Chapter 16
Shi Luo looked at Yu Sui and he gulped. Without saying anything, he turned around and left the conference room.
Zhao Feng sent Yu Sui out and Shi Luo himself returned to the second team’s training room. Just now, when he saw Zhao Feng come over, he only turned off the live broadcast but the game client was still running. Shi Luo sat in front of the computer. When he was hesitating between continuing to gather points for his main account or shutting down to sleep, the in-game friend channel glowed with a notification.
Shi Luo took a look. It was Wawa.
[Awa]: Shi Ge, can you play a few games with me? [Humble .jpg]
[Awa]: Chen Ge said he’d take me to get some points, but after three rounds he didn’t want to play anymore. He said if he played anymore, he’s going to be put out of commission. QAQ.
[Awa]: Shi Ge, I forced another striker to close shop.
The disturbances in Shi Luo’s mind were cleared instantly. Looking at the chat records, he could feel a headache coming on.
When Wawa was still playing as a nurse-type medic, Shi Luo liked teaming up with him. Wawa had a good temperament and worked hard to serve as Shi Luo’s milk tank. He also had good skills. The two would simply abuse their compet.i.tion as they worked their way up the national server. But after studying Yu Sui’s plays, whenever Shi Luo would be randomly matched with Wawa, he wanted to retreat.
Shi Luo wanted to pretend not to have seen it and just go offline, but he’d been sleeping for the entire day and now, he wasn’t the least bit sleepy. Shi Luo weighed his options. He could lie in bed unable to sleep due to insomnia or he could team up with Wawa. In the end, he still chose the latter.
Shi Luo replied back in the friend’s chat. [Evil]: I’ll change to my side account.
Wawa responded quickly, [Awa]: Thank you, Shi Ge! Kowtowing to Shi Ge! Clang Clang Clang!
Wawa said quickly, [Awa]: Shi Ge, is your side account’s level high enough? Can your side account team up with me?
Shi Luo typed, [Evil]: Even my side account is at the top 200 of the national server. What about yours? Is it still in the top 1000? I’m more worried that your main account might not be able to team up with my side account.
Wawa kept quiet, and Shi Luo changed from his main account to his side one. He sent a message to Wawa.
Shi Luo has already logged onto his gibberish-named side account, [Jyhbdhs]: Team up with me.
Wawa quickly formed a team with Shi Luo. He felt that typing was troublesome so he sent an invitation to voice chat with Shi Luo.
Shi Luo hesitated before accepting. He frown and said, “I’m upset today. I’ve got nothing good to say. If you want to keep the voice chat on, you can’t do a live broadcast.”
“No problem!” Wawa happily agreed. He greeted his fans in the live broadcast. “That’s it for today. I’ll be stopping the broadcast now. See you tomorrow night!”
When his fans in the live broadcast heard that he was teaming up with Shi Luo, they all begged him not to close the broadcast. Wawa smiled and consoled his fans with a few words and the shut it down.
With the live broadcast off, both of them were a lot more relaxed. Wawa felt that he able to speak a lot more freely and he asked quietly, “Shi Ge … Is something the matter?”
Shi Luo was quiet for a moment and then said, “What could be the matter?”
Wawa hesitated and asked, “Yu Shen went out earlier tonight. Chen Ge said he went looking for you, did you two…talk?”
Shi Luo lit a cigarette.
After a while, he said, “It shouldn’t be more than a month before the official announcement.”
Wawa breathed out a sigh of relief. “That’s good k2026; Seriously, although I heard that there were some not so good things that happened between you and Yu Shen before, his new team would definitely be a lot stronger than IAC.”
The two entered the map. While covering Shi Luo and their other striker teammate with the primary shield, he said, “I heard our captain say that when you transferred, he didn’t really recommend that you go to IAC. I agree with the captain. How do I say this…this kind of purely commercial club never feels right. ”
Shi Luo took a puff of his cigarette and slowly said, “They each have their pros and cons. It’s troubling at times, but I kind of like IAC.”
Wawa asked, “What?”
Shi Luo said, “It’s relaxing.”
Wawa’s head was full of question marks. “How can it be relaxing? You don’t even have a friend you can confide in. Especially that manager of yours… Whatever, this isn’t a live broadcast and you’ll be leaving soon anyway so I’m going to just come right out and say it. How can you relax with that kind of manager? During the playoffs last year, it was the quarterfinals already and even though it was the day before the knockout match, he organized a meet-and-greet with the fans! Each ticket was worth more than a thousand yuan and there were hundreds of fans! He made a killing that day and even spewed out some pretty words, saying that this was to let the fans give you encouragement. He really is just a f*cking marketer. ”
Wawa couldn’t believe it. “And it was on the day before the knockout match! As your opponents, do you know how happy we were at NSN when we heard the news? We thought we’d definitely knock your guys out. Cough … Although, in the end, you guys did completely thrash us. But I’m sure it affected your condition, right? ”
Shi Luo admitted “It did affect us. We didn’t make it to the finals … That may have been part of the reason.”
Wawa said scornfully, “That’s why I don’t like him. He doesn’t treat you players like people at all. Even a tool wouldn’t be used like that. There’s been so many instances like that, I can’t even count them … So, how is that relaxing?”
“Let me ask you.” Shi Luo loaded the bullets and marked a dot on the map. “If your manager did the same thing, what would you do?”
Wawa instinctively defended their manager who treated him like his own son. “Impossible! Our manager never tormented us like that! We only do a few activities per year and they’re all during the offseason!”
Shi Luo held the cigarette between his lips. “I said ‘if’. How would you feel?”
Wawa hesitated: “… Really disappointed, I’d be really, really sad.”
Shi Luo said, “Look, I wouldn’t be sad.”
“No matter how this club f*cking operates, you’d only be angry but not disappointed.” Shi Luo said, “Trust me, angry is 10,000 times better than disappointed.”
Shi Luo a.s.sisted in getting Wawa a kill. “Everyone doesn’t bring emotions into it. They join if they join and leave if they leave. Both parties can feel at ease. So I have no complaints about IAC.”
Wawa was quiet for a moment and whispered, “Did I mention something that I shouldn’t have again?”
Shi Luo smiled. “You think I’m talking about myself? About when I left FS? I’m really not.”
Wawa didn’t quite understand. What else could it be about?
Wawa recalled what had gone on in the club last night. He was dying of curiosity, it was digging into his heart and scratching at his insides. But he didn’t dare ask.
The two made idle conversations. After playing two games, Wawa left for a while, and Shi Luo waited for him while playing on his mobile phone. After a while, Wawa returned and whispered, “Yu Shen’s back. He went back to his room.”
As though he hadn’t heard, Shi Luo said, “Let’s keep playing.”
Wawa agreed. After a while, Wawa asked in a low voice, “Shi Ge, I have a question to ask, but I’m afraid you’ll hit me if I do.”
“Ask ba.” Shi Luo remained indifferent. “What question would I be afraid of?”
Wawa hummed and hawed for a long time. He kept his voice very, very low. “Shi Ge, are you and Yu Shen…together?”
Shi Luo heard him and went quiet for a couple of seconds. He asked, “What do you mean by ‘together’ …?”
Wawa lowered his voice even further. “I mean, like that, you … you understand.”
Shi Luo laughed.
Wawa was terribly frightened. “Sorry, sorry, pretend I didn’t ask!!!”
Shi Luo asked, “Why would you want to ask this?”
“Just … you know.” Wawa said in a quivering tone of voice, “I follow the Super Topics for a lot of players, and I log-in every day so… I recently saw the Super Topic for you and Yu Shen. There was a lot of stuff there that I didn’t know were true or not. I remembered how you two were last night and I got this really outrageous idea … ”
Before Wawa finished speaking, Shi Luo said, “No, we’re not.”
Wawa said blankly, “… You never were?”
Shi Luo said, “Never.”
Wawa relaxed. “That’s good, that’s good. Otherwise, this really would be too dog-blood dramatic. But …”
Wawa couldn’t control his excitement, and eagerly asked, “Shi Ge, can I ask another question?!”
Shi Luo resigned himself to being magnanimous and candid. There was nothing he couldn’t answer. “Ask away.”
Wawa tried his best to suppress his voice and asked, “Someone in the Super Topics also said that Chen Ge and Yu Shen were together before. Is that true?”
Shi Luo: “…”
This narrative gradually turned into a thriller and suspense. Shi Luo suddenly wanted to go see what kind of f-ing Super Topics these were.
Without waiting for Shi Luo to answer, Wawa whispered once again, “Actually, it started when everyone was discussing whether Yu Shen has had a girlfriend these past years. After gossiping for a long time, none of them found any traces of one. Then they started to gossip about you and found they found you were even more abstinent! Not just female friends, you don’t even a lot of male friends. The one who’d come closest would probably already be me. Then they stared pairing up the two of us. Aiya, that article they wrote could really embarra.s.s someone to death… ”
Shi Luo had on a complicated expression. “Skip this article ba…”
“Okay, okay.” Wawa continued. “Then someone said, things were actually unclear between you and Chen Huo too…”
“Stop!” Shi Luo’s head hurt, “I’d rather have an affair with you! Skip this too.”
Wawa quickly agreed. “Okay, I’m getting to the important part. Then, there was an old fan of FS’s who made allegations that Chen Ge and Yu Shen were a pair. The reason being that… Yu Shen’s first kiss was from Chen Shen.”
“She said FS had a party before that went well into the night. The next day, Chen Shen opened a live broadcast and joked that Yu Shen’s first kiss was gone. Seems like Chen Shen drank a lot then, and then … News was pa.s.sed around quite a lot.”
Wawa didn’t dare to ask but he couldn’t help it. “So … Is it true or not? Are they kidding or …”
In the game, Shi Luo destroyed the opponent’s resurrection stone. He said, “Do you believe all these sensationalist gossip in the Super Topics?”
Wawa hesitated: “Well, she described it in very vivid details, you know. She even knew where the party was …”
“I’ll go to your NSN’s Super Topics tomorrow. I’ll say that Captain Gu actually has ulterior motives towards you. I’ll describe it very vividly, do you think some of your fans would believe it too?” Shi Luo laughed. “Or I could go to Chen Huo’s Super Topics later and tell them Chen Huo got smashed yesterday and was part of a drunken s.e.x party. You think someone would believe me? ”
Wawa let out a snort and laughed until his stomach hurt.
Shi Luo exited the map. “Stop looking at these things so much. They’re all stupid.”
Shi Luo and the Wawa teamed up for the whole night. At 2am, Wawa couldn’t hold on and went to sleep. Shi Luo logged-off the game and looked at the computer screen in a daze.
What that old fan said hadn’t been untrue.
But some of the details were wrong.
Two years ago Yu Sui was admitted to the hospital on his birthday because of acute gastric hemorrhage. Naturally, the long-prepared birthday party was cancelled. One month later, everyone in FS made a birthday party for Yu Sui.
It was Yu Sui’s birthday party, but it was Yu Sui who arrived last. Everyone was bored, and under Puppy’s urgings, they played truth or dare.
Shi Luo was unlucky and lost at the start of the game. Chen Huo dared him to drink, but at that time, Shi Luo wouldn’t touch a drop of alcohol and wouldn’t drink no matter what. Chen Huo then gave a different dare. Shi Luo was even more unwilling. But everyone in FS jeered and boo-ed. Shi Luo couldn’t help being a little bit pressured. When he was forced beyond his limit, Yu Sui suddenly entered the room.
With Yu Sui’s face still pale, Shi Luo was half-forced to kiss him.
Chen Huo’s new dare was to find someone to kiss.
Shi Luo still remembers Yu Sui’s surprised expression at that time.
After the two kissed that day, the whole private room went into a frenzy. Chen Huo never expected that Yu Sui would come in at just the right moment. After laughing until he was half-dead, Chen Huo said that this was definitely Yu Sui’s first kiss. Their teammates laughed until their sides hurt. They couldn’t wait to post on Weibo and tell Yu Sui’s fans that their Whisper was no longer untouched land.
Yu Sui wiped the corner of his mouth with his thumb and then turned to ask Shi Luo if this was his first kiss.
At that time, Shi Luo watched as the crowd laugh wildly at Yu Sui. A young man’s inexplicable sense of shame suddenly reared its head. He straightened his flushed neck and said, “Of course not.”
Yu Sui was dazed. Then, he laughed and picked up a cushion and hit Shi Luo.
When this old matter got pa.s.sed on, because it came out of Chen Huo’s mouth, the story gradually changed until he became the protagonist.
Truth and fiction, it all became unclear.
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Translator’s note:
Super Topics : Link