Chapter 56: Fifty-Sixth Day as a Salted Fish
Jungler: “…” No way, bro, it’s just an exhibition match—why are you being so serious?
After captains Qin Jiaojiao and Shen Xiaoshan finished drafting their teams, each led a male celebrity guest alongside three professional esports players to form two complete squads.
To win the game, a team needed to destroy the enemy’s base crystal. The Rift map was divided into three lanes: top lane held solo by one player, mid lane guarded by another, while bottom lane was jointly held by the marksman and support.
The jungler was responsible for hunting jungle monsters across the map, clearing camps before ganking lanes to assist teammates in securing kills.
Once the teams were assembled, positions were assigned. In-game, Qin Jiaojiao frequently played marksman or support, often teaming up with King to tear through the bottom lane and lead their teammates to victory.
Since the marksman and support sat adjacent to each other, Qin Jiaojiao sat right beside King. Just as she took her seat, a youthful voice floated over from her side: “In-game, just stick with me.”
Qin Jiaojiao: “…”
This distinctive, cool, and distant youthful voice sounded awfully familiar.
Qin Jiaojiao turned her head abruptly, meeting the jet-black eyes of the youth beside her, letting out an incredulous gasp: “A Single Sword Frosts Fourteen Provinces?”
King spoke in a cold, aloof tone: “I thought you only picked me because you recognized me. Turns out you didn’t recognize me at all.”
Qin Jiaojiao grew inwardly huffy. This brat had recognized her from the start! No wonder he had refused to tell her his in-game ID when she asked, putting on a whole act with her.
She really wanted to give him a swift smack on the head.
King tilted his head, leaning in slightly: “Surprised?”
Qin Jiaojiao held back from rolling her eyes in front of the cameras, letting out a dry “hehe”: “What an unexpected ‘surprise’ indeed.”
Hearing her cold sarcasm, King’s lips curled up slightly. “Let me explain the rules. The PC version is a bit different from the mobile version. Later during the hero pick phase, I’ll tell you which heroes to ban.”
The heroes in the mobile and PC versions were identical, and the Rift map was largely the same, though operating with a keyboard on PC carried a slightly higher difficulty curve.
Qin Jiaojiao nodded slightly and said, “Got it.”
The moment of the two leaning together to communicate was captured by the livestream camera. The scene of them sharing the frame was exceptionally pleasing to the eye, causing the livestream chat room to explode with scrolling comments:
【HOLY SHIT! They look so good together!】
【When has anyone ever seen King talk this much?】
【The charm of a top-tier beauty really is immense! King’s gaze hasn’t left her for a single second—could it be love at first sight?】
【The leads for an esports romance novel finally have faces!!!】
【My brain is already writing fanfiction; someone quickly drag the Civil Affairs Bureau over for them!】
【Brother isn’t cold and aloof, he just hadn’t met the girl who makes his heart flutter yet! Hahaha, those female fans are going to cry themselves unconscious in the bathroom!】
Both teams entered the custom match room created for the tournament. Once the host announced the start, both sides entered the BP (Ban/Pick) phase.
Everyone on the team joined the same voice channel to facilitate tactical communication during the exhibition match.
The organizers had explicitly indicated that guests’ main/signature heroes were forbidden from being banned, so Shen Xiaoshan directly locked in her “signature” hero.
The opposing team seemed extremely wary of King’s mechanics, going so far as to ban five marksman heroes. With her own side banning two marksmen as well, all meta marksman heroes in the current version were completely wiped out, forcing King to pick a relatively weaker marksman hero.
From top to bottom across the five roles, Qin Jiaojiao ranked second in draft priority, allowing her to pick early. Considering her teammates’ situations, players usually locked in picks for other lanes first.
In team voice channel—
Qin Jiaojiao tilted her head toward King and asked, “Should I pick a hero for you first?”
“No need.” King’s handsome face wore a confident expression as he said, “Pick your support first, I’ll pick later.”
Qin Jiaojiao browsed through the support category and asked for everyone’s input: “Should I pick an enchanter or an engage support?”
Enchanters mainly provided shields and healing to keep the marksman alive so they could unleash maximum damage, whereas engage support was responsible for initiating team fights and hard crowd control—the latter requiring her to soak damage and take a beating.
Her team’s jungler offered, “Pick an engage support with a hook.”
Qin Jiaojiao wasn’t very adept at engage supports. As she hesitated, the clear, crisp voice of the youth beside her rang out: “No need. She can just pick an enchanter to keep me alive while I deal damage. I can carry and win this for us.”
The youth possessed the fiery, cocky arrogance of youth. The jungler was a professional esports player from another team who had been outplayed on stage by King’s razor-sharp, high-risk mechanics.
Hearing King say this, the jungler immediately backtracked: “Then Miss Qin should just pick an enchanter she’s comfortable with.”
Qin Jiaojiao glanced at King, who said, “Pick it. Trust me.”
In the final seconds of the draft countdown, she locked in her frequently played enchanter support, letting out a soft sigh of relief.
Even though this was merely a celebrity exhibition match and the audience and fans knew celebrity gaming levels were average, if she lost this match, she would inevitably face flak from esports fans.
The opposing team was led by Shen Xiaoshan; she absolutely refused to lose to Shen Xiaoshan at such a major event—it would look terrible.
Therefore, she had to play seriously.
…
Zhuxing Group Headquarters Building.
Bright light filled the CEO’s office. Zhou Shaoli wrapped up part of his workload, opened the livestream PC client software he had downloaded today, and clicked into the tournament stream.
When the camera cut to Qin Jiaojiao, his eyes remained glued to the screen without blinking.
Qin Jiaojiao’s traditional Chinese styling today was vastly different from her usual look: like an arrogant, bewitching cat, looking extraordinarily gorgeous with her esports headset on.
When the camera cut to Qin Jiaojiao leaning in to communicate with the youth beside her, Zhou Shaoli’s gaze focused sharply. He keenly sensed that Qin Jiaojiao interacted with the youth very naturally—the two didn’t look like they were meeting for the first time.
Zhou Shaoli didn’t turn off the live chat barrage. Among the flood of comments, he saw viewers shipping the CP of Qin Jiaojiao and the pro esports player seated next to her, a subtle sensation flickering in his heart.
It was an uncomfortable feeling.
…
The game officially began. The screams inside the arena almost shattered the roof; even with soundproof headphones on, Qin Jiaojiao could feel the overwhelming passion of the atmosphere.
During the level-one invade phase, nothing happened on either side. Minions marched down the bottom lane to meet in the middle, with Qin Jiaojiao sticking close to King’s side.
The enemy marksman was Shen Xiaoshan, whose support was a professional esports player known for crowd-control engage supports, boasting a career hook accuracy rate as high as ninety percent. Qin Jiaojiao didn’t dare lower her guard.
In this game, once an enchanter support was hooked, any misstep meant an extremely high chance of death.
Relying on her engage support, Shen Xiaoshan continuously pushed the minion wave forward. Qin Jiaojiao felt immense pressure; usually, marksmen didn’t shot-call, leaving the support or jungler to oversee the global state and set the tempo while the marksman focused on last-hitting minions to farm.
Qin Jiaojiao and King had duo-queued to climb ranks in the Rift for a while now, sharing a tacit understanding, so the opposing team failed to find an opening. Still, she didn’t dare overextend forward.
In the chat room, King’s solo fans began to grow anxious:
【Does Qin Jiaojiao even know how to play this game? She’s constantly hiding behind the marksman!】
【Step up and poke the enemy marksman! This is driving me crazy.】
【I can’t watch this anymore. Getting pushed under tower like this means once the enemy jungler arrives, they’re definitely getting tower-dived.】
【My blood pressure is spiking just watching this.】
Qin Jiaojiao felt a bit stressed and was playing cautiously, terrified of getting hooked and killed for first blood once a fight broke out.
King patiently guided her: “It’s fine, don’t be afraid. Whenever your skills are off cooldown, step up to poke the enemy marksman. We can play a bit more aggressively.”
There were bushes beside the minion lane; entering the brush caused the enemy to lose vision.
Hearing King’s words, Qin Jiaojiao maneuvered her hero forward to cast a skill on Shen Xiaoshan’s hero, whittling down a small portion of her health. When the enemy support tried to hook her, she retreated into the brush, breaking their line of sight.
Shen Xiaoshan’s marksman hero was easy to operate, but she had only practiced a few matches at home at the last minute; her last-hitting and positioning mechanics were quite poor. After clearing minions, King cooperated with Qin Jiaojiao to harass her, forcing Shen Xiaoshan and her support back toward their defensive tower.
King glanced at the mini-map at the bottom of the screen and said, “Their jungler might be coming. We’ll push the wave into the tower and leave.”
“Okay,” Qin Jiaojiao responded.
King truly understood his fellow pro jungler. Just as they pushed the minion wave into the enemy tower, the enemy jungler emerged from the river channel on the right side of the map to gank them.
Inside Shen Xiaoshan’s team voice channel, chaos broke out.
“Quick, quick! They’re trying to leave, kill the marksman first…” Shen Xiaoshan yelled anxiously. If they killed the enemy marksman first, Qin Jiaojiao’s enchanter support would be a free kill under the tower.
The jungler ignored her and charged straight for Qin Jiaojiao; the squishy enchanter closest to him was far easier to kill, and once the support died, the low-health marksman wouldn’t be able to escape either.
Assessing the situation, Shen Xiaoshan’s support followed the jungler to flank the retreating Qin Jiaojiao.
King dodged the enemy jungler’s skill with a sidestep, then hit the enemy support with a skill to slow them down and help Qin Jiaojiao retreat. However, escaping a three-man collapse was tough.
In the end, Qin Jiaojiao’s hero was collapsed on and killed by the jungler and support. The two enemies had blown their skills to execute her, and with their health lowered, they continued surging forward to finish off King. Having died, Qin Jiaojiao could only watch helplessly.
Anxious as she was, she kept her mouth shut. In gaming, the biggest taboo was backseat driving while someone was making mechanics plays, which only added pressure and disrupted their train of thought.
The livestream audience and the venue fans stared fixedly at the screen, hearts in their throats as they held their breath. If King was killed here, the bottom lane would collapse completely, making laning impossible and allowing the enemy team to snowball an economic lead to win the exhibition match.
All eyes focused on King. At this crucial moment, the youth had no intention of running away to save his skin—he actually initiated a counter-attack!!!
Qin Jiaojiao’s team’s jungler was rushing down from the mid lane through the river channel: “King, hold on, I’m coming!”
King sidestepped to dodge the enemy engage support’s hook, unleashing a wave of damage onto the skill-drained support. Playing with supreme aggression, he dodged the enemy jungler’s skills while outputting damage. Facing a 1v3 ambush, he killed the support first. Realizing things were taking a turn for the worse, the enemy jungler tried to disengage, only to be sliced down by King, leaving only a half-health Shen Xiaoshan behind.
Shen Xiaoshan was left completely stunned while controlling her hero. Was this even humanly possible mechanics?!
In her headset, her jungler screamed: “Don’t just stand there! Attack him, trade kills!”
King was like a god of war descended upon the Rift; Shen Xiaoshan didn’t even dare to trade hits with him, turning around to flee in utter panic—losing all momentum. Seeing that she was about to be killed, trying to fight back was already too late, and she was ruthlessly executed by King’s brutal mechanics.
The professional casters at the desk shouted in wild praise: “King gets the counter-kill! A three-man gank turned upside down with a triple kill for King! This is King—the world’s top marksman!”
That intense sequence of counter-kills was nothing short of a masterpiece.
Arriving at the bottom lane, Qin Jiaojiao’s jungler froze on the spot: “…” He had rushed over for nothing.
The top laner was dumbfounded: “Holy shit, bro, you’re insane!”
The male celebrity playing mid lane added: “King, you’re way too cracked! I want to give you all my minion waves!”
Qin Jiaojiao couldn’t help turning to look at King with a beam, praising: “Impressive! Now their bottom lane is completely ruined!”
King spoke aloofly: “Basic mechanics, don’t make a fuss.”
Qin Jiaojiao: “…” Little Bro really was Little Bro. He was cocky, but he damn well had the skill to back it up!
The chat room went wild:
【HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT, KING IS TOO CRACKED!】
【No matter how many times I watch it, I’m always blown away by King’s mechanics.】
【King, you are my god!】
【As long as they peel for King to output damage, this game is an easy win.】
【Qin Jiaojiao’s support play was actually pretty solid. Even though she got picked off, she baited out all their skills, and right before dying, she shielded and healed King in time.】
【King bagged three kills early—I hereby declare this game over.】
The opposing jungler’s mental state collapsed completely. Restrained by the fact that Shen Xiaoshan was a celebrity guest, he could only curse profusely in his mind. He had given up his jungle camps to help bottom lane, only to end up giving away a triple kill—a utter humiliation in his professional career.
Yet he couldn’t afford not to gank King. As King’s teammate, he knew how terrifying King’s strength was; even if King was shut down in the early game, the moment he found an opportunity to farm up, he would remain a terrifying god of war in the late game.
If they ignored King all game and let him farm peacefully, the consequences would be even more horrifying—the guy’s terrifying mechanics were enough to make anyone’s scalp go numb.
Just a few minutes into the game, he had already foreseen the outcome.
To become a professional esports player, one needed both effort and innate talent, but King was a freak of nature. Everyone else relied on talent and hard work just to become a top-tier genius, which merely granted them the ticket to challenge King.
Debuting straight at the peak, the young and powerful King was completely unstoppable!
…
Having secured the gold from three kills, King turned the bottom lane from a tough matchup into a total non-contest for the enemy.
Qin Jiaojiao followed King as they relentlessly pinned Shen Xiaoshan and her support under their tower. Shen Xiaoshan was forced to cower under the tower to clear minions, all while getting continuously poked by Qin Jiaojiao’s skills.
The agonizing feeling of a slow death was unbearable. Shen Xiaoshan’s palms sweated as she repeatedly urged her jungler to gank.
“I’m clearing this jungle camp first; you guys clear waves and hold the tower,” the enemy jungler refused outright.
Meanwhile, Qin Jiaojiao’s jungler finished clearing his jungle and charged straight toward the bottom lane—this time, it was their turn for a 3v2 tower dive.
The three coordinated.
Jungler: “Wait for me to take tower aggro first, King. You output damage and kill the marksman first.”
King shot-called: “We’ll take turns tanking the tower.”
Usually in tower dives, the jungler and support tanked the tower damage to ensure no one died. Hearing King’s words, the jungler felt a bit puzzled, but didn’t ask further.
Qin Jiaojiao: “I don’t need to tank?”
King: “No, just stay behind me and shield me.”
Working together, the three dived the tower to kill Shen Xiaoshan first before cornering the helpless support. With the marksman dead, the engage support lacked damage output and could only be executed.
Dying once again, Shen Xiaoshan almost slammed her mouse. Suppressing her frustration, she spoke in a soft, delicate voice: “Can the jungler visit bottom lane more? We keep getting flanked.”
“If I go bottom lane, I’ll just die too. You hold the lane alone; let the support come roam with me,” the jungler said.
This essentially meant leaving Shen Xiaoshan alone to hold the bottom tower—since it was a slow death anyway, they might as well seek opportunities in other lanes.
The support had wanted to leave for other lanes long ago, heading out alone as soon as he respawned.
Shen Xiaoshan was so furious her hands trembled, but since they were recording a show, she couldn’t just quit, leaving her no choice but to head down to bottom lane alone to collect minion waves.
As King and Qin Jiaojiao pushed the wave down bottom lane, seeing Shen Xiaoshan appearing alone, King spoke up: “Push the wave in, dive the tower, and kill her one more time. The kill is yours.”
Qin Jiaojiao: “For me?”
King: “Yeah, for you.”
In this game, supports didn’t take minion farm and had virtually no gold for items; kills were supposed to go to the primary damage carry. Yet King was actually giving the kill to her.
Qin Jiaojiao felt delighted: “Okay!”
The director cut the camera feed to the bottom lane. Everyone watched as King beat Shen Xiaoshan down to critical health, only to suddenly stop attacking.
The caster wondered: “What is King doing?”
When everyone saw King hold back his attacks and let Qin Jiaojiao step up to finish off Shen Xiaoshan, taking the kill, gasp erupted across the venue.
The caster said in shock: “King is giving the kill to his support!”
Clearly, this act of giving a kill to a support left everyone stunned, as teams usually funneled kills to the main carry.
Shen Xiaoshan hadn’t expected King to leave her at low health just to let Qin Jiaojiao finish her off personally. Feeling deeply humiliated, she practically spat blood, nearly biting her back molars to pieces.
The chat room went wild:
【HOLY SHIT, BRO, DON’T BE TOO IN LOVE!】
【King actually handed over a kill—a once-in-a-lifetime sight! Bros really don’t compare to women.】
【Oh my god, I’m dying from shipping this!】
Securing the kill, Qin Jiaojiao bought a minor item, her face beaming with smiles. What mattered wasn’t just King giving her the kill, but that she had personally executed low-health Shen Xiaoshan in-game.
It felt so good.
…
The decisive moment of the game came during a dragon pit team fight in the river area, where both sides fought fiercely. The enemy jungler, mid laner, top laner, and support—all four players—focused entirely on King’s position, recklessly trying to execute him. Qin Jiaojiao stayed hyper-focused, controlling her support with eyes locked onto King alone.
After a minor positioning error, their team’s secondary carry—the mid lane mage—was eliminated, while the jungler and top laner were finished off at low health by the enemy pro mid laner.
Fortunately, the Baron was secured by Qin Jiaojiao’s side. At this point, they should have retreated, but the enemy jungler quickly shot-called: “Chaser! Kill them!”
As long as they killed King, they could pull back the economic lead.
King shot-called calmly: “They’re all low. Focus on keeping shields on me, I can fight.”
Qin Jiaojiao trusted King’s mechanics one hundred percent, saying, “Go all out, I’ll protect you.”
The casters had assumed King would retreat, but unexpectedly, he went for a play. The audience below the stage stared intently at the screen.
Understanding King’s playstyle, the enemy jungler directed his teammates to flank him with a single goal: kill King.
The caster’s voice rang out continuously: “King is making a play! A single skill takes down the mid laner’s massive bounty! King is still kiting, he’s still making plays…”
“First kill… King secures a triple kill! King is still killing…” The caster’s throat was nearly smoking: “King gets a PENTAKILL!”
At that moment, screams pierced through the clouds.
Qin Jiaojiao and King led the minion wave to push up the enemy high ground. With Shen Xiaoshan’s team dead and staring at black screens waiting to respawn, they could only watch helplessly as King and Qin Jiaojiao demolished the base crystal.
They won!
She won!
Qin Jiaojiao couldn’t help revealing a bright, radiant smile, savoring the joy of victory as she looked toward King beside her.
King expressionlessly took off his headset, maintaining his cool, aloof youth persona as if winning this celebrity exhibition match didn’t stir a single ripple in him.
Qin Jiaojiao accidentally caught a glimpse of his hand trembling slightly. She immediately leaned in and asked softly, “Your hand is shaking—are you nervous?”
King turned to look at her, explaining: “No, I’m excited.”
He loved competing; even for an exhibition show, he brought a professional attitude. He was born for the stage—facing three pro players on the opposing team, aside from stomping the bottom lane, the team fights had gone back and forth, making it extremely thrilling for him.
Hearing King’s words, Qin Jiaojiao fell silent. This brat was clearly thrilled, yet he insisted on acting cool.
…
The winning guests were invited for a post-match interview by the host.
As captain, Qin Jiaojiao was invited to the center of the stage alongside King.
The host asked: “During that dragon pit pentakill fight just now, your team should have retreated. Who decided to turn around and fight?”
Qin Jiaojiao said: “King.”
Host: “Were you not afraid of getting aced and losing the game?”
Qin Jiaojiao glanced at King and said, “He said he could fight, and I trusted him.”
The host laughed: “A 2v5—you two were so brave with your plays, your synergy was incredible!”
Qin Jiaojiao praised: “Mainly because King is amazing.”
King offered: “Our captain played really well this game, constantly peeling for me, which made winning easy.”
The two humbly complimented each other, drawing wild cheers from the crowd.
The host asked with a smile: “What kind of guy does Teacher Qin like? What do you think of King?”
This question carried a bit too much romantic insinuation. Qin Jiaojiao froze for a moment; with everyone waiting for her answer, she weighed her words carefully and offered an extremely official response: “King plays games amazingly well. He’s a warm-hearted guy behind a cool exterior, the type of boy girls really like.”
She blinked, using a lighthearted tone as she added, “I’m married, so King’s female fans don’t need to view me as a romantic rival.”
The host was shocked: “Teacher Qin is married?”
This female celebrity looked to be in her early twenties, young and gorgeous, with a promising future ahead in the entertainment industry—why would she choose to get married so early?
Her finger wasn’t wearing a wedding ring, and she truly didn’t look like someone who was married.
The audience members who had just started shipping King and Qin Jiaojiao refused to believe it, assuming she was merely claiming to be married to avoid getting targeted by King’s female fans or teased by male fans.
Qin Jiaojiao nodded.
Since interview time was limited, the host didn’t press further, steering the topic back to the game.
…
Qin Jiaojiao winning the esports celebrity exhibition match made it onto the trending searches. Clips of her in-game communication with King were screenshotted by livestream viewers and edited into short videos on social media platforms.
A gorgeous, vibrant older sister X a cold, aloof pro esports youth—it was truly far too sweet to ship, serving as the perfect visual template for leads in an esports romance novel.
Even though Qin Jiaojiao had stated she was married, many people didn’t believe it, assuming she had fabricated a married persona out of fear of being attacked by King’s female fans.
With a massive base of general netizens across the internet, plus esports fans who didn’t know Qin Jiaojiao was married, the entire community was shipping her CP with King.
Just as the event concluded, Qin Jiaojiao picked up her phone and dialed Zhou Shaoli, who answered instantly.
“Are you off work?”
If Zhou Shaoli wasn’t off work yet, she would just hail a taxi back herself—having a driver pick her up meant waiting near the venue, which was far too troublesome.
“I’m outside the venue,” Zhou Shaoli said in a calm, deep voice.
Qin Jiaojiao asked in a delighted tone: “Which exit are you at?”
Zhou Shaoli: “Exit A, street side parking spot.”
“Okay, wait for me, I’m heading over right now.” Qin Jiaojiao opened her navigation app to locate Exit A, heading straight in that direction.
Once the event wrapped up completely, the audience would swarm out; she needed to find Zhou Shaoli’s car quickly and leave to avoid getting stuck in traffic on her way home.
Exiting through Main Gate A, Qin Jiaojiao crossed the plaza and spotted a low-profile luxury black car parked by the curb. Its familiar license plate flashed hazard lights in the dark night.
She ran over quickly.
The rear car door opened. Qin Jiaojiao was slightly out of breath, her eyes brimming with a smile as she looked at the noble, elegant man in the backseat, asking: “Did you watch the exhibition match?”
Zhou Shaoli stepped out of the car to stand before her, lowering his eyes to gaze at her, his voice deep and low: “I watched it.”
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