The headphones provided by the production team had excellent sound isolation, so at least Jiang Nan’an couldn’t hear the commentators’ teasing or the audience’s screams.
He only heard Yan Jie asking mischievously over the mic:
“Mr. Hang, isn’t it fun?”
“…” Jiang Nan’an looked at the two little figures dancing in sync on the screen, thinking he must have truly gone mad.
Of course, his pressing of the dance key was partly due to Yan Jie’s tearful pleas and heart-wrenching cries of “Little Spring has only one wish in life.”
“I give up on you. Hurry and go attack your bug, they’ll be respawning soon.”
inBlue, having finished farming his lane, appeared on the screen with Jiang Shanshan. Jiang Nan’an immediately ended his dance and nonchalantly followed their footsteps toward the bug hole, as if everything that had just happened was merely a dream.
The Makeshift Troupe gained an early advantage, snowballing to end the battle in the early-to-mid game and securing one point. But Very Nice was clever too; after losing one game, they immediately adjusted their lineup and tactics, starting to fight Makeshift Troupe in the early game and aggressively targeting North Star in the top lane.
In the second game, North Star’s top lane was breached, and Makeshift Troupe lost resource points consecutively, getting pushed to their base at 26 minutes.
In the third game, Chenghua brought out counter tactics. Makeshift Troupe didn’t collapse early but also didn’t gain an advantage. The two teams went back and forth into Very Nice’s strongest mid-to-late game phase. Although Yan Jie tried hard to find opportunities, they ultimately couldn’t turn the tide.
In the first match, Very Nice defeated Makeshift Troupe 2:1.
On the way back to the waiting room, Chenghua, seeing everyone’s low spirits after losing, consoled them:
“It’s okay, Fangfei’s team is indeed strong, so it’s normal that we can’t beat them now. Anyway, we still have two more chances to play. Adjust your mindset! Keep fighting!”
Yan Jie responded to Chenghua, then looked at Jiang Nan’an beside him, noticing his calm expression that revealed no emotions.
He was always like this.
But it’s okay if he can’t tell, because Yan Jie will ask himself:
“Mr. Hang?”
Jiang Nan’an raised an eyebrow slightly: “Hmm?”
“We lost.”
“Am I someone who doesn’t know how to play games or someone who doesn’t recognize the word ‘defeat’?”
This prickly attitude made Yan Jie feel good again.
He chuckled lightly:
“Well, you seem unhappy.”
“How can you tell?”
“I sensed it through our spiritual connection, so are you?”
“No.”
“Really?”
“Mm.” Jiang Nan’an said coolly:
“We lost nineteen matches in the last round. I’m used to it.”
Although Jiang Nan’an said he wasn’t unhappy and appeared calm and unruffled, Yan Jie could tell that he actually cared; otherwise, he wouldn’t remember his team’s previous record so clearly.
“Victory and defeat are common in warfare. We’ll win the next match,” Yan Jie moved closer to him and comforted.
“Hopefully.” Jiang Nan’an’s tone still showed no fluctuation.
“So zen about it?”
“Mm.” Jiang Nan’an nodded, thought for a moment, and added:
“After all, I don’t care that much.”
The second match was between Cai Zheng’s Step Up and VS’s Five Kill Squad. The waiting room had screens broadcasting the match in real-time, so the six members of Makeshift Troupe sat on the sofa eating snacks while watching the match, incidentally contributing some reaction footage for the show’s post-production.
Both Cai Zheng’s team and VS’s team had the standard 2AB1C formation. The two teams were evenly matched in lineup and strength, with the only potential difference being Cai Zheng’s operational thinking.
These two teams also played a full BO3 match. In the deciding game, both sides dragged it into the late game, and finally, Cai Zheng seized the opportunity to steal the Dragon when his team was at a slight disadvantage, leading them to victory in a team fight.
With this, the opponents for the third match were confirmed-Makeshift Troupe versus Five Kill Squad.
Five Kill Squad’s captain VS was a very strong top laner, which meant North Star would face immense pressure in the top lane.
She was originally an amateur player, and although she had been practicing diligently every day during the show and had improved greatly since entering the camp, it was still too much to ask her to directly face a top-tier canyon top laner. VS surely understood this and would undoubtedly put extreme pressure on her in lane.
But North Star had one advantage as a player: her stable mindset. Knowing she couldn’t beat VS, she simply hid in her tower and didn’t come out. When VS approached, she retreated, always maintaining a safe distance and never getting baited.
By stabilizing her lane, she helped stabilize the entire game for her teammates. Yan Jie was everywhere, ganking, invading the jungle, and securing resource points. inBlue and Jiang Shanshan’s duo suppressed the bottom lane, while Jiang Nan’an was even busier, either solo killing or on his way to kill someone. The five coordinated perfectly and ultimately secured a 2-0 victory, earning their ticket to the semifinals.
When the deciding game ended, Jiang Nan’an wasn’t hitting the crystal with his teammates but was frowning in concentration, helping everyone delay VS who had just respawned from the fountain.
He had only one thought in mind-having come this far, he couldn’t let him turn the tide, couldn’t let him get past him.
Jiang Nan’an was fully focused on the enemy on his screen, throwing all his skills at the opponent, his mindset at that moment perhaps best described as “either you die or I live.”
So when the intense battle suddenly paused, the camera view began to shift, and the “Victory” logo appeared, Jiang Nan’an was stunned, his fingers still pressing on the keyboard.
In the team voice chat, someone had been screaming since they started pushing the base, and now the pitch went up eight more degrees, like a not-fully-evolved human swinging on vines shouting “We won! We won!” followed by inBlue’s helpless yet amused “Jiang Shanshan, I’m going deaf.”
Only then did Jiang Nan’an begin to grasp a sense of reality.
Then, a strange feeling welled up in his heart, but he couldn’t figure out what it was, so he hesitated a bit longer.
Until someone tapped his shoulder, and he instinctively turned to see Yan Jie’s smiling eyes.
Yan Jie said something, but Jiang Nan’an was still wearing headphones, so he couldn’t hear.
Realizing this, he raised his hand to remove his headphones and asked:
“What did you say?”
“I said, snap out of it, we won!”
As he spoke, Yan Jie smiled and raised his hand, gesturing for a high-five.
Jiang Nan’an raised his hand to slap Yan Jie’s palm, while those intangible emotions in his heart transformed into another impulse-
He lowered his eyes slightly and smiled.
The MVP for this match went to Jiang Nan’an. As his official photo and match stats appeared on the big screen, the broadcast’s secondary screen captured his smile.
The audience below fell silent for half a second, then erupted into a new round of screams.
Today’s final match was between VS’s Five Kill Squad and Orange Cat’s Meow Meow Agents. On paper, Orange Cat’s team was considered the weakest among the five teams in the elimination round. After all, Orange Cat ranked fifth during team formation and had no choice in selection, with their team barely pieced together, even including players who had temporarily switched lanes.
Who would have thought their luck would continue to be so bad, drawing the bye in the match draw and being left for the final match to determine life or death.
But whether it was because Five Kill Squad had played three BO3 matches in a row today and was in poor form, or for some other reason, they made mistake after mistake in the game. Meanwhile, Orange Cat’s team was in surprisingly good form, with all five teammates extremely united and coordinated, never letting go once they caught an opportunity. They ultimately won two-zero against Five Kill Squad, becoming the fourth team to enter the semifinals.
Five Kill Squad lost three consecutive matches and was about to bid farewell to the competition.
Jiang Nan’an wasn’t very familiar with the members of Five Kill Squad, but when he saw them giving their farewell speeches on the screen in the waiting room, a subtle discomfort arose in his heart.
Perhaps noticing his distraction, on the way back to the building after finishing recording, Yan Jie came up beside him and asked:
“What are you thinking about?”
Jiang Nan’an came back to his senses and casually replied: “Thinking about what I should say when I get eliminated.”
“Wow, already thinking about getting eliminated?”
“Mm.”
“Don’t want to win?”
“Does wanting to win mean you can win?”
“Isn’t that so? In that match where you got MVP, you were killing so fiercely, I was stunned. At the end, you charged straight into the fountain to block VS. What’s that called? Want to touch my teammate? Step over my corpse first!! With that kind of spirit, don’t you win when you want to win?”
“…I didn’t enter the fountain,” Jiang Nan’an emphasized.
“I saw you dive right in! After the game ended, our Mr. Hang was still immersed in the fighting spirit, unable to pull himself out…”
“Yan Jie.”
“Well, well, if Teacher Jiang puts this much serious effort into things he doesn’t care about, I can’t imagine what it would look like if you ever cared about something.”
As Yan Jie spoke, he mischievously continued on purpose:
“Tsk, tsk, or maybe Mr. Hang is just used to saying the opposite of what he feels. Then what about how you complain I’m annoying every day? Could it be that without my knowledge, you’ve already fallen deeply in love with me, secretly admiring me for years? My goodness, so Boating at Guazhou is really real! Why don’t we make it official on Weibo tonight, what do you think…”
“Okay.”
“?”
Yan Jie originally had a belly full of provocative words, but was stopped by Jiang Nan’an’s light “okay.”
He was stunned, looking at Jiang Nan’an, his brain racing, not yet processing what year, month, day, time, or place it was, or who he was, when he heard Jiang Nan’an continue:
“Announce your death notice.”
“.”
Strangely, at the moment Yan Jie heard these words, he felt a sense of weightlessness, as if he’d missed a step.
It was a very “Jiang Nan’an” response, and normally Yan Jie would immediately follow up with a witty remark to continue teasing him, but now his mind was somewhat blank, and for a moment he didn’t know what to say.
The air was silent for a moment as Yan Jie looked down at his own shadow on the ground, the smile at the corner of his lips slightly restrained.
This blank moment was actually quite brief. Soon after, Yan Jie quickly regained his composure and was about to say something to pick up the previous topic. But before opening his mouth, he suddenly noticed that Jiang Nan’an’s shadow on the ground shifted slightly, as if he had secretly turned his head to look at him.
Noticing this detail, Yan Jie immediately had a mischievous thought, suppressing the smile that was about to appear on his lips, and continued to quietly bow his head, pretending to be deep in thought while constantly monitoring the movement of the shadows on the ground.
Sure enough, not long after that glance, Jiang Nan’an stole another look.
And then another, and another, with increasing frequency.
Yan Jie was really about to lose his composure, so he had to suppress his smile and look up at the sky.
They had been in the training camp for so long that the season had already entered winter. The trees in the compound’s landscaped areas were bare, having lost all their leaves, with only a round moon hanging on the withered branches.
“Yan Jie.”
As Yan Jie’s gaze was fixed on the cold moon in the sky, he heard Jiang Nan’an call his name.
“Mm,” he also pretended to be cold and profound.
“…Just now I was speaking casually, I didn’t mean I wanted you to die.”
Jiang Nan’an had always been outspoken and didn’t care how others reacted to his words.
He and Yan Jie often bantered like this before, but Yan Jie had always been carefree and unbothered by such verbal jabs. This time, however, he suddenly fell silent for so long.
This rare occurrence made Jiang Nan’an a bit at a loss.
Was he angry? Should he apologize?
Maybe Yan Jie personally cared about this sort of thing.
Jiang Nan’an remembered Qi Hong teaching him that while he could say such inauspicious things about himself, he should never say them to others.
Based on this, Jiang Nan’an felt he should apologize.
So he sincerely and auspiciously said:
“I’m sorry. May Yan Jie live a long life, may your fortune be as vast as the Eastern Sea’s flowing waters, may your longevity match the ageless pines of the Southern Mountain.”
“Oh.”
Upon receiving this “oh,” Jiang Nan’an pondered briefly and felt that this response still seemed off for Yan Jie.
So he racked his brains to search for other auspicious phrases, and was about to say “May your name be remembered for hundreds of generations, may you live as long as heaven and earth, may you shine as bright as the sun and moon,” when he heard Yan Jie ask:
“Then tell me, if not a death notice, what would we announce?”
“Do we have to announce something?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you just said ‘okay,’ and one must keep their word.”
Yan Jie lowered his gaze toward Jiang Nan’an.
Perhaps finding this reasoning sound, Jiang Nan’an thought for a moment. In the quiet, he was coated with a faint layer of light from the street lamp and moonlight.
Yan Jie’s eyes moved, and in the next second, he saw Jiang Nan’an look up at him:
“Then let’s announce that we won.”
“Oh?” Yan Jie chuckled lightly:
“Wasn’t it ‘after all, I don’t care that much’?”
“That was before.”
“And now?”
“Now…”
Jiang Nan’an recalled sitting in the arena, seeing the words “Victory” pop up on the computer screen, and how he felt in that moment of stunned silence. He also thought about the scenes of VS and his team saying goodbye to everyone.
Finally, he thought of the six members of Makeshift Troupe laughing and talking, of Yan Jie who seemed unreliable but always turned the tide in team fights, of inBlue who always provided stable output without worrying his teammates, of Jiang Shanshan who was always concerned about everyone’s condition and worked hard to protect them, of North Star who was always under pressure but careful not to burden her teammates, of Chenghua with his rich theoretical knowledge and practical experience, and of the team’s training and competition atmosphere that remained lively and harmonious regardless of victory or defeat.
“Now…”
Jiang Nan’an tilted his head slightly like a small animal.
“It seems… I care a little now.”
#
(advanced chapters available on kofi)
![President Huo Wants Me to Restore His Reputation [Entertainment Circle]](https://www.freenovels.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/03-cd6f642.jpg "President Huo Wants Me to Restore His Reputation [Entertainment Circle]")
