Chapter 61 The job of a female e-sports host...
The job of a female e-sports host, if you rely solely on your main job income, is actually not very lucrative.
This is an industry that cannot do without "image investment": clothing and accessories, whether purchased or rented, are a considerable expense; skin care and cosmetics are also a significant expense in order to maintain an on-screen appearance; body management also requires investment, and gym memberships and personal training sessions have almost become standard for hosts.
In addition, the hosting industry is highly competitive, and many people have to take private classes to improve their skills, either by learning new talents to enrich their stage performance or by improving their foreign language skills to expand their future career prospects.
Although Zhao Zhinian's English is currently sufficient, she is planning to learn another minor language once her career becomes more stable, since Japanese and Korean players are quite common on the international stage of many games.
Another major expense is accommodation. The most developed cities for the esports industry in China are Beijing and Shanghai, where most industry professionals are concentrated. In these two cities, finding affordable and convenient accommodation is quite expensive.
In this respect, Zhao Zhinian saved a considerable amount of money: in Shanghai, as a local, she could stay at home; in Beijing, she could stay in the dormitory provided by the Yizhan team. The dormitory conditions were excellent, her teammates got along well, there was a canteen to eat in, and the boss, Lou Guanning, was extremely generous. In addition, her father was always concerned about her entering the workforce and worried that she would be under too much financial pressure, so he always provided her with ample financial support.
Therefore, although Zhao Zhinian lived in the Yizhan dormitory, she had no financial burden and could even be said to have lived a very comfortable and carefree life.
Therefore, when the director began by saying, "You're a young girl living alone in Beijing, all alone in the dormitory, without even a space of your own," and earnestly tried to persuade her, Zhao Zhinian was actually a little confused: Was she... really that miserable?
After some subtle probing from the director, Zhao Zhinian finally distilled the core of the conversation: the job of an e-sports host is more like a starting point for providing exposure and building a platform for self-expression; what truly brings her considerable income are commercial activities, endorsements, or live streaming.
When Zhao Zhinian first entered the industry, it was already difficult enough to work without losing money, so naturally there weren't many opportunities to earn extra income. But now, with her rising popularity, more and more opportunities are coming her way.
The director's purpose in this conversation was to persuade her to comply with the company's arrangements and sign a live-streaming contract. The platform recommended by the company was naturally the one with which they had the closest working relationship, and the director promised to secure a lucrative contract for her.
The platform planned a clear content direction for her live streaming debut: focusing on the glory of the live stream, interspersed with sharing interesting anecdotes from behind the scenes of the contestants or the hosts.
Once the premiere date was confirmed, she posted on Weibo using the text and link provided by the platform. The comment section quickly flooded with messages, including many from professional players of Honor of Kings and StarCraft.
The players in these two esports games have completely different attitudes toward live streaming.
Most StarCraft players have clear streaming contracts, and some can even work year-round without a break. Even if there is a match on the day, they will still stream in the evening to make up for the time and earn some gifts.
Honor of Kings players are generally reluctant to do personal live streams unless required by the league, team, or commercial activities. Honor of Kings' training system and management style are more rigorous, with everything centered on training and results.
For strong teams aiming for the championship, activities like live streaming that don't directly improve their skills seem "not worth the effort" and are considered a waste of time; they would rather spend that time practicing tactics. On the other hand, weaker teams, even if their players are willing to stream to earn some money, often struggle to attract enough attention and buzz.
This is why Zhao Zhinian was able to secure a lucrative livestreaming contract. In the Honor of Kings industry, the livestreaming market targeting professional players has long been untapped, truly a "blue ocean."
The platform values not only the topicality generated by her relationship with Zhou Zekai, but also the unique resources she has accumulated as the host of both Yi Zhan and Tiny Herb teams.
In her past behind-the-scenes vlogs, whenever she mentioned the players' daily anecdotes, the data performance was quite impressive. The platform believes that even just casually sharing some behind-the-scenes stories of the players is enough to attract a large audience. Although the Yi Zhan team has average traffic, Tiny Herb, as a former champion team, undoubtedly has a "gold mine" of attention and fan base worth cultivating.
Although Zhao Zhinian had mentioned the live broadcast arrangements to Zhou Zekai beforehand, she didn't really want him to come.
The thought that he might be watching on the other side of the screen filled her with an inexplicable, subtle awkwardness. But Zhou Zekai was adamant about it—this was her first live stream, and he couldn't possibly miss it. He even offered to send her gifts and compete for the top spot on the leaderboard, citing a casual conversation he overheard from a teammate: apparently, some of the top-ranked viewers in live streams can make "special requests."
He absolutely refused to give up this position to anyone else.
Zhao Zhinian naturally refused firmly. Although Lou Guanning and the others had said they would come to support her and help increase her popularity, she regarded it as a favor and would silently remember it and return it later when they started broadcasting or on other occasions.
But if Zhou Zekai gave her gifts, she only had one thought in her mind: I'm losing out!
After all, the platform takes half of the money spent on virtual gifts. He could simply transfer the money to her directly; why let the platform collect this "transfer fee" for nothing?
Although this idea was inappropriate, Zhao Zhinian did find that she seemed to have a bit of a possessive desire for Zhou Zekai's money.
In addition, Zhou Zekai was already busy with training, so Zhao Zhinian advised him not to make a special appearance: "If you show up, the whole atmosphere in the live stream will definitely change. Everyone will only talk about our relationship. Won't that affect my live stream? If the chat is full of your name, how can I stream?"
Zhou Zekai was quite "obedient" that day. He only took a few quick glances at Zhao Zhinian's live stream during a break from training, and he did so very carefully without logging into his account.
Zhao Zhinian chose Yizhan's office as the location for her live stream. Lin Shuang had prepared the camera, headphones, and microphone for her in advance. The Yizhan players had all streamed on this computer before, so Lin Shuang was quite familiar with the process.
Zhao Zhinian's live stream content was actually quite bland: after all, her Honor of Kings skill level could only be considered "acceptable." While she could talk fluently about theoretical knowledge and even instantly devise a combo in her mind, her fingers often couldn't keep up with her thoughts when actually playing. What's more, her account wasn't even at the maximum level yet.
Compared to professional players, Zhao Zhinian's popularity is naturally not as high. Although she has her own loyal fan base, it is not yet very large.
The live stream was bustling with activity, largely due to the diverse expectations of the viewers: there were fans of Zhou Zekai and the couple's CP fans, holding their breath and waiting for the possible appearance of the player; there were fans of the Yi Zhan and Tiny Herb teams, attracted by the platform's promotion of "behind-the-scenes stories of the players," while also secretly hoping that their favorite players, who hadn't streamed in years, would make an unprecedented appearance and send a gift, giving them an opportunity to interact and even "urge" for more content; and of course, there were also fans of StarCraft, silently watching to see if their favorite players would come to "visit."
Zhao Zhinian's close colleagues naturally offered their full support. Company colleagues, familiar e-sports hosts and commentators, the entire Yizhan team, and Tiny Herb's Gao Yingjie, Yuan Baiqing, and others all showed up, creating a lively atmosphere in the live stream with their gifts.
The most amusing incident was Chu Yunxiu's brief appearance. The team captain of the Misty Rain team generously gifted some virtual items, only to be immediately spotted by her own eagle-eyed fans. The chat was instantly flooded with comments like, "Captain Chu, what happened to your promised live stream?!" This was all because a year ago, she had casually mentioned during a team event that she would "consider a live stream," a comment her fans still remembered. Chu Yunxiu clearly knew how to "play dead"—after sending the gifts, she quickly left the live stream as if nothing had happened, leaving her fans wailing in despair.
Subsequently, several players from the StarCraft team who were familiar with Zhao Zhinian also came to "build a team".
Lu Yuxing, the leader, is quite popular among the StarCraft Conquest players. In addition, he has a friendly personality and was one of the first players Zhao Zhinian became familiar with.
He had previously been a guest on Zhao Zhinian's personal vlog program, "Nian Nian You Ci" (念念有词). That episode was released at the height of the gossip surrounding Zhao and Zhou. Since Yi Zhan rarely streams, and Lu Yuxing has always considered himself Zhao Zhinian's "younger brother," many netizens regard him as one of their "family members" and often visit his live stream to inquire about news, which has brought him a lot of extra exposure.
Therefore, Lu Yuxing specifically sought Zhao Zhinian's opinion beforehand, fearing that he might say the wrong thing and affect her career or the rhythm of their relationship. Zhao Zhinian, on the contrary, felt that she was the one causing trouble for him, and just smiled and told him to "play dumb." With Lu Yuxing's emotional intelligence and live streaming experience, he was always adept at handling these kinds of topics.
At this moment, Lu Yuxing was sending gifts while interacting with Zhao Zhinian on the public screen: "Sis, am I the best younger brother in your interstellar journey?"
This was naturally his good intention: a streamer doing a live broadcast for the first time is bound to feel awkward facing the camera and the chat alone. Having a familiar and popular streamer like him stirring up conversation in the chat would not only relieve Zhao Zhinian's pressure but also liven up the atmosphere and attract more viewers.
This can also be seen as a heartwarming return gift from him for previously "riding" on the popularity of the two's CP.
Zhao Zhinian understood his good intentions and was happy to cooperate. She deliberately dragged out her words and gave a sly smile in front of the camera: "Usually you're number one, but today... well, it depends on the gift list."
Upon hearing this, Lu Yuxing didn't hesitate and immediately showered the top spot on the gift list with several of the most expensive items, firmly securing his position as the number one spender. The live chat was instantly flooded with humorous comments like "Little brother Yuxing has been tricked!" and "A true story of sister Zhinian swindling her little brother out of his money!"
Before the excitement had even died down, the DG team members came over for a "team building" event. They had become acquainted with Zhao Zhinian during the World Championship, and they all showed up, each presenting a symbolic gift to show their support.
When Yang Chen's name appeared in the VIP section, the atmosphere in the live stream instantly reached another peak. As the core player of last year's World Championship runner-up team, Yang Chen's popularity was already high, and his appearance at this moment undoubtedly brought him even more prestige.
What's more subtle is that many people still remember that during the World Championship, the official StarCraft team subtly guided his interactions with Zhao Zhinian, which sparked much speculation among viewers. However, Zhou Zekai's unexpected appearance and DG's eventual loss of the championship caused that ambiguous "marketing" to fade away quietly.
Yang Chen's original intention was just to send a gift to show his support and leave. However, seeing that her newly secured "number one" position was threatened, Lu Yuxing almost reflexively sent another round of gifts.
This sudden "counterattack," to the unsuspecting Yang Chen, appeared to be a group of friends in the industry giving Zhao Zhinian's live stream a massive boost. So, he "kindly" joined in, sending virtual gifts. Gift effects began to explode on the screen one after another…
An unexpected "gift relay race" thus began inexplicably.
The live stream was gaining popularity, but Zhao Zhinian's embarrassment was spreading.
Although the director had painted a rosy picture of the revenue potential from live streaming, she herself had little interest in it. More than anything, she was simply following company instructions and wanted to meet her monthly streaming quota. She never encouraged, and even intentionally guided, fans against sending expensive gifts, as many esports viewers were students, and she felt such spending was inappropriate. She could accept free gifts or small tokens of appreciation from fans, and even planned to give back to them with prizes in the future.
But the high-value gifts that the contestants send are a different matter.
This is similar to a "gift money" payment, a favor that needs to be repaid sooner or later. Therefore, she had already told Yi Zhan and Tiny Herb, who were her close friends, "Don't spend too much, just a token amount is fine, the platform will take half of it."
The sudden, "excited" exchange of gifts between Lu Yuxing and Yang Chen should have been a lively and exciting event in the live stream, but Zhao Zhinian's mind was preoccupied with only one thought: with this exchange, the platform would make a profit, but the pressure of repaying the favor later would double.
What's more subtle is that Yang Chen's appearance was like a pebble thrown into a calm lake, instantly creating ripples and bringing out many long-dormant fans of past couple pairings.
Of course, there was no shortage of people in the live chat who enjoyed watching the drama unfold. At this moment, they were "earnestly" "advising" him: "Stop spamming, bro. She already has another man in her heart."
Naturally, a large number of people on Weibo, eager for a good show, went to tag or send private messages to Zhou Zekai. However, throughout the entire live stream, the figure that everyone was looking forward to never appeared, leaving the onlookers who were waiting for the "official wife to arrive" drama quite disappointed.
For her first live stream, Zhao Zhinian only streamed for an hour and a half before preparing to end the broadcast. As the process drew to a close, she put on a professional smile and began to say goodbye gently.
Just two minutes before the end, a system notification suddenly popped up at the top of the live stream—Zhou Zekai had entered the live stream.
He didn't speak or interact; he simply started sending gifts in silence and with an almost resolute speed.
Spectacular special effects exploded one after another, almost flooding the entire screen. His ranking on the list soared like a rocket, almost without stopping, and instantly crushed his way to the top of the list.
Zhou Zekai did not appear in person during the entire live stream, only suddenly appearing at the very last moment before everything was about to end, announcing his existence in the most direct and expensive way, and then quietly going offline as before the gift effects had completely dissipated.
Zhao Zhinian stared blankly at the camera suddenly flooded with gifts for a second before quickly adjusting her expression and hurriedly saying a slightly awkward "Thank you, Captain Zhou," before almost frantically ending the live stream.
The screen suddenly went black, leaving behind a group of viewers who were stunned by the "grand finale" and had not yet recovered from the shock.
After the broadcast ended, Zhao Zhinian went to "question" Zhou Zekai: "Didn't I tell you not to send gifts?"
“It didn’t affect the live stream.” Zhou Zekai’s explanation was brief and direct, and he added a self-evaluation at the end: “I’m very obedient.”
“I only came when you were about to end your broadcast.” He quickly added another comment, as if presenting irrefutable evidence.
Zhao Zhinian looked at the screen, both annoyed and amused: "Is affecting the live stream the main issue? Do you know how much money we're wasting?"
There was silence on the other end for a few seconds, and finally only one line of text appeared: "You said you and the number one on the leaderboard are a couple."
Zhao Zhinian was taken aback, then laughed: "I thought you didn't come, so you 'sneaked in' and listened to the whole thing." She deliberately highlighted the words "sneaked in." "That was a joke Lu Yuxing made to warm up the atmosphere for me. She meant well, and I'll definitely find a way to pay her back later. But all that real money you spent... the platform takes half of it, isn't that a huge loss?"
"It's worth it."
"Um?"
"I'm buying myself a title."
"Recognition?" Zhao Zhinian blinked at the two words, momentarily unable to keep up with his leap of thought.
Then Zhou Zekai sent a screenshot. His Weibo comment section was already bustling with activity, with many netizens making jokes under his latest Weibo post.
"Captain Zhou, Sister Nian said she wants to date the number one on the leaderboard, can you really stand for that?"
"The Empress's position is in danger!"
"Yang Chen is sending gifts! Where are you?"
Some people even tagged him directly, posing the probing question: "Is it appropriate to give up the top spot on the leaderboard to another man?"
As Zhao Zhinian watched the well-intentioned teasing and jokes, the annoyance she felt for his "wasteful spending" gradually turned into a helpless sweetness.
This person had been quietly monitoring public opinion. She replied, "Don't be so wasteful next time, just transfer the money directly." After thinking for a moment, she added with a probing and joking tone, "A title? I can give you that!"
"Is it really okay?" This time, he answered faster than ever before.
"Not for now." She explained patiently, choosing her words carefully: "Brother Kai, look, as soon as you appeared, no one in the live stream cared about what I was saying, they were all watching you. If I hadn't immediately ended the stream, the chat would have exploded, the speed at which the chat was flooded was terrifying. It's all your fault... your popularity is too high."
After the message was sent, the "typing..." message at the top of the chat box remained on and off for a long time, eventually settling into a single, dejected "Oh."
A few seconds later, he added, "I can wait."
The word "wait" was followed by a pitiful penguin emoji, which is the most classic one in the series of emojis made by his fans. The round penguin droops its head and its eyes are red, looking very pitiful.
"Don't feel wronged," she softened her voice, comforting him. "I've already given you the title, it's just that the official announcement... needs a more suitable time, okay?"
After a pause, she added earnestly, "Moreover, compared to the top spot in the live stream that anyone can compete for, I prefer the one and only in real life."
Is it me?
Zhao Zhinian's lips curled up uncontrollably, a mischievous thought quietly rising within her. She deliberately typed two words slowly: "No."
Click to send.
"..."
The world seemed to fall silent for a moment.
Jokes are fine, but you have to quickly offer a way out yourself – this is a rule she recently learned for getting along with her partner.
Zhao Zhinian's fingers left afterimages as she typed on the screen, and three messages popped up in quick succession: "It's you! It's you! Of course it's you!"
She felt it wasn't enough after sending it; nothing beats the direct impact of visuals in words. She quickly opened her favorites and found the "soothing emoji" she had prepared especially for him.
It was made by fans using his chibi-style image: In the picture, the always calm-looking Gun King raises his gun, but instead of pointing it at the enemy, he fires a huge, pink heart that is bigger than himself with a "bang".
A heart-shaped animation exploded in the chat box, creating a stunning effect. Zhou Zekai replied, "I forgive you."
However, he was secretly planning that next time they met... he would have to let Zhao Zhinian know that speaking carelessly would come at a "price".
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