Chapter 24

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Yao Sen smiled. “My current goal is to be as strong as Lu ge back then.”

“Then you’ve set your goals too low. You’ve already surpassed me, I’m afraid,” Lu Kaizhi said without the slightest hesitation. “I’ve fought against Kevin and Ethan a few times, and I think that you have the kind of strength they have that makes people itch to beat you where you stand.”

Yao Sen didn’t know what expression he should adopt for a moment. Was Lu Kaizhi really praising him?

Yao Sen immediately asked, “In that case, where do you think those two’s strength lies?”

“They’re strong everywhere. But if I really must say, while basic skills are something every player should have, what makes top e-sports athletes stand out from the rest is their observation skill and game intuition,” Lu Kaizhi answered. “Observation skills are used to create opportunities, and intuition is used to seize them.”

Lu Kaizhi paused, “But luck is also important, so go to a temple and seek out your fortune before a match.”

Yao Sen and Shao Han: “……”

After chatting about the game, Lu Kaizhi started telling them about the esports circle gossip before his retirement, full of excitement. After gossiping, he moved on to his wife and daughter. Yao Sen and Shao Han, who had originally come for advice, were somehow made to eat melons and forced to gag on dog food.

Lu Kaizhi sighed. “My wife was a fan of mine at the time. She always came to watch my matches wherever I played. After we finished as the WCAD runner-up back then, she was the first person I hugged when I left the stage. She cried even harder than I did.”

To hug the person you liked first when you leave the stage after a match—it truly was happiness.

For some reason, when he heard these words, Shao Han shot a glance at Yao Sen beside him. Seeing him talking and laughing with Lu Kaizhi, he silently withdrew his gaze.

The three men chatted until 2 pm, wishing they could continue on, when Shao Han received a call from Lin Lan. He got up and went out to take it.

Lu Kaizhi asked, “Would you like anything else to eat?”

“No need.”

“What about your boyfriend?”

Yao Sen was jolted from head to toe. He raised his head to stare at Lu Kaizhi. Lu Kaizhi drank his coffee as he watched him, his expression normal like he’d just asked a casual question about the weather.

Being watched by those unfazed eyes, Yao Sen even suspected that he was the one making a fuss about nothing, and he froze before saying, “……boyfriend?”

“Isn’t Noah’s little brother Shao your boyfriend?”

“That–he’s really not.” Not yet, that is.

Lu Kaizhi winked. “He’s not, but he will be soon, right?”

Yao Sen was speechless for a moment, then openly acquiesced to what Lu Kaizhi just said. Rather than saying he was cool-headed, he was influenced by Lu Kaizhi’s innate calmness. “How did Lu ge figure it out?”

Lu Kaizhi: “What did I say just now? Observation.”

“……”

Shao Han, who had just returned, said to Yao Sen and Lu Kaizhi: “Lu ge, Yao Sen, there’s something the manager wants me back at the club for, thank you both for today.”

Yao Sen: “Then I’ll go back with you. Lu ge, thank you, let’s talk again some other time.”

Lu Kaizhi laughed and said meaningfully, “Sure, let’s talk about feelings again next time.”

Yao Sen turned his head and shot a helpless glance at Lu Kaizhi, then left the coffee shop with Shao Han.

The two of them ordered a car to return to the Yiyou Building, when suddenly Yao Sen asked, “Shao Han, do you feel the same as Lu ge?”

Shao Han: “Feel what?”

“When he said I was so strong that it made people want to beat me in place.”

“It’s true that you’re strong,” Shao Han said. “When Lu ge said that you could beat him, I don’t think that he was just saying it to be polite.”

The corner of Yao Sen’s mouth turned up and he didn’t say another word.

When they were about to part ways at the entrance of the Yiyou Building, Yao Sen abruptly recalled Lu Kaizhi saying the word “boyfriend”, these two syllables made Yao Sen’s heart itch, and he subconsciously opened his mouth to call Shao Han to a halt.

Shao Han turned. “Mm?”

“You…” Yao Sen trailed off, “Are you going home for the New Year?”

“Yes.”

Yao Sen smiled. “Say hello to Xiao Meng for me, okay?”

After he and Shao Han parted ways, Yao Sen directly went back to his dorm. Just as he pushed open the door, Wang Yuxi, who was sitting on his bed and in the middle of playing with his phone, looked up and cast a heated gaze his way.

Wang Yuxi took two steps over to Yao Sen’s bed and asked, “What did Great God Caesar say?”

“He told us to learn to observe and develop our intuition.” Yao Sen thought for a moment, then added, “And remember to seek your fortune before a match.”

Wang Yuxi nodded expectantly, appearing like he’d already jotted down Yao Sen’s words in an imaginary notebook and waited in high spirits for Yao Sen to give him a lengthy retelling of the history of Caesar’s growth. As a result, Wang Yuxi waited for half a day and yet the rest of the words never came. Yao Sen’s only response was to silently sit down and begin taking off his shoes.

The smile on Wang Yuxi’s face slowly vanished and out came a gradual stream of vivid “you played me”s.

Yao Sen: “That’s all, you can get off my bed.”

Wang Yuxi glared. “You guys fucking chatted for two to three hours and that’s the only thing you talked about?”

“Oh, there was also Lu ge and his wife’s love story, and tips on raising a daughter.” Yao Sen looked at him, “Maybe you’d like to hear about that?”

Nevertheless, under Wang Yuxi’s relentless questioning, Yao Sen told him the general details of their conversation. After he heard everything, Wang Yuxi realized that the two points that Yao Sen had summarized just now were really true.

Wang Yuxi: “Are all Great Gods this unusual?”

“I think what Lu ge said isn’t wrong either. Matches aren’t about replicating another player’s victory, and that’s all he could really say,” Yao Sen said. “I felt pretty inspired.”

“Did you get a perfect score on your Chinese reading comprehension university entrance exams?” Wang Yuxi decided not to dwell on this topic any longer. After all, there was no way he could comprehend a Great God’s brain circuits. Instead, he asked, “Then today counts as a date with Shao ge.”

“Have you ever seen a date with three people?” Yao Sen glanced at Wang Yuxi. “If it was just me and Shao Han, would I even be back tonight?”

“……” Wang Yuxi glared at Yao Sen before finally saying, “Hang in there, I’ll go and buy you a kilogram of Shenbao tablets.”*

*they’re for sore waist & legs… :—)

“Are you going back home for the New Year holiday?”

The club had given them a five-day New Year’s holiday, which gave the team members time to pack and make their way back home. As soon as the New Year holiday was over, apart from their annual leave, there would be less than half a year before the WCAD.

“I’m not going back, my parents are going abroad to play.”

“Then why aren’t you going?”

“My mom and dad–those two are so corny, why would I go and join their fun?” Wang Yuxi’s parents were childhood sweethearts and they had an especially good relationship. These two people who were well into their fifties would whisper sweet nothings to each other all day long that it made their son’s teeth sore. Wang Yuxi deeply believed that his coquettish genes were inherited. “The most dog food I’ve eaten in my life is theirs.”

Yao Sen: “Then I’ll try my best to make you eat mine and Shao Han’s in the future.”

“……”

Wang Yuxi felt that Yao Sen’s mild expression was just like a Poverty Reduction leader saying “I will try my best to lead everyone to eat meat in the future!” to impoverished households.

Wang Yuxi: “What about you? Are you going back?”

“I’m going back and staying for two or three days.”

“Lao-Song and Ziyu are also going back,” Wang Yuxi sighed. “All that’s left is Lao-Yue and I, relying on each other to survive.”

There were fewer people in the building on the first day of the holidays. Yao Sen’s flight was at 8 am. After getting out of bed, he didn’t feel like having breakfast, so he took a few packets of beef jerky that Wang Yuxi had placed in his cabinet on his way out.

Yao Sen’s family had a little pomeranian named Miao Miao. When Yao Sen got home, Miao Miao, who hadn’t seen its owner for several months, turned into a small white whirlwind as it happily encircled Yao Sen’s ankles.

Yao Sen tore open a packet of beef jerky for it to eat and stroked Miao Miao’s round head.

Mama Yao was cooking when she heard that her son was back. She unhurriedly set down the knife in her hand and walked out, patted Yao Sen’s shoulders and waist, then looked him up and down before commenting, “You haven’t lost weight.”

Yao Sen: “Mom, shall I help you cut the vegetables?”

Mama Yao squeezed Yao Sen’s hands then laughed as she squeezed her son’s cheeks. “These precious hands of yours better not be put to work. Be good, go upstairs and play games, get your dad to come down and do the cutting.”

Yao Sen: “…Alright.”

Mama Yao: “Oh, that’s right, auntie took the day off, so your room hasn’t been swept yet. Get a rag and clean it up yourself. It’s about time to trim the grass in the garden too, so go trim them later.”

What was that about not putting his precious hands to work?

Yao Sen obediently went to call Papa Yao down to cut vegetables before entering his own room. The first thing he did was to wipe down his computer table and his somewhat dusty monitors. This triple monitor gaming PC was bought for him by his parents this year, and it was particularly comfortable to play games on.

After dinner that night, Yao Sen turned on his triple monitor PC logged into the game. As expected, there were several people online.

Titans_Xi: Yao Sen, you’re finally playing

Titans_Yue: You guys play, I’m taking a break

Titans_Xi: Don’t, Yue gege! yingyingying accompany Xixi for a few more rou

Titans_Yue：……

Titans_Xi: Sen gege, quick! Persuade Yue gege yingyingying

Titans_Yue: Wang Yuxi, don’t be a pain in the ass

Titans_Xi: Yue gege, are you flirting?

Titans_Yue: ……Yao Sen, you’re the captain. Aren’t you worried?

Titans_Sen: I don’t care

Titans_Xi: Oh, by the way, Yao Sen, why is my beef jerky missing again? Did you secretly eat them?

Titans_Sen: I didn’t have breakfast this morning so I took a few packets

Titans_Xi: Yao gege you bastard!!!

TItans_Yue: I’ll play a few more rounds with you if you speak properly, or else I’ll go knock on your door and beat you up

Titans_Sen: Where’s Lao-Song? Why isn’t he here?

Titans_Yue: He said he got dragged out for a walk with his parents

Titans_Sen: Then Ziyu?

Titans_Xi: I nudged* him personally just now but he’s temporarily unavailable

*WeChat’s nudge feature, kind of like… poking someone on facebook

Titans_Yue: Our team queue is missing one more person

Titans_Xi: Yao Sen, bring Shao ge, we’ll duo queue

Titans_Sen: Okay, I’ll go ask him

Yao Sen nudged Shao Han: Wanna play AD? With Bai Yue and Wang Yuxi, duo queue

Shao Han: Sure

Shao Han: But I’ll be livestreaming in a moment, is that okay?

Yao Sen: No problem

Titans_Sen: Shao Han said he’ll come, he’s starting a livestream

It wasn’t long before Shao Han went online. The four of them directly opened the friends voice chat, and Yao Sen immediately said, “I’ll team up with Shao Han, you two team up.”

Bai Yue: “Fine, Lao-Wang, don’t die an ugly death.”

Wang Yuxi knocked down Yao Sen’s dog food: “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to take one of those two’s heads.”

Yao Sen: “Then I have no choice but to make your death ugly.”

Shao Han: “Yao Sen, how should we play?”

Yao Sen: “How about you play support for me?”

Shao Han felt that it was only because Yao Sen’s face was so big that he let a support ranked 11th worldwide assist him. “…Okay.”

Wang Yuxi: “Play support for Yao Sen to make me die an ugly death? Shao ge, don’t be like this.”

The corner of Yao Sen’s mouth hooked up. “Shut up, just start the match.”

☆ ☆ ☆

⟵ Chapter 23 | TOC | Chapter 25 ⟶

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