Part 3
He opened his eyes instantly, standing up in panic to look around. Discovering he was still in the spot he sat down last night, he frantically felt for his phone.
Seeming to know what he was doing, that voice said again: “It’s only five o’clock. Still early.”
Wen Rong turned to see Shi Ye and raised a hand to pat his face. “Did I fall asleep on the ground?”
“No.”
“No?”
Shi Ye patted his right shoulder. “You just slept on me all night.”
That was worse than sleeping on the ground.
Wen Rong looked away guiltily. “Um… sorry about that.”
“You should be glad you fell asleep on my turf. If it were outside, what if someone with ill intentions saw you and picked you up? They might do obscene things to you then.”
Wen Rong thought of the request he made to Shi Ye yesterday and thanked him, “Thank you for reminding me.”
To show his sincerity, he added, “I’ll bring you a gift when I come back.”
Shi Ye’s eyes lit up. “What gift are you planning to bring me?”
“Secret.”
Actually, Wen Rong hadn’t decided himself.
Anyway, after work, he would look around for something delicious and bring a portion for Shi Ye.
However, Wen Rong still underestimated the busyness of the day before the finals.
From starting rehearsals at the company in the morning, he only had leisure to drink a sip of water during lunch. But without much rest, the second round of rehearsals started immediately. By the time it ended, it was already 7 PM.
Wen Rong went to Senior Zhang Jincheng’s family shop to try on and alter clothes. After some tossing about, he returned to the manor at 9 PM. Getting out of the car empty-handed, he remembered he had promised to bring Shi Ye a gift.
How to explain this?
Wait for him to win the championship and give it together?
Wen Rong was thinking when he inadvertently saw red and blue lights flashing in the dark night. A white van drove past him, its body outlined with red stripes—the typical marking of an ambulance.
An ominous premonition rose in his heart. His pace unconsciously quickened, chasing after it. Running for a few minutes, he saw exactly Shi Ye walking onto the vehicle.
Shi Ye saw him too, jumping down from the vehicle and walking towards him. “You’re back?”
“What happened to you? Why did you call an ambulance?”
“Just going to the hospital for a bit.” Shi Ye raised his hand and waved. “Must be busy today. I heard you were rehearsing. You’ve been standing all day; go back and sleep early.”
After speaking, he froze for a moment, seeming to forget the pain, and said excitedly: “You ran straight here. Are you worried about me?”
“I saw the ambulance, of course I’m worried about you.”
Shi Ye was pleasantly surprised. Before he could smile, several people in white coats jumped out of the car and hurriedly pulled him, persuading, “Young Master, your hand…”
Shi Ye: “The hand doesn’t matter.”
Wen Rong then looked at Shi Ye’s hand.
After continuous training these past few days, his skin was tanned darker by the sun, covered in a thin layer of sweat, muscles presenting a special texture.
On his bare arm, a fluorescent blue object was sleeved.
Probably some high-tech hand guard.
“Go to the hospital quickly, don’t delay the treatment.”
Shi Ye wanted to say something, but Wang Xijie finally couldn’t help but pull Shi Ye and whisper something. Shi Ye could only say regretfully, “Then eat well and rest early.”
“Mm-hm.”
Shi Ye didn’t return that night, nor did Senior Leon.
This time when Wen Rong closed his eyes, he couldn’t think of Wang Sichen or Zhao Zeyang anymore. Red and blue flashing lights swayed on his eyelids, making his heart thump wildly.
He couldn’t sleep and dared not run out randomly again. He could only sit up and force himself to memorize the script prepared by the company, pretending he was interviewing Shi Ye, picking at every detail in the video, finally wearing himself out until he fell asleep.
The next day was the highly anticipated Tennis Open Finals. Two kilometers outside the venue, security began to swarm, prohibiting ordinary vehicles from passing.
Wen Rong took the car arranged by the company. Through the window, he saw many people wearing the same sports outfit as Shi Ye crowding the sidewalks. A sea of people, shoulder to shoulder. Anyone whose company was nearby was destined to be late for work.
Bang, bang, bang.
A row of colorful fireworks shot up outside the venue. Amidst the screams, the voice of a famous singer rang out. About an hour later, Zhou Xie would start the kickoff, and the match between Zhao Zeyang and Shi Ye would begin.
Backstage, Wen Rong saw Shi Ye’s promotional poster on the wall.
Perhaps because of the buzz cut, his features appeared sharper, highlighting his superior bone structure. With his chin slightly raised, there was a sense of youthful unruliness.
But Shi Ye went to the hospital last night; he was far from looking as relaxed as in the photo.
He hadn’t seen Shi Ye when leaving this morning. He wondered how his hand was.
“Who do you think will win?”
The sudden voice startled Wen Rong. It was very unfamiliar, so much so that when he turned to see the speaker, he didn’t react to who it was for a moment.
Lin Jinghang tilted his head. “Don’t recognize me anymore?”
“…”
“You’re looking at Shi Ye’s poster. You like him?”
“…”
“Looking at your eyes, it seems like you like him.”
Lin Jinghang asked and answered himself, even raising two hands to hook and point at his eyes. “I can tell.”
Oh—
Ever since Wen Rong figured out the relationship between dating and responsibility, he saw things like liking or not liking very clearly. He didn’t have an emotional fluctuation because of Lin Jinghang’s words, asking instead: “Why are you here?”
Lin Jinghang shrugged. “The identity of the true Young Master of the Wang family is too useful. Now I can go wherever I want. Even going to the competition field, someone arranges it for me.”
“What about Wang Allen?”
“Not biological, so no use. Abandoned by the Wang family, naturally. Should be living a hard life in the outer city now.”
“…”
Although Wang Allen wasn’t exactly a good person, due to his personal upbringing, Wen Rong still felt somewhat uncomfortable about forcibly stripping someone away from their biological parents.
He held back his expression, not showing it.
Fortunately, Lin Jinghang often just wanted to talk and didn’t care what the listener thought. He continued talking about the comfortable life he lived in the Wang family.
For example, how Wang Allen’s parents spoiled him, how Wang Allen’s former friends sucked up to him, how Zhao Zeyang took him to experience the super luxurious rich second-generation life…
As he spoke, he suddenly asked: “Zhao Zeyang said you hit him when you were at school. How did you hit him? Exchanged points for it? Looking at you, you don’t seem like you could beat him physically.”
Given that Lin Jinghang was also a transmigrator, Wen Rong nodded in admission.
“You didn’t know, right? Points can be exchanged for items, but they can also change the plot.”
Wen Rong tilted his head slightly to look at him. “Change what plot?”
“Just the plot in the book… Oh, forgot you are cannon fodder; you don’t know the main plot.”
Lin Jinghang nodded his chin at Shi Ye’s poster. “In the plot, it’s set that Shi Ye will win this match. But I can use points to exchange for Shi Ye losing.”
“Make him lose—”
“But making him lose directly is boring, so I set up a little difficulty.”
Wen Rong remembered Lin Jinghang’s F2 remarks. He was with Zhao Zeyang; helping Zhao Zeyang was only natural.
But if Shi Ye lost… Wen Rong didn’t dare imagine what the situation would be if Shi Ye lost.
“Did you see the blue light on his hand? I used points to mess with his hand.”
Wen Rong was shocked: “You did that thing!?”
“I thought he would forfeit the match. Didn’t expect him to take a nerve block shot. The technology of this era is indeed more amazing than I imagined.” Lin Jinghang’s smile deepened. “But this is also very interesting. Wait until the match starts, I’ll use points to mess with his knee, and see how he struggles in despair.”
Wen Rong felt a trace of revulsion toward this behavior. “Why make him lose?”
“Don’t you find these Sky Dragons* set as protagonists disgusting? Born with noble status, casually getting world number one.” (*Translator’s Note: “Sky Dragons” or Tianlongren refers to privileged, out-of-touch elites, originally from One Piece.)
“…”
Although Shi Ye had many flaws, Wen Rong saw Shi Ye training hard every day. It shouldn’t be called “casually.”
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