Chapter 24 – In the Same Frame
After Lin Ran finished washing all the dishes and dried his hands, for a moment, he didn’t really have a reason to stay at Shi Cha’s place any longer.
Fortunately, the two of them lived right across the hall from each other now—if they wanted to meet, there was always an excuse.
“You get back to work. I’ll head home now.”
Shi Cha reluctantly walked him to the door. His lips moved several times, but in the end, he couldn’t think of anything to say.
Seeing the pitiful look in his eyes, Lin Ran couldn’t help but reach out and ruffle his hair. “Let’s have lunch together.”
Shi Cha’s eyes lit up immediately, and he nodded enthusiastically.
After watching Lin Ran open his door and wave back at him before going in, Shi Cha finally closed his own door, satisfied.
Then, happily, he went to his study, turned on his computer, and started a livestream.
Within two minutes of going live, a flood of viewers poured into the stream.
[“Why is the streamer, who always starts at 9 sharp, going live early today?”]
Shi Cha adjusted his mic, then said cheerfully:
“I’ve got something to do around noon, so I’m streaming a bit early—and ending a bit early too.”
[“Huh? I thought you were going to stream longer today!”]
[“You haven’t streamed in days, please go a bit longer! Even an hour? Half an hour? Please?”]
While waiting for the game to update, Shi Cha noticed that comment and replied with a smile:
“Nope, not even a minute longer. I started fifteen minutes early today, and I’m ending fifteen minutes early too. Nobody can make me work overtime, even by a minute.”
[“You’ve become so heartless! You’re not that sweet little brother anymore.”]
[“Ahhh, Yao Yao is live! I wonder if we’ll get any CP crumbs with Linyao today. Rubbing my hands in anticipation!”]
[“Can the CP shippers please keep it to themselves? You’re really affecting others, you know?”]
[“Exactly! I like Yao Yao too, but let’s be real—Ran Shen is so busy. How could he always have time to game with Yao Yao? Didn’t he just finish recording a variety show yesterday? Who knows where he’s rushing to today.”]
[“Yao Yao, let’s go! Who needs men anyway? Are men more important than games? Are men more fun than games?”]
The rest of Yao Yao’s fans quickly drowned out the CP fans’ comments. The CP fans knew their messages could be annoying, so they stopped sending more.
This made Shi Cha a bit sad.
He really wanted to say, You guys might not ship us, but I do! I’m totally satisfied!
Besides, who says men aren’t as fun as games?
Shi Cha’s face flushed again. He had so much fun playing with Lin Ran!
Meanwhile, Lin Ran had also gotten a notification that Shi Cha had gone live.
Ever since discovering that Shi Cha was “Chun Yao,” Lin Ran had followed the streamer.
Just as Shi Cha logged into the game and prepared to solo queue, a message popped up in his friends list.
Ding ding ding ding~
Shi Cha swiped over to check—and saw a very familiar avatar!
His mouse paused for a moment, then he nervously clicked the message open.
[Cha Buduo]: Long time no see. Want to queue together?
Would Shi Cha reject this invitation?
Of course not!
He was secretly delighted—Lin Ran had just left his place, and now they were bumping into each other in the game.
They really were fated!
[LR is the Best]: Queue.
He ended the sentence with a period to make himself seem a little less overly excited.
Shi Cha gave himself a mental thumbs-up for the subtle touch.
[LR is the Best]: I’m streaming right now—is that okay with you?
Out of courtesy, Shi Cha let him know about the livestream. Lin Ran was a public figure, after all, and although this was just his alt account, many netizens had already figured it out. If Lin Ran didn’t realize the stream was live and accidentally said something that got clipped and circulated, it could become a hassle for him.
Even though Shi Cha didn’t think Lin Ran would say anything problematic, it was still better to give a heads-up—just in case.
[Cha Buduo]: No problem.
[Cha Buduo]: Can we use voice chat?
Shi Cha paused for a second, then started typing:
[LR is the Best]: Sure.
He quickly put on his headphones, and a moment later, Lin Ran’s calm, deep voice came through them.
“Can you hear me?”
Before Shi Cha could reply, the chat exploded.
[“We can hear you! We can hear you! We can hear you!!! Aaaaahhhh!”]
[“Ssshhh ssshhh, recording has started—if you want sweet CP moments, follow the LinYao CP thread!”]
[“Hahaha! I knew my ship was real!”]
Shi Cha glanced at the CP-shipping comments, and a blush crept up his face. Unconsciously, his voice softened too.
The gentle voice of a young man replied, “Mm, I can hear you.”
But not everyone in the chat was pleased with that voice.
[“Yao Yao, I want to hear that fake cutesy voice you used the first time you queued with Ran Shen!”]
[“Signed by ten thousand fans in blood—please bring back the classic!”]
[“Bring back the classic! Please!!”]
[…]
Shi Cha: “…” These people really just want to stir the pot.
But it had been a while since Shi Cha had let loose online.
And having just seen Lin Ran today had him in a really good mood. Taking advantage of the fact that Lin Ran didn’t know his real identity, the impulse to stir up trouble began to rise.
He glanced at the chat. The high-pitched girly voice he used before was definitely off the table now.
Shi Cha cleared his throat. “Ran Shen, my viewers in the stream are asking me to switch personas, so from here on, my voice might sound a little different.”
Lin Ran: “…Okay.”
So the livestream audience—and Lin Ran—soon heard the voice of a young boy.
“Brother Ran~ I’m gonna start queuing now~”
It was clean and crisp, sweetly naive, and hard to tell if it was male or female—sounding like a child of about seven or eight.
Lin Ran’s body stiffened slightly. Suddenly, a memory flashed in his mind—of a seven-year-old calling him, “Brother Lin Ran~.”
But that voice back then was a little colder than this soft, playful tone.
Back then…
“Brother Ran~ the game’s started, why aren’t you moving?”
Shi Cha’s voice pulled Lin Ran out of the memory.
“…Alright, I’m coming.”
“Brother Ran~ I’ll go jungle first. Once I hit level three, I’ll help you gank mid.”
“…Okay.”
Meanwhile, a flood of Lin Ran’s fans were also flocking to the stream as word got out.
Since Lin Ran wasn’t streaming, if fans wanted to watch him play, they had no choice but to come to Shi Cha’s stream.
[“What a joke. Does Ran Shen even need jungle support? He can dominate his lane solo. This streamer clearly has no idea what he’s doing.”]
However, in-game, Lin Ran didn’t crush his opponent as his fans expected.
Instead, he calmly farmed the minion wave, trading blows with his lane opponent in a slow-paced back-and-forth, showing no signs of overwhelming aggression.
Only after Shi Cha hit level three did they coordinate a gank and send the enemy mid-laner back to base—Lin Ran even gave the first kill to Shi Cha.
Shi Cha happily commented, “I’ll take this one for now. The next kill is for Brother Ran~”
The chat burst into laughter.
[Enemy team]: Do you guys even take us seriously? Are we just your walking piggy banks now?!
But with strong synergy between mid and jungle, they easily supported the top and bottom lanes too—steadily expanding their lead and turning the enemy jungle into their own XP farm.
Unsurprisingly, Shi Cha and Lin Ran led the team straight to victory, pushing all the way to the enemy’s base.
After that, Shi Cha played a few more games with Lin Ran, until it reached the end of his promised stream time. Only then did he reluctantly say goodbye to Lin Ran.
But the first thing Shi Cha did after ending the stream was open the “Lingao CP” supertopic on Weibo.
Sure enough, a new post had already been made.
Scrolling through on his phone, Shi Cha grinned from ear to ear.
If you want content, you’ve got to make it yourself!
Then he used his alt account—the one with Lin Ran added on WeChat—to send him a message:
“Thanks for letting me take so many kills today, Brother Ran. Next time, I’ll let you take just as many. No—more than that.”
On Lin Ran’s end, his phone pinged with a WeChat notification.
He glanced over—and saw the message came from Shi Cha’s alt account.
The corners of Lin Ran’s lips lifted into a smile. He really keeps his main and alt accounts well separated.
He thought of what Shi Jian had said earlier—that Shi Cha had been in a much better state these past three months.
And he had looked into it—this streamer named “Chun Yao” had only started streaming three months ago.
The online persona of Chun Yao was very different from the real Shi Cha.
Chun Yao was cheerful and outgoing, happily indulging fans with harmless requests and frequently pulling silly antics for entertainment.
But the real Shi Cha was quiet, reserved, and anxious about social interaction.
Thinking about that, the smile on Lin Ran’s face faded just a little.
Of course, he couldn’t expose Shi Cha’s identity, so he replied on WeChat:
“Alright, I’ll remember that. Don’t go back on your word.”
As soon as Shi Cha heard the ding~ from his phone, he quickly opened the message and replied with a smile:
“I definitely won’t forget!”
He tossed his phone aside, hugged a pillow tightly, and rubbed his face against it, suddenly realizing that interacting with Lin Ran online felt much easier than dealing with him in real life.