SITS Ch4

Chapter 4: We Never Lie

The next day at the base, several people suffering from hangovers were complaining about headaches, and even the coach wasn’t spared.

Only Xu Zhouye and Shen Man were spared. Shen Man didn’t like to drink, and no one dared to force him, while Xu Zhouye not being drunk was a rare sight.

“My head hurts so much, who brought us back yesterday?” Zhao Rui groaned, his legs weak and shaking as he walked.

Shen Man pointed to Xu Zhouye, who was wearing headphones and playing solo in the corner.

Zhao Rui said, “Xu Zhouye? He didn’t pass out?”

“No,” Shen Man replied. “He dragged you all back one by one.”

Zhao Rui: “…That’s impossible.”

They didn’t often drink, but when they did, they made sure to drink to their heart’s content. As the core goal of yesterday’s dinner, everyone initially aimed to get Xu Zhouye drunk. Xu Zhouye, being courteous, accepted every drink offered to him. Zhao Rui saw his posture and thought he was in trouble, so he let him off the hook. Who would have thought Xu Zhouye was perfectly fine, while others passed out?

“That’s impossible!” Zhao Rui leaned over to Xu Zhouye and repeated loudly.

Xu Zhouye took off his headphones, looking confused. “Zhao-ge, what’s wrong?”

“You didn’t get drunk yesterday?” Zhao Rui asked.

“No,” Xu Zhouye said. “Can beer make you drunk?”

Zhao Rui: “…”

“Tsk,” Shen Man, who overheard their conversation, chuckled.

“You brat,” Zhao Rui became angry. “Next time, just wait! Begging won’t help!”

Xu Zhouye, faced with Zhao Rui’s anger, felt helpless and said, “Ge, how about we try some strong liquor next time? I can’t handle that much of it.”

Zhao Rui: “How much can’t you handle?”

Xu Zhouye modestly replied, “About two jin (1 kilogram).”

Zhao Rui: “…” Two jin of liquor would be enough to pickle his body.

There was a wail throughout the base, except for Shen Man and Xu Zhouye, who were sitting comfortably, unaffected.

Shen Man started a livestream, planning to kill time and complete his tasks for the month.

The livestream had just started, and within a minute, the barrage of comments flooded in.

[Whoa, the sun’s coming out from the west today, starting a livestream so early]

[Isn’t it always the case that you do this at the end of the month to meet your quota? You’re so eager, I’m scared]

[You must have won a match, does SW have a jungle stream?]

[Yeah, what about the Fest stream?]

Shen Man glanced at the barrage and turned to Xu Zhouye, who was watching the match videos not far away. “Do you want to duo?”

Xu Zhouye immediately replied, “Sure, sure.”

“They’re asking about your livestream,” Shen Man said. “Want to start one?”

Xu Zhouye replied, “Okay.”

His camera was on, and the viewers in the livestream overheard their conversation. Instantly, everyone became alarmed.

[No way, why is SW so obedient this time?]

[Am I hallucinating? He actually paid attention to the barrage]

[Something’s off, something’s definitely wrong!]

Shen Man was known for not caring about the barrage, especially once the game started. He rarely interacted with the audience.

The viewers both loved and hated his temper. They loved his exceptional livestreaming skills, with godlike plays in ranked games, but hated that he was so short-tempered, giving no face to the audience. His livestreams felt like clocking into a job—he wouldn’t work for a minute longer, driving fans crazy.

But over time, everyone got used to it.

[Is SW being so obedient part of a scheme? He must be planning something!]

[I’m so scared, is he going to quit after this stream and get married back home?]

Shen Man laughed at how absurd the barrage was: “If you’re watching, keep watching. If not, then leave.”

[He cursed us, so satisfying.]

[Finally at ease, looks like he’s not retiring after all.]

[Quick, curse a couple more times so we can relax!]

Shen Man: “…” You guys are ridiculous.

It took a little while for Xu Zhouye to set up his livestream. On the table, someone had left an orange. Shen Man, with nothing to do, peeled it and popped a slice into his mouth.

His expression froze for a moment, and he turned his chair to look inside the room. “Who bought these oranges?”

No one answered.

Shen Man glanced at the orange, then at Xu Zhouye, who was still calmly adjusting his equipment. He suddenly stood up and walked over.

Xu Zhouye felt a shadow beside him. He turned and saw Shen Man. Just as he was about to speak, he saw Shen Man’s fingers holding something, and with an unrefusable gesture, he shoved it into Xu Zhouye’s mouth.

Xu Zhouye: “…”

The two stared at each other for a second and seemed to understand the unspoken message in each other’s eyes.

Xu Zhouye reached out.

Shen Man handed him the orange.

Not a single word was spoken; everything was understood through the unspoken connection.

Xu Zhouye took the orange and walked toward the next victim…

“Damn!” The next victim, Zhao Rui, ate the orange and immediately screamed in agony, slamming the table, and loudly asked the same question Shen Man had earlier, “Who bought these oranges?!”

Still, no one answered. Everyone was confused.

Zhao Rui grabbed the orange and glared at their mid-laner, Xu Xiaochong, who was struggling to play his lane. He was about to get up when Liu Shishi, who had a big bag of snacks, returned and casually asked, “Hey, are the oranges I bought sweet?”

The three of them turned in unison.

Liu Shishi was puzzled: “Why are you all staring at me?”

The orange culprit was finally caught, and Zhao Rui and Xu Zhouye simultaneously looked at him with warm smiles and said in unison, “Sweet!!”

Liu Shishi, still unaware of the gravity of the situation, thought the oranges were really sweet. He nodded and said, “Good, I put one on each of your tables. If you finish, there’s more.”

“We just peeled one.” Zhao Rui smiled as he walked over. “It’s all gone, this is the second one. You should try it.”

Liu Shishi was about to peel a slice.

“Hey, why so delicate? If you’re a man, eat it all at once,” Zhao Rui said.

Liu Shishi didn’t sense the subtle tension. Facing the three’s gentle, watery gazes, he grabbed the orange and shoved it into his mouth.

“Ah!!!!” A piercing scream echoed through the base. His whole face twisted as if he had just bitten into a crumpled napkin. “So sour—ah—”

Everyone burst into laughter. Shen Man said, “You bought the oranges and didn’t even try them?”

Liu Shishi was so sour that tears were streaming down his face: “Didn’t I ask the boss if the oranges were sweet?”

The three of them: “…” Which fruit shop owner would say their fruits aren’t sweet when asked?

Shen Man said, “Did you buy them without tasting one?”

Liu Shishi replied, “The peel of this orange was green, so I thought it might be a little sour!”

Shen Man: “…” A little clever, but not enough. You believed Zhao Rui’s words and stuffed everything into your mouth without even peeling it, huh?

“I’m dying, I’m dying! Get me some water!” Liu Shishi couldn’t take it anymore, wiping his tears while looking for water. The orange was so sour it almost made him pass out.

Shen Man said, “Go ahead, hurry up and finish setting up your stream.”

Xu Zhouye obediently replied, “Okay, Captain.”

The two turned and walked away.

Zhao Rui watched their backs with a grin, bitter with envy. These two didn’t even flinch at the sour oranges that almost made his teeth fall out. If they hadn’t gotten him with it, he wouldn’t have fallen for it. People’s hearts really are wicked…

In the live stream, the audience was puzzled by Shen Man’s sudden departure when they suddenly heard Liu Shishi screaming like a pig being slaughtered.

[What happened? Who’s screaming in pain?]

[We all know Shen Man’s the team bully; he must’ve just picked on his teammate.]

[How did he bully him? Did he step on him?]

[Come on, give me five hundred; I’d let SW bully me.]

[No, I’ll pay five hundred; let me be first!]

[I’ll give a thousand; let me be first!]

[????? Can you put your pants on before talking???]

When Shen Man returned, he saw the barrage of comments and sneered. “Moderator, ban all these shameless people for ten days.”

The crowd screamed.

[No, I don’t want to play the cover-mouth play!]

[I’ve put my pants on; give me one more chance!]

[Hey, Fest’s stream has started, I’m going to watch.]

[Run, run; if you’re slow, your mouth’s gone.]

Xu Zhouye finally finished setting up his camera and successfully started his own stream.

Shen Man asked for his room number and entered his stream.

As soon as he joined, the comments flooded in:

[Fest, come on, tell us, does SW bully you every day?]

[Poor thing, did SW just yell at you?]

[We’re all your supporters; let us fight for you!]

Xu Zhouye seriously looked at the comments and explained, “No, the captain is really nice.”

[Ohhhhh, Captain is sooo niceeee.]

[What’s so nice about him? We all know his bad temper!!]

Xu Zhouye furrowed his brows, “Captain really does have a good temper. You guys are saying this because you don’t know him well.”

Shen Man nodded in satisfaction and moved his mouse to the gift section, clicking on it.

In the next moment, ten rocket gifts appeared in Xu Zhouye’s stream.

These were from the seafood platform, with one worth two thousand yuan. Shen Man directly sent ten.

Before Xu Zhouye could speak, the comments exploded.

[I knew it, you must have some complaints in your heart, look, this is hush money.]

[Ahhhhh, SW is bribing him with money!]

[Speak up, don’t let the money buy your silence, we’ll fight for justice!]

Shen Man saw the comments and remained expressionless. “Moderator, do a lottery later, draw ten winners from the viewers who said SW has a good temper, and give them a phone.”

The comments were quiet for two seconds, then “SW has a good temper” flooded the screen.

Shen Man said, “What were you just spamming in Xu Zhouye’s stream?”

The comments replied, [We were praising your good temper, saying you’re so lucky to be teammates with you!]

Shen Man: “Heh.”

Xu Zhouye saw the gifts Shen Man sent him and smiled happily, “Thank you, Captain.”

Shen Man turned to Xu Zhouye, “Turn on voice chat; I’ll put on my headset. Send me your game ID.”

Xu Zhouye said, “Okay.”

Moments later, Shen Man added Xu Zhouye’s alt account, and the two started to duo queue.

Their next game was the day after tomorrow night against a lower-ranked team, so the pressure wasn’t high, and everyone was pretty relaxed.

Shen Man casually picked an archer, and when he saw Xu Zhouye picked a mage, known as the “Undead,” a typical big carry hero who becomes very powerful in the late game, like a dominant force.

“You have quite a deep hero pool,” Shen Man said. He had noticed before when Xu Zhouye was helping him as a support that this kid was good with a variety of heroes and handled operations that required practice very well, indicating that he had practiced quite a bit before.

“Not bad,” Xu Zhouye laughed. “I just like to try everything.”

Shen Man said, “You’re being humble.”

Hero pool is an important indicator for professional players, which is why some players with specialized skills struggle in the professional scene. If the hero they excel at is banned, it severely affects their performance.

Xu Zhouye, though a newcomer, didn’t seem to have such limitations in Shen Man’s eyes.

The duo queue went smoothly, they played five matches and lost only one.

Around 8 PM, Xu Zhouye suddenly received a call, saying he had something to do and had to go out, so he couldn’t play anymore.

“Go ahead,” Shen Man said.

Compared to Shen Man, Xu Zhouye had a more approachable vibe. He usually wore a smile on his face, and although he wasn’t bad-looking, his hair was long and unkempt, covering most of his eyes, making him look a bit messy. Shen Man remembered that when Xu Zhouye first joined the base, the coach had asked him to take care of his hair, but even after being told multiple times, this kid didn’t bother, still showing up for matches with that messy hair.

In the second match, Xu Zhouye’s performance was good, and if his performance in the next few matches remained solid, a streaming platform would likely sign him soon.

Shen Man sighed, thinking he shouldn’t have signed that streaming contract in the first place. Now, every month, he had to endure the audience’s torment.

Of course, he thought it was torment, but the audience loved his forced work attitude.

[Ho ho ho, looks like you want to get off work too after seeing Xu Zhouye leave, huh? No way!]

[Who told you to slack off every day? Work hard during the rest of the time and handle it yourself.]

[Sigh, sigh, sigh. It won’t help, just weld him to his position.]

Without a duo partner, Shen Man switched to his main account and started ranked play.

His rank was too high, so the queue time was long, and he casually opened a frustrating mini-game (Digging for Rising)—where you control a character to keep going upward, with no save points. If you’re unlucky, you could fall all the way from the finish to the start, wasting hours of progress.

[This game is great. Didn’t Zhao Rui play it yesterday and break down?]

[I’ve never seen SW break down; I really want to see it.]

Break down? That’s never going to happen.

Throughout the night, Shen Man fell from a high point over twenty times without even changing his expression.

Eventually, viewers couldn’t take it anymore and said: [Are you here to torture us instead of playing?]

[Someone needs to stop SW; why does he look so unaffected even when he falls from such a high place?]

[I strongly suspect Zhao Rui is broadcasting in his suit, can’t make expressions like this.]

[It’s a recorded broadcast. It must be.]

“Recorded broadcast my foot,” Shen Man said, confused. “Just fall and keep climbing; it’s not like you’ll die. What’s there to break down about?”

[Forget it, just give up. Last time during a special match, he didn’t even have a heart rate over 80 when someone tower-dived him, totally like a corpse.]

[SW, you have no heart!!!]

[Family, type ‘SW is a heartless traitor’ on the screen!]

[SW is a heartless traitor!!! No heart!!!]

Shen Man: “……” You guys are truly absurd.

Once all the other teammates were done for the night, Shen Man was left alone to continue his stream, working late as usual.

At eleven, Shen Man glanced at the dark outside and yawned, “I’ll end the stream at midnight.”

He hadn’t had dinner yet and was feeling a bit hungry, so he propped his chin up and kept waiting.

Suddenly, someone patted his shoulder. Shen Man turned to see Xu Zhouye, drenched in sweat, smiling as he looked at him.

“Captain,” the boy said, out of breath, holding up a bag, “You haven’t eaten, right? I brought you some supper.”

Shen Man: “……” He paused for a moment before thanking him.

“I heard from Zhao-ge you didn’t eat dinner,” Xu Zhouye said. “Go eat first; I’ll play a game for you, so it doesn’t get cold.”

Shen Man nodded, “Hmm… alright.”

He got up, letting Xu Zhouye sit down.

Just as the game started, Xu Zhouye controlled his character and left the base. Shen Man sat next to him and opened the supper he had brought.

He noticed the logo on the takeout bag and asked, “Did you go to Xicheng?”

“Hmm? Yeah, just happened to pass by,” Xu Zhouye said, appearing to have run back. Sweat trickled down his forehead, landing on his nose.

Shen Man handed him a tissue without saying anything.

Xu Zhouye glanced at it, smiled, thanked him, wiped his sweat, and casually pushed his wet hair back, revealing a sharp-featured face. His appearance was even more handsome than Shen Man had imagined—sharp eyebrows, starry eyes, a high nose with a slight hump. His face was cold at first glance, but since Xu Zhouye loved to smile, his expressions were completely different when he smiled versus when he didn’t.

Shen Man turned away his gaze. “You queued for a long time, didn’t you?”

This place had great food and was very popular, so the wait was long.

“No problem; the takeout was quick,” Xu Zhouye replied warmly. “Hurry and eat; don’t let it get cold.”

Shen Man nodded, picked up his chopsticks, and started eating.

As he ate, he watched Xu Zhouye playing the marksman role in the game.

The marksman position in this game wasn’t easy to play solo because you often encountered all kinds of strange supports. For example, some teammates would refuse to share the economy, even though they were supposed to buy items like the Money-sharing Knife (a piece of equipment that lets a player share gold with teammates). The most ridiculous experience Shen Man had was meeting a tank who built the Money-sharing Knife but acted like a bodybuilder trying to breastfeed him.

Even Shen Man’s strong heart skipped a beat that time.

The support in Xu Zhouye’s game this round was actually relatively normal—at least they fit the “support” category.

Shen Man noticed Xu Zhouye had a strong laning phase. He controlled the bottom lane really well, managing to farm the minions and the right-side jungle monsters without missing any, showing that he had practiced.

Great basic skills.

Xu Zhouye usually played the jungler, and Shen Man hadn’t expected his basic skills to be so solid in that role too.

Shen Man chewed on a mustard-flavored cucumber and found it strange. “You’ve always been a jungler carry?”

“No, I used to play marksman,” Xu Zhouye answered.

“You played marksman before?” Shen Man said. “Why did you switch to jungler?”

Xu Zhouye replied, “I found playing Marksman solo challenged my limits.”

Shen Man: “……”

As Xu Zhouye spoke, he took the first blood. “I got banned from chatting after arguing with my teammates a few times, so I gave up.”

Shen Man: “……” He wasn’t surprised at all.

“Afterward, I tried other positions, and I felt jungler carry suited me better,” Xu Zhouye explained.

Shen Man thought to himself, “Looks like you picked the right path. I wonder why I kept on the same path all this time.”

“So I say, the captain’s temper is really good,” Xu Zhouye continued, complimenting his captain. “If your temper was bad, we’d be arguing in the chat! Look, you’ve been playing for so long and haven’t typed anything!”

Shen Man remained silent for three seconds. “Do you think there’s a possibility…”

“Hmm?”

“This account might already be muted?”

Xu Zhouye: “……”

Shen Man: “……”

The two exchanged a glance, and in each other’s eyes, they understood what the other was thinking.

But fortunately, Xu Zhouye quickly adjusted his mood, continuing to dote on his captain. He gently said, “It’s okay; that person must have been really annoying for the captain to scold them. Look, I’ve been on the team for so long, and the captain hasn’t said a word to me.”

Shen Man: “……” Facing Xu Zhouye’s sincere gaze that made his heart tremble, he felt guilty. He lowered his head and cleared his throat—he couldn’t exactly tell Xu Zhouye that he had once thought Xu Zhouye would be kicked out of the team soon, so he didn’t bother talking to him.

The camera was still on, and their conversation was overheard by the viewers.

The bullet comments on the screen were going wild. [Can someone tell me what’s going on between these two?]

[Why do I see guilt on SW’s face? What is he guilty about??]

[I bet during last week’s match, SW probably cursed Fest a thousand times in his mind.]

[Fest looks at SW the way my golden retriever looks at me.]

[Their relationship is so creepy.]

[Oh no, it’s so gay.]

[Now I get it, SW didn’t like the previous junglers because they weren’t good-looking.]

[Case solved, he’s not picking teammates, he’s picking boyfriends.]

Shen Man didn’t see the absurd comments on the screen and kept eating his meal. The food from this place was really to his taste. Although he liked strong flavors, he was actually quite picky. He could tell the freshness of the ingredients with just one bite, so even though he often ordered takeout, he couldn’t eat much.

Xu Zhouye won a match and started another one.

“Don’t you need to rest?” Shen Man asked.

“I’ll stay and keep you company, captain,” Xu Zhouye smiled. “Anyway, I’ll just be lying on the bed playing with my phone when I go back.”

“Did you register on Weibo?” Shen Man asked.

“I did,” Xu Zhouye replied.

Hearing this, Shen Man took out his phone and searched for Xu Zhouye’s name. “Which one is yours?”

Xu Zhouye pointed to an account, and Shen Man clicked to follow it. Xu Zhouye didn’t use his account often, but he had over a million followers. Shen Man followed him, saying, “Let’s rest together after this match.”

“Okay,” Xu Zhouye nodded.

At midnight, the stream ended smoothly, and Shen Man quickly ended the broadcast.

Shen Man took a shower in his room, then lay in bed and played with his phone for a while. Xu Zhouye had already sent him a message, along with a Weibo post saying, “Had a great time today,” with a picture of the takeout he had brought Shen Man.

Shen Man thought to himself, “I’ve already eaten everything, what’s there to be so happy about?” This kid was really nice though; hopefully, the upcoming matches would go smoothly for him too.