Chapter 56
Shi Luo returned to his station. His alt account was still logged into the game client. He quickly clicked "Ready" and rushed into a match.
One second too late, and he was afraid he'd be found out.
Shi Luo operated his alt account distractedly, but he wasn't actually confident he hadn't been seen.
That "E" had already been typed into the chat window. Yu Sui had very likely come upstairs by then. He'd probably seen it.
Of course, even if he had been seen, Shi Luo could explain it: he was actually trying to type "mm", but had accidentally hit the caps lock.
It was a stretch, but it was still somewhat plausible.
Shi Luo zoned out for a moment and nearly got himself killed. He retreated behind cover to reload, taking a deep breath.
But the real problem was how to explain this to Yu Sui, wasn't it?
Under his thin t-shirt, Shi Luo's heart was pounding wildly.
No.
That wasn't what was killing Shi Luo anymore.
Professional players, especially those who've been active for years, often use their registered gaming IDs instead of their real names when reacting instinctively.
For Shi Luo, "Evil" triggered a stronger response than his actual name.
Shi Luo was acutely aware that he had almost typed "Evil" moments ago. He openly acknowledged his obsessive fixation on Yu Sui. The mention of that streamer by a random teammate had agitated him, triggering an instinctive territorial response. But using Whisper's main account to make such declarations to strangers was unmistakably over the line.
This was far beyond a simple claim of ownership.
Shi Luo was off his game, getting killed by an enemy. While waiting to respawn, he carefully glanced over at Yu Sui.
Yu Sui seemed completely normal, already in the next match, his expression no different from usual.
Shi Luo watched Yu Sui.
In all of Free, Yu Sui was the quietest during games.
Chen Huo was the loudest—cursing during losing streaks, cussing during winning streaks, berating himself for bad plays, and hyping himself up for clutch plays. As long as he was seated at his station, Chen Huo could rarely stay quiet for more than three minutes.
Shi Luo also trash-talked, but mostly through text. He didn't curse out loud often. He just slammed his keyboard with incredible aggression. As an entry fragger, he had the most keyboard inputs, and he used blue switches. While gaming, it sounded like he was torturing his keyboard—clicking and clacking nonstop.
Puppy played sniper, lurking in bushes to pick off enemies. His role required minimal input. But years of watching randoms play like garbage had trained him to develop a sharp, sarcastic commentary habit. He couldn't resist making a few acidic remarks from time to time.
Only Yu Sui, unless necessary, could go an entire night without saying a word.
Unless you were in the same match with him, the other teammates in the training room would never know whether Yu Sui had gone on a winning streak or a losing streak that night. Win or lose, his expression stayed about the same.
Shi Luo felt guilty, stealing glances at Yu Sui from time to time, but he couldn't read anything from Yu Sui's expression.
If he had to say what he noticed...
Shi Luo chewed his gum vigorously, feeling uneasy as he thought: Yu Sui was genuinely handsome.
Since there hadn't been any Free matches recently, the regular season was taking a break. Everyone was grinding ranks hard, and the base had become the unfiltered daily life of internet addicts.
Even the league's top physical therapist was no exception.
Hair wasn't blow-dried after washing—just air-dried naturally. If it wasn't dry, a sports towel would be draped over his shoulders. Daily attire was basically whatever sports pants he grabbed plus a t-shirt. When cold, he'd throw on a team jacket. Shoes were rarely worn properly. Those limited-edition sneakers worth over ten thousand yuan? Yu Sui didn't care at all. He just stepped on the back heel and wore them like slippers.
Occasionally when going out, he'd bend down, pull up the back heel, and head out. Couldn't be more convenient.
Even dressed this casually, he was still handsome.
Yu Sui had gone out of his way to be a troublemaker back in the day. Carrying multiple scandals, he still had so many fangirls who stuck with him through everything—there was a reason, there was capital behind that.
Even if you'd lost faith in his character, you could keep stanning his skills. Didn't understand the game or care about his mechanics? No problem. Yu Sui still had that face. You could definitely still appreciate Yu Sui the playboy's face.
Shi Luo couldn't help but think about that streamer who'd jumped on the trending topic. He pressed his keyboard harder and harder.
After that day, that streamer had made a few more provocations in small circles, desperately implying that she had added Yu Sui's WeChat and had "some exchanges" with him.
Others with ulterior motives followed suit, vaguely mentioning that after Yu Sui returned to China, they also had some contact with him.
Those who had even a shred of connection with Yu Sui two years ago naturally had more material to work with. Big talk came easy: "Whisper came back to China, so naturally I wanted to meet up with him. But I was afraid of bothering him—professional players are so busy, you know. Of course, if we really did meet up, I couldn't tell everyone about it, or people would say I'm riding his coattails."
With all the foreshadowing and ambiguity, it instantly sparked endless imagination. People started thinking these girls really did have some kind of reunion story with Yu Sui.
These were all nobodies who couldn't make waves. Zhou Huo was too calculating to give them even a glance. Yu Sui himself paid even less attention.
But Shi Luo couldn't help but get worked up sometimes.
He really wanted to find these people and ask them clearly: Where exactly did you meet Yu Sui? In FOG? Why do you keep bringing him up? Are you a victim of his dagger? Why are you haunting him like a ghost trying to get something from him?
Shi Luo slammed his keyboard hard. Every time he thought about these people, he got annoyed.
He spent every day in the same base as Yu Sui. No one knew better than him how fake all those words were.
But he still got annoyed.
It might be fake now, but it could become real in the future.
Yu Sui was already twenty-one years old.
In another year, he'd be old enough to legally get married.
Yu Sui was better than everyone at everything. He wasn't safe anywhere he went. There would never be a shortage of people watching him.
What if in the future he brought home a young missus...
Even if Shi Luo wore down the railing and pulled out every cactus spine, Yu Sui wouldn't care about him anymore.
He'd have someone else to cherish.
Shi Luo knew better than anyone how good Yu Sui could be to a person.
No one could withstand it.
And then...
If he still pulled that kicking-the-blanket routine, he'd truly be a green tea bitch.
Shi Luo spat out his gum and lit a cigarette, putting it between his teeth. His expression was full of ferocity.
In just a short match, Shi Luo's thoughts had wandered over hill and dale, already gone ten thousand miles away.
When Shi Luo finished that match, it was exactly midnight.
A new month had begun. Zhou Huo timed it perfectly to come check everyone's rankings. All four of them had made it into the top one hundred—full team pass.
Zhou Huo was extremely satisfied: "Not bad, not bad. You cleared the first month's target. Next month you just need to maintain your division. That should be much easier, right?"
"This isn't about easy or hard anymore." Chen Huo sighed, looking at his national server ranking. "Seriously, everyone here, does anyone actually care about getting docked pay? Nobody's short on that kind of money. Look at this brutal national ranking—this has become about not losing face, period!"
Puppy nodded in agreement: "I stopped caring about losing money a long time ago. They can dock my pay, but the moment I drop out of the top hundred and some other team's player climbs over me to maintain their ranking without getting docked—that's absolutely intolerable."
"Exactly!" Chen Huo glared at Yu Sui resentfully. "When it's your own teammates, it's even more unbearable. When you should've dropped points but didn't, it's even more infuriating."
"Alright, what's this big grudge?" Zhou Huo called out. "Let's wrap it up early tonight. I just had the driver go out and buy crayfish for you guys. It's downstairs. Eat up and then head to bed."
Everyone stood up. Yu Sui was the slowest to move.
Shi Luo had been glancing at Yu Sui frequently, and Yu Sui had noticed.
Recalling the letter Shi Luo had typed using his own account, Yu Sui followed behind Shi Luo at a leisurely pace, squinting slightly.
Had the feelings he'd been guarding so carefully finally shown signs of blooming and bearing fruit?
The group went downstairs. Everyone clattered open the takeout containers, pulling on gloves to peel crayfish. Zhou Huo looked at Yu Sui: "Yours is over here. I know you can't handle spicy, so this side is the salted egg yolk and garlic crayfish."
It was too late. Even the non-spicy crayfish weren't something Yu Sui should eat too much of. He peeled a few, tasted them, and then stopped. He went to the kitchen to get the congee the housekeeper had prepared for him.
While peeling spicy crayfish, Shi Luo glanced at Yu Sui. After hesitating, he asked: "...Stomach ache?"
"No." Yu Sui sat down and slowly sipped his congee. "It's too late. Eating too much hurts the stomach."
"Tsk, tsk." Chen Huo looked at Yu Sui with pity. "So young, can't even eat a late-night snack freely... We have a housekeeper here. When you retire and live on your own someday, who's going to hover over you cooking? You'll need to find a girlfriend who can cook, someone to make you congee specifically when you're pulling all-nighters."
Shi Luo tossed the crayfish head in his hand aside.
Old Qiao was quietly eating his own portion. At these words, he shook his head: "You think a girl would stay up all night playing games with you? Get real."
Chen Huo pouted: "There are plenty of people willing to stay up late with Yu Sui making him congee."
Chen Huo looked at Yu Sui, carelessly saying: "Right?"
Yu Sui glanced at Shi Luo, whose expression was getting worse by the second. A slight smirk tugged at his lips. He said flatly: "Just eat."
"I wasn't wrong." Chen Huo cracked open a can of Coke and sighed. "Yu Playboy won't have any trouble finding someone in the future..."
Old Qiao pinched a crayfish tail and brought up the recent training match. The conversation shifted away from idle gossip. The regular season next week would have them facing NSN—they couldn't afford to be careless.
Yu Sui stopped eating after half a bowl of congee. After discussing battle strategies against NSN for a while, Puppy and Zhou Huo started chattering about gossip from the scene. Yu Sui was懒得听这些 (too lazy to listen to this stuff), so he put his empty congee bowl in the kitchen dishwasher.
Shi Luo had been distracted all night. It was like something in his head had gone out of control. His mood swung between good and bad.
Remembering Yu Sui's favoritism toward him made him feel a little better. But the moment he thought about how Yu Sui hadn't directly refuted Chen Huo's girlfriend teasing, he got so annoyed he wanted to fight Chen Huo.
The anxiety of gain and loss was too torturous.
Shi Luo's expression wasn't great as he lowered his head eating crayfish. Suddenly, someone dared to poke him from behind...
Shi Luo's brows instantly furrowed. He turned his head to look—and it was Yu Sui, who had just walked past.
Yu Sui walked through the first-floor living room and pushed open the door to leave the base. Through the glass wall on the first floor, Shi Luo could see him sitting on the lounge chair in the base's courtyard.
Shi Luo's anger instantly evaporated.
Shi Luo told himself internally that this was all just player tactics, that only high schoolers fell for this kind of move. But while saying that in his heart, he quietly removed his plastic gloves.
Zhou Huo looked at Shi Luo: "You're not eating either? Don't you love this restaurant's crayfish the most?"
"I'm full." Shi Luo stood up and washed his hands. "You guys eat."
Shi Luo picked up his phone, pressed his lips together, and after half a minute, also pushed open the base door and walked into the courtyard.
Yu Sui was lying on a large lounge chair, scrolling through his phone.
Shi Luo sat on another lounge chair, one foot planted on it, and asked vaguely: "What did you call me out here for?"
Yu Sui put down his phone: "You seemed a bit unhappy."
Shi Luo instantly became more guarded: "No I wasn't!"
Yu Sui quietly watched Shi Luo.
The thing Shi Luo couldn't handle most was Yu Sui looking at him without speaking. Before half a minute passed, he surrendered, frowning: "Annoyed."
Yu Sui said in a low voice: "Annoyed about what?"
Shi Luo hesitated for a moment, thinking: might as well go all in.
"I..."
He had barely said one word when Shi Luo regretted it.
Even two years ago, Shi Luo had never been this clingy with Yu Sui.
The two of them had been together back then, but it was mostly training. There were so few moments like this when there was nothing specific going on, just heart-to-heart talks.
It was too awkward.
Shi Luo lit a cigarette, frowning as he smoked.
Yu Sui didn't push. He just quietly watched Shi Luo.
"I..." Shi Luo blew out smoke and said in a self-abandoned, low voice, "I'm annoyed when other people get too close to you."
Yu Sui's expression didn't change. He asked back: "Haven't you always been like that?"
"It's different." Shi Luo smoked more and more aggressively. He didn't dare look at Yu Sui anymore, keeping his head down. "Other people can't get too close to you. Can't take advantage of you. And I..."
Shi Luo bit his cigarette butt until it was deformed. His voice grew softer and softer: "I want more and more things for myself."
Yu Sui nodded and repeated: "Other people can't take advantage, but you can, and you want more and more..." Yu Sui paused and asked, "Shi Luo, what other advantages do you want?"
Shi Luo was stunned. Before he could sort out his thoughts, Yu Sui slowly asked: "Shi Luo, my first kiss is already yours. What other advantages... do you still want to take?"