Chapter 31

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Wang Yuxi was stunned, “…what?”

Yao Sen took off his jacket; his complexion was at its usual ease, but he could hardly conceal the almost overflowing delight from his voice, nor could the pitch of his words stop rising near the end, “My boyfriend needs me.”

Wang Yuxi was dumbfounded for a while, then gulped down a mouthful of air. “…so the one you like is actually Qian Hao?”

Yao Sen threw his coat on Wang Yuxi’s head. “It’s your Shao ge.”

Wang Yuxi ripped Yao Sen’s coat off his head carelessly, hurriedly got up from his chair, and said in astonishment, “Fuck! You confessed to him? He accepted? You guys are together?”

Yao Sen nodded three times. Wang Yuxi stared at Yao Sen wide-eyed for a long time before squeezing out a few words, “…wow, I shall call you ge today.”

“As you should’ve done from the start.” Yao Sen accepted Wang Yuxi’s worship without the slightest hesitation.

“Quick, tell me everything; the ins and outs right from the start.” Wang Yuxi’s gossipy soul was ignited, and he conscientiously sat on Yao Sen’s bed. “Don’t spare a single detail.”

Yao Sen merely glanced at him. “Why should I tell you?”

“Oh come on, bro! How can I, as your relationship adviser, not be told?” Wang Yuxi lamented. “Should I send a message to Shao ge and give him my respects? Wish him 99?”

That night, Yao Sen was doomed to insomnia. When he turned over to sleep on his left, the restless sensation of kissing Shao Han appeared in his mind. When he turned over on his right, he recalled the waist that had been encircled in his arms as he had hugged Shao Han. He then faced upwards, and his head was full of Shao Han’s flushed cheeks and shifty eyes.

For the first time ever, Yao Sen felt that having insomnia was very joyful.

Yao Sen checked the time. It was already two o’clock in the morning, but he wasn’t sleepy at all. He thought for a while, then grabbed his phone from the bedside table. He clicked into his chat with Shao Han, thinking that it’d be pretty great if his boyfriend’s message was the first thing Shao Han woke up to in the morning.

Yao Sen: Can’t sleep

Yao Sen: I keep thinking about you

Surprisingly, the words “The other party is typing” soon appeared at the top. Yao Sen’s heart warmed, and the corners of his mouth raised unconsciously. He then found that Shao Han had stopped typing, and he didn’t send anything for a long time.

Yao Sen was not in a hurry and waited patiently for his reply.

After a long while, Shao Han replied: Me too

Yao Sen found it funny and replied: Can’t sleep too or miss me too?

At the sight of Yao Sen’s words this late at night, Shao Han could still feel some heat on his cheeks. To be honest, the fact that he and Yao Sen were now together still hadn’t fully dawned on him. When he was brushing his teeth earlier, he abruptly remembered Yao Sen’s kiss and almost swallowed his mouthwash.

After lying in bed, Shao Han’s mind was still feverish, and he tossed and turned without falling asleep. He was just about to pick up his phone to listen to a song or do something else when he saw a message from Yao Sen.

Shao Han told himself that he had to get used to it, because Yao Sen might be more cheeky and shameless than he’d thought.

Shao Han: Both

In order to prevent Yao Sen from clinging to this subject, Shao Han wanted to change the topic by saying something else. He hesitated for a while, then went ahead and asked what he’d previously wanted to ask in the training room.

Shao Han: By the way, I heard Bai Yue mention that your friend was here tonight. Were you chatting with him before?

Shao Han tried his best to make his own words and sentences look normal and trivial, but as soon as he sent it, he still felt that he sounded jealous.

Yao Sen understood that in a relationship, hiding anything could cause unnecessary misunderstandings, and although he also enjoyed Shao Han’s bit of jealousy, he still chose to focus on the overall situation and explain things clearly.

Yao Sen: Mm. Qian Hao, my former junior high classmate who joined Aegis at the same time as my joining Titans came to talk to me today because he’s going to retire.

Shao Han: Retiring so early?

Yao Sen: Aegis aren’t performing well, and it’s really hard for him to stay, so he plans on retiring

Shao Han: Mm, understandable

Yao Sen: Baby, let’s go on a date this weekend. There’s a new movie that I’ve been wanting to watch. We can try the new Sichuan cuisine on the West Ring Road along the way.

Shao Han flushed, shocked by the word “baby”. Even if it was just the word, the visual impact was still quite strong. He imagined the scene of Yao Sen calling him that face to face, and his ears reddened, unused to it.

They were only four hours into their relationship and… Shao Han somewhat couldn’t keep up.

Even though Shao Han told himself to keep calm, the sentence softened him involuntarily.

Shao Han: Okay, up to you

Yao Sen watched as his replies came quicker. The Shao ge in love was unexpectedly so soft. He felt that he’d suffered the greatest loss in the world for not confessing to Shao Han sooner.

The two chatted until almost three in the morning. Yao Sen was still very excited, but seeing that it was so late, he urged Shao Han to go to bed.

The two said goodnight to each other, put down their phones, then laid down on their beds and counted sheep with open eyes.

The next morning, Yao Sen went down to the training room with prominent dark circles under his eyes. The dark circles were so dense that when Wang Yuxi looked up, he thought that he had smoky makeup on.

Wang Yuxi: “…Hi? Buddy, you still alive?”

“Alive.”

“What time did you go to sleep last night ?”

“Didn’t sleep.”

“……” Wang Yuxi didn’t utter a single word for a long time. “No, are you getting ready to go to heaven?”

Except for the dark circles under his eyes, Yao Sen didn’t think there was anything wrong with him. He calmly pulled out his chair and sat down, turned on the computer, and straightened the keyboard. “It’s nothing, I’m in a good mood.”

When Coach Gou walked in, he jumped in fright at the sight of Yao Sen. He immediately hauled Yao Sen out and called Manager Guo over. The two people surrounded and stared at Yao Sen with questioning eyes, nervous and concerned.

Yao Sen: “…What are you guys doing?”

”Look at those dark circles, it’s like he’s wearing sunglasses!” Coach Gou complained, “I told you to go to bed earlier, why didn’t you listen! If you don’t get a good night’s sleep, how will you be able to concentrate in the morning!”

Based on club operations alone, sixty percent of the entire club’s advertisements and sponsorships depended on Yao Sen. Manager Guo was afraid of something bad happening to Yao Sen, and said with concern, “You should just go for a medical check-up, just in case there’s something wrong?”

Yao Sen: “Don’t worry, I was just a little too excited last night.”

“What were you excited about?! Don’t train this morning, seeing you like this makes me anxious. Go back and get some sleep. Come back in the afternoon.” Coach Gou waved his hand and narrowed his eyes suspiciously, “You really haven’t been under heavy pressure recently?”

Yao Sen: “It’s been fine.”

Manager Guo proposed to give all the players a physical examination before the Lunar New Year holidays, and Coach Gou also felt that this proposal was very good. After all, the recent training was critical, and players neglecting their health was inevitable.

Yao Sen was urged back to take a nap. Maybe it was because he was over-excited and burned too many brain cells last night, and with how he was stopped and persuaded by Coach Gou and Manager Guo to sleep right then, Yao Sen really did manage to fall asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow.

Yao Sen slept until three o’clock in the afternoon. He got up and went downstairs, opened the door of the training room, and the coach and the four people sitting at their computers quickly looked over to him. Coach Gou stared at him gloomily and sized him up. Seemingly thinking that his appearance was finally presentable, he pursed his mouth. “Sit down.”

Yao Sen pulled out his chair and sat down, and Wang Yuxi on the side said: “What, you got jetlagged five months in advance?”

Yao Sen: “Can’t I?”

Wang Yuxi knew that Yao Sen had just woken up and his concentration wasn’t that great yet, so he enthusiastically proposed one-on-one training, and Yao Sen readily agreed. As a result, after a few games, Wang Yuxi was thoroughly fed up—Yao Sen’s hit rate was even higher than usual.

Coach Gou also found that Yao Sen was in a good state after catching up on sleep, and he exaggeratedly praised him.

Wang Yuxi felt completely puzzled after being headshotted by Yao Sen for the thousand and one time. Would the same thing happen to him if he found a boyfriend too? Was it too late for him to find one now?

During the training break, Wang Yuxi saw that everyone else had gone out to drink water or go to the restroom, so he slid over and asked Yao Sen, “Did you strike dogshit luck today?”

(note: ofc, not literally that lol. It means along the same lines as “lucky bastard” or having ridiculously good luck especially in an unexpected setting.)

Yao Sen replied earnestly, “No, it’s angelic luck.”

Wang Yuxi rolled his eyes. “If I were Brother Shao, I’d be ashamed of you.”

He paused, and suddenly said with a serious face, “But then again, I feel that your overall combat strength has improved. What do you think?”

Yao Sen stared at the screen for a while before replying, “It probably has.”

“Are you now sure that you can beat Caesar when he was in his prime?”

This time, Yao Sen was solemn for a long while, as if he was seriously contemplating something in his mind. After a long while, he leaned back in his chair and replied thoughtfully, “Ninety percent sure.”

Current circumstances had proved that Yao Sen had indeed made great progress compared to last year.

On Friday afternoon, Coach Gou announced the Titans team’s latest personal overall strength estimate. Although the estimated results were certainly not as accurate as the global data officially announced by WCAD, the calculation models and indicators used for reference were all in accordance with the official sources, which was able to give them a rough reference.

Compared with the points scored after the regionals, the main team had improved significantly. Moreover, Yao Sen’s overall combat power estimate had dramatically increased from last year’s 90.5 to 92.7, surpassing Lu Kaizhi’s 91.8 at his peak. It was 0.5 points away from the Lincoln team’s ace Kevin, and a 2.4 point difference from Ethan, the captain of the Swiss Odin team.

From winning the Asian Championships to the present, not only Yao Sen alone, but the others in the team had also made hard-won progress. Moreover, this was only the estimated result of the players’ individual combat strength, without counting the improvement of their teamwork.

Although all of them had made gratifying progress, they didn’t really know how much the other strong teams had improved either, and there was only historical data to rely on.

Wang Yuxi patted Yao Sen on the shoulder and exclaimed, “Yao Sen, from now on you’re the strongest man in Asia.”

To be honest, this score was indeed unexpected. He looked at his 92.7 score, then looked at the scores of Kevin and Ethan, and exhaled gently.

There were still five months to go to the WCAD, and while this period of time wasn’t enough for a player whose overall combat strength had already reached 90 points or more to significantly improve,Yao Sen might be able to overtake last year’s Kevin. However, Ethan is still an iron wall for him.

But Yao Sen didn’t feel too much pressure, after all, he was no longer single. Although there seemed to be no implicit connection between these two things, Yao Sen felt that no matter how stressed he was, hugging Shao Han would be enough to resolve it.

Yao Sen took out his phone, took a picture of the latest combat power estimate document, and sent it to Shao Han.

Yao Sen: Are you satisfied with your boyfriend’s performance?

Shao Han: Mm, satisfied

He didn’t know why, but Shao Han’s every word now revealed his sweetness in Yao Sen’s eyes, and it was the kind of cool, elegant and charming sweetness unique to Shao Han.

Even Wang Yuxi, who was messily eating potato chips and chewing on them loudly next to Yao Sen, was bearable in Yao Sen’s eyes.

Wang Yuxi felt Yao Sen’s gaze on him and sensed the affection, care, and even a hint of pity mixed in it. This thought almost made Wang Yuxi shiver.

Wang Yuxi: “What are you doing?”

Yao Sen spoke with a rare gentleness, like he was comforting a brother who’d been single for many years, yet the subject of his comforting did in fact fit this description. “Lao-Wang, listen to my advice: get married early.”

Wang Yuxi almost choked to death on his potato chips.

☆ ☆ ☆

t/n – this chapter was translated by the lovely Jessie! who very kindly offered to help me out ❤

⟵ Chapter 30 | TOC | Chapter 32 ⟶

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