The next day.
Probably because he still had the biological clock of a high school student, Zuo Tao woke up at 6 am. He yawned drowsily and stared at the ceiling over his head. It took him several seconds to remember that he was already at Team Wildfire’s base.
For the sake of convenience in training and communication, Jiang Ming decided to allow Zuo Tao to live in the base dormitory with Song Shihan and the rest of the team. Besides, Zuo Tao had just arrived and only knew the first string. It would be easier to take care of each other this way.
This room was empty anyway. Besides, there was also a belief in the esports community that teammates who lived together developed their coordination and understanding better.
It was precisely for this reason that he was placed in the room beside Song Shihan’s, since the two of them were going to be together in the bottom lane in the future. Fortunately, the soundproofing between the rooms was done well and as long as it didn’t pass a certain threshold, no noise would be heard from one room to another.
However, Zuo Tao wasn’t able to get a good night’s sleep. He lay on the bed in the daze, his sheets and bed clothes not the ones he was used to using. Even the pajamas he wore were given to him by Jiang Ming — a custom merchandise line by Wildfire, with the team’s logo and Song Shihan’s autograph. It hasn’t even been publicly released yet.
This satisfied Zuo Tao quite a bit.
After briefly washing up, Zuo Tao planned his itinerary: go downstairs to exercise for a bit, go to the cafeteria for breakfast… he was interrupted by his phone ringing.
Zuo Tao walked over. Upon seeing the caller ID, he lost all will to answer.
It was Zuo Zhiyong.
He was someone who would keep calling even if they couldn’t get through the first time. Soon, the first call automatically ended due to timing out, and the screen hadn’t even darkened yet when a second call came once more.
Zuo Tao pressed his hand against his forehead in annoyance. He answered the call and didn’t even have the chance to open his mouth to speak when a voice came from the other end —
“Why didn’t you call to tell me you finished the college entrance exams?”
“You got the date wrong,” Zuo Tao answered, pushing the door to the balcony open and walking out. He leaned against the railing, his face contrary. “I’m only in the third year of middle school. It’s a few years before I have to take the exam.”
The line was silent for a few seconds before Zuo Zhiyong’s voice, tinged with anger, came again. “Zuo Tao, do you have to talk to me like this?”
“How did I talk to you?” Zuo Tao answered, his tone calm. “Aren’t I talking quite calmly?”
His room’s balcony was right next to the balcony of Song Shihan’s. There was a potted mint plant on the stone junction connecting the two balconies, and it was obviously extremely neglected. The soil was dry and cracked, roots were growing out of the drain holes, and the leaves were yellowing.
It looked malnourished.
It should be unwanted trash.
“Why are you being like this?” Zuo Zhiyong asked. “I’ve told you so many times to stop spending time with Su Yueyao and her ilk. Look at you, do you even look like a student?”
At that, Zuo Tao’s tone immediately cooled: “Talk if you want, but don’t pull my aunt into this.” He reached out to pull at the few remaining green leaves of the mint plant. “You talk behind people’s backs. Does that make you look like an elder?”
“I didn’t call to argue with you.” Zuo Zhiyong took a deep breath audible from Zuo Tao’s side. “What’s your estimated score?”
Zuo Tao lowered his eyes, pinching at another leaf. “I don’t know. Should be enough for me to get to college.”
“Then what have you even been doing for the past three years while you were in school?” Zuo Zhiyong’s tone also cooled. “I’m telling you, if you can’t get into A University, you’re going to go back and retake the exam, got it?” There was a pause. “Also, who let you dye your hair pink? Hurry up and dye it back. You just keep getting deeper and deeper into bad habits…”
Zuo Tao no longer gave him the chance to continue talking, hanging up the call and quickly blocking the contact. He also went to WeChat to block his account.
Calling so early in the morning, ruining people’s day.
Zuo Tao ended up with a handful of mint leaves. He rubbed his face roughly. The morning breeze, mixed with the refreshing scent of mint, woke his mind and body further.
So annoying, I just want to scream.
Since everyone else was sleeping, Zuo Tao took his box of cigarettes out and lit one. The smoke drifted up towards the sky, forming a meandering line before dispersing.
His phone vibrated.
【Top CN Jungler: Your dad just called me.】
【Top CN Jungler: I didn’t accept. Did you block him?】
Zuo Tao replied quickly, taking the one last puff of his cigarette before crushing the butt. He wrapped it in tissue before going to the bathroom to flush it down the toilet, destroying the evidence and leaving no trace.
His plan to exercise downstairs had been disrupted, so Zuo Tao went to the desk and took out the laptop he’d brought with him. He planned to finish two commissions that he hadn’t gotten the chance to.
He had signed up for an account on the companionship1I’m not sure if there’s an international equivalent, but it’s players who get paid to play with others to carry them up ranks, or also to play against professional teams as training partners. app under Little Bear TV initially just for extra spending money, but he soon showed great results. Some professional teams also contacted him through that account every now and then, and his reputation kept growing, so kept the account.
More importantly, in the past, this was the closest thing he had to a connection to Song Shihan.
He opened his messages as soon as he logged in, and the overwhelming number of appointments froze the webpage for a second. It took a while for him to scroll around and, seeing familiar names, he raised his eyebrows.
【REBORN Recruiting: Hello dear ZZ, this is the Youth Training Camp HR Department for REBORN. We are currently in the early stages of establishment and urgently in need of valuable gamers like you. Are you interested in playing professionally?】
Zuo Tao leaned back on his chair.
Youth training camp? Impressive. Of course, he used to receive similar invitations from other teams, the worst offer being to immediately enter the second-string team after a trial period. It was the first time he was being recruited into youth training camp.
【REBORN Recruiting: We may not be a familiar name yet, but our current starting midlaner is WIND from FTU. We believe that you are more familiar with his ID.】
【REBORN Recruiting: We look forward to your response /smile.jpg】
No need to keep looking forward.
He immediately started typing out a reply.
【ZZ: WIND? Haven’t heard of him. I only know FTU’s FIRE.】
【ZZ: You might not be familiar with me yet, but I think my skills are impressive enough, so can’t I be a starter?】
Zuo Tao threw the issue to the back of his mind after sending the two messages. Using famous team members as a recruitment gimmick, REBORN sure was in dire need. He thought that had he gone with this team, he probably wouldn’t get very far.
Maybe because it was so early in the morning, but he scrolled from top to bottom and found that almost all of the bosses who had sent appointments were offline. He had to give up temporarily, leaving them all messages to find a time to do their task at night.
He delayed for a while longer. When he left his room, it was almost an hour and a half later.
Everyone trained until midnight last night, and Zuo Tao was a light mover. He opened and closed his door softly, afraid of disturbing their rest.
When he made his way downstairs, he bumped into Song Shihan by the main door. He had obviously just gotten back from a morning run. He was wearing a pair of shorts with a sports shirt, a red headband holding his hair back. The bright morning light shone down on his figure and gave him a golden glow, making it so that even the downy fuzz on his face was visible.
Although they weren’t standing too close, Zuo Tao could still feel the warmth exuded by his body, as well as the faint scent of citrus that was never absent from his presence.
He was like a walking bomb of pheromones.
Meeting him so unexpectedly this early in the morning, Zuo Tao straightened his back and smiled, asking, “What are you doing up so early?”
He soon realized that he’d smoked earlier and he hadn’t cleaned up after. He pursed his lips nervously, forcing himself to calm down as he took a step back to widen the distance between their bodies.
He shouldn’t be able to smell anything from this distance, right?
When he came out, he’d also eaten a fruit candy, so it should have covered the smell enough, right? Ah, this is so annoying. Had he known earlier that Song Shihan was already awake, he would have washed his mouth before leaving his room.
There was no change in Song Shihan’s face, just that tinge of indifference that made him unwelcoming to strangers. He looked Zuo Tao up and down, his gaze fixating somewhere specific.
Zuo Tao was confused. “Uh… is something wrong?”
Song Shihan leaned over, sniffing twice. He raised an eyebrow.
Zuo Tao: …ah, this is how it ends.
Song Shihan narrowed his eyes and said, “Zuo Tao.”
Zuo Tao’s body tensed, waiting for his death: “Present.”
He reached out and plucked a broken mint leaf from his hair. He asked in a low voice, “Did you pick at the mint I left on the balcony?”
Zuo Tao first sighed in relief, before his eyes caught on the leaf in Song Shihan’s hand, his heart once more climbing to his throat.
Damn. Not only did he pick at it, he seemed to have uprooted the whole damned thing.
Half an hour later.
Zuo Tao sat in front of his computer in the training room, gnawing on the bean paste buns he had taken from the cafeteria. He was still in a state of anxiety. He glanced at Song Shihan beside him and hesitatingly said, “Captain, I didn’t know it was your plant.”
Song Shihan hummed, his gaze still on the screen, frowning as he installed the software for Little Bear TV.
He rarely did livestreams and wasn’t very familiar with the software. After logging into his account, he planned on livestreaming for a while.
But Zuo Tao didn’t notice.
All he could see was that while Song Shihan wasn’t responding, the frown on his face wasn’t disappearing, either, keeping him uneasy.
He truly had no idea that that plant was Song Shihan’s. It looked like it was on its last legs, so he could only hope that it wasn’t that important to Song Shihan in the first place.
“I didn’t actually pull out all its leaves. Just water it and it should survive.”
“Nevermind. Should I just buy you a new one?”
“What variety was it?”
Zuo Tao was already bringing his phone out as he spoke, moving closer to Song Shihan to whisper, “Captain-gege…”
He was about to ask him to enter the variety himself when he noticed his own face on Song Shihan’s screen.
The comments were flying densely.
【Ah, ah, ah, God Han!!!!】
【Going live without even an advance notice, damn~!】
【Happy, so happy, spread the word2喜大普奔 (xǐ dà pǔ bēn), abbreviation for 喜闻乐见、大快人心、普天同庆, 奔走相告, literally, a joy to hear and see, making everyone happy, the world is celebrating, people rush to tell others. Basically it’s a happy event that everyone wants others to be part of, so they call them over to be happy as well.. Retracting all scathing remarks made last night to Wildfire’s management!】
【Ya~ Captain gege3鸽鸽 (pigeon, pigeon) as opposed to 哥哥 (big brother)~~】
【Who’s this little friend? What a sweet mouth calling gege~】
Zuo Tao’s mind blanked out. Bewildered, he asked, “Are you livestreaming?”
Song Shihan: “En.” He glanced at Zuo Tao, sitting close by, and picked a few of the comments to reply to.
【Hahahahahaha, who is this? He looks a little stupid, doesn’t he?】
【I was watching STAR’s broadcast yesterday, you’ve found a support?】
【Is it this pink-headed child?】
Song Shihan replied: “En, this is my support.”
【I’m late, what’s happening?】
【Why does pinky4Still not too sure what to use as his nickname… netizens call him “pink hair” but it sounds awkward 😅 look so aggrieved? God Han, are you bullying the kid?】
Song Shihan: “No bullying.” He lowered his gaze and glanced at the phone left on his table, still open on a search for mint plants, and a smile curved his lips. “The child just made a mistake.”
