On the day of the match, the GH team gathered in the dining room to have an early meal. Then they packed up and boarded the business car to head to the competition venue. Lin Yan saw in the back row and saw that Bi Yaohua was more silent than usual. He couldn’t help asking, “What happened to BB? Do you have a bad stomach?”
Bi Yaohua leaned against his seat and stared up at the sky through the car window at a 45 degree angle, his expression sad. “I didn’t eat anything bad. It was very good.”
As an insider, Gu Luo couldn’t hold back and burst out laughing. He noticed Lin Yan’s questioning gaze so he took a moment to briefly describe the situation. This time, even Lin Yan was stunned. A long time passed before he gave a thumbs up, shocked to the heavens. “You deserve to be the Trash Talk King!”
Everyone else was laughing hard but only Bi Yaohua sighed quietly. ‘Alas, you don’t understand the loneliness of the king.’
Some time later, he felt his phone vibrate. He clicked on WeChat and found that it was Lin Yan who suddenly pulled him into a group chat. He asked in a puzzled manner, “Coach, what is this?”
Lin Yan explained, “Oh, in order to give you better pre-match motivation, I went to Taobao and ordered a scolding group. According to the evaluation, the service quality of this store isn’t bad. I said that you are a professional e-sports player and they should be able to scold you accurately.”
“……”
After a moment of silence, Bi Yaohua asked a very precise question. “Can I scold them?”
The others couldn’t help it anymore. Jian Ye laughed so hard he fell down and Gu Luo’s face was red from suffocation. Even Chen Yushen in the front row tried to hold back as he buried his face deeply in his arms.
Lin Yan felt the active atmosphere in the car and a smile filled his eyes. Then he raised his head inadvertently and met Jing Yuanzhou’s deep gaze. He paused for a moment. “What’s going on?”
Jing Yuanzhou didn’t speak and instead hooked his finger in a secretive manner. Lin Yan leaned closer in a puzzled manner. The next second, Jing Yuanzhou also leaned forward and approached him. The soft voice entered his ears. “Brother, do you still like to buy these weird things online?”
It was a simple sentence but it pulled them back to the time when they just added each other’s WeChat accounts. At that time, Lin Yan was bored and had bought a virtual boyfriend to kill time. Unexpectedly, he ran into Jing Yuanzhou adding his WeChat account.
Lin Yan remembered he was so embarrassed that he wanted to find a hole to hide in. Then the next time they met, they both tacitly pretended it didn’t happen. It was probably the mentality of ‘as long as I don’t show embarrassment, embarrassment can’t catch up with me.’
Under such circumstances where no one mentioned it, Lin Yan almost forgot about it. he didn’t expect Jing Yuanzhou to point it out at this time. A touch of embarrassment flashed on his face. He cleared his throat and was about to pretend he didn’t understand when Jing Yuanzhou laughed lowly. “Oh no, you seem to prefer me calling you Baby.”
The drawn out words seemed to caress him from the side and it felt like an electric current flashed from his ears.
Lin Yan, “!”
F*k, this was simply a foul! The mood instantly became restless and he could only stare fiercely at Jing Yuanzhou, this guy who was obviously playing with fire. He was just about to say something when Jian Ye in the front row had enough of laughing and climbed back to his seat. He turned his head and inadvertently saw the thermos in Jing Yuanzhou’s hand. “Captain, have you changed to a new cup?”
Jing Yuanzhou sat up straight and glanced at Lin Yan with a deep smile. “Yes, Coach Lin gave it to me.”
Lin Yan noticed a bit of pride in his eyes and couldn’t help snorting. He turned around and leaned indifferently against the window. Jian Ye’s gaze swept back and forth between the two of them in an even more curious manner. “So what’s in it?”
Jing Yuanzhou’s fingers rubbed against the surface of the thermos and he replied softly, “It’s nothing much. A specially made health tea filled with wolfberries, ginseng, angelica and so on.”
Jian Ye’s mouth twitched slightly. He wasn’t sure of how to take this excessive concern toward health and it took a long time for exaggerated praise to come out. “Awesome! The coach can actually make this!”
Jing Yuanzhou smiled.”Yes, there are many things the coach can do. You don’t have much contact with him so you don’t understand him as much as me.”
Jian Ye, “……”
Lin Yan, “……”
Gu Luo heard the conversation and turned around curiously. “Captain, how is the tea’s effect? Is it delicious?”
Jing Yuanzhou quietly put the thermos aside with a faint smile on his face. “It is useless to ask so much. Coach Lin only prepared this bottle.”
At this point, his tone slowed down slightly. “There is only this bottle. It is exclusive, exclusive. Understood?”
Gu Luo covered his chest. “…I understand.”
There was no need to show off so obviously.
Lin Yan finally couldn’t listen anymore. “What is so good about health tea? I didn’t make it. I bought it from an outside store. Indeed, today I only prepared it for the captain. If other people want to drink it then I will order some tomorrow. How about one big bucket per person per day? Is that enough?”
The young people in the team were shocked and shook their heads repeatedly. “No no no, it is enough for Captain Jing to supplement his body with this! Our physical strength isn’t as important as the captain’s!”
Lin Yan, “……”
Why did he feel that these words were full of a strange meaning? Seeing that Jing Yuanzhou was still prepared to keep talking, Lin Yan secretly pinched his thigh. Jing Yuanzhou noticed this warning gaze and smartly closed his mouth.
He held the thermos again and his fingers caressed it. Just touching it made him feel good. Obviously, Lin Yan still remembered the topic of retirement that night and found such a health formula for somewhere. It was in the hope that Jing Yuanzhou could at least maintain a good condition on the field. He didn’t want Jing Yuanzhou to leave the field sadly like many players.
There were just things that didn’t need to be said. Just giving this to him was very moving.
The match against LDF was the second match that night. Once they arrived at the venue, the match between Three and UL was taking place and there weren’t many spectators outside. Everyone in GH moved through the safe passage. On the way to the lounge, they happened to meet the LDF team that had just arrived. The two sides might be rivals in the competition but they had played several training matches in private and their relationship was pretty good.
Lin Yan didn’t know if it was his illusion but every since talking to Jing Yuanzhou that day and putting the label of ‘if I don’t play professionally, I can go home to inherit the family business’ on Luni’s head, he always felt that Luni’s small ponytail looked a lot more refined. Moreover, based on the overall mental state of the LDF team, it was hard to tell that the captain was preparing to retire.
The two teams greeted each other enthusiastically when they met and they stood in the hallway, chatting together since it wasn’t their turn to play.
“Have you heard that all of QOG’s endorsements have been removed?” Luni smiled slowly. “This is internal information but it’s absolutely accurate. The specific announcement will probably be released soon. Previously, the companies looked for QOG to sell some face. Now they found that the momentum isn’t right and want to leave before the brand is implicated. It’s really big this time. Even several business activities prepared for after the regular season have been cancelled.”
“They deserve it.” The shooter ROMM chuckled. “Don’t be an e-sports player if you don’t have the spirit of e-sports. Think about how much others paid when they first started fighting for the honor of the competition. Who knew there were so many maggots under our eyes? It is disgusting!”
Lin Yan had to admit that these things were good news but he couldn’t help his expression becoming complicated. “So while we’ve been working hard these days to prepare for the battle, you’ve been idle enough to gossip about this?”
“I just happened to have a friend who talked about it and I listened casually.” Luni smiled and raised his head slightly, the small ponytail also shaking. “Don’t worry, I haven’t played enough games this year. Just wait, I definitely won’t be merciful once we meet.”
Lin Yan raised an eyebrow. “You, the former god who was solo killed by us, is still quite arrogant?”
Luni choked up. “Why is it former god? Can’t you speak properly?”
Jing Yuanzhou quietly pushed Gu Luo to the front. “Come on, practice trash talking before the match.”
Gu Luo had been struggling to defeat Luni for the past few days but once he really faced this person, his momentum fell short. “I… I will defeat you. Well… I’ll try hard to defeat you…”
Luni wanted to see how arrogant the kid brought out by Jing Yuanzhou could be and he was amused when he saw this. “Young man, you still can’t do it. You should keep learning from your captain about cheekiness, you know?”
As he spoke, he caught a glimpse of Lin Yan next to him and added, “Oh yes, it’s okay to learn from your coach as well.”
Gu Luo scratched the back of his head somewhat shyly. “…Okay.”
Luni stared at this small face. “……”
Damn, once he retired, he would also recruit such a cute mid-laner successor for the team!
Lin Yan knew that Luni was about to retire. At this time, he noticed Luni’s gaze and pulled Gu Luo back. “If you like children then dig up your own. Don’t stare at other people’s family members, you know?”
Luni heard the meaning of the words and smiled with a guilty conscience. “You don’t need to guard them so tightly, do you?”
Jing Yuanzhou answered, “Yes we do. There are too many bad uncles outside.”
“Okay… I can’t talk when both of you are in unison.” Luni was always able to bend and stretch. He glanced at the time and retreated very simply. “It is almost time to get ready. I’ll see you on the field.”
He was about to leave when he suddenly remembered something. He glanced at Jing Yuanzhou in a complaining manner. “Titans, forget everything else. Can you first add me back as a WeChat friend?!”
He was really fed up with having to call whenever there was something to talk about!
Jing Yuanzhou didn’t pay attention to Lin Yan’s puzzled gaze and replied with an indifferent expression. “I would’ve forgotten if you hadn’t told me. I will add you after the match.”
The author has something to say:
Luni: Jing Yuanzhou, you have no heart!
Bonus ko-fi chapter
Proofreader: Nao
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