Chapter 06: Xu Xu Is Not Smiling
“How is Siren doing recently?”
The next afternoon, Shen Guanchao arrived at the training room wearing his middle-aged-man set. He leaned against the doorframe, took a sip of hot tea, and chatted with Pei Zhi.
Pei Zhi, holding the notebook that never left his side, said, “His condition is very good. His average daily training time is over fourteen hours, and the team’s evaluation of him is quite good. In some aspects, he’s a bit like the early you.”
The early Shen Guanchao trained fiercely and was invincible in the arena, but he lacked a view of the big picture. He was completely a lone wolf, relying entirely on individual skill to play, rarely coordinating with teammates.
This was almost a common ailment of every esports rookie—ignoring teammates for the sake of kills. And the more talented the player, the harder it was to see their own faults from the start.
The esports industry back then wasn’t as mature as it is now, with coaching teams and data analysts.
“Let Zoe take him to break in. A medic has the best view of the big picture.” Back then, after realizing his own problems, Shen Guanchao would pester Zoe to duo-queue every day outside of training matches, and he even specially leveled a medic alt account.
The results were obvious. In less than half a year, he ascended to become the top Main Attacker in the National Server, advancing by leaps and bounds, and Pei Zhi saved the money he would have spent on heart medication.
“I know, I planned to do exactly that. It’s hard to book training matches during the off-season, so I found sparring partners. By the way, aren’t you going with Fox to shoot the poster for Superstar Showdown today?” Pei Zhi said.
“The assistant Old Cheng booked for you is outside, and you’re still here chatting with me, clutching a thermos and wearing flip-flops?”
“What’s the rush?” Shen Guanchao said unhurriedly. “Hasn’t Fox not left yet either?”
He leisurely brewed a cup of health tea in the pantry. The tea aroma overflowed. He screwed on the lid and handed it to Pei Zhi. “Give this to Xie Jingchu.”
“Staying up late causes physical weakness (kidney deficiency). You should supplement more too.”
“…?”
On the other side.
Fox was woken up by a rustling noise. When he opened his eyes, he saw a sneaky Zoe.
Zoe was packing the things Fox would need later. Seeing him wake up, Zoe went up triumphantly to claim credit.
Fox pushed away the face that was trying to rub against him and went to wash up. “Just taking a few photos. Just bringing the person is enough; no need to prepare so much.”
“How can your thirty-seven-degree mouth speak such cold words?” Zoe said faintly. “Sure enough, low popularity means no human rights. Even teammates despise me…”
“Alright.”
“I’ll bring it, I’ll bring it.” Fox wanted to laugh at his eccentricity but couldn’t really piss him off, so he said helplessly, “Do you have any other little tantrums?”
“Vent them all before I go out. Others won’t indulge you.”
Thus, before Fox left, Zoe sneered and rewarded him with a pillow to the face.
Outside the villa, a black SUV was parked quietly in front of the garage.
Fox recognized the license plate at a glance.
He asked uncertainly, “Lu Wuxu?”
The tall man leaning against the door scrolling through his phone turned his head at the sound, squinting with a smile as he waved at him: “Morning, Xiao Che.”
Lu Wuxu, NAVA’s former starting sniper, who retired due to a severe hand injury.
“Morning. Why did you come back suddenly?” Fox asked. “Was Germany not fun?”
“Missed you guys, so I came back.” Perhaps the foreign land didn’t nourish people well; Lu Wuxu was thinner, and his features were sharper. His short hair was dyed a graceful tea-brown. Compared to the deep and indifferent Fox, he invisibly exuded a bit of Western European gentlemanly nobility.
The corners of his mouth lifted. “Came back to be your little assistant. Welcome me? Where’s Xiao Ting?”
Xiao Ting was Shen Guanchao’s nickname. Usually, only Shen’s parents called him that, but Lu Wuxu had heard it by chance once and followed suit.
“Flesh is still getting ready, should be soon.” Fox said indifferently, “You coming back shouldn’t be that simple. Old Cheng isn’t at the base recently; I guess you came back to help him. You transitioned to backstage? To be a manager?”
Lu Wuxu avoided his gaze. “Guessed it in one. You’re still that smart.”
“Sure enough, nothing can be hidden from you.”
“I guessed a little bit long ago.” Fox looked at Lu Wuxu and smiled faintly.
A moment later, the villa’s main door opened.
“Why aren’t you getting in the car?”
Shen Guanchao walked out leisurely with his team uniform draped over his shoulders. He first asked Fox, then looked up and saw the other person, freezing in place. “You’re back?”
For a moment, their eyes met, and then he couldn’t take another step.
Lu Wuxu’s smile grew wider. “Didn’t you say you missed me on the phone last week? So I came back. How about it? Obedient, right?”
“You…”
“Haven’t seen you for so long, get in the car first, then praise me.”
He interrupted Shen Guanchao’s words. The fingers hanging by his side curled up and then loosened in shock. His throat felt dry and tight, and his heart beat violently as if slashed by a blunt knife.
After retiring, fans in the Weibo super-topic always said he was Shen Guanchao’s “Retirement White Moonlight,” talking about destiny, heaven-made matches, and shipping them as a couple.
But only Lu Wuxu knew that in this relationship, he was the obscure admirer who loved but could not obtain.
—Through the crowded people, through the gaps of the cameras, I stood off-stage calling your name. The moment you looked over, I felt like I would love you for a lifetime.
Inside the NAVA player training room.
Xie Jingchu looked doubtfully at the cup of hot health tea in front of his station. Pei Zhi explained, “Shen Guanchao left it.”
Afraid you have kidney deficiency.
He didn’t say the last sentence out loud, changing the topic: “Train more with Zoe these next few days.”
“Duo-queue or flexible queue to break in. It can better improve tacit understanding and support capabilities. Interact more with teammates and understand them, learn how to coordinate, and your strength will have a qualitative leap.”
Xie Jingchu nodded in understanding. Zoe cut in: “Train with me? Aren’t you afraid of crashing down to Bronze rank…”
Pei Zhi kept a straight face and tapped his head with the notebook.
“Ouch.”
Zoe cried out in pain and quickly said, “Queue, queue, queue. Log on, brother.”
He opened the game, swiftly grouped up, and clicked start, chatting idly: “Back when we first started playing matches, my brother used to ask me to queue all the time too.”
Knowing Zoe was talking about Shen Guanchao, Xie Jingchu followed up and asked, “And then?”
“And then?” Zoe said proudly, “Then under the earnest guidance of this top-tier healer, my brother ascended to National No. 1 Main Attacker in three months. Amazing, right?”
“Actually, sometimes when I play medic, I get anxious too. Meeting trash teammates gives me a heart attack. Sigh, I really want to abandon medicine for literature (violence) and rub Fox on the ground…”
Zoe complained endlessly, then suddenly remembered that his relationship with this person wasn’t good enough to joke around freely yet. Just as he was about to shut up, Xie Jingchu went along with him: “I can teach you how to snipe. It’s possible to ambush Fox for a few rounds.”
“Sometimes I also really like chasing Flesh down to beat him.”
“Badass.” The game cut into the match, and Zoe entered his zone.
He was a pure support medic, the nanny style, the kind who could heal people to tears. His game sense was good and his skills were high. Not only would he not steal kills or economy from teammates, but he also paid special attention to positioning, always finding angles to replenish teammates’ status. He was considerate to the extreme—once shields were full, he’d apply serum and drones.
Relying on his understanding of the game map, he followed Xie Jingchu neither too far nor too close, ensuring Xie Jingchu was always within his healing range, while hiding in buildings around the sniping point. As soon as an enemy approached, they would be exposed on the map.
After a few rounds, Xie Jingchu played exceptionally comfortably.
A winning streak made him realize the importance of coordination.
During the break, Xie Jingchu fulfilled his promise and taught Zoe how to snipe.
Pei Zhi, worried that Xie Jingchu was too quiet to get familiar with his teammates, came up specially to check. As a result, before he even entered the door, he heard arguing inside.
Back and forth, one sentence after another—
“How the hell are you so terrifyingly strong? Climbing the wall to feed a kill? Throwing poison in reverse? Brother, are you always this strong at games?”
“These are small mistakes. I played very detailedly. It’s mainly the opposite main attacker targeting me! Blame that guy!”
“Ah yes, detailed enough to miss five snipes and trace the outline of the opponent’s body?” Xie Jingchu asked back in exasperation.
He experienced the heart attack of teaching for the first time.
Looking at his disappointing stats, Zoe was as stubborn as a dead duck. “You go if you can! Use a medic to 1v1 if you have the ability, I’ll beat you to death.”
“The opponents were a three-pro stack, how the hell do I play?”
A familiar voice, a cold tone, then suddenly turning cowardly—
“Aye, Daddy, I was wrong. Teach me one more time.”
“I sincerely want to abandon medicine for violence and walk the peak path of carrying girls…”
Pei Zhi: “…”
Suddenly, he didn’t want to take another step inside. He slammed the training room door shut.
He had worried about Xie Jingchu for nothing.
Internet-addicted teenagers had their own unique way of making friends. Arguing today, laughing tomorrow, calling each other brothers the day after.
Ding ding. Inside, Zoe, who was happily arguing with Xie Jingchu, suddenly received two WeChat messages. His phone rang and vibrated.
Fox sent two photos.
In the first photo, Shen Guanchao had his long hair tied up, dressed in a suit and leather shoes. His figure was slender, his eyes obscure. Standing at the junction of light and shadow, carrying a UTS-15 shotgun with a collector’s edition spray paint, holding the galaxy in his hands, he announced the arrival of the region’s demon king in a unique way.
Xie Jingchu stared unblinkingly at Zoe’s phone screen. After a long while, he said, “Can you send me a copy? I want the original image.”
“Sure,” Zoe said indifferently. “I’ll ask for a few more paparazzi shots of my brother later and pack them for you.”
“My brother’s ‘suit thug’ look is seriously deadly handsome. Damn.”
“Let me see what bullshit Fox took.” As Zoe spoke, he swiped down on the screen.
Fox’s styling leaned more towards traditional Chinese style, fitting perfectly with his game class “Swordsman.” Cold black clothes fluttering in the wind, holding the original skin Bionic Shark Hunter Blade, his eyes covered by a red silk cloth, yet highlighting his calm bearing.
None of the NAVA members had bad looks; they were often jokingly called the Esports Male Model Team by fans.
Zoe zoomed in little by little to look at the details of Fox’s photo, but the temporary message notification bar at the top wouldn’t stop.
Manager Cheng’s messages kept popping up.
[Manager – Cheng]: Lu Wuxu is back in the country. He’s currently shooting posters with Flesh and the others. [Manager – Cheng]: He transferred to behind the scenes and joined NAVA as your Vice Manager. While I’m away, contact him if anything happens. [Manager – Cheng]: By the way, remember to introduce the new manager to Siren. After all, only the old members are familiar with Little Lu.
Zoe replied with a “Got it” sticker, then sent over dozens of shocked dragon memes to express his surprise at Brother Lu’s sudden return. Turning his head, under the orders of the Grand Manager, he introduced their new manager to Xie Jingchu.
As for Lu Wuxu, Xie Jingchu had heard of him long ago, so he just listened quietly.
In the subsequent photos sent by Fox, Shen Guanchao and Lu Wuxu were chatting happily. The two were leaning on the sofa in the lounge with arms around each other’s shoulders. Lu Wuxu’s hand hovered loosely at Shen Guanchao’s waist. Xie Jingchu watched, his brows suddenly furrowing tightly, as if sniffing out a trace of something complicated, yet he dared not speculate too much.
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