Chapter 12

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

“Lao-Wang, I wanna talk to you about some relationship problems.”

Wang Yuxi, who was getting ready for bed, was struck dumb, then regained his senses in a flash. He ran over to Yao Sen’s side at top speed and asked in high spirits, “You have relationship problems too? What’s the problem? Quick, tell me.”

“How can I tell from someone’s conversation whether the person they’re talking to is their ex?”

“…no, but, how am I supposed to know what they were saying to the other person?”

“Their tone was reluctant, they looked unwilling, and they didn’t want to meet with the other person in private.” Yao Sen stroked his chin, “What do you think?”

“Yao Sen, take my advice, retiring from our line of work to study psychology is not possible,” Wang Yuxi paused, “but from the way you describe it, if it’s the opposite sex, it’s pretty likely that they’re talking to an ex.”

Yao Sen stared at the headboard for a moment, then waved Wang Yuxi away, “All right, there’s nothing else. Go to bed.”

“Hold on, you haven’t made yourself clear, who did you hear talking to who?”

“I heard you talking to Lao-Bai in my dreams.”

Black lines appeared on Wang Yuxi’s face : “I’ll go to your fanclub sisters and out you, shamelessly deceiving Laozi’s feelings like this.”

“Don’t turn your back on Bai Yue, you two have a lot of CP fans.”

“Get lost!”

Their training time flew by that the month on their phone screens quickly gained another digit. The Titans’s main team’s training intensified little by little. Meanwhile, the coach also tasked the four of them to take measures to protect and strengthen their wrists.

Yao Sen also made it a habit to watch Shao Han’s live broadcasts before going to bed. On the off chance that Shao Han didn’t broadcast that day, he would just find a random anchor to watch, which led to him discovering some surprisingly strong amateur players.

During today’s regular training break, Manager Guo came to the training room and called for Yao Sen to come out.

“Two things,” Manager Guo said. “The first is that White Shark Live has come to me again in hopes of signing you and Wang Yuxi. I talked to Wang Yuxi and he agreed, so why don’t you think it over?”

Over the month, Yao Sen had become a lot less prejudiced against e-sports broadcasts. He replied, “If they’ll accept me streaming once every two weeks, then I’ll consider it.”

“That… White Shark will think this is an overlord clause*.”

*unequal contract that greatly benefits one side

“I’m usually unavailable. As our manager you’re aware of my situation—I have to go to bed early and rest early. If they agree to it then I don’t care, the contract fee can just be lowered,” Yao Sen said. “What about the second thing?”

“The second thing is that there’s an e-sports magazine that wants to do an exclusive interview with you next weekend. The photoshoot and interview will probably take about two to three hours, so take some time out of your schedule to go.”

Yao Sen’s brow furrowed at the news, “What magazine?”

“Esports Star, I don’t know if you’ve heard of them.”

“I haven’t, can I refuse?”

Manager Guo sighed, “You can’t, this magazine is going to promote the club and a few sponsors, and they’re charging a commision fee, so the sponsors are making it necessary for you to take it.”

“…Fine.”

Manager Guo nodded. Then, just as he was about to leave, he suddenly remembered something and doubled back, “By the way Yao Sen, are you taking endorsements?”

“Huh?”

“Just asking first.”

Yao Sen’s expression was odd, “I’m only a gamer, if they want an endorsement, don’t look for me and just go find a proper celebrity.”

Yao Sen has never wanted to go down the commercial exposure route. After all, when it comes down to it, he was just an esports player. While it was true that his fame in the last few years far exceeded the category of professional esports players, it was only because he was handsome and had a lot of face fans and CP fans. Rather than anything else, he only wanted to be known for winning competitions.

Once he retires one day and his Sen-style myth is replaced by someone else, if there were any entertainment companies who were interested in making him their model, then Yao Sen would happily oblige.

“Alright, I knew you’d say that, so I already turned it down earlier,” Manager Guo smiled indifferently and patted Yao Sen’s shoulder, “Train well.”

In the evening, Yao Sen habitually tuned into Shao Han’s live broadcast, and Shao Han was right on schedule. After watching for a while, Yao Sen constantly felt that the sound of Shao Han’s voice through his headphones was a little off. There was a hint of raspiness in his cool voice, and it was accompanied by a coughing sound away from the microphone from time to time.

With his headphones on, Yao Sen shut his eyes and thought, the rasp sounded quite sexy… No—it sounded like he caught a cold.

The barrage slowly showed some people asking if Shao Han was sick. Shao Han himself also said that he had accidentally caught a cold, but that it wasn’t a problem.

The Shao Han on screen was incessantly drinking water, and because of his coughing, several of his shots went askew. Furthermore, there were people in the barrage who were bitterly mouthing off Shao Han’s poor accuracy—the sight of then ignited a burst of anger in Yao Sen’s heart

As soon as the live broadcast ended, Shao Han also sent out a Weibo post——

@NA_Left: I’m sorry, I have a slight cold today and I didn’t play too well. I will extend the broadcast time on Saturday to compensate. Thank you everyone for your concern.

[wuwuwuwuwuwu Xiao Zuo you musn’t be too tired]

[Take care of your health!!!]

[If you caught a cold, you don’t need to broadcast, Xiao Zuo. You’re already worn out from Noah’s regular training, I honestly don’t know why people were so sore about this in the barrage!!!]

[Shao Shao, go take your medicine quick!!! What kind of coarse voice is this!!]

[It’s coarse, make sure you drink plenty of hot water!!!]

[@Titans_Sen: Go to bed early, I’ll come see you tomorrow morning]

[@NA_Left replied to @Titans_Sen: What’s the matter?]

[??? Oh my god, am I seeing things??? President Sen???]

[omg, it’s not a high quality imitation!!!]

[I’m actually seeing Sen ge under Shao ge’s weibo??]

[Sen ge, why are you so gentle? Are you really Sen ge???]

[I believe in SenZuo]

[I believe x100]

The next morning, Yao Sen stood at the door of Building B’s room 943 with a plastic bag in his hand and knocked on the door. The one who opened the door was Lin Lan, and he seemed to already know that Yao Sen was looking for Shao Han, so he turned to call for the latter, who then came out from the bathroom.

Shao Han was wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt that revealed his pale arms, causing Yao Sen’s eyebrows to furrow. The weather had already begun to cool, yet Shao Han was still not wearing a jacket.

Shao Han’s voice was still somewhat hoarse, “What was that about last night?”

“Have you taken any medicine for your cold?”

Shao Han dodged his gaze and lowered his voice, “Not yet…”

Yao Sen placed the plastic bag in his hand on the entryway cabinet, “I bought some medicine for you, just drink this syrup if your cough isn’t too bad, take these if it is. There are also some non-prescription drugs that can be used at ordinary times.”

Shao Han was stunned when he caught sight of the large bag filled with medicine. He didn’t know if it was because of his cold, or whether there was something not quite right with his heart on top of his nose, but Yao Sen’s words unexpectedly made his heartbeat accelerate.

Lowering his head, Shao Han took out his phone: “How much did the medicine cost? I’ll transfer it to you.”

“No need to bother, just invite me to dinner some other day,” Yao Sen waved a hand, “I’m going back now. Don’t wander around with bare arms, it’s no wonder you caught a cold. If you catch a cold, I… your fans will be distressed.”

With that, Yao Sen turned to leave. Shao Han called out to him right away, his voice that hadn’t fully recovered made one’s heart tremble, “Yao Sen, thank you.”

Yao Sen couldn’t help raising the corners of his mouth, then turned and met several Noah team members. They stared in awe as the legendary Titans captain who shouldn’t have appeared in Building B walked by, and couldn’t help but look back after he passed them.

When Yao Sen returned to the Titans’s training room, Wang Yuxi was sitting on his gaming chair, staring at his phone and shaking with laughter, not even noticing that Yao Sen had come in. Yao Sen smacked the back of his head, “What are you laughing at? Go train.”

“I’m visiting your CP supertopic,” Wang Yuxi said. “Don’t say a word, it’s really funny, I’m not including SenXi.”

“My CP?” Yao Sen felt that Wang Yuxi might be the only brother of his who could do such a thing. He paused before asking, “Which ones are there?”

“Do you want to hear the male-male ones or male-female ones?”

Yao Sen was very much self-aware of the fact that the majority of his CPs were with guys. “There’s a male-female one?”

“Just the Black Diamond team member who played in Asia’s top sixteen finals last year.”

“Her? I don’t even know her.”

“It’s called making a match[1],” the highly experienced Wang Yuxi replied, “But there are still more guys.”

Bai Yue interjected, “That’s right, and there are more who like SenXi.”

Wang Yuxi: “Sorry, I’ve already blacklisted SenXi. Need I remind you that SenYue and XiYue are also big?”

“Why am I on the right side?[2] Isn’t it just because I play support? Are you assaults that amazing?”

Wang Yuxi grieved, “I’d rather have fans who are decent people like Lao-Song. Why are they doing this to us straight guys?”

“Are you really straight?” Bai Yue asked Wang Yuxi for the 108th time.

“How am I not straight! Do you have to be a straight man cancer to be straight!” Wang Yuxi replied, not forgetting to mention Yao Sen, “Our Yao Sen who monopolizes 80% of the e-sports circle’s CPs still hasn’t said anything yet.”

Yao Sen: “Stop bullshitting and go train. Don’t try anything, Lao-Gou is going to rip your head off when he comes by in a while.”

First thing Sunday morning, Yao Sen was called up by Manager Guo to prepare for the interview. He was dragged around by the magazine staff as they put on makeup and messed with his hair, and the smell of hair gel on his hair lowkey made him want to throw up.

After Yao Sen was asked to pose for two shots on the training room’s gaming chair, the interview that followed was entirely long and tedious, the questions somewhat boring. Yao Sen pushed through his sleepiness to cooperate with their questions until the moment he was asked about his relationship matters—he instantly perked up a little.

“Are you dating anybody right now?”

“No.”

“So if you were to look for a partner in the future, would you want to find someone who’s also in the professional esports industry?”

Yao Sen considered, “I might. In this way, we’d probably have a common language and we can play games together, right?”

The magazine was issued a week later, and a thick stack was sent over to Titans Club. Wang Yuxi went over to get a copy first thing and laughed at Yao Sen for a full half hour while pointing at the magazine’s photos of Yao Sen.

“Our big star, President Sen,” Wang Yuxi teased, “Do you really want to find someone to play games with in the future? Why don’t you simply get together with the Black Diamond sister?”

“Don’t be stupid.”

“All your wife fans are showing off the magazine under your Weibo,” Wang Yuxi exclaimed, “This kind of anonymous little magazine is probably something only your wife fans would buy.”

“Buying this thing is a waste.”

“Yao Sen, I’m serious, you can consider entering the entertainment industry when you retire later.”

“I’ll be pushing thirty when I retire. The current entertainment industry is booming with teen idols.”

“Who said that? A man in their 30s are only just flowering…”[3]

“What are you all gossiping about!” Coach Gou suddenly barged in, rapping on the training room’s door and reprimanding the gossiping two, “Go back to your chairs and train, I’ll watch you duo queue.”

Wang Yuxi curled his lip and whispered, “Forget it, Lao-Gou really can’t be considered a flower.”

☆ ☆ ☆

[1] baike says it’s something like forcing a pair of young men and women who have no emotional foundation together

[2] he’s complaining bc his name being on the right side of the cp name means he’s the shou

[3] 男人三十一枝花 a man in their 30s who has experienced the world and is mature, stable, and successful. men in their 30s are like flowers blooming, who are just showing off their brilliance. (zhidao baidu’s words, not mine)

⟵ Chapter 11 | TOC | Chapter 13 ⟶

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