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i. statistics
To the surprise of absolutely no one, Zhou Zekai’s stream was ranked number one among professional Glory players. Even if he communicated with fans in monosyllables, his skills spoke for himself. The ultra HD webcam which captured his every pore and eyelash (not that Zhou Zekai had visible pores) didn’t hurt either.
So yes, Zhou Zekai was the indisputable number one. Individually that is.
But in an unofficial ranking, some enterprising fans had calculated the live views and follower count of each professional player and summed up the results per team. And in this case, Happy was actually number one.
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Question. Why was Team Happy’s live broadcasts collectively the most popular?
a. While Zhou Zekai was number one, Su Mucheng was ranked a respectable fifth and had a broader appeal,
b. If one were lucky, one might encounter a wild Ye Xiu in the background of any of the members’ streams,
c. Tang Rou, while equally reticent as Zhou Zekai, was equally top notch in terms of both skill and looks,
d. People were still deciding whether to ship Luo Ji and Steamed Bun together,
e. Previews of Fang Rui attempting (and failing) to dance,
f. An Wenyi fanboying over Zhang Xinjie, or
g. Memes
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It was a trick question. The answer, obviously, was all of the above.
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ii. origin story
An “industry insider” had once disclosed that professional Glory players were usually contractually obligated to live broadcast an average of 30 to 40 hours per month. Some calculated the time strictly based on broadcasts in the gaming channel while others calculated it based on any hours spent live broadcasting.
The latter obviously applied to Happy.
For example, Su Mucheng’s live broadcasts varied from: film and drama reviews, morning/evening routines, and even shopping vlogs. Occasionally, she also played Glory.
In one of her earliest live broadcasts, Su Mucheng answered frequently asked questions sent in by fans.
Su Mucheng, who had no qualms about using her status as captain, had managed to convince Happy’s other members to help in her broadcast. She had also roped in Chen Guo to act as a host.
“So the next question is how did you end up joining Happy? Did God Ye Xiu personally ask any the members to join?”
“I was scammed! Everybody was scammed!” Wei Chen hollered. As a retired player, he certainly didn’t need to join the broadcast but Happy’s Guild department was just a door away from the practice room and Wei Chen could often be found checking up on his juniors.
Tang Rou thought for a while before answering. “Hmmm… if you look at it in a way, I was also scammed,” she admitted.
“I was scammed too,” An Wenyi intoned solemnly.
“I was bullied into joining,” Luo Jie said. “By Steamed Bun not by God Ye,” he quickly clarified.
“Boss Ye is so cool so I joined!” Steamed Bun exclaimed. He elbowed Mo Fan who was sitting next to him. “And Mo Fan was bullied and scammed.”
“It’s a long story,” Fang Rui said. “But the short of it is I was also scammed.”
Su Mucheng smiled beatifically at the camera. “I consider Ye Xiu as family, so I have no choice. But I don’t think that counts as being scammed.”
“Being a family member of Ye Xiu is a scam in itself,” Wei Chen rebutted.
Chen Guo, who had long given up in correcting the shameless behavior of her team, simply asked, “Should we move to the next question?”
A few moments later, the door to the practice room swung wide and Qiao Yifan entered bearing drinks and snacks.
“Good timing, Yifan! How about you? Tell the fans how you ended up joining Happy.”
Qiao Yifan blinked up at the camera. He obviously did not get the memo that today was “throw Ye Xiu under the bus” day, because he gave a heartfelt answer.
“I was still in Tiny Herb when I met Senior Ye. Erm, this is hard to explain but when I met him I felt seen? Or I guess acknowledged? I was really happy because it’s God Ye Xiu .” Qiao Yifan continued to answer while handing out drinks. “He was the one who suggested I switch classes and he encouraged me when I was at my lowest point. I asked Senior Ye to join the team and I was really happy when he accepted me.”
There was a pause after this very touching declaration.
“Yifan was scammed,” An Wenyi said after an appropriate moment of silence. “The sad thing is he knows it but he’s happy about it.”
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Ye Xiu’s response, in a very rare post to his Weibo:
Yifan is my favorite child.
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iii. six packs of sunflower seeds and counting
“What are you watching?” Qiao Yifan could be seen peering over Mo Fan’s shoulder.
Su Mucheng, who was sitting beside Mo Fan, answered on his behalf. “Meteor Garden.”
“Is it any good?”
“We just started so we can’t really say. Although Mo Fan agrees with me that Guan Hong is cuter than Wang He Di.”
“Eh, really?”
“Yes,” Mo Fan answered, deadly earnest.
“He prefers the 2001 version though. He’s a purist.”
An Wenyi could be heard offscreen. “If you’re a purist, then shouldn’t you read the manga instead?”
“I’ve read it already,” Mo Fan answered, expertly cracking a sunflower seed.
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iv. look at this stuff, isn’t it neat?
“And here we have Yifan and Wenyi’s room. This is Yifan’s side. It’s really neat. He keeps his plants by the window and there’s the One Inch Ash plush he brings along when we travel.”
The camera panned to the right. “And then this is Wenyi’s side! Also really clean. These two probably have the cleanest room.”
The camera lingered on An Wenyi’s side of the room for only a few seconds but netizens should never be underestimated. “He’s a fan of senior Zhang Xinjie,” Luo Ji added unnecessarily before closing the door and moving to the next room.
Before the livestream even ended, fans had already discussed the significance of An Wenyi’s posters (five in total—one of Team Happy, one of Zhang Xinjie and three of Immovable Rock), identified a limited edition model of Immovable Rock next to an unreleased (!) model of Little Cold Hands, and noted that hanging in the place of honor right above An Wenyi’s desk was a framed autograph of Zhang Xinjie.
For weeks, the top post in the official Glory forum was titled: An Wenyi, Ascended Fanboy .
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And if this incident sparked an influx of numerous Immovable Rock x Little Cold Hands fanfiction, no one had to know.
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v. if music be the food of love, play on (or not)
On one sunny afternoon during the offseason, Tang Rou started a live broadcast succinctly titled as: Apartment Tour.
Very straightforward, nothing surprising at all. Except for the fact that Ye Xiu and his twin were visiting at that time.
The views doubled, tripled, quadrupled when word got out. The chat went wild. Not that anyone from Team Happy was paying attention to the chat because they were too busy showing Ye Xiu’s twin around.
The twins, however, had the special talent of avoiding the camera. So for the first half of the video, one could only see the after image of their hair or their clothes.
The first time Ye Qiu appeared on the screen properly was when he’s bending over an electronic keyboard tucked in the corner of the living room.
“Does this still work?”
“It does. Let me plug it in.” Chen Guo went over to help Ye Qiu set up the keyboard. “Tang Rou’s father gave this as a birthday gift a few years back. She still plays sometimes.”
Offscreen, one could hear Tang Rou explaining further. “He wanted to send a grand piano — or at least a baby grand — but there’s no space.” Affection and exasperation colored her tone. “And I only play during the offseason anyway.”
With the keyboard set up, Ye Qiu pressed experimentally on some of the keys.
“Do you also play, Ye Qiu?” Chen Guo asked.
(In the chat that no one was paying attention to, the name Ye Qiu was being repeated in various tones of disbelief and outrage when fans finally put two and two together.)
“Yes. But not as much as I want to.”
Ye Qiu ran his thumb from the top keys to the bottom in a glissando.
“This is better than I expected. The keys feel nice. This feels more like a digital piano than an electronic keyboard.”
Tang Rou could be heard agreeing. “Yes, it almost feels like a real piano.”
“Hmm, but the actual thing’s always better. I think you could fit an upright here instead of a keyboard,” Ye Qiu muttered to himself.
Steamed Bun, harbinger of chaos that he was, asked the critical question. “Boss Ye! You also play right? Who plays better between the two of you?”
“Me,” Ye Qiu answered at the exact same time Ye Xiu stepped into the frame.
“By that,” Ye Xiu drawled, “what he really means is me.”
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“Are you gonna play Flight of the Bumblebee again?”
Ye Xiu grinned, “Of course. Unless you want me to play Pathetique instead?”
“Please don’t,” Ye Qiu grimaced. “Tang Rou can be our judge.”
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Round 1: Ye Xiu, Rimsky-Korsakov - Flight of the Bumblebee
When Ye Xiu finished, Steamed Bun cheered loudly while Fang Rui looked on with his mouth open. Chen Guo looked like she was having war flashbacks.
Tang Rou’s assessment: devastatingly fast and devastatingly ugly.
Round 2: Ye Qiu, Liszt - Un sopsiro
When Ye Qiu finished, everyone clapped enthusiastically. Fang Rui had hearts in his eyes and Chen Guo could be heard saying, “Even I could tell that sounded better.”
Tang Rou’s assessment: a little bit clumsy and far from technically perfect. But surprisingly tender, mournful, passionate, and somewhat resigned.
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As soon as Ye Qiu finished playing, Tang Rou declared a winner. “Ye Qiu.”
Ye Xiu booed.
The broadcast ended with Ye Qiu beaming at the camera.
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vi. like nobody’s watching
Mo Fan was silent as a grave whenever he streamed. He did, however, keep his webcam and mic on thanks to the needling of Su Mucheng. (“Think of your fans!” she had once said.)
This meant that fans were sometimes treated to the sight of Fang Rui getting up from his seat — he was seated directly at the back of Mo Fan — to stretch.
Or more frequently, fans could look on as Fang Rui practiced the dances that he would inevitably post in TikTok.
In one live broadcast, Fang Rui could be seen waving around his phone. Rhythm of the Night was blaring loudly through the speakers as he danced.
If “dancing” was defined as hip wiggles, winks, and finger hearts, then yes, one could describe Fang Rui as dancing.
“Do you guys think this is better?” Fang Rui demonstrated some complicated hand movements, wiggled to the right, then winked.
“Or this?” Fang Rui demonstrated the same steps only he wiggled to the left.
“Both look good senior!” encouraged Steamed Bun.
An Wenyi was trying so hard to suppress his laughter he was red in the face.
As a testament to Mo Fan’s dedication to his live broadcast, he never once looked back.
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vii. natural habitat
Luo Ji spoke in a whisper, “The person you’re about to see is even rarer than a Ye Xiu sighting.”
He slowly opened the door to a darkened room. “Everyone, please say hello to master Guan Rongfei.”
The light from Guan Rongfei’s screen made him look even paler. He didn’t even look up from his screen when he told Luo Ji, “I’m busy.”
Viewers were surprised when Steamed Bun, the same Steamed Bun who had absolutely no compunction when hijacking Luo Ji’s broadcast, immediately apologized. “Oops, sorry.”
Luo Ji immediately followed up with his own, “Sorry!”
The door was closed immediately.
In a rare display of maturity, Steamed Bun addressed the camera, “There’s an old saying in Happy, you should never bother Guan Rongfei when he’s busy.”
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viii. let’s get physical
In no particular order, a list of the various gifs and memes created by fans from that time when Su Mucheng decided to stream one of Happy’s “basketball games”:
- Wei Chen running in slide slippers and subsequently falling flat on his face.
- Mo Fan humming the Slam Dunk opening theme song.
- Luo Jie in sportswear complete with kneepads, elbow pads, and sports goggles captioned: “Safety First!”
- Steamed Bun taking off his shirt to celebrate a three pointer.
- Ye Xiu being forced to run captioned: “I’d rather go back to the office.”
- Su Mucheng, Tang Rou, and Chen Guo wearing matching pink track suits captioned: “You can’t sit with us.”
- Yi Fan handing Wei Chen a drink captioned: “Yifan is my favorite child.”
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ix. tradition
Su Mucheng beamed at the camera. “Hi everyone, it’s Yifan’s birthday today! And since it’s tradition we’re gonna be watching fanvids about Yifan. Everyone helped me choose from the recommendations you guys sent.”
In the background, Fang Rui and Steamed Bun had started chanting: “Fan! Fiction! Fan! Fiction!”
An Wenyi heartily agreed. “That’s right! You have to read the fanfiction too!”
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x. and now this...
“There’s an old saying in Happy that five-player dungeons don’t need a cleric.” (Said by Tang Rou while teasing An Wenyi.)
“There’s an old saying in Happy that you have to be careful when crossing the street because there’s a lot of shameless people out there.” (Said by Fang Rui in a voice over as he used his phone to record the back of Wei Chen walking away with a milk tea cup in each hand.)
“There’s an old saying in Happy that you need to appreciate your surroundings and treasure the flowers and the TREES.” (Typed by Wei Chen in a chat box to a player named Flowing Tree.)
“There’s an old saying in Happy that if you’ve done enough good deeds in your life you can summon a silver weapon while scrap picking.” (Said by Mo Fan, completely deadpan. Beside him, Qiao Yifan looked taken aback before dissolving into giggles. “Don’t let Senior Wei hear you say that.”)
“There’s an old saying in Happy that you shouldn’t dance while frying dumplings.” (Said by Chen Guo while trying to salvage their dinner. “They weren’t THAT burnt,” rebutted Fang Rui off screen.)