Chapter 5

At the hotel’s dining room, Gu Zhixiao told everyone what he had witnessed over breakfast.

The coach dismissed, “Utter rubbish.”

The teammates chorused, “What nonsense?”

The assistant advised, “Go take your medicine!”

Gu Zhixiao cried and kept harping on, “When have I deceived you all? I am an honest and promising young man, the embodiment of Yan Shu of the Song dynasty, who respects Confucius and advocates Mencius. The way of heaven and earth is sincerity, and the way of man is to be sincere!”

The crowd deadpanned, “Speak English.”

Gu Zhixiao cried, “You guys need to fucking believe me!”

However, none of them did.

The coach took Gu Zhixiao aside and stated, “You better quit your nonsense. It is fine that others might not know this, but you and Ren Jian have been teammates for four years so do not act like you are ignorant about his disorder. Later, when the media comes to record, cut your crap. Just shut up for breakfast.”

Gu Zhixiao directly ignored the coach’s words. He made a fist as it finally dawned on him. “Oh right! That disorder of Ren Jian…”

Huffing and puffing, he went straight to find Ren Jian.

Due to his retching this morning, Ren Jian’s stomach was not feeling well, so he did not have any appetite for the breakfast served at the hotel. But considering he would be gaming later, he reluctantly ate a few bites. As he was sighing at a plate of hard-to-swallow pastries, Gu Zhixiao came running over in a few steps. He pulled out the chair opposite Ren Jian’s table and sat down, hooting, “Ren Jian, you must have lied to me this morning! Is your disorder gone?”

Ren Jian simply stopped eating since he could not stomach anything. He put down his chopsticks, picked up a glass of water and drank the hot liquid. “Believe it or not.”

Gu Zhixiao asked, “Your disorder is fixed?”

Ran Jian smiled at the question, deliberately piquing Gu Zhixiao’s interest.

Gu Zhixiao was so curious that he could feel it tickling his heart and lungs.

While talking, someone came up to them and greeted them, “Yo, A-Xiao!”

The two looked up to see it was the captain of UD, another esports team. UD was also among the best in China, however, the captain was a newcomer who had just taken up his post and was enthusiastic and full of aspirations about everything. Unlike a crafty fellow like Ren Jian, who always says the same sentence in his pregame video: TKOW will win.

Any more sentences from him would be a no go, even going as far as being a couch potato unseen by the camera. The assistant always frantically nagged, “Look at yourself. If the media were to get a photo of you like this, your wife fans are going to cry.”

Ren Jian continued to be a couch potato. “They can cry me a river. I am an esports player, not an actor. I do not need the burden of having to maintain my image like a pop idol.”

The assistant found himself unable to refute. At a second look, even when Ren Jian’s long limbs laid out lazily, he was still handsome. Sure enough, he could be unruly with a face like that, so the assistant did not bother to say more.

“Long time no see.” Gu Zhixiao knew UD’s new captain well. He waved and greeted back, “Your team got invited to participate as well?”

The captain nodded. “That is right, although this is only a friendly league in China, the host is extremely wealthy, so many national teams were invited. This league must not be brushed aside.”

Gu Zhixiao nodded in agreement, but found UD’s new captain kept looking at Ren Jian. Finally feeling bashful, the captain stuttered the ace’s game name, “Wilful, I ha-have admired you for a long time! M-may I please shake-ke your hand?”

Ren Jian obviously froze for a moment, then stood up, nodded and said with a smile, “Thank you for the support, let’s strive to improve together.”

The captain was so excited to finally be able to meet his idol that he was overwhelmed by his emotion, so much so that when he got his handshake, the blood rushed to his head got him to extend his hand to give Ren Jian a big hug.

Like two very good guy friends bumping shoulder to shoulders, a very common form of encouragement among teammates and friends.

However, Ren Jian’s expression twisted immediately.

Seeing the change on Ren Jian’s face, Gu Zhixiao’s heart jumped as he immediately went forward to separate them, saying, “Okay now, no need to get this excited, we will still see each other on the stage. Oy, Ren Jian?!”

Ren Jian dropped a “Sorry, excuse me”, and then trotted away.

The captain stood in place with a bewildered look on his face. “What is wrong with Wilful? Is he unwell?”

“He ate something that upsetted his stomach. We are about to head out to the venue, you better head back to your team soon. You do not want your coach slapping on your big mouth when you, their captain, are not there at the time to gather.” When Gu Zhixiao finished, he turned to chase after Ren Jian.

By the time Gu Zhixiao caught up to Ren Jian in the hotel’s restroom, Ren Jian had just finished throwing up all the breakfast he had managed to put into his stomach. He ate them in vain.

Seeing the other like this, Gu Zhixiao did not dare to tease. He asked uneasily, “Disorder not fixed?”

Ren Jian shook his head and forced out a smile. “Not fixed.”

He never intentionally concealed his issue.

Which was why all the TKOW’s veteran players, coach and assistant knew that Ren Jian has a disorder.

If someone touches him above the elbow for more than five seconds, he will feel nauseous and want to vomit.

Translator has something to say:

Teo: Just speaking from my experience, Chinese people downplay mental disorders. It took one of my family members a very long time to finally accept that they need to take anti depression. In this novel, they use illness, sickness, and whatnot. But after talking to another fellow translator who is also a nurse, they confirmed that it sounded like a disorder (PTSD to be exact). So I will continue to describe it that way.