Part 2
Bai He thought the plot of Xingchen was very well done. Of course, the character designs and scenery were also good. It was just that the monsters were a bit too hard to kill, and recently they seemed to be getting even harder.
Bai He didn’t play games much in the past. He had seen others play in videos, but his personal experience was minimal. Xingchen was the first game he officially played. Even with Tiandi (Heaven and Earth), he had just skimmed through it, focusing only on the plot without carefully studying how to play.
He had fought this mini-zone boss three times, and the third time he still hadn’t won. Taking a break from his intense focus, he glanced at the comments and found the chat was extremely active.
“…Build the character…?”
Bai He looked around and summarized that the fans were telling him to train his character. He roughly understood. He found the character panel and was dazzled by several different columns of items. “I need to level all these up?”
[Yes, Bao! Bring the level up first, then the weapon. We can talk about the other stuff later when we’re catching up on stats!]
[Boohoo, baby, you really don’t play games!]
[I remember seeing a name ‘Bai He’ on the award list for the Tiandi plot award before. I thought it was Xiao Bai, but now it seems it must just be someone with the same name.]
[I really want to teach Xiao Bai hand-in-hand, sob sob—]
[Wait, who is this? Whoa, damn, you aren’t allowed to come!!]
[This guy is here again! Go away! Xiao Bai is ours now! He! Is! Ours!!!]
Qin Yao was completely unaware of the situation in the comments section. He had just been downstairs cutting fruit for Bai He. Coming up with the fruit, he saw Bai He sitting in front of the computer streaming—not ASMR, but Xingchen.
Qin Yao used a toothpick to feed a strawberry to Bai He, standing straight to watch him fight monsters. Then he fed him a piece of cantaloupe and continued watching. Half the fruit was gone, and Xiao Bao still hadn’t scraped through that mob. Qin Yao watched as Bai He opened the character panel and started upgrading things randomly.
It was obvious that his Xiao Bao was a gaming newbie—a super fresh one at that.
This newbie participating in plot planning was truly impressive, but his practical operation was almost zero. This wouldn’t do. Although Qin Yao wouldn’t make demands of his Xiao Bao, the company assessments were relatively strict, and Xiao Bao didn’t want him to interfere with the internship, so…
Qin Yao set the fruit platter aside. Waiting for Bai He to exit the character panel, he bent down and scooped him up.
Bai He was suddenly lifted from the chair, a bit bewildered. Next thing he knew, he was placed on Qin Yao’s lap, sitting sideways, and heard the other say, “Our Xiao Bao might need a little help. How about your boyfriend teaches you?”
Bai He looked at Qin Yao, then at the monitor, weighing it in his mind for a moment. “Okay.”
After all, figuring it out himself or looking up tutorials on his phone wouldn’t be as fast as having an experienced person teach him.
Bai He then remembered he was still streaming. He had the webcam on, along with the microphone. He thought for a moment. “Watching me play games must be pretty boring. How about we end it here for this afternoon, everyone…”
The comment section, however, erupted in protest.
[Don’t, Bao! It’s good to watch, we’re happy to watch!!]
[I want to watch, sob sob. Xiao Bai Bao, now that you have this seductive stinky Alpha, you’ve forgotten your maiden family, right? Do you remember how Mama watched you grow up back then?]
[I want to watch! (drooling) I like watching you play games (wiping drool), it’s really not because I want to see the couple snuggling! Hehehe]
[Person above, your drool is going to drown me.]
[Damn it, this guy scooped Xiao Bai up as soon as he arrived. Such strong boyfriend power, holy crap!]
[And he’s feeding Xiao Bai! Keep feeding him!! Like taking care of a baby!!]
[Who understands sitting on the lap like this! Oh my god, so sweet, so sweet, so sweet ahhhhh!!…]
[Finally, someone discovered this niche. I guarantee, if these two go into couple streaming, they’ll absolutely carve out a bloody path to success!!]
[Aren’t we getting a bargain? Xiao Bao does sleep aid, gaming, and now couple stuff. Ahhh, so many elements, another day of being spoiled fans.]
[The key is Xiao Bai never changes the evening sleep aid stream. He’s really so good ahhh! Why is such a good Bao already taken? Ahhh, he should be public property!!]
…
Qin Yao opened the character panel. “Your account level is increasing, so you have to slowly train the characters. Character level first, then weapons. Don’t worry about the rest for now.”
As he spoke, he leveled up the few characters Bai He used most often. He realized Bai He wasn’t short on resources and suddenly laughed. “Does our Xiao Bao like roaming the map and hoarding things? There’s quite a lot in the inventory.”
Bai He nodded. “If I can pick it up, why shouldn’t I?”
That makes sense. Qin Yao nodded. “You have plenty of supplies and upgrade materials. These can all help improve the characters.”
Saying this, he exited the panel. “Let’s go, let’s test the damage.”
They found the monster Bai He had been scraping earlier. Qin Yao’s mechanics were superb; the battle ended with just a few skills.
Bai He noticed the damage was indeed higher than before.
“I leveled up the character just now too, why couldn’t I beat it?” Bai He looked at Qin Yao.
Qin Yao narrowed his eyes and smiled. “Maybe because Xiao Bao didn’t max it out.”
Bai He was half-convinced.
[Holy crap, peerless good Alpha! He actually didn’t expose that Xiao Bao’s mechanics suck to the point of exploding!!]
[This guy’s mechanics are f**king awesome. That positioning just now left me dumbfounded. He was provoking that zone boss, holy crap, so cocky!!]
[You can’t say my Xiao Bao sucks!! Xiao Bao is already very good for a newbie!!]
[Even so, Xiao Bao really just face-tanks, spans basic attacks, and rarely uses his ultimate—and when he does, he misses. It’s truly hard to describe. Are all newbies like this?]
[I have a friend who’s triggered. Can you delete that comment above?]
[It’s making my blood boil. I’m going to download Xingchen and try it too!!]
…
This livestream lasted for over three hours. Qin Yao explained every detail of Xingchen to Bai He, leading him hand-in-hand to run maps and kill monsters.
It wasn’t that Bai He didn’t know how to cast skills or wasn’t familiar with the keyboard; it was just that every time combat started, he subconsciously panicked, even though his expression looked super calm.
Really cute. Holding this big treasure and playing all afternoon left Qin Yao warm in both body and heart.
Just as the stream was about to end, someone suddenly spammed gifts in the chat. Several “Carnivals” appeared in a row. Bai He snapped out of the game and was about to speak up to stop it when someone tried to connect via voice chat.
He glanced at it; it was the same account that had just sent the gifts.
While he was hesitating, that account sent a message in the comments: [Hello FREE, we are Qingtian Company. Can we make friends?]
[FREE?? Qingtian?? What is that??]
[It’s a game company! FREE is the company that makes Xingchen, the game Xiao Bai is playing. This game is huge lately. Don’t know much about Qingtian, they seem to have made a few competitive games?]
[Comment above isn’t wrong. I’ve played a lot of FREE’s conscientious games. Xingchen deserves to be a hit!]
[Qingtian connecting with FREE? What the hell, did they go to the wrong place? If you want to connect, go to the official FREE account. Why come here?]
[Wait, he said, ‘Hello FREE’?? Is that normal language? Subject-verb-object??]
[??? Why are they spamming Carnivals again? Holy crap, so much money!!]
…
Bai He frowned imperceptibly. Behind him, Qin Yao raised an eyebrow. Holding Bai He, he adjusted Xiao Bao’s sitting position. He looked at the screen filled with Carnivals unhurriedly and let out a sneer. “Sorry, brother. If you want to connect, go find the official FREE account. Don’t mess around on my Xiao Bao’s account. Gift received; thank your boss for me.”
With that, he canceled the connection request and buried his head to say to Bai He, “Tired? End the stream?”
Bai He nodded. He said goodbye to everyone in the livestream. “That’s it for today. The sleep aid stream will be at the usual time. Goodbye, everyone.”
Closing the stream, Bai He turned around and hugged Qin Yao. “What does Qingtian mean by that?”
“Who knows?” Qin Yao hugged Bai He back, rubbing his waist. “Don’t worry, your boyfriend can handle it.”
“Mm.” Bai He nodded. “When is the banquet?”
Qin Yao paused. “In a few days. Why?”
Bai He pressed against Qin Yao’s neck. “I’ll go with you.”
For this kind of banquet, people with partners usually brought them along. Qin Yao really wanted Bai He to go with him, but he figured Xiao Bao wouldn’t want to see the Bai family, so he hadn’t mentioned it.
“Qin Yao, you are really easy to read.” Bai He played with Qin Yao’s fingers. “I don’t want to see those people, but I want to attend events like this with you. Besides, you, Nan-ge, and Uncle Qin will be there. You’ll protect me, won’t you?”
“Xiao Bao…” Qin Yao was so moved he didn’t know what to say. He hugged Bai He and kissed him. He really loved the feeling of Bai He relying on him.
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