WCG Chapter 51

Since it was the last match before the New Year, they didn’t return to the base after the game but went straight to a restaurant for a big meal. 

Jiang Lele only found out in the car that Yuan Yang had already reserved a table. With a smile, he said, “I knew Yang-ge had confidence in my skills. He guessed I’d perform exceptionally today and lead the team to victory.”  

“Jiang Lele, the MVP was the captain,” Yu Hui mercilessly pointed out, “You were ranked fifth.”  

In other words, even if someone carried the team, it definitely wasn’t him.  

Jiang Lele: “…”  

“Fine, I won’t argue with you. I need to think about what to eat later.”  

He started listing dishes to Yuan Yang like a rhyming chant, naming at least five or six, and added, “Get extra servings of the braised prawns. Little White Hair is here this year, and he eats a lot. I’m worried there won’t be enough.”  

Jiang Lele used Jiang Shi as an excuse and didn’t forget to emphasize, “Make it extra spicy!”  

Normally, Jiang Shi would have retorted immediately, but today he was unusually quiet. Wearing a cap, he sat next to Xie Xu, absentmindedly fiddling with the strap of his gear bag.  

Yuan Yang noted the dishes Jiang Lele mentioned, then turned to Jiang Shi. “Xiao Shi, can you eat spicy food?”  

The dishes prepared by the auntie at the base weren’t very spicy, so he wasn’t sure about Jiang Shi’s tolerance.  

Lost in thought, Jiang Shi didn’t realize Yuan Yang was speaking to him until Xie Xu pulled on the strap Jiang Shi had rolled into a coil and reminded him, “Yuan Yang is asking if you can eat spicy food.”  

“Yes,” Jiang Shi immediately snapped back to attention. “I can eat anything.”  

He had an iron stomach.  

At this point, Zhao Jiu and Yu Hui chimed in with a few more dishes.  

Since they were all young men with hearty appetites, Yuan Yang wasn’t worried about them not finishing the food.  

The car grew lively with chatter, but Jiang Shi couldn’t focus on what the others were discussing. Instead, his mind replayed what Xie Xu had said to him earlier at the venue.  

“In my opinion, they’re the same.” 

Why was it the same? He regarded Lin Miao as a rival in love, did Xie Xu also see the Yaowan like that?  

The idea sounded ridiculous, but the logic was sound. 

But he had only met Yaowan in person for the first time today. What was there to be bothered about? Xie Xu was always calm and composed. It was impossible for him to be as jealous as Jiang Shi.  

Caught between denial and secret delight, Jiang Shi’s thoughts were a tangled mess.  

Failing to reach a conclusion, he snuck a glance at Xie Xu.  

The others were happily ordering their favorite dishes, while Xie Xu wasn’t participating. He leaned against the chair, eyes closed, seemingly taking a nap.  

Streetlights passed one by one outside the window. In the dim and mottled light, Xie Xu’s face appeared hazy and detached. With his eyes closed, he seemed distant and aloof.  

And even more attractive…  

Jiang Shi realized that his face-con tendencies were in full swing when it came to Xie Xu. No matter what Xie Xu looked like, Jiang Shi found him utterly captivating.  

He secretly admired Xie Xu for a while. Just as he was about to look away, Xie Xu slowly opened his eyes, and their gazes met.  

Xie Xu’s eyes were deep and piercing, with no trace of sleepiness — completely alert.  

Xie Xu said, “Why’d you stop looking?”  

Caught red-handed, Jiang Shi looked away guiltily. “You weren’t sleeping?”  

“No.” Xie Xu rubbed his neck. “Lele is too noisy.”  

Jiang Shi was about to agree when Xie Xu added, “You’re noisy too.”  

Jiang Shi instinctively shut his mouth but soon realized something. He looked up, confused. “I only said one sentence.”  

His tone carried a hint of grievance, clearly feeling wronged by Xie Xu’s accusation.  

At that moment, the car arrived at the restaurant.  

Yuan Yang called out, “It’s hard to park here. Let’s get off first.”  

The group piled out of the car, leaving Jiang Shi and Xie Xu at the back.  

The January night wind was biting. Jiang Shi took a sharp breath, zipped up his team jacket to the top, and pressed down on the collar, leaving only his mouth exposed.  

Just as he was about to catch up with the group heading into the restaurant, Xie Xu’s calm voice reached him. “I didn’t mean your voice was noisy.”  

Jiang Shi blinked and turned to look at him.  

Xie Xu looked at him back. “I can’t sleep if you keep staring at me.” 

The low voice drifted into Jiang Shi’s ears on the cold night wind, making his heart skip a beat.  

Hearing his restless heartbeat, Jiang Shi tilted his head and asked, “Why couldn’t you sleep?”  

Xie Xu replied, “It makes me nervous.”  

Jiang Shi tightened his grip on his zipper, fiddling with it up and down before lowering his head and curling his lips into a smile. “Oh.”  

Then he’d do it again next time!

Once in the private room, while waiting for the food, Xie Xu started discussing post-New Year return schedules and training arrangements with Yuan Yang.  

Jiang Shi couldn’t get a word in, so he kept his head down, playing on his phone.  

Out of habit, he searched online to see if there were any highlight reels from his match today.  

Before hitting search, Jiang Shi paused for a moment, mentally preparing himself before pressing the button.  

Fortunately, there were no outrageous Photoshopped images this time. Most of the content consisted of game commentators’ reviews and fan-made highlight videos, all positive.  

However, the comments section was filled with his memes, even chibi ones. They were normal, not as outrageous as the kissing GIF of him and Xie Xu from before.  

As Jiang Shi had anticipated, the kissing GIF quickly vanished from the internet. It wasn’t clear if it was banned for being too explicit or reported by Xie Xu’s fans.  

Remembering something, Jiang Shi sneaked a glance at Xie Xu.  

Xie Xu happened to be drinking from his thermos. His Adam’s apple moved slightly as he swallowed, and when he set the cup down, his lips were moist, reflecting a beautiful sheen under the light.  

Noticing Jiang Shi’s gaze, Xie Xu handed him the thermos. “Want some?”  

On a regular day, Jiang Shi might have shamelessly accepted. But since he’d just been thinking about the kissing GIF, drinking from the same cup Xie Xu used felt a bit too perverted. 

“I’m not thirsty,” Jiang Shi said, trying his best to look composed.  

Xie Xu didn’t question it, screwing the lid back on and placing the thermos near Jiang Shi’s hand.  

A minute later, Jiang Shi couldn’t resist. Moving quietly, he picked up the thermos and took a sip.  

Xie Xu noticed his little action and smiled faintly but said nothing.  

Jiang Shi put the thermos down and went back to his phone. He had been about to exit the search page for the kissing GIF when he saw a comment:  

[For the Time & Xu kissing GIF, head to Time’s official fan group. Please don’t tell anyone if you have them.] 

Fan group? Jiang Shi had no idea he even had one.  

He tried looking for the group number but couldn’t find anything, as if the information was deliberately hidden from him. Just as he was about to switch to his alternate Weibo account, he heard a few sneaky chuckles from Jiang Lele nearby.  

Turning toward the sound, Jiang Shi saw Jiang Lele chatting in a group and occasionally sending pictures. The people in the images were clearly wearing TLG uniforms.  

Jiang Shi assumed Jiang Lele was boasting about his match performance today. But just as he was about to look away, he caught sight of something familiar.  

It was the elusive kissing GIF he had been looking for.

Jiang Shi: “?”  

Jiang Lele is in that fan group?  

Jiang Shi squinted, trying to see the group name. Adjusting his angle, he finally made it out—

[Time Precious Resources Group].  

Before Jiang Shi could ponder the name’s meaning, another picture popped up in the group chat. It was of him grabbing Xie Xu’s sleeve while walking down the stairs earlier.  

 [Haha, I’m dying of laughter. Is T Bao still not weaned? Holding someone’s sleeve while walking?]  

 [Tsk tsk, Time is definitely scheming, pretending not to be able to see the stairs. It’s all so he can stick close to Xu.] 

 [That little idiot’s mouth is harder to suppress than AK’s recoil.] 

 [He thinks he’s being discreet! But in fact, the audience saw everything clearly.]  

 [Hahaha, I was there live. It was hilarious!]  

 [Is live shows so fun? I’m buying a ticket next time!]  

 [Newbies in the group, please support our T Bao~ Time doesn’t have merchandise or endorsements yet, but feel free to share the pictures and audio files in the group. Thank you for your support! (Note: Files marked with * are too explicit to share publicly. Thank you for your understanding.)]  

Seeing that last line, a question mark slowly formed in Jiang Shi’s mind.  

What kind of files were these?  

Then, as he watched, Jiang Lele skillfully opened the group files, downloaded a meme pack from today’s match, and picked out a few unflattering pictures of Jiang Shi to save to his daily stash.  

The file list was long, and Jiang Shi’s heart skipped a beat when he caught a glimpse of certain file names:  

[Time wants to sleep with Xu (Audio*)]  

[Time said he wants to kiss Xu (Audio*)]  

[Time asked Xu to come on top of him (Video*)]  

[Time tries to seduce Xu (Video*)]  

Jiang Shi took a glance and saw all of them had the * sign. Compared to these outrageous file names, the kissing GIF seemed downright innocent.  

After saving his haul, Jiang Lele put his phone away with satisfaction. But the reflective screen showed Jiang Shi’s expression.

Jiang Lele froze for a moment, then turned slowly, meeting Jiang Shi’s murderous gaze. His heart trembled, and his phone nearly slipped from his grip.  

Jiang Shi said expressionlessly, “I saw it.”  

What “fan group”? It was clearly a black material vault!  

Jiang Lele immediately flipped his phone over and feigned calmness. “You didn’t see anything.”  

“You have two options,” Jiang Shi said without preamble. “First, add me to that group. If you do, I might let you enjoy a peaceful New Year for your meritorious reporting.”  

Jiang Lele hesitated. “What’s the second option?”  

Jiang Shi replied, “Die here, and I’ll use your corpse’s fingerprint to unlock your phone and get the group number myself.¹Fun fact! Fingerprints can be scanned easily because our palm produces oil. A corpse no longer produces oil, so if Jiang Lele died for too long, Jiang Shi wouldn’t be able to use his fingerprint~”

Jiang Lele: “…”  

Dragging his chair, Jiang Lele squeezed between Yu Hui and Zhao Jiu, clutching Yu Hui’s arm for protection. “I choose neither! That’s our happy haven, don’t think about ruining it!”  

“I see.” Jiang Shi rolled up his sleeves, his voice eerily calm. “You’ve chosen the second option.”  

At that moment, Jiang Shi recalled something—Jiang Lele had once humiliated him by playing an early, embarrassing voice clip of his in front of everyone. Back then, Jiang Lele had also mentioned a group.  

Jiang Shi forgot about that because he was too embarrassed.

Now, he understood the gravity of the situation—

As long as this group existed, he was perpetually on the brink of social death.  

Jiang Lele, seeing Jiang Shi’s menacing posture, clung to Yu Hui’s arm and wailed, “Help! Little White Hair is trying to murder his teammate!”  

Jiang Shi cracked his knuckles loudly, his tone chilling. “No one can save you.”  

He will fight this little winter melon to death today!

Just as Jiang Shi was about to act, someone lightly pinched the back of his neck.  

The slightly cool fingertips made Jiang Shi subconsciously shrank his neck. Losing this center of gravity, he plopped back into his seat. 

“Stop it.” Xie Xu redirected a plate of freshly served crayfish toward Jiang Shi.  

Jiang Shi’s hands then were encased in plastic gloves. “Eat your shrimp.”  

Rendered weaponless, Jiang Shi could only obediently slip on the gloves. However, he shot Jiang Lele a threatening glare when Xie Xu wasn’t looking.  

Jiang Lele read the message clearly:  

[This isn’t over. You’d better watch out.]  

Because he felt guilty, Jiang Lele didn’t dare compete with Jiang Shi for the first serving of shrimp. Instead, he occasionally scooped a few from Yu Hui’s bowl, all the while watching Jiang Shi devour his portion with envy. Swallowing hard, Jiang Lele waited impatiently for the second serving to arrive.  

Jiang Shi, fully aware of Jiang Lele’s gaze, deliberately ate slowly.  

While the two silently competed, a bowl piled high with peeled shrimp suddenly slid in front of Jiang Shi.  

Jiang Shi’s intimidating aura evaporated instantly. He turned to Xie Xu, wide-eyed. “Captain?”  

Xie Xu removed his oil-stained gloves. “I don’t like eating these.”  

Grinning, Jiang Shi happily accepted the shrimp. He even tilted the bowl to give Jiang Lele a clear view of the mountain of shrimp tails.  

Jiang Lele was so jealous. “Sobsobsob, Captain, I want some too!”  

Jiang Shi scoffed. “Ask my fists if they’ll allow it.”  

Knowing it was hopeless, Jiang Lele turned to Yu Hui, who was peeling shrimp. Opening his mouth, he begged, “Back, feed your little mid laner~”  

Yu Hui rolled his eyes and ate the shrimp in one bite instead. 

Fortunately for Jiang Lele, the second serving of crayfish arrived shortly after, finally satisfying his craving.  

While Jiang Shi and Jiang Lele focused on devouring shrimp, the others opened a bottle of wine and began chatting over their drinks.  

Before joining the team, Jiang Shi had told Yuan Yang he didn’t drink. Because they’re still too young, both he and Jiang Lele stuck to soda.  

The aroma of the wine on the table was tempting, but to maintain his image, Jiang Shi sipped his Sprite without enthusiasm. Reaching for the fruit plate, he picked up a small, vibrant orange.  

As the first slice hit his tongue, Jiang Shi paused.  

Jiang Lele, who had just bitten into a numbing Sichuan peppercorn, reached for an orange to counter the flavor. “T Bao, is the orange sweet?”  

Jiang Shi swallowed his bite, then lazily popped another slice into his mouth. “It’s fine.”  

Hearing this, Jiang Lele immediately started peeling his own orange, not noticing that Jiang Shi had set the rest of his orange on the table and hadn’t touched it again.  

Peeling quickly, Jiang Lele stuffed the entire orange into his mouth. The moment he bit into it, the tartness hit him like a truck.  

It was too late to spit it out, the orange was already sliding down his throat. Tears welled up as he grimaced. “Fuck, Little White Hair, you’re too evil!” 

Sour didn’t even begin to describe it. And Jiang Shi had pretended it was fine while even eating another slice in front of him!  

Jiang Shi’s voice was icy. “You deserve that.” 

Despite his words, Jiang Shi sneakily reached for his drink to wash away the sourness.  

Before he could grab it, a cold can of Sprite was handed to him.  

Xie Xu, seemingly unaware, passed the drink and resumed chatting with Yuan Yang.  

Relieved, Jiang Shi gulped down the Sprite. As the sourness faded, the wine aroma grew more enticing. Glancing at his clear soda, he sighed with longing.  

If only this were wine.  

When he finished his Sprite, Jiang Shi grabbed the bottle to refill his glass. On a whim, he matched the Sprite level in his glass to the wine in Xie Xu’s cup.

Then, he placed them side by side.  

Yuan Yang, meanwhile, was discussing endorsement schedules with Xie Xu.  

“Isn’t the photoshoot for you and Xiao Shi’s keyboard brand scheduled for after the New Year? Took forever to finalize that date.”  

Xie Xu nodded. “It’s a good time. If Jiang Shi performs well in these next matches, his endorsement fee might go up again.”  

Yuan Yang agreed as he smiled. “After he shoots this endorsement with you, he’ll definitely attract a ton of fans for his looks. Hopefully, his livestream chat will be as peaceful as yours someday.”  

Jiang Shi’s hand stealthily reached for Xie Xu’s wine glass. Just as he picked it up, Yuan Yang turned to him.  

“Xiao Shi, why are you just drinking soda? Eat more, you’re still too skinny.”  

Startled, Jiang Shi nearly spilled the wine but quickly played it cool, taking a bold sip. The warmth and flavor made him squint with delight, though he replied obediently, “Soda is tasty. I’ll eat after one sip.”  

‘One sip and I’ll switch my glass back.’

“What’s so good about Sprite…” Yuan Yang muttered, raising his glass toward Xie Xu. “Xu, cheers to you. Thanks for all your hard work this year!”  

He added with a laugh, “And can you stop just drinking a symbolic amount every time²it’s considered giving a face (giving respect) if you drink when someone toasts/cheers to you.? This Maotai is worth thousands a bottle! I don’t even open it for myself!”

Xie Xu, exasperated, picked up the glass nearest to him. “You’re really out to get me drunk?”  

Zhao Jiu and Yu Hui joined in, lifting their glasses in a toast. “Captain, cheers!”  

Yuan Yang grinned mischievously. “Come on, drink up. I’ve never seen you drunk!”  

Xie Xu: “.”

Meanwhile, Jiang Shi, holding the actual wine, froze as he watched Xie Xu take a sip of his Sprite. His motion stopped midway.  

Yuan Yang frowned. “At that rate, how long will it take you to finish the glass?”  

Xie Xu stared at the fizzy “Maotai” in his hand, one brow lifting slightly. Without missing a beat, he calmly downed half the glass, showing everyone the empty bottom. “I’m done. You guys can do whatever you want.” 

Yuan Yang and the others: “?”

• 1
  Fun fact! Fingerprints can be scanned easily because our palm produces oil. A corpse no longer produces oil, so if Jiang Lele died for too long, Jiang Shi wouldn’t be able to use his fingerprint~
• 2
  it’s considered giving a face (giving respect) if you drink when someone toasts/cheers to you.