Chapter 6

For the next few days after Shi Luo and Wawa’s double team live broadcast, terror reigned over the forums. Many old long-buried matters were unearthed and brought to light to once again to be criticized. Yu Sui’s fans, Shi Luo’s fans, Yu Sui’s haters and Shi Luo’s haters mixed all together as they fought and quarreled, raising quite a ruckus.

During a lull in their training session, Shi Luo opened the forum pages. Zhao Feng saw Shi Luo’s computer screen and hurried to block his view. “What’s wrong with playing a bit when you’re free? What are you looking through the forums for? Are you tired of living?”

“I’m not afraid of being insulted online.” Shi Luo slowly pulled up the forum page, “I’ve long been at the center of controversies, facing off against these haters. I’m used to it.”

Zhao Feng didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “This kind of mentality of yours can actually be considered as quite good. Fine ba. By the way, I have something to discuss with you.”

Zhao Feng glanced at the other people in the training room. Shi Luo understood. He pushed close the keyboard tray, and followed Zhao Feng out of the training room.

The two went to the conference room next door. Shi Luo casually pulled out a chair and sat down. He put his hands in his trouser pockets, and casually put his feet on the table. “Is it about the live broadcasts again? I can’t continue to add any more hours. Thirty hours a month is the limit. ”

Zhao Feng leaned against the table and smiled helplessly. “Other teams have their players signed for forty-five hours. Some for even sixty hours.”

Shi Luo shook his head. “It’s impossible. You don’t want me revealing too much of my play so you only let me play just a few games on the live broadcasts. Now, you want me to add more time? You’re the one who’s contradicting yourself.”

Zhao Feng knew that he was in the wrong. He also knew that Shi Luo wasn’t short of money, but the club had no other means to motivate its people other than with money. He had no other alternative but to say, “Well, can you at least not squeeze in all the thirty hours at the end of the month?”

Shi Luo absentmindedly gave a perfunctory nod.

“I have one other thing to tell you.” Zhao Feng pulled out a chair and sat down, his tone lightened. “I see that you’ve been checking the forums on your own, and that’s fine. But I’m going to tell you this directly so that no mishaps might happen if you find out about it at the last moment.”

Shi Luo frowned as he looked at Zhao Feng.

Zhao Feng slowly said, “It’s just that, it’s your former teammate, Chen Huo ...”

Zhao Feng watched Shi Luo’s face carefully, and said, “He’ll also be coming back soon.”

Luo Shi slightly raised his chin, and without the slightest change in his expression, simply said, “Oh.”

Zhao Feng was a little surprised. “You’re not upset?”

Shi Luo’s tone was calm, “Just as I expected.”

Zhao Feng smiled. “How’d you guess?”

Shi Luo said lightly, “Wawa didn’t keep his mouth shut. After talking to him that time, it was all clear.”

“Ah?” Zhao Feng was perplexed. “Did you mean that time when you and Wawa teamed up on the live broadcast?”

Shi Luo leaned against the back of his chair and stared blankly at the ceiling of the conference room, saying, “Yeah.”

Zhao Feng didn’t understand at all. “I went to watch that live broadcast of you two. I watched that from beginning to end, without skipping a single minute. Why didn’t I notice anything?”

Shi Luo turned his head and glanced at Zhao Feng. His eyes narrowed slightly, and said, “Want to hear how?”

Zhao Feng was really curious and nodded, “Tell me. There’s no training right now anyway.”

Shi Luo took out his mobile phone and glanced at it. There was still time. He threw the mobile phone onto the conference table. “Then next time, don’t pressure me to do the live broadcast.”

Zhao Feng couldn’t help himself. He hesitated and then nodded. “Okay, okay, okay. I won’t pressure you to do it.”

When Shi Luo got his assurance, he put his feet down from the table. He looked at Zhao Feng. “Since NSN has Whisper, why did Wawa come up to play that day?”

Zhao Feng hesitated. “Maybe they were afraid of exposing too much of his tactics. Every season, whenever we’re already a shoe-in for the playoffs, we have substitutes replace you. That’s because we’re afraid of exposing too much of your play before the playoffs. It was warm-up game that had no bearing on the points, doesn’t it make sense that they wouldn’t put in Whisper? ”

“It makes sense.” Shi Luo nodded. “Even with Yu Sui, I can understand why NSN wouldn’t sell off Wawa directly. Maybe it’s out of friendship or maybe they wanted more kinds of plays.”

“Yu Sui’s signature is an assassin-type medic. Wawa has always been a milk tank medic. They have two completely different types of medics. They already have good routines. But in that case, why did Captain Gu still force Wawa to learn from Yu Sui? Did he want to assimilate the two types of play into one?”

Zhao Feng was dazed. “That ... naturally, it’s because Yu Sui is the best medic...”

“You’ve said it yourself. He’s the best. Then what does Wawa need to practice for? He can’t ever be as good as Yu Sui.” Shi Luo’s lips ticked up in a mocking smile, “Captain Gu has already given up but the senior executives haven’t. They’re still forcing Wawa to learn. Even now, Wawa is still dropping on the national server list. What for? ”

Zhao Feng said dryly, “What could it possibly be for?”

“Because they’re worried. They’re trying to make the most of their time. They’re getting Wawa to do his very, very, very best to learn within this limited time.” Shi Luo stared at Zhao Feng with a narrowed eyes. “What do you say has got NSN’s top management so anxious? Why is Chen Huo coming home now? ”

Zhao Feng gulped. “Wh-why?”

Shi Luo looked down and said coldly, “Because Yu Sui will soon leave NSN.”

Zhao Feng accidentally let out a cough.

“He hadn’t actually joined NSN. He’s teaching Wawa now just to pay back Captain Gu. He’s just stopping over at NSN.” Shi Luo stood up. “If nothing goes amiss, Yu Sui will be forming his own team right away.”

“No.” Zhao Feng’s eyes were filled with shock and he looked at Shi Luo incredulously. “How did you guess this?”

Shi Luo turned back around and looked up and down at Zhao Feng. “There’s also no need for you to pretend to be shocked. Since he’s forming a team, he must have already submitted an application to the league. It’s normal that I wouldn’t know but you’re a team manager, don’t tell me you haven’t heard of any rumors?”

Zhao Feng subconsciously avoided Shi Luo’s eyes and forced a laugh. “What would I know?”

“If you really don’t know anything, then why are you trying to probe me out now? Why check out Wawa’s live broadcast with me? That’s three and a half hours of recording, do you have that much free time to be watching Wawa getting me killed?” Shi Luo closely examined Zhao Feng, pierced through the last layer of feigned ignorance, “Chen Huo is a striker. Yu Sui is going to form a new team, and he’s still missing another striker. You’re worried. You’re worried that Yu Sui has already contacted me so you used the live broadcast as an excuse to sound me out. ”

Shi Luo put his hands in his trouser pockets. “If there’s anything wrong with what I said, point it out to me now and I’ll immediately sign a contract for sixty hours of live broadcasting a month.”

Even though he’d been seen through, Zhao Feng wasn’t the least bit embarrassed. He shook his head and smiled. “Shi Luo, that what I really like about you, you’re clever! You’re young and you usually don’t talk much but in fact, you clearly know the score. In this aspect you’re really much better than your peers. ”

Shi Luo mockingly laughed at himself and turned to walk out the door.

Despite being seen through, Zhao Feng wasn’t ashamed, he simply asked, “Then Yu Sui...”

“Relax.” Shi Luo held the handle of the meeting room door, after a while he said, “From the beginning, he’s never contacted me.”

Once out of the conference room, Shi Luo’s fingertips felt a little numb. He pulled out the Bluetooth headset from his trouser pocket and stuffed it into his ear. For a while, he just closed his eyes and leaned against the wall. It was only once he had calmed down his emotion that he returned to the training room.

Trainings still went on as usual and preseason matches continued.

No matter how fierce the recent online disputes were, Shi Luo’s condition during games was always stable. During the following half-month of preseason games, IAC was scheduled for four games and they won all four games. Including the match against NSN, IAC has now won five games in a row. IAC took the lead and quickly left the other teams in the dust, firmly securing first place in the league’s preseason games.

Two preseason games were played daily. On this day, NSN was set to battle against Mad Blade and IAC would play against Worker Bee in the second half.

Although they weren’t directly playing against each other, IAC and NSN will inevitably appear at the same venue at around the same time. This time, Zhao Feng’s conflicted mood was obviously much stronger than that of Shi Luo’s. From the moment he entered the stadium, Zhao Feng became hyper-vigilant, he stuck closely by Shi Luo’s side, refused help from any of the staff, and took care of everything by himself. He was guarded against everyone, for fear that behind that friendly and gentle face lay one of Yu Sui’s planted agents. They would take advantage of a single moment of carelessness and with their glib tongues, whisk off Shi Luo.

Shi Luo watched as Zhao Feng carefully checked whether the label of his water bottle hid some notes. He made as if to speak and then stopped.

Shi Luo, with the very best of intentions, wanted to say something to Zhao Feng. Don’t worry, I didn’t lie to you.

He’s been in China for more than half a month already, there had been so many chances, but Yu Sui, truly, truly, from beginning to end, never tried to get in touch with him.

There hasn’t even been a single hint of it.

IAC’s game was in the second half and there was more than enough time still. Shi Luo was in the waiting room, lying on the sofa. He had a baseball cap pulled down very low and obscuring half his face, but he still felt out of sorts. Shi Luo took a deep breath, compulsively taking out his earphones and putting them on before he was finally able to relax a little.

After a moment, Shi Luo, who was just finally starting to feel a bit better heard rustling beside him. He impatiently opened his eyes and saw Zhao Feng hesitantly trying to feel through his backpack.

Shi Luo took off the headphone from one ear and frowned, “What are you doing?”

Zhao Feng withdrew his hand in an instant, and smiled. “I don’t know what brand of dried fruit the staff just gave you. I was afraid you wouldn’t be used to eating that so I was checking it for you.”

Shi Luo held back his anger. He took out the dried fruit from the bag himself, dropped it on the table, and then closed his eyes once again.

After inspecting the dried fruit, Zhao Feng said helplessly, “Don’t be angry, you know what I’m worried about. At the slightest word from Yu Sui, you’d definitely go with him. I’m just being careful.”

Shi Luo opened his eyes a crack and he said coldly, “I’ll go with him at just the slightest word? Am I cheap? Is there ‘cheap’ written on my face?”

Zhao Feng laughed in spite of himself. “The way you’re saying it makes it sound terrible. That’s not what I said. Don’t get angry, don’t get angry. You’ll have to go on in a while so don’t get angry. You sleep, sleep. I definitely won’t touch your stuff anymore. ”

Shi Luo pressed down his anger, turned up the volume and closed his eyes again.

Half an hour later, NSN won the game in the first half and it was finally IAC and Worker Bee’s turn. The overall strength of the Worker Bee Team was in the lower reaches of the league, and Shi Luo and his teammates ended the game decisively in 23 minutes.

There wasn’t anything newsworthy about defeating a lower level team so after being asked a few bland questions, the four IAC team members went backstage and headed to their lounge. Coincidentally, in the not so spacious corridor, everyone once again ran into the NSN team.

Only this time, Yu Sui wasn’t around.

Shi Luo raised his hand to say hello to Gu Gan and hadn’t yet taken two steps when Gu Gan called out, “Shi Luo.”

When Shi Luo stopped, the other three members of IAC looked around and seeing that it had nothing to do with them, left to return first to the lounge.

Shi Luo carried his peripherals bag over his shoulder. He tilted his head and asked, “What is it?”

Gu Gu said, “Chen Huo’s back. He just got off the plane. I reserved a place for a welcome dinner. His old friends are going, you ...”

Understanding what things were taboo for Shi Luo, Gu Gan let him know in advance. “Yu Sui, of course, will be there. Will you...be going?”

Shi Luo looked at Gu Gan indifferently, “My relationship with Chen Huo before was just so-so.”

It seemed that Gu Gan had already anticipated that Shi Luo would answer this way. Gu Gan was only extending the invitation out of courtesy. After hearing this, he made to leave. Shi Luo said, “I’ll go.”