Chapter 34 – Zero One
Cheng Ming hung up the phone and entered the room. Cheng Che obediently sat at the table and waited for him without moving.
His body didn’t move, and the box of chocolates didn’t move either.
He forced a bitter smile and said, “Um, where were we?”
“It’s… signing, signing the contract. This is my team, the one I can trust… the investment won’t, won’t incur losses,” Cheng Che said, his voice getting quieter and he dejectedly lowered his head.
No losses, but also not much profit… Besides, even if they put all their chips on the table, it wouldn’t make much difference considering their current situation.
It’s just five million, saying it like this makes me seem small-minded.
As a big businessman, Cheng Ming wouldn’t even spare a glance at such a project.
But as a father, it was a perfect opportunity to improve his relationship with his son.
Cheng Ming wanted to seize this opportunity. “Um, I understand. I believe in you.”
Cheng Che looked up in disbelief. “Then…”
“I’ll invest in you… as a shareholder, right?” Cheng Ming asked.
“Yes… yes, yes,” Cheng Che nodded vigorously.
The contract was signed smoothly.
Cheng Ming readily let him use the office printer to print three copies of the contract, sign and stamp them unilaterally. Then he asked Cheng Che to return to the DCT side to have them sign.
“I… when I go back, I’ll send another copy.”
“No need, you can keep one for yourself,” Cheng Ming said.
Cheng Ming wrote a check for five million and handed it to him. “Give the investment money to them, and the rest is your pocket money… is it enough?”
Cheng Che replied, “It’s more than enough.”
Fifty thousand yuan, equivalent to his half-year salary at TG.
“I wanted to contact you and send you money during your long absence, but I thought this was a good opportunity for you to gain experience, so I didn’t interfere with your affairs,” his father explained.
“Um.” Cheng Che knew that it was wise not to offend someone when you need their help. He put on a serious expression, pretending to listen attentively.
“Now look at you, you’ve really grown up a lot.”
Cheng Ming stood up and ruffled his hair, smiling… well, it was hard to describe, a mix of pretending to be kind and not quite managing it.
In Cheng Che’s memory, he was strict and cold… an almost ruthless businessman.
He demanded perfection in everything, striving to control everything in his own hands.
Winning step by step, never giving up until the goal was achieved.
Father and son shared a deep bond, and Cheng Che knew exactly what his father was going to say next. Undoubtedly, it would be words of praise, followed by encouragement to return and learn to manage the family business and so on.
“Almost eighteen now, a brave and intelligent adult, and you already have the ability to manage company affairs… well, I won’t force you, I just want to ask, when you have spare time from competitions… can you come back and visit?”
After Cheng Ming finished speaking, he looked into Cheng Che’s eyes, but for the first time, he realized that he couldn’t understand his son.
In those pair of deep blue eyes inherited from his mother, there was a mist that made it impossible for anyone to see through.
A thick fog surrounded them, heavy with unspoken thoughts.
Cheng Che nodded in response to his request and handed in his resignation.
Cheng Ming had originally wanted to invite him for a meal, but seeing his son’s firm attitude and his businesslike approach, he had no choice but to let him go.
“Remember to take some candy.”
He wore a neatly tailored suit, but he had canvas shoes on…
Just a child.
Cheng Che returned to the club with the contract and chocolates, pushing open the door to the living room where Wu You and the others looked at him like a group of cats.
“We…we’ve signed the contract. The six of us here…um, we all need to sign our names on it.” Cheng Che took out the contract from his backpack and raised it towards them.
“Brother Che is amazing!”
Wu You led the applause, and Liu Ying followed along, clapping as well.
Phantom smiled a little.
“I’ll go get the pens and the team’s seal!” Brother Feng almost immediately ran back to the office.
Waking up to the news that Cheng Che had taken the preview contract out, Lin Xingling worried for a while and didn’t dare to send a message to disturb him.
Now the child finally appeared safely before his eyes, and he first let out a sigh of relief, then almost immediately rushed to Cheng Che’s side.
“You’ve worked hard.”
The contract didn’t matter, as long as he was back.
Lin Xingling felt strange. Clearly, the child had only been out for a while and wouldn’t encounter any danger, but he couldn’t help but worry.
Even if he liked this person…it shouldn’t be like this, right?
“Not…not hard, um.” Cheng Che waved his hand, “Let’s…submit it to KPL after signing.”
Hmm? Wearing a suit?
Although in his previous life he had seen Cheng Che wear a suit to receive awards, that was after he grew up, arrogant and full of sharpness, unlike now…so obedient and cute.
Lin Xingling carefully looked at him, feeling a lot of emotions in his heart.
Cheng Che took out the box of chocolates his father had given him from his backpack and handed it to him. “Candy…”
The box of chocolates was heart-shaped…he didn’t notice when his father gave it to him.
Fortunately, Lin Xingling didn’t care about these things at all and called Liu Ying and the others to take them and eat.
Cheng Che let out a silent sigh of relief.
Lin Xingling noticed the iced tea in his bag.
‘Old man’ raised an eyebrow and started nagging again, “I’ve told you not to drink beverages, drink more plain water, plain water is healthy.”
As he spoke, he took out his phone and searched for the benefits of drinking plain water, not only for Cheng Che to see, but also for Wu You and the others to see.
“I don’t want to see, I don’t want to see the turtle laying eggs.” Wu You laughed and covered his eyes.
Liu Ying: “I know, I know.”
No matter what you say, my answer is just “I know”.
Phantom still didn’t say anything.
Cheng Che quickly changed the subject. “Let’s…sign the contract, quickly!”
Just then, Brother Feng came out with the pen and the seal, and he strongly agreed with his words, “Quick, quick, come over and sign.”
The party of the first part was the six members of the DCT team, and the party of the second part was Cheng, the general manager of Da Jiang TV…the contract had no problems and was legally binding.
Cheng Che explained that he was a relative from his hometown, which allowed him to avoid being questioned by Brother Feng like checking his household registration.
After signing and stamping, Brother Feng took the keys to the electric scooter and went downstairs, saying that he would personally deliver the physical copy after sending the electronic version.
Anyway, the headquarters of the league was not far away, and he had acquaintances among the organizers.
Everyone accompanied him downstairs to see him off on the scooter. Immersed in the excitement of solving the problem, they were full of joy.
“Brother Che is our benefactor, and also a genius teenager, um…what else can Brother Che be?” (Ying)
“Is Brother Che Cardcaptor Sakura[mfn]
[/mfn]?” (You)
Cheng Che shook his head, “What kind of…shoujo manga protagonist, I don’t want to be.”
“…That makes sense.” (Ying)
“Then I’ll be Syaoran Li[mfn]
[/mfn], Brother Ying can be Tomoyo[mfn]
[/mfn], Brother Feng can be Touya[mfn]
[/mfn]…what about Xiao Pei?” (You)
Cheng Che:…
“What are you two talking about? It’s so ridiculous!”
“Xiao Pei…uh, Xiao Pei doesn’t know, the captain is Kero[mfn]
[/mfn], hahaha, always protecting Sakura! (Ying)”
“In that case, Brother Ying will have to find time to catch up on the manga, right? (You)”
The three of them chattered like three fluffy little fat birds.
Cute and lively, full of joy.
Upstairs, everyone spontaneously organized and played five matches all afternoon, and then each played their own peak matches in the evening.
Lin Xingling was still there at almost eleven o’clock on time, intercepting Cheng Che.
“It’s too late, it’s time to sleep.”
[“Your dad is here again”]
[“Hahaha, Dad Star is so punctual, love it”]
[“Clear: I used to be in the top twenty before the peak matches, now I’m in the top two thousand”]
[“The anchor’s dad has come online, all water friends quickly disperse”]
“Um, let me finish this round.”
Cheng Che quickly started a game and clicked ‘confirm’.
Lin Xingling sat next to him and watched.
Cheng Che locked in Liu Bei [mfn]
[/mfn] as the jungle role.
Liu Bei: “Put on the boots, feels like flying~”
Lin Xingling:…
Cheng Che reached out to grab the iced tea on the table.
Lin Xingling: !!!
“Why another bottle? Didn’t you finish the one you brought back in the afternoon?” Lin Xingling slapped his hand away.
Cheng Che pouted, “That, that bottle was another one… I, I changed it.”
Without waiting for further argument, he snatched the drink back and unscrewed the lid. “Hey! It’s… another bottle.”
“No, let me see.” Lin Xingling took the lid and put on his glasses to carefully examine it. Indeed, it was another bottle.
Wasn’t his luck a bit too good?
“How many ‘another bottles’ is this?”
“Three… no, four.” Cheng Che answered somewhat guiltily.
[“Another billion bottles”]
[“The probability of winning this is amazing”]
[“It’s like seeing my mom not letting me drink”]
[“Stars used to be my cold and aloof male god, now Stars is my dad”]
Afraid that Lin Xingling would forbid him from drinking again, Cheng Che quickly took a sip and placed the iced tea on Liu Ying’s table to his left.
He operated the game with both hands. “Enough, let’s start the game.”
This game turned out to be a collision between the top and jungle players on the same team.
[Peak Summoner 2 (Gong Sun Li): Xiao Pei, look at me!]
[Peak Summoner 2 (Gong Sun Li): [Li Xin[mfn]
[/mfn] is alive]]
[Peak Summoner 2 (Gong Sun Li): [Requesting support on the road]]
Wu You was really good at creating a live streaming effect.
Not only in his own live streaming room, but also in Phantom’s and Cheng Che’s.
[Peak Summoner 1 (Li Xin):…]
[“Pang Shen has taken over Stars’ mantle”]
[“Want to see the cold and aloof male god guiding @DCT-Phantom”]
[“I see the cold and aloof male god’s little wife”]
[“This game, Phantom is Peak Summoner 1, and UU is Peak Summoner 0”]
While waiting for the monster to respawn, Cheng Che glanced at the barrage and asked in confusion, “What… what’s this… Peak Summoner only goes from one to ten, there’s no zero.”
Peak Summoner 0… 0… 0???
He regretted saying those words as soon as they left his mouth. It turns out it’s zero… he didn’t realize it at the moment.
Having spent two years at the top of the professional circle in his past life, he had some understanding of terms like top and bottom.
He knew about it on a superficial level, didn’t discriminate, but also wasn’t interested.
While watching his live stream, Cheng Che played Peak Summoner 3 (Zhang Liang[mfn]
[/mfn]): I don’t know if there’s a zero in Peak Summoner, but I’m zero, search the whole internet for one.
The barrage went crazy:
[“Darling, you don’t understand, there are plenty of zeros~”]
[“I don’t know if there’s a zero in Peak Summoner, but I’m almost going crazy laughing”]
[“Cpdd, after Clear finishes, let me see Zhang Liang’s ID, I want to add him [witty][rose]”]
[“Helpless and hopeless, zeros everywhere”]
Cheng Che: This is really embarrassing now.
“Uh, what… what’s going on here?”
[“What’s going on here?”]
[“If you don’t know, you can search for it, there’s a surprise~”]
[“Listen to big sis, don’t search!!!”]
“How do I use this room management privilege? Ah! Found it! The ban option is here!… Everyone watching the live stream, be careful. The internet is not a lawless place, choose your words wisely.”
Lin Xingling’s voice came from the side, sounding like an emperor giving a comedy performance, and he voluntarily logged out and logged back in.
Cheng Che pursed his lips and thought that Lin Xingling had really helped him this time.
With him managing the live streaming room, hmm… it’s not bad.
[“Stars as the room manager, very prestigious”]
[“Wuwuwu, Clear is too amazing, I want to raise his offspring, want to invest in Mom’s fandom, but with Dad Star as the father, I dare not”]
[“Sisters, let’s become fans of our big sis together~”]
[” Dad Star is the father of the offspring, we are the offspring’s sisters!”]
[“Room Manager Stars: Support joining Big Sis’s fandom~”]
A feeling of an old father imitating young people for the sake of his son.
A purple barrage floated weakly:
[“Clear, remember, I’m looking for a zero… ah, I mean, Zhang Liang”]
Cheng Che controlled Liu Bei to take the red buff. “I, I got it. I’ll show you… show you his ID, um.”
[“Room Manager Stars: Little Cheng Cheng is really kind~”]
[“Little Cheng Cheng, learning! [Covering mouth][Witty]”]
[“Little Cheng Cheng is online playing matchmaker~”]
[” Dad Star… hey, we can be the moon, let’s call ourselves Moon Sisters!”]
[“Little Cheng Cheng Moon Sister [Dog’s head]”]
Cheng Che never expected that on the first day Lin Xingling became his room manager, not only did he give himself a nickname that allowed the viewers to mock him, but he also inspired a significant portion of female fans to come up with their own fan names.
Moon Sisters.
Normal viewers and male fans:
[“We are Moon Brothers”]
[“No, you guys can’t, I’m Moon Boss [Laughing and crying]”]
[“Have all those wife fans and girlfriend fans become Moon Sisters?”]
[“Alright, I’m turning off the barrage to focus on the gameplay”]
The atmosphere was peaceful for a while.
Cheng Che had the red buff down to half health when he was suddenly startled by what Wu You said on voice chat.
Wu You: “Xiao Pei, wait for me, I’ll come up to gank at level 2… ah, no, I’m the marksman… um, wait for me to farm well, then I’ll come find you.”
Ignoring me, huh? I’ll have to open the voice chat and say it to you… even though our rooms are just separated by a hallway.
[“Suddenly thought of Jie Ge: Let me take a look, how well are you farming!”]
[“What fierce words”]
[“Please teammates, cherish the broadcaster’s live streaming room”]
Phantom helplessly opened his mic, “Shut up and focus on the game.”
[Peak Summoner 4 (Liu Bei): [Well done]]
Lin Xingling clenched his fist and stood up, leaving the training room, leaving behind a determined silhouette in the live stream.
Purple barrage:
[“Where did Dad Star go?”]