Lin Feng had an odd habit while playing League of Legends. It started way back when he first started playing the game. The champions in the game, all of them were unique. All of them came with different attack animations and voice lines, and all of them were cool. This entranced the young Lin Feng and set his heart racing. While playing the game, he’d get so immersed that he would imagine himself as the champion he was playing. He memorized all of their lines and would shout them out along with the champion and occasionally get so far into it that he’d mimic their attack animations or poses while playing. This was a habit that only grew more refined the longer he played the game.

Whenever he’d play with his friends, this odd quirk of his was a source of endless amusement and shame for them. They used to joke about how he was hopelessly afflicted with eighth-grader syndrome, a truly terminal case. Lin Feng didn’t care about the jokes. Or the well-meaning advice from his friends to let go of his eight-grader syndrome before high school. He just really enjoyed the roleplay. Besides, he was way better at League than any of his friends. So what did they know? There was even a time where a bunch of bullies, wannabes who thought they were hotshots, thought his quirkiness made him a good target. He crushed all of them while roleplaying the champions he used. That shut them up real quick. But all of that was a long, long time ago.

Lin Feng never grew out of this habit. Even after all these years, he still remembered the lines perfectly. So, when he activated Vayne’s ultimate and tumbled forward, his mouth already started moving. The rehearsed lines flowed from his lips as he started narrating the scene.

“A frigid wind blows through the dark. The Night Hunter’s silhouette disappears from sight as the air permeates with an icy killing intent. Vayne’s voice booms out from the darkness…. Time for reckoning!”

“Man! So cool!” Lin Feng let out a deep sigh of satisfaction.

The people watching the stream, watching Lin Feng do all this, did not feel the same way he did. They were mostly just confused. The ones that managed to type out their thoughts in chat echoed what everyone else was thinking, what was this li’l bro doing? Was this some kind of stroke? Did the stress of the game and being on livestream get to him? There were even a few people watching who had recently jumped onto the mental health bandwagon sweeping through the internet, and they expressed concern about Lin Feng’s sanity. As mental health enthusiasts, they decided it was best to lecture the rest of the chat on the effects of toxicity based on a few articles they had read.

But once the initial shock of Lin Feng’s quirky behavior had passed, most of the viewers decided to ignore whatever it was that he was doing and focus instead on his gameplay. The way he was playing was far more astonishing than what he was doing. He wasn’t just playing well, and it wasn’t just that his playstyle was impressive. Lin Feng was doing something far more breath-taking. He was playing perfectly without making a single mistake on anything! Decision-making, timing, everything was a perfectly choreographed and well-rehearsed dance.

Lin Feng had activated Vayne’s ultimate–Final Hour! This gave Vayne increased attack damage, reduced the cooldown on the skill Tumble and made her invisible when using it, and most importantly it granted bonus speed. More specifically, it augmented the movement speed bonus that Vayne gained from her passive skill Night Hunter. Vayne rapidly closed in on the Caitlyn, and shot out a silver bolt with her demon hunting crossbow. Then she moved forward a little and shot out another silver bolt. This was Vayne’s auto attack, and Lin Feng timed it perfectly to cancel the animation and maximize the number of attacks that he made.

The Caitlyn was slow to react. She just wasn’t expecting a Vayne with 0 kills and 3 deaths from her would attack so aggressively. But the sheer amount of damage being dealt by Vayne and how quickly her health dropped definitely woke her up.

Taking the Caitlyn by surprise and her slow reaction time allowed Lin Feng to land a third auto attack. This one was different. The third consecutive auto attack was the required condition to activate Vayne’s skill—Silver Bolts. The three silver rings around Caitlyn exploded and dealt bonus true damage!

Lin Feng smoothly switched between auto attacking and moving forward, displaying his mastery of the pro gamer art–Animation Cancel! By the time the Caitlyn started reacting to his attack, Tumble had already come off cooldown. His finger hovered over the Q key, waiting for the precise moment that Caitlyn would fire her 90 Caliber Net to slow him down and escape. And that was exactly what she did, just as he’d predicted.

“Tumble!” Lin Feng shouted. The Vayne rolled forward diagonally, dodging the net and then closing the gap again. Another silver bolt pierced the Caitlyn and she found herself positioned awkwardly with her back to a wall. This was what Lin Feng was trying to do. He’d outplayed Caitlyn without her even realizing it was happening. This was the moment Lin Feng had been waiting for. “Condemn!”

Vayne pulled out the giant crossbow from her back and squeezed the trigger. A large bolt flew out and pierced through Caitlyn’s chest, propelling her back and pinning her to the wall. Stunned! She couldn’t move for the next 1.5s. She couldn’t escape. She couldn’t do anything but suffer as Vayne’s silver bolts took away the last bit of her health.

The game announcer’s voice rang out across Summoner’s Rift.

《You have slain an enemy!》

The perfect play that Lin Feng had just pulled off, that wasn’t the most impressive thing that he’d accomplished in the last few minutes. No, he’d done something far more majestic and monumental. Lin Feng’s gameplay forced chat speechless. It was actually a double kill! He’d killed both Caitlyn and the chat. The people watching the stream literally could not believe what their own eyes had seen moments ago. They struggled to figure out how it was even possible to do what Lin Feng had just done. It wasn’t supposed to be possible! When Su Xue was playing Vayne, she fed three kills to that Caitlyn. Even if the Caitlyn wasn’t at full health, she should have still been more than capable of putting up a fight. But that’s not what happened. Lin Feng had executed her without getting hit once.

Lin Feng reclined back into his seat with a satisfied smile. “Look at that! Didn’t I tell you guys? It’s easy for a Vayne to 1v1 a Caitlyn!”

The people watching the stream finally managed to process what just happened, and chat slowly stirred back to life.

「Li’l bro, that play was awesome! You get full points from me!」
「fcking impressive man!」
「You only won because Caitlyn was too careless. She panicked like a noob and got herself Condemned into the wall」
「Yeah, you only killed her coz she panicked」

Lin Feng chuckled. There were still people watching who doubted him. Since that was the case, he’d have to do something about that. He looked right at the webcam and smiled, “Fine. Just keep watching! I’ll show you more of my skills!”

It took the Caitlyn 50 seconds to revive and walk all the way to the blue team’s outer tower in bot lane. But she didn’t come alone this time, her support Thresh was by her side. The Caitlyn had figured out by now that something had changed and was a little bit more wary of Lin Feng’s Vayne. The Thresh, on the other hand, he hadn’t caught on yet. He still thought that the Vayne was a terrible player because of Su Xue’s performance at the start. As far as he knew, this was still the same player who’d constantly made bad plays and given away three kills. So he decided to push forward and bully Vayne out of the lane.

Unfortunately for the Thresh, reality did not go the way he predicted it would. Lin Feng wasn’t even slightly bothered by Thresh’s attempts to pressure him out of lane. Instead of backing up like the Thresh thought he would, Lin Feng started attacking. He landed one auto attack, the Thresh still pushed forward and ate a second auto attack.

The Thresh player grew increasingly frustrated that his attempt to pressure Vayne out of lane was failing. In an effort to finally make Lin Feng back off, the Thresh decided to be more aggressive. He threw out a chain and sickle using his third skill–Flay. The idea was to pull Vayne towards him and also deal a little damage. But Lin Feng was far too canny for a barely thought out play like that to work. Vayne dodged the chain with Tumble and landed a third auto attack. That was the condition. A third silver ring appeared around Thresh for a moment before all three exploded, dealing bonus true damage. Vayne’s skill Silver Bolts.

Being outplayed by a trash player who refused to be bullied out of lane was too much for the Thresh to handle, and he tilted. He threw out a hook with Death Sentence without any real planning or positioning, which made it completely useless against Lin Feng’s nimble Vayne. She side-stepped past the hook, dodging it.

Lin Feng never considered Thresh a threat. Even when he still had both of his crowd control skills, all Lin Feng had to do was dodge them. But without them, this Thresh was nothing more than a punching bag. Or a training dummy. Lin Feng fired another silver bolt at him, perfectly cancelling the final part of the animation before shooting again, over and over, gliding forward and peppering The Chain Warden with auto attacks.

The Thresh started to panic. It had finally started to dawn on him that the Vayne he was facing right now was  completely different from the one at the start of the game. All of his attack skills were on cooldown, and the Vayne consistently managed to outplay and outposition him. He had no choice but to flee, retreat and live to fight again when circumstances were more in his favor. He shielded himself using the skill Dark Passage and started to run.

Lin Feng pursued the Thresh, the thrill of the hunt pounding in his veins. Damage started to pile on the Thresh, and the scent of virtual blood pushed Lin Feng into more of a frenzy. He was completely immersed in this fight. The intensity in his eyes radiated through the messy bangs that covered them. He felt it. He knew. “I can get this kill!”

The viewers of the stream couldn’t believe what they were hearing. Or seeing. It was already more than impressive that Lin Feng managed to stand up to the Thresh. He’d gone a step beyond that to get a few free hits too. Then he dodged all of the skillshots from Thresh and sent him running. Still, between that and actually killing the Thresh was a long road. But no matter how unrealistic it seemed, no matter how little they believed that Lin Feng could actually succeed in getting the kill, they still felt their hearts beating faster. Their eyes locked onto their monitors, unblinking. Hope crept up and overtook them…

And then poured down on them like a cold shower. In a last ditch attempt to escape death, Thresh threw down his Box. Five spectral walls rose up around him, a thin layer of protection that would slow any champion that walked into it. It worked. Without a second thought, Lin Feng gave up. He stopped pursuing the Thresh.

「?????」
「Didn’t you just say that was a kill?」
「What??」

Lin Feng scratched his head, “I forgot Flash was still on cooldown… No problem. Thresh doesn’t have his ult anymore. Next time! We’ll kill him for sure!”

The viewers felt cheated. The streamer had broken his promise! Their excitement hit an all-time low, lower even than when Su Xue went on another one of her loss streaks. They couldn’t believe they’d fallen for Lin Feng’s words. But before they could voice their grievances, Vayne’s ultimate skill came off cooldown. Lin Feng’s finger was already hovering over the R key and pressed down.

“The die is cast!” Lin Feng mirrored Vayne’s voice actor as her figure disappeared into the shadows. With a perfect Tumble, Lin Feng dodged Thresh’s hook. Afterwards, he fired out a silver bolt at Caitlyn, and then immediately pressed down on the E key, pinning her to a nearby wall with Condemn and stunning her for 1.5 seconds.

Janna finally found the courage to step out from under tower safety and lend Lin Feng a hand. She wound up a Howling Gale and made the tornado fly straight towards Caitlyn, knocking her up into the air before she could even break free from the stun. All the while, Lin Feng unloaded silver bolts on the Caitlyn. He perfectly cancelled the last part of the animation with lightning quick movements of his mouse, making for an almost uninterrupted stream of attacks. The Caitlyn didn’t stand a chance as her body fell to the ground. Dead.

Thresh had stuck around after almost dying to Lin Feng earlier but was now coming to regret that decision. His health was low and his ultimate was still on cooldown. Even with his crowd control skills, there was still nothing he could do. Once the Caitlyn had been killed, there was no purpose to him remaining there. But before he could run away, a burrow popped up on his screen. Rek’Sai. The jungler from the blue team who had come down for a gank at just the right time, knocking the Thresh airborne and allowing Lin Feng’s Vayne to pick up another kill.

《Double kill!》 

The viewers of the stream couldn’t believe what they were seeing. The excitement that had just left their bodies was instantly back. This wasn’t just a simple kill, or double kill. This was a play at a level that was rarely seen at any level in League of Legends. It was reminiscent of the truly great ones. The kind of play even players at the highest level wouldn’t necessarily pull off consistently. Something they hoped to see at Worlds a month later. But definitely not something they could’ve ever expected on a small time stream in Gold.

Some viewers started scouring the internet for clips of the best ad-carry-streamers. They wanted to compare it with the show of skill Lin Feng had just given them. And it didn’t take them long. Videos from Monochrome and Hand of God, two greats on the HuyaTV platform, were easily available. They placed the videos next to each other, and played them side by side searching for differences. To their horror and delight, they couldn’t find any. Be it game mechanics, reaction speed or anything else, Lin Feng stood on level with these greats. At the very least, he was just as good as them!

With the double kill, Lin Feng’s kill-death-assist ratio was now 3/3/2. At this moment, Su Xue returned from the washroom. As she walked over to Lin Feng’s side, she sat down and asked in a tone filled with undisguised ridicule, “So, Mr. Challenger, how is that comeback coming along?”

“Not quite there yet.” Lin Feng shook his head. “But Su Xue, you didn’t give me 10 minutes like I asked.”

The mocking smile on Su Xue’s face froze. She angrily retorted, “You’re speaking as if you could actually make a comeback if I gave you 10 minutes! Just where are you getting that confidence fr—”

As her eyes happened to glance over her kills, deaths, and assists tally in the top right corner of the screen, her jaw dropped. “The hell! How did that happen?” She clearly recalled her KDA was 0/3/2 when she left. How did it suddenly become 3/3/2? Barely two minutes had passed! Her Vayne had picked up three kills in that short a time!?

If there were a medicine for regret in this world, Su Xue would be on the web ordering it right now! Oh, the bitter tang of regret! How could she allow herself to fall prey to greed and agree to let this brat become her roommate? A single moment of weakness, a lapse-in-judgement, one that would lead to untold sorrow!

Su Xue, still brooding, tried to focus on the game again. She wasn’t terrible at this game! There was a lot going on, and it made it hard for her to focus. Hard for her to play well. Just for starters, a short-range ad-carry like her Vayne was already at a huge disadvantage against Caitlyn. Then there was the distraction and pressure of having the 70-something people watching her stream constantly hurling insults at her and trying to backseat. On top of all of that, she got suckered into living with this little brat who was now joining in with her viewers to criticize her! It was all just too much!

「…..she cant last hit for shit」

「DO U KNOW HOW TO CS?! U MISSED THE CANNON CREEP! [fn]Minions are units aligned with one of the teams. They spawn periodically from their nexus and advance along a lane toward the enemy nexus. They automatically attack any enemy unit or structure they find in their way. They are controlled by artificial intelligence, and only use basic attacks. Every few waves spawns a cannon creep that nets more gold.[/fn]」

“Oh, yeah. They’re right about that one. Your CSing is pretty terrible, but a little bit of practice can take care of that. You just have to time everything a bit so you get as many last hits as possible. Bare minimum for acceptable CS is 10 last hits a minute. Or you won’t have enough gold to keep up.”

「more bewbs than brains……….. save your q [2] for his hook!!1!」

“Mhmm. Yeah. You should’ve saved your Q. It’s the difference between life and death when you’ve got a Thresh hook coming at you.”

「I’ve never seen someone this bad try to stream before…」

“That makes sense, yeah. You really don’t find streamers this bad very often. If at all.”

「i only clicked into this stream cuz she’s cute」

「if she didn’t have the facecam on I’d go watch someone with some actual skill!」

「It’d be nice if she was as skilled as she is thicccccc!」

“Hmm? Cute? Thicc?” Lin Feng paused after that. Then he looked at Su Xue. He turned back to the stream and said, “Eh, I don’t know about that one, guys…” shaking his head for emphasis. This was the first time he’d disagreed with chat.

Su Xue wanted to murder Lin Feng right now, chop him up into tiny little pieces. Suppressing that urge was like swallowing her own vomit. Don’t know about that one—Screw you! I’m not forcing you to look at me, am I? It’s not like I even want you to look at me! Going after me for my gameplay is one thing, but pretending I’m not cute? That’s just too far! What did I ever do to you to make you want to hurt me like this? What the hell!

While Su Xue ranted and raved in her head, Lin Feng continued talking to the chat. He was either completely unconcerned or blissfully oblivious to the fact that he was seconds away from death at the hands of the person sitting inches away from him. He paid no attention or indicated that he even noticed the metaphorical smoke rising up from Su Xue’s head. Instead, he was enthusiastically engaging with the chat. So much so that some of the viewers started to feel a sense of connection, a kinship, with him.

Su Xue sat there, watching Lin Feng form a brotherhood with her viewers while she was trying so hard to turn her game around. The back-and-forth between Lin Feng and chat made her want to tear her hair out! Ugh! God damn it! Get a room already if y’all are so into each other! I don’t care anymore! I don’t even want you guys as viewers! All I want is for all of you to shut up and let me focus!

✹

A few moments later, Su Xue slipped up again. She was just too distracted by Lin Feng’s nonstop banter with her chat to play well. The Thresh found an opening and landed a hook on her, then flayed her back. She eventually did manage to escape by using her Flash, but the Thresh took a huge chunk of health from her. She essentially did nothing to the Thresh. In that exchange, she was clearly the loser.

“Oof, that positioning…” Lin Feng exclaimed with a sigh, and shook his head.

The viewers on the stream started piling on.

「Soooo baaaad!」

「LOL! Even hookers don’t get hooked that hard!」

Lin Feng nodded in agreement while rubbing his chin, as if saying ‘great minds think alike’.

Catching a glimpse of Lin Feng, Su Xue felt like she was about to grind her molars into dust. Cleaver! Give me a cleaver! I’ll turn this brat into mincemeat! I don’t give a shit anymore!

People generally couldn’t play at their best while distracted. Su Xue was no exception. Not only that, but her bladder also announced its need for a release. She tried to endure, but in the end she recalled her champion back to base and got up from her seat.

Lin Feng looked up at Su Xue in surprise. “Huh, are you giving up?” In a rare show of consideration, he even threw in some words of consolation. “Don’t worry. Everyone in chat supports you, we’re all cheering for you!”

Cheering my ass! You degenerates are ganging up on me! Why do you have to make fun of me? Su Xue clicked her tongue. “I’m going to the washroom!”

“Oh, in that case, want me to play for you for a bit?”

Su Xue snickered. “Play for me? You sound pretty confident. What rank are you?”

“Uh…” Lin Feng did some quick calculations in his mind. “I’m a Challenger in the Ionia server.”[3]

Challenger? Su Xue’s sarcastic smile froze stiff on her face. Stop screwin—Then she shook her head. It was hopeless. This kid was hopeless. Who would believe that? Who on earth would buy that? She didn’t even want to get into this with him. There was no point in questioning it. This kid just tried to humble brag by casually claiming himself as Challenger ranked! Who does that? Someone this far gone, it was probably best to let them be. “Fine. Sure. Why not? You can play for a bit… but I want to be looking at a very different game when I come back! Completely turned around! Shouldn’t be too hard for someone as good as you, right Mr. Challenger?” She started walking away with an extra spring in her step from getting the last word in.

Lin Feng completely missed the sarcasm in Su Xue’s final barb. It went so far over his head that it might as well have been in space. He actually believed that she wanted him to turn the game around for her, so he thought about it for a couple of seconds before telling her, “Hm… I mean, I can do it. But, well, I’m going to need 10 minutes. Are you going to go take a… uh, number 2? A dump… ?”

A dump? He wants me to–No. No. He just seriously thinks he’ll turn the game around in 10 minutes. Wait! HE THINKS I BELIEVE HE’S A CHALLENGER! Su Xue was flabbergasted. So bewildered that she actually paused mid-step, foot in the air. This kid is something else. In that single r/whoosh moment, he’d taken all the wind out of her sails. Her parting jab, the one that she’d been so proud of, it sliced through the air instead of connecting. She lost the spring in her step and stomped out of the room without replying.

Lin Feng watched her leave the room. He moved over to the gaming chair and sat down. But there was something different about that simple action. It wasn’t just a guy changing seats or a guy sitting down. Lin Feng sat down like a King returning to his throne. Forgotten glory, splendor, and power wrapping comfortably around him. A conqueror returning to his labor of love.

While Lin Feng was settling into the chair, the viewers on the stream noticed Su Xue walking out and Lin Feng taking her place. They’d pieced together what was happening, and chat exploded.

「Hey, Lil bro, are you for real?」

「what rank are you? don’t feed please. Su Xue has already fed enough…」

「Vayne is 0/3/2 right now. It’s impossible for her to come back against a 2/1/1 Caitlyn.」

「just play safe and cs under you tower」

A lot of the people watching the stream had come to like Lin Feng. So when they saw that he was going to play, the dynamic of the chat swiveled towards concern rather than the harsh backseating and comments they’d thrown at Su Xue. No one wanted to watch a nice guy get crushed by League toxicity, especially if he was completely unprepared for it.

Lin Feng rolled up to the desk and brushed his hand over the keyboard. He traced the curves of the mouse with his fingers, caressed it. It was odd, but also not completely out of place. Like a warrior reacquainting himself with weapons he’d long since laid down. Then he placed his right hand on the mouse and his left hand on the keyboard. A familiar stance, one tempered through battle. He was ready. Lin Feng glanced at the chat and smiled, “Don’t worry, guys. I can turn this around. Trust me. I got this.”

He clicked on Vayne, still sitting at the fountain, and started moving her to bot lane. Vayne, huh… It’s been a while since I’ve played her.

Lin Feng let out a long, wistful sigh, travelling back to his youth in his memories. Of times he’d lay awake at night and scheme… Stop! It’s not the time for this! He snapped himself back to the present, to the game in front of him, composed and ready once more. His Vayne was about to reach the bot lane inner tower, the last defense before the enemy got into their base. The red team’s minion wave pushed up all the way to the inner tower after the outer one had fallen. The Caitlyn who had given Su Xue so much trouble stood behind her minions, calmy chipping away at the tower’s health. The Thresh, her support, had recalled back to base.

Lin Feng stared at the screen, trying to comprehend what exactly was happening in this game. His support was a Janna, who was currently hiding behind the tower and had decided not to attack the Caitlyn who was taking their tower down. “Huh?” he muttered. “Why isn’t Janna going in? Didn’t Thresh back? What is happening here?”

The ever-present font of knowledge that was chat quickly provided the answer to his questions.

「janna has no health… if she tries anything caitlyn will just kill her」

「caitlyn already has a pickaxe her autos hurt a lot more now」

「XD if janna goes in, she’ll take a move from eveningsnowfall’s playbook HAHHAH」

Lin Feng shook his head, disagreeing with their assessment. “Yeah, that Caitlyn’s laning is decent. But a pickaxe isn’t enough of an item advantage for her to shut down a level 6 Vayne alone.” He stared at Janna again. “Why isn’t she going in?”

His confusion was justified and not completely unfounded. At the rank he used to play at, everyone was skilled and understood without being told when to go in and seize an opportunity for a kill. He was playing Vayne, the ad-carry. Now that he was back in lane, the Janna should have understood that it was time to go in and kill Caitlyn. The whole thing about her health being at 30%? That just didn’t matter in this situation. But this particular Janna, it was clear that she did not understand this. She just stood back behind her tower.

“Hm. Okay. No big deal. If Janna doesn’t want to go in, we’ll go in. Alright guys, let’s go get our first kill,” Lin Feng declared to the viewers watching the stream.

When Caitlyn saw Vayne walk up to her, she shot an auto attack at him, then fired out a Piltover Peacemaker[4].

Lin Feng’s fingers glided over his keyboard. He pressed down on the R-key, and then on the Q. An aura of darkness shrouded Vayne. She tumbled forward diagonally, disappearing in stealth and dodging the Piltover Peacemaker. Her demon hunting crossbow loaded with holy silver bolts let out a faint thrum.

“Let us hunt those who have fallen to darkness!”

---

1. Minions are units aligned with one of the teams. They spawn periodically from their nexus and advance along a lane toward the enemy nexus. They automatically attack any enemy unit or structure they find in their way. They are controlled by artificial intelligence, and only use basic attacks. Every few waves spawns a cannon creep that nets more gold.

2. Every champion has four skills. With standard settings, they are on the Q, W, E, and R keys on a keyboard.

3. China is pretty huge. So, the region is split into different servers. The Ionia server is the most competitive server where all the pro players and best Challengers gather.

4. Caitlyn revs up her rifle for 1 second to unleash a penetrating shot that deals physical damage (deals less damage to subsequent targets).

The Huya TV live-streaming platform. A small channel with around 70 viewers showing a ranked League of Legends game. The streamer, Evening Snowfall, was playing the champion Vayne, the ad-carry on the blue team. She was completely focused on farming minions at bottom lane. But standing in her way was the enemy ad-carry, a Caitlyn in a sexy police officer skin. A Caitlyn that was abusing long range attacks to constantly chip away at Evening Snowfall’s health and forcing her to miss out on last-hitting minions. She was clearly losing the lane.

The people watching the stream, they responded to Evening Snowfall’s poor gameplay by doing what League players do best. A barrage of text machine-gunned through the stream, all of which was mockery or contempt. On the bottom right of the stream, covering the mini-map, was a small window with Evening Snowfall’s webcam feed. It showed a pretty 24-year-old girl trying to ignore the messages and failing. She tied her long, black hair into a pony-tail and bit her lip. Then she focused back onto the game. But letting chat know that the toxicity was having an effect on her—that was the wrong move. Instead of stemming it, she opened the flood-gates.

「man this vayne sux」
「my grandma has better mechanics than her」
「rofl!!!!!1 imagine trying to be a streamer while being hardstuck at Gold 1 」
「LOL!!! GRiL GaMeR!」
「I CUM 4 TITS N ASS!!!!111 NOT BRONZE PLAYS!!!!!!!」

Evening Snowfall’s cheeks flared red and burned from anger at the messages running through her chat. She gnashed her teeth, fighting back the impulse to argue with her viewers. A hurricane of profanities brewed in her head. She was beautiful! Classically beautiful! When did it become okay to subject someone as beautiful as her to this kind of abuse? The only reason she was holding back and not telling her viewers how she really felt was because she wanted to become a famous streamer. If it wasn’t for that—

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

The knock on her front door interrupted Evening Snowfall’s mental tirade against her viewers. She looked at the door, surprised by the knocking since she wasn’t expecting anyone to come by today. But small blessings and silver linings, it was a good excuse to get away from the loathsome people watching her stream, just for a bit. She got up from her gaming chair and told her stream that she had to go answer the door. She was wearing some cute but comfortable shorts which just so happened to also reveal her fair, slender thighs. The on-point thigh game, she was confident that would calm her viewers down a bit. Then she stepped into her pink teddy bear loafers and walked out into the living room. Evening Snowfall opened the front door to find her landlady, a mature and beautiful woman in her 30s, standing there with a young man.

“Chu Yishu? Why are you here?” Evening Snowfall asked, surprised. Then she remembered how late she was with rent. “I-is it about the rent…?” she asked tentatively, her face etched with panic. “Just give me a few more days! I found a new way to make money. I’ll have the three months I owe you soon!”

The woman chuckled before waving her hand. “No, no, don’t worry about that. I’m not here about the rent today. I’m too beautiful to hound my tenants for rent, right?”

Evening Snowfall breathed a sigh of relief. Then, her gaze fell on the youth. “This is…?” The young man standing next to Chu Yishu looked like he was in high school, much too old to be her landlady’s son. Unless…

The young man looked more like a boy, delicate and handsome. His fluffy, messy hair was almost asking for a good ruffle. He wore a bashful expression on his face. Not bad… definitely idol material. The thought struck her mind before she realized it.

Chu Yishu’s eyes lit up as she pulled the boy forward. “Right! This is my nephew, Lin Feng. Come on, kiddo, introduce yourself. This is Su Xue. She’s also one of my tenants.”

Su Xue. Evening Snowfall’s real name. It took her a brief second to remember that she was talking to someone in the real world and not online. Then she remembered something that she missed because she was thrown off by hearing her real name.

Also…? Su Xue finally caught onto this important word, but she had no time to think about it. She quickly put on a friendly smile and extended her hand out to the young man. “Lin Feng, is it? Nice to meet you.”

The young man politely shook Su Xue’s hand. “Ah, nice to meet you too, ma’am.”

Ma’am…? Su Xue’s smile froze stiff as her lips trembled. You little punk! Do I look like a ma’am to you? I’m only 24, not even close to 30! Do I have to dig your eyes out and wash them for you!? Her impression of this boy immediately plummeted to rock bottom!

Chu Yishu burst out laughing. “Hahaha! You can’t say that. Just call her Su Xue or big sis.”

Chu Yishu turned to Su Xue, still stifling her laughter, and apologized, “Ah, I’m sorry. You see, Lin Feng here has a bad habit of putting his foot in his mouth. He’s always saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. You’ll get used to it after living with him for a while. Honestly, he’s not a bad kid.”

Su Xue was about to nod and accept the apology when she caught on to the last part. Her eyes went wide. “Living with him? What do you mean?”

Chu Yishu went on uninterrupted, “That’s why I came here today. You see, this kid transferred schools to Shanghai for his senior year in high school. His mom doesn’t feel safe letting him live on his own in the school dorms. So, she left him with me. Doesn’t this apartment have two bedrooms? You use one, he can use the other.”

This came completely out of left field. A new roommate? A MALE ROOMMATE? Su Xue finally noticed the large suitcases sitting outside her door.

Lin Feng, completely failing to read the room, found this to be an opportune moment to interject. “I’ll be in your care!”

Screw you! Who wants to take care of you! Su Xue pulled Chu Yishu to the side, “Please, I’m begging you. Don’t do this. I’ve been just fine living here by myself! Why do I have to let some stranger move in? Please don’t do this!”

Chu Yishu chuckled. “Hey, hey, hey aren’t you only using one bedroom? This apartment has two. I can’t just let the spare one go to waste.” But she also understood that Su Xue needed a bit of reassurance, “You don’t have to worry at all. It’s fine. I wouldn’t put you in an unsafe situation. Feng Feng is only a high school senior. He’s a nice, quiet boy who won’t make any trouble for you, I promise. He’s not like those guys outside who can’t stop leering the moment they see you walk out. Besides…” She winked at Su Xue. “…Dontcha think he looks just like one of those pretty boys on TV? Mmmmhmmm. If I were 10 years younger, I might consider going after him myself. Aren’t you still single? This is your chance!”

Su Xue forced tears to well up in her eyes. “Please don’t joke around with me like that…”

Chu Yishu noticed the crocodile tears and decided it was time to reveal her facedown trap card. “Alright, alright. There’s no need to get upset. I don’t want you to feel like I’m forcing this on you with no benefit to you at all. How about this? It’s almost time to pay your rent, right? I’ll write it off. Right now!”

Su Xue was stunned. Not having to pay rent for a month did pacify her raging heart a little bit. But she still hesitated a bit before starting to talk. She wanted to say that a month of rent was only a small benefit. But before she could get the words out, Chu Yishu added, “I’ll also take ¥200 off your rent permanently!”

“Hah… fine. Deal!” Su Xue caved. The truth of the world was that money talks, and she could put up with a bit of inconvenience if it meant she’d have more money in her pocket.

“That’s great!” Chu Yishu’s face lit up with joy. She then added in a well-meaning voice, “Tell me. Did you get fired from that job I got you last month? It isn’t easy to find work, you know, especially not in today’s economy. If you want to continue living here in Shanghai, you have to learn to endure hardship. You can’t just run away from every small obstacle…”

Su Xue nodded. “I know… I’m working on it. I started a streaming channel for games. I want to make that work.” Suddenly, she remembered she was in the middle of a League game. “Shit! I have to get back to my stream!”

Chu Yishu watched Su Xue rush back inside and shook her head in exasperation. She turned to her nephew and said, “Feng Feng, I’m going. I trust you’ll have no problem settling into your new room. Get along with Su Xue, okay? Also, you have my number. Let me know how it goes. I want weekly updates!”

Lin Feng nodded before grabbing his bag. “Alright. Bye, Auntie!”

✹

Back in her room, Su Xue rushed to get herself situated and back into the game. Her champion, Vayne, had just been standing in the fountain while she was AFK. She’d been gone for a little over five minutes, and the enemy team had used that time to take the outer turret on her side of bot lane.

The people watching Su Xue’s stream spammed the chat with questions.

「What the hell? did she just AFK?」
「Didn’t hear what she mumbled.」
「where she go?????」
「EMPTY CAM! EMPTY CAM! EMPTY CAM!」

Su Xue quickly moved her Vayne out of the fountain and back to bot lane, then explained to her stream, “Sorry guys! I had to go see who was at the door. It was my landlady—”

A voice suddenly sounded out behind her. “Is there no soda in the fridge?”

Su Xue turned around and saw her new roommate poking his head into her room. Her eyelids started twitching. “There isn’t any. If you’re thirsty, there’s water in the cooler. Clean glasses in the living room.”

Lin Feng let out a sad sigh. “Oh. I really want to drink a soda though.”

Su Xue’s eyelids continued twitching. “There’s a corner store downstairs. If you want it so badly, go and get some!”

By this time, Lin Feng had already invited himself into her room. As his gaze fell on the screen in front of Su Xue, he remarked in surprise, “Oh, you play League of Legends too? And you’re a streamer?”

Su Xue took a deep breath and replied as calmly as she could, “Yes.”

“Can I watch you play?”

“…Sure. Why not? You’re already living here. Why not this too?”

Lin Feng pulled up a chair and sat down next to Su Xue, all his attention on the game. At the same time, Su Xue’s 70-odd viewers noticed Lin Feng through the webcam.

「new fone who dis?」
「BOYFRIEND!?!?!?!?!?!?」
「never seen him before! Why is a guy here?」

Su Xue glanced at the chat, then explained, “He’s my landlady’s nephew.”

Lin Feng waved to the webcam. “Hello, everyone!”

The vein on Su Xue’s forehead started throbbing. “If you want to watch, that’s fine, but be quiet.”

Lin Feng scratched his head. “Oh, alright.”

✹

A minute later, Su Xue managed to get her Vayne killed again because she got caught out of position by the enemy bottom lane duo. Her screen faded to grey as she waited to respawn.

The stream chat immediately started stirring again.

「Man. Zero map awareness. How did you die from that?」
「Someone call an ambulance, she getting rekt.」
「LMAO seems like anybody can become a streamer these days. even I’m better than her」

Su Xue’s mood soured after reading what chat was saying. She glanced at her screen, morose and helpless because there was literally nothing she could say back to them. The only thing she could do was stew in her annoyance. How did this happen?

Lin Feng’s voice jolted her from her thoughts. He had decided this was the best time to offer some input. “Hey, those guys in your stream are all calling you bad.”

Su Xue weakly grunted in acknowledgement. She couldn’t help but wonder if this boy was going to try to comfort her. His heart might be in the right place, but what use were words of comfort right now…?

Lin Feng continued with a thoughtful rub of his chin, “Mhm. I think they’re right.”

The bulging vein on Su Xue’s forehead throbbed. “SHUT UP!” she screamed.