You’re Beautiful When You Smile
Chapter 31 Part 3
The team manager, Xiao Rui, had kept quiet with a darkened face
up till now, “First of all, this incident is aimed at Lu Yue. He just came
back to the club after the ban lifted and someone put the video online.
Obviously, someone is trying to use public opinion to prevent him from
coming back……”
Xiao Rui continued after a short pause, “Only our people have this video
clip. Do you know why we kept this video a closely guarded secret back
then? Because the number of people who had viewed the video at the
time were less than 20, along with KTV staff and the police. The security
at KTV and the police were all middle-aged. In their eyes, this incident had
nothing to do with esports, just a bunch of young men brawling. The rest
are people from our club and JK-- --People from JK definitely wouldn’t want
this video publicized. From a public relations perspective, there’s no benefit
for JK to show the video in public. That was what we agreed on, to suppress
the incident from going public; they were even more eager than us to do so.”
Tong Yao: “Why? Wasn’t Lu Yue the one who hit them first?”
Lu Sicheng: “But they also fought back.”
Tong Yao: “Justifiable self-defense?”
Lu Sicheng: “That’s not how self-defense works. Have you seen the video?
Those people, in the beginning, tried to subdue Lu Yue; they pushed him
down and struggled to take his weapon away. That was justifiable self-defense.
But later on, they turned around and beat him up, that was a.s.sault-- --”
Lu Sicheng took a glance at Lu Yue. “If you ask me, he deserved it.”
Lu Yue indifferently twitched his lips and turned his head away.
Xiao Rui gestured Lu Sicheng to stop and flatly said, “Thus one of our own
people did this. I don’t know who, but I hope you’ll confess. Then we can
discuss and try to solve it internally-- --Now rumors are flying out there,
everyone is in the teeth of the storm. If we can’t stand together as a group,
then it’ll turn into a big problem for us.”
Right after Xiao Rui finished, Little Fatty rubbed his tummy then said with a
stone face, “I released the video.”
Everyone was quiet.
Tong Yao silently touched her chin. She didn’t expect Little Fatty to admit it
so fast and it was still a surprise to her that it actually was Little Fatty who
put the video up-- --
“Why was there a fight? Why drag Ming G.o.d down? Why drag the whole
team down?”
Little Fatty frowned and showed a scornful look in his eyes for the first time.
“It was so cool to knock a bottle on someone, wasn’t it? Hehe, I used to fight
against ten people in front of my high school, it was cool, too. Yet, I stopped
doing that later on. Why? Because I know I’m a professional player now, I
have my teammates, my bosses, the club and the whole esports circle
behind me……”
Little Fatty breathed out a long breath. “In terms of the small picture, with this
one action of yours, Ming G.o.d’s professional career came to an end. The
whole team wasted a whole year of hard work backing out of the world finals.
In terms of the bigger picture, how would society view the esports business
as a profession now? Internet addicted teenagers, goofing around, no future
in playing games-- --I hear these comments year after year. I’m tired of them
but I still can’t raise my head to refute them. You explain to a hundred people
that we aren’t like that, but turn around, there’s one jacka.s.s teammate who can
be used as proof to tens of thousands of people: You’re all correct. We’re a bunch
of good-for-nothing just like you’ve said.”
Little Fatty stood up. “I know it’s quite boring to talk about all this. But this is
what I’m thinking-- --I’m annoyed. What I’m doing isn’t something that I should
be ashamed of. But why can’t I walk with my head held high?”
No one said anything after Little Fatty finished.
Lu Yue looked at Little Fatty, without anger, and no one could tell what he was
thinking from his face…...Lu Sicheng lightly commented, “too impulsive.” Xiao Rui
kept sighing, “You young kids-- --”
Ming G.o.d furrowed his brows and called Lu Yue.
Lu Yue raised his head to take look at him.