Chapter 76
[Is this actually a new team?!]
[This newbie is amazing?! Let me check out the recording!]
[What? Gong Ge's new hero suffered a Waterloo?] The background music and voice-over were still playing, but to fit the character's persona, the voice actress was a gentle female voice: "...Who is it that has disturbed my long slumber?"
The scene was somewhat quiet. The ghost bride had now awakened, while Leng Zhi was in a deep sleep.
Although Leng Zhi was tricked by Jiang Mingzhe, the haunted house process still had to proceed.
Xiaoyu watched as Jiang Mingzhe climbed onto the big bed, made a fuss inside, and then jumped down, looking aggrieved, with a long skirt trailing behind him.
A meticulously made-up bride emerged from above the hem of her dress—wait! It's Uncle Leng's face!
Xixi rubbed her eyes: "Did I see Mingzhe's dad?"
Jiang Mingzhe looked at the children's nutritious meal in front of him, and his face fell again.
"I want to eat the same thing I had for lunch! I also want fried chicken and fries!"
His objections were met with only a sprig of asparagus that fell from the sky.
Today is the first day of kindergarten, and also the first day of the city competition.
September is the start of the school year for all students. College students are busy leaving their hometowns to enjoy the air of freedom, while kindergarten children are holding their parents' hands, not wanting their happy summer vacation to end.
At the kindergarten gate, there are many children who cry loudly because they don't want to go to school, making their parents wish they could just abandon their embarrassing little ones.
Jiang Mingzhe was the complete opposite of them; he loved the start of the school year!
Once school starts, he can see lots and lots of kids, just like on a variety show, and play games with them. More importantly, his score in Squirrel Fighter has now completely surpassed Mengde from the next class, and Mengde has tried to beat him three times but still couldn't.
He walked into the classroom with his head held high, switched his watch to the leaderboard, and couldn't wait to show it off to every kid he knew.
"Duoduo!" He spotted his new friend from the variety show at a glance.
Duoduo was pleasantly surprised: "You're from this kindergarten too!"
Duoduo and Youyou are not in the same grade, but the two of them are holding hands and heading to play on the slide.
"Where are Xiaoyu and Xixi?" Duoduo asked, realizing that there were still two people missing, and then the five of them would be complete.
"Silly girl," Youyou gently poked Duoduo's little mouth, "Xiaoyu is going to start elementary school this year."
Duoduo suddenly realized, but Xixi is also six years old, shouldn't she be in kindergarten too?
Didn't his father enroll him in the best kindergarten?
The children are still young and unaware of the changes in Xixi's family; they are simply missing their friend.
Jiang Mingzhe clapped his hands: "I know! He's in Class 8! Dad told me that Xixi's mom arranged for him to transfer to another kindergarten, so he'll be in the same class as me!"
Duoduo & Youyou: !!!
So the three little ones ran upstairs like butterflies, and sure enough, they saw Xixi at the window on the third floor.
However, the person next to Xixi was not the familiar Lei Shen or Lei Ling, but a strange woman.
Without hesitation, Leng Zhi precisely forked the vegetables from his plate and moved them in front of Jiang Mingzhe, also forking away a crispy fried potato ball.
Jiang Mingzhe: "My potato balls! There are only two in the whole plate!"
Leng Zhi had already stuffed it into his mouth with lightning speed, chewing it a few times: "Don't you know what you did this afternoon? You should have left none of them."
Jiang Mingzhe nervously bit the child's spoon, then silently forked the remaining potato ball and put it in his mouth.
Okay...it seems I went a bit too far this afternoon.
"It's not that bad, is it?" He said in a voice so soft it was like a mosquito's buzz.
After the haunted house event ended in the afternoon, his "behavior" as Black and White Impermanence was immediately reported to Leng Zhi. Upon hearing this, Leng Zhi immediately took Jiang Mingzhe to the actor who played Black and White Impermanence behind the scenes and demanded an apology from Jiang Mingzhe.
Jiang Mingzhe could only recall the grand lunch, chewing on the most fragrant buttered potato ball on the plate.
Waaah, I'll never do it again.
The system's kill notification lit up on all players' screens.
Zou Shu: "..." Press the green answer button, and a small figure flashes on the screen.
Leng Zhi had somehow found a mini camera and hung it around his neck, but the red light wasn't even on, making it seem like he was trying to cover something up.
Looking at the silent boss across from him, Leng Zhi felt a little nervous.
His plan was to never mention whether or not it was being broadcast live, and to wear a video camera around his neck so that Jiang Yijing would understand—if President Jiang didn't watch the live broadcast, then he had successfully fooled him; if he did watch it, then he would say it was a special accessory given to him by the production team.
Hmm...it's really unique, not fake at all!
Jiang Yijing saw right through his little scheme. He raised his lips but didn't say anything, quietly observing Leng Zhi's performance.
Leng Zhi tried to recapture the feeling of being a loving couple from yesterday, and said, "Darling, do you know where we went today?"
Without yesterday's crimson wedding attire, his acting today seemed somewhat immature.
Jiang Yijing: "Is it the zoo?"
Leng Zhi feigned surprise: "You still remember? I never imagined that this zoo also had shares in your family... our family."
"Yes, it's something from my father's generation."
There are 26 letters on the keyboard, and team names consisting of two or three letters are the most common. After permutations and combinations, there are thousands of choices. Such complete overlap of team names is hard not to make people's hearts skip a beat.
He scrolled to the bottom of the article, and in the comments section, some enthusiastic netizens had already found the team's investors.
They said he was a rich second-generation heir in his early twenties.
Yu Fu, the third son of the Yu family.
The duplex was bustling with activity; everyone was very interested in the script.
The children didn't quite understand the situation, but their emotions were easily conveyed to each other, and it was clear that Xixi had been hurt by this bad uncle!
Although her clueless friends offered no real comfort, Xixi still sniffled with emotion.
He shook his head: "These are your stars, I don't want them."
“But you look so sad,” Xiaoyu said.
Jiang Mingzhe: "Yes, you'll be even happier if I give you a star!"
Duoduo & Youyou: "Take it!"
The barrage of insults directed at Lei Ling stopped—the scum can wait, but the adorable moments of the kids are not to be missed.
After listening to her friends' words, Xixi gradually stopped crying.
Li Chi was a little dumbfounded when he saw the stars being piled up for Xixi as if they were free.
Wait a minute! We haven't even started counting the stars yet! How did they get piled up all messy like this?! How can we tell which one belongs to which one?!
"Are you sure you want to do this? These are stars you worked so hard to earn," he couldn't help but remind them.
The four kids, who didn't take stars seriously, nodded in unison: "Of course!"
Only Xixi shook her head repeatedly: "No, no, I won't cry anymore, thank you."
Li Chi smiled, his eyes narrowing: "Since Xixi doesn't accept it, let's take the stars back!"
However, Jiang Mingzhe scratched his head and chuckled, "Hehe, I forgot how many I took."
The other three kids: "Me too!"
Li Chi: "..."
Leng Zhi chuckled softly.
It's not that they don't remember—Jiang Mingzhe doesn't like to pretend in front of the camera, but he secretly counts the stars before going to sleep. How could he not cherish the stars?
They cherish Xixi.
He crouched down, gently ruffled Jiang Mingzhe's hair, and, going along with the child's wishes, asked, "What should we do then?"
Jiang Mingzhe turned his head and, after receiving an approving look from his "bad dad," nodded: "We can't tell them apart, so we'll share the stars with Xixi!"
The other children raised their hands: "Yes!"
Jiang Mingzhe murmured again, and Leng Zhi couldn't help but feel a little nervous: "He keeps calling me President Jiang, what does that mean?"
Butler: "Young Master...every time he catches a cold or fever, it's President Jiang who's with him. It's become his habit. He feels uneasy if President Jiang isn't around. Mr. Leng, you can report the specific situation to President Jiang. He usually comes back to be with the child."
Leng Zhi hung up the phone with the housekeeper.
Jiang Mingzhe was still muttering about Jiang Yijing, while Leng Zhi, recalling his confident assurance on the phone last night that "there's absolutely no problem," felt a wave of dizziness wash over him. He didn't have time to think further; he decided to ignore all that and focus on contacting Jiang Yijing as soon as possible.
He dialed in a hurry and didn't notice that there was an unread message from Zou Shu on WeChat:
Damn, how could this happen? Old Qi was already examining the giraffe's wounds.
Mingming gently rested its long neck on the platform, letting the zookeeper stroke its fur, its wet eyes as gentle as water.
It didn't understand what hit it, nor did it know where the stone came from. All it knew was that the hands in front of it belonged to Old Qi, who had been with it for over a decade—someone it could trust.
Old Qi was heartbroken. He parted the fur on the deer's face, examined the skin, and tested Mingming's eyesight before he could finally relax.
The five children had gathered around at some point, and when they saw Old Qi release Mingming, they asked in unison, "What happened to Mingming?"
Old Qi took off his gloves: "It's nothing, it didn't hit his eyeball, just a small scratch on his face. I'll have the vet disinfect it later. Mingming is very resilient, such a small cut will heal quickly."
Just to be on the safe side, he also contacted the park's veterinarians, hoping they would remember to do another check during their patrols.
The children were relieved and couldn't help but stuff more leaves into Mingming's bowl until the guest stopped them: "Take a look at the other ones too."
He snorted in dissatisfaction from afar, making the children burst into laughter.
"After we've laid out the remaining leaves, we'll head to the red panda enclosure. Let's go, we still have a lot of work to do." Old Qi himself didn't realize that he had become much gentler towards the guests.
Behind me came the sound of the cubs having a lively discussion.
"Yay! It's a red panda!"
"Brother Xiaoyu, what is a red panda?"
"They're incredibly cute little animals, you'll see when you see them!"
"So what are we going to do next?"
Old Qi smiled and replied with two words: "Scooping poop."
My little ones: !!!
It's not hard to understand, since the audience was randomly selected without prior screening, and nobody knew what kind of information they would post on the public screen.
If someone spreads harmful information related to pornography, gambling, and drugs here, wouldn't the production team have to pay for it?
Gongsun Shangxiang stood there, stunned, for a long time without moving.
Zou Shu hadn't expected that such a mechanism would hinder his perfect plan. He took a deep breath, regained his composure, and continued to focus on the game.
There's still a chance; if you can win the MVP award for this round, the production team promises a "mystery gift." These kinds of gifts on celebrity variety shows are usually closely related to the guests.
On the other side, Assistant Qin stared at the text on the game monitoring screen, still unsure of what to do.
The monitor she was in charge of today was the one that monitored the audience's perspective. Her job was to select valuable clips and provide feedback to the director who was responsible for editing the final film.
She prefers sitting in front of the monitor doing these tedious jobs to being a nanny for celebrities, because it makes her feel more like a director than a junior assistant.
“Zou…Shu?” She murmured the name, immediately recalling her senior’s request.
"Your brother Zou Shu...?" Qin Xuemei read through the message Zou Shu sent, and the more she read it, the more she felt something was wrong.
Oh no, there really is a suspicious person approaching the president's wife.
She immediately pulled up the audience's real-name information—this was what the program team required the audience to provide after the selection process.
Now she was even more confused.
This is a half-grown child who has just come of age, barely an adult, and doesn't fit the image of "Brother Zou Shu" at all.
What's even stranger is that the real-name information shows the name as Zou Lin.
Qin Xuemei rubbed her chin, her gossipy little head immediately starting to deduce.
Are they brothers? And the senior's evasive attitude towards this "suspicious person" is also very suspicious!
My God, could this be?! Two brothers are both pursuing the president's wife of the Jiang Group!
She instinctively covered her mouth and looked around at her colleagues. Fortunately, no one noticed the problem.
She quickly and secretly raised her phone, snapped a picture of Zou Shu's message on the public screen, and sent it to Secretary Li.
Xiao Yu nodded and said to his uncle, "As expected of Uncle Leng, he got the first kill again!"
Zou Lin was also browsing neutral creatures: "The pros are just different. I haven't even come out of seclusion yet."
Only Yue Xinzhou, watching his own resurrection countdown, slammed his fist on the table in anger: "Damn it! How could he be so wicked, launching a sneak attack? He wants both the pig and my life!"
Leng Zhi rubbed Jiang Mingzhe's head: "Good job! Let's keep stealing."
Jiang Mingzhe was initially a little uneasy about Leng Zhi's strategic deployment. He had been taught since childhood to be upright and honest, and even in a game, he was still a little unaccustomed to it.
But getting kills is so satisfying!
Jiang Mingzhe's eyes sparkled: "Continue!"
Why should playing video games be aboveboard! Winning is all that matters!
Leng Zhi's hero selection was indeed correct. Although Zai Zai was a bit wobbly when choosing the direction of travel, as long as he mastered the timing of skill release and the hero's development rhythm, there were no problems overall.
"We'll continue like this. When we see someone alone, we'll ambush them and use our skills to kill them."
"good!!!"
In the center of the map, Jiang Mingzhe's fox encountered a second Gongsun Shangxiang.
Unlike the blue-themed Gongsun Shangxiang from Hele New Ark, this Gongsun Shangxiang is designed with green all around, giving her an elegant and refreshing look.
This was clearly a hero played by a lucky viewer.
Zou Lin's understanding of the chaotic battle mode is very superficial. He follows the principle of attacking anyone he sees, and so far, he has one win and two losses.
"As long as I fight enough fights, I'll definitely become the one with the most kills!" He confidently announced his "strategy" to the three audience members next to him.
He didn't realize that, regardless of the game mode, acquiring enough gold and experience to create an equipment advantage is the key to winning the game.
Just as he was feeling remorse, two more potato balls suddenly rolled onto the plate in front of him.
The other guests basically continued with the choices they made in the training stages, except for Lei Ling, who switched from the Sharpshooter to a hero with a completely different style, the Machine Gun Rider.
Since Xixi couldn't coordinate with him to achieve a normal basic attack rhythm, he chose the machine gunner with a fast rate of fire and high movement speed—as long as the basic attack ended quickly enough, Xixi wouldn't interrupt his attack rhythm with her walking pace.
The map has a very small field of view, only allowing you to see about half the size of your surroundings. So in the early stages of the game, the entire map is like a dark forest, with no battles breaking out. Everyone is cautiously approaching neutral creatures, hoping to level up and become stronger before engaging in combat.
Since it was a formal match, the kids didn't cause any trouble; even Duoduo was focused on pressing the screen.
Le Xinzhou was enjoying this scene of fatherly love and filial piety: "Duoduo, come on, let's go fight this little wild boar over there. If we take it down, we'll become even stronger!"
Duoduo: "I don't want to fight this, he doesn't even fight back, I want to fight!"
To appease his daughter, Le Xinzhou said something that was half true and half false: "If we destroy this, we'll have money to buy bigger and better guns and cannons, and we can send everyone else packing back to their hometowns in no time!"
Duoduo immediately became interested: "Okay!" She pressed the little wild boar on the screen and controlled her character to walk next to the little wild boar.
The wild boar was tough and thick-skinned; after several rounds of attacks, its health bar was finally depleted.
Suddenly, a string of pink heart-shaped effects appeared in the grass, and the little wild boar collapsed with a thud.
Duo Duo's eyes widened: "Where's the little wild boar! Why haven't my gold coins increased?!"
On the other hand, Meng Cheng agreed with Brother Luo's idea.
"It's alright, this is about the standard level for city tournaments. We really can't get any strong teams to play against right now."
Yu Fu nodded vigorously: "I also gave them an extra sponsorship; this is the last bit of my savings!"
Zou Shu scratched his head anxiously: "That's all easy to solve, but the captain is suddenly absent today, who will play support?"
As he was talking, a friend request popped up on his phone.
"No, it's the WRC! The quarterfinals last year!" he exclaimed anxiously.
Luo Hongshuo realized what was happening: "Are you a professional player? Isn't it inappropriate to poach our marksman right in front of us?"
Gu Zuo suddenly realized: "You guys are a team?"
He then realized that this was not an ordinary custom room, but a training match for a small team.
“Then he should cherish this opportunity even more. Coming here means he can play in matches right away. Rather than staying with a team that doesn’t even come to practice matches and has to find a substitute at the last minute, he should look for a better opportunity,” Gu Zuo said.
She probably didn't expect that CEO Jiang stayed near the group's headquarters almost every night and rarely came back.
Jiang Wenzhuo is a very witty old lady. She stopped dwelling on these details and steered the conversation toward recent interesting anecdotes.
“I heard from my subordinates that you two were on a variety show and are quite popular online.”
As she spoke, she gestured to the housekeeper to turn on the large TV in the living room: "Since I'm here today, you should have participated in the recording yourselves, so you probably haven't seen it yet."
When Leng Zhi heard her say "Let's watch together," his palms involuntarily became a little sweaty.
This old lady is way too trendy. He appreciates her desire to fit in with young people, but he certainly wouldn't dare show her the finished product.
There are indeed many heartwarming moments in variety shows, but there are even more hilarious moments that netizens love to talk about—such as the pervert in the instant noodle cafeteria, or the cross-dressing in the haunted house episode.
Jiang Wenzhuo didn't know much about e-sports, but she could vaguely sense that Leng Zhi wasn't just "playing games" in a normal way, but rather like he was working.
His calm tactical analysis and composed command were completely different from the somewhat effeminate boy she remembered.
Jiang Wenzhuo didn't disturb Leng Zhi, but returned to his guest room and sent Jiang Yijing a voice message:
Jiang Wenzhuo was an open-minded old lady. After sending this long voice message, she strolled contentedly to Jiang Mingzhe's room—Leng Zhi was busy first, so she came to play with little Mingzhe for a while.
Jiang Yijing stared into thought as he looked at the long string of messages his grandmother had sent.
Experts... their own career?
Le Xinzhou was stunned.
Holy crap, someone's stealing someone else's wild boar!
In the nearby bushes, the fox's tail flashed again, and Daji's hero model suddenly zoomed in. The next instant, Le Xinzhou and Duoduo's screens went gray.
Youyou was thinking to herself, five kids and five parents, it would be perfect to organize a 5v5 free-for-all!
She absolutely had to team up with Uncle Leng and cling tightly to the expert uncle's coattails!
As for her mother, who doesn't know how to play games at all—Youyou secretly glanced at her mother and quietly wished that she wouldn't be assigned to the same group as her mother.
Not only does her mother not know how to use it, but she also confiscates the phone her mother bought for playing games!
Before starting the game, Li Chi read a long advertisement for the game, which made the cubs, who had just finished eating, drowsy.
Then, he began to explain the game rules for tonight, and the kids finally stood up straight: "Next, we will announce the special game rules for tonight. Thank you again to the Diyao team for their strong support of the game!"
"The rules of the game are very simple, and it's okay even if you've never played a game before. Let's start by asking if any of you can play the piano?"
Lei Ling immediately raised Xixi's chubby little hand: "He can! Come on, Xixi, show everyone!"
Youyou also raised her hand: "I can too."
This was a rare opportunity for Lei Ling to praise Xi Xi after a busy day, so he continued, "Xi Xi plays so many instruments, including the violin and the blues harmonica..."
Shaoqi glanced at him: "It's not like you taught me."
She didn't say the second half of her sentence; Lei Shen was a name that everyone hated, and she didn't want to mention it.
Lei Ling was a little embarrassed, but that didn't stop him from boasting. He took all the credit from Lei Shen: "I guess you could say I did some of the work. I was the one who contacted many of Xixi's teachers and also picked her up and dropped her off..."
"How many classes did you enroll Xixi in?"
Leng Zhi interrupted Lei Ling's attempt to take credit.
“Hey, this kid is talented. He keeps asking to learn this and that, and we can’t stop him.” Lei Ling had already prepared an answer to this question, which he had learned by cramming with his cousin.
Leng Zhi calmly explained, "Since you know they aren't real ghosts, but staff members, you shouldn't do the opposite."
Jiang Mingzhe said, feeling a little aggrieved, "But they also came to scare us!"
"Were you mentally prepared before entering the haunted house? Were you really scared?"
With a livid face, Leng Zhi stood up and, following the director's instructions over the earpiece, guided the children to the table to offer incense: "To save me, you need to resolve the wishes I left behind in the human world..."
His lines were interrupted by Duoduo: "Uncle Leng, why are you wearing a bride's dress?"
Duo Duo's question opened the floodgates of doubt for the other children.
"Uncle Leng, are you going to be the bride?"
"You're playing a role, right? But why the role of the bride?"
"Uncle, you look great in this outfit!"
Leng Zhi was submerged.
He could only patiently answer the curious children's questions first.
"I won't be a bride."
"Because I just happened to draw it; this was originally supposed to be your dad's role."
"Thank you, no need to flatter me."
[A deceptive sidelane support build? Hahaha, you can actually play like that?]
[If I invest now, would I be considered a die-hard shareholder?]
[Caller: Dad, should I answer?]
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