I Carried My Teammates to Victory and the Championship: He Was Secretly in Love with Me

Retired “Best Mid Laner” Xia Xingmian left the scene due to a hand injury and became a game streamer with a dwindling following. Then her former club made her take on Aurora, a rookie team that had lost five matches in a row, as a condition for paying her rehabilitation fees. Its captain, Lu Shiyan, was a “noob” mocked across the internet. He repeatedly misplayed, even feeding kills during practice, until she couldn’t help frowning and asking, “How did you become captain?”

But as they spent time together, Xia Xingmian kept noticing something was off. Lu Shiyan’s hand trembled when he handed her water and she stood close; his phone wallpaper was a photo of her winning the championship five years ago; whenever her hand hurt, he would “coincidentally” appear with a heat pack; and when haters attacked her, he would quietly moderate the comments. Then, with the team facing elimination, an opponent taunted her, “You’re still playing with that busted hand and dragging everyone down?” Lu Shiyan suddenly stepped forward and shouted, “Sister Xingmian, I’ll carry this round!” He dropped the noob act and used her favorite mid-lane mage to score a pentakill and turn the game around. Afterward, he handed her a wrist brace. “Protect your hand.”

From then on, Xia Xingmian devised strategies using her top-tier ability to predict the game, while Lu Shiyan hid his true skill and worked in perfect sync with her. Together, they led the team all the way to the playoffs. But when an old rival taunted her, saying, “You retired back then because you were afraid of losing,” Lu Shiyan erupted. He not only crushed everyone with his gameplay, but also pulled out a fan scrapbook he’d kept hidden for ten years, filled with Xia Xingmian’s match notes and photos.

As it turned out, he had been in love with her ever since she first stepped onto the competitive scene. He had entered esports just to get closer to her, even copying her playstyle. In the final, Xia Xingmian’s hand injury flared up again, and Lu Shiyan protected her as she directed the team to victory. On the awards stage, he raised the trophy and confessed: