Chapter 582: So You're the One Who Led the Enemy Here?

Bai Liang retreats in defeat!

The wheel of fortune turns — in the past it was always Sister Tian Tian performing the back-step in front of him, but today the natural order has been flipped on its head!

He was, after all, driven back head-on by Sister Tian Tian, otherwise he would definitely have teased her a bit and tried to push his way into the kitchen.

But there's no helping it — this young lady is a little too outrageous~

Though part of the blame falls on Bai Liang himself — his mouth had to run off and say that he "could pee even with someone standing right next to him."

But the topic was one Sister Tian Tian brought up herself, and what Bai Liang said was the truth — no exaggeration, no nonsense.

What he actually meant was to show that he didn't have that kind of crippling awkwardness.

Who could have expected Sister Tian Tian to come right back with a "because you're confident"?

It left even Sister Qian staring blankly, and it let Xi Mengyao instinctively pull off a back-step of her own — as if Sister Tian Tian had transmitted the skill to her through the air.

Though it seems the transmission wasn't much — the other girl only stepped back those two steps.

At the same time, her gaze was just a tiny bit off — the main theme being zero attempt to hide it.

Being a former model, she was actually pretty open-minded about this sort of thing — just a little awkward, but not really embarrassed.

Anyone who's been a model knows that backstage at runway shows is total chaos — models just strip and change directly, men and women alike, no partitions or screens, nobody caring who's around.

Mm~ Bai Liang really was a male model! So he knows a thing or two about this side of things.

Though he didn't stay in that line of work very long, and never actually walked a runway, he did hear plenty of these stories from senior colleagues.

At one point he even felt a small bit of longing for it.

But the seniors also said that backstage during outfit changes everyone's so swamped — who the hell has time to look at anyone else's naked body~

Although Bai Liang never experienced that himself, he had seen the spectacle of a huge crowd of models in the hallway wearing nothing but underwear, men and women mixed together, clustered in groups — quite a sight.

Not a shred of avoidance or embarrassment to be found.

So, upon noticing Xi Mengyao's barely-concealed, openly assessing gaze, Bai Liang figured he couldn't show any weakness either.

He was, after all, half a colleague!

So he very directly took a look at her in return.

A fair exchange, you could say.

Of course, she's someone else's wife — given Bai Liang's moral cultivation of never playing the Cao thief, he only "exchanged" glances in a flash, not so brazen as to make a big show of it.

Still, in the end he never managed to get into the kitchen — not even pulling out the gender-equality fist-fight routine did any good.

Seeing Meng Meng's counter-punch was useless — she simply didn't buy that act.

After all, anyone who can hold their own on this show — who would bother practicing any kind of martial routine?

Not to say every one of them is more virtuous than the last, but at least on the show they put on that front — even Sister Tian Tian was working up a storm.

Having failed in his reconnaissance, Bai Liang could only return to the sofa, where he was promptly dragged into a game by He Youjun.

Honor of Kings, activate!

However, while the two of them were duo-queuing in Honor of Kings, they ended up chatting about LoL.

A bit odd, sure, but it really was a great topic to slide into for getting closer.

Because He Youjun founded the V5 Esports Club back in 2018 and secured an LPL slot.

One can only say that IG's championship win really did draw a lot of attention and traffic to the LPL — plus a flood of hot money.

He Youjun's entry was probably also influenced by Young Master Wang.

Whether it was the club's revenue or the personal fame and traffic benefits for the boss himself, the returns were considerable.

In a way, He Youjun also seems to be walking a path similar to Young Master Wang's — turning his own identity into a traffic engine to boost his career.

The more you look, the more alike they seem — just not as down-to-earth as Young Master Wang.

Both graduated from prestigious foreign universities and came back to China to start businesses, but he didn't go mouthing off at people on Weibo, didn't go roasting celebrities as the entertainment industry's discipline inspector — he took a slightly more high-end route instead.

In recent years the shows he appeared on — things like "Ultimate Challenge" and "The Brain" — the main goal was probably to build a genius-student persona.

Clearly, the effect wasn't as good as Young Master Wang's — after all, Young Master Wang's traffic and attention dwarf those of many A-list celebrities.

He can casually fart on Weibo and still trend on the hot search.

However, after Bai Liang spent a moment mentally mapping out this young brother's playbook, he suddenly froze.

Genius-student persona?

Why did that sound so familiar to him?

Thinking it over carefully — damn, it's really hard to say who exactly He Youjun "copied" his playbook from!

The rich second-generation loudly seeking attention is Young Master Wang's route, but the genius-student persona — in recent years, nobody plays that game smoother than yours truly, Bai! Because everyone else basically crashed and burned, or just never got popular.

Compared with He Youjun, Bai Liang didn't rely on going on shows to answer quiz questions — that stuff obviously isn't "rigorous" enough and looks scripted.

He Youjun has always faced that kind of questioning.

But Bai Liang's genius-student persona is rock-solid, because his persona was built by taking national-level exams.

Want to question it? Go sign up for a super-popular civil service post first, then come back after you score first place~

The position Bai Liang applied for back then had thousands of people fighting over a single slot.

After one game ended, Bai Liang successfully carried He Youjun — though the kid didn't look all that happy about it.

Playing a game is about winning, sure, but he actually really wanted to beat Bai Liang at something, even though they were on the same team.

Facts proved that Wu Jing's clumsy goading technique, while easily seen through, operates on a "the willing take the bait" principle.

No matter how clumsy it is, it can't be helped — the He family's young master really couldn't suppress that restless urge to find a chance to best Bai Liang at something.

This feeling isn't necessarily any kind of malice — it's a very simple thing: a man's competitive spirit.

A top-tier rich second-generation, graduate of an elite school, born with a silver spoon in his mouth — with so many halos piled on, facing an outstanding peer, that competitive fire simply can't be contained.

Even playing a game he has to compare KDA.

He Youjun had originally been planning to chat a bit more with Bai Liang about LoL — the two of them should have plenty of common ground there.

The result was that Bai Liang, this guy, "without a thought for his own eyes," asked how his club's season record was looking this year, and directly silenced the other party.

Ahem, the V5 club this year has blasted out a "staggering record" of 0 wins and 16 losses!

One could truly say it breaks the listener's heart and moves the hearer to tears; this record seems to have made LPL history!

The club next door belonging to Young Master Wang took the world championship and made history, while Young Master He's club smashed through the floor.

Honestly, it sounds rather unpleasant to say.

Bai Liang, kind-hearted as he was, noticed the other's embarrassment and quickly helped smooth things over with a line.

"Maybe it's because of age catching up, I'm getting worse and worse at games now."

Reasonable! Maintaining one's game level requires a lot of time.

With so many diverse hobbies of Bai Liang's, how much time could he possibly have left for gaming~

He Youjun also asked, "You've gotten a lot worse?"

Bai Liang nodded, "Bad like a master."

He Youjun:

To steer away from this topic, he chose to skip the esports element, tossed his phone aside, and launched the second wave of invitations at Bai Liang.

"Liang-ge, I've heard your Go skills are quite impressive too—could you give me some pointers?"

Hearing this, Bai Liang blinked. Why did it feel like he had still come prepared?

He couldn't help but glance at Wu Jing, feeling that this thick-browed, big-eyed fellow was probably planning a "backstab"!

Was it you who led the enemy here?

Wu Jing didn't even bother pretending, "Oh-ho, starting already?! Go for it, Xiao He, I'm rooting for you—hit him with everything you've got!"