Having just reconnected, Xuan Qi and Wu Biaoqing were eager to catch up, but unfortunately, their plans were foiled by none other than an obligatory interview.
A famous live stream interview account that had millions of followers had been picked by Candy Cone to conduct interviews of the participants throughout the competition.
The interviewer and owner of the account, Jia Xiuying, had a fresh personality and was very upfront.
Her honest attitude and respectful interviews captured the hearts of many netizens–
She refused to use underhanded tricks to get information out of people, and if she noticed the person she was interviewing being uncomfortable by a question, she would use her smooth talking abilities to move on from the topic quickly.
It could be said that using social media for interviews was a risky move, but as a person who valued authenticity, she refused to work for any news station or company who would force her to dig for gossip, and her determination in starting her account by herself years before paid off.
At the present, she was booked thin, but it was all worth it to showcase the unique characters of professionals from all different fields all around the world.
Even Wu Biaoqing, who spent little time on social media, had an impression of her before they officially met for the interview.
“Welcome to the livestream everyone, it’s your host, Jia Xiuying,” she greeted, smiling brightly at the camera, “our next interview is with someone I know commenters have been waiting for: LIFE’s Isolation!”
“Hello,” he introduced himself, still as blank-faced as ever, “I’m Wu Biaoqing, a member of LIFE.”
“Well, I have to say, you’re off to an impressive start,” she complimented him immediately, making him slightly embarrassed, the tips of his ears growing hot, “ever since your first match with Hardcore, you’ve been on fire!”
He shifted awkwardly in his seat, fiddling with his fingers absentmindedly as he replied, “I wouldn’t go that far.”
“Nonsense,” she shook her head, “your gameplay was fantastic. I’m not much of a gamer myself, but I have to admit that some of your moves were really impressive.”
“…thank you.” he averted his gaze, not sure what to do.
Despite his family background, he wasn’t used to interviews, because his parents kept him as protected as possible, refusing even the trickiest of reporters trying to use the Wu name to make money on a story.
“So, Isolation, you come from a unique background, correct,” Jia Xiuying asked, and he nodded, “so what got you into gaming?”
He thought for a moment, before replying seriously, “it just… happened. There wasn’t any specific reason for it. I just started playing video games and before I knew it, I was good at them. It wasn’t until I started playing LOW, and I dropped out of high school, that I realized I wanted to do it professionally.”
The new piece of information had the fans watching the interview intrigued.
[retreat2defend: He dropped out? So he only graduated junior high?]
[Achoo2938: the non-graduate gamer trope strikes again]
[sevensenses: It’s not like expressionless is illiterate and his parents can definitely afford tutors… why wouldn’t he be able to get through it?]
[hellomello09: suddenly find myself suspicious. Our qingqing is so sweet, he couldn’t have gotten expelled could he?]
[Topofthe.world: What school would dare expel the young master of the Wu family?]
[retreat2defend: True. They have enough money to throw at a school to fix pretty much anything.]
“Oh, you dropped out of…?” she blurted it out without thinking, pausing halfway through after realizing the question was inappropriate, but he didn’t seem to mind.
“I left voluntarily,” he elaborated, “I did poorly in that kind of environment. Besides, gaming is my passion, so by leaving I was able to devote more of my energy into becoming as strong as I am today.”
If any of the fellow trainees from the trainee program were to hear him say that, they would curse to high hell.
To most people, Wu Biaoqing was a natural borne gaming genius–
The rate at which he became stronger was practically inhumane, how could he have the gall to talk about working to become strong?
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
But really, no matter how much talent he had, it would all have been for nothing if he hadn’t taken the time to hone his skill.
Wu Biaoqing was like a raw ore originally; only after a lengthy process was he polished into a beautiful diamond.
In fact, the Isolation during the Candy Cone Cup was still unpolished—
His gaming was merely a fraction of what was to come in the future.
“That’s impressive,” she sighed, “not many people are willing to risk everything to pursue their passions. It’s quite an inspiring story!”
With her quick, thought out reply, she successfully began to pull away from the awkward topic, “what made you choose Legend Of The Wind specifically?”
“Well, there were a number of factors, but the main thing is that it’s the most fun game to play, in my opinion,” he explained, “as long as I can have fun, what does it matter whether I win or lose? That’s why I felt I could play professionally. I wanted to become strong, obviously, but at the end of the day, failure is the biggest motivator. Working hard and being talented doesn’t mean you don’t ever lose. In fact, the more I lose, the more excited I become.”
“So, are there any players that motivate you the most, or that you believe are especially strong?”
He nodded, “in fact, there are two people who I admire most. The first is, while pretty obvious, Ah-Zhe.”
“Who?” She thought for a moment, trying to think of a gamer with that nickname.
“He Weizhe,” he continued, “he’s a good friend of mine.”
The interviewer gasped quietly—
Even she knew that whenever He Weizhe was mentioned, there would definitely be viewers!
While she didn’t exactly know a lot about him, she knew enough to understand that it was a big scoop.
With it practically being handed to her, she treaded carefully, not wanting to exploit it too much.
“Oh, that’s nice,” she exclaimed, “have you known each other long?”
“Mn,” he stated, “we met not long after I started playing LOW, on his alternate account Azure, so right around the time when he was scouted for ESSU.”
“So you met while gaming?”
“Yes. I was going to play a quick 1V1 round before eating dinner and we got matched against one another. It was the first match I had to take completely seriously, and the first match I ever lost.”
“Ah, so you sent him a friend request?” Jia Xiuying guessed.
Wu Biaoqing shook his head.
“After I lost, I went to ask one of the maids to bring food upstairs for me, because I was so energized from the match I wanted to keep playing. He sent me five friend requests— back then the friend requests expired fast if they weren’t accepted, and if you sent more then five friend requests in a certain time period, your account would be deemed suspicious, so he couldn’t send more,” he laughed at the memory, “I thought we’d never meet again, but a few weeks later we ended up matching together in duo mode.”
This unique side to Isolation had many of his viewers in a daze—
[L@dylu3k: when did our expressionless little anchor talk so much?? :isolationshock:]
[BaobaoBaobei: My two professional male gods are friends… I can die in peace 555]
[09starfighter: 5555]
[Livelylover520: 55555]
[chiefshou: 555555]
[RoarSweetie00: Why is everyone crying? Did something bad happen? :isolationsad:]
[LOWislife003: new viewer doesn’t understand, thinks something tragic happened 2333]
[Heaven_Sent: did anyone else notice he mentioned one of the maids? The lives of rich people…]
“What a nice coincidence,” she laughed, “so you still play together now?”
“He’s busy, with his team and all, so it’s pretty rare we get a chance to que together, but we try to,” he sighs, “the first time I ever saw a gaming event live was when he played in the spring preliminaries that year. We met afterwards and celebrated his win together, which is when I first met the rest of ESSU and xuanxuan.”
“So that’s why you called out to Xuan Qi?”
“Mn,” he nodded, explaining further, “apparently, I beat Xuan Qi badly before, so the moment he realized it was me he demanded we set up a 1V1 match. We couldn’t exactly start gaming in the middle of a restaurant, though, so we swapped contacts. He left the country not too long after, and my WeChat was hacked around that time, so we didn’t get to play much together. I was surprised to see him again here. I didn’t know he’d become Crypto’s leader, because he looked different back then.”
“Ah, I see!” Jia Xiuying exclaimed, “So you didn’t recognize him until after the match?”
“Exactly,” he continued, “Xuan Qi has changed. His skills are definitely more refined– he’s a strong opponent, and I think he’ll only become stronger.”
“That certainly makes sense,” she said, “Crypto continued to perform well under immense pressure. Even though they were defeated again in the end, it’s not easy to be as calm as they were during that time.”
“There are very few players who can withstand that. I doubt I would’ve been able to play as he had during our matches if LIFE had been defeated in both of our previous rounds.”
“Oh right,” she suddenly remembered, “you mentioned He Weizhe as one of the people you admire, but who is the other?”
The netizens who’d been crying that very question in the livestream chat finally felt relieved.
“…I’m not sure how many people still remember him, but there was an especially strong streamer when LOW first released. We played one match against each other three years ago and it was the last match he ever played.”
Jia Xiuying didn’t know whether to laugh or cry–
Was Isolation just a gossip fueling machine?
“What streamer?” She questioned hesitantly.
“Bluestar.”
[Z.fx2207: Holy shit?????]
[WuDu990: Bluestar? As in the Bluestar? Not a fake?]
[misguided_apples: LOW doesn’t allow for repeat usernames. If he ran into bluestar, it was the real deal.]
[notsotough: :isolationshock: :isolationshock: :isolationshock:]
[Achoo2938: who is bluestar?]
[Heaven_Sent: He was the biggest LOW steamer back in the day. The first to ever break 100,000 followers on XtraF, let alone 1 million! Just a few years ago, everyone was talking about him. You weren’t a LOW fan if you didn’t watch Bluestar.]
[Z.fx2207: It’s a shame no one knows why he suddenly abandoned everything…]
[BaobaoBaobei: With a 3 million yuan contract? I would’ve signed my life away right then and there :whistfulsigh:]
“Bluestar?” Jia Xiuying paused, watching as the viewer count of the livestream skyrocketed, “was he a very popular anchor?”
“He was the best,” Wu Biaoqing stated, “in my opinion, he still is.”
Jia Xiuying sighed, already picturing the hot searches that would pop up from this single interview, “so, was there anything interesting that happened during that match?”
“I was on my first ever account, Landmark, when we randomly went up against each other in 1V1. He didn’t stream it,” Isolation noted, “but watching it would’ve been on par with watching the national championships. We both gave it our all from the start, and in the end, Bluestar won. He still has a perfect gaming record.”
The interviewer was intrigued, “so you admire him because he’s strong?”
Wu Biaoqing admitted it easily, “Yes. More than that, though, was what he said afterward.”
“Afterward?”
“When we finished the match, I was exhausted, but I was also incredibly energized, so I sent him a friend request on a whim. He accepted immediately, and asked me if I wanted to become a professional player. I said of course, and what he replied has stuck with me even now.”
“What did he say?”
“He told me, ‘Landmark, you’re incredible. I hope that you follow your dreams. Don’t let others discourage you. If your heart is set on becoming a professional, then become one. Whether you win or lose, I’ll be rooting for you.’”
As he finished speaking, there was a dead silence in the room, and Wu Biaoqing blushed slightly, mumbling, “…I-I memorized it.”
The sound of something falling to the ground snapped Jia Xiuying out of her trance, and she quickly began to ask the final questions to wrap up the interview, praying in her heart that there were no sudden surprises.
Outside of the conference room, which had been closed off in advance for the live interview, two employees stood outside chatting as they cleaned up a broken picture frame.
“Did you see what happened?” asked the younger employee, “I’ve never seen CEO Jiang like that.”
“Well, Zheng Shun is known to be incredibly serious,” muttered the older employee, “but no one said anything about him being clumsy! I mean, really, there’s no way a picture hanging on the wall could’ve broken like this. How did he manage that?”
He gestured at the pile in front of him.
“Well, they said he was trying to center it because it was crooked, but then he started acting weird. Thank goodness they closed the door or everyone in that livestream would’ve heard it break,” the younger employee sighed.
Zheng Shun listened to them blatantly gossiping about him as he stepped out of the restroom, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care.
His mind was a mess, the words Wu Biaoqing repeated echoing in his head.
But there was no way–
The door to the conference room opened, and Wu Biaoqing walked out.
After successfully finishing the livestream, he was more than ready to meet up with his team and Xuan Qi to get food.
Talking for so long had left him starving.
As he shut the door behind him, he noticed the handsome stranger was across from him, and flashed a small smile.
“Thank you for helping me earlier!” he exclaimed, waving, as he turned to walk down the hallway.
Zheng Shun watched him walk away, still frozen in disbelief.
No way.
The author has something to say
A shorter chapter this week!! The interview was originally supposed to be part of a chapter, but by the time I finished it was over 2k so I figured I’d just move the other part of the chapter to chapter 18. It is very dialogue heavy though, I apologize (´；ω；｀)
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That’s all for now! See you next week dears~
Is the ying in Jia Xiuying 赢? Because she sure is winning!
More interviewers should be like her!
And I KNEW there was some kind of connection between bluestar and Zheng Shun! Is he bluestar?
Also learning so much about WBQs past (and his friends) this way was great! I love how much of a gossip he can be if given the chance!
PFFT that is officially my favorite joke (≧∇≦) and yes, qingqing is a gossip even when he isn’t trying to be. At least Jia Xiuying gets to make money off of it ╮(╯▽╰)╭
As for Zheng Shun’s connection to Bluestar… you’ll find out (⁎⁍̴̛ᴗ⁍̴̛⁎) little author can’t spoil.jpg
I’m guessing bluestar is ZS? And if so during the interview, I can’t imagine how flustered and awestruck and clumsy he was HAHAHA he is simply adorable and why do I think he’s thinking that fate is playing him again and his luck of not recognizing sooner
I can’t say much, but he was definitely flustered for a reason~
If I had to rank the characters in terms of their ability to recognize people, Zheng Shun would be last… followed by qingqing in second to last, what a perfect couple! (≧∇≦)
Ohoho it’s all coming together now~ and ZS unknowingly still is rooting for WB <333