Chapter 10

Ren Jian vetoed, “Allow me to treat you instead.”

Yu Qinghuan waved his hand. “You paid for the room last time, how can I let you treat me to food this round?”

Ren Jian stated, “No harm, TKOW paid for the room.”

Yu Qinghuan changed the reason, “I still need to thank you for taking my friend home.”

Ren Jian insisted, “My annual base salary is seven figures.”

Yu Qinghuan choked.

Ren Jian continued, “Base salary, that does not include the signing bonus given by the livestream platform.”

Yu Qinghuan changed his tone, “Your treat, your treat.”

Ren Jian chuckled and patted the car door behind him. “Come, get in the car.”

Ren Jian drove Yu Qinghuan to an upscale Japanese restaurant, which had a quiet atmosphere. He wanted a few more words with Yu Qinghuan.

Neither of them seemed to have much of an appetite, so they ordered some sushi and sake.

Silence enveloped the two men, making the atmosphere somewhat heavy. After some thoughts, Ren Jian opened his mouth, “You…”

“I…” Unexpectedly, Yu Qinghuan spoke up as well.

They exchanged a look, both dumbfounded.

Ren Jian went on, “You go first.”

Yu Qinghuan scratched his face, looking sheepishly. “I do not think we will run into each other again.”

Ren Jian: “…”

Yu Qinghuan continued, “Since we will not be seeing each other, I will tell you everything.”

Yu Qinghuan’s life changed dramatically at the age of sixteen.

That year, his father was scammed out of his business, and the fraudster ran away with the money. The once rich family became heavily indebted. Papa Yu’s half-lifetime efforts were ruined, and he began to drink heavily, abandoning himself to despair.

Mama Yu could not stand Papa Yu’s depressed appearance, so she filed a lawsuit and divorced him.

During the lawsuit, Papa Yu developed a mental problem. He acted disillusioned and often could not remember things or people.

Mama Yu wanted to take Yu Qinghuan away, but Yu Qinghuan chose to stay with his father, making the decision to take care of him. Yu Qinghuan was seventeen that year, eight months to go before he reached adulthood.

From then on, a father and son were mutually dependent for life. With the help of a relative, Yu Qinghuan lived up to expectations, passed the university entrance exam and was admitted to a university.

In the summer of his third year of senior high school, he spent his three months summer vacation working, bought a computer, and made contact with esports that year.

Yu Qinghuan found that he was very gifted. He was addicted to esports in his first and second years of college, and had won many competitions, but had also failed many courses. The professor persuaded Yu Qinghuan not to ruin his life, telling him that if he was to continue walking down this path, he would either face repetition or even drop out of university.

Going professional had become a dream of Yu Qinghuan.

At that time, the domestic esports industry was in a slump, not to mention Papa Yu, who was ill and needed to be taken care of, so he needed to finish college and find a stable job.

Reality and dreams began to pull Yu Qinghuan apart.

He had insomnia every night, and had anorexia every day.

To him, TKOW’s recruitment was an opportunity.

A desperate attempt to make a difference, staking all on one throw.

Yu Qinghuan told himself that if he was to win first place, he would chase his dream to play professional, regardless of what was right or wrong.

But he ended with second place.

Thus, his dream was trampled on the ground, stained with mud, and crushed into pieces, losing its luster.

Yu Qinghuan calmly finished his story and looked at Ren Jian in embarrassment. “Was my story too long?”

As if he was afraid of shaking something with his voice, Ren Jian whispered, “Not at all.”

Yu Qinghuan took a long breath and showed a grateful smile to Ren Jian. “You are the first to learn this, and I feel better talking it out. Thank you for listening to me.”

Ren Jian slowly clenched his fists and blurted, “Actually…”

But Yu Qinghuan’s phone suddenly rang, interrupting what Ran Jian was about to say.

“Excuse me, I need to take this.” Yu Qinghuan picked up his phone, put it to his ear for a moment, before his face changed. He ended the call and got up in a hurry.

“What is wrong?” Ren Jian followed suit.

“My dad…” Yu Qinghuan said incoherently while rushing out.

“Slow down, where are you going? I will give you a ride.” Ren Jian grabbed his jacket and caught up with Yu Qinghuan.

“The People’s Psychiatric Hospital.”