LPL History

Chapter 58 A Clever Online Funeral: Weibo Public Opinion Decides the Fate

[June 28th. IF was in great spirits, excitedly discussing his new female fan with Dao Ge in the training room. He only calmed down a bit after seeing Abu enter the training room.]

June 29th. Big Nose said that as the team captain, he would treat everyone to dinner to celebrate winning the TGA championship. I was very happy and returned the favor with a pork floss pastry.

[July 3rd. After his vacation, Smile broke down in the first training match because IF eliminated two of his siege minions. Smile berated IF in the training room, saying he was obsessed with women. IF was furious, stating that he'd been in online relationships all along and was still a virgin, while Smile was the one only thinking about siege minions.]

[July 5th. In the middle of the night, I heard IF crying in the next room. She cried for over half an hour. Abu told me that IF had asked him to get back together, but he had rejected her.]

[July 7th, sunny, suddenly a heavy snow began to fall. It was seven o'clock, and Abu's sister returned to the void.]

It was noon.

Almost the entire WE team was huddled in their small training room eating takeout.

The old fan has been discarded, and the air conditioner is turned up to its maximum speed to block out the summer heat.

This Mingzhu air conditioner was purchased by the club after WE won the TGA championship.

Hearing that the air conditioners for the dormitories were on their way made the WE team very happy, finally tasting the sweetness after hardship.

Brother Dao handed the "country bumpkin" to IF and said:

"Brother, cheer up! With money, what kind of woman can't you find?"

IF looked extremely haggard and shook his head.

"No, you don't understand, Cilantro... is different from other women."

“What’s the difference?” Brother Dao chuckled. “Once the lights are off, it’s all the same…”

He silently shut his mouth.

Because he saw Abu open the door to the training room.

Everyone looked over and saw Abu standing at the door, his eyes red and glaring at IF with hatred.

IF felt uneasy under Abu's gaze and couldn't help but speak up:

“Abu, your sister…”

Abu suddenly pounced on him like a madman.

"Cui Yi! Give me back my sister!!!"

Seeing Abu acting like a shrew ready to fight, Zhou Li rushed forward and stopped Abu.

"Abu, what are you doing! Relationships are always complicated and hard to explain! If I and your sister broke up, it just means they weren't a good match, it doesn't affect our brotherhood, why do this!"

Abu struggled frantically, his voice sharper than ever before, and what he said left everyone present stunned.

"My sister! My sister committed suicide because of him!! Waaaaah! Give me back my sister's life!"

The air in WE's training room seemed to freeze.

IF stared wide-eyed, and said incredulously:

"How could that be... You must be joking."

"What are you talking about!" Abu shouted hoarsely, "If you don't believe me, go check out my sister's Weibo!!"

Upon hearing Abu's words, everyone quickly took out their phones.

Zhou Li also logged onto Weibo, eagerly starting to watch Abu's performance.

Abu's sister just posted a new update on her Weibo account.

My life ends here, my love exists only for you.

Abu also posted an update on his Weibo account.

[Sister, no, no, no! What am I going to do?! (Sobbing)]

The WE team fell completely silent.

Only Zhou Li was struggling to suppress his laughter.

Moreover, Abu is incredibly careless in his work.

His own Weibo post was published three minutes earlier than his sister's.

Fortunately, no one has noticed this problem yet.

IF's hands trembled, and his face turned deathly pale.

You killed my sister!

Abu continued his shrewish performance, even launching into a wailing cry! "Sister! Why were you so heartless, sister?! You died so tragically!!! My poor sister! You were so unlucky in love! My sister was only twenty-three, in the prime of your life! My sister, how could you bear to leave me! You spun the millstone and wove cloth to support the whole family, the work in the fields depended on you. You always gave me the porridge and soup, while you were starving. You could mend your torn clothes with cloth, and you could only mend your mistakes with tears. I regret letting you be introduced to IF, now even my tears can't bring you back! If your spirit is in heaven, open your eyes, offer candles and paper money before the altar, and walk steadily on the road to the West, sister~"

Abu's shrill voice nearly pierced Zhou Li's eardrums, and he finally couldn't help but interrupt Abu.

“Abu, calm down. IF has let your sister down and we have to give you an explanation.”

Upon hearing Zhou Li's words, Ruofeng, who had remained silent until now, stepped forward.

Although IF betrayed him during the previous TGA, Ruofeng still chose to forgive him.

After all, he now needs to seize every opportunity to win people's hearts.

Since he and Zhou Li were at odds, he naturally had to do the opposite of whatever the enemy did.

"Abu, please accept my condolences. But the dead cannot be brought back to life. IF and your sister were in a free-love relationship. Everyone is saddened by this, but we cannot blame IF entirely."

Upon hearing Ruofeng's words, IF felt as if he had grasped at a straw and cast a grateful glance at Big Nose.

Abu was about to go berserk when he saw Zhou Li wink at him.

They also knew that if they continued to throw a tantrum at this point, it would backfire.

So she wiped away her tears, turned and left with a slightly forlorn expression.

Zhou Li followed Abu back to the dormitory, and Abu immediately said:

"What should we do if the big-nosed guy is protecting IF?"

Abu's face was filled with resentment, as if her sister were really dead.

Zhou Li sighed and said:

"Big Nose is the captain after all, and there's nothing you can do if he wants to protect IF. Get ready to hold a virtual funeral for your sister."

Abu was taken aback for a moment, then realized what was happening.

"I understand, this is what you taught me before: shifting internal conflicts to external sources!"

That evening, Abu posted the news of his sister's death on his Weibo account and tagged all the WE team members, including Big Nose, IF, and Zhou Li.

However, it did not generate much of a response.

Ten days later, Abu posted another message on Weibo.

Brothers, today is my sister's funeral. Come with me to see her off and offer your blessings. @草莓丶, @周礼, @Misaya若风, @if, @夜尽天明, @微笑.

Zhou Li kept refreshing Weibo until an hour after Abu posted his Weibo, he found that the WE team was still quiet and hadn't made any moves.

"That shouldn't be the case. Logically, they should have already started sharing and interacting with it by now..."

Zhou Li thought about it and realized that it was his own problem that caused the rift between Big Nose and Abu.

Since it was his own problem, Zhou Li, who has always been upright and principled, naturally had to stand up and help Abu.

So he was the first to retweet this Weibo post.

Zhou Li's Weibo account was only created after the TGA ended, but because of his outstanding performance at TGA, coupled with his status as a champion mid-laner and WE's huge fan base, he already has more than 400,000 followers even though he hasn't posted a single post on Weibo yet.

This number may not seem like much, but it's important to remember that in 2012, Weibo's user base was already quite small, and Big Nose, the most popular member of the WE team, only has a little over 600,000 followers.

It's already terrifying that Zhou Li has gained over 400,000 fans after only playing three matches.

When Zhou Li reposted Abu's post on Weibo, the entire e-sports community exploded.

When the WE team saw that Zhou Li had forwarded the message, they could no longer remain ostriches and began to forward and interact with it.

Five days later, the news of Abu's sister's death was known to almost everyone.

The rumored relationship between Abu's sister and IF naturally became a hot topic of conversation.

As the discussion grew, Abu was as happy as a 200-pound girl.

He intended to add fuel to the fire on Weibo, but accidentally logged into the wrong account—his sister's account.

The woman in the void logged back into Weibo and was quickly spotted by sharp-eyed netizens.

Abu immediately issued a clarification.

[I originally registered this Weibo account using my own QQ account. My sister is abroad and couldn't register a new one, so I gave her mine. She didn't think much of it; she just changed her profile picture and kept the rest of her information the same. Honestly, who would joke about the life or death of their loved one? In the past, this would have been a crime punishable by death. I've been with WE for so long, and my only goal has been to improve the team's performance. Sometimes, to coordinate relationships within the team, I have to say different things to people with different viewpoints, but this is all necessary to solve problems. My loyalty to WE has never changed.]

Seeing that Abu had successfully resolved the final crisis, Zhou Li said with satisfaction:

"It's time for Promise and Curly to make their appearance."

(End of this chapter)