Chapter Text
As most people tend to do when they have a free moment, Ye Qiu was scrolling through his Weibo feed, looking at cute animal pictures.
‘Little Dot I can’t believe this post has received 43k likes. What do people see in this hideous little gremlin? This ugly dog looks like a giant rat. Why is it dressed up in such a rubbish costume? Oh, it’s supposed to be some sort of Glory character. This is… the Battle God? What a pretentious name... Huh isn’t that my stupid brother’s character in that stupid game he’s obsessed with? Little Dot you’re so much more handsome than all of these losers!’
Ye Qiu lost interest in his feed at this point to fuss over his dog but the seeds of an idea had taken root. And this was how Ye Qiu became one of those people who ran a social media account for their pets.
The first post was a shot of the pup wearing a flower wreath, with his face crinkled in joy and his tongue lolling out of his mouth in a droopy relaxed smile. Soon after, more pictures appeared with the dog dressed in increasingly elaborate Glory cosplay costumes. Since the account combined the two things the internet was most passionate about: Dogs and Glory, it was no wonder that its popularity rocketed skywards with the power and speed of a Dragon Raising its Head.
The account quickly became known among the Glory fanbase as a pure and unblemished haven unaffected by the guild wars and endless club drama that tore across the Glory landscape. Players could simply relax and enjoy pictures of their favourite dog dressed up as their favourite Glory characters, regardless of their club affiliation. For once, they were all united by their love for Little Dot.
One of the most popular posts was a video of Little Dot dressed in a Blue Rain team jacket. He was chasing his own tail and barking incessantly and only calmed down when someone slid over a Glory account card to him, on which he sat, wagging his tail happily. Captioned ‘Someone really wants to PK! PK! PK!’, it quickly gained over a million likes. Things continued in this vein for a while, until one day, the status quo was broken.
At some point during Season 6, a photo was posted of Little Dot, for the first time not alone. Someone, presumably his owner, was patting him on the head as he looked up at them with an expression of pure adoration. The photo was cropped so that only Little Dot’s face and the person’s elegant hand was visible.
samsamsara: Aww cute dog!! (～o￣3￣) ～
caterpillerBlue: He loves his owner so much <3
bob_yes: i wish someone would look at me the way little dot looks at his owner
parsleyisTheBestHerb: Hey doesn’t anyone think that this hand looks kind of familiar?
origami_cranes: Yeah I think I’ve seen it before but I can’t think where
GloriousEra: … hang on that hand … is it just me… or is that GOD YE QIU’S HAND?
desert_kitty: Such a beautiful and graceful hand! IT must be our Battle GOd!! He’s such a talented photographer! And his dog is so ADORABLE!!
love2pkpkpk: Don’t be stupid it’s just a hand (╬▔皿▔) 凸
rain_is_troubling: I have collected every shot of Captain Ye’s hands since the start of the Pro Alliance!! No one knows his hands better than me and I say it’s definitely him
apm888: I have spent hundreds of hours looking at these hands during Excellent Era games! I’d recognise it anywhere even if I was blind I sense it in the depths of my soul . . .
PythonAnaconda: I have a PhD in computer vision and am a deep learning AI researcher at one of the largest companies in China. I have run an analysis on this photo using the company’s supercomputer and compared it to confirmed pictures of our God’s hands. It has returned a 99.974% match with Ye Qiu. It’s him for sure.
mushishishi: GOD YE GOD YE GOD YE GOD YE GOD YE!!!
hanhan: God Ye is a dog person I have never been happier in my life ฅʕ•̫͡•ʔฅ
myUnevenEyes: You guys are crazy dumb. When would this guy have time to be running a popular weibo account with millions of followers that posts weekly? (* ￣︿￣)
eatBrickxx: It definitely is!! Don’t underestimate my family’s god!!
WanderingHaze: If it’s Ye Qiu he can achieve anything!!! (❤ ω ❤)
The internet went crazy over a potential glimpse of the hidden god of Glory and discussion immediately erupted about whether it was truly him.
Ye Qiu was a well-known and respected figure in the corporate world, the heir of the Ye business empire, and part of one of the most powerful families in China. He preferred not to have the reputation of someone who spent all his time playing dress-up with his dog so he took care to ensure that the account didn’t have distinguishing features that could be linked back to him. With his preventative measures, the netizens didn’t have much luck in identifying the account owner despite their best efforts. Ye Qiu was thrilled by the chaos he created and occasionally posted more photos featuring his hands and Little Dot to keep fanning the flames raging through the Glory forums.
Su Mucheng, with her vast social media presence, found out about this account with impressive speed. It was a point of pride for her that it had been on her radar since the very start. It only had 7 posts and only 45 followers when she first discovered it.
Ye Xiu decided not to tell her that he had known about the account since its 3rd post. He would never admit to anyone that he was delighted when he first found out that Ye Qiu was posting pictures of Little Dot online and he could see his precious dog again. He would also never admit that he was pleased that One Autumn Leaf and later on Lord Grim costumes were one of the most common recurring themes on the account, which he knew was a nod to him. One final thing that he would never admit was that he found out about the account when he was stalking Ye Qiu’s social media to make sure his little brother was alright. He saw that Ye Qiu liked one of the posts from this account on his main and immediately recognised Little Dot.
When that infamous hand picture was posted, Su Mucheng immediately identified the appendage as Ye Xiu's. However, no one knew better than her that he wasn't the type of person to be running a popular social media account, especially without her knowledge.
Dancing Rain: hi Ye Qiu, I’m Su Mucheng ヽ(✿ﾟ▽ﾟ)ノ
Dancing Rain: i’m basically Ye Xiu’s little sister ~
Dancing Rain: lil’ dot is very cute!
She didn’t know it at the time, but this was the start of a beautiful partnership formed of Ye Xiu’s Younger Siblings. Ye Xiu felt a shiver of foreboding when he saw a wicked smirk gleam on her lips and immediately regretted giving Ye Qiu’s contact details to Mucheng upon her request. He briefly considered asking her what she was doing before deciding that ignorance was bliss and ducking his head to focus on beating up Guild Herb Garden so hard that their players wanted to cry. He might not be able to prevent the future, but at least he could distract himself from his imminent suffering.
Su Mucheng reposted the photo of Little Dot and Ye Xiu’s Hand from her own account which was sufficient proof for most fans that they had indeed stumbled upon the goldmine that was Ye Xiu’s (no longer) secret Weibo account.
On the other hand, Excellent Era had never been more confused. Surely they would have noticed if their captain and ace was hiding a dog in his room and doing all sorts of photoshoots?
‘The Great God Ye Qiu is ineffable and mere mortals such as ourselves can never hope to understand him.’ The EE employees shrugged and continued on with their lives. It said a lot about Ye Xiu's reputation (and his distinctive hands) that people could believe that about him.
When Excellent Era management tried to question Ye Xiu about the matter, he just mumbled a vague response about liking dogs. When they tried to question Su Mucheng, she was the picture-perfect embodiment of innocence and confirmed that the account belonged to Ye Qiu. They concluded from these interactions that their resident God of Glory was finally opening up to the modern world of social media but at a glacial speed that would put Yu Wenzhou’s slow hands to shame. But since he still completely refused to do advertisements, the account had no financial value to EE management and they soon forgot about it.
Desert Dust: Ye Qiu.
Lord Grim: yep?
Desert Dust: That’s not your hand.
Lord Grim: haha very impressive old Han
Lord Grim: you’re the only one who’s figured it out so far
Desert Dust: I know you.
Ye Xiu revealed his face at last in the Challenger league and soon after that, he seemed to decide that maintaining his secrecy online was rather pointless. He began posting more photos of Little Dot that included his elegant hands and occasionally even his face.
While his fans were beyond jubilant that their mysterious god was slowly revealing more of himself, it didn’t come as a surprise to them that God Ye was indeed the owner of this account. The entire fanbase was in accord that Ye Xiu was the person behind the account, with some dedicated superfans having reached that conclusion after the very first post with The Hand.
At the start of Season 10, Chen Guo became more and more nervous about Team Happy’s financial situation. The team’s expenses were ever increasing, but sponsors didn’t want to invest too heavily in an untested grassroots team that had yet to attract the large and loyal fanbase that teams like Tyranny and Samsara possessed. During this time of uncertainty for Happy, Su Mucheng stepped up and handily solved the problem.
Dancing Rain: i’ve been thinking of ways to get more sponsors
Ye Qiu: I can sponsor Happy
Ye Qiu: How much do you want? Will a few hundred million RMB be enough?
Dancing Rain: haha no need to be so extra
Dancing Rain: why use your money when we can convince others to give us their money instead?
Dancing Rain: （￣︶￣）
Ye Qiu: …?
She explained her plan and waited for his verdict.
Ye Qiu: Brother would be annoyed if we did that. It’d draw a lot of attention to him
Dancing Rain: do you want photos of him as a teenager? (✿◕‿◕✿)
Ye Qiu: …Fine
Ye Qiu: But you have to make him wear a suit in the photoshoots
Dancing Rain: if you two wear the happy uniform it’ll be better publicity for the team
Ye Qiu: I refuse to dress like him. He can dress up like me
Ye Qiu: And I’ll throw in some baby pictures of him for you if you get him to do this
Dancing Rain: deal（*＾-＾*）
‘So we’ll be doing a photoshoot with you and Ye Qiu tomorrow.’ Su Mucheng sidled up to Ye Xiu one evening as he was watching a match VOD in Happy's practice room.
‘Mucheng why would you do that to me.’ Ye Xiu looked even more half-dead than usual.
‘He bribed me with baby pictures of you', Su Mucheng admitted easily with a charming smile.
‘How did you get Ye Qiu to work with you?’
‘I bribed him with teenage pictures of you. So you’ll do it?’ She pressed, even though she was familar enough Ye Xiu to know that she had already won.
‘Fine.’
‘You’ll be wearing a suit by the way.’
‘…Fine.’ Ye Xiu agreed, because he knew that there was no stopping the force of nature that was Su Mucheng with a goal.
[Photo Description: Image of Ye Xiu and his reflection leaning against each other, casually slouched, and wearing matching suits]
It wouldn't be an overstatement to say that this photo created the greatest uproar seen in the Glory player circles since its inception all those years ago. First of all, this was the first photo of God Ye in existence where he wasn't dressed in the Excellent Era or Happy uniform and his face wasn’t hidden under a facemask, giant sunglasses, scarf and cap. As everyone had always suspected, he was as unfairly handsome as his hands would suggest. Wearing a well-tailored suit with his hair artfully slicked back, he could even give Zhou Zekai a run for his money. The second noteworthy thing about the photo was that there were two Ye Xius in this photo.
On first glance (and possibly the second and third glances too) it appeared that Ye Xiu was standing in front of a mirror. However, upon closer inspection it was clear that there was no mirror but instead there were two separate people. One trending fan theory was that Ye Xiu had been playing around with Photoshop, which although incorrect, was at least halfway believable. Another hypothesis floating around the internet involved a secret photoshoot with a dedicated superfan who had invested in plastic surgery to look like his idol.
The theories quickly became exponentially more outlandish:
DontNeedACleric: He’s a Ye Xiu body pillow come to life through the power of our devotion
Grass_Mud_Horse: upstairs… Seriously?
DontNeedACleric: Don’t underestimate the strength of my love for my god <3 <3 <3
Eventually the internet reached a general consensus that this feat was achieved through skilful photo editing. The conversation gradually drifted to why Ye Xiu had done something so wildly out of character for him.
zhou_zekawaii: Ye Xiu is jealous of all the attention Glory’s most handsome, Zhou Zekai, is receiving and is trying to increase his popularity for the All-Star voting!!
just_a_shy_bee: It’s a psychological tactic against their opponents so they lose focus during this crucial time just before the play offs. As expected from the greatest of the four tacticians
peachblossoms: He’s just trying to grab our attention so we don’t notice a wild boss has appeared. Stop Happy at all costs!!!!
(It was actually just a fortunate coincidence that Happy managed to steal the Level 70 Boss ‘Night Streak’ which spawned while all the other players were caught in the chaos of trying to figure out what was going on with the double Ye Xiu situation.)
During this media frenzy, several companies did become interested in Happy’s current popularity. They approached Happy with a couple of multi-million RMB sponsorship deals, so Su Mucheng considered this a job well done.
Surprisingly, no one considered that he might have an identical twin.
Desert Dust: You have a twin?
Lord Grim: (^人^)
No one considered it apart from Han Wenqing. Truly, there was no one who knew Ye Xiu better than this rival of his.
At Happy’s next press conference, all the reporters were eager to question the team about this, but unfortunately for them, their enthusiasm for answers was matched by an equally strong desire from Happy to feed them nothing but lies. This was after Happy’s second match of the season so the reporters hadn’t yet developed an immunity to Ye Xiu’s shamelessness or comprehended that no one could force this shameless god do anything if he was unwilling (in hindsight, his years of complete media silence should have been a pretty obvious clue). Team Happy was in on the secret and had even met Ye Qiu a few times, during his visits to his older brother at the internet café. Ye Qiu had been particularly elated to meet Su Mucheng in person, who displayed an outstanding talent for designing creative photoshoots for Little Dot.
After a few initial questions about key moments in the match, the reporters finally geared up for the topic that had been consuming the internet for the past few days.
‘A few days ago, a Weibo account run by God Ye posted a picture in which there appears to be two Gods. Please can you comment on this?’
The team members holding the press conference: Ye Xiu, Su Mucheng, Fang Rui, Wei Chen and Bao Rongxing began their attack on the reporters with perfect synchronisation. Having such loyal and trustworthy teammates around him reminded Ye Xiu of all the years that EE tried to push him out of the club, and he was struck by a pang of nostalgia for the original team with whom he had won 3 championships.
‘Old Wei took that photo and his hands were shaking so hard it looks like there’s two of me. Age gets to us all eventually I suppose’, Ye Xiu said calmly without batting an eyelash at the outrageous lies spilling from his mouth.
‘…Do you think we’re idiots? We might not be geniuses but we weren’t born yesterday! There are obviously two people in that photo and it’s not because Wei Chen is a terrible photographer. Did you seriously think we’d believe you?’ The reporters wondered incredulously in their minds.
‘Stop spouting this crap. Old Ye, this worthless old-timer, is the one who has such useless shaking hands that they were shaking so hard it looks like there’s two of him in this picture. My hands were steady as a rock.’
‘… Your argument doesn’t even make sense.’ The reporters really wanted to cry after trying to deal with these two old shameless men and only the last vestiges of their professionalism prevented them from bawling in public and/or hitting their heads against the nearest wall hard enough to knock them out of their misery.
It was then Fang Rui’s turn. ‘The truth is that Happy's R&D budget has all gone into human cloning. We’ve cloned Ye Xiu and the Myriad Manifestation Umbrella 11 times each, so from now on Happy will now be formed of a team of Ye Xius and we will definitely win the championships this year.’
The reporters didn’t realise it was possible but Happy had turned the shameless Fang Rui even more shameless. In this team he had managed to evolve into his ultimate shameless form. Happy’s members were amplifying each other’s shameless tendencies to the extreme. Also Fang Rui managed to think of the most horrifying idea they had ever heard. All of the pro players felt shivers down their spines from the thought that there could be more than one crazy, unpredictable Unspecialised in the Alliance.
‘Boss is an alien. Don’t be mean to him.’ Steamed Bun was in fine form on that day, at his most bewildering best. Unfortunately, the poor underpaid and overworked reporters didn’t appreciate him. They tried to maintain their image and keep their dignity but were all crying inside. ‘We’re bullying him? He’s the one bullying us! How are we supposed to publish anything that comes out of his mouth? We’d be laughed out of our jobs.’
Su Mucheng suddenly spoke up, ‘My teammates are such children, don’t listen to their nonsense.’
The reporters had hopes again for learning the truth behind this photo. They felt that she was sensible and honest.
‘Ye Xiu is a dedicated pro player and has been training endlessly for the play-offs. His skill at using the Ninja Shadow Clone technique is now so great that he can use it in real life and that’s how he created the second Ye Xiu in the photo. I really respect that he doesn’t rest on his laurels but is always actively trying to improve himself. I’m glad that his hard work has really paid off here.’
Su Mucheng spoke with a sweet smile on her innocent face and for a moment the reporters were convinced by her words. A few even started scribbling down article drafts in their notebooks about Ye Xiu’s tireless work ethic and his efforts to bring his team another step closer to the championships. Then their brains kicked in and they were again plunged into the depths of despair. Surely there had to be a rule against how brazenly a team could lie? With tears on their cheeks and defeat in their hearts, the reporters just experienced a complete loss to Team Happy. They suddenly felt great sympathy to the team that Happy had just defeated and swore to write nice articles praising them for their dignity in defeat. The reporters felt a sense of kinship with the opposing team after also getting crushed by Happy.
A few days after this picture was posted, the account returned to its usual schedule of Little Dot content, as if the internet hadn't been almost broken. In the most recent post, Little Dot was dressed up as Glory’s greatest launcher, Dancing Rain. This gave weight to the theory that the twin picture of Ye Xiu was just an elaborate hoax to draw peoples’ attention while he carried out some nefarious plan that left the other guilds screaming in anguish.
At the end of Season 10, Ye Xiu led Team Happy to Glory one final time and then he slinked off and disappeared without a trace.
The Weibo account, now with tens of millions of followers, fell silent at the same time.