Chapter 31
At the FOG China Regional League Headquarters, Yu Sui finished submitting his cross-regional transfer documents along with those for Puppy and Chen Huo, then organized the new team's materials. The procedure was rather tedious. After submitting a stack of documents, Yu Sui and Puppy sat to the side and waited.
When the headquarters' executives heard that Yu Sui had arrived, they rushed out to chat with him, their enthusiasm blazing.
Yu Sui returning to the domestic region—whether the keyboard warriors said what they wanted, the staff at the China Regional League genuinely welcomed him with open arms. Though esports clubs didn't divide by nationality, everyone still preferred watching local players represent the local region, especially players like Yu Sui.
The executives opened a green channel for Yu Sui, and the review of the new club's materials wasn't strict at all. They even repeatedly asked Yu Sui if there was anything they could help with, offering to assign staff members or lend several people to the new team. If the roster was short-staffed, they were also willing to help contact other teams and negotiate transfers with players who were interested.
Old Joe had retired gloriously in the domestic region over half a year ago. His hand injury was severe, and there was no possibility of him making a comeback. Now that Yu Sui, Chen Huo, and Puppy were back, they were clearly still short one flanker. The executives' intention was obvious—they were willing to help Yu Sui find a strong, suitable flanker.
The executive was quite proactive. "The qualifiers are about to start. You can't play with just three people, right?"
Puppy spoke up from the side. "We've already negotiated with NSN for a loan."
The executive was surprised and paused. "Oh... I need to remind you that you're currently a secondary team now. If it's not a transfer, just a loan, you can only borrow players from teams of the same rank as yours. That means you can only borrow from NSN's second team."
"Not from the second team either," Puppy said. "One of their academy trainees, a kid who's been performing pretty well in NSN's training program. He hasn't had many opportunities in the rookie matches, so both NSN and himself are eager for more competition experience. It's already been arranged—if he performs well in the qualifiers, after the loan ends and he returns to NSN, he'll move up to the second team."
"You... are helping NSN train their rookie?" The executive stared in astonishment. "That's too risky. What if you fail the qualifiers..."
Puppy shrugged. "Then Whisper will have to go to a secondary league team for the first time."
The executive couldn't help but laugh. "That's not going to happen... even with a rookie added, you'll definitely pass the qualifiers. But NSN's going to owe you one this time, training their players for them."
The executive was still curious. "After the loan ends, you'll still be three people. You're still short a flanker. Have you not found the right person yet? The qualifiers will end soon, and the regular season is about to start. The timing is really tight."
Yu Sui paused, but before he could speak, Puppy beat him to it. "We already have our own secret weapon. The only thing is, the other person is still under contract, so it's not convenient to announce yet."
The executive nodded knowingly. "Great, great, that's good. We'll be watching with great anticipation. One last thing—Whisper, welcome back."
Yu Sui nodded and, after receiving the approved documents, left with Puppy.
The new base was already set up. Yu Sui and Puppy left headquarters and headed to the new team base.
On the way, Yu Sui continued resting his eyes while Puppy slowly pulled out his earphones to keep listening to his crosstalk. Neither said a word for a long while.
Half an hour later, Puppy took off his earphones, stared at the car ceiling for a moment, then suddenly said, "Yu Sui, I've been wanting to ask you something for a while now... I wanted to ask two years ago, but before I could, that secret incident happened, and after that it wasn't appropriate to bring it up. Now that we're back, it should be fine to ask. I just want to know if you—"
"Liked him," Yu Sui said with his eyes still closed.
Puppy hadn't expected Yu Sui to admit it so readily. He froze, then touched his chest and sighed. "This is way too heartbreaking."
Yu Sui said calmly, "There was so much crappy stuff going on back then, I really wasn't too upset about this. No need to feel heartbroken for me."
Puppy asked again, "Does Time Luo know?"
Yu Sui shook his head.
Puppy clutched his chest again. "This is way too painful."
Puppy understood that given the situation back then, it was better that Time Luo didn't know. But he still felt Yu Sui had been wronged. "Should've just confessed on impulse back then."
Yu Sui said nothing.
Puppy turned to look at Yu Sui. "What? You don't regret it?"
"No regrets. I'm quite grateful." Yu Sui said calmly, "I was too young back then. Facing that situation... I handled a lot of things poorly. Too impulsive, too intense."
Yu Sui's tone was composed. "Thinking about it now, it wasn't necessary at all. I could have been calmer. Sat down with Ji Yanhan, drunk tea while negotiating the contract. The result would've been the same anyway. There was really no need to put myself through all that, to the point where I ended up in the hospital."
"Who's to say you're wrong." Puppy sighed. "We were all so edgy back then, had never been beaten down by society. First time running into something this messed up, really... I'm such a珍命 person, but back then I even thought about going down with him. So stupid."
"No, wait." Puppy froze. "I was asking if you regret falling for Time Luo, if you regret not clearing things up with him. What does Ji Yanhan have to do with this? Who asked about him?"
Yu Sui said, "No regrets. I did confess."
Puppy studied Yu Sui's face. "Really no regrets?"
Yu Sui shook his head and said calmly, "Although nothing came of it, I've always treasured those few months of knowing him. He was... really good back then."
In those short months, there were many details that still lived in Yu Sui's memory. A year after it all happened, Yu Sui had been tormented by these memories,恨不得 forget Time Luo. But after so long, Yu Sui had matured a lot and was willing to accept both the good and the bad of the past. "Time Luo was my first love and the only person I've ever liked. Who would regret falling in love with their first love?"
Puppy thought about it and nodded. "Then what about Time Luo? Does he like you? Wait... Don't tell me he's actually straight?!"
Yu Sui closed his eyes again, done with the topic. "I don't know."
Puppy clutched his chest again. "FOG's heart-wrenching drama... But if you've moved on now, and don't like him anymore, that's fine too. Hey, hey?"
Puppy nudged Yu Sui. "You don't like him anymore, right? You were so calm just now, so you must have moved on, right? If you just say you've let it go, I'll feel better."
Yu Sui ignored Puppy.
Puppy had no choice. "Fine, keep it to yourself. Sigh... In less than a month, Time Luo will be moving over. Why do I feel like the image of you two under the same roof makes me both worried and weirdly looking forward to it..."
Yu Sui said coldly, "There won't be any of the dramatic nonsense you're imagining. Drop it."
"Hope not. I'm so done with drama." Puppy slumped against the car seat back. "Right now I just want to play calmly for a few years and then retire peacefully at the end of my career. That was so close! A whole reputation, almost losing my name at the end and dying in a foreign land..."
Yu Sui didn't bother responding to Puppy anymore. Puppy muttered a few more things to himself, then got bored and thought for a moment before picking up his phone to type.
At the IAC base, Time Luo's phone buzzed.
Time Luo picked up his phone to look.
[Puppy]: [Let's catch up.]
Time Luo froze.
A few hours ago, the voice message sent from Puppy's account had been from Yu Sui.
So who was messaging him now?
Yu Sui... wanted to catch up with him?
Time Luo hesitated without replying. Another message came through.
[Puppy]: [Can we talk?]
Time Luo held his phone, his mood settling.
Not Yu Sui.
The other person typed quickly. [Puppy]: [I came back and no one threw me a welcome party, didn't even see any old friends. There's a lot I want to say but no one to say it to. We were on the same team before好歹, so you wanna listen to me vent?]
Time Luo typed. [Luo]: [Go ahead.]
[Puppy]: [It really wasn't easy for me to come back.]
[Puppy]: [You know? The first year after we left, out of the three of us, only Yu Sui stayed on Holy Sword.]
[Puppy]: [Chen Huo at least sat on the bench for a few months. I didn't even make bench. I only played two training matches at Holy Sword before being listed for transfer, then within a month I went to another team in the European region.]
[Puppy]: [Do you know how "colorful" the team I went to was? The first team had a total of just four people, from three different countries! One German, two Koreans, and me.]
[Puppy]: [The four of us played for half a year using sign language.]
[Puppy]: [Once we played against Holy Sword in a match. Yu Sui was concerned about his old teammates. You know how he showed his concern?]
[Puppy]: [During a public interview, Yu Sui asked the host why I looked like I'd been fed哑药, why I wasn't talking and just gesturing.]
Time Luo clutched his phone, barely holding back—but he still couldn't help it, and laughed out loud.
When Yu Sui's tongue was sharp, it really made people want to strangle him.
[Puppy]: [I really wanted to kill Yu Sui at that time. Unfortunately, there was the soundproof booth between us. He couldn't get out, and I couldn't get in.]
[Puppy]: [Language barrier was one thing. As long as we all knew some basic English, we could communicate and compete. But daily chatting was another story. The German teammate and I always suspected those two Koreans were secretly cursing at us in their own language.]
[Puppy]: [Turns out, they really had been cursing at us in their native language the whole time.]
[Puppy]: [Playing badly and cursing people—this was忍不了. The two Koreans finally got traded, and then came two Germans. Fine. Three Germans and me. I became the one the three of them were secretly cursing at.]
[Puppy]: [Finally, after another year, I dragged three people and pushed into the top three of regular season. Because my performance was so outstanding, I got bought back by Holy Sword. Can you believe that?]
[Luò]: ...
[Puppy]: [Chen Huo's experience was similar to mine. When we first got to Germany, because of the language barrier, we really couldn't perform. We got traded one after the other. After another year, we got familiar with the environment and basic communication wasn't a problem anymore, and then, god knows how, we also got bought back by Holy Sword. The three of us reunited. I really have to hand it to that team.]
[Puppy]: [Last year when we won the championship, all three of us were on Holy Sword, that's true. But before that, Chen Huo and I really went through a lot. A lot of people don't know about this part. I feel like I need to tell someone.]
[Puppy]: [Luoluo, if you'd come along back then...]
Time Luo lowered his eyes and stayed silent.
If he had gone to Europe together back then, he probably would've had an even worse time than Puppy.
[Puppy]: [Old stuff from before is hard to untangle anyway. I'm not trying to make a point. I just wanted to tell you about my situation these past two years.]
[Puppy]: [There was a reason why we left you and Old Joe behind back then.]
[Puppy]: [I heard some things later about what happened with your family, and I understand why you reacted so strongly back then. There was a reason for that too.]
[Puppy]: [Nobody had it easy. We're about to be on the same team soon anyway. The past... let bygones be bygones. What do you say?]
[Puppy]: [I just talked to Yu Sui for a bit. He more or less feels the same way. The past is the past, whether it was good or bad. Everyone still remembers. I get it. But there's no need to keep bringing up old matters. Who was right and who was wrong—there's no clear answer anyway.]
[Puppy]: [We're moving to the new base today. Waiting for you.]
[Puppy]: [When you come over, let's just pretend none of that ever happened. Okay?]
Time Luo looked at Puppy's messages one by one. He was sure Puppy had憋坏了 from being in Europe.
Finally found someone who could read Chinese, and he just wouldn't shut up.
Time Luo reread the conversation, then typed.
[Luo]: [No.]
[Luo]: [The past happened. It happened. I can't pretend.]
Time Luo coldly glanced at the chat history, tossed his phone aside, and went back to watching the substitutes' practice match, ignoring Puppy.
Yu Sui and Puppy had arrived at the new base. Puppy looked at the chat history and sighed deeply. "Fated entanglement..."
Yu Sui frowned. "What happened?"
"See for yourself." Puppy handed his phone to Yu Sui and got out to grab his suitcase from the trunk. "Tried to be a peacemaker for you two. Turns out Luoluo is incorruptible and won't accept."
Yu Sui quickly scanned the chat history and said quietly, "...You shouldn't have said all that."
"Thought maybe after two years, he'd also become zen, able to go along to get along like me." Puppy wheeled his luggage toward the new base. "Didn't expect it. Even after being beaten down by society, still so uncompromising toward evil."
Puppy shook his head. "I have a feeling the base won't have a moment's peace once Time Luo gets here."
Yu Sui grabbed his luggage without responding. Puppy continued, "Oh right, Old Joe told me yesterday he'll need another couple of days before he can come. So the coach position will stay vacant for now. New manager Zhou Huo will arrive around the same time as him."
Yu Sui hummed in acknowledgment. Puppy clicked his tongue. "This Zhou Huo was NSN's assistant manager before, right? The one who strongly advocated for signing Time Luo to NSN back then? At the time, Time Luo was making such a fuss about it, and the NSN executives didn't really want him. It was Zhou Huo who kept insisting Time Luo had high commercial value, and they reluctantly signed him."
"Yeah, we've known each other for many years. He's trustworthy." Yu Sui figured Puppy had some kind of post-traumatic stress and added, "Whatever his character is like doesn't matter now. I'm the boss. What are you still afraid of? Anyone who doesn't work out, we fire them."
"I know him too. I know he's a good guy. I'm not scared." Puppy said meaningfully, "I'm just giving you a heads up. I've heard Zhou Huo is pretty sharp when it comes to operations, and he has flexible methods... Did you know how he handled Wawa when he first joined NSN? He had no popularity, sponsors wouldn't even let him film promotional videos. You know what Zhou Huo did?]
Puppy clicked his tongue. "He filmed a daily life video at the base featuring Wawa and Gu Qian. In the video, Gu Qian was shown coaching the rookie so attentively, the father-son bond was touching, and Wawa's popularity instantly skyrocketed."
Yu Sui didn't see anything wrong with that. "The rookie had no popularity and couldn't convert into commercial value. Should a manager just sit by and do nothing? Players focus on competition, managers handle team operations. This was just what he should've done. What's the problem?"
"Nothing's wrong with it. I'm just saying, unlike managers like Zhao Feng who only drag players to events to make money, Zhou Huo doesn't give people a hard time. But he has more of these little tricks up his sleeve." Puppy looked Yu Sui up and down. "What do you think he'll do about the situation between you and Time Luo?"
Yu Sui's eyes flickered slightly. He said nothing.
That evening, the new manager Zhou Huo cautiously sent Yu Sui a message.
"Whisper, after Evil arrives, could you do a duo stream with him for an hour every day for the first month?"
"If playing games isn't an option, you two just being on camera together streaming would be fine."