Chapter 52

Qiao Yanzhou and Cao Ting started dating last year in March, and it was Cao Ting who pursued Qiao Yanzhou. 

At that time, Cao Ting liked watching streamers, specifically game streamers. By chance she encountered Qiao Yanzhou’s stream one day. Moreover, it just happened that she didn't live far from Qiao Yanzhou, so she quickly got to know him.

After a baffling confession, Qiao Yanzhou thought that this young lady was very pretty and cute, so he agreed. 

The two were together for over a year. They never slept together, they didn't even kiss much. 

It wasn't because Qiao Yanzhou was a gentleman. It was clear to him how perverted he was. He had watched things before and rubbed, but with Cao Ting in front of him for a full year, from start to finish he almost never had the urge. Even if he did, it was quickly squashed down for rationality. 

It was to the point that sometimes Cao Ting couldn’t bear it, but Qiao Yanzhou would remain as elegant and unbothered as Liu Xiahui. It wasn’t until later when Qiao Yanzhou felt that something wasn’t right, he sneakily went to the hospital to do a check up on that area. 

Note: Liu Xiahui is an ancient chinese politician. Was said to be a man of great virtue where he wasn’t tempted by women at all.

At the time, he really believed that he had some kind of illness or was just frigid, so when the doctor told him he was perfectly fine he didn’t feel any ounce of happiness. In fact, he was dumbfounded.

Cao Ting was a woman with an average bust and a gorgeous behind. 

In front of Qiao Yanzhou she nearly wanted to strip naked, but he still couldn't get it up. 

Forget the doctor, Qiao Yanzhou had already marked himself with big letters that he was incompetent, sexless, sex-... basically they were all bad words to use.

Qiao Yanzhou then thickened his face and went to talk to the doctor about this problem. The doctor analyzed for a while before cautiously asking Qiao Yanzhou this question: “Have you ever had that feeling with a man before?” 

That was the first time someone had asked Qiao Yanzhou this question. At that time he was stunned and also thought it was ridiculous, he didn’t know how to respond. Has it risen for a man before? To who? Liang Dong? Did he have the urge? Does the urge to beat him up count? 

So Qiao Yanzhou denied the doctor’s guess at the time. However the doctor urged him to go see a psychiatrist. Although homosexuality was not an illness, it was still necessarily to find out your own orientation, then you could also talk with your family about it. 

The doctor had said that in this kind of situation, it was better to find out earlier.. 

But Qiao Yanzhou didn’t follow the doctor’s order and see a psychiatrist. Thinking about it now, from that moment he started to lack confidence ba. 

At this moment, Qiao Yanzhou finally discovered, the hot feeling he got from seeing Cao Ting was not even half of what he felt when he saw Gu Zixing. 

“What are you thinking about ne?” Gu Zixing was laying on the sofa asleep, woke up and saw Qiao Ynzhou on the sofa staring distractedly, the lights weren’t even on.

The room was a bit dusky and you could carefully see the other’s silhouette. 

“Nothing… you woke up ah.”

“Whose quilt is this?”

“Mine… when you were sleeping, I was afraid you'd get cold so I covered you up.” Qiao Yanzhou stood up and took the quilt on Gu Zixing's body. 

Gu Zixing actually really liked watching Qiao Yanzhou’s shameful appearance. Even the way he was talking changed. Gu Zixing knew that if he continued to stare at him he’d get too embarrassed to say anything else. 

“That… what did you eat tonight?”

Ze, watch. Speak and it will come.

“Didn’t eat anything, I was really tired.” Gu Zixing snickered wickedly. 

“Sorry…” Qiao Yanzhou knew that he did something wrong. In fact he hoped that when Gu Zixing woke up he would say something, even if it was that he was a repulsive rogue! But he didn’t expect Gu Zixing to be unruffled, his speaking tone didn’t even change much. 

This was really out of Qiao Yanzhou’s expectation.

“Gu… God Gu…”

“En?” Gu Zixing patted around his body to pull out a cigarette and tossed it in his mouth. 

“Last night… we… that…”

“What do you want to say?” Gu Zixing raised his eyebrow.

“Didn’t…. “

“We’re both men, don’t take it to heart.” Gu Zixing leaned against the back of the sofa. “It’s not a big deal.”

…..

“Then before with Yao…”

“Didn't do it.”

“Then in front of Yao…”

“Annoying.” Gu Zixing stood up and walked in front of Qiao Yanzhou. “How about I do you right now to make you feel better?”

“....” Qiao Yanzhou nervously pointed a finger at him. He raised his head to look at Gu Zixing as his lips started to stutter. “If you… if you really decided…decided that I’m suitable… then…then how about I let you…”

“Have you gone mental?” Gu Zixing’s eyebrow was raised. Although his expression looked like he was in a bad mood, he wanted to laugh internally. 

“No… I just don’t want you to think I’m the type of person who finds you easy, even if you find me easy ba. Afterall, I made the first move.” Qiao Yanzhou shook his head, “I might… I might really like you… But you think about it, I’m already 18 and I’ve talked with so many girls but still never even touched a breast…. But when I came across you, I forced myself on you.”

“According to what you said, I should feel honored.” Gu Zixing finally laughed. He moved forward two steps to put himself closer to Qiao Yanzhou. 

He wanted to see Qiao Yanzhou’s expression, he liked to watch. 

Qiao Yanzhou’s face was burning hot. 

“How do I make it up to you…” Qiao Yanzhou’s mind was really stupid, “What if… what if… what if I let you top me?” 

“Not topping, tired.”

“Get on top ba.”

“No.”

“Begging you.”

“Did you eat some aphrodisiac?”

But actually Gu Zixing could tell that it wasn’t easy for Qiao Yanzhou to say this, his forehead was about to be covered in sweat.

Gu Zixing liked men since he was young, so he didn’t quite understand the feeling of turning from straight to bent. But he could see the pain from Qiao Yanzhou’s expression. Qiao Yanzhou didn’t actually want him to top him, he probably didn’t even know what the words Gong and Shou were, he just merely wanted to make up for the guilt he felt. 

Gu Zixing was not good at taking advantage of someone, but he had no objection to the steady flow of water. Gu Zixing tilted his head and rubbed Qiao Yanzhou’s hair. 

Thin streams flow forever: working steadily at something little by little. English equivalent could be “slow and steady wins the race”. 

“Then this team uniform… in the end, it did it come from sleeping…”

……

“Its rubbing not sleeping…” Gu Zixing restrained his laugh and used his chin to point at the new uniform, “Isn’t it obvious? When you rub it out, it’s white, this is black.”

“Gross…” Qiao Yanzhou unexpectedly didn’t really want to put it on. 

The uniform fit perfectly, if it was smaller or bigger by one number, Qiao Yanzhoul wouldn’t be comfortable in it. But thinking about it, Qiao Yanzhou had never told anyone his clothing size, and the only person on the team who would be able to guess was the man who was in contact with every night: Gu Zixing.

“Thank you.”

“Xiao Qiao.”

“En?”

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re like a small idiot?”

**

Coach Chen was in Manager Ren’s office drinking his third cup of tea. He already ran to the bathroom 4 times. 

“What exactly are you trying to say? The fish in the fish tank are already asleep, you're not tired ah?”

“A bit.” Manager Ren massaged an acupuncture point, flipping through the analysis in his hands while asking, “What team are you guys against next?”

“TR, it's the finals bro.” It was the 5-6th time Manager Ren had asked this today and Coach Ren had answered him each time. Afterwards he sat on the sofa again, watching as Manager Ren flipped through the data. 

Manager Ren didn’t actually understand much about games and esports,, he also didn’t need to understand it. He only needed to know that winning games made him look good and losing didn’t. The more important thing was for him to watch over the operations and development of the Org. For instance, arranging advertisements for so and so player, he was very happy to do so.

Compared to the esports industry, Manager Ren was definitely a business person. 

“What's that?” Manager Ren choked for a moment, pondered for a bit then asked, “MSI is located in Korea this year.”

“Yep.” Afterwards Manager Ren asked a lot of dumb questions. If Manager Ren was his subordinate, he would have long thrown the mug at him. 

“The next competition, are you still switching up the lineup?”

“Don't change for the finals, it’s better to be more stable.” Coach Chen lifted his tea, thought over it then put it back down. He didn’t want to run to the bathroom for the 5th time. 

“I let Qiao Yanzhou enter the team today.” 

“En? Ah, that young man is pretty good. Appearance is also good. If he does end up getting onto the main roster and takes his player photo, his attractiveness index will shoot up a lot. Maybe he’ll even be able to catch the eye of a company and do an ad…”

“....” What was this all about?

“After MSI, Tang Xuan will retire. How will you guys arrange it?”

“Currently we are planning on Gu Zixing and Yao Le going bot, Zhao Qin goes mid.”

“Zhao Qin won't do, too inexperienced.”

“Then what do you think we should do?”

“When MSI is over, have Qiao Yanzhou follow training.” 

“Then have Qiao Yanzhou go mid?” Coach Chen almost laughed. This person surnamed Ren must have lost his mind today. He was able to make any kind of joke. Even ‘The Arabian Nights’ wasn't as fantastical as what he said today. 

“Yao Le goes mid. Let’s talk about who goes support. I saw that Qiao Yanzhou, that youngster, didn’t play too bad today.”

“You just think that because he's good looking so it’s easy to make money with him.” Coach Chen coldly snorted, muttered to himself then said, “Why does Yao Le have to go mid?”

This actually wasn’t the first time Manager Ren told Coach Chen this. It was at least the third time, and each time it was with a commanding tone. 

“Yao Le and Gu Zixing must be separated!”

In the end it was this phrase again. Coach Chen decided that the next time this was mentioned again, he must find out more.

“”Did those two provoke you?”

“Unless you tell me otherwise, those two aren’t allowed to be alone in training when they got bot lane together.”

“What if I can’t guarantee it, then what? You scared that those two together will plot to take over?”

“Don’t ask anymore,” Manager Ren frowned, his face full of impatience. “There’s also another problem that I originally didn’t want to tell you.”

“Speak ba.”

“Did you know this afternoon, Yao Le sent an email to WG?”

“Didn’t know.” Coach Chen shook his head. “Why? Did he want to switch teams?”

“Hard to tell, WG is also lacking people recently. There’s only so many famous Orgs in the alliance. Quite possible that someone wants to snatch Yao Le from us.” 

“He wants to go to WG to play mid?”

Manager Ren shrugged. 

“That’s why I said to give mid to Yao Le. With his skills, having him play support feels a bit pitiful.”

You don’t understand sh*t about skill level, Coach Chen spat out this phrase in his head. 

“Ok ba, I’ll think it over first.” Coach Chen half heartedly nodded his head. He stood up intending to leave, but before leaving he turned his head around to ask,”Will you be personally going to the finals?”

“It’s just the finals of the spring split, what's the point of going? Even if we win, it's just going to MSI. We can talk about the summer split later, there's still a sponsor I need to talk to.”

Coach Chen didn't turn his head back around and left. He didn’t even close the door behind him. 

JADE: Another update! Also, just wanted to let everyone know that I read as I translate so I don't fully know what's ahead as well, however I do read through some of the reviews and comments for this novel so I know what I'm getting into. I just wanted to point out that although this novel isn't like other esports novels, the business/management corruption aspect of it is pretty on point. It's one of the reasons why I'm still intrigued and haven't dropped it yet because it feels a bit more realistic. Also if anyone is interested in learning more about team corruption in esports irl, search up Team Griffin in Korea. Thanks and happy reading!