Chapter 17: CH 17

The group ate hot pot until three or four in the morning the day before and then slept together until the afternoon the next day before waking up. Shi Du and Cheese met in the dining room and walked slowly into the training room after finishing the meal cooked by the aunt. Yu Zhaohan and Qi Xian had already begun to play double row.

“Xian Xian, I believe the brain flower you gave me yesterday was uncooked. Last night, I felt like I went to heaven several times…” Cheese said, lying on Qi Xian’s chair, “Wait, you let the captain play support for you?”

Qi Xian took off his earphones and said helplessly: “The double C’s have been taken away, the captain would rather be a support than play tank and take a beating.”

Shi Du sat on the gaming chair and slid to Yu Zhaohan’s side to watch for a while: “Are you sure he can support people?”

Qi Xian pointed to the screen that was already grayed out and spread his hands: “So I’m dead.”

Yu Zhaohan’s concentration was very strong, and he was hardly affected by the outside world when playing games. He remained motionless, obsessed with his output, even with a few teammates chattering on the side.

That’s right, obsessed with his output. As long as the gun shoots the head accurately, the support can also be a sharpshooter in this game.

His teammates were killed one by one. Yu Zhaohan stowed the healing beam, pulled out his small hand/gun, and fired a series of close-range “ding ding ding” at the approaching tank. His teammates don’t need his support as long as he kills quickly enough.

It was unfortunate that the tank on the opposite side had too much blood, and the support followed around. After being hit by Yu Zhaohan to half-blood, the mech collided and killed Yu Zhaohan’s small support.

Yu Zhaohan’s eyes widened and his lips parted slightly in annoyance as he faced the grayed-out screen and the massive [defeat]. When he saw his younger brother’s reflection on the screen, his lips pursed into a cold straight line.

Shi Du couldn’t help but chuckle. The seventeen-year-old boy’s presence was too strong, even if the two were not too close, Yu Zhaohan can still feel the heat and vitality radiating from him

Yu Zhaohan narrowed his eyes displeasedly, wishing his younger brother would stay away from him. A crisp sound rang in his ears, and it was the sound of the can’s pull tab being opened, followed by the smell of something sweet and fragrant.

Yu Zhaohan turned around to see Shi Du holding a freshly opened cup of Wangzai milk and a bottle of green tea on the table, along with a small box of ice. He didn’t want to ask, but when he saw Shi Du mixing green tea and Wangzai milk in the shaker cup, he couldn’t help but ask, “What are you doing?”

“Homemade milk green tea.”

Yu Zhaohan’s eyes were cold: “Spoiling things.”

Shi Du raised his eyebrows: “Last time you thought chocolate milk was too greasy, this time it definitely won’t be.” Shi Du picked up the empty glass Yu Zhaohan put on the table and poured half of the green milk tea into it. Shi Du pushed it in front of him, “Try it.”

“I’m not interested,” Yu Zhaohan said flatly.

Shi Du observed the cold beauty’s expression for a moment and suddenly became domineering, “You must try.”

Yu Zhaohan looked down at the half cup of homemade milk green tea.

He didn’t want to try it, but the younger brother had already poured the milk green tea into his glass and was still talking loudly.

Yu Zhaohan took a sip from the cup after giving Shi Du a “let me give you some face” look.

Shi Du asked, “How’s it?”

Yu Zhaohan put on his earphones, and said quietly, “It’s fine.” He pushed Shi Du’s shaker cup aside, “Don’t let your stuff go over this line, it will affect me.”

Shi Du stared at the three-eight lines formed by the table’s parting and asked a soul-crushing question, “Am I in elementary school, and you are my tablemate?”

“What’s the difference between you and an elementary school student who loves drinking milk?”

Qi Xian smiled as he took Shi Du’s milk green: “Don’t say anything else, always go to the bathroom before so it will not affect training.”

Shi Du smiled: “No, my kidneys are very good.”

“Is that so.” Yu Zhaohan arrogantly said, “Prove it to me.”

Qi Xian’s hand trembled and he almost spilled his glass of water.

“Sure. You can time me and see how often I go to the toilet.”

The four of them sat in front of the computer for most of the day. Old Tan was concerned that they would develop occupational diseases at such a young age, so he invited a fitness trainer to train them specifically. When the time was up, Old Tan rushed into the training room, picking up the internet addict teenagers one by one, and finally asked Yu Zhaohan to stand up, saying, “Training is suspended for ten minutes, and the trainer will take you to do a relaxation exercise that stretches your entire body.”

The boys complained and did it reluctantly. Shi Du said lazily: “Just do another eye exercise.”

Old Tan nodded: “This is a good proposal, I’ll arrange it for you later.”

Seeing Yu Zhaohan drinking milk green tea gracefully, Shi Du asked: “Why doesn’t Shine come with us?”

Even if Shi Du wasn’t a face-obsessed person, he still thought Yu Zhaohan was beautiful. Being beautiful is a privilege in R.H, where everyone is face obsessed.

That exercise is incredibly boring; it was squats and splits all over again, and he doesn’t want to do it.

“I don’t like doing exercises.” Yu Zhaohan said.

“Then what do you like to do?” The fitness coach smiled at Yu Zhaohan, his eyes greasy and making him feel uncomfortable. “I can do it with you – could you add WeChat later?”

Yu Zhaohan: “Golf, skiing.”

The fitness coach gave an embarrassed smile and then Cheese said, “As expected of the captain,” “Yes, yes, our beautiful captain should play this.” “Shine, the figure skater who was delayed by e-sports.”

“I can play these two too.” Shi Du said casually, “We can go together next time.”

It was laughable, he didn’t even take the initiative to ask for WeChat and just said “to go together next time.” But one thing is for sure, he was invited to play sports with Shi Du. After the greasy coach, he was really refreshed by Shi Du.

Yu Zhaohan put his hand in his pocket coolly: “We’ll see.”

Shi Du’s trial training came to an end two weeks later, and R.H officially offered him a contract. Shi Du was offered an eight-figure signing fee by the owner of R.H, which is practically the maximum amount for a player who has just been on the field for a year.

“R.H has a contract with Paiya. In the future, you will receive a small increase in the Paiya live broadcast. However, we still want players to focus on their training and competitions, so the time needed for live broadcast is minimal.” Old Tan handed the contract to Shi Du, “Read carefully, and ask me if you don’t understand anything.”

Shi Du flipped through the pages, and said frankly, “I don’t have the patience to read this.”

Old Tan persuaded him: “Contracts have legal effect, you should take it seriously.”

“Okay.” Shi Du took out his mobile phone, “I’ll call my lawyer.”

Old Tan looked confused: “What?”

Shi Du’s lawyer arrived quickly, carrying a briefcase. In the conference room, Old Tan talked with the lawyer for three hours, which felt like torture. He was confused by all kinds of questions. He was already exhausted when he got out. He leaned on Cheese’s shoulder and cried to his mother.

The club is gradually getting back on track. Lu Yaoshan has two assistant coaches and a data analyst; the second and trainee teams are also being formed; the base is getting more and more people, and the little boss has rented the villa next door expressly for the trainee team to live and practice there.

Splendid chose to stay even after Shi Du decided to sign the contract. Although he was assigned to the second team, Lu Yaoshan occasionally had him train with the starters.

Cheese quietly asked Old Tan: “Splendid is such a popular streamer that he should focus on live broadcasting instead of playing professionally. He was here for the starter, but now that the starter position has been filled, why does he want to stay?”

Old Tan guessed: “He is a fan of Shine, maybe he just wants to play with Shine.”

“Then he can only hope that the younger brother is not in good shape and that he will come off the bench,” Cheese added.

“Don’t talk nonsense.” Old Tan tapped Cheese on the head, “Go and call everyone, the little boss is here, and he said he wants to hold a meeting.”

Along with the economic foundation, team development must be completed, and the little boss is working on this throughout the holidays.

Today’s little boss also has the vitality of a male college student. After everyone arrived, the little boss didn’t see Shi Du, so he asked Old Tan, “Why isn’t Timeless here?”

Old Tan said, “His mother came to Shanghai, and he took a half-day off to eat with her.”

“Then let’s not wait for him first.” The little boss put on a serious work look, “There are a few things, I would like to ask everyone to decide together.”

Despite the fact that there were still several months until the next season, it was almost time to submit the participation information to the officials. The club has been acquired, and the team name must be altered as well. Wan Feng came up with the name R.H in the beginning, and the little boss had no intention of changing it. He simply wanted to change the team’s uniform, theme song, and slogan to reflect the new season’s atmosphere.

The little boss presented numerous design concepts for the team outfits, and everyone voted on which one to use. After multiple rounds of voting, there are two options left: a pure black background with R.H’s team name and logo printed on the front, or soft pink with R.H’s team name and candy-shaped team logo.

Cheese became excited when he spotted the candy team logo.: “This, this, I really like this! Ah, ah, ah, I want this!”

Lu Yaoshan said with disgust: “You can’t ask the whole team to wear it with you just because you like pink. I vote for black.”

“Plus one, I’m in my late twenties, and I really don’t want to be interviewed in pink.” Old Tan asked Yu Zhaohan, “Shine, you also vote for black, right?”

Yu Zhaohan’s tone was colder than the aunt selling and killing fish in the supermarket: “What do you think.”

“I don’t accept it.” Cheese vowed to defend his right to be cute, “Pink is the eternal god! I’m going to make trouble! Captain waa waa, captain you have pity on this poor child.”

Yu Zhaohan: “…”

Cheese didn’t dare to touch Yu Zhaohan, but only dared to pull the corner of his shirt, pitifully selling misery: “As long as the captain is willing to help me this time, I will practice an extra hour every day, and die in the training room…”

Cheese had the impression that he was seeing the captain smile at him very shallowly. But before he could blink, the captain returned to his customary cold, world-weary expression.

“Remember your promise.” Yu Zhaohan said and voted for pink.

Tears blurred Cheese’s eyes, the captain did it for him… Is this love?

They were not the only ones who voted. Everyone in the coaching team, the second team, and the training team was a member of R.H and had the right to vote. The final vote was 12:12, and black and pink were tied.

Everyone looked at each other. Cheese asked: “What should I do now?”

Yu Zhaohan’s face was solemn: “Timeless, he hasn’t voted yet.”

The little boss said: “Then wait for him to come back to vote before deciding on the team uniform. Let’s watch the theme song…”

After eating with his mother Shi Du was forced to go shopping with her. When he returned to the base, it was late at night, and the training room was disorganized.

Shi Du’s room is next to Qi Xian’s. The door next to him opened as soon as he opened his room.

“You’re back?” Qi Xian yawned, his burgundy half-long hair falling on his shoulders, “The captain said he wanted to talk to you, he was waiting for you in the training room.”

“Got it.” Shi Du threw the bag of a bunch of luxury items his mother bought into the room and turned around to go downstairs.

Yu Zhaohan was the only one left in the training room. He was practicing shooting at the training range in the game. Before speaking, Shi Du observed him fire the final round then said, “Qi Xian said you were looking for me.”

Yu Zhaohan glanced at him and then said as he left the shooting range, “Every player who formally joins the team, I will talk to them alone- as the captain,”

“Oh,” Shi Du dragged Cheese’s gaming chair to sit down, facing Yu Zhaohan, “Let’s talk.”

“About your career,” Yu Zhaohan tapped the table with his fingertips, “you said there is still only one year left?”

Shi Du expected Yu Zhaohan’s question and was prepared to respond: “I thought about it; I will keep playing until I win the championship.”

However, Shi Du’s answer did not satisfy Yu Zhaohan, “So, if R.H wins the championship next season, you would retire?”

Shi Du was silent for a moment, then chuckled softly, and said, “I don’t know.”

Yu Zhaohan understood that since this involved Shi Du’s family, asking more questions was pointless. He nodded and changed the subject: “Let’s talk about the problem of getting along with teammates.”

Shi Du responded absent-mindedly: “Yeah.”

“The four people in the team are a whole, and the progress of the teammates is also your progress. If you can help your teammates train more, it’s the same as training yourself.” After speaking, Yu Zhaohan asked worriedly: “Do you understand what I mean?”

Shi Du looked at him for a while, and said slowly: “I guess so.”

Yu Zhaohan finished speaking and got up, saying, “Go back and go to bed early.”

As Shi Du was ready to say “good night,” he changed the words before his lips could even finish the sentence: “I won’t”

Yu Zhaohan: ?

“I’m going to stay up all night.”

Yu Zhaohan frowned: “You won’t grow taller if you don’t sleep when you’re still in your youth.”

Shi Du said indifferently: “I’m tall enough now, and I don’t want to grow taller.”

Yu Zhaohan raised his eyes and looked at Shi Du’s eyes. Well, it was indeed enough.

“Then you stay up,” after talking a bunch of nonsense with this brother, Yu Zhaohan’s constant high coolness relaxed a bit and said, “Good night.”

Shi Du gave a mischievous smile: “Good night.”

The club’s meeting on team development continues the following day. Cheese and Old Tan hugged Shi Du in each of his arms as soon as he walked into the conference room.

Old Tan said bitterly: “Timeless, you have a lot of female fans. Don’t look at them calling you brother now. When you are an adult, they will definitely change and call you husband. Do you think they want their husbands to wear black or pink?”

Cheese felt wronged: “The R.H uniforms used to be black. I’ve been wearing them for 200 years. I don’t want to wear them for another 200 years. I’ll wilt. Brother, do you know that when I play training games wearing pink, my hit rate increases? By two points!”

Shi Du didn’t care much about things like team uniforms. He found a place to sit down and asked, “Which one did Shine vote for?”

When he mentioned this, Cheese burst into tears again: “Captain voted pink for me, I didn’t even know he loved me so much… um, although I had to lose an hour of sleep every day to train, I have no regrets!”

Shi Du raised his eyebrows lightly and looked at Yu Zhaohan: “Really?”

Yu Zhaohan calmly said: “I can’t help being pestered by Cheese.”

Old Tan pushed the screen, with the display pictures of the two team uniforms on it in front of Shi Du: “Just these two, you choose. You are now shouldering the dignity of a man in the entire team, can you feel a heavy responsibility?”

“I can feel it.” hi Du said, “The black layout is alright.”

Cheese’s hand had already stretched out, and Yu Zhaohan’s back felt numb.

“But pink is rare, and it looks fresh.” Shi Du raised his chin and the corners of his mouth. “I’m also curious to see what our captain might look like in pink. I vote for pink.”

“You, you – you’re confused, brother!” says Old Tan.

Cheese, who had gotten his wish, danced and cheered in the conference room. Yu Zhaohan danced with him while his heart pounded gongs and drums, but his expression remained as cold as ever: “What you wear is unimportant; what matters is a person’s state of mind.”

Shi Du wanted to laugh when he saw Yu Zhaohan pretending to be forceful: “Ah yes, yes, yes.”

“Ok,” the little boss snapped his fingers, “We’ve decided on the team uniform. Then there’s the new slogan, do you have any thoughts?”

The slogan was a team’s slogan that was typically used on promotional charts and by fans for light signs. Each team’s slogan is quite middle-class, but when it comes to the game, it may make people’s blood boil.

Everyone expresses their opinions and speaks enthusiastically.

Old Tan: “On top of the world, who else can I be?”

Cheese: “The soil is dead, what’s the difference between studying hard and improving every day?”

Lu Yaoshan: “‘Don’t give up, don’t give up’ -how about that?”

Qi Xian: “Farewell, if abandoning teammates can win, then I will abandon without hesitation.”

Shi Du: “Reborn from ashes?”

After two seconds of silence.

“I agree, I agree,” Cheese said. “R.H is really reborn now!”

The others also agreed. The little boss asked Yu Zhaohan: “Shine, what do you think?”

Yu Zhaohan thought about it and said, “More words can be added.”

“Which words?”

Yu Zhaohan’s eyes passed over the coaches and his teammates. It ended up on the picture frame on the table.

Wan Feng was looking at them and smiling.

Yu Zhaohan’s eyes softened, and he gently said the words: “Immortal heroes.”

—Reborn from ashes, immortal heroes.