The next day.
When Zuo Tao woke up, it was already 7 in the morning. He took his temperature after washing up briefly — 36.7°C1~98°F, which meant his fever was gone. Aside from the occasional cough, he was feeling much better, his mind clearer.
It could be said that Song Shihan’s congee from last night was highly effective.
He had already gotten the notification from Jiang Ming about yesterday’s game review at 9 later that morning. Since it was still early, and while he made his way to the cafeteria for some food, Zuo Tao habitually opened Weibo.
#WildfirePreliminariesDebut
#PINKFIRElatenightlive
#PINKcrying
The third entry was an eyesore. Zuo Tao, holding a bag of bean paste in his mouth, clicked into it anyway. The next second, when the page loaded to show the content, his eye twitched, and something seemed to explode in his head.
The most eye-catching post was of him crying on the stage — he didn’t even know it himself, but he looked completely miserable. He sat on that gaming chair, eyes red, tears running down his cheeks in a way that made him look both sad and aggrieved.
The “kind-hearted” netizens were all spamming the same comment: “Captain Gege2Again, using 鴿鴿, which means ‘pigeon pigeon’ as opposed to the characters of ‘older brother’, coax baobao quickly.”
Even more terrifying was the photo of Song Shihan hugging him; maybe the angle from the stage was difficult, but the slight smile curling on his lips was caught so clearly, perfectly capturing what it meant to ‘laugh while crying’.
The caption for this particular photo was: “Coaxed, baobao is smiling.”
Zuo Tao: …
He himself feels like the boy on the screen is a little kid.
Why didn’t anyone tell him that someone was bored enough to crop his crying face in high-definition?!
Did the world have no sense of morality!!!
He dared not look further.
He scrolled down quickly, but all he could see were one post after another of his crying face made into various posts by various accounts.
Opening a random post suffocated him even more.
【Be Your Moon: Gotta say though, PINK looks good when he cries. That face he made right before his tears fell could almost be a Qiong Yao Drama3瓊瑤劇, a series of dramas adapted from Taiwanese author Qiong Yao’s books known for the many romantic scenes and deep quotes portrayal, right?】
【Can’t think of a nickname: I agree. My timid boyfriend cried to beautifully it’s impossible to leave him.】
【Soaring away from him: I have an idea I don’t know how to articulate. I’ll just say it out loud: Can FIRE make PINK cry every day? It’s a pity not to see that crying face /shy.jpg】
【PINK’s biological mother: OP, I suspect you’re hinting at something4Raw says 在開車 (“driving”) which is slang for sex/sexual innuendo, but I have no evidence.】
【FIRE is my destiny: No wonder God Han is so good to Fenbao, I wouldn’t be able to control myself if it were me…】
【WIND is the world’s number 1: Laughing to death, Fenbao is truly Fenbao, and his way of making a name for himself in the industry is unorthodox /vomiting.jpg】
The last comment came from an ID so familiar that Zuo Tao almost immediately remembered all their past grievances. He poked his finger on his keyboard a few times, and he was about to send a reply when a WeChat notification popped into his screen.
【Ding Lei: Good morning, Tao5Peach-zong ah.】
【Violent Peach: What’s up?】
【Ding Lei: Oh, you’re awake. I thought you’d still be asleep.】
【Violent Peach: Get straight to the point.】
【Ding Lei: You’ve changed, you’ve become so cold. From your texts alone, I can taste the impatience.】
【Ding Lei: the_pink_tyrant_weeps.jpg】
【Violent Peach: …】
【Violent Peach: Do you think I won’t kill you if I want to?】
【Ding Lei: Whatcha being so aggressive for? Isn’t this trending right now? It’s been going around the internet /winking.jpg I’m just here to remind you about the party tomorrow.】
【Violent Peach: Got it. I’m taking your dog life tomorrow.】
【Ding Lei: Anyway, are you over your cold? I watched the broadcast replay last night, it seems bad.】
Too lazy to continue bothering, Zuo Tao left the chat interface and was about to open Weibo once more when a new wave of messages came ringing.
Wildfire Internals —
【Autumn won’t come back: Right right right I told you that our new support looks good, didn’t I? Do you believe me yet?】
【Autumn won’t come back: Send me 506This is a meme which literally means “WeChat me 50 yuan”, and I suppose the closest English equivalent would be a double dog dare? and I’ll ask if he wants to add you on WeChat /don’t_you_feel_sad_when_i_cry.jpg】
【SZ: Wrong send?】
【Autumn won’t come back has retracted a message.】
【Autumn won’t come back has retracted a message.】
【Autumn won’t come back: I fucked up, I didn’t notice that. Got that on time, right? Taozi7Peach didn’t see anything?】
【PINK: 1】
【Autumn won’t come back: …..】
Zuo Tao was in the midst of thinking of a way to reply when another message popped up —
【FIRE: Do not disclose team personal information, @Autumn won’t come back.】
Following the message was a red envelope8WeChat as a feature where you can share/send money in chats via red envelopes, which gets credited to the receiver’s WeChat account/wallet, which Wang Qiu immediately opened.
【Autumn won’t come back: 2009~27 USD!! Don’t worry, captain, I swear to protect PINK’s WeChat to the death!】
【PINK: …】
Zuo Tao closed the group chat and went back to Ding Lei’s, suddenly reminded of something.
【Violent Peach: It’s better.】
【Violent Peach: Our captain cooked congee for me last night.】
【Ding Lei: Are these two events necessarily involved with each other?】
Of course it mattered, but Zuo Tao didn’t reply again. After putting his phone into his pocket, he focused on eating breakfast.
At 9 o’clock, he sat in the conference room on time.
Song Shihan was the last to arrive, looking like he’d just woken up. His hair was a mess and he sat casually beside Zuo Tao, one hand coming up to pinch at the bridge of his nose lazily.
Jiang Ming closed the door and immediately began with the review, with everyone perking up to listen.
Jiang Ming’s vision was worth its reputation, giving him the credibility he needed as the coach of the first string team. It was obvious that he had spent time and effort repeatedly watching the videos as he was able to point something out from the recordings of yesterday’s game almost frame by frame. Some details Zuo Tao didn’t even notice, he was able to point out.
From clearing minion waves in the midlane to creep clearing in the jungle, circling back to once more discussing their plays on the bottom lane. Even Song Shihan’s mistakes were caught among the many issues that the five of them exhibited during the games.
Jiang Ming paused to take a sip of water before continuing, “Overall, it was still a beautiful debut game. Still, your most fatal flaw is team coordination.
“During the first and second team clash in the midlane, the comms were sent too late. CAT, you shouldn’t have risked taking the dragon here. If you’d taken a detour to gank mid, QIU would have survived that clash. And QIU, why would you flash under the tower to chase after WIND? Did you lose your mind or something? Who gave you such confidence, ZZ?”
CAT pursed her lips and said, “That’s on me.”
Wang Qiu scratched his head with an awkward laugh. “I was indeed a little influenced by ZZ.”
Jiang Ming slapped Wang Qiu’s head before continuing: “Moving on. At the 26th minute of the game, your teleportation timing was off. Your opponent was already retreating. By the time you arrived, not only were you unable to pick anyone off, but you also lost a minion wave.”
Si Zheng nodded, answering: “We will pay attention.” He looked at Zuo Tao and Song Shihan.
Jiang Ming didn’t say anything immediately, instead, sighing before saying, “To be honest, your biggest problem lies in the bottom lane duo. Aside from the issues we’ve already mentioned from the first game, the second game exposed even more shortcomings. I’ll stick to what I said before: if you pick a random duo from the youth training camp right now, they will definitely play more cooperatively than the two of you.
“Zuo Tao, I’ll start with you. In terms of operation, you’re impressive, there’s nothing to be said about it. But in terms of traditional support roles, you still have a long way to go. PINK, you know you won’t always be able to play attack-focused support on the field, right?”
Zuo Tao nodded in agreement, saying: “I’m sorry.”
“FIRE. Although I understand why you played that way during the second game, don’t you think you should have advised your teammates beforehand? Did you not notice PINK casing you all over the map? You could have at least given him a signal.” Jiang Ming rubbed his forehead. “FIRE, you should keep in mind that this is a team game, not a personal solo competition. Communicate your teammates with your words.”
Jiang Ming’s words were heavy, and for a moment the room was silent. Zuo Tao glanced at Song Shihan, wanting to say something, but Song Shihan instead nodded and said, “I understand.”
Jiang Ming sighed. “I arranged a practice match with GGF. You two on the bottom lane, make sure to cooperate.” Jiang Ming cleared his throat. His gaze flickered between him and Song Shihan as he led the way out of the conference room, smiling as he said, “But everything’s fine. Your attitude on accountability is acceptable. You did good on the clarification last night.” He looked at Zuo Tao. “PINK, if FIRE bullies you in the future, just cry and see what else he can do.”
Zuo Tao blushed, not saying anything in response.
After the game review, the team went up to the training room together.
He had added STAR as an in-game friend after a match in the past, so when he logged in he immediately saw that the other party was online.
Zuo Tao sent him a greeting before opening the hero pool, pondering on which heroes would be suitable for play later. The issues that Jiang Ming had mentioned were straightforward, and it concretized what he knew about himself: that his ability to play orthodox support was lacking.
After scrolling for a while, Zuo Tao finally chose a support hero that was similar to Guardian Spirit. It would still be a traditional support, with skills that focused on team buffs. In the past, Zuo Tao would never choose this hero unless requested by someone who hired him as a companion.
After making his choice, Zuo Tao began setting up his settings and talents. His gaze lingered on the bare, basic skin for a few seconds, sighing forlornly.
It’s ugly10As a skinner/skin collector myself, I relate lmao.
Hearing his sigh, Si Zheng leaned curiously and said, “Taozi11Peach, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Zuo Tao answered, shaking his head. “I don’t have skins on this account. I feel like something’s missing.”
He was using the account provided by Jiang Ming when he entered the team. Of course, heroes were still heroes, but having no skins to use was undoubtedly a cruelty to skin elitists like himself.
Hearing his answer, Si Zheng laughed, saying, “I was imagining something worse. What skin do you want? Ge will buy it for you.”
Zuo Tao quickly waved his offer away. “It’s not buyable right now.”
Si Zheng leaned closer to glance at his monitor. “Sweet Carnival Series?” he asked. “That’s a Christmas special, right? It really isn’t available for purchase now. When it comes back, I’ll buy it for you.”
“Sweet Carnival?” Wang Qiu repeated, looking over as well. “If I remember correctly, Captain has the whole series, right? Didn’t the organizer gift it to you when you participated in that one event?”
“En,” Song Shihan said, glancing at Zuo Tao. “You can use my account if you want.”
Zuo Tao was stunned when he realized what Song Shihan meant. “Wait, that’s no good, right?”
“Nothing wrong, it would be a waste to leave it unused,” Song Shihan answered, standing from his chair as he whispered, “Sit in my seat. I’ll get something to eat.”
“Huh?” Zuo Tao said, astonishment even more apparent now. “Is that really okay?”
Even CAT as glancing over, not having expected the way things were going. Everyone in the base knew that FIRE hated when people touched his peripherals; even when the aunt in charge of cleaning cleaned the training room, she automatically skipped Song Shihan’s seat.
Wang Qiu joked around, pretending to be jealous and saying, “Wow, isn’t the botlane duo doing good?” He looked at Song Shihan. “Captain, aren’t you being too biased? I wanted to borrow your keyboard to try the feel, but you disagreed without even looking me in the face. Now, you’re gifting it directly to Taozi12Peach.”
Zuo Tao couldn’t help but blush, even knowing that Wang Qiu was joking. He simply cleared his throat without saying anything.
“If you’re not afraid of death, maybe try crying in front of the captain next time,” Si Zheng answered, not thinking too deeply about it, laughing as he punched Wang Qiu on the shoulder. “Maybe if you cry in front of the audience, he’ll also let you use his account.”
Wang Qiu shook his head without giving it further thought. “Never mind, the cost is too high. I’ll leave it to our solo fan.”
Song Shihan ignored them, reassuring Zuo Tao and pushing him to sit down before leaving the training room.
A minute later.
Zuo Tao sat on Song Shihan’s chair. Although all their equipment were the same, it felt particularly novel; he didn’t dare move around while sitting, his heart beating fiercely.
Especially when he saw the ID “Wildfire-FIRE” on the upper-right corner of the game interface; the joy in his heart surged until it was practically solid. Without anyone else noticing, he lowered his head and grinned to himself.
For the first time since yesterday, he finally saw something positive in his embarrassing behavior from yesterday.
Just cry, even if it trends on the internet, is anything wrong with it?
What good child never cries?
If he could experience different privileges every day, he wouldn’t mind crying every day.
Just as he was thinking of ways to take advantage of this position, the chat box on the bottom side of the game flashed. Zuo Tao didn’t pay attention to it at first, not wanting to pry into Song Shihan’s privacy, but the person chatting was persistent and the window automatically opened —
【GGF-STAR: Hello, ge.】
【GGF-STAR: What will you be playing later?】
【GGF-STAR: Can you give this little brother a hint?】
【GGF-STAR: Why aren’t you answering? At least pay attention, after all, we used to sleep in the same room together~】
【GGF-STAR: What’s so good about xiao Fenmao anyway? He’s just a little more delicate than I am.】
【GGF-STAR: Are you really as they say online? A scum man who only sees new people laughing but not old people crying13This comes from a poem about a husband who leaves his old wife for a new woman without looking back?】
Zuo Tao couldn’t bear to read on, and, after a moment of hesitation, replied —
【Wildfire-FIRE: Stop the act, ba…】
【GGF-STAR: ?】
【Wildfire-FIRE: I’m the newbie.】
【GGF-STAR: ? What?】
【Wildfire-FIRE: This is PINK.】
It took a few seconds before there was a reply.
【GGF-STAR: You… damn it!!!】
【Wildfire-FIRE: Mmm hmm!】
With that, Zuo Tao thought to himself: En, I’ll be taking your head later.
From the TL:
Sheepishly appears after a month
Well! I am back!! I got sick (again) and surgery recovery took way longer than usual with a few complications, but I am now home and getting better. I’m having a few issues with my PayPal at the moment so I will be closing my Ko-Fi until I get it fixed. I apologize for that!
Heart heart. Please take care of yourselves. Love you all.
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