Chapter 165: Unt.i.tled
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Yuan Wei sighed.
Whenever a professional player gets into a fight on the streets, no matter the reason, it was considered an abominable matter. Though the other party only asked for a sum of compensation and did not pursue the matter further. But if not handled and rumors of it spread, the impact on Mix battleteam would be bad.
Seeing Ji Zhiyao remain silent, Mo Huaifeng’s expression became colder and colder, but his tone remained calm. “Ji Zhiyao.”
Captain was angry. Everyone was aware of that at heart.
After some time, Ji Zhiyao finally opened his mouth.
“I have nothing to say. I fought.” He said slowly, “Go ahead and ban me from competing.”
Yuan Wei immediately shouted, “Noh.o.m.o!”
Nuo urged, “Noh.o.m.o, we all know you aren’t the type of person to go on the streets and recklessly pick a fight. What exactly happened, we’ve been in a battleteam for such a long time, you’ve got to tell us, to say the least, if you won’t tell us about it how should Captain strive to lessen your punishment from the club?”
Ji Zhiyao dropped his eyes.
What was he to say?
Was he supposed to repeat those words all over again?
He couldn’t even tolerate others speaking about Mo Huaifeng that way, much less having to say it personally.
There was nothing to be said, it was a good thing to be banned from competing too.
The room was dead silent again for a very long time, Mo Huaifeng spoke up with an icy tone, “Yuan Wei report this directly to the club, this matter is to be handled however it should be.”
“Captain, Noh.o.m.o…”
“I said tell the club directly!”
Yuan Wei was fairly intimidated by Mo Huaifeng’s fury, sighing, he said, “Sure, as long as you’re okay with it.”
Ji Zhiyao could feel Mo Huaifeng gaze deeply at him, then left, the front door of the villa was slammed shut.
Ji Zhiyao lifted his head and realized that the others were all looking at him, hence he smiled. “I shall head upstairs, you guys do as you please.”
He dragged himself upstairs, closed his door and entered the bathroom.
Looking at the ghastly sight of the face in the mirror, Ji Zhiyao lifted the corner of his lips and smiled indifferently.
…
[Mix Battleteam OfficialV:
As battleteam member, jungler reserve Mix.Yao fought on the streets, leaving a terrible impact on the reputation of professional players. The club has decided to ban Mix.Yao from competing for a week, on top of bearing all medical fees, he will also have half a year of salary deducted as a punishment, hereby specially announcing the outcome of our decision to all fans who love Mix battleteam.
At the same time, we apologize to everyone. Mix battleteam will definitely, in the days to come, protect the image of professional players with actions. Should there be any violations, no matter who, all will be punished with due severity.!
That is all.
Wis.h.i.+ng everyone a good day.]
[NowIKnow: What the f*ck? What did I read? Did the trashy influencer’s backing collapse?]
[ILoveMyMelonIWon’tSellHim: What’s going on, our melonrind is so good-tempered, he would fight on the street? Have you guys figured out the reason? You have to bear legal responsibility for slandering a person!]
[ALI: Pa.s.ser-by fan, yet once this scandal about fighting on the streets was revealed, it totally obliterated my favorable impression.]
[TingTing: How many years has it been since there were news of professional players fighting. Heh heh, I still thought the quality of the whole eSports scene had improved. Turns out it was nothing more than this.]
[User092687: Thoroughly disappointed in this scene, I’m done.]
[OMG: OhmyG.o.d! There are still fans trying to whitewash the reputation of their idol under this post! What’s there to clarify about such news? Strongly recommend that the club directly kick such people out of the battleteam, don’t ruin Mix’s good reputation.]
On Ji Zhiyao’s Weibo, it was a sea of criticism.
Most of the haters were very combat efficient, directly appearing to criticize and hurl abuse, saying whatever was unpleasant. Yet because Ji Zhiyao did not stand out and give a response the entire time, and did not apologize on Weibo, his true fans, though with the desire, were lacking in strength, not knowing how to defend their MelonRind.
There were even some original pa.s.ser-by fans, who thought that Ji Zhiyao was irresponsible and turned into haters, their comments even more hurtful than some of the other haters.
Yet Ji Zhiyao ignored everything.
He threw himself onto his bed, with an entire face of injuries, and fell into a deep sleep.
The ringtone of his phone sounded by his ear.
He had set this ringtone specially for his parents, so the moment he heard it, Ji Zhiyao rolled out of bed in a few seconds and picked up the call.
“h.e.l.lo, mum.”
“Zhiyao.” His mother’s voice was very gentle, coupled with a trace of exhaustion. “I saw the news, you got into a fight with other people?”
Ji Zhiyao never would’ve imagined that his mum would find out about this matter by herself, and instinctively touched the corner of his lips that was still swollen, hissing from the pain before he said vaguely, “Mm, I did.”
“Are you injured?”
“N..No. Mum don’t worry, I’m doing well, you don’t have to worry about me. ” Pausing, he lifted the corner of his lips and smiled as he said, “Don’t bother about the news online, there is a good reason for it, no one in our battleteam is blaming me. I’m just being banned from competing for a week, I will be able to go on the following time we compete.”
His mother sighed softly and instructed, “That’s good to hear, The next time you encounter problems, don’t be so reckless. Since you’ve chosen this path, do think about the responsibilities that you have to bear.”
Ji Zhiyao froze, then replied in a low and hoa.r.s.e voice, “I got it, thanks mum.”
His mother said a bit more. Ji Zhiyao heard someone on her side telling her to get ready for an operation and hence chose to hang up.
He maintained the position of holding onto his phone for quite some time before leaning back, falling heavily back onto the bed, pain instantly flared from all over his back that was already swollen.
Cold sweat broke out on his forehead. After a short while, he then picked up his phone and entered Weibo.
That’s right.
This was his responsibility, he ought to bear it.
And not act how he was now, turning a deaf ear to everything.
He stared blankly into s.p.a.ce and pondered for some time, before drafting a Weibo post and published it.
[IndefiniteFutureV: I was wrong for fighting on the streets, I unconditionally comply with the club’s decision to ban me from competing. I hereby promise the vast amount of fans and friends who like me, that the next time I encounter problems, I will definitely think of another solution and absolutely will not make such a mistake again. From Mix.Yao.]
Ji Zhiyao gave another few stares at the screen again, raised his hand to wipe his face, then put on his slippers, pus.h.i.+ng open his door to go downstairs.
It was already past 7 PM in the night, sounds from the dining room could vaguely be heard on the stairs. Ji Zhiyao arrived on the first floor, made a turn and walked towards the dining room.
“… when has he created trouble? So there is definitely a reason for this. Captain could you stop pulling an evil-stepmother’s face, do you know what is using love to reform? Just with you behaving like this, even I who did not do anything wrong am feeling terribly afraid, not to mention…” Yuan Wei was spluttering away when he caught a glimpse of the figure at the entrance of the dining room and hurriedly stopped talking before gesturing towards him. “Noh.o.m.o you’re here. The takeaway just arrived, it’s still hot, come eat.”
Ji Zhiyao smiled and walked to the empty seat beside him to sit down. Lifting his eyes, he looked around at his own teammates, there was confusion, there was worry on their faces, only there wasn’t disdain and disgust… He looked down, ignoring Mo Huaifeng who sat on the other side of Yuan Wei, then said, “I fell asleep earlier.”
“I thought so too.” Yuan Wei carefully peeked secretly towards Mo Huaifeng whose expression was becoming more and more sombre and wailed deep down.
He was the only person out of the entire base to know exactly what was up between these two people, he would feel slightly guilty if he didn’t try to persuade them… But judging by Mo Huaifeng’s expression, wasn’t he just asking for a beating if he did?
Nuo glanced left and right and sensed the oddness in the atmosphere, laughing dryly, he put his chopsticks down and said, “Noh.o.m.o, your injuries are slightly terrifying. I’ll go get you some band aids and medicinal liquor, you have your dinner first.”
Without waiting for Ji Zhiyao’s reply, he hurriedly sneaked out.
Heng followed. “Noob Nuo can you carry everything? Let’s go let’s go I’ll help you.”
Xiao stood up presently. “I’m rather full from eating, I’ll come too, take it as a walk to help with digestion.”
Lastly, it was K. “Take me along, take me along.”
Xiaofei had a spicy crayfish in his mouth while staring at them with a dumbfounded expression and was grabbed and pulled away by Heng who walked back in.
Hence the entire dining room became very quiet.
Yuan Wei sat in between Mo Huaifeng and Ji Zhiyao and was feeling weak all over from being caught trapped in between, hating himself for the umpteenth time deep down for finding trouble and making himself a piggy in the middle.
Time pa.s.sed minute by minute, Yuan Wei fearfully sensed that a certain air from his right side was so cold that it was almost freezing into ice and could not help but looked towards Ji Zhiyao who appeared all peaceful.
Ji Zhiyao was happily digging in, not lifting his head and not speaking too.
Yuan Wei was frightened. “Um… You guys eat, I’m going to the bathroom.”
Hence there were only two people left in the dining room.
Ji Zhiyao finished his last slice of pizza and sighed contentedly, before drawing a piece of tissue to clean his hands. Before he stood up and prepared to leave, he hesitated in his actions and lowered his gaze as if he was reminded of something. “I’m full, Captain enjoy.”
With that, he stood up and walked out with no reluctance.
Yuan Wei who was hiding outside the dining room and eavesdropping on them felt his legs turn into jelly and almost fell to his knees.
When the sound of footsteps grew closer and closer, the door before him was pushed open, Yuan Wei grabbed on the corner of Ji Zhiyao’s s.h.i.+rt and dragged him into the bathroom that was a few meters away and shut the door.
Ji Zhiyao looked at him in surprise. “Brother Yuan Wei?”
“d.a.m.n it hold on for a moment, I’ve just made a narrow escape from danger, let me catch my breath.”
Ji Zhiyao was speechless.
With a s.h.i.+ft in his thoughts, he could almost guess what Yuan Wei wanted to do and decided to simply lay all the cards on the table. “Brother Yuan Wei, about Captain and I, don’t bother.”
“You think I want to? If it wasn’t because I’m afraid that tomorrow the headlines of the eSports scene would be ‘Certain known idol murdered his teammate and boyfriend due to hatred that stemmed from love’, I would have left it alone long ago.” Yuan Wei paced about in frustration. “Speak frankly, what’s going on between you and Captain?”
“… Nothing, you’re thinking too much.”
“Bullsh*t! Do you take me to be blind?”
Must he admit that he did not know either?
He too wanted to have a proper conversation with Mo Huaifeng yet he could already feel the aloof air that Mo Huaifeng was letting out continuously and decided altogether not to go close, so as to avoid unhappiness for the both of them.
Ji Zhiyao sealed his mouth tighter than a clam. Yuan Wei couldn’t do anything about it as he scratched his head in defeat and said, “Let’s put that aside first, how do you plan on settling the matter online?”
“I published a Weibo post acknowledging my mistake before I came down, they’re free to say whatever they want.”
Upon hearing that, Yuan Wei quickly pulled out his phone from his pocket. After reading that post, he sighed and said, “Could barely be considered sincere, though you will have to bear with the criticisms even after you apologized, but there’s no other way. If you don’t admit your mistake, there will be marketing account appearing tomorrow holding down your mutt head and telling to get out of the eSports scene.”
Ji Zhiyao froze, then said, “Actually I…”
“Oh just shut up! You want to quit the team after losing one small group stage game? How capable! Were you bought with an annual salary of 700 thousand to come play a fake compet.i.tion?”
Ji Zhiyao bowed his head in shame.
At least in Yuan Wei eyes, that expression was shame.
Hence his mood instantly relaxed, compared to earlier, he was all smiles. “We have the same amount of acc.u.mulated points as Bug, hence the compet.i.tion for this week is us fighting them for second place. Pick yourself up from where you fell, you’ll definitely go on for the compet.i.tion against Tall Boots next week, have some confidence in yourself.”
Ji Zhiyao exhaled deeply and nodded as he said, “Noted.”
“Then are you still going for this week’s compet.i.tion?”
Ji Zhiyao looked towards Yuan Wei in surprise, pondering by himself when he realized that Yuan Wei was being very serious and wasn’t joking, after that he lifted the corner of his lips, smiled and said, “I’ll go, I can’t just hide from the public forever.”
“It’s great that you can think like this. But you have to prepare yourself mentally, when it comes to that time, some words won’t sound pleasant.”
Ji Zhiyao “mm-ed” in reply. “I know that. Thanks Brother Yuan Wei for the reminder.”
Yuan Wei put his phone away, his fingers touching his jaw as he asked, “So why exactly did you get into a fight?”
“Didn’t we agree not to mention that?”
“When did I reach an agreement with you?”
Ji Zhiyao took a step back as if guarding against a thief. “Goodnight and sweet dreams Brother Yuan Wei, I shall slip away first.”
Yuan Wei silently watched Ji Zhiyao who ran away at full speed and sighed heavily.
It’s difficult to be a good person, even a person who was usually good-tempered was so obstinate, what was he to do?
…
Weekend.
This was the second last week of compet.i.tion for the national qualifier, namely the ranking matches on Sat.u.r.day for the fourth to eighth placings and the scramble for the second and third placings on Sunday.
As they had no compet.i.tion on Sat.u.r.day, everyone in Mix only boarded the van to the gymnasium after waking up, watching the ranking matches as a late spectator.
When Ji Zhiyao walked right at the end of the team while wearing a mask, he clearly heard from a side of the audience that walked past, someone shouted in detest, “What’s up with Mix! Now you guys even dare to let out a sc.u.m who fought on the streets? Did you accept bribes at the back?”
Ji Zhiyao’s steps paused slightly, and then continued taking several steps forward with his eyes remaining focused at the front, as if he hadn’t heard anything at all.
Instead right at the front, there seemed to be a commotion. Ji Zhiyao heard Heng who stood in the middle question, “Captain, why did you stop walking? What are you looking at?”
Ji Zhiyao paused in his steps, instinctively looking towards that person.
And just right, Mo Huaifeng had also turned and was looking back.
At present, he was frowning, an air of displeasure surrounded him. Yet when he met eyes with Ji Zhiyao, Mo Huaifeng’s brows seemed to be ironed out immediately, then a few seconds after, the frowned returned, even deeper than before.
Ji Zhiyao was all baffled, Mo Huaifeng had already turned back, silently continuing to walk.
What was up with his Captain? Suddenly turned mad?
Why did he suddenly look at him?
Ji Zhiyao sat onto the seats belonging to Mix with all his doubts, even the matter of being insulted out of nowhere was thrown to the back of his mind as he was thoroughly engrossed in deliberating over this question.
Till his phone vibrated when he received Yuan Wei’s text.
[ManagerYuanWei: If I hadn’t held on to Captain earlier, he would have gone up directly and beaten the guy up. Do you still have some bit of awareness young man?]