YMBLTY

Chapter 14: Your Little Darling Has Liked A Post

Jiang Xun's Weibo account was ten years old. When Gu Wei pulled it up, the most recent post he saw was a highlight reel of clips from the tournament Team TMW competed in a while back. The video started with footage of the five members of the team climbing the stage to receive the highest honors for winning the tournament.

The Jiang Xun in the video was just like the Jiang Xun that Gu Wei had come to know. He wore a gaming headset, and his fingers flew across his keyboard at lightning speeds. The screen shook with action, and Jiang Xun's tactics were sure to dazzle any viewer.

Gu Wei couldn't understand the tactics part of it, but he could plainly see that the comments section was full of fans who were wildly impressed.

Xun Fan 1: Holy shit, that suppressive fire at 9:30 is fucking incredible. I'm begging God Xun to teach us that trick, I really want to learn.

Xun Fan 2: How many MVP awards did Jiang Xun get this season? He's too good.

Xun Fan 3: I can't handle it, our big bro is too fucking cool. I have to rewatch this one more time.

Xun Fan 4: We're all bowing down. Big bro, accept our worship.

Gu Wei scrolled down some more, but every post on Jiang Xun's page was about his various tournaments or his training. Jiang Xun would post a notification every time his team had a practice match or a scheduled livestream.

But even farther down, further back in the past, Jiang Xun would sometimes send out a post or two about his everyday life.

Back then, before Team TMW made it big, Jiang Xun's posts were rarely shared or liked. The comments left underneath those older posts were all from fans of their team who had dug into his post history after the team got famous.

These internet fans only cared about the moments of triumph and success. They didn't see the hard work and nuance behind that success. Only those moments when their favorites stood in the spotlight mattered. They didn't have any interest in the process of how their favorite player climbed to the top.

About three years ago, Jiang Xun had posted—

Just esports, no sleep.

The post included a photo of Jiang Xun and his four teammates. It looked like, in order to train, the five of them had pulled several all-nighters in a row.

As soon as Gu Wei saw the photo, he grinned. Jiang Xun was good-looking, so even after staying up for a few nights, he just looked a little tired, but no worse for wear. His teammates, on the other hand, were all in pretty rough shape, with huge bags under their eyes that made them look like pandas. The five of them were making heart signs for the camera, shortly after winning some small tournament.

Among the pandas, there was Jiang Xun looking all high and mighty.

Gu Wei had to laugh.

It was a picture from a time when Team TMW had yet to achieve the success it enjoyed today. The guys in the picture just looked like a group of young friends who could find joy in their hard, back-breaking work. Compared to the more recent photos of them hoisting the world championship trophy, the atmosphere was completely different.

Gu Wei scrolled even farther down Jiang Xun's history. In the photos from back then, Jiang Xun was just a teenager, and there were some obvious differences between that Jiang Xun and the one Gu Wei had met only recently.

Subconsciously, the corners of Gu Wei's lips curved up into a smile. He felt like he was seeing a different meme.

When the meme was just a second-year in middle school, he didn't seem quite as fierce as he did now.