FOG [e-sports]

Chapter 46

After returning to the base, everyone went to wash up. Chen Huo only slept for four hours yesterday. Now all be wanted was to shut up and go to sleep but he couldn’t help grumbling, “When can the league change the rules? Why do you have to wear makeup before you can go on stage? I can’t even tell the difference with or without makeup on.”

Chen Huo wiped his face, rubbed his fingertips, and said disgustedly, “Putting on make-up’s fine but the lousiest thing is having to take it off. It’s so troublesome. If you don’t though, you’re gonna grow pimples. This f*cking...”

“Rules are rules. Why do you have so many complaints?” Behind him, Old Qiao knocked on Chen Huo’s head. “You think it would look good if everyone got up on there looking like slobs? Under those lights on stage, everyone’s flaws would be exposed, alright? Besides, it’s just a bit of powder. Isn’t it fine if you just rub it off when you wash your face?”

“You need to use makeup remover.” Chen Huo turned to look at Old Qiao, confused, “Did you always use to take it off by rubbing it off your face? No wonder your looks aged so fast...”

Old Qiao rolled his eyes and pressed down on Chen Huo’s head.

During match days, their work and rest times weren’t set. Once they returned to base, everyone got free time. If you wanted to take a bath, go take a bath. Rest, if you wanted to. Yu Sui himself went to the training room.

Yu Sui wasn’t in any hurry to wash his face. He relied on his handsome face and good skin and usually just needed minimal make-up before the games. It was the same before today’s game. He went to the official dressing room and after a quick go around, came out. Straight men wouldn’t be able to tell the difference but his make-up was already done.

Excused from this troublesome procedure, Yu Sui went to open his computer. He took advantage of this moment to take a look into his newfound knowledge — feelings mediation talk shows.

It sounded pretty powerful.

Yu Sui was twenty-one this year. The last time he watched a variety show was Big Pinwheel more than a decade ago. Since entering this line of work, Yu Sui basically had no entertainment life. During his downtime, he usually watched American and British dramas. He knew very little about these weird variety shows. He opened the webpage and did a random search. It took a bit of time to check and after ten minutes he clicked on one that looked like it was produced by some domestic TV station. He put on his headphones and took an earnest look.

After watching it for three minutes, Yu Sui took off his headphones.

He rubbed the space between his eyebrows. What was that eyesore he’d just watched?

Yu Sui was extremely glad he hadn’t opened his mouth and said he wanted to join this type of program on their way back to the base just now.

This was absolute trash.

This talk show was totally different from what Yu Sui had imagined. Ten or so so-called feelings experts kicked up a racket and the noise they made caused Yu Sui’s ears to hurt. He placed the headphones on his desk, thoroughly abandoning this idea and went to take a shower.

Ten minutes later, Shi Luo, freshly-showered and sporting his own clothes, walked into the training room.

There were a lot of problems that appeared in today’s game. The only reason Free was able to push around Bison like that was because Bison was too weak a team and because their own personal abilities were too strong. But a careful observation of both games showed that there wasn’t any good cooperation between them. There were even times in the game, where their rhythm broke because of their lack of coordination. This was just the regular season but if this kind of flaw appeared during a major competition, it would allow their opponents to open a breach and turn around the situation.

Shi Luo couldn’t accept there would be a problem with the team because of him. He was just about to watch a replay of the game when he passed by Yu Sui’s seat. He unexpectedly found that Yu Sui’s computer was on. Shi Luo titled his head and took a glance. The look on his face gradually froze.

On Yu Sui’s computer screen, his video player was opened and the talk show had already reached its climax. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were seated at both ends of the sofa, crying their hearts out, both of them criticizing and blaming the other.

Shi Luo stared blankly at the computer screen.

Thinking back on their conversation on the way back to base, he suddenly felt a chill in his heart.

This...was Yu Sui...really thinking of sending him and Violent Shu to this kind of thing?

If it were someone else, Shi Luo would never believe such a ridiculous idea. But this was Yu Sui and he had a previous record.

That time when he’d been shoved into taking the college entrance examinations was a very powerful lesson. Shi Luo firmly believed that when Yu Sui was feeling merciless, he was capable of anything.

Shi Luo looked in awe at the fast-speaking host on the screen. Trembling with fear, he rounded Yu Sui’s seat and carefully sat at his own desk. In a trance, he opened his computer and forced himself to watch the game replay.

After taking a shower, Yu Sui was called downstairs by Old Qiao.

They did very well on their first game of the season and Old Qiao had especially gone out to get them food to celebrate. After a round of thanks, they all sat down to eat. Because of Yu Sui’s stomach condition, these past few years, he ate slowly. While eating, he would glance at Shi Luo from out the corner of his eyes time and again.

Yu Sui frowned slightly. He didn’t know if he was just overthinking it but he vaguely felt that Shi Luo was avoiding his gaze.

Although, up til now, the two of them would quickly look away whenever their eyes met but it was never this bad. Right now, Shi Luo radiated avoidance and rejection.

If the relationship between the two could be displayed on a progress bar, Yu Sui felt that right now, they were at least back to the day when Shi Luo moved to the Free base.

What’s wrong?

All they did was play a match.

They won that game without a hitch and they hadn’t gotten into any conflicts during the game. What happened?

Yu Sui remained calm and collected as he slowly ate and observed Shi Luo’s expression. Soon Shi Luo was full and instead of staying at the table for a while playing with his phone as he usually did, he handed his empty plate to the cleaning aunt and immediately headed upstairs. Looks like he didn’t want to stay even a second longer.

Yu Sui also put down his chopsticks.

Old Qiao glanced at Yu Sui. He swallowed his mouthful of food and said, “What’s wrong? You only took a few bites, why have you stopped eating?”

Yu Sui took a couple of sips of his soup. “Stomach hurts.”

“What’s the matter?” Zhou Huo, sitting on the other side, looked over. He was very sensitive about this matter. “Let’s not waste any more the time! Get your coat and I’ll take you to the hospital.”

Yu Sui shook his head. “It’s nothing serious, just a little uncomfortable. A little bit of hot soup and I’ll be fine.”

Puppy looked up. “Are you okay? Do you need to take some of your stomach medicine?”

“No, it’s not serious.” Yu Sui shook his head. “Hurry up and eat. We’ll replay today’s game.”

Zhou Huo asked anxiously, “Are you okay? Don’t try to bear with it. You’ve got a lot of things to do the next few days. You can’t drop the ball.”

Yu Sui nodded. “It’s okay, don’t worry.”

Zhou Huo nodded reluctantly, and reminded him, “Both the driver and I have our phones on 24 hours a day. At any time that you don’t feel well, you call us immediately.”

They finished dinner and headed to the meeting room to review the match together.

Altogether, it took less than an hour for them to finish the two games, but Old Qiao gave a review for three hours. His notes were seven pages long. This was the review of their first game and Zhou Huo joined them. He sleepily followed along for three hours of dry as dust game review. When the review was finally over, he had to sigh again, “In the future, if anyone dares to say that e-sports players are good-for-nothings who do nothing but play, I’m going to drag them to listen to a game review... Old Qiao, can I ask? Was it really necessary to repeat that two second movement of Chen Huo’s while he placed the purification dish thirty times? Let alone Chen Huo, even I’m gonna vomit from how much I’ve seen it...”

“It was necessary. If he has this kind of problem again next time, he’ll need to review it sixty times then he’s going to have to repeat the standardized movement at least a thousand time to form the muscle memory.” Old Qiao gave the notes of each person’s problems to each of them. “It is the most basic micro-manipulation training. If you relax during training, problems can easily appear. Your movements won’t be refined enough.”

“Fine.” Zhou Huo shook his head and sighed, “I thought this would take half an hour at most. I was gonna say a few words after to boost your morale. But after three hours of listening, even I’ve lost my morale. Everyone has worked hard and I won’t take up any more of your time.”

Everyone got up and turned to head back to the training room. Zhou Huo looked back and said worriedly to Yu Sui, “Whisper, are you sure you’re ok?”

Shi Luo, who’d had his head down looking at his own game notes, suddenly looked up at Yu Sui.

Yu Sui looked as per usual. “Not bad.”

When Yu Sui said ‘not bad’, Zhou Huo became even more worried. “What do you mean not bad? You shouldn’t be joking around about your condition. If you really don’t feel well, we should head to the hospital while it’s still not that late. Don’t wait until it turns serious.”

“I’m really okay.” Yu Sui refused bluntly. “I’m going to head back and review these notes. I also want to broadcast a bit tonight. Don’t worry about me.”

Zhou Huo was helpless. “Why do you have to be this stubborn? Okay, anyway, we’ve got a car right here. Tell me right away if it turns serious.”

Yu Sui rubbed his stomach with one hand and took the notes that Old Qiao had given him and left the meeting room to head to the training room.

Shi Luo followed behind Yu Sui, frowning slightly.

After returning to the training room, everyone looked at their own notes of the game. After reviewing their problems, they began their individual training. Chen Huo formed a team up with their neighboring team’s Angel Sword. Puppy did simulation training on a custom server and sure enough, Yu Sui opened a live broadcast.

Shi Luo didn’t start a live broadcast. He instead went to absent mindedly play single row to level up.

After taking back his old account, his ranking had been cleared. These past few years, Shi Luo had become accustomed to leveling up. These days, whenever he was free, he would play single row to raise his rank. Now, he had already gotten back to within the top 100 of the national server.

After entering the top 100, queueing times were a lot longer. While waiting, he harbored his worries. His phone suddenly beeped with a WeChat message.

[Manager·Zhou]: [Evil, I’m going to stay at my parents’ house today. I won’t be at the base. Help me keep an eye on Yu Sui. His stomach isn’t feeling very well today and he refused to drink any medicine or see a doctor. I’m worried it might turn serious.]

[Manager·Zhou]: [I also told Old Qiao, but Old Qiao can be too careless. I can’t stop worrying so help me keep an eye on him.]

Shi Luo’s eyebrows twisted up. As expected, it was his stomach that was acting up.

Shi Luo looked up and observed Yu Sui.

Yu Sui’s expression was the same as usual, but from time to time he would stroke his stomach with his left hand. He was also playing a game so he had no hand to spare to take care of himself. Every time, he would stroke his stomach and then quickly go back to tapping on the keyboard.

Shi Luo replied to Zhou Huo: [I understand.]

Shi Luo was absently playing, looking at Yu Sui from time to time. It was obvious that he was rubbing his stomach more often.

But this person seemed to be completely unaware. After one round ended, he started up another round immediately. There was no break in between. Medics didn’t queue up for very long. He entered a map almost as soon as he clicked for a game. For two whole hours, Yu Sui basically played without a second’s pause.

Shi Luo became more and more anxious. Isn’t he even going to go drink a cup of hot water?

Shi Luo looked at the completely oblivious Chen Huo and Puppy, and couldn’t help grumbling. Are you two really his close friends? Aren’t either of you going to urge him to take break?

Shi Luo became more and more upset. After another half an hour, when Shi Luo was at the end of his rope and was about to remind Yu Sui to take a break, Yu Sui himself pushed away his keyboard, adjusted his mic and said, “I’m not feeling so well. I’m gonna stop here.”

Saying so, Yu Sui took off his headphones and left the training room.

Shi Luo’s heart emptied. Some unpleasant memories poured into his head and he practically instinctively got up to follow.

Yu Sui went back to his own room.

Shi Luo stood in front of the training room door, looking in the direction of Yu Sui’s room, hesitating.

Was he feeling a little unwell so he went to sleep early or was he feeling a lot unwell and he went to vomit?

Was it serious or not?

Shi Luo smoked a cigarette in the hallway. He gritted his teeth, went up to Yu Sui’s door and knocked.

A moment later the door opened. Yu Sui didn’t look like he’d been vomiting. Shi Luo felt a little relieved and then embarrassed. “Nothing, I just...”

Yu Sui quietly looked at Shi Luo. “Just?”

Shi Luo was helpless and whispered in a self-defeated kind of way. “Do you have a stomachache? I saw that you... Kept rubbing your stomach.”

Yu Sui didn’t speak.

Shi Luo hesitated and said stiffly, “Shoud I...get you a cup of hot water?”

Yu Sui was silent for a moment and then nodded. “Okay.”

Shi Luo headed downstairs to get some hot water.

Yu Sui hadn’t locked the door. Shi Luo got the hot water and when he got back, he directly pushed open the door to Yu Sui’s room. Yu Sui was sitting on his bead, head down looking at his phone.

Shi Luo approached, handed the cup of hot water to Yu Sui and awkwardly said, “Drink.”

It was like a look of helplessness flashed across Yu Sui’s eyes, Shi Luo said uncertainly, “Wha-what is it?”

Yu Sui shook his head. “It’s nothing.”

He slowly drank half a cup of hot water. Shi Luo tilted his head, looked at him and asked, “Are you feeling better?”

Yu Sui used his thumb to wipe the water from the corner of his mouth. He nodded. “Yeah.”

Yu Sui raised his eyes to look at Shi Luo. His lips moved.

Shi Luo saw that Yu Sui seemed like he wanted to say something. “Is...there anything else the matter...?”

Yu Sui lowered his head and mumbled to himself: “... Five hundred years later and it’s still hot water.”

Yu Sui’s voice had been too soft, Shi Luo didn’t hear clearly. He raised one eyebrow. “What?”

“There’s something...I’ve wanted to say since two years ago.” Yu Sui made as if to speak then stopped. “Shi Luo, even if you find a girlfriend for yourself later, when your girlfriend is feeling unwell, you can’t just keep giving her a cup of hot water, understand?”

For some inexplicable reason, Shi Luo’s ears turned red once again. “I don’t have a girlfriend yet! Besides, you...what do you mean by saying this?”

“Just some slag man teachings.” Yu Sui took another sip of hot water. “When someone feels unwell...you should at least help give a massage.”

Massage...massage...

Shi Luo’s ears were completely red.

Shi Luo froze in place and stuttered: “You...does it really hurt that bad?”

Yu Sui was like this every single time. No matter how severe his stomachache was, he wouldn’t let it show on his face. In those days, even though he was already suffering from gastric bleeding, he could still deal with Ji Yanhan’s garbage as usual. Shi Luo wasn’t sure how Yu Sui was now. He hesitantly said, “Do you really need me to...help massage?”

Yu Sui looked at Shi Luo. He wore his usual indifferent expression.

This face matched with this expression...

This was what Shi Luo absolutely couldn’t stand against.

Shi Luo took two steps forward, squatted down halfway, overcautious. “You...”

Without waiting for Shi Luo to figure out what to do, Yu Sui reached out a hand and gently held Shi Luo’s wrist.

Shi Luo was stunned. He gulped. “Wh-what?”

“I’ll teach you.”

Yu Sui held Shi Luo’s wrist and pressed his hand against his stomach.

Shi Luo: “!”

Shi Luo’s fingers trembled.

He was nineteen years old. A boy at that age where his energy was at its most exuberant. The heat of his palm was a touch higher than others’.

Yu Sui held Shi Luo’s hand and rubbed it against his stomach. “Like this.”

Shi Luo was stiff from head to foot. He rubbed gently. “Li-...like this?”

Yu Sui silently looked at Shi Luo and nodded.

Shi Luo’s fingers moved slightly and rubbed a few more times. He said, not quite comfortably, “Aside from a massage, is there anything else...?”

Yu Sui asked. “What?”

Shi Luo cleared his throat. He tilted his head and quietly said, “These are slag man teachings, right? You have anything else to teach?”

“Oh, aside from this...”

Yu Sui looked longingly at Shi Luo. A bit reluctantly, he moved away Shi Luo’s hand.

Yu Sui gallantly moved back a bit and quietly said, “Aside from this, I was just pretending to have a stomachache.”