Chapter 37: Rehabilitation
After the anesthesia wore off, Shen Yanjin’s suffering truly began.
The incision left by the wrist surgery wasn’t large, but the pain pierced the heart and carved the bones, while the itch scratched the heart and clawed the liver. Pain was one thing—let it hurt! But the itching was helpless; he could only grit his teeth and endure it forcefully.
Shen Yanjin often rolled back and forth on the bed from the itching, wishing he could tear open the wound, dig out the flesh inside, and scratch, pinch, and bite it. After one bout, his clothes would be stuck to his skin with dripping cold sweat, requiring his body to be wiped down three or four times a day.
The doctor prescribed painkillers and anti-inflammatories, but they were useless; the pain and itch that were due didn’t decrease.
Three days passed like this before the situation gradually improved.
According to Dr. Li, his post-operative recovery was considered good.
This made it hard for Shen Yanjin to imagine what a poor recovery looked like.
Seeing his lingering fear, Dr. Li smiled meaningfully. “Scared already? The real hardship is still to come!”
Dr. Li didn’t lie to him.
A week later in the rehabilitation room, Shen Yanjin was covered in sweat, following the therapist responsible for guiding him to slowly perform the exercise of opening and closing his five fingers.
Just such a simple movement made him tremble all over from pain, tears bursting from the corners of his eyes.
At night, Shen Yanjin lay exhausted on the hospital bed.
The torture of pain, the suffering of rehab, and the loneliness of having no one around—in the dark, quiet night, negative emotions were like a venomous snake drilling out from the bottom of his heart, flicking a cold tongue, its slippery body ruthlessly strangling his neck.
Even though his body was sleepy enough to fall asleep the next moment, Shen Yanjin was so annoyed he couldn’t even lie down properly.
He fished out his phone from under the pillow, intending to read some random news to dispel the depression. But with a tap of his finger, he accidentally clicked into Duan Mingyue’s stream room.
Duan Mingyue didn’t like streaming during the season, nor did he care about the money from the platform. Once the competition phase began, disappearing for months was common.
To appease fans, he would choose to stream more during the offseason. For example, now, approaching the season, was when Duan Mingyue streamed the most.
It was already very late, but for internet-addicted youths, the nightlife had just begun.
When Shen Yanjin opened the stream, Duan Mingyue was playing solo queue to maintain his rank points.
He picked the version-strong jungler Spider Queen, arrogantly strolling through the enemy jungle.
Without UOOW’s account lowering the matchmaking rating, Duan Mingyue’s opponents and teammates were basically all high-ELO Challengers. Shen Yanjin took a glance; many IDs on both sides were pro players with team prefixes.
Coincidentally, Duan Mingyue’s teammate support this game was Aiai, while the opposing AD was Shi Feng (Wind).
In this version, even for randoms, as long as the jungler was reliable, the support would basically bind to the jungler and leave the bot lane to fend for itself.
Especially since the jungler this game was Duan Mingyue.
But strangely, Aiai stayed quietly in the bot lane the whole time, covering his AD to push Shi Feng’s wave, occasionally pinging signals to Duan Mingyue indicating an opportunity to gank bot.
Shen Yanjin looked at the bot lane stats.
Aiai’s Yeti: 0/4/6. Random AD: 5/3/1. Shi Feng: 5/6/2.
In other words, these three brothers gathered in the bot lane playing “Fight the Landlord” the entire time, going nowhere else. All kills were lane kills.
Was there some hidden grudge?
More importantly, Shi Feng didn’t know how to play AD, dammit! Even if filling, it was usually Mid or Support—positions that could roam and gank. Why?
Shen Yanjin suddenly remembered the time Shi Feng played Jungle and lost two hundred points because of Aiai’s control support, then came to him to duo queue to regain points. A guess emerged in his heart.
Could it be that Shi Feng lost a huge chunk of points again, his mentality collapsed, and he let himself go by playing AD?
Thinking of a certain top laner surnamed Yue in his list who loved playing AD to troll, Shen Yanjin thought painfully: Don’t tell me he was infected by Yue Fengling. AD, truly a sinful position!
But Duan Mingyue was different. He played Jungle well, and his AD play was also classy. He shouldn’t be infected.
He couldn’t guess what was going on between Shi Feng and Aiai just by speculating dryly here. Maybe it was some little flirtation between the duo partners.
Shen Yanjin stopped paying attention to bot lane and shifted his focus back to Duan Mingyue.
This game was high ELO, but because the three in bot lane were intentionally brawling, no stalemate occurred. Duan Mingyue’s Spider Queen established enough advantage early on. Now, while farming the enemy’s jungle camps, he was chatting with the bullet screen.
Listening to Duan Mingyue’s voice, the annoyance and dispellable depression in Shen Yanjin’s heart were gradually occupied by an indescribable expectation and apprehension.
Just wait a little longer, and he could fly to Duan Mingyue’s side. How long had he looked forward to this day!
Closing his eyes, Shen Yanjin could recall the scene of looking at Duan Mingyue’s profile from afar through thousands of people and light boards as he smiled at others.
He was envious and jealous, yet could do nothing.
But now, as long as he survived this rehab, the thing he dreamed of could come true.
Shen Yanjin closed his eyes, seeming to be back in the competition arena.
This time, he sat beside Duan Mingyue. The man turned his head to look at him, the corners of his lips curving into a gentle smile.
Shen Yanjin’s Adam’s apple bobbed. Like a thief, he glanced at the caregiver’s bed, then turned over, wrapping himself in the quilt.
In this game, Duan Mingyue treated the enemy jungler like a vegetable (easy kill), ganked lanes fiercely, and got insanely fed. The enemy Jungle and Support combined couldn’t beat him.
Bot lane’s Aiai was still deadlocked with Shi Feng, playing 2v1 the whole time. Although Shi Feng wasn’t completely at a disadvantage, he was stuck. At twenty minutes, the enemy couldn’t take it anymore and chose to surrender.
Seeing Duan Mingyue finish playing, Shen Yanjin hurriedly switched to the chat app, wanting to talk to Duan Mingyue.
Due to post-op recovery and rehab these past few days, even if he wanted to chat with Duan Mingyue, he lacked the energy. Their chat history stopped two days ago with some trivial words, ending in two sentences.
Coincidentally, before Shen Yanjin opened the chat box, a new message popped up.
This message popped up on his main account, sent by Shi Feng.
[TWG-Wind: Come save me, I’m being beaten.]
[TWG-Wind: Wuwuwu Aiai actually betrayed me, went to duo queue with RedMoon, and stared at me to hammer the whole game. I’m in such pain.]
Shen Yanjin replied with a question mark.
He typed with his left hand under the covers with difficulty.
[Sliver: No way, I saw Moon God was solo queueing.]
Hearing this, Shi Feng got even more agitated.
[TWG-Wind: You-you-you, how did you know! Did you betray me too! I misjudged you!]
?
What illness is acting up now?
If it were someone else, fine, but Shi Feng was close to him and knew he was a RedMoon fanboy. Saying this suddenly—either his brain short-circuited or he was provoked.
He typed.
[Sliver: …? What exactly happened?]
[TWG-Wind: I don’t know either.]
[TWG-Wind: Brother Song suddenly stopped ignoring me.]
Song Aiyu, Aiai’s real name. Shi Feng usually called him Aiai with Shen Yanjin, but in the team or privately, everyone called Aiai “Brother Song.”
Shen Yanjin felt even stranger hearing this: Impossible? In his eyes, Aiai was like Shi Feng’s guardian, patiently guiding this naughty kid Shi Feng through several seasons. His temper was so good it was non-existent. Even if the two had unhappy moments, it was definitely Shi Feng sulking.
Curiosity piqued, he guided patiently: [Think about it, did you say or do anything related to Aiai recently? No matter how small.]
Shi Feng racked his brain but couldn’t come up with anything. He said very confusedly: [Nothing happened? If I have to say, it’s just the substitute matter.]
Shen Yanjin paused: [What substitute?]
Shi Feng said as a matter of course: [What substitute could it be? Substitute support, of course. Aiai is awesome at protective supports, functional supports are passable, but control supports can’t be played in matches at all. We definitely need to find a sub who can play control supports. Speaking of which, I even recommended you to the coach hahahaha.]
…
Shen Yanjin was a bit numb: [Are you serious? You call this “nothing happened”?]
Shi Feng was puzzled: [Isn’t this just normal team rotation? KW Team is the same, getting a control support sub to strengthen the team. Is it strange?]
Shen Yanjin…
Shen Yanjin was actually somewhat convinced by him.
Given that worldly wisdom was too complex for Shi Feng’s simple brain structure, and his own emotional problems were a mess, he had no time to get involved in others’.
So Shen Yanjin was silent for a while, then replied: [You’re right.]
Delayed by Shi Feng for a while, fortunately, Duan Mingyue’s high rank meant slow queue times. He hadn’t matched into the next game yet and was still smilingly chatting with the bullet screen.
Shen Yanjin switched accounts and sent a pitiful cat emoji to Duan Mingyue’s chat box.
Immediately, he heard Duan Mingyue’s voice in the stream pause. The sound of a keyboard clacking arose; clearly, he was typing to someone.
[KW-RedMoon: Bored?]
[UOOW: QAQ En.]
[UOOW: Can’t sleep.]
[UOOW: Just… really want to hear your voice.]
After typing this sentence, Shen Yanjin felt his fingertips burning.
A light chuckle came from the stream room.
[KW-RedMoon: Call then?]
Shen Yanjin’s throat bobbed. He was tempted.
The problem was, he didn’t have a voice changer on his phone.
Although telling the truth was inevitable, Shen Yanjin just felt that dragging it out as long as possible was better. For example, having the gentle Duan Mingyue now—even one more minute was a gain.
He typed: [It’s not convenient for me to talk here…]
Duan Mingyue, however, sent a voice call request that allowed no refusal.
[KW-RedMoon: It’s fine. I’ll talk, you just listen.]
[KW-RedMoon: I happen to be streaming.]
[KW-RedMoon: What, the number one on the server is personally coaxing you to sleep, not satisfied?]
Shen Yanjin was amused by his sudden cheesy pickup line.
He hurriedly said satisfied, then clicked connect.
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