Chapter 7

He did not see Ren Jian himself, but an image of the man on the subway’s huge advertisement wall.

Yu Qinghuan stared at the ads for a full minute, and unconsciously exclaimed, “Holy cow, what kind of divine big shot did I sleep with last night…”

A young man who happened to pass by almost dropped his phone when hearing this.

So can you not say something so ambiguous?

Yu Qinghuan immediately moved his gaze to big words printed on the bottom right corner. [Wilful is the best! TKOW is the best team!]

He stared at the ‘TKOW’ letters, and the expression on his face suddenly faded by a wide margin. He thought of something in a trance, and then looked at Ren Jian’s face again, murmuring, “Was he the one…”

Then he silently looked away, walked into the subway with his head down, and blended into the crowd of people. An ordinary person among the sea of people.

–

On the other hand, TKOW won the friendly competition without any surprise. After receiving the prize, thanking the fans, and completing the interview, the team found a place to celebrate.

Gu Zhixiao was still dwelling about the man in Ren Jian’s room. He kept pestering Ren Jian, with a look of determination.

Ren Jian was annoyed by the questions and said, “You are never this work up when I joked like this. What is so different about today?”

Gu Zhixiao huffed, “I would have long dropped the subject if it was anyone else, but I did not expect that the person in your room was actually him!”

Ren Jian frowned slightly. “What about him? You know him?”

Gu Zhixian rolled his eyes and spat, “Ren Jian, are you still playing ignorant?! I did not recognize him before, since the last time I saw him was three years ago, but I immediately remembered it right after the competition. So how did you get in touch with him?”

Ren Jian: “…”

He suddenly felt that his conversation with Gu Zhixiao was not even on the same wavelink at all. He could not stop himself from releasing a long breath. “I do not know him.”

Gu Zhixiao was stunned for three seconds and blurted out, “Who are you trying to fool?”

Ren Jian turned around and insisted, “It is fine if you do not believe me.”

Gu Zhixiao hurriedly reached out to stop the other man. “Holy shit, no way! Ren Jian, do you really not recognize who he is? Are you ending this three years of love-hate relationship in one setting, forgetting the person once you had slept with him? You scum man! And did you not always ask news of him during your first year in TKOW?”

Ren Jian, who was inexplicably crowned as a scum man, speechlessly asked heaven, “I met him in the lobby last night only because I wanted to change rooms…”

He halted.

Gu Zhixian said he kept asking news of this person during his first year in TKOW.

For three years, he has only inquired about one person.

Seeing Ren Jian stop talking, Gu Zhixiao asked, “Have you remembered? Oy, buddy, I am talking about Speak. Do you remember or not? Three years ago, TKOW held a competition to recruit young trainees. At that time, you were first, and he was second!”

In an instant, Ren Jian’s face changed. With a grave face, he turned and walked out. Even Gu Zhixiao could not stop him.

The coach, assistant, and other team members reactively wondered, “What happened to Wilful? Where is he going? The celebration is not over yet.”

Gu Zhixiao was also at a complete loss, not sure how to answer.

About ten minutes later, a person made a grand entrance to the hotel’s lobby, which startled the receptionist on duty. After getting a sense of what the guest was asking for, the lady checked the information and informed, “My apologies, sir, the person you stayed with has checked out this morning.”

Ren Jian furrowed his brows tightly, slightly clenched his teeth, and face filled with reluctance.

“Ah, yes.” The lady at the front desk suddenly remembered something, took out an envelope and handed it to Ran Jian. “And here I was, stressing over what to do with this earlier. Sir, you came right in time. The housekeeper found this in the room you stayed in when she was cleaning this morning.”

Feeling surprised, Ren Jian accepted after murmuring a thanks, and opened to find an office document.

The document was headed with the name of a company that was based in the adjacent city. This was an internet provider.

This was not Ren Jian’s thing.

That could only mean it was Yu Qinghuan’s.

Ren Jian walked out of the hotel and called the coach, “Hello, coach. We have a month off after the Summer Playoffs, right?”

The coach was puzzled. “That is right, where are you? Why did you run out before the celebration was over?”

“I want to take a month off.”

“This sudden? And a full month too, is there something urgent?”

Ren Jian looked at the document in his hand. The dark-yellow kraft paper container was clenched in his fingers. He could feel the roughness of the material slightly. Suddenly, a smirk appeared on his face. “Yes, very urgent. I am going to the next city to find someone.”

“To find someone? It takes a month to find someone? All right, fine. I will inform the club. Remember to train in your own time for four hours every day.”

“As well as livestream on schedule. Ren-ge, if you do not livestream, the platform will chase me with a butcher’s knife!” That was the assistant’s voice, sounding like he shouted towards the phone.

“Will do.” Ren Jian replied with a smile, and then ended the call. He flipped over the document in his hand and murmured softly, “Just the next city over, what a coincidence.”

This was really a coincidence. Is that town not his hometown?

“Three years…” Ren Jian gazed up. The endless stream of traffic on the asphalt road, dazzling neon lights between buildings, and pedestrians rushing through the crosswalk in this dim night.

“It has been three years, but I have finally caught you.”

The translator has something to add:

Teo: Okay, I left Easter egg for this novel. Hint: not in the content of the story. If anyone is able to find the Easter egg, I will post two bonus chapters (offer stays open until someone get it or I finish the novel LOL).

Also, FYI, I will make all the game name cap. One thing that is going to give me headache is there will be a character with game name ‘Hey’, I am trying to phase out the normal usage (but I might have missed some…).