Two years later.
At ten o'clock at night, the study room at Peking University was brightly lit.
Lin Jing sat by the window at the back of the classroom, wearing white Bluetooth headphones, listening to English vocabulary and slowly finishing the last high math problem.
She put down her pen and looked up at the classroom.
Final exams were approaching, and it was nearly eleven o'clock, yet the classroom was still packed with few empty seats.
Having completed her day's study tasks, Lin Jing didn't linger. She quickly packed her things and returned to the dormitory.
Her roommates were not around. After washing up, Lin Jing took her iPad and propped herself at her desk, putting the finishing touches on a painting she had nearly completed two days prior, and then uploaded it to Weibo.
【Classmate Tiantian Tiantian: Another day mining for Kuang-zai.】
Two years later, her account had accumulated nearly 1 million followers, and the engagement on her Weibo posts had grown from a few dozen likes to tens of thousands.
Within a minute of posting, her Weibo had already garnered over a hundred comments.
【Finally, I've caught the太太's divine artwork.】
【Ahhhhh, it's been a week, and finally, new content.】
【Holy crap, the scale of this picture is a bit much this time. The way Kuang-zai is gripping the bedsheet makes me imagine a rather inappropriate adult drama.】
【It's 2021, and people are still fans of Sheng Kuang? He's been out of style for eight hundred years, hasn't he?】
Lin Jing scrolled through the screen, not paying too much attention to the content, but her sharp eyes caught the comment about him being out of style.
Her fingertip paused, and she stared at the sentence for two seconds before moving her finger to block the user.
Not long after, her phone received several private messages. The blocked account had switched to an alternate account to throw a tantrum.
【You blocked me?】
【Are Sheng Kuang's fans so unable to handle criticism?】
【Did I say something wrong? Is Sheng Kuang not out of style?】
【Two years ago, he was already outdated. Wake up, deluded fan.】
【Sheng Kuang is trash, Sheng Kuang is outdated, Sheng Kuang is outdated, Sheng Kuang is trash…】
Lin Jing watched the private messages flood her screen and, without thinking, sent this account to the blacklist as well.
A few seconds later, feeling increasingly annoyed, she navigated to the blacklist, released the account, and her fingertips flew across the keyboard as she typed a line of text and sent it over.
【Obsessed with Kuang, crazy for Kuang, I'd bang my head against the wall for Kuang Kuang.**】
The other party was slightly bewildered: "?"
Lin Jing continued typing as if she hadn't seen it.
【Kuang-zai be brave, Mom will always follow.】
【Kuang-zai yyds.**】
【Kuang-zai, you're the best.】
The other party: "Real deluded fan?"
The other party: "So deluded."
Lin Jing pretended not to see, re-sent the Sheng Kuang fan support phrases from beginning to end. By the time she had sent them so many times she lost count, the other party blocked her.
Although this small interlude had concluded, Lin Jing's mood was somewhat affected.
Actually, she wasn't the only one who thought Sheng Kuang was out of style; at this point, it was a minority opinion, with last year being the peak.
The day after Sheng Kuang officially turned eighteen, the 2019 kPL Fall Season officially kicked off.
In the first few matches of the regular season, Sheng Kuang was as dominant as ever. The young man at that time was still radiant, but about half a month into the competition, everything began to change.
gdt brought in two new players, replacing the then mid-laner Lan Bowen and the support Chen Jing.
Those two newcomers had no prior match experience, and their competitive experience was insufficient. They were up against strong kPL teams at the time. Even with Sheng Kuang, they still lost.
After losing two consecutive matches, gdt's fans began to complain. gdt's official explanation was that they were nurturing new players and experimenting with new tactics.
The subsequent matches still featured the two new players. When Chen Jing played support, his focus was centered around Sheng Kuang. The new support's focus was on the marksman. Sheng Kuang's role as jungler became almost like a semi-support, and their win rate wasn't as impressive, leading to another wave of fan dissatisfaction.
It was around that time that rumors began to circulate: Sheng Kuang was too focused on individual plays, that this was a team game and he only cared about showing off. Others claimed Sheng Kuang had been praised too highly and had become arrogant, neglecting his game. Some even said Sheng Kuang wasn't participating in practice matches… In short, the situation escalated, and by the time gdt lost the championship title in the 2019 kPL Fall Season, more and more people began to believe that Sheng Kuang, who had reached his peak upon debut, was no longer the invincible god they once worshipped.
In 2020, Chen Jing was transferred from gdt to CeC. The first mid-laner, Lan Bowen, announced his retirement, while Sheng Kuang was relegated to a substitute position.
As of today, 2021, Sheng Kuang had not played a match for nearly a year and two months.
Two years ago, the most popular saying online was:
"Sheng Kuang, gdt·miracle, kPL's number one jungler. At sixteen, he took the college entrance exam and was the top scorer in the province. The reason he aimed for top scorer was to get his family's consent to play games. In the same year, he participated in the kPL Fall Season, achieving thirty consecutive wins for gdt and securing the first championship in the history of Honor of Kings. After that, in all Honor of Kings competitions, as long as Sheng Kuang was present, the championship belonged to gdt.
As of the 2019 World Championship, Kuang-zai had won a total of five championships. The above are the achievements of Kuang-zai before he turned eighteen. Please stay tuned for Kuang-zai after he turns eighteen."
However, that flamboyant and unrestrained young man, who was once at the height of his glory, remained forever at eighteen.
In the two years that followed, Sheng Kuang's professional career after eighteen was a blank slate.
The dormitory door creaked open, and a roommate returned.
Lan Tingting, carrying a paper bag of takeout, bounced over to Lin Jing: "Jing-jiang, want some late-night snack?"
Lin Jing snapped back to attention and shook her head: "I've already brushed my teeth. I'm not eating."
"Alright." Lan Tingting didn't insist. She pulled up a chair, plopped down, and tore open the paper bag to start eating fried chicken. After a few bites, she seemed to recall something and looked up at Lin Jing: "Jing-jiang, have you heard? gdt and jz are in the semifinals this weekend, and Miracle is supposed to play."
Lin Jing turned her head: "Ah? Really?"
Lan Tingting: "I think so. I saw it on the forum; it's all over."
Lin Jing didn't say anything, picked up her phone, and logged into the official Honor of Kings forum. Sure enough, the top post was the news of Miracle's return to the stage after a year's absence.
The match was scheduled for the weekend and would be held in Beijing.
Without hesitation, Lin Jing went to look for tickets. Although Sheng Kuang's esports career had been a mess for the past two years, he still had a considerable fanbase, and the tickets were already sold out.
Lin Jing went to search on Xianyu and found that someone was reselling tickets at a higher price. The seats were front-row, but the price was a bit steep.
Lin Jing gritted her teeth and placed the order.
…
On the day of the 2021 kPL Spring Season semifinals, Lin Jing made sure to set off for the stadium very early.
Even so, she still had to queue for nearly ten minutes before entering.
Her seats were truly excellent, in the front VIP area, and in the third row.
She had barely sat down when the surrounding seats began to fill up one after another, except for a few empty seats in the first row.
The match was about to start, and Lin Jing's attention was entirely focused on the stage. She didn't notice three people taking those empty seats.