Zhou Lingxing raised his eyes, just in time to meet Su Heng’s gaze, but he didn’t answer her question, “I’m hungry, let’s go eat.”

After saying this, he got out of the car.

Su Heng was stunned for two seconds and obediently followed the man.

It was strange; she clearly had a lot of questions she wanted to ask.

The two walked quietly, the spacious sidewalk completely empty, and it was very peaceful.

A breeze swept by; the spring wind still carried a hint of chill, and she couldn’t help but shiver.

The man in front slowed his pace, naturally took off his coat, and with a flick of his hand, it landed in her hands.

Su Heng was momentarily dazed, and Zhou Lingxing’s voice drifted into her ears.

“Want to eat noodles? There isn’t much to eat around here at this time.”

Su Heng glanced at the still-warm coat in her arms, silently putting it on and quickly catching up to the man.

Although her expression didn’t change, a hint of a smile that passed through her eyes revealed her good mood at the moment.

This man was really quite reserved.

The two found a ramen shop to sit down in. There weren’t many customers, just a few scattered tables occupied.

Zhou Lingxing took the menu and handed it directly to Su Heng.

The boss smiled and approached, “You’re back, same as usual?”

The man nodded with a smile.

Su Heng looked at Zhou Lingxing’s smile and found it somewhat rare.

She quickly closed the menu and handed it back to the boss: “I’ll have the same as him.”

The boss showed a somewhat mischievous smile and gave Zhou Lingxing a knowing look.

Then he leisurely took the order book and left.

Knowing that Su Heng had seen the boss’s expression, the man showed no embarrassment, pulling out his phone to unlock it and tapping around on the screen, seemingly doing something.

Su Heng studied him for a moment and quietly asked, “Do you like eating noodles?”

Zhou Lingxing didn’t stop his movements, glanced at Su Heng from the corner of his eye, and then returned his gaze to his phone: “Why do you ask?”

She didn’t get angry at his lack of seriousness and replied slowly, “You come here often, and you seem quite familiar with the boss.”

Zhou Lingxing’s eyes didn’t leave his phone and he answered quickly, “Convenient.”

Su Heng nodded, thought for a moment, and eventually asked, “What are you doing?”

The man’s voice was lazy: “Checking how many people are trash-talking you.”

Her expression remained unchanged: “How many?”

Zhou Lingxing raised his eyelids in mild surprise, looking at the girl’s calm expression, and smiled faintly, “Quite a few.”

Su Heng nodded, saying nothing.

Zhou Lingxing became interested: “You don’t care?”

She shrugged and replied, “What does it have to do with me?”

“The person they’re talking about is you.” The man raised an eyebrow.

Su Heng replied earnestly: “Those people online don’t know what I look like, don’t know my background, and can’t even name me. What they say has nothing to do with me.”

Zhou Lingxing scoffed: “Is that why you wear a mask on stage?”

Su Heng shook her head, finding it somewhat amusing: “I wear a mask just to avoid being seen by someone.”

Zhou Lingxing swallowed the question he almost blurted out, sensing that even if he asked, she wouldn’t answer.

So he continued with the previous topic: “Since you’ve entered this industry, you should be mentally prepared to be known by everyone. Don’t underestimate people’s curiosity; the more you try to hide something, the more others will want to know.”

Su Heng raised an eyebrow, mimicking the man: “Are you curious?”

Her fingers tapped rhythmically on the table, producing a dull sound.

Zhou Lingxing fell silent for a long time, understanding her unspoken words.

He was indeed curious because she was no longer a stranger to him, but a teammate fighting alongside him.

Su Heng remained motionless, staring straight at him, as if she needed his answer at that moment.

Suddenly, a pair of hands holding a bowl appeared, blocking the line of sight between the two.

The boss, after serving the noodles, wasn’t done yet; he winked at the girl, saying, “Here’s a small dish for you two, enjoy your meal,” before leaving.

Zhou Lingxing secretly breathed a sigh of relief and said softly, “Let’s eat noodles.”

Su Heng understood, smiled faintly, picked up a pair of chopsticks, and stirred the noodles.

*

When the two returned to the base, Shen Jianian had already been waiting in the training room for half an hour. When Lao Yu saw Su Heng rush over, it was as if he had seen a savior.

After giving Su Heng a bear hug, she whispered conspiratorially in her ear, “Finally, you’re back, sister! The coach has been waiting for you for so long. I can’t even slack off and play on my phone with him around.”

The round, chubby face combined with a tearful expression made Su Heng unable to hold back her laughter.

Shen Jianian couldn’t be bothered to spare even a glance at the old fish and walked straight toward Su Heng. “Let’s go. Once you sign the contract, I’ll let you rest.”

She was taken aback for two seconds; all her energy had been focused on the competition these past few days that she had completely forgotten about this matter.

Shen Jianian led Su Heng to the office and, after indicating for her to sit down, quickly took out the prepared contract from the drawer.

“Take a look first; I’ll briefly explain it to you. There are strict age requirements for professional players, so generally, the contract duration doesn’t exceed three years. Since you’re not recruited through official channels, I’ll set your salary at 800,000 per year, as Zhou Lingxing mentioned. You won’t find another rookie with this annual salary.”

“Theoretically, once you sign the contract, you’re required to participate in all training and competition schedules we arrange. However, given your physical condition, this will not be a hard requirement. Of course, I hope you can live up to this salary.”

“Provided your physical condition allows, you must comply with all the club-arranged performances, media activities, product endorsements, personal commercial development, branding, and all other related esports activities.”

“Additionally, I’ve also arranged a streaming platform for you—20 hours per month, 600,000 per year. This is the lowest requirement I could negotiate for you. If you have any questions or dissatisfaction, you can tell me now. Once the contract takes effect, you won’t have room to voice your concerns.”

Su Heng listened quietly, and when she saw Shen Jianian had no intention of speaking again, she casually flipped through the contract. She signed her name on the last page and handed it back.

Seeing this, Shen Jianian couldn’t help but chuckle. “So quick? Aren’t you afraid I’ll trick you?”

Su Heng shook her head. “You won’t.” Her voice was unusually certain.

Shen Jianian’s expression became intriguing. “Oh?”

Su Heng stood up and looked him in the eye. “Not only will you not trick me, but you’ll also help me.”

After hearing this, Shen Jianian’s gaze deepened as he slowly took out a cigarette, his voice turning a bit low. “What makes you think that?”

She continued walking toward the door without looking back. “Intuition.”

After Su Heng left, Shen Jianian picked up the contract on the table.

For a long time, he chuckled softly. “Heh, a woman’s sixth sense, huh.”

—

With the enthusiasm of the old fish, Su Heng finally set up her WeChat and Weibo accounts. The first thing she did was add everyone as friends and join the GI discussion group.

Wave, standing nearby, complained disdainfully, “Are you even a modern person? You didn’t even have WeChat or Weibo.”

After saying this, he still gloomily added the girl as a friend, while the old fish snickered on the side, being critical yet honest.

Su Heng calmly countered, “If there’s no one to contact, what do I need these social media accounts for?”

After a few days of interaction, she found that regardless of whether she paid attention to Wave, the boy never showed her a good face. Since that was the case, she figured it would be better to argue back when she could.

Sure enough, Wave rolled his eyes. “You have no friends?”

Su Heng paused, lowered her eyelids, and remained silent.

Seeing that she hadn’t responded for a while, Wave’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “No way? Did I hit the nail on the head?”

Zhou Lingxing realized something was off and spoke in a deep voice, “Li Weiyi, come duo-queue.”

Here’s the translation of the text to English:

—

As soon as Wave heard that Zhou Lingxing was going to duo queue with him, he had no time to worry about anything else and rushed over excitedly.

Sun He strolled over to Su Heng’s side and smiled, saying, “Just listen to what he says and let it go. After spending time with him, you’ll find that he’s not actually a bad person; he just doesn’t filter his words and often speaks without thinking.”

Su Heng nodded and pursed her lips. “I need to go back to the internet café tomorrow to get some things. When’s the next match?”

Sun He hesitated for a moment, unsure how to respond to the girl’s question. Although they won today’s match, the two heroes Su Heng was familiar with were now known to everyone. If they targeted her in the next match and banned both of her heroes, it would become quite tricky. Until she deepened her hero pool, they might have to let the second team’s Xiao Ban take over for a while.

In the end, he decided to tell the truth: “The next match will be covered by the second team’s Xiao Ban first. You should take this time to practice a few more heroes. The training matches every night will remain unchanged, and you’ll alternate participating with Xiao Ban.”

Su Heng’s expression remained unchanged as she nodded and replied, “Okay.”

Sun He observed her for a moment before saying, “I’ve @-ed you on the official Weibo account. You’ll start live streaming in the next couple of days, so remember to update your Weibo frequently.”

Su Heng continued nodding. “Got it.”

Saying this, she opened the app and began typing.

Ten minutes later, an account certified as Sleeping, the jungler for the LOL professional team GI, posted its first Weibo update:
**“I will start live streaming tomorrow. The link is as follows: http://dsnbcm.com//room_312498.”**

In no time, the number of comments under the Weibo post exceeded 1000, and Su Heng’s backend notifications were still skyrocketing.

Su Heng refreshed Weibo, and sure enough, many comments popped up. She read them one by one, occasionally replying to a few.

The first wave came from GI’s loyal fans, and the comments were relatively calm.

**“Sleeping, keep it up! Hope to see GI in this year’s finals!”**

**“I’m offering a large sum for Ling’s personal photos!!!”**

**“I watched today’s match, and it was quite good.”**

Sleeping: **“Thank you, I will keep working hard. PS: My phone doesn’t have a spy feature.”**

The second wave of comments came from people drawn in by the novelty of a woman playing professionally and those who had heard about the hype after Miya’s performance today.

**“Never thought I’d see a woman playing professionally.”**

**“Why doesn’t the sister stay at home looking beautiful and let the men earn a living?”**

**“Just want to ask, will you turn on the camera during the live stream?”**

**“Will you wear a mask in the next match too?”**

**“How ugly do you have to be to be so afraid of being seen?”**

Sleeping: **“If you’re not convinced, let’s solo. Leave your name below to queue.”**

In the third wave came the comments from those who actually knew something about Sleeping.

**“Didn’t expect the Silver Killer to be pretty normal in an official match, haha.”**

**“What are you talking about? Sleeping was just stealing the enemy’s jungle the whole game, lol.”**

**“That flash to block and get first blood was awesome, haha!”**

Sleeping: **“I’m not a Silver Killer. (Screenshot of Ionia Sleeping’s Platinum rank.)”**

–