CH 15

For Xie Yao, any information related to praise is worth his attention, let alone when it involves the first World Championship seven years ago. Its significance is extraordinary.

Xie Yao was almost trembling with excitement and reluctantly refused despite feeling heartbroken.

Gad: The trophy is too precious… Boss, you don’t have to spend so much money.

Jiang Song’s value in KPL goes without saying, and with such a significant item related to him, the price is exorbitant. Even if it’s expensive, there are enthusiastic fans willing to buy it.

Although Xie Yao was extremely tempted, he couldn’t bring himself to say the words “I want it.”

Although his relationship with the boss has improved slightly, in fact, they don’t even know each other’s names. For such a precious item, it’s not appropriate to accept it just like that.

He didn’t even ask where the trophy came from, which is something that almost no player would sell. Their relationship is only that of netizens, so it would be presumptuous to ask.

Of course, Jiang Song, who didn’t expect Xie Yao to refuse, also found it amusing that this kid was a bit awkward.

He immediately understood Xie Yao’s concerns, but while understanding is one thing, being rejected after offering a gift to a fan still made him feel embarrassed.

In the end, Jiang Song didn’t make things difficult for Xie Yao and just accepted his refusal.

Both of them acted as if nothing had happened, said goodnight to each other, and went to sleep.

It often rains in C city in June. Yesterday was sunny, but when the wind started blowing in the middle of the night, there was heavy rain outside Xie Yao’s window when he woke up in the morning.

A man wearing a suit and leather shoes came downstairs. His hair was neatly combed, and although his appearance was not outstanding, his dress and demeanor were completely different from the elderly people gathering in the small community around him.

The man stood downstairs making a phone call while holding an umbrella. After confirming the address on the other end of the phone multiple times, he hesitantly walked upstairs.

In the end, he stopped at the door of Xie Yao’s rented room and politely knocked three times.

The small rented room was not soundproof, and one could hear the sound of chairs moving and footsteps gradually approaching the door from outside.

With the homeowner not speaking and showing no sign of inviting him in, the man in the suit was very tactful and said, “Excuse me, are you Mr. Xie Yao?”

Xie Yao realized what the man was here for when he saw him and nodded in agreement.

The man continued, “Mr. Xie, I’m a staff member from the C Auction House. Last week, you won a pocket watch at our auction online, and the auction house promised to deliver it to you today.”

“Okay, do you need me to show you my ID? Wait here, I’ll go get it.”

Xie Yao found his ID card and also retrieved the short message notification he received when he won the pocket watch, and handed them both to the staff member.

The staff member took a quick glance and was surprised to find that this young customer was only nineteen years old when his gaze paused on the last few digits of his ID card.

But he didn’t say much. After confirming the identity, he took out a well-packaged box from his briefcase and handed it to Xie Yao.

“Do you need to inspect the goods on the spot?”

“Yes.”

Xie Yao opened the box and took out a beautifully crafted pocket watch. The watch looked very expensive and out of place in this small building.

After receiving the pocket watch, Xie Yao skillfully pressed the button to open the switch and revealed the hidden compartment inside. He paused and asked, “Where did the photo inside go?”

The staff member was stunned, and then apologetically told him, “I’m sorry, Mr. Xie. When the pocket watch arrived at our auction house, our staff checked it and there was no photo inside.”

The auction house had no reason to lie to its customers, and Xie Yao did not show any disappointment when he heard the news. He simply nodded and signed his name.

The staff politely bid him farewell as he left.

As Xie Yao closed the door behind him, one of the staff members turned and looked at his tightly shut door, shaking their head in disbelief. “It’s really strange,” they muttered to themselves. “He can afford an 180,000 yuan watch, but lives in a place like this.”

Xie Yao didn’t hear what the staff member said. He took the watch and headed to the custom-made storage cabinet next to the living room, where he put the watch away and locked the cabinet.

The watch had belonged to Xie Yao’s father and was one of his most cherished possessions. When the family business went bankrupt, owing a large sum of money, everything in their home was sold, including the watch. Xie Yao was only thirteen years old at the time.

The watch had originally contained a family portrait, but it had been removed before the auction.

Over the years, Xie Yao had worked tirelessly in various jobs, doing whatever he could to make ends meet. He had even come close to being kidnapped by human traffickers. With the remaining insurance compensation of a few tens of thousands, he struggled to support his grandmother and save up money to buy back his parents’ belongings. It wasn’t until he became a signed platform anchor as an adult that he began to gradually improve his situation.

Recently, Xie Yao had been seeing some success as a streamer, earning several thousand yuan a day. When he heard about the auction for the watch, he had only 180,000 yuan to his name, which he promptly spent on the watch.

If it wasn’t for the recent arrival of Jiang Song, who consistently tipped him with at least ten thousand yuan every time, doubling his income and giving him some breathing room, I’m afraid that Xie Yao would have had a very difficult life recently.

The nursing home he picked for his grandmother had excellent conditions but was very expensive, costing at least eighty thousand yuan a month.

Looking at the locked cabinet, Xie Yao thought that one duo queue was not enough to express his gratitude. It seemed that he would have to queue a few more times.

It was still early, and Xie Yao’s mood was unusually good today after receiving the pocket watch. He took out his phone, opened the WeChat conversation with the nickname “Boss,” and sent a “good morning” message to the other side.

Then he got ready to go out and buy groceries and make lunch himself.

Although most of the people living in this community are elderly and children, the location is good. There is a big shopping mall next door where fresh vegetables can be bought.

After buying groceries, Xie Yao headed back home.

When he was a child, Xie Yao didn’t know how to do anything with his hands, but after the incident happened in his family, he had to start learning how to cook. At first, the things he made even sent himself to the hospital.

But with practice, he became more skillful and learned how to cook. Although it wasn’t particularly delicious, at least it wouldn’t cause any problems like it did when he first started.

Xie Yao’s live streaming schedule was fixed from 6pm to 10pm every day, for a total of four hours, and he didn’t stream during the rest of the day.

Recently, the number of fans in his live streaming room has been steadily increasing, and Xie Yao checked just before starting his stream at 6pm. Compared to yesterday, the number of fans had increased by another ten thousand. As of now, he already has 500,000 fans.

As soon as Xie Yao entered the live broadcast room, the screen lit up and fans who were squatting in the chat room greeted him one after another.

“Good evening, everyone. I am your Tianxiu anchor Yao Yao. Tonight, we’re still playing the peak battle, trying to increase our points before the end of the season.”

As of tonight, his peak battle points were still at 2,000.

: Playing peak battle? Yao Yao, aren’t you duo queuing with the boss tonight?

While the game was still loading, Xie Yao took a moment to read what the barrage was saying.

“The boss is busy with work today. Don’t you think he’s like you guys, always squatting in the live broadcast room chatting when he has nothing else to do?”

As soon as the game started, it became difficult to win in the high-level matches above 2000 points. But as long as his teammates weren’t too bad and let Xie Yao play mid lane, there shouldn’t be any problem.

Give him a mage and he could carry the game.

Unfortunately, Xie Yao didn’t have any “ifs” here.

This time, he was stuck on the fourth floor, so he picked Diao Chan in advance and asked his teammates to help him snatch her during the hero selection phase.

The first floor ignored him and locked Diao Chan himself, and then a loli voice appeared on the game microphone, which could be heard in the live broadcast room.

“Sorry, fourth floor, I also want to play a mage.”

Xie Yao sent a message saying it was okay.

Everyone was at the 2,000-point level, so unless someone like Xie Yao started playing midway through, there was not much difference in skill level. They could play other lanes instead of mage, and it would be okay as long as he didn’t end up playing jungle or support.

: Judging from Yao Yao’s usual luck, this game might give him a support role hhh.

A barrage message floated by.

In the next second, the second floor and third floor respectively locked the marksman and top lane, leaving only jungle and support roles available.

Seeing that things weren’t looking good, the fifth floor quickly sent a message saying “I don’t know how to jungle,” and when it was their turn to choose heroes, they immediately locked in Xie Yao’s favorite character, Yao.

“Why isn’t Yao banned?” Xie Yao was surprised.

: Good luck with not getting a Yao, and you’re still asking why they didn’t ban her.

: Be content, brother Wild King.

: At this moment, I really miss the boss.

: Is this certain streamer going to pull out a mage jungle again?

Upon seeing the last barrage, Xie Yao’s hand paused as he was about to choose Chang’e for jungle. Then he smoothly changed direction and clicked on the assassin section, ultimately locking in Li Bai.

As soon as he locked in, the game interface immediately showed Li Bai’s most expensive skin, which was the “Ming Jian Ye Ying” that he had drawn after Jiang Song’s donation. This fan’s account also had this skin.

The barrage was filled with skepticism:

: Do you know how to play him?

: You know how to play him?

: Do you know how to play him?

Xie Yao sneered, “Wait until I carry you guys in the game.”

The countdown ended and the game started loading.

Xie Yao usually plays mages during his livestreams, although he’s interested in playing jungle, he’s not very good at it. His own account’s Li Bai hasn’t even reached a green proficiency level.

: Hehe, you’re not really going to carry us with your basic Li Bai, are you?

: It’s a pity to use this skin on you.

The barrage was mocking him for lying, but Xie Yao didn’t feel embarrassed at all. His thick-skinned nature allowed him to ignore the barrage.

However, just as everyone had not yet left the base after entering the game, two messages full of hostility suddenly appeared.

Peak Summoner 3 (Bai Li Shou Yue): Trying to get a green proficiency in peak matches? How dare you?

Peak Summoner 3 (Bai Li Shou Yue): Do you really think you can get a pentakill just by wearing a skin?

Jiang Song had just entered the live stream room and encountered a small streamer being targeted. His eyebrows raised in response.

Xie Yao was not the type to take a loss on the internet.

Xie Yao was indeed not one to take a loss. He saw someone attacking him and wanted to fight back, but when he typed out a reply and tried to send it, it displayed: “You are currently banned from speaking and cannot send messages.”

Xie Yao: “Fuck.”