Chapter 8: Can’t Let Go
Shen Yanjin really thought it was quite strange.
He had just retired two days ago, and the news was still freshly hanging on the trending search. Why did everyone act like he was a useless waste who had been unemployed for over ten years, sitting at home eating away his savings, all rushing up to arrange work for him?
Shen Yanjin knew about this Catball Streaming.
Back when he was still in the HG team, the manager had asked him about signing a streaming contract.
But the young Shen Yanjin was arrogant and lazy, not understanding what it meant to accumulate popularity, and too lazy to create a persona to cater to fans. He fully believed that mechanics and results were everything, and rejected contracts from all streaming platforms with grand words, becoming a remarkably clear stream in the team.
Thinking back now, rejecting streaming back then not only made his popularity much worse than his teammates, but also caused the team to earn much less money. He was probably hated for it long ago.
Actually, Shen Yanjin knew himself that having just retired, while still having some popularity, hurriedly starting a stream to grab eyeballs and traffic for heat to make a big buck was the most practical thing.
But he stared at this friend request for a while, and still clicked reject.
It wasn’t because of arrogance this time.
It was because if he really threw himself into the streaming industry now, then hope would be completely cut off, and he would be completely severed from esports.
Shen Yanjin leaned back in his chair relaxedly, fished out the cigarette pack he bought from the supermarket earlier from his pocket, removed the plastic wrap, skillfully tapped one out, and held it between his lips with his teeth.
He didn’t rush to light it, but instead clicked open the contact information for the doctor that Yue Fengling had sent over earlier.
“Ancestor!”
Mi Yonghui pushed open the door to the training room like the wind and strode to Duan Mingyue’s desk.
Before speaking the next sentence, he pointed very restrainedly at the microphone: “Is the stream on?”
Seeing his bad expression, Duan Mingyue knew what was up: “Turned off already, what’s wrong?”
Mi Yonghui said with heartache: “You still ask me what’s wrong! You still ask me what’s wrong!! This is already the second time! Ancestor! Can we not start rhythms about ourselves? It’s on the trending search!”
Duan Mingyue looked at him with a faint smile: “Is it strange for me to be on the trending search?”
Mi Yonghui was choked by him, grinding his teeth for a long while before squeezing words out from between them: “Yes, not strange. The problem is that your trending search this time is because of a woman!”
Speaking of this, the anger that had just gone down rushed up again. He slammed the table: “Do you know that the entire esports circle is guessing who that U-whatever support sister is right now? Your fan group has exploded! If the other side is a good person, a passerby, then fine. But what if this person is someone who creates drama? Then it’s all over! BOOM! Explosion!”
In the current esports circle, only a small part of team operations relied on tournament prize money; the bulk relied on sponsorships and fans.
And as the big cash cow of the KW team, any slight fluctuation in Duan Mingyue’s popularity could make Mi Yonghui sweat profusely with anxiety.
Ambiguous interactions with fans in-game—if the other party was a normal person, it was fine to talk. But if it was a brain-dead fan or a drama queen, then there would be hell to pay.
Usually, even when Duan Mingyue didn’t talk to people, a bunch of clout chasers would squeeze towards him. Now that he made an exception to back someone up, and with a rather ambiguous reply, Mi Yonghui’s head grew two sizes bigger just thinking about those “what ifs.”
Duan Mingyue laughed: “So exaggerated? Then what if I really get a girlfriend in the future? Not give her a title, make her have an underground romance with me?”
Mi Yonghui froze: “…That’s not what I meant.”
Duan Mingyue put his headphones back on and waved at him: “If there’s nothing else, get out. Training match is about to start.” Seeing Mi Yonghui still dawdling and unwilling to move, he added impatiently with a heavier tone: “I know what I’m doing.”
“Fine, fine.” You’re the boss, you’re the wildest. Mi Yonghui sighed, arriving aggressively but leaving dejectedly.
The training room door closed again.
Kai carefully leaned his round, big face over: “Captain.”
Duan Mingyue was too lazy to even spare him a glance: “What now.”
“Cough cough cough…” Kai saw that Duan Mingyue was in a bad mood from Mi Yonghui’s disturbance. He looked back miserably at Tans and Song Yuan, who were happily watching the show, and gritted his teeth: “That… U, UOOW…”
Duan Mingyue looked over coldly.
Kai stiffened and swallowed the rest of his words back down: “Nothing, I didn’t say anything, I… I’m going to prepare for the training match.”
He retreated cowardly. Song Yuan, who hadn’t gotten to watch the show, walked over hating iron for not becoming steel and pinched his fat: “Eating so fat, yet guts so small!”
Kai glared at him: “You go if you have guts.”
Tans shushed them, stopping the two from fighting. He raised his chin toward the front, signaling his two teammates to look.
Beside Duan Mingyue, whose surrounding air pressure was extremely low, a bold person unafraid of death walked over gracefully.
“Hiss…” Kai clicked his tongue in amazement. “She’s really persistent.”
Song Yuan gave a short laugh through his nose, making no comment.
“Brother Moon.” Lu Yuan walked over and tentatively placed her hand lightly on the man’s shoulder, her voice softening again and again: “Don’t mind it, Manager Mi is also anxious for the good of the team.”
She kept her voice very soft and intentionally pinched her throat. The resulting effect gave the three straight men watching from the side goosebumps.
Duan Mingyue furrowed his brows, trying hard to suppress his impatience.
He didn’t understand. It was just meeting an interesting teammate in-game and interacting in public chat. If it were anyone else, the effect wouldn’t be much different from eating or drinking water. Why was it that when it happened to him, it was treated like the end of the world?
He exhaled and confirmed the match with a blank expression: “I know.”
Although Mi Yonghui liked to make a fuss and badmouth rivals when he had nothing to do, his professional ability was strong, he was quite smooth in external dealings, and loyal to the team. Precisely because of this, Duan Mingyue kept him as the team manager.
Lu Yuan paused for a moment, biting her lip: “Brother Moon.”
Duan Mingyue said, “What?”
“That Support, you really don’t know her?”
Duan Mingyue turned his head and stared at her fixedly, not speaking.
Lu Yuan felt chills down her back from his gaze and almost wanted to flee, but she was unwilling in her heart. She had long placed herself in the position of Duan Mingyue’s girlfriend. Now that Duan Mingyue was on the trending search with another woman, how could she tolerate it?
Just when the atmosphere solidified to the point where even Kai on the side wanted to come up and mediate, Duan Mingyue suddenly laughed.
He curled his lips slightly: “The training match is about to start, go prepare.”
After speaking, he turned back to the screen, his mouse quickly selecting his character and entering the game map.
Clearly, he didn’t want to waste any more words.
Lu Yuan only felt her whole heart tied to Duan Mingyue. When he was cold, she was terrified; when he smiled, she was jubilant.
She liked him so much.
So, how could Duan Mingyue not like her??
How could he not like her!
This man would definitely become hers sooner or later!
She looked resentfully at Duan Mingyue’s back, anxiously biting her fingernails, and left unwillingly.
The protagonist exited, the drama came to a pause, and the people watching the show on the side also breathed a sigh of relief.
Kai whispered into Song Yuan’s ear: “Captain must be annoyed to death by her.”
Song Yuan rubbed the goosebumps on his arm and sighed: “Women.”
Tans rarely joined the gossip: “Feels like Lucida’s offensive has been getting fiercer lately.”
Kai paused, shrinking his neck and looking around for a long time before whispering very softly: “In-game, she’s getting weaker though.”
In the previous World Championship BO5 best of five, they had originally secured three match points, only one step away from victory. As a result, Lu Yuan had issues consecutively, almost burying the match. In the end, it was Duan Mingyue who forcefully carried Kai and Song Yuan in the mid and top lanes to hold on.
The other two evidently felt the same, smiling bitterly at each other and saying no more.
It wasn’t that they intentionally chewed their tongues behind a teammate’s back. After all, six years as old teammates, even a stone would have warmed up.
But Lu Yuan’s bizarre operations in the past two years were really too many. Creating drama every day, and playing terribly in matches; it was really hard not to have opinions about her.
Women, liking young, handsome, and rich men was normal.
But letting it affect business was crossing the line a bit.
Kai said again: “Hey, do you guys think that UOOW is actually someone Captain knows?”
Tans shrugged: “Don’t know, fifty-fifty I guess.”
Song Yuan said: “How so fifty-fifty?”
Tans glanced at him: “Captain practiced the vow of silence in public chat for over four years, and broke it for her today. That’s the half for knowing her. But from the recording and chat logs, it indeed looks like a passerby met by chance. That’s the half for not knowing.”
Kai shook his head and sighed: “Complex, really complex. Whatever, stop thinking about it, training match GOGOGO.”
“…Okay, thank you, Doctor.”
Having made an appointment for the checkup, Shen Yanjin exhaled and rubbed his faintly throbbing right wrist.
He was somewhat helpless. Thinking back, he used to play high-intensity training for over ten hours straight without any issues. Who would have thought that now, just playing two or three casual ranked games, it would hurt so much he could barely operate.
Retribution.
Apart from a few players in the circle close to Shen Yanjin, Shen Yanjin hadn’t told anyone about his hand injury, including HG’s teammates and management.
He had secretly gone to the hospital, but it wasn’t very effective. Plus, he had to go for physical therapy for a few hours at a set time every day. Where would Shen Yanjin find that kind of time? So he simply let it be.
Later, the team manager came to find him, telling him the team’s decision and asking him to prepare to leave.
At that time, Shen Yanjin’s hand was already quite serious, and the team’s ostracization of him was becoming more obvious, so he agreed quite cleanly.
Shen Yanjin thought he was disheartened with this profession and accepted his fate. But now that he had time and leisure, calming down to think about it, he found he still couldn’t let go.
Speaking so arrogantly to Yue Fengling, actually, he felt that as long as a team wanted him, he would play.
He didn’t want to give up.
He still wanted to fight in the same competition region as Duan Mingyue.
Shen Yanjin glanced at the location sent by the doctor and saved the address into the navigation.
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