Director: “First, Team FE’s head coach! Bai Chumin!”
“Boss! Boss!” the FE players shouted.
They were family after all. No matter how viciously their boss insulted them, when it was someone else’s stage, they still had to give him full support.
Director: “Next, coach of the national XG circuit! Also a domestic esports ambassador! Chen Mianhe!”
“This guy is insanely good! You know WQ? That national championship team? He coached them!”
Only after the venue quieted again did the director continue. “Our next coach is a wildly popular esports streamer! Millions of followers! Number one jungle power ranking on the entire server! You Zhi!”
The arena went silent for several seconds before a wave of shouts erupted.
“Daddy Zhi is here! Daddy Zhi was the one in the observation room!”
“AAAAAH, this little low-budget show actually knows how to pick guests! They got someone who can really play!”
“I knew it! That tone earlier sounded so familiar! That was You Zhi’s vicious follow-up-roast tone, hahahaha!”
You Zhi kept his usual style: oversized pink hoodie, hip-hop trousers jingling with pendants, and his pink hair now given a foil-perm texture that made him look slightly wicked.
He walked to center stage, bowed, took the microphone, and said, “Hello, everyone! I’m You Zhi! Also the esports streamer YourDaddyZhiIsSuperAwesome.”
The crowd shouted back, “Super awesome! Super awesome!”
The director put him on the giant screen.
The contestants were discussing excitedly, enthusiasm impossible to hide on their faces.
Only Shen Zichen, seated at the far edge of the first row, leaned back with a cool, almost icy expression that made it impossible to tell what he was thinking.
He instinctively looked toward Cub, who was still sitting in the stands.
Cub was staring fixedly in one direction, his clear eyes full of pure yearning.
Shen Zichen frowned slightly.
Fog PK was similar to a gunfight game. Each player chose three heroes and had only three lives. They searched for equipment in the fog, then fought freely; whoever survived to the end won.
You Zhi had played the mode several times when it first came out and understood the basic strategies.
Junglers were not especially favored in this mode. Stable damage output mattered more, so You Zhi chose two mage heroes and one ADC.
It had been far too long since You Zhi had experienced playing in a stadium with tens of thousands of people watching him. It was like a shot of adrenaline, sending him back in an instant to his previous world, to the years when he dominated the Rift.
Without realizing it, You Zhi began humming a song. “I want to go back to the past, at least let the story continue…”
Back to when their team had become gods on the international stage.
Back to when he still could not give birth…
Comments:
[Daddy Zhi is singing! It sounds so good!]
[Daddy Zhi, I’m literally crying! He looks exactly the same as on his platform stream camera, except even more refined in real-life photos!]
[Seriously didn’t expect him to be this handsome in person too! Who gets to fuck a guy this handsome?!]
You Zhi cleared jungle monsters quickly and soon found magic equipment. Then he camped by a corner conveyor to ambush people. Someone would definitely come through here, because the two maps could only be crossed using the conveyor.
He did not wait long before someone arrived.
You Zhi Flashed over, used a 2-1-3 combo, and instantly sent him away.
Early game was supposed to be for farming and building economy. Bai Chumin truly had not expected You Zhi to camp him there.
“You Zhi, this is seriously infuriating,” Bai Chumin said. He could not say what he really wanted to say, so he picked something broadcast-safe.
You Zhi snickered and immediately fled the battlefield. Bai Chumin still had two lives. This ambush had been pretty dirty, and Bai Chumin would probably come looking for revenge the moment he revived.
After that, You Zhi kept a lower profile, farming like mad and then camping people.
Farm. Camp someone. Farm. Camp someone…
The core principle: do not throw, develop cautiously, and be utterly shameless.
The other two were so angry their livers hurt, but they could not do anything about You Zhi.
You Zhi had very few limits. Every game required strategy, and he did not think there was anything wrong with camping people. If they were capable, they could simply stop him from catching them.
When the game ended, You Zhi unsurprisingly won.
He pushed his gaming chair backward and whistled at the other two. “Well?”
Bai Chumin gave a few fake laughs and raised his middle finger at him.
Chen Mianhe smiled without smiling and sarcastically gave him a thumbs-up.
[I just love how Daddy Zhi is so arrogant you want to punch him.]
[I’m dying. You Zhi basically never left a bush the entire game, hahahaha.]
[Imagine being the other two. I’d die of rage.]
[Whispering “Daddy Zhi is in the bush” into Bai Chumin’s ear at midnight would be horror-movie level, hahahaha.]
You Zhi needed to choose two team members. He had actually already decided.
He walked over to the contestants’ area.
The contestants greeted him.
“Teacher You.”
“Brother Zhi.”
You Zhi knew all of Bai Chumin’s FE players. Over the past few years, Bai Chumin had often asked him to give these kids guidance. You Zhi’s mouth was both vicious and merciless, so all five FE kids were afraid of him now.
“Don’t be nervous.” You Zhi scanned the group. He had already settled on his list. He snapped his fingers toward Qi Min. “I want you.”
Then he handed him the pink team badge. Qi Min was the professional top laner who had played fairly well earlier. You Zhi had watched his matches before. He was solid enough.
Qi Min took the badge without much expression and nodded.
You Zhi patted his shoulder, then continued choosing.
Some people were born to be the focus of attention. Shen Zichen was one of them. He could sit there doing absolutely nothing and still draw people’s eyes.
But this Best Actor seemed to have some kind of problem with him.
Everyone else greeted You Zhi naturally and familiarly. Only Shen Zichen leaned against the back of his chair. Compared with before, his expression had visibly darkened, and he stared straight toward the opposite stands without giving You Zhi so much as half a glance.
You Zhi raised a brow and walked over.
“Shen Zichen?” You Zhi stood in front of him and called his name.
Shen Zichen lifted his eyelids and looked at him. For an instant, the disgust in his eyes was impossible to hide. The camera did not catch it, but You Zhi did.
The corner of You Zhi’s eye lifted slightly. He did not remember ever offending this Best Actor. Unless at some point his mouth had run too freely and he had accidentally roasted him on a livestream?
You Zhi turned off his microphone so the production team could not record his voice.
He stepped closer, half-covering his mouth as he said, “Bro, watch yourself. You hate me way too obviously. We’re still recording. If the camera catches that, your whole ‘emotionally stable’ image is going to collapse.”
A trace of coldness flashed through Shen Zichen’s eyes. He tilted his body to the other side, widening the distance between them.
At that exact moment, a warm fragrance that made his whole body relax slipped into You Zhi’s breathing.
You Zhi had absolutely no idea how bold his next move was. He took a deep breath, the corner of his mouth lifting as he instinctively asked, “Teacher Shen, your pheromones smell really good. What scent are they?”
You Zhi did not think the question was particularly daring. Perhaps he had gotten too used to messing around with Jiang Ye and the others at the red-light district and simply said it out of habit.
Shen Zichen’s interlaced hands suddenly tightened. He looked at You Zhi with a new measure of scrutiny and enunciated through clenched teeth, “Stay. Away. From. Me.”
You Zhi froze for one second, then laughed through his nose. He braced one hand against the back of Shen Zichen’s chair and tapped his fingers against it one by one, his tone lazy.
“The more you say that, the more I want you.”
Shen Zichen looked at him in silence.
From the camera’s blind spot, no one could tell what the two were saying. They only knew they were standing extremely close—closer than a safe distance.
Comments: [Oh my god, what are they doing?! Daddy Zhi, come back! You seriously cannot afford to offend this one!]
You Zhi simply did not understand. He and Shen Zichen had only just met. Was there any need to give him that kind of face? Even if Shen Zichen had heard things about him before and disliked his character, shouldn’t he at least restrain himself in front of the cameras?
You Zhi was exactly the kind of person who loved provoking people and playing around. You want to give me attitude?
Fine. Then I’m choosing you on purpose. We can drag this out together.
“For my other pick, I want Shen Zichen.” You Zhi straightened up and stepped back several paces.
Shen Zichen almost immediately picked up the microphone and replied, “Can I refuse?”
Even the director was stunned.
You Zhi laughed from sheer irritation and looked himself up and down. What exactly about him rubbed this Best Actor the wrong way?
Or had his pheromones accidentally leaked? Did they smell so bad that Shen Zichen was disgusted?
“If you refuse, the contestant will enter the substitute group directly,” the director said.
“I refuse.” In front of the camera, Shen Zichen maintained a gentle and perfectly courteous expression throughout. He said calmly, “I’m not refusing because I have any opinion of Captain You. It is simply because I’m very aware that my own skill is poor, and I don’t want to affect the other contestants. Thank you for the invitation, Captain You.”
After that speech, the look in You Zhi’s eyes changed again and again as he stared at Shen Zichen.
He thought, Bro, you’re fucking good at acting. The way Shen Zichen had looked at him just now could not even be called dislike anymore. How much disgust did a person have to feel for it to break through professional expression control and land directly in You Zhi’s eyes?
Yet the man turned to the camera and gave an entirely different explanation.
“You…” You Zhi looked at him. A curse nearly slipped out before he forcibly swallowed it and pulled his mouth into a smile. “…You’re actually kind of considerate.”
Shen Zichen nodded to him.
You want to act? Fine. You Zhi would act with him.
In the end, You Zhi chose a support, Yu Xiang’an, one of the people who had performed fairly well earlier.
The other two mentors each chose two people in turn.
Originally, all three mentors had planned to choose Shen Zichen for the added exposure, but in the end Shen Zichen himself entered the substitute group.
Chen Mianhe won the second mentor match and chose two of the relatively stronger players.
You Zhi then chose one celebrity and one professional, while Bai Chumin picked two from those remaining.
The selection phase ended, and with that, recording for Episodes One and Two was complete.
Finally, everyone exchanged a few polite remarks and the director delivered a long closing speech.
Their variety show also counted as a reality show. The production team had prepared a large house converted from a former professional team base.
Throughout the program, they would spend their days at the base.
They would train, eat, and live there.
To protect privacy, the production team had installed cameras only in the third-floor training rooms. All other rooms were free-activity areas without cameras.
The contestants still had interviews to record. You Zhi and the other mentors finished theirs early, so the production team took them back to the base first.
You Zhi had been assigned an assistant who carried his luggage and accompanied him to his room.
According to the production team, his room was 207, around the corner on the second floor. Once upstairs, You Zhi dragged his luggage over and pushed the door open.
The moment the door opened, he found himself staring directly at a little kid standing on the gaming chair beside the bed.
The kid wore overalls and a tiger hat, hugged a toy keyboard, tilted his head at You Zhi, and blinked.
You Zhi made a surprised sound, backed out, and checked the room number again.
207… This was the right room.
The assistant came up, stopped dead when he saw the scene, and made the same surprised sound.
He looked at You Zhi, then at the kid. “Brother Zhi, when did you start raising a miniature version of yourself?”
Cub jumped down from the gaming chair, walked over, circled You Zhi once, then hugged his leg. “Daddy! I finally found youuu!”
A chill ran through You Zhi’s entire body.
