Chapter 645: Mingkai stays at Ji Di to guard the home

Holy shit?

Holy shit...

Holy shit holy shit!

Damn, Chunli, you're awesome.

On the plane, the entire business cabin was filled with the civil and polite chatter of VG members; fortunately, they had bought out the cabin, so no other passengers were disturbed.

The reason these people got so worked up was that Fu Lan Duo had seen a clip from a dating variety show somewhere and forwarded it to the team chat.

This show is called If you're not sincere, don't disturb.

It wasn't because the show suddenly went viral and caught VG members' attention; rather, someone from the LOL community participated in the show, and this person wasn't some nobody, plus their outrageous antics on the show made the LPL community buzz about it, eventually creating a breakout effect that made everyone aware of it.

Liang Yan had known about this from his past life, but he didn't remember much; only after watching the video did he recall it. To be frank, it's pretty hilarious…

The person who participated in the show is called Chunli, real name Li Chun, the guy who nerfed Jinx seven times, later left Riot, brought in investment, acquired NB and renamed it FPX.

His outrageous antics on the show include:

On the variety show, he tried to give the female guests a popular science explanation of the definition of "having seen the world";

He deliberately used some highfalutin words to fool people;

His speech carried a rather strong Fulang accent;

He claimed he had been single all along, but then he produced a VCR ex-girlfriend; the kicker is, this supposed ex-girlfriend wasn't really his ex—he'd tricked a female Riot staffer into acting as her with a cup of milk tea—Shiyin, who later became a top‑hundred UP on some site.

In the end, all the female guests turned off the lights on him.

Hahahahaha...

Seeing Li Chun being turned off the lights by all the female guests, Xiao Duan burst out laughing uproariously; everyone else couldn't stop laughing either, even Ma Ge couldn't keep a straight face, his mouth twitching.

A bit outrageous...

Liang Yan also couldn't help but give a four‑word comment; he never expected the FPX boss to have such a dark past—this guy introduced himself on the show as a straight‑laced STEM guy, but a straight‑laced STEM guy wouldn't hire extras to pose as an ex‑girlfriend.

This little interlude brought plenty of fun to the otherwise boring but not overly long journey; amid laughter and chatter, the plane landed at Kaohsiung Airport in the southern part of Treasure Island.

A bus plastered with an "Island Tour" slogan pulled up to pick them up; the VG members boarded, the driver spoke Mandarin with a strong Taiwanese accent, waiting a moment, and still someone hadn't arrived.

Everyone then sat in the bus, puzzled, waiting.

Not long after, the EDG group appeared outside the bus window and walked over.

Once they had boarded, the two sides stared at each other, both somewhat surprised.

It was obvious both teams were on the same flight, but since VG was in business class and EDG in economy, they hadn't run into each other.

That was a bit awkward.

Mainly, without comparison there's no harm… This scene vividly shows the shift in standings between the two teams that occurred between the spring and summer seasons.

Sima Laozei glanced at the back of the EDG lineup, seeming to look for someone, but ultimately didn't see that person, and his gaze grew a bit dim.

Fu Lan Duo then blurted out, "Hey? Where's the factory chief?"

A Bu, who was leading the team out, glanced at him with a cold expression and said nothing.

The bus had about twenty seats; Ai Luoli walked to the back, while everyone else took a solitary seat, leaving only side‑by‑side seats with someone next to them. Ai Luoli looked left and right, then, for some reason, she didn't sit next to her teammates but instead sat nervously beside the sneaky‑looking guy, who gave her a shy smile, and she returned a shy smile.

Fu Lan Duo, sitting in the row behind, stood up, grabbed the back of Ai Luoli's chair, and asked again:

"Hey, I'm asking you—why isn't the factory chief here?"

Ai Luoli glanced forward, indeed seeing A Bu staring coldly at her, so she embarrassedly turned her head to smile at Fu Lan Duo, trying to play it off:

"Mingkai is staying at Ji Di to guard the home."

Fu Lan Duo was genuinely curious and didn't want to be brushed off.

"Cut it out—be honest, are you really retiring?"

Ai Luoli instantly felt those two gazes on her grow a bit colder, her heart tightened, and she hurriedly denied:

"No, no, no, there's nothing like that—don't spout nonsense."

Fu Lan Duo knew she wouldn't get the real answer from that coward's mouth, gave a dismissive "tsk", and sat down bored.

All the way there was no talk; no matter the style of the scenery, the most striking feature was its aged feel—the roads were old, the streets old, the buildings old, the roadside shops old, everywhere permeated with a sense of bygone times.

Xiao Duan couldn't help but complain:

"Is this really the second‑most developed city on Treasure Island? It feels just like my hometown county seat."

Tabe withdrew his gaze from the window.

"Just as old as Hong Kong, but Hong Kong still has vitality, whereas here…"

Upon arriving at the hotel, this feeling intensified. According to Wensen, the head of the LPL team, this four‑star hotel is considered one of the best in Kaohsiung; even the cheapest single room costs two thousand New Taiwan dollars per night, about five hundred RMB, yet when I opened the closet there was a musty smell, the walls were yellowed, and the bed creaked when I put a little weight on it and twisted… Sanitation, however, was fine.

All in all, for anyone visiting Treasure Island for the first time, disappointment is inevitable.

What's worse, the LMS region has had no internationally visible results for years, so its popularity keeps falling, its viewers have become fans of the European or Han Guo regions, leaving little home‑grown talent for sponsors to exploit; sponsors see this and naturally aren't keen to spend big, and even the LMS's top team, Flash Wolves, has been operating at a loss these past two years—basically the whole region survives only on Riot's subsidies, though Riot merely guarantees the region won't dissolve, and anything beyond that is uncertain. The region is dirt‑poor, and after finally getting Riot's backing to host an Intercontinental Tournament, everything ends up strained.

All that said, I just want to complain about one thing:

The organizer assigned the competing teams hotel rooms, and damn, they're ordinary single rooms for two people! In other words, two people have to share a bed!

"Holy shit, I'm impressed."

Fu Lan Duo, who shared a room with Liang Yan, was still grumbling before bed, then glanced at Liang Yan and said:

"Hey brother, tell me the truth—you don't have any skin disease or anything contagious, right? If you do, just say so—I can sleep on the floor."

"Get lost!"

Speechless, he cursed, and Liang Yan said:

"The Intercontinental Tournament is only four days long—maybe the LPL won't even make it to the finals, maybe out in the semis, and then we'll just head back."

"Out in the semis…… you serious?"

Liang Yan ignored him, yawned, felt sleepiness coming on, so he picked up the remote, set the AC to twenty‑one degrees, pulled up the blanket, and went to sleep.