AWM Chapter 29

Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter

---

Chapter 29

---

Edited by Tin

 

In the corridor, Yu Yang, Bu Nana, and Lao Kai followed him. Bu Nana, whose eyes and nose were completely red stood in front of Qi Zui and blocked his way, asking in a low voice, “What happened to your hand?!”

 

Qi Zui felt helpless, the thing he was most scared of had arrived.

 

Qi Zui patted Bu Nana’s shoulder, not saying a word, wanting to walk forward. Bu Nana continued to block Qi Zui’s way, his tears falling down as he yelled in a low voice, “I’m asking you! What the fuck is wrong with your wrist?!”

 

Qi Zui choked, allowing Bu Nana to push him, without saying a word.

 

“Don’t be like that…” Lao Kai pulled Bu Nana from behind, his voice hoarse as he said, “Captain needs to go to the interview area, don’t be like this…”

 

“Qi Zui you asshole!” Bu Nana sobbed, “You old hooligan! You didn’t tell us, you didn’t fucking tell us! I asked you before! And you tricked me! You…”

 

Bu Nana completely understood everything the moment he saw the bandages on Qi Zui’s hand before the competition began.

 

The five rounds of competition, Lao Kai and he played in a daze, in the middle of the competition, they did not even know where they were or what they were doing.

 

Bu Nana’s more than two hundred catties of meat¹ was not just for show, he blocked Qi Zui by standing in front of him and refusing to move, he was crying in a comical but pitiful way, pushing him over and over again and asking, ‘what’s wrong with your hand?’

 

“Shut up!” Yu Yang could not stand it anymore, pulling Bu Nana and pushing him into the wall of the hallway, warning him, one word at a time, “Don’t touch his hand.”

 

“Who the hell are you?!” Bu Nana went completely crazy, he used all his force to push Yu Yang and said angrily, “When I became teammates with Qi Zui, you were still in some random kindergarten playing house!”

 

Lao Kai frowned and yelled in a low voice, “Nana!”

 

“I’ve never gone to kindergarten, and I don’t know what playing family is either,” Yu Yang looked at Bu Nana coldly, “I’m no one special, and you’re indeed better than me, but you’ve at least played with him for one season before, what about me?”

 

Bu Nana choked, dumbfounded.

 

Yu Yang looked at Bu Nana before he turned to look at Lao Kai, saying mildly, “There’s no need for you to remind me, I know where I stand… You all have deep feelings for each other, and you’ve been teammates for a long time, all of you are better than me.”

 

So Yu Yang did not even have the right to question Qi Zui.

 

That night when he had accidentally found out that Qi Zui was about to retire, Yu Yang smoked for the whole night on the balcony.

 

若是别人，大可以推门而入，拽着祁醉的领子对他破口大骂，骂他为什么不早说，骂他为什么不及时治疗。

If he were someone else, he could push open the door, yank on Qi Zui’s collar and scold him unrestrainedly. Scold him for not telling everyone earlier, scold him for not getting treatment in time.

 

But as it was Yu Yang, he could only not speak for a few days, slowly digesting that information. After that, when he had thought things through, he carved Qi Zui’s ID on his shoulder.

 

Qi Zui lowered his eyes, the rims of his eyes turning red slightly.

 

“Discussing who I am has no meaning at all, what’s most important now is…” Yu Yang let out a controlled breath, “what’s most important is…he needs to accept an interview, we have duo matches tomorrow, and there are even squad matches the day after to prepare for…”

 

Bu Nana was completely stunned.

 

“If you want to fight with me, find somewhere with no one around,” Yu Yang let go of Bu Nana, picking up the team uniform that had fallen on the ground while they were roughing each other up. “The squad competition on the following day is very important for me, I can’t be banned from taking part in the competition.”

 

Bu Nana was stunned for a few seconds, before he squatted on the floor and buried his head to cry.

 

Qi Zui took a deep breath, going through the long hallway and walking to the interview area.

 

In front of the interview area, He Xiaoxu had been waiting for a long time. Seeing Qi Zui arrive, he hurriedly went up to meet Qi Zui and handed him a bottle of water. He took the opportunity to say in a low voice, “The short documentary film for your retirement has been prepared by the club already, and our media department is also ready. After you’ve given your official statement, our official page back in the country will announce it at the same time. You can rest assured that everything is very well-prepared…”

 

“There’s no need.”

 

“What?” He Xiaoxu was dazed, “What’s not needed?”

 

Qi Zui glanced at the many cameras off-stage, saying mildly, “I didn’t plan on announcing it today.”

 

“If not today, when do you want to announce it?” He Xiaoxu said anxiously, “Don’t go crazy! You got such a shocking result just now, it’s best to announce it now, you can leave very magnificently, it won’t leave any stain on your reputation, you…”

 

“I’ve already said,” Qi Zui’s expression was calm. “Not today.”

 

A thought flashed through He Xiaoxu’s mind, and he said in disbelief, “It can’t be that you’re waiting for the following day…”

 

“My strength had never been solo matches, I just happened to get first place,” Qi Zui passed the bottle of water back to He Xiaoxu. “My goal is the gold pot from the squad match.”

 

Qi Zui walked to the centre of the interview area, He Xiaoxu held the bottle of mineral water and stood at his original spot, gritting his teeth, “This crazy man…”

 

The interview area.

 

The bandages on Qi Zui’s hand attracted more attention than his heaven-defying points in the solo competition today. The host and reporters kept asking Qi Zui questions about his hand. However, Qi Zui did not give a direct answer the whole time. He just said that he felt a little unwell and that did not affect him much.

 

However, Qi Zui could not control his right hand and it kept trembling slightly. The host even asked whether he needed her to call a doctor over, but Qi Zui rejected her offer.

 

There was a Korean translator who used words that were too serious, but Qi Zui even pointed it out and corrected it, repeating it in English. The Korean translator was trembling in fear and kept apologizing.

 

The interview time allocated for the top three of the solo competition was half an hour. The interview directed at Qi Zui alone was twenty-five minutes long, and all the topics kept bringing up Qi Zui. Qi Zui avoided all the questions concerning his injury, and only had everyone anticipate HOG’s squad competition.

 

After the interview ended, Qi Zui was surrounded by the staff and escorted out of the stadium and got on HOG team’s car.

 

The physiotherapist came up to him instantly, removing the intramuscular bandage on Qi Zui’s right hand, spraying him with a tranquilizer, and gave his hand a carefully controlled massage.

 

Qi Zui breathed in gently, and Lai Hua frowned and whispered, “Will this affect the game the day after?”

 

The physiotherapist did not dare to make any promises and only said, “I’ll try my best to help him recover his normal condition.”

 

Yu Yang sat in the last row, listening to them speak quietly. He took out his tablet from his bag, reviewing the competition today.

 

He did not speak the whole way back.

 

After returning to the hotel, Qi Zui and the physiotherapist entered his room and only came out at nine at night.

 

When Qi Zui came out of the room, he saw a row of red eyes in the corridor.

 

Lai Hua’s old tears were running down without holding back, He Xiaoxu’s tears were like pear blossoms rain, Bu Nana was wailing and Lao Kai was choking on his sobs².

 

Qi Zui instantly felt troubled³

 

“Are you going to a funeral?” After several hours of struggling with the physiotherapist, Qi Zui could no longer feel anything in his right hand, and he no longer cared if it hurt or not. He leaned against the wall and felt tired. He wanted to look for Yu Yang to borrow some cigarettes. “If other teams saw this scene, they would think that I died inside…”

 

The four of them cried even harder upon hearing his words.

 

“Shut up!” Qi Zui raised his eyes, looking at Bu Nana and laughing coldly, “Didn’t you have quite a lot of energy this afternoon? You wanted to fight me?”

 

Bu Nana lowered his head in embarrassment, after a moment, he said roughly, “At that moment, I couldn’t accept it…I…”

 

“It’s fine,” Qi Zui was too lazy to listen to his rambling. He looked around, “Where’s Yu Yang?”

 

Lao Kai said awkwardly, “He’s in his room…”

 

With the help of the Korean staff, Yu Yang and Xin Ba played duo matches for two hours in the Internet cafe near the hotel, maintaining the feeling they had in their hands when gaming, and then ate something nearby, returning to the hotel early.

 

It was not that Yu Yang did not want to visit Qi Zui, but he had almost gotten into a fight with Bu Nana this afternoon, and he did not know how to interact with everyone at the moment.

 

Yu Yang lay in his bed, feeling a little regret in his heart.

 

He was still a little impulsive.

 

If it were Qi Zui, he would definitely be able to handle it better.

 

Yu Yang did not really know how to speak, and when he got anxious, he instinctively wanted to hit people.

 

It was one thing to have friction with teammates, however, now he was in an awkward position⁴ and could not go and visit Qi Zui.

 

Although they hadn’t met for only a few hours, Yu Yang really missed Qi Zui.

 

The doorbell rang and Yu Yang stood up to open the door.

 

Qi Zui was leaning outside the door.

 

Yu Yang’s eyes turned red again.

 

“Your hand…” Yu Yang paused for a moment, trying his best to make a good showing, “Is it better?”

 

Qi Zui thought for a moment and smiled, “Nope, it still hurts.”

 

Yu Yang’s heart was aching.

 

“So I came to look at you…” Qi Zui looked at Yu Yang, smiling as he said, “Looking at my child bride, I feel much better.”

 

Yu Yang’s ears turned red, “But I can’t help you…”

 

“Who said that.” Qi Zui waited for a long time, but he did not see Yu Yang have any intention of inviting him into the room. He wanted to follow a gentleman’s nature and not walk into other people’s rooms randomly. But when he thought about how this was the room of his child bride, he became thick-skinned. He struck up a conversation with Yu Yang and walked in, sitting on the sofa, “Have…you eaten?”

 

Yu Yang nodded.

 

Qi Zui smiled, “You’re not refuting it when people call you child bride now?”

 

Yu Yang lowered his eyes, “You can call me whatever you want to call me. Anyway, other people don’t know…”

 

Qi Zui thought about how he had acted wildly on the car in the morning and coughed awkwardly..

 

He did not dare to tell Yu Yang that most of the eSports teams in China had already found out…

 

Qi Zui casually picked up Yu Yang’s cup, fiddling with it as he said in a soft voice, “I’m sorry.”

 

Yu Yang’s face also turned red and he said dully, “I’ve said it already, you can call me whatever you like…”

 

“I’m not talking about this,” Qi Zui smiled and said mildly, “I’m sorry… I had too many things on my mind after the competition ended today. When I saw you and Bu Nana arguing, I did not help you.”

 

Yu Yang was stunned.

 

Qi Zui sighed, “Thankfully, he knows his limits, if he dared to hit you in front of me… the situation today would have become a big matter.”

 

Yu Yang spoke haltingly, “You…”

 

Qi Zui raised his gaze, “You’re all my teammates, in my heart, there isn’t much of a difference between all of you.”

 

“Saying this is a bit against what I really feel,” Qi Zui laughed, “Okay, I’ll admit it, towards you… even during the competition, I can’t completely treat you like a teammate.”

 

Drunk could say those words, the meaning hidden within those words was evident.

 

Yu Yang’s heart heated up and unknown to him, the rims of his eyes turned red.

 

“I don’t blame him,” Yu Yang cleared his throat and said in a low voice, “That sort of situation, him being a bit agitated… It’s normal.”

 

Yu Yang was not lying, he was completely clear about Bu Nana’s feelings today.

 

Because he was clear about Bu Nana’s feelings, that was why he could understand them.

 

Furthermore, Bu Nana had treated him very well all along.

 

于炀也是突击位，但以替补位入一队时，卜那那对他没有任何情绪，反而处处偏袒，时时照顾。

Yu Yang was also a fragger, but when he first entered Team One as a substitute player, Bu Nana did not have any misgivings about him and on the contrary, was partial to him in every way, always taking care of him.

 

All his technical experience, he told Yu Yang, never concealing anything. Yu Yang remembered all these things.

 

There were some knocking sounds, someone was knocking on Yu Yang’s door.

 

Yu Yang stood up, but before he opened the door, a paper was shoved under it.

 

[Little Captain, I’m sorry, I was too rattled today, and I forgot that you were the one who would feel the worst.]

 

Qi Zui walked over and chuckled, “Bu Nana’s handwriting⁵.”

 

There were a few sounds of discussion from outside the door, and not long after, there was a paper shoved in: [I’m sorry Youth, I’ve guessed it a long time ago, how much responsibility you’ve taken up for the team, I know and I’ve seen it all.]

 

The handwriting this time was different from the previous time’s handwriting, it was probably Lao Kai.

 

Bu Nana then put a note in again, this time, there was a fatty⁶, who was kneeling on the ground and crying loudly.

 

Lao Kai shoved in a few Korean won and a note:  [This is the money Coach Lai fined Bu Nana, we split the money, this is your share.]

 

Bu Nana slid a piece of paper in again: [Little Captain, I’m sorry, is Captain inside? Protect yourself, beware⁷ of him.]

 

Lao Kai also stuffed a note: [Take notice of your body positions, and be careful of Captain’s hand.]

 

Yu Yang: “…”

 

Pieces of paper were constantly getting crammed in, and the content was becoming more and more unsuitable for children.

 

[Be careful, check to make sure that the room does not have any cameras.]

 

[Don’t spoil Captain too much! Don’t just do whatever he says! You just turned of legal age!]

 

[The first time represents a lot of things, you might not be able to completely understand at this age, but listen to this fat older brother, don’t spoil him too much!]

 

[+1⁸, I’ve wanted to say all this time, aren’t you a little too obedient towards Captain? Won’t you be bullied to death on the bed if you’re like this?]

 

[Don’t obey everything he says! Bring out your aura from when you play aggressively in the airport!]

 

[What’s the use of saying this to him, as soon as Youth is in front of Captain, he’s extremely docile⁹]

 

[But you should also try to make a good showing! Listen to me, this kind of old rascal looks to be a gentleman, but generally, as soon as he gets on the bed, he’s very sly. Protect yourself, if you really cannot do anything…It’s better to be soft, and don’t be stubborn, no matter how much of a scoundrel¹⁰ Captain is, he still dotes on you.]

 

[If Captain wants you to make noise¹¹, definitely don’t listen to him! We’ve tried it just now, the soundproofing of this hotel is horrendous!]

 

The blue veins on Yu Yang’s forehead burst out. He was red from his head to neck. He clenched his fist and restrained himself. He did not want to lose his composure in front of Qi Zui.

 

But when Bu Nana’s whole body was lying on the floor of the corridor and struggling to stuff condoms into the room, Yu Yang finally could not bear it anymore. He raised his leg to kick the door with a bang, scaring the hell out of Bu Nana and Lao Kai as they picked up their sticky notes in a fluster and climbed up, running off, frightened out of their wits.

 

---

Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter