Outside the window, the sound of rain could be heard. The raindrops hit the window frame and made a continuous muffled sound.
Lin Yan closed the half-open window until there was only a small gap to prevent the rain from entering the room.
However, a chilly night breeze blew in, dispersing the decadent atmosphere in the room.
What replaced it was the fresh air wrapped in moisture.
Lin Yan cleaned up the messy bed that was previously tossed around.
Now, there was the sound of rain outside the window. In the master bedroom's bathroom, another rain was falling. It was very tempting.
The phone on the bedside table vibrated twice. There was a new message.
Lin Yan leaned on the bed to see which bastard disturbed his sleep in the middle of the night.
Unexpectedly, it was a message from the bank.
Your card ending with 7777 earned ICBC 12,202,200.77 yuan (2016 champion skin share) on May 3rd.
Lin Yan's vision was a bit blurry. He carefully counted how much this income was.
12.2 million yuan!
He repeatedly confirmed that the number was correct and took a deep breath.
It was Lin Yan's first time seeing such a large amount of income.
His salary and income from the live streaming platform added together was a lot more than this amount. But that was paid on a monthly basis. It was far less shocking than this huge amount of money.
The sound of rain in the bathroom stopped. Su Cheng opened the door and walked out with a white towel draped over her body.
"What's wrong?"
She had a bun on her head. She took off her shower cap and let her shoulder-length hair fall down. She looked at Lin Yan's shocked face and quickly asked with concern.
"Chengzi … Our family is rich." Lin Yan waved his phone.
Su Cheng felt that Lin Yan was up to some mischief again. She picked up a piece of Chengzi from the table and stuffed it into her mouth. Then she bent over slightly to look at her boyfriend's phone.
She took a look.
And another look.
Su Cheng's face was full of joy. "So much?"
"It's okay," Lin Yan said. He stared at his girlfriend's face, trying to find the reaction he wanted, "It's only about ten million."
However, after a brief moment of joy, Su Cheng's expression also calmed down. She looked no different from usual.
Although she was not "uninterested in money" as a certain someone had said, she was not a money-grubber.
She threw Chengzi's skin into the dustbin as usual and then leaned on the bed to read the news on her phone.
"Where do you think the money should be used?" Lin Yan was not satisfied with his girlfriend's performance and wanted to continue discussing this topic.
"How would I know?" Su Cheng rolled her eyes at him. "Just ask the elders tomorrow."
"That's true."
The mortgage on Lin Yan's villa hadn't been paid off yet. Originally, he wanted to pay off the mortgage as soon as he got the money, but on second thought, he felt that it would be a loss to use the liquid funds to pay off the mortgage.
He could afford the annual mortgage interest of about 5%. He could find a fund bond with a higher yield than the mortgage and earn the rest for free.
However, Lin Yan didn't understand this, so he had to find a professional to deal with it.
He turned off the lamp on his side and shrunk under the blanket. His hand pulled Su Cheng into his arms.
"Behave," Su Cheng slapped his hand away. "Otherwise, I have to take a shower."
Frequent hair washing was harmful. She had already washed twice today and was forced to wear a shower cap. Otherwise, her hair would get wet again.
"I know, I know," Lin Yan promised. "I just want to sleep with you in my arms."
Su Cheng's body was warm and fragrant. The citrus fragrance on her body was fascinating.
He thought it was romantic for couples to sleep in each other's arms.
When he woke up the next morning, he realized that he had made a big mistake.
"Ouch …" Lin Yan desperately rubbed his arm, but from his arm to his fingers, he couldn't feel anything.
Su Cheng, who was brushing her teeth, laughed mercilessly. The toothpaste foam overflowed to the side of her mouth.
"Serves you right, Lin Yan!"
Lin Yan stood next to her with a frown. Now he couldn't even pick up a toothbrush with his right hand. It was as if he had been poisoned by the Shixiang Ruanjin powder.
Su Cheng looked at him and couldn't bear it. After rinsing her mouth, she put the toothpaste cup back in its original position. She dipped it in some warm water and squeezed some toothpaste.
"Open your mouth, ah …"
Lin Yan was very surprised.
Was there such a good thing?
He swallowed back the words that he could use his left hand and opened his mouth to enjoy the toothbrushing service provided by his girlfriend.
After Su Cheng patted the toner on her boyfriend's face, she stood up.
"I'm going downstairs to buy breakfast. What do you want to eat? Steamed buns?" Su Cheng stood at the door and changed into casual clothes. She put on her sneakers and was ready to go downstairs.
"Steamed buns and tofu pudding." Lin Yan leaned back on the sofa and kept rubbing his right hand. "Is something salty okay?"
"Even Shanghai's tofu pudding isn't sweet, right?" Su Cheng ran downstairs with her phone.
After Su Cheng left the room, he tapped on his phone with one hand and glanced at the time. He was sure that Lin Mingdong should have woken up and hadn't gone to work yet. He was going to ask about financial matters.
[12 million?]
Lin Mingdong didn't immediately answer Lin Yan's question. Instead, he repeated the confirmation of the share of income.
Lin Yan directly took a screenshot of the income and sent it over. Lin Mingdong paused for a while and sent an emoji of Teemo in League of Legends.
This emoji made him speechless.
[Dad, this isn't how you use this emoji …]
Lin Mingdong was very puzzled. [Why?
I saw you guys use it a lot during the competition. Doesn't it mean 'you played well'?]
Lin Yan scratched his head with his left hand. He didn't know how to explain the meaning of this emoji.
[This emoji is a bit like sarcasm. It's not as simple as a 'like'. You know what I mean, right?]
Lin Mingdong didn't reply for a long time.
Lin Ran sucked in a breath of cold air. He thought of a possibility.
[Dad, don't tell me you also sent this emoji to your subordinates?]
This time, Lin Mingdong replied quite quickly. [How is that possible?
I have a meeting later. Time is tight. Let's talk about financial matters.]
When Lin Yan saw this WeChat message, he was sure that his father had done something wrong.
He could imagine the confused expressions of his subordinates after they submitted the proposal and received a 'like' from Lin Mingdong.
It would be fine if they didn't play League of Legends, but what if they happened to play it?
However, since Lin Mingdong didn't admit it, he naturally wouldn't expose him. He quietly listened to his father talk about financial matters.
In the end, Lin Yan kept 10% of the bonus, which was 1.2 million in his hands, to cover his daily expenses. This money was mainly used to pay off the mortgage and rent.
The rest of the money was invested in fund securities, trusts, and insurance. He put all his eggs in different baskets. He didn't expect to make a lot of money, as long as he could beat the inflation rate.
…
After returning to the base after the May Day holiday, the first thing Lin Yan and his teammates did when they met was to discuss the use of the prize money from the champion's skin.
Everyone's salary was monthly. Not only had they never seen so much money, but even their parents and elders were shocked by the amount.
The general situation was to buy houses and shops and save the money to buy stable financial products with the remaining money.
Their concept of spending was quite simple. At most, they would buy a few sets of luxury clothes. Most of the money could be saved. It couldn't be compared to Death Announcement who insisted on buying a Ferrari.
"You guys are too steady." After listening to their investment situation, Lin Weixiang hurriedly expressed his opinion. "When I get the money from the champion's skin, I'll definitely open a company!"
"No, what if you lose money?" Open Wound sneered. "With your brain, you can't even do math. How can you open a company?"
"Do you know what a professional manager is?" Lin Weixiang was not convinced. "You don't have to manage the company every day after you invest the money."
Big Eyebrows pursed his lips. This was the vicious language he thought of during the holiday.
"That's right. Hengyang Grandet, you probably only know how to buy facial masks when you get the money, right?"
Liu Qingsong's eyebrows twitched. He wanted to teach Lin Weixiang a lesson.
But when it came to hands-on ability, Lin Weixiang was not afraid. Although his limbs were uncoordinated, he was more than 1.8 meters tall. He had no problem pinching Liu Qingsong at will.
"You guys stop fighting!"
As soon as Gou Ba walked into the training room, he saw Brainless and Unhappy fighting. He hurriedly stepped forward to stop them with a perfect accent.
"What are you doing? What are you doing?" Guo Hao's arrival successfully stopped the two of them.
He stood in the middle of the training room, cleared his throat, and said, "Just in case, the visas, passports, and tickets are all with me. I'll give them to you guys when we arrive at the airport."
"Our first stop is Berlin. The Red Rice coach will depart from Korea and meet us there." Guo Hao pasted the schedule after the holiday on the whiteboard. "The daily practice matches will be supervised by Gou Ba. The Red Rice coach will review them remotely …"
"I have a question." Lin Yan raised his hand. "Who are we going to play in the practice matches?"
Most of the teams were still on holiday. Of course, the teams that didn't make it into the playoffs had already regrouped to prepare for the summer competition.
However, YM didn't care about teams of that level. Playing in a practice match with them would only lower their own ability.
"We can't play against KZ every day, right?" Jack laughed. "We haven't even played MSI, and we're already going to reveal all our cards?"
"We have no choice." Gou Ba didn't want it to be like this either. "Teams like RNG and IG will only be on holiday after a week. By then, we'll all be in Berlin."
The champion teams from Japan and Vietnam, which were closer to them, had to participate in the qualifiers. When YM was on holiday two days ago, these wild card teams had already arrived in Berlin to prepare.
The physical delay between the two places was too high, so it was impossible to arrange for a practice match.
After thinking about it, only KZ could be left.
Neither side was very satisfied with this arrangement.
They both saw each other as their biggest rivals in this season's championship. Frequent practice matches would expose their skills and tactics, giving the other team's coaches room to research and develop.
The result was that everyone tacitly used outdated lineups and old tactics from the playoffs. They either practiced some wobbly lineups or didn't reveal all their cards.
During this time, Lin Yan also successfully passed the third and fourth course and successfully obtained his driver's license. From now on, he could openly drive on the road.
BMW China immediately posted on Weibo to congratulate him. They also posted a photo of Lin Yan with their flagship M760 LixDriveV12.
The caption: Look at our new driver with a driver's license!
YM's official Weibo replied with a string of hearts.
The comment section below exploded.
[This car is so cool!]
[What, isn't it cool?]
[Rich guy is so generous, giving away two hundred Dab cars just like that?]
[This is so f * cking ridiculous, I'm so jealous, I'm so jealous.]
Lin Yan couldn't use a Shanghai license plate, so he could only use his hometown's Su E license plate.
Two days after receiving the car, Lin Yan still hadn't gotten used to his own steering wheel when he embarked on a journey to Berlin.
The group of people left a group photo of their team flag at Pudong International Airport, then boarded the plane and began the 14-hour long flight.
It was simply torture. Lin Yan had nowhere to put his long legs, and it was extremely uncomfortable when he took a nap.
The advantage of the Shiba Inu finally showed. With his short legs, he could sleep very comfortably with his legs crossed.
After getting off the plane, Lin Yan was exhausted. He just wanted to check in at the hotel and have a good sleep.
Lin Yan entered the room. While Xiao Tian was taking a shower, he reported his safety to his father and Su Cheng.
However, it should be late at night in China, so both of them should be resting. Lin Yan didn't expect to receive any reply.
His phone vibrated twice.
Lin Yan glanced at it and saw that it was a message from his father.
[Got it. Have a good rest and adjust to the jet lag. If necessary, take some melatonin to help you sleep. Pay attention to your diet. German pork knuckle sausages are delicious, but you have to control them.
Also, rye bread tastes good for breakfast. Try it.]
Lin Yan, who received the message, was very surprised. He checked the time and made sure he didn't make a mistake before typing: [It's two o 'clock in the morning in China. Why aren't you sleeping?]
[I'm working overtime. The project is about to land.]
Lin Mingdong replied quickly.
Although Lin Yan knew that his father worked overtime, he didn't expect it to be so outrageous.
He typed two lines and felt that it was inappropriate. He deleted more than half of it and added a little bit.
After deleting, deleting, and changing for three to four minutes, he hesitated for a long time and still didn't send the message.
He deleted all of it and re-edited it.
[You should rest early too. Remember to drink milk before you sleep.]
Lin Yan only put away his phone when he received an OK emoji from Lin Mingdong.
The hotel that Fist booked for them this time was quite good. Each club was arranged to have six rooms and a training room. Including the qualifiers, the 14 teams occupied two floors.
Lin Yan had a good sleep. When he woke up again, it was the morning of May 9th.
Xiao Tian was sleeping soundly on the other bed. He was even hugging a wonderful frog doll that he brought from Shanghai.
Lin Yan didn't disturb Phyllostachys Pubescens. He was hungry. After washing up, he left the room and planned to go to the restaurant downstairs to look for food.
But just as he opened the door, he heard the sound of suitcases rolling on the carpet in the hallway.
A team of tall and strong players dragged their suitcases. They looked depressed and dispirited as they huddled together to wait in the elevator.
They wore the Crimson Star team uniform with the words Gambit E Sports printed on it.
Lin Yan recognized them at a glance. They were the GMB team from the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Although this team didn't have a direct affiliation with the famous Moscow Five, when M5 disbanded in 2013, all five players in the team joined GMB. It wasn't wrong to say that the Crimson Star team's predecessor was M5.
M5 had made great contributions to League of Legends during its barbaric growth and achieved good results. However, with the gradual formalization of the division and the injection of capital, it was inevitable that their standards would stagnate as they did not remain in the major division.
This time, GMB participated in the mid-season championship as the champions of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The early stages of the qualifiers were smooth sailing. They won five and lost one in the group and entered the Best-Of-5.
However, when they faced Flash Wolves yesterday, without Casa and in the LMS division, Flash Wolves' strength was getting worse and worse. It proved to all the audience that there was a huge gap between the wild card division and the five divisions.
Even if they lost, they were still much stronger than the wild card division.
Flash Wolves decisively crushed their opponents in three straight games and sent GMB home.
The handsome jungler Diamondprox turned around and looked at the room he had stayed in for the past two weeks.
He just happened to meet Lin Yan's eyes.
"Hi!"
His eyes lit up. The person in front of him was so handsome that he felt like he was glowing in the dim hallway.
"Ran, nice to see you!" He, who was nicknamed Dazed Cute, waved his hand.
Are you Lulu?
Lin Yan couldn't help but curse.
The other GMB members heard the movement of their jungler and turned to look in Lin Yan's direction.
"Ran, Ran!" The burly bearded players all squeezed over and took out their phones to take photos with Lin Yan.
It had to be said that after the Bird's Nest won the championship, Lin Yan's popularity in the League of Legends circle had reached the peak. Li Xianghe and the others were also under him.
Thanks to the fact that the popularity of the game hadn't dropped yet, Lin Yan's popularity was almost all over the division. Anyone who paid attention to the game would know his name.
He had a handsome and sunny appearance, a tall and straight figure, and wasn't too humble or introverted. That kind of personality wasn't very popular on the field, but it wasn't too arrogant either. This would attract a lot of disgust from the audience in the other divisions.
At the same time, he didn't have any dark history. He didn't do things like fight to the death and leave tonight or take a shower.
The most important thing was that he always won.
All the audience liked him.
Even in his old rival LCK division, Lin Yan had a lot of casual fans. They looked at Lin Yan the same way the LPL audience looked at Li Xianghe two years ago.
They loved him and hated him.
They liked to see his unconstrained play time and time again. It would be even better if the other team wasn't in their division.
Fist was very satisfied with the new image they had set. They wanted the world to know that e-sports wasn't just for otakus. Compared to Li Xianghe, who was a simple-minded person in real life, Lin Yan's image was clearly more in line with Fist's requirements.
The GMB members were thinking that if they saw a panda, they would quickly go up and take a picture with it. They could go back and brag to their brothers in the division. This mid-season competition wasn't in vain.
Lin Yan originally just wanted to go downstairs to eat. He didn't expect to encounter this situation.
"I'm your fan, Ran!"
GMB's bearded mid laner grabbed Lin Yan's hand tightly. He almost wanted him to teach him how to play games on the spot.
"No, no, no. You can say anything, but don't say that you're my fan." Lin Yan heard the unique Russian accent and his whole body trembled. He was afraid that someone would say that.
After taking a picture with them one by one, the GMB manager wanted Lin Yan to exchange team uniforms.
"Um … okay."
Lin Yan was traveling light. There were a total of three short-sleeved team uniforms in his suitcase. However, he couldn't refuse the manager's kindness, so he agreed.
Lin Yan walked back to his room quietly and took out a team uniform to exchange with Dazed Meng.
GMB's muscular man, who looked like he could kill a Shiba Inu with one punch, squatted down and took a picture with the two of them. He then posted it on social media.
[It's a pity that we couldn't make Berlin cheer for us. However, we met an expert before we left. In two days, he will make everyone remember his name.]
It had to be said that the Russian team was good at disgusting people. Why would Berlin cheer for them?
Dazed Meng chatted with Lin Yan while several GMB members reposted and liked the post.
"To be honest, I didn't expect the gap between me and the major division to be so big." A trace of helplessness appeared on his handsome face. "Nowadays, everyone is growing too fast …"
Lin Yan was silent.
The current situation was like this.
Why were the five divisions strong?
It was because more capital entered. A more scientific and reasonable training system and fierce competition allowed the players to maintain their strength. A more mature and complete youth training system allowed the league to have a steady stream of new blood.
Finally, the alliance system allowed the strong divisions to become stronger through internal competition.
For example, in this mid-season championship, even though YM was the champion of the LPL division, if teams like IG and RNG were to participate in MSI, they would still be able to compete with KZ.
This was the strength of the major division.
In the wild card division where GMB was located, there weren't many competitions and there weren't many professional players.
In a situation where the internal competition wasn't strong, even if GMB was the champion of the division, their strength wouldn't even be in the second tier among the strongest professional teams in the world.
In the competition before the division, when the opponent was rapidly developing, stagnating was already a form of falling behind.
"I still want to go one step further in the international competition …" Dazed Meng was unwilling to give up.
In the semifinals of the S2 international competition, losing to the champion Taipei Assassination Star and not being able to enter the finals was an eternal pain in the hearts of the M5 members.
Lin Yan wanted to comfort him. When Dazed Meng entered the international competition for the first time, it was already very successful for him to be able to enter the top four.
After all, a certain Dream-chasing jungler in the same age group as him was still working hard for the honor of being in the top four of the international competition.
Dazed Meng's professional career couldn't be considered a failure.
However, Lin Yan couldn't say comforting words.
Entering the top four for the first time in the international competition was considered a success?
When these words came from the mouth of a double champion, it felt like he was showing off.
He could only pat Dazed Meng's shoulder and let him continue to work hard.
"I have to catch a plane back home." Dazed Meng reached out and shook his hand. "You can do it too."
Lin Yan and GMB took the elevator downstairs together. He watched the group of people drag their suitcases out of sight before returning to the restaurant to enjoy the rye bread.
Usually, players were night owls. Other than a weirdo like Lin Yan, most people didn't have the habit of eating breakfast.
However, there were exceptions.
The Korean players wearing the KZ team uniform filed in. They all yawned and looked dispirited.
It seemed like they just got off the plane and came to the hotel. They planned to go upstairs to catch up on their jet lag after breakfast.
The moment the sleepy Khan saw Lin Yan, his eyes suddenly widened in anger.
Lin Yan, who was chewing on his bread, glanced at Khan and found that this person looked like a champion and was full of confidence.
However, he didn't care and just nodded to show his friendliness.
"Is there someone next to you?" Gera was also a social butterfly. He had a good relationship with Lin Yan since S6.
"No, no." Lin Yan picked up the GMB team uniform on the seat next to him. "This rye bread tastes good. You can try it."
Thanks to Su Cheng, Lin Yan was now fluent in English.
Gera didn't quite understand, but he could roughly guess that Lin Yan was recommending food to him based on his expression and actions.
He nodded to show that he understood and went to the buffet table to get some rye bread.
"How are you guys adapting to the new version?" Khan sat down across from Lin Yan and asked in half-baked Chinese.
He had played in China before, so he didn't forget his Mandarin. It came in handy now.
"You don't ask questions like that." Lin Yan laughed and stuffed a piece of bread into his mouth. The rich malt and creamy taste spread in his mouth. "You might as well ask us what we're hiding."
"Then what tricks are you hiding?" The Khan went along with the flow and asked straightforwardly.
"…" Lin Yan listened to Khan's accented Mandarin. He didn't expect such a simple-minded person to exist.
"It's nothing." Khan puffed out his chest. "We'll completely destroy YM in the tournament!"
"Oh." Lin Yan nodded to show that he heard. "Did you forget how we lost last year's World Championship?"
"This year is different!"
When Khan heard Lin Yan mention their previous record, he became anxious. "Our team composition is much better than before!"
"Isn't it just one more Peanut?" Lin Yan played it down. "What's the difference?
Every time YM's results are released, they'll meet Little Peanut. He's our LPL's lucky star. "
Khan was at a loss for words. He thought about it carefully and realized that it was true.
S6 Little Peanut was in the Tigers. He lost to YM in five games in the semifinals.
S7 Little Peanut was in SKT. From the mid-season to the Intercontinental Championship to the World Championship, Little Peanut didn't lose a single match and gave YM a grand slam for the whole year.
"Heh." He was a little nervous, but it didn't affect his words. "We'll see in the tournament!"