# Chapter 15
In the meeting room, Yu Sui and Zhao Feng sat on opposite sides of the round table. Shi Luo sat half-perched on the sofa nearby, expressionless.
The atmosphere was awkward and bizarre.
Yu Sui had changed into another set of casual clothes—just a simple T-shirt and leisure pants, making him look not much older than Shi Luo. Zhao Feng kept feeling disoriented looking at Yu Sui's youthful face. Two years had passed, and except for longer hair, Yu Sui still looked like a teenager. This guy was about to become a club owner?
Compared to Yu Sui and Shi Luo's casual attire, Zhao Feng's three-piece suit was a bit too formal. Zhao Feng himself seemed to feel the awkwardness. He took off his jacket and smiled. "Some things can't be explained over the phone. They need to be discussed in person. But Whisper, about what you proposed—it's really not easy to handle. To be honest..."
"Let's not talk about that..." Yu Sui interrupted Zhao Feng and glanced at Shi Luo. "The player himself doesn't need to be present, right?"
"No problem, no problem. Other clubs might do underhanded dealings, but IAC prefers to be straightforward. We'd rather respect the player's own wishes. Let's put it this way." Zhao Feng smiled, his words loaded with meaning. "We would never go against a player's wishes and force them to another club."
Yu Sui heard this and lowered his head with a small smile, unbothered.
Shi Luo furrowed his brow and cursed.
Yu Sui looked at Shi Luo. Their eyes met, then separated after a brief moment.
Yu Sui turned to Zhao Feng. "Fine, let's talk then."
"Here's the thing. After you contacted me, I immediately communicated with our headquarters. The unanimous opinion is—" Zhao Feng's expression was firm, his face betraying nothing despite the lies. "No. We cannot let Evil transfer to your secondary team."
Zhao Feng spoke seriously. "Even if we brought in official League personnel, they'd support our approach. Evil's performance is stable. While he occasionally has minor violations, he's never made a major mistake. There's no reason to demote such an excellent player—this would be a loss for the entire region."
"You don't need to worry about that." Yu Sui answered without hesitation. "After buying Shi Luo, he'll still play for IAC. The actual transfer process will proceed after the qualifiers end. If my team doesn't make it to the main league, he can break the contract and choose to stay with IAC or go to another team."
"Impossible."
"That's great!"
Shi Luo and Zhao Feng spoke at the same time. Yu Sui glanced sideways at Shi Luo, who felt a moment of embarrassment. Annoyed, he said, "What does this mean? Pre-order? Purchase and deposit?"
"What's with the attitude?!" Being able to keep Shi Luo a while longer without spending a dime was a bargain. Zhao Feng was extremely satisfied and laughed. "Whisper, you've thought this through very carefully. Evil really doesn't need to take a detour through the secondary league. Fine, let's not discuss this part for now."
Zhao Feng looked at Yu Sui. "This is only a preliminary agreement, but the current situation is that our management also doesn't want to let him go. Let me say it again—our policy is to respect the player's own wishes. Whether he stays or leaves should be decided by Evil himself. His current attitude is 'whatever.' Since that's the case... my point is, we're all businesspeople here. Highest bidder wins."
"Let me be blunt. Shi Luo's current annual signing fee is this much." Zhao Feng made a gesture showing eight. "We definitely need to discuss the signing bonus. What about your offer, Whisper?"
Zhao Feng stared at Yu Sui intently, already calculating how to control the situation. He'd gradually provoke Yu Sui into offering over ten million, then sit back and profit handsomely.
Yu Sui said, "Fifteen million."
Shi Luo's hand twitched, nearly dropping his phone.
Zhao Feng swallowed hard.
Zhao Feng and Shi Luo's eyes met. Both had complicated expressions.
That morning, the final price Zhao Feng had mentioned was exactly this number.
Despite all their careful calculations, they hadn't expected Yu Sui to not play by the normal rules at all.
Shi Luo really wanted to ask Yu Sui: when you play Dou Di Zhu, do you just throw out the jokers first thing?
Zhao Feng had thought this bidding process would exhaust all his skills. Starting from eight million and working upward, ten million would have been a hurdle. He never expected Yu Sui to jump straight to the final price. Zhao Feng looked at Shi Luo suspiciously, even wondering if the water about to be splashed out had already coordinated with Yu Sui.
Shi Luo could see exactly what Zhao Feng was suspecting. Gritting his teeth, he said quietly, "...No!"
No coordination. Good. Zhao Feng was dizzy from the fifteen million. He wanted to laugh but didn't dare, trying hard to control his expression and keep his tone steady. After a moment, he said, "Fifteen point five million."
Shi Luo's brow furrowed.
What was going on? Weren't they supposed to settle at fifteen million?
Yu Sui followed up, "Seventeen million."
Shi Luo couldn't help but say, "No... what is this?"
Applying for a spot in the secondary league wasn't simply about consuming the player's professional ranking points. It also required paying a substantial security deposit to the League, purchasing game venues at sky-high prices mandated by the League, spending huge sums to buy and renovate a base, and signing officially registered players... Only after everything was ready and verified one by one by League staff would a new team officially become a League-recognized club and gain eligibility to compete.
This was also why Zhao Feng couldn't understand why Yu Sui didn't just buy an established main league team. Besides the hassle, the expenses flowed like water—it was too costly.
Shi Luo knew Yu Sui was wealthy, but building this club would definitely be a huge financial strain on him. How much of his reserves were left at this point? Why was he still bidding like this?
"Don't interrupt us. We just said to pick the highest offer." Zhao Feng's face was gradually reddening. He held back his rising eyebrows and said, "Seventeen point five million."
Yu Sui said, "Nineteen million."
Zhao Feng's eyes sparkled with excitement. "Nineteen point five million."
Yu Sui said, "Twenty-one million."
Zhao Feng's palms were sweating. "Twenty-one point five million."
Yu Sui said directly, "Twenty-five million."
Shi Luo stared at Yu Sui in disbelief. "Twenty-five million?!"
Zhao Feng's face and neck were flushed red. He licked his lips and stammered, "T-Twenty... twenty-six million!"
Seeing that Yu Sui was about to bid again, Shi Luo couldn't take it anymore and shouted angrily, "DEAL!!"
The meeting room fell silent instantly.
Yu Sui froze. Zhao Feng was stunned.
Cold sweat broke out on Zhao Feng's face.
What... what happened?
A deal?!
Wasn't he supposed to be driving up Whisper's price? Why did it close with him?
And where was Zhao Feng supposed to get twenty-six million from? After the club owner learned about Shi Luo's potential transfer, the only retention effort he'd made was agreeing to raise Shi Luo's signing fee to ten million. Where was he supposed to get the remaining sixteen million?
Zhao Feng snapped back to reality. Forget everything else, his face went pale as he stood up urgently. "Shi Luo, what's wrong with you?!"
Shi Luo was also panicking. Standing on the sofa, he shouted, "What's wrong with YOU?! Twenty-six million! Are you insane?! Do I look like I'm worth twenty-six million?!"
"That was the price Whisper offered!" Zhao Feng roared.
"That was YOU raising it!" Shi Luo couldn't hold back anymore. "Twenty-five million! Why don't you go sell your wife?!"
Zhao Feng now really wished he could sell his wife. He argued nonsensically. "No way. What you said doesn't count... Our IAC never intended to renew the contract anyway."
"You just said you respect the player's wishes!" Shi Luo raged.
Zhao Feng was furious, losing control as he dug up old grievances. "Shi Luo, what did we agree on this morning?"
"You dare bring up this morning? Who was it that said we'd stop at fifteen million?" Shi Luo couldn't hold back his fire. "Did I say anything at the start? Didn't I let you get away with it? When it's almost enough, it's enough—but you just kept going?!"
"You—" Zhao Feng was speechless. He glanced at Yu Sui心虚ly and didn't dare say more. His face flushed purple-red. After a long pause, he said, "Anyway... this won't work."
"Why won't it work?" Shi Luo's face was暴躁, completely giving up. "Twenty-six million. Quick, transfer it to my card! I'm IAC's person for life!"
Zhao Feng trembled all over with rage. "Where in the world am I supposed to get that much money?!"
"I don't care!" Shi Luo roared.
"Now..." Yu Sui, who had been quietly watching the two of them go at each other, said slowly, "Did this just... not work out?"
Shi Luo and Zhao Feng were speechless.
Only then did Shi Luo realize he'd spoken too hastily. He closed his eyes, wishing he could rewind time.
How did he... lose control like that?
Shi Luo bit his lip, wanting to explain to Yu Sui that he never intended to scheme with Zhao Feng to cheat him, but...
Shi Luo's thin lips pressed tightly together. The fact that Zhao Feng had been raising the price time and again was undeniable. There was no way to explain this now.
It was always like this.
Another time he couldn't explain himself.
"Maybe..." Zhao Feng also felt deeply embarrassed. This was truly丢人大到姥姥家. He勉强 kept himself composed and tried to politely send Yu Sui off. "I-We haven't communicated all the details with Evil yet. Let's put the transfer on hold for now. If fate brings us together again in the future, we'll... we'll leave it at that."
Yu Sui stood up. "I think I understand. Actually, it's nothing. Manager Zhao probably got a bit emotional because he couldn't bear to let Shi Luo go. That's normal."
Yu Sui said, "When I negotiated Shi Luo's transfer procedures with NSN back then, I wasn't very calm either. I can understand."
Upon hearing this, Shi Luo turned to look at Yu Sui. His eyes suddenly reddened.
Back then, during the transfer negotiations with NSN, Yu Sui had bargained with them for an entire week.
At the beginning, Shi Luo had also thrown tantrums at Yu Sui hysterically. He'd smashed the main computer and thrown the keyboard, tossed Yu Sui's car keys into the pond, blocked the base entrance so Yu Sui couldn't leave, ran to the NSN base and threw a fit, even tried to make the NSN manager think he was躁郁症 so they'd reject him.
But none of it worked.
Yu Sui simply filtered out all of Shi Luo's interference and continued negotiating the detailed contract terms with the NSN manager.
Clause by clause, Yu Sui reviewed everything personally with the lawyers.
Shi Luo remembered on the day the contract was officially signed, he'd lost all reason from anger. Outside the NSN base, he picked up a brick and threw it with all his might through the NSN base's glass window.
Inside the NSN base, only Yu Sui was injured.
Yu Sui casually wiped the blood flowing from his forehead cut by the broken glass, signed his name, and quietly said to the NSN manager and team captain Gu Qian, "Please take care of him from now on."
Shi Luo had regretted his impulsiveness afterward. He'd wanted to check on Yu Sui's injury. But by the time he mustered the courage to return to the FS base, the huge base was left in complete chaos.
Everyone had already left.
Shi Luo watched Yu Sui, who was about to leave the IAC base, his heart aching to the extreme.
Two years had passed. He'd ruined everything again.
He'd ruined it all again.
"If it was just a moment of impulse, I can pretend the last bid never happened." Yu Sui continued. "Your final bid is void. We'll take my final offer as the standard. How about that?"
Shi Luo was stunned.
Zhao Feng's eyes instantly brightened.
Yu Sui's final bid was twenty-five million!
Zhao Feng nodded quickly, his joy evident. "Yes, yes, of course!"
"But..." Yu Sui looked at Zhao Feng and continued, "Since Shi Luo won't come to my side until before the qualifiers, by the time everything is set up on our end, I assume his contract with IAC will have expired. So this price is more like a signing fee I'm offering him, not a transfer fee."
Zhao Feng was stunned. Wouldn't that mean he wouldn't get anything?
Yu Sui added, "But considering the emotional aspect, IAC should still receive some compensation. Two million. How about it?"
Zhao Feng's eyes darted around. He quickly made the decision. "Then it's settled!!"
Yu Sui nodded. He looked at Shi Luo.
Shi Luo's eyes were bloodshot.
Yu Sui's expression was no longer as calm as before. He hesitated, looking at Shi Luo, as if wanting to say something.
After a long moment, Yu Sui lowered his head and wiped his phone screen with the hem of his T-shirt. He quietly said, "...When the new club is all set up, I'll come pick you up."