Chapter 8

“Working overtime, the act of capitalists who openly squeeze the residual value of the proletariat, an act that is clearly unreasonable but never questioned, an act that…”

“All right, quit your yapping and quickly finish this freaking report for me!”

Deep into the night at nine o’clock.

In the commercial building, the neon nights outside the window were bright and dazzling, while the incandescent lights inside the building emit a slight buzzing sound. Yu Qinghuan’s eyes were sore, but he kept his eyes on his laptop, and carefully compared the data line by line.

The colleague next to him was squabbling. Although he felt bitterness inside, the atmosphere was still cheerful.

Yu Qinghuan looked at the table, finished the last row of data, sighed, pinched the bridge of his nose, and closed his eyes for a break.

This was when a sweet-sounding ringtone rang.

Yu Qinghuan picked up his phone and saw the words ‘Luo Buyu’ appear on the screen.

He hurriedly accepted the call, “Hello? Luo-ge?”

There was no one speaking on the other end of the line for a while. After a long silence, there was a rather sullen voice, “Qinghuan, I cannot do this anymore.”

Yu Qinghuan froze, and stood up while asking, “Luo-ge, are you drunk? Where are you right now?”

“I am just outside of your work.”

“Huh? Downstairs? Wait a minute, I will be right down.”

After ending the call, Yu Qinghuan closed his laptop and hurried out of the office.

He found Luo Buyu at the corner of the flowerbed downstairs. He was covered in the smell of alcohol and a face with a stubble beard, sitting next to the flowerbed with his head down. Eyes filled with exhaustion. When he saw Yu Qinghuan coming, he said with a smile, “The place I drank at is very close to your work, and I thought you might be working still so I decided to drop by.”

“Luo-ge, what’s wrong?” Yu Qinghuan patted Luo Buyu on the shoulder, trying to provide some comfort, and then sat down beside him.

Luo Buyu glanced at Yu Qinghuan and murmured, “Something happened to the team.”

“Huh? What happened?” Yu Qinghuan gasped.

“Our mid won’t play anymore, and we do not have a replacement. We have three weeks before the Provincial Championship, but I cannot even get a team of five.” Luo Buyu sighed.

“Why did mid stop playing?” Yu Qinghuan asked.

“You know this, an unknown esport team like us cannot sign into any formal club. We rely only on ourselves, no stable income, and face the questioning of family members, so…”

Yu Qinghuan patted Luo Buyu on the back again to smooth him.

Holding on his only remaining sliver of hope, Luo Buyu asked in hesitation, “Qinghuan, are you really never coming back…”

Yu Qinghuan gazed up at the bright moon and said, “Luo-ge, you know about my situation.”

Luo Buyu sighed again, “You know, in TKOW’s recruitment competition that year, I know you placed second, but you still could have joined the club. They recruited the top ten. If you had joined TKOW three years ago, you would be famous by now. I heard that their player contracts for both teams are six hundred thousand per year, Which is really…”

Really a shame.

Yu Qinghuan’s tone was light, even carrying a hint of joy, “Luo-ge, how can there be so many what ifs?”

As nineteen-year-old Yu Qinghuan once said, ‘If I am not the first, I will give up on esport’.

In the last game, the nineteen-year-old Yu Qinghuan sat dumbfounded in his gaming chair, watching his game client darkened and his death recap popped up.

The screen’s brightness was clearly very dim, but Yu Qinghuan felt his eyes were stung to the point of pain. The crowds were clearly cheering very loudly, but Yu Qinghuan heard only the sound of his rapid breathing.

He saw that his opponent lived with a sliver of health left.

That meant.

If he was able to auto one more time, just one more simple basic attack, the first place would easily be his.

However, there are too many what ifs in this world.

The drunk man quieted down, and they stared at each other speechlessly. Luo Buyu broke the silence with a question, “Qinghuan, what does slowly giving up your dream feel like?”

Yu Qinghuan giggled and listed, “To answer this question, I’m off the plane, at the United States, graduated from top university, ten million annual salary, have nothing to do, act pretentious on Zhihu, anything of my interest, will get my answer, this anonymous is out.”

Luo Buyu was amused by him, shaking his head helplessly.

Yu Qinghuan leaned back, placing his hands on the flowerbed behind him as support. He released a long sigh and said, “Luo-ge, giving up on your dream is like walking the earth with nothing but a sword, and on the way to the end of the world. With your sword strap to your belt, you rode on a horse in high spirit. But for some reason, your sword broke on your journey. You thought nothing of it, since you still have a horse. As you went on and on, the horse ran away as well. So once you come to the comfortable civilization, exhausted, with no more strength to continue.

“Since then, the eight thousand li of cloud and moon have nothing to do with you, although you have established some fame and fortune in your long journey, it is as insignificant as dust.

“Until many years later, you recalled it one day to suddenly realize that, ah, it turns out back then, you were the one who broke your sword and you were the one who let the horse go.”

After hearing the last sentence, Luo Buyu’s eyes suddenly turned red. “God damned it, I am just missing a mid, right? I won’t believe I won’t find one. Fuck it, I am heading back, still have training tomorrow.”

Yu Qinghuan smiled. “Luo-ge, it is late, I will take you back.”

Luo Buyu stood up and his body swayed slightly. He rubbed away his painful temples from the alcohol and said, “I had too much, hard to stand straight.”

Yu Qinghuan took one of Luo Buyu’s arms and half hugs and half supported him in a one-person walk assist. “It is no big deal, I will help you.”

The two of them staggered towards the road and suddenly bumped into a certain someone.

Ren Jian looked at the gawking Yu Qinghuan and then at the drunk man who had nearly half of his weight on Yu Qinghuan. He thought for a moment and smiled at Yu Qinghuan.

“Do you mind one more tagging along?”

The translator has something to add:

Teo: I was having fun translating the meme with restrictions. But this is a more clearer version.

Thank you for the invitation (to answer this question), I am in the United States, just got off the plane. I graduated from a top program in this top university with a ten million annual salary. I do nothing all day but answering questions on Zhihu. Replying to everything that is interesting to me. From anonymous.