The next day.
Everyone gathered at the lobby at 7:30. The bus arranged by the base was already waiting outside. Jiang Ming urged Wang Qiu, who was still eating steamed stuffed buns, saying, “Just take it with you and eat on the way. There’s also prepared freshly-ground soybean milk for everyone to drink later.”
Zuo Tao moved his wrists and fingers, holding a cup of instant coffee he’d just prepared in the breakroom on his way down from the dorm.
After going back to his room from the balcony last night, the exhaustion that had been hounding him seemed to have been blown away by the evening wind. After lying down, he couldn’t sleep, and all that lingered in his mind was Song Shihan’s half-joke, half-threat.
Zuo Tao thought that Song Shihan must be some kind of Gu1蠱, “gǔ”, a bug of legend that is usually poisonous to those infected that has infected him.
Since he couldn’t sleep, he browsed Weibo, browsing so far that he accidentally opened the novel shipping him with Song Shihan. After just a short time since he last saw it, he was surprised to find that there were even more chapters available.
He suspected that the algorithm must be working against him. He only read the updated content, and soon his homepage contained several related recommendations — all of which involved him and Song Shihan.
Unfortunately, most were still ongoing and he couldn’t quite stop after reading just one, tempting him over and over.
He stumbled into a remarkable rabbit hole.
When he finally put his phone down again, it was already past midnight. Looking for an empty seat on the bus, Wang Qiu said, “Zheng-ge, I heard you played ranked with STAR and the captain last night?”
“En,” Si Zheng answered, remembering last night’s shenanigans and smiling helplessly. “I feel like his mental state is no good. Playing with him isn’t either, my phone almost blew up with his messages.”
Although he sounded disdainful, his tone didn’t imply disgust. To be honest, even if they weren’t from the same time, unless there were some special grudges, their relationships in private were good; at the very least, surface-level friendships were guaranteed.
Especially STAR, who was social with a positive personality. It was easy to talk to him, so he was popular and was friends with all sorts of people.
Like yesterday; everyone offered their comfort, but aside from words of comfort, there was also teasing, which showed the different sides of friendship.
Without something real behind it, no one would have been able to laugh as such.
“STAR said ZZ was also there?” Wang Qiu asked, smacking his lips as he drank soy milk. “Was STAR scolded?”
Si Zheng laughed heartily. “He was trying to force himself into Taozi’s position, but ended up getting scolded rather harshly.”
Suddenly hearing his alt, Zuo Tao cleared his throat and looked out the window, pretending it had nothing to do with him as he drank his coffee.
“Speaking of,” Si Zheng began, recalling what ZZ said in the game last night. He looked at Zuo Tao and said, “Taozi, it feels like ZZ is your fan. I haven’t seen him compliment anyone publicly before.”
Zuo Tao forced a laugh, asking: “…really?” This topic was really embarrassing; of course, he couldn’t tell himself he wasn’t any good.
With no idea of the truth, Si Zheng smiled and said, “Yeah. He said in the game last night that you were a thousand times stronger than STAR. Hahahaha, it’s easy to tell that he must have been your fan.”
“I remember he said good things about the captain too,” Wang Qiu interjected, opening Weibo on his phone and saying, “Look at his Weibo. Nine out of ten posts are related to the captain.”
Shi Ling finally arrived with Jiang Ming, getting into the bus. While they were talking about ZZ, she casually asked, “Isn’t he kind of famous? How are his skills?”
“He’s a famous companion on Little Bear, and he’s quite strong,” Wang Qiu answered, praising on one hand but backstabbing on the other: “But his temper is really bad. Everyone who’s played with him before should have gotten roasted by him, right?”
Si Zheng clicked his tongue, answering, “I was fortunate enough to have gotten scolded a few times due to my poor resistance to pressure.” He looked at Song Shihan. “Captain, have you played with ZZ before, aside from last night’s game?”
Zuo Tao’s ear perked up at the topic, and he bit the rim of his cup. His gaze drifted towards Song Shihan.
A few years ago, he met Song Shihan. It was then that his determination peaked until he became who he was today.
But what was a very special experience to him was probably an ordinary one to Song Shihan.
There was a very small probability of being remembered.
Still, he couldn’t help but raise some home.
Song Shihan sat by the window with a wired earphone dangling off one ear. Hearing Si Zheng’s question, he took it off and casually answered, “En, we queued up together once.”
Zuo Tao was taken aback.
“He didn’t scold you?” Wang Qiu asked, leaning over curiously.
“No,” Song Shihan replied.
“Then he probably wasn’t interested in you at that time,” Wang Qiu said.
“No wonder,” Si Zheng added. “Last night while we were playing, ZZ didn’t say anything to me, either. It’s probably for the sake of giving you face, so I also received some preferential treatment.”
Wang Qiu shrugged. “Though I have to admit he has the capital. He used his skill with the little elf to kill WIND under the tower. Based on that alone, even if his temper is awful, there are still many people asking for him to carry.”
Song Shihan hummed. “He’s okay.”
The hand gripped around the cup tightened, and Zuo Tao’s lips curled uncontrollably.
He looked out the window at the world, watching the green trees rapidly retreating on one side of the road; at the vehicles speeding away; at the pedestrians walking along the zebra crossing.
He grinned silently.
*
There wasn’t much traffic on the road, so they arrived at the venue early.
Remembering his promise to get a signed photo for CAT, Zuo Tao went to the lounge first before leaving to find FG.
“Where are you going?” Song Shihan asked, seeing Zuo Tao stand up. He put down his phone and glanced at him.
“Going to see my aunt,” Zuo Tao explained honestly.
Song Shihan nodded, but before he could say anything else, Jiang Ming looked up and asked, “Is it for something important?”
Zuo Tao shook his head.
“Then go after the competition,” Jiang Ming said. “We’ll be competing against FG soon. It’s best we avoid suspicion, so as not to get caught and have mud slung on us online.”
Zuo Tao immediately realized what he meant. “I’m sorry,” he said.
He truly wasn’t paying attention to things like that. Whether it was FG or Wildfire, both were currently highly popular teams. Regardless of the final result of the game, if he went to see FG now, right before they played, those online haters would have something to say —
If they won, they could say that FG lost on purpose; if they lost, they would say that Wildfire deliberately lost to FG. They’d say there was leaking of tactics, and other things.
And he was blood-related to Su Yueyao. At this point, it was necessary to follow Jiang Ming’s advice and avoid suspicion as much as possible.
Zuo Tao ruffled his hair. “I didn’t think of that.”
“It’s alright, don’t apologize,” Jiang Ming said, waving his apology away. “You’re new to the industry, it’s normal for you not to understand some situations. Even if it’s just a chat, the word that gets out may contain anything else. It has happened before,” he finished.
“Sometimes, I wonder why these haters have so much idle time,” Wang Qiu lamented, leaning against the sofa and scrolling through his own Weibo. “They just stay online criticizing everything. Would they die if they don’t talk about others?” He gritted his teeth. “Look what happened to me two years ago. They’re still talking about it until now, everytime I play, they bring it up, to the point that even I am impressed. Can’t I be allowed to be emotional?”
“In contrast, could that mistake even be considered small?” CAT asked, glancing at him with a hint of laughter in her voice.
Wang Qiu played deaf. “But it’s understandable. The strong making mistakes is unacceptable, historically, and this situation can only be taken as people having high expectations of me.” He paused, and then continued: “The other thing is that every time I get scolded online, my followers rise by a bit. I’ll just let them scold me.” His morale seemed to surge. “Let’s take FG down today!”
Jiang Ming was happy, not saying anything else. What pleased him the most was that the team’s mentality was always stable. They were basically unaffected by online comments, especially Wang Qiu; his ability to self-soothe was top-notch, and he could even take those comments for entertainment.
Still, Jiang Ming was cautious. “I don’t care about you guys usually,” he began, “but I would like you all to avoid Weibo as much as possible before each games to maintain your best on stage.” He lowered his head and looked at his iPad, continuing, “If we can win this game, we will have enough points. Whether or not we play any more games doesn’t matter; anyway, our qualification to the Summer Split is as good as done.” He looked at Song Shihan and Zuo Tao. “By the way, has PINK played against RUN before?”
FG’s support, RUN, was someone Zuo Tao had encountered several times in ranked games. He was an amazing healer support. It was always difficult to get around his circle of protection to target the enemy team’s carry.
WIZARD relied on his protection to successfully take a lead in economy in the early game to completely dominate the jungle.
But they were them, and Zuo Tao was still confident in himself.
“I’ve played against him before with my smurf,” Zuo Tao answered. “I’ll try to suppress him as much as possible.”
“That would be best,” Jiang Ming agreed. “After FG changed their play style, they seem to favor leaving the support with the AD. When you go to the bottom lane, pay extra attention. If you’re unsatisfied, you can also try to invade their jungle as much as possible.”
Song Shihan nodded. “I understand.”
Jiang Ming soon rushed through last minute discussions on the tactics they’ve decided at the base. Right before the beginning of the match, Wang Qiu was called for the trashtalking segment. Shortly after returning, staff knocked at their door, notifying them that it was their turn to play.
Still using the same entrance as the previous time they were here, looking at the dazzling lights at the end of the corridor and at the ID “FIRE” on Song Shihan’s back, Zuo Tao suddenly couldn’t help but remember the last time he walked down this path.
It couldn’t be considered a very good memory.
The first time was okay, but the second was a little difficult to recall. Looking back, there were feelings of suffocation and anxiety.
His thoughts drifted as he kept his eyes on Song Shihan’s ID. He didn’t know if Song Shihan would cheer him up this time, just like he did on that first match.
As if summoned by the thought, Song Shihan suddenly stopped walking.
Zuo Tao, confused, followed suit. He looked up just as a shadow fell over his head.
Song Shihan lowered his gaze and casually rubbed his head.
Amidst the noise, his voice was low:
“Fight well.”
From the TL: Please support the author if/when you can! Buy the raws here
