“I forgot to warn you that Machine Gun is a big fan of shipping. If he gets the chance, he can come up with the weirdest pairs.
“I told you before that I have a fear of getting interviewed by him, right? That’s the reason why.”
After they finished with their interviews, the team went upstairs together to resume training. Si Zheng caught the blush on Zuo Tao’s face and couldn’t bear leaving him to his misery. “It’s alright, it’s all just talk, anyway. At least you got paired up with the captain. This time I’m going to debut a new ship with Qiu.”
Zuo Tao didn’t say anything in response, simply smiling wryly. He couldn’t even dare glance at Song Shihan until now.
“What’s so embarrassing about getting shipped with me?” Wang Qiu interrupted, raising his eyebrows and hugging Si Zheng’s waist from behind. He pinched his throat and forced a high-pitch voice to say, “You devil, what do you mean by this? We have already been so tangled in fan novels, and you speak of me with such disdain and disrespect~”
“Let me go,” Si Zheng said expressionlessly, slapping Wang Qiu’s hand as if it was par for the course. “Your sister-in-law1saozi/elder brother’s wife; you might have encountered this already in other novels, but this term refers to Si Zheng’s girlfriend already messaged me, joking about how your behavior as a mistress is disgusting.”
Wang Qiu: “But how come I remember that my sister-in-law really likes this mistress?”
Si Zheng: “Maybe because I find your lowly appearance entertaining.”
Zuo Tao finally laughed at their antics. Then, curious, he asked, “Zheng-ge, you have a partner?”
Wang Qiu chuckled, saying, “Unbelievable, right? But they’re actually childhood sweethearts.”
“Really?” As the topic changed, Zuo Tao breathed a sigh of relief, turning to Si Zheng. “Isn’t that great?”
“En,” Si Zheng said, smiling awkwardly and bringing his phone to show Zuo Tao. “Our families are neighbors, so we’ve known each other since we were kids. We only officially got together two years ago, and she’s in college right now.”
“Sister-in-law is amazing, she’s done with her masters and she’s taking a doctorate in law,” Wang Qiu interjected. “The last time we saw each other, I had the feeling of getting dominated by knowledge.”
On Si Zheng’s phone wallpaper was a girl around his age, hair tied up in a high ponytail and donning a suit that made her look highly capable. In the picture, she sat on the court bench, looking quite formidable.
Zuo Tao gave a sincere compliment: “Sister-in-law is beautiful!”
“More than being pretty, she’s also really nice,” Wang Qiu said. “She brought lots of food the last time she came over. Speaking of, when is she visiting again?”
“She’s busy right now,” Si Zheng answered. “I’ll take some time off to go see her after the preliminaries.” He looked behind them at Song Shihan, saying, “Captain, I’ll have to ask for an extra off day.”
Song Shihan looked up from his phone. “En, sure.”
A thought crossed Wang Qiu’s mind. He let go of Si Zheng and said, “If I recall, the machine gun2Wu Shuibo used to be the captain’s number one pursuer, even going as far as to confess to the captain on Weibo several times. Why did he suddenly change tunes and tease Taozi?”
Song Shihan simply glanced at Wang Qiu coldly.
Wang Qiu hid behind CAT.
With the return to this topic, Zuo Tao did not dare to speak. If possible, he wanted to jump on Wang Qiu and slap him upside the head. This is purely the king of the pot which should not be opened3哪壺不開提哪壺, “the pot that should not be opened”, an idiom that means things about others that should not be mentioned (such as private information, shortcomings, arguments, etc). Zuo Tao is calling Wang Qiu the king of the pot for having brought up stuff he didn’t want to talk about several times now.
“I don’t think he actually had feelings for the captain,” Si Zheng said absently, twisting his wrists. “Go through his account. You’ll find him confessing to other pro players in different ways every single day, so it’s probably just talk.”
Wang Qiu smacked his lips. “Oh, right.” Having also seen that interview, he said, “After all, the captain’s ideal type is his exact opposite. He’s too noisy and he can’t play that well.”
He hooked his arm around Zuo Tao’s shoulder, casually mentioning, “He’s a thousand miles off compared to our Taozi.”
Although his words satisfied Zuo Tao’s heart, he didn’t dare allow the team to dwell on the topic. He was scrambling to find a different topic to discuss when Wang Qiu stopped. “Hey? What’s the second string doing up here?”
Following his gaze, the rest of the team saw at the entrance of the training room Jiang Ming talking to the second string coach, Zhou Chuanyi. His face was ugly. Not far away from them stood the entire second string team.
Jiang Ming’s eyebrows were furrowed as he held a thermos of ginger tea in one hand. As they moved closer, they heard him say, “Haven’t I already said? The decision to choose PINK for this position was partly from Master Su’s recommendation, but greatly the unanimous decision made by management after observation and analysis.
“There is no conspiracy or complicated planning.” He gave Zhou Chuanyi a look. “You are the coach for the second string, so you should have seen PINK’s data as well. Whether he’s strong enough to deserve this position, you should know as well, right?”
“Lao ge, I get it, but the kids…” Zhou Chuanyi’s expression showed his worry as well. Ever since that confrontation in the restroom, the conflict within the team hasn’t stopped. In fact, from the time Zuo Tao arrived, they’ve been holding themselves back, and today was just the straw that broke the camel’s back, and their tempers broke out.
They’re all kids of similar ages, and no one can easily make them back down. Once something like this starts, it will be difficult to end.
Jiang Ming turned to look at the members of the second string team standing behind Zhou Chuanyi, rubbing his forehead and asking, “So what do you suggest we do?”
“They just feel it’s unfair,” Zhou Chuanyi said. “In this industry, don’t we simply use our strength to solve problems?” He looked at Jiang Ming and asked, “Jiang-ge, why don’t we just let them solo a few times?
“If PINK can show he’s strong enough, I guarantee they won’t complain again.”
Jiang Ming looked at Zhou Chuanyi deeply before saying, “They really chose to air their complaints now, when they could have done so earlier or later?” He scowled. “The preliminaries begin tomorrow and you want to spend time soloing now?
“No. Your opinion holds no value compared to the competition tomorrow.”
Moreover, what worried him more was that Zuo Tao was still burning with fever, and he needed to rest to maintain his form if he wanted to play well.
Jiang Ming and Zhou Chuanyi joined Wildfire consecutively, so they had quite the understanding of each other. Aside from their skills, they were both careful. Now, he’d brought the entire second string team to their training room; while dissatisfaction within the members was a given reason, Jiang Ming knew that they wouldn’t have come here without Zhou Chuanyi’s tacit permission.
Jiang Ming’s eyebrows furrowed. “Hurry up and get back to training. If you truly have concerns, report to management. They still have team training to do, there is no time for this…”
Before he could finish speaking, he finally noticed the group coming from the staircase —
“I’ll fight them.”
Jiang Ming looked up to see Zuo Tao walking towards him. He was surprised, but when he finally processed what he’d heard, his heart started beating harder.
This broken child, what kind of chaos is he causing now!
“Coach Jiang, I’ll do it,” Zuo Tao repeated, ignoring the look on Jiang Ming’s face as he coughed. “Coach Jiang, I’ll fight them.”
Jiang Ming: “No, you…”
He could not even formulate words when Song Shihan approached as well, and he made a guess. Song Shihan didn’t speak immediately, turning to look at Zuo Tao before asking, “Is your body alright?”
Zuo Tao nodded. “I’m fine.”
He continued to look at Zuo Tao for a few more moments. “En,” he finally said, “then let’s fight.”
Jiang Ming was stupefied. His face had turned unreadable.
Zuo Tao had been prepared for something like this to happen. It would have been fine if it happened after the preliminaries, but since the opportunity was here, it was better to solve the problem than leave it to fester.
In esports, lack of skill is the original sin.
He looked directly at Xiao Ding among the crowd and asked calmly, “You decide. How should we fight?”
Xiao Ding was taken aback, but only for a moment. He immediately stopped forward and said, “Best of three, first to two wins.”
Zuo Tao wanted to agree, but Song Shihan was faster, shaking his head and saying, “Too slow. Best of one, first to get a kill wins. Is that okay?”
Xiao Ding gritted his teeth, but agreed nonetheless.
Five minutes later, the two of them sat in front of two computers in the training room.
Zuo Tao was not nervous at all.
On the contrary, remembering what had happened in the restroom, he glanced at Song Shihan, who stood behind him with his arms crossed, feeling like this was a good opportunity to fix his image.
He needed to take this chance to repair the relationships among the members in the base and create an image of magnanimity — even if you bully me, I will take it with grace.
Ah, just thinking about it broke his heart that he was such a well-behaved and sensible child.
After deciding on the direction he wanted to take this, Zuo Tao quickly thought of a script, using humor to ease the tension in the air, thinking it was clever of him —
He looked at Xiao Ding sitting in front of him, smiling in a friendly manner, saying, “Ding-ge, you said that you’d give three minutes at the beginning, right? Does that still count?”
Xiao Ding’s mouth twitched, but he didn’t respond verbally. Thank you for the invitation. I will not go easy on you.
Zuo Tao noticed his stiffness and laughed it off. Realizing that he was the only one who found it amusing, he suppressed his emotions and pinched the bridge of his nose, adding, “Or, nevermind. I was just kidding.”
Xiao Ding didn’t deign to respond, instead wearing his headphones and saying, “Let’s start.”
In esports, many players chose to save time by employing the ‘first blood wins’ method in solo matches. It was normal to see matches end within five minutes.
After they chose the support hero to use, the match officially began.
Zuo Tao didn’t buy boots at the base, instead going directly for a magic item.
Ten seconds later, the two heroes met in the midlane.
Zuo Tao thought that it was a friendly game, anyway. He planned for the both of them to develop peacefully at first, at least wait until they’ve taken down a few minions to gain EXP. He didn’t expect Xiao Ding not to think it was friendly at all, hitting him with a basic attack when he wasn’t prepared for it. Noticing that Zuo Tao wasn’t paying attention, he flashed forward, using his skill to reduce his health down to a sliver.
As if he had already seen Pinket’s death under his hand, Xiao Ding breathed a sigh of relief, excitement shining in his eyes.
Zuo Tao raised an eyebrow, puzzled about what this child might be thinking.
A single moment before the last skill could land on him, he snaked around, twisting right on time to avoid damage, all while using his basic attack to deal damage.
Although they were using the same support hero, under Zuo Tao’s control, the hero became cruel. Using his control skill to immobilize Xiao Ding, he threw two basic attacks, his mind calculating his total damage all the while.
A second later, the control on Xiao Ding lost effect. His health was just a little higher than Zuo Tao’s. Without hesitation, he moved forward firmly.
Zuo Tao, however, did not retreat. He moved so flexibly that it seemed as if he could predict where exactly his opponent’s skills were going to land. Kiting skills while dealing damage with his basic attack, the two of them reached the same amount of health.
Xiao Ding realized that something was wrong, immediately falling back under the tower.
But Zuo Tao had yet to use his flash. The next moment, Zuo Tao used it to move closer, just as his skill went off cooldown, throwing it out with no hesitation.
After using his spell to execute his opponent, Zuo Tao confidently turned back, and the system sound broadcasted right on time —
【FIRST BLOOD!】
It hasn’t even been thirty seconds since they met on the lane!
It was a crazy dog chase from beginning to end.
At the same time, muscle memory kicked in, and Zuo Tao sent a “?” emoticon, which he immediately regretted. After all, the action was too provocative.
“Um…”
Zuo Tao looked up at Xiao Ding, whose face was pale, explaining, “Sorry, my hand slipped.”
Xiao Ding paled even further.
Wang Qiu pressed his fist against his mouth, hiding the smile he couldn’t fight. He whispered to Si Zheng, “Hiss, miserable, that.”
“Should we go on?” Zuo Tao asked, taking off his headphones and coughing again. He pressed his head against his forehead, feeling like his fever was getting worse.
Xiao Ding pursed his lips, staying silent for a few seconds before he lowered his head and stood up, clenching his fists and admitting, “I lost.”
Although it was just one game, they were all professionals who played to their standards, and the difference between their skills were determined quickly within those short few minutes.
Zuo Tao smiled at him.
“I’ll do it.”
However, after Xiao Ding stood up and left his seat, another member of the second string team, one sporting a crew cut, stepped forward to take his seat.
Zuo Tao knew him to be the one who cursed most fiercely in the restroom; the one who made fun of him for being sick and wishing he wouldn’t be able to compete.
Then it was even more necessary to show this guy his reality.
Zuo Tao unscrewed the thermos Jiang Ming gave him, wanting to take a sip of ginger tea to refresh himself. “Alright, first blood wins?”
A warm, dry hand landed on his shoulder.
Zuo Tao paused in his movements, looking up.
“He’s a support. What role do you play?”
Song Shihan’s voice was calm as he looked at the other player, eyebrows furrowed slightly.
Crew cut was stunned, answering, “AD.”
“En,” Song Shihan responded with a nod, bending slightly to grab Zuo Tao’s mouse. “I also play AD. I’ll fight solo against you.”
Belated Happy Chinese New Year!
Unfortunately, I will not be able to post a new chapter tomorrow. The next update will be on Wednesday, and updates will continue from then~ Thank you so much for your understanding and I hope you’re enjoying DPTBG so far!
If you can, please support the author by buying the original work! If you would like, you can also support the translator through this link:
An extra chapter will be posted each time we reach our dono goal~
