claw went public, Jiang Song quickly packed his bags and moved to his own platform.

Since he wanted to promote Maozhu, he naturally couldn’t do without his own traffic. Jiang Song had been streaming every day for a month straight.

But the live streaming content was a bit hard to describe.

: Good evening.

Jiang Song put down his phone and leaned back in his chair.

He was wearing his usual clothes, his hair was still dripping with water, and his skin was slightly red, indicating that he had just taken a shower. Although Jiang Song had no expression on his face, it still gave people a sense of sensuality.

Hundreds of comments calling him “husband” scrolled by in the barrage.

: Checking in.

: Husband, dry your hair faster!

: A month ago, I thought I would get tired of seeing Praise’s face every day. A month later, I’m slapping myself in the face. Praise, what kind of god-like looks do you have!!!

: Oh my god, the post-shower picture is killing me!

: Are you still watching livestreams or just watching livestreams today/dog’s head?

Jiang Song leaned back and casually added “husband” to the list of blocked words in the live chat, causing half of the barrage to disappear immediately.

He knocked on the table with his right hand and said, “Today, I will explain the finals of the live streaming competition to everyone.”

Praise had been livestreaming game commentary for over a month, every day without fail, with only one person as the subject of his commentary: the SharkTV’s Yao Yao Prince.

As a result, even fans who had no idea who Yao Yao was before had been forced to learn all of her gaming habits, thanks to Jiang Song’s persistent promotion.

Nevertheless, fans of Jiang Song continued to come to the livestream every day, solely because Praise would laugh when he watched Yao Yao’s livestream!

Praise actually laughed! He even did joint livestreams with that little anchor!

During the first couple of days, Praise’s fans almost suspected that he had been replaced by someone else, and some even wanted to start a fight with him. However, as this happened more and more frequently, fans gradually accepted it, and even became numb to it. There were even quite a few people who climbed over to SharkTV because of Jiang Song’s persistent promotion.

Yao Yao’s fans were extremely grateful to Praise, and their relationship with him was like that of a family. Their CP fans were even more passionate than those of Jiang Song himself.

Praise had a huge following, and any King-level anchor would envy him.

So far, Praise had only shown such preferential treatment to Yao Yao. The faster Yao Yao rose to fame, the more jealousy it attracted, and rumors about Yao Yao selling out to Praise were spreading like wildfire.

The people behind the scenes thought that Praise’s fans would continue to support him and attack Xie Yao by flooding into his live stream and criticizing him until he quit the game. However, they didn’t expect that Praise’s fans not only got along well with Xie Yao’s fans but even enjoyed watching his streams.

Well, it’s only natural. Putting oneself in the shoes of a fan, of course, one would want their favorite person to smile and talk more, rather than having a poker face that could scare children just by looking at photos.

If Xie Yao can make Jiang Song happy, then his fans will like him. That’s the mentality of Praise’s fans.

Putting aside how jealous some people are, on Jiang Song’s live stream, the screen stayed in the initial state for more than ten minutes without any change, and the barrage was expressing their anxiety.

: Today is the last week of the finals. Why is Yao Yao late? This will make him lose a game, won’t it?

: Is there something that delayed the little anchor?

: Wow, Brother Jiang’s expression looks like he got stood up by his date.

: I just checked the live stream of the Shark Tv next door. The first game of the semi-finals has already finished. Yao Yao might have a hard time catching up.

: No way! How can he lose to him again!

Jiang Song’s live stream was very anxious, and Xie Yao’s side was also like an ant on a hot pot.

At the time of the end of the semi-finals, Xie Yao was leading by a narrow three points compared to the second place in terms of game scores.

But Xie Yao’s fans didn’t have a chance to celebrate yet. They didn’t expect that during the score settlement, the second place, who had the highest tipping amount, was awarded an additional ten points, which directly surpassed Xie Yao and won the first place in the semi-finals.

At that time, Xie Yao’s and Praise’s fans were almost driven insane.

Previously, Xie Yao didn’t encourage his fans to keep tipping him for the game, just for the ten points he could get in one game. He often mentioned not needing to tip, and even when Praise tipped him at that time, Xie Yao stopped him.

But in the finals, after suffering losses from the opponent, fans were secretly competing and monitoring the tipping amounts of other streamers to prevent them from surpassing Xie Yao.

The fans did not expect Xie Yao to be the one to make a mistake, and they were all very anxious.

Jiang Song was a bit irritated, but since he was broadcasting live, he couldn’t show impatience directly. He just furrowed his brow.

Recently, Jiang Song and Xie Yao have become closer, chatting happily on WeChat. However, “Boss Jiang” has been absent from his live streams for over a month, replaced by someone who comments on his game every day.

Xie Yao didn’t ask, and Jiang Song didn’t say, but they both knew what was going on.

Xie Yao has started telling Jiang Song about everything, big and small. If he has to be late due to something important, he will let Jiang Song know in advance.

Although Xie Yao didn’t say why, Jiang Song knew that he was taking this competition more and more seriously, and there was no reason for him to be silent and late.

Jiang Song tapped his finger on the tabletop and, in front of everyone in the live stream, boldly picked up his phone and dialed Xie Yao’s number.

The phone rang twice before Xie Yao picked up.

“Brother Jiang”

This was the first time Jiang Song had heard Xie Yao’s voice on the phone, but the first thing he noticed was the anger in the small anchor’s voice.

“…What’s wrong?”

But without asking for details, Xie Yao had already followed up: “There was an issue in the livestream room, I couldn’t get in. Xiao Fang said it was a server error and they were urgently fixing it.”

Xie Yao’s tone would unconsciously become more docile when talking to Jiang Song, but this time it was full of anger.

Jiang Song glanced at the time and saw that eighteen minutes had passed since the 7:00 pm start of the match. Some had already finished the first round, and Xie Yao’s score had gone from seven points behind the first place to seventeen points behind.

He scrolled the mouse and dragged out the overall score of the livestreamed match. With a quick glance, he saw that nine people’s scores, except for Xie Yao, had not changed. Obviously, they were experiencing the same “technical difficulties” as Xie Yao.

But unlike the others, Xie Yao was not in the top seven of the total score ranking.

Jiang Song closed his eyes.

Xie Yao was already angry, but hearing Jiang Song’s heavy breathing on the other end, it was clear that he was also angry. Strangely, Xie Yao became much calmer.

He even comforted Jiang Song: “It’s okay, it’s just one round.”

Whether it was intentional or unintentional, with so many livestreamers having issues and so many viewers watching, the organizers would not allow the technical difficulties to last too long. At most, it would hold him back for one round.

Jiang Song tapped the desktop without speaking, but his gaze shifted to the donation amounts behind the first place. His expression was a bit heavy.

Xie Yao didn’t know what he was thinking over the phone, but after two seconds, he chuckled.

“Xiao Fang came to find me. He said the problem has been fixed.”

As soon as Xie Yao finished speaking, Jiang Song’s livestream room lit up, and the young man holding the phone appeared on the screen.

“Good evening, I’m Yao Yao.”

During the livestream, Xie Yao was holding a phone in his hand and his face remained expressionless as usual, making it difficult to tell if anything was different from usual. The conversation between him and Jiang Song was not heard by the fans in the livestream room, and others did not know why Xie Yao was late.

After Jiang Song hung up the phone, Xie Yao put down his phone.

“Earlier, there was a problem with the platform and I couldn’t enter the livestream room. Sorry for being late.”

Xie Yao didn’t plan to hide the problem from the platform. Moreover, there were so many other anchors who had encountered problems, and it was impossible for the platform to hide them all.

As expected, the fans were angry when they heard this.

: What? Such an important competition and the platform crashed. Shouldn’t there be some compensation?

: ??? D*mn, only Yao Yao had problems before. Is this targeted?

: It’s over. The neighbor has already started the second round.

Xie Yao behaved very calmly after entering the livestream. His hair had grown longer this month, and his bangs covered a small part of his eyes. When he lowered his head, it made people unable to see his expression.

“It’s okay, only ten minutes late. We can catch up.”

He spoke in a relaxed tone.

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Ever since discovering that the person he was talking to was [Praise], Xie Yao would subconsciously interpret Jiang Song’s words over and over again, afraid that this guy might have some identity that he didn’t know about. If that were to happen again, he wouldn’t be able to handle it.

Xie Yao glanced at the chat box, staring at Jiang Song’s last sentence with a complicated expression.

It was already shocking enough to find out that Jiang Song was [Praise], and from the way he was talking, could it be that Cat Claw also had some close relationship with him?

This question only appeared in Xie Yao’s mind for a second, and he quickly turned it from a question mark into a period.

With [Praise] as his identity in front, even if Jiang Song were to say that he was the big boss behind Cat Claw now, Xie Yao might not find it strange.

Jiang Song asked very seriously, repeatedly asking several times, and it didn’t seem like a joke, but rather like he really wanted to recruit him into Cat Claw.

In fact, Xie Yao didn’t have much sense of belonging to SharkTV.

Outsiders didn’t know, but he was in it and could see everything clearly.

There were too many insiders at SharkTV, and the high-level executives were arbitrary and decisive. Once a decision was made, small streamers like him had no choice but to obey, just like with the previous Five Rows.

Xie Yao had refused the follow-up arrangements for the Five Rows at the time, which had already given the high-level executives in charge of him a bad impression, and had also offended the backer of a certain insider.

A few days ago, Xiao Fang had approached Xie Yao to talk about his expiring contract, which in their view, was to offer him a B-level contract.

Although it looked much better than his previous C-level contract, in reality, with Xie Yao’s almost three million followers now, this B-level contract was something he should rightfully have gotten.

However, from the high-level decision that Xiao Fang relayed that day, it was clear that they thought even a B-level contract was giving him too much credit.

Xie Yao had never wanted to show his face at first. If it weren’t for the fact that this competition could earn him the prize money for an A-level contract, he wouldn’t have exposed himself in front of the camera so early.

He had originally had some expectations for the competition, but now it was obvious that he couldn’t go down that road anymore.

Approaching the crucial point of promotion, the high-level executives of SharkTV actually wanted to tie him down with a B-level contract, cutting off his path to an A-level contract if he succeeded.

It was hard to believe that there was no shady business going on, SharkTV’s behavior was just too ugly.

Thinking of all this, Xie Yao’s face didn’t look good.

He had been silent for a little too long, and Jiang Song on the other side obviously wouldn’t give up without an answer, and asked again.

Jiang Song: “Have you been moved?”

He stayed silent for a little too long. It was clear that Jiang Song wouldn’t give up easily without an answer. So he asked again.

Jiang Song: “How about it? Are you interested?”

Jiang Song: “I’m not joking. Shark TV isn’t right for you. If you want to come to Cat Claw, I can send you the contract tomorrow.”

Jiang Song wasn’t exaggerating when he said this. He had already prepared a contract for Xie Yao when he first had the idea to poach him. It had just been sitting in his drawer, waiting for the right time to approach Xie Yao.

Xie Yao came back to himself and saw the message from Jiang Song, and his heart skipped a beat.

Gad: “Thanks, Brother Jiang. But I need to think about it some more.”

Xie Yao had thought it over and, based on the current situation, he knew that staying at Shark TV would only hold him back. Although Cat Claw was a new platform, anyone with a brain knew its potential was huge, especially with Jiang Song pushing him to go.

He wanted to go, just not right now.

His contract with Shark TV wouldn’t expire for another two months. By then, the World Championship would be over, and the Anchor Competition would have long since ended.

Xie Yao wasn’t being arrogant, he just knew he was good enough to be in the top three of the competition. He wanted to jump ship with his ranking, which would give him enough publicity and attention.

After all, there were so many anchors at Cat Claw that he was just another nobody. He needed to have enough talent and skill to not waste Jiang Song’s efforts on him.

Xie Yao had a lot to consider, but he didn’t say anything. After all, it was a long story to tell. He just told Jiang Song that he needed to think about it some more.

But for Jiang Song, it was a done deal. He was in a good mood: “Then it’s settled. I’ll send you the contract tomorrow.”

Xie Yao: ?!

Gad: “No, my contract with Shark TV isn’t over yet. Even if you send it to me, I can’t sign it right now.”

Jiang Song: “I’ll send it to you, and you can sign it whenever you’re ready.”

Jiang Song’s tone was not to be disputed.

Xie Yao’s expression was complex.

Helpless, he said, “Then, thank you, Brother Jiang”

Jiang Song’s lips curled up on the other end of the screen.

Done.

And then, in the blink of an eye, September had arrived.

The King of Glory live competition went very smoothly, and Xie Yao almost encountered no obstacles on his way to the finals, where he even managed to maintain second place at the beginning of the final week.

During this time, his number of fans skyrocketed to a staggering 3.6 million.

Apart from Xie Yao’s exceptional skills, his good looks also played a significant role in his success. Hardly anyone could say anything bad about his face.

The last gamer who looked this handsome while playing was Praise, who was popular among the audience as well.

In addition, Xie Yao owes his success to Praise, who was not only his acquaintance but also a close friend. Praise would stream for a whole week and hang out in Xie Yao’s live broadcast room every day, acting as his commentator and helping to direct traffic towards Xie Yao’s channel.

While Xie Yao’s fans were happy about his success, they also felt a sense of crisis, especially the Jiang Yao CP fans.

After all, since Xie Yao joined the competition, Jiang Boss seemed to have disappeared, and he had not appeared for a long time.

Xie Yao’s popularity continued to soar during the competition, and he encountered some unfriendly competitors. Some haters made snarky comments and tried to undermine his reputation, but praise shut them down.

Despite their gratitude, the Jiang Yao CP fans could not help but feel jealous of the “friendship” between Xie Yao and praise, which seemed to them like they were celebrating New Year’s Day every day.

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