One day earlier, at the LCK team base.
Yi Xingran looked at the supplementary agreement in front of him, the corner of his mouth curling into a faint, ambiguous smile.
He was waiting.
Waiting for an opportunity, one that would force the management to loosen their grip.
Otherwise, as an “asset” belonging to the team, he had no right to transfer to another club on his own.
Sun Sheng put on a righteous, respectable facade and tried to persuade him with heartfelt sincerity. With Coach Fan playing the stern role beside him, the two of them worked together, singing the same tune as they tried to force him into signing this blatantly unfair, one sided contract today.
“Fire, don’t act out of spite.”
“That’s right, Fire. You know this is something Coach Fan went through a lot of trouble to secure for you. Don’t disappoint Coach Fan after everything he’s done for you.”
Everything he’s done for me?
Yi Xingran narrowed his eyes as he looked toward Coach Fan.
Once upon a time, he had worked odd jobs at an internet café and occasionally taken paid gaming sessions on the side. Because of his terrible temper and his habit of snapping at customers, he had accumulated countless bad reviews.
It was Coach Fan who had happened to discover him.
He had given Yi Xingran an application form for a youth training selection program.
A monthly salary of three thousand yuan, with food and accommodation included.
That was still better than sleeping in an internet café.
Yi Xingran had signed up without hesitation.
Because of his age, there were many jobs he simply couldn’t take. He had no choice but to find whatever scattered odd jobs he could, doing everything possible to scrape together enough money just to get by.
That youth training program had opened the door to his career as a professional esports player.
Yi Xingran could play competitive matches and earn a high salary.
He no longer had to worry about where next month’s living expenses would come from.
So when LCK offered him a contract, he had signed it without even thinking twice.
Coach Fan was a good person.
He had taken some ignorant, inexperienced kid out of an internet café and given him a chance.
What reason would he have to take advantage of him?
Could Coach Fan really deceive him?
Yi Xingran might not have received much formal education but he still understood the principle of repaying kindness.
When making one’s way through society, one had to value loyalty and gratitude.
It was only after being ground down by LCK for three years that Yi Xingran learned another lesson.
Fuck.
Maybe he’d simply read too many martial arts novels.
These days, morality could be left by the wayside while profit hung proudly in the center.
If you insisted on talking about loyalty and righteousness, you were liable to end up looking like an idiot.
Yi Xingran didn’t want to be an idiot.
In his previous life, he had suffered precisely because he lacked knowledge and experience.
That contract, practically a deed selling away his freedom, had left him utterly ruined.
And now, Sun Sheng was once again waving regulations around, using the threat of breach of contract to intimidate him.
According to the team’s terms, refusing to follow the club’s arrangements would count as a breach and he would supposedly have to pay compensation of eighty million yuan.
Wow.
He was absolutely terrified.
“What should I do? Then call the police. Let the police come and arrest me.”
Yi Xingran spread both hands.
“Let’s see whether the balance in my bank account even has eight thousand yuan.”
“Xingran!”
Coach Fan’s expression darkened and it looked as though he was about to lose his temper.
Sun Sheng hurriedly stepped in to play the good cop.
One moment, he told Yi Xingran how LCK had treated him generously.
The next, he reminded him that Yi Xingran had been personally selected by Coach Fan, recruited directly from the youth training program into a first tier team that already held a place in the professional league.
He hadn’t even needed to fight his way through the lower division.
He had immediately been given the qualification to compete for a ticket to the World Championship.
“Go outside and ask around. What other team could give you treatment like this?”
Sun Sheng pulled out a chair and sat down beside him.
When dealing with a young kid who had only just entered society, there was a method to it.
You had to use both softness and force.
First, scare him with the eighty million yuan penalty.
Then give him a thorough lesson in loyalty, gratitude and responsibility.
With that combination, Sun Sheng was certain the boy would obediently dedicate himself to the team from then on.
“Young people need to learn gratitude. If the coach has made this arrangement, then naturally he has his reasons. Besides, what’s wrong with being a substitute? As long as you’re still on the first team, you’ll always have a chance to show what you can do, won’t you?”
Heh.
Yi Xingran had spent nearly two whole years watching from the bench.
Every time he was finally sent onto the stage, it was always a game they were destined to lose.
At first, Yi Xingran hadn’t understood.
He had buried himself in training, desperately trying to improve his results.
Only later did he discover the truth.
He was deliberately being used as a comparison target to take the blame for the new jungler.
Whenever a match had been placed on the gambling table and controlled by the bookmakers, it didn’t matter how well Yi Xingran played.
He was never going to win.
“Otherwise……”
Sun Sheng deliberately drew out the final syllable before speaking in a solemn, meaningful tone.
“With you resisting the team’s arrangements out of spite and refusing to obey management, are you trying to get yourself sent down to the second team to play in the lower division?”
A threat.
A completely naked, undisguised threat.
Yi Xingran frowned as he looked over.
Sun Sheng wore an expression of absolute confidence, leisurely holding his cup and blowing gently across the surface of the steaming tea.
After a moment, Yi Xingran suddenly broke into a smile.
“Sure.”
“That’s more like it. Listen to the arrangements and train properly. As long as you, wait, what did you say?!”
“I said……”
Yi Xingran closed the contract, his peach shaped eyes curving into a smile.
“I’m actually planning to go out and ask around. I want to see exactly what kind of treatment the other teams are willing to give me.”
“Let him go!”
Sun Sheng slammed his cup heavily onto the table.
His brows were drawn so tightly together that they looked capable of crushing a fly.
“The transfer window is about to close! He’s only been a professional jungler for half a year and he’s carrying an astronomical transfer fee! What fool of a team would possibly sign him?!”
Once Yi Xingran lost his starting position and couldn’t even get onto the substitute roster, the entire Summer Split would pass him by.
And from then until the end of the year, there would be nothing but an empty stretch of time.
A rookie player with a ruined reputation, no achievements to speak of and no status as a free agent would be dragged down and suffocated by his contract.
Other than obediently staying at LCK and working himself to the bone for them, what choice could he possibly have?
“Ultimately, he’s still too young. Just a childish kid. He’s only just entered society and doesn’t understand how anything works.”
The gentle smile disappeared from Sun Sheng’s face, replaced by a sinister grin.
“Once he learns his lesson and suffers a little……there’ll be a time when he comes crying back to beg me! And when that happens, won’t we be able to do whatever we want with him?”
Coach Fan frowned and remained silent, his expression somewhat unpleasant.
He hesitated for a long time, looking as though he wanted to say something.
But in the end, he said nothing.
Meanwhile, Pei Du, who had inexplicably found himself back three years in the past, was sitting inside the training room for reasons even he couldn’t explain.
He started a custom game.
How strange.
Could such an absurd thing really happen in this world?
Pei Du rubbed the small bloodstained piece of gauze between his fingertips and fell into thought for a moment.
Then he canceled his original plans and decided to remain at the team base.
At this point in time, Yi Xingran had just lost the Spring Finals.
Because he had posted a series of mocking clown emojis with an obvious implication, he had once again been dragged onto the trending searches and torn apart by the internet.
The entire forum was filled with accusations that he had a foul mouth, a terrible temper, loved getting into fights, bullied and oppressed his teammates and was constantly at odds with the team’s management.
The whole online space was a complete mess.
Yi Xingran was being torn to pieces by the public.
Had this happened on the original timeline, had Yi Xingran also fallen out with his former club and come looking for their team?
Pei Du had no memory of it. Back then, he had not paid much attention to such matters. After a brief three day break, he had immediately plunged into the intense preparations for the upcoming MSI. By the time the tournament schedule was over, Fire’s name had already been dragged through the mud all over the internet.
Not long afterward, footsteps sounded in the corridor. Pei Du had left the door open and then a voice he had not heard in a long time, somehow both familiar and unfamiliar, drifted in.
“You’re short on a jungler, right? I…”
The young man’s voice was rather distinctive. It still carried the clear, slightly husky quality unique to someone who had not yet completely shed the last traces of adolescence. His voice was clean and bright, with just a faint roughness at the edges.
It was just that his tone sounded… a little too cocky.
“I’m well behaved, I don’t talk much, my mechanics are good, I follow instructions and I don’t cause trouble!”
Pei Du’s hand stopped for a fraction of a second as he last hit a minion. Almost instinctively, he looked toward the doorway.
Yi Xingran seemed a little awkward. He gritted his teeth, then could not resist reaching up to ruffle his own hair before adding, “…You won’t regret signing me.”
Manager Qian was even more eager than he was. He bustled around the two of them like a hardworking little bee, circling them from one side to the other. Every so often, he would give Coach Zheng a little nudge.
“Of course we won’t regret it. Just look at that face! How could we possibly lose money? As long as he can play decently and avoid making stupid mistakes, I guarantee I can turn him into a star player! We’ll have endorsement deals and commercial offers pouring in until he won’t even have enough hands to take them all!”
At this point, being a team manager was practically wasting his talent. He should have switched careers and become an agent.
Coach Zheng shoved Manager Qian aside and explained it to Yi Xingran for the second time. “Our first team isn’t currently short on a jungler. However, based on your past…”
Yi Xingran listened with both hands in his pockets, staring down at the floor.
No.
You really are short on one.
It was just that, with the transfer window about to close, time was far too tight. He also understood that it would be difficult to find a suitable new home for him at such short notice, especially one that was actually willing to take him in.
Otherwise, Sun Sheng would never have agreed so readily to let him contact other teams.
With an astronomical buyout fee hanging over his head, only the wealthy powerhouse clubs could realistically afford to take him.
It was not as though he had never considered transferring in his previous life.
The problem was that there were very few clubs with that kind of financial power in the first place. Among those that could afford his buyout fee, even fewer were willing to sign him.
Actually… fine.
There had been none.
Back then, his reputation was already in ruins and he had no major tournament achievements to his name. Which club would be willing to withstand the pressure of being mocked and cursed by the entire internet, only to spend tens of millions to buy him out of his contract?
With that kind of money, why sign him?
Only a reckless gambler would make such a decision and even then, it would have to be a gambler who was already terminally addicted.
But this life was different.
At the very least, his reputation had not yet become quite that rotten…
Probably?
The moment Yi Xingran remembered the trending searches he had just appeared on, he felt irritated again. He reached up and roughly messed up his already unruly pink hair.
Coach Zheng had his own considerations.
At present, TheX’s starting jungler was a highly paid Korean import whom the club had spent a fortune bringing in. The first team’s substitute position was practically useless, existing more in name than in function.
As for the only possible destination, the second team, it simply did not have enough of a budget to sign another expensive player.
Good heavens.
How much were the combined annual salaries of everyone on the second team?
And this one person alone needed that much?!
He was genuinely regretful. “Although I watched your youth training selection and your performance really was quite good but…”
Yi Xingran’s footsteps came to an abrupt stop.
He suddenly met a pair of eyes head on. The tall, long legged man was still leaning against the doorway with that same aloof, indifferent face, his expression devoid of emotion. His gaze was cool and distant, as though even lifting his eyelids was too much effort.
It was Pei Du.
Tsk. Still putting on that unbearably aloof act.
For some inexplicable reason, Yi Xingran’s hand curled into a fist inside his pocket.
Coach Zheng also stopped walking. He looked puzzled. “Cross? Aren’t you going home today? You haven’t left yet?”
Pei Du gave a faint, indifferent hum, his gaze naturally falling onto Yi Xingran.
His pink hair, still vivid and untouched by the dull, faded yellow of the previous timeline, was bright and flamboyant. Thick, long lashes curled upward, framing those striking peach blossom eyes. His moist lips were pressed together ever so slightly, as though he had just bitten the soft flesh inside his lower lip.
After such a long time, seeing him again, that face was still breathtakingly beautiful.
The first time Pei Du had interacted with him privately was also three years ago, during the variety show that held the youth training selection.
Back then, Pei Du had been leaning against the doorway when Yi Xingran, visibly irritated, had lifted his eyes and opened his mouth to tell him to wait for his death because he was going to cut him down.
…………………Could he have been reborn too?
Their gazes met only briefly before Pei Du withdrew his eyes and turned them back toward Coach Zheng. He spoke as though he were merely making casual conversation.
“A new player here for a trial?”
Coach Zheng was already explaining the situation but before he could finish, he saw Yi Xingran standing off to the side with both hands tucked into his pockets. His messy pink hair was a complete disaster, while the impatience and irritation between his brows were impossible to conceal.
He really could not hold it in.
He genuinely could not.
Yi Xingran said, “If I’m not here for a trial, why else would I come to your team? To steal your strategies?”
Pei Du lowered his eyelids slightly.
Still the same attitude.
Arrogant tone, overbearing presence and an immediate dislike for him the moment they met, as though Pei Du had once stolen his pig.
Looking at him now, there seemed to be no difference from the person in his memories. Something as strange and extraordinary as rebirth, Pei Du felt that perhaps there simply could not be a second person who had experienced it.
“I’m well behaved, I don’t talk much, my mechanics are good, I follow instructions and I don’t cause trouble.”
There were only three words in that entire sentence that were true.
Who would believe the rest…?
“Exactly, exactly! Just look at him. He clearly has such a well behaved face, he doesn’t look like someone who causes trouble at all. Since he’s already here, why not let him stay and finish the trial before leaving? What if his mechanics really are good? Wouldn’t that mean we’d be letting a talented player slip right through our fingers?”
Manager Qian genuinely seemed determined to sign him. Unable to persuade Coach Zheng, he immediately turned around and began selling Yi Xingran to Pei Du instead. Several bracelets around his wrist jingled noisily with every movement and despite his outrageously flashy outfit, he insisted on calling the style “old money fashion.”
Money Manager.
His name was Qian Deshuai.
And yes, the manager’s name really was Qian Deshuai.
Pei Du swept him with a cool, indifferent glance, only to see the man seemingly draw a breath, as though he were gathering himself for something. Manager Qian continued desperately winking at Yi Xingran.
Yi Xingran’s memories shifted backward.
He remembered the Weibo notification he had seen shortly before his death in his previous life. At the very least, when he had been condemned by thousands and everyone had turned against him, this was the only person who had once publicly spoken a single word in his defense.
Fine.
Perhaps he could restrain himself a little.
After a brief pause, he still could not resist reaching up and grabbing another handful of his hair. Only then did he lower his brows and obediently stand beside Manager Qian. At first glance, he really did look rather well behaved.
“I heard your team is short on a jungler…”
Coach Zheng was practically helpless. For the third time, he opened his mouth to explain.
“Our first team really isn’t short on a jungler right now…”
“We are.”
Coach Zheng: “?”
“Wait.”
Pei Du folded his arms across his chest. He did not understand what Coach Zheng was trying to stop, so instead he looked at Yi Xingran with clear interest.
“It’s just one additional player. Have management negotiate it.”
“But his transfer fee is eight figures! What management team would ever agree to that?”
Pei Du finally fell silent for a moment. Then he lifted his cool, indifferent eyes.
“How much?”
Eight figures.
Starting with an eight.
Manager Qian nearly screamed.
“Is LCK so poor that they’ve gone completely insane?!”
✦ ✧ ✦
Fleurveil
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
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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?