SMS CHAPTER 61

That Qixi night would go down as one of the most iconic moments in the Forest of the Full Moon esports scene, forever remembered as the legendary “Pizza Night.”

Tao Luo’s phone had terrible livestream quality, with most of the screen blocked by her body and the pizza she was holding. Yet, even with the blurry image and narrow view, the audience could still make out a scene unfolding in the dimly lit corridor far away, where the KYM bot lane duo, long rumored to be on bad terms, were getting closer and closer.

They saw the usually low-key and indifferent Neither tilt his face upward ever so slightly, and they saw the always hot-tempered, sharp-tongued, straight-A-cancer Chef willingly lower his head—

And then, Tao Luo’s horrified face suddenly filled the screen.

The camera shook violently as she panicked, scrambling to end the stream. But her flour-covered fingers fumbled helplessly, unable to hit the button no matter how hard she tried.

The more she failed to turn it off, the more anxious she became. In her flustered state, the pizza in her hands slipped, sending white flour flying across the screen in a chaotic mess.

Now covered in flour, Tao Luo started coughing violently, clutching her nose. She finally stepped away from the phone, but by the time she straightened up, the two figures in the hallway had already disappeared from view.

This only fueled the viewers’ imaginations.

Tao Luo, utterly stunned, hurriedly wiped the flour off her hands and forced a nervous laugh. Stammering, she blurted out, “Um… I-I-I’m going to bake the pizza now. Goodnight, everyone. Happy Qixi Festival, hahaha.”

Her livestream abruptly went dark.

As expected, the stream caused an uproar.

A trending post was instantly pinned at the top of the forums, countless livestream replays circulated across major platforms, and the hashtag #CarrotPizza skyrocketed to the hot search list.

But the discussions had little to do with Tao Luo or her pizza—

[They kissed, didn’t they? They kissed, right? There’s no way they didn’t kiss??]

[Here’s the screenshot. I enhanced the clarity as much as I could—there’s an 80% chance they kissed. Judging from their movements, what else could it be if not a kiss…]

[Fighting on the surface but making out behind the scenes, right?]

[What????? I seriously thought their relationship wasn’t great. Is their awkwardness on camera just because they’re secretly dating????]

[@KYM_Esports_Club, come out and give us an explanation.]

Of course, since Tao Luo blocked the screen at the most critical moment, some skeptical fans clung to that uncertainty to push back against the theory.

[It’s probably just a trick of the angle. It looked like they leaned in to talk, and since Neither moved closer while Chef shifted slightly, it only seemed like they kissed.]

[There’s no direct footage of them kissing, so why jump to conclusions? Chill out, shippers. You’re ridiculous…]

[Chef’s straight-A-cancer personality is too ingrained for me to imagine him in a relationship with an omega… I think they’re just close teammates.]

[Hahaha, keep denying it, Chef fans. Then explain why Yan Chengfeng lowered his head so willingly when Neither reached out to touch him?]

[Carrot’s expression is the funniest part. It basically confirms everything. I bet she came up with 3,000 excuses in that one minute to explain what happened. (PS: Why on earth did she put those ingredients on her pizza? I couldn’t help but frown while rewatching it.)]

[Let’s not fight anymore. This situation’s already blown up. Let’s see how Grilled Corn’s official account responds. (PS: Agreed about the carrots. Who puts that on pizza…)]

Meanwhile, chaos reigned at the KYM base.

Yan Chengfeng was utterly done with Tao Luo.

During his livestream, he had been stewing in frustration. After signing off, he naturally wanted to pull Zhen Ning aside and demand something to make up for it—but he never imagined that hundreds of thousands of people would witness the whole thing.

Tao Luo, on the other hand, was utterly done with the two of them.

She pointed at them furiously. “I haven’t even said anything, but now my name and my pizza are trending! And yet, no one cares about me or the pizza! I just didn’t want to spend Qixi Festival alone, so I thought I’d let my fans keep me company. But in the end, I had to cut my stream to protect you two, my pizza went flying, and I got nothing out of it! Am I not pitiful enough?”

Zhen Ning remained silent.

Yan Chengfeng was quiet for a moment. “…You’ve got it pretty rough.”

While the parties directly involved remained relatively calm, Li Feng was extremely anxious.

He pointed at Zhen Ning and Yan Chengfeng, struggling to get a coherent sentence out. “You, you, you… I, I, I—”

Yan Chengfeng: “Don’t tell me you didn’t already know.”

Of course, Li Feng had known about their relationship for a while, but as long as their performance on the field wasn’t affected, he had chosen to turn a blind eye.

Now, however, the situation had spiraled out of control. Across multiple platforms, it was drawing more attention than even the Spring Split results of some smaller teams, which was starting to cause problems.

Li Feng sighed. “Can the two of you tell me how you’re planning to handle this?”

Romantic relationships within domestic teams weren’t unheard of, but cases that were publicly exposed were rare, and none had ever been officially announced.

Still, relationships weren’t entirely absent in the esports scene. For example, in DSN, where Kong Xian played, their top and bottom laners were a known AB couple.

However, DSN had consistently won the World Championship for several years, so the public’s reaction had remained largely positive. To put it bluntly: as long as you played well, no one cared.

Yan Chengfeng understood exactly what Li Feng was worried about.

The timing to go public was undeniably premature. It wasn’t just about the inevitable fan wars; more importantly, he and Zhen Ning would now be treated as a packaged deal.

Neither of them would ever take their competitions lightly. However, if either of them experienced even the slightest decline in performance, even just a normal fluctuation, fans and analysts alike would immediately jump to conclusions: “See? Dating makes you play worse,” or “Of course they got distracted after getting together.”

Li Feng hesitated before saying, “Actually… there’s a way to maneuver this.”

“You can insist that it wasn’t a kiss.”

He cleared his throat before continuing, “As long as you both claim it was a trick of the angle or a visual illusion caused by positioning, plus a bit of PR, it won’t be a big issue.”

Zhen Ning froze slightly. Yan Chengfeng also said nothing.

Li Feng sighed again. “Of course, if you want to let it stand as it is, that’s fine too. Just be prepared for the public backlash—it won’t be minor. You two need to think it through and be ready for it.”

Yan Chengfeng turned his head to find Zhen Ning looking at him.

His Adam’s apple bobbed. “What do you want to do?”

Zhen Ning held his gaze for a long moment before countering, “What would you choose?”

Yan Chengfeng stiffened slightly.

As a straightforward person, he had never cared about public opinion. He always acted according to his heart without hesitation.

But this wasn’t just about him—it was about their shared future. And when it came to Zhen Ning, Yan Chengfeng wasn’t willing to take any risks.

Was Zhen Ning willing?

In the future, when people mentioned them together, would Zhen Ning prefer to be known as “KYM’s perfectly coordinated bot lane duo” or would he be fine with being jokingly referred to as “Oh, those two? The KYM couple.”

Yan Chengfeng hesitated for a fleeting moment.

Seeing his uncertainty, Li Feng seized the opportunity and added, “No rush, you two can discuss it first. Meanwhile, I’ll have PR come up with a few statements. Having a backup plan doesn’t hurt, right?”

It was clear to Yan Chengfeng that management wanted them to deny the relationship.

He glanced at Zhen Ning beside him. After a moment, he said, “…Alright.”

KYM’s management and PR team were undeniably skilled.

In just two days, Li Feng presented Yan Chengfeng with a series of airtight explanations—every action from the incident accounted for with plausible reasoning.

For instance, the so-called “head pat” was reframed as a friendly gesture between “brother-like teammates.” And the moment where their faces were close was spun into “whispering something private.”

Li Feng rubbed his hands together. “If you’re going to clarify… it’s best to do it sooner rather than later. The earlier you address it, the more convincing it’ll be. Dragging it out will only let speculation grow, and that could complicate things.”

Yan Chengfeng frowned deeply and looked over at Zhen Ning.

Their eyes met for a long moment, but neither of them spoke first.

After some hesitation, Yan Chengfeng finally said, “…Livestream later?”

Zhen Ning quietly stared at him.

After a long pause, he finally nodded and said, “Alright.”

At 5 PM, Yan Chengfeng went live.

Fans and viewers had been on edge for two days, camping out on the players’ and club’s Weibo accounts, waiting in vain for any updates. Some had even assumed KYM would handle the matter with complete silence. Nobody expected that the two people involved would address it directly in a livestream.

Yan Chengfeng stared into the camera for a while before finally speaking. “I’m streaming today… because I’ve seen some rumors, and I wanted to personally clarify things for everyone.”

The livestream chat exploded instantly. The viewer count skyrocketed as comments flooded in.

[Ahhh, so they’re really here to clarify!]

[? There’s no way they didn’t kiss, right? No way.]

[Whether it was a real kiss or not, judging from Head Chef’s tone, this is probably a clarification. There’s no way they’d go live just to make it official…]

[Sigh, this is just how PR works. Whatever, as long as they keep it under wraps and date secretly, I’m fine with it.]

“First of all, I want to say that we are players. How we interact in private is our personal business.” Yan Chengfeng paused, then added, “I hope everyone can focus less on our private lives and more on our performance in matches.”

Lowering his gaze, he stared at the script Li Feng had given him, filled with pre-written clarification statements. His chest rose and fell slightly. He gritted his teeth.

When he glanced to the side, he saw Zhen Ning watching him calmly.

Zhen Ning gave him a small nod.

Yan Chengfeng hesitated for a moment before turning back to the camera.

“As for the recent rumors circulating online, I want to clarify a few specific points.”

Yan Chengfeng began, “What was captured during Tao Luo’s livestream, the events in the corridor involving Zhen Ning and me… was not what you’ve been speculating.”

He took a deep breath, his jaw tightening as he crumpled the script in his hand into a ball.

Then, he raised his head again.

“For example, I remember one particular claim that said, ‘It was obvious that Neither tilted his head up to kiss Chef.’ However, that’s not what happened.”

In a loud voice, Yan Chengfeng declared, “Although, from your perspective, it might have seemed like Zhen Ning tilted his head up first, the truth is, I was the one who initiated the kiss.”

Zhen Ning’s body stiffened abruptly.

He turned to stare at Yan Chengfeng’s profile in stunned silence.

“And it wasn’t like the online rumors suggested—a kiss on the cheek, nose, or forehead.”

Yan Chengfeng didn’t glance at Zhen Ning. He remained composed, looking straight into the camera as he stated matter-of-factly, “It was a kiss on the lips. And yes, I used my tongue.”

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Author’s note:
Q: Do you want people to call you “KYM’s perfectly coordinated bot lane duo” or “KYM’s couple”?
Yan Chengfeng (standing tall): We can be both—a perfectly coordinated bot lane duo and KYM’s couple!