Important match
With the match point secured, the atmosphere in the lounge was relaxed, with everyone chatting and making a ruckus. Shen He leaned back in his chair, holding the candy Chen Yuchuan had prepared for him, seemingly deep in thought. Chen Yuchuan stood in front of him and said, "Baby, you can play whatever you want later. Don't be nervous, don't worry about the team. I'll cover for you in team fights. If all else fails, we can just play the next game."
Shen He looked up at him for two seconds, then raised his arm. Chen Yuchuan paused for a second, then lowered his head. Shen He stuffed the candy into his mouth, his voice only audible to the two of them: "Chen Yuchuan, this is a crucial game. You absolutely mustn't worry about me. Just play your own game well and don't lose your rhythm, understand?"
Chen Yuchuan adopted a serious listening posture: "Understood, understood, Styx, baby, my dear wife."
Shenhe warned him: "If you dare to make any random noises in the voice chat later, you're really in trouble."
In the fourth game, VLG (blue side) had match point.
During the draft phase, the atmosphere was just as tense as it was on stage. VLG made their first two picks normally, but Lin Xiaoyu surprisingly chose Zhu Yue for their third pick.
The commentator raised a question: "Moon Chaser?! Moon Chaser has been heavily nerfed in this version, and it's rarely seen in ranked games. Why is it being used in the final match point game?!"
The partner's voice was also puzzled: "If the other side just picks a traditional mage carry, Moonwalker will be useless. What is VLG doing?!"
"No, there's a niche AD Luna build right now. VLG wouldn't be thinking of playing AD mid and AP jungle, would they?"
In the subsequent draft phase, the opposing team kept guarding against VLG's mid and jungle, but Chen Yuchuan picked a very standard AD warrior, Huan Shou, and VLG picked Ying Huo as their last pick.
"No? Or are you really going to bite the bullet and play AP Moonwalker?"
Just as the commentators breathed a sigh of relief, the mid and bot laners swapped heroes and entered the game. When everyone saw the item builds, they realized it was AD Moonwalker and AP Firefly.
The camera cuts to the contestants' seats, where Chen Yuchuan leans back in his chair with a relaxed smile on his lips.
He turned his head to look at Chenhe: "Baby, do you still remember how to play this hero?"
Shen He paused for a moment, his finger hovering over the mouse for a second.
How could I not remember?
Although it happened several years ago, Shen He liked to play jungle for a while, and Chen Yuchuan would always choose Zhu Yue to go mid lane to cooperate with him.
Zhu Yue is a highly mobile hero who can quickly support the jungle. Shen He plays aggressively, but Chen Yu Chuan is always the first to arrive at his side.
Back then, when players were playing jungle in Shenhe, they were very inexperienced and tended to overlook details and not pay much attention to vision.
"Watch out for the river."
"Brother, can you stop chasing us? There are people behind us."
"Get out of here! What are you doing? Get out of here!"
Chen Yuchuan's voice was always impatient, but it was like a radar, constantly reminding people of the movements around Chenhe.
At first, Chenhe would impatiently reply with "I know" or "Stop barking," but he gradually got used to it, and later even began to rely on that voice.
Because he knew that as long as Chen Yuchuan was around, he could play however he wanted and have fun without worry.
Although he continued to practice this hero, along with those ranked memories, he left it far behind until now.
The game has finished loading.
After buying his equipment, Chen Yuchuan controlled his hero to leave the fountain. He habitually reminded him, "Styx, play more aggressively when you leave. I'll come and help you counter-gank when I reach level three."
Shen He stared at Zhu Yue on the screen, at the familiar hero model and the familiar skill icons.
His fingers paused on the keyboard for a second, then he said, "Hmm."
He paused, as if some habitual memory had been awakened, and added, "Chen Yuchuan, watch out for the river."
There was a sudden moment of silence in the voice chat.
"Received, baby." Chen Yuchuan's voice was nonchalant, but there was an indescribable tenderness and nostalgia in his tone.
Chenhe and Yiyang's hands were a bit shorter than the opposing bot lane duo, and they were being worn down a bit, but their QW combo pushed the lane very quickly, and the minion wave went straight across the river.
TM wanted to block the lane, but Chen Yuchuan pounced out from the tri-bush and used a combo to poke and lower the opponent's health: "Push the lane and leave."
Shenhe immediately returned to the city, while Chen Yuchuan and Yi Yang turned around and entered the jungle. The opposing bottom lane duo came to support, and Chen Yuchuan stole the buff while surrounded, then stole a small jungle camp, and finally severely damaged the opposing jungler before leaving gracefully.
Although Yi Yang was sold out, his overall rhythm wasn't bad, and the opposing bot lane even lost minion waves. He couldn't help but say, "With the way Chuan Ge played, the opposing jungler won't want to come to the bottom half of the map anymore!"
Chen Yuchuan boasted, "Did you hear that, darling? Praising me."
Shen He's voice was cold, yet tinged with amusement: "Don't be reckless, mystical beasts."
The opponents reacted quickly, rapidly adjusting their attack direction. Several players grouped up to gank the top lane, completely freeing it up. They were able to push lanes and control each other with Zhu Yue, leading to a stalemate.
In the small dragon team fight, Zhu Yue kept harassing the enemy by stepping on the edge. The opponent took advantage of his skill cooldown and used Flash to force an engagement. Chen Yuchuan guessed the opponent's move at first glance, Flashed over and took a full combo of damage. The team fight broke out instantly. Chen He used his displacement to retreat to a safe position to output damage, and Chen Yuchuan was right next to him.
On the other side, the top, mid, and support players have already formed a pincer movement. As long as Chen Yuchuan can control the situation, the team fight will be won.
But seeing Shen He surrounded, Chen Yuchuan threw his ultimate move at Shen He's feet. Shen He was a little helpless. This was Chen Yuchuan's subconscious reaction, whether in the past or now.
The team fight was poorly executed, resulting in a 3-for-2 exchange and the loss of the dragon, a slight loss.
"Chen Yuchuan, have you forgotten what I said again? Stop trying to protect me. If I die, I die. You've already gained an advantage by going up and beating people up."
"Okay, okay, Styx, that's my question."
"Forget it, I'm too lazy to criticize you. I'll just give you a piece of my mind."
"Tsk tsk tsk, I really don't want to say anything about these two."
For twenty-five minutes, Zhu Yue teleported continuously, preventing the opposing team from pushing forward and making it difficult for them to catch him. Zhu Yue skillfully evaded their attempts to capture him.
He had a 4K gold lead in a single lane, leaving the commentators speechless: "This Zhu Yue is inhuman! He's like a fly, and the opposing team can't handle him even with just one person. If two of them come to VLG, they can fight each other."
TM's five players grouped up and charged at the dragon while Zhu Yue was out of teleportation lanes, forcing a team fight. Chen Yuchuan tried to steal the dragon but was tightly guarded. However, the dragon lost aggro and recovered a little bit of health.
At this crucial moment, Zhu Yue suddenly appeared. Chen He's equipment didn't focus on brute force attack power, and his cooldowns were maxed out, so he arrived from the lane in a very short time. The dragon steal earlier was to buy time for him to get there.
He stepped down from the dragon pit, controlled two people with his crowd control skills, and interspersed his skills with passive auto-attacks, dealing damage comparable to a regular AD carry.
Chen Yuchuan was busy taking over the front, but he didn't forget to tell him, "I can't get in, so be careful."
"Know."
Shenhe severely damaged the enemy's bottom lane duo who were being protected behind him. Just one second before they were about to be killed, he used his second dash to return to the dragon pit and then used another dash to evade the pursuit.
Chen Yuchuan unleashed a barrage of arrows to finish the fight, securing a triple kill.
"Brother Chuan is awesome! Brother Styx is awesome!!"
"Brother He is truly an all-rounder. He can do anything."
Chen Yuchuan scoffed, "I told you long ago, no one else can play this hero well."
Shen He chuckled: "Why do you care how others are playing? Hurry home and catch up on your game."
Chen He's Zhu Yue was actually taught by Chen Yuchuan. Back then, he saw that Chen Yuchuan was almost always the MVP, and he couldn't help but want to play it himself. Chen Yuchuan wouldn't let him, so he forced it, even shamelessly begging Chen Yuchuan: "Brother Chuan, let me play a game, please."
Chen Yuchuan always pretended to be unwilling, but he would always give the hero to him. Unfortunately, he was not good at mastering the skills of mage heroes. In the end, he would miss all his skills and could only rely on basic attacks to make up for the damage.
Chen Yuchuan looked at him with disdain, mocking his lack of skill, and told him the techniques and methods of this hero. Although he still habitually used skill movement and basic attacks to deal damage, at that time, he really liked this hero, from the skill design to the background character, so he simply used it to play AD. Later, many people said that Wind String Hunter was his main hero, but in fact, Wind String was just the best substitute for Moon Chaser.
With the Baron buff, the enemy team pushed the second mid tower. VLG cleared the wave and defended their base. The team composition and situation were not favorable for VLG. If the game dragged on any longer, TM's damage curve would far exceed VLG's.
Zhu Yue was still pushing the lane, and the opponent's top laner returned to defend in time, but Chen Yuchuan's phantom beast was also gone.
The commentator suddenly screamed: "Zhu Yue! Zhu Yue, quickly teleport to the bottom lane!! We can push the high ground now!!"
The screen switched to the bottom lane, where Chen Yuchuan pushed the lane very deep. His teleport skill lit up, and AD Zhu Yue pushed the lane incredibly fast, all the way up to the high ground. The opposing team had no choice but to abandon the mid lane and push back to defend.
"Withdraw," Shen He said.
The two heroes used their high mobility to escape before the other arrived, leaving behind only a mess.
Shenhe lowered his eyes, the laughter and scolding of his teammates coming through his earphones, but he thought of something from an earlier time.
Back then, he would always ask Chen Yuchuan to play some silly tricks, because only by playing these random things would Chen Yuchuan seem a little happier, including the tower-stealing strategy.
Of course, this style of play also attracts a lot of criticism.
Teammates cursed them for not teaming up, opponents called them jerks, and some even typed insults about their entire family on the results screen.
After losing a match once, Shenhe looked at the screen full of greetings and suddenly sighed, "We two are really like two rats crawling in the shadows, hated by everyone."
Upon hearing this, Chen Yuchuan suddenly laughed and inexplicably began to imitate the voice of the game character, a mouse, and he did a pretty good job of it.
Shen He laughed for a long time before finally calming down and saying to Chen Yuchuan very seriously, "Learn to bark like a dog."
Chen Yuchuan immediately became displeased: "Shut up, you've already been called an idiot and you're still grinning like an idiot. It feels like you're deliberately asking for a scolding. Do you want me to scold you a few times too?"
Shen He immediately became furious, jumped up and sat on his lap, grabbed his collar and tried to strangle him. Chen Yuchuan laughed and dodged, but secretly wrapped his arm around his waist. He didn't use any force, just naturally encircled him, as if it were an unintentional action.
At that time, Shenhe only thought it was brothers playing around and didn't think too much about it.
Looking back now, I always feel that my behavior went too far, which led Chen Yuchuan down the path of no return by accessing the contact list.
On the screen, the enemy's high ground crystal was pushed down by the minion wave that Chen Yuchuan had transported.
Shen He snapped out of his daze, a slight smile creeping onto his lips. Through his earpiece, he muttered, "Idiot."
Chen Yuchuan's laughter immediately came through the earphones: "Who are you cursing?"
"Scolding rats." Shen He paused, his voice tinged with amusement, "...Those who know, know."
In the final wave, Chen Yuchuan held off the retreating defenders on the front line, shouting loudly in the voice chat, just like they always did in every ranked game: "Baby! Backdoor! Backdoor! Backdoor!! I'll hold them off!!"
The phantom beast charged into the crowd with W, missed with Q, but switched forms to withstand the damage and managed to stall until the support could follow up with their ultimate!
In the past, Chen Yuchuan would always create opportunities for him to deal damage at crucial moments, and then the fountain commander would yell, "Sinking River! Are you an idiot?! Attack the tower! Attack the tower, don't you understand?!"
These sounds seemed to overlap in his ears, and Chenhe's heart couldn't help but beat faster; victory was just ahead.
Lin Xiaoyu headed towards the sinking river to provide support, while Yi Yang and Li Xiuyan echoed Chen Yuchuan's shouts: "Baby! A tower, A tower, A tower, one wave!"
Shen He bought a potion to enhance his basic attack, marked the outer tower with his skill, used WQR to dash and dodge the enemy's skills defending the top lane, and then used the enhanced basic attack to attack the tower. He felt his heart was also infected by Chen Yuchuan's voice, beating very fast, once, twice, three times... the crystal exploded!
Victory!
VLG wins the championship!!
The scene erupted instantly, confetti raining down throughout the venue. Shen He took off his headphones, feeling his heart pounding fiercely, a vibrant, unstoppable throbbing. It was at that moment that he thought of Chen Yuchuan again.
He recalled many years ago, when they played ranked matches together, and the moment they won, Chen Yuchuan shouted next to him, "Holy crap! We fucking made it!"
It was rare for Chen Yuchuan to be so emotional, and Shen He couldn't hide his excitement and agitation either. His heart was beating very fast, and he was jumping and shouting like a wild man. Fortunately, they were at Chen Yuchuan's house, so no one would complain about him disturbing the peace.
He recalled how frustrated he was, hiding away in an internet cafe playing ranked matches.
Just as he was concentrating, a voice rang in his ear: "What are you doing?"
Chen He's hand trembled, and he almost dropped the mouse.
Turning around, Chen Yuchuan stood behind him expressionlessly, holding two bottles of drinks in his hand.
"Damn it..." Shen He's heart was pounding wildly, and he was so scared that he wanted to curse.
"You didn't invite your buddies to play games?" Chen Yuchuan said, sitting down next to him and opening the game. "You're really not a good friend."
That day, Chen Yuchuan didn't ask anything and played games with him until late at night.
He also recalled the time the two of them went to Z city together.
Chen Yuchuan, for some unknown reason, insisted on dragging him to go skiing.
Shen He actually disliked these dangerous sports back then. He protected himself very well and was always afraid of getting hurt. But for some reason, when faced with Chen Yuchuan's expectant eyes, he couldn't bring himself to refuse.
Standing at the top, Shen He's heart was racing, but with Chen Yuchuan beside him, he didn't know if he felt reassured or just didn't want to lose face. They slid down together, the wind whistling in their ears. Shen He tumbled a few times, and Chen Yuchuan turned to look at him, his eyes shining: "How was it? Was it fun?"
Shen He's heart was pounding. He wanted to say that he was not happy at all and that he would never play this deadly thing again.
But when he met Chen Yuchuan's gaze, he finally said only, "It's alright."
Then Chen Yuchuan laughed, grabbed his hand, and said something smug: "If you're scared, stand next to me, I'll help you slide."
The past seemed to have been played back, frame by frame, appearing before his eyes, so bright it was blinding, so hot it made his throat tighten.
The doctor said that after a period of separation, you will suddenly think of him, very clearly and strongly, as if someone has taken that memory out and put it in the sun for you.
Although he hadn't separated from Chen Yuchuan, this feeling was like thinking of him.
Shen He closed his eyes, his eyelashes casting a small, trembling shadow under the light.
He thought of Chen Yuchuan from before.
It's not a casual, occasional longing; it's a longing that carries warmth and a heartbeat, a longing for him that makes me think of his indifferent expression, his impatient voice, and the times when I could stand next to him without any worries.
What's even more greedy is that he doesn't just want to go back.
He also thinks about the future.
He needed to be surrounded by someone, to be favored by someone, and Chen Yuchuan was that person.
Shen He turned around, and before he could even wipe the smile off his face, he bumped into Chen Yuchuan's arms.
The chair was kicked and fell to the ground with a piercing crash. Chen Yuchuan practically pounced on him, his arms wrapped tightly around his waist as if trying to embed him into his bones. His voice was hoarse and barely audible: "Baby...we won the championship."
Shen He wrapped his arms around Chen Yuchuan's back and said in a low voice, but Chen Yuchuan heard him clearly: "Chen Yuchuan, we won."
He said "the two of us," and Chen Yuchuan couldn't help but laugh, but his eyes were a little red. He asked in his ear, "Shen He, are you happy?"
"I'm happy, really, Chen Yuchuan, I'm very happy."
Chen Yuchuan managed to utter "That's good" before falling silent.
Shen He could hear the suppressed emotions in his voice, and patted him on the back: "Alright, it's just a game, why are you so pathetic?"
Chen Yuchuan took a deep breath and composed himself. "It's not a competition. I've waited a whole year to hear you say you're genuinely happy."
Shen He was stunned. He recalled that throughout the year, Chen Yuchuan had asked him countless times, seemingly casually, "Are you happy?", "Are you tired?", "Do you miss me?", "Is it fun?", and he would always reply with "It's okay", "So-so", "Barely", "So annoying".
Shen He suddenly felt a lump in his throat. He wasn't good at expressing this emotion, so he could only gently pat Chen Yuchuan's back.
Chen Yuchuan hugged him tightly and said, "You must be happy every day from now on, no matter what happens or what you encounter, you must be as happy as you are today, okay?"
Shen He nodded, then gently pinched the back of his neck as if stroking his hair: "Okay, I promise you."
Chen Yuchuan then smiled.
A burst of cheers suddenly erupted from the crowd.
On the big screen, the MVP image appeared—
Monthly, 13/1/9.
Spread the line to control the enemy, deal crucial damage, and successfully steal their base!
The entire audience was chanting: "VLG! Styx!"
Shen He simply buried his head in Chen Yuchuan's shoulder, a smile playing on his lips in a way that no one could see.
He felt that their secret romance was about to be exposed amidst the glitter of the championship trophy.
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