Chapter 6

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Yao Sen’s gaze seemed to attract their attention. There was next to no one who didn’t know Titans’s captain, and as people nudged at their teammates and whispered in each other’s ears, several Cobra members also looked over.

Shao Han blanked out the moment he saw them and hurried to avert his line of sight. It looked faintly like he was avoiding them. To Yao Sen, Shao Han’s somewhat abnormal movements didn’t go unnoticed. He turned to see a member of Cobra walking towards them.

At first glance, Yao Sen thought the man looked familiar, like he’d at least seen him on the other team’s introduction page. Coach Gou’s words from not too long ago came to mind, and Yao Sen immediately recalled that this man was Cobra’s No. 3, Shen You.

Shen You stopped in front of them, his eyes sweeping over Yao Sen and finally stopping on Shao Han, “Shao Han, are you participating in the competition?”

Shao Han was silent, his lips pursed tight. There was a rare hesitance in his eyes. After a while, he raised his eyes and looked at Shen You squarely, answering, “Not participating.”

“What a pity,” Shen You replied with regret, “Then let’s meet again on the WCAD field.”

Shen You finished and glanced at Yao Sen, nodding politely, then turned and left.

Quietly watching them leave, Yao Sen turned to see that Shao Han was also looking in Shen You’s direction. He asked, “Do you know each other?”

“…Mhm.”

“What’s the matter?” Yao Sen asked keenly.

“It’s nothing.” The strange emotion in Shao Han’s eyes disappeared, and he looked up at Yao Sen, “Thank you for the cup. We still have to attend the opening ceremony tomorrow. Have a good rest.”

“Mm, you too.”

Yao Sen watched Shao Han’s retreating back pensively. Regardless of whether his reasons and motives were objective or subjective, he felt that he really needed to pay attention to Cobra’s No. 3.

The Titans members returned from their midnight snack and dropped by Yao Sen and Wang Yuxi’s room to chat. Yao Sen sat down on the armchair and propped his legs up on the footstool. “I have a question.”

“What is it?”

“Under what circumstances would someone look awkward around another person and actively avoid them?”

Wang Yuxi looked at him oddly and said, “Are you planning to change careers and study psychology after you retire? I don’t mean to disappoint you, but this industry can only get you so far.”

Bai Yue: “Why are you asking, Yao Sen?”

“I’m just asking,” Yao Sen said, “Can you guys put yourselves in their shoes?”

Wang Yuxi: “Maybe they accidentally farted in front of that person.”

Yao Sen: “Wang Yuxi is forbidden from speaking.”

“I’m just kidding. I, Wang Yuxi, a man who will become an esports champion will analyze this for you,” Wang Yuxi put down his phone and sat cross-legged on the bed. “Serious talk–I think it’s very likely that they’d act that way because they ran into someone they didn’t want to meet.”

“Like who?”

“People you don’t like? An enemy? “

“Don’t make baseless claims, why would meeting your enemy be awkward?” Bai Yue chimed in. “People say that, in this lawful society, the most likely time that someone would act that way is when you run into your ex.”

“What ‘people’ are you talking about?”

“I’m not forever single like you are, all right?”

Yao Sen was wordlessly pensive for a while, and just when people thought he had something else to say, he drove Bai Yue and Song Mingzhe back to their room to sleep on the grounds that they had to get up early for the opening ceremony the next day.

Yao Sen’s sleep quality has always been poor. Everytime his bed changes, his insomnia will be even more serious. Coupled with the worries encircling his mind that night, he had no choice but to deal with dark circles under his eyes when he got up the next day. Manager Guo resented that his eyebags affected his appearance in front of the camera and asked his assistant to fix it with makeup.

Yao Sen changed into Titans’s uniform, and en route to the stadium, they were photographed by both reporters and fans. He even saw many fans holding banners that cheered for Titans and shouting the team’s motto.

Arriving at the stadium, as Yao Sen got out of the car, several cameras converged to film. Yao Sen absolutely disliked the feeling of being confronted by cameras, but he could only show a polite and charming smile in front of the camera lens.

Unexpectedly, this smile made the journalists even more eager. Titans fans around the stadium, most of all the female fans, shrieked with excitement, and reporters pushed microphones to interview the Asia champion with a grin.

After finally shaking off the reporters with great difficulty, Yao Sen and his teammates entered the players’ lounge, and he was baffled as he said, “Those cameras almost assaulted my face. I’m not playing games with my face.”

Wang Yuxi clapped Yao Sen’s shoulder, “Wake up a little. If you were ugly, you wouldn’t have as many fans as you have today.”

The teams would enter the venue according to the number of accumulated points, and Titans and Noah’s Ark were quite close. Yao Sen stood at the front of the line. Glancing back, he could see that Noah’s Ark were only two teams behind them.

Yao Sen caught sight of Shao Han amongst his team members. He was neatly dressed in a light blue uniform and chatting with his teammates. It was very warm in the stadium, and Shao Han had the sleeves of his jacket rolled up to his elbows, revealing white and slender forearms.

It was Yao Sen’s first time seeing what Shao Han looked like with his team uniform on in person, and the sight made his chest feel somewhat feverish. He pulled down his zipper and wondered if the air conditioner in the stadium was turned too high, it even made him break out in a sweat.

The first round of the competition is the four-match knockout stage, with four teams competing simultaneously in a single match. After the first round ends, a total of sixteen teams will advance to the second round.

Most of the teams participating in this competition were youth training teams or non-main teams. To Yao Sen and the other veterans, taking part in this competition held no meaning. Yao Sen watched the game’s live broadcast on the big screen for a while, but then his eyes drifted to the lower left corner to look at Noah member’s operating room and find Shao Han.

Next to him, Coach Gou reminded him to watch the big screen, as the director would sometimes randomly cut the cameras to the viewing area. If Yao Sen happened to be caught looking absent-minded and not watching the match, it would definitely ruin his image.

Yao Sen was forced to fix his gaze on the big screen as unfortunately, the camera often came by to shoot him. Yao Sen pretended to watch the game seriously, nodding his head from time to time.

The first round of all four matches ended on the second day of the game, and the outcome was as anticipated. Furthermore, there were no dark horses nor unforeseen winners, which was more or less expected.

In the second round of the top 16 finals, Titans, Noah’s Ark and Cobra happened to be separated into three different groups. This meant that they were bound to meet at the very end, leaving enough gimmicks for this year’s domestic competition.

However, Titans and several other top Asian teams did not set winning the domestic competition as their goal. After all, they had all sent out the youth training team reserves to participate. The real focus was the battle between Noah’s Ark and Cobra.

The top 16 finals and the subsequent quarter finals adopted the two wins out of three matches system, while the semifinals and finals were a five-match points system.

When it was Cobra’s turn to play, Yao Sen watched the whole game carefully.

In a four-person team, it was customary for the captain to take the No. 1 position, while the assault player with the highest hit rate after the captain takes No. 2. The player with the next highest hit rate or the main support is No. 3, and the secondary support or all-rounder type is No. 4.

Yet Yao Sen unexpectedly discovered that Shen You, as the No. 3 position, had 70% of the overall command in his hands in place of the captain who served as No. 1.

At this point, it was extremely apparent how Team Cobra operated. The method their team used was different from most of the teams’ -including Titans- “captain as core” method, and instead adopted the non-mainstream “support as core” method.

After the Cobra match, the players were supposed to join the other contestants to watch the rest of the competition, but Shen You left in advance and temporarily headed to the players’ lounge alone.

The current team rankings were shown on the lounge’s wall-mounted TV screen. Shen You sat down on the sofa with a glass of water and looked up at the screen. When he put the cup down on the table, he inadvertently bumped the bottom of the cup on a magazine and some water spilled out.

As Shen You got up to look around for paper towels, a hand thrusted a box of tissues in his direction. Shen You thanked them, then raised his head to the sight of the arm’s owner’s faintly curved smiling eyes.

Shen You was at a loss for words, “…Captain Yao Sen?”

Yao Sen: “Your command was pretty good just now.”

Shen You frowned doubtfully, his eyes reflecting a slight bewilderment. After all, they had merely played a match against a youth training team just then, and there was seemingly no need to use the word “good” to describe their performance.

Shen You replied, “Thank you.”

Yao Sen sat down opposite him and asked, “You’ve never touched the competitive version of the game, have you?”

This time, Shen You was genuinely surprised. He looked up and stared at Yao Sen, and for a while, he didn’t know what to say. Could the fact that he had never played an amateur game be seen from a single match? Yao Sen was truly the first person he’d met to say so.

Yao Sen: “Can I ask where you used to train?”

Shen You answered briefly: “Bang Rui.”

Dumbfounded, Yao Sen asked, “Then, do you know Bai Yue?”

“Yeah, we used to be on the same training team. We’re pretty much old friends,” Shen You smiled faintly. “But it’s been a while since I got in touch with him. How is he these days?”

“He’s doing great,” Yao Sen replied, “Eats until he’s full and sleeps very soundly.”

Surprisingly, Bai Yue, Shao Han and Shen You all came from Bang Rui. Since Shen You and Bai Yue knew each other well, it’s basically confirmed that he and Shao Han are also familiar with each other. At least, they once were.

Thinking of this, Yao Sen stood up and said, “I have to go back and watch the matches. See you on the field someday.”

Shen You nodded: “Pleased to meet you.”

That night, when Yao Sen was having dinner in the hotel’s self service dining hall, he happened to see Shao Han sitting down at the window seat with his meal. As Yao Sen was about to go up and say hello, a familiar figure came out of the meal aisle, one step ahead of him.

Yao Sen stopped, watching as Shen You walked to Shao Han’s side with his meal, “Do you mind if I sit here?”

Shao Han looked up at him in surprise, his brows faintly knitted. “What about your teammates?”

“They went out to eat. I’m by myself.”

Shen You sat down, his sincere voice unexpectedly contained a faintly discernible guilt, “Let’s have dinner together, Shao Han.”

–

The author has something to say:

There are no real love rivals in this novel. The captain is invincible.

☆ ☆ ☆

⟵ Chapter 5 | TOC | Chapter 7 ⟶

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