Pei Shiyu only felt a flash of white light before his eyes, and in the next second, Xu Qing was already fully dressed.
Pei Shiyu first reached for the phone beside his pillow to confirm his suspicion. His intuition was correct: it was 7:00 AM. Less than three hours had passed since they had laid down, which was not even as long as Wan Yi’s typical nap.
Pei Shiyu asked in a hoarse voice, “Are you getting up?”
Xu Qing adjusted his collar. “Yes, I am getting up to eat breakfast.”
Pei Shiyu felt that he was at least ninety percent sure he was still dreaming. Otherwise, how could he hear a 20-year-old young man, roughly his own age, say he was going to eat breakfast at 7:00 AM? Had they not both laid down at 4:30 AM?
Perhaps sensing Pei Shiyu’s confusion through the silence, Xu Qing added, “Boss Cai’s restaurant opens at 8:00 AM.”
“Hmm.” Pei Shiyu responded. He could not help but ask, out of curiosity, “Are you not sleepy?”
Xu Qing blinked, took a moment to check his own state, and honestly replied, “Actually, I am okay.”
He had recently developed the habit of eating breakfast at his grandmother’s house, and furthermore, he was not the type of person who loved sleeping in.
Xu Qing looked at Pei Shiyu, who was buried in the quilt, unable to tell if he was awake or asleep, and asked, “Do you need me to bring you breakfast?”
Xu Qing did not receive an answer and assumed Pei Shiyu had fallen asleep. Just as he was about to leave on tiptoes, he heard a muffled reply from inside the quilt: “Eat breakfast.” The voice sounded softer than his usual cold tone, inexplicably quite cute.
At 7:30 AM, Pei Shiyu sat at the dining table with a bowl of salty tofu pudding in his hands. His body was at the table, but his soul was still under the covers.
Xu Qing watched as Pei Shiyu, with a cold expression, took a bite of tofu pudding followed by a bite of a fried dough stick.
Xu Qing asked, “Do you not like the taste?”
“I like it,” Pei Shiyu replied, still expressionless.
However, Xu Qing could inexplicably tell that Pei Shiyu was not in a bad mood; he was simply not awake yet.
Pei Shiyu’s near-crew cut hair had not been trimmed for some time and had grown out a bit. He looked like a fierce-looking big dog in a cartoon, but one that would actually lie on the ground and expose its soft belly if its master scratched its chin.
Pei Shiyu scanned Xu Qing and asked, puzzled, “Are you this happy to get up early?”
Xu Qing finally burst into laughter. “No, I just thought of something funny.”
“Oh.” Pei Shiyu stopped talking and focused on eating his tofu pudding.
After a few interactions, he found that Xu Qing’s way of thinking was hard to keep up with, so he simply gave up trying.
After Xu Qing went downstairs to work, Pei Shiyu chose to return to bed for a nap, deciding between staying up or going back to sleep.
When he opened his eyes again, it was already 2:00 PM. The others had gathered in the living room’s training area, chatting and laughing while eating.
The person delivering the food was, as always, the consistent Xu Qing.
Xu Qing smiled brightly as he handed over Pei Shiyu’s favorite stir-fried meat with chili. “Good morning.” He looked full of energy, not at all like someone who had slept less than three hours.
Pei Shiyu took the lunch box. “We already met this morning.”
Wan Yi’s eyes darted between Xu Qing and Pei Shiyu, filled with teasing intent.
Pei Shiyu looked up with a cold face. “Speak.”
Wan Yi grinned, revealing his teeth. “Did you two sleep well last night?”
Pei Shiyu did not understand why this was worth asking. He did not answer, but Xu Qing, who was standing to the side, took over the conversation: “I slept quite well. It was just that I woke Pei Shiyu up when I got up for work this morning.”
Wan Yi looked at Xu Qing in shock. “You are still alive?”
This time, it was Xu Qing’s turn to be confused. “He does not have a bad temper when waking up. We even happily ate breakfast together this morning.”
Wan Yi repeated with an exaggerated tone, “Happily ate breakfast together?” He then looked at Pei Shiyu like a dramatic actor. “Captain, you have changed. When I asked you to eat breakfast before, you were not like this.”
“If you are referring to when I had just fallen asleep after training at 3:00 AM, and you used a gong to wake me up so I would eat the heart-shaped breakfast you made yourself, where the eggs were shattered and the instant noodles were still hard, and furthermore, because your gong was so loud that the property management came to complain the next day,” Pei Shiyu paused to correct him, “that was not a bad mood upon waking.”
As for what it actually was, Pei Shiyu did not say.
Wan Yi obediently chose to shut up. The fact that he was still alive and could continue to pester the Captain was already proof enough that Pei Shiyu was a merciful leader.
After everyone finished eating, the five members of the Break of Dawn team, plus the extra member Xu Qing, gathered offline for training for the first time.
At this time in the afternoon, there were almost no people in the restaurant, and Boss Cai did not care if Xu Qing was in the shop. He often went upstairs to hang out. He had always enjoyed being with the members of Break of Dawn, and now that his nephew Lu Xinyu was there, he did not mind running up there even more often.
The Break of Dawn team’s next match was the semi-final of the city tournament. The schedule was simple and brutal: there were four teams in the semi-finals, grouped in pairs, and the winners would proceed to the final.
Pei Shiyu said, “The Break of Dawn team’s goal is not just the city championship.”
The winners of the city tournament would advance to the provincial tournament, and the provincial champions would finally compete for the national title. Only the national champions would be eligible to enter the professional KOL league to challenge the major resident league teams.
This was the first time Xu Qing had heard Pei Shiyu talk about their team’s goal. There was no grandiose rhetoric; he simply used his usual cold voice, stating the competition rules and their goals at a steady pace.
Xu Qing observed the reactions of the others. Everyone’s eyes were burning with a bright light, even his uncle, Lu Xinyu, a 26-year-old graduate student who considered himself mature.
Pei Shiyu continued, “There are two ways to get onto the KOL stage. One is to have an investor willing to invest tens of millions, and the other is to fight your way up step by step.”
Listening to Pei Shiyu’s organized explanation, Tiger Brother could not help but speak, “Captain, you have done your homework quite thoroughly.”
Tiger Brother and Lu Xinyu were hearing the team’s goal for the first time.
Wan Yi blurted out, “Because the Captain used to play in the KOL league.”
Tiger Brother and Lu Xinyu were both surprised.
“What? The Captain used to play in the KOL league?”
“Then why is he not playing anymore? Why start his own team?”
“But I do not seem to have heard of a player named Jingzhe in the previous KOL league. With the Captain’s skills, if he had played in the KOL, it would be impossible not to have an impression.”
Xu Qing noticed that as soon as Wan Yi finished speaking, he was kicked by Wan Li, who was sitting next to him. Wan Yi immediately reacted and covered his mouth.
Pei Shiyu did not react much, but he did not intend to go into detail. “I only played one match. It is normal not to have an impression.”
Lu Xinyu and Tiger Brother looked at each other and tactfully did not pursue the matter.
Getting to know each other is a process. There would be plenty of time to learn more in the future.
Xu Qing rested his chin on his hands, watching Pei Shiyu, who was starting to formulate their strategy for the game. For some reason, he thought of the first time he saw Pei Shiyu, fighting four people alone in a dark alley.
Xu Qing squinted slightly, his hands curling slightly in reflex. His heart was itchy, and his hands were itchy too. What was he supposed to do? Why was he even more curious about this person now?