Ch26 - Double-C Poster

Edited by: Mel

In recent days, Li Zhongchen was radiant with joy and would smile whenever he came across anyone. 

He began to do sit ups again, quit his smoking addiction, and no longer spat fire like a temperamental Tyrannosaurus.

Everyone was happy, except for one special individual who was devastated—

“Little Sister, I am not against it if you want to say that this poster is already perfect enough,” Li Zhongchen bent over to look at the screen of the art designer. “But I feel that there are some details that can be changed.”

Change? How many times has it been changed? 

Li Zhongchen’s words made the graphic designer suffer inwardly, feeling bitter remorse in her heart.

Once upon a time, the graphic designer of OPW next door had said she wanted to combine an order with her to buy a pair of couplets that were essential for professional graphic designers from a certain online platform. You could place them on the computer screens to drive away harm and evil spirits, but why did she refuse?

Right couplet: To always be approved with one draft.

Left Couplet: You will never need to work overtime in this lifetime.

Horizontal banner: You are awesome, Sis.

The graphic designer swallowed her complaints and said euphemistically, “…E ge, why don’t you tell me more in detail. Could you tell me which specific part of this double-C poster of you and God Qiao do you want changed?

“How would I know?” Li Zhongchen immediately rebuked. “I don’t dabble in graphic design.”

The graphic designer felt a mouthful of blood being stuck in her throat and guessed blindly, “is it the base image? Is it because the gray and black not dazzling enough? I will change it to a bright red for you. It’s guaranteed to be bright enough to blind.” 

“You even dare say such things?!” Li Zhongchen responded with grave countenance. “Bright red! Why don’t you go ahead and photoshop ‘double happiness’ onto it!”

The graphic designer, “…”

However, Li Zhongchen’s words were full of pretense. It felt as though he had purposefully said it for others around him to overhear.

Following that, he lowered his voice and said to the graphic designer in a secretive tone, “Little sister, do what you think is best. Just make a copy with the bright red background, I’ll sign off on it later on. Don’t forget to photoshop the word on.” 

The little sister cried and sent the team bully off with her gaze. “…A…alright.”

He exited the small office of the administrative department.

Li Zhongchen continued to be in a good mood, greeting everyone he came across with a pleasant temperament.

It was the day before that Qiao Yi had promised to sign into SVG. After that, the two cats were returned to their owner, and Li Zhongchen returned to the base. 

A certain Boss Qian, who became the master of asking others to do things but not taking action — in other words, their superior in SVG — learned that the former top Lifeline specially met with Li Zhongchen. He was so moved that he even specially treated everyone to Haidilao.

As his name suggested, Boss [tnc content=”Qian”]钱: the Chinese word for ‘money’. Can also be a last name.[/tn] loved money the most in his life. In the early years, he had suffered too many twists and turns in the budding years of esports, and what he lacked most was money. Hence, on that day that they ate Haidilao, he continued to praise Li Zhongchen—

Things like Zhongchen-ah, I really attracted my lucky star when I recruited you in the first place.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

To think that our club was once described as a leaky old temple. But who knew that all the luck had come to the Apex branch’s team one and carried everyone on their back. Even other branches are following on the uphill climb. 

Ol Itbcumtfc jaf tlr obbv jcv gfrqbcvfv qfgoecmabglis. “Rba gfjiis. Pa’r jii yfmjerf bo atf biv mjqajlc’r ubbv ifjvfgrtlq.”

Brother Qian was impassioned. “Both of you made contributions! Aiya, thankfully, the booster studio that you and the old captain started up couldn’t continue on any more. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have had the fate to meet. Wouldn’t you say I was blessed by the heavens?”

“Ccv cbk sbe fnfc tfiqfv wf rluc klat Xbv Hljb. Qlat sbeg gfqeajalbc, P, Yiv Hljc, klii ralii rjs atf rjwf atlcu — Zs ubbv ilof lr jii vef ab sbeg iluta. Obbxr ilxf beg afjw lr vfolclafis jlwlcu ab yf atf uibyji meq’r mtjwqlbcr!”

“…” Li Zhongchen and Yao Tong listened to him brag without a script and thought to themselves that he should just focus on the national competition that was coming up at the end of the year. 

As he thought of that.

Li Zhongchen pulled out his phone and looked at it. There was still half an hour before the time that Qiao Yi had arranged to come over.

He looked down at his phone along the hallway. He was just about to send a text message to Qiao Yi to ask if he had already set off.

Who knew that as soon as he turned around the corner, he bumped into someone who suddenly appeared and was caught off guard. 

Li Zhongchen looked down.

Good lord, who else could it be if not his unlucky disciple Zheng Xiaokui.

“Master! I’ve been looking for you for a long time!” Zheng Xiaokui revealed an apologetic expression. She took a step back, the excitable expression barely concealed. “That… is Xiao, Xiao Qiao gege arriving soon?”

Li Zhongchen looked at her condescendingly. 

He thought to himself, is the training not difficult enough for you after you were promoted into the newbie special training team? Do you have nothing better to do than to constantly think about what my ex-boyfriend is doing?

“Zheng Xiaokui, are you too idle?” Li Zhongchen responded vaguely. “Train properly. Right now, it’s the best time for you to work hard for your career. Stop constantly thinking about nonsense.”

Zheng Xiaokui’s almond-shaped eyes blinked and responded innocently. “But Master, I’ve already trained for a good half of the day. I haven’t even had lunch. I just took a break and ordered take out, then I took advantage of that and came to look for you!”

“Then just wait for your takeout.” After Li Zhongchen finished, he stepped away with long strides. It was especially perfunctory. 

Seeing that Li Zhongchen did not seem nostalgic between Master and Disciple made Zheng Xiaokui feel extremely wronged.

She chased after him with her short legs. Her head barely reached Li Zhongchen’s shoulders, and she was barely able to walk side by side with Li Zhongchen. She said with an aggrieved voice, “Master, can you not treat me this way? I only want to see Xiao Qiao gege for a moment. Do you have to be this ruthless? And besides, I was originally the one who lent you the official MW member account.”

“…” When Li Zhongchen heard that, he seemed to truly feel embarrassed about having taken advantage of manpower. Only then did he change his statement. “I’ll be busy discussing the contract with him. Official business, understood? You will only have your share after we’re done.”

“I, I, I’m not in a hurry, Master! I will definitely not interrupt the two of you discussing official business!” Zheng Xiaokui quickly said. “Then I’ll wait for your instructions in the training room. It’s going to be Xiao Qiao gege’s birthday soon. I have a gift that I want to give him, wu wu wu.” 

“…Alright,” Li Zhongchen cleared his throat and sent her on her way. “Wait for news from me.”

She looked over the moon, leaving with a small jog.

Li Zhongchen could not bear the blow at all. He thought to himself, actually, the day that your idol bumped into our master-disciple hug – which is also the day of the newcomers’ competition finals – was his actual birthday. And that indirectly caused your idol to seem unhappy on that day.

Li Zhongchen was a person who was usually shameless and would definitely refuse to admit to his mistakes. In reality, he was the main reason why Qiao Yi was not able to spend his birthday happily. It was because of his thick skinned shamelessness that he was not afraid that Xiaokui would come chasing after him with stilettos and bashing his head open. 

It was barely 3 in the afternoon.

Qiao Yi arrived ahead of time. He was guided by Old Wang and was brought to the conference room on the second floor to rest.

“…” When Li Zhongchen heard about that, he immediately bounced up from the gaming chair. “How did he arrive early?!”

“How would I know! God Qiao is looking over the contract right now. Hurry up and go.” Old Wang rubbed his chest and secretly felt nervous. “I don’t dare to pick up this job. I’m worried that I might say something wrong and might cause God Qiao to suddenly regret his decision. I can’t afford to take responsibility for that.” 

“It’s fine, Wang ge, he’s not that kind of person.” Li Zhongchen did not say anything superfluous. He got up and immediately walked over to the conference room.

He exited the training room and headed down the corridor.

The cool neon lights were reflected on the walls, extended all the way to the ceiling. The entire building extruded a futuristic atmosphere.

— On the very top was a triangular logo pieced together by the alphabets SVG, which symbolized stability, unity, and cohesion of a triangle. 

At that moment, Li Zhongchen could not express what he felt in words.

He was full of expectations as he pushed open the glass door of the conference room. What he thought in his heart was—

Qiao Yi.

    You did not lose everything. 

    Me and my teammates welcome you. We really, really welcome you.

Li Zhongchen pushed open the door.

At the same time, a sli0ght breeze picked up.

Seated on the chair was Qiao Yi, who held a pen and was about to sign. He lifted his eyes, and their gazes collided. 

Li Zhongchen’s heart skipped a beat as their eyes met, and he almost forgot what he was about to say. “You…”

Qiao Yi signed and put the pen aside. “I finished signing.”

“That quickly?” Li Zhongchen looked at him, surprised. “Don’t you need to… discuss it in detail with me? Such as some specifics of training in the future. There are also some other miscellaneous things that I have to explain to you.”

Qiao Yi was seated, his spine straight. 

First, he told Li Zhongchen, “come sit down and talk.” Then, he handed a paper bag and said indifferently, “hold on to that. Also, everything should have been explained in detail on the contract. You helped negotiate for an astronomical signing fee, I’ll work for you for two years. Let’s cooperate well together.”

Li Zhongchen was flattered. His attention was fully on the gift that the other brought.

He looked into Qiao Yi’s eyes. His hands were quivering, and he stuttered a little. “You only had to make a trip here, you didn’t have to go through the trouble to bring me any gifts…”

Qiao Yi relaxed a little and leaned against the backrest of the chair. “It’s for my little fan. It’s just some imported snacks. Yesterday, she was sending me a few hundred rockets and yachts in my livestream room, wishing me a happy birthday. I felt a little embarrassed.” 

“…?!” Li Zhongchen’s heart grew cold. It wasn’t for him. “For Xiaokui?”

“En.” Qiao Yi finished speaking and continued to look at him, as though he was waiting for something.

A long minute passed.

Li Zhongchen touched his face and asked, “is my face dirty?” 

“You…” Qiao Yi said. “Aren’t you curious about how I knew that was her account?”

Li Zhongchen had the mentality of a straight man.

He had probably searched the mountains and oceans for all sorts of possibilities. Until he had finally reacted and a few dozen seconds had passed did his expression become stony.

Qiao Yi took the initiative to say it himself. “Every time I stream, she would send me gifts. She would even leave me messages saying that she was a student, that her allowance was only one to two thousand a month. She said she likes me a lot and treats me as her idol and such, so I’ve always had an impression of her ID.” 

“…” Li Zhongchen felt that things were not going down the right path.

Qiao Yi’s tone was bland but lethal. “But suddenly, one day, this young lady gave me a few hundred thousand and shot up the leaderboards. Do you know what I felt then? I was wondering if she had secretly won the lottery.”

Li Zhongchen felt like he was sitting on pins and needles.

He recalled his desire for victory at work, determined to fight to the bitter end with Qiao Yi’s fan boy then. 

No way, could it be that bad?

Qiao Yi spoke again. “Then, I used my phone to go to her page. I realized that she also posted many videos. Anyway, it was just so coincidental that I took a glance. Wasn’t that SVG’s newcomer Zheng Xiaokui? It was rather interesting, she was even my ex-boyfriend’s disciple for the newcomers’ competition.”

It was too ruthless.

What was even more ruthless was the smile that Qiao Yi flashed at him. “So I started to suspect if this little sister had loaned her account to someone else.” 

The “who—” was even elongated, filled with implied suggestions.

Fuck.

It turned out that he had long been discovered the day he entered the livestream room. It was just that he himself did not know.

Li Zhongchen smiled awkwardly and tried to change the subject. “I didn’t think that it turns out the little girl can create videos. What games does she post? Apex as well? She even knows how to attract fans by revealing her face. That’s pretty smart.” 

“Why don’t you guess?” Qiao Yi looked at him playfully.

How was Li Zhongchen supposed to guess?

He did not even know what games Zheng Xiaokui had played, hence he shook his head.

The result was a concise answer from Qiao Yi. “She dances to anime covers.” 

“…” Li Zhongchen expressed his enmity to dance covers.