Chapter 38: Photo
Shen Yanjin held his breath nervously after tapping the connect button, only daring to relax after confirming that his microphone was off.
Bringing the phone to his ear, Duan Mingyue’s smiling voice came through: “Can you hear me?”
Shen Yanjin’s fingers curled slightly.
Perhaps because the sky was too dark, or maybe because the night was too deep, his heart inadvertently let down its defenses. Indescribable emotions, wrapped in the loneliness and pain accumulated over countless past dark nights, burst the dam and rushed toward him overwhelmingly.
The person he had liked and admired for so long was now whispering gently in his ear. It made Shen Yanjin feel both joyfully reassured and immensely empty and anxious.
It seems to be a common human ailment that when faced with beautiful things one can only possess briefly, rather than enjoying the immediate happiness, people are more easily tortured by the fear of loss.
[UOOW: I can hear you.]
“That’s good. Sleep then.” Duan Mingyue put down his phone, clicked confirm to enter a new match, and continued streaming nonchalantly.
Meanwhile, the stream’s bullet screen had gone crazy.
[Is he in a voice call with someone?]
[Streaming while on a call coaxing his partner to sleep? You’re not Moon God, who are you?]
[I’m dizzy. Moon God is really in love? I thought it was a rumor.]
[Cut the useless talk. Can someone give a straight answer? Who is the fairy on the other side?]
[Bold guess… Lucida?]
[No way. Moon God publicly said on stream a while ago that they could only be friends.]
[Betting fifty cents, UOOW.]
[Nice bet, I’m following.]
[Following UOOW too.]
[But UOOW hasn’t been online recently, nor seen Moon God play with her again.]
[Should be handling team joining procedures.]
[UOOW joining KW? Can you stop spewing nonsense without evidence?]
[Uh, although not officially announced, this is basically a semi-open secret, right?]
[So, UOOW is not only joining KW as a starter but also bagged Moon God in one fell swoop? Holy sh*t, winning big time.]
[Those who said Moon God duo-queueing with UOOW was just a senior mentoring a junior must have swollen faces now.]
[Don’t just say faces are swollen. You have no evidence, just running your mouth starting rhythm there.]
For a moment, numerous trolls and rhythm starters tore into a chaotic mess. The moderators were incredibly busy, almost unable to ban fast enough.
However, the two main characters were completely unaffected.
Duan Mingyue didn’t care about this matter to begin with and never thought of hiding anything. He walked straight and sat upright; who he liked and who he dated was his freedom, with no need for concealment.
Shen Yanjin, on the other hand, wasn’t looking at the stream chat at all.
His head rested on the pillow, phone by his ear. Duan Mingyue’s voice was very close to him; even the interspersed breathing and keyboard sounds could be heard clearly.
Although watching the stream was the same, this direct voice connection made Shen Yanjin feel he was special.
It was a sense of superiority that no one else could have, only him.
When Duan Mingyue played ranked, he never made a fuss. No matter what situation he encountered, his tone remained very steady, rarely fluctuating.
In this steady voice, Shen Yanjin’s brain slowly relaxed. The originally cold and suffocating depressive emotions gradually receded under the companionship of the person on the other end of the phone.
He was already incredibly sleepy and tired. Relaxing now, his consciousness became increasingly heavy, and he actually fell asleep in a daze just like that.
When he woke up again, the sky was bright.
Shen Yanjin sat up, sitting on the bed in confusion for a while before finally, belatedly remembering what exactly he had done last night.
He shivered, fully awake, and picked up his phone to check.
The chat history ended at nearly 1 AM today.
[KW-RedMoon: [Voice Call-2:32:07]]
[KW-RedMoon: Goodnight.]
Last night, Shen Yanjin’s emotions outweighed his rationality. Waking up today with his reason returned, he really couldn’t figure out how the hell he had said words like “Can’t sleep, want to hear your voice.”
He felt a wave of heat rising on his neck. Scratching his already messy hair, he stared at those words for a long time before raising his hand to type.
[UOOW: Slept very well, thank you Moon God QAQ]
At KW Team, Duan Mingyue was conducting the handover of Youth Training Camp work with Mao Qiude.
The massive turnover in the Youth Training Camp could be described as killing the chicken to scare the monkey. Duan Mingyue knew that besides the Youth Training Camp, a huge tumor, there must be many other filthy things hiding in the cracks within the team, afraid to come out. This time he struck ruthlessly. Perhaps seeing his seriousness, those people steered with the wind and restrained themselves a lot.
As for the previous Youth Training Camp personnel, those who could be fired were fired, those who could be swapped were swapped. Vacancies that really couldn’t be filled immediately were temporarily covered by others.
But while other roles were manageable, the coach position couldn’t find a suitable replacement in a short time.
So the capable do more work; Mao Qiude temporarily took over.
Fortunately, problems solvable by money were small problems. In less than a month, a batch of new staff and coaches had arrived and taken their posts.
Duan Mingyue unloaded a heavy burden and felt much more relaxed.
Happening to see the message from Shen Yanjin, he recalled the other party’s rare act of coquetry and weakness last night. Smiling, he teased: If you really feel thankful, why not send a photo of yourself.
He was certain the little support wouldn’t expose his identity by sending a photo. Saying this was merely to see the other party panic and try hard to find excuses.
But contrary to his expectations, the reply from the little support was neither a refusal nor an excuse.
[UOOW: Is not showing face… okay?]
Duan Mingyue was stunned.
Being a gentleman, he should have refused and explained he was just joking.
But his fingers, moved by some strange force, sent an “Okay.”
This time, the other side took a long while before sending a new message.
During this waiting period, Duan Mingyue exhibited an unprecedented restlessness, causing Mao Qiude to frequently look at him and his phone.
Needless to guess, Mao Qiude’s eyes definitely read “Dog Couple.”
Yesterday’s stream voice call made Mi Yonghui complain to him for half the night. Today, seeing a message makes him this restless; indeed, he is still young.
Fortunately, the handover work wasn’t much; the rest was familiarization and introduction, which Mao Qiude could do alone. He said very considerately to Duan Mingyue, “If you have things to do, go ahead. I’m more familiar with those kids in the Youth Training Camp than you anyway; you staying here is useless.”
“…Alright.”
Duan Mingyue didn’t decline much. Mao Qiude spoke the truth; he really couldn’t help much with introducing the youth trainees to the new coach.
To avoid suspicion, although he frequented the place recently, he didn’t interact with anyone, let alone know anyone. Asking him to match names to faces now would probably be difficult.
Training hadn’t started yet. Duan Mingyue left the Youth Training Camp and went straight to the third floor.
Returning to his dorm, just as he entered, his phone chimed with a message notification.
Originally, Duan Mingyue thought YanGold would either find a picture online to fool him or send a photo in loose clothes where gender was hard to distinguish.
But the little support today was truly too disobedient, not following his thoughts at all.
Duan Mingyue clicked open the photo.
The first thing that entered his eyes was a pair of straight, long, snow-white legs.
The thighs had just the right amount of fleshiness, while the calves were beautifully lined, straight and powerful. The knees were round and rosy.
Even through the screen, one could distinguish the creamy texture of the skin on those legs.
Near the root of the thighs was covered by the hem of clothes. Further up was a faintly visible waistline. Duan Mingyue subconsciously tried to discern it carefully, then felt it was improper and hurriedly closed the photo.
The photo was closed, but the memory in his mind couldn’t be erased.
This photo was taken while the little support was lying on the bed; underneath were snow-white sheets and bedding.
Having been in the industry for a few years, Duan Mingyue felt he had seen all kinds of tricks—pretending not to recognize him in ranked to pick a fight, then adding him to apologize; finding someone to use connections pretending to be an acquaintance to get his contact; and some even more ridiculous, chatting him up directly via verification messages.
Even more direct ones sent nude photos, flirted, and dropped various hints.
Duan Mingyue had truly seen too much. Generally, in such situations, reporting backhand was never wrong.
But he absolutely never expected to receive this kind of photo from YanGold.
If he didn’t know the other party was a man, Duan Mingyue would really be bluffed just looking at this photo.
His Adam’s apple bobbed. Trying hard to suppress a certain unspeakable desire aroused within him, he sent a voice message as restrainedly as possible.
In the voice message, the man’s voice was slightly low, carrying a faint huskiness and almost imperceptible urgency.
He asked, “When can you come to the team?”
The caregiver happened to be away, and no rounds were being made.
After locking the door and taking the photo, Shen Yanjin changed back into his patient gown with great difficulty. He only had his left hand to use; the right hand barely counted as half, but moving it caused piercing pain, so it was better not to move it.
He had made up his mind. When he met Duan Mingyue later, he would confess half the truth. Yes, half.
The other half, like this photo today, he would say he found it online, Photoshopped it, or stole it from some website—anyway, it wasn’t his own.
He had no choice. After looking for a long time, only his legs looked somewhat like a girl’s and could be used to deceive.
Shen Yanjin really felt he was bold with lust. He knew how ambiguous sending this photo was, but he couldn’t be blamed entirely; Duan Mingyue’s attitude toward him was truly becoming softer and more indulgent.
With joining the team imminent, and since he was already in this state—a broken jar couldn’t be more broken, rotten wood couldn’t be more rotten—then… since it was already like this, asking for some benefits for himself wasn’t excessive, right?
Shen Yanjin knew many women wanted to ride Duan Mingyue’s coattails, but over the years, wasn’t he the only one Duan Mingyue treated so specially?
Humans have physiological needs; it’s human nature.
Shen Yanjin had held this thought ever since seeing those Photoshopped flirting images when he was slandered last time.
He… would join the team in a week.
Which meant if he didn’t strive for it now, there would really be no chance.
So, in a moment of hot-headed confusion, Shen Yanjin sent the photo.
Truth be told, he regretted it immediately, even starting to faintly worry if his next message to Duan Mingyue would turn into a red exclamation mark.
Fortunately, Duan Mingyue didn’t leave him in the cold for long.
Shen Yanjin, having calmed down a bit, clicked to listen to the voice message with the resolve of going to the guillotine.
Then he was scalded by the heat in Duan Mingyue’s tone.
Even if Duan Mingyue scolded him, Shen Yanjin could understand. But asking when he could join the team, what did that mean?
This tone seemed to tell him that once he arrived at the team, something… bad would happen.
But whether Duan Mingyue would pay attention to him after arriving at the team was another matter.
At least at this moment, he was interested in him.
Shen Yanjin bit his lower lip and replied with a blushing face: Now… can’t we?
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