Chapter 36 Zhou Zekai's birthday finally arrived...

Zhou Zekai's birthday finally arrived. Although Zhao Zhinian had been looking forward to it for months, the two of them were too busy to celebrate.

Although the birthday gift had been sent to the Samsara Club in advance, Samsara was playing an away game against Blue Rain, and Zhou Zekai's IP address had changed from Shanghai to Guangdong, so he naturally couldn't receive the gift immediately. Left with no other option, Zhao Zhinian could only stay up all night and send Zhou Zekai a "Happy Birthday" message right at midnight.

In order to maintain the so-called "surprise," she kept pretending to Zhou Zekai that she didn't have any gifts and avoided talking about the topic.

I intended to send my blessings and then go to sleep, but to my surprise, Zhou Zekai replied instantly: "Thank you."

Then another message came: "Any gifts?"

Zhao Zhinian was surprised that he was still awake and subconsciously avoided the topic of gifts: "Aren't you asleep yet? Be careful you won't be energetic for training tomorrow!"

"Right away," Zhou Zekai casually promised, then steered the conversation back to the original topic: "What about the gift?"

Zhao Zhinian thought for a moment and sent a beautifully wrapped "gift" emoji: "Only blessings, I'll give them to you when we meet. Go to sleep now and focus on preparing for the competition."

Little did she know that, thanks to Jiang Botao's advance notice, Zhou Zekai had specifically instructed the staff left behind to help him pick up the package before departing for Guangdong. He had already received a photo of the package yesterday afternoon, but the staff hadn't opened it for him.

Zhao Zhinian pretended not to know, and he cooperated by pretending not to know either, and they have been waiting until now.

The flight was delayed tonight, and it was already late at night when the entire Reincarnation team finally settled in. Zhou Zekai guessed that Zhao Zhinian might send her blessings right at the last minute, and fearing he would miss her message, he forced himself to stay awake and wait a while. As for his slightly childish behavior of asking for a gift, it was indeed not in line with his usual personality, but at this moment he just wanted to tease her and see her reaction as she tried to hide her feelings.

Seeing that Zhao Zhinian was still avoiding the topic because of the "surprise," Zhou Zekai disappeared for a while and then sent a screenshot of Zhao Zhinian's Weibo post. It was a photo from the event where she hosted Yuan Baiqing's birthday party at Tiny Herb a while ago. The center of the nine-grid photo was a photo of Zhao Zhinian and the birthday boy, Yuan Baiqing. The accompanying Weibo post was naturally a birthday blessing for the birthday boy.

"I want a blessing on Weibo." Zhou Zekai added a little penguin emoji looking on longingly, and then added seemingly considerately, "A blessing as a gift is fine."

Zhao Zhinian was in a dilemma. She did have a gift, and it was a very special gift to her, but Zhou Zekai hadn't received it yet. Telling him now felt like a long-planned surprise coming to naught at the last minute.

If I were to post a Weibo message to wish Zhou Zekai a happy birthday, I would feel it would be inappropriate and I would feel too much psychological pressure. So I would explain to Zhou Zekai, "Those are photos from an event, it's work, it's different."

Zhou Zekai was only testing the waters, so he naturally knew when to stop and to retreat strategically. He simply replied with an "Oh" and didn't insist any further.

But this overly obedient response made Zhao Zhinian feel guilty and ashamed.

She spent a long time deleting and revising in the chat box, finally sighing softly and opening Weibo.

After much hesitation, she decided not to post a separate message, but instead commented on Zhou Zekai's automatically generated birthday post on Weibo: "Happy Birthday!"

Although it was the early hours of the morning, given Zhou Zekai's popularity as the top player in the league, the Weibo post was already bustling with activity. Aside from the fans sending their blessings at the exact time, the members of Team Samsara were clearly staying up all night to grab a spot in the comments, completing a seamless "retweet, comment, and like" frenzy. A quick scroll also revealed comments from several esports reporters and commentators, quickly burying Zhao Zhinian's comment among them, making it inconspicuous.

She sent a screenshot of her comment to Zhou Zekai: "Okay, you've got the Weibo blessing now, go to sleep."

Zhou Zekai, seeing that things were going well, stopped making things difficult for her and sent her a pitiful little penguin emoji with the words "Okay" on it.

The two said goodnight to each other, and Zhou Zekai sent a little penguin covered by a blanket as the last thing. Zhao Zhinian noticed that Zhou Zekai had recently taken a liking to penguin figurines of himself, so she secretly long-pressed and saved it.

Zhou Zekai lay on the bed, unable to resist taking out his phone again, looking at the photos of the package sent by his staff over and over again, then opening Weibo, finding Zhao Zhinian's comment that was drowned out by many blessings, and replying earnestly: "I hope you are happy too!"

After commenting on Zhao Zhinian's post, he replied to each of his teammates' and familiar staff members' blessing comments with a "flower" or "shy" emoji before finally leaving Weibo satisfied.

Because they had stayed up all night to get a front-row seat on Zhou Zekai's birthday Weibo post, someone in the Samsara group immediately noticed Zhou Zekai's "differential treatment" in his reply. Fang Minghua couldn't help but ask the soul-searching question: "Little Zhou, don't we teammates deserve a 'You're happy too'?"

Zhou Zekai retorted confidently: "Winning against Blue Rain is what brings happiness."

Jiang Botao immediately stepped in to smooth things over: "The captain's reply to Miss Zhao was both a blessing and a promise. Our happiness depends on everyone's joint efforts to win against Blue Rain. For the sake of this happiness, everyone should go to sleep!"

While everyone else was asleep, the internet remained buzzing. The focus of netizens' attention was naturally on "Zhou Zekai actually replied to Zhao Zhinian with four words! A full four words! And an exclamation mark!"

"The contrast is too obvious! Everyone else has the same expression!"

"Do you wish someone a happy birthday when it's your own? Zhou Zekai, you've got some nerve!"

"Zhao Zhinian wasn't the first to comment on his post, but he was the first to reply to her. Is Zhou Zekai cosplaying Sima Zhao? His intentions are too obvious!"

"Am I the only one who doesn't know who Zhao Zhinian is?"

"科普：义斩的美女主持人，挑战赛在线评论，天个天格草更新元柏清生日会短视频。好像还给隔游戏的传媒主持人。周队有品品，一样我喜欢美女。"

"It was just a reply, everyone's overthinking it."

"Huh? Did my ship of Zhou Zekai and Su Mucheng have a bad ending?"

"Take Mu Cheng away! Mu Cheng belongs to Ye Shen, okay!"

"My CP radar is on fire! I'm already thinking of creating a CP supertopic! I'm asking for CP names online!"

"They just met through work, why are people shipping them as a couple?!"

"I'm speechless. Netizens these days are all obsessed with shipping (couple pairings). They start shipping each other at the slightest thing!"

"Zhou Zekai is very polite to everyone, okay? Don't overinterpret it!"

"Is this host just trying to ride the wave of popularity?"

"They were just wishing me a happy birthday, but it was Zhou Zekai who took the initiative to reply!"

"I'm not going to take Zhou away, please focus on the game!"

"Could it be that Captain Zhou's account has been hacked?"

"All I know is that Zhou Zekai's previous confession was mistaken for a hacked account, and now his reply to Weibo comments is also being mistaken for a hacked account?"

"I'm not going to agree to this marriage even though we finally have a beautiful female host!"

"They're a perfect match, a match made in heaven, and you dare to object? I'm going to grant them marriage!"

However, the most classic comment is the one that resonated with the entire internet: "Others comment with four words, and he replies with four words, that's a 100% reply rate! If it were Huang Shaotian instead, it would be equivalent to Zhou Zekai replying with 300 words for every 300-word comment!"

"Believe me, even if Huang Shao comments 300 words, Zhou Zekai will only give him an emoji."

This witty comment was instantly shared wildly, and the comment section was filled with laughter: "Hahaha, the imagery is so vivid!"

Huang Shaotian: Are you being polite?

"Zhou Zekai replied to Huang Shaotian with 300 words? That's even harder than Huang Shaotian commenting with just an emoji!"

"I declare this the best metaphor of the night!"

"The match between Samsara and Blue Rain is coming up soon, I'm kind of looking forward to seeing if Huang Shao will comment?"

"@Huang Shaotian, please leave a 300-word comment and let me see how many words Zhou Zekai replies to you!"

As a result, many netizens tagged Huang Shaotian.

The next day, the Samsara Manager stormed into the training room, looking at his ace player with an innocent expression. He had a thousand words to say but didn't know where to begin. In the end, he could only pat him on the shoulder helplessly and tell him, "Play well!"

After being bombarded with tagged comments, Huang Shaotian, true to form, replied with a lengthy message: "Why is everyone tagging me? It's just wishing Zhou Zekai a happy birthday, right? Happy birthday, Zhou Zekai! Even though you're in Guangzhou preparing to play against our Blue Rain team, I still have to send my birthday wishes! I hope you continue to shine on the court in the new year and then lose to our Blue Rain team. Just you wait and see, our Blue Rain team won't hold back in the next match! And you want me to comment 300 characters? I can't possibly write 300 characters! But Zhou Zekai, if you dare to only reply with a shy emoji or a flower emoji, you're dead!"

This provocative comment immediately attracted attention, with everyone betting whether Zhou Zekai would reply with an emoji or a few more words.

Unfortunately, Huang Shaotian's comment went unanswered until the match between Blue Rain and Samsara ended.

This match was exceptionally exciting, and Zhou Zekai's performance was nothing short of divine. In the team match, he precisely suppressed Huang Shaotian's Night Rain Sound, ultimately leading Samsara to a resounding 8-2 victory over Blue Rain.

After the match, Zhou Zekai's reply came late, and he didn't reply with a "shy" or "flowery" emoji, but rather a meaningful "smiling" emoji.

"Is this mockery?"

"I've seen the look in his eyes, it's definitely a close-range, all-out attack on Young Master Huang!"

"Reincarnation won, Zhou Zekai is happy on his birthday, but Huang Shao probably isn't!"

“Zhou Zekai: You said I couldn’t reply with ‘flower’ and ‘shy’, so I’ll reply with ‘smile’ instead!”

"Isn't this smile also a wish for Huang Shao to be happy?"

Huang Shaotian, naturally unable to bear this injustice, immediately went online to reply, telling Zhou Zekai not to be arrogant just because he won a regular season game, and to challenge him to a PK if he dared. He typed the word "PK" repeatedly for several lines, but Zhou Zekai still replied with a "smiling" emoji, which attracted netizens to laugh at him.

Huang Shaotian showed no airs of a celebrity, was overly "approachable," and passionately engaged in online debates with every netizen who mocked him.

Yu Wenzhou couldn't stand it anymore, seeing his vice-captain glued to his phone on Weibo, so he went online and commented: "@Zhou Zekai Happy birthday, Captain Zhou! Today's match was great, looking forward to our next encounter. Also, Shaotian, don't keep playing on your phone while eating ^_^." The Blue Rain team also went online to comment, wishing Zhou Zekai a happy birthday while reminding Huang Shao: The captain is calling you home for dinner.

Zhou Zekai immediately replied to each of Lan Yu's people with a "flower" emoji, which, compared to the "smile" he gave Huang Shaotian, was even more meaningful.

"Young Master Huang, stop arguing with your online friends, your team leader is coming to drag you home for dinner!"

"Isn't Captain Zhou's treatment of Huang Shao a form of preferential treatment? Only you can get my one and only smile."

"Young Master Huang: I'm having a showdown online at the Forbidden City! Captain Yu: No, you better get home and have dinner."

Zhou Zekai and Huang Shaotian are both popular players in Glory, and their personalities are a perfect match. In addition, Samsara and Blue Rain were the champion and runner-up teams last year, and the two teams have just finished their match. This birthday interaction was instantly reposted by many e-sports media and marketing accounts.

However, after Huang Shaotian's interruption, most netizens' attention was drawn to him, and not many people kept focusing on Zhou Zekai's reply to Zhao Zhinian.

Meanwhile in Guangzhou, the players from Blue Rain and Samsara were having an offline dinner together, as it happened to be Zhou Zekai's birthday. No matter how fiercely they competed on the field, they were still friends offline.

Yu Wenzhou put down his phone and smiled slightly at Zhou Zekai: "Thank you for treating us today, Captain Zhou. Shaotian and I are just returning the favor."

Previously, Zhou Zekai had asked them about Blue Rain's tactical ideas for a certain commentator friend. Coupled with the gossip in the group afterwards, Yu Wenzhou naturally guessed Zhou Zekai's thoughts about Zhao Zhinian. That's why he let Huang Shaotian argue with netizens online for so long, and only stepped in to end things after the hype had died down.

This seemingly casual interaction cleverly diverted public attention, ensuring Zhou Zekai's birthday was celebrated in a respectable manner while preventing his relationship with Zhao Zhinian from being overly scrutinized.

Zhou Zekai nodded, and Jiang Botao immediately understood, taking the initiative to express his gratitude on behalf of his captain. The two smart men smiled at each other, everything understood without words.

The Blue Rain members were completely confused. They exchanged glances, but no one dared to ask. Lu Hanwen, however, was fearless and asked Zhou Zekai directly, "Captain Zhou, are you and that female host really a couple?"

The Blue Rain team members all silently gave Lu Hanwen a thumbs up. "Little Lu, you're a true warrior! Youth is all about daring to dream and act!"

Looking into Lu Hanwen's bright eyes, Zhou Zekai couldn't bear to lie to a child. After hesitating for a long time, he decided to tell the truth: "Not for now..."

The word "temporarily" conveyed a clear meaning to everyone, and they all offered their blessings.

Seeing Zhou Zekai's expression, the Blue Rain team couldn't help but wonder if there really was such a thing as team feng shui.

On Blue Rain's side, not only are they all single, but there isn't a single girl. On Samsara's side, not only is Fang Minghua the only married member of the alliance, but Zhou Zekai also seems to be getting married soon.

Zheng Xuan thought about how his elders would often urge him to get married every time he went home, and sighed, "The pressure is immense. If I had known Blue Rain was such a great talent, I should have applied for Reincarnation's youth training program back then."

These words immediately angered Huang Shaotian, who improvised a short essay on the spot, angrily denouncing Zheng Xuan: "You actually want to betray Lan Yu just to find a girlfriend! What about our revolutionary friendship of so many years? What about our promise to fight side by side until retirement? You ungrateful bastard!"

While smiling and stopping the agitated Huang Shaotian, Xu Jingxi played along, putting on a tearful act, saying that the older players might be beyond saving, but Xiao Lu was still young. "For Hanwen's future happiness, how about we send Xiao Lu to the Samsara Club for a few days to get some luck with women?"

"No, no, no!" Lu Hanwen waved his hands repeatedly in fright, "I'm still young, I can't fall in love too early!"

Song Xiao looked at him with exasperation: "Silly child, there's no rush now. When you reach Huang Shao's age... you'll know what real anxiety is!" He paused deliberately, and amidst the laughter of the whole table, added the last sentence: "What if in a couple of years you pick up Huang Shao's talkative habit? Tsk tsk, then you'll be even more hopeless."

Huang Shaotian immediately exploded: "Hey, hey, hey! I'm not in the mood for love, I'm focused on my career, okay! And what's wrong with being talkative? My fans love it when I talk a lot! A taciturn person like Zhou Zekai is so boring!"

The members of Samsara immediately laughed and replied, after all, they were all single. Fang Minghua and Zhou Zekai were purely special cases. Samsara didn't have any romantic luck at all, especially Du Ming, who had recently fallen into unrequited love. Looking at Fang Minghua, looking at the captain, and then looking at himself, it was truly a case of different fates among teammates!

As for Zhao Zhinian, seeing her overly active Weibo account, she decided to play dead. Since she had already turned off private messages, out of sight, out of mind.

Playing dead might get you away online, but it won't save you offline. Faced with Lin Shuang's winks and the subtle glances from Lou Guanning and the others, she could only pretend to be clueless: "I went to bed very early last night!" The implication was clear: don't ask me.

Lin Shuang dared not joke any further, because Glory officially announced on Monday that the game level cap would be raised to 75, and the league would subsequently enter a week-long break. She quickly communicated and negotiated with the Tiny Herb manager, and ultimately decided to use this break to plan a joint variety show event between the Yi Zhan and Tiny Herb teams on the day of the update.

Upon closer examination, this collaboration was indeed Yizhan leveraging Tiny Herb's popularity and influence. Therefore, as the initiator, Yizhan naturally took on more preparatory work: from event planning and process arrangement to on-site hosting, everything was led by the Yizhan team, while Tiny Herb mainly provided personnel support and necessary assistance.

Zhao Zhinian was naturally the host of this event, while Lin Shuang took on the main responsibility for planning. Because of this, Lin Shuang was particularly enthusiastic towards Zhao Zhinian during this period, often coming over to ask about her well-being, practically wearing the words "seeking help" on her face.

Zhao Zhinian wouldn't refuse her anyway, but she still teased her on purpose: "Oh dear, my shoulders have been a little sore lately..."

"Let me do it!" Lin Shuang immediately jumped up, pretending to massage her shoulders.

Seeing her like this, Zhao Zhinian couldn't help but laugh out loud. She then stopped joking and announced that they would start working. The two began to sort out the process and refine the details.

Upon returning to the club, Zhou Zekai immediately went to his room to unpack the package Zhao Zhinian had sent. The package wasn't large, containing two small boxes. One contained the bracelet Zhao Zhinian had previously obtained from the Yonghe Temple, and the other was a jade pendant. It was made of white jade with auspicious cloud reliefs on it. Zhou Zekai didn't understand the value of jade, but he keenly sensed that this might be half of a pair. He deftly put on the bracelet and jade pendant, then took a picture and sent it to Zhao Zhinian: "Thank you, I like it."

"I specially gave you a birthday present that you can wear, so that Vice Captain Jiang won't hint that you're always wearing my house key in front of them." Zhao Zhinian couldn't help but tease when she saw the photo: "I imagined the dignified captain of Samsara, with a key hanging on his chest all day long, it is indeed a bit... cute."

Zhou Zekai was a little embarrassed, automatically ignoring the teasing, and focused his gaze on the jade pendant, asking precisely, "A pair?"

Zhao Zhinian didn't want to be honest: "Ah? I only have this one."

This is not a lie; the jade pendants are indeed a pair, but the other half is far away overseas, in her father's possession.

These jade pendants weren't particularly valuable, but they were keepsakes bought by her parents together years ago, carrying a complete memory of their love, making them quite special. Her mother had even jokingly said that she would pass these two jade pendants down to Zhao Zhinian as her dowry. After her mother passed away, Zhao Zhinian treasured the pendant that belonged to her mother.

When preparing a birthday gift for Zhou Zekai, she heard Jiang Botao complaining that Zhou Zekai always showed off his keys, so she thought of giving him a slightly "normal" necklace. The white jade auspicious cloud pendant naturally came to mind.

The moment she thought of the jade pendant, she couldn't help but examine her own heart: What kind of expectations did she really have for Zhou Zekai? Was her hesitation also because she wanted too much and was afraid that she wouldn't be able to go all the way?

Therefore, she specifically called her father: "Dad, if... I want to give Mom's jade pendant away, is that okay? Is it appropriate?"

The father instantly understood: "In love?"

The father and daughter usually talked about everything, but this time Zhao Zhinian was unusually hesitant: "There's someone... I care about a lot. He's helped me a lot, but because of work and other reasons, I've been struggling and hesitating, and haven't properly responded. It's his birthday, and I wanted to give him a necklace, so I suddenly thought of this..."

Her voice grew softer and softer, but her father's gentle laughter came through the receiver: "You've grown up without me even realizing it. Follow your heart, Dad will always support you."

"Okay!" she quickly replied.

Her father sensed the excitement in her voice and couldn't help but tease her, "Looks like I need to arrange to go back to China as soon as possible. I can't let you keep owing that other person the other half of the jade pendant."

Zhao Zhinian didn't explain further. She worried that explaining the origin of the jade pendant would create invisible pressure, making her feelings heavy. She simply wanted to give it to Zhou Zekai: not to imply anything, nor to make any promises, but simply because he was the person she wanted to give it to at that moment.

Zhou Zekai, however, did not dwell on this. To him, receiving the gift she had carefully prepared was already a precious joy. He gently stroked the jade pendant on his chest, secretly deciding that he could secretly buy Zhao Zhinian a pair of couple accessories for the next holiday.

In the first week of December, Honor of Kings received a version update, and the professional league subsequently entered its off-season.

Zhou Zekai's schedule was packed. In addition to the business activities arranged for him by Samsara, he also had to participate in the club's technical department's discussions on account card upgrades and silver weapon enhancements. Although he didn't like to speak, the finalization of each plan was inseparable from his practical feedback and key opinions.

Meanwhile, Zhao Zhinian was also busy with work. Although Glory was on hiatus, she still had to fill in as the host for StarCraft, and Team Tiny Herb also visited Team Yizhan on the day of Glory's anniversary. After discussing it, the two teams decided to take advantage of the game update to jointly record this episode of their group variety show.

Tiny Herb was led by Wang Jiexi, with six main players: Xu Bin, Gao Yingjie, Liu Xiaobie, Yuan Baiqing, Liu Fei, and Zhou Yebai. Yizhan sent five core players: Lou Guanning, Zou Yunhai, Wen Kebei, Gu Xiye, and Zhong Yeli to participate in the recording.

Wang Jiexi and his team arrived on time. After exchanging pleasantries with Lou Guanning and others, he told everyone to rest first and then head to the conference room to record the program in 10 minutes.

The recording officially began. Zhao Zhinian stood in the middle, with the two teams of contestants sitting on either side. She introduced the rules to the contestants with a bright smile: "First of all, welcome everyone from Tiny Herb. Today, Tiny Herb and Yi Zhan will be recording this episode of the variety show together. However, before we begin, we need to do a special grouping process. After all, Tiny Herb has 7 contestants today, while Yi Zhan only has 5. It would be unfair and not fun to just divide them like this."

Since this was the first group variety show and a collaboration between two teams, it was a trial run. In addition, in this era of short videos, long videos are not suitable for promotion and dissemination. Therefore, the game segments were designed to be relatively simple. After discussing it, Lin Shuang and Zhao Zhinian decided to put more effort into the group formation to increase the fun.

Zhao Zhinian showed the twelve red envelopes in his hand: "Each red envelope contains a banknote with denominations of 100 yuan, 50 yuan, 20 yuan, 10 yuan, 5 yuan, and 1 yuan, with two of each denomination. The two players who draw the 100 yuan note will become team captains, and then they will choose their teammates in turn by playing rock-paper-scissors."

"But..." Zhao Zhinian winked playfully, "There's an important rule: the total amount of teammates each team leader chooses cannot exceed 100 yuan. That means if you choose two teammates with 50 yuan each, then your group will only have three people."

A PowerPoint presentation was playing on the screen behind them, with a simple explanation of the rules. Zhao Zhinian highlighted the key points: "Next, we will have three rounds of games. You will get a chance to answer questions by raising your hand. However, the team members with the lower net worth will have higher priority in answering questions! Then, the team that earns the most money in each round will receive an extra 100 yuan."

Everyone nodded in agreement, and Zhong Yeli asked cooperatively, "Right, if I am worth 1 yuan and someone else is worth 100 yuan and raises their hand at the same time, should I answer the question first?"

Zhao Zhinian smiled and affirmed, then continued, "Contestants who answer correctly can earn their team a certain amount of their 'value,' but those who answer incorrectly... will have that amount deducted. So, the higher someone's 'value,' the greater their reward, but also the greater their risk! In other words, teammates with a 'value' of 1 yuan can simply raise their hands to answer every round, since they only lose 1 yuan if they're wrong. But contestants with higher 'values' need to think carefully. Of course, if you're confident, contestants with a 'value' of 100 yuan can raise their hands to answer. They get 100 yuan for each correct answer, and the money is paid on the spot, so don't worry about saving money for Yizhan!"

"After the three rounds of games, the team with the higher total score wins! The winning team not only receives the combined prize money from both groups, but also gets to require each member of the losing group to complete a designated action," Zhao Zhinian concluded. "So, team captains not only need to carefully select their members, but also devise a reasonable answering strategy!"

The final draw resulted in Liu Fei and Wen Kebei becoming the two team captains. This result left Lin Shuang, who was working behind the scenes, somewhat disappointed, as Liu Fei still seemed completely bewildered and clearly hadn't gotten into the zone yet.

As for Wen Kebei, she naturally had no expectations. If he were a smart captain, he might have used his wits to outmaneuver her from the selection process. Right now, all she could say was that the confusion on their faces was a kind of equal footing in another sense.

After the two team captains played rock-paper-scissors, Wen Kebei won and automatically became the captain of the red team. He had the first choice, but he really didn't know what to choose. He racked his brains, scratching his head and thinking for a long time, when suddenly he had a flash of inspiration: "I choose the building team!"

Why choose Lou Guanning, whose market value is only 5 yuan? No one understood his selection strategy.

Wen Kebei explained with a grin, "I'm really not good at this. Let the professionals do what they're good at!" With that, he handed over the power of selection to Lou Guanning.

Wang Jiexi drew 10 yuan, which shouldn't have been his first choice, but Liu Fei immediately understood and followed suit: "Then I'll choose Team Wang!"

The situation suddenly became interesting, with the two nominal captains stepping down and the real selection battle unfolding between Lou Guanning and Wang Jiexi.

Lou Guanning made the first move, choosing Zhong Yeli, whose value was 50 yuan. Wang Jiexi, however, unexpectedly chose Gao Yingjie, whose value was 1 yuan.

Liu Fei asked Wang Jiexi in a low voice, puzzled, "Captain, shouldn't we choose Gu Xiye, who costs 50 yuan, first?"

Wang Jiexi glanced at her helplessly. Liu Fei felt like she had been caught by the teacher for not paying attention in class when the captain looked at her like that, and she immediately became flustered.

Zhao Zhinian quickly smiled and explained the rules to Liu Fei, "The rule is that the total amount of money for team members, excluding the team leader, cannot exceed 100 yuan. Wen Kebei chose Lou Team and Gu Xiye, and the two of them already have 55 yuan. So the other player with 50 yuan who was not chosen must be from your team. Team Leader Wang must have figured this out, so he prioritized choosing players with 1 yuan to ensure the priority to answer questions in the subsequent games."

Liu Fei nodded, while Lou Guanning's selection strategy was much simpler and easier to understand. He chose people based entirely on the amount of money involved, selecting Liu Xiaobie from Liu Xiaobie and Yuan Baiqing, who each received 20 yuan. Wang Jiexi then accepted Yuan Baiqing.

Lou Guanning then chose Xu Bin, the remaining 10-yuan contestant, while Wang Jiexi chose Zou Yunhai, who was worth 1 yuan. Zhao Zhinian immediately pointed out the key: "The blue team now has two 1-yuan contestants, Gao Yingjie and Zou Yunhai. This means that in the subsequent question-and-answer session, as long as one of them raises their hand, they will definitely be able to answer the questions first!"

Continuing with the selection process, the groupings for the remaining two players become clear, and the final groupings are as follows:

Red Team: Wen Kebei 100 yuan, Lou Guanning 5 yuan, Zhong Yeli 50 yuan, Liu Xiaobie 20 yuan, Xu Bin 10 yuan, Zhou Yebai 5 yuan, initial total 190 yuan.

Blue Team: Liu Fei 100 yuan, Wang Jiexi 10 yuan, Gao Yingjie 1 yuan, Yuan Baiqing 20 yuan, Zou Yunhai 1 yuan, Gu Xiye 50 yuan, initial total 182 yuan.

Zhao Zhinian summarized: "The red team has a slightly higher total amount, but the blue team has two players with 1 yuan each, which will give them an advantage in the buzzer rounds, allowing them to accumulate strength and then unleash it!"

Zhao Zhinian turned to the side, revealing a stack of cash on the table behind him. There was a stack of banknotes of various denominations, which perfectly matched Yizhan's "wealthy and powerful" temperament. Lin Shuang designed the group segment in this way to emphasize Yizhan's label. As long as he can be remembered by fans, the unique label of "wealthy" is acceptable.

She then pointed to the scoreboard with the names of the blue and red teams: "As I just mentioned, those who answer the questions correctly will be paid out according to their red envelope value. To make it easier to count, those who answer incorrectly will not have money deducted from their red envelopes. Staff will deduct points according to their value on the scoreboard behind them, and the final settlement will be made in a unified manner."

"The first segment is called 'Guess Who I Am.' We will play an audio clip shortly, and you will have to guess the corresponding Glory profession and BOSS name based on the audio. It could be the voice of a skill name, the BOSS's ultimate skill voice, or the voice of a professional player. Please listen carefully."

The first question played a clear audio clip of the "Falling Flower Palm" skill. Everyone immediately raised their hands. For professional players, this type of question was no challenge at all. Gao Yingjie and Zou Yunhai's advantage in value was immediately apparent. Although it was only one yuan, they could easily win it by simply raising their hands.

After being called upon, Gao Yingjie answered softly, "Battle Mage, voice line: Falling Blossom Palm."

"Correct answer! Blue team gets 1 yuan!" Zhao Zhinian announced.

The following questions all involved similar skills or BOSS voice lines. With the two players who each spent 1 yuan, the blue team easily scored points. Although each question only added 1 yuan, it added up over time.

Two questions were unexpected. One was a voice recording of "PKPKPKPKPK," which was very familiar, but everyone was a little stunned when it suddenly appeared.

Before Lou Guanning became a professional player, thanks to Ye Shen, he had the opportunity to play in the arena with Huang Shaotian. He still vividly remembers Huang Shaotian's voice lines. He instantly realized who it was and raised his hand to answer, "Huang Shaotian!"

"Correct! Red team, add 5!"

The next question only had a simple "hmm," leaving everyone stunned. A mere "hmm"? That was it?

Seeing everyone's puzzled expressions, Zhao Zhinian smiled and said, "The voice message is over. Everyone, please raise your hands to answer."

While everyone was hesitating, Wang Jiexi glanced at Zhao Zhinian without making a sound, and seeing the smile on her lips, he instantly had his answer.

Seeing that the others were still confused, he silently calculated the score in his mind. He was worth 10 yuan, and even if he answered correctly, it wouldn't determine the outcome. So he didn't rush to raise his hand. Instead, he used his eyes to signal Liu Fei to look at Zhao Zhinian. Although Liu Fei was still in a daze, Gu Xiye, who was on the same team, saw Wang Jiexi's eye signal and immediately raised his hand: "Zhou Zekai".

"Correct answer! Blue team gets 50! It seems that the priority of low-stakes players does have a clear advantage on easy questions, but high-stakes players with high risk can also create miracles on difficult questions." Zhao Zhinian was focused on her cue cards and the overall situation, and did not notice that Wang Jiexi determined the answer from her expression.

In the first round of settlement, the blue team naturally won. Zhao Zhinian then explained the rules of the second game: "The second round is also 'Guess Who I Am,' 1.0 is voice, and 2.0 is picture. In a moment, some pictures will be displayed on the screen, and everyone needs to say the accurate name based on the picture."

What was initially thought to be a simple picture guessing game had everyone intently focused on the screen, ready to answer quickly. However, they were all stunned the moment the picture appeared.

Because these pictures are not the whole picture, but only a part of it.

For example, the image of Extinction Stardust is just a glimmer of light at the tail of the Silver Weapon, the image of Blood Gunner Ago is the muzzle of his weapon, the image of Soksal is a corner of the Warlock's robe, the image of Life Destroyer's goggles is the lens, the image of Tiny Herb's logo is the grass in the very center, and the image of Righteous Slash is the very tip at the bottom of the logo...

In the previous round, almost no one lost points. Now, because this round is too difficult, the lower-ranked contestants are starting to guess randomly, resulting in various point deductions. Everyone is complaining, "Who can figure this out?"

Some questions were even answered so poorly that no one could guess the answer. The scoreboard looked terrible in this round, and the blue team still won in the end. It wasn't because they got more questions right, but because they had two players who only answered one question, so they lost fewer points for answering questions incorrectly.

Looking at the fierce battle, Zhao Zhinian couldn't help but chuckle: "It seems this round is indeed very challenging! Faced with absolute difficulty, any strategy seems powerless. We can only rely on players who spend 1 yuan to survive and score points. This indirectly shows Captain Wang's foresight."

"The third segment is still 'Guess Who I Am.' But it's version 3.0, which is more difficult than version 2.0. It's still a picture, but the picture is of a professional player from the Glory League. Get ready, you need to say the team name and the player's name to count."

When the first image appeared on the big screen, the entire arena fell into a deathly silence: it was a close-up of an eye, its deep pupil holding a unique brilliance. Both teams craned their necks to stare at the image on the screen, unable to make heads or tails of it, and began to offer their criticisms.

"Is that an eye? Who could have guessed that!"

"How am I supposed to remember what the eyes of all the professional players look like?"

"This question is insane!"

Zhao Zhinian initially thought Lin Shuang's final topic was too difficult, but Lin Shuang didn't care: "It's just asking about Glory's skills, bosses, and professions. It's too easy. Professional players are all rushing to answer. What's the point?"

However, the impact of this eye was too great. With the experience of the previous round, everyone was afraid of answering incorrectly, so both teams started to play it safe and dared not try anything recklessly. Seeing that no one was speaking, Zhao Zhinian pointed out another rule in the previous PPT: "If no one answers for a long time, we will force everyone to answer questions from high to low value. This is a photo carefully selected by our official Weibo lady. You can't be so unsupportive."

Just as Wang Jiexi was hesitating about whether to let Gao Yingjie and Zou Yunhai, the two players who each won 1 yuan, try their luck, Liu Xiaobie from the Red Team raised his hand with a troubled expression.

All eyes instantly focused on him. Liu Xiaobie closed his eyes, as if he had made a decision: "Wang Jiexi of Tiny Herb, our captain's eyes."

"Correct answer! Red team gets 20 yuan!" Unexpectedly, Liu Xiaobie actually answered correctly. Zhao Zhinian immediately gave his approval, and then the screen showed the full picture of Wang Jiexi's makeup photo, with a smaller picture next to it. Comparing the two, it was indeed his eyes.

An incredulous gasp erupted from the crowd.

Liu Fei's eyes widened: "Xiao Bie, you can recognize this?"

Liu Xiaobie scratched his head sheepishly: "With the captain watching me train every day, it's hard not to remember..."

Wang Jiexi himself also showed some surprise, after all, he couldn't even recognize his own eyes.

Just as everyone was relieved that the next question was finally here, the second picture turned out to be another eye.

Perhaps the previous question gave Liu Xiaobie confidence, because seeing everyone complaining, he raised his hand again: "It's still our captain, Tiny Herb Wang Jiexi."

"No way, wasn't that Captain Wang's eye just now?" Wen Kebei looked at Wang Jiexi while examining the partial image, wanting to confirm.

Zhao Zhinian's voice rang out again: "Correct answer! Red team gets 20 yuan!"

Liu Xiaobie coughed awkwardly twice: "Just now it was my right eye, now it's my left eye."

Everyone suddenly realized what was going on and couldn't help but turn to look into Wang Jiexi's eyes. Wang Jiexi, on the other hand, accepted everyone's gaze quite calmly.

The third question was finally not about eyes, but a close-up of a forehead. Liu Xiaobie answered again: "Batu Han Wenqing".

The fourth question was a picture of someone smiling with a hint of a canine tooth. Liu Xiaobie answered again: "Lan Yu Huang Shaotian".

The next question was about an eyebrow. Liu Xiaobie, under the shocked gazes of everyone, answered again: "Righteous slaying of Lou Guanning." Lou Guanning couldn't help but reach up and touch his eyebrow.

Then, Liu Xiaobie easily answered correctly about Zhang Xinjie's glasses, Zhang Jiale's braided hair, and Zhong Yeli's ears with a few strands of hair. By the end, Liu Xiaobie was a little embarrassed.

"Correct answer! Red team gets 20 yuan!" Zhao Zhinian commented with a smile: "Things are getting a bit out of hand. Just now, Wang's eyes could be explained by being together day and night, but these questions clearly show Liu Xiaobie's true strength."

Xu Bin stared in shock, speechless: "Xiao Bie, what do you usually do?"

"It's over! Our Tiny Herb has a monster!" Yuan Baiqing wailed.

"I don't quite understand!"

"Don't go too far!"

"Is this how you Tiny Herb usually study your opponents?" Wen Kebei couldn't help but question the entire Tiny Herb team.

"He didn't answer much in the first two rounds either. It's strange that he put all his skill points into knowing professional players!"

The next question was about a strand of hair, a detail that was so difficult to discern that even Liu Xiaobie, who had just performed exceptionally well, frowned. Zhao Zhinian chuckled and chimed in, "It seems the official Weibo account chose a very clever question; even Liu Xiaobie had to hesitate."

Upon hearing this, Wang Jiexi glanced at Zhao Zhinian and quickly sensed something different. This time, he directly abandoned Liu Fei, who was still confused, and instead gestured to Gu Xiye, who had just been on the same wavelength as him. He nodded to give Gu Xiye an affirmative look, and Gu Xiye did not disappoint Wang Jiexi. Understanding immediately, Gu Xiye raised his hand: "Zhou... Zhou Zekai?"

"Correct answer! Blue team gets 50 yuan! Wow, that's impressive!" Zhao Zhinian announced with delight.

Gu Xiye felt embarrassed to take all the credit: "Actually, it was Captain Wang who guessed it first."

"Oh? It seems like you two didn't communicate just now?" Zhao Zhinian couldn't help but ask.

Wang Jiexi coughed lightly. He didn't want to explain too clearly and embarrass Zhao Zhinian, but he was also worried that there might be more questions related to Zhou Zekai later and he would lose this "cheat code" for professionally identifying Zhou Zekai. So he said vaguely, "We are on the same team and have a tacit understanding."

However, Zhou Zekai's questions were few and far between, and his nose only appeared once more later. Wang Jiexi once again relied on observing Zhao Zhinian's expression to team up with Gu Xiye and win 50 yuan. Later, Yu Wenzhou's lips, Tang Hao's eyebrows, Su Mucheng's long hair... were all easily identified by Liu Xiaobie. The third round of the game can be said to have started a jaw-dropping personal show of Liu Xiaobie's ability to identify people.

Looking at the rapidly changing scores on the scoreboard and Liu Xiaobie's ever-growing red envelope, Zhao Zhinian couldn't help but sigh, "Today's segment really showed us the contestants' unknown talents. Liu Xiaobie's amazing recognition ability should be recorded in the history of Glory. Fortunately, Captain Wang also guessed a few questions correctly, and with his unknown tacit understanding with Gu Xiye, he also managed to score some points. Otherwise, it would have been entirely Liu Xiaobie's solo performance."

Wang Jiexi gave Zhao Zhinian a meaningful look: "It's also thanks to the host."

Zhao Zhinian was taken aback, suddenly realizing that the answers Wang Jiexi had guessed correctly all seemed to be Zhou Zekai's. She instantly understood and glanced at Wang Jiexi uncertainly. Wang Jiexi, on the other hand, nodded and smiled at her calmly, as if to say, "It's just as you guessed."

Fortunately, everyone else's attention was drawn to Liu Xiaobie's amazing performance, and they didn't notice this detail. Liu Xiaobie and the others were a little embarrassed by the praise: "It's just... we usually watch the game videos very carefully."

Yuan Baiqing immediately retorted, "You call this being meticulous? You're practically examining something with a magnifying glass!"

Zhou Yebo chimed in, "Who in their right mind watches replays by looking at other professional players' eyes, mouths, and eyebrows?"

Zhong Yeli added, "I suggest the league thoroughly investigate Tiny Herb's training content! I have reason to suspect that Tiny Herb is training its players to do strange things!"

With Liu Xiaobie's astonishingly extraordinary performance, the Red Team got tired of adding 20 yuan at a time. After finally calculating the amounts for both teams, the Red Team won the game smoothly. Zhao Zhinian announced the result: "I didn't expect that the key to this game was actually Lou's brilliant move, choosing Liu Xiaobie from the two 20 yuan players."

Lou Guanning laughed and replied, "Actually, I just picked randomly at the time, I didn't expect to pick the 'ace'."

Liu Xiaobie scratched his head sheepishly: "It was mainly luck; I just happened to remember the people who asked the questions."

“Excessive modesty is just showing off,” Yuan Baiqing complained. “As another contestant who only spent 20 yuan, your performance makes me very embarrassed.”

Looking at the result, Wang Jiexi calmly commented: "This shows that in team building, it is very important to discover and leverage each person's strengths."

Zhao Zhinian nodded in agreement and smoothly concluded the event for the camera: "Thank you to both teams for their wonderful performances! Today's event is temporarily over. As for how the Red Team will 'squander' their funds and what actions the Blue Team members will be punished with, please follow the Weibo accounts of Yizhan and Tiny Herb. We will update you in the future."

Lin Shuang made a hand gesture behind the monitor, signaling the successful completion of the recording.

The atmosphere immediately relaxed. Staff began packing up the equipment, and the players chatted in small groups about the funny things that had just happened. As arranged, Team Tiny Herb stayed at the Yi Zhan canteen for a light meal, during which they naturally made fun of Liu Xiaobie's "superpowers".

When bidding farewell to Tiny Herb, Wang Jiexi happened to be at the back of the group. After his teammates got into the car first, he stopped and turned to Zhao Zhinian, who was seeing them off at the door.

"Ms. Zhao, you've had a hard day," Wang Jiexi said, a hint of a smile in his voice. "Thank you."

Yuan Baiqing, who was walking ahead, turned around in the car and happened to see this scene. He had just worked with Zhao Zhinian at his birthday party, so he smiled and interjected, "Zhinian's hosting skills are naturally beyond question."

The others echoed this sentiment, all assuming it was just Tiny Herb's captain's routine courtesy of thanks.

Only Zhao Zhinian caught the fleeting, profound meaning in Wang Jiexi's eyes. She suddenly recalled his words during the recording, "It's also thanks to the host," and those precise guesses of Zhou Zekai's questions. This meticulous captain of Tiny Herb probably already saw through her relationship with Zhou Zekai, but considerately didn't point it out. To be able to guess the answer by observing the host's expression, one has to say he truly deserves the title of "magician."

"Of course," Zhao Zhinian replied with a knowing smile.

Wang Jiexi nodded slightly, said no more, and turned to board the bus.

On the way back to the base, Liu Fei was still enthusiastically reviewing today's match: "Although Xiao Bie was the most abnormal, Captain, your teamwork with Gu Xiye today was too amazing! How could you guys guess that it was Zhou Zekai?"

Wang Jie gazed at the passing street scene outside the window, a faint smile playing on his lips: "You're good at observing, aren't you? Just like Xiaobie."

Liu Xiaobie raised his hands in surrender: "Captain, please stop teasing me like they do!"

At the entrance of the Yizhan base, Zhao Zhinian and the others watched the Tiny Herb bus drive away. Lin Shuang still had to go back to arrange editing matters, and understanding that Zhao Zhinian had been standing all afternoon, she told her to go back and rest. So she went back to her dormitory alone, changed her clothes, removed her makeup, and immediately collapsed onto her bed. After resting for a while, she couldn't help but think of Wang Jiexi's meaningful smile, took out her phone, and sent a message to Zhou Zekai: "Oh no, it seems you've become my 'unprofessional' weakness."

-----------------------

Author's Note: I was really pushing myself to write this 10,000-word chapter! Thank you all for your continued support!

I'm looking for a couple name for Zhao Zhinian and Zhou Zekai online. I'm really bad at coming up with names, and after thinking for a long time, I've decided not to suggest a specific couple hashtag name. [laughing and crying emoji]