Chapter 20
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The traffic near the exam venue was absolutely crazy. Despite dedicated traffic police directing the flow, the road was completely gridlocked. All the cars dropping off students were in a hurry, and the congestion just kept getting worse. It'd be a while before they could get back to the hotel. Yu Sui glanced outside and said to Shi Luo, "Why don't you close your eyes for a bit? You have math this afternoon—being sleepy won't help."
Shi Luo furrowed his brows, hummed in acknowledgment, and closed his eyes.
Though Shi Luo had slept a few hours last night, better than Yu Sui, the exhaustion from the competition hadn't fully faded. Stacked with the morning's shocks and the exam, his energy was completely drained. Before a few minutes passed, he'd actually fallen asleep.
Ji Yanhan turned to look back. "He sleeps pretty well... not bad. He actually got in the car obediently. I was worried he'd try to run off, not take the remaining exams."
"He probably thought about running, but after considering, he realized he couldn't, so he grudgingly got in." A slight smile tugged at Yu Sui's lips as he lowered his voice. "His phone and wallet are all with me. Where would he run? And he's a minor—can't even check into a hotel by himself."
Ji Yanhan laughed at that.
Three years ago, when FS went to play an away match, Ji Yanhan wasn't following the team anymore. But coincidentally, the team leader and coaches were also absent that day. FS had just been formed, the staff wasn't properly equipped, and there was no one else to lead the team. Ji Yanhan had a brain fart, waved his hand grandly, and said, "Just go on your own, all four of you. It's just a regular season match anyway."
Yu Sui and the others didn't think much of it. Four of them landed, took taxis to the hotel by themselves, and then stood there looking at each other in bewilderment—four minors, not a single one of them able to check in.
In the end, Ji Yanhan had to fly over on short notice. When he rushed to the hotel, the four underage internet-addicted kids were each sitting on their own luggage, their faces screaming "what the fuck."
Ji Yanhan sighed. "Everything was such a mess back then, yet we somehow made it through."
Yu Sui said nonchalantly, "As long as we're winning, we can handle anything."
Ji Yanhan said, "That's our God Yu, secretly amazing."
Before Yu Sui could respond, a sharp car horn blared from outside. The next second, Yu Sui shifted closer to Shi Luo and cupped both hands over Shi Luo's ears.
Shi Luo was truly exhausted to the bone—he didn't even stir. He shifted a bit, instinctively leaning his cheek against Yu Sui's palm.
Yu Sui simply put one arm around Shi Luo's shoulder, letting him lean more comfortably.
Ji Yanhan glanced at the two of them through the rearview mirror. "...Do you want a little brother or something?"
"Thanks." Yu Sui's voice was very quiet. "I'm good."
Fortunately, the road congestion didn't last long. The three of them grabbed some food in a hurry and headed to the hotel. But there was another problem at the hotel—Ji Yanhan had misjudged the situation. Nearly all the decent hotels near the exam venue were fully booked. There were hardly any rooms available.
Even the largest suite, which was normally never booked, only had two left.
"I said everyone would get their own room..." Ji Yanhan said helplessly. "What do we do now? If it were standard rooms it'd be fine—at least there are two beds each. The suites all have one big bed."
Yu Sui said without hesitation, "Shi Luo takes his own room. I'll squeeze in with you."
Yu Sui turned to Shi Luo. "You get the whole suite to yourself. Okay?"
Shi Luo frowned. "What okay... You don't mind being crowded?"
"What's crowded about it? The dormitory at my first team had bunk beds that were only one meter wide." Yu Sui took Shi Luo's ID and handed it to the front desk. "I've been through worse."
Shi Luo pouted. "This counts as suffering? When I had nowhere to stay, I slept on the couch at an internet café. What's your point?"
Ji Yanhan, the only one of the three who'd actually experienced real hardship, couldn't take it anymore. "Alright, you pampered brats! It's really such a hardship for you two to sleep in a 4,000-yuan-per-night executive suite! It's all my fault for not arranging things properly. I'm sorry!"
Ji Yanhan grabbed the room key cards, ushered the two into the elevator, and after watching Shi Luo go to his room, said worriedly, "He won't run off, right?"
Yu Sui said, "Relax. He's not actually ungrateful."
Of course Shi Luo wasn't ungrateful.
After entering his suite, Shi Luo flopped face-first onto the bed and stayed there for a long while.
He was really too embarrassed to say it, but Yu Sui was the only person who had ever picked him up after school.
Well, coming out of the exam venue wasn't exactly "after school," but it was close enough. Shi Luo really was seeing someone waiting for him outside for the first time in his life.
Ji Yanhan standing nearby could be ignored—regardless, Yu Sui was the first person to ever pick him up from school.
He was also the first person to drive eight hours to send him to school.
Going through all that trouble, all that effort and exhaustion—just to secretly have some fun watching him take the college entrance exam? Pull the other one.
Shi Luo let out a soft breath and suddenly understood what that indescribable feeling he'd been having these past few days was.
It was a feeling of security.
For the first time, Shi Luo felt secure somewhere.
The boss, though self-interested, was also willing to spend money to keep him watching the water dispenser. In a way, that was also recognition of his abilities.
The teammates... sure, he always bickered with that idiot Chen Huo, but at the end of the day it was just trash talk and mutual jabbing—one day they fought, the next day they forgot about it.
Lao Qiao, the other flanker on the team, and Puppy, they didn't even have the kind of conflict where they'd argue with Shi Luo. They hadn't exchanged more than a few words, but neither of them harbored any ill will toward him. That alone was enough for Shi Luo.
And finally, Yu Sui...
Shi Luo's chest felt tight.
Last night, Yu Sui had driven all night. When they stopped at a rest area, Shi Luo had been dozing in the car, half-asleep. At some point he opened his eyes and looked outside—not far away, under the lamp at the toll booth, Yu Sui was holding a plastic bag, which apparently contained a few drinks he'd just bought from the service area convenience store. He hadn't gotten in the car directly; he was standing with the plastic bag, back turned to Shi Luo, smoking.
By then, Yu Sui hadn't rested for over twenty hours. After going so long without sleep and driving five hundred-plus kilometers through the night, the exhaustion was unimaginable.
In the lamplight's glow, Yu Sui's arm holding the cigarette looked particularly thin, making him seem somewhat fragile.
Shi Luo, watching Yu Sui in the distance from the car, had inexplicably reddened eyes.
He'd known Yu Sui for quite a while now, but Shi Luo still couldn't quite figure out what Yu Sui was thinking. He could never predict what Yu Sui would do for him.
No matter how many clues there were, there was no angle of personal gain. The other person simply treated him well,纯粹地.
In seventeen years of living, Shi Luo had never encountered something like this before. He felt a bit at a loss.
Shi Luo rubbed his face, sat up on the bed, pushed aside the flower bouquet Ji Yanhan had given him, and picked up the one Yu Sui had handed him, bringing it close to smell.
Shi Luo sniffed, then got up and threw Ji Yanhan's bouquet into the trash.
Throwing away Ji Yanhan's flowers meant Yu Sui was once again the only person who'd ever given him flowers.
In the suite at the other end of the corridor, Ji Yanhan sneezed.
Yu Sui lay on the bed, playing on his phone, and said casually, "Want some Banlangen?" (herbal cold remedy)
"No need." Ji Yanhan rubbed his nose. "You're really going to share a bed with me?"
"Obviously not." Yu Sui said. "I just checked—this sofa is pretty big, and it's a foldout. I'll unfold it for you in a bit."
Ji Yanhan: "..."
Ji Yanhan really couldn't understand. "The substitute gets his own suite, the team captain sleeps in the big bed, and I'm the owner sleeping on the sofa?"
"Why are you always emphasizing that he's the substitute?" Yu Sui kept looking at his phone. "He's a fragile and sensitive exam candidate, okay? I'm too tired today to sleep on the sofa. Tomorrow I'll take the sofa, the bed's yours."
Ji Yanhan declined politely. "No need. I'm leaving tomorrow anyway. I only came because I happened to have business in the area and was delivering stuff to you. If I have nothing to do, I won't be staying."
Yu Sui nodded. "Alright, go handle your own stuff."
"I'll be busy for the next couple months. I really can't keep up with team affairs. I told your manager that if anything major comes up and you can't reach me, ask you." Ji Yanhan sprawled on the sofa. "Just don't refuse this, okay? Consider it a favor."
Yu Sui had no choice but to agree. "Mm."
"There's nothing much going on anyway. We're solid for the playoffs." Ji Yanhan relaxed, patting his stomach. "I'll definitely make it to the finals. For the earlier rounds... you keep an eye on things. Actually, there aren't even any matches with our team. There's nothing to watch—just filming some promotional clips, recording some trash talk, and then..."
Ji Yanhan rubbed his brow, trying hard to remember if there was anything else to pass on. "Right, Shi Luo—first, he's a rookie, and second, this is his first major tournament. He's like a blank sheet of paper. Go over the注意事项 with him, make sure nothing goes wrong. His personal player points are zero—he can't afford any trouble... Oh wait, he just played a regular season match, so he has two points now. But two points are worthless—not enough to cover even one minor violation."
FOG League had regulations: registered professional players would earn personal points through various league-sanctioned competitions. For example, the regular season match Shi Luo had just played—a BO3 would automatically accumulate one point, and winning the match would add another point. So Shi Luo's current personal points were two.
These points wouldn't reset at the end of a season; they were kept for life. Normally they weren't very useful, but when a player violated rules, league officials would酌情 deduct points based on the severity of the incident. For serious violations or if a player's personal points were negative, there would be suspension penalties—starting from one match, with no upper limit, depending on the situation.
Once a suspension period ended, if a player's personal points were still negative, they'd have to earn their way back to positive through match after match. Until then, they were in a probationary phase, and even a slight misstep could result in harsher penalties. If it got serious, lifetime bans were possible.
For a player like Shi Luo, whose personal points were at absolute zero, this was the thing he feared most.
"I told him everything that needed saying before yesterday's match." Yu Sui yawned. "During official filming, regardless of whether it's match time, he must wear the team uniform—no covering up sponsor logos on the uniform, especially the game sponsor's logos... no speaking negatively about the league or the club in public, no disparaging officials... during matches, follow all instructions from the team judge... no peeking at teammates' screens during matches... no getting up during matches without special circumstances—if there are special circumstances, call a pause first—the pause time starts when the judge says pause... no typing in public channels during matches, not even saying 'fuck your mom' counts..."
"I've said everything I could think of..." Yu Sui was so tired his eyelids drooped. "He has a good memory. He remembered it all. He didn't make a single mistake during yesterday's match. The playoffs definitely won't be a problem..."
Yu Sui had been playing professionally for so many years; all the things to watch out for were already ingrained in him. Ji Yanhan thought about it and said, "Right. Following you, he shouldn't make mistakes."
Unfortunately, Ji Yanhan had放松得太早了. (relaxed way too early.)