The night before the qualifiers, every team would end their training early to let the members welcome the match in their best condition.
The SR team was a bit different today, as a chorus of wails echoed downstairs at the club.
“Keep running, I did not say stop.” Zhuoyue crossed his arms, his face as dark as thunder for a day and a half.
From the end of last night’s gathering until now, Zhuoyue’s anger had not been extinguished in the slightest.
Yan Shu ran several laps with the team, feeling increasingly uncomfortable with every step. Ever since waking up with a hangover this morning, he had felt dizzy. Now, running caused him to experience mild oxygen deprivation and irregular breathing, making his head feel like it was about to explode with a splitting headache.
“Captain, I really cannot run anymore!” Lin Qi had the loudest voice; a single howl from him could trigger every voice-activated light in the entire club.
Ye Xuanqing ran over to Lin Qi and covered his mouth. “Do not yell, maybe you can shave off two laps if you keep quiet.”
There were still two people complaining about everything, especially Luo Yan, who felt that Zhuoyue was far too moody.
“I cannot take it anymore, seriously.” When Xu Ya shrieked at the top of his lungs, he really sounded a bit like a duck.
Luo Yan panted heavily. “Captain, that is about enough. We have a match tomorrow.”
Zhuoyue had originally intended to call it quits, but who would have thought that the two culprits who had forced him to drink last night were still flapping their gums? Even with his eyes closed, he could still vividly recall the exact weight of holding Yan Shu in his arms.
And how he had almost kissed him last night…
Damn it.
“You two keep running, everyone else back to the training room.” Zhuoyue pointed at the mid-lane and support positions. “If any of you dare to slack off, you will be running all night.”
Receiving the captain’s command, Yan Shu slowly reduced his speed. He leaned against the large elm tree downstairs to catch his breath for a long time before his complexion finally improved.
The night breeze was slightly cool, and inhaling the cold air abruptly caused Yan Shu to press his fist against his lips, bending over as he coughed continuously.
Standing at the entrance of the base, Zhuoyue heard someone coughing and looked toward the source.
Once he caught his breath, Yan Shu straightened up and walked toward the base. As he brushed past Zhuoyue, he was called to a halt.
“I told the first team to do extra training. You are just a substitute, why are you tagging along?” Zhuoyue had noticed long ago that Yan Shu was feeling unwell. He was genuinely terrified that Yan Shu might fall ill and lead outsiders to think SR was a place where people walked in upright and were carried out horizontally.
“But…” Yan Shu remembered that whenever the first team trained previously, Zhuoyue had never driven him away, even when he secretly trailed behind them.
What was wrong with him today?
“Do not cause trouble for our team,” Zhuoyue reiterated firmly. “Do not follow us.”
With things having reached this point, Yan Shu had no way to keep stubbornly defying Zhuoyue.
He could continue training by heading back to his room early, so Yan Shu grabbed his phone and phone stand and walked toward the dorms.
The moment he opened the door, Yan Shu discovered that Qi Le had not gone to training.
“You guys did not go train?” Yan Shu asked casually.
Qi Le was in the middle of solo training and proactively hit pause. “Moon God, there is a match tomorrow, hey. Our team does not train the day before a match.”
“Huh? But the first team is training.” Because he could not continue practicing, Yan Shu’s tone carried a hint of disappointment.
Qi Le rolled off his bed. “That is because Captain Zhuo demanded extra practice. Our captain and coach have both gone to prepare the logistics for tomorrow’s match.”
“There is no logistics staff?” This was the first time Yan Shu had ever heard of the coach and team captains having to handle such work themselves.
“Where would our club get the money to hire logistics staff? We just reorganized; it is a miracle we did not disband.” After finishing the serious business, Qi Le shifted into gossip mode. “Moon God, let me ask you something.”
Yan Shu, who had just opened the peak tournament, was selecting a hero and gave a muffled “mm.”
Qi Le straddled his stool backward, grabbing the back of the chair and rocking it. “Are you and Captain Zhuo secretly dating?”
Yan Shu slipped his finger and accidentally clicked on Yaoyao.
Qi Le watched helplessly as Yan Shu locked in a support hero typically played by soft-hearted girls.
“…”
The two exchanged glances as a heavy silence fell.
The person who had originally intended to play support angrily unmuted his mic. “You have two clash-lane and one jungler proficiency badges, why are you playing Yao? Are you sick in the head? Why did you not say so earlier, who are you disgusting? No one is jungling, right? I am throwing.”
This peak tournament match was the promotion match for Yan Shu’s smurf at 1800 points, so he could not afford to let a troller ruin it.
Helplessly, Yan Shu unmuted his mic to apologize. “Sorry, my hand slipped. You can pick a jungler and swap with me.”
The previously furious guy flickered his mic twice, and his attitude underwent a 360-degree reversal. “No problem, big bro will jungle and carry you to victory.”
“I am a guy.” Yan Shu could not quite process that.
The confident dude immediately replied, “I am 1.8 meters tall, have eight-pack abs, am a sports major, a fierce top, little bro, want to cpdd?”
The peak players living upstairs and downstairs from Yan Shu could not help typing “6” in the chat.
The atmosphere was already awkward enough, and running into this kind of confident weirdo made Yan Shu directly turn off the team voice channel.
He did not really want to understand what a “one” or a “zero” meant.
When the peak match finally entered the game, Yan Shu cleared his throat to answer the question, trying to break the frozen atmosphere. “I do not like guys.”
Qi Le pinched his chin, scrutinizing Yan Shu’s face closely.
Under the night light, Yan Shu’s light-brown eyes gleamed like stars, and his full, ruddy lips featured a tiny dark mole. The placement of that mole made anyone who looked at it feel an itch in their heart.
No wonder Captain Zhuo had almost kissed him yesterday; with a sexy mark right on his lower lip, he deserved to be targeted by a wolf cub like Zhuoyue.
“Oh, so it means Captain Zhuo wants to take advantage of you!” Qi Le slapped his forehead, looking as though he had suddenly seen the light.
Yan Shu wore an expression that screamed, My head is itching, I must be growing a brain. He completely failed to understand what Qi Le was talking about.
“Moon God, do not look at me like that. It is not like I am gossiping, it is just that when Captain Zhuo carried you back yesterday, you guys looked super ambiguous.” Recalling how Captain Zhuo had suddenly walked in holding the Moon God yesterday, the image was too beautiful, Qi Le shrank his neck and cut off his own memory.
As for last night’s events, Yan Shu only vaguely remembered a fraction.
After getting drunk, he only remembered catching a hazy glimpse of his former vice-captain from the TW team, and then…
Yan Shu had simply assumed that memory was a dream and had not connected it to reality at all.
Now, with Qi Le pointing it out, he suddenly realized that the figure taking care of him in his dream last night looked far too much like Zhuoyue!
It had not been the vice-captain at all.
The more Yan Shu thought about it, the more wrong it felt. His Yao hung onto the teammate’s head and stopped moving entirely.
“So… what happened between me and Zhuoyue last night?”
“Huh? Well, basically, um…” Qi Le was just a young punk; being underage, he had never been in a relationship, let alone anything related to same-sex matters, and he blushed instantly.
Seeing Qi Le stammering with an expression of unspeakable difficulty, a small drum began beating in Yan Shu’s heart.
The last time he cross-dressed, Zhuoyue had not pulled any drunken shenanigans. But this time he was the one who got drunk, surely he did not pull any drunken shenanigans on Zhuoyue, did he?
As Yan Shu pondered this, a few stray thoughts accidentally slipped past his lips.
“Moon God, what are you muttering about? What drunken what-now?” Qi Le leaned closer to ask.
Yan Shu shook his head. “It is nothing.” Panicked, he lowered his head to check his phone, only to discover that his character had already died in the game.
Qi Le also noticed the death count in Yan Shu’s game and wisely scurried off to the side. “Moon God, you focus on your controls first. Even if you are playing Princess Yao, you still need to show off.”
With things having reached this point, Yan Shu no longer had the heart to play the peak match.
As luck would have it, the confident jungler on this team was so terrible that he managed to lose the dragon at ten minutes, suffer a team wipe at thirteen minutes, and get pushed to the crystal by the enemy at fifteen minutes.
Staring at the word “Defeat,” Yan Shu switched off his phone.
“Qi Le, what did I do to Zhuoyue last night?” Yan Shu dug for the bottom of the truth; if he did not get this cleared up, he would not be able to sleep tonight.
Qi Le was in the middle of eating snacks. He quickly swallowed the food in his mouth and wiped his lips. “Moon God, should you not be asking what Captain Zhuo did to you?”
Yan Shu: “?”
“Captain Zhuo carried you back like a princess and put you on the bed. Then you wrapped your arms around his neck and demanded a kiss. Captain Zhuo saw I was there and figured it was not convenient to kiss you, so he just tucked you in to sleep.” Qi Le recounted the entire process from his own perspective, though he had no idea whether he was exaggerating details.
The moment Qi Le finished speaking, Yan Shu drew a deep breath, then, violently breaking his usual composure, he terminated his extra practice session, fled like he was escaping for his life, and flopped flat onto his bed.
“Moon God, why are you acting all shy?”
“No, Zhuoyue and I are not that kind of relationship.”
Qi Le was not someone who looked for trouble when the mood was gone. Once his gossiping urge faded, he stopped pestering him for answers and quickly steered the topic back to serious matters.
“Moon God, do not lie down just yet, let me ask you something. I have gotten really proficient with Shangguan Wan’er’s ultimate, but why can’t I deal any damage? Help me look at my item build.”
Yan Shu also wanted to quickly purge last night’s events from his mind, so he hastily sat back up. “Come up here.”
Like an eager puppy wagging its tail, Qi Le scrambled right up.
“For this one, my build uses the one from this national-server Wan’er.” Qi Le pointed at the equipment and arcana.
Although Yan Shu wasn’t a mid-lane player, his experience was more than enough to teach Qi Le item builds. He genuinely enjoyed teaching people; taking someone from clueless to competent was a deeply fulfilling achievement.
To ensure Qi Le fully grasped the logic behind the build, Yan Shu meticulously explained every single point.
“Try it out again with this setup,” Yan Shu instructed.
Qi Le immediately went to the training camp to test it out. The results were stellar; it felt far smoother than his previous build and significantly increased his fault tolerance.
“Moon God, you are the absolute best!” Getting too excited as he spoke, Qi Le tossed his phone aside and gave Yan Shu an enthusiastic bear hug.
“I love you even more!” Since Qi Le was still growing, he ate heartily and had a very solid build. This sudden pounce directly knocked Yan Shu flat onto his back.
Just as Qi Le finished expressing his gratitude, the dorm door was pushed open.
Manager Xu stood in the doorway, and upon seeing the two figures embracing on the bed, he let out a hearty laugh. “Oh my, your dorm relationship is certainly close.”
Zhuoyue, standing directly behind Manager Xu, was a different story. The corners of his mouth pulled downward in a hard line, completely unreadable in emotion.
Yan Shu shoved Qi Le away and looked toward the door. “Manager Xu, what is wrong?”
“Oh, regarding tomorrow’s qualifiers. I asked Zhuoyue and only just found out there is a slight issue with the registration for your participation. I had to drag this kid here to fix it, otherwise how are you going to take the stage tomorrow?” Manager Xu explained.
Zhuoyue shot Yan Shu a glance, then cast a murky, unreadable look at Qi Le. “Yan Shu, bring your personal documents and come outside. Also, this dorm bed is not very sturdy, sharing one bed with two people is a good way to collapse it.”