This chapter is brought to you by Mickey, thanks for the ko-fi! °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°
The southern city is different from Jiang Mo’s hometown. Its coldness silently seeps into the bones, penetrating with a damp chill.
Even with a down jacket, Jiang Mo didn’t feel warm enough. He went upstairs and grabbed a goose-yellow scarf, tightly wrapping himself up. Under the gaze of the staff, he walked out of the gate like a lively zongzi. The production team assigned someone to follow him, capturing his every move on camera. He was completely at ease, having long been accustomed to facing the lens during his professional years.
This place wasn’t overshadowed by high-rise buildings; the streets and alleys retained the atmosphere of the past. Jiang Mo walked along the riverbank, but the sound of the river was drowned out by the smoky air on both sides of the street. He bought a few packs of instant noodles from a convenience store and didn’t linger outside, choosing to head back directly.
Jiang Mo didn’t like noodles cooked with hot water. He turned on the stove, threw the noodles and seasoning packets into boiling water all at once. The ingredients in the refrigerator were prepared by the production team. Jiang Mo took some vegetables and ham, rinsed them, and threw them directly into the pot.
No matter how you cook instant noodles, they always taste good.
The wall on this side of the restaurant’s entrance was entirely made of glass. There was a long table by the window, and Jiang Mo sat there, finishing his noodles while enjoying the view outside.
The hot soup quickly dispelled the cold from his body. Jiang Mo unzipped his down jacket, relieving his neck from being wrapped up all day. With no collar obstructing it, his delicate and small chin was revealed. The hot steam from the soup gave his fair cheeks and lips a reddish hue. Feeling full, he absentmindedly stared into space, perhaps influenced by the lingering warmth of the soup at the bottom of the bowl, his eyes appeared slightly moist.
[“Honestly, I really love Jiang Mo’s face. I prefer the cute type. I feel like Lu Xuan can’t compare to him. Such a pity…”]
[“Don’t compare our Xiao Xuan with someone like him. Jiang Mo is not worthy.”]
[“Damn, none of the guests from Group A are here. Who is he trying to act cute for?]
[“Is he intentionally making that expression to make people blame the few who didn’t include him? Why is he such a drama queen!”]
After eating too much, Jiang Mo couldn’t stop hiccuping. Holding his breath or swallowing water didn’t help. He washed the dishes and turned off the kitchen lights before walking to his room alone.
There were cameras everywhere in the small room. After Jiang Mo returned, the cameraman stopped shooting and went to have a meal.
At this time, several staff members went to the adjacent room to eat.
As Jiang Mo passed the stairs outside, he overheard people talking downstairs.
“Is it not good to leave him alone here?”
“What’s wrong with that? How can we attract passersby without a topic? Don’t sympathize with him for no reason. Haven’t you seen how the other guests dislike him? His character is terrible. Those few guests intentionally ignored him and left him aside. They went shopping at the supermarket and only remembered him right before leaving. If it weren’t for the livestream, they wouldn’t even think about him. I heard that in the communication group, no one pays attention to him when he speaks…”
The area below was out of the camera’s field of view. Jiang Mo covered his mouth and continued to hold his breath until he returned to his room. Only then did he release the suppressed gas with a hiccup.
Having held his breath for too long, his throat felt uncomfortable. He poured a cup of hot water to soothe it. He rubbed his face, which had become stiff from the cold wind, until it turned red before letting go.
Jiang Mo sat down in his chair and logged into the game.
Whenever he encountered something unpleasant, Jiang Mo always turned to games for a solution. It was the best shortcut to alleviate his current troubles.
Just as he logged into the Korean server, he received a message from Xie Ning.
[Lemon: Wanna play a couple of games?]
[Moo: I’m solo queueing.]
[Lemon: Don’t be like this. I finally have some free time, haven’t played duo with you for days. Let’s play together~]
[Moo: If you have free time, you should rest properly. Why play ranked?]
[Lemon: …]
Xie Ning scratched her head, looking confused. “What the hell, why is he so fierce? Did he eat explosives or something?”
[“Stuttering Cutie is actually super cute. How can he be fierce!”]
[“Oh no, he took a break from the livestream and secretly started playing ranked alone. It’s so hard to endure the days without Stuttering Cutie’s livestream!”]
After entering the game, Jiang Mo saw a familiar ID among the opposing players, Xu Li, the AD Carry of the NG team.
Jiang Mo’s eyes darkened a bit. When he first joined the NG team, Xu Li took care of him the most, but in the end, Xu Li was also the one who betrayed him the deepest. In order to make the last wave of money before retiring, Xu Li didn’t hesitate to deliberately make mistakes in major competitions and fabricated nonexistent things to drag him down.
Jiang Mo tightly gripped the mouse, hiccuping repeatedly.
There weren’t many viewers in his livestream room, and the remaining viewers could only see Jiang Mo hiccuping incessantly, as if he had been wronged. His entire face was red, even the corners of his eyes.
Jiang Mo was playing the jungle Shyvana in this game, an assassin jungle capable of bursting down squishy targets. The game began to change after he reached level 6 and obtained his ultimate ability.
Xu Li was playing Jin as the AD carry, a champion without any displacement skills. Every time Shyvana appeared in the bot lane, she would surely take him out. The enemy outer turrets fell one after another, and Jin’s fate was sealed after the outer turrets were destroyed.
The game surrendered at the 20-minute mark. Xu Li was tortured by Jiang Mo for more than ten minutes. Whenever he stepped out, whether he had teammates nearby or not, as soon as Shyvana appeared, he would die.
Chi Yu had something temporary come up, which clashed with Lian Zong’s schedule. After finishing his work, he immediately opened Lian Zong’s livestream room.
Jiang Mo was in front of the computer, doing something unknown. The viewers guessed that he was playing a game, but they didn’t know which game.
Only Chi Yu knew that Jiang Mo was playing ranked matches.
Seeing the slightly moist eyes of the opponent, Chi Yu couldn’t help but frown.
Da Zhuang briefly explained what had happened today. Chi Yu listened and skipped the progress bar to the daytime. After searching for a while, he finally found the part about Jiang Mo.
Seeing the shot of Jiang Mo going back to his room after the crew went out, his back view, and then seeing Jiang Mo finding out that everyone was eating outside, going out alone to buy instant noodles, and staring out the window in a daze, Chi Yu felt inexplicably annoyed.
Lately, he had been paying too much attention to Jiang Mo, and he didn’t even know the reason. But he just couldn’t help but want to know what Jiang Mo was doing.
Hearing Jiang Mo’s low hiccup in his ears, Chi Yu’s annoyance suddenly diminished by a large extent.
The sound was quite cute. Jiang Mo, wrapped in a white down jacket, looked like a little hamster that had eaten something and was stuffed.
Jiang Mo was lucky. He encountered Xu Li in both matches, and both matches were one-sided slaughters by him. When the post-match screen appeared, Xu Li finally couldn’t control himself and cursed him in the public chat.
[Xu Li: Are you fucking deliberately targeting me?]
[Moo: Who are you?]
[Moo: I don’t know you. Among the opponents, you are the one with the nice skins, and I just wanted to have a look. Is that not allowed?]
Jiang Mo’s mouth curled up, and his mood improved a lot.
At that moment, someone knocked on the door. Jiang Mo closed the game, got up, and opened the door.
Lu Xuan was holding a bag and stuffed it into Jiang Mo’s arms. “We decided to go out for shopping temporarily. You were sleeping at that time, so we didn’t want to wake you up. There are many delicious things in the mall that everyone wants to eat, so we left them there. Sorry for leaving you alone at home. This is a gift from everyone.”
Jiang Mo held the bag that was forcibly given to him, looking bewildered. The scent of cream wafted into his nostrils from the bag, and he loved all kinds of desserts.
Everyone didn’t include him in their activities, and he didn’t really mind. But now that he received a gift, the sadness from hearing others speak ill of him instantly disappeared.
“Thank you, I really like it,” Jiang Mo’s eyebrows and eyes curved, happy like a child who received a New Year’s gift.
The confused person switched to Lu Xuan. He thought he would see Jiang Mo angry, but Jiang Mo’s reaction was different from what he had expected.
Tsk, this outing was decided on the spot. If I had known before coming back, I would have asked the manager to inform Jiang Mo to act well.
Lu Xuan smiled and said, “As long as you like it. The director told us to go to the living room, so I’ll go first. Take your time and join us later.”
“Okay.”
When Jiang Mo arrived in the living room, only the guests from Group O were sitting there. The director informed them about the next segment—sending text messages.
To avoid awkwardness, the director separated the guests from Group A and Group O.
Jiang Mo silently complained in his mind. Wouldn’t it be more awkward to gather people from Group A and Group O together?
What about those who don’t receive a text message later? Will they be awkward to the point of picking their toes?
No, wait. The person who won’t receive a text message later must be him.
As Jiang Mo thought, Lu Xuan received the most text messages. Fortunately, neither he nor Ye Lin received any messages. The audience knew they were not well-liked, but they were not the most awkward ones.
[“Ah, I knew Lou An would definitely send a message to Xiao Xuan! Xiao Xuan also sent a message to Lou An, they’re a pair!”]
[“During dinner, Li Heng and Jiang Ying were chatting so well. Why did Li Heng send a message to Lu Xuan?”]
[“Chatting well doesn’t mean they see eye to eye, you know.”]
[“Shen An is the weirdest, isn’t he? Today, only Ye Lin revolved around him, and he had no interaction with Jiang Ying. Why did he send a message to Jiang Ying?”]
[“Based on my guess, he probably sent it randomly.”]
[“Wuwuwu, our Lin Lin is so pitiful. Lin Lin, stop being a lapdog for Shen An. Let’s change the target!”]
[“Jiang Mo is still holding onto his phone. Does he really expect someone to send him a message? He doesn’t have any self-awareness.”]
The group of people returned to their respective rooms with their own thoughts. Suddenly, Jiang Mo’s silent phone in his pocket vibrated.
Seeing the name displayed on the screen, Jiang Mo couldn’t help but freeze.
[CY: What flavor of cake do you like?]