Sui Ning quickly tossed the unpleasant “Neighbor Old King” out of his mind. With a faintly amused smile on his lips and in rather good spirits, he returned to his apartment. The sight left Xu Hexuan dumbfounded as he opened the door for him.
Xu Hexuan was bewildered. “Y-you… what’s going on? Why are you this happy? Did you find money on the ground?”
Su Ning pressed his lips into a smile. “Met an interesting little kid… pretty cute.”
“Little kid?” Xu Hexuan instantly pictured some bratty five- or six-year-old and shuddered. “Don’t. My relatives’ kids drive me insane every New Year, running around looting everything like little bandits. There’s nothing cute about that.”
“He’s eighteen, so probably not like that.” The black-haired young man winked at him teasingly.
The younger man froze. “Eighteen… huh?”
“He’s eighteen.”
“…Need I remind you, you yourself just turned nineteen?” Xu Hexuan’s mouth twitched. “Please don’t use misleading words like ‘little kid’ next time.”
“Isn’t he one, though?” Sui Ning chuckled and tossed him a big box of drinks. “Here, take it.”
“Damn it, the fridge is two steps away from you and you still make me put them away? You just can’t stand to see me slack off for a second, huh?”
“Mm, that’s right. Can’t stand it.”
Xu Hexuan muttered curses under his breath and went off to stash the drinks.
Sui Ning sat back down at his computer desk, turning on his gear while replying to messages.
[Xiao Yunduo]: Are you free now? Want to play a game together?
[Xiao Yunduo]: I’m pretty good.
[System Notice: User Xiao Yunduo has recalled a message.]
[Xiao Yunduo]: Wanna play? (cat acting cute.gif)
Sui Ning didn’t see what he had recalled, and raised an eyebrow.
[Go With the Flow and Be at Peace]: Not now, I’m streaming. War of Glory.
[Xiao Yunduo]: You’re a streamer? (Surprised-cat.jpg)
[Go With the Flow and Be at Peace]: Mm, just started. Want to watch?
Sui Ning sent his stream link.
Ji Yunyu, lying on his bed, got the message. His hand shook, and his phone smacked down on his face with a thud. He didn’t even have time to cry out, bouncing up from the bed like a spring and staring unblinkingly at the shared link.
N-no way it’s a facecam stream, right…
Nervous and excited, Ji Yunyu clicked it open, his heart pounding faster and faster.
The interface loaded quickly.
Soon, a shimmering rainbow Diamond Walnut filled Ji Yunyu’s screen.
The Diamond Walnut wiggled in a weirdly comical way. “I’m back. Thanks for waiting, everyone.”
[Streamer!! Kiss kiss kiss!!]
[Heh, you finally showed up? Do you know how I survived these twenty-five minutes without you?!]
[You said fifteen minutes. Fifteen! One second more, one minute more, one hour more—none of that is fifteen minutes!]
The walnut had a keyboard and mouse in front of it. Its round little body twitched a few times as if operating them. “My bad, next time for sure.”
Ji Yunyu: …What the hell was I even expecting?
B-but, this guy’s voice… was pretty nice.
The crack in his teenage heart quickly mended. Watching Sui Ning open ranked queue on his Silver account, Ji Yunyu still felt his phone screen was too unsatisfying, so he reopened his computer instead.
——a
A Silver I match was still as dull as ever.
“The rest of this is just garbage time.” Sui Ning’s eyes curved with a smile, but his words were chilling. “How many do you think I can kill this round?”
At ten minutes, he had already beaten the enemy mid-laner into rage-quitting. His record now gleamed at 14/0/5. The only pity was that due to the Three-Tailed Fox’s skill mechanics, he’d only managed one triple kill so far—no quadra or penta in sight.
[I’m tired of saying it already: Arrogant!]
[I’ll start. 14 kills, since the enemy’s about to surrender (smirk).]
[I’m the prophet: at least 100 this round.]
[Everyone knows prophets can’t lie, so the guy above must be right. Knife him!]
[Lol what’s so impressive about killing Silvers?]
No matter the world, anonymous bullet comments on the internet always bred nitpickers.
Sui Ning’s spirits lifted at once. He struck a posture like Wang Xifeng interrogating Lin Daiyu: “Oh, you’re here? How old are you this year? What rank? How many do you kill per game?”
[Sister, how old are you? Have you been to school? What medicine do you take?]
[Blazing and Dazzling]
[Are these nitpickers just high from playing mahjong? Win with a four of a kind draw?]
[Hello? Is this Sister Feng’s live stream? Hahahahaha]
On the battlefield, no general wins forever. In any case, Sui Ning had played pro for six years in his past life, and when his results slumped, tens of thousands of Weibo curses overnight were the norm. After serving as a living target for so long, his immunity to low-level internet hecklers was already maxed out.
“Next time before you come, I suggest you learn a few more nasty lines.” Sui Ning earnestly advised, “Otherwise you’ve got no power at all—just a few of my questions and you’re already broken. Isn’t that embarrassing?”
[Damn, hahahahaha, streamer please stop, the hater doesn’t even dare to fart now]
[Debate bro, why aren’t you talking anymore?]
[Are haters these days really this timid? You don’t even dare to go head-to-head once?]
Ji Yunyu was amused too. He’d encountered plenty of haters himself—like mosquitoes in summer nights, swatting doesn’t get rid of them, ignoring them only makes them bite more and ruin his sleep. They often forced him into cursing, which made the haters happiest: the whole internet then dragged him for having a foul mouth.
Hearing this sarcastic roasting now, Ji Yunyu felt a little pleased.
Sui Ning, however, had no plans of letting the nitpicker go. He deliberately zoomed in and out of his virtual avatar on the livestream screen several times to make sure everyone saw that demonic “Diamond Walnut” with the extremely provocative caption underneath: Trying to break my defense, huh?
The innuendo was obvious.
[LMAO this walnut is seriously cursed, why is it rainbow-diamond colored?]
[Why does even a virtual avatar have to look like something way out of my league??]
[So savage. I can only say the streamer is savage.]
[What are you waiting for, send gifts!]
[Someone bring up that hard-mouthed guy from earlier! Let him show us what he’s got!]
The online viewers and subscribers were steadily climbing. Sui Ning gave a small smile and dropped another harsh line: “My friend from earlier, are you still here? Wanna chat a bit?”
He then tweaked the [Moderator Categories] on his stream, adding a new column called [Special Guest] and set its permissions to [None].
That way, the [Special Guest] column sat just below the [VIP List], [Fan Contribution Ranking], and [Moderators], clearly visible to anyone who entered.
【6666666】
[6666666]
[LMAO public execution seat]
[Special Guest?? Why is this so funny?]
[Suggestion: rename it to Execution List]
[Damn, I suddenly want to get up there and try it. Am I okay?]
[Bro upstairs, you’re not alone]
Sure enough, the barrage went wild with 666s and laughter, gifts pouring in nonstop.
“Thank you everyone for the gifts,” Sui Ning said sweetly.
Being a veteran streamer, he knew how to work the show. But in his heart, Sui Ning was clear: he wouldn’t now, nor ever in the future, actually pull a hater up to the mic for a live execution—that would turn into cyberbullying.
The only ones who’d ever get invited up were those making friendly jokes.
Quietly, his stream’s popularity climbed into the top three pages of the category.
Ji Yunyu couldn’t hold back; he logged into a side account and started showering him with gifts, quickly climbing to the #1 spot.
[User “Xiao Yunduo” sent Baby Sharkx100!]
[User “Xiao Yunduo” sent Shark Pillowx100!]
[User “Xiao Yunduo” sent Baby Sharkx30!]
“Thank you, Xiao Yunduo… hmm?” Sui Ning paused. “Is that you?”
His gentle voice was so close in Ji Yunyu’s ears that it made them tingle. Biting his lip, Ji Yunyu typed.
[Xiao Yunduo: Mm.]
“You can’t keep spending money like that,” Sui Ning frowned. “Kids shouldn’t waste money on this stuff.”
[Xiao Yunduo: …I have money. My own.]
The boy clicked his tongue, dissatisfaction written in his words.
[Xiao Yunduo: I’m not a kid either.]
[Wait… is this… him acting spoiled? A little cute]
[Is this someone the streamer knows?]
“Yes, I know him,” Sui Ning sighed. “Be good.”
[Xiao Yunduo: …Oh.]
[?]
[?]
[WTF WTF WTF, how can just that “oh” be this cute and aggrieved, I’m losing it!!]
[He’s spending a fortune for you, but you’re being so cold to him… but what can he do?! He can’t not listen to you!! I’m fainting!]
[Damn, this is so shippable. I declare that the rough alpha bro trope is outdated—now it’s puppy-alpha time!]
Puppy… puppy alpha, what the hell!! He wasn’t a dog! And why wasn’t this guy clarifying anything while the barrage went wild?!
Ji Yunyu couldn’t understand. Feeling guilty like a thief, he stared at the screen, wanting to keep watching but too afraid to, his face burning hot.
----------
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