It was only a substitute contract.
Yi Xingran counted the zeroes following the salary, carefully using his fingers to make sure he had not miscounted. He really could not hold himself back.
“……Is this what it feels like to accidentally wander into heaven?”
Heavens above! Six zeroes!
That damn LCK had really screwed him over again!
He had not felt particularly strongly about the ten-million-yuan transfer fee but a million-yuan annual salary was completely different. That was actual money that would genuinely end up in his own pocket!
Beneath his pale pink hair, the tips of his snow-white ears and his cheeks were exposed. Yi Xingran’s eyes had gone completely round. Apparently, no matter how many more zeroes there were, he would no longer be dizzy from looking at the words.
Oh?
Manager Qian could barely stop himself from feeling sorry for him. Good heavens, this was only the beginning. One could only imagine what kind of miserable life he must have been living at LCK.
“Baby, don’t panic. Once the commercial revenue share comes in, I guarantee I’ll be able to stuff your bank card until it’s bulging even more!”
There was more money to be made?
Only then was Yi Xingran willing to tear his eyes away from the contract. With his fluffy pink hair all puffed up around his head, he obediently nodded.
“Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, I’ll definitely make plenty of appearances!”
My goodness!
He was so well-behaved that Manager Qian’s heart was practically melting.
Previously, he had been holding onto a gigantic money tree but had been unable to shake any money out of it, leaving him able to do nothing but stare helplessly.
Pei Du rarely made public appearances and was difficult to cooperate with. He refused many commercial opportunities and every deal that slipped away represented real money!
What a waste of such a good-looking face!
To Manager Qian, money that had not been earned was equivalent to money lost. His heart had been aching terribly over it. Now that he had finally encountered someone who could practically debut on the spot after a little polishing, the way he looked at Yi Xingran was practically the way someone would look at a little God of Wealth capable of dropping gold coins everywhere.
The little God of Wealth grabbed a pen and, without another word, was about to sell himself.
Suddenly, a large hand appeared in front of him.
The fingers were long and slender, the knuckles sharply defined. Faintly raised veins traced across the back of the hand and it landed precisely over the place where Yi Xingran was about to sign.
Where had this dog paw come from?
Yi Xingran tightened his grip on the pen and smacked it down onto the back of that hand with a sharp “pa-da,” forcing the casually curved, bony hand down against the table.
The instant he looked up, he met a completely expressionless face.
Yi Xingran grumbled, “What are you doing? Trying to block my path to wealth?”
Pei Du withdrew his hand, straightened up and looked down at him.
“If you sign this now, you’ll easily get yourself into a lawsuit…… Are you a judge?”
What an odd thing to ask.
Yi Xingran stared at him strangely.
“Yeah. So what?”
Forget it. There was nothing to say to someone who was illiterate.
No wonder even his name looked as though a chicken had scratched it into the dirt with its claws. He was already like this, so one might as well cut him some slack.
The annual salary of a starting player on the first team was less than two hundred thousand yuan after everything was paid out. It was, at the very least, a team with a place in the professional league yet LCK’s greed was truly excessive.
The number of hours of livestreaming they required him to complete every month was practically an impossible task. If he failed to meet the required number of hours, money would be deducted from his salary.
Pei Du glanced at Yi Xingran’s bank transaction records.
The little amount of hard-earned money he had managed to make was almost entirely being eaten away by those deductions.
There was also the issue of a dual contract system, one contract was submitted to the league for official filing, while another, containing all kinds of oppressive clauses, was used privately to restrict the player’s conduct.
After spending three years in a trash team like that, how had Yi Xingran even managed to put up with it?
Pei Du remembered the way Yi Xingran had looked when he saw the new contract just moments ago, like an abandoned stray cat that had suddenly found a can of meat.
He did not even care whether the meat inside that can was actually edible. Whoever came to take it away would have to deal with him first. The little kitten would bare its teeth and hiss, claws already extended.
Pei Du put the contract away for him, then took out that stack of rolled-up, flattened yet still hopelessly wrinkled documents. He pulled the pen from Yi Xingran’s hand and began pointing out various sections among the dense blocks of text, marking them almost like a student highlighting key points in a textbook the night before a final exam.
“These, these few clauses and this one.”
“According to the relevant provisions of the Civil Code, if the stipulated penalty for breach of contract is excessively higher than the actual losses incurred, an action may be brought before the court to request that the amount be reduced.”
“Whether we calculate it according to the annual salary for the remaining years of the contract or adjust it according to the player’s expected future market value, the economic compensation we would be required to pay them, in other words, the transfer fee, could not possibly reach the tens-of-millions level.”
“Furthermore, you signed a five-year buyout arrangement that exceeds the period permitted by the league, as well as an oppressive clause requiring you to pay eighty million in damages if you transfer to another team.”
What was he going on and on about…….
Yi Xingran’s patience ran out before he had listened for very long.
“Can you just tell me the important part?”
Pei Du paused.
Everything he had said had been important, important to the point of being the most important parts.
He quietly glanced toward Yi Xingran, only to find that the pink-haired young man was staring back at him with nothing but confusion filling those moist, limpid eyes.
Of course he was confused.
Yi Xingran felt as though even the folds of his brain had been smoothed completely flat.
Pei Du tried again.
“In other words, the league’s official arbitration panel will take into comprehensive consideration factors such as the club’s initial training and development costs, the player’s actual salary level, the remaining duration of the contract and the club’s expected benefits before ultimately determining a reasonable amount of compensation.”
“But if the club has committed a serious breach of contract, the player can legally exercise their statutory right of termination, thereby being exempted from the penalty for breach or having it substantially reduced.”
“Oh, oh, oh.”
Yi Xingran finally understood.
But then,
“So what is a statutory right of termination?”
“A statutory right of termination refers to the right of a party to unilaterally terminate a contract in accordance with the law without obtaining the other party’s consent when, after the contract has been validly concluded but before it has been fully performed, one of the specific circumstances prescribed by law occurs.”
Pei Du tried to explain further.
“The league authorities have always maintained a strict regulatory system over contracts signed between clubs and professional players in order to safeguard the healthy development of the league ecosystem and protect the legitimate rights and interests of players but the dual contract you signed……”
Yi Xingran maintained a serious expression.
“What’s a dual contract?”
“A so-called dual…… Forget it.”
Pei Du gave up.
“I’ll ask the questions and you answer them, okay?”
Yi Xingran stretched both arms forward, then smoothly flattened his entire body across the tabletop.
“Go ahead.”
“When you signed the contract, were you already an adult?”
Yi Xingran casually scratched at the tabletop with one finger.
“Not for this one. I was an adult for the rest.”
“Did the club ever repeatedly delay or withhold your salary or bonuses?”
Yi Xingran frowned.
“I had bonuses?”
“Did the club ever engage in fraud or make false promises?”
“Does it count if they don’t keep their word? They promised me I’d be a starter back then but less than half a year later, they wanted to send me to the bench. I wasn’t willing.”
“……That was the fourth question. Did the club ever fail to provide the training resources stipulated in the contract or deprive you of your starting position without justification?”
“They did. Didn’t I just say that?”
Yi Xingran turned his head and looked at Pei Du as though he were looking at an idiot.
“They said if I refused to go to the bench, they’d send me down to the second team. Fuck!, cough, a type of plant, that isn’t a threat?”
Pei Du pressed his lips together slightly.
“That’s great.”
Yi Xingran lifted his head.
“What’s so great about it?”
Pei Du sat upright and properly composed, meeting the gaze of the person who was sprawled across the tabletop as though he had no bones in his body.
After a moment, the usually cool and indifferent face displayed a rare, slight lift of the brow.
“You want to know?”
The young man sprawled over the table eyed him suspiciously. After a brief pause, he slowly began inching himself upright, bit by bit.
Pei Du curled his lips into a faint smile.
“This is a letter of authorization. Once you sign this, all disputes between you and LCK from this point onward will be handed over to the legal department, who will handle them on your behalf. Besides that, ”
“Come on. I’ll teach you how to terminate your contract without any pain.”
Yi Xingran returned to the base with both hands tucked into his pockets, swaying and wandering along at an unhurried pace.
He thought to himself that having someone knowledgeable around really was useful. Even scheming against people was done on an entirely different level. Pei Du’s words were often difficult to understand but Manager Qian had also taught him quite a lot. He had picked up one little trick after another, practically forming a whole chain of moves.
For example:
“You let them curse at you! Let them humiliate you as harshly as they want! Then record the whole thing and preserve the evidence. I’ll throw some money at the promotion and push the hashtag #CapitalistTeamBulliesDelicateLittleWhiteFlower. It’ll be a guaranteed trending topic!”
Yi Xingran lifted his eyes.
“What if I can’t hold myself back?”
Manager Qian was still completely immersed in the script he had concocted. Hearing that, he looked over in confusion.
“Can’t hold yourself back from what?”
Pei Du happened to pass by carrying a glass of water.
“You’re well-behaved and quiet.”
Yi Xingran fell silent.
Manager Qian continued.
“……And if they get so furious from being exposed that they actually dare to lay a hand on you, just throw yourself straight onto the floor! You’ve seen that video, right? ‘Ah! The floor is so cold~’”
Pei Du took a sip of water. “You’re obedient and you don’t cause trouble.”
Yi Xingran: “.”
Manager Qian had already finished imagining the entire script in his head.
“Once public opinion turns around, those rumors about you from before will just happen to become evidence that they were deliberately smearing you. Then I’ll get the operations department to work on it a little and we’ll have a massive wave of traffic! We can use it to build momentum for you before signing you to TheX!”
Yi Xingran listened until his head was spinning. He had never imagined that there would come a day when “being bullied” could actually become a strategy. The survival rules he had learned since elementary school had never been anything like this.
His father had died when he was young and his younger sister was still too little. There was only his mother and him left in the family and it seemed as though any relative or neighbor who came along felt entitled to step on them.
If he wanted to survive, he had to be fiercer and more ruthless than everyone else. Those people all bullied the weak and feared the strong. Even before he entered society, he had already understood one simple truth: in this world, whoever was stronger was the one who got to speak.
But during those three years at LCK, the high-intensity training of a lone wolf, the contract dispute involving an astronomical penalty for breach and the frustration of possessing the ability but having nowhere to display it, all of it, combined with the prolonged suppression and constant lack of positive feedback, had gradually left him with a despairing sense that he was becoming indistinguishable from everyone else.
He had even begun to wonder whether strength really was the ultimate truth.
But in esports, being bad was the original sin.
He had been able to fight his way out from among countless skilled players and stand on the stage of the World Championship even when the entire team refused to coordinate with him, when he was economically suppressed and his resources were constantly being taken away.
As a jungle-carry player, an aggressive playstyle should never have been considered his mistake. He had always believed that in the face of absolute strength, all tactics were nothing more than empty talk.
It was just that now…….
Yi Xingran watched Sun Sheng approach at an unhurried pace, a coffee cup in his hand. Sun Sheng leaned against the side with deliberate affectation, looking at him from the corner of his eyes, a smile hanging from the corners of his lips.
“How is it? Now that you’ve walked out the doors of LCK, you’ve finally seen how tough things are out there, huh?”
He was smug, his expression filled with undisguised mockery.
Yi Xingran’s fists were starting to itch.
Seeing that Yi Xingran remained silent, Sun Sheng’s smile grew even wider.
He knew it.
A rookie player with such a bad temper and reputation, carrying an astronomical breach-of-contract penalty on his back, once he left LCK, where else could he possibly find another team willing to take him?
People only learned to behave after running into a wall.
Sure enough, the moment he walked out the door and discovered that nobody wanted him, he still had to obediently come crawling back, begging Sun Sheng to let him sign a substitute contract.
Sun Sheng was thoroughly pleased with himself. Putting on an air of false generosity, he deliberately lowered the terms even further, refusing to give Yi Xingran even a substitute position. He was determined to properly grind down that temper of his.
“The position on our first team is something countless people dream of. Since you’re unwilling to cherish it….”
Sun Sheng paused, waiting to see the nervous, desperate expression on Yi Xingran’s face.
Instead, he only saw Yi Xingran staring upward, his eyes fixed indifferently somewhere in the distance, as though he could not care less about any of it.
He did not get the reaction he had been waiting for.
Sun Sheng crossed one leg over the other.
“Fine, then I’ll give you what you want. The second team is short of a starter. Since you don’t want to be a substitute, go, ”
He did not get the reaction he had been hoping to see, so he crossed one leg over the other again.
“Fine, then I’ll satisfy you. The second team is short a starter, aren’t they? Since you don’t want to be a substitute, go play in the secondary league.”
Yi Xingran’s fingers twitched. In the end, he really could not help himself and reached up to pinch his earlobe.
“What? Still not satisfied?”
Sun Sheng practically looked down at him through his nostrils, his arrogance written all over his face.
“Do you think our temple is too small to accommodate a great Buddha like you? Then forget playing in the secondary league altogether. Why don’t you change careers and go sell meat floss pastries on a livestream instead?”
Yi Xingran lowered his eyes slightly, then looked over with a cold, expressionless face.
There was a trace of confusion in his gaze, along with an almost imperious arrogance and disdain that seemed to come naturally to him.
His thin lips parted slightly and his voice was quiet and faint.
“Why are you barking like a dog?”
The single sentence left Sun Sheng choking with rage. In an instant, his face flushed with humiliation and fury.
✦ ✧ ✦
Fleurveil
[Translator]
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Every small bit of support means something to the person behind the translation.
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
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← PreviousNext →
ChaptersChapter 1 · Fire the hole!Chapter 2 · Dude, I’m here to save youChapter 3 · Plaster HeadChapter 4 · I’m well behaved, I don’t talk muchChapter 5 · It’s what Cross needsChapter 6 · What are you barking like a dog?Chapter 7 · “Ah! It’s so… so damn cold~”Chapter 8 · What are you looking at, you pervert!Chapter 9 · The cat I bought for free got dirty.Chapter 10 · Oh no! I forgot to switch to a smaller account!Chapter 11 · It’s my turn to performChapter 12 · Insults? That’s slander! This is slander!Chapter 13 · He’s a very nice personChapter 14 · Hunting TimeChapter 15 · A straight man sells himselfChapter 16 · The number one person who doesn’t eat stressChapter 17 · He is so vividChapter 18 · War! War! War! Kill! Kill!Chapter 19 Part 1 · What’s wrong with guys rubbing against each other?Chapter 19 Part 2 · What’s wrong with guys rubbing against each other?