Chapter 24
According to the program team's original plan, there were no live broadcast activities like the dormitory-style event that were scheduled for last night.
But as the topic of Leng Zhi and Lei Shen duo-queuing on the forum gradually gained popularity, the director gritted his teeth and announced that the entire directing and photography team would work overtime tonight!
To appease the employees' grievances about working overtime unexpectedly, the director generously decided to pay triple wages for the day.
The props department was furious.
Why should they get three times as much? We want it too!
director:"……"
So, at 8:30, the time agreed upon by Leng Zhi and Lei Shen, the props team, who had been working enthusiastically, successfully set up a small e-sports stage for two people in the square.
When Assistant Qin knocked on the door, Leng Zhi had just finished a ranked match.
I didn't log in last night, but my sugar daddy Mario sent me several messages on WeChat during the day.
Mario: Bro, why aren't you moving? Don't forget about me!
Mario: Let's play for a bit tonight. There are only three days left until the leaderboard is finalized this week, and we're still 4,000 points away.
To appease his benefactor, Leng Zhi rushed back to his room and logged on after finishing the afternoon's recording.
After a highly efficient three-game winning streak, the agreed time arrived.
Assistant Qin shared photos of the stage with Leng Zhi: "Mr. Leng, the director has arranged for me to take you to the square."
"Not bad, it looks pretty convincing." Leng Zhi chuckled.
The specially built stage had a great e-sports atmosphere, but the opponents were a bit lacking.
With all this fanfare, anyone who didn't know better would think the opponent was a pro—but actually, it was the first time he'd ever played against someone so bad.
Leng Zhi stood up: "Then I'm going to the square. What about Jiang Mingzhe?"
Assistant Qin was taken aback. It was indeed inappropriate for such a young child to be in a crowded and noisy place at 8:30.
Jiang Mingzhe: "I want to go! I want to go!"
Unfortunately, no one listened to Zai Zai's personal wishes. He was handed over to Assistant Qin by Leng Zhi, who said without turning his head, "Could you please watch over him for a while, Assistant Qin? I'll be right back after one game."
The door slammed shut, leaving Assistant Qin and Jiang Mingzhe staring at each other in disbelief.
Assistant Qin was suddenly entrusted with such an important task, and looking at the aggrieved Jiang Mingzhe, she was at a loss.
"How about... I play with you for a while? What did your dad play with you just now?"
Jiang Mingzhe pointed to the computer: "Play games!"
It's Di Yao again? Does Leng Zhi like Di Yao that much?
Assistant Qin looked at the screen.
The screen remained on the account's homepage, where the pay-to-win player's ID was highlighted in bold. Even though Assistant Qin wanted to respect personal privacy, he could still see it at a glance.
[ID: Mario Wants to Be Number One in the Server]
Assistant Qin: ?
If she remembered correctly, there shouldn't be another one like that in the world, with its dazzling gold color and outrageous username.
This is clearly her cousin Qin Ma's account.
How did it end up logged into Leng Zhi's computer?
She suspiciously took out her phone, took a picture, and sent it to her cousin.
[Xiao Qin: Bro, is this your number? [Image]]
[Mario: It really is true, did you run into my boosting service?]
[Xiao Qin: Game boosting?]
[Mario: Yeah, I recently wanted to get a high-ranking Xuan Ce character, so I found a cheap boosting service on the forum, and they were pretty good at it.]
Mario: If you also need a power leveling service, I can recommend you.
Mario: [Forwarding Business Card]
She clicked on it and took a look.
[The other party is now your friend: Leng Zhi.]
Assistant Qin was completely bewildered for a minute.
Huh? Game boosting? And it's pretty cheap?
Is this really a case of cold healing? The Jiang family's wealthy wife working as a black slave? This... what kind of secret of a wealthy family has she stumbled upon?!
"!?"
-
Leng Zhi arrived at the square right on time.
The live stream room was already open early, with variety show viewers and esports enthusiasts crowding together, all eagerly anticipating this duo match.
To generate buzz, a battle between the red and blue teams was held in the live stream. Currently, the blue team, represented by Lei Shen, is overwhelmingly dominating the red team, represented by Leng Zhi.
Leng Zhi calmly sat down in the gaming chair and felt the peripherals.
It's alright, but not as handy as his custom-made kit for the LSG team.
To avoid exposing customer privacy, he did not log in to Mario's account, but instead chose a secondary account that he had just registered the day before yesterday.
Lei Shen looked at the level 1 account in the same room as him and was a little speechless: "Where's your main account? I didn't realize Leng Zhi was so concerned about his image."
Presumably to showcase his abilities, he deliberately opened his account homepage and stopped at the historical small national standard, wanting his fans to appreciate it.
“This is the larger size,” Leng Zhi said calmly.
[Isn't this a bit too pretentious?]
[Is he thinking he can't win, so he's pretending to be a newbie and backing down first?]
[I found this account; its history shows no more than five games played.]
[This is outrageous! I thought it was a real duel between masters...]
"What position do you play?" Leng Zhi asked again.
Lei Shen: "I'm fine with anything. I usually play jungle, but I can also play other roles. It depends on what you want to play."
Without hesitation, Leng Zhi selected an all-around fill role in the lane pre-selection: "Let's go."
Lei Shen: "..."
He gritted his teeth inwardly. "Keep showing off, Leng Zhi. You'll regret it later."
"Simply put, should we compare kills or KDA (Kill/Average Performance)?"
"KDA, I'll definitely get more kills when I play jungle, I'll take advantage of you."
"It's okay, it's just about kills, I'll play damage-dealing too."
[Haha, Lengzhi really understands the e-sports spirit!]
I'm starting to doubt whether he really has the skills.
[Why do I feel like he's just being stubborn?]
The two players were of vastly different skill levels, so the matchmaking process was very slow; it took several minutes before we finally got to the hero selection screen.
Lei Shen didn't overestimate himself and chose the Oriental Mirror, which he was most familiar with.
This is a hero with flashy skills and a high skill ceiling; picking this hero immediately showcases the prowess of a master.
[Brother Lei is really going all out for the stars!]
I've seen him play on his stream, he's pretty good.
[I guess Leng Zhi will also choose a stronger damage-dealing hero.]
Three seconds later, Leng Zhi locked onto Daji, and the little fox's tail was gently swaying towards the Oriental Mirror next door.
Seeing the confused look in Lei Shen's eyes, Leng Zhi explained, "New account, few heroes."
[You know there aren't many heroes on new accounts! Why don't you use your main account!]
[How can Leng Zhi win against a hero as weak as Daji?]
The blue team's votes in the live stream immediately surged again, with no one optimistic about Leng Zhi's Xiao Daji.
Lei Shen was full of confidence.
Daji? A trash hero. Doesn't this easily beat him three times over?
Two minutes later.
First Blood!
[Teammate Daji has killed the enemy Gongsun Shangxiang!]
Lei Shen, who had just finished clearing out the monsters and hadn't even had a chance to unleash his full power, thought: "?"
He comforted himself, saying it was nothing, just the first kill, probably because the enemy Gongsun Shangxiang just happened to be less skilled.
Lei Shen steadied himself and steadily maneuvered Dongfang Jing to the top lane, preparing to ambush the opposing side laner, Guan Yu.
[[In-team] Daji: Stop hiding, you've been seen.]
Lei Shen frowned, and before he could even think about Leng Zhi's intentions, Guan Yu's broadsword was already slashing down in front of him.
Meanwhile, the multi-layered skill effects that lit up at the same time indicated that Guan Yu was not the only one lying in ambush here.
The opposing mid laner is there too!
Lei Shen reacted quickly, immediately activating Dongfang Jing's ultimate move to escape—but this also meant he lost this opportunity to counterattack.
Lei Shen, who had narrowly escaped, was left with only one-fifth of his health, and he had no choice but to return to town to recover.
"The opponent is a master; we can't let our guard down," he muttered to himself, still pondering—how did Leng Zhi know that the opponent had discovered him?
It's like they've been given a cheat code.
It can't be determined by sheer strength, can it?
Before Lei Shen could figure it out, the kill announcement lit up again.
[Teammate Daji has killed the enemy Gongsun Shangxiang!]
[Teammate Daji has killed the enemy Dian Wei!]
[Teammate Daji is on a killing spree!]
[It's only been four minutes, how come they've already gone on a killing spree?]
[What just happened?]
[Wow, watch the replay! That play and that awareness were amazing!]
[His guess of the opponent's location was incredibly accurate.]
[If this weren't on a TV show, I'd suspect he was cheating.]
The words "cheating" flashed by amidst the sea of comments, seemingly reminding the viewers of something.
[Wait, doesn't the ID "Leng Zhi" look familiar?]
[Does this string of automatically generated random numbers look familiar to you?]
[Holy crap, wait a minute, let me check.]
[Wait, I think I understand what he means now]
Meanwhile, a large number of viewers are flooding into the room of a small e-sports streamer.
[Is this Chang Ge's live stream room?]
[Is this the guy who was trending on Weibo for being a mysterious figure the day before yesterday?]
[Leng Zhi is live-streaming his fight, go apologize quickly, and remember you promised to do a handstand while washing your hair.]
Chang Ge was dumbfounded when he saw the comments on the screen.
After the controversy surrounding the mysterious figure on the variety show allegedly cheating blew up, he didn't dare to go live all day. Yesterday, after a guest named Lei Shen claimed the title of "mysterious person" on the variety show, there was no further follow-up. The variety show's fans unconditionally believed that Lei Shen didn't cheat, which is why Chang Ge only dared to secretly go online and stream for a short while tonight.
What do the comments mean? Has the mysterious person changed again?
Who is Leng Zhi?
Chang Ge immediately and sheepishly ended his live stream, then clicked into the variety show live stream to find out what was going on.
[My teammate's Daji is already a god!]
Upon closer inspection, Changge recognized the ID above the cheeky little Daji's head. Although it was a default-generated gibberish, he remembered it very clearly!
This is the account! This is the same Leng Zhi who mercilessly slaughtered him the other day!
"Damn it." He couldn't help but curse, clutching his head in anguish.
That's it, I'm really going to have to do a handstand while washing my hair tomorrow.
A "godlike" broadcast is a highly prestigious game record, meaning that the player's hero has killed the opposing hero seven times in a row without dying.
Lei Shen's face was now completely ashen.
His Dongfang Jing only killed three people, and died once in between.
What's even more shameful is that one of these three heads was taken by Leng Zhi's Daji, who had reduced him to a sliver of health before Leng Zhi finished him off.
He was really enjoying picking off people—provided he could ignore the soft chuckle coming through his earpiece at that moment.
Damn it, why does it feel like Leng Zhi gave him this head?
"I'm doomed to lose," Lei Shen thought in despair.
Leng Zhi was controlling Daji, the hero with the lowest win rate among all heroes and universally recognized as a useless hero, yet the entire game seemed to be a sandbox freely played by the King of Ten Thousand Foxes.
Wherever he went, it became his territory.
Unbeknownst to him, the live stream chat was already in an uproar, and his phone was being bombarded with calls from the esports brands he was working with.
[So Lei Shen was completely lying?]
[They made it seem so real; I genuinely believed he was the mysterious man.]
[Speechless, he completely deceived me with my true feelings.]
[The key point is that this is clearly Leng Zhi's account!]
I've seen thieves before, but I've never seen an internet celebrity who loves to steal.
[Hehe, change your name to Lei Tou.]
Led by Xiao Daji, our side stormed into the enemy's crystal with unstoppable momentum, and before we knew it, Xiao Daji's kill count had reached a terrifying twenty-two.
Leng Zhi racked up double and triple kills with ease, while on the other side, Lei Shen struggled to salvage seven kills.
The more pain Lei Shen was in, the more relaxed Leng Zhi became. For him, this level of intensity was just a game for fun.
When he was pushing the crystal at the end, he even had the leisure to control Little Daji to return to the city and dance for a while.
Leng Zhi glanced at the time.
It's not even nine o'clock yet, there's still time to go back and play some more on the account that my sugar daddy is boosting.
He patted Lei Shen on the shoulder: "Don't be sad, you're actually not that bad."
Seeing Lei Shen's confused look, he continued:
"I'm just too strong."
Under the watchful eye of the camera, the star that Lei Shen had barely warmed up was back in Leng Zhi's pocket.
[Thunder, hurry up and spit out the stars!]
[Can we ask this guest to leave? This is truly outrageous!]
[But Xixi is so cute! But Lei Tou is so annoying!]
After the live broadcast ended, Lei Shen returned to his room with a grim face.
"Bang--"
The loud banging on the door startled Xixi awake from her slumber.
"Dad, come back..."
Xi Xi's soft, cute voice was interrupted by Lei Shen's furious growl.
"Go back my ass, what are you looking at? Go to sleep."
Xi Xi said "Oh" and didn't dare to say anything more. She shrank back into bed and closed her eyes tightly.
He could roughly guess that his father must have lost his match against Uncle Leng, which was why he was so irritable.
If Uncle Leng loses the match, will he go back and berate Jiang Mingzhe?
He couldn't help but imagine it, but he couldn't picture Leng Zhichao getting angry at Zai Zai.
Lei Shen leaned against the wall and discovered that his phone was flooded with messages.
He first clicked on the top 99 unread messages from the agent:
[Agent: We're doomed, Brother Lei!]
[Agent: Holy crap, you've really messed up this time.]
What's going on? Is it really necessary to lose just one star?
Lei Shen continued scrolling down.
[Agent: [Forwarded link] See for yourself, it's a live stream recording. See how the comments are criticizing you.]
[Agent: I really can't think of any PR strategies right now, bro.]
[Agent: Why did you have to act so arrogantly yesterday?]
[Agent: Why don't you ask Leng Zhi if he can sell you the account? Let him name a price and see if the company can afford it...]
[Agent: The e-sports peripheral brand you endorse just called me. They want to discuss the penalty for breach of contract! They say your presence has caused the company huge losses!]
[Agent: I told you not to impersonate someone else! If it were a staff member, we could probably settle it with money, but Leng Zhi is so rich! Would he care about our paltry sums?]
...
The agent kept rambling on and on, sending the message to over 99+ views.
Lei Shen felt increasingly cold as he looked at the chat window. When he exited the chat window with his agent and saw ten missed calls from the e-sports brand, he felt like he couldn't breathe properly.
The sky has fallen.
With trembling hands, Lei Shen clicked on the live stream recording sent by his agent, but after watching for less than three minutes, he quickly exited.
Good heavens, when did these viewers start using such foul language!
Even though he's been an internet celebrity for many years and has a strong heart, he still couldn't take it.
He collapsed onto the soft blankets next to Xixi, feeling as if he had developed lividity.
"Xixi, it's over. From now on, Dad will only have you left."
XiXi: "?"
The grumpy dad is talking about something that ruins his image.
Lei Shen lay there for a while, then finally decided to accept reality and try to salvage the situation one last time. He sat up and wrote a short, emotionally charged essay, which he then sent to Leng Zhi.
In his short essay, he appealed to people's emotions and reason, fully expressing his remorse and apology, and deeply reflecting on his act of impersonating Leng Zhi.
Seeing that there was no reply for a long time, he gritted his teeth and, as a last resort, added two more sentences.
[Lei Shen: Brother Leng, could you please give me another chance? Sell me this account, or even just half of it? I mean, just say we played this account together, please, my entire professional career is in your hands.]
[Lei Shen: Name your price, or I'll owe you a huge favor, I'll do anything you want!]
However, the news sank without a trace, and Lei Shen's heart sank with it.
This message was buried at the bottom—Leng Zhi didn't have time to read his messages at all.
He's busy helping Mario score points.
Mario is actually quite right. There are still three days left until the deadline for this order, so he needs to speed things up.
Although he didn't know why, Qin Zhu looked at him evasively after he came back, as long as Jiang Mingzhe seemed to be fine.
Jiang Mingzhe: "I want to play too!"
I was ruthlessly shoved back into bed and forced to sleep.
After raising the score by another thousand points, Leng Zhi finally felt relieved and called it a day.
If we play for another day, we should have it in the bag.
According to the original book, on the third day, the production team arranged a special event. All guests were allowed to leave the village and move around freely. The only requirement was to livestream the day of the baby. The most interesting group would be selected based on online voting and awarded stars.
Ha, it's just a star.
There is absolutely no shortage.
Leng Zhi planned to head straight to the internet cafe and hand over the task of live-streaming and taking care of the kids to the housekeeper—to be on the safe side, he needed to find a reason and only go out for a morning, so as not to arouse suspicion.
-
The guests were gathered in the parking lot by a broadcast.
Apart from Leng Zhi, no one else understood why this was the gathering place today.
Lei Shen tried to shrink into the corner, hoping no one would notice him. He anxiously glanced at Leng Zhi out of the corner of his eye, but dared not speak because of the camera.
Why haven't you replied to my WeChat message yet!
Li Chi changed into a light-colored suit and said loudly, "Unbeknownst to us, it's already been three days since we arrived at the village where the production team is located. Do you miss the outside world?"
Unfortunately, the kids weren't very interested in the suspense he was playing.
Duoduo: "No! I don't have to go to school here! I like it!"
Youyou: "I don't want to either!"
Jiang Mingzhe: "Yay! Let's keep playing!"
Li Chi smiled somewhat awkwardly: "Haha, it seems I still can't guess what the kids are thinking."
"Unfortunately, the program schedule has already been finalized, so everyone can go home today!"
"go home?"
Li Chi: "That's right, today's game is to live stream Zai Zai's day! What's even more special is that there will be no camera crew involved. The guests can freely choose the camera equipment provided by the production team to show the audience Zai Zai's hilarious day."
"Of course, there will also be star rewards today. The first, second, and third place winners will receive five, three, and one star respectively, based on the results of the online voting!"
Staff provided each group of guests with their own live-streaming equipment and arranged for a driver to pick them up and drop them off.
Li Chi: "I hope our guests and children have a wonderful day!"
Like all the other guests, Leng Zhi carried Jiang Mingzhe into the van.
He told the driver, "To the Jiang family mansion."
According to the plan, Jiang Mingzhe should be handed over to the housekeeper first.
The live stream is currently being broadcast live from a fixed camera in the vehicle. Leng Zhi began fiddling with the live streaming equipment provided by the production team.
To encourage guests to use their creativity and produce various entertainment effects, the equipment here is incredibly diverse. From expensive over-the-shoulder full-frame video recorders and top-of-the-line DJI drones to compact pin-style mini cameras, you name it, they have it.
This is so troublesome.
Leng Zhi expressionlessly pulled out a mobile phone and a mini camera.
Point the phone at Jiang Mingzhe, with the camera clipped to the button of the child's overalls.
Okay, a perfect dual-camera setup, it doesn't look like you're being lazy at all.
The van drove smoothly and quickly arrived at the Jiang family mansion.
The butler had received a notification from the production team well in advance and was waiting for the lady and young master at the door.
After the production crew's car drove away, Leng Zhi hurriedly gave a few instructions, then asked for the garage key, claiming that he had an urgent matter to attend to.
The housekeeper dared not neglect his duties and took the initiative to take care of Jiang Mingzhe—as well as the mobile phone responsible for the live broadcast.
"Butler, keep up the live stream, I'll be back this afternoon." Leng Zhi ran off like the wind.
The garage is filled with luxury cars, each with its own unique characteristics, and each with its own indebted appearance.
Leng Zhi carefully selected an SUV that seemed to be relatively inexpensive—of course, the low price here is only relative to other luxury supercars.
Getting in the car, starting the engine, and starting the engine – the whole process was smooth and efficient.
Leng Zhi fastened his seatbelt and pressed the button on the car's navigation system: "Navigate to the nearest internet cafe."
A gentle, synthesized female voice began to play.
[Navigation system at your service, searching for the nearest internet cafe... Matching results include: XinXing Internet Cafe, MiFei Internet Cafe...]
"The first one."
He chose the nearest one.
[Departing now: XinXing Internet Cafe. The following is in-car music—]
The music drowned out all the rustling sounds inside the car.
So much so that Leng Zhi didn't notice at all that the back door quietly opened and closed, and a little dumpling crawled in.
The little dumpling held its breath, completely immersing itself in the darkness under the back seat.
In the darkness, Jiang Mingzhe's smug eyes were shining brightly.
Hehe, what a bad dad!
They said they were doing business, but it was clearly just a trip to have fun! And they didn't even take me with them! That's outrageous!
I've got you now!
Just like his eyes, the mini camera on his chest was also flashing.
The red light flickered gently as the camera faithfully recorded all the images and sounds that occurred, which were then streamed back to the live broadcast room via the network.
[Haha! Arrest scene for trying to trick a child!]
[How could anyone leave their child behind to sneak off to an internet cafe to play games?!]
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