Chapter 29

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@Titans_Sen: She’s your Shao ge’s little sister, so let’s not get carried away. Your Shao ge is a siscon. He can’t hit you guys through your screens, but he can hit me.

[HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA??]

[Everyone who guessed that it was a love triangle got their face slapped [doge]]

[My first reaction at seeing Sen ge’s words are unexpectedly a sigh of relief]

[Me too]

[I’m gonna pick my SenZuo fanfic and continue reading]

[From those photos and videos, I can see the resemblance between that sister and Shao ge…]

[Xiao Zuo is actually a siscon!!!]

[Don’t worry, God Sen, Shao ge would never beat you up]

Yao Sen spent a moment reading through the comments and thought that his fans’ level of awareness had risen to new heights.

Yao Sen set his phone down and conscientiously went online to play some AD.

–

Shao Han supervised Shao Meng’s studies on the second day of her visit, but since she didn’t want to stay in the hotel all day, she coaxed and pestered Shao Han into a visit to Yiyou in the afternoon.

Shao Han wasn’t too keen on leaving Xiao Meng alone with Yao Sen. He felt nervous every time he saw his sister’s elated appearance whenever she saw him. Although he knew that Yao Sen didn’t think of Xiao Meng like that, only God knew whether Xiao Meng’s adoration would turn into love.

As a result, Shao Meng kept sensing a slightly chilly and imposing gaze on her back that afternoon, and when she turned back, she was always confronted with her brother’s evidently cold gaze.

Shao Meng felt a chill penetrate her heart.

She carried this slight chill with her to the end, and it was only when Shao Han sent her to the high-speed rail station did Shao Meng feel her brother’s gaze gentling.

Shao Han: “Study hard when you go back.”

Shao Meng: “Ge, be honest, do you have something against me?”

Shao Han: “Something against you?”

Shao Meng stared at him with a complicated expression: “……”

A while later, Shao Meng probed, “Ge, do you… like God Shen?”

Startled, Shao Han’s eyes on Shao Meng slowly shifted elsewhere before he finally said, “……I do.”

“I knew it! You look at me like I’m your love rival! I grew up watching palace dramas, did you think I wouldn’t figure it out? What were you thinking, ge?!” Shao Meng stared at him with wide eyes, then pounced on Shao Han’s arm and said excitedly, “So is God Sen going to become my brother too? Is this real?”

“Don’t talk nonsense.” Shao Han replied with slight embarrassment, “It’s one-sided.”

“Ge, I think God Sen has a crush on you.” Shao Meng said with certainty, “Really.”

“……”

“You have to trust your little sister’s eyes! Based on my years of observation that ‘all hot men are gay’, God Sen, he…”

Shao Han pushed his babbling sister into the high-speed rail station. “All right, you should go back now.”

After seeing his sister off, Shao Han no longer had anything else to worry about and returned to his regular training schedule the following Monday. Yao Sen sent him the occasional message to say hello as usual, or invited him out for a meal with Bai Yue and the others.

–

Before the Chinese New Year, Titans and Noah’s Ark held a small-scale friendly match. After the match, the two teams had a night out.

Eight starters and two substitutes sat at a table. For the most part, the Noah team members were reserved and introverted, quiet and rarely talking.

On the other hand, Titans had the outgoing chatterbox Wang Yuxi and Bai Yue, who traded his customary insults with him. Although Yao Sen was not as talkative as they were, he held his own court and struck up a lively conversation with the bashful Zhou Ziyu. Song Mingzhe, as Yao Sen’s number one fan, also talked more. Their outing was in full swing, and the Noah’s Ark members were dumbstruck.

However, because the Titans weren’t shy, they gradually started to talk to everyone there. Yao Sen’s magnet-like personality made everyone keen to talk to him, and Yao Sen spoke freely and without any awkwardness.

Seeing Yao Sen chatting so happily with his team members in such a short amount of time—as opposed to having his full attention whenever they went out together—Shao Han felt his every brain cell screaming out ‘hypocrite’ and ‘you’re crazy!’, but his heart held an unspeakable gloom.

Shao Han didn’t have much of an appetite, nor did he talk all that much at the dining table. When their group went home, he walked far behind with his own team members.

Yao Sen was walking at the very front when he was suddenly tapped on the shoulder by Wang Yuxi, who came up to him and whispered, “Shao ge doesn’t seem very happy.”

Yao Sen turned to look back at Shao Han. “Yeah.”

“What’s going on?”

“How should I know.”

“You’re not gonna coax him?”

“I will, I’ll coax him when we get back.”

“Why not now?”

“Isn’t he talking to his teammates?” Yao Sen suddenly paused and had a light-bulb moment. “Don’t tell me, is it because I didn’t stop chatting with his team just now?”

Wang Yuxi had incredulity written all over his face. “You’re not that narcissistic, are you? You’re flattering yourself a little too much.”

After a moment of silence, Yao Sen said, “Just a little.”

As their voices died down, Yao Sen’s phone rang. When he saw the caller’s name, Yao Sen was quite surprised, for he really couldn’t think up a situation so urgent that the other party needed to give him a call.

The caller was Qian Hao, who had joined Aegis at about the same time Yao Sen had joined Titans. The two of them were also classmates back in junior high.

Yao Sen picked up. “Hello, Qian Hao?”

“Hi,” Qian Hao’s voice sounded no different than usual, like he was making the expected small talk. “It’s been a while since I got in touch with you, how’s training been recently?”

“How else could it go, really.” Yao Sen replied casually, “What’s up? Did something happen?”

Qian Hao suddenly sighed softly, and when he spoke again, his voice was somewhat listless. “Do you have time? I’m in front of Yiyou right now.”

Yao Sen paused in his tracks. Yiyou Building wasn’t that much further from where their group was. Yao Sen was surprised, wondering why Qian Hao would appear at S City at this time. After all, the Aegis Club no longer rented space in S City after they terminated their contract with Yiyou.

On top of that, Qian Hao suddenly sounded dejected. Yao Sen felt it slightly odd and was a little worried, so he immediately promised, “Okay, hold on a sec, I’m currently on my way back. I’ll be there right away.”

After hanging up, Yao Sen said to Wang Yuxi, “Qian Hao is here and he’s looking for me, you guys go up first.”

Wang Yuxi knew that Yao Sen had a friend from Aegis named Qian Hao, and said in surprise, “He came looking for you now? It’s almost nine o’clock, it’s not nice to meet another man alone at this hour, Sen ge.”

“Don’t make wild guesses, there might be something urgent.”

Yao Sen hastened his pace and made his way to the entrance of the Yiyou Building. Sure enough, he saw Qian Hao’s absentminded figure standing by the flower bed on the steps of the entrance, so he walked straight over and called out to him.

Qian Hao looked up and revealed a faint smile, but it carried a trace of bitterness.

Yao Sen: “Why don’t we go inside? It’s cold out here.”

Qian Hao nodded and followed Yao Sen into the building. The building had an access control system that was exclusive to the members and staff of residing clubs. Qian Hao had also stayed here for a few years and had direct access to the doors back then.

This time though, he could only stand at the door and wait for Yao Sen to fill out a temporary visitor application at the front desk. Qian Hao stared at Yao Sen’s back with sourness welling up in his heart.

After completing the formalities, the two went to the reception room on the communal floor.

Yao Sen poured Qian Hao a cup of lemon tea, then sat across from him and asked, “What brings you here out of the blue?”

“I just wanted to come and look around.” Qian Hao was silent for a while. His lips moved, and at last, he said hoarsely, “Yao Sen, I’m retiring.”

Yao Sen was stunned, almost immediately understanding the reason for Qian Hao’s abrupt presence. His brows bunched up slightly, and he asked, “Why?”

“As you know, Aegis isn’t producing much results. We might not even make it through this year’s WCAD qualifiers. The team members are all… disheartened. They’ve just been going through the motions when training these days.” Qian Hao paused and bent down, his face somewhat ashen. “The sponsors have basically withdrawn, and some players with good individual performance are ready to jump ship to other clubs. I also wanted to bounce at first, but my results aren’t good enough for a good club to approach me.”

Qian Hao closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, they were filled with a strong sense of reluctance and helpless sadness. In the end, he choked up. “Yao Sen, three years is the limit for mediocre players in this industry, and I don’t have any time left. I’ve told myself countless times that I can still play well, that I still have a chance, but I really can’t go on any longer.”

He gazed at the photos of e-sports stars and various group photos of teams standing in front of the entrance of Yiyou Building that hung on the wall of the reception room, his expression somewhat stupefied and distracted for a moment. Soon after, he lowered his head. “I’ve talked it over with my coaches and teammates, and my family also doesn’t agree with me wasting any more time… Yao Sen, I’m not fit for this industry.”

Qian Hao paused for a moment and let out a long breath, as if letting go of all his reluctance and obsessions. “I’ve decided to retire.”

Yao Sen waited quietly for him to finish, his grip on his knees tightening. What Qian Hao said was right—the esports industry was a survival of the fittest, and only a small number of people could make it to the end. Unlike in most industries where experience could be accumulated over time, esports demanded for a quick, crowded scramble to the top, and not many people were willing to wait for an average player to mature.

Yao Sen, as one of the few who had forced his way through the log bridge*, naturally understood this.

*difficult path

Yao Sen looked to Qian Hao and unhurriedly said, “As long as you’ve decided on this after thinking it through carefully, I won’t try to persuade you to stay.”

“Sometimes, I ask myself why I can’t do what you do.” The listless Qian Hao let out a bitter laugh, “Things that don’t suit me will simply not suit me, there’s no use for me to come up with any more reasons.”

The rim of his eyes reddened faintly. “In the past, we all agreed to achieve things in this industry… and yet there’s still no reason for me to stay.”

Qian Hao raised his head and looked at his longtime friend with conviction. “Yao Sen, you’re different. I’ll be leaving it to you… You have to go out there and win it all.”

The corners of Yao Sen’s mouth rose. “I will.”

Yao Sen was a man who was as good as his word.

The two stayed in the reception room for more than an hour. Qian Hao’s impromptu visit time was almost up by then, so he got ready to leave. When Yao Sen saw him off downstairs, Qian Hao was much more relaxed, and his face was less sad than before his conversation with Yao Sen, but there was still a tinge of sorrow.

He glanced at the LED screen in the lobby of the Yiyou Building and smiled bitterly. “When I was still training at Yiyou, I always thought that I had enough time and there’d be more opportunities in the future. Only later did I realize that some things really can’t wait.”

After sending Qian Hao to his taxi, Yao Sen waved at him, but Qian Hao’s last words somehow clung to his mind.

Yao Sen realized that some things really shouldn’t wait.

He thought about his accomplishments over the years, his team, his teammates—and also Shao Han.

Instead of going straight to his dorm room, he went to the training room, planning on venting his frustrations before bed.

It was now ten o’clock, and although the training room wouldn’t be locked until two, no one would be there at this hour. As Yao Sen walked down the corridor outside the Titans’s main team’s training room, he heard indistinct voices through the glass wall.

Yao Sen stopped, recognizing Bai Yue’s voice. He stood outside the door, took a look inside, and saw Bai Yue standing on the balcony, his body turned to the side like he was talking to someone.

Just then, another voice resounded, calm and refreshingly warm.

☆ ☆ ☆

t/n – aaand that’s it for now! i promise the next chapter won’t take too long ❤

⟵ Chapter 28 | TOC | Chapter 30 ⟶

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