Ch27 - I'll wait for you to save me.

Edited by kat and Noks

“I am willing.” Mo Chen was caught off guard by Wen Xi’s reply, and he froze in disbelief.

When Mo Chen realized that what Wen Xi meant was that he was “willing to play professionally”, he became so excited that he nearly dropped his cellphone.

“Then…” Mo Chen wanted to say that he could join CLM then ba!

However, he was interrupted by Wen Xi, who added, “But right now, my skills aren’t up to par. I’ll practice well, so if you give me half a year… No, three months—by next year at the latest, I’ll meet your requirements. I’ll be in the top ten for the national server and the top 50 for the overseas servers. I’ll fight by your side, and I definitely won’t hold you back!”

Mo Chen was stunned.

At first, he had thought that Wen Xi had been seized by a sudden impulse, so he wanted Wen Xi to quickly sign into the CLM team, just so that he couldn’t take it back in the future.

However, after listening to Wen Xi speak, Mo Chen realised that he was serious.

After a moment of silence, Mo Chen chuckled. “Fool.”

Wen Xi: ???

“You’re the person I chose. Even if you don’t manage to meet the requirements that I had stated, CLM’s doors will always be open to you,” Mo Chen continued after taking a deep breath, “But if this is what you have decided, I’m willing to wait. You can throw yourself into my arms whenever you are ready.”

Wen Xi let out an “en” sound.

How could he not want to immediately go and fight alongside Mo Chen on the field? However, he knew very well that right now, he wasn’t qualified.

It was very easy to play with Mo Chen, but it was very difficult to “fight alongside” him.

If he could say something offensive towards CLM, it was that Wen Xi felt that there was no one in the current CLM team who was qualified to fight alongside Mo Chen.

And as for him, he would work hard to become that very person!

Wait, what did Mo Chen say just now? Throw himself into his arms?!

What kind of terrible line was that?

Wen Xi was speechless. “Can’t you speak a bit more normally?”

“En?” Mo Chen responded lazily. He didn’t feel as if what he had just said was wrong.

He was the one who had created the CLM team.

Thus, Wen Xi throwing himself into CLM’s arms was equivalent to him throwing himself into his arms, so there was no problem with what he had said.

Wen Xi was too lazy to correct him and replied, “Rest early today, and good luck with tomorrow’s competition!”

Mo Chen let out an “en” and then said, “You too, you need to eat well. I’ll be busy playing in the competition for the next two weeks, so I won’t be able to watch your livestream. Fortunately, there’s VOD, so I’ll make them up once I’m free.”

Wen Xi instinctively agreed before he remembered the things he had said during the livestream today…. He quickly raised his voice and exclaimed, “Wait, don’t watch!”

Mo Chen was startled for a moment and asked, “What?”

Wen Xi said, “Er, um… I don’t know what to say, but either way, don’t watch it!”

During the entire length of today’s livestream, he had praised Mac. At the thought of such a thing being seen by Mac himself, he felt so ashamed that he couldn’t even say anything—he didn’t want to imagine how embarrassing that scene would be!

Mo Chen wasn’t stupid, so he was able to figure out what had happened after pondering on it for a bit, and then couldn’t help laughing.

How could he be so cute?

So that’s why he had suddenly agreed to play professionally?

“Okay, I won’t watch. If you don’t want me to watch it, then I won’t watch it,” Mo Chen said that, but in his mind, he was already planning to watch Wen Xi’s VOD tonight.

Wen Xi actually believed him and sighed in relief, replying, “If there’s nothing else, I’m hanging up.”

“Okay,” Mo Chen said and bid Wen Xi farewell.

After Wen Xi hung up the phone, his mind went blank for a whole three seconds.

——He couldn’t believe that he had decided the course of his life for the next few years so “hastily,” just in the span of one phone call.

He thought about how, not long ago, he had complained that Mo Chen didn’t take his life as seriously as he should, and how he dared to gamble with anything.

However, he now realised that he and Mo Chen were both birds of the same feather! And he himself was even more extreme than him, for he had directly sold himself off with a simple “I am willing” without there even being a bet.

However, Wen Xi was being completely serious when he had said those three words—”I am willing.” Since he had already said them, he didn’t intend to take them back.

So, after spending three seconds with his mind being blank, Wen Xi then brainwashed himself for the next few minutes, strengthening his determination of wanting to play professionally.

By the time he finally remembered that he had something to discuss with Ruby, she had almost fallen asleep in front of her computer.

“Ruby, I’m back!” Wen Xi hurried to unmute his mic and say, “I was on the phone for a long time, I’m sorry ah…”

“Rather than your apology, I’d like to know who you were talking to?” Ruby replied in seconds, and it was obvious she had waited in front of the computer the whole time. She asked, “Being able to talk to a famous man like you for so long, they seem to be a very important person to you?”

“Er…” Wen Xi didn’t know how to answer the question.

Was Mo Chen important to him?

He had to be important ah!

He was his idol, and also the fundamental reason for why he finally decided to play professionally.

It wouldn’t be too much to say that Wen Xi had pledged his life to Mo Chen for the next few years.

But Wen Xi thought that if he answered with a “Yes”, then Ruby would definitely read more into it.

However, he had underestimated Ruby.

Even if he didn’t answer, Ruby would still think along the lines of, “Is this question so difficult to answer ah? It seems that this person is really important to you.”

Wen Xi didn’t know if he should laugh or cry.

He could neither agree nor disagree, and so could only lie there and take it.

Fortunately, Ruby quickly stopped and asked, “Okay, I won’t tease you anymore. We’d better discuss what to do from now on ba.” After a pause, she switched to a serious tone and said, “The fact that we are Mac fans has already been made public, so Love Pig will definitely find out about it. If we tell him directly, it should still be okay. After all, he is also a Mac fan and should understand us. The question is, what can we do to minimize the impact it will have on him?”

Wen Xi thought for a moment before replying, “If he doesn’t want to be implicated, then won’t it be fine if he just directly breaks ties with us? After all, he’s pretty popular…”

“No, no, no, you’re thinking that this problem is simpler than it is,” Ruby interrupted, “I know what you’re thinking. You think that if Love Pig breaks ties with us, he can pretend that nothing happened? It’s not like that.”

Wen Xi was stunned for a moment. He said, “Okay ba, you continue.”

So Ruby continued explaining, “First of all, you have to clearly understand that no matter what measures Love Pig takes, he has already been implicated by us and must make a statement. If he continues to livestream with us, he will be identified as a Mac fan and will be attacked by Mac antis along with us. But if he breaks ties with us by choosing to wisely protect himself? There won’t be a good result with this outcome either. His fans will just think he is a Mac anti, and then he will be attacked by Mac fans.”

Even though Wen Xi didn’t really know what she was talking about, he thought she was quite powerful… fine ba, he still understood a little—she was just saying that Ai Zhe already had no way to “wisely protect himself.” Whether he was a Mac fan or anti, he would have to make a statement about it.

For the first time, Wen Xi felt a trace of regret for his behavior earlier today. He asked, “Was I too impulsive today?”

“Yeah,” Ruby affirmed, “But I can’t blame you. After all, the Mac antis are so sensitive. Let alone you, anyone will be attacked if they praise Mac once, even if you just laugh when Mac gets a headshot. That was inevitable, but now that you’ve actually chosen to stand up for Mac publicly, don’t regret it. Although I was implicated by you, I wasn’t forced to take a stand with you. I just didn’t want to let you be the only person who stopped pretending. So, you don’t have to feel guilty or anything for me—you just have to feel guilty for Love Pig.”

Wen Xi’s emotions experienced a roller coaster ride throughout Ruby’s speech, first climbing to a high before falling low.

When he had first heard her say “yeah,” he had thought that Ruby was going to attack him, and hadn’t expected that she would comfort him instead.

Then when she said, “I just didn’t want to let you be the only person who stopped pretending,” she almost made him laugh, and then her next words fiercely stabbed him.

But, he had to admit, all of Ruby’s points made sense.

Wen Xi hadn’t wanted to implicate anyone when he had defended Mo Chen, but the fact was that his impulsive behavior had left Ruby and Ai Zhe no way out.

“Well, with the groundwork laid out, we can keep discussing the rest,” Ruby’s voice remained calm from the beginning to the end, which really impressed Wen Xi.

Not to mention anything else, but Ruby’s mental state was really strong. She said, “So, what we want to discuss now is not whether we should break ties with Love Pig, but, if we do break ties, how to break them and what reasons we should use. If we aren’t going to break ties with him, then we still need to talk about how to justify maintaining our relationship.”

——Wen Xi and Ruby discussed this issue for a long time, and towards the end of the discussion, they brought in Magic Xi.

But Magic Xi only said, “When Ai Zhe comes back, you guys can discuss it yourselves. No matter what the final outcome is, I don’t mind carrying the blame for you.”

She meant that, if Ai Zhe came back and decided to livestream separately from them, Magic Xi didn’t mind acting as the bad guy who “broke apart a partnership with her bare hands” and posting an announcement to explain why she asked Ai Zhe to livestream separately from them.

However, when Ruby told Ai Zhe about it later that night, Ai Zhe’s response was, “Are you guys crazy?! If you’re praising Mac, then you have to bring me along ah!”

Ruby swore that these were the manliest words Ai Zhe had ever spoken since they had met.

*

The domestic trials lasted for two weeks, and by the time the first week of the competition came to an end, Mo Chen had led the CLM team to rank second in total points.

The first was YEY, and the third was MQ.

Then, after the second week of the competition, CLM’s total points made them fall to third place.

The first was YEY, and the second was MQ.

Such a result undoubtedly disappointed all CLM fans—only the top two teams were eligible for the global competition.

The night the competition ended, Wen Xi wasn’t able to get into contact with Mo Chen no matter how much he tried, which caused him to worry a bit.

Fortunately, the next morning, Mo Chen took the initiative to send him a message.

Mo Chen: I’m fine. Don’t worry. That’s just how the competition is. Sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose.

Wen Xi woke up very early, so he saw the message as soon as Mo Chen sent it. He wanted to reply, but before he could open his keyboard, he received a second message.

Mo Chen: I’ll wait for you to save me.

Wen Xi froze for a moment, but just moments after he had seen what Mo Chen had sent, the message was withdrawn.

Then Mo Chen sent another message, pretending that he had just made a typo.

Mo Chen: I’ll wait for you to throw yourself into my arms.

Wen Xi looked at his message for a long time, then sighed secretly.

He wanted to complain about Mo Chen’s message, but he didn’t dare reply.

He didn’t believe that Mo Chen had made a typo.

Wen Xi could feel Mo Chen’s pain and the pressure that had been placed on him after losing the competition—he was obviously strong, but because he didn’t have good teammates, their team couldn’t gather enough points from the duo and squad matches, no matter what he did. This would make anyone feel quite powerless ba?

However, this was also the reason that Wen Xi had woken up early.

——He. Was. Going. To. Practice. Using. Guns!

Even before he had promised Mo Chen to play with him professionally, Wen Xi had decided to practice using guns.

After promising Mo Chen, his resolve to practice with guns had become firmer, and he began to put his plans into action as soon as the professional league was over.

He started by searching for strategy guides and following them as he practiced by himself.

Later, he discovered that the actual operations always conflicted with what the guides suggested. He wanted a real person to guide him, so he called Blue Wolf.

He remembered that Blue Wolf got up early to practice with guns every day.

However, after the call connected, he could tell that Blue Wolf was speaking quietly as he asked, “What are you doing ma? Calling me so early.”

Wen Xi was stunned for a moment. His first thought was that Blue Wolf had just woken up, but the sound of his voice didn’t really make that seem to be an option…

His second thought was—had he deliberately lowered his volume? Was someone asleep in his room?

Thinking of this, he asked, “Is Ai Zhe in your house? Or are you at Ai Zhe’s?”

Blue Wolf: “….”

Blue Wolf was silent for a long time, but it wasn’t that there was no sound coming from his end—Wen Xi could hear the sound of clothes rustling, and then the sound of a door opening and closing.

Only after that did Blue Wolf start speaking again, “What nonsense are you saying? I’m in my house, and he’s in his… What do you want from me?”

You need to leave your own house to take a call?

Like I would believe you ya.

Wen Xi gave a disdainful look to his cellphone, and then pretended to know nothing about that matter and asked about his, “I wanted to ask you about minimizing a gun’s recoil.”

“Oh, so it’s like that. Okay, talk,” Blue Wolf was someone who was generous with his friends, and he was also very patient. If someone asked him a question, he would answer seriously and would rarely refuse to respond.

Therefore, Wen Xi wasn’t shy about asking him about the problems he had encountered. Only after Blue Wolf had answered them all did he remind him, “In the future, don’t call me in the morning.”

Was he afraid of waking Ai Zhe up?

Wen Xi shrugged.

He had always thought it strange that Blue Wolf chose to start broadcasting at 3 p.m. in order to stagger his livestreaming time with Ai Zhe. However, Ai Zhe’s livestream time was also in the afternoon, and it was obvious that Blue Wolf could get up early. So then why not livestream in the morning and practice with guns in the afternoon?

Now, Wen Xi felt that he knew the reason—because he needed to talk while livestreaming, but he didn’t need to do so when practicing with guns ah!

What it came down to was that he just didn’t want to wake Ai Zhe up ba.

What living in the same building? These two people clearly lived together ba!

After finishing the call with Blue Wolf, for a moment, Wen Xi really wanted to find Ruby to share this exciting discovery and then secretly munch on the Wolf/Pig CP together. However, after careful consideration, he gave up on that idea.

Blue Wolf and Ai Zhe obviously didn’t want people to know about their relationship, so for now, he would still pretend not to know anything about it ba.

Wen Xi focused on practicing with guns again after that. He practiced all morning, and almost forgot to eat lunch.

He finally replied to Mo Chen’s message at lunch time, pretending that he had just gotten up.

Wen Xi: Can you use even more devilish words?

What “throw yourself into my arms”? If Mo Chen hadn’t withdrawn the more embarrassing message, Wen Xi really would have started complaining about it then and there.

For the sake of Mo Chen’s dignity, he had held back until noon before getting that off his chest, which he felt was very kind coming from himself.

He didn’t think that Mo Chen would reply immediately. He didn’t expect that just a second after his message was sent, as soon as he pressed the power button to dim the screen, he would hear a “ding” sound—he had received a reply!

Wen Xi seriously suspected that this person had been waiting for his reply with his cellphone by his side this whole time.

Mo Chen: What part of it was devilish, baby?

Wen Xi: …who are you calling baby? If you keep using these greasy words, I won’t play professionally anymore.

Mo Chen: Okay, I was wrong.

After seeing him threaten that he “won’t play professionally anymore”, Mo Chen wussed out immediately. Wen Xi felt it was rather funny, and couldn’t help laughing a few times.

Yet, in the end, he was still laughing when his cellphone rang, which gave Wen Xi quite a scare!

At this time, Wen Xi was sitting in front of the computer, having just opened his takeout in preparation to start eating. He hesitated for a moment, then picked up the call and greeted, “Hello?”

“Wen Xi,” Mo Chen’s voice still sounded just as good, but at the moment it also sounded a little weak as he said, “I suddenly wanted to go on another date with you.”

The corner of Wen Xi’s mouth quirked up and he replied, “I even told you to pay attention to the kind of words you use. We should call it a face-to-face meeting, not a date.”

Mo Chen replied, “A date means picking a day that we will meet, while a face-to-face meeting means meeting and being gay together. Are you sure you want to use the phrase “face-to-face meeting”?”

Wen Xi: ???

Is that what a “face-to-face meeting” means? Even though I didn’t study that much, you can’t trick me!

Not waiting for Wen Xi to complain, Mo Chen said, “Then let’s have a face-to-face meeting.”

Ahhhhhhhh, scram for me! From now on, he wouldn’t be able to even look at the phrase “face-to-face meeting”!

—Wen Xi roared this in his heart and with great effort managed to stabilize his mood. He responded a bit helplessly, “Forget it, you can still call it a date ba. When?”

Mo Chen raised his eyebrow, not expecting Wen Xi to agree so straightforwardly, and the corners of his lips couldn’t help but rise. “Tomorrow at noon?”

Wen Xi replied, “Okay.”

Mo Chen said, “I’ll pick you up at the same time.”

Wen Xi replied, “Okay.”

Mo Chen continued, “I’ll take you to eat delicious food.”

Wen Xi resisted the impulse to roll his eyes and said, “If it’s not delicious, I’ll bite you.”

Mo Chen laughed. “Hahaha, okay~”

Mo Chen was taking this call in the CLM club’s lobby.

Ling Shuyi, who was passing by innocently to get some water, heard him laugh and had goosebumps break out all over his body. He tremblingly turned his head to glance at Mo Chen.

Ling Shuyi could not remember the captain ever laughing this happily before. Especially ever since he had returned from their defeat in the global competition last year, it had seemed as though he had completely blackened. He remained dead silent all day, and no one knew if and when he would suddenly do something like killing someone or starting a fire…

Ling Shuyi was still in a daze while Mo Chen said goodbye to Wen Xi and hung up the phone, and was caught off-guard when he turned around.

At that moment, Ling Shuyi was sure that he had seen a smile on Mo Chen’s lips, and it was so gentle and indulgent that his goosebumps, which had finally subsided, suddenly returned.

When Mo Chen saw him, he instantly wiped out any expression from his face and coldly spoke, “Training.”

Ling Shuyi answered, “…..I’m going.”

In Wen Xi’s eyes, Mo Chen was a very gentle, very caring, and very flirty person. He had the image of someone who was a pro at flirting.

But what he didn’t know was that, in the eyes of Mo Chen’s teammates, Mo Chen was a □□ that could explode at any time.

Don’t look at his behavior in the competition when he saved and avenged his teammates, appearing very kind.

At the end of the competition, he would either viciously curse people out to their faces or sink into an icy silence. He became both cold and gloomy, to the point that even the coach and manager were a bit afraid of him.

That was why Ling Shuyi felt so panicked when he heard Mo Chen laugh.

It wasn’t even a sneer, but actual heartfelt laughter!

It was even more terrifying than seeing Sadako come out of a computer!

Was it possible that he was dating someone?

——Ling Shuyi pondered as he carried his water back to the training room.

*

During the livestream at 1 p.m., Wen Xi played squad matches with Ai Zhe and Ruby like before.

After two weeks, Ai Zhe found that their points and rankings had risen a lot. He commented, “Not bad ah! If you guys continue playing duo matches for a few more weeks, my side account won’t be able to team up with you!”

Ruby immediately responded, “Yes ah, Wen Xi carried me to rank up a lot faster than you did! I’ve already been thinking about whether to abandon you and seek refuge with Xixi!”

Ai Zhe said, “Shit! Bro, you don’t remain loyal to friends ah! I’ve only been away for two weeks and you’ve already lured my girl away!”

Wen Xi blinked and replied, “Your girl?”

Ruby said, “Scram! Who’s your girl?!”

The livestreams of these three were just as relaxed and cheerful as they had been two weeks ago. Although there were a lot more Mac anti-fans in the barrage stirring up shit, their super mods and mods didn’t hold back. They banned words and suspended accounts, managing to keep the situation under control. Not only were the three of them able to relax, but Magic Xi also sighed in relief.

“By the way, will Momo still team up with us?” Ai Zhe suddenly asked.

This was also something that Wen Xi’s and Momo’s CP fans wanted to know.

Wen Xi considered it for a while, but thought about how the CLM team had been defeated. Mo Chen didn’t need to prepare for the global competition, so he should be free, but was he in the mood to play…

Wen Xi casually came up with a lie. “He failed his exam, so recently his mood hasn’t been very good. I’ll ask him again in a few days.”

“Oh,” Ai Zhe said, but inwardly thought—after CLM failed to take either the champion or the runner up position, Mac’s mood was certainly not going to be good ah….

“Speaking of that, how was it watching the competition live?” Wen Xi asked curiously.

“Regarding that, the atmosphere was really great,” Ai Zhe responded, “But if you really wanted to see the details of the competition, it would still be better to watch the livestream.”

“Che, don’t try to look pitiful when you’re living well,” Ruby complained, “With a livestream you can watch a replay, but you can’t experience the atmosphere of a competition venue twice.”

Ai Zhe didn’t refute her. “Hey, that is true~ envy me ba!”

Wen Xi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

*

Whenever he teamed up with Ai Zhe and Ruby nowadays, he still used a bow, and fought increasingly fiercely with each consecutive match.

Two weeks ago, he was just thinking about how to get the points and gold coins for reaching the final circle, but after watching the league competition in the past two weeks, he now thought about how to get more kills.

Suddenly, he thought about when he had just first met Mo Chen in the game. Mo Chen had achieved 19 to 20 kills in each match. He had fought particularly viciously, as though he was grabbing kills without regard for his life.

Now Wen Xi could understand—this was probably the “professional attitude” of a professional player ba.

After all, the league competition counted kills as points.

Now that he had also decided to play professionally, Wen Xi of course must also cultivate his “professional attitude”.

So, even if it would steal Ai Zhe’s limelight, he would spare no effort in trying to get kills every match.

For a moment, Ai Zhe actually thought that Wen Xi had been taken over by Mac’s spirit…

Then, while playing duo matches with Blue Wolf at night, Wen Xi put down his bow and picked up his gun.

Because Wen Xi had asked him about minimizing recoil in the morning, Blue Wolf wasn’t very surprised to see him holding the gun, but he still asked casually, “Started to practice with guns?”

Wen Xi let out an “en” and then thought that Blue Wolf often played on the overseas servers, so he tentatively asked, “Wolf Ge, what’s your rank on the overseas servers now?”

“A bit more than 60 ba,” Blue Wolf responded, and then suddenly realized something. “What? Are you preparing to play on the overseas servers?”

Wen Xi didn’t intend to hide it, and responded, “Yes, I want to get into the top ten in the national servers, and then go play on the overseas servers.”

“Nice ah!” Blue Wolf said with a laugh, “I was just worried that no one would accompany me to play on the overseas servers, but just playing like this is no fun. Let’s make a bet ba!”

Wen Xi was startled and didn’t know what was going on. He asked, “A bet?”

Blue Wolf explained, “For example, if you don’t get into the top 30 within a month, you’ll livestream while wearing women’s clothing.”

—

Juurensha: Ohhhhh Blue Wolf, are you paying him back for prying into your and Love Pig’s relationship? Also Mo Chen, you really need to treat your regular teammates better…

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