Chapter 11

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

Yao Sen raised an eyebrow, “How are we not alike?”

“I don’t know Caesar either–I’ve only seen his matches” Shao Han said, “From his games, he’s more individualistic than you are.”

“But people often say that he and I have similar playing styles.”

“The same game will be somewhat similar no matter who plays it, won’t it? After all, some techniques are universal,” Shao Han replied, his faint voice carrying a convincing persuasiveness. “You don’t need to care about what others say. Most people will think that because they’re just jealous that someone so young can be so strong, and they’ll automatically think that you’re copying someone.”

Yao Sen looked at Shao Han steadfastly, and suddenly blurted out a question without much thought, “Have you ever had a girlfriend?”

Shao Han was stunned, then confirmed that he had heard correctly, “…I haven’t.”

“Then how did you practice your coaxing skills?” Yao Sen said with a smile that was unlike a smile. “It’s really too strong, it seems that you’ve persuaded me.”

Shao Han was inwardly depressed, does Yao Sen still need someone to coax him like this?

Yao Sen smiled with relief, “I appreciate both the consolation and the commercial flattery.”

Shao Han was helpless, “It’s not consolation or commercial flattery, it’s the truth.”

Yao Sen stopped teasing him and laughed lightly, then said, “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“You’ve actually never had a girlfriend? Unbelievable.”

“No.”

Yao Sen thought inwardly, No girlfriend, then is there a boyfriend?

That night, when Yao Sen was changing into his sneakers in front of his dorm room, Wang Yuxi came out of the bathroom in pajamas and a toothbrush in his mouth, “Are you going out for a run again?”

“Mm.”

“Do night runs really help with insomnia?”

“It’s all right,” Yao Sen said, “at least my muscles get a workout. I don’t have just one round abs like yours.”

“Fuck! Laozi is going to sign up for a fitness class tomorrow! And where are my round abs? Feel them yourself if you don’t believe me!”

Under Wang Yuxi’s strong request, Manager Guo actually truly believed his “your body is an asset to gaming”, this extravagantly bullshit excuse, and bought the Titans members annual membership cards for Yiyou Building’s state-of-the-art gym.

The first time Wang Yuxi set foot in the gym, he solemnly swore that he could do more than twenty chin-ups. Yet after only ten, he was already gasping for breath and lying on his stomach, his whole body shaking on the floor.

Yao Sen scowled at him, “Aren’t you ashamed that your arm strength is this bad for an esports athlete?”

“Esports isn’t like discus-throwing, okay! I use my wrist, not my whole arm! If you’re so good, then you do it!”

Just as the Titans were roaring with laughter and coaxing Captain Yao Sen to do it, the door of the gym was pushed open and several Noah’s Ark players in gym clothes walked in.

When he spotted Shao Han, Yao Sen’s eyes lit up.

Wang Yuxi stared across the room in doubt and said, “Is Noah’s Ark so rich now too?”

Shao Han came over and looked around, then saw that he was surrounded by Titans members. He knew the Titans Club has soared in status these past two years, so he hesitantly said, “Did you guys… reserve the whole place?”

As Yao Sen was about to speak, Wang Yuxi swiftly snatched his words away. At first glance, the smirk on his face made Yao Sen sense that he was about to be screwed over, “No no, feel free to use whatever you want. We were just discussing our captain’s abs.”

Without a word, Wang Yuxi directly lifted up Yao Sen’s T-shirt and used a hand to generously stroke Yao Sen’s abdomen, groping it all over with the other, exclaiming in an exaggerated machine translator’s accent, “Oh heavens! They’re real abs! Come take a look at these beautiful muscles! It’s simply as beautiful as the neighbour’s pet dog Tom!”

Yao Sen’s well-defined and well-proportioned muscles were indeed a sight for sore eyes, and his team members teased him by reaching out to touch them one after another, making him feel like he was an innocent little wolf who was being taken advantage of.

Shao Han stood to the side, wondering whether he should interrupt the Titans’ team members who were in the middle of enjoying their captain’s body.

This wasn’t too big a deal to Wang Yuxi, who was completely enjoying the scene, so he grabbed Shao Han’s hand and pulled him over, “Come on Shao ge, don’t be shy, come feel it too.”

The warm palm of his hand pressed against those of supple and strength-filled muscles. The feel of them on one’s hand was indeed exceptionally pleasant. Shao Han sobered up and immediately flushed with shame, his fair cheeks unable to suppress the slightest bit of red. He quickly withdrew his hand and looked away. He didn’t look at Yao Sen, but turned around and quickly left. “I didn’t bring my wrist guard.”

On the side, Shao Han’s teammate muttered, “Isn’t the wrist guard in his bag……”

Yao Sen watched Shao Han’s retreating back and stopped the indecent individuals, telling Wang Yuxi to compete against him in pull-ups after he comes back later. As soon as he put on his jacket, he followed Shao Han out.

Shao Han returned to his dormitory corridor and stood in front of his room, but he didn’t want to go in. He leaned against the door and let out a sigh, feeling like a nutjob.

He really didn’t want to be like this, but Yao Sen’s perfect body, to him… or well, to people like him, indeed possessed an attractive force. In such a situation, Shao Han really couldn’t stay any longer.

Why hadn’t he noticed before that Yao Sen had a really good body before? Is this what they meant by ‘dressing skinny’?

At that moment, the phone in his pocket suddenly rang. Shao Han absent-mindedly took it out to take a look, but the caller’s name struck a nerve.

Shao Han squeezed his phone as it kept vibrating his hand. He hesitated for a while before he finally picked up, “…Hello, Shen You?”

“It’s me, are you busy these days?”

Shao Han frowned slightly, “What can I do for you?”

“Here’s the thing, I have a friend who wants to visit the Yiyou Building next Tuesday, but it’s closed to the public on weekdays, right? I just wanted to ask if I could trouble you to help bring him in. He’ll just go in and look around and not do anything else, and he’ll be out in about an hour,” Shen You smiled slightly guiltily. “I don’t know many people in the teams in Yiyou Building, I could only think of you.”

Shao Han hesitated for a while, and with some reluctance in his voice, said, “All right.”

“Then, thank you. I’ll give him your wechat later, he’ll contact you before he comes.”

“Mm.”

Shen You paused and said, “Shao Han, I haven’t gotten together with you and Bai Yue for a long time, are you guys free? Would you like to get together sometime?”

“…I’m sorry, I’m really quite busy with training. You can ask Bai Yue.” Shao Han’s voice sank slightly, “I’m sorry, Shen You.”

Shen You remained silent for a long while, then sighed softly, “I really don’t mean anything else.”

“I know, but…” said Shao Han hesitantly, “we shouldn’t… meet in private.”

Shao Han put down his phone and lost interest in going back to exercise. He went straight back to his dorm room, yet he didn’t notice a silhouette in the corner of the corridor that was elongated and dimmed by the lights.

Yao Sen stood against the wall for a moment, and when he heard the sound of Shao Han’s door closing, he turned to leave.

The Titans had their regular practice in the afternoon. Coach Gou had been visiting the secondary team a lot lately, faintly hinting them to warm up for the main team tryouts.

A team of four had no problems with a substitute. After all, it was only half a year to the WCAD, and they weren’t afraid of the unexpected, so if one of them accidentally made a mistake, it wouldn’t be too big of a mess.

Without Coach Gou present, the four of them opened a four-player training match on their own. Yet everyone was surprised to find that Yao Sen was particularly silent today. The remaining three did next to nothing as Yao Sen slaughtered his way through the match and ended up taking the highest number of heads in the game.

It was true that the level of their opponents was not equal to theirs, and it was even fine for Yao Sen to go on a solo killing spree. However, in a professional match, this kind of solo fight was a big taboo–not to mention the fact that Yao Sen was the team captain.

Wang Yuxi took off his headphones and patted Yao Sen’s shoulder, “What’s wrong with you? With the way you’re playing, if Lao-Gou was here, he’d be yelling at you.”

“Nothing. Just having fun,” Yao Sen said calmly. “Start another one.”

“Have you had enough of that?”

“Not yet.”

“What the hell did you take? Weren’t you fine this morning?” Wang Yuxi glared and stretched out his leg to kick at Yao Sen’s gaming chair, “Are you angry with me for gathering a crowd to grope your abs that time? You’re not that petty, are you?”

“You’re overthinking it,” Yao Sen toed the floor and dragged back the chair that had been kicked away by Wang Yuxi. “Let’s duo queue, Lao-Song and I against you and Lao-Bai.”

It proved to be a bad decision for Yao Sen to play against them when he was in a bad mood–Wang Yuxi and Bai Yue were almost pummeled to the ground. Yao Sen beat them to the point where they almost wanted to get violent and go over to the secondary team to feel a sense of superiority.

Wang Yuxi: “This isn’t fair! Lao-Song is an all-rounder!”

Song Mingzhe: “Isn’t Lao-Bai also a Gold Medal Support?”

Wang Yuxi: “What’s wrong with you, Yao Sen? If there’s something going on then talk to us, can’t we brothers help you out?”

Yao Sen: “It’s just a trivial matter, I can take care of it myself.”

Wang Yuxi’s mouth twitched, then suddenly waved his hands and laughed, “Well then, let us bros relax tonight! I, Master Xi, am going to share with you all the treasures I’ve been collecting over the years! Lao-Bai and Lao-Song, come to 1522 to watch a movie tonight! It’s all good stuff, you’ll definitely be satisfied!”

Yao Sen raised an eyebrow at Wang Yuxi, “Didn’t Lao-Gou ask us to watch Odin’s matches before bed? Have you finished watching those dozens of gigabytes worth of videos?”

“What’s the point of watching rough men all the time!” justified Wang Yuxi. “We should watch girls from time to time.”

Bai Yue’s straight guy heart made him very much not want to see the faces of his buddies when his pillar was raised to the sky, and turned away in disgust, “Can’t you just directly share the drive with us?”

“It’s fun to watch it together,” Wang Yuxi said, “and by the way, let’s compare what men should compare: Size! Length! Time! If we’re really going to compare, we have to do it when it’s at its peak!”

That night, Wang Yuxi, Bai Yue, and Song Mingzhe huddled together at the computer desk watching a movie with the sound turned up. Yao Sen, on the other hand, was lying on his bed with his headphones on, watching Shao Han’s live broadcast. The intense voices coming from the computer desk could be heard in between the gaps of silence of the live broadcast.

Bai Yue stood up, “I’m going to go to the bathroom first, you guys take your time.”

“Lao-Bai let’s go together, let’s compare our times?”

“You can compete with Lao-Song, I don’t want to see it, it’ll poison my eyes.”

Yao Sen: “Can’t you guys keep it down?”

Wang Yuxi lowered the volume a bit, “Are you sure you don’t want to watch this with us?”

“Not watching.”

It wasn’t until the trio’s nighttime activities were complete and Bai Yue and Song Mingzhe had gone back to their dorm room, and Wang Yuxi was humming a song and happily washing his hands in the bathroom, that Yao Sen said lazily from his bed, “Lao-Wang, I wanna talk to you about some relationship problems.”

☆ ☆ ☆

⟵ Chapter 10 | TOC | Chapter 12 ⟶

Like this:Like Loading...