Chapter 58: The League

The meal was cooked very quickly, and Lin Yi carried the steaming rice upstairs. The grains were plump and full, emitting a faint, refreshing fragrance.

There were four dishes in total—two meat and two vegetarian: braised pork ribs, shredded chicken, stir-fried tomatoes with eggs, and smashed cucumbers in garlic sauce.

The savory aroma drifted through the air.

"Let's eat!" Xu Ying got up from her chair, picked up a spoon to dish out a bowl of rice for herself, and then served bowls for Zhang Xiaoyan, Zhao Xin, and Lin Yi.

"Thank you!" Lin Yi took the bowl and said gratefully.

He was starving and didn't stand on ceremony with them. He polished off bowl after bowl of rice like a wolf devouring its prey, and most of the chicken and ribs ended up in his stomach.

"You guys should eat too! Why are you just staring at me?" Lin Yi asked earnestly, looking up at the three dumbfounded women while taking a bite of chicken.

Putting everything else aside, the food was genuinely delicious!

Whoever managed to marry a woman like Zhang Xiaoyan would truly have ancestral smoke rising from their graves. It was rare to find a woman who could grace the drawing room with elegance and command the kitchen with skill.

"Lin Yi, didn't you eat breakfast?" Zhang Xiaoyan asked curiously.

"I did, but after working out all morning, I burned it all off long ago." Lin Yi put down his bowl and chopsticks with a look of satisfaction, picking up a tissue to wipe the grease from the corner of his mouth.

"Teacher Xu, don't you eat any meat at all?"

Lin Yi noticed that there wasn't a single bone on Xu Ying's side of the table.

"I don't. I rarely eat meat," Xu Ying said leisurely as she picked up a piece of cucumber and brought it to her mouth to chew.

"She does this to maintain her weight," Zhao Xin explained with a smile.

Maintain her weight?

Lin Yi didn't press the matter further. He knew a thing or two about the situation; girls who studied dance faced extremely strict requirements when it came to body weight.

He had once seen a news report about a girl who failed her evaluation simply because she had gained a few pounds compared to before, and she immediately sat on the floor and burst into tears.

After the meal, Xu Ying paid the bill, and Zhang Xiaoyan didn't try to be overly polite, simply collecting the money.

"Xu Ying, Zhao Xin and I will head back now," Zhao Xin said as they stepped out of the inn.

"Mhm." Xu Ying gave a slight nod and drove away.

"Lin Yi, you don't need to go to dance class anymore starting tomorrow," Zhao Xin said to Lin Yi, who was sitting in the passenger seat once they got into the car.

Lin Yi didn't reply right away. He lowered his head in silence for a moment before turning to look out the window. "Actually, I heard the whole conversation between you and Teacher Xu. She was right; I am indeed quite prideful."

"But... I am also very stubborn, and that means seeing through to the end whatever I set out to do," Lin Yi turned his head and smiled slightly.

"That's good then, otherwise I'd be the one losing out. That penny-pincher Xu Ying won't give refunds once she pockets the money."

***

Lin Yi: "..."

Couldn't you feel even the slightest bit touched?

Back in his room, Lin Yi immediately collapsed onto the bed and fell fast asleep.

His mother had taken his dad to the hospital for a follow-up checkup. He had originally wanted to accompany his dad, but he had been too busy learning vocal and dance arts over the past few days to make the time.

Time slipped away quietly as the setting sun cast its fiery glow across the lake.

Lin Yi stretched lazily and let out a habitual yawn.

Ring, ring, ring!

It was a phone call from his editor, Liu Yan. Picking up his phone while getting out of bed, Lin Yi answered it, "Hello, Editor, what instructions do you have for me today?"

After a period of interaction, he discovered that his editor wasn't as cold and aloof as people imagined. In fact, his editor was a total chatterbox, chatting about everything from the south to the north, from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean, and from Mount Everest to the Sahara Desert...

It was only later that he found out his editor was actually a geography prodigy.

No wonder he could talk so much!

"Are you free the night after tomorrow?"

"I'm free." He didn't have any training scheduled for the evening, so he could do whatever he wanted. Because of this, his novel was still being updated regularly; otherwise, he would have stopped serializing it long ago.

He was exhausted to the bone—where would he even find the energy to write a novel?

"That's great. The night after tomorrow, several authors from our company, some Douyu live-streaming anchors, and a few celebrities are going to play a *Honor of Kings* league match. Tencent Video will be broadcasting it live simultaneously."

"What?" Lin Yi was so startled he almost dropped his phone. *Honor of Kings* existed back in 2012? Wasn't it only officially released for public beta testing in December 2015?

Games like *Honor of Kings* and *PUBG* had exploded in popularity over the subsequent years.

Little Pony had made a fortune off these two games, with *Honor of Kings* reaching over a hundred million concurrent players at its peak.

Liu Yan was actually telling him to play *Honor of Kings*? Surely he hadn't misheard?

"Editor, what game did you just say?" Lin Yi asked after a moment of silence.

"Honor of Kings, of course! Don't tell me you've never even played *Honor of Kings*? It's the most popular game of recent years!"

From Liu Yan's tone, Lin Yi could hear a thick layer of utter disbelief and shock.

He had gone mad!

This world was entirely insane!

Just what else already existed in this world?

***

"Hello? Speak to me. You couldn't possibly have never played *Honor of Kings*, right? I thought you had played it. Ugh, what a waste of my enthusiasm!" Liu Yan sounded ready to hang up the phone.

"I've played it! How could I have never played it?" Lin Yi snapped back to reality and hurriedly said.

How could he not have played it? He had played both *Honor of Kings* and *PUBG*.

He still remembered a college roommate who played *Honor of Kings* all night long, taking his phone to play while squatting on the toilet in the middle of the night. While wiping himself, his phone accidentally slipped into the bowl, and he finally had to fish it out with a pair of chopsticks.

When everyone in the dorm found out, they almost died laughing.

Yet, that classmate showed no remorse and still brought his phone to the restroom to play while... Fate always worked in startlingly similar ways, and his phone fell into the bowl once again. In his panic, his hand accidentally pressed the flush button, *swish*—and the phone was gone forever.

"Really? You're not lying to me, are you?" Liu Yan asked suspiciously.

"Really, I'm not lying." Back in college, Lin Yi had also quite enjoyed playing *Honor of Kings*. Being alone was too lonely, and since he didn't have a girlfriend and hadn't joined any clubs, he had too much free time in the dorm. Playing the game meant at least someone in the dorm would play with him, giving him some company.

"All right then. Don't mess things up the night after tomorrow, and make sure your internet connection and equipment are ready!"

"Yeah, I know."

"There really is *Honor of Kings*!" Lin Yi muttered to himself. He then opened the app store and searched for *Honor of Kings*, and sure enough, it was right there!

The file size was the same as in his previous life, close to 2GB.

He immediately clicked download, and half an hour later, it was finished. At the same time, Lin Yi finished eating the noodles he had just cooked.

"Let me see what differences there are." Lin Yi wiped his mouth with a tissue, logged in with his QQ account, and registered using his real ID card.

There was no helping it; without real-name registration, the game forcibly blocked entry into the interface.

This aspect was actually different from his past life.

"Holy shit, it still needs to download over 1GB of updates."

Seeing this, Lin Yi tossed his phone aside without a second thought and sat down at his computer to write. If he didn't write now, there was a high likelihood he would break his update streak today.

Clack, clack, clack!

In just over an hour, two chapters totaling six thousand words were completed, wrapping up his writing quota for the day.

Once that was done, Lin Yi eagerly picked up his phone. He hadn't played *Honor of Kings* in years; after graduating from college and rushing around to make a living, he was always exhausted by the time he got home from work, leaving him in no mood to play.

The scene of his Lanlingwang hunting down Luban was still vivid in his mind—just thinking about it was thrilling!