Opening the car door, Zong Cheng happened to catch a glimpse of the expression on Yin Chen’s face.
Curious, he asked, “You look pretty happy?”
Was it because they were going out for hot pot?
Did Yin Chen really like hot pot that much?
A trace of amusement flickered through Zong Cheng’s eyes.
Yin Chen looked up at him, completely justified. “Yeah. I even made plans with Lin Yuhan to have hot pot together tomorrow!”
Double the happiness!
Just thinking about it felt amazing.
Zong Cheng slowly typed a question mark in his head.
Yin Chen made plans with Lin Yuhan?
So was he happy because he was having hot pot with him, or because of Lin Yuhan?
The joy he had been feeling instantly dropped by half.
Zong Cheng’s expression stiffened slightly.
His voice came out a little strained. “You’re that happy to have hot pot with him?”
Yin Chen glanced at him, looking baffled. “Wouldn’t you be happy having hot pot with me?”
No way.
Then why did Zong Cheng ask him out to cook?
Wait, what?
How did this topic suddenly turn back on him?
Zong Cheng snapped out of his gloom and immediately grew alert. He answered at once, “Of course I’d be happy! I’m really happy.”
He paused, and then inspiration struck.
“I was even thinking about having dinner with you again tomorrow.”
“Huh?”
Yin Chen froze. “But I already made plans with Lin Yuhan tomorrow…”
He sounded a little regretful.
If Zong Cheng had said something just a little earlier, he would not have needed to ask Lin Yuhan!
After a moment of thought, his eyes suddenly lit up.
“Then how about the day after tomorrow?”
He was free the day after tomorrow! So smart!
Zong Cheng choked back his words.
A little helpless, he still nodded. “All right.”
Outwardly he agreed, but inwardly he was already scheming.
Maybe tomorrow night he could try updating three times?
If he dropped several updates while Yin Chen was eating, would Yin Chen’s attention get pulled back to him?
Running through the plan in his head, Zong Cheng secretly calculated the timing.
In that case, he might as well skip tonight’s scheduled update!
After all, he was having dinner with Yin Chen tonight and watching the scrim. He could just move tonight’s update to tomorrow. Wouldn’t that be perfect?
With a plan in place, Zong Cheng’s smile returned.
The place he brought Yin Chen to was pretty nice—quiet and tucked away, but with a warm, lively atmosphere.
Yin Chen curiously reached up and fiddled with the strings of dried red chili peppers hanging overhead, following Zong Cheng into their private room.
The room was small, just right for the two of them to sit across from each other.
“I’ll go order. You can use the tablet to watch the livestream first,” Zong Cheng said.
“Okay.”
Yin Chen nodded, casually pulling out the tablet and opening the livestream.
Zong Cheng watched him for a few seconds before heading toward the kitchen.
Some arrangements had to be changed quickly—for tomorrow, and for the future!!!
As soon as Yin Chen entered the livestream, his airborne ID immediately caught a lot of attention.
You have got to be kidding.
Because of a careless remark from ZWG’s Spider King, the entire team had nearly been bought out!
Who did not recognize this big-spender sponsor now?
Still, since it was only a scrimmage, both teams were competing from their own bases.
Many viewers sighed in regret. If only this were a regular season match or some other official event with live cameras, that would have been so much better.
At the ZWG team base.
Vice-captain Feng Jingshuo nudged the Spider King beside him, his tone light. “Look, the big boss who said he was going to buy out ZWG just joined the stream.”
The Spider King was still making preparations. Hearing that, his face darkened. “Why the hell do you care about him?”
Feng Jingshuo spread his hands. “I do not. I just saw people in your chat telling you to look, so I thought I would kindly let you know.”
His eyes narrowed slightly as he spoke, looking every bit like a good guy.
The Spider King snapped at him. “Why the hell are you listening to those idiots? If you have that kind of time, you should be getting ready. Do not let that secondhand reject beat you. Where would ZWG’s pride go then?”
He paused, his gaze carrying a hint of something else.
“You have not trained much lately, have you?”
“What, you do not even have that much confidence?” Feng Jingshuo shot back instead of answering.
“Ha. I am definitely fine. You are the one who has been going wild with the captain lately, right?”
The Spider King curled his lip. “You two better rein it in. If the coach or the manager finds out, you will be in serious trouble.”
“What is there to be afraid of?”
There was no smile in Feng Jingshuo’s eyes. “The fans were just a little too enthusiastic. The captain and I just ‘paid a few extra visits.’ What can they do about that?”
One per week counted as just a few extra visits?
The Spider King looked at Feng Jingshuo’s somewhat handsome profile and said nothing.
It would be a lie to say he was not a little envious, but with his own looks…
“Get ready. Match time. Everyone focus.”
The captain, Qi Gaochang, suddenly appeared behind them and clapped each of them on the shoulder.
“You two are both playing this round. Be prepared.”
“Got it.”
The Spider King answered without even turning his head.
Feng Jingshuo, however, glanced back at Qi Gaochang.
There was a lofty arrogance in the captain’s eyes.
“I heard he is playing today too. Since it is being livestreamed, let everyone see why our ZWG threw him away.”
Oh?
Interest immediately flickered in Feng Jingshuo’s eyes, and he nodded.
Meanwhile, at the BZ team base—
“Hey, you—and Brother Zhuo, too. How about later we…”
Tang Chen beckoned to Zhang Taining and Zhuo Fan. Between one dark expression and one curious face, he whispered something to them.
The other three players who were set to compete all froze after hearing him out.
Tang Chen looked at them and lowered his voice. “What do you think? No matter what, I feel like we have to let ZWG taste a bit of our strength today.”
“But… is that really a good idea?”
Zhuo Fan hesitated.
Zhang Taining shrugged. “I do not care either way.”
Another teammate grinned. “Sure. I will coordinate with you guys.”
“Then it is settled!”
Tang Chen instantly grew excited and held out his hand.
“First match, everyone—let’s go!”
“Let’s go!”
The stream was hosted on DYX’s official channel. Unlike last time, when BZ had held an internal face-off within their own team, this time the entire DYX platform had put in serious effort to monitor the broadcast, ensuring that the flood of users would not experience lag or crashes.
DYX had even invited two commentators for this scrimmage: Huopao, a well-known loudmouth in the industry who called himself the Strongest King, and Little Sweet Pepper, beautiful with a sweet voice, who had once joined a professional team and won numerous individual MVP titles.
The moment the two appeared, the viewers were stunned.
[What the hell! Is this really just a scrim? This casting lineup is insane. And Little Sweet Pepper’s market price is pretty high now, right? She is not easy to book.]
[Are you questioning the sponsor’s money power? Someone who can casually say he will buy ZWG cannot afford these two?]
[I am so jealous, so jealous, so jealous.]
Watching the stream, Yin Chen raised an eyebrow slightly.
That comment was pretty interesting. Smart, too.
Exactly. This sponsor right here was just that rich.
Huopao lived up to his “Strongest King” title, speaking at lightning speed as he introduced the current situation to the audience.
“I believe anyone tuning in today already knows about the recent story between ZWG and BZ. I will skip the unnecessary chatter. On ZWG’s side, today’s confirmed lineup is ZWG-FD, ZWG-Spider King, ZWG-Zhemei, and ZWG-DIY. Among them, FD is the vice-captain, and as for Spider King, everyone has probably heard about the ‘buying ZWG’ incident from a few days ago, so I will not go into that.”
“On BZ’s side, we have BZ-Stars and Seas, BZ-NDW, BZ-Zhuo Fan, and BZ-Jack. A few days ago, the face-off between Stars and Seas and NDW already showcased their strength. Zhuo Fan, meanwhile, used to be an official member of ZWG. As for the last player, Jack, I do not have any data on him yet. I assume he is a newcomer, just like Stars and Seas.”
[You are just telling us what we already know. Say something new.]
[I do not want to hear the Strongest King’s broken gong voice. Where is Little Sweet Pepper? Why is she not talking?]
Little Sweet Pepper quickly picked up the conversation.
“We can see that both teams have already confirmed their departure and are now on the plane. The question is, where will they choose to land? This is just a standard scrimmage, so besides our two teams, there may also be other players in the same match.”
“Also, since this is being livestreamed, there is a possibility that regular players watching the stream might try to snipe our competitors.”
Her tone was not particularly pleasant when she said that. Sitting beside her, Huopao shot her several sympathetic looks.
Back in the day, Little Sweet Pepper had too many male fans. Quite a few of them, frustrated in love, would deliberately snipe her in-game and then confess afterward. Apparently, she still had not gotten over those experiences.
[Let’s be real—stream snipers are the worst.]
[? That is a bit much. What if someone just happened to queue into the same game normally?]
[Does not matter. If you snipe, you are trash.]
Stream sniping?
Yin Chen tapped his fingers lightly on the table.
He and Zong Cheng had been accused of that before, too. It seemed to mean deliberately matching into the same game and using the stream to gain information in order to kill someone.
A pretty low-class tactic.
Unless someone had ulterior motives, it was hard to imagine doing something like that.
Just as he was thinking about it, Zong Cheng returned.
“You took a while to order.”
Yin Chen said it offhandedly. Zong Cheng’s body stiffened.
?
Yin Chen suddenly paused as well. His gaze shifted away from the screen, and he leaned closer to Zong Cheng, sniffing a few times.
Zong Cheng’s stiff body practically turned to stone. His breathing grew slightly hurried.
What—what was Yin Chen doing?
“You smell amazing!”
Yin Chen exclaimed in admiration. He leaned back to look at Zong Cheng, his eyes full of astonishment.
“R-Really? It is probably the new cologne I just got…”
All that time he had spent personally sampling fragrances until he nearly got a headache had not been in vain!
Zong Cheng’s heart raced. His fingers lightly brushed along the seam of his pants, his voice turning buoyant.
The next second, Yin Chen’s exclamation shattered his fantasy.
“What hot pot base is this? It smells so good already! You really did not lie to me!”
Zong Cheng truly was an honest and wonderful person!
Tonight was definitely going to be amazing!
Yin Chen thought happily.
?
Smells good?
What smelled good?
Zong Cheng petrified.
Zong Cheng gradually crumbled into dust in the wind.
He was so stupid.
Truly.
If they were coming to eat hot pot, why had he even bothered with cologne and humiliated himself?
In this world, was there really any fragrance that could defeat the smell of hot pot?
Wake up!!!