Chapter 51

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Together, they sent Bai Yue to the hospital for an emergency check-up, and as expected, Bai Yue was suffering from acute appendicitis. Fortunately, it had been discovered on time and there were no severe ruptures, but the doctor still recommended surgery posthaste.

Before leaving, Yao Sen had called Coach Gou, who had rushed over to the hospital that very night and notified Bai Yue’s parents.

The procedure was scheduled for the early hours of the morning, so Bai Yue was admitted to the impatient department impending his surgery. After Coach Gou handled the hospitalisation procedures, he told the rest of the Titans to get something to eat and entered Bai Yue’s room alone.

However, none of them left, remaining in wait outside Bai Yue’s hospital room. Coach Gou, who stayed inside Bai Yue’s hospital room for a long time, could vaguely hear them conversing from time to time.

Shao Han stuck around in the corridor with Yao Sen and the others. He shot a concerned look at the closed door, then turned to Yao Sen next to him.

Yao Sen’s brows were faintly furrowed, his eyes tight around the corners. Sensing Shao Han’s gaze, Yao Sen’s frown smoothed out, and he lightly squeezed Shao Han’s hand, whispering comfortingly, “Don’t worry.”

Shao Han hadn’t expected to be the one to be comforted instead. He turned his hand over to clasp Yao Sen’s hand, his warm and cool palm pressed against the back of Yao Sen’s hand.

There were officially four days left until the competition, but Bai Yue needed seven to eight days to recover from his surgery. His absence from the qualifiers was unavoidable; the problem was whether he would be able to compete in the second stage. Due to the change in competition format, the single-elimination matches in the second round of the second stage of the competition was extremely crucial, and if Bai Yue were to miss out, the team would be in even more trouble.

Bai Yue was inevitably wracked with anxiety and frustration. The Titans team and coach were also under a lot of pressure, not to mention Yao Sen, as the captain, and the substitute player who was lacking in experience.

Shao Han looked up at Zhou Ziyu, who was fidgeting on his seat, gaze dripping with apprehension.

“Baby, why don’t I take you back?” said Yao Sen. “We’ll be fine on our own here, it’s already past two o’clock.”

Shao Han shook his head. “I’ll wait for you. I’ve already talked to Captain, I’ll be back a bit late tonight.”

Yao Sen gently rubbed the back of Shao Han’s hand, smiling faintly. “Thank you.”

More than half an hour later, Bai Yue’s parents arrived. Coach Gou talked to his parents for a while, then opened the door and exited the hospital room.

Coach Gou swept a glance at everyone in the corridor. When he saw that Shao Han, this Noah’s Ark player, was present, he was a little surprised. When Shao Han previously greeted him and told him that he was Bai Yue’s friend, he hadn’t really taken notice of him, but he didn’t expect that Shao Han would wait here for so long.

“It’s very late,” Coach Gou said to Shao Han. “Don’t trouble yourself, why don’t you head home?”

“I’ll be fine, sir. Please go ahead,” said Shao Han.

Coach Gou didn’t insist, telling the Titans, “You guys come down first, I have something to tell you. And, Xiao Shao, if you’re hungry, go get something to eat. Don’t just sit here.”

Yao Sen stood up and told Shao Han to wait for him before leaving with his teammates.

It wasn’t very convenient to talk in the hospital corridor. Coach Gou contacted the club’s minivan; at this time, the car was already parked downstairs. He then ushered them into the car, where they would then have their talk.

When they finally settled down in the car, nobody spoke for a moment, and the air was somewhat stifled. Once Coach Gou had climbed in, he stared at them sharply and suddenly shouted, “What do you all think you’re doing?! What’s with the long faces?! Why have you all gotten so dejected over such a miniscule thing?! Xiao Zhou! Keep your back straight!”

Coach Gou slapped Zhou Ziyu’s back, startling a jolt from the latter. He immediately looked up at the coach with a face of blank horror.

Coach Gou spoke with a stern and righteous tone: “I know what you’re all capable of! Yes, not having Bai Yue play in the second stage might have an impact on us, but haven’t you trained enough to overcome that? Is one second stage match enough to scare you? I’m still waiting for you all to win and make me proud!”

“And Xiao Zhou, you’ve trained with them for so long, can’t you have a little confidence in yourself?” Coach Gou landed another slap to Zhou Ziyu’s shoulder. “Just now, Bai Yue told me that he’s confident that you’ll play well, and he’s not worried about you playing in his place. Everyone’s seen how much you’ve improved—the qualifiers won’t be a problem, and the second stage won’t be much of a problem either. These three da-ges of yours aren’t dead, there’s no need for you to be nervous. They’ll be there to carry you, so just buck up and play well! Got that?”

Zhou Ziyu was stunned. His eyes slowly turned red, but his gaze grew confident.

“And you, Yao Sen.” Coach Gou turned to Yao Sen, speaking slowly, “I know that you’re under a lot of pressure. Bai Yue specifically asked me to tell you that he’s not worried about Xiao Zhou. Just play like you should, and proceed like you normally would. I think so too. Just keep to your previous tactics—I don’t need to say much about your on-site judgment, I trust you as much as anyone.”

Yao Sen nodded firmly. “Understood.”

“The club will try its best to bring Bai Yue over as soon as he recovers, preferably in time for the second stage of the competition,” Coach Gou continued. “Until then, just focus on the competition, don’t dwell on other things.”

The competition had newly adopted the Swiss-system format, which was divided into two stages. The first stage was the group stage, which had four rounds in total. The grouping was chosen at random by the organizers, and it was scored based on the number of victories and losses. Each round was a best-of-three game, and winning one round resulted in one point, while losing resulted in zero points.

Although no teams would get eliminated in the first stage, the better your results were, the bigger the influence it would have on the second stage, the knockout stage.

The reason for this was because the top four teams who scored 3-0 and the four unfortunate teams who scored 0-3 were exempted from the fourth round of the group stage, and in the second stage, the highest-scoring teams will PK the lowest-scoring teams; the teams who score 3-1 will face the teams who score 1-3, and so on.

Coach Gou took them through an analysis of Swiss-system competitions and its relevant strategies; as of now, there were only four teams who could potentially defeat the Titans. However, Bai Yue’s absence was bound to have a big impact, and it was highly unlikely for the Titans to be able to be exempt from the fourth round of the group stage and enter the second stage with a 3-0 score.

The Swiss-system competition would be played over the course of two days. The Titans’s goal was a 3-1 score, but even if they ran into a tough team and ended up with a 2-2 score, with Bai Yue returning on the second day, they’d easily beat the other team with the same score in the knockout stage.

When the group finished analysing all of the possible outcomes of the competition, it was well past 3 a.m, and Bai Yue was scheduled for surgery in about half an hour.

Coach Gou told them to head back and get to bed, but Wang Yuxi was worried that Bai Yue would get lonely without anyone from the team accompanying him, so he took the initiative to stay behind with jetlag in mind. The rest of them would return to the base and take Wang Yuxi’s place the next morning.

When Yao Sen returned to the inpatient department to look for Shao Han, he found Shao Han talking to Bai Yue in his room. Perhaps, since his pain had been numbed somewhat, Bai Yue was looking a little better.

Wang Yuxi strolled in and greeted Bai Yue’s parents, then said to Bai Yue, “Lao-Bai, I’ll accompany you. Shao ge, why don’t you take our car back?”

Shao Han nodded and said to Bai Yue, “I’ll be off then. Get well soon.”

Bai Yue peered at Yao Sen; the latter mouthed a “don’t worry” at him, and Bai Yue breathed a sigh of relief, smiling his way.

After Yao Sen and Shao Han left, Bai Yue’s parents intentionally left the hospital room to allow their son to chat with his teammate.

Wang Yuxi pulled a chair over to sit by the bed. As he looked at Bai Yue, who’d already changed into a hospital gown, he said, “Lao-Bai, I get how you’re feeling, but you’ve gotta keep your chin up. Even our sailors say that pain is nothing in the wind and rain![1] Don’t worry, we’ve all been family for so many years, and our hearts are all connected. Your pain is my pain. So, no matter when you come back, the Titans and I will…”

“Could you please stop being all sappy? I’m only having a minor surgery, it’s not like half my body is paralysed and I won’t be able to play in the finals.” Bai Yue rolled his eyes. “Did you deliberately come to aggravate my condition?”

“I’m trying to make you emotional here! How could you interrupt me?” Wang Yuxi uttered discontentedly. “Can’t you see I’m worried that you’ll get sad and anxious?”

“I trained Ziyu personally, I’m not worried,” said Bai Yue. “Besides, I’m a ‘gold medal support’, people with this title are naturally reserved for the finale.”

“Bro, hearing you say that cleared up my worries,” Wang Yuxi said, relieved. “In my heart, you’re forever a gold-medalist. You’ve worked real hard… C’mere then, gimme a hug.”

“Scram! I’m getting goosebumps!”

“Aiya, gimme a hug bro! Mwah!”

“Piss off! I’m gonna call for the nurse!”

“Do you know how many cute little supports out there are vying to partner up with your Grandpa Xi? The queue is longer than the entire third ring road!” Wang Yuxi slapped the hospital bedsheets with righteous indignation. “And yet you still turn me away! You’ve gotten real confident just because you’re used to your spot in the main palace!”[2]

Bai Yue looked at him with lifeless eyes. “…I strongly suspect that my suffering appendix is caused by your sao-ness.”

“Go ahead and bully me while you still can,” Wang Yuxi sniffed. “Once you come out of the operating room in half an hour, you’ll be the one with a urinary catheter in you and no capacity to care for himself.”

“Lao-Wang, the bed next to mine is still empty. Want me to hammer you into it?”

“Fine, fine, I’ll stop with the sarcasm.” Wang Yuxi exhaled, lowering his eyes to look at Bai Yue. “Hurry back to us, nobody’s happy that one of us is missing.”

Meanwhile on Manager Guo’s side, he quickly rescheduled Bai Yue’s flight ticket. As there were many fans coming to the airport to send them off the next day, and many among them were Bai Yue’s fans, Bai Yue announced that his participation in the competition would be postponed due to his illness.

@Titans_Yue: I’ve been diagnosed with acute appendicitis and will be undergoing surgery in a little while. My flight has been rescheduled, so I’d like to apologise to everyone who’s coming to send us off tomorrow. I’ll try to get there before the finals, which will depend on your performance @Titans_Sen @Titans_Xi @Titans_Zhe @Titans_Yu. Kick ass! Wait for me to return and carry you all (doge) Everyone, please take care of your health. If you feel sick anywhere, quickly get it checked!

[@Titans_Sen: Get well soon, we’ve got your back]

[Good luck Titans!!! Yue ge, we’re waiting for you!!!]

[Gosh, Yue ge, you’ve suffered. Get well soon!!!]

[Yue ge we’ll wait for your return! (cry) Titans isn’t the same without you!!!]

[Take care of your body, Yue ge. Everyone is waiting for you!]

[Long-time Yue ge fan here, I was so sad when I saw this that I cried. In order to see Yue ge off and cheer him on tomorrow, the little geges and little jiejies in our fangroup has prepared for a really long time (wail) The competition is so near, Yue ge must be really anxious, and Yue fans’ hearts aches for you. But Yue ge, you have to rest well! Don’t rush to leave the hospital! We’ll see you off when you depart, everyone will forever wait for you!!!]

☆ ☆ ☆

[1] he’s quoting an inspirational song from the 80s

[2] wang yuxi is referring to himself as an emperor in ancient times and bai yue as one of his consorts, the main palace is the place where the emperor lives and handles political affairs

Chapter 50 | TOC | Chapter 52

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