Chapter 20

“Sis, what’s wrong? You look half-dead.” Xu Ruiqi yawned as he strolled leisurely down from the second floor.

Usually, Su Yi and Han Lingfeng woke up earlier than everyone else. Whenever he came downstairs, he’d find the two of them gaming intensely at their stations, their dynamic basically a sitcom. But this time, his cousin’s expression looked somewhat… subtly ferocious. What happened? Did the sitcom go on strike today?

Xu Ruiqi vaguely remembered the last person who made Su Yi wear that expression. He didn’t know if they ended up miserably, only that they had since left the League of Legends community entirely. That was about two years ago when she first started playing; back then, Su Yi was still a complete novice who couldn’t even tell one part of the map from another.

Su Yi frowned, wearing a ‘dead inside.jpg’ expression. “Nothing. Just a grudge match.”

What? A grudge match? He silently walked behind the pair and asked, “What’s this about grudges?” Then he patted Han Lingfeng on the back with a tone full of complaint. “Wind God, are you even competent? I entrusted my sister to you—what exactly happened?”

Su Yi: “…”

She felt something was off about her brother’s declaration.

Han Lingfeng was also momentarily stunned by the remark, then pointed to the chat box in the bottom-left corner of the screen. “Su Yi and I got matched with CNZ’s Qi Shen and Xiao Yao.”

“…” Xu Ruiqi was confused. Filtering out everything except the phrase ‘solid as Mount Tai,’ he excitedly slapped his thigh. “Then your team comp is invincible! You, my sister, plus two heavy hitters from Virgo—what grudge can’t be settled with a single slap?”

Han Lingfeng: “…”

Su Yi’s lips twitched. “It’s an internal grudge now.”

Xu Ruiqi: “Huh?”

Su Yi: “Last game, Qi Shen and Xiao Yao were against us and bullied me until I couldn’t function.”

Xu Ruiqi: “…And this game you’re all on the same team?”

Su Yi nodded.

Xu Ruiqi automatically filled in the blanks. With a heavy heart, he patted Han Lingfeng’s shoulder, seemingly telling him to prepare himself mentally.

Just as expected, Xu Ruiqi opened with: “Wind God, please prepare yourself to fight alone in bot lane. I’ll pray for you silently in my heart.”

Han Lingfeng: “…”

He seemed to understand now.

He recalled the first ranked game where he encountered Su Yi. Although he established an advantage thanks to Qi Shen’s jungle help, allowing him to completely dominate her mid lane, the second time they met, Su Yi’s Rengar camped him three times bot lane…

Women are scary; women who hold grudges when angry are even scarier.

In normal ranked queues, floor assignments are randomized. Qi Shen was floor one, Su Yi floor two, Han Lingfeng floor three, Xiao Yao floor four, and floor five was the Challenger streamer who had spoken earlier.

Xiao Yao mained ADC, with jungle as his secondary role. This time, likely forced to autofill, he was assigned mid lane. Qi Shen was still jungling, and bot lane remained Su Yi and Han Lingfeng.

Seeing these assignments, Liang Qi felt his eyes ache. Everyone knew his Yao Fei wasn’t great at much else, but his Zed in mid lane was notoriously flashy—in the worst way. Nicknamed: Kiddie Zed.

Players jokingly referred to it as one of the “Three Elementary School Heroes.”

During champion select, Xiao Yao typed in all-chat:

[CNZ_YaoYaoYao: Wind God, mind giving me mid? I know you’re better at it than me.]

Unexpectedly, Han Lingfeng replied bluntly: [Coldwind: No.]

[CNZ_YaoYaoYao: ………… If you insist, I’ll have to pull out my treasured Kiddie Zed.]

[Coldwind: Whatever. Just don’t feed.]

As soon as the message was sent, floor one’s Qi Shen instantly locked Rengar—the very champion Su Yi had used to endlessly camp Han Lingfeng in the bot lane brush last time.

The enemy jungler quickly locked Kha’Zix, commonly known as Mantis.

One of League’s most famous Easter eggs involves the rivalry between Rengar and Kha’Zix, triggering a hidden quest at level sixteen. But that wasn’t the point here; the real issue was… both champions could instantly delete opponents in jungle skirmishes.

This game, Su Yi happily secured her signature Zyra, while Han Lingfeng swiftly locked Ezreal, a highly mobile ADC. Then, with Xiao Yao locking Zed and top lane picking Jax, the match began.

Upon entering the game and seeing the luxurious lineup on Su Yi and Han Lingfeng’s side, the opposing five players immediately begged for mercy in all-chat.

Messages like ‘I’ll accept defeat gracefully this game,’ ‘Qi Shen, Xiao Yao, Wind God… and SNM’s support girl? If we win this, I’ll brag for ten thousand years,’ and ‘QAQ Daddy Qi Shen please don’t gank mid, I’m kneeling!’ flooded the chat.

Yet Su Yi’s team chat was surprisingly silent…

No one responded.

When minions spawned, the bot lane duo typically helped their jungler with the first camp. Logically, once the buff monster dropped to around 300 HP, they should head to lane.

But Han Lingfeng’s Ezreal had already turned to leave, yet Su Yi was still helping attack. Confused, Liang Qi pinged retreat to signal her to leave, but miscalculated the health and used Smite too early. With only a dozen HP remaining, the monster was ultimately killed by Zyra’s plant.

Liang Qi: “…………”

So awkward.

Su Yi didn’t type anything. Heading to lane with Red Buff, she leveraged its advantage to quickly take down the enemy bot lane alongside Han Lingfeng, forcing their ADC to burn a fatal Flash.

Losing a buff accidentally to Su Yi early on was already damaging for Liang Qi, who was subsequently chased relentlessly through his own jungle by the enemy Kha’Zix. Mid laner Xiao Yao attempted several roams to assist but only ended up dying himself.

Then, over the next five minutes, Su Yi’s Zyra casually wandered into the jungle—right beside Rengar—and proceeded to steal numerous camps using her abilities and plant damage.

[Melody Under Prayer: ?]

Liang Qi quickly sent a question mark—*Holy crap! What’s this Zyra doing? Not causing chaos bot lane but playing in MY jungle instead?!*

Next, Su Yi roamed from the jungle to mid lane. Coincidentally, the enemy support and jungler were also lurking there. After a small skirmish… Xiao Yao’s mid laner and Qi Shen’s jungler died gloriously, while Su Yi’s Zyra scored a triple kill and soaked an entire wave of tower minions.

Suddenly richer than the mid laner.

Top laner Da Di, the White Shark TV streamer, seemed to be live streaming. Seeing this unfold, he typed in chat: [WhiteSharkTV_DaDi: Guys, my stream is lagging badly. None of you big shots are streaming, so fans realized we’re queued together and flooded my channel. Baby is under so much pressure.]

[Coldwind: Boosting your viewership. You’re welcome.]

[Melody Under Prayer: *I’m* the one under pressure! My jungle camps have been cleared by our own support! Chaos!]

[E-MAIL: Chaos-support that kills without compensation, now included in the deluxe lunch set.]

[CNZ_YaoYaoYao: ………… Mid lane is massively behind.]

[E-MAIL: It’s fine. I’m super fed.]

“…………”

Just as the messages were sent, the enemy ADC dove Han Lingfeng’s Ezreal under tower, only to get completely outplayed. Meanwhile, their top laner also delivered, killing the enemy top laner simultaneously.

—A scattered ace for the enemy team.

Top, ADC, and support were all incredibly fed, and unlike typical supports, Zyra dealt significant damage. Leveraging these advantages, Han Lingfeng and Su Yi practically carried the entire game from behind their tanky top laner, pushing straight to the enemy inhibitor.

Watching the enemy Nexus explode and seeing her own 4/1/12 scoreline, Su Yi’s mood soared. Finally, she could let others experience what it felt like to be carried!

Meanwhile, at CNZ’s base, Liang Qi stared at his dismal stats with profound sorrow.

—Rengar: 2/10/9

These numbers would forever be a dark stain on his professional career! Worse, top laner Da Di had recorded the entire match via livestream. Immediately opening his browser and navigating to the White Shark TV streamer’s room, he entered just as the victory screen appeared—likely delayed by thirty seconds—and was instantly blinded by rows of scrolling bullet comments.

[Qi Shen had it rough this game; all his jungle resources were stolen by the support.]

[Holy crap! What’s SNM’s new support girl thinking? Playing terribly yet bullying my hubby’s jungle like that!]

[Didn’t you guys know? Last game, Qi Shen and Yao Fei were against Wind God and Yi Mei, and Qi Shen bullied Yi Mei until she couldn’t function.]

[So this game Yi Mei spent the whole time ganking her OWN jungler hahahaha.]

[Thank goodness my hubby Wind God carried! SNM’s new support girl is actually pretty skilled. Are those calling her bad even watching the gameplay?]

[For this support girl’s APM and mechanics alone, I’m definitely buying tickets for next year’s Spring Split!]

[Am I the only one feeling bad for Qi Shen and Xiao Yao…]

Bullet comments streamed past endlessly, making Liang Qi’s eyes hurt. He simply closed the browser tab altogether.

Beside him, Xiao Yao patted his head. “Getting toyed with in your own jungle by a support girl… Qi Shen, wow… impressive.”

Liang Qi pursed his lips. “I targeted her in ranked before.”

“What?”

“Once I was on the same team as Wind God. He played mid against that girl.” Resting his chin in his hand, Liang Qi spoke weakly. “I naturally love targeting mid, so I camped her into oblivion.”

Xiao Yao pondered thoughtfully. “Then why did you camp bot lane last game?”

Liang Qi glanced out the window, seemingly evading the question. “Their bot lane was too strong. Without targeting them, winning would’ve been difficult.”

Xiao Yao: “………… Qi Shen, honestly, you only targeted bot because you saw a girl there and assumed she was bad, didn’t you?”

Liang Qi: “…”

Xiao Yao: “Holy crap, I finally figured out why you’ve been single forever. My condolences.”

Liang Qi: “Skip the condolences. I want to watch your stream.”

Xiao Yao’s mouth twitched. “Get lost!”

Ignoring Xiao Yao’s scowl, Liang Qi rubbed his chin and mused, “But this Yi Mei on the other team really is quite strong. I’m getting curious.”

…

Back on Su Yi’s end, after exiting the game, she didn’t bother reading what other players in the lobby were saying before accepting Han Lingfeng’s party invite and entering directly.

Just then, her phone on the desk buzzed—a WeChat voice message from Xia Qiqi. While waiting in queue, Su Yi clicked play, only to hear…

A roaring voice blasting through the speaker: “BABE!!! MY STREAM IS ABSOLUTELY EXPLODING AHHHHH!”

Su Yi: “…………”

What’s going on?

After listening, Su Yi immediately checked the clock in the bottom-right corner—it was nearly ten PM. At this hour, Xia Qiqi should still be streaming.

She quickly typed: [SUEE: What happened?]

The reply came swiftly: [Principal Qi: Finished class past three, went back to nap, accidentally slept till past six. Had dinner, showered, did makeup, and only went live past nine. Barely sang a few songs before getting swamped by fan armies.]

[SUEE: So your stream crashed?]

[Principal Qi: Yi Yi, next time warn me before your official announcement, okay? I wasn’t mentally prepared.]

[Principal Qi: But it’s my first time hitting such massive viewer numbers! Got featured on the Star Show homepage. Thinking about it feels nice 233333]

[SUEE: …All I did was ask Wind God to verify my account. There’s been no official announcement. Reading your words… I feel like you’re secretly thrilled inside.]

[Principal Qi: Well, since you’ve appeared on camera during my streams before, my fans know we have some indescribable relationship. They kept bombarding me asking if you really went pro.]

[SUEE: Indescribable relationship… How exactly did you answer that?]

[Principal Qi: Told the truth, obviously! Your verification literally says ‘Support Player, SNM Esports Club’! But seriously, you passed tryouts, you’re almost Challenger… Why hasn’t the actual stuff been handled yet?]

[SUEE: What stuff?]

Typing this, Su Yi picked up her water cup for a sip. Just then, Xia Qiqi’s reply arrived:

[Principal Qi: You and Wind God have been glued together playing bot lane for over half a month. Haven’t things gotten heated? Any sparks of romance flying?!]

Su Yi: “PFFT—!”

G-God damn sparks of romance.

“Cough cough cough—” Su Yi choked violently, spilling water onto her mechanical keyboard. Coughing, she grabbed tissues to wipe it clean quickly. Instinctively, Han Lingfeng beside her reached out, gently patting her back as he asked softly, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, fine! This mechanical keyboard is waterproof,” Su Yi gasped, recovering slightly as she hurriedly wiped away the spills.

“…” Han Lingfeng chuckled helplessly twice. “Su Yi, I asked if YOU’RE okay.”

“Huh?”

“Why would I randomly ask about the keyboard?”

“…”

Su Yi turned to look at Han Lingfeng, only then realizing he’d been gently rubbing her back this entire time.

[Over half a month glued together… Any sparks of romance flying?!]

Recalling Xia Qiqi’s message, her face suddenly flushed crimson, and her coughing worsened dramatically. “Cough cough cough cough… I’m fine, totally fine!”

“…Why do I feel like you’re coughing harder now?”

“It’ll pass in a sec.”

Hearing the commotion, Xu Ruiqi immediately turned his head. Seeing the scene, he silently turned back to continue his Korean server grind—*Ah, at this rate, SNM will inevitably end up dating internally.*

“Yo bros, what’s happening?” Lightning looked freshly awake—he and Coffee had grinded until past seven this morning before sleeping. Holding his phone screen, he leaned over the second-floor railing and called down, “Yi Mei’s official announcement is huge news! How come nobody told me?”

Still choking painfully with tears welling up, Su Yi tilted her head up to look at Lightning on the second floor. “It’s not an official announcement! I just asked Wind God to verify my account. Who knew verification required reposting?”

Lightning stared at her blankly. “Then why are you crying tears of joy?”

Sniffling, Su Yi retorted, “I choked on water! Who’s emotional!”

Blinking, Lightning steered the conversation back on track. “Su Yi, what verification info? I’m talking about our team’s official Weibo announcement!”

“…………”

A mysterious silence fell over the first floor.

Coffee also ambled out of his room, draping an arm over Lightning’s shoulder. “Ten minutes ago, those pranksters in PR posted and pinned a Weibo update. Our team app pushed the notification simultaneously. Impressive—an evening announcement… on the final day of the season. Tai Yi really wanted to make headlines.”

Su Yi looked up at the two smirking figures on the second floor, pulled out her phone, and swiftly opened SNM’s official Weibo. Sure enough, roughly ten minutes ago, they had officially announced SNM’s new support player.

The post was brief, essentially stating she had passed tryouts, becoming the LPL’s first-ever starting female player, taking the support role, and joining SNM for the S7 season.

Below were her personal profile and photos.

Perhaps because the news was too sensational, reposts and comments were skyrocketing exponentially. Trending topics instantly shifted to: #SNM_SuYi#, #SNM_Support_Is_A_Girl#, #LPL_First_Female_Player#, and more.

Moreover, her own Weibo notifications, DMs, and mentions hadn’t stopped buzzing for the past hour.

After some thought, Su Yi chose to ignore it all.

Right then, Manager Tai Yi returned from handling errands outside. Glancing at Su Yi and Han Lingfeng, he asked, “Did you hear about your official announcement, Su Yi?”

Slumped weakly over her desk, Su Yi murmured faintly, “Manager, you should’ve told me beforehand.”

Tai Yi smiled. “The season resets at midnight tonight anyway. I figured announcing this evening was best—guaranteed to be a sleepless night regardless. Plus, didn’t you already leak it when Wind God verified you this afternoon?”

Su Yi: “I had absolutely no idea verification required reposting!”

Tai Yi: “Well, now you know.”

Su Yi: “Now I know.”

Tai Yi: “Oh, and did you also know that once the preseason starts in a couple days, you’ll need to fulfill streaming obligations on White Shark like everyone else?”

Su Yi bolted upright in her chair, astonished. “Already?!”

Pulling a streaming contract from his bag, Tai Yi handed it to her. “Even though you’re a girl, requirements are the same. Monthly streaming hours are listed—not too many. We’re contracted exclusively with White Shark, so you can only stream there. No browsing other platforms while live either; violations incur fines.”

Su Yi nodded and asked, “Um… Can I do channel raids?”

Xu Ruiqi, silent until now, immediately stood up and walked behind his sister’s chair. “You’re a girl—why are you raiding channels?”

Channel raids typically involved moderators visiting streamers to check for rule violations, such as illegal content or overly revealing outfits for female streamers, usually issuing warnings or banning severe cases.

Generally, however, streamers used “raids” casually to visit others’ streams when bored. Mostly male streamers raided female streamers; hearing a female streamer mention raiding was unusual…

Su Yi explained, “Just visiting friends’ streams to boost their viewership.”

Tai Yi: “That shouldn’t be a problem.”

Su Yi: “Thanks, Manager.”

“But remember to enable your webcam when streaming.” Pointing to the dusty camera behind her monitor, he added, “Xiao C used this previously. Just use it.”

Thinking carefully, Su Yi asked solemnly, “…Is it a beauty-filter camera?”

Tai Yi merely gave her an enigmatic smile. “Dream on. Xiao C is a textbook straight man.”

Ah, so exhausting.

Before the season reset that night, Su Yi won her final match, successfully promoting to Challenger. In the final standings, Han Lingfeng firmly held Chinese server number one, with second place… still Qi Shen, trailing by thirty points.

Other team members maintained Challenger ranks on the Korean server, wrapping up a perfect season overall.

…

A few days later, preseason ranked queues opened.

It was a rest day, meaning no regular training, but Su Yi still had to stream according to her contract schedule. After all, with an annual salary in the hundreds of thousands, she couldn’t afford to mess with money.

The previous evening, SNM’s official Weibo collaborated with White Shark TV to announce her upcoming stream, scheduled for 3 PM. Being a weekend, viewer turnout was guaranteed to be massive.

Su Yi woke up, washed, applied a face mask, put on light makeup, and rummaged through her wardrobe multiple times. Ultimately settling on her SNM jersey, she dawdled until 2:30 PM before leaving her room, finding Han Lingfeng sitting on the sofa playing on his phone. Descending the stairs, she greeted him casually, “Wind God.”

Han Lingfeng glanced at her. “Awake?”

“Mm.”

“Get ready. Time to stream.” Standing up, he headed toward his station.

Su Yi stared blankly. “Ah… You’re streaming too?”

Han Lingfeng nodded. “Mm. Three hours short this month. Wanna duo queue?”

Su Yi: “Oh…”

Phrased as a question, yet it sounded distinctly declarative.

“You unwilling?”

“No no no no no…” Su Yi shook her head frantically.

Han Lingfeng curled his lips. “So you’re willing.”

“…………”

Soon seated at her desk, she fiddled with the webcam angle to appear slimmer, then adjusted the streaming software on her desktop.

Since this was her first official stream ever, Su Yi stared blankly at the [Title] field in the backend: *What kind of title sounds pure and unpretentious?*

Leaning sideways toward Han Lingfeng, she asked, “Wind God, should I just use the default title?”

The default read: SNM_EMAIL’s Stream.

Han Lingfeng turned, meeting her gaze briefly, then glanced at his own webcam. “I just turned mine on.”

Su Yi: “…………..”

*Crap, how are your hands so fast?!*

Glancing at her webcam, then at Han Lingfeng’s screen where bullet comments scrolled rapidly, she recoiled in fright:

[I SAW YI MEI’S SIDE PROFILE!!! WANNA SEE FRONT FACE! PROMISED STREAM BUT HER CHANNEL IS STILL BLACK!]

[HOLY CRAP! YI MEI’S SITTING NEXT TO MY HUBBY AND SO CLOSE! UGH SO MAD!]

[DON’T HIDE! YOU WERE CONFIDENT ENOUGH WHEN STREAMING WITH PRINCIPAL QI BEFORE!]

[YI MEI REALLY IS AS PRETTY AS HER SELFIES!]

[WATCHING YOU ON PRINCIPAL QI’S STREAM BEFORE, NEVER KNEW YOU COULD EVEN ‘PLAY GAMES’!]

[NOW MY FAVORITE ARTIST BECAME MY FAVORITE PRO PLAYER. NO MORE WORDS. START STREAMING! WANNA WATCH YOU PLAY!]

…

Stunned for two seconds, Su Yi finally resolved herself and clicked [Go Live].

Instantly, in the bottom-right corner of her stream, a long-haired girl wearing SNM’s jersey appeared. Though she’d been on camera before and wasn’t excessively nervous, streaming as a professional player felt vastly different compared to her casual appearances on Xia Qiqi’s stream—which now seemed like child’s play.

Forcing a smile, she said, “Good afternoon, everyone.”

Hearing she’d gone live, part of Han Lingfeng’s audience jumped over to Su Yi’s channel:

[AHHHH WIFey, FINALLY SEEING YOU ALIVE AGAIN!]

[VOICE STILL SO NICE! SING SOMETHING TO WARM UP?]

[ENOUGH WITH THE WARM-UP SONGS! EVER SEEN A PRO SINGER BEFORE RANKED?]

[SINGING HAHAHA DYING]

[WTF! UGLY TRASH GET OUT, STAY AWAY FROM MY HUBBY!]

[ROOM 13156 EDUCATIONAL STREAM, COME WATCH EVERYONE!]

Praises, insults, random ads… every type of viewer populated her chat. Some claimed she wore makeup while streaming just to flirt with SNM’s young players.

Like this particular commenter:

[Heh, female players are just decorative vases. Wearing makeup while streaming! Who are you trying to seduce?]

Glancing at the chat, Su Yi immediately retorted, “Wearing makeup to seduce whom? Bro, you’re crossing the line—that statement is pure bullshit! Girls wear makeup clearly because, ah crap, WHY AM I SO PRETTY?! I’M SO BEAUTIFUL I’M FALLING FOR MYSELF! Now THAT’S the right attitude. Definitely a straight guy talking.”

Her words triggered an explosion of bullet comments:

[HAHAHA YI MEI’S ADORABLE, INSTANTLY CONVERTED TO FAN!]

[OMG WHEN I CHECKED THE MIRROR IN THE BATHROOM EARLIER THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT I THOUGHT!]

[WIFEY YOU’RE SO CUTE! FOLLOWED!]

[YI MEI IS BASICALLY SNM’S NEWEST COMEDIAN!]