Chen Guo was never very good at controlling her emotions. When she wanted to laugh, she would laugh. When she wanted to be angry, she would be angry. When she wanted to cry, it was even more troublesome. She didn’t hold back her tears.
When she thought about Ye Xiu’s past and realized Ye Xiu’s helplessness, Chen Guo’s nose turned sour and she knew that tears would soon be pouring down.
“I’m going to sleep.” Chen Guo stood up, stamped her feet, and then rushed out.
Ye Xiu was a bit surprised. From his understanding of her, he a.s.sumed that she would begin conducting another, even deeper, interrogation. Who would have thought that the boss would just run out like that.
Ye Xiu scratched his head and looked towards Tang Rou. Tang Rou smiled and stood up: “Then I guess I’ll go back and rest as well.”
“Alright.” Ye Xiu nodded his head. After seeing her begin leaving, he put a cigarette to his mouth.
Tang Rou walked towards the door and pulled it open. Suddenly, she stopped and turned her head towards Ye Xiu: “Do you regret running away from home?”
“Never. I just feel a bit sorry. If I regretted it, then I would have gone back long ago. We’re still family.” Ye Xiu said.
“That’s true.” Tang Rou paused, nodded her head, and then left the room.
The door to the other room was unlocked. Tang Rou didn’t hurry in. She leaned on the wall for a bit before finally pus.h.i.+ng the door open. When she looked inside, she saw Chen Guo lying there on the bed. Her head was squished between two pillows, like the stuffing in a steamed bun.
“Ah! What happened? You don’t like your hair style?” Tang Rou walked up and said.
“You’re back…….” Chen Guo pulled her head out from the pillows and said as if nothing had happened. Her tears had been wiped clean by the pillows already, but her two red eyes couldn’t be hidden. Tang Rou kept smiling and said as if she hadn’t noticed it: “Rest early!”
Quickly, the room turned dark. Chen Guo’s eyes were still wide open as she looked towards the stars.
“Little Tang, are you asleep yet?” Chen Guo suddenly asked.
“Not yet.” Tang Rou replied.
“Do you approve of Ye Xiu’s reckless playing?” Chen Guo asked.
‘Yeah.” A simple reply.
“But now……. He can’t play.” Chen Guo said.
Silence.
Tang Rou obviously understood what Chen Guo was trying to say. For Ye Xiu, the Pro Alliance was his stage. However, he had already retired. On the dazzling All-Star stage, he could only be put together with the normal audience and sit there as a spectator. What would he be feeling during those moments?
“He’s not done yet!” Tang Rou said.
“What do you mean?”
“Someone who was determined enough to run away in order to play wouldn’t give up so easily. His Lord Grim will definitely stand on the stage once again.” Tang Rou said.
“Right, Lord Grim!” Chen Guo thought of that account: “An unspecialized has never appeared onstage before. He also has that self-made Thousand Chance Umbrella. When the time comes, he’ll definitely be scary, no?”
“Yeah, that’ll be fun!” Tang Rou said.
“But…….” Chen Guo was still worried. She had been following Glory up until now and was a fan of Team Excellent Era. She had quietly watched the downfall of the team and had read all sorts of media reporting Ye Xiu’s slipping condition. Even though she had her own thoughts on it, with so many people saying the same thing, Chen Guo didn’t feel very encouraged.
“It’s not that simple!” Tang Rou said after listening to Chen Guo’s doubts.
“What do you mean?” Chen Guo didn’t understand.
“One night……” Tang Rou quickly explained the night when Liu Hao paid a visit to the Internet Cafe.
“So there was something like that!!” Chen Guo jumped up from her bed in astonishment.
“That’s why I think that there is still a lot being hidden about his retirement.” Tang Rou said.
Chen Guo nodded her head repeatedly.
“I don’t really have a good understanding of that stuff though, so there’s only so much I can guess about it.” Tang Rou said.
“Uh…… I don’t know too much about the inner workings of the Club, either. However, with Ye Xiu’s seniority and status in Excellent Era, I don’t really think that such a three-footed cat like Liu Hao would be able to do too much.” Chen Guo said. She hadn’t originally been so disgusted by him. She had actually supported him before this because he was the vice captain, but in the blink of an eye, her impression of him turned into a three-footed cat.
“So you’re saying that there’s no way these guys could cause such a storm and that there are most definitely other reasons as well?” Tang Rou said.
“But in Excellent Era, only the Club’s owner would have a higher status than him, right?” Chen Guo said.
“If the owner wanted to kick him out, then it would be easy to do it, right?” Tang Rou said.
“In theory…… but he has to consider a lot of things too. For example: his team’s stability, the fans’ feelings, the sponsors, etc.” Chen Guo had never experienced it herself, but she had seen it before. After following Glory for so many years, she understood quite a few things.
“If for you it’s like that, then….. What if some of the players on the team objected to him, so even if he left the team, the team wouldn’t become a mess but, on the contrary, be even more steady?” Tang Rou said.
“Ah…… and as for the sponsors, he never showed his face, so he had no one to speak for him. He also doesn’t help advertise what the sponsors want, so no matter how amazing he is at the game, he’s of very little value to the sponsors…….” Chen Guo said.
“As for the fans’ feelings…… they saw that the team was performing poorly and that the captain’s condition had been falling as well. For those reports you talked about, they often put those two points as one and the same? For these reports, were these truthful public media reports or was there someone in the dark leading the discussion?” Tang Rou said.
If there was someone spinning the webs behind all this, then the two girls discovered that there were many more possibilities now.
“So you’re saying that Team Excellent Era basically wanted to kick him out?” Chen Guo said in astonishment.
“And it’s not just kicking him out of Team Excellent Era, but also kicking him out of the Glory pro scene.” Tang Rou said.
“That’s….. going too far!!” Chen Guo jumped up again. When she thought of Ye Xiu’s hidden heavy feelings and how hard he had worked in order to open the path for Team Excellent Era’s golden age, only to be kicked out after considerable planning, she felt sympathetic towards him.
“How terrible!” Chen Guo jumped down from her bed. She ran to grab a cup of water and drained it down.
“These are all just guesses!” Tang Rou said.
“It sounds right. Why else would he suddenly retire out of nowhere? His condition is slipping? Did you know? When he fought with Du Ming, he used Dragon Raises Its Head! Do you know what that is? Maybe you don’t know yet, but this is a move that only one person in the entire Glory can pull off! Even though it hadn’t been used in a while, he used it again today. Slipping condition? Bullsh*t!” Chen Guo fired off like a cannon.
“Ah…… then there’s something else I a.n.a.lyzed. Want to listen?” Tang Rou asked.
“Go ahead.” Chen Guo threw down her cup, wiped her mouth and returned back to bed.
“He said before, that when he went back home, he parted on bad terms, right?” Tang Rou said.
“Yeah.”
“What’s the salary for a pro player in Glory? Compared to the average person.” Tang Rou said.
“How could they be compared! Each and every contract is at a sky high price in addition to other sponsors.h.i.+p money. The above average ones can easily get more in a year than what you can get in a hundred years staying in my Internet Cafe.” Chen Guo said.
“Ye Xiu had been a top-tier G.o.d in Glory since the very beginning. Even if his family doesn’t understand his achievements, with just his income, his family should have at least been able to recognize that, even though there are several problems with being a pro gamer, Ye Xiu’s an exception. He had already become a top-tier player in the pro scene and he shouldn’t be so disdained like that, right?” Tang Rou said.
“Yeah…… That’s true…… With his status, he shouldn’t have too much to worry about.” Chen Guo said.
“However, they still parted on bad terms. That’s why I think that his family probably isn’t an ordinary family. His status as a Glory pro player and his income didn’t mean anything in front of his family’s eyes.” Tang Rou said.
“Could he be from an extremely wealthy family?” Chen Guo said in astonishment.
“That’s hard to say, but his family can’t be so simple. Whether his family is high up in the political world, business world, or even literary world, his future had already been decided when he was born. He might have a bit of leeway in his choices, but for him to become a pro gamer? That choice probably didn’t exist. That’s why, no matter how incredible his achievements are, his family will never acknowledge him.” Tang Rou said.
“That make sense.” Chen Guo nodded her head.
Tang Rou went silent for a moment. After seeing that Chen Guo wasn’t going to say anything, she continued: “If we go further, when Ye Xiu is no longer able to go on any longer in the pro scene, where will he go then? Is his home his first choice?”
When things got here, Chen Guo suddenly understood: “So you’re saying that his retirement might also have something to do with his family?”
“Yeah……. I have that sort of feeling.” Tang Rou said.
“That…….” Chen Guo didn’t know what to say. If it had only been Excellent Era conspiring, then she could still justly support Ye Xiu and look down on Excellent Era. But if it really was Ye Xiu’s family causing mischief, that would become a family issue and she wasn’t in any position to say anything. What status did she have? A fan? Ye Xiu’s current boss?
“If his family really had been working behind the scenes, then his family’s background can’t be simple……. We might be able to look for clues about his family’s background from his ID card’s address.” Tang Rou said.
Chen Guo heard this, stunned. After a short pause, she said: “I just discovered that your talent in gossiping is even greater than mine.”