Chapter 43: Happy New Year, Happy New Year
The air in the fields was mixed with the fresh scent of grass and trees, washing over them with the head-on wind.
The sky here was bluer than in the city, with a few stars embedded upon it. Looking up, it felt as if the thousands of thoughts in one’s mind suddenly cleared, leaving only a sense of refreshment.
However…
“Fined? What fine?”
Ning Luzhao opened the car trunk and took out two large boxes: “Setting off fireworks for the New Year to add a bit of festive atmosphere.”
Nancheng’s regulation prohibited the setting off of fireworks and firecrackers in the city center, but it didn’t affect rural towns.
Zuo Chi half-squatted and helped Ning Luzhao unpack the two boxes of fireworks. The variety the other had bought was truly complete, ranging from “Whistling Petards” to sparklers.
“When did you buy all these fireworks?”
The shops near the team base that sold fireworks had run out of stock long ago.
“That time I was late for training, I went out to buy fireworks. I originally estimated that I could return for training on time, but I had to visit several shops before I found any in stock, so I was a bit late.”
“Buying so much, you must have cleared out all the remaining stock the shopkeeper had, right?”
Zuo Chi grabbed a handful of sparklers and gave one to Ning Luzhao. With a flick of a lighter, the tip of the sparkler immediately burst into a bright orange flame, then scattered colorful little sparks all around. The flame burned quickly, and the color of the fire was constantly changing, shifting from a vivid orange to a ghostly blue-green.
He used the sparkler to draw two wavy lines in the air.
When a sparkler is waved quickly, it visually looks like drawing a picture with fire in the sky.
Unfortunately, his artistic talent was negative; at most, he could draw a small flower or a heart.
“What does the Coach want to draw?” Ning Luzhao walked to his side and lit two more sparklers.
“Draw… let’s write ‘Happy New Year’.”
“Then I’m afraid I won’t be able to write it alone in time. Let’s each write half?”
“Okay.”
Zuo Chi freed a hand to open his phone for recording, setting it to selfie mode first. Ning Luzhao bent his knees slightly to enter the frame beside him. The light was too dim, with only the glow of a few sparklers reflecting on their faces, making them look mottled and multicolored.
“I almost forgot, the Coach is also part-timing as our team’s Weibo operator now… Is this vlog going to be posted on Weibo later?”
He hadn’t thought that much when he pressed the record button.
He just felt that this was a very memorable Spring Festival and very beautiful fireworks.
“…Let’s not post it. My photography skills are mediocre. I’ll keep it on my phone. In the future, if you don’t train well or play poorly in a match and I want to scold you, I’ll open this vlog and look at it to awaken my kindness so I’ll scold you less.”
“Then I have to perform well in this vlog.”
Ning Luzhao seriously wrote the characters for “New Year” with the sparklers. When Zuo Chi took over, he heard the other say in a low voice: “Happy New Year, Coach.”
A loud crack came from behind them. With a “boom,” Zuo Chi couldn’t help but dodge toward Ning Luzhao out of reflex. Only after hearing the laughter of the person beside him did he steady himself and look up.
A brilliant and dazzling firework burst in the deep blue night sky.
Following the sounds of Whistling Petards soaring into the sky, fireworks bloomed one after another. The quiet fields suddenly became lively. He saw lights turning on in a small village not far away.
“Land, look over there. Is that a village?”
“Yes.”
“I reckon many drowsy children were woken up by our fireworks. They’re probably coming out into the yards or leaning against second-floor windows to look this way.”
A warm, nostalgic color flashed in Zuo Chi’s eyes.
“When I was a kid during the New Year, my favorite thing was watching others set off fireworks—because I didn’t have money to buy them. Fireworks costing dozens of yuan would be finished in ten or so seconds; I really couldn’t bear to spend it. Speaking of which, my earliest contact with esports was also because I wanted to earn some money by playing games.”
“How old was the Coach then?”
“Ten or so.”
“That game account of the Coach’s, ‘Doesn’t Like Sichuan Peppercorns,’ was just created a few months ago. What about your previous game account?”
Zuo Chi was dazed for a moment: “…It was probably sold by me?”
“Do you want to get it back?”
“No need… this account is quite good. I’ve already spent money on many skins for it; I’ll just use this account from now on.”
In reality, he simply didn’t remember the original owner’s previous game account and password.
After all, with memories like a vast sea, details like account passwords had long since been lost in some unknown corner of memory.
He only remembered clearly that he grew up in an orphanage, had no relatives, and the people he was most familiar with were in VEX.
The two boxes of fireworks were the protagonists of the field for nearly five minutes before turning into discarded cardboard boxes. Seeing the show was over, the people in the village gradually turned off their lights again.
Zuo Chi took his hands out of his coat pockets and stopped the video recording. Only after moving did he feel that the wind outside was still quite biting, and his ears were almost losing sensation from the cold.
He rubbed his hands together, using the warmth of his palms to warm his ears. Seeing the brilliant fireworks blooming behind him and Ning Luzhao in the auto-playing video, he suddenly remembered something: “Happy New Year, Land.”
Ning Luzhao was cleaning up the remaining firework boxes on the ground. Hearing this, he turned his head to look at him and waved his phone screen.
“Recording in progress.”
The New Year blessing he forgot to record was still captured by Ning Luzhao.
On the car ride back, after being blown by the cold wind, he felt even hungrier. The dumplings in the thermal lunch box inside the thermal bag suddenly smelled much more fragrant.
He poured the prepared dipping sauce in; the dumplings were still hot.
Coincidentally, there were also two bottles of drinks next to the car door handle. Looking at the packaging, they seemed to be some kind of peach soda. He didn’t know if Manager Li had stockpiled them or if Fugui had forgotten to take them home.
One bite of dumpling, one gulp of drink—the perfect late-night snack combo.
“These shrimp and mushroom dumplings are particularly delicious. We can buy more at the supermarket and keep them in the team fridge in the future.”
He picked up another one and held it to Ning Luzhao’s lips: “Want a bite?”
Ning Luzhao was driving, so he naturally didn’t have a hand to eat by himself. If they waited until they got back to the base, the dumplings would have long since gone cold.
“Tastes good.”
“Of course it does. One of my gains in VEX is that my dumpling-boiling skills have improved by leaps and bounds.”
“Tomorrow, I’ll also show off my cooking skills to the Coach.”
“You?”
“Do I not look like someone who can cook?”
Zuo Chi sized him up: “You look like the type who either cooks exceptionally well or is a kitchen disaster who blows up the kitchen—if you can cook, why don’t I see you in the kitchen usually?”
“If Fugui knew I could cook well, I’d immediately turn from VEX’s starting jungler into VEX’s head chef.”
Zuo Chi laughed heartily: “Makes sense! Since they aren’t here, I’ll be the first to enjoy the feast tomorrow.”
The two of them shared the dumplings and soon finished them.
The heater was on in the car, and the window was left with a tiny crack so the warmth wouldn’t escape, but it wouldn’t be too stuffy either.
He leaned against the seat, watching the scenery passing by outside, his eyelids gradually drooping.
When Ning Luzhao slowly stopped at a red light, the youth sitting beside him had already fallen asleep, clutching the lunch box and tilting his head slightly.
They were only a few minutes away from the VEX base.
The car stopped in the garage. Ning Luzhao didn’t turn off the heater immediately. He turned his face to gaze at the youth for a moment, then reached out to gently press on his shoulder, shaking him slightly: “Coach?”
The Coach had slept and was unread.
“Coach, we’re back at the base.”
Zuo Chi’s sleep usually wasn’t that deep. Sometimes when Land stayed late in the training room and opened the door lightly upon returning to the dorm, the other would turn over in bed, showing signs of waking up.
One usually had to play a university-level advanced mathematics lecture out loud to keep him sleeping soundly.
Ning Luzhao’s brow furrowed slightly. He carefully reached out to press the back of his hand against the youth’s forehead.
The temperature was normal.
However, after getting a bit closer, he could smell a very faint scent mixed with a bit of peach sweetness.
Ning Luzhao looked down and saw the lunch box in Zuo Chi’s hand, and beside it, a half-drunk bottle of a drink with the cap open.
Peach soda-flavored alcoholic beverage.
Looking at the ingredients list, the alcohol content was low enough to be negligible, probably not enough to get even a child drunk. But to get a “one-glass-down” Coach drunk, it was more than enough.
Waking him was impossible.
Ning Luzhao leaned down, quickly unbuckled the youth’s seatbelt, and after opening the car door, supported Zuo Chi’s shoulder with one hand and his waist with the other, skillfully picking him up in a princess carry.
Zuo Chi had a very surreal dream.
In the dream, he was lying on a giant peach, munching on it. The peach was very sweet and very intoxicating.
As he munched, he suddenly heard someone behind him calling his name. He looked and saw Ning Luzhao standing under the peach, telling him: “Coach, it’s time for us to go train.”
In the dream, he was probably possessed by something, as he hugged the giant peach and refused to let go.
Ning Luzhao tried hard to persuade him.
He threw a tantrum and wouldn’t listen.
After Ning Luzhao said too much, his face suddenly went cold. He grabbed Zuo Chi’s collar and pulled him in front of himself: “We have to go.”
His knuckles pressed against Zuo Chi’s Adam’s apple, making his neck hurt, and he almost couldn’t breathe.
“…Land, let go.”
Zuo Chi tugged at his collar and involuntarily raised his voice: “Ning Luzhao! What are you doing…”
He jerked upright in bed. Outside, the daylight was bright. He squinted, seeing himself still wrapped in a blanket, wrapped tightly like a silkworm cocoon. No wonder he couldn’t breathe in his dream.
Ning Luzhao was holding a plate of sandwiches, standing by the bed, looking at him with an unreadable expression.
“Me? I made breakfast for the Coach.”
“No…” Zuo Chi freed his hands from the blanket and rubbed his brow. “I was talking in my sleep. I remember we went out to set off fireworks and ate dumplings in the car—that wasn’t a dream, right? Why am I now…”
“Peach soda. The peach soda the Coach drank in the car yesterday had alcohol—Fugui, who left that drink behind, has already been scolded by me.”
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