Chapter 54:
For the next two hours, Shi Luo endured his thoroughly red left ear and slept, keeping his posture completely proper and motionless.
Sometime after, Zhou Huo came over to help the camera crew take a half-minute video to be used as material. He sighed and whispered to the sleepless Yu Sui, “Evil is sleeping really well today. He didn’t play with his phone, eat snacks, or toss and turn. Looks like he’s honestly trying to catch up on sleep.”
Yu Sui was playing Tetris on his phone. He sneered when he heard that, but didn’t expose Shi Luo.
After about two hours, the plane landed smoothly. After picking up their luggage, they all headed straight to the compet.i.tion venue.
“You don’t need to be nervous about playing against Ten Thousand Mountains. Just play normally and we’ll be fine.”
After arriving in the compet.i.tion venue lounge, Old Qiao turned on his tablet and called up Ten Thousand Mountains’ information. He said, “Their style of play is a bit reckless, but they’re not reckless the same way you are. After all, their personal ability is inferior to yours. They’re impulsive and easily make mistakes. Their overall rhythm is a little bit violent. You just need to catch their mistakes and keep amplifying them.”
Aside from Shi Luo, these people didn’t know much about the current players in China. When the three of them went abroad, there wasn’t even a Ten Thousand Mountains Club then. Puppy raised his eyes and lazily said, “Violent? Hearing this word, I’m starting to get a bad feeling. Are their players violent?”
“No.” Shi Luo opened his peripherals bag and took out the keyboard and mouse. He whispered, “They’re pretty even-tempered, especially their captain.”
Old Qiao nodded. “Yes, Ten Thousand Mountains’ captain is famous for being good-tempered. If I remember correctly, Xiao Jun, Ten Thousand Mountains’ captain, is friends with you, right, Shi Luo?”
Shi Luo untangled power cords and shook his head. “Not friends, exactly…just our paths crossed a bit.”
Yu Sui was also taking out his own peripherals. After hearing that, he looked at Old Qiao. “Who’s…Xiao Jun?”
“He’s a player who came from the secondary league just a year ago. You don’t know him since you were abroad.” The game was about to start and Old Qiao didn’t have much time to explain. He simply said, “Anyway, he’s a good guy, very willing to endure hardships. But that doesn’t matter, you just need to play well. Just now, I said they’re pretty violent in their play but don’t let that mislead you trying to figure out if they’re playing violently or not.”
Zhou Huo, who had just checked in, returned to the lounge and heard them talking. “Who’s violent? Ten Thousand Mountains isn’t violent. Before we came, their manager even sent me a message and told me that Ten Thousand Mountains welcomes Team Free. The people of Chongqing are very warm and hospitable. They said, ‘If you dare to come, we’ll dare to lose.’”
Chen Huo couldn’t help laughing. “Now that’s just too non-violent! Have a little pride, why don’t they!”
“They themselves know that their level isn’t high enough so they’re just staying upbeat.” Zhou Huo smiled, “Their club is really good. Every time they play against other teams, after the game, their coaches would come over to give their greetings and also to ask the other team to share their perspectives. They ask if you could share some of your opinion with them.”
Chen Huo was completely relieved. “That f*cking fight with Bison before cast a shadow over me. Not to mention, we’ve come to our opponent’s turf. If they decide to start something with us here, it won’t be easy to clarify things.”
Everyone cracked a few jokes and chatted a bit. When it was time to prepare, they took their peripherals and went up on stage.
Ten Thousand Mountains’ performance last season landed them somewhere around the middle of the domestic league. They hadn’t changed their lineup this season and their level has improved slightly from last year. However, it wasn’t by much. Free made quick work of them, like a butcher handling a cleaver. They weren’t able to play the entire best of three, Free concluding the match in two games.
After the match, as Zhou Huo said, Ten Thousand Mountains was very humble and friendly. Early on, they were already waiting outside Free’s lounge backstage. They waited until Free finished their interviews and asked if they could talk for a bit and receive some advice.
Naturally, they wouldn’t pay attention to this were they in an international compet.i.tion, but being that they were both teams in the domestic league, there was no need to shy away from it. None of Free’s players minded, Zhou Huo though was more than willing in order to give his new team a good reputation to wash away their image of being villains from before. He hurriedly called out to Chen Huo and Shi Luo, the two strikers, to give them a few pointers. Chen Huo loved being flattered. With hands in his pockets, he happily went to pa.s.s judgment.
The rest of the team went back to the lounge to pack their things. As though Yu Sui just remembered what Old Qiao said before the game, he asked as he entered the room, “What kind of friendship does Shi Luo have with Ten Thousand Mountains’ Xiao Jun?”
“Yu Shen.” Puppy, who was sitting to the side, paralyzed, couldn’t help joking, “You’re gonna burn a hole through them if you keep staring like that…Slag men like you shouldn’t be the least bit concerned about these kind of details, right?”
Straight as a ruler straight-man Old Qiao, who still hasn’t noticed what was going on between Yu Sui and Shi Luo, asked, completely at a loss, “What staring? What slag man?”
“It’s nothing. I just couldn’t stand by and watch.” Puppy put his leg over the sofa. He shook his head and sighed, “The double standard was just a bit too much. He won’t give a f*ck if it’s about anyone else but when it comes to Shi Luo, he has to ask about every rustle of leaves in the wind. This is not in line with the ruthless villain style of our team.”
Yu Sui ignored Puppy, “Tell me.”
“Oh, well, it’s not a secret or anything, nothing that can’t be said.” Old Qiao didn’t understand what Puppy was hinting at, and Yu Sui once again drew back his attention. He sighed, “It’s a pretty shameful matter but of course, Shi Luo wasn’t the shameless one in this.”
Old Qiao narrowed his eyes and carefully trying to recall. “That was… You had just left… less than two months after. It should be around that time, because it was a matter regarding the secondary league.”
“Yes, it happened at that time.” Old Qiao thought for a while and nodded, “It must be when Shi Luo just changed to being a striker and when he was still with NSN. It must be at that time because NSN has no shortage of strikers so Shi Luo could only be a benchwarmer at the time. The timeline’s right.”
Yu Sui unscrewed the bottled water and took a sip. “So what was it about?”
“Shi Luo had just changed his job as a striker, so he naturally lost his starting position in NSN’s lineup. For the month before he moved to IAC, he wasn’t even a subst.i.tute for the first team and he would occasionally follow NSN’s secondary team to play a match in the secondary league.” Old Qiao smiled bitterly, “You may not know what the second league or intercity matches are like. I don’t look down on players in the secondary league or small-scale compet.i.tions, but it’s true that those players have it much harder than you guys. Their income not even a tenth of yours. The environment there…it’s impossible to compare, it’s just that bad.”
“You all made your debut in the first league and in first line teams at that. You can’t imagine how bad the situation is over there.”
“The current captain of Ten Thousand Mountains, Xiao Jun, did his time in the secondary league. He could play well, otherwise he would not be able to join the first league now. Only that his teammates at the time were b.a.s.t.a.r.ds.”
“I’m not calling them b.a.s.t.a.r.ds because they played like sh*t. It has nothing to do with whether they played well or not. But they were complete b.a.s.t.a.r.ds.” Old Qiao has always been kind and rarely ever uses vicious words, but now he said these without batting an eye, “Complete b.a.s.t.a.r.ds, complete and utter b.a.s.t.a.r.ds.”
Puppy frowned, “Complete b.a.s.t.a.r.ds…how complete are we talking here? What did they do? Didn’t train? Seduced female fans?”
Old Qiao shook his head and said coldly, “They threw their matches.”
Puppy’s face changed, he put his feet down from the sofa and laughed, “This…b.a.s.t.a.r.ds is not enough to describe them then.”
“The compet.i.tion between teams in the secondary league is actually very fierce. They don’t only fight when they’re vying for the right to enter the first league every year. Of course, it’d be great for the team to advance, but there is only one chance for the carp to jump the dragon gate every year. You yourselves have seen how fierce the compet.i.tion was this year. Take this year for example, so many secondary teams came to compete but only two team could advance.”
“One of those was us and the other was Team Windbreak, which was originally a first league team already. Team FS, an amazing team themselves, was demoted to the secondary league. To tell you the truth…it’s near impossible for the secondary league teams to advance.”
“Aside from hitting the jackpot and getting the entire team promoted to the first league, those players in the secondary league still have one other chance to cross over and that’s through a transfer.”
“Play their best, try to shine during their regular season in order to get the twelve teams in the first league to take notice; directly get picked by the management of those twelve teams.”
“But in order for one to shine, others need to be a stepping stone for them.”
Old Qiao said coldly, “Those b.a.s.t.a.r.d teammates of Xiao Jun’s in the secondary league were just collecting money to play fake matches and serve as stepping stones for others.”
“I…f*ck…” Puppy was stunned. “Do they even have a shred of dignity left?! Can they still be called players, earning this dirty money?!”
“The sorriest thing about it was that Xiao Jun played in this team for two full years, never knowing that his teammates were throwing their matches.”
“It’s f*cking…” Old Qiao shook his head and couldn’t help but say, “Xiao Jun was still desperately training all day! Encouraging his teammates, thinking about the day he could bring the whole team into the first league. He had absolutely no idea that it was already hopeless. Out of the four players in the team, three were already taking money to throw their matches. Even if he has used everything he had to fight, tell me, how could they have gotten any success?”
Puppy laughed in spite of himself. “This d.a.m.n… Two years of his youth for nothing. To make this kind of money, weren’t they afraid of karma?”
“So, there are some things you young masters really don’t know anything about. I knew a little bit since I spent half a year in the secondary league. You made your debut in the fairest, strictest and most glamorous first league teams. You’ve played in international compet.i.tion that have layers and layers of strict inspections. There are some dirty things you geniuses can’t even imagine.” Old Qiao said helplessly, “Actually, it’s the same in any industry. At the bottom…exists the most hateful but also the most pitiful.”
Yu Sui had listened quietly through the whole things. He looked at Old Qiao, “So in the end, how did those three b.a.s.t.a.r.ds run into trouble?”
Old Qiao took a couple of sips of water and said, “They played against the NSN’s second team and Shi Luo.”
Half an hour later, Chen Huo, like the moon surrounded by the stars, followed Shi Luo back to their lounge, his face the very picture of satisfaction. He gave an insincere apology, “Aiyaya, I’m sorry, sorry. It would be ungracious not to accept your kindness! Ten Thousand Mountains is so humble and such good students! All of them even had notebooks with them. I was really embarra.s.sed to just leave after saying a few words. But you can rest a.s.sured, we never mentioned a word about our core tactics. I just gave a few pointers to their striker. It couldn’t be helped. Shi Luo hardly said anything. I had to be the one to represent the kindness of our team, hehehe…”
Chen Huo rubbed his chest and said with satisfaction. “It feels great to be surrounded by a group of small players!”
Shi Luo was keenly aware that something was wrong with the atmosphere in the lounge and he frowned slightly. “What’s the matter?”
“It’s nothing. Nothing.” Puppy got up and smiled, “We just got hungry waiting for you guys. Let’s go eat hot pot. We’ve all been waiting for this. ”
Old Qiao sighed and then got up. “Yeah. Let’s get going and eat hot pot.”
Old Qiao urged everyone to go out. Zhou Huo, ever smooth and slick, went outside to socialize and came back content. Seeing that everyone was all ready, he hurriedly called the driver and invited everyone to go to the hotpot restaurant where they had booked a table in advance.
In the private room of the hotpot restaurant, everyone started ordering freely. Shi Luo liked the spicy soup here. He had his head bowed as he seriously contemplated his orders. Yu Sui’s stomach wasn’t good. Now he just eats from the clear soup whenever he’s at a hotpot restaurant. Since he ate so little, he didn’t care what they ordered. Yu Sui looked at Shi Luo, thinking about what Old Qiao had said in the lounge. His heart was filled with an indescribable feeling.
Puppy thought him a little too narrow-minded but Yu Sui wasn’t narrow-minded, otherwise he wouldn’t be alright with how sticky Wawa was with Shi Luo. Yu Sui didn’t mind whoever Shi Luo was friends with. What he cared about was what happened to Shi Luo during the two years he was gone.
He wanted to find out everything, bit by bit.
Two years ago, Yu Sui had left in a hurry. The thing Yu Sui had been most worried about was Shi Luo. Two months before he left, Shi Luo was the kind of kid who could get into a fight with another player. He hadn’t yet fully integrated into this industry. He hadn’t yet gained the basic awareness and knowledge of the rules that came with joining a normal and healthy club. Yu Sui was always worried. He even doubted whether Shi Luo was suitable for this kind of career and whether he could get by on his own here.
It turned out that Shi Luo could.
17-year-old Shi Luo, had just been in the industry for a few months. He was young and reckless. He had just been “betrayed” by his former captain. After changing his job, he had fallen to playing in the secondary league, where it was all too easy to turn corrupt.
But Shi Luo didn’t.
Shi Luo was very young at the time, but he was Whisper’s personally appointed subst.i.tute. He was a player who came out of the e-sports holy land, Team FS, where he debuted. He was born with extraordinary talent. While waiting for their turn to get up on stage, Shi Luo saw Xiao Jun’s teammates playing and saw through what they were doing with a single glance.
At that time, the game was a wheel fight. When it was NSN’s second team’s turn to play against Xiao Jun’s team, Shi Luo refused to open his peripherals bag. He refused to play. He refused to play against the opponents who were playing a fake match.
If Shi Luo had still been in FS and still in the first league, this kind of thing would naturally be solved by the official staff. But this was a small arena without even any spectators, in a match for a league where dragon and fishes were jumbled together.
Shi Luo could have actually easily gone with the flow. He was just a newcomer. He could just pretend that he hadn’t seen it. He could just play those two games and leave with the win. Gu Gan had already contacted IAC for him at the time, and Shi Luo knew very well in his heart that he wouldn’t stay in the mud for long and that he would be able to return to a first league team immediately. It didn’t matter how disgusting the situation was just then.
However, Shi Luo took a few bewildered NSN newcomers and resolutely refused the match.
The young master said that they wouldn’t play, so they wouldn’t play.
Old Qiao had stayed in the country at the time and had transferred to another first league team. Only afterwards did he learn about this upsetting matter. It was a long time before he saw Shi Luo again and he took this chance to ask him about it.
When he transferred to IAC, Shi Luo had become a lot quieter than before. Even when he faced Old Qiao, that old familiarity was gone. When he was asked this, he said slowly,
“That man told me that that was a high-voltage wire.”