Chapter 36 ◎ You watch the road, I’ll follow you ◎
“Solve, are you really okay?”
In the venue lounge, the team leader looked at the drowsy Lin Sumo and couldn’t help but worry.
“I’m fine,” Lin Sumo propped up his head with difficulty. “I have a secret weapon.”
Instantly, everyone else in the room looked at Lin Sumo.
They saw Lin Sumo open his equipment bag, rummage through it, and finally dig out from the very bottom… a bottle of Essential Balm.
Others: “……”
Lin Sumo smiled, unscrewed the cap of the Essential Balm, and dabbed some on his temples.
Lin Sumo: “Alright, I’m awake. Continue saying whatever you need to say.”
Others: “……”
Shen Chen looked speechless, but still said: “Playing FU today isn’t particularly hard. They like to play slow guerrilla warfare. So our tactic is, if they are slow, we are slow too. Just stall each other out, understand?”
“Understood,” Jiang He said. “No wonder you kept making us play practice matches these two days, and insisted on us playing guerrilla warfare. Turns out it’s useful here.”
Shen Chen hit Jiang He on the head with a thick notebook: “Told you to listen to the review seriously but you didn’t. Did I not explain it? Or was it not written in the notes sent to you? Only knowing now?”
Jiang He screamed wildly on the side. Lin Sumo laughed for a long time and said: “Told you not to listen carefully in class. How many times have I explained this question?”
A burst of laughter instantly rang out in the lounge.
Shen Chen looked at Lin Sumo with a deadly smile: “Solve, do you want to be slapped too?”
Just then the staff called them to go on stage. Lin Sumo quickly grabbed his peripherals and ran out, adding a sentence amidst his hearty laughter: “Run! Coach Shen is going on a killing spree!”
The others followed behind, all smiling.
They actually weren’t much older than Lin Sumo.
Youths at this age are forever vigorous, forever upward, forever bright.
Youths at this age are modest yet arrogant, proud yet frank.
In the first game, dragging until the late-game team fight, Trust traded one for four, gaining an absolute advantage, and finally won in the thirty-sixth minute.
In the second game, FU dragged even more than the first game. When taking the dragon in the pit, they were team-wiped after a collective surprise attack by Trust, losing the match without a doubt.
While the host loudly announced the match results, the Trust members stood up and waved to the audience.
“Trust is the best!”
“You can always trust Trust!”
“Ahhh Trust!”
Lin Sumo was full of smiles, waving constantly: “Thank you!”
Beside him, Pei Yun stood up, gently placing a hand on Lin Sumo’s shoulder: “Let’s go.”
Lin Sumo turned back: “Mn, okay.”
Back in the lounge, Song Hong said: “Congratulations on winning again.”
Lin Sumo laughed twice: “Thank you, Manager Song.”
“I was talking to Little Chen-zi just now,” Song Hong said. “Winning this match means you are securely in the playoffs.”
“Yes,” Shen Chen also said. “So our future training will be related to the playoffs and finals.”
“You seem like my homeroom teacher in the second year of high school,” Lin Sumo said. “He told us back then that our curriculum connects directly to the college entrance exam.”
Shen Chen: “……”
“Not to be mean,” Jiang He laughed from ear to ear. “Little Chen-zi, you really should go be a high school teacher. It’s been so many times.”
“Alright, alright,” Song Hong waved his hand. “Print, you go do the post-match interview with Solve, okay?”
Pei Yun nodded: “Okay.”
Backstage, a bunch of reporters surrounded Pei Yun and Lin Sumo.
A reporter seized the opportunity of them accepting the interview together and asked: “Solve, regarding the rumors of discord between you and Print within the team, are they true?”
Lin Sumo immediately raised his vigilance: “Not true.”
Reporter: “?”
“What kind of joke is that,” Lin Sumo said solemnly. “The relationship between Print and me is indestructible (Jian Bu Ke Cui), sweeping away all obstacles (Cui Ku La Xiu), rotten wood cannot be carved (Xiu Mu Bu Ke Diao)…”
Pei Yun interrupted him helplessly: “If your grades aren’t good, don’t play Idiom Solitaire.”
Reporter: “……”
Lin Sumo: “……Oh.”
Another reporter hurried forward to ask: “Regarding the performance of our team and the opponents in this match, do you two have anything to say?”
Lin Sumo: “Good.”
Pei Yun: “Pretty good.”
Lin Sumo glanced at Pei Yun and said: “Especially good.”
Reporter: “……” Are you two performing a crosstalk comedy here?
The reporter retreated with a sullen face, and another person came up: “Does Trust have any arrangements for the upcoming playoffs?”
Lin Sumo thought for a moment: “Depends on the official arrangement. We do whatever the officials say.”
“Yes,” Pei Yun added. “The coach and manager are looking at this. Usually, the schedule is given to us when the playoffs start.”
Asking was the same as not asking. This reporter was blocked by the staff. A reporter took the opportunity to ask: “Since the two of you are accepting the interview together, may I ask, what are your views on fans pairing you two as a… CP?”
Logically, reporters shouldn’t ask questions unrelated to the match in post-match interviews. Just as the staff wanted to go up to explain the situation, Lin Sumo spoke first: “I think it’s no problem. Doesn’t this prove that fans also think our relationship is good? Right?”
There was a group of fans surrounding the reporters outside. Hearing this, the fans immediately shouted: “Right!”
“Right,” Pei Yun showed a polite smile. “So, we don’t oppose this behavior.”
After a while, the interview ended. Pei Yun and Lin Sumo walked out with difficulty. The staff kept trying to clear a path for them, but there were too many people, and the scene was chaotic.
In the pushing and shoving, Lin Sumo almost fell. Pei Yun beside him grabbed his hand with quick eyes and hands, preventing him from falling.
The sudden physical contact made Lin Sumo’s body tremble instinctively. Skin touching directly, Pei Yun’s slightly cool hand held Lin Sumo’s.
Lin Sumo froze, looked at their hands, then looked up at Pei Yun. From this angle, he could only see his side profile. Pei Yun was looking at the road seriously, finding a chance to get out, not caring at all about how they were touching.
Lin Sumo bit his lower lip lightly: “You watch the road, I’ll follow you.”
There was a lot of noise around, so Pei Yun didn’t hear clearly. He bent down, moving his ear close to Lin Sumo’s mouth: “What?”
Lin Sumo’s heartbeat skipped a beat, then began to accelerate: “Nothing… I said, I’ll follow you.”
“Okay.” Pei Yun said as he straightened up.
Subsequently, under the guidance of the staff, Pei Yun led Lin Sumo around and around, finally circling back to the lounge.
Lin Sumo collapsed on the sofa: “Doing an interview exhausted me. Never going again next time.”
“Hahahahaha,” Jiang He laughed uncontrollably. “Your interview was too funny. I’m going to save it and watch it!”
Lin Sumo: “……”
Yu Pei also laughed: “Indeed, ‘rotten wood cannot be carved’ hahahaha.”
“Really,” Xiao Lanyu laughed along. “That reporter’s face was colorful. I guess he definitely wanted to spray someone hahaha.”
Shen Chen laughed until he banged the table: “Was it easy for them? Being played by you guys like this. Asking questions was like not asking at all. You two just picked what you wanted to answer.”
Lin Sumo: “……”
Pei Yun: “……”
Is it necessary to laugh like this?
They laughed for another five minutes in the lounge, finally being dragged onto the nanny van by Pei Yun and Lin Sumo with difficulty.
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