Zhou Huo looked at Shi Luo and chuckled softly, “Shi Shen, what part of this is a room card? This is obviously Whisper’s love letter……”


  Shi Luo held the two room cards in the pocket of his jacket. He looked at Yu Sui from out the corner of his eye, his lips moved slightly. He gave no reply.

  After checking in, Yu Sui still had some things to deal with as the captain. Yu Sui signaled to the official staff to wait. He walked up to Shi Luo and Zhou Huo and said, “I have a solo interview and a photo shoot…… It was originally scheduled for tomorrow, but by my estimate , we should be able to start training tomorrow. It would delay us by too much so I just discussed with their people and I’ll do it all tonight. We’ll start closed door training tomorrow.

  Zhou Huo frowned, “Discussing matters directly with the players? What is this? What kind of mass media outlet just gets an interview because they want one?”


  “The league’s mass media outlet. Each team goes through this fixed process and there’s no pushing it back. They only told me about it when I asked what their schedule was for tomorrow.” Yu Sui rubbed his shoulders. “Anyway, I can’t sleep anymore. I’ll just spend an hour or two to handle everything and then that will be that.”


  Zhou Huo asked Yu Sui to wait for a while. He went to talk with the league staff. Once he confirmed that it was a set process, he arranged Yu Sui’s schedule and then nodded. He exchanged a couple of words with the other accompanying club staff members and had them accompany Yu Sui to his interview.

  “You go back and rest first……” Yu Sui said to Shi Luo softly, “I’ll message you when I get back.”


  Shi Luo pursed his lower lip and nodded, “Ok.”


  Shi Luo went directly to Yu Sui’s room. He didn’t even open his suitcase. He simple took out his laptop from his peripheral bag and brought up the record of the past matches of the other teams in their group match.

  The overall strength of other teams in their grouping was really too far from Free. Old Qiao didn’t let the four of them waste time looking at these materials. Instead, he just had the coaching team watch the watch it and he then went to write a detailed summary of each team and sent it to the players. Only Shi Luo went to make a copy of the videos for himself. He’d been planning on watching these when he found himself unable to sleep on the plane. Now, he had some time to watch it.

  Shi Luo sat on the bed with the laptop on his lap. The lights were off and the sky was dark. Only the faint light from the laptop screen was visible in the room.

  Shi Luo watched the video at twice the speed. He also fast-forwarded nonstop in the middle. For a five hour-long video, Shi Luo finished watching it in less than two hours.

  Shi Luo clicked on another team’s video. Just as he doubled the speed, Shi Luo raised his eyes suddenly and then quickly closed the laptop.

  A few seconds later, the door of the room opened with a beep.

  A certain someone who had just finished his interview turned on the corridor light unsuspectingly. He entered the bathroom and he washed his face. He grabbed a towel and after lightly wiping his face, Yu Sui turned to walk out. He hadn’t yet gotten out of the bathroom when Shi Luo blocked his way with a fierce kiss.

  Yu Sui was stunned and then relaxed, spreading his arms slightly, letting Shi Luo do what he wanted.

  Yu Sui was pushed all the way from the entrance of the bathroom to the side of the sink. Yu Sui didn’t present even the least bit of resistance. Shi Luo pressed a bit forcefully against his shoulder and he moved back along with Shi Luo. The moment Shi Luo had kissed him, he had already parted his lips, Shi Luo had just touched Yu Sui’s collar and Yu Sui already took the initiative to pull the zipper of his jacket all the way down to make it easier for Shi Luo to do what he wished.

  The lights in the bathroom were dim. Only their breaths, running slightly faster than usual, could be heard.

  Shi Luo put his hand on the hem of Yu Sui’s sweatshirt, grasping the loose and soft material. He hesitated for a moment but didn’t not lift it up. He only put his hand on Yu Sui’s waist and continued to kiss him deeply.

  After ten minutes of both restrained and frenzied silent kissing, Shi Luo let go of Yu Sui.

  Shi Luo’s lips were red and his voice was low, “.……You didn’t take control.”


  Yu Sui closed his eyes when he heard these words. After a moment of silence, he smiled helplessly, his voice was slightly hoarse, “Baobei&#k2026;I didn’t take control because I already really want to do you. If I had taken control&#k2026; we might not be able to train tomorrow. I would have finished that interview early for nothing.”


  Shi Luo thought of all the things they did during their little vacation and his previous slight dissatisfaction was suddenly teased into disappearing. He wiped his lower lip with the back of his hand and said nothing.

  After taking a few deep breaths, Yu Sui’s mind was a little clearer. But when he opened his eyes and saw Shi Luo, his heart instantly softened.

  Yu Sui’s lips moved slightly, “You want me to take control?”


  Yu Sui looked at Shi Luo. He said, voice very low, “It’s not completely out of the question. I should be able to restrain myself now…… what do you want me to do?”


  “You……” Shi Luo paused and asked, “Would you do as I want you to?”


  Yu Sui smiled, “So long as it doesn’t delay your training tomorrow……I can satisfy you.”


  Shi Luo took a deep breath and whispered, “Yu Sui……do you never ever afford the people you’re in a relationship with a way out……”


  Yu Sui didn’t hear him clearly, “Huh?”


  “Are you afraid that I won’t belong to you?” Shi Luo grumbled, “When I wasn’t with you yet, the fans kept reminding me that I’m still young, that I shouldn’t make nice with you…… If I get into a relationship with you, if we break up, it won’t be easy for me to ever be interested in anyone in the future. Did you see it at the time and treated me like this on purpose, making me……”


  Yu Sui looked deeply at Shi Luo. He raised the corners of his mouth slightly and asked, “Making you what? Shi Luo, making you what?”


  Shi Luo couldn’t bear it, “Making me like you so much my heart hurts. I can’t wait to give you my life so that I will never be apart from you again……”


  Listening to the terribly sweet confession of his little boyfriend, Yu Sui’s smile grew deeper and deeper. He lowered his head slightly and kissed Shi Luo’s lips, “Yes, I did it on purpose.”


  “I purposely…… made you feel that you could never bear to be separated from me forever.”


  Shi Luo let Yu Sui tease his bad temper away. He held Yu Sui’s collar and kissed him on his lips again. Yu Sui responded with the proper gentleness. After a while, Shi Luo let Yu Sui go and said, voice hoarse, “OK. ……okay.”


  “Okay?” Yu Sui pulled up his jacket that had been taken half off by Shi Luo. Holding back a smile, he asked, “.…… Shi Shen, were you satisfied with your ravaging of me? Will you give me a good review? Would you visit again?”


  “Like making out with a log. Not satisfied.” Shi Luo turned and walked out, “.……We’ll talk about it after the game.”


  Yu Sui smiled, zipped up his jacket, and left the bathroom.

  In the room, Shi Luo opened Yu Sui’s and helped him put away his things. Shi Luo didn’t leave that night. The two of them watched the game video together until past midnight. Feeling a bit sleepy, someone drank a cup of hot milk and was forced to sleep.

  The next day, the training room that Zhou Huo applied to the league for was already set. Everyone followed the routine they had back in China, except that their training time was slightly increased. They already had breakfast at a little past ten and then rushed to the official training venue. After familiarizing themselves a little a bit, it was already eleven o’clock and they turned on their computers to prepare for their practice matches.

  At eleven o’clock in the morning in Germany, it was four o’clock in the morning in China. It was too difficult to make appointments with the Chinese teams. Zhou Huo made an appointment with a North American team in the afternoon and a Chinese team at night.

  They had no practice matches with Sacred Sword.

  Naturally, Sacred Sword wouldn’t agree to one. Sacred Sword was tightly guarded against Free and refuses to make any practice matches with any team in any Chinese division, for fear that Yu Sui would have some means to get insights about them.

  Zhou Huo mocked, “They talk as though any team in our region would deign to agree to a practice match with them. They play dirty and sneer at their opponents. Who the hell would agree to them?”


  During a break between practice matches, when everyone was eating together. Zhou Huo couldn’t help complaining about the various petty-minded moves made by Sacred Sword. Old Qiao patted Zhou Huo on the shoulder and whispered, “That’s about enough.”


  Old Qiao didn’t say anything but he glanced at Shi Luo. Zhou Huo was stunned and realized that Old Qiao was reminding him that there was a rather deep hatred between Shi Luo and Sacred Sword so that he should not create an even more confrontational atmosphere that might affect Shi Luo’s mood.

  Zhou Huo stiffly changed the topic. He smiled, “Oh, that’s right. NSN will be here in a few days. They’ll also be coming to our hotel. When that time comes, it will be more convenient to set appointments with them.”


  Shi Luo pulled out a napkin and wiped the corners of his mouth. “I’m done. I’m going to go watch some game replay.”


  Shi Luo pretended not to have seen anything.

  Yu Sui was worried about him. His teammates were worried about him. Zhou Huo, Old Qiao……all the staff were worried about him.

  Shi Luo knew it very well.

  Shi Luo could clearly remember how the haters taunted him before the World Competition. They said he had no experience in large-scale competitions, that his mentality was not stable enough, that he was a hidden danger for the team.

  After entering the World Championship for the first time, he might even come across Sacred Sword, this enemy of his life. People around him were worried that he would incur an all too obvious setback. Afterwards, it would produce a shadow in his heart and this originally tiny shadow would snowball along with the voices online calling him into question. The longer the snowball rolled, the bigger it would become until he is finally brainwashed by doubting voices online. He would lose his self-confidence and would really become mentally-crippled.

  Lessons from the past could be found everywhere. How many players have been forced to carry the burden of a blackened name because of a mistake that didn’t even determine the outcome of a game? After that, they have never been able to prove themselves again and they truly become the trash that the haters accused them of being.

  Shi Luo didn’t want to explain anything and he didn’t want to tell the people in his team that he was fine and that they needn’t be so careful.

  It was him whose expression had crumpled for everyone to see that his mental state had collapsed just because some commentator said “Thankfully our region has the best medic twin stars, Whisper and Angel Sword.”


  Now, if he were to say, light as a feather, that he was fine, it would only make others feel that he was just pretending to be calm and they would worry about him even more. Shi Luo didn’t feel like adding to the trouble of others.

  So Shi Luo silently enjoyed Yu Sui’s gentleness and silently accepted the kindness of the rest of the team. The day before the group match, Shi Luo didn’t say anything even when Zhou Huo said something damnable like, “It’s okay to lose a few rounds in the group stage. As long as we can qualify, we win.”


  The group stage officially started. Group A became the opening team because the groups were going in order. In the double-loop group stage, Free played against the Thai team in the first match. The result of the game wasn’t at all surprising. It went as most people predicted. Free won easily. It took them less than twenty minutes to claim the win. However, what went beyond most people’s expectations was that the MVP spot was given Shi Luo.

  Shi Luo’s play during the match was indeed eye-catching. There was a theory among the general public that when the official technical staff selects the MVP, sometimes they would give it to the player who was playing in the World Championships for the first time as a lifetime sign of friendship. Players who do not understand the intricacies of the play, thought that Shi Luo, given that he was a rookie to the World Championships, might have been given consideration by the league and after thinking about it, they think it was reasonable. New players should always be given a bit of consideration.

  In the post-match interview, when the host asked Shi Luo if the MVP title was given because of his beautiful play or because of the care given to newcomers, Shi Luo said easily that the officials had been considerate towards him.

  However, foreign commentators couldn’t help but argue for Evil. “It’s not surprising that Free easily won that match. But as a newcomer, Evil’s play truly had surpassed people’s expectations…… They have Whisper in their team and to have been able to seize the MVP title from Whisper’s grasp……that’s no easy feat……Of course, because the match had been so short, there hadn’t been any deadlocked situation that happened and Whisper was not given any room to display his abilities. But being able to out do both Chen Huo and Puppy is also a very rare thing. When fighting against a team whose strength is far from one’s own, it’s all too easy for players to become too bloodthirsty and make lots of mistakes because of it. But Evil didn’t. His performance was too stable and it was beautiful. He didn’t look at all like a newcomer to the World Championship.”


  Because there was a half-true-half-false theory about the first MVP title during one’s debut being given as a gift, even though the commentators passionately assessed Shi Luo, the players didn’t feel too surprised by Shi Luo’s first performance.

  But on the next day, Free played back-to-back against the Japanese and Vietnamese teams. After successfully winning both matches, the MVP titles for both matches were still given to Shi Luo.

  Only three best of one games had been played in the group stage and Shi Luo got all three MVP titles.

  For the two MVP titles after the first, Shi Luo won them completely using his own ability, he played stably and beautifully. Everyone was now thoroughly convinced that he deserved the MVP title.

  After the third match of the group stage, the discussions regarding Shi Luo had reached a fever-pitch.

  In Free’s backstage lounge, only Yu Sui and Shi Luo were in the small locker room. Shi Luo pushed Yu Sui to the corner. After winning three MVP titles in a row, Shi Luo had the confidence to tell Yu Sui, “You were concerned that I wasn’t sleeping well before coming to Germany? Do you know why I didn’t sleep well?”


  “Because I was finally, finally, finally, able to come to this f*cked up place and stick it to Sacred Sword.” Shi Luo had a bit of loathing and provocative look in his eyes, “Two years ago…… they wouldn’t even look at me. They wouldn’t buy me and you wouldn’t let me come……Now, I’m going to let them see whether Laozi was worth their money or not, whether they didn’t lose out by not insisting on buying this substitute.”


  Shi Luo said in a deep voice, “I wasn’t unable to sleep because I was anxious. I was excited……Finally, I have the opportunity to let others see clearly whether Laozi can play in the World Championship or whether I would just hold us back.”


  Yu Sui was relying on the wall to keep standing, thinking about Shi Luo’s extreme operations in the matches. Looking deeply at Shi Luo, he was so fascinated by him that it made him want to do a little something right here in the locker room.

  “Why……” Yu Sui said in a low voice, “didn’t you tell me earlier?”


  “With no results to show, saying it would have been uninteresting. Moreover……” Shi Luo paused and his little scheming self that hadn’t made an appearance in a long time, came out. His voice became lower and lower, “If I’d said it earlier…… would you still have been so gentle to me?”


  Little Shi Shen had already vented all his anger and his expression revealed a bit of unease, “I like it…… When you’re being so good to me.”


  “I just like…… your slag man routine.”


  “I like it very much.”