# Chapter 14
The reason Yu Sui had come to IAC at this time was self-evident.
Shi Luo didn't know whether to be angry or relieved. He was exhausted all over, so he simply sat down on the stairs, pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and was speechless for a moment.
Zhao Feng wore a pained expression. "You should have guessed it by now, right? Whisper came to talk about you. What did I tell you? He still wants to buy you. I saw it coming ages ago, but..."
Zhao Feng hesitated. "Sure, regulations say club management can't privately contact players from other clubs, but everyone knows a little private communication—hinting at transfer fees and such—is just human nature. What I need to know now is: did Whisper make you an offer?"
Shi Luo took a drag and shook his head.
Zhao Feng didn't believe him for a second. He pressed further. "Really? Nothing at all? Was the hint too subtle and you missed it? Come on, I definitely won't追究 the private contact. I just want to know his signing fee offer. He's coming tonight—I need a baseline so I can prepare."
Shi Luo shook his head again. "No hints. Don't know."
Zhao Feng gave him a distrustful look.
Shi Luo's head was throbbing. "Not a single cent. Believe me now?"
Zhao Feng stared at him in shock. "How is that possible?!"
Shi Luo was irritated. "You don't believe it, so why keep asking?"
"Fine. Let's assume he really never contacted you. Give me your honest answer." Zhao Feng sat down on the stairs too. "Do you want to stay at our club, or go to Whisper's team? Let me tell you something first—Whisper is ruthless. From what I've heard, he didn't buy an existing team to grab a spot. Instead, he's building a secondary team from scratch, planning to fight his way up through the qualifiers."
Zhao Feng shot Shi Luo a warning look. "Which means if his new team fails in the qualifiers, they're stuck in the secondary league for the entire season. Think about that risk."
"Young Master Shi, you've been transferred twice before—you might think you've had it rough. But have you seen real hardship? Have you seen players with genuine skill get held down by shady bosses in secondary league teams, unable to climb out? They're no less talented than anyone—maybe they lacked commercial appeal, maybe they offended someone higher up, or maybe they just played entry fragger, a role oversaturated with talent. They have the ability to join a first-tier team, but they can only bounce between secondary league teams, playing city-tier tournaments. Do you know what city-tier tournaments look like? Sometimes an entire match won't sell a single ticket—just the players' parents watching from the stands."
Zhao Feng took a deep breath. "Those players who never make it to the main stage are the ones truly suffering. Evil, your record really isn't that tragic. You call this hardship? Do you know where you debuted? The former holy land of esports—FS! You debuted there as a minor, then went to NSN, also a super first-tier team, and now you're here at IAC."
Shi Luo smoked in silence. "One place worse than the last... isn't that tragic?"
Zhao Feng's enthusiasm was coldly dampened. He burst out coughing.
IAC truly couldn't compare to the former FS and NSN. Zhao Feng's face flushed with frustration, and he couldn't find words to argue.
"Fine, let's drop that." Zhao Feng kept patting his chest. "I'm telling you all this to help you assess the risk. In my view, Whisper's move is extremely unwise. You should consider that."
Shi Luo's expression stayed calm. "Risk? Him grinding through qualifiers is like a max-level account terrorizing beginners. What risk could there be?"
Zhao Feng was flustered. "I'm just saying there's that possibility. You have to admit, right? Any competition has a chance of losing. Whisper hasn't never lost a match either. But... I don't understand what he's after. He's not short on money. There are so many bottom-tier teams, just occupying spots and losing money. If he's willing to buy, in my judgment, he could easily acquire at least two of them. Just buy the spot directly—why go through the trouble of qualifiers?"
Shi Luo's lips twitched. He knew exactly why Yu Sui was doing this—he just couldn't be bothered to explain it to Zhao Feng.
Birds of a different feather...
Zhao Feng waved his hand. "Alright, let's drop that. If you're not even afraid of going to a secondary league team yourself, what can I say? I'm asking you directly—are you really set on going to Whisper's team?"
Shi Luo was silent.
Zhao Feng sighed. "I knew it. The moment he waves, you're gone."
Zhao Feng's concern was still about money. "So how much signing bonus did he offer? Give me a number. Between us, we can negotiate. As long as it's within what we can handle, I'll go to headquarters and negotiate for you. A signing bonus increase? No problem."
"I admit, the signing bonus our club gave you over the past two years has been on the low side. But you agreed to it yourself. Last year, I also asked if you wanted to sign a longer contract, in which case I could apply to headquarters for a special contract on your behalf and raise the signing bonus. You refused yourself, remember?" Recalling the past made Zhao Feng's disappointment evident. "If you had listened to me, the signing bonus would've been raised long ago. You know how much I wanted to keep you, don't you? Wait—you've always signed year-to-year. Were you waiting for Whisper to return this whole time?"
Shi Luo pretended not to hear the last part. He looked up. "Three years?"
Shi Luo's head hurt too much. He didn't want to beat around the bush anymore—he might as well be direct. "The reason you're being so cautious right now, the reason you haven't turned on me yet, is simply because my contract only has two months left. After those two months, I can go wherever I want, and you can't control me at all."
Zhao Feng was speechless.
Shi Luo raised his eyes. "If I listened to you and signed for three years, the signing bonus would be higher—but after handing over three years of my life, would you still be this nice to me?"
"During those few months at FS, I learned one thing... something I've engraved in my bones and never dare forget for a single moment: never, ever sign a contract longer than one year." Shi Luo pulled out another cigarette, dangling it from his lips, and said coldly. "Once you hand over a life contract, all your freedom is gone."
Zhao Feng knew he couldn't trick Shi Luo, so he said, "Fine then. So you're saying it's impossible for us to match whatever Yu Sui offers, and you're definitely going with him?"
Shi Luo really couldn't be bothered to repeat himself. "I told you—he didn't make me an offer."
"Alright, I get it. You'd go regardless of the offer. Now that we've clarified that, I can discuss a backup plan with you." Zhao Feng changed his tune faster than flipping a book. "I really want to keep you, but I also have to respect your own wishes. Given the situation... I have a plan where neither side loses. What do you think?"
All Shi Luo wanted was to go back to his room and sleep. He pressed hard against his brow. "Go ahead."
"Whisper has money—you know that. So on my end, the transfer fee, and on your end, the signing bonus, we can't ask for less." Zhao Feng watched Shi Luo's expression carefully and quickly added, "It's not entirely about the money. It's also to test whether Whisper actually values you! If he's unwilling to give a proper signing bonus, how can he treat you well in the future?!"
Shi Luo nodded vigorously. "You're absolutely right. Can we speed this up? My head is about to burst."
"Right, right, right." Zhao Feng was in a hurry. "Here's what I was thinking—when he comes tonight, I'll say I don't want to let you go, then I'll start bidding against him. You don't say a single word."
"Your current signing bonus is eight hundred thousand per year. That he can't hide from. I'll start from that price and bid up. I'll help raise your price!" Zhao Feng's eyes sparkled. "If he wants you, he'll have to offer more than me. Once he gets to around fifteen million, I'll back off. That way, I'm not cheating you. The amount above eight hundred thousand—seventy percent goes to your signing bonus, the remaining thirty percent goes to me as commission. How about that?"
Shi Luo lifted his forehead, which he had been rubbing until it was red, and laughed bitterly. "Right now you're... colluding with me to scam his money?"
"That's not the right way to put it." Zhao Feng waved his hand dismissively. "How can it be scamming? Didn't he basically scam you before? We're at least getting back the money he made selling you, right?"
Shi Luo smiled. "Manager Zhao, did you forget again? I only have two months left on my contract. After those two months, I can negotiate directly myself. Wouldn't that be better? No matter what price I negotiate, it all goes into my own account."
"By yourself? What price can you negotiate? Your stance has to be high! You have to make him think I would offer a high price to keep you! And... you probably don't want to get into a money fight with him, right? I'm the best one to play the villain." Zhao Feng didn't feel even slightly unethical. He rubbed his hands together. "Besides, Whisper has money. No big deal."
Shi Luo stood up. "Do whatever you want."
Zhao Feng's joy was written all over his face. "So it's settled?"
Shi Luo didn't say anything and went upstairs.
Shi Luo entered his dorm, didn't shower, didn't even take off his clothes, and threw himself onto the bed.
He hadn't slept all night. He was extremely tired and exhausted. Finally escaping from Zhao Feng and lying back on the bed, yet he couldn't fall asleep.
His mind was filled entirely with Yu Sui.
Two years apart, Yu Sui had changed a lot.
Much quieter now,不爱说话了. He didn't like talking as much.
Back at the FS club, Shi Luo feared most when Yu Sui was silent. The old Yu Sui talked a lot. When he suddenly stopped talking, it meant he was about to explode in anger. During those short months at FS, Shi Luo had gotten into a lot of trouble. For minor matters, Yu Sui would turn a blind eye. But when Shi Luo really caused a big problem, Yu Sui would look at him silently, pondering how to handle it.
Every time that happened, Shi Luo appeared unconcerned on the surface, but inside he was panicking.
He was very worried that Yu Sui would send this substitute, who had almost no chance of playing, back to school.
Shi Luo knew Yu Sui's expression too well. When he looked at you silently, his mind was usually churning like the ocean.
And now, since their reunion, Yu Sui seemed to always have that expression.
When one's heart holds many, many things, they tend to fall silent instead.
Before, Yu Sui would also get angry and curse the most hurtful curses.
Now, probably not.
Times have changed, many things are hard to say clearly. Thousands of words inevitably all boil down to a simple "forget it."
Shi Luo previously thought Yu Sui was also done with him, but unexpectedly, he chose to negotiate directly with Zhao Feng.
The bet could have counted.
Both in the past and present, Shi Luo had offered Yu Sui the optimal solution, but he refused it every single time.
Shi Luo buried his face in his pillow. "Damn it..."
Shi Luo dozed off drowsily, and woke up not long after. He glanced at his phone—barely an hour had passed.
Shi Luo fell asleep again, but woke up less than two hours later.
Shi Luo wasn't dreaming, yet he kept startling awake repeatedly. Unable to help it, he took a painkiller and went back to sleep. As the painkiller gradually took effect, the hangover headache eased somewhat, but no matter how much he tossed and turned, he still couldn't sleep. He glanced at his phone—it was just past five in the afternoon.
Shi Luo got up, took a cold shower, and went downstairs. In the training room, his teammates were doing training matches. The second-tier player who was Shi Luo's substitute was at Shi Luo's position.
The training match was already delayed, and sleep wasn't coming anyway, so Shi Luo simply went to the second-tier training room and found an open public computer to start streaming.
Shi Luo was already in a bad mood, and right from the start, he encountered a brain-dead sniper teammate.
Both Shi Luo and the sniper got eliminations. Before Shi Luo could swap out his attachments, the sniper was furiously typing in the in-game chat, telling Shi Luo not to touch the shared economy.
Shi Luo thought he had misread it at first. After confirming the sniper was warning him not to spend the shared economy, Shi Luo scoffed, immediately upgraded his gear to max, bought bullets like crazy, and upgraded all the little attachments whether useful or not.
The sniper teammate flew into a rage and started cursing in the chat. Shi Luo was itching for a fight anyway. He threw down his mouse and started trading insults with the sniper.
Ten thousand yuan was nothing. It's not like he couldn't afford the fine!
While continuing the game, Shi Luo cursed back. In less than ten minutes, the sniper teammate quit the map. Shi Luo breathed a sigh of relief and typed in the team chat to promise his teammates they could still win this round without a sniper.
"Such a short fuse?"
Zhao Feng had appeared without Shi Luo noticing. He looked at the computer screen helplessly. "Can't blame you. That's the one downside of being a pro player—you can only get flamed, not flame back. Unfortunately, there's another fine coming."
Shi Luo kept a straight face. "Fine me, then."
"You see how lenient our team is? When you guys break the rules, we only fine you, no criticism, and no additional penalty. You didn't know that, did you? Many clubs, after a player breaks the rules, they deduct bonuses." Zhao Feng seized the opportunity. "It's not too late to regret. Back at FS and NSN, they deducted bonuses, right?"
Shi Luo shook his head.
"I don't know about NSN. Their internal management was the strictest. Even during internal training, cursing wasn't allowed. I was on water duty back then, so I had no chance to break rules myself, and I never saw anyone else break them either, so I'm not sure." Shi Luo said calmly. "FS..."
Zhao Feng was curious. "FS?"
Shi Luo lowered his eyes. "People at FS trash-talking others during games was a regular thing, but they rarely got punished."
Zhao Feng didn't believe it. "How is that possible? Even if you're not streaming, your teammates could screenshot and report you."
"They used smurfs."
Zhao Feng hesitated. "You guys do this kind of thing, and in high-rank games, everyone knows you're a pro player just by how you play. Using a smurf isn't completely safe either."
"It's safe." Shi Luo hesitated, not wanting to say more, but he let it slip anyway. "Yu Sui used to trash-talk with others. When it got to the point where he was threatened with being reported, he would just say..."
Zhao Feng was curious. "Say what?"
Shi Luo didn't want to recall it, but after a moment, he said, "'My main is FS Chen Huo. Anyone who doesn't report me is a grandson.'"
Zhao Feng: "Pffft..."
The fluid, seamless operations Yu Sui pulled off back then had also left Shi Luo stunned for half a day. As time went on, Shi Luo gradually figured out the pattern—during training, whoever wasn't there to trash-talk with others would have their main account name thrown out. Since Yu Sui, Chen Huo, had the shortest training time, he got blamed the most.
Later, he'd been corrupted too, and had probably reported others' IDs as well.
A smile unconsciously tugged at the corner of Shi Luo's mouth.
"Manager Zhao?"
The training room door was pushed open, and an IAC staff member poked their head in. "Someone's here to see you."
Shi Luo's smile faded.
Here he comes.
Zhao Feng stood up, straightened his suit, and said quietly to Shi Luo, "Don't mess this up... Watch me raise our price for both of us."
Shi Luo followed behind Zhao Feng silently.
After all his calculations, he never could have predicted that after just one night, he would transform into helping Zhao Feng play the price-raising dog.
Shi Luo lit a cigarette and thought: You asked for this.