# Chapter 108
The team captain was online, and the dirty money had dried up. Puppy watched the flood of Danmaku scroll past and sighed.
All that traffic, but not a single cent to scam. It really sucked.
The team captain turned on the computer, logged into the game, started streaming—Puppy's live stream numbers instantly plummeted. Unfortunately, Shi Luo still maintained his usual tech-only streams: no face, no voice. Shi Luo's fans had been faithfully守 watching for ages without hearing a single sound, so they had no choice but to switch back to Puppy's stream. They'd watch Shi Luo's game footage while using Puppy's stream to listen to Free's training room background noise.
Puppy had long gotten used to being a tool for others. He calmly watched his viewer count plummet then gradually climb back up, drawling, "Go ahead, all of you... but you'll all end up right back here for the double act, won't you?"
The fans tossed him a few small gifts out of politeness, just to appease him.
None of them were queuing together. After the short break, the players desperately needed to get their feel back for the game. Winning or losing didn't matter—what mattered was recovering that high-intensity training sensation. Shi Luo went for seven straight hours, only stepping away for bathroom breaks, not even stepping outside for a smoke. One match after another, continuous high-intensity practice. It wasn't until six PM, dinner time, that he finally quit the game. He hadn't even turned on his mic, and felt too awkward to force a prolonged stream just for dinner content, so he closed the stream.
Coincidentally, Zhou Huo needed to discuss something serious with everyone. Instead of having Puppy and Chen Huo bring food upstairs, he gathered everyone at the restaurant downstairs.
Zhou Huo seized the moment while everyone ate, sitting off to the side and going over things one by one. "The World Championship group draw is tomorrow night at nine. It'll be recorded. Old Qiao, adjust the training schedule so we don't have a conflict."
Old Qiao nodded while eating. "Got it."
"Ooh, the draw's finally here." Chen Huo whistled. "The most exciting part's coming. Bring it on, Holy Sword—"
Shi Luo raised his eyes. Holy Sword had been partly responsible for tearing the team apart back in the day, and his new grudge from the season opener when Holy Sword rolled through all the local medics was still fresh. He really wanted to face Holy Sword in the group stage.
"Maybe we should hope for Japan, Thailand, Philippines..." Zhou Huo gave a nervous laugh. "Why bother? Isn't it better to save the tough bones for later?"
"No." Shi Luo frowned. "I want to face them in group stage."
"What you want doesn't matter." Zhou Huo spread his hands. "We don't do the drawing. This year's World Championship is hosted by the European region—their official staff will be drawing."
Zhou Huo glanced down at his notebook. "Right now... every team that made it to Worlds is doing rituals. NSN's manager started bathing in flower petals and burning incense days ago. She even washes her hands with flower water every time—"
Yu Sui hissed. "...Crazy?"
"She's not crazy, she's just hoping for a good draw. Hoping to get Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia in group stage—" Zhou Huo looked up at his team's bunch of troublemakers who were all raring to go at group stage. His expression was blank. "I'm actually considering whether I should order some flowers tonight too. Cleanse my soul... so our luck improves."
"No." Chen Huo's face scrunched up in rejection. "Can we not embarrass ourselves? We're the number one seed from our region, for crying out loud. Chicken out in group stage? Aren't you ashamed? Your luck doesn't need to be good."
Shi Luo had been wanting to fight Holy Sword for ages, and now he was getting superstitious too. "Don't order flowers. Don't wash your hands when you use the bathroom tonight. Let your hand luck go bad."
Zhou Huo: "..."
Puppy swallowed a bite of food and sighed lightly. "For the sake of meeting Holy Sword early, God Shi personally oversees the team manager's spiritual bathroom enlightenment. Now that's dedication—truly God-level dedication..."
Yu Sui put down his chopsticks and instantly lost his appetite.
Old Qiao laughed so hard he hiccupped, still chewing happily.
"I'm not going to argue about this... Also, hand me your passports before you go offline tonight. We need to apply for business visas." Zhou Huo flipped through his notebook. "That's it for things concerning you players. From here on out... train hard, the team handles everything else. Come to me promptly if any issues come up."
Everyone nodded. Those who'd finished eating went upstairs to grab their passports and bring them to Zhou Huo. Half an hour passed in a flash during dinner. Everyone returned to the training room—streaming, solo queuing, another seven straight hours of training.
Around one AM, Zhou Huo came upstairs to urge them. "Don't tire yourselves out too much. The temperature's been dropping and it's seasonal change time—lots of people catching colds. Push too hard and you'll get sick. If even one or two of you go down, it's not worth it. Can we shorten training by at least an hour? Go offline at one AM? NSN's already sleeping by midnight."
Zhou Huo directed that last part at Old Qiao. Old Qiao was doing practice drills with Shi Luo, not even lifting his head. "Shortening by an hour... not impossible. Yu Sui?"
Yu Sui wasn't wearing his headset, so he paused when he heard his name.
Old Qiao reasoned, "The training intensity's higher now, which means compressed time—no less effort. Sleeping an hour earlier is fine."
Yu Sui nodded. "Sure. Don't make it mandatory. If you want to sleep at one, sleep. If you can't sleep, do whatever."
Puppy had been streaming all day, so he was thrilled to hear this. He instantly went offline and closed the queuing client, stretched, and left. Chen Huo happened to finish a match not long after, stood up, peeked over Shi Luo's shoulder, then wandered over to look behind Yu Sui, and slipped out himself.
"Alright."
Another half hour passed. Old Qiao closed his client and walked over to Shi Luo to point out some recurring mistakes from training. Then he rubbed his temples and laughed bitterly. "I've never worked harder as a sparring partner for anyone else... Your APM is insane—I can't even keep up with your reactions."
In terms of reaction speed, Shi Luo had already matched Yu Sui now, and was even showing signs of pulling ahead. Old Qiao was quite satisfied. He looked at Shi Luo's eyes, not a single trace of bloodshot, and sighed. "Youth is truly a blessing."
From after dinner until now, Shi Luo had been grinding for over seven hours straight—and that wasn't even counting the afternoon session. Old Qiao had only been drilling Shi Luo since nine PM, a little over four hours, and he was already wiped. Old Qiao rubbed his neck and shoulders. "But maybe take it easy once in a while. I actually don't approve of突击手 training themselves to death like this. It's too taxing on the body. We're in the profession with the youngest retirement age, and you still—"
"Doesn't matter." Shi Luo exported the training video from the game client, distracted. "I don't need to play for that long anyway."
Old Qiao froze, glanced at Yu Sui, caught on, and rolled his eyes. "I'm so done trying to care about you..."
"Next time I'll need to find more sparring partners to rotate." Old Qiao squirmed uncomfortably. "One sparring partner really isn't enough for you."
The practice partners the team usually called in were high-level retired pros, going for a thousand yuan an hour. Old Qiao's heart ached watching the team burn through money every day. He'd step in as the free labor whenever he could. Usually he'd only manage to drill Chen Huo and the others for a bit, but tonight drilling Shi Luo alone had completely drained him. He grabbed his jacket and left, hand supporting his lower back.
"Check the time."
Shi Luo was watching the training video when he heard Yu Sui speak to him. He pulled off his headset and looked over. "What did you say?"
Yu Sui said, "Calculate how long Old Qiao was your sparring partner, and send it to Zhou Huo... Have Zhou Huo pay him a sparring partner wage. Say it's your idea."
"Old Qiao..." Yu Sui said slowly, "His family had debts before. They lived through too many hard times. He's gotten so stingy it's become a habit—always pinching every penny. He'll take napkins from restaurants when he eats out... It's not just him being cheap for himself, he always wants to save money for the team too... His coaching salary is market rate, but he insists on doing the work of sparring partners, data analysts, psychological counselors, training room cleaners all by himself... We can afford this much."
Shi Luo stared at Yu Sui, eyebrow raised. "Why didn't you say that to his face just now?"
Yu Sui started a new game. "Just send it."
Shi Luo smiled faintly, calculated the time, and did as Yu Sui said—handed the matter of paying Old Qiao sparring wages over to Zhou Huo.
After sending the WeChat message, Zhou Huo quickly replied that he would process the payment. Shi Luo set his phone aside.
The longer they spent together, the more he realized how Yu Sui's gentleness never announced itself.
Every day, he fell a little more in love with this man.
Shi Luo liked high-intensity training. Yu Sui didn't agree with this, but he wouldn't forcefully interfere with Shi Luo's career plans. All he did was, when holding Shi Luo and whispering sweet nothings before bed each night, casually massage Shi Luo's shoulders and wrists—helping him relax his muscles and joints.
Old Qiao had a habit of snagging napkins from restaurants. If he ever forgot, Yu Sui would remind him, "There's an unopened pack behind the plates. It's paid for too."
Yu Sui never forced others to change, never corrected them—not even when something like the napkin thing seemed ridiculous to him.
Shi Luo suddenly understood why Yu Sui, perfectly capable of being a domineering CEO type as a club owner, had instead chosen the scumbag route.
All of Whisper's tenderness came wrapped in respect.
Shi Luo dropped his gaze and let out a soft breath.
Yu Sui glanced over at Shi Luo. "What's with the sigh?"
Shi Luo glared at his monitor, shook his head, mumbled, "Nothing."
Yu Sui frowned, confused—but he was still in the middle of a game, couldn't let his focus slip. He had to keep playing.
Shi Luo picked up his phone, his heart full of resentment.
He wanted to post on Weibo.
From his burner account.
To document how good Yu Scumbag was.
Shi Luo put down the phone, picked it up again. After several rounds of this, he finally spit out, "I'm going to... pee... I'll be back. Still playing until two, right?"
Yu Sui was about to break the enemy's Nexus. He gave a slight nod.
Yu Sui's game had a couple pro players from other teams on his side, and he was playing smoothly. It didn't take long to win, breaking the enemy's Nexus. Yu Sui replied to the other players who'd greeted him with an emoji, then left the map.
Yu Sui picked up his phone, a hint of a smile on his lips. He navigated skillfully to Shi Luo's burner account Weibo.
Refreshed—no new posts yet.
Yu Sui wasn't worried. He refreshed every ten seconds. After the twelfth refresh, the burner account posted an update.
**[The gentlest person I've ever met, Whisper.]**
Yu Sui naturally understood Shi Luo was referring to him—but also about quietly getting Old Qiao a raise... but the fans wouldn't necessarily see it that way.
Yu Sui clicked on the comments—
[Posted posted posted!!]
[The essay's a bit short but baby's writing is so good! First half Chinese, second half English, first eight characters then seven letters—put together, they represent your love!]
[I used to think your word choices were莫名其妙 and flame you for it. Now that I've really savored it, I'm catching my breath. Incredible. When will I ever have this kind of god-tier writing?]
[The first eight characters mean our team gets an auspicious draw tomorrow. The seven letters mean seven days a week, loving you every day! I feel baby's love—sleeping warm tonight.]
[Such short words, a song of historians, a lyric without rhyme. Memorized and recited.]
[The writing is so good it deserves to be carved into the stone at Free's base entrance! Let the people of ten thousand generations pass it down—THIS! IS! NOT! OVERKILL.]
[This timing, this content... tsk...]
[Blushing??(???ω??? ?)?]
[Aaaa I'm so curious stop praising his writing he doesn't care about that just spit it out! How is Yu Scumbag gentle? What did he do to you???]
[I know you're not God Shi, you can tell us more details. Remember, you're just a little bloodsucking fairy—no need to hold back.]
[I know you're not baby either, tell us anything, be spicy!]
[Sigh, you're useless. @Puppy, GO! Go to God Yu's room and stream us an all-night marathon! We'll pool money to tip you one hundred million.]