Chapter 49: Unique, Special Treatment
They finished the interview and returned to the lounge to get their things. In the backstage corridor, the WIN players and coach happened to be leaving with their peripheral bags.
WIN’s coach took the initiative to greet them, then took a few extra looks at Beyond. His eyes held both admiration and regret.
WIN fans were pained that Beyond wasn’t their marksman, and WIN’s coach regretted it even more—back at the Haishi Youth Training Camp, he didn’t remember such a trainee?
But regardless, one must be a graceful loser.
The two teams harmoniously scheduled some scrims. While conversing, Zuo Chi caught a glimpse of Ma Song out of the corner of his eye. Ma Song stood at the very back of the group, his eyes bloodshot. He wore a pair of headphones, and his expression was just as sour as it had been during the interview.
“Once again, congratulations to VEX on making the Top Eight. Coach Zuo, let’s schedule a scrim when we have time—we’ll head back to the base now.”
Zuo Chi smiled and said “Goodbye” to WIN’s coach. As Ma Song walked past them, he lazily called him out: “Didn’t we agree yesterday? You wanted to catch up with Beyond after the match? Are we still catching up? If so, I can book a private room at a hotpot place.”
Ma Song’s face turned from a sickly green-black to pale white.
Then it turned white and red by turns, like a monkey’s butt.
“I—”
“No catching up?”
Ma Song grit his teeth, the malice in his eyes almost overflowing.
The other WIN players also sensed the abnormality in this exchange, looking over with curiosity and a bit of annoyance—at Ma Song.
“Ma Song, what are you being so shy for? Weren’t you and Beyond friends since the training camp? If you’re going to eat, just go.” WIN’s captain said irritably. “A loss is a loss. You made a fool of yourself during the interview; are you going to show a sour face to Coach Zuo now too? You think you’re above everyone? Coach Zuo, don’t take it to heart. Ma Song just has this foul temper—I wish VEX success in the following matches.”
“I said this loss was just an accident, I—”
“Shut up!” WIN’s captain glared at him fiercely.
Ma Song seemed to suddenly think of something. A trace of fear flashed across his face, and he stopped speaking.
Zuo Chi remained smiling, looking at him with calm eyes: “It’s fine, let’s reschedule for next time… Your ‘good friend’ Beyond will work hard to take your share of effort and aim for the Spring Split championship.”
Surrounded by the cubs who were all shoulders and arms with him, Beyond glanced at Ma Song once. His expression didn’t change, his hand didn’t shake, and he said softly: “Coach Zuo, I’m a bit hungry.”
The cubs chimed in with various suggestions for tonight’s late-night snack.
They walked quickly toward the lounge.
The WIN players also left quickly, leaving Ma Song standing alone in the long, narrow corridor.
On the way back, Zuo Chi gave the cubs time to digest the excitement of today’s victory.
He sat silently in the back seat, scrolling through videos and discussions about today’s match on major platforms.
The good news was that today’s match had extremely high popularity, directly causing their official Weibo to gain nearly five hundred thousand followers. Many major streamers and game bloggers began clipping their highlights from the match, especially the game with Beyond’s Penta-kill; scrolling through video platforms, it was everywhere.
They were no longer the transparent, weak team that nobody cared about last year.
The bad news was that some bloggers had already analyzed their team’s gold-farming patterns, and the discussion below was very high. In other words, their team’s leading macro play would soon be studied, imitated, and even surpassed by the coaching staff of other teams.
Being able to win 3:1 this time was partly due to the cubs doing well, but also because WIN underestimated them and hadn’t prepared well during the holiday.
The difficulty of the Quarterfinals (Top 8 to Top 4) would surely increase several times over.
[Land: Coach, why aren’t you talking?]
Seeing the message pop up on WeChat, Zuo Chi’s eyes curved slightly.
[Zuo Chi: You guys played very well today. Let everyone be happy for a while. I’m looking at videos of people praising you.]
[Land: Can I look at videos of people praising the Coach?]
[Zuo Chi: No. Team rule: you can’t look at social media during the match period—but you can look at them on my phone, secretly.]
Ning Luzhao was already sitting beside him. Less than a second after the message was sent, he shifted inconspicuously toward Zuo Chi. His phoenix eyes looked over, his gaze first scanning the side of Zuo Chi’s face before landing on the phone screen.
He mouthed: “What videos are you watching?”
The other tapped the search bar on his phone and typed: [VEX Coach Zuo Chi].
He hit search.
The several videos with the highest popularity immediately jumped out.
[23-year-old rookie coach leads team to Top 8 in his first season! One video to understand Coach Zuo’s BP in the Round of 16!]
[Genius Coach ×, Team Incubus, VEX players are all Zuo Chi-brains.]
[VEX upsets and eliminates WIN! Why did VEX transform? This segment from Coach Zuo’s interview gives the answer!]
These titles were a bit dazzling. Zuo Chi averted his gaze with a “swish,” saying awkwardly in a low voice: “Do these self-media bloggers always make titles like this nowadays? Which one do you want to see… watch it yourself.”
Ning Luzhao clicked on the last one.
That one was the interview they had just done on stage, clipped to the part where he spoke.
“…Why are you watching this?”
“It was too noisy on stage just now.” Ning Luzhao lowered his eyelashes. “I didn’t hear what the Coach said very clearly.”
“It was quite noisy, mainly because the audience was very passionate.”
On stage, he had heard with his own ears how the few VEX fans at the scene managed to create an illusion that VEX was already incredibly popular with their individual high volume.
Those shouts were so loud that the cubs on stage turned red in the face one by one; Beyond nearly stuttered and couldn’t speak.
The phone began playing that segment of his interview.
The host asked: “Can Coach Zuo share with us? We all know VEX is a new team assembled just before the Spring Split. Aside from Land who was already in VEX, the other players are all new recruits. Now it seems the team’s chemistry is excellent; how did Coach Zuo find these hidden gems with such keen eyes?”
He replied: “It’s mainly because the players themselves worked hard. From the trials at VEX to the start of synergy after the starters were confirmed, they have always been very serious and diligent… rather than saying I found them, it’s better to say I’m grateful they trusted me and recognized me as their coach.”
“One can tell that the bond between Coach Zuo and the players is particularly good.”
“Yes. After all, they are the first batch of players I’ve led since I started coaching. Every cub is unique and indispensable to the team.”
He thought he said it with three parts officialdom and seven parts genuine emotion.
But after Ning Luzhao quietly watched this interview segment, ripples appeared in the depths of his phoenix eyes, and he tapped “Replay.”
“…Did I say something inappropriate during the interview?” Zuo Chi couldn’t help but ask.
“No.”
Replaying for the third time.
“Then why are you…”
Ning Luzhao suddenly chuckled. He raised his hand to adjust the peripheral bag on his lap. A puppet doll hanging on the bag bumped against the edge, making a soft clinking sound: “I just… wanted to hear the Coach praise me… us a few more times.”
That puppet doll was the one he had painted—the ugly one.
At the time, after the paint dried, Ning Luzhao had taken the doll. The next day, Zuo Chi saw that the doll had a hanging cord added to it and was hanging conspicuously on the peripheral bag.
Zuo Chi’s attention was involuntarily drawn to the doll: “You’re still hanging that puppet doll—I wonder if any fans watching the match today took a photo of it.”
Actually, he also kept the one Ning Luzhao painted for him, placing it by his computer desk every day so he could see it whenever he looked up while working.
But the difference in their painting skills was too large. He felt that Ning Luzhao carrying this… made it look like his aesthetic sense was lacking, and he might be mocked by fans who caught it in photos.
On his phone, in the interview that had been replayed who knows how many times, he was still saying “Every cub is unique…”.
Ning Luzhao’s fingertips gripped the doll. He studied it for a moment, his voice dropping lower—uncertain if it was from tiredness, it was a bit husky.
“It’s fine if it’s photographed… the Coach only painted this one.”
This was probably… his only special treatment from Zuo Chi compared to his other teammates.
the Coach was very dedicated to all of them. At most, because he was already at VEX, he was able to meet the Coach earlier and enjoyed a period of solo “private tutoring” for a bit longer.
Fugui, who was just chatting with Beyond, caught some keyword and suddenly turned back from the front seat: “Coach Zuo, Coach Zuo! Ning-shen is always secretly showing off that puppet doll of his. When will you give us one too—”
“The Quarterfinals are coming up soon. You are not allowed to interfere with the Coach’s work.”
Ning Luzhao’s tone uncharacteristically carried a hint of prominent emotion.
“If you want one, paint it yourself.”
“Wu Yang! Hurry up and help me paint one!” Fugui laughed and diverted the topic, starting to bicker with Wu Yang.
Zuo Chi turned off the video on his phone.
“Land.”
“Hm?”
“Did I really not say anything wrong in that interview?”
Although the atmosphere in the car seemed no different from usual—bickering where there was bickering, and flattery where there was flattery—he always felt that there must be something wrong with an interview video that Ning Luzhao would replay no less than five times.
“No. the Coach said it very well.”
“You’ve watched it too many times.”
“Getting praised… who wouldn’t want to hear it more?”
Zuo Chi pondered for a bit and roughly guessed that Ning Luzhao’s words meant he felt aggrieved that Zuo Chi usually praised him too little.
It was also because Ning Luzhao was too reliable. Whether it was training, review, or anything else, Zuo Chi only had to mention it twice and the boy would adjust himself perfectly. There were no problems that required Zuo Chi to rack his brains and exhaust his thoughts to solve, so naturally, there was less praise.
Starting tomorrow, I’ll find opportunities to praise our little Jungle King.
He silently added a task to his schedule.
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Ahhh Land is so cute! And Zuo Chi adding praise to the schedule is so funny 😂 thanks for translating!