Chapter 79

The unrestrained thoughts Shi Luo had accumulated bit by bit was crushed by the power of Old Qiao’s awe-inspiring righteousness.

Shi Luo leaned against the wall and took a deep exhausted breath. He asked, wondering, “What are you doing here?”

Old Qiao was shocked by Shi Luo’s bold self-confidence. He said, “That’s a good question. What am I doing here? What am I doing here?! You’ve been absent from work for no apparent reason for almost half an hour! You should be thanking me for not going to Zhou Huo to have your salary deducted. You’re the one acting unbridled and you’re ask me what I’m doing here? I came here to see if anything was the matter. If nothing’s the matter, then stop trying to pick up guests here! Go and do your training!”

“Oh.” Shi Luo scratched his hair, feeling fidgety. He looked completely embarrassed. He lowered his head and said, “Sorry, I know.”

Old Qiao felt uneasy all over. He looked at Shi Luo, still completely puzzled no matter how much he thought about it. He urged roughly, “Go go, go. If you’re not feeling sick then go train. What the hell were you doing...”

Shi Luo closed the door and followed Old Qiao back to the training room. Yu Sui’s seat was vacant. Shi Luo tilted his head and took a look. His live broadcast was also closed.

Chen Huo and Puppy were both playing single row. They were both wearing sound-proof headphones. They hadn’t heard anything since just now. They certainly wouldn’t know where Yu Sui had gone off to. Shi Luo could only look questioningly at Old Qiao. Old Qiao looked at Yu Sui empty seat. “Oh, Zhou Huo called him away just now.”

Shi Luo nodded. He returned to his seat, closed his live broadcast and started playing single row.

After Yu Sui brought such a big wave of rhythm onto himself, Zhou Huo, naturally, couldn’t just sit still. He hurriedly called Yu Sui to ask him just what was he going to do and whether he should issue a clarificatory statement.

He’d said everything himself and there was nothing he wanted to take back. Yu Sui told Zhou Huo there was no need to clarify or admit anything.

Since Shi Luo didn’t want to make it public for the time being, Yu Sui respected his opinion and did not have any plans of coming out.

Zhou Huo couldn’t understand, “Since you don’t want to go public they why were you bringing along your own rhythm and playing ambiguous? What do you want to do? Do you simply want to help me create topics? When did you start being so considerate? Isn’t it my job to sell the team? Why are you trying to steal my job?”

Zhou Huo’s eyes gleamed, “Someone has combined your voice from the live broadcast and Shi Luo’s webcam feed into a video and posted it on the Internet. The amount of reposts, aiya...really, I saw that video and I thought it was superb. Your words combined with those little expressions of Evil’s...it really grips people’s hearts.”

Zhou Huo’s thoughts were very far-reaching, “Is this you paving the way for when you do go public in the future? Are your plans always this thorough?”

Yu Sui smiled, “I didn’t put that much thought into it.”

“Actually, I just did it on a whim. I just didn’t want him to be upset so I suddenly felt like I wanted to say a few words... to kind of smooth things over for him.” Yu Sui fiddled with his phone and said slowly, “I just wanted to tell the new fans about our old scores, but as I kept talking I was also moved.”

Zhou Huo looked Yu Sui up and down. He asked curiously, “What do you mean moved?”

Yu Sui paused, and said after a moment, “Thinking back on the past, I feel like I didn’t care for him enough.”

Zhou Huo was startled, and laughed, “Not enough? How was it not enough? You think you’re not being good enough to Shi Luo?”

Yu Sui smiled and shook his head. He didn’t offer any further answer. He got up and headed by himself to the training room.

Since Shi Luo met him, Shi Luo had been deceived and sold by him. From start to finish, he never managed to get more than a few happy days. How could that be considered as him treating Shi Luo well?

If he hadn’t cared for him enough then he’ll just have to care more for him from now on.

The next day was their regular season game against team Windbreak. It was a home game so there was no need to get up too early. Everyone got up at the usual time, ate breakfast and then packed their things and went to their own stadium.

Since it was their own stadium, their lounge had been customized for their use. It was larger and much brighter that the usual. Shi Luo entered the lounge and sat on the sofa in the corner. He was wearing headphones and he was looking at his mobile phone, earnestly and attentively.

Chen Huo and Puppy went to make-up first. Playing against Team Windbreak, they shouldn’t be any hiccups. Zhou Huo didn’t go with the team today. Yu Sui put down his peripherals bag and went to sign in for the team. When he came back, Shi Luo was still playing with his phone.

“We’ve already agreed on the tactics yesterday so what are you still watching over there?” Yu Sui walked to Shi Luo and sat down. Teasing Shi Luo, he said, “Let me take a look at your screen.”

Shi Luo glanced at the staff in the lounge. Seeing that there were no outsiders, he handed the phone to Yu Sui. He couldn’t help showing it off, “Look...we have this!”

Yu Sui took a look, smiling.

He and Shi Luo finally have a CP Super Topics.

Shi Luo was happy but it wasn’t very convenient to be showing it right now. He was very low-key when showing it off, “Although, for now, it’s not as lively as my CP with Wawa... but there are quite a lot of fans already.”

“Fans still have such sharp eyes. Fans know a lot of things even I didn’t know.”

Shi Luo quickly scanned through Weibo. He took a screenshot and showed it to Yu Sui, whispering, “This photo...this was taken during the regular season two years ago.”

Yu Sui took a closer look, but didn’t quite understand. “Okay, so I’m holding a model figure. What of it?”

Shi Luo sat down and said in a low voice, “The fans said...during that regular season, a peripheral sponsor had sent a representative to make an appearance before the game to promote their products. Afterwards, as a formality, they gave the players gifts. It was that model figure...they showed it to the cameras. There was one for each player and it was distributed based on the player’s job — a medic figure, striker figure, sniper figure...they were especially detailed. The sponsor had prepared one for every player, but not for me.”

Yu Sui frowned slightly. Thinking back on it, he had a vague impression of something like that.

Shi Luo had just entered FS at the time and was still a substitute. He wasn’t well-known. The sponsor didn’t know him at all. When preparing the gifts, they had accidentally left out Shi Luo and hadn’t prepared anything for him.

In order to cooperate with the sequence of activities after the match, the sponsors had to give gifts to each player. When it came to give the ones for FS, naturally, it was a bit embarrassing.

But it was only embarrassing for a few seconds.

After the sponsor handed the medic model figure to Yu Sui, Yu Sui took it and didn’t even look at it. He pulled over the peripheral bag that Shi Luo had been carrying and put it in.

It was that scene that happened to be captured by the fans.

Shi Luo was also a medic at the time. Giving him the medic model figure was also correct. At the time, fans exaggerated Yu Sui’s action to praise him for having a high EQ. Now, when they dug it out and took a look at it again, it had a different taste.

Some sh*t nonsense from two years ago, Yu Sui himself had almost completely forgotten about it.

Yu Sui watched Shi Luo save the photo. He whispered, “Are you really that happy about a model figure?”

“It’s not the model figure per se...” Shi Luo raised his eyes to look at Yu Sui. His eyes were filled with a satisfied look. He hesitated and then shook his head, “Forget it, let’s not talk about it. Besides, you’re going to think I’m deliberately making you feel sorry for me.”

Yu Sui said softly, “It’s okay. Tell me.”

Shi Luo looked at Yu Sui and after a while, said quietly, “...just this kind of little gift, this little toy.”

Shi Luo looked down at the phone again and whispered, “No one ever remembered me for this kind of thing.”

Recalling Shi Luo’s childhood, Yu Sui took a while before he was able to digest this sentence.

“I told you not to ask.” Shi Luo looked at his phone and said a little regretfully, “I really didn’t mean it this time.”

Yu Sui raised his hand and rubbed Shi Luo’s head, “If you see anything we’ve forgotten, remember to show it to me.”

“Show you what?” Old Qiao entered the lounge, “The match is going to start soon. No need to watch the game review! You don’t need to be so nervous playing against Windbreak. Just relax and play.”

Shi Luo agreed, feeling a bit guilty. He put his phone away and was taken to have his make-up done by the staff.

Windbreak was the relegation team last season. There really was no need to be nervous. Free directly and efficiently won against Windbreak, 2-0. Counting the break and the post-match interviews, they finished in less than an hour and a half.

There were two games today. Before Free vs. Windbreak, there was an NSN vs. Saint game in the other stadium. Before Free’s match, they were still playing their third round. Now that their match was over, they could find out the results of the other match.

Old Qiao said, “NSN has won.”

Shi Luo was surprised, “Wawa fought?”

Old Qiao nodded, “He fought, especially in the third game. He played really well.”

“Awesome.” Chen Huo clapped his hands and said in admiration, “Great, NSN won against Saint, Saint won against us, and we won against NSN... Every team is wondering how the opposing team won. No one will laugh at anyone in the future, it’s all very good...”

“Grow up!” Old Qiao gave Chen Huo a slap on the back of his head. “The two teams played at least three rounds, okay? What about us? We got our heads shaved by Saint, 2-0. While you guys were brainlessly slaughtering here, the other two teams were playing like a raging fire over there. To be honest, I didn’t pay too much attention during your game just now. I even started to watch a live broadcast of their match...”

Yu Sui sorted out his peripherals and said, “How was their fight?”

“Brilliant, exciting, and a lot more forceful than your play over here.” Old Qiao was breathless with admiration. “Old Gu really had been hiding a lot from us. They were in very good form during today’s game. Completely unlike their rhythm during the usual practice games...today we won’t be doing a game review of our match. We’ll do one of theirs instead.”

Puppy sighed, “Okay, I already guessed we weren’t going to do a game review of today’s game. I wanted to take it a bit easier today. How could anyone find this reasonable? We were finally going to get out of having our own game review and now, we’re doing other teams’ game review for them.”

“Know yourself and your enemy. We can’t afford for you not to see it.” Old Qiao also knew that they were tired from the intensive training a few days ago so he consoled them, saying, “But this time we won’t be eating at home. We’re going to be rewarding everyone with a good meal. Manager Zhou is already waiting for us at the restaurant. Let’s get going...”

At Old Qiao’s urgings, the players packed up and walked out carrying their peripheral bags.

On the way to the parking lot, they met with the fans who were waiting for them after the end of the game. It was a home win and although it was a no-brainer win, the fans who watched the game were still happy. They were especially excited when they saw the players. They were already greeting them even from far away. Many of the fans were holding gifts.

Even since their time in the old FS team, these players have ever hardly accepted the fans’ gifts or flowers. They simply greeted the fans as usual and left. Only Yu Sui took a second look and walked two steps back. Amidst the fan’s calls and greetings, he accepted a chibi-type striker figurine held by one of the fans.

The fans surrounding Yu Sui couldn’t help but laugh. They didn’t understand why Yu Sui would suddenly want a little doll.

Yu Sui himself was a little embarrassed. He smiled at the fan, gave a little gentleman’s bow, turned around and got into the car.

The other people were already seated in the car. Puppy raised his eyes and glanced at Yu Sui. He said lazily, “Regressing back to our childhood now, are we?”

Old Qiao also turned his head and took a look. He saw that Yu Sui was only holding a doll and didn’t care, “I seem to have seen that one on Taobao...It’s less than 100 yuan, just take it.”

Chen Huo glanced at Yu Sui contemptuously, “Just how old do you think you are?”

Only Shi Luo, who was sitting in the back row, said nothing.

Sure enough, Yu Sui got into the car with the doll and sat next to Shi Luo. He threw the doll into Shi Luo’s arms.

While others were chatting and not paying them any mind, Yu Sui set down his peripherals bag to one side and said in a low voice, “...Shi Shen, I have gone five or six years without accepting any fan gifts.”

But for you, an exception is worth it.

No one will think of giving you this kind of small gift but I will.

If it’s for you, it’s okay to be heckled by fans and made fun of by teammates.