Chapter 20. A simple question mark, as if…

A simple question mark seemed to carry invisible pressure and scrutiny, instantly throwing Gao Yingjie into a panic.

He subconsciously thought that Captain Zhou was unhappy that he was having dinner with Zhao Zhinian alone, so he quickly explained in the group chat: "Ah! Captain Zhou, I just invited Sister Zhinian to dinner to thank her! I didn't mean anything else! Really! The manager was supposed to come too, but something came up and he couldn't make it."

Gao Yingjie's sudden explanation shifted the focus to Zhou Zekai, leaving the professional players, who had been joking around, stunned and then bursting into even greater enthusiasm for gossip.

"???"

"Wait? Gao Yingjie, why are you explaining this to Zhou Zekai?"

"What does this have to do with Zhou Zekai?"

"Team Leader Zhou's question mark is quite intriguing," Yu Wenzhou keenly grasped the key point.

"Wait, this reaction... could it be that something's really going on? Has the main character shown up?" Chu Yunxiu, who loves watching idol dramas, also sensed something unusual.

"What do you mean? The real person is Zhou Zekai?"

"Wait a minute, didn't Zhou Zekai recently reveal that his high school confession was mistaken for an account hacker? It even trended on social media back then." Huang Shaotian added fuel to the fire, remembering Zhou Zekai's "dark history" vividly. After all, it was he who led the group in lighting candles for the "lost love" of the Gun King and even posted a long sarcastic Weibo post.

"Yes! Back then, Huang Shao was leading everyone in the group to 'mourn' Zhou Zekai's lost love, saying that Zhou Zekai was successful on the field but unlucky in love, and even the dignified gun king had fallen."

"Is Captain Zhou's love life in motion lately?" Yu Wenzhou obviously remembered that a few days ago Zhou Zekai had asked him late at night for advice on Blue Rain's tactical intentions. If the other party was this host, then the logic of the events before and after would be quite smooth. However, he did not say anything unnecessary to add fuel to the fire, but just made a joke.

"Wait! Look what I found! The host who interviewed Captain Zhou back then... isn't he the same one who had dinner with Gao Yingjie today?!" Dai Yanqi, who loves gossip, quickly found other clues online and sent screenshots of Zhou Zekai's interview and Zhao Zhinian's Weibo photos to the group.

Holy crap! It really is!

"Little Dai, you've spotted the blind spot!"

"Things have become even more complicated."

"Oh, so Zhou Zekai had a relationship with the host back then?"

"??? So Zhou Zekai confessed to his supposed current girlfriend that he failed to win someone over in high school? What kind of new tactic is this? Is he trying to gain sympathy by playing the victim?" Li Xuan from the Void Team also joined the gossip.

"The Gun King's chasing strategy is truly beyond the comprehension of ordinary people. Are there any tactical masters who can analyze it for everyone?" After Fang Rui finished speaking, he casually tagged the four "hearts" (referring to players with exceptional skills and strategic thinking).

"Our Glory's tactical masters aren't here to analyze gossip for you!"

"@Muen, you must know something inside! Confess immediately!"

Only then did Gao Yingjie realize that his overreaction and explanation were like trying to hide something obvious, backfiring and directly exposing the private affairs of Captain Zhou and Sister Zhinian, and even sparking more speculation among the group members.

He panicked immediately and quickly sent a message in the group saying, "I'm sorry, I was too anxious and nervous and sent the wrong message!" Then he immediately messaged Zhou Zekai and Zhao Zhinian privately, apologizing repeatedly and explaining that he didn't mean to.

However, the curiosity of the group had been completely ignited, and everyone frantically spammed the chat with @Zhou Zekai. When he did not show up for a long time, they turned to attack Jiang Botao, Fang Minghua and others from Samsara, demanding that they come out and "explain the situation".

As one of the few people in the know, Wang Jiexi had already heard Gao Yingjie mention that Zhou Zekai went to the fan meeting to find Zhao Zhinian. He had been silent until Yingjie's explanation in the group chat made the gossip even more intense. Seeing Gao Yingjie being surrounded and attacked, he took the initiative to speak up and help Gao Yingjie out of the predicament.

"Alright, that's enough. Are you all set for the new season's training? You seem pretty confident? You're so free?" Wang Jiexi's message successfully steered the conversation toward the new season's training, temporarily silencing everyone's questions and teasing of Gao Yingjie.

Meanwhile, the Samsara team's internal group chat was also very lively. After failing to get any response from Zhou Zekai in the group chat, the Samsara team members turned to tagging Jiang Botao, the vice-captain, who was likely aware of the situation.

Du Ming: "@Vice Captain Wulang! Vice Captain! Vice Captain! What's going on with the captain? Is he involved with that beautiful female host? Why does Gao Yingjie of Tiny Herb know about this, but we, the team members, don't?!"

Yu Nian: "Aren't we a loving family in the cycle of reincarnation? Is there a secret between the captain and us?"

Wu Qi: "You must know the vice-captain, right? I need some gossip and some background information!"

Lü Boyuan: "But I don't understand the captain's actions either. Revealing his past relationship scandals in front of her? Publicly announcing that he has a white moonlight beforehand?"

The only married man in the alliance, Fang Minghua, saw through everything: "The captain is definitely not the type to act recklessly. I have a bold guess..."

Jiang Botao looked at the messages flooding the group chat, smiled helplessly, and replied, "Well... let's wait for the captain to tell everyone the specifics himself."

This can be seen as an admission that he knew, but he refused to reveal more, which made everyone in the cycle of reincarnation even more eager to know more.

Du Ming: "The vice-captain is bullying people! Ask the captain? How many words can the captain even say? [crying emoji]"

Wu Qi: "Exactly! Vice Captain, you're deliberately keeping us in suspense!"

Lü Boyuan: "Vice Captain, just a little bit... just a tiny bit..."

Zhao Zhinian only learned about the gossip storm that had started in the professional players' group after seeing the apology message from Gao Yingjie.

She first comforted the bewildered Gao Yingjie, telling him not to take it to heart, as it wasn't a big deal and wouldn't affect him much.

However, she was still a little worried that she might have caused trouble for Zhou Zekai with this meal. Just as she was hesitating whether to send a message to ask, her phone rang.

The caller ID showed that it belonged to another party involved: Zhou Zekai.

Gun King, who was being bombarded with tagged comments in several group chats and was at the center of a gossip storm, didn't immediately try to explain in the groups. Instead, he dialed Zhao Zhinian's number.

As soon as Zhao Zhinian answered the phone, she heard Zhou Zekai's deep voice on the other end, his tone filled with grievance and accusation, getting straight to the point:

"Weibo".

"You have followed Gao Yingjie."

"He also reposted his Weibo post."

"They haven't followed me."

Zhao Zhinian held her phone, listening to Zhou Zekai's clearly aggrieved accusation. This sudden "interrogation" made her pause for a moment, then she couldn't help but chuckle.

"Hello?" She deliberately drew out her words, with a hint of mockery and teasing, "Zhou Zekai, did you call just to complain about me not following you on Weibo? Yingjie said your pro players' group chat is practically exploding with gossip, aren't you going to check it out?"

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone, followed by his even more assertive yet still brief reply: "Yes."

"Let's deal with this first." Zhou Zekai only realized today when he saw the group message that he and Zhao Zhinian were not following each other on Weibo.

He didn't pay much attention to Weibo at first, but then he suddenly discovered that she was following Gao Yingjie, so he wasn't the first professional player to be followed. This matter suddenly became crucial.

This person's focus and actions are truly... always so unpredictable, Zhao Zhinian thought to herself.

Zhou Zekai's Weibo account has always been managed by his manager to post advertisements and promotions. He doesn't use it frequently for personal purposes. Although he has many followers, his Weibo account is full of advertisements.

So although Zhao Zhinian had seen Zhou Zekai's Weibo, she hadn't sorted out her own feelings at the time, and was afraid of causing trouble for him and causing misunderstandings, so she didn't pay attention to him. Later, she was busy studying Glory, and the two of them contacted each other almost every day, so she didn't think about this matter at all.

She subconsciously opened Weibo, wanting to see Zhou Zekai's account, which was filled with advertisements. However, the moment she clicked on the list of new followers, a familiar yet abrupt name jumped into her eyes: Zhou Zekai. He actually... just now, actively followed her?

That account, with tens of millions of followers but only a handful on its following list, making it one of the most difficult to "follow" accounts in the Honor of Kings community, is currently lying quietly in her follower list.

She took a deep breath, as if gathering some kind of courage, and gently pressed the "follow back" button, asking, "Did you receive my follow?"

"Hmm." Zhou Zekai nodded in satisfaction. After dealing with the main issues he was concerned about, the two chatted about the day's events for a while before Zhou Zekai hung up the phone, feeling quite content.

Meanwhile, the message notifications in the professional players' group chat became lively again, clearly indicating that someone had already noticed this small change immediately.

"Holy crap! They've followed each other on Weibo! Captain Zhou and the girl have followed each other on Weibo!" Gossip reporter Li Xun immediately relayed the latest gossip to the group chat.

"Impressive speed, Captain Zhou! We just spotted this area, and they've already taken action?"

Chu Yunxiu's shipping radar activated: "So this counts as... official confirmation?"

"Zhou Zekai, you're so capable of following girls, but you're not capable of speaking up in the group chat?"

"So, instead of talking in the group chat, Captain Zhou went to find some girls to follow and exchange messages with?"

"Wait a minute! Something's not right!" someone suddenly questioned. "They weren't following each other on Weibo before? But the girl is following Gao Yingjie, so does that mean... she's not familiar with Captain Zhou?"

This question immediately sparked a new wave of discussion.

"That makes sense! If there were really something going on, they would have followed each other already, right?"

"Maybe we just know each other? After all, we've interviewed each other."

“I just checked, it was Captain Zhou who followed the girl’s Weibo first, and the girl probably just followed back out of politeness?” Dai Yanqi added, explaining the order in which the two followed each other.

"But Gao Yingjie and Zhou Zekai's reactions just now didn't seem like there wasn't a story behind it..."

"Haha, Zhou Zekai is so pitiful. He confessed his feelings in high school and was mistaken for a hacked account and suspected that it wasn't him. Now the girl he likes followed Gao Yingjie of Tiny Herb first, and only followed him back after he took the initiative to follow her."

"Does that mean Zhou Zekai is still in the stage where the revolution has not yet succeeded?"

"It's highly likely that Captain Zhou is in a one-sided crush."

"Is there anyone from the reincarnation system who can come forward and reveal some inside information?"

The people in the Reincarnation group were also suffering, because they had no idea what the gossip was about, and the vice-captain warned them not to talk nonsense in the group. They could only watch the gossip in the group with envy.

Just as everyone was arguing, another sharp-eyed person noticed something new.

"Wait! Look at that girl's following list! She doesn't just follow Zhou Zekai!"

"She just followed almost all the top players in our league! Jiang Botao, Huang Shao, Captain Yu, Captain Wang, Captain Chu, Su Meizi, Zhang Xinjie, Captain Han... she followed them all!"

"Let me see... it really is! Are they going to do wholesale?"

"Hahaha, so Zhou Zekai is just one of them? What happened to the Gun King's prestige?"

"Wow! A girl followed me too!" Zhang Jiale posted a screenshot of himself being followed.

"Hilarious! So this isn't love, it's a career? Is this girl trying to build connections and pave the way for her hosting career?" Su Mucheng joked as she saw everyone posting screenshots of themselves getting noticed.

"This following list is practically a Hall of Fame for professional Glory players."

"@OneShotThroughCloudsSoZhouTeam, are you just a piece of the puzzle in her career empire?"

"I can't help but light a candle for Captain Zhou again."

"Actively following someone just makes you one of many professional players followed by girls? Hahahaha! Poor Zhou Zekai! So it's true that he's successful on the field but unlucky in love! Girls are following me and the captain too!" Huang Shaotian didn't hide his schadenfreude at all, attaching a screenshot of himself being followed and frantically tagging Zhou Zekai.

Zhou Zekai pursed his lips, looking at the comments in the group such as "just a career," "one of them," and "a piece of the puzzle." The light in his eyes, which had just lit up because of the mutual following, dimmed a little more.

Zhao Zhinian's actions were indeed intentional. By taking this opportunity to focus on all the big names in the plan, she could blur the focus and transform personal interactions into professional activities. Zhou Zekai's attention, mixed in with the others, would be less conspicuous.

As for Zhou Zekai's attention to her, it didn't seem too abrupt among the many others. Considering she had interviewed Zhou Zekai before, and Gao Yingjie had also been following her for a long time... Overall, she managed to defuse this sudden gossip crisis "openly and completely".

Of course, she didn't know that the professional gamers' group was full of jokes about Zhou Zekai's bumpy love life.

But... when she opened Zhou Zekai's Weibo, it seemed that she had unintentionally dashed the hopes of someone who just wanted special attention.

She thought for a moment, opened WeChat, and sent a message to the silent profile picture: "The others are just paying tactical attention, please understand?"

A few seconds later, the other person replied with a single word: "Mm".

This "hmm" sounded like he wasn't very happy, so she sent him a voice message with a mix of teasing and coaxing: "Brother Kai, are you unhappy today?"

“You fouled.” Zhou Zekai didn’t answer her question, but sent a voice message, a pitiful accusation.

"Hmm?" Zhao Zhinian thought he was still bothered by the fact that he had been following a lot of professional players, so he explained, "If I'm going to be a host for Glory, I'll have to follow these pro players sooner or later. Today is indeed a good time."

Zhou Zekai replied quickly, probably to express his emotions more directly. He used voice messages again and pointed out Zhao Zhinian's foul: "Only when you make me happy... do you call me Brother Kai."

A note from the author:

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