Chapter 63
On the way to the restaurant, taking advantage of the pitch-black night where the car couldn't have its lights on and no one could see clearly, Yu Sui didn't pull his hand back either, continuously writing and drawing on Shi Luo's palm. At first it was still in Chinese, then after a while he switched to letters.
Shi Luo was afraid the teammates in the car would notice, so he never dared to look at Yu Sui. His left hand rested on his left thigh giving Yu Sui space to write, while his right hand was behind his head, gazing out the window. His expression was exceptionally cool, but both his heart and palm were itching with anticipation.
Shi Luo noticed Yu Sui writing letters, and mentally吐槽 in his head— nowadays, can't you even have a secret romance without passing CET-4?
The university Shi Luo had applied to was still on hold. Having chosen this profession, he really hadn't had the chance to go to university and take the CET-4, but as a straight-A student, his everyday English was still understandable. He focused intently, internally pronouncing each letter Yu Sui wrote, but...
Shi Luo frowned and glanced at Yu Sui, his face full of confusion.
What on earth was Yu Sui writing? This didn't form any words...
Through the dim light filtering into the car, Shi Luo saw Yu Sui looking down at his palm, writing very seriously.
Yu Sui continued writing on his own, his fingertip movements growing faster. Shi Luo refused to give up, concentrated hard, then shortly after lowered his voice in frustration, "German?"
Yu Sui smiled without answering, confirming it.
Shi Luo frowned and said quietly, "I don't understand German!"
Yu Sui quickly finished the last two words and held Shi Luo's hand, whispering softly, "Exactly because you don't understand it, that's why I wrote it."
Shi Luo's eyebrows shot up. Before he could ask further, Yu Sui wrote in his palm: [What I want to say is a bit vulgar, not convenient to write in Chinese.]
Shi Luo turned his head to look out the window again. He shifted uncomfortably, countless bullet comments flying through his mind.
He went to the European region for two years, yet didn't learn to use foreign skills to counter foreigners. What a waste of time in Germany— just went there to learn German and how to flirt with people?!
Three people in this car— Yu Sui, Chen Huo, and Puppy— all knew German. Why was Yu Sui the only one this outstanding?!
Why did he only get taught a few German curse words by Chen Huo's word-of-mouth lessons, and didn't learn anything else?!
You never know how hard something is until you experience it; knowledge is only useful when you need it.
What the hell was Yu Sui even saying...
He was already an adult, hadn't seen pigs fly without seeing them run. What kind of big waves and tides hadn't he witnessed? How vulgar could it be that Yu Sui couldn't even write it in Chinese?
Shi Luo rubbed his hot cheek against the cold glass, internally thanking Yu Sui's fans for the thousand-and-first time. They truly had eyes like eagles— seeing back when Yu Sui was fifteen that he would definitely be a total heartbreaker.
No sweet nothings, no fuss— just quietly making others' hearts filled with nothing but him.
This guy was lucky he entered the esports monk temple. If he'd gone to any other circle, who knows how many good-hearted people he'd have harmed.
Shi Luo ground his teeth, shifting uncomfortably, pressing his hot forehead against the car window glass as well.
Half an hour later, the car finally arrived at the restaurant Zhou Huo had booked.
Chen Huo was the first to get out. He looked up and said, "Isn't this a club?"
"Yeah, it's a club. Their food is especially delicious, but the reservation was hard to get. I booked it half a month ago for you guys." Zhou Huo苦笑. "I originally thought today's match against NSN would be a tough battle. Win or lose, I wanted to treat you all to a good meal, sit down and chat, review recent team matters. I didn't expect today's match to be so random, not even worth coming out to eat... but since it's already booked, and the deposit's paid, let's eat."
Speaking of NSN, everyone couldn't help but苦笑. While heading to the private room inside the club, they also ran into some members from the Saint team and the Yi Zhan team.
There were two regular season matches today. Besides Free and NSN, there was also Saint versus Yi Zhan. Saint won without much suspense, 2-0 defeating Yi Zhan. But the two teams had the best relationship among all teams— off the stage, they were all brothers. After the match, they went out to eat together directly.
Saint's Angel Sword had a good temperament and personality, getting along well with everyone. He had some history with Yu Sui and Shi Luo, and when he saw them coming, he walked over to greet them, concerned, "Is ROD doing okay?"
Yu Sui淡淡道, "Not good. Their mentality collapsed. Both games today were played like shit."
Shi Luo lowered his head to look at his shoes, muttering quietly, "...I almost dragged me down too."
Angel Sword laughed, "What does that have to do with you?"
Shi Luo couldn't tell the truth, so he敷衍道, "I'm softhearted. Can't stand watching others get flamed."
Before Shi Luo could finish speaking, several players from other teams snickered. Shi Luo frowned and said, "Believe it or not, up to you."
"Our manager should have told Zhou Huo." Angel Sword reminded them, "Keep a low profile lately. Don't stir up trouble or let people set the agenda. Holy Sword's side is way too mouthy— clearly trying to mess with our region's mentality. They're playing dirty. Don't let it affect you."
Yu Sui nodded, "Same goes for you."
Angel Sword nodded, then looked at Shi Luo and smiled gently, "I'll take what you said as true. If you got affected by ROD, adjust early. We'll be playing our regular season match against you at the end of the month. Don't let us get first blood."
The only teams still maintaining undefeated streaks in the regular season were Saint and Free. When they faced each other at the end of the regular season, one team would inevitably break the other's golden undefeated record. Shi Luo nodded, "Got it. Let's duo queue when we have time."
"With Whisper around, you'd still duo queue with me?" Angel Sword smiled, "We've booked a room upstairs with Yi Zhan. We'll head up first."
"You can look for me too!" Chen Huo quickly chimed in, shouting at Angel Sword, "Remember!"
Angel Sword smiled and nodded, then walked away with the members from both teams.
"Sigh..." Chen Huo looked at Angel Sword's retreating figure and clicked his tongue, "Yu Sui, look more, learn more. That's what a support player should be like. That's what a real healer is. What are you?"
"I'm your little grandpa." Yu Sui pushed Chen Huo and said, "Let's go."
Prime real estate location, attentive enthusiastic service, 5000+ yuan per person for the meal— they should have enjoyed some rest and fun at this club, but affected by the tense atmosphere in the region, no one was in the mood to enjoy themselves. The meal was finished quickly. At one point, Old Joe even urged, "Can you speed up the food? Skip the plating. Don't have this foreign chef explain each dish in French. We can't understand. Serve the rice first. We're in a hurry to eat and leave."
Chen Huo sighed, "Yeah, right now I see foreigners and get annoyed. Let the chef rest."
The waiter smiled awkwardly and indeed brought rice for them. Several people ate while staring at the floor, like they were in a cafeteria, finishing everything without a trace. After eating, they didn't wait for the French chefs to come out for photos together. They paid and left.
The waiter was completely崩溃. Still trying to retain them, desperately wanting to introduce to these young guys how impressive the chef's resume was and how rare the photo opportunity was. Shi Luo had things on his mind and wanted to get back to the base quickly. He dodged the waiter, "Taking photos with us requires a fee. No photos."
Zhou Huo's职业病 acted up, and he casually reminded, "That's right. If you want photos, remember to buy tickets to watch the matches and queue at the backstage. Thanks for the support. Old Joe, stop taking their napkins! Let's go."
The waiter was completely bewildered. First time encountering customers who were as restless as if their pants were on fire, coming just to eat.
Zhou Huo managed to maintain a polite smile and reluctantly sent them out.
Free's group ate so fast; Saint and Yi Zhan on the other side were almost the same. When going out, they ran into each other again in the luxurious and dazzling club lobby. Everyone exchanged greetings, then各自 boarded their team's minibus and left.
After dinner, they didn't even taste the dessert. One by one, they all went back to the base to train. Couldn't be more professional. But unfortunately, disaster still struck.
Less than ten minutes after Free's car returned to the base, while everyone was still taking showers in their respective rooms, Zhou Huo's phone rang like it was a matter of life and death.
Zhou Huo thought NSN had stirred up something else again. He sighed as he picked up his phone, muttering to himself, "Just fell in love, that's all. How big of a sin is it? Will it ever end? I think these people are... Holy shit!!"
Free's daily social media guy sent Zhou Huo a WeChat message— a link. Zhou Huo glanced at the title and his vision went dark.
【Impressive, why can't any local region teams handle Holy Sword? Let's take a look at what kind of meat-paradise lifestyle our players are living every day】
Zhou Huo sensitively预感到 the photos of them at that ridiculously expensive club had been taken. But this was easy to handle— he could come out and take the blame, say he was the one who insisted on treating the players. Zhou Huo suppressed his uneasiness and clicked on the post. His blood pressure instantly shot up—
Opening the post, his eyes were met with a flood of fresh-faced influencers in revealing outfits, with the background being exactly the club they ate at today.
There were over twenty photos. Zhou Huo scrolled down rapidly. The later photos became increasingly explicit. In the middle was a Weibo screenshot from some small influencer, the content roughly thanking some CEO for inviting them to a party, saying how happy they were to see their brothers.
Old Joe was tidying up the coats the players had thrown around carelessly on the sofa. Seeing Zhou Huo's wrong expression, he leaned over and said, "What happened now?"
Old Joe took a good look and went speechless. "Holy shit..."
Zhou Huo was looking at the later photos. In the images, several girls were taking group photos, with several people standing behind them— exactly Yu Sui, Shi Luo, and Angel Sword, plus the loudly-hailing Chen Huo calling out to Angel Sword, and several other players.
Old Joe swallowed hard. "This... can... can we clarify this?"
Zhou Huo painfully rubbed his forehead. "A bit difficult..."
Zhou Huo exited the post and looked at his WeChat about to explode. He quickly opened several messages and read through the content. His blood pressure spiked again, and he couldn't contain his anger. "I don't know which random CEO was throwing a party, brought over multiple carloads of girls, and just happened to bump into us. Bad luck got us photographed!"
"These people are sick!!" Zhou Huo had booked the club himself, and now he was filled with regret and self-blame. "Why did I have to choose that place?! Now the forums are saying our players also attended their whatever 'sky-sea feast,' saying our players hang out in places like this every day. Screw them! Did a donkey kick me in the head to book this kind of place for them..."
"What's it got to do with you?" Old Joe cut him off. "Don't panic first! It's not just our team that got photographed! What did Angel Sword say?"
"They're far from the base. Probably haven't gotten back yet and haven't discovered it." Zhou Huo had a mess of things on his mind, brain in chaos, anxious to the point of liver pain. "I said and said to keep a low profile lately. I，阴沟里翻船, actually gave them ammunition myself. I..."
"Don't panic first. No one's blaming you!" Old Joe had been following Yu Sui all these years and had endured plenty of flame himself. He was calmer than Zhou Huo. "I'll call them over."
Zhou Huo was usually the most careful managing the team, never having made a misstep. This was the first time something went wrong on his side. His phone buzzed again— someone sent him another image. Zhou Huo looked and his eyes instantly filled with bloodshot. "Holy mother of— Holy Sword! Have they got a grudge against us or something? They just posted a tweet with a photo of their players training, saying they don't know what a club is. I..."
"What's wrong?" Shi Luo showered the fastest. He came downstairs and glanced at the two of them. "Who posted a tweet?"
Zhou Huo was so angry he was dizzy. He took a deep breath, handed his phone to Shi Luo, and sat down on the sofa, supporting himself.
Shi Luo wiped his hair while looking at Zhou Huo's phone. Having just been given a little talk by Yu Sui earlier, Shi Luo was very calm right now. He slowly scrolled through the WeChat messages, his expression unchanged.
Yu Sui's words were still fresh in his memory.
"Shi God, during IAC you didn't even need a psychologist. Are you going to let this get to you?"
Shi Luo's face was cold. He absolutely wouldn't let himself get affected like ROD.
Holy Sword's recent string of petty moves was disgusting. The bandwagon haters随风倒 were also a bit too much.
Shi Luo handed the phone back to Zhou Huo. "Create a group chat, pull in Saint and Yi Zhan. Come on— let's counter-attack these haters."