Chapter 6
A few days after Shi Luo and Wawa's duo stream, the forums erupted into chaos once again. Many old grudges were dug up and re-litigated, with Yu Sui fans, Shi Luo fans, Yu Sui haters, and Shi Luo haters all tangled together in an unresolvable mess.
During a training break, Shi Luo browsed the forums. Zhao Feng caught a glimpse of Shi Luo's computer screen and rushed over to stop him. "Why not play something else? Why look at the forums? You want to shorten your life?"
"I'm not afraid of haters." Shi Luo scrolled slowly through the page. "Been standing at the eye of the storm for so long, I'm used to it."
Zhao Feng laughed despite himself. "Your attitude is something else, alright. By the way, I need to tell you something."
Zhao Feng glanced at the others in the training room. Shi Luo understood and pushed back from his keyboard, rising to follow Zhao Feng out.
They went to the conference room next door. Shi Luo casually pulled up a chair and sat, hands stuffed in his pockets, long legs naturally propped up on the table. "Is this about the stream again? I'm not extending my hours. Thirty hours a month is my limit."
Zhao Feng leaned against the table, helplessly smiling. "Other teams have players signed for forty-five hours, some even sixty."
Shi Luo shook his head. "Impossible. You don't let me reveal our strategies, so I just mess around during streams and play a few random matches. But if I mess around too much, you worry I'll slack off and my skills will decline. You're contradicting yourselves, and you want me to add more hours?"
Zhao Feng knew he was in the wrong. He also knew Shi Luo wasn't short on money, but the club had nothing else more appealing to offer, so he could only say, "Fine, but at least don't cram all thirty hours into the end of the month. Deal?"
Shi Luo was distracted, nodding perfunctorily.
"There's another thing I need to tell you." Zhao Feng pulled up a chair and sat down, his tone softening slightly. "I see you're already browsing the forums yourself, so you probably don't care anymore. I'll just come out and say it, so you won't be caught off guard later and cause some mess."
Shi Luo frowned, looking at Zhao Feng.
Zhao Feng spoke slowly. "It's about your former teammate too... Chen Huo..."
Zhao Feng watched Shi Luo's expression carefully. "He's coming back to China soon."
Shi Luo raised his chin slightly, his expression unchanged. "Oh."
Zhao Feng was surprised. "You're not upset?"
Shi Luo's tone was calm. "Expected."
Zhao Feng laughed. "How did you figure that out?"
Shi Luo said indifferently, "Wawa has no filter. When we chatted that day, I found out everything."
"Huh?" Zhao Feng was confused. "You mean during Wawa's stream when you two were duoing?"
Shi Luo leaned back in his chair, staring blankly at the conference room ceiling. "Yeah."
Now Zhao Feng was completely lost. "I watched the recording of you two's stream, you know. The whole thing, not a single minute skipped, watched it all. How did I not notice anything?"
Shi Luo turned his head to look at Zhao Feng, eyes narrowing slightly. "Want to hear?"
Zhao Feng was genuinely curious and nodded. "Go ahead, we've got time before training anyway."
Shi Luo took out his phone, checked that they still had some time, then tossed it carelessly onto the conference table. "Then don't push me about streaming for a while."
Zhao Feng had no choice but to hesitate and nod. "Fine, fine, I won't push you."
After getting the promise, Shi Luo lowered his legs and looked at Zhao Feng. "NSN already has Whisper, so why did they put Wawa on that day?"
Zhao Feng hesitated. "Probably to avoid exposing strategies too. We also sometimes substitute our reserves for you after we secure a playoff spot each season, specifically to keep you from revealing too much before playoffs. A non-qualifying warm-up match, keeping Whisper off the roster makes sense, doesn't it?"
"It makes sense." Shi Luo nodded. "With Yu Sui around, NSN wouldn't sell off Wawa directly. I understand that—maybe sentiment, maybe they want to enrich their team's roster options."
"Yu Sui's signature is assassin healer, Wawa has always been pure healer. They have two distinctly different healer roles, adding another layer of strategy—that's good. But if that's the case, why is Captain Gu still secretly training Wawa with Yu Sui? Forcibly trying to merge two strategies into one?"
Zhao Feng froze. "Well... it's naturally because Yu Sui is the best healer..."
"You said it yourself—he's the best. So why does Wawa need to practice? No matter how much he trains, he'll never match Yu Sui." A mocking smile tugged at the corner of Shi Luo's mouth. "Even after Captain Gu gave up, NSN's management wouldn't let go. They're still secretly training Wawa, and Wawa is still dropping ranks in Chinese server's high-level matches. Why?"
Zhao Feng said dryly, "What could the reason possibly be?"
"Because they're anxious. They're seizing every moment, pushing Wawa to learn as much as possible in the limited time he has, really giving it his all." Shi Luo narrowed his eyes, looking at Zhao Feng. "Why would NSN's management be anxious? And why did Chen Huo return to China at this time?"
Zhao Feng swallowed. "Wh-why?"
Shi Luo lowered his gaze, his voice cold. "Because Yu Sui is about to leave NSN."
Zhao Feng choked unexpectedly.
"He never really joined NSN. Teaching Wawa is just repaying Captain Gu for a favor, and a place to stay temporarily at NSN." Shi Luo stood up. "Unless something unexpected happens, Yu Sui is about to form his own team."
"Wait." Zhao Feng's eyes were wide with shock, staring at Shi Luo in disbelief. "How did you deduce all of this?"
Shi Luo turned back, looking Zhao Feng up and down. "No need to pretend you're shocked. If he's forming a team, he would have submitted his application to the league long ago. It's normal for me not to know. But you're a manager—didn't you hear any whispers?"
Zhao Feng instinctively avoided Shi Luo's gaze, laughing awkwardly. "What would I know?"
"If you really knew nothing, why would you test me at this time? And why did you dig through the recording of me and Wawa's stream? Three and a half hours of footage—how bored are you to watch every single minute without skipping, watching me accompany him feeding kills?" Shi Luo examined Zhao Feng, tearing through the last layer of pretense. "Chen Huo is an assault player. Yu Sui is going to form a new team, and he's still short one assault player. You're worried. You're worried Yu Sui already contacted me, so today you used the stream as an excuse to probe me."
Shi Luo stuffed his hands in his pockets. "If anything I said was wrong, point it out now, and I'll sign a contract for sixty streaming hours a month right this second."
Caught red-handed, Zhao Feng showed no embarrassment, just shaking his head and laughing. "Shi Luo, really, this is exactly what I like about you! You're young, usually quiet and reserved, but you actually understand everything going on. This part of you is way beyond others your age."
Shi Luo gave a self-deprecating smile, turning to head for the door.
Now that he'd been fully seen through, Zhao Feng didn't feel ashamed anymore. He boldly called after him, "So about Yu Sui..."
"Don't worry." Shi Luo gripped the door handle of the conference room. After a long moment, he said, "From the very beginning to now, he never contacted me."
Walking out of the conference room, Shi Luo's fingertips felt numb. He pulled out his Bluetooth earphones from his pocket, stuck them in his ears, and leaned against the wall with his eyes closed for a while, waiting until his emotions were completely settled before returning to the training room.
Training continued. The warm-up matches continued.
No matter how intense the online drama, Shi Luo's competitive performance remained steady. In the second half of the month's warm-up matches, IAC won all four games. Including the earlier win against NSN, IAC had five consecutive victories. IAC surged ahead of all other teams, firmly holding first place in the league's warm-up standings.
There were two warm-up matches daily. Today, the first match was NSN versus Blademaster, and the second was IAC versus Gongfeng.
Though not a direct confrontation, IAC and NSN were once again inevitably appearing at the same venue. This time, Zhao Feng's resistance was clearly stronger than Shi Luo's. From the moment they entered the arena, Zhao Feng was on high alert, sticking close to Shi Luo's side like glue, refusing any assistance from staff, handling everything personally, guarding against everyone, terrified that some staff member would rip off their friendly facade to reveal Yu Sui's undercover identity, and with one slip on his part, that silver-tongued snake would somehow lure Shi Luo away.
Shi Luo watched Zhao Feng meticulously checking the label of his bottled water for hidden notes, half wanting to say something.
Shi Luo wanted to kindly tell Zhao Feng not to worry—it wasn't a lie, really.
He'd been back in the country for over half a month. There had been so many opportunities. But Yu Sui truly, genuinely, never reached out. Not once. Not even a hint.
IAC's match was in the second slot, so they had plenty of time. Shi Luo half-reclined on the lounge sofa in the rest area. He pulled his baseball cap down low, covering half his face, but still felt uneasy. He took a deep breath, then compulsively fished out his earphones and put them on. His nerves finally relaxed slightly.
A moment later, just as Shi Luo had started to feel better, he sensed someone rustling beside him. He opened his eyes impatiently and saw Zhao Feng tentatively reaching toward his backpack.
Shi Luo removed one earphone, frowning. "What are you doing?"
Zhao Feng instantly pulled his hand back, smiling. "The snacks the staff brought you earlier—I don't know what brand they are. Thought you might not be used to them, wanted to check for you."
Shi Luo held back his anger, personally took the snacks out of his bag, and threw them on the table before closing his eyes again.
After checking the snacks, Zhao Feng said helplessly, "Don't be mad. You know what I'm worried about. If Yu Sui said even a few words, you'd definitely follow him. I have to be careful."
Shi Luo cracked one eye open, his voice cold. "He'd say a few words and I'd follow him? Do I look desperate? Does my face say 'pathetically desperate' in big letters?"
Zhao Feng laughed despite himself. "That's a harsh thing to say. I never said that about you. Don't get angry, don't get angry—you've got a match coming up soon. Don't get worked up. You rest, you rest. I definitely won't touch your stuff again."
Shi Luo swallowed his anger, turned up the volume, and closed his eyes again.
Half an hour later, the first match ended—NSN won—and it was IAC's turn against Gongfeng. Gongfeng's overall strength was in the lower tier of the league. Shi Luo and his teammates cleanly finished the match in twenty-three minutes.
Beating a lower-tier team wasn't worth interviewing about. After answering a few bland questions, the four IAC players returned backstage toward their rest room. Unfortunately, in the narrow corridor, they ran into the NSN team again.
But this time, Yu Sui wasn't with them.
Shi Luo raised his hand to greet Gu Qian. He hadn't taken two steps when Gu Qian spoke up. "Shi Luo."
Shi Luo stopped. The other three IAC members looked around, figured this wasn't their business, and continued to their rest room.
Shi Luo carried his peripheral bag, turning his head slightly. "What?"
Gu Qian said, "Chen Huo's back. Just got off the plane. I've arranged a welcome dinner for him at a place—old friends are all going. You..."
Knowing what Shi Luo's reservations were, Gu Qian preemptively clarified, "Yu Sui will obviously be there too. Do you... want to come?"
Shi Luo looked at Gu Qian indifferently. "Chen Huo and I weren't very close before."
It seemed he'd already anticipated this response. Gu Qian had only asked as a matter of courtesy. He turned to leave. Shi Luo said, "I'm going."