Chapter 39

As a manager, Zhou Huo’s professional ability was naturally, much stronger than Qld Qiao and the others’. With the media team that Zhou Huo brought with him, they now had the ability to clarify the situation. They presented ideas in an orderly and methodical manner and in an instant, the preparatory work was arranged systematically.

Like Old Qiao and the others, Zhou Huo had long had the idea to find a suitable opportunity to dredge out the events of that year and have it rehashed. Now, one mustn’t go into battle unprepared. With this surveillance video, everything was going to proceed much more smoothly. A big weight was taken off Zhou Huo’s mind and it was only then that he managed to take a good look at the two in the corridor. “Eh...what were you two talking about just now? Though I don’t want to disturb you two, but, Yu Sui...did you leave your phone in the conference room? Your parents have been trying to call you but no one answered so they already called Chen Huo.”

Yu Sui turned around and headed for the meeting room.

“Evil.” Zhou Huo looked at Shi Luo. “Are you...going to spend the night here? Your room has been sorted out, but it’s a little empty. We haven’t managed to prepare some of the basic things yet. If you don’t mind though, would you like to stay here tonight?”

Shi Luo said, “My stuff is still in IAC, originally...”

“Originally, you should have directly come over with your stuff but everything’s a mess right now. Our driver has also gone home already. So...” Zhou Huo proposed, “How about I get my car and drive you there? My car’s pretty big so it definitely has room for your stuff.”

Shi Luo instinctively looked towards the conference room. Zhou Huo smiled, “Of course, you could also wait for Yu Sui but he might not finish his phone call with his parents anytime soon. His parents must have heard the news and must be feeling distressed for their son. I don’t know how long they’ll be talking.”

Shi Luo sullenly said, “Then, I’ll have to trouble you.”

“What’s the matter, let’s go.” Zhou Huo said while walking, “You’re old enough to get your license, right? You haven’t found the time to take the driver’s license exam? This year, we’ll have to find some time and hire an instructor for you...”

Zhou Huo drove and Shi Luo sat in the co-pilot seat. For a while, silence reigned between them.

After driving out of the compound, Zhou Huo turned off the music. “It’s gonna be a pretty long drive, if you’re sleepy, you can sleep for a while. If not, we can chat for a bit.”

Shi Luo shook his head, “You don’t have to mind me. Do what you have to do, make the calls you need to make.”

“You mean this situation of Yu Sui’s? No need for you to worry about that.” Zhou Huo let out an easy breath. “There’s a reason why Yu Sui’s spending so much to hire me as manager. I deal with these problems for you. That’s my job. Not to mention that I myself have long wanted to deal with Ji Yanhan. So, you can relax.”

Shi Luo frowned, “That’s good, but what do you want to talk with me about?”

As an exemplary businessman, Zhou Huo wasn’t about to let go of any details that can make a profit for the team. Just now, he had watched the surveillance video and had also taken note of what Ji Yanhan’s sentiments. Now, that huge matter from before had signs of a positive outcome. Zhou Huo wanted to probe out what Shi Luo was thinking.

“Nothing, really. I’m just worried that if this thing between you and Yu Sui won’t be resolved, it might hinder the future development of the team.” Zhou Huo drove very steadily, and the words were very gentle. “You and Yu Sui have been awkward with each other all this time, won’t it affect your performances during the matches?”

Shi Luo’s tone was stiff. “It won’t.”

“That’s good then.” Zhou Huo realized that the two of them hadn’t completely melted the ice and stopped trying to incur some bad luck. He changed the topic and said, “That’s right. I heard you have a girlfriend. Is that true?”

Shi Luo titled his head and looked at Zhou Huo, “I don’t. What about it?”

“Nothing. If you don’t have one, that’s great. It’s easy to get distracted by a girlfriend.” Zhou Huo asked again, “Did you not have time to look for one because of your career or did you always didn’t have one?”

Shi Luo never spared a thought for this. “I’ve never had one.”

“Never had one, never had one...” Zhou Huo mumbled to himself repeatedly, “Is there someone you like?”

Shi Luo looked up and down at Zhou Huo, He had on this look that was short of directly saying, ‘Even ignoring the fact that we’re not that familiar with each other, is it even appropriate to be talking about sh*t stuff like this under this kind of situation?”

Zhou Huo smiled, “Chatting. We’re just chatting. I’m curious.”

Shi Luo sat down properly. “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean by ‘I don’t know’?” Zhou Huo said, “Most people are already realize this kinda this when they’re about thirteen or fourteen. No one has caught your interest?”

Shi Luo said coldly, “When I was 13 or 14, I was thinking about how to run away from home. I really didn’t have those kind of thoughts.”

Zhou Huo had also heard about some things regarding Shi Luo’s family and realized that he’d made an indiscreet remark. He asked instead, “Then how about after leaving home? After you started your career?”

Shi Luo narrowed his eyes, “Do you want to ask me if I like Yu Sui?”

Zhou Huo choked.

Shi Luo looked at Zhou Huo warily, “The reason why you wanted me to do a live broadcast with him before was not just to ease the relationship between us and let the fans gradually accept it. You also want to use our relationship for business, just like you did before to Gu Gan and Wawa, right?”

Zhou Huo laughed, “Evil, when adults chat it’s generally not so straightforward. You’re a little too clever.”

Shi Luo said coldly, “I’m not Wawa, don’t play those games with me. If you have something to say, tell it to me straight.”

“Alright.” Zhou Huo said while driving, “I don’t quite understand though. What’s so wrong about that? Look at Gu Gan, that old-fashioned straight man. He cooperated with it. At the time, under my arrangement, whenever they did a live broadcast, they would team up. The effect was particularly good. Wawa’s commercial value rose many times over in an instant. It made my work easier and he was also accepted by NSN’s fans. He was happy every day, his mentality improved. His performance in the matches also improved. He was more confident and stable.”

“Then you can rest assured that I’m not the same as Wawa. Even if I don’t get along with my teammates, I’m going to be confident and stable in the game.” Shi Luo said with a sullen face, “That goes double for Yu Sui.”

Shi Luo looked out of the window, “After this matter is clarified, the number of sprayers should go down. As for the rest...once we start showing results, they’ll naturally shut up.”

“What you say is true. But since you two aren’t easily affected, why won’t you just listen to my arrangement and cooperate with me?” Zhou Huo didn’t want to release this cooked duck, “In any case, neither of you care about that other people say.”

Shi Luo took off his baseball cap, smoothed out his hair and put it back on again. “Others can’t affect me, but I can affect myself.”

Zhou Huo frowned, “I&#k2026; I don’t understand.”

Shi Luo looked out the window and refused to explain.

Shi Luo was just a player, not a broadcast anchor, nor an actor. There were some things that once faked too often, would no longer come out.

Zhou Huo pondered on it for a long time and had a thought. He asked carefully, “Then you&#k2026;were interest in Yu Sui before? Two years ago before things broke down?”

Shi Luo didn’t answer.

Zhou Huo sighed, Shi Luo was a tough nut to crack. No wonder Yu Sui hadn’t won him over two years ago.

At night, there were few cars on the road and everything was quiet. After a long time, when Zhou Huo thought that Shi Luo had already fallen asleep, Shi Luo took his bag and pulled out his headphones. “About Yu Sui... I don’t know.”

Zhou Huo was confused, “You still don’t know?”

“I didn’t understand it at the time.” Shi Luo put on his headphones and said hoarsely, “I didn’t know what that was and later... I didn’t want to think about it anymore.”

“So, I don’t know.”

Shi Luo closed his eyes and stopped talking.

Zhou Huo was stunned and quickly thought back. Back then, Shi Luo certainly hadn’t stayed in FS for very long.

Moreover, it had been when FS was preparing for the playoffs. He probably didn’t have a lot of chances to be in contact with Yu Sui.

And he was seventeen, that extremely confusing age of seventeen.

Too young, and the time given to him was too short.

Most of Zhuo Huo’s thoughts about promotions and hyping in the media went away. For the first time that night, he truly hated Ji Yanhan.

If it weren’t for this sh*t creating all that trouble back then, the e-sports circle would probably have a pair of heavenly twin-stars.

The kind that were childhood sweethearts to booth.

Zhou Huo gritted his teeth, “Lack of great morals...”

After half an hour, the two finally arrived at the IAC base. The e-sports circle never sleeps. The IAC base was ablaze with lights. Zhou Huo said, “If you don’t have a lot of things, can get it yourself? This... it’s embarrassing, but in my early years, I got into an argument with Zhao Feng. I don’t really feel like seeing him.”

Shi Luo took off the headset and got off the car, “I’ll handle it.”

Zhou Huo watched as Shi Luo entered the IAC base. He then quickly picked up his mobile phone.

Zhou Huo and Zhao Feng did have arguments before, but they are both the type to speak human when they encounter humans and to speak ghosts when they encountered ghosts. In short, they were wily old foxes in the industry. When they meet, they can talk and laugh cheerfully, there’s no reason they couldn’t cross paths.

Zhou Huo quickly called Yu Sui. The line was still busy. Zhou Huo was anxious and called a few more times. After about five minutes, the call finally connected.

“Yu Sui, this time it’s purely for your sake.” Zhou Huo kept an eye on the IAC base from out the window and quickly said, “I just had a talk with Shi Luo. A lot of things have really happened today and it evoked a lot of mixed emotions. He told me a few things.”

Zhou Huo said, “I asked him if he liked you.”

Over the phone, Yu Sui paused for a moment, “He said...”

“He does not know.”

Zhou Huo tried his best to recall, afraid of missing even a single word. “He said, he didn’t understand it at the time, he didn’t know what it was, and later he didn’t want to think about it.”

The other end of the phone grew even quieter.

Zhou Huo said quickly, “Although he said he didn’t know, this isn’t bad news. He was too young at the time, he’s never liked anybody and he came out of that kind of family environment. This is normal. But this just goes to prove that he might have just needed one more push.”

Zhou Huo couldn’t help but curse again. “Ji Yanhan, that absolute waste, if you two were in my hands, you’d probably have a marriage certificate by now, sh*t.”

“Hey, but don’t let this affect your mood, okay? I didn’t tell you this so you can have regrets.” Zhou Huo gritted his teeth. “After two years of delay, I don’t know if Shi Luo can really let go. You...what do you want to do? Do you want to let this remain as a memory of your youth and we never mention it again, or...do you want to try?”

On the other side of the phone, Yu Sui whispered, “...how can I not try?”

Zhou Huo felt uncomfortable, “Damn, what’s with this thing?”

“But this is good news, maybe it’s not too late.” Shi Luo came out of the base gate, Zhou Huo hurriedly said, “He’s back. I’m hanging up now.”

Zhou Huo packed away his emotions, got off the car and took the suitcases from Shi Luo.

On the way back to the Free base, Shi Luo really did fall asleep, and Zhou Huo had a whispered phone call with the operation department.

After Ji Yanhan spontaneously deleted his Weibo posts, his Weibo account was bombed by countless people. Ji Yanhan didn’t give a single word of response. Those who’ve been spraying Yu Sui for a long time, still doubted Yu Sui but those who wanted to beat up Ji Yanhan were also getting impatient.

As a result, FS’ former senior executives no longer responded openly to any questions. Those who were questioned closely would only say that the situation was currently unknown and they were not able to answer. The sprayers began to lose their lung power. While on the other hand, Free’s operations department was now in full swing. The fully-prepared operations department began to one-by-one refute the rumors for Yu Sui.

The most terrible problem was the one that was most unclear throughout all these years. Just who got the money from the sky-high transfer fees of FS’ five players back then?

Free’s operation department directly posted the data derived from Tianyan and other online data records. Before the transfer of the five players, Ji Yanhan’s current father-in-law had a lot of questionable assets listed under his name. The number clearly illustrated that it was a huge debt.

After the transfer of the five players, Ji Yanhan’s father-in-law’s last company was miraculously saved.

Of course, this alone couldn’t buckle the pot to Ji Yanhan, but it coincided perfectly with what Ji Yanhan posted previously about a funding problem with FS’ high-level executive.

The images Ji Yanhan deleted were saved by Free for notarization. That was indeed their contract from back then. The remaining contract period was clearly laid out and none of their contract durations matched. But now, against all reason, all of them managed to become free agents all at the same time. There could only be one explanation for this. The players themselves bought part of their contract. This was completely inconsistent with prior rumors of Yu Sui selling his team.

In the first place, Yu Sui wasn’t part of FS’ management. He still had a two-year contract in Ji Yanhan’s hands. How could he possibly sell the others?

There were countless details that the netizens dug out, such as the details of Yu Sui’s stomach bleeding at that time. In the case of Shi Luo, for example, he still had a five-year contract. How could he suddenly turn around and become a free agent? Another example was Chen Huo and Puppy. After fulfilling their two-year contract, if they had simply been forced by Yu Sui back then, how come after completing their contract, they came back and joined Yu Sui’s new team?

Naturally, these cannot be completely clarified. That was until Free’s operations department released the surveillance video at the end. It was the final nail on the coffin.

In the surveillance video, all the rights and wrongs couldn’t be more clearly stated.

After the video was uploaded, the people who sprayed Yu Sui gradually shut their mouths. And within an hour, Ji Yanhan emptied his personal Weibo, leaving not even a single post.

After a full night’s work, things have turned around. Don’t pass judgement on a person’s life until the lid is on the coffin. Now, there was nothing that could be debated about.

At dawn, Zhou Huo and Shi Luo finally returned to the Free base. Of those they left at the base, none of them slept. All of them were still in the conference room.

Chen Huo looked at his cell phone and sighed. He gave Zhou Huo a thumb up, “Professional, very professional.”

Puppy shook his head and sighed, “Releasing the surveillance at the end was the coolest. It totally crushed Ji Yanhan. He even emptied out his Moments.”

Zhou Huo had been tired all night. Right now, he didn’t have time to bask in his success. “As long as its clarified already, that’s fine. Which forum has the most people calling us into question? I’ll contact the administrators to deal with it. I can warn them off by saying they’re pressing rumors.”

“It’s fine now.” Old Qiao couldn’t bear to watch it anymore and turned off the surveillance video. “Did I actually shout for that long? It’s embarrassing for me to watch that video. But everyone’s praising me. The number of my Weibo fans have gone up to a million overnight. Ah, fine. Let it be. It was worth it.

“That’s good.” Zhou Huo looked at Yu Sui, “What’s got you so busy? Let me see, you’re contacting the league headquarters?”

“I’m trying to retrieve our old FS accounts. It’s nothing.” Yu Sui looked at Shi Luo, “You’ve... gotten all your things?”

The look Shi Luo directed at Yu Sui was a bit evasive. “En.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Zhou Huo sat down and said, “Is there really no hot posts we need to clarify?”

“None. Nearly all of them have changed tunes already.” Yu Sui used Zhou Huo’s laptop to casually look through the posts. “Including the hottest post yesterday, the hottest one now, is...someone else’s.”

Yu Sui re-opened the post he projected onto the screen last night:

[That disloyal servant, Whisper’s own team was promoted thru the qualifiers today and in their last game, they sent their old home, Team FS packing. How do you look at this? 】

#1 Hot Post:

As an old fan of Whisper’s, there are a few things I’d like to say.

I’m not a champion fan, nor a girlfriend fan. I’m a guy. I’m a purebred couch potato kind of guy. I started playing FOG from its public beta. I really like this game. When I first started to like this game, I found out there was this very good player playing as a medic. That’s all.

At that time, Whisper wasn’t Yu Shen yet. He wasn’t a champion medic and he hadn’t even been playing professionally but a lot of players already knew of him. Because he was the first player to top the national server as a medic after the public beta. I learned how to play a medic by watching Whisper’s videos back then.

I’m a relatively early fan. I watched Whisper make a stunning debut at the age of 15, watched him continue to dominate the national server, watched him be brought into Team Knife Edge by Ji Shen, and watched him be pitted by his old boss because he was inexperienced in the ways of the world. I watched him and Ji Shen set off to create a new club, watched this 16-year-old take over the position of captain, watched him get better year after year. I watched his teammates join team FS one after the other, watched him lead the team to take home the World Championship. I watched him stand at the highest peak of the league.

Then I watched him as he fell from that highest peak.

At the time of the incident, us old fans were mocked and scolded. We were caught unprepared and we didn’t know how to respond.

It was all too sudden.

It was indeed him who suddenly switched to the European division, it was him who demolished the team, and it was him who sold Shi Shen.

A large number of fans became haters, and the remaining fans didn’t know what to say.

But I always felt that the captain I’ve been watching since he was 15 years old isn’t this kind of person.

It turns out that he really isn’t.

Whisper’s personal ability is really strong. There can be no doubt of that. But his teams have been a bit unlucky. They encountered these two owners and both were orphans.

He wasn’t completely faultless in all this. For one, when he entered the league, he didn’t choose his club carefully. For another, he was too trusting of the captain who brought him into the league. But these mistakes aren’t reprehensible, are they?

After being thoroughly cheated by his former captain, he managed to safely send Xiao Shi Shen to NSN, he managed to have Qiao Shen who had a hand injury at the time to remain in the country, and he managed to ensure that Chen Huo and Puppy would smoothly return to China after two years. Isn’t it enough?

I don’t know if anyone remembers but Whisper was barely 19 when he arranged all this.

He was certainly no longer a child at the time, but he was only nineteen years old.

I know that all of you, when you were 19, were winners in life, full of vim, passing judgement on everything and hadn’t committed even the slightest fault. But I’m sorry, when I think back when I was 19, I was nothing but a f*cked up good-for-nothing. That’s why I can’t even imagine how he had managed to bear all that.

I played this game during the open beta, playing it every day with a bunch of my college roommates. Then, we graduated. Everyone began getting married and starting their own career. We played less. We’d play a couple of games on Sundays or when we didn’t have to do overtime.

I accidentally found out about this news. It accidentally stirred up some past emotions. It accidentally made me sigh a bit. That’s all.

I knew Whisper since he was 15 years old. At the time, I was in my sophomore year, and he had just joined Team Knife Edge.

Later, Yu Shen went to Germany and his reputation was ruined. I graduated and started work and I uninstalled the game. I haven’t paid much attention to this game in recent years. Unexpectedly, the youngest captain during that time at 16 years old, had reached this point through so many twists and turns.

When I got to this topic, and I saw this post, I felt that if I didn’t write something, I would be letting down my youth.

——————————————————

I seem to have gone a bit off topic. I’m sorry. I will leave my answer at the end. Whisper has established his own team, how do I look at it?

My official answer is: How do I look at it? I look at it with my eyes.

He fights, I watch.

——————————————————

While I am writing this, I’m downloading the game once again in the background. I’ve just logged into my account after two years. My assassin-type medic uses the same skin and attire as the original Whisper.

After two years of absence, the dagger in the medic’s hand is as sharp as before, and the light remained the same.

——————————————————

The rest of them saw this post and were speechless for a while.

Chen Huo gritted his teeth, “Damn, finally, this day has come.

“The timing is just right. Do you want to go ahead and announce Shi Luo’s transfer?” Zhou Huo looked at Shi Luo. “Is it all right?”

Shi Luo nodded, Zhou Huo turned to Yu Sui and Yu Sui said, “Okay, the headquarters just sent me your officially recovered accounts. They’ve updated the team name. I’m sending them to you. Remember to change your password.”

They received their old accounts.

Shi Luo picked up his phone and saw his old account, his eyes flickered.

Old Qiao’s eyes were red. He stood up and said, “Anyway, I can’t sleep anymore. Let’s start up the computers! We’ll change our password.”

In the early hours of dawn, on the FOG national server, a bunch of old players who followed the former FS team, received a series of announcements on their feed.

It has really been so long since they last saw this announcement that many of the old players even thought they were dreaming because of the all-nighter they pulled playing the game.

System prompt: [Following] Free-Qiao is online, 673 days have passed since the player last went online.

System prompt: [Following] Free-Puppy is online, 689 days have passed since the player was last online.

System prompt: [Following] Free-Fire is online, 645 days have passed since the player was last online.

System prompt: [Following] Free-Luo is online, 757 days have passed since the player was last online.

System prompt: [Following] Free-Whisper is online, 757 days have passed since the player was last online.