“Captain, I am here ” Xu Ya threw open the lounge door, full of life and looking like a completely different person compared to yesterday when he had a stomachache.
He glanced around the lounge, sensing that the atmosphere was a bit off. On his way over, he had heard people say that their team was on a three-match losing streak, and he had assumed his ears were bad and he had misheard.
Now, it seemed the team really was on a three-match losing streak.
Yan Shu still kept his head lowered. He had not even noticed Xu Ya arrive, his mind echoing with phrases like “I do not trust you,” “match-fixing dog,” and “throwing on purpose.” His head felt like it was about to explode…
It hurt so much.
As Yan Shu closed his eyes in agony, Zhuoyue happened to look back toward the door. Seeing who had arrived, his tone softened slightly: “You are here? Get ready to take the stage.”
“Captain, are you guys, are you all okay?” No matter how lacking in social awareness Xu Ya was, he could still tell that everyone’s faces looked strange. Aside from the unwillingness to accept defeat, their eyes were filled with discontent and anger.
Luo Yan stepped forward and threw an arm around Xu Ya’s shoulders, his tone relaxed: “It is a good thing you are here. You will not have to worry about being griefed by an actor anymore.”
“What? This kind of match has actors?” Xu Ya scratched his head, not understanding what his teammate meant.
Luo Yan jutted his chin out, gesturing toward Yan Shu’s direction.
“You guys are really letting him play?” Xu Ya pushed his lips out in a pout, shrinking his neck as he accused, “If you guys do not lose, who will?”
Before the mid-laner and support could finish talking, Zhuoyue walked over and stood by the door. “Let us go, let us win back the remaining two matches.”
“That is a must! If we lose, our team will…” Lin Qi knew all too well what state the club was in. Without a GPL ticket, their team would genuinely disband.
Matches were scheduled back-to-back with very tight intervals. The members of the SR team regrouped and headed toward the arena.
It was not until everyone had left that Yan Shu slowly opened his eyes. Water droplets clung to his eyelashes, it was impossible to tell whether they were sweat rolling down his forehead or tears.
This was the first time he was having an episode without his medication. Not only was he enduring hundredfold psychological torture, but his physical symptoms were also on the verge of crushing the life out of him.
The sensation felt as though his heart, liver, spleen, and lungs had all been ripped out, thrown into a frying pan with boiling oil, and then jammed back into his body while burning hot.
The clothes on Yan Shu’s body were soaked through with sweat. Struggling to breathe, he simply ripped off the mask that hid his face and slumped sideways next to the sofa. He furrowed his brows tightly, enduring every wave of agony.
He had no idea how much time had passed. Just as Yan Shu felt like he was about to pass out, someone steadied him.
In his muddled, semi-conscious state, he sensed a dark shadow before his eyes, followed by a sudden lightness as if he had been scooped up into someone’s arms.
The person who carried Yan Shu to the sofa was none other than Zhuoyue, and by this point, the SR team had already secured victory in the finals.
During the brief intermission between the final two matches, no one had returned to the team lounge, instead, they had stretched out briefly off-stage before heading straight back up to play the concluding match.
With Xu Ya back in the lineup, Zhuoyue’s lone-wolf playstyle permeated the entire match. Aside from hogging all the farm resources, he played with ruthless aggression, practically carrying the entire team single-handedly.
Coupled with the exceptionally high synergy among the members of the SR first team, they over-performed in the final two matches and successfully claimed their GPL entry ticket.
After winning the match, Lin Qi ran two jubilant laps around the stage, howling like a madman as if he had never won a match in his entire life.
Zhuoyue wore a rare smile, declaring generously: “We are going out to eat. Dinner is still on me tonight, and I will give you all a day off tomorrow.”
“For real?” Hearing the word “holiday,” Luo Yan’s eyes lit up with a scorching brilliance akin to lightbulbs.
Borrowing the latest internet slang, Lin Qi asked, “Is that fur-real? Captain, did you always say we should not skip training when we have time?”
“It is real. I am going to grab something from the lounge, and by the way, I will bring your phones. You guys head out to the bus first, I will be right there.” Zhuoyue walked back toward the backstage area.
Lin Qi hollered from behind: “Captain, you truly are a wonderful captain who serves the people!”
“Such a slick talker, haha.” Xu Ya chuckled happily, then jokingly chimed in after Zhuoyue: “Captain, you are my biological captain!”
Zhuoyue heard every word as he walked toward the lounge, and the corners of his mouth could not help curling upward in amusement.
The moment he pushed open the lounge door, he spotted the figure slumped over the sofa armrest, causing him to freeze right in the doorway.
Seeing Yan Shu’s bloodless face and the cold sweat covering his forehead, Zhuoyue sprinted over in a single stride and scooped Yan Shu up from the floor, placing him properly onto the sofa.
“Mmm…” Yan Shu let out a painful moan. The features crumpled on his face were a silent testament to the agonizing torment his body was undergoing.
“Yan Shu, Yan Shu… what is wrong with you?” Zhuoyue’s voice was completely different from usual, much quieter and filled with aching distress.
Whenever Yan Shu suffered an episode, his memory grew tangled and his speech became somewhat delirious. Unaware that he was completely out of medicine, he grabbed Zhuoyue’s collar, whispering like a thread of gossamer: “Medicine…”
“What medicine? Where is it?” Zhuoyue reached out to touch his forehead, confirming there was no fever, yet remaining utterly baffled by what kind of ailment Yan Shu was suffering from.
Yan Shu tried to prop his upper body up, but the moment he sat upright, his limbs went completely limp and he toppled straight back into Zhuoyue’s embrace.
“Sorry… in the bag.”
Zhuoyue had no idea what bag Yan Shu had brought today. A sudden flash of inspiration hit him as he remembered picking up a stray pill on the bus yesterday, a pill he had tucked away inside his own backpack.
“Can you sit up?” Zhuoyue wanted to go fetch the medicine, but worried that Yan Shu lacked the strength to sit and might accidentally tumble to the floor.
Yan Shu opened his eyes slightly, issuing a sluggish response: “Mmm…”
As Zhuoyue went to retrieve the medicine, he glanced back every three steps, terrified of some sudden accident befalling Yan Shu. When he finally managed to find the pill, he rushed to find water, only to discover that the lounge contained only half a bottle of mineral water he had previously drank from himself, while all other bottles were either empty or completely dry.
The situation was critical, leaving Zhuoyue no time to care that the water had already touched his own lips. He unscrewed the cap instantly.
“Open your mouth.” Zhuoyue crouched beside Yan Shu.
Yan Shu could only perceive his surroundings in brief snatches. With his eyes closed tight and his body trembling continuously, he had not heard a single word of what Zhuoyue said.
Driven to desperation, Zhuoyue had no choice but to pry Yan Shu’s mouth open with his bare hands, take the pill wrapped in a tissue, and place it directly inside.
“Hurry up and drink some water to wash the pill down, I am taking you to the hospital.” Zhuoyue spoke as he brought the water bottle to Yan Shu’s lips and tipped it downward.
Barely any water had poured in before Yan Shu clamped his lips shut and broke into a fit of coughing.
Terrified that Yan Shu might choke to death right there, Zhuoyue hastily forced his mouth open again to check if the pill had gone down.
Lo and behold, the intact pill was still resting right on top of Yan Shu’s bright red tongue, completely unmoving like a stone.
Zhuoyue repeatedly attempted to feed Yan Shu water, but every single effort failed.
After multiple rounds of trial and error, Zhuoyue finally realized that Yan Shu’s current state was practically indistinguishable from unconsciousness, he had likely lost the physical ability to swallow water normally.
Pondering desperately, Zhuoyue ultimately made up his mind to feed Yan Shu the water directly himself.
He picked up the water bottle and took a large gulp. Then, leaning down swiftly, he pressed his lips against Yan Shu’s, pried Yan Shu’s teeth apart, and directly transferred the water into his mouth.
To ensure the pill and water went down together, Zhuoyue even double-checked after finishing the transfer.
Just minutes after the pill went down, Yan Shu’s breathing smoothed out, and he slipped directly into a deep slumber.
Observing that the situation had stabilized, Zhuoyue let out a long breath of relief. Wrapping Yan Shu securely in his team jacket, he scooped him up once more, headed toward the back door, and hailed a taxi straight to the nearest hospital.
Arriving at the hospital, Zhuoyue registered him for emergency care and watched as Yan Shu was wheeled into the treatment room before the heavy rock in his chest finally settled.
Judging by the way Yan Shu had suffered his episode earlier, it looked as much like asthma as it did some other mysterious condition…
As Zhuoyue sat pondering in the hospital corridor, the phone in his pocket suddenly rang.
Answering the call, Zhuoyue suddenly remembered that his teammates were still waiting back at the venue like a pack of baby birds crying for food.
“Captain, you did not run away because you did not want to treat us, did you?” The call was from Luo Yan.
Zhuoyue rubbed the bridge of his nose. “No, Yan Shu was not feeling well, so I brought him to the hospital.”
“Huh? What could possibly be wrong with him? Don not tell me he is faking it just to clear his name from being an actor,” Luo Yan speculated with malicious intent.
“Do not ask. Where are you guys? I will be right over, let us go get dinner.” Zhuoyue stood up.
Only then did Luo Yan change his tune: “That is fantastic, we are about to starve to death. 07 and Xu Ya are hungry, they are hanging out at the venue snack kiosk, while Brother Dao and I are waiting in the bus.”
“Alright, on my way.” Zhuoyue hung up, glanced back at the closed treatment room door, hesitated for a moment, and then departed.
Meanwhile, back inside the treatment room, Yan Shu was gradually waking up. Opening his eyes to see a simply decorated ceiling and a doctor wearing a white cap, he roughly figured out where he was.
“Doctor, I, I was just having a stress response.” Yan Shu had no idea what kind of treatment he had received to regain consciousness so quickly.
“Let me give you a full physical examination first. Also, what medication do you usually take?” the doctor asked solemnly.
Yan Shu rattled off a string of English names. Failing to catch his breath properly as he spoke, he broke into a prolonged bout of coughing that left his face flushed a brilliant red.
Seeing this, the doctor furrowed his brows. “Breathe in, breathe out, take your time and speak slowly. That medication of yours, is it imported? Do you have the strength to write? Just write it down.”
“Doctor, this medicine is a bit, a bit hard to find,” Yan Shu said laboriously, finishing the whole sentence.
The doctor pulled on his gloves. “This is a hospital, we can source pharmaceuticals through the fastest channels, you do not need to worry about that. Also, the results of your recent blood draw are back, your hypoglycemia is severe, and your nutritional intake is severely lacking. You have got psychological issues, but are you planning to throw away your physical body too? Oh, and your stress response also caused respiratory irregularities, go get your lungs checked out in a bit.”
“Understood.” As soon as he finished speaking, Yan Shu belatedly remembered something. “Doctor, how did I get here?”
“Ah, speaking of that, do you have family members? The handsome guy who brought you here earlier has already left. Are you guys, are you athletes?” The doctor glanced at the clothes Yan Shu was wearing.
Yan Shu shook his head. “I…”
“Alright, I will use your phone to notify your family later, just focus on getting some proper rest right now.” Seeing Yan Shu’s state, the doctor cut him off directly, no longer expecting any coherent answers from him.
Thinking of the scattered contacts inside his phone, Yan Shu slowly closed his eyes.