Chapter 32: Meeting of the Green Tea Masters
During the break, Shen Guanchao randomly ordered takeout to deal with dinner. Just as he was about to switch platforms to scroll through Weibo, the WeChat group named “Coach, Say Something!” suddenly started vibrating.
It was NAVA’s daily life group, specifically used for banter, pranks, and deception.
[Zoe the Demon King: Raising hand! Making a small report. During the break, a certain Main Attacker just opened Weibo and liked a video called “Don’t Fall in Love Challenge Ā· E-sports Male God Edition” and forgot to switch to his alt account!]
[Zoe the Demon King: The impact is extremely bad! And the most handsome guy in the video actually wasn’t our Brother Fox!]
[Fox: Are you sick?]
[Zoe the Demon King: Coach Gege, look at him~]
[Pei Zhi: ???]
[Pei Zhi: Can everyone please not make personal attacks?]
[Pei Zhi: @Flesh (Shen Guanchao) Switch to your alt when surfing Weibo. Don’t use your main account to like those weird things.]
[Flesh: [Animated Sticker – I’m behaving, please spare me]]
[Lu Wuxu: Let me interject. RSG just officially announced their new Sniper, Neil. Soso also came out of retirement not long ago.]
[After a round of reshuffling, RSG’s shortcomings have been greatly improved, and their overall strength is even more formidable.]
[Lu Wuxu: Several other first-tier teams have also integrated, especially IAC, who spent a fortuneāten millionāto buy a foreign aid Sniper.]
[Zoe the Demon King: Neil? Isn’t that the one fans blew up to the sky as ‘Little God Lu’? He’s quite famous. It’s one thing to imitate Old Lu’s playstyle, but even his operations have to involve Old Lu. I don’t know about that IAC foreign aid, but ten million… IAC’s boss really bled for this wave. By the way, Old Pei, how much is our Little Xie getting a year again?]
[Pei Zhi: Cough cough. Let’s skip the topic of signing fees for now.]
[Pei Zhi: Every team has improved this season. We can’t stand still either. Everyone, work hard.]
[Pei Zhi: But back to the old rules. If I catch anyone smoking during the season, it’s a five hundred deduction per stick. I’ll deduct it if I smell smoke, especially @Flesh]
Shen Guanchao, who held the highest record of being deducted fifteen thousand in one month, was suddenly called out: “…”
Truly sumimasen, Coach-chan.
[Pei Zhi: Continue training if you’ve rested enough. I’ll bring you guys a late-night snack later. What do you want to eat?]
[Zoe the Demon King: Raising hand! I nominate ‘Sour and Spicy Boneless Chicken Feet’!]
[Zoe the Demon King: Fox wants barbecue.]
[Flesh: That place in the west of the city. The usual three dishes.]
[Pei Zhi: Alright, Young Master.]
[Lu Wuxu: @Pei Zhi, I want the same as him.]
[Pei Zhi: You? Managers don’t get to eat. Work hard on your overtime.]
Lu Wuxu: “?”
We’re all colleagues, why the discriminatory treatment?
[Zoe the Demon King: Pitiful.]
[Flesh: #HeartacheForBrotherLu#]
Pei Zhi: “…”
[Pei Zhi: @Siren, what about you, Jingchu?]
Xie Jingchu thought for a moment and spoke: “I’ll have the same as the Captain too.”
Shen Guanchao’s “usual three dishes” were numbing and spicy. Remembering this guy’s old ailment, he resolutely said, “No.”
“He has a bad stomach. Just get him something light.”
Hearing this, Lu Wuxu smiled. “My stomach is bad too. Will you take care of me as well?”
“Then from now on, you sit at the kids’ table when we drink.” Shen Guanchao glanced at him and turned back to the training room.
“Siren.” Walking to the computer station, he called out to the person beside him, “Continue queuing together?”
“Teach me how to snipe. You take the Healer.”
Xie Jingchu met Shen Guanchao’s indifferent gaze. “Okay…”
He frowned slightly. Since the trial training began, Shen Guanchao rarely called him by his name when they were together. He usually called him by his player ID, seemingly treating him only as an ordinary teammate.
“Started.” Shen Guanchao skillfully switched into the queue.
Throughout the game, he followed Xie Jingchu’s guidance. In no time, they secured the first victory. After hurriedly glancing at the stats, he immediately switched to the next game.
They queued continuously for two hours without interruption. As one game was nearing its end, Shen Guanchao noticed that after Xie Jingchu killed an enemy, he would occasionally touch his stomach with his left hand. Obviously, his stomach was uncomfortable again, but he just rubbed it once and was done, then quickly withdrew his hand to press the keyboard, cooperating with him to continue the game.
Shen Guanchao felt annoyed watching this. He reminded Xie Jingchu, “Pause for a bit. There’s a stomach-warming health drink on my desk. Go make it yourself. Drink it and sleep on the sofa for a while. don’t hold it in until you end up in the hospital.”
Xie Jingchu obediently took off his headphones, looked at him silently, and asked, “You care about me?”
“Think what you want. It’s not me who’s in pain.” Shen Guanchao ground his back molars and retorted sarcastically.
“Okay.”
Xie Jingchu indeed listened to him. He made a cup of the hot drink, carried it to the sofa, and drank it while rubbing his stomach, simultaneously having a new epiphany.
āPlaying the victim really works.
Lu Wuxu, who had been OB-ing (observing) the players’ training, took the initiative to sit beside Xie Jingchu and smiled. “Not feeling well?”
Xie Jingchu nodded.
“I’m a little bit unwell too. If you don’t mind, could you help make a cup for me too?” Lu Wuxu said gently.
But he actually didn’t have a stomachache; he just wanted to find an opportunity to chat a few words with Xie Jingchu.
And Xie Jingchu had no reason to refuse. He took a new cup from under the coffee table and made him a cup of the health drink as well.
“Thank you.” Lu Wuxu took it, lowered his head to take a small sip, and then naturally brought up a topic. “Were you close with Ah Ting before?”
“Yes.” Hearing this, Xie Jingchu lifted his head from the rising steam of the hot tea and asked back, “What about it?”
Lu Wuxu said as if he didn’t care at all, “Nothing, no wonder he recommended you. But looking at his attitude towards you… it’s very strange. Can’t say it’s good, can’t say it’s bad.”
“Something must have happened between you two for it to become like this, right?”
“…” Xie Jingchu pursed his lips and withdrew his gaze, not really wanting to answer this question.
In the silence, Shen Guanchao, who had just walked out of the training room, happened to see the two of them sitting together. He raised an eyebrow in surprise. “You two are being weak together?”
Xie Jingchu slowly shook his head. “No…”
Not weak, just uncomfortable…
Lu Wuxu admitted generously, “I am indeed weak recently, so you have to be nicer to me.”
Shen Guanchao scoffed. “Sure.”
Xie Jingchu silently looked at this “Green Tea Master” beside him, listening thoughtfully to their intimate interaction as if no one else was there, his eyes turning a few degrees colder.
Pei Zhi came back with the late-night snacks and just pushed open the villa’s main door.
Zoe was moved to tears. With a dry howl, he started acting: “Foster! Father! You’re finally backā”
Pei Zhi was thoroughly shocked by him, retreating several steps in succession. Finally, Fox couldn’t stand it anymore. He grabbed Zoe by the collar, interrupting his spell casting. “Stand properly, stop howling.”
“This is Building A, what kind of B-grade noise are you making?”
Zoe’s Demon King attribute exploded. “You actually flamed me?”
“I announce that you get no share of my sour and spicy boneless chicken feet!!”
Knowing he held grudges, Fox curved his eyes in understanding, slowly leaned down, and brought his face close to his. “Angry?”
Zoe: “No.”
Fox gave an “Mn” and teased, “Good that you’re not. Even if you were angry, I wouldn’t coax you.”
“…”
Pei Zhi held his forehead and sneered, sighing internally that their club’s corporate culture was truly too special.
Special to the point of being a bit insane.
Shen Guanchao took two servings of fish fillet porridge from Pei Zhi and placed them on the coffee table in front of Xie Jingchu and Lu Wuxu. “Didn’t you two form a stomachache team? Eat.”
Xie Jingchu’s smile stiffened. “I really am in pain.”
As for whether the one beside him was faking it, he didn’t know.
“Everyone gather around.” Pei Zhi pulled out a chair and sat down. “Let’s talk business. Give me the bottom line. Can we have a seventy percent win rate against RSG this season?”
“Conservatively speaking, yes.” Shen Guanchao nodded. “Although their overall strength is stronger, the two people swapped in still need a long time to integrate. The issue of shortcomings has been replaced by the issue of coordination.”
“On our side, me, Fox, and Zoe are steady as old dogs, no need to mention that. Just looking at the configuration, we suppress them by a head. Only Siren is an unstable factor and still needs integration. He will inevitably be treated as a breakthrough point by the opponent, but I believe in his strength; there won’t be any major problems.”
Pei Zhi: “What about with IAC?”
Shen Guanchao spread his hands. “Twenty-eighty split. They’re two, we’re eight.”
“To be honest, IAC doesn’t have a player like RSG’s Pear Flower Na who can turn the tide. Na-zi once dragged three deadweights into the playoffs for a year; it could be called shocking the whole audience.”
Back when RSG first formed, they weren’t as strong as they are now. One Pear Flower Na paired with three rookies meant a losing streak in the regular season. Their boss was originally prepared to lose money, but who knew Pear Flower Na would suddenly exert force, dragging those three rookies into the playoffs and becoming the dark horse of that year.
Shen Guanchao smiled nonchalantly. “The old members of IAC don’t have this strength, but as for that new foreign aid, I’m not clear…”
“Alright Old Pei, don’t be so nervous. Unless someone buys them all to form a Galaxy Battleship, gathering the essence of a hundred schools in one body, their chance of winning isn’t big.”
His words turned out to be prophetic, unaware that a conspiracy was brewing somewhere.
Lu Wuxu shrugged. “Won’t we know after exchanging a few moves at the All-Star Game tomorrow?”
Shen Guanchao smiled. “True enough.”
“…”
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