He paused momentarily while holding the headphones before he sat down in front of the computer screen full of barrage comments.
âWhere is he.â Lu Boyuanâs voice was even more hoarse than it had been during the interview.
[Ahhhh husband TAT!!!]
[Thank you to the heavens and earth and god for making me open StarTV at 4 AM!]
[When I saw that God Lu was still this handsome despite his hair being so damn messy, I couldnât help but get out of bed and check myself out in the mirror. Now Iâve done it, Iâm so ugly I canât fall back asleep.]
[Dunno, he said he went to wash his hands, he probably got snatched away by a ghost in the bathroom.]
[God Lu, are you feeling better? Soft said you had a low fever⌠judging from your complexion, you seem to have recovered a bit?]
[Husband howâd your eyes become monolids, youâre even more handsome now 5551]
Lu Boyuan narrowed his eyes and read the barrage for a while.
Most likely to prevent sleepiness, Jian Rong had turned up the brightness very high on his monitor.
Lu Boyuan lifted a hand and adjusted the monitor to a suitable brightness before he answered a random comment, âThe fever went down, donât worry.â
Jian Rongâs computer desktop was very chaotic. The LoL client, stream barrage helper, LoL lottery window, and music software were all open at the same time, layered atop one another; it was enough to make someone dizzy looking at it.
Lu Boyuan glanced over the lottery interface before he opened the inventory.
After drawing from a LoL web event, you still had to go to your inventory and accept the skins in order for them to actually be sent to your game account. Because Jian Rong wasnât able to pull the one that he wanted, he hadnât accepted a single skin.
Seeing the excessive number of pages for the available skins, Lu Boyuan lifted an eyebrow in surprise.
Jian Rong didnât like squandering money, and he basically never bought any of the newly released skins. Even when he occasionally ordered takeout, it would always be the simplest set meal, let alone spending money on pulling skins.
Every time Xiao Bai duo queued with Jian Rong, he would roast Jian Rong for being contradictory; Jian Rong was reluctant to even buy a 45 yuan skin, but he was more than happy to smash a hundred thousand yuan of gifts on Lu Boyuan. When Jian Rong was in a good mood, he would insult him back a bit. If he was in a bad mood, he would abandon Xiao Bai and go solo queue on his own.
Lu Boyuanâs thoughts were getting sidetracked. He snapped out of it and roughly calculated how many skins Jian Rong had pulled altogether.
With the total amount of skins⌠it probably cost at least three to five thousand yuan.
Players who participated in this kind of lottery event usually had their own goals in mind.
Lu Boyuan glanced at the prize pool and asked, âWhat does he want to pull?â
[Do you even need to ask? Of course itâs your TTC Lee Sin.]
[TTC Lee Sin.]
[TTC Lee Sin.]
TTC Lee Sin was the name of Lu Boyuanâs championship skin.
Lu Boyuan leaned back in Jian Rongâs chair and nodded. âBut this skin⌠doesnât it come back every year?â
Sets of skins that came out in previous years would come back and be purchasable for a limited amount of time in the current year. For example, near the Christmas season, âSnowdown Showdownâ skins would return for sale; during Valentineâs Day, âValentineâs Dayâ skins would go on sale againâlikewise, every year around Worlds, all the championship skins from the previous years would be available for a limited time.
[Oh thatâs rightâŚâŚâŚâŚâŚ itâs over, I got too into watching the little dumbass pull skins, forgot to remind him.]
[Itâs only February right now, how long would you have to wait for them to go back on sale? What my son has is money, anything he can resolve by spending money, he definitely wonât delay it until the second half of the year!]
[Itâs over itâs over, Iâm the person who told him to go pull in the lottery. I didnât think that he wouldnât be able to draw the skin even after spending 5,000 yuan⌠what to do, this dumbass wonât kick me out in a fit of anger, right?]
[Itâs fine, the little dumbass will get super rich this year, he isnât lacking that 5k.]
[What the hell do you all know, is the little dumbass trying to pull a skin? No, heâs pulling Roadâs heart!]
[The little dumbass doesnât even have many LeBlanc skins on this account, yet he furiously smashed a glorious 5,000 yuan for TTC Lee Sin. It gives off a bit of the same feeling as when he was smashing gifts on Road last time.]
[Wonât say anything else, my bros who understand, type it out in the barrage.]
[Understood]
[Understood]
âŚ
After more or less understanding the situation, Lu Boyuan opened up the game assistant, wanting to check Jian Rongâs detailed match history for the night.
Just now, he had only swept a cursory glance over it. Jian Rong was the MVP for over half of the matches on the page, and his most frequently played champion was Fizz, the one that he hadnât played well earlier that day.
Right as Lu Boyuan finished looking over the stats from the first game, his phone chimed.
Lu Boyuan lowered his head and checked his phone before he minimized the game assistant and picked an inoffensive barrage comment to answer.
âHis performance today? âŚit was okay, not bad, canât be considered as dragging down the team. Softâs playing style is aggressive, so itâs very normal for him not to do well against a slow-paced team like Fighting Tiger. Was I satisfied?â Lu Boyuan gave a tiny huff of laughter before he said lazily, âItâs not important whether I was satisfied or not. But he most likely isnât very satisfied with himself, or else he wouldnât have played Fizz for the entire night.â
After he said that, Lu Boyuan opened the lotteryâs purchase interface and scanned his payment QR code in front of a screen full of question marks.
Once Lu Boyuan finished buying the event tokens needed for the lottery, he stood up and left without saying goodbye to the water friends in the stream.
Lu Boyuan took out a bottle of spring water from the second floor fridge and had just gone back upstairs when his phone chimed again.
[PUD, XIU: Whatcha doing not sleeping this late at night and running over to your newcomerâs stream instead.]
[PUD, XIU: You there? My newly created side account also wants to pull a TTC Lee Sin skin.]
[R: Keep dreaming then.]
[PUD, XIU: Haha. Thanks to you, I encountered a whole heap of Graves tonight in ranked, I climbed quite a bit.]
[PUD, XIU: Ai my wrist hurts a lot, we had to call the doctor over to our base in the middle of the night for acupuncture⌠howâve you been doing lately?]
The older professional players all had occupational diseases. XIUâs tendons were severely inflamed and a large portion of his muscles were strained, in addition to his waist injury. Precisely because of this, the news of him retiring soon had started spreading ever since last year.
[R: Pretty good.]
[PUD, XIU: Thatâs good, recently I just got put in touch with a doctor who I heard was not bad. Iâll try it out first and if the results are good, Iâll recommend them to you.]
[R: OK]
[PUD, XIU: Oh right, speaking of which, forward me Softâs WeChat.]
[R: ?]
[PUD, XIU: Hey, Savior asked me for it, he said he wants to have some friendly communication with Soft.]
[R: Wants to solo with Jian Rong?]
After being exposed by Lu Boyuan, XIU replied with a smiling emoji.
[R: They can just communicate at the stadium, or tell Savior to get the account from Jian Rong himself the next time they meet.]
[PUD, XIU: âŚ]
[PUD, XIU: Dude, I feel like somethingâs a little weird about you.]
[R: ?]
[PUD, XIU: Arenât you a bit too protective of your teamâs mid laner?]
Lu Boyuan paused as he was drinking his water.
[PUD, XIU: I could tell just from todayâs match. I was even wondering why youâd accept the interview when you were that sick, but then you went up and bambambam cleared the blame from your teamâs mid laner.]
[PUD, XIU: Donât try to deny it, weâre already old buddies. As for the most effective words to say in every situation, brothers understand best. Purchasing tokens for him to pull skins with, even in the middle of the night, and now youâre not even willing to give his WeChatâŚ]
Lu Boyuan twisted the cap back on the bottle. The icy liquid slid down his throat, leaving behind a feeling of comforting relief.
[R: Didnât deny it.]
XIU choked when he saw Lu Boyuanâs three word reply, and he deleted the chunk of text that he was typing out for quite a while.
[PUD, XIU: Whatâs going on?]
[R: Nothingâs going on.]
[R: Cherishing the teamâs newcomer, is that not enough?]
[PUD, XIU: I didnât see you cherish Xiao Bai or the rest ah.]
[R: I did, you just didnât see it]
[PUD, XIU: If Xiao Bai saw that, he would feel extremely wronged]
[PUD, XIU: Thereâs really nothing going on between you two?]
Lu Boyuan chuckled.
[R: How old are you again, gossip less. Thereâs nothing going on between us.]
[R: At least, not right now.]
After sending that text, Lu Boyuan ignored XIUâs flood of â?â and put his phone on silent before dropping it on the table.
â
Jian Rong returned to the practice room, holding a cup of coffee in his hands. As he shut the door with his foot, he glanced over the barrage and said, astonished, âIt actually didnât give me a warning for idling?â
StarTV had a strict system. If a streamer left their computer for longer than a specified time period, an idle warning would pop up. After some more time passed, the system would forcibly shut down the livestream room.
[Come come come, let Dad see just what kind of noble and precious hands you have in order for you to wash them for over ten freaking minutes.]
[Dad was worried that something happened to you, so I helped call the police for you, you can explain the situation to them yourself when the police get to your base in a bit.]
âI was thirsty after I finished washing my hands, so I wanted to pour myself a cup of water. I also checked out the baseâs coffee machine.â
Done explaining, Jian Rong picked up his coffee and took a small sip, which caused his face to instantly crinkle.
[Are you still gonna pull? Been waiting for so long.]
[Howâs the coffee?]
It tasted a hundred times worse than the coffee that Lu Boyuan had made.
âTastes bad.â Jian Rong endured the bitterness and gulped down half the cup in one go before he set it down to the side. âPull. Wait for me to add some more money.â
With the ease of practice, Jian Rong moved his mouse over to the âpurchaseâ button before he suddenly saw that there was actually a string of numbers following behind the token balance on the leftâ100,000.
?
Jian Rong stared blankly for a moment⌠before he slowly leaned in towards the screen to count the zeroes.
After counting the number over and over again five times, he confirmed that there were indeed 100,000 tokens, which converted into 10,000 yuan.
The entire time he was counting the zeroes, Jian Rongâs mouth was slightly open, but it didnât close even after he finished counting them.
A long pause later, he mumbled quietly, ââŚdid Tencent bug out?â
The water friends, who had plotted together in advance, spammed out countless commentsâ
[Congratulations! Youâre the 5,200,000th lucky player to participate in this lottery event! Youâve received this companyâs super-prize!]
[Youâve received Tencentâs 100,000 tokens, along with one Apple MacBook! Once you send out a 10,000 yuan red envelope in the stream, you will be able to unlock the laptop reward!!]
[If you open the window and shout âI am a dumbassâ outside then you can also unlock an even more awesome mysterious prize!]
Jian Rong laughed. âDumbass⌠just what exactly happened?â
[Xiao Bai came by earlier.]
[Qian-ge did it.]
[Pine used your computer.]
Jian Rong rolled his eyes and decided to just check the stream replay himself.
The moment he saw Lu Boyuan appear in the camera frame, he choked firmly on a mouthful of bitter coffee. Jian Rong covered his mouth and coughed until his neck turned red.
Once he heard Lu Boyuanâs âdoesnât this skin come back every year,â Jian Rong even more so nearly stopped breathing.
Jian Rong very rarely bought skins. When TTCâs championship skins first came out, he had bought them immediately on his other account, so he really didnât know that they returned every year.
He looked at the 100,000 tokens on the webpage and felt his heart ache even more.
âAnd none of you told me?!â Jian Rong clenched his teeth and went to find customer service. âCan this be refundedâŚâ
[Let me tell you a joke: LoLâs lottery can be refunded.]
[Didnât you also pull with 5,000 of your own money? Thereâs no difference between 5,000 and 10,000.]
[Itâs the captainâs love, youâre even willing to return it??]
Jian Rong wasnât in the mood to look at the barrage.
When customer service refused him, he forced himself to pick up his phone and send Lu Boyuan a text: [CaptainâŚ]
After waiting for a while, Lu Boyuan still didnât answer.
Jian Rong ruffled his hair and felt deeply conflicted. ââŚstop urging me, Iâll pull right now and end the stream after Iâm done.â
In the first ten pulls, TTC Lee Sin appeared.
Jian Rong was stunned at first before his eyes widened in pleasant surprise, his ears completely red. âIt came! The first one!!!â
Before he could get too happy, he saw the remaining tokens left in the account, and Jian Rong wilted again.
After contemplating for a long time, he stubbornly opened the Tencent customer service portal once moreâ
[Just Watch My Gameplay: Miss, I really canât refund the money?]
[Just Watch My Gameplay: If a child steals their parentâs money to purchase tokens, do you all not even care?!]
[Just Watch My Gameplay: Does justice even exist anymore?? A big company cheating its customers, I see how it is!]
[Damn hahahaha little dumbass youâre really freaking shameless!!]
[The child is you, the parent is Road?]
[From now on, donât play âGood Luckâ anymore, itâs not half as effective as you going straight to Roadâs doorway and singing âMice Love Rice.â2]
This was also Jian Rongâs first time doing something like this. His face flushed red, and he gritted his teeth. ââŚshut up.â
555 sounds like âwuwuwuâ in Chinese, like the crying noise. ^This song. A pop song that was super popular in the 2000s, known for its catchy chorus (âI love you, love you, like how mice love riceâ) ^
Yan: Just wanted to thank everyone whoâs commented so far on the translation~ we donât always have time to like or answer everyoneâs comments but we do read them all and theyâre very lovely!!
Also totally didnât expect so many people to play Genshin o.o praying everyoneâs Zhongli comes home for them!!! Taking down my UID now just to be safe but in case anyone would like to add me, you can message here and Iâll get back to you with my UID~ very open to new friends!