[Esports] I Started an Online Romance with a Big Shot After Retiring Chapter 65

Chapter 65

Shi Feng was in a terrible mood, but he didn’t show it at all. He remained calm and breezy, doing whatever he needed to do, as if Aiai’s departure didn’t affect him much.

It wasn’t until he got on the nanny van and saw that the youth who usually sat next to him had changed into someone else that a complex feeling leaked from the bottom of his eyes.

Not much, and easily concealed.

He exhaled, sat down with his bag, and began staring blankly out the window.

He had coordinated with the support playing today a few times and played scrims; the effect was good. The guy played control supports well and could be considered a very bright existence among rookie supports in recent years.

Shi Feng rested his chin on his hand, looking out the window. Rarely, his mind didn’t wander wildly about the script for today’s match. As he was about to get off, his phone ding-donged with a notification. He glanced at it; it was actually a new message from Shen Yanjin.

Since joining KW, this friend had resumed his mode of frantic ranking, and it was—solo queue. Shi Feng thought this was fierce, fierce from the perspective of both mechanical skill and mentality.

Because KW and TWG were both not very peaceful due to personnel rotations these days, they hadn’t duo queued for a long time. The chat history remained at the “thank you” Shen Yanjin sent after Sliver was officially announced and he “willingly admitted defeat” that day.

Now there was a new message.

[Sliver: Holding up?]

Shi Feng pulled the corner of his mouth and replied.

[TWG-Wind: Are you caring about me?]

[Sliver: ? Otherwise?]

[TWG-Wind: A weasel paying respects to a chicken!!] (Note: implying bad intentions)

[Sliver: [Smile Emoji]]

[Sliver: Aiai?]

[TWG-Wind: He quit the first team.]

[Sliver: …You?]

[TWG-Wind: Nothing to do with me. He told the coach himself and moved out of the first team dorm the next day.]

[Sliver: Don’t overthink. Good luck today.]

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[TWG-Wind: Not cheering for your Moon God?]

[Sliver: It’s fine, you can’t beat him anyway.]

[TWG-Wind: ?]

Is this guy here to comfort him or to roast him?

Regardless, one must move forward.

Getting off at the destination, Shi Feng put away his phone, wiped his face, stood up, and habitually picked up the luggage for the person next to him.

The new support was flattered. “Feng, Brother Feng, I’ll do it myself.”

Shi Feng froze, only then realizing he had mistaken the person. He said stiffly, “Nothing. It’s your first time on stage; don’t be nervous.”

The new support said very touched, “Okay, okay.”

“Hey, isn’t that TWG’s people?”

Not far away, Mi Yonghui squinted his eyes and chin-pointed forward.

Shen Yanjin, who had just finished chatting with Shi Feng, immediately looked up upon hearing this, just in time to see Shi Feng’s back as he walked toward the passage carrying two peripheral bags.

The expression on his face instantly became a bit complicated. “He…”

Duan Mingyue lifted his eyelids. “What about him?”

“He seems a bit bald.” Shen Yanjin sighed. “Is it self-abandonment caused by too much pressure?”

“…” Duan Mingyue knew Shen Yanjin had a good relationship with Shi Feng. He thought he would say something like “thinner” or “haggard,” but who knew this person would be merciless as soon as he opened his mouth. He glanced over there. “Seems a little bit.”

Mi Yonghui said casually, “Aiai left, he is the captain, and there are temporary personnel changes in the team. It’s unavoidable.”

Kai stood up holding his peripheral bag, clicking his tongue and shaking his head upon hearing this. “Pavilion closest to the water, deep sadistic love.”

Shen Yanjin felt these eight words (in Chinese) summarized it quite accurately.

People came and went in the backstage lounge. Photographers were already circling with cameras, shooting footage to warm up the venue later.

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Shen Yanjin ran into Shi Feng in the corridor.

Shi Feng walked with TWG people, and Shen Yanjin with KW people. One was at the very front, the other at the very back. They greeted each other briefly with their eyes and brushed past each other.

Once inside the lounge, Song Yuan remarked casually, “He looks in a pretty good mood, talking and laughing.”

Tans absentmindedly had one hand in his pocket and played with his phone with the other. “That new support of theirs plays okay. It’s tough today.”

Mi Yonghui couldn’t listen anymore. “Go, go, go. Is there anyone who hits their own morale like this before a match?”

“Not right.” Shen Yanjin suddenly spoke up. “Shi Feng’s condition is very poor today. As long as we don’t make major mistakes, it should be a steady win.”

As soon as these words came out, the few people in the lounge were stunned.

Mi Yonghui nervously glanced at the camera.

Duan Mingyue sat on the sofa and laughed briefly. “Why? Isn’t he bald? Being bald should make him stronger.”

Shen Yanjin realized he misspoke and coughed lightly. “Because… he seems quite sad.”

Kai picked up his words from the side. “Pain of losing a wife?”

“Pfft—” Mao Qiude was drinking water and choked abruptly. “Kai!”

Whatever “pavilion closest to the water, deep sadistic love” in the car was fine, but now under the camera, pulling a stunt like this—did KW still want its face if this spread?

Kai sat back sheepishly.

However, Shen Yanjin really wasn’t wrong.

In the first game, TWG’s coach played a trick. Taking advantage of the blue side’s first pick, he secured Tata for their Jungle-Support first. Then, after KW started banning supports, he backhandedly picked Bladesman, a high-damage low-control jungler, actually flexing the control-heavy Tata to the support position.

One had to admit, TWG’s new support had a signature trick; Tata support was indeed in a tier of its own.

Having secured a strong Jungle-Support combo, against KW carrying Lu Yuan—a team that couldn’t play Jungle-Support roam—logically speaking, it should have been a huge advantage.

The result was that in the jungle, Duan Mingyue seized the opportunity and actually scored a double kill in a 1v2.

This was a scenario almost impossible to see in a clash between powerhouses.

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TWG’s defense line began to collapse from here.

Although Shi Feng found back a little rhythm, it didn’t help. If he were facing other junglers, there might have been a chance, but it happened to be Duan Mingyue.

Game one, twenty-seven minutes, KW took Baron and shattered TWG’s base crystal.

Game two, Shi Feng’s condition warmed up slightly, ganking mid and top several times. But in the final mid-lane team fight, success fell short at the last step. Kai and Tans, the two main damage dealers, were like two sharp spears, easily finding the gaps in TWG’s defense and then destroying it.

Score 2-0. The battle situation analyzed by many commentators before the match, various possible operational strategies—none of them happened.

It wasn’t evenly matched; instead, it was like one side pressing the other down and hammering them.

In the lens, the expression on Shi Feng’s face remained very calm.

Mao Qiude in the training room glanced at Shen Yanjin on the chair beside him. “How did you tell his condition wasn’t good?”

Shen Yanjin said vaguely, “Just… intuition.”

He had a deep friendship with Shi Feng. This guy was usually unreliable; if he acted reliable, it didn’t mean he was really serious.

If Shen Yanjin saw Shi Feng with a mourning face when they met today, looking like the sky was falling because Aiai left, Shen Yanjin would have felt his condition was good and his mentality stable.

But he just had to maintain a breezy appearance, even talking and laughing.

It was as if his true side had been completely crushed and couldn’t be shown to people.

The MVP of the first game was given to Duan Mingyue, the second to Tans who dealt explosive damage in team fights, but the one who went out to accept the interview in the end was Song Yuan.

Song Yuan’s appearance of being impervious to sword or spear, water or fire, was simply a natural nemesis for reporters anxious to dig out explosive news from this match focused on public opinion. Many questions were deflected by his soft approach. He made a bland conclusion and slipped away.

Kai started yelling as soon as he pushed open the lounge door. “Holy crap? Sliver is godlike. Wind really seemed to be sleepwalking these two games. How did you know?”

Before Shen Yanjin spoke, he heard Lu Yuan walk into the lounge and say seemingly unintentionally, “Speaking of which, Sliver seemed to be chatting with someone before getting off the car. Was it Wind?”

This remark didn’t sound like much, but placed at such a sensitive time point before the match, especially given their identities as opposing players, it made people associate it with leaking team intelligence beforehand—meaning match-fixing.

Such a big hat being clamped down, Shen Yanjin couldn’t bear it, and Shi Feng couldn’t bear it either.

Yet Shen Yanjin couldn’t refute it, after all, he was indeed chatting with Shi Feng, and he couldn’t just display his phone chat history to prove his innocence. Dirty water splashed on his body, unwashable, very disgusting.

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Shen Yanjin didn’t explain. touching his lip, he looked at her and smiled. “Are you a fan of Shi Feng?”

Lu Yuan frowned, not understanding the relationship. “What?”

“Would rather believe Brother fixed the match than believe Brother is just trash.” Shen Yanjin stood up, picked up the backpack on the sofa, looking indifferent. “Separated from a partner he worked with for years—even a dog’s condition would be affected. Does this even need guessing?”

“You…”

Mi Yonghui stepped forward to smooth things over. “The car is here. Let’s go; we still have to review back at base.”

Whenever the Alliance encountered “interesting” footage in the lounge, they would edit and release it later. Lu Yuan implying Shi Feng and Shen Yanjin colluded in match-fixing, Shen Yanjin explicitly stating Shi Feng was a noob—this was enough to make Mi Yonghui suffer. He didn’t want to add something like “KW internal discord” at this juncture.

After this match, the internet fell into a melee again. People in the circle might understand Aiai and TWG’s choice, but those fans completely couldn’t understand. Some scolded TWG management, some begged Aiai to return; most of the firepower was concentrated on Shi Feng and the rookie support.

Two days later, the Alliance released the lounge edit. Shen Yanjin’s remarks and Lu Yuan’s words ignited a new round of war. The trending searches were all related to WL, things like “Sliver declares Wind trash,” “Lucida questions SliverWind,” and so on. The most laughable one was that there was actually a “Wind lost wife” underneath.

Originating from Kai’s “pain of losing a wife.”

Rhythm was flying everywhere. Sliver’s latest repost of the official announcement stating he would work hard had been conquered by haters, saying he was all talk every day and did no real work.

Shen Yanjin didn’t care about those rhythms; what he cared about was Lu Yuan.

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